As The Blood Is Drained, It's Bad For Business

Matthew walks out of Mom’s room. We’re at the hospital; it’s eeryie being back here. I don’t have a good feeling about it. The smell of this place makes me sick. I’m cuddled up to William, silently crying into his chest. He’s firm and comforting, which is a surprise because he’s so skinny. I’ve never actually been this close to him; we kept tight personal bubbles. But this is nice. Mattie sits down next to us and leans in, petting my hair. This only makes me cry more.

“It’s going to be okay, Scarlett. They pumped her stomach and they’re trying to flush out her liver, but alcohol goes right to the blood stream. So all we can really do...is wait,” Matthew explains, trying to calm me down. I love my brother, but what he’s saying isn’t very comforting. It’s more comforting to cuddle up to my new friend. You’re supposed to feel comfort with new faces like this, right? And the way my heart jumps when I see him, I pass that off as normal as well.

I sniff and attempt to get up from William’s lap; I need a tissue. He moves his legs so I can balance out my gravity. I start walking to the bathroom.

“So, what, you like her or something?” Mattie says. I turn around, but he and William are both facing towards Mom’s room. I shake my head. Maybe it was in my imagination.

After I was sure that the vampires were no where to be found, I wandered into the kitchen. I quickly got a bowl of cereal and headed down to the weaponry room. I contemplated what Daniel had said while I picked out the marshmallows from my Lucky Charms. What did he mean I didn’t want to leave? Of course I did...this place was a prison to me. People don’t want to be in prison, right? On the other hand, I had to admit that all this leisure time was nice. Here I didn’t have as much urgency to keep on alert for my life. Taking a break from training Keenan was a relief. And I didn’t have to...

I gulped. I didn’t have to take care of Elizabeth. I bit my lip until it was close to bleeding. Elizabeth could be dead. She probably was dead. If I had allowed myself to cry, I might have. The last of my family, gone. I was officially an orphan, a loner. I thought I would feel some sort of release knowing that I would no longer have to care for her, that poor excuse for a mother. I didn’t.

I opened the weaponry room’s door carefully. I watched where I was stepping in case there was anything on the floor. Scanning the room for my weapons, I came to a conclusion: I would leave. I would prove Daniel wrong; I would leave without a scratch on me. I would return home [wherever that was] and greet Chuckie and Keenan with endless stories to tell.

Grabbing my weapons, I hurriedly left the room. I left my Lucky Charms on a random end table in the hallway. They would never know when or how I left. I would show them. As soon as all my weapons were attached, I opened the front door and stepped out. The scenery was not expected. Daniel had said we were in the woods, but this was unbelievable. It was heavily wooded. They barely had a driveway; it was merely a long, narrow stretch of unpaved road. Their house was very different on the outside. It was wood paneled and the roof looked like it was about to cave in. Vines crept up the sides of the house like they were doing some sort of sick malevolent ballet routine, winding into a window on the side of the house. I thought that odd; the only upstairs part of the house was Cayden’s room, and he didn’t have a window.

I made no hesitations as I tried to find my way through the woods. Nothing looked very dangerous; I assumed that Daniel had been bluffing...though I guess I had spoken too soon. I rounded the corner only to be stopped dead in my tracks...by nothing.

“What the hell...?” I muttered to myself. I tried taking another step, but my legs were rooted to the ground. I reached my hand out, but it fell upon something like an invisible glass wall, a barrier of some sort. I tried taking a step back; I could move. But a step forward was impossible.

“You can’t go anywhere,” Cayden’s voice rang melodically through the woods. I turned to the left. My voice was caught in my throat for a moment. “It protects evil from getting in or out. Since you seem to be a threat to us, you can’t get anywhere. Useful, huh?” Cayden smiled and stepped closer. It seemed he was on the other side of the barrier. I couldn’t figure out what that smile on his face meant. It wasn’t quite a smirk, but not a full grin either. I shook my head, and I couldn't keep my voice from yelling.

“Wait, are you talking about...magic?!”