Take This to Your Grave and I'll Take It to Mine

The next morning I awoke feeling drained and completely weak. I noticed I was alone. I found it strange; I was usually up before Pete.

I tried to get up but I was too weak.

I just stayed flat on my back trying to conserve energy.

This must be the after effects of my cure. You have all your strength back, until the stuff gets stale in your system.

It's like a drug, a drug that you get addicted to because withdrawals are worse than anything else to you and you can never get off again.

I hope he didn't trick me into getting hooked on to something that's going to kill me.

I need to get down stairs to see Patrick.

I pushed the lid up, which took more strength then I should have ever needed.

"Erin?" Pete asked.

"Yeah." I replied weakly.

I heard his footsteps get fast and near.

"Are you ok?" He asked with worry evident in his voice.

"Weak. Is Patrick done replicating my cure?" I asked trying to sound like my usual self, but he didn't buy it.

"Yeah he's done. I'll take you down there." He said as he started to pick me up.

As he touched me it hurt, bad.

"Let me go!" I shouted in pain.

He let me go quick.

"I'll bring him to you." Pete said as he darted away to the stairs.

I just laid there for a few moments staring at the ceiling wondering about everything and nothing.

After those short moments passed I heard Pete dragging Patrick up the stairs.

"Hurry she's in pain." Pete pushed Patrick to make him move faster.

"Erin, I've got the stuff are you sure this will help? Are you sure this isn't what caused it?" Patrick asked as he stuck the needle into the vile with what I had called my cure.

"What else can I do?" I asked hopelessly.

They had nothing else to say because they didn't know what they could say.

Patrick finished preparing the needle.

"Erin I know this is going to hurt but I need you out of your coffin." Patrick said honestly feeling bad that he had to get me out of the coffin.

"Pete, help me up." I said in the weak voice that was mine tonight.

"Ok." He said meekly. He didn't want to hurt me.

He gently put his hands under me to lift me. I was in extreme pain just from him touching me but I bit my lip and closed my eyes. I held back despite any pain that I was in.

He lifted me up (More pain) and quickly moved me to the couch.

"She needs to be sitting up." Patrick added as Pete moved.

Pete sat me on the couch and sat behind me so he could hold me up.

Patrick moved my hair to see my neck. "Dear God, you have a deep purple bruise that looks like a spider web going through your veins. Is this the side you got the injection yesterday?" Patrick was severely concerned.

"Yeah, just do it Patrick I can hardly stand this pain." I said through clenched teeth.

He just put his left hand on my neck and with the other he dug the needle deep into my vain.

That was painful but once that stuff started flowing into me everything that it touched tingled but once the tingling stopped the spot would feel normal again.

"The bruise is gone." Patrick said astonished as he pulled the needle out.

"Of course, I'm starting to feel like me again." I said letting out a breath.

"Good. I'm going back down stairs, send Pete if you need me." Patrick said as he headed back down the stairs.

"Thanks Patrick." I said as he headed down the stairs.

"Are you really ok or are you just putting on a tough front?" Pete asked into my hair.

"I'm ok." I was slightly offended that he would ask that and not even bother to spare my pride. I stood up quick to move away from Pete.

I moved to quick and almost fainted.

As always Pete was there to catch me.

"Erin!" He was always concerned. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine Pete." I said as I got out of his arms and went down the stairs.

"Erin." He called after me.

I refuse to respond, he had already bruised my ego enough for the day.

Plus I was hungry.

I couldn't drink that crap that Pete drank anymore.

So what was I going to do?

I guess I'm going to have to wing it.

I'm back to square one. I was wrong to think my life kept moving forward. Everything is moving in circles. That's how life is that's why they call it the circle of life. After you've lived as long as me you start to see the patterns that you'd never see if you only lived one life time.

I was going to make myself some normal food despite the fact I had nothing to drink.

I hunted through the kitchen with Pete pestering me all the while. The only thing in this damned kitchen was cereal.

So I poured myself a bowl.

"Erin please listen to me?" Peter implored.

"Why so you can deal another blow to my ego?" I asked as I walked to the refrigerator getting out the milk, not really paying any attention to him but trying to get him to leave me alone.

I poured milk over my cereal and walked back to the fridge to put it away.

I turned to head back to my cereal but Pete was standing right behind me.

He grabbed me so I'd listen.

"I'm sorry I'm just worried about you. I'm worried about you not because you're weak but because I love you." He said just trying to get me to understand.

"You don't have to worry about me. If anything I should worry about you. You know my track record with men." I cracked the joke to show I had forgiven him.

"Well I'm not afraid of death. Even more so now that you have your cure. You could kick Death's ass." He smiled back.

"What if death isn't a physical manifestation?" I asked back as I walked to my food.

"Then I'm fucked." He said still smiling leaning on the counter that had bar stools so it doubled as a table. "How far pregnant do you think you are Erin?" His smile brightened even more if that was at all possible.

"Oh let me think, the last time I had my cycles was 600 years ago so let's take a guess like that." I said sarcastically back giving him a look that told him he was stupid.

"Well then we should get one of those books that tells you what to expect so we can guess off that." He said again not even bothered by the fact that I was giving him the I'm sorry you're stupid look.

"Those are written for human women."

"Hey before you knock all of my suggestions why don't you suggest something." He was offended now because I had done it not just once but twice.

"Why don't we ask Patrick if there's a way he can find out?" I suggested.

"Damn." He cussed, angry that I threw out the only worth while suggestion. "That's a good idea."

"Patrick!" I shouted to see him dash up the steps.

Which he did only moments later.

"Are you ok Erin?!" He was alarmed in a way that I found funny.

"Yeah I'm fine. Pete just wanted to know if there's a way that you can find out how pregnant I am?" I managed to hold back my laughter.

"Why didn't you just walk down and ask me?" He asked almost aggravated.

"I was too tired, but it was my idea to ask you so I couldn't let Pete ask or he'd take credit for having the good idea to ask you." I said with an innocent smile.

"I'll figure something out to find out how far along you are. Are we doing anything tonight slave driver?" His smile came back at the opportunity to call me a name.

"As a matter-of-fact, yes. After I eat this and get changed we're going to get back into the swing of things." I smiled because being the 'slave driver' meant they had some respect for me to let me push them as hard as I do.

"Ok I'll go get the other guys ready." He walked down the hall to see the other guys.

"Are you sure you're ready for this Erin?" Pete asked in his concerned tone that I was getting tired of hearing.

"Are you ready for this Pete?" I shot back and went back to eating.

Not another word was spoken to me until I was downstairs in what everyone knew as my fighting attire.

"Well today guys we're going to do something that we've never done here before. We're going to spar. Andy you're up first against me." I stood in the middle of the basement. "The rest of you are going to need to stand back and no matter what happens don't interfere."

He stood right in front of me.

"Do you want to take your glasses off?" I asked making sure he was completely ready.

"No I'm fine." His voice was uneasy, he didn't want to hurt me. Well, ok, he wants to hurt me he didn't want to hurt Pete's kid.

"Take the first shot." I said calmly as I put both of my hands to my sides opening myself up for whatever he was going to do.

He took a tragic swing towards my face.

I caught his fist and pushed him back.

"Put some strength behind your fist, you won't break me." I said as I went back to the starting position.

This time he really swung at me and I really blocked it and threw one his way and it had begun.

I saw Pete threw the corner of my eyes getting very nervous Joe even had to hold him back.

We were fighting hard.

The turning point happened when he got me to slip a little so he got the upper hand. It seemed as if he was about to win but that's when I decided that the point I was here to make was to be made.

A right hook came flying towards my face. I ducked, pulled a knife from my boot and spun him so his back was to my chest and the blade was to his throat.

"You're dead." I said it as coldly as I could as I moved the blade and pushed him away from me.

The rest of the guys stepped forward and Andy fell in line with them as he turned to face me.

"You cheated!" He said back.

"And these people that we'll be fighting are going to adhere to a set of rules?! You were dead just the same Andy! That was the whole reason I did this! It is life or death. You all have been spared from death by some stroke of luck all this time and you have all forgotten that we might not all return. We've all been sent cheap shots but never since I've been here have one of the real fighters been slain. Take a look at one another, we might not all come out of this as unscathed as we are, hell we might not come out at all." I looked at them, their faces just had the realization crossing the features now. No matter how much death touched them they still thought that this wasn't life or death, that people would follow the rules.

"Joe, you might end up with a huge scar running down your face." I walked up to him and ran my finger from his eyebrow to his chin. "Patrick, say goodbye to your ear." I said moving to him and lightly touching his ear. "Andy you might lose your hand." I didn't need to touch Andy he got the point, he was always a little less naive then the other guys. I moved to Pete. "Pete, you could lose one of your beautiful eyes." I reached up and closed his right eye gently with my index finger. I moved away from him turning my back to them. "I have a lot to lose but the thing about me that I'm not sure you have going for you, I have a need to survive. I won't stop and there is no line I won't cross. I need to get you all to that point. You all warm up on each other for an hour I'll be back and you'll all be faced with challenges." I said and moved towards the stairs.

"I thought you said we were going to spar? Was that just so you could fight with me to prove your point?" Andy asked with irritation in his voice.

"You'll all see." I said with a smirk as I left.