Capture

Chapter 11: Liminal

Chapter 11: Liminal 

I was back in a look-a-like room from before, but this one was much bigger. There were two beds. The beast was still in its fur, sedated. I lay awake on my own bed. This time I was unrestrained. 

The series of fevers and chills came more suddenly and violently than before. My blood pulsed at every inch of my upper body. An ache set in, I didn't know if it was from the blood or from meeting the floor so many times. I laid stiff in my vomit soaked shirt. Currently, shivering.

My nose itched. I think it was growing worse but probably because I was so fixated on it. I hadn't even thought about, I just moved. My hand was in front of my face, shaky in movement but there. I couldn't help the small smile that grew. Oh, my mouth. I was moving and my heart was still beating. 

Some Naturals had been in and out of the room in the past, a fresh pair came through the doorway and gazed in wonder at me. I hovered my hand above my head, twisting and flexing my hand in wonder. As so as I thought it, there was the other joining its pair. The Naturals descended upon me.

They applied pressure to my upper limbs, tried my strength levels. Broken tongue depressors were jabbed up and down me, I could move it all with my eyes closed.

"That's good! How about here?" the Natural woman asked. Her voice was coming from the foot of my bed.

"Are you even pressing?" I teased, light hearted in the moment, even with Naturals.

I peeked under my lashes and then opened my eyes fully. My mood dropped. She had a tongue depressor buried into my shin, a move that would have hurt. 

"Nothing," I whispered. "I feel, nothing there."

"Well, um, I would call this a vast improvement from your past state," the other Natural softly told me, rubbing my shoulders in a caring manner I had never seen between our two species. "We can try later, okay?"

I didn't look up when they both moved on to the beast's bed, muttering lowly to one another. I stared at my socked feet, one which I knew contained a screw, but couldn't feel. The Natural woman had left her depressor discarded by them.

I gazed back up to the ceiling tiles, trying to push back moister than was gathering. I should be grateful that it seems that I wont be transitioning into a vampire, than I was still human. But my legs...no, no, only positivity. I brought my focus back to my hands. They did seem eerily blue. I was very hot again. Now I could roll up my sleeves, myself.

The Naturals beside me made a body curtain between me and the beast. A strange gurgling sound came from behind them. Without being called, more Naturals bombarded into the room. Their sudden appearance made my heart nearly stop. More wet sounds followed before the Naturals were racing out of the room with its bed. The door was left open in their haste. 

It was as if a furnace was turned on in my room. I was sweating so bad that I wanted to peel my clothing off. I couldn't find the strength to lift my torso off the mattress, my hands torn at the material clinging to my body. I was in a haze, all I could think about was removing it, now.

I let out a small frustrated scream,"Get off! Get off of me!"

The fevers had been bad in the past but this was intolerable. Tears streamed down my hot cheeks and I continued to fight. The burn was moving, migrating down, rubbing coarsely on my back. There was a crack and then I was ablaze. 

Scream after scream left my mouth ringing into the air. 

There was a sigh by the door. My clouded eyes moved to the noise. My screams toned to cries as I looked on, clinging onto something inside myself, if not just for a little while. 

I did not know him, not that I knew many people, but within a second I recognized him as neither human or Natural. Deep within me something stirred, calling out to this being in the doorway. 

"Manu," I gasped out. It was so dark when we first met, and the second time, I was frozen the wrong way.

"Child," I flinched at his voice and cried again in pain. "I see they ignored me."

"They?" I panted.

"The Moon Beasts, we spoke of these happenstances. I gave choices," he scoffed, stepping closer. "I had been here the past few days by request of this territory's Alpha and my own Guider, as a cooperation of...sorts. I was willing to kill you, if they so desired, or I could fulfill the transition. I have not taken upon an Acolyte in sometime," he mused.

He came to my side. His cool hand cupped my chin. Everything about him was dark, his hair, his eyes, even his skin. I had only ever seen vampires from old news clips from before. They clearly weren't well taken. 

"It...it...hurts," was all I was able to whine out in huffs. 

"Yes, it will leave and return until the liminal is ended. The between is never a pleasant accommodation for the soul, such an indecisive thing."

"Please, I..." I was hit by another wave. A short, high scream filed the room. 

"I may be of a service, I am just in need of an answer. How do you plan to be?"

"Human," I gasped out.

"You wish for death? I can respect your request"

"No...alive...human," I gritted at the effort.

"That wasn't an option,"he hissed, teeth flashing.

"Please," I begged. I was free floating in the hurt, not even sure whether or not he knew what I was asking for. Did I even know?

Sharp, lesser pain was at my neck, totally drowned out from what I was already overwhelmed with. The fire began to die down with an odd pull in my veins. With a much clearer head, I became aware of Manu at my neck. He pulled back, dark purplish blood rested at the corners of his lips, they were pulled into a small smile. 

"Better?" he asked.

"Much," I sighed. The pain was complexly gone, minus a twinge in my neck.

I stretched out my body before me, including my legs. I hopped off the bed too fast, dizzy, but I was standing. I had my legs! I was human still! Was I human still?

"What am I?" I gazed up to Manu's dark eyes, as he looked over my head, confused.

"Free of most Night child blood," he sounded pleased with himself. "And very much human for now."

"What about your choices? This wasn't part of them." I worried.

"You intrigued me, something no person has done in decades, it was refreshing so I improvised," His shoulders moved up and then down, a shrug. 

"Improvised?" I raised a brow.

"I don't particularly know how long this your state will hold. There is some change to have of you, close to that of my kind, but for the time being, you will be human."

"You believe I will revert?" I cringed at the ghost of pain.

"Fate's cards," he shrugged again. The version of 'I don't know' for his kind.