Jenna's Deathwish

Thursday 8th
“How is she?” I heard Jenna ask.
“She’s lost a lot of blood, but a few days rest and she will be back to normal.” The man replied.
Someone sat beside me on the bed I lay in. I guessed it was Adele.
“What time is it?” She asked.
“Lunch time. Come, have some food.” The man said.
They were hesitant at first, then they exited the room leaving me alone in the darkness.
'I could do with some lunch too'. I thought. But of course no-one heard. Still feeling week, I decided to let myself go back to sleep.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sunday 11th
Something cool on my face was starting to irritate me. I stirred and tried to cover my face, but my arms hardly budged. It was as if they were held down with a giant rock. I groaned and opened my eyes slowly.
“Hey.”
I looked to my right and saw the man sitting beside me on the bed, I noticed the covers of each bed were jade green. He was smiling kindly at me. Confused, I looked around the room for Adele and Jenna, but they weren’t there.
“…Hey.” I replied slowly.
“How are you feeling?” He asked.
“Spectacular.” I said with much sarcasm.
“You lost a lot of blood.”
“No way, really?”
He frowned, “But your okay now. You’ll be on your feet in a few days.”
“A few days? Sod that, we’re going home.”
I used my, now, jelly-like arms to pull my heavy body up, then threw my legs off the end of the bed.
As my bare feet touched the cold floor, I stood up, lost my balance and fell back onto the bed. The man chuckled and went to help me, but I avoided his pale hands and stood up again. Urgh, head rush.
I held onto the thick, mahogany bed post to keep me balanced.
My head returned to normal and I shoved my feet into my heels.
“Here, put these on.”
I stared at him as he held up a pair of flat shoes for me. They were also Ironfist ‘Wolfbeater’ but they were Ugg boot style. I rolled my eyes as I grabbed them from him.
I held back a smile at how comfortable they were. I was actually very grateful for them, but I didn’t let it show. As I stood up again (I felt at least four inches smaller) I slowly made my way across the room. I was getting feeling in my arms, legs, my whole body again. I gripped the bottom of my dress and my heart skipped a beat as I saw a long, dark pink line on my arm. The scar brought back memories of why I had been unconscious.
“How long was I out?” I asked, turning around.
“Five days.” He smiled. He was standing beside my bed.
I stared at him, “What?”
“You lost a lot of blood. I’m surprised your fit enough to walk.”
“Yeah well, I’m tougher than I look.” I replied, turning for the door.
I spun around too fast and lost my balance again, but this time he caught me. I looked up at his beautiful face as he smiled at me and wrapped his arm around my waist.
“That was quick.”
“Hungry?” He asked, ignoring the comment.
I nodded dumbly.
He laughed gently, “C’mon.”
Without a word he took my hand and lead me out the room and down the metal stairs.
We headed away from the lab, the opposite way me, Adele and Jenna had escaped five days previous. At the end of the corridor there were three wooden doors.
He pointed to the one on the far right, “Sitting room.” He pointed to the door ahead, “Bathroom.” Then the room to our left, “Kitchen.”
The man opened the kitchen door for me and I entered.
I took in the surroundings pretty quickly. I was standing in the kitchen. A very normal-looking kitchen. The floor was blue-black stone, as were the kitchen work-tops while the cupboards were white and the walls sky blue. A black clock on the wall showed the time as ten past one. At the back of the kitchen stood a long blue-glass dining table with white chairs. Orange tulips were in a white vase that sat on the table.
I grinned widely as I saw who was sitting at the table: my best friends. I was so happy to see them.
“Ella!” Adele jumped up and ran towards me, with Jenna right behind her.
The man backed off as they charged towards me and hugged me tight.
“How are you?” Jenna asked.
“Aw, I’m alright. Check this out.” I lifted my arm and showed them the scar.
“Fuckin’ Hell, Ella.” Adele said, staring at it.
“Shit. You alright?” Jenna asked.
“I’m fine, honestly. What we having? I’m so hungry.”
“Lunch. Tomato soup.” Adele replied as we walked towards the table.
I noticed they also had the same style of shoe as me. Adele wore the ‘Zombie Stomper’ ones while Jenna just had plain black.
“Yum.” I said, eager to get some food in me.
“Phrewr!” The man called.
Moments later, a scraggy looking man with yellow, matted hair entered the kitchen.
“Yes, master?”
“Some soup for the girls. Hurry, hurry.”
Phrewr nodded then began gathering ingredients and utensils for our soup.
“Girls.” The man said, now standing at the table. “I have to go away for a while, but I will be back in a few weeks.”
“A few weeks?” I asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Business.” He winked.
I looked away and held back a grin.
“Fine, but you’ll miss all the sun.” Jenna said.
“Exactly.” He left us, shutting the door behind him.
“So, what’s been happening since I’ve been vegetabled?” I asked as Phrewr gave us the soup in white bowls.
“Sod all.” Adele said.
“Just this. Every day.”
“Ouch. How boring.” I wolfed down the soup.
Jenna nodded and swallowed a mouthful of soup, “We wake up around eleven, shower, eat soup then go into the sitting room until dinner. We eat dinner then go back into the sitting room then have supper and go to bed.”
“When we’re in the bathroom our clothes get washed.” Adele added.
“They get washed? How?” I asked her.
“I dunno. I think one of the wee people do it. They’ve been washed, dried and ironed by the time we come out.”
“That’s impressive. Mind you, we all take about an hour in the bathroom anyway.”
“True.” Jenna said. “We wanted to go into the room to see you and just make sure you were okay but Will never allowed it.”
“Will?”
“Yeah. The man. He said we had to let you rest in peace.” Adele explained.
So that was his name.
“Rest in peace? I wasn’t fucking dead!”
We giggled then continued to eat and Adele and Jenna told me every single little boring detail that had happened since my accident.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wednesday 14th
“Ken whit. This is pish.” I said, throwing a book away that was so boring I couldn’t even finish the first page despite the fact I had been going over it for at least and hour. I glanced at my watch, it was quarter past two in the afternoon. We had finished lunch and went into the sitting room, as usual.
Jenna stopped playing the piano and Adele stood up, “Thank fuck, I thought I was the only one.”
I picked up the book I was reading and put it back on the book shelf. I took Adele’s and put it away too. There was Alice In Wonderland that I hadn’t noticed earlier.
“He keeps far too many books.” Adele said.
“I know. Its like a bloody library.” I agreed.
There was every kind of book you could think of. Fact, fiction, knowledge. Books on cooking, sewing, war. Biographies, book on rocks. Rocks for goodness sake! The bookshelf took up the whole back wall of the sitting room.
The room was small and cosy, with a fire roaring beside two red, velvet couches. A black grand piano was opposite the couches, in front of the enormous bookshelf. The floor was dark wood, with a yellow and red rug in the middle. Above the fire was a mantel piece with dark, gothic ornaments on it.
“Well, what do you want to do? There isn’t anything really.” Jenna said as she closed the lid of the piano.
“To be honest I would kill for some booze.” I said. I hadn’t had any since Jenna’s party, and that was nine days ago. I felt it starting to get to me. “Wunna to go for a walk?”
They stared at me.
“Will said we’re not allowed to wander.” Jenna said.
“So?” I headed for the door. “Would you rather sit here for the next eight hours or actually do something fun?”
Adele and Jenna followed me out the door.
Constantly on the lookout for anyone, we walked quickly across the lab and headed towards the small door. Voices could now be heard and in a panicked rush we scampered behind the silver sphere again. It proved handy for us the first day. Three small people walked past and, when the coast was clear, we made our way to the small door. We slid through it, turned to the left and jogged down the hall.
“Where are they? If he finds out there gone…” came a slightly shaken voice.
“Just spread out!” Phrewr’s voice rang.
We froze-Phrewr and the little people were behind us. Adele pulled us behind a thick crimson tapestry and we stood in the small alcove in the wall. We waited in anticipation, forgetting to breathe. With hearts racing, we listened as the footsteps got louder.
“They couldn’t have gone far.” A little person mumbled.
Jenna accidentally pressed up against the tapestry, making it ripple. Her eyes widened as she backed into the alcove.
There was a grunt then a white hand wrapped itself against the tapestry. We sank to the floor, hugging each other. If we got caught, who knows what they would do to us!
“Wait, I heard something in the attic!” Another small person said.
The hand vanished and Phrewr and the little people left. We sighed in relief.
“That was too close” I whispered, leaning my head on the wall.
“C’mon” Adele said quietly, grabbing my hands and pulling me up.
I tripped over Jenna’s foot and fell forward, taking Adele with me. We flew into the tapestry, tearing it off the wall. Jenna was laughing hysterically as we tried to find our way out.
At the end of this corridor was a set of narrow wooden stairs leading into the loft. We had to be careful, the loft door was open and the small people and Phrewr were be up there.
We went to the very end of the corridor, which looked like a dead end, but turning left we walked out a large hole in the wall.
“Woah, this is like a secret entrance!” I stepped outside
“Looks like its been blown up.” Jenna said.
We climbed over the rubble of black and grey bricks and stood in the warm sunlight, taking in the surroundings. In front of us was a forest. With nowhere else to go, we headed towards it.
An hour later, we were still wandering in the warmth of the sun. There was a gentle squeak beneath us, so we looked down curiously.
Cowering in a hole at the base of a tree, was a little mouse. Near the hole, was a green snake. It slithered towards the mouse, flickering its tongue as it tried to find its food. The poor mouse was trapped. If it ran, the snake would just lunge forward and eat it. But if it stayed in the hole, the snake would surely find it.
‘No! Poor mouse.’ I thought.
I couldn’t bare to watch. I wanted to save the little mouse, but I couldn’t; the snake was hungry, and if we denied it its food, it would probably die. We continued on.
Around ten minutes later, Jenna smiled and ran at me and I stumbled over tree roots and fell on my bum. She toppled over a tree root sticking up from the soil and, was launched forward, over small emerald green bushes with bright pink flowers. Laughing, Adele picked me up and we pushed through the bushes to look for Jen. She lay in a heap laughing uncontrollably.
She was in a small circular meadow hidden by white trees and green bushes. There was a long log, for sitting and in the middle was a pile of sticks and small branches, for a fire. There was colour everywhere from the different flowers. It was so peaceful here; instead of the loud banging from the lab, the clearing was filled with bird songs. There seemed to be good feeling here and there was a sweet smell of flowers and cookies in the air. We jumped as we heard a rustling noise coming from the log. A white bunny hopped out one end.
“Aww!” Adele and I said in unison.
I reached forward and picked it up. It stared at me with its big black eyes, then wrinkled its little pink nose. Just then, a larger white rabbit hopped out from the bushes behind the log with it’s ears held high. I put the bunny down and it looked at me, turned its cute little fluffy tail and hopped after it’s mum into the bushes.
We sat for a while, just talking about home and what we missed. Talking about how good Jenna’s party was, before we had been taken. We wondered how our parents were coping with our disappearance. We danced, we laughed, we cringed, we played charades, we cried. We had a group hug and reassured one another. Later on, Jenna used her lighter to set the sticks alight. She didn’t smoke anymore, but she liked to carry it around.
It was coming up for five.
Suddenly, a twig snapped behind us. We turned round sharply.
“James, careful!” A woman hissed.
We stood up and backed towards the fire.
“Can you see them?” A man asked.
“I’m aiming.” She replied.
“Aiming?” I didn’t like the sound of this.
“Fucking vampire scum.” The woman said.
“Vampire?” What the Hell was she on about?
Arrows started shooting out from the shadows. We shouted and dodged. We were trapped. If we left the clearing we would probably be chased and killed. If we stayed, we would be shot. I felt like the mouse.
The arrows continued and we kept dodging them and shouting at the strangers. I watched as an arrow flew straight for Jenna. I shouted at her to move, but it was too late. It pierced her stomach and she fell. Adele and I screamed in shock as she hit the ground, her big eyes wide with horror. The strangers walked from the shadows.
The woman shook her head in confusion. Her face was thin and pale, and she had long, golden locks and bright blue eyes. Her black boots thudded on the ground as she walked forward and she had a crucifix on a string round her neck. She held a crossbow in her left hand, torch in her right,
“James, she is not burning.”
She was English.
“No, dear sister. How strange.” He pointed his torch right at us.
He was English too.
The man stood beside her. He looked a lot like his sister, with shorter hair and a knife in his hand.
Jenna was lying at my feet, legs at her chest and shivering violently. Adele kneeled beside her while I stood, staring down. “What the fuck?” I glared up at the strangers, furious.
“Jen, talk to me!” Adele begged her, holding her.
Jenna was bleeding violently. She held her stomach, gasping. She couldn’t move and was struggling to breathe. She moaned as her body lurched, blood pouring from the wound onto the ground. Our eyes widened as she then spat out blood. Adele withdrew her hands from the wound, also covered in blood.
“Are you mental?” I walked towards the strangers, ready to fly off the handle.
“Ella, leave it.” Adele was crying.
I unclenched my fists then kneeled beside Jenna and cradled her, tears now filling my eyes. My heart was pounding; I was so scared. What the Hell? One minute everything was great and we were having a laugh, now this? I couldn’t believe it. What would Will say? What would he do? He had told Adele and Jenna not to go out, so they told me and we didn’t listen. This was our fault.
No.
My fault.
I had encouraged Adele and Jenna to come out. If I had just listened to them, this wouldn’t be happening.
“She is not dead!” The man stopped my thought from going further.
“No, dear brother. She is not, yet the arrows are painted with liquid silver!”
“Of course she’s no dead! Not yet!” I shrieked at them.
“We’ve gotta get her back.” Adele said.
“No- we’ll get…into trouble.” Jenna said, gasping. “Aw…shit.” She moaned and closed her eyes. I hugged her tightly as Adele held her hands.
“Jen!” I couldn’t believe her.
“We have tae get you better, love.”
I nodded, “He’ll know what to do.”
“Who?” The woman asked.
I let go of Jenna and marched towards her, fuming. I made my hands into fists again, walked straight up to her, and punched her in the face.
“Are you outta yer fucking mind?” I grabbed her shirt collar, “If Jenna dies, I’ll come after you!”
I was not joking.
The woman looked as furious as I was and reached for the dagger hanging from her belt.
“Elizabeth, leave the girl!” James yelled.
I locked eyes with Elizabeth, then joined Adele and Jenna again. When I looked up, the James and Elizabeth were gone.
“Jen, your pale-er” I said, studying her pretty face.
Jenna smiled as she continued to lose blood. We whined as she spat blood again. She tried to move her legs, but she couldn’t. My heart sank; her strength was dying with her.
“Come on, we have to get you back.” I started to shift onto my knees so I could carry her.
“No.”
We stared at her.
“It’s too late.” She licked her lips and closed her eyes.
We were crying as we huddled together. I called on Will, but it was hopeless because he was gone. The fire still blazed, but the air was now icy and the ground was prickling my legs. All the good feeling was gone. All that was left was despair and death.
I ran my fingers through my hair, raised my head to the sky and shouted, “Will! Help, please! Will!”
“Take me out tonight.” Jenna said in a croaky voice.
We looked curiously at her.
She continued, “Where there’s music and there’s people who are young and alive.”
Typical. Even in death Jenna was still light-hearted. Adele nd I smiled gently then the three of us sang There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths:

‘Driving in your car
I never, never want to go home.
Because I haven’t got one
Anymore.

Take me out tonight.
Because I want to see people and I
Want to see life.
Driving in your car
Oh, please don’t drop me home
Because its not my home, its their home
And I’m welcome no more.

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die.
And if a ten tonne truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well the pleasure, the privilege is mine.

Take me out tonight.
Oh, take me anywhere I don’t care
I don’t care, I don’t care.
Driving in your car
I never, never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one, da…
Oh I haven’t got one.

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die.
And if a ten tonne truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well the pleasure, the privilege is mine.

Oh, there is a light that never goes out.
There is a light that never goes out…’

We stopped suddenly as we heard crashing and snorting and hooves coming towards us, getting louder and louder.
The fire flickered out.
There was silence for a split second, then a huge, black Clydesdale jumped over the bushes with another snort and landed with a loud thud next to me. It shook it’s large head and started pawing the bloodied grass. At that moment, Will jumped from the horse’s back and was at Jenna’s side in a flash, cradling her in his arms.
Without a word he spun around and jumped on the horse, sitting Jenna in front of him. He looked furious mixed with pure fear. His eyes were…no. They looked blue. But his eyes were hazel! Wait, they were blue! Light blue. Glowing light blue! The Clydesdale began walking towards the castle.
“Will, I am so, so sorry! Its my fault.” I bit my lip, still trembling.
Adele stood at my side, “These folk…They just came out of-”
“Get yourselves back to the castle!” He snapped. “Shadow!”
The horse took of with a whiney, galloping towards the castle. We stood dumbly, staring after them.
“I canny believe what’s…just happened.” I said weakly.
“C’mon.” Adele said, trying to keep calm. “It’s getting dark. If we stay here were gonna end up lost.”
She grabbed my hand and we ran.
At the hole in the wall, the Clydesdale stood, pawing at the ground again. As we emerged from the trees, at half past five according to my watch, it looked down at us, but we were no harm to it. It snorted then walked into the forest. We never stopped running until we got to the door of the room.
I put my hand to the handle and we walked nervously
in and towards Phrewr, who was leaning over an unconscious Jenna, stitching her up by the look of it. We moved slowly towards our best friend, guilt flooding my body.
My fault.
“Will she be okay?” I asked.
“She’s lost a lot of blood. I think you should leave her to rest, go with Will and I will call you when I’ve done. He is in the sitting room.”
We never said a word to each other as we went to get Will. I wondered why he wasn’t with Jenna.
“Will, you in here?” I pushed the wooden door open slowly.
“Please leave!” He yelled suddenly.
“Whit’s wrong?” Adele asked, following me in.
He was sitting at he far end of the room, with his back to us, next to a safe.
“Will?” I said uneasily.
We cautiously walked towards him.
“Why aren’t you with Phrewr and Jenna?” Adele asked.
“I couldn’t bear all the blood.”
We moved to the side of him. He flinched and spun around, facing the bookshelf and covering his face. Strangely, he was holding a bag of blood, the kind in hospitals that patients have on a drip.
“What’s wrong?” I kneeled beside him. Adele followed.
“Go away!”
“Will, what’s going on?” I asked, slightly panicked and putting a hand on his shoulder.
He flinched and turned his body to us, but kept his face covered, “Please don’t look at me.”
“Why?” Adele asked.
“What’s wrong?”
“How did your eyes change?” She noticed that too.
“Why do you have a safe full of bags of blood?”
“Because I’m a monster…” He said quietly.
Adele and I exchanged confused looks.
“Sorry, we don’t understand.” I said.
He raised his head to face us. We gasped and stumbled back in shock horror. His eyes were crimson red! Blood was dripping from his mouth and onto his white Lou Reed t-shirt. He opened his mouth to sigh, showing off his perfectly white teeth, but he had fangs.
“What are you?” I gasped.
“I’m a… I’m a vampire.” He replied bitterly.