How long I laid out on the balcony curled into the fetal position I had no clue. Long enough that my body ached from the sobs and my breath came in violent hiccups was all that registered with me. If I wasn't already dead I would have begged someone to end me, to stop the emptiness that was weighing me down. There was a bright flash of light and a rumble of thunder following seconds later, cuing the approach of a storm.
As if I wasn't suffering enough a gentle rain pelted my skin and I was chilled from the cool storm breeze that caressed me. Soon the rain and wind started to become harsher, I couldn't even summon the energy to move so, instead, I just squeezed my eyes shut, curled tighter into a ball and silently begged for this nightmare to end. As the rains picked up there came a knock at the door. Hoping they would go away I stayed silent and just let the rain wash away my grief and misery.
The sound of the door creaking open made me realize my blatant lack of self preservation skills. Great Callie, could you make it any easier for the demon spawn to turn you into a midnight snack? Why not present yourself on a friggin' silver platter! Maybe that was what lead me to this place. If I had been more observant or had more street smarts I may not have ended up where I now was and Brian's life would not be bound to my ability to follow orders and go on murderous killing sprees, or however they reaped their souls, with strange creatures of the night.
"What are you doing out here? It is freezing and you're soaking wet, why didn't you...Are you insane?" Strong arms curled beneath my shoulders and legs scooping me from the cold, wet balcony ground, cuddling me into a hard chest, and carrying me into the warm interior of my new prison. Upon placing me gently on the soft leather sofa I was instantly swaddled in a warm fuzzy blanket.
I looked up and two pairs of eyes stared back at me with concern. One set were those wonderfully meadow like green eyes of the brown haired man and the other, a deep chocolate brown, belonging to his bronze skinned partner. I watched them curiously wondering why they chose to come back when they were obviously not comfortable having done so.
"Hello. I'm Lincoln, but you can call me Link, and this is Ripley." Was all the bronzed skinned man with buzzed cut hair said as I laid there wrapped up like a soggy burrito in the warm confines of the fuzzy blanket.
Ripley? Hm, I like it. "I'm C..C.al..lie." I gritted out between chattering teeth.
The man called Ripley wandered into the tiny kitchenette of the apartment, where I soon heard a cupboard open and close followed by running water. Link eyed me curiously for a moment, then set his gaze in the direction of the kitchenette where Ripley was and finally back to me. He released a sigh as he mumbled to himself, "I am going to regret this I just know it."
"Why did you...I mean, why are you being nice to me?"
"We weren't trying to be mean to you Callie. Its just that, well we aren't really supposed to have contact with you until your exchange, uh...the being you choose to become. It is the way it is done down here. But Rip...he, well I think he relates most with what you have gone through tonight and feels a little protective of you."
I glanced in Ripley's direction, "Why aren't you allowed to have contact?"
"They don't want to taint the newbie's choice." He replied while he diligently focused on the task he had set upon himself in the kitchen.
"Taint? How is having contact tainting?" Now that I had someone in this place talking I wanted to know more, I needed to understand.
Link ran a hand over his face and sucked his teeth, drawing my attention back to him. "Well, your choice of being to become at the exchange, it should be an instinctive reaction, you know? Like you should feel in your gut if you can trust someone or not."
