Luminary [Interview with the Vampire]

Nothing like a good wait

Darkness.

Absolute silence.

Endless hunger that seemed to go on for centuries and centuries on end. Standing upright, with hands crossed over the chest, in the confines of a round coffin, there was no room to move. The heat within the metal was one of the last things to cause worry, those first few hours. But as time went by, the heat became a source of constant discomfort, chipping away at sanity till it felt like her skin was nothing but the skin dripping right off.

With no blood in sight, no scent to latch on to, time dragged on, feeding hunger with nothing but tired, dry gasps that lasted for hours at a time. But no matter how many cries, no matter how wide the gasps, nothing could quench the thirst that carried on, in the hot, dark, dryness of the enclosure.

There was a loud bang against the coffin, as the sound of metal dragging against metal clanged and suddenly, the front of the dark coffin was pulled apart, causing light to flood right in.

"Are you ready to behave?" Lestat asked, standing in the glare of the light behind him, almost nothing but a silhouette.

Madeline wanted to turn away from the light, having been in the dark for what felt like eternity, but her neck couldn't move. Her joints were petrified, stuck. Her crossed hands wouldn't move either. She could barely even open her eyes to look at her maker.

"Here," Lestat said, moving towards her with a bottle of blood.

Madeline would have lurched at the bottle if she could, but as she was, all she could do was stand and wait as Lestat pressed the tip of a metal straw between her stiff lips. It was a nifty little contraption. The metal straw was bent at the top to allow it to be angled into her mouth, but at the corner, there was a small, plastic pump. When Lestat pressed it, blood flowed from the bottle, through the straw and into Madeline's mouth.

As soon as the first drop of blood touched her lips, her tongue came loose enough to approach the straw, bringing it closer as more blood poured into her system, flowing in and bringing life to her lifeless body as it lubricated her entire being back to life.

By the time she got to half of the bottle, Madeline could move, uncrossing her hands and grabbing the bottle as she stepped out of the coffin. When the bottle went dry and she took the straw out of her mouth, she coughed, taking in a few breaths as her lungs cleared. The cobwebs that had grown in place broke down, allowing her a moment's peace from the agony of immobility, suffocation and starvation.

"What the fuck, Lestat?" Madeline said with a croaking voice as the bottle slipped to the ground.

"It would seem you haven't learned your lesson," he said, eyebrows raised.

The last thing she remembered was tasting the sour blood of Lestat's fairy. She'd been told he'd smell like the freshest cup of blood, that his skin would bow to her fangs in pleasurable agony, that his blood would taste like the sweetest honey apple. But none of that had happened. Yes, his blood had been addictive, running into Madeline's senses and engulfing her in want.

But none of the other sweet things had happened. If anything, she was a little repulsed by Louis and his blood, now that she'd tasted it.

"You locked me up."

"You went out when I told you not to."

"I was bored," she said, cracking her neck from side to side as she looked around at the room. Santiago was nagging for information. She'd seen a chance to explore New Orleans and she'd taken it.

There were no windows. The floor was rough, and the walls were covered in peeling, white paint. The room was big enough to house three more coffins like the one Madeline had just been in, with all of them stuck to the wall. There were latches on them, and none were the same size. The one Madeline had been in was the second to the smallest. The biggest one available looked like it could fit someone as huge as Lestat.