For the next couple days, Victoria watched the news of how she was considered missing on the television in the library. She was even believed to be dead to some reporters. James had a key to the Manor, which was gold, and had pretty gems. He said he received it from a family friend who was in charge of that kind of stuff.
Every morning Victoria would wake up, go downstairs, and see James with a ready and delicious-looking breakfast. They were able to enjoy human food, but not as much as they would if they were human. She'd have a glass of blood from the blood bags stashed in the freezer. She would get dressed and go outside if it was cloudy, "How can you stand in the sun, James?" She asked him one sunny morning, as she longed to be out in the open, fresh air.
"Because I'm special." He'd replied as sarcastically as possible.
"I want the real answer. I'm almost eighteen. I'm mature, I can surely handle it." She said. He sighed, then held up his right hand. Hs ring finger was wearing a very old, very beautiful, Victorian ring.
"That keeps you safe from the sun?" She asked she was very surprised. A ing was the last thing she expected.
"Indeed it does." He answered. After their usual morning, Victoria went to her room to change her clothes. She wasn't too happy about what she had put on right after breakfast. She put on black leather pants, a My Chemical Romance shirt, black wrist gloves, and black high top Converse. She also straightened her hair and put on a ton of wristbands. Victoria was as emo as they came. Her hair had black highlights at the moment, but it wasn't her original color. Her real color was dark brown.
"That's what really made me confused," James told her, "How did you dye your hair? Like, were you even allowed to?"
"It was my money that bought it, so they didn't care. It'll go back to brown eventually, but for now it's a little black." They were sitting on the couch, both had their feet up and she was laying on his chest. He had his arms around her. They used to do this when she was young, but only when he read to her, or when she injured herself somehow, or when she had a bad dream. It was nice, exciting even. She had felt something missing as a human. There was one thing that confused her about this moment though, she could hear James' heartbeat. She couldn't feel hers, but she didn't think too much about it, she passed it off as it probably being because she was a Pure Blood.
.....
After being ready she went back out to the living room, "James? James!" She called. Her voice echoed through the Manor corridors and hallways. She went to go sit on the couch and saw a note.
'Something important came up. I'll be back tonight. Please stay
safe and out of the sun. -James'
She wondered what could've come up.
I can take care of myself for a short time I guess. She thought. She decided she wanted to go exploring if that was the case. When she had lived in the Manor before, she didn't have time to see the entire place. She knew where the basic rooms were, but not the important ones. Then a thought popped into her head -secret passageways.
.....
She first went to the library. There was a section of books that she wasn't allowed to touch or go near really, but she didn't think too much of it at the time. Now her curiosity was a caged lion, waiting to escape. She pulled out books one by one, each from the "forbidden area". She came to two, thick books. They were classical poetry books, one forest green, the other black. They both had gold patterns on them. They were stuck. She pulled as hard as she could before they finally gave away. That whole section of books on the wall caved in, revealing a tunnel going down. She was just about to step in when she stopped mid-step, "This is too easy." She said. She zoomed over to the desk and grabbed a couple of pens, then zoomed back to the passageway. She threw the pens weakly in through the orifice. Instantly something sprayed a dirty, brown mist.
"Dust?" Victoria assumed. That's what it looked like anyway. She stepped in and felt her skin being burned. She screamed a little, then zoomed out. She looked down at her bare arms to see massive, red and yellow blisters healing slowly. She eyed the passage. There was something hidden in there. She zoomed through it as fast as she possibly could. She felt a little sting, but nothing like she felt the first time. Her foot caught a step and she went tumbling down the rest of the hard stone stairs.
Yea, real Chuck Norris skills. I sure have those. She thought briefly on her way down.
.....
She landed on the hard ground at the bottom. It was very damp and dark; she was underground. It took a minute for her eyes to super-adjust. She saw a long hallway, but there were small prison cells. It was like a jail, except miniature. Like a jail in a shopping mall. She got up and walked down the hall. There were plaques next to each cell door. The first one read VAMPIRE. She looked into the cage. In the corner, there was a figure. It looked as if it was in some sort of feetle position. The harder she looked, she was able to realize that it was a girl. The girl turned her head slowly and stiffly. Her skin was drier than a raisin, and her eyes...she had none. She scratched them out. She looked like a skeleton, for she was extremely bony. She made a sort of groaning sound. Victoria felt bad and confused for her. Why was she here? The girl reached a bony arm towards Victoria. Suddenly Victoria was surrounded by light images. She saw her mother and her uncle. This girl was strapped naked onto a torture table. She was cut up, and hungry. Victoria's mother looked at the girl with sadness.
"This is wrong, Cornelius. I don't want to do this anymore. She didn't do anything!" Her mother told him.
"Neither did James, look what you did to him." He said. He was wearing a doctor's mask. He took a microscope disc and dropped three drops of blood on it. He waved it in front of the girls face. She tried to reach out to it, but the straps held her down. Victoria's mother looked away in disgust. He uncle smiled a devilish smile, he was enjoying this. He put the disk down and picked up a syringe full of a yellowish purple liquid. He sprayed some of it onto the girl. It burned her skin. Her skin formed massive red and yellow blisters on the areas the liquid landed: the belly, her thighs, her breasts. Much like the mysterious dust did to Victoria earlier. The girl screamed in pain, over and over again.
The images started to disappear. Victoria saw only darkness again. The girl's boney hand fell to her side. Victoria grabbed the cell doors bars, and stuck her head in as much as she could, "I promise you, I will be back." She said to the girl. The girl stared at her with her eye sockets and groaned a dry groan in response. Victoria zoomed up the stairs. When she landed in the library, she hadn't been burned by the liquid. At least, she didn't think she had been. She zoomed to the kitchen, to the freezer, grabbed two blood bags, and ran back to the girl's cell. She found the key to the door under a tile on the ground. She went to the girl, opened one of the blood bags and gave it to the girl. She sucked it dry within seconds. She did the same for the second. The girl's skin slowly started to flourish, she was no longer boney or groaning, but she still had no eyes. She was also completely naked. Her breathing became normal.
"What is your name?" Victoria asked.
"I," her voice was really cracked, "am Talia. What is your name?"
"I am Victoria-" she hardly finished saying her name before she was cut off.
"Victoria? The Victoria?" She asked. Her head was tilted to the side.
"Yes. Now, I'm gonna get you out of here," she said. She helped Talia to her feet and guided her to the stairs. She picked her up and carried her at that point. When they got to the top, Talia was sensitive to the light. Almost as if it were the sun. Victoria zoomed to her room. Her room is constantly dark, so Talia was fine in there. James had previously gone to the foster home Victoria is supposed to be in and retrieved everything she owned. The foster parents never even noticed until they wanted to hit something.
.....
Talia was set on the bed. Vampires are supposed to feel cold, but this cold felt unnatural to that. She put her under the blankets and went into her closet to get her some clothes. She got her a nice, black V-neck shirt, dark blue skinny jeans, some unworn underwear, and a pair of black tennis shoes. When she brought them back for Talia to put on, she was peacefully, and comfortably asleep.
.....
Victoria left Talia in her bed because she hadn't slept the whole time being in that dungeon. Victoria decided to take a shower. She collected her clothes and went to the nearest of the many bathrooms. She set her clothes down. This bathroom was enormous, it had stalls, and a few sinks, showers, and the floor was a shiny black. It was kind of like a nicer version of the camp bathrooms. It also reminded her of Underworld.
"Where're all the werewolves?" She joked around. As she began to undress, she looked away from the mirror, shirtless, then looked back and gasped. Jason Jones was standing behind her. She turned around and practically ran into him. He grabbed her arms, hard. He was much stronger than her, and she was a Pure Blood. He was also much stronger than she remembered.
"Did ya miss me, sweetie?" His voice was different and creepy in a way, but yet still casual.
"G-get off," Victoria stammered, "I'll bite you again!" She yelled at him.
"Go ahead and try, my blood is poison to you, worthless Pure Blood," he told her. He grabbed her face and started licking it as he laughed maliciously. A horny Jason was the worst kind of Jason. She reached her hand back and grabbed a decoration rock from the counter. She smashed his head on his temple as hard as she could. He didn't budge. It didn't seem to hurt him at all. She was stuck. He stuck his tongue, this time, in her mouth. This absolutely grossed her out. Not how she had imagined her first kiss....at all. She tried to get away and realized that she made it worse when struggling. She stopped struggling completely and didn't move. She had no heartbeat and James did, she could pass off as dead. She went limp. Jason caught her and dropped her. It hurt like hell because the floor was hard, but she still managed to not move. He started laughing. She cracked her eyes. Luckily, he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were closed and he had his arms out like he was waiting for a hug. Nothing happened. After a couple minutes, he looked down at her. He grabbed her face, slightly lifting her off the floor. She opened her eyes completely and spit in his face. He threw her back down so hard, her head cracked the floor, and he wiped his face. He then got on top of her and slapped her hard.
She'd been beaten before, but never had it hurt like this. He ripped her remaining clothes off and started touching her. She protested him to stop, but he wouldn't. She started to weep. He began to laugh some more.
Then, mysteriously, he was thrown off of her. He went flying back and hit his back on a corner of one of the stalls. There was a loud crack, and he let out a scream, his back was broken. No, shattered. Victoria looked at his attacker and saw someone she had never seen before. It was a girl, with white hair like snow, pale skin, black clothes, and glowing green eyes.
"Pervert," she said. She didn't even touch Jason, and yet threw him and broke his back, "are you okay?" She asked Victoria with concern.
"I think so." Victoria responded. The girl looked at Victoria and gave her a warm smile. She looked like she was tearing up slightly, causing her glowing eyes to be almost unbearable to look into.
"My God, I haven't seen you since you were four. Victoria, I'm Alexandra."