Black Blood

I was shaken awake by some horrible-looking, bad-smelling, dirt-covered man. I vaguely recalled him being described as one of the vampires' ghouls. He was here to make sure we did as we were supposed to, while the vampires slept.

"You, up, now," he grunted at me. He waved an arm, sending the sleeve of his torn straight jacket over his shoulder.

"Okay, I'm up," I said, holding my hands out as defense. I sat up as he made his way over to the other girls to wake them.

I felt strangely rested, despite the nightmares that had plagued me and the current situation. We were meant to be cleaning the mansion, but I was determined to use the time to find a way to escape.

I wondered what the time of day even was, as the ghoul led us to a room where we were served some kind of grey-coloured gruel. Delaney dared to ask if we were really expected to eat it, and received a hard slap from the ghoul that turned her head. She had cried out, but after that did not speak again.

I picked at my food, ate a couple of bites. It wasn't the worst thing I'd tasted. And if I ate it at a quick pace it would be over before I knew it. I started to quickly spoon the gruel in my mouth, bite after bite. The other girls looked at me with wide eyes.

"What?" I asked around a mouthful. I swallowed the bite. "It's not that bad."

They exchanged glances, and started eating. Ghoul boy made a grunt, one I could almost say was of approval. The meal did go buy a lot more quickly.

Soon after we were clearing trash out of the halls, stuffing it into black bags the ghoul had supplied us with. We had been offered rubber gloves as well to wear, and all of us had gratefully accepted.

The ghoul had gone off into one of the rooms along the hall at one point, and hadn't been back a while. I glanced around at my companions, who were focused on their task. This was my chance. I looked up and down the hall; there was no sign the ghoul was on his way back.

"Hey," I whispered. Charlotte turned to look at me. "I don't think that ghoul thing is coming back anytime soon. The vampires are obviously asleep. How about we try and find a way out of here?"

"No way," Charlotte whispered back. "You know what will happen if we get caught."

"We could- just say we got lost trying to find the bathroom?" I suggested. Charlotte shook her head, turning back to what she was doing.

"No, I don't even think that- that ghoul would really be able to understand, anyway," Charlotte said.

I frowned. She had a point. The ghoul hadn't ever spoken a complete sentence, mostly giving grunts of different tones. He gave no sign of understanding much anyone said save for the commands the vampires gave him.

"Fine," I said. I threw down my trash bag and took my gloves off, marching pas the other girls. "I'll go it alone."

"You shouldn't," Delaney whispered, grabbing onto my arm. Her eyebrows were raised and there was panic in her voice. There was a fresh bruise forming over her cheek where the ghoul had hit her. I shrugged her arm off. "They'll do much worse to you if they catch you."

"I know, but we're most likely going to end up dead anyway," I said. "Tell them you tried to stop me, or whatever you like. Save your skins- for now. But I'm off to find a way out of here."

They made no more arguments. I heard them return to cleaning behind me, and almost felt sour that they were too afraid to join me. But some people preferred the easy way out.

I had to give the vampires credit. Their 'lair' really was a god damn maze of halls and doors. I had somehow ended up circling back around to the room we were being made to stay in. That wouldn't do me any good.

There was another door, at least, of which I had no recollection of seeing there before. I pulled it open carefully, and peeked my head out.

It was another maze of hallways and doors, but the wallpaper and flooring were different, and the lighting was much more dim. There appeared to be no one down this way, so I walked through and shut the door behind me as quietly as possible.

As I made my way down the hall it suddenly clicked. I had actually been down this way before; the other night, to meet Ethan. An uneasy feeling swirled through me. Was I headed toward the way out, or headed toward Ethan? I chewed on my bottom lip and hoped for the best.

The end of that hallway opened up to a much wider hall, so that was progress. I hoped it was progress anyway. It was still the same faded, purple wallpaper with gold flecks and the wooden border. I was quickly getting sick of it.

I was almost at the end of that hall when I heard a door open and shut behind me. I froze, praying that whoever it was, was looking in the opposite direction and wouldn't notice me.

"And just where do you think you're going, little lady?" It was Kyle's voice. I looked at him over my shoulder, and he took a step toward me and clucked his tongue in disapproval.

"I was- looking for the bathroom," I tried, taking a step back. He raised his eyebrows.

"Down this hall?" Kyle gestured around him. "There's no bathroom here, little lady." He shook his head and took another step toward me.

"Oh, well, then... Nice talking to you, but I really have to get back. Cleaning and all," I said. But the look on his face told me he didn't believe any of it.

I was as good as dead either way, I thought. I turned and ran.