It turned out that vampires need just about four hours of sleep, much below the minimum number of hours that a plain human needs. Trevor knew it meant that there was no chance of taking the van keys, sneaking out at night and driving off to the nearest town to seek help without him being noticed. Though the relationship between the two might have been going well at first sight, it didn't mean that Trevor wouldn't try escaping. William, however, seemed to know it as well, since he was prepared to prevent any escape attempt as if he was always watching—even during these four hours of sleep. Not that Trevor actually had ever tried sneaking out, at least not when William was around.
Living in the abandoned mansion wasn't as bad as one would think. Nonetheless, it wasn't something they both desired, either. It was a lot better thanks to the sleeping bags they'd got from the van. Which was, in fact, not as shabby as Trevor would imagine, to his great surprise.
He remembered, when William once said, 'We could sleep in the van, if we had to.'
The vampire said while putting the pieces of the broken bottles in the plastic bag. Neither of them knew how they had got there, since the mansion was surrounded by the vast, dense forest. Which was the main reason why the van was a key to a successful escape.
'Um, so why aren't we doing so?' he asked reproachfully. 'It'd be much easier and more comfortable.' Trevor hadn't yet realised then that it would mean that he would have to sleep in close proximity to his former kidnaper, which was something he'd rather keep on avoiding.
'Perhaps,' he admitted. 'But where would the thrill of sleeping in constant danger come from, then?'
Trevor couldn't help rolling his eyes for an answer.
However, it might have been the food that was the worst part of it. Inside the mansion, there was no stove; they had to use the mobile one from the van. Trevor reckoned this house had never actually experienced electricity. In addition, the food Trevor had to eat was mostly from rusty, old cans, and the taste wasn't probably far from the one of the sewage water. And the second interesting information Trevor'd got to know was that vampires didn't eat anything besides human flesh. In Trevor's opinion, William explained it ideally to deprive him of his appetite for the rest of the day.
'The truth is vampires usually don't eat anything, since blood is the only thing that they actually need to sustain themselves. But under some harsh circumstances, the easiest way to get all the nutritions from blood is to eat the whole body, even though it may not be necessary. Therefore, in this case, vampires do eat,' he paused to look at Trevor's disgusted expression. 'Oh, don't be scared, most vampires think it's very cruel.'
'Not that there's a bunch of furious vampires after us,' Trevor snapped.
It silenced William, making his face look as though he was entirely lost in thought.
William started acting weird, at least weirder than usual, the day that marked a week since Trevor'd been kidnapped. He talked less and seemed to be in a gloomier mood overall. He showed neither a smile nor a laugh, which was rather uncommon for him. Consequently, the silence had prevailed for hours. What was strange, however, was the fact that it bothered Trevor more than he would ever expect. That atmosphere around the vampire made him feel this peculiar possibility of danger, too, giving him goose-bumps.
'Today's full moon, isn't it?' Trevor asked, while he was sitting on the couch with a cup of tea in his hands.
It had started getting dark outside the mansion. For now, trees hummed with a relaxing murmur, but there was a strong wind coming off the mountains to change that state.
'I didn't know you are familiar with astrology,' he said, his eyebrows furrowed.
'It's not that hard to spot, you know,' he explained, meanwhile blowing at his steaming tea. 'The moon's shining brighter than usual.'
William knew there had been something off about this day since the very morning, it all couldn't be a coincidence. Yet he couldn't do much to change anything. They had to live through it.
The nighttime gloom prevailed outdoors; the bright moon shone in the sky, above the uninhabited lands. William and Trevor had unfolded the sleeping bags on the floor, in the master bedroom. Inside which, there was a large, glass door that opened onto a balcony with a view of the forest. There was also lots of antique furniture, such as a chest of drawers, a king-sized bed, a mirror with a silver-plated frame, a pair of armchairs; all of which were forgotten and covered with layers of dust.
This time wasn't far from the usual ones they'd had before. Aligned on the floor, they watched the ceiling or talked, while lying inside the sleeping bags. Since William needed less sleep, he mostly passed the time thinking. He had neither a phone, the one that Trevor'd had was seized by the rest of the kidnappers, nor another idea what productive he could do.
After sighing, he turned on the other side. Now he could watch Trevor sleep from this angle. The human's chest expanded and fell at equal intervals, and the snoring that he was making appeared endearing to William. He would be smiling at Trevor the rest of the night, if a sudden, loud sound didn't come from downstairs.
It wasn't a common noise to hear at night. William got up immediately, resting on his elbows, and listened in silence. There was no other sound for a while, just the thrum of the leaves. Then there were hardly noticeable footsteps heard from the creaking stairs, which bent under someone's weight. In this case, the vampire's keen sense of hearing proved crucial, because someone wasn't pretending not to exist anymore.
'What are these sounds?' Trevor asked with a nervous tone, awakened from sleep.
'Shh!' he hushed, placing his index finger before his lips. That gesture was visible due to the moonlight.
William stood up, his eyes staring at the door as if he wanted to see through them. The footsteps stopped for a moment before the door knob began to slowly turn on its own axis. While Trevor was sitting on his sleeping bag, a shiver ran down his spine. He watched the event with terror painted on his face. He'd started to imagine the worst-case scenarios—for example, he visualised both of them being torn to shreds, he pictured their last breaths on their death-beds. . .
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I wasn't planning on cutting it at first, but chapter would come out unusually long. instead, I prefer to increase their length over time