The clicks of my heels against the brink-like walkway echoed down the long abandoned hall. The walls were granite and chipping from age, the stench of death and rust filled the air. I knew I was dreaming when I entered this place, having fallen asleep after a while. I touched the wall with my fingers, gliding them across the roughness as I continued on. Did I recognize where I was? Not at all. I couldn't even recall stepping into the building... I was just there.
"Dominick..." that same foreign voice said. It sounded as if the person was speaking directly into my ear, but whenever I checked, no one was there.
Darkness engulfed the hallway beyond the point of the last light fixture bolted to the wall. If I went on, I wouldn't be able to see a thing even with my vampiric sight; however, I continued my journey.
Stepping passed the only source of light left, I prolonged my stride, keeping a hand on the wall to guide me. After a moment, a sodden part of the granite caught my fingers. I stopped in the pitch blackness and rubbed my fingers together, the scent of blood identified. AB negative to be specific. Wiping my hand on my pants, I moved onward, unable to be stopped by not knowing what would come next as I took unknowing steps.
"Dominick..." the voice called again, "Please, keep going. I'm here."
Though I felt like an idiot for speaking to a person not there, I said, "Who are you? Are you in danger?"
The light voice answered my second question with a beseech. "I've become trapped here... please, don't leave me like this. You must help me."
"If I can find you, I will."
"You're close, just a little further."
This was all starting to become silly to me. I'm a vampire... dreaming, hallucinating, and even if I found this person... whoever they may be... what would happen when I find them? This is what it was... a dream. I wouldn't be able to assist even if I wanted to. I'll be waking up any moment now.
As I moved on, my fingers fell into an empty space on the wall, another hall perhaps. Testing my luck, I guided myself through the darkness and rounded the corner. "Dominick, hurry. They're coming."
They? "I'm coming. Am I almost there?"
"Dominick, please; don't let them do this to me."
I picked up my pace into a run, but tripped over something I couldn't see. I stumbled over and toppled to the ground, catching myself on my hands before totally collapsing on the hard ground. I back tracked, feeling the floor for whatever it was that tripped me, and when I could feel the indication of... flesh... damp... blood stained flesh, I caught the feel of fingers beneath mine.
I had tripped over a dead body: a dead woman.
"What the—."
"Dominick, where are you!?"
I rose and bound in the direction the panicked voice was coming from again. Down the hall I barreled as fast as my legs would take me, almost falling over a badly decaying corpse. "Ahh!" the voice screamed in sheer agony. "Get away from me. Help me, Dominick!"
I could see a light from a far, a low light coming from what came off as the bottom of a door. It flickered like wind threatened to blow it out, and when it began to fade, I approached a large heavy aged metal door. Thrusting my hands against the cold front, I shoved the grave weight, pushing with all my might until it would budge.
The screaming was coming from the inside. I was close, but by the time I got the door open... I woke up.
I shot up in bed, the iron shields over my windows up and showing the moonless sky. The blanket was tangled around my legs and I tugged it off with frustration. Sweat ran down my forehead, heat dampening my body with panic and a sense of being afraid. I sat with my head hung, wishing these wretched visions would just go away. I haven't had a peaceful sleep since I met Raeden. Could these hallucinations be caused by him, or am I really on the brink of losing my mind?
When I got out of bed I readied myself for a hot shower and stood under the water. It saturated my skin with warmth I missed. I pressed my hands to the mist-covered tile wall, letting the water soak my thick hair. "What's going on with me?" I said to myself, "I've got too many things to worry about; these stupid dreams shouldn't be one of them."
"Dominick... help me"
"Who are you?"
Nate's voice came from the bathroom door then, "Who are you talking to?"
I met his eyes through the misty glass and wiped away the layer of fog blocking my view of him. He was looking at me with confusion and a sure troubled stare. The voice went away then, and no matter how long I waited to hear its lightness speak again... it didn't.
Grabbing the towel overhead, I opened the glass door and dried off my hair and body. Nate was in a red graphic t-shirt and black tight jeans and his blonde head hadn't been tamed yet.
He said, "You alright, dude?"
"Yes, I'm fine," I made clear, leaving the bathroom and heading for my closet. Distraught, I dropped the towel and clothed myself in black jeans, and a black crisp button up shirt, not caring to actually button it, rustling my hair out until it was out of my face... all but that annoying curl that happens to always know how to find a way back to the center of my forehead.
Nate moved aside when I stepped by him to get to the front of the suite. "You don't look too fine to me, Dom. You sure?"
I turned fast, not meaning to frighten him. "Everything's turning to shit!" I shouted unintentionally, something I was becoming good at lately. "First I start to lose my mind, and now I'm losing Raeden."
"Weren't the two of you just on good terms last night?"
"I know, but now that Fredwolf knows about us, he's taken it upon himself to relocate Raeden. He called last night to tell me he was leaving." I looked up at Nate who shared a look of confusion. I took a seat on the stool before the bar's counter, cupping my face in my hands. My head was spinning. Never in my life have I ever felt so lost. I needed to find a way to get to Raeden or get him back to me. But that would mean going against Fredwolf, and what if he resented me afterwards, so much that he reported Raeden and I to the Public? If that were to ever happen, I feared both of our fates. They wouldn't go easy on him, and if that was the case, they would give me Hell. Fredwolf and I may have been alright, but Raeden was his son. Like he promised before leaving.
Nate crossed his arms and breathed out. "Well..." he sighed openly, "You're not just going to let him go, right? I mean, you love him, right?"
"More than anything..."
"Then what are you doing still sitting here?"
"I..." I shook my head in pure doubt, "There's no way I could know where he's going. By now he's probably already where he needs to be with his father. As much as I want to run out of that door right now, and track him to the edge of the Earth.... I don't—."
"That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard."
My chest tightened at the sound of his voice, my Raeden, or was I hearing things still? This wouldn't be the first time I heard voices when I was awake. It was becoming an everyday thing... so I knew it wasn't him. Crossing my arms on the counter, I put my head down, sulking in my own misery. "Great," I sighed, "Now I'm starting to hear his voice."
Nate said, "Uh, Dom..."
"Could you just go away for a while; I think I need some time to myself... just for a while."
"Uh, sure."
When I heard the door shut, I didn't bother moving. My stomach growled, but I wasn't in the mood to get up and make myself a cup of blood. My hunger could wait a while, while I wasted time gathering my thoughts.
After letting out a breath, I propped my chin on my palm, pushed a hand through my hair, and furrowed my brow when I felt arms fold around me from behind. Seriously, Nate...
"What are you doing?" I said aloud.
Raeden's voice came again, "If you'd turn around already..."
With that said I spun around on the stool and met the beautiful eyes of my Raeden. He stood between the opening of my legs, his hands placed on my knees now. His bangs were dangled in front of his forehead, and he was dressed in casual sweatpants, and a black shirt with faded letters on it. "You..." I stuttered, "You didn't go," I glared then, "Or am I seeing things now?"
Raeden laughed, touching my face, a gesture that told me he was real. "Does my vampire think he's going crazy?"
I traced his gorgeous outline with delicate fingers, as if his face were a fragile bust. "I went crazy the night I met you."
He worked up a laugh, "I'm glad I could lend a hand in driving you mad."
His eyes softened and for a moment he seemed to move about my face, looking me over, and then he met my gaze again. "Is it just me, or have you grown paler than you were before. I know you're a vampire and all, but I could've sworn you had a dash of lightness to your tone. Is it just me?"
Leaning lazily back on the counter, I draped my arms on the surface, breathing a distressful sigh. "I'm still having them: the dreams. This time I came closer." Thinking of the dream again rather pissed me off. "Every time I figured I was getting somewhere on the path to finding out who is speaking to me, I wake up right at the last second, one moment longer and I'd know, but I was always interrupted by the time the iron guards opened in the evening."
Raeden grasped my hand, working me from the stool and directed me towards the living room sofa. I sat first and after he brought himself lightly onto my lap, naturally the feeling of him so close calmed my nerves a little, but still I couldn't get over my lacking knowledge of my own dreams.
I fixed Raeden on my lap and glided his hand in my shirt, wrapping his arms around my torso, his head against my chest. "Tell me," he said, "Tell me what you see."
I spoke willingly. "Before it was just a room, a cell of some kind, a fairly large cell with a single person trapped inside. Day after day they call out for me, begging me to help them, to free them from some kind of torment, but every time I get there, it's like my time is up... because I wake up. Every time. Today I began in a hallway leading to the cell. I couldn't see shit after moving on, but in starting in a new place, I'm beginning to wonder if this place isn't just a figment of a dream but an actual location."
Raeden asked, "You think someone is actually calling out for you? Someone real?"
I sighed, "I know it sounds crazy, but what if... what if they are real?"
Suddenly from around me I heard a faint cry. I glanced down at Raeden, wondering if he were crying, but when he looked up at me and his eyes were clear from glossy tears, it was apparent he wasn't the source. Feeling like a lunatic, I said, "You can't hear it?"
He sat up a little, looking around the living room, "Hear what?"
I cracked a disbelieving smile, "So you can't. I can hear it perfectly like this person is standing right beside me, behind me, in front of me, crying. They sound like they're in so much pain... and—." I remembered what the voice's words were before I woke up this evening.
Get away from me...
Those were words of suffering; this person... whoever they were, they were crying out from having been hurt by whoever the people were that entered the cell. "I was too late..."
The crying ceased.
"Too late for what, Dom?"
"Before I woke up they said someone was coming for them." Self-irritation filled me, "I woke up before I could help them. Then again, it was only a dream, so what could I have done?" I paused when hearing my arguing stomach growl, speaking to me in a hungry manner that begged to be satisfied.
Raeden rose so I could get up and I crossed the living room for the kitchen, pulling out a bag of O positive I kept hidden from Nate and poured the contents in a mug. Raeden said, "You shouldn't blame yourself, Dom. I may not know what you see, or what it is you hear, but nothing that happens is your fault."
I waited to answer after I had half the blood down my throat. "I know," I replied," I just wish there was more I could do besides search."
I cocked my head for the door when I heard a light knock, thinking it odd for Demiesius to knock before entering my suite. After all, it did belong to him. "My son," he said, getting a look at Raeden before meeting my eyes, "We need to talk... all of us."