Shimmer |✓|

//Haunted// Part 1

"This is ridiculous. Honestly!" I paced up and down Tidus' bedchambers, pausing long enough to throw my hands in the air. Olyvia shifted from her position in the corner, strolling closer to her brother's bedside, arms crossed, stately as a queen. Tidus turned his face aside, glowering at the wall like a moody teenager. I gave up the strong-arming and tried cajoling instead, approaching the foot of his bed, imploring him to look at me." Ti, you have to feed, okay? If you had fed before this, you would have kicked that Plasmalik's ass. Instead, we're keeping you alive on tubes and beepy-things like Humans when you could feed and just be healed! An animal-blood diet? It will take weeks for you to recover--weeks we don't have! Why are you being like this?"

"Naomi. May I... show you something?" Olyvia zipped across the room, and like a ticket-master who doesn't wait for the ticket, she seized me by the arm, taking me on a whirlwind ride that ended outside a dungeon I had never seen.

"Whoa." I blinked back the floaters, hands rising to find my balance. "Okay, haven't done that in a while. We didn't take the lift. How the hell did we get here so fast?"

"Secret tunnels. You didn't really think you knew everything about the castle, did you?" The only thing I knew was that we were on the completely opposite side of the dungeons, far from the hearing distance of our prisoner.

"What's with the door?" But judging by the eye-burning, stomach-turning scent seeping from underneath, I already had my answer.

"Consider it your 'I told you so'."

It swung open of its own accord, iron hinges creaking. At least a dozen bodies were piled on the floor, bloody limbs tangled in an orgy of the dead.

"If you hadn't killed that Plasmalik, he could've feasted for days." Olyvia inspected her 90's-white nails with a grin.

I groaned. "Olyvia, what has he done?"

"What everyone does when they get the blues--he overate." Olyvia exhaled. "College kids from out-of-town. They were doing a research paper on the paranormal history of Harbor Village. To die for their major--how noble. Reminds me of Socrates--loved the sound of his own voice, but he had good veins and a very big--"

"This isn't funny, Olivia. Tidus clearly has a problem."

"Which is why I did what you asked. I cut him off a few days ago, when I caught him binging on a dozen virgins. I had hoped he was getting back to his old self, but in truth he was spiraling. I was wrong--but you were right. You should talk to him. You're not the reason he's depressed, but he is depressed for the reasons you left him. The past is catching up to our dear Ti and every day you're a reminder. I warned him not to get attached..."

"But?"

"Well, he didn't listen--obviously. And now he's now suffering because he's built this new  world with you, and he's not being honest about it. I recognize the signs because its exactly what happened to my mother and father."

"Hard to picture Dracula a family man."

"Not for me." She cut me off before I could apologize. "Don't waste time feeling sad. Just give me a chance to convince him to be honest with you. It's time. So he doesn't make another... mess, like this one."

"What will you do with the bodies?"

"Oh, I'm sure I'll figure something out." The twinkle in her eyes undeniable confirmation of Olyvia's creativity.

I thought about what she said all the way from the dungeons. Olyvia took the shortcut back to her brother, but this time I rode the lift, running into the butler on my way down the foyer stairs.