What You Deserve

All I could do was lie on the floor, trying to catch my breath, and listen to the faint growls of the outside world. It took a moment, but I managed to force myself into a sitting position, feeling my skin pulling apart further from the movement, and the blood slip down my back, finding it's new course to the floor.

Another roar, this time louder, penetrated the door, as I struggled to stand up. Part of me was terrified at the thought of standing up, and the woman coming back, seeing that I was well enough to do so, and making it so that I wasn't. The contents of my stomach - what little there probably was within it - threatened to pool itself on the floor, but fear overpowered the urge to do so, and left a sickening taste in my mouth.

Finally, I managed to rise to my feet. I won't say that it didn't hurt - it definitely did. It felt like somebody had taken a fist full of salt, and poured it on all of my wounds.

Was this what Christa had gone through?

Stinging. My back stung, and after attempting a step, began to burn like a wildfire. I'd never felt a pain like it. Then again, I'd never been beaten up by a vampire, either.

Seeming as though it was on cue, the door slipped open. I could feel my heartbeat increase rapidly, threatening to rip itself out of my chest. Perhaps to find a safer haven, where it wouldn't cease movement, and had plenty of blood.

The person opening the door wasn't one of the people I had thought of as opening the door. I had assumed it would be the woman, Jakob, or even maybe - but just maybe - Frank coming to my rescue.

No. It wasn't Frank. Or the woman with pigtails. Not even Jakob was in sight. Snarls indicated that he may not be far off, however.

No.

It was a woman, who had been beauteous since the moment I saw her. Her dark hair slipping around her gentle face, and creased lips, making her face seem different than when I had first seen her.

And her eyes. They almost looked like a black abyss, if it weren't for the red speckling them.

With the few subtle changes, it was still obvious that it was Eve.

She flitted into the room, almost floating, and lightly touched my hand, "come on," she mumbled lowly, "can you walk alright?" I could see her eyes tracing the gouges from what she could see from the angle she stood, and in turn, her teeth found themselves pressing into her lip. When I nodded, I could visibly see her relax a little. But only a little.

She lightly pulled on my hand, as if in fear of breaking me, and - though it hurt worse with every step - I followed her pace into the lightened hallway. The light stung my eyes from the contrast of the room I had been in moments before, though it wasn't actually very light throughout it. The snarling grew, but as we continued on, I could hear it fading. We were leaving the fighting.

"Where?" I managed out. If I had continued the sentence, I feared I may cry from the pain. I didn't know enough about Eve to know if she was violent, and would possibly rip off the hand she still gingerly held onto.

"Someplace safer," she mumbled lowly, "Lin-z is being pushed closer to your room... if she had gotten there without finishing what she was doing, she would have turned to the option of killing you."

I shifted a little, as turned down another hallway, and then another, "who's Lin-z?"

Eve stopped for a moment, glancing at me with a vacant look. "Don't you know?" to this, I shook my head, "the one who brought you here..." she finally continued on, but not far, as we reached a large door, that she pulled open with obvious ease, and led me in, shutting it behind us.

The room was large, with stain glass painting the ceiling, and chandeliers hanging from the high-up ceiling where stain glass didn't reside. At the sides of the room, a few knights of armor stood, intimidating anyone who may walk in the room after a bad dream - looking almost as though they were merely feigning being inanimate.

She led me to the back of the room, where a large, black curtain hid the wall, and a few chairs littered the ground in front of it.

Perhaps it was a meeting room?

Releasing my hand, she motioned to a seat, however, when I sat, she did not. "Jade..." she shifted on one foot, and then took another step, to stand directly in front of me. "Did you ever hear about the woman Ray thought he loved?" To this, I nodded, and she continued, "Lin-z was the one that removed her from him. She wants to hurt you. No, she has hurt you," she corrected herself, "and she's going to kill you..."

I shifted, but Eve had begun looking less alive every moment, as her breathing had ceased, along with any movements. My body was acknowledging the blood loss now, as I could feel the world slowly rock to one side, then to the other.

The woman didn't move at all as she spoke, "and you're going to die here regardless, unless your vampires want to risk exposure to hospitals, and get here within the next few minutes," she pointed out. "But your Frank won't save you. He'll be too afraid to," she finally shifted, making herself seem alive again.

"How... do you kn-know?" I shut my eyes to block out the boat-like world.

I could hear the smile on her face through her words, "I've been alive for hundreds of years more than him. Unlike everyone else here, She didn't make me. I've had time to experience people enough to understand even little movements that could signify it."

To this, I only let out an, 'mmm,' sound, to let her know to continue.

"If you want," my eyes opened at the sound of her offer, "I'll save you."