Children Of The Damned

Eliana

The temperature dropped and I knew it must be late into the night. The only light we had came from a bare, dusty bulb overhead and a small propane lantern that lay ten feet away. Richard lit it before he left about an hour before.

The lantern sputtered and hissed, and I knew it was already running out of fuel. I shivered, fighting against my zip tie.

Matt sat against a metal gorilla rack that must have been used for storage before the warehouse shut down. Matt seemed determined not to look at me, as if a lack of eye contact meant he could choose not to accept the things he heard from my lips.

I’m sorry, Matt. I never wanted this for you.

“Hey!” I yelled at him, kicking at him with my boot once I thought his eyes had been closed for too long.

He can’t loose consciousness. Not with a head injury like that.

Matt opened his ocean-blue eyes in response and glared at me. Then he stared at the floor in front of him, avoiding my gaze.

I sighed. A steady stream of consciousness has been rushing through my brain for hours, thinking quickly like anyone would in an emergency.

Richard probably went out to hunt. I can’t think of another reason why he would leave us here unsupervised for so long.

I knew this might be my only chance, so I rolled onto my back, crushing my hands, which hurts, but not as much as dying might. I didn’t want to think about what would happen when Richard came back, full of human blood. I didn’t want Matt to get hurt again. I didn’t think I could hold that on my consciousness.

I stretched my arms out and forced the circle of my bound arms out past my hips until they reached under my knees at the back of my legs. Then I rolled until I was sitting up again and I could see my pale and purple, circulation deprived hands peeking out between my legs.

The next part was harder. I tried to push my feet in through that narrow circle of my arms and I whimpered as my wrists strained against the zip tie, which dug into my skin until I felt tiny vessels popping.

Finally, I managed to get my feet through, leaving my wrists rubbed raw and bleeding in places where there had been too much pressure. Blood pools in blotched bruises just under my skin where capillaries and vessels broke in the struggle.

Matt watched the whole time with anxious interest, his brain probably already processing what I was doing without having to ask.

Frantically, I looked around the area for something I could use to free my hands.

Richard was stupid not to have bound my feet, and once my hands were finally in front of me, even though I was still bound, I managed to get to my feet by fisting my hands and using them tom push me up.

“I’m going to find a way to get us out of here,” I told Matt surprised by the determination I heard in my voice.

“Be careful.”

I walked a few feet around rows of empty shelves, my head throbbing. In the darkness, I managed to make out the shape of a door, and my heart jumped from the place it had been residing in my stomach for the past few hours, up to my throat. I threw myself at the door and frantically tried to turn the doorknob, but it was locked.

Of course. Richard wouldn’t be that stupid.

Keeping against the wall, I walked around the warehouse, looking for anything I could use to free Matt and me.

Finally, I found what I was looking for; a jagged rusty bar on a gorilla rack. I started running the zip tie along the flaking metal, winding every once in a while as I slipped and the metal made contact with my tender skin, making shallow cuts over the bruises that had already formed there.

I watched in the darkness as, slowly but surely, the plastic started to wear away.

When the zip tie finally broke, I cried out in triumph and started to search for another sharp object I could use to free Matt. I just prayed I could find a way to get us out of here before Richard came back.

__________________________________________

Damon

Fury sat in my stomach like a pile of scalding embers, anger the likes of which I have never felt before. Anger at Stefan, my own brother, for having lied to me. Anger at Ana for having willingly put herself in danger, for breaking my previously unshakeable trust in her. But more than anything, I felt absolute rage and hatred for Richard. Those two noxious emotions threatened to boil over my barely controlled façade, and I didn’t want to think of what might happen if I lost control of myself.

I knew what I was capable of, what I had already done in the past to the ones that took from me or provoked me. Still, I knew those things were nothing compared to what I could do now. Ana was at stake. I knew I would sacrifice anyone and anything for her. I would kill anyone who got in my way, even my brother.

“There’s no use trying her phone,” Stefan told me as I searched through my contacts. “I tried calling her after she left the gym and he already had her and her cell phone by then. He must have had all his bases covered, otherwise I would have been able to get to her in time.”

“I’m not calling Ana. I’m calling Bonnie.”

“Because she’s so fond of you? Maybe you should let me call.”

“Good idea. You might as well make yourself useful.”

Stefan didn’t seem to want to dignify that with a response. Instead, he too out his own cell phone and punched in a few keys, lifting the phone to his ear as it rang. never mind that we were almost at Bonnie’s house anyway. I wasn’t about to give her a choice on the matter.

I reached behind me to the backseat and pulled out a blouse that Ana had left in my room.

I stopped in the driveway of Bonnie’s house and turned off the engine.

“Really, Damon? I don’t think this is a good idea,” Stefan said still on the phone with Bonnie.

“Really, Stefan? I don’t recall asking your opinion on the matter.”

“What’s not a good idea?” I heard Bonnie ask through the phone.

In seconds, I was ringing the doorbell repeatedly.

Bonnie came to the door and answered it, looking irritated. “What are you doing here?” she asked, ready to shut the door on us if need be.

Stefan appeared behind me.

“All you need to know is that an innocent human is in danger and that a vampire is responsible. I need a witch to help me find her. You fit the bill.”

Bonnie looked confused, but definitely concerned as well. I could tell I had used the magic words that would make her listen to us.

“Look,” Stefan began, “the vampire that has been attacking people in Mystic falls has Ana and Matt. We need your help to find them.”

Bonnie sighed, and then did something she had been too careful to ever do before.

“Come in,” she said, stepping aside to let us in the door.