After Dark ✔️

THREE

It had been days since I had been taken from the alleyway. The vampire that kept me and I barley spoke. There had been a few times that I broke down in tears. Each time for a different reason. The fact that I was dirty, smelled, and had been unable to take a shower in days. The fact that the cuff that was attached to my ankle was digging so deeply into my skin that I could hardly move it. And even more so the fact that I felt so weak. It felt as if I was dying so slowly. He didn't feed me properly. One cup of water a day, and then some sort of food that he would bring back with him when he would go out. Sometimes he brough back almonds, sometimes strawberries. But it was one, small meal a day, and one glass of water.

I tried not eating at all, so that I would starve to death faster, but my insticts of survival wouldn't let me. I always caved, and ate whatever he gave me, and drank each glass of water.

On occasion he would watch me, and I could see in his eyes that he was in distress in one way or another. But I was never strong enough to really see if it was just my imagination or real. He would always drink from me before going to bed. It was usually every other day, but he was carful not to drink too much. He never gave my body enough time to filly regenerate the blood I had lost. So, each feeding he took less and less, carful to not stop my heart from beating.

I didn't understand why.

I barley had the strength to sit up the day he came in to tell me he was leaving.

"I'll be gone for a few days." He said. I moved my head to turn more towards him, and that's when I noticed he crouched down to me once again. "Three days actually."

I nodded, no strength to speak, and without another word he was gone.

Maybe while he's gone, I will finally be able to die.

He won't bring me food or water, he didn't leave me any.

I laid there at peace with the thought that my suffering would end.

But I was wrong.

I'm not sure how long it had been since he was gone, but I heard his bedroom door open, and an audible gasp.

"Shit."

I tried to open my eyes to see whow as there. The voice didn't sound like his, but I was too weak for that even.

I felt someone take hold of the ankle that was cuffed to the chain. It hurt, and I whimpered from the pain, my breath nearly stopped all together. But then I heard a loud 'klank' and a weight had been lifted from my limb.

Whoever it was had released me from my chain, and lifted me into their arms. I was still way too weak to open my eyes, but wherever they took me must have been a bathroom because I heard a tub spout turn on and running water gush from it.

"What in the hell is wrong with him." I heard the voice mutter. I knew it was a man's voice, and by what he was saying he knew the person who had kept me here.

After a few minutes of hearing the water run, I felt my clothes being cut from my body. I didn't even have the energy to be coy or shy. In fact, I was grateful to rid myself of the clothes I had been wearing for so long. They were dirty and ripped, and I'm pretty sure I was starting to get a rash. The man before only let me use the bathroom to relieve myself, never suggesting I take a shower.

I was too proud to ask for one.

Eventually, I was lowered into a tub, warm water relaxing my body, and my sore muscles untensing. I felt water being poured over my skin, the water from the spout still spilling out.

"I need to wash your face." The mystery man said as he lifted me up slightly. "Can you hold your breath for me for just a few seconds."

I took a small inhale of breath, and he poured the warm liquid over my forehead. I exhaled as I felt a washcloth wipe over my cheeks, chin and neck. He let me back down into the tub, resting my head against a towel as he continued to wash me.