Pitch Black

The scene kept replaying over and over again in my brain, as I sat in a room alone. I stared at the ground, and in my minds eye, I could see everything in slow motion, like my eyes had filmed the entire scene. I saw as the vampires came in through the hole. It was just two of them. They didn’t know there were so many of us. I heard Sam’s scream as I ran forward, brandishing my knife.

Bruises on my neck and the scratchy sound of my breath were all the proof I needed, to know that the vampire really had grabbed me by the neck after I sank my knife into his collarbone. All I wanted was Sam, and the woman had taken her. The woman. I don’t know what made me more afraid. The fact that she had Sam, or the fact that I knew who she was.

My stomach roiled and I closed my eyes, willing myself not to be sick as the scene picked back up again. The woman had yelled at the male vampire to let me go, that they needed to go right then and there. So they did, with Sam with them.

Louis and I both had ran down that hole, screaming and following Sam’s shouts that had faded away quicker than I thought possible. Louis and I were the only two that fit side by side, Liam and Zayn dashing in after us with weapons, because we were both so stupid to go in without any.

A single tear fell from my face and I wiped it away quickly. How pathetic was I, that I couldn’t stop two vampires from taking my own sister? I had killed so many in my life, I was so practiced in doing it. And the minute they had their hands on Sam, all my practice had gone out the window. I had done something I swore I would never do: I panicked.

Everyone in our small home did not know where to go from where we were. Everyone was lost. There were so many of us who could have stopped them. But we were more careless than we had ever been. And for what? Because we had large numbers? Because we had become so comfortable?

The door opening made me look up. I knew I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Harry walking in, but I was. His face was very solemn, and his mouth was in a tight line, trying not to convey what he was feeling as he sat down next to me.

Without saying anything, he put his arm around me and pulled me into his strong chest, wrapping the other arm around me and hugging me, letting me bury my face into the crook of his neck. I don’t know why, but the gesture made me burst into tears instantly, wrapping my arms around his abdomen and crying hard.

Harry’s hands made constant circular motions on my back, using that to calm me when words would not suffice. Harry was like me in the sense that worlds couldn’t make it feel better, that words could never make it feel better. We were people of action.

Lifting my head, I let him wipe the tears from my face, holding my face firmly between his hands. He was searching my face for something, but I wasn’t sure what. “After all I’ve learned,” I whispered, letting my eyes fall, “after everything I know, I let them take her. I failed her.”

“We’re going to get her back,” He assured firmly, lowering he head to find my eyes again. They connected and I saw raw determination in them. “She’s my family too now, Blakely. They’re not going to hurt my own. I’m too involved.”

I shook my head. “It’s not you’re problem-"

Harry cut me off in a way that I never would have suspected. He slammed his lips against mine, startling me, but my body reacted faster than my brain did, my lips moving in sink with his and my hands knotting in his shirt at the collar, pulling him closer.

Growing up in this kind of world, I had only ever kissed one boy. He lived in the compound with my family and I until it was blow to bits, his body among the others fallen and dragged away to be put in the slaughter house. But this was nothing like that. This kiss made me dizzy in the head, and it made me gasp for air.

Pulling away, both of us breathed heavily, sharing the same dazed look. He leaned forward and set his head on my forehead, his breath warm against my lips. I instantly had the urge to kiss him again, but fought it.

“Like I said,” he murmured running his thumb across my cheek and kissing me lightly again. “I’m too involved.”

“Is that what you call that?” I laughed, still trying to catch my breathe. I licked my lips, trying to fight a smile. It wasn’t time to smile. Or to kiss boys. “’Too involved?”

“Mhmmm.” He kissed me again, slow and languid, making me shiver. Pulling away again, he sighed. “Come on. We’ve got planning to do.”

“Ha!” I laughed, letting him help me up. I used the sleeve of my shirt to wipe the rest of my face, shoving him a bit with the other hand. “Typical boy. Shall we walk out of the room separately?”
Harry grinned and reached for my hand, lacing our fingers and giving them a tight squeeze. “Nah.” She looked at him in surprise, further widening his grin. “I like to show off.”

Without another word, Harry led me out of the room by the hand, making me snicker lightly at the action. I should have know that Harry was the type of boy to prance around with a prize, though I was no prize. In my eyes, I was more of a curse than anything. It seemed I did noting but bring agony, especially to the boy who had opened his home to us.

Walking into the living room, the small talk surrounded me. Then it slowed before stopping completely as Harry and I made our way across the open space, hands linked and sitting down on the floor together, as all of the couches were taking. Ashling’s eyes zeroed in on our linked hands, shock and then annoyance flooding through her gaze.

Harry and I both looked at everyone in the room, as if daring them to say something. No one did, though I assumed they would not have said anything anyways; we were all in a moment of weakness right now. If Harry and I wanted to hold hands and kiss, we were allowed to.

Except, if Louis had anything to say about it. “Interesting,” he commented, looking at us with his deadpan voice. I cast my eyes to him, scanning the frown on his face. It was clear he didn’t approve, though he had been in agreement with Harry only hours ago. “Is that how you plan on getting her back? Holding hands with boys?”

My eye twitched and I saw my old group straighten, casting their eyes away. Whenever Louis and I began a fight- though it was rare- it could turn very nasty, very quickly. Ashling was very still, looking down at the ground, fighting words she wanted to get out. She wouldn’t say anything though, knowing it would make it worse.

“I don’t know, Louis,” I said very pointedly, trying not to let my tone take on a biting edge to it. My anger was already pricked, though. “Perhaps if you had not been fawning over someone, Same wouldn’t have been ripped from the room.”

Eleanor’s face went pale, which was saying a lot, since she was still weak. I realized that it made it sound like I was blaming her, and I wasn’t at all. I was blaming Louis’ affection for her, which could be seen for miles. “Don’t you blame her-"

“I’m not,” I cut in, silencing him with my tone. “I’m telling you not to throw stones if you live in a glass house.”

“Are we throwing rocks, at one another, Blakely? Are we fighting?”

I set my jaw, and Harry squeezed my hand tightly, seeing the rage bubbling up inside of me. He was just like me. He knew when it was coming, and he was trying to put out the fuse. “Well you damn sure want to start one, don’t you? Is that why you opened your fucking mouth? To make comments like a dick, to someone who just lost their god damn sister? Grow up, Louis.”

“I have grown up!” He shouted, standing up and pointing a finger at me. Everyone in the room flinched, and Eleanor grabbed his hand, hissing at him to sit back down, but he ignored her. “I’m sitting here trying to think of a way to save your sister, and you are off in your room having a pity party and snogging boys. Well guess what? I’m upset too. You are so impossible sometimes!”

“Why?” I got to my feet then and Harry dropped my hand, glaring at the ground. It was very much obvious that he wanted to say something, though I wasn’t sure if it would be directed at me, or Louis. “Because I don’t shove my problems down everyone’s throat?”

“No! Because you’re upset and you don’t know how to tell anyone! And it’s sad! And frustrating!”

“She surely told me about it,” Harry growled, looking up at Louis. There was a protective glint in his eyes that flashed through the green, one that I had seen in Niall’s eyes when he stepped in front of Ashling in confrontations. It softened my heart, slightly. “So don’t go having a proper fit about it. If you take her strength to not cry in front of you as an imitation, you’re wrong.”

“Can we all stop fighting?” Ash demanded finally, throwing her hands in the air. Niall put his hand on her thigh soothingly, murmuring something to her, but her eyes were looking between Louis and I, thundering with emotion. “We’re all fucked up, and what we really need to be doing, is talking about why they took Sam, and what we’re going to do about it.”

Silence wrapped around us all. Louis and I glared at one another for a few moments before both of us took our seats. I knew that our confrontation wasn’t over. It was obvious there was some sort of unsaid nuisance bothering him, and like a wound, he needed to get it out before it festered.

“How are we going to get her back?” Danielle asked finally, her head was in her hands as she stared at the ground, her voice cracking. Liam wrapped an arm around her, kissing her on the temple and giving me a look. Danielle was torn apart by Sam’s disappearance. In my haste to cry about it, I forgot Sam had more than just Ash and I for family. “And why would they take her?”

I licked my lips. “It was a woman,” I said loudly, making them all look at me strangely. They had no idea why I was speaking in such an odd way, but Ash straightened slightly, her eyes focusing into mine and trying to understand why I was staring straight at her. “She had a jagged scar on her face, as if she had gotten it in a raid. Raids happened in compounds all the time, when we were young.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Perrie asked, not unkindly. She did not quite understand my sudden off topic subject and why I was talking about raids. “It doesn’t quite matter who it was. They took her regardless.”

“Raids,” I continued, Ashling still trying to decipher my words. “I remember them so clearly. At the beginning, sometimes all we had were kitchen knives to defend ourselves, when in a compound. And the vampires always had sharper blades, cutting people for fun.”

“Blake?” Harry asked, not understanding. But Ash went pale, and her eyes widened a bit. I saw the breath hitch in her chest as she looked away from me, staring at a wall and trying to calm herself down. I could see the panic within her, though no one else could. “That makes no sense.”

“Let’s just discuss a plan,” Ash said, her voice unsteady. Niall looked at her, concern written across his face. Ash was now looking at her hands, ringing them and rubbing her palms together. It was her one nervous tick. “Just- let’s do this.”

My sister, had now realized what I had realized. The years had not been kind to us. We had gone so long, believing in something. So when you believe in a single fact, for so long, it takes root in your brain, and it doesn’t come out easily. That root also makes it impossible for you to see things sometimes, it can make you blind.

Yes… the years had made Ashling and I blind. After all the nightmares we had gathered, after the spans of time stretching out from those days we had a family, we had long forgotten, we had never realized until it was right in front of us, until we let ourselves see.

I had finally let myself see her, for the first time, and truly see her. Time did not age her, and the vampirism had changed many things about her face. She did not look the same. But that scar was still there.

Vampirism made people strangers. Especially when it’s your mother you expect to be dead.