Wrong Place Wrong Time

[FaithWynters]

For that moment, Ian actually thought that they were going to play by the rules of this sick game. For a moment, as the knife was pulled away from Charlotte’s chest, he thought that they would give him a chance. They stood there in silence for a few moments, letting his decision soak into his mind and tear him from the inside out.


“I love you Farrah” The words were hardly audible as he waited silently for the sounds that he knew would be the end of her life. The words that come next make him pull his eyes open. They weren’t playing by the rules. Did he really expect much more from them? But the way the man’s arm was positioned, he had just enough time to get to him before he killed the girl. This was his chance. He knew he could do it. He was faster. He was a fuckin’ vampire for Christ sake!


In that split second before the man begins to bring the blade down, Ian lunges the few feet that were still between them. He has no choice but to go through Charlotte to get to the man, so he crashes through both of them to get the blade away. He is lucky that she falls a different direction, as the man has started to raise his arms to block Ian.


Ian feels that sting of the blade sticking in him as he lands on the man. He has the advantage and he is not going to worry about a knife sticking out of his side right now. One hit breaks the man’s nose. With one twist, his jaw breaks and he screams in agony. Ian has saved the girl and he is going to make sure these men never hurt them again. The growl has returned again, but Ian isn’t thinking about what he is going.


“You want to see Monster?” As he speaks, he pulls the man’s head up and give’s one more hard hit to his throat. The bone’s crack and break, leaving him unable to breathe. That is all it takes.

 

[Daeus]

Charlotte had the wind knocked out of her as Ian crashed into her body. She fell to the floor in a messy weak heap and tried to move but her body refused to listen. All she could do was struggle to move her head to try and see what was going on. She regretted that decision because it was just in time to witness the steel poker be shoved through that woman's heart with a sickening sound.


It was too hard to stay awake now. She just needed to close her eyes for five minutes than maybe she could get up or move. She just needed to rest for just a small moment. Maybe her fingers wouldn't be so numb when she woke up.


"Shit! Grab him quickly!"


They threw Farrah's body to the side and all the men lunged towards Ian with the intent to capture. They wanted him to suffer and not give him a quick death. They had been planning this ever since Ian had escaped and they wouldn't let this chance slip by to purify the evil in the world.

 

[FaithWynters]

“Charlotte” Ian had noticed her eyes slipping closed as he pulled himself to his feet. There were still two more men to deal with. He wanted to make these people suffer for what they did to his poor Farrah. He had head the sounds of bones breaking and only the quiet whimper coming from her beautiful lips He was shaking with adrenaline as he pulled himself up. “I need you to keep listening to my voice. Don’t go to sleep Charlotte” He had to deal with these guys quickly or he wouldn’t be able to help her.


He walked toward the two me, pulling the knife out of his side. Her body was strewn across the floor behind them, her blood pooled beneath her body. His fangs had grown out again; his face curled into a snarl that he hoped would make them afraid. By their elevated heartbeats, he assumed that their friend’s asphyxiation sent fear through them. He looked at the knife a moment before stopping where he was. He was surprised these men only had knives for weapons and not guns. They seemed like the gun carrying type.


He threw the knife, as hard as he could, across the room toward the man on the left. Frankly, he was surprised that he even hit the man as it stuck conveniently into his leg. It made him cry out in pain and fall to the ground. The other man was rearing his knife back to plunge it into Ian’s body somewhere. Just as he did the man before, Ian knocked him on the ground with all his force. In his stunned moments, a hard hit to the throat will soon bring him to the same death as the other.


“Charlotte, don’t go to sleep. Please” He’s yelling, just so he hopes that she can still hear his voice. Even though he fights he knows that he has to try and keep her away while he does so. If she slips off, he might not be able to wake her up again.


Ian isn’t fast enough. The man knocks him off his dead friend’s body, pinning him back to the ground. The man is all rage. His heart is racing, adrenaline pumps through his system. He just hits Ian, over and over again, as hard as he can. Something told him that he wasn’t going to get out of this Scott free. Now, his nose bleeds as he reaches up, trying to fight through blood and pain to grab at the man’s throat to end.

 

[Daeus]

Someone was calling her name but it was so far away and distant. She was right on the edge of sleep but the shouting was keeping her awake. Why couldn't she just rest for a few minutes? That was all she wanted right now was to sleep. So desperately she just needed to sleep. She couldn't feel her hands at all anymore and part of her worried about what that meant. Was she laying on them and had they fallen asleep? She cracked her eyes open and saw one of her hands resting near her face. It was a strange feeling of seeing your hand but not being able to really feel it.


Her eyes fluttered shut again as it was just too hard to keep them open anymore and she didn't want to see the horrors around the room. Part of her tired mind was whispering it was all a bad dream and if she went to sleep it'd be over. That all this terrible pain from her body and the creeping numbness would end.


"I told you we should have brought the guns!"


((sorry it's short, action scenes. @_@))

 

[FaithWynters]

It took Ian a few more hits to the face before he finally found the pulse beneath his fingers. He wasn’t much for killing and in this aspect; his creativity for slaughter had never been great. Now, he brought the man close to his face. He was close enough that the man couldn’t swing at him. He never spoke of pity like he expected him to. He never begged for mercy.


He gripped the hair hard with his other hand, making sure the man could not run away no matter how hard he struggled against the smaller body beneath him. He wasn’t much for drawn out killing, and he still had to make sure that charlotte was going to make it. So, with a swift jerk of his hands, the man’s neck snapped and he was no more.


“Charlotte!” He yelled. The beat was so soft he hardly had time to do what was need. He threw the body off of him, crawling over to the knife that lay on the ground. He would need this. He knew there was only thing that he could do to save her. Ian ran over to the girl’s body, practically collapsing on top of her. He leaned down next to her, pressing his face to her throat. He still had time.


“Charlotte. I need you to wake up so I can help you.” He spoke before pressing his fangs into the base of her neck. Her blood was sweet as it entered his mouth and he closed his eyes. Ian would have to concentrate on not going overboard. He had never done this before. Even if he had the opportunity, he wasn’t sure he would do this, but he had already lost Farrah and he would not lose her too. He didn’t know what to expect from this. He wasn’t sure more than what parameters had to be met what else would have to be done. He was shaking as he tasted her blood on his lips, drinking slowly, until he was sure that he had enough to make this work.


“Charlotte. I need you to do something for me.” He wasn’t even sure if she could hear him. He drug the knife heavily down his palm and blood began to seep from the wound. He did not remember his turning. He did not know if it was painful or if it was easy. He wasn’t even sure if this would save her life or not, but it was a foolish last ditch effort to repay his debt to her.


He tried to open her mouth, pressing the bleeding hand to her lips. The wound stung as it made contact, but he ignored the pain and continued, trying to rouse her from her sleep with the other hand. “I need you to get the glass out of my hand, Charlotte, or you’re not going to make it” He was talking crazy things now, trying to get her to wake up and listen to what he was saying.

 

[Daeus]

Charlotte felt like she was floating now. As if she was swimming in something denser than air with a coolness of fog that was swirling all around her. It was so dizzying. Something was touching her and there was a familiar voice shouting and tell her to wake up. She was safe here though. There weren't dagger wielding lunatics trying to kill her here.


She was jerked back from the safety of that void when she felt something on her neck. Her body couldn't even register pain anymore just just the sensation of something touching her. For all she knew someone could have just stabbed her. A whimper escaped her throat as it was the only sound she could make. Her throat was raw still and she didn't think she'd ever be able to speak again after screaming so much.


She felt something moist pressed against her lips. It tasted like blood but she'd already been tasting blood for hours it seemed. Maybe her lungs had been ruptured and the blood was seeping out through her mouth. The voice was tell her to suck something out. Glass? Ian had done that for her. It had been a little weird having glass shards sucked out of a wound. Her mouth was full of the metallic tasting blood and she swallowed because she was desperately thirsty. She would have preferred water and maybe this was water but there was perhaps so much blood in her mouth that it made the water thicker.

 

[FaithWynters]

"That's it. Everything is going to be all right. Just stay awake." He could feel the slight tug on his hand. She had either woken up or was naturally just doing the things he told her to do. Her heartbeat was still slow, but he was more worried now about how she seemed to be drinking the blood from his hand. Was this what happened? Was it a natural response to him drinking from her? He didn’t know, he just kept pressing his hand on her lips, letting her do what she was doing. He was tired, and now, he could feel the day coming down to bear on his body.


It was probably about four in the morning now. He had been up all night. In only a few more hours, the sun would come up and threaten once again to end his life and hers if this worked. He had to get her someplace safe. Right now, he leaned down, and let himself rest on her body. He would let her drink until the wound closed once again. That would be enough for her; Ian was sure of it.


He tried to keep his mind away from the other bodies in the room. Farrah was gone. There was no way he was ever going to get her back. He had betrayed their love and chosen another. He would never forgive himself for that choice; he was sure of that. It was what she would have wanted; Ian was positive she would have done the same to him. That was just the kind of person she was. She was free of this vampiric curse, but all the while, he pulled another under the veil of darkness. Would she be able to forgive him for that?

 

[Daeus]

Charlotte's mind began to process that after drinking something for this long if it had been water surely the blood would have washed out of her mouth by now. She stopped then and tried to turn her head away from the source. It hadn't quenched her thirst at all and her mouth felt coated in blood. The numbness that had been slowly creeping from her fingers and toes had increased exponentially. She was numb all the way to her chest now and she barely feel her own heartbeat anymore.


It's strange to feel yourself dying. You just get cold and lose all feeling. She had felt a weight on her earlier but with each struggling pump of her heart she felt less and less of the world around her. That was her last thought as she felt her heart stop beating. It just... stopped. She had heard the brain can still function and be conscious a few minutes after the heart had stopped. She wondered how long these seconds would actually seem to her mind.


She couldn't feel anything anymore and finally felt like she had fallen into the deep sleep she had been desperate for. Just a little rest.


((She's not dead-dead, but figured she'd still die she'd just wake up as something else.))

 

[FaithWynters]

He sat there with his eyes closed for quite some time. There was silence now. Only the sounds of his own natural breathing and nothing more. He let himself revel in the silence that rang harshly in his ears as this was his reality. He had nothing left. His beloved Farrah was gone, her body cold and still across the room. He hadn’t looked in her direction the whole time. He didn’t want to see the iron rod sticking out of her back like some sort of slaughtered animal.


The girl had stopped drinking what seemed like ages ago. His hand no longer bled as the wound had closed itself easily. Now, he had to make his way home. He didn’t know if she was truly dead. He knew her heart had stopped, but vampire’s hearts didn’t beat. If she had truly changed, then she might not wake up by the time the sun rose over the horizon. She wouldn’t stand a chance. Those kinds of burns were the worst kind.


So, after he sat in this silence for a while, and he had regained some of his strength, he pulled himself off of the floor. He looked down at her body for a moment before picking it up and carrying her out of the room. He walked with a limp and it seemed like there was no part of him that wasn’t sore. As he walked, this soreness slowly pulled out of his muscles. He took great care with her, especially on the stairs. He did not want to risk dropping her.


It took him a while to get out of the building. His body didn’t want to cooperate with him as he walked. Soon, however, the cool breeze of early morning brushed against his skin. She still did not move in his arms, but that didn’t worry him as much as it probably should have. He just walked at a swift pace off of the lot and toward his home. It wasn’t as far away as some of the places he had travelled and he knew that he could get home in less than ten minutes.

. . .

​

After more than thirty minutes of walking, he made it home. He had grown tired much more tired than expected and had to stop many times in between. The girl still had not stirred. Ian laid her now in the large bed on the second floor of the home. He was tired, but knew that he needed to stay up and tend to the girl when she awoke. So, after pulling Charlotte’s blood body into the bed and covering her with the sheets, he went to work closing the curtains so light would not seep in when the sun began to come up.

 

[Daeus]

((Guessing we'll just do a time skip to the evening.))


Charlotte felt... strange. Her mind was in a fog between sleep and wakefulness and there was something important that she was supposed to remember. Something happened to her that was right on the edge of her memory. Something smelt strange too it was the scent of old dried blood. There was a flood of memories then of what had happened.


Ian had left her apartment and some guys had grabbed her a few minutes after he had left. They had tortured her and nearly bleed her to death. How was she still alive? She could barely remember what had happened after they had scorched her skin with the hot iron. There had been someone else there... another victim.


Her mind was a jumbled mess and her body ached after being put through the hell of torture. She was no longer numb and felt every sore and bruised muscle. She was laying on something soft and had sheets covering her body. The bed was larger than the small twin she had at her apartment and the scent wasn't the same as her own room.


She let out a soft moan of pain as she tried to move her body. It was stiff and painful. After only a few seconds of attempting to move she gave up and just opened her eyes which were caked with blood. It was so dark in this room and she wasn't sure if it was still the same night or if she'd been asleep for a long period of time.


"W-here..." she choked out hoarsely.

 

[FaithWynters]

He had come to sit for a while in a chair near the bed. The girl didn’t move; she didn’t turn over in her sleep or anything. She just lay there with her eyes closed. For a while, he just sat there with his idle mind, his thoughts tearing him to pieces. He looked at the word that was scrawled on the wall across from him, telling him every moment how much of a monster he was.


After a few hours, he couldn’t handle it anymore. He found something to take the blood off of the walls. Her scent filled the room an antagonized him every second he could smell it. It took him little over an hour to finish cleaning the wall. The smell in his nose was gone and the smell of cleaning supplies took its place. He minded this scent much less than the other. He just wanted to forget for a little while. Ian wanted to give his mind a rest.


So, when he was finished, he returned to his chair and sat once more. There was a wide darkness that he stared into for a long time until finally, his eyes fell closed, and his mind relaxed enough where he fell into a light doze.


Ian awoke from his slumber when he heard the soft voice coming from the bed. He pulled his eyes open to look toward the figure that now rested in the sheets. His head throbbed with an unbearable pain; this was probably the worst he had felt after a night of hell ever. He hated it. He knew that the girl was confused and he had to be the one for explanation. Ian did not move. The girl looked around confused and he watched her for a moment.


“How are you feeling, Charlotte?” His voice was hoarse and quiet. It was just enough to break the silence around them. It stopped the ringing in his ears. It stopped everything from simply being in limbo.

 

[Daeus]

"Like I was tortured for hours," she replied with a scratchy voice.


Some would have thought she was trying to make a joke out of what had occurred but that was what it felt like and it was what exactly had happened. If she had maybe said she had been run over by a truck then she would have been trying to lighten the mood. She probably should have been more freaked out being in a stranger room on a strange bed after nearly dying after being tortured. If she had been her healthy rested self she probably would have been questioning why she was here.


Then she remembered the other woman again and a pain struck her heart before changing into anger at Ian. She forced her body to move even as it screamed in protest and staggered into her unsteady legs. She saw him sitting in the chair and somehow managed to get over to it. She slapped him as hard as she could before flopping down weakly onto the floor in a pile of limbs.


"You stupid fool... "


She should have felt pity towards him. He had lost someone. She didn't know what their relationship was but it had been enough to want to sacrifice himself. If he hadn't been so damn blinded he would have understood the game. It was their game and they were cheaters. She was so angry! A small little voice was telling her she was causing him more pain by stabbing at a fresh emotional wound but Charlotte was trying to smother down all other feelings and just let her anger ride out because anger didn't let you feel pain.


Charlotte felt guilty and wanted her anger to hide that feeling under an emotional rug. If Charlotte hadn't been there perhaps the game those sickos made would have played out differently. At the root of this was Ian. They had wanted him to suffer the most.

 

[FaithWynters]

Ian wanted so desperately to rush over to her and tell her to lie back down. Charlotte was in no shape to get up and move around yet. What she didn’t know—or couldn’t remember was the fact that she had died last night. She should let her body heal and readjust to being… He felt himself flinch at the thought. She had no idea yet what she was…what he was, or what any of this meant for her.


When she came in striking distance, he felt the sting of her hand across his face. He flinched again; the pain was much more than he had expected. She was strong, but she wasn’t aware of that yet. He just took the hit in silence, watching the girl as she crumpled on the ground. He was giving her words to sink in fully.


“Your body will have healed itself back to normal in a few hours” His voice cracked about halfway through his sentence and the longer he sat in that chair, the more he tried to keep his eyes away from her. He was very aware what she thought of him. Ian was even more aware that his actions had caused too much chaos. Stupid fool… He could feel anger and sadness begin to well up in his chest again. He wasn’t numb yet. The wounds were all too fresh to become numb like he used to be able to do.


He forced himself to get up, leaving her in the floor. Turning, he walked across the room to a dresser. These feelings that were growing inside of him allowed cold tears to run down his face. It often did not cry, but this girl did not realize what happened. She did not realize the importance the situation had held not only in his life, but in hers as well. He needed to get her cleaned up and changed. He was sure she was uncomfortable.


There was importance of haste in this task. He was very aware what was going to begin happening soon. The indescribable hunger that would not go away when she ate human food. The enhanced hearing. The new scents to smell. If he wasn’t careful, the next while could roll her into insanity. He would be there to help her like Stanley hadn’t been for him.


“If you’d like to come and bathe, I suggest you follow me” He picked out a few pieces of clothing out of the drawer. They were all women’s clothing and he tried to pick things out that were more…tasteful. When he took what he needed from the drawer, he closed it, turned, and left the room without even looking across the room at her. If she wanted to sit in the floor until it was her time then she would sit in the floor. His pain was turning into indifference.

 

[Daeus]

Charlotte didn't understand what the hell he was talking about. No human would feel fine in a couple of hours after being beaten to near death. She would have asked for some over-the-counter painkiller but she doubted they would do anything to help her. She'd never felt this terrible in her entire life. Even after being in a car accident that had totaled her friend's car and nearly thrown her out of the vehicle. She'd broken a few ribs and had a migraine for months.


She was growing more and more irritated and furious at Ian the longer she was in his presence. His apathetic attitude made her want to punch him until he showed some sort of feeling. She wanted to shout at him to cry! Be upset! Show something! Anything! Even if he just got angry at her would be fine. She had forced him to make a choice by getting involved in his affairs.


She remained quiet though. It was too hard to talk. She dragged her body up once more using the furniture to steady herself. She had dried and caked blood all over herself. She wanted to demand he take her to the hospital but if their first encounter was anything to go by he would never allow it. There would be questions and he plainly hadn't wanted to be identified to the police.


She followed after him wordlessly. She wanted to be alone for a moment and also have a chance to remove the dirt, grime, and blood from her body. She was so thirsty too. She remembered being thirsty before and that she had drank something that wasn't water. She wasn't sure if that was a real memory or some strange half-dream from blood loss.

 

[FaithWynters]

She said nothing, but as he moved he could hear her pulling herself to her feet. She would follow because she wanted to be clean. If it had been something else—anything else—he had asked her to do, she probably would have kept her place on the ground. She was angry; she had a right to be so, but the mixture of emotions that Ian had running through his body were almost unbearable. He had never had to feel confused grief like this before. She wouldn’t understand, Farrah wasn’t here to help him sort things out, and he didn’t know what to do with this girl. He was alone.


He flicked the light on as he walked into the bathroom. The light made him squint as he walked across the large room. Inside, the large bathtub sat silently in the back corner. It was large—large enough for two people to shower or bathe easily—and its natural stone floor was relaxing on the feet. He stopped in front of the sink, setting down the clothes on the counter.


When he looked up into the mirror, Ian was quite surprised to see exactly how beat up he looked. Dark circles drug themselves beneath his eyes and there was still blood dried on his upper lip. He had taken a few good hits from that last guy. His eyes were bloodshot from all the crying he had been doing; there were still streaks of tears running down his cheeks. On one of those cheeks, a small red handprint marked the side of his face in a welp-like fashion. He reached up and pressed soft fingers against the skin; it still stung.


“There should be shampoo and conditioner to your liking in the shower. Take all the time you need” He sighed, turning and walking back towards the door. He was sure that she wanted to have some time alone. He would explain everything later. When things started to get complicated, he would be there. He stopped by the doorway, watching her. “Is there anything else you think you’ll need? The towels are in the closet.”

 

[Daeus]

Charlotte leaned against the wall not caring if she was leaving bloody prints all over the place. She wanted the blood off her body. It was a reminder of the horrors she had endured and she wanted to be alone. She didn't respond to Ian when he asked her if there was anything she needed. The only thing she needed was a time machine and the ability to change the past. Though honestly she would have had to go back as far as their first encounter and had left him to die. She wasn't sure she would be able to let that happen. Someone would die either way even in that scenario.


She simply waited for him to leave before shutting the door and locking it. It was stupid to lock the door but after the night she'd just had she wanted something of security even if it was useless and could be easily picked or the door broken down. She didn't have the energy to stand up for an actual shower and decided that soaking in the tub would probably be her best option for her current condition.


She managed to strip off her ruined and sticky clothes and let them fall to the floor. Her blood had saturated through her clothes and there was blood caked even on her naked form. She filled the tub with water so hot that it would probably cause her skin to turn pink. Once the tub had been filled she carefully stepped into the tub and sat there to soak for a long period of time.


The blood was changing the color of the once clear water to a light pink and then darker to a shade of red. She submerged her entire body and furiously scrubbed at herself ignoring the pain that stung from the effort her injuries. Once the blood has been removed for the most part she drained the dirty water and filled the tub once more. She repeated this process until the scrubbed herself an the water remained its clear color with only the cloudiness of soap and shampoo left behind.


Her emotions were catching up with her and her eyes began to tear up. She hugged her knees to her chest and bit into her lower lip to prevent herself from sobbing loudly. If she had been at her own apartment she would have been bawling openly but she didn't want to show this pain or fear. She had nearly died. She had been hurt physically and emotionally and part of her wanted to have died because then she wouldn't have to deal with this pain.


Her eyes snapped open then. Why couldn't she feel her own pulse? That familiar beat that had always existed within herself? She checked her own pulse on her wrist.


Nothing! There was nothing!


She pressed her hands over her heart trying to feel it thump in her chest as it pumped blood through her body... but there was nothing. This realization caused her to freak out and try to scramble out of the tub which made water splash all over the slick tile floor and her to slip and fall with a low and painful thud. She tried to lift herself off the tile but the water made it nearly impossible. She needed to look in the mirror. She should have had this deep gash in her stomach but all that was left was a faint pink scar.

 

[FaithWynters]

It hurt when Charlotte didn’t respond. If only the girl really knew what he had given up to save her life. Why did he have to be so selfless? Why did he think that the world should be fair and she should have a chance at life like they had? He knew why he had made the choice he had. It was a very simple explanation—because Farrah had been alive for more than one hundred and fifty painful years and Charlotte was what? Eighteen? He had given up much more than she would ever know and she was too angry at him to even bother him for a response. Fine. He understood.


“I’ll be downstairs if you need anything” He didn’t wait this time in the painful silence for an answer. Instead, he turned away from her and escaped into the darkness of the hallway. He waited there until he heard the sound of the door close. He wasn’t expecting it, but there was the quiet noise of the lock. He sighed and walked toward the stairs.


He made his way down the stairs, walking towards the half bath that was situated beneath the stairs. He wasn’t in need of such a cleanup as she was, but his face could use a good washing. He didn't need a shower right now. He just needed the sink to clean himself. Later, when he had taken care of his buisiness, he would shower thoroughly.


Silence filled the air as he walked around the stairs and to the door. He was trying to keep himself going to he would stop thinking. For the most part, it was working. He listened to all the sounds from above as he turned on the water and let it get hot. One the water coming out of the sink steamed, Ian began washing his face.


The sounds from above told him that she decided to take a bath instead of shower. Logical, from what he could tell from the way she walked, she was still pretty weak. Her first feed would get rid of the dragged down feeling. He just had to wait until the natural urge came and she couldn’t control herself. He hoped there would be no regret then. There would just be acceptance. Knowing what little he knew about Charlotte, however, he didn’t think she was one to simply accept anything.


There. He was done washing his face. He looked his face over in the mirror once more. His skin was now pink from the heat, but the blood that had dried on his face was gone. Good. One less thing to worry about. He let the water run over a washcloth as he pulled his shirt off, tossing the shirt (that now had one new hole) to the floor. The place on his side was a little less pretty. There was a new scar tracing across his stomach from where the knife had stabbed him and been drug downward about an inch and a half. He pulled the hot rag from the sink, wringing it out over the sink. He rubbed his side until the blood slowly began to disappear.


The dull thud of something hitting the ground upstairs made him stop and look upward. He had only just finished wiping the last bit of blood away. Cutting off the water, he walked out of the room and back toward the stairs. He stopped about halfway up; there were no more dull noises coming from the bathroom.


"Charlotte? Are you alright?"

 

[Daeus]

Charlotte forced her unruly limbs to listen to her. Move! Work! Get the to mirror! She heard Ian ask if she was alright but she wasn't sure herself. Based on the blood all over her body she hadn't been out for too long but the wounds had healed already as though they'd been given months. She whimpered as she struggled to her feet and managed to pull herself up to her feet using the counter as leverage.


However the water has spread all over the tile and just as she released her grip she slipped and fell against the hard tile again causing her to cry out in pain due to landing her on back where they had branded her with a poker. They hadn't just pressed it against her skin... no they had drawn on her like she was a flesh canvas.


Again she struggled grabbed the counter and pulling herself up and this time not letting go in her rush. What she saw in the mirror made no sense. She had be shredded. They had cut her wherever the could and sometimes would cut into an already existing wound to deepen it and refresh the pain. She still had bruises but they were the color of an old bruise that had been healing over a long period of time. The worst of the cuts that had been inflicted only had small pink scar tissue left. It was as if all the others had never existed.


She checked her pulse again and felt nothing. How was she moving if she didn't have a heartbeat? How the hell was she alive?!


She didn't bother drying off her body with a towel and instead threw on the procured clothes from earlier as quickly as she could without falling over again. Once she was dressed with the clothes sticking to her damp body and looked at the treacherously wet floor. She didn't think she'd make it over to the door without slipping due to her current balance issues which meant she couldn't unlock the door.

 

[FaithWynters]

There was a pause in silence. Ian wasn’t surprised when she didn’t yell a response at him. She had after all been giving him quite the cold shoulder. For a few more moments he just stood there, listening intently for anything that might clue him in on what was going on. Maybe she had just fallen into the tub and was too embarrassed about it to say anything.


Ian began to turn to head back down the stairs to clean up the mess he had left in the bathroom when he heard the cry out in pain. Something had happened. Something was wrong. He took the stairs two at a time and he could feel the place on his side now.


“Charlotte?” He called again as he made it back down the dark hallway. The door was right there, but there was no more sound. Wrapping his knuckles on the door of the wood, Ian tested the knob. He was already aware that the door was locked so unless he broke down the door—which he really wasn’t willing to do—he would be stuck on this side, trying to help her.


“Are you okay? Did something happen? Charlotte. Are you too hungry? ” He really didn’t know what was wrong. He tried the doorknob again, hoping that maybe she was on the other side of the door and could unlock it for him. It didn’t budge. Of course it wouldn’t; he wasn’t that lucky. He realized that the last question he posed would probably not have made any sense to her. "Do you feel incredibly weak and thirsty. Its a dry thirst like you've gotten sand in your mouth and it's gritty?" That probably wasn't helping either. "Are you okay?" He would try that one, maybe he could asses the situation from there.

 

[Daeus]

Charlotte wasn't sure how to respond. How could she explain that she was fine and that her injuries were mostly healed? This wasn't normal! His questions were suspicious as well. Why was he asking if she was hungry? And who wouldn't be weak and super thirsty after being tortured? What she needed answers to was this weird super fast healing.


She struggled to stand and get over to the door. She slipped a few times and nearly fell but managed to catch herself before face planting into the floor. When she finally made it to the door she unlocked it and threw it open with more force than necessary and basically collapsed into Ian. She took a moment to try and steady herself before pulling herself away from him.


"T-This isn't right. I should have all these wounds.. but... there's nothing!"


Her throat burned with a terrible thirst and she desperately wanted a glass of water. Her mouth felt so dry.


"I-I need a glass of water."

 

[FaithWynters]

It took her a moment before she finally made it to the door. Ian wasn’t expecting to have her thrown into him. A quiet grunt escapes his lip as he pulls his arms around her, trying to steady her body. She pulls away. Her scent has changed, its slightly different now. He hums quietly, listening to her. So she was freaking out because she was realizing what happened to her. It was strange that she didn’t suspect him to be the culprit of this, but he understood she was confused.


“Come on. It’s going to be okay” Ian felt that this would be the best way to deal with this. He had never broken the news to someone that they were a vampire. He had never told them that their life would last almost forever. So, he turned and walked back down the hallway. The kitchen would probably be the best place to break the news to her. She would drink and realize…

 

[Daeus]

Charlotte was sure she was having some sort of strange panic attack. Maybe she just was imagining she was dead like some weird dissociative disorder mixed with an out of body experience due to nearly dying recently. She was trying to keep herself from going so far over the edge in her panic that she would hyperventilate and faint.


She needed to reason with herself. She was conscious. She could talk. She could feel things. She could think. The only think that was missing was her heartbeat. Maybe she hadn't checked for her pulse properly? It wasn't like she was a trained nurse or anything. There was a possibility she had made a simple mistake and was blowing this whole thing out of proportion.


She followed after him stumbling every other step as her legs felt like rubber. She didn't trust his words about everything being alright. Maybe he said that to try and keep her calm since if he freaked out too she'd probably just lose her mind right then and there.


"I need you to check my pulse. I can't feel it. I can't feel my heart anymore. I think I might be having a delayed nervous breakdown."

 

[FaithWynters]

Well. This was it. He couldn’t lie to her anymore. He had to be truthful; they were now in the same boat and there didn’t have to be any more lying. She wasn’t some stupid human that remembered Ian while she was half drunk. She was a vampire that would need help.


By the time she asked him to check the pulse that he knew she didn’t have they had made it all the way down the stairs and into the kitchen. He didn’t respond for a moment, walking across the room and taking a plastic cup out of the cabinet; he didn’t think that it was a good idea to leave her with actual glass in her hand.


“No. It’s no nervous breakdown, Charlotte” He walked across the room and filled the glass with water. “You don’t have a pulse” He walked over to her and handed her the cup. He was very aware of the two reactions he might get. Either she would think that he was messing with her and probably hit him again, or she would believe him and freak out. Neither seemed to be looking in his favor; he wasn’t sure he would be able to fight the anger if she hit him again. She didn’t realize how hard she could hit, but that was no excuse.

 

[Daeus]

Charlotte managed to make it to a counter and grip onto it securely. Her balance had improved since she woke up but it wasn't at its best. She didn't know how to react to his statement. How could she not have a pulse when she was clearly alive? This didn't make any sense. Her mind tried to shove some distant comment that had been made. Those creeps... they had called Ian a monster - a vampire. Vampires didn't exist though! They were film and literary mythical creatures.


"This is the worse time to joke with me!"

 

[FaithWynters]

He kept a straight face as he walked closer to her. Joke was better. Ian knew he could make her see exactly what she needed to see. He nodded toward the water. She was too busy telling him the he was lying to drink. He stood about three feet away from Charlotte; just out of arms reach if she decided to hit him.


“Drink.” He leaned one arm against the cold tile island that she was resting on. “See if it quenches your thirst, Charlotte” He was calm. He knew he couldn’t risk her freaking out. He had to make her instincts take over. The body was better swayed if it had evidence to see and feel. By now, he was very aware of what he was going to do. Ian had a plan to show her exactly what had happened to her, but he would take it slow. He thought back to when he awoke from this stupor to realize that he should have been dead. Stanley said very little, let him go on a blood rage a week later, and ended up dead. Ian was alone. And turned into a true monster for quite a few years.