A Study of Poisons

THIRTY

A week.

That is how long I have until I go home.

That is also how I long I have left of my slim freedom.

Yet it only took a day for me to realize that this wasn't over, in fact. It has only just begun.

The echoing of screams woke me up from my sleep. Heaving my breath I was quickly on my feet and running down the stairs.My blade already unsheathed in my hand as I could feel the sun find it's way around the windows. Lately, I've come to associate the day with nothing but bloodshed. How very my life had come to.

I knew where the wailing was coming from the second I saw Nelo run into the servants hall. Someone else had been a victim to the curse that Maggie put on the manor and there was nothing I could do to save them now. My breathing heaving as I found the others trying to hold the door to the kitchen pantry close. "What now?" I called out to the first person I saw. Holstien's stressed gaze told me this wasn't the time for any of our hateful banter.

Another servant came to me in assistance, "A maid just started attacking people, her eyes are bloodshot. She's going Lost." He told me as he showed me currently healing wound on his arm. The Lost servant had bitten down on his flesh and nearly ripped his arm off. Thank Vampires for their immortality. I told myself.

My hands were shaken. Had the curse not meant kill but drive them mad?

I wondered as the darkness clouded over my fingertips, entwining it's life with my own. I could feel it's power as if it was my pulse. Moving in and out of my body like it owned me. Like it was claiming me. Like it belonged with my heartbeat. Counting down until the servant girl was completely gone. I could feel life going out like a losing lit candle against the wind. "Maggie's curse is devouring her." I whispered to myself, the other's looking at me as the question arose.

"A curse can make someone go Lost?" Nelo asked me as his eyes darted from me to the others. He was scared. His aura told me everything I need to know. Shades of brown. Yes brown, this boy was going through the hell of it.

I thought about my hypothesis, my eyes looking down to the shadows that danced around my fingers. Yes, the curse told me. "Possibly. You're sanity is linked to your bloodlust, so maybe the curse increases your bloodlust." I said. Everyone looked at me with a questionable gaze. So I was losing them.

Instead, Holstein asked me the impossible. "Could you stop the process?" I gaped at him.

I explained as if the curse spoke through me, "No, you can't stop a curse in action. Sabien's curse being removed was an after effect. I can't take it from her until she is gone." Gone, gone and dead. I again would have to put the blood on my "Then when I do, I have to use dark magic." The suggestion was left out in the open. No one seemed to understand the risk I was taking by opening myself to that danger.

Alex, no the Prince- he intervened in our conversation, "That's not happening." He said as he commanded the room. His voice almost venomous as he told me.

It caught me off guard as I leaned back. "I don't think you have a say right now." Especially considering his state as a Prince

"Delia." He called out to me.

I on the other hand completely ignored him. He didn't deserve a say in my safety. Yes, I was being very petty. "What do you all want me to do, since you didn't have a say with Sabien." I nodded off to Holstein his face going red, no one knew the conversation the two of us had unless they over heard it. He must have not expected me to call him out like this.

The embassy thought for a second but the other servants interrupted, "We can't keep her contained for longer. Once she goes Lost she'll be twice as strong and hungry." They said as the three of them struggled to keep the door close. On the other side the Lost woman was banging on the walls.