Pitch Black

Cold. That was the instant feeling that crept upon Blakely as she began to feel again. Cold and pain in her head, as if someone had carelessly tossed her into a cold cell and banged her head on something. As her eyes fluttered open and struggled to take in the dim light around her, she realized that was exactly what had happened.

Groggy and feeling slow, she slowly began to sit up. She had been thrown carelessly onto an itchy, thin mattress that offered little to no comfort. Glancing around, she saw that she was in a barred cell, like from one of the old movies.

Swallowing, she hated how dry her throat felt. It was obvious she had not been given any water and she had not been fed, from the grumbling in her stomach, which was extremely audible.

A laugh caught her attention, dry and broken as she turned her head to the cell next to her. “Yeah, I’m hungry too,” Harry muttered, giving her a very tired look. He was sitting on the floor of his cell, leaning against the bars between theirs. “It’s been almost twenty-four hours, I think.”

Licking her lips to somewhat wet them, she dragged herself off the bed and onto the floor, pulling herself to Harry. The drugs were still trying to wear off, and it made it hard to focus on much, other than the fact he was clearly leaning against the bars and out of comfort to be near her.

Sliding her hand through the tight fit, she was able to grasp his hand and squeeze it. He gave a single squeeze in return, half smiling at her. “You’ve got a rather large cut on your head,” he muttered, green eyes looking at it. She gave him a half smile. “Always getting cut and such.”

“Hey,” she responded, shrugging. “I’m not the one who gets my ass kicked in training sessions.”

Silence fell between them. Blakely took the time to look at their surroundings. They were in a hall of cells, and across from her she could see a mess of blonde hair asleep on a cot, which was unmistakably Perrie, still out cold. So they had been captured too, of course.

It seemed so far that they were the only two people awake. Blake took the opportunity to assess that they were in a hall filled with jail cells and that those particular cells were filled with their small group. From the silence of it, whatever they had used to drug them was extremely strong. Then again, she remembered being knocked out with two doses.

“They don’t seem to be too worried about keeping us alive,” Blake muttered, turning her attention to Harry. He opened his eyes, clearly just as tired as she was. It was hard to stay awake when it was so cold and when you were in pain. “Those doses could have put us into a coma. In fact, one of us may be in a coma.”

Harry nodded. “And they slung us around and battered us. Why bother keeping us alive?”

“Because they still need our blood, I guess. Are El and Andy here?”

Silence. “No. How long do you think we have?”

She chewed on her lip and shrugged. Time was everything, when you had no time at all. They had lived on knowing that they didn’t have time to make friends and fall in love. But somehow they forgot about that. And now time was back again, and they were running out of it. “Maybe another day, if we’re lucky?”

“Do you think the other’s will wake up?”

“I hope so.”

Sighing and closing his eyes, Harry seemed ready to go to sleep. He held on to her hand tight, and Blake realized that the only reason he had been awake, was to make sure she eventually woke up. It was to make sure she wasn’t dead. “Me too.”

*

When Blakely woke a second time, she saw that food was on a tray at the entrance of her cell. As much as she wanted to eat it and drink the water, she ignored it completely, lifting her head and licking her dry lips to look at her surroundings.

It seemed that everyone was awake and alert now, if not at least sluggish. Everyone’s tray lay untouched, bodies slouching against walls are bars to talk to their companions in the next cell over.

Harry still lay against her cell, looking much more alert. Thinking on it, Blakely felt more alert as well, blinking away the grogginess and pulling her head up, letting go of Harry’s hand, pushing herself to her feet. Harry watched her as she stretched her sore limbs, feeling strength surge back into them.

Walking to the front of the cell, she pushed her face as far as she could through the bars, craning her neck to peer down the hall. It was lit with red light, hard for the human eye to see far, but perfect for vampire lights. She could not see into the cells.

“She’s all the way at the end,” Perrie called in a tired voice, looking at Blakely from across the hall. Her blue eyes were shining bright with intelligence, a sign that she was alert and awake. “They wouldn’t put you two near each other. They were very specific about that.”

Blakely nodded, closing her eyes. She wanted to see her sisters face. Both of their faces, and hold them in her arms. She did not like any ounce of this. She wanted her family. “Blake?”

Twins were something special. They could feel one another, even if they were fraternal. Something about being brought into the world at the same time made a shadow of a bond that would follow them wherever they went. It was like they could feel one another’s emotions at all times.

When Blakely and Ashling were apart, they felt sick. They felt as if the world were not completely right, as if something was wrong with it. They were meant to be together, a cohesive pair that created one. Ashling was the left hand, Blakely was the right. Ashling was the logic, Blakely was the fire.

Neither of them could operate without the other. The bond between the two twins could never be replicated. Neither could live if the other did not. Blakely had always known that she would never be able to live without her twin.

“Ash.” Blakely sank to the ground in a crouch, resting her forehead against the cold iron of the bars. She couldn’t see her other half, but she could feel her there, at the end of the hall, breathing. “I know.”

As the twins had some sort of telepathic and emotional trade, everyone watched with interest. Though Blakely could not see her, at the other end of the hall, Ash was doing the same exact thing, leaning against the bars with her eyes closed. Watching the two of them as they silently reached out to one another caused the others to divert their eyes, something family-intimate and hard to understand.

“How long?” Ash asked down the hall. No one else answered her because they knew she was talking to Blakely. Everyone found a sudden interest in cracks in the wall. All except Harry and Niall, who watched them with interest. “How long do you think we have?”

“A few hours. A few hours… and we’re dead.”

“Oh.”

It was clear that the conversation was over, so Blakely rose to her feet, walking back to her corner where Harry still sat, watching her attentatively the entire time. She sat back down, slipping her hand through the barrier and holding his hand in hers. He gave it a squeeze.

An hour passed by and there was nothing but silence. No one had anything to say. There wasn’t much to say when you were being kept in a vampire prison, counting down the hours until you were going to be killed.

Another went by without anyone speaking. It seemed that the realization that they had failed was finally setting in, and everyone in their cells began accepting that they weren’t going to live. They were going to be farmed like mindless cattle.

“Blakely…”

“Don’t,” she whispered, not able to look at Harry next to her. “Don’t do that.”

“What-“

The door to the hall banged open suddenly. Blakely’s heart shot through her throat as they all jumped up, faces set in grim expressions. Time was up, it seemed. The time had come for them to be beaten and dragged to the end. Blakely thought that her hands would be tremble, but she felt a resounding calm in her as she gave Harry a lasting look, walking to the front of the cell.

Everything comes with a price. She had lead these people that she loved on a suicide mission. Their death’s would be on her hands. The human race was going to die out because of her inability to make a sacrifice. It was Blakely’s fault and-

“Hurry up,” Eleanor hissed, appearing suddenly in front of Blakely’s cell. She was out of breath and shaking all over, shoving keys in Blake’s face. With trembling and dumbfounded hands, Blakey snatched the keys, using them to let herself out. “We don’t have long. Through this door is an office where a single vampire was on guard duty. They weren’t worried about you, especially because the food was drugged. Did anyone consume it?”

“Of course not,” Blake responded, letting Harry out of his cell and tossing him the keys. He began making short work on the others who were at attention, all of them breathing hard. Everyone’s pounding hearts were nearly audible in the cold hall. “Did they leave our weapons in there?”

“Of course they did, come on.” Eleanor and Blakely took off towards the office, stepping over the body of a guard, a stake protruding from his chest, dark red blood surrounding the sharpened wood that disappeared in his flesh. “Their in that locker there, I unlocked it.”

Blakely and Eleanor both began ripping weapons out of the lockers. Vampires were too proud and too confident in themselves to have put the weapons in a completely different location. They had depended on the starving prisoners to eat the drugged food and water, but they hadn’t. They never expected an escape, and Blakely wasn’t sure she had either.

Quickly and almost clumsily everyone was bolting into the room, ripping their weapons and strapping themselves. When Ash came through the door last, Blakely turned around and grabbed her forearm, giving her a severe look. Ash’s eyes were shinning and she nodded, understanding what Blakely meant. Stay close.

“Are your syringes still there?” Louis demanded, cocking his shotgun and then strapping on a belt of grenades filled with holy water. Ash ripped open the vest they had stripped off of her and nodded vigorously, red hair flailing. “Thank god. They don’t know what it is.”

“No,” the red head agreed, sliding her vest on before shoving knives and guns onto her person. Niall picked up a knife when it dropped from Ash’s trembling hands and she gave him a small smile, to which he returned. “Thanks.”

Niall looked over Ashling’s head at Blakely, who stared back at him as Harry strapped the last gun in the locker to his belt. “Remember what to do,” Blakely said, eyes leaving Niall after a moment and going to the rest of the people in the group. So many terrified eyes looked at her, but they were all strangely calm, too. “We’ve got to get to the main building. If we can’t get there, we’re done.”

“I saw it coming in,” Zayn said, nodding his head, bouncing on his feet slightly. He was nervous, but sure of himself. “I wasn’t out yet. It’s not far from here at all.”

“What time is it?” Danielle asked Eleanor, looking around for a clock. “Daylight or night?”

Eleanor made a grim face. “It’s day time. But we only have about two hours of daylight left. I was lucky I got out of the sick bay as it was. I only got out when Andy had a tantrum and a nurse was stupid enough to open the door. I knocked her out.”

“You knocked a vamp out?” Louis asked, a smirk on his face. It wasn’t the time or the place. “That’s hot.”

“Okay, not the right time,” Zayn interrupted, glaring at Louis. “We’re about to go plunging into a suicide mission, and you’re hitting on Eleanor?”

Louis shrugged. “Shut up,” Blakely growled, glancing at everyone again. “Let’s go.”

As quietly as a group of teenagers could, they moved out of the cells into the sun. Blakely was surprised to find that the holding cells for humans was miniscule compared to the rest of the vampire city. It didn’t even look like it could hold more than twenty people.

The vampires had always been confident that they had all of the humans in the world locked in their farming facilities. They did not need large jails or places to contain human beings.

Zayn led them down the sun filled road, all of them moving quickly. Eleanor pointed out the sick bay in which she was able to escape. She quietly muttered that Andy was still sedated and that she did not want to risk bringing him, especially if it kept him out of danger.

Blakely wanted to ask Eleanor a million questions on how she was able to get out, but she saved them, knowing that Eleanor was smart and stronger than she looked. The girl would have done whatever it took to get out, and Blakely was impressed.

In the fading daylight, the city was orange. All the buildings were a metallic silver color and reflected that of the afternoon sun, making it look strangely like it was on fire. Any other time Blakely my have thought that it was beautiful, but in that moment she was hurrying behind her sister, bolting towards the biggest building in the center of the city.

The main building left a great impression. It was the tallest of all the buildings, magnificently built and tall. At the very top of it, a single, jagged spire struck out, resembling a twisted and cruel lightning bolt. Blake hated the sight of it. It looked of evil and hatred.

“There it is,” Zayn murmured, his voice taking on a color of tone that none of them liked. It felt cold, suddenly, though it was no where near winter. Blakely felt uncomfortable. “That’s the building.”
Harry had one single comment to make on it. “Woe to all ye who enter here.”