I didn’t go to sleep at first. I listened to my stomach rumbling for a while, but it soon became a rhythmic melody. I shouldn’t have been tired anyhow, I had just woken up, but somehow the darkness made it easy to sleep. My dreams came hazy at first and then they turned eerily real.
My breathing came out strained as I ran down a long and dark, narrow hallway. The sound of my shoes hitting stone echoed off the walls and into my ears.
There was a door at the end with yellow light streaming from underneath it. The light of it lit up just enough of the hallway so that I could make my way to it.
When I finally reached it, I extended my hand, but it opened for me. I stood back and watched as the door continued to open. I squinted my eyes against the light of the room, waiting for my eyes to focus.
Inside of the room was what looked like a study. It had a large, cushioned couch sitting in front of a large fireplace. An oak desk was positioned by a full length window that had sheer drapes running to the floor. Two crossed bare feet were resting on top of the desk. The foot was connected to dark blue jeans that connected to a white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I looked at the face of the man of the desk and was taken back.
A trim and proper Triston was reading papers out of a manila folder, holding onto a mug that steamed over the rim. Triston looked up from the manila folder while balancing the chair on its two back legs. Then he did something I had yet to actually see him do.
Triston smiled at me.
Not a pitiful, “I’m mocking you” type of smile (or laugh), but a real smile. He pulled his feet off of the desk, placed the cup down on the folder and stood up.
“Hey,” Triston said. He walked towards me and my heart fluttered in my chest, making me swallow back my nervousness.
“Hey,” I whispered, in a half-steady voice.
Triston stood in front of me, so close that I could feel the heat from his body on my skin. He looked down at me and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked at me as if he had something to say. The scent of pine and fire radiated off of him, making me want to kiss him more.
“What?” I asked, his expression turning into a worried look.
“You talk in your sleep as well?”
I opened my eyes. The echo from Triston’s voice was still bouncing off the walls. I sat up and rubbed my head.
“What?” I asked.
“I didn’t stutter.” Triston’s voice was coming from somewhere very close to where I was sitting. I quickly stood up and my feet hit against something with rubber and cloth. My shoes! Which meant that he had to have put them there while I was sleeping. “You never stop talking! Even in yoursleep, you talk.”
Rage started to burn in my throat and my heart fell a little. The little hope that I had from the dream was immediately crushed.
I pointed my finger at the place where I thought his voice was coming from. Words were forming in my head, but none of them came out of my mouth. Instead, I bent down, picked up the shoes and threw both of them with such force that I heard both of them hit so hard against the stone walls that the sound continued to echo through the room.
Triston didn’t make a sound.
I didn’t know what made me madder, the shoes not hitting Triston or the fact that I just lost my only two shots at hitting his thick head.
I pointed my finger back at where ever he was.
“I,” I started, angrily, but stopped. What was I going to say? I hate you? I’d rather chew my way through the stone walls than be in the same room with you? I just had a dream about you actually liking me and it made me feel…happy?
I let my hand drop down to my side and looked away from the spot that probably wasn’t even Triston. Instead, I just plopped down on the ground, frustratingly. The words continued to bubble up on my skin, but I didn’t let them out. I looked back at where I figured he was, but I only looked away again. I shook my head, pulled my legs up to my chest and bit my lip.
“If you bleed from biting your lip-” Triston warned, but I cut him off.
“Dear God,” I scoffed. “I’d rather you killed me now. It’s a lot better than hearing you be nice to me one minute and then hating me the next.”
Triston didn’t say anything, but I heard him moving around. I continued to stare at the same place that I had been looking at. It’s when I felt warmth near my skin that I turned to look next to me. I frowned and started to move away, but Triston placed his hand on top of mine.
“I don’t hate you, Mona,” Triston said, soothingly, but I thought a little of it sounded forced. I looked in the darkness where I thought maybe his eyes would be.
“Then what is it?” I challenged and tried to get up. Triston forced me back down.
“You frustrate me,” Triston said, angrily.
“You make me want to kill myself,” I replied with as much anger as he had in his voice. Triston threw my hand back at me and I knew he was standing up. I got up quickly and hurtled toward the sound of clothes, trying to run him over. I didn’t quite think it through.
Just as I felt the soft brush of clothes on my outstretched fingers, it moved out of the way. I gasped and fell forward, but hands pulled me back to my feet before I connected with the floor.
“What the Hell is wrong with you?” Triston asked, in sarcastic anger. I hit at his arms to let go of mine, but he didn’t. His breath caressed my face which made my heart beat a little faster.
“What’s wrong with me?” I asked, hysterically. “It’s you! You’re driving me insane!”
Triston strongly pulled me closer to him and I was positive that his face was only centimeters from mine. I gasped. My mouth was slightly open and unsure of what he was going to do next.
“You’ve been driving me crazy,” Triston said. I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that. The warmth of his skin came a little closer, to the point that I felt tiny shocks from where the skin was about to touch. I closed my eyes and his lips lightly brushed across mine.
My heart almost stopped, but so did he. Triston let go of my arms and I opened my eyes. My cheeks started to flush and I was suddenly self-conscious. I placed my hand on my other arm and looked around the room for him. I knew I would only see black, but I could still act like it was in color. I was so sick of seeing black.
“What the fuck?” I asked, when I regained my voice, but there wasn’t an answer. I took in a deep breath and sat down where I was at. I pulled my legs into a criss-cross formation. Then I thought more about what happened and I stood up.
“What just happened?” I asked, knowing well that he wouldn’t say a damn word. I ran my fingers into my knotted hair and pulled at it like a crazy person. “I’ll probably die in here and never see daylight again.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, wondering what he was going to say in the near future, but my mind switched over to my life before this happened. The thought didn’t last long.
I rolled on my feet and began feel my way around for a wall. When my hands touched rock, I progressed to find the door. I was a little depressed that Triston didn’t ask what I was doing, but I tried to not act like it while at the same time I thought hard about how to kill a vampire.
The door opened up with a loud squeaking noise and the woman stepped into the entryway. Light from the hallway behind her made me have to squint my eyes. The woman was wearing a loose, white wife beater, blue jeans and knee-high boots over top of the blue jeans. Her hair appeared golden from the light that was casting behind her.
I looked around the room and didn’t see Triston anywhere. Then I heard the woman gasp. I whipped around and saw Triston holding the woman’s head in between his hands.
She growled and everything went too fast. One minute the woman’s life was in Triston’s hands and the next she was on top of him, her fangs elongated, and throwing punches into his face. Just as quick, she was flying across the room. She hadn’t fallen to the ground before I was swept up and being rushed to the door. We were almost to it, making it in half of a second, when we both went sprawling to the floor. Triston was up before I realized I was on the floor and was baring fangs at the woman who bared hers back, but in a more promiscuous and evil way.
“And to think,” the woman said. “I was going to make love to you in her blood.” I opened my mouth to shoot something back at her, but I figured the low rumbling of Triston’s chest did it for me.
She laughed at Triston. The door was only two feet from me, but I didn’t want to leave Triston. As stupid as that seemed, he still tried to get me to the door.
The two vampires were only a few feet from each other and both had a look of cannibalism in their eyes.
“I am much stronger than you, Triston,” the woman said, making the “-st-” more pronounced and drawn out like a snake.
“You underestimate me, then,” Triston replied. He took a step toward her. She laughed, but I noticed that she took a fraction of a step away from him. His eyes were an intense shade green as the light from the hallway reflected through them.
“Are you really saving this girl?” the woman asked, tilting her head to the side as if she really couldn’t believe it. “Or are you just keeping her for your personal food platter?”
Triston scrunched up his nose which made him look terrifying with his fangs out.
“Why? You scared I won’t fall for your seduction, again?” Triston challenged, taking another step. The woman glowered at him, opening her mouth a little in disgust. She gingerly took another step away.
“Go to Hell,” She snapped, venom soaking the words. Triston tilted his mouth into a crooked smile.
“I don’t have to, by the looks of you, it’s standing right in front of me,” Triston said, clearly happy with his response. She sneered at Triston and was suddenly fighting him. They moved in a big blur around the room. bits of blood drops were being strewn around and onto the walls from moving so fast. I watched as Triston threw her across the room again and I was then thrown out of the room and into a stone corridor.
I landed with an, “umph” and quickly looked back. The door was closed with Triston nowhere in sight.
“Triston,” I whispered loudly. A muffled scream echoed from the door and I threw my hands up to my ears. It was cut off prematurely and then there was silence.
I stared at the door, not knowing what to do. My skin prickled at the coldness of the hallway and what just happened. My hands started to shake, which wasn’t unusual for the past few…however many hours I had been in there, if not days.
Finally, three muffled knocks came to through the door. I cleared my throat and swallowed.
“Who is it?” I sing-songed in a shaky voice. The knocks came louder and more dominant than the first.
I pulled myself up and walked to the door. It had an industrial, circular door opener. I turned it with as much force as I had and finally it gave way. Just as the door began to open, a bloody hand came through the crack and pulled it open for me with force.
A glowering Triston stood at the door. He clearly wasn’t happy with my greeting. He took my hand and placed my tennis-shoes in my hand, angrily. I would have smiled, but his appearance was absolutely horrifying.
His breathing was ragged, he was pale, close to skeleton thin, besides some muscle that was still evident on his arms, and his clothes were more ragged than they had been when I had last seen him in light with Theo. Blood was splattered on his skin and clothes. Some blood was coming out of scratches that ran along his arm and cheeks. Triston looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed, and my heart almost stopped.
“What?” Triston asked, forcefully. I looked down at the floor and then down the corridor on my left, starting to put on my shoes.
“Nothing,” I replied. “Where do we go, now?”
Triston looked down both sides of the corridor. We were standing in the relative middle of it. Doors like our room lined the walls of this corridor, some of which had numbers on them and some had letters.
I looked back at our door and noticed a dull black “T” that almost matched the color of the metal. The letter, I figured, stood for Triston, but underneath the letter were two numbers.
“What are those numbers?” I asked. Triston turned from looking down one hallway and looked at the door.
“Hm,” Triston grunted and then shrugged his shoulders. By the way he did that, I could tell he was lying.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? What is it?” I asked, but Triston looked at me and frowned.
“Come on and for God’s sake, don’t say a damn word,” he said. He began walking down the rest of the corridor on my right. I followed behind him, not saying a damn word.
We walked to the end of the hall which led to a three-way intersection of more corridors. The intersection itself was lit up, but the entrances to the corridors were as dark as the room. Triston turned to look at my reaction and then pressed a finger to his lips. He grabbed up my hand and led me down the right hallway.
We walked for a long time in complete silence besides the light tapping of my shoes hitting stone. I had one hand out to keep myself from hitting the wall, but the way Triston was pulling me so close behind him, I almost needed another hand to keep myself from stepping on his feet.
Triston’s hand lightly pushed me against the stone wall. I was about to open my mouth when Triston placed his hand over it. The smell of dried blood rose to my nose and I couldn’t help but curl my nose at the smell.
He removed his hand and placed a finger over my lips. I was then lifted into the air and placed over Triston’s hard, bony shoulder. I pressed my hands to my mouth to keep from wincing.
My hair flowed with the wind as we ran completely silent through the corridors, taking rights and lefts or just staying straight for a long time. There were a couple of times when I thought I heard Triston smelling the air.
Triston came to a dead stop and his clavicle dug into my ribs. I sucked in air and quickly covered my mouth. I felt
Triston tense under me and begin backing up.
“Did you hear that?” A distant voice to our left echoed down the hall. My eyes widened and I knew Triston’s did too because he took off at a rapid run the way we came. I tried to keep from bouncing, but the pain was like shock waves into my flesh. Not the good shocks.
We flew down the corridors, taking quick rights and lefts until finally we came to another stop. I heard a soft creaking then we continued forward again, but not as quick.
Muffled voices came from somewhere and Triston didn’t move.
“We….them,” one voice said. “Why can’t…make…now?”
“Not enough….” It was Theo’s voice. “We have…get…moving, but to do…we…more.”
“But-” the first voice started, but Theo cut him off.
“I said, no!” Theo roared. A woman’s soft voice came in, but I couldn’t understand what she was saying.
Triston slowly and carefully began walking. I knew if I breathed wrong, he might actually kill me if the other vampires didn’t do it for him.
When the voices grew distant, Tristan began to slowly pick up the pace until a big clamor occurred from where we had just come from. Banging of doors happened first, then yells and then silence.
I opened my mouth because I knew that could not have been a good sign. Triston ran as fast as I knew he could, but the silence was almost too eerie.
“Shut up,” Triston whispered.
I looked back at him. I hadn’t said a word. Was this what he was saying when he said that I would know when he went crazy?
“What?” I whispered back and he tensed.
“Shut,” Triston whispered, but then… “UP!”
I stared at the back of, what I figured was, his head. I was positive, especially with all the echoes that were roaring around us, he had just notified the entire place where we were. He was starting to slow and then turned around to face where we had just came from.
“Oh my God, Triston,” I whispered to him. “Run! Please!”
I could hear them coming from everywhere. They didn’t even bother being quiet. I smacked Triston on the back of the head.
“What’s wrong with you!” I whispered frantically. I kicked to get down and run away myself, but his grip on me was like iron.
“Well, well. My little prisoners have decided to run,” Theo’s voice echoed. It was still a little far away.
With all of my might I kicked down and right into Triston’s pelvis. Triston buckled over and knelt down, letting go of me. I fell to the ground and Triston’s hand grabbed mine. He pulled me down to him. His breath in my ear felt like a feather lightly touching skin. I shivered.
“Run somewhat straight,” Triston said. “There will be a door. Go through it and it’ll be the way out. I’ll come find you.”
Triston pushed me. I hesitated, but the sound of Triston hissing at me made me turn and run blindly down the corridor, hoping that he really might come after me.
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