Chapter 51 - Dazed
Blackness. That was all that had surrounded me. Numb. Nothing but black, mind numbing, nothingness. I was drifting in and out of consciousness. Every now and then I would hear snippets of conversations. Words that sent me into a daze of confusion. Where the hell was I? Why couldn't I move? Why couldn't I speak? Why couldn't I see anything? Was I actually dead?
My dreams were extremely vague, sometimes I'd see just pictures of Will, of Ashton, of Summer, my grandma, just very faint pictures. Times that we'd spent together, times that had warmed my heart. I was sure by now that I had been in this agonising state for days on end, not knowing how to escape it. I felt trapped, I felt alone, I felt claustrophobic. Yet I was so confused and so far from consciousness that I had wondered if I was ever coming back.
"Will...need to feed...you can't keep...I know you don't...leave her side..."
More blackness.
More Will.
More confusion.
Dead. I must be dead.
"I love you Miranda. Please don't leave me. Please."
"Ashton? Um, can I have some time alone, with her?"
"Yeah, sorry man. I've finally gotten the strength to walk and I just wanted to be by her side. Please don't be long."
Footsteps. Door shutting. Pressure on the side of the bed.
"Miranda? I'm hoping that you can somehow still hear me. I love you, please don't ever forget that. Ashton he, well, he still thinks you two are together. No one has had the heart to tell him yet. But I just, I can't keep this up for much longer. And I need you to come back. I can't possibly continue my life without you in it. You mean the world to me. If it wasn't for that stupid mistake of leaving you there, alone in the forest, I'm so damn sure we'd be together by now, officially."
A deep breath in, a deep breath out.
"I know you probably can't hear me but, Miranda, I want you to be my girlfriend. I want so much more with you. I want...I want to tell you everything. About me. About what it will mean if, well, if we were going to be together, forever."
It was Will. He was by my side. He was here. I could hear him. I just needed to find a way, to connect with him, to respond to him. Come on mouth, open, eyes, open, I need to see his gorgeous face...
"W...W-Will..." I whispered, ever so faintly. Yes! I'm alive!
"Oh my god. Miranda?!" He immediately stood up and shuffled closer to me. I felt the electric spark the second his skin made contact with mine, brushing the hair out of my face and cupping my cheeks.
"Miranda?" He frantically whispered. I could feel his eyes burning into me, although mine weren't open yet. And I tried so desperately hard to muster up the energy to open them, I had to see him, his beautiful angelic face. I mentally laughed at that thought though, he was far from angelic, he was a vampire for crying out loud.
My eyelids began to regain strength and I pushed and pushed until a faint bit of light began to flood my view. I finally pulled my eyes open to reveal to me the most amazing looking face that I had ever seen. Well, I had seen it before, but this was like seeing it all over again.
"Will..." I whispered again, noticing the massive grin stretching across his breathtaking face. He began to stroke my cheek so gently, that it had managed to give me goose bumps, even in the state that I was in.
"I can't believe this..." He whispered in disbelief, a tear having formed in the corner of his eye. It completely and utterly warmed my heart to see him so emotional, over me. And just seeing his face was what had given me the strength to form a very faint smile on my face. Will jumped up onto the bed, being careful of my fragile body, and took me into his embrace, wrapping his arms around me, squeezing me tight.
I was beginning to regain my strength, enough so to open my mouth and let the words rush out impatiently, as soon as I realised that the last thing I remembered doing was accidentally lighting a forest on fire, right before being drained of life by my arch enemy.
"W-Will...what the heck happened...how did I get here?!" I managed to choke out, concern written all over his face at the sight of me trying to talk.
"Shh Miranda, try not to speak. You're too weak. I'll tell you everything." He replied, somewhat calming my nerves. I squeezed onto him as tight as I possibly could, my arms wrapping around as I nestled my head into his warm, cushiony, muscled chest. It was incredibly comforting just being there in his arms. He continued to stroke my hair affectionately as I closed my eyes and let him explain everything.
"I'm so sorry. I can't believe that I was stupid enough to fall for it, to leave you there with your grandma. I should have known it was a trap."
I could feel him heating up as he spoke, becoming quite angry and frustrated at his actions.
"They lured us in, grabbed your grandma, and that's when Sebastian must have gotten to you. The second we saw the fire we knew something was wrong. I managed to break free of their trap and come and find you. As soon as I saw him on top of you, draining the life out of you, it made me so...so damned furious."
He was clearly very angry now, so he took in a deep breath and continued on. "I wanted so badly to rip his throat out, but I'm not like him Miranda, I couldn't do it. And I wasn't sure if you were going to make it so...instead we, well, we brought him back here. The only way to save your life, if we had to, would have been to turn you. That's why we kept him. You can only be turned if you drink the blood of the vampire who had bitten you. But anyway he's locked away in the basement. At least until we figure out what to do with him. If we turn him in to the authorities, they're going to find out about everything, about you, your grandma, being witches and all, it won't look good."
My heartbeat instantly sped up to an impossible pace the second that he'd told me that Seb was here, in the very same house as me. That monster, who so ruthlessly would have taken my life if it weren't for Will, was under the same roof as me?! That made me shiver nervously. Will immediately picked up my anxiousness.
"It's ok though, he's not going anywhere. There's a few vampire security guarding the door at all times. He'll never escape." I was too weak at that point to respond, so I just squeezed Will around the waist even tighter so that he knew I felt somewhat relieved.
"And luckily your grandma used her powers to put out the fire. She washed it all out using the the lake. We fled the scene as soon as it was all over. It's probably all over the news but the authorities have no way of ever finding out what really happened." I felt extremely relieved now, knowing that my beloved grandma had come to save the day. That must have meant that she was ok then, right?
As if reading my mind, Will immediately continued on, "And they're all ok Miranda, thankfully. We rescued Summer, she's here with us now. I'm still having a hard time explaining it all to her. You'll have to speak to her when you have the strength, you might have a bit of better luck trying to convince her. Now that Ashton is up and okay, I've gotten him to hang with her for a bit, it might actually help the both of them. He's still adamant that you two are an item, by the way." He told me, fury returning to his tone. This was clearly killing him on the inside, and so I knew that we needed to break it to him, the sooner the better. And seeing that he had clearly pulled through from his death bed, there was no reason to continue on lying like we had been.
I gathered the strength to respond to him, now wanting more than ever to just get our whole, well, relationship, I suppose you could just about call it, although it wasn't official, out in the air. "I-I...we need to tell him. We need to tell Ashton." I stuttered out, just a mere whisper. My throat was incredibly sore and I was struggling, to say the least, to let any words escape my lips.
Will lent down and kissed me ever so gently on the forehead, and I let my eyelids become heavy once again, burying myself into his embrace. I immediately was taken by my subconscious, into a hopefully dreamless slumber...
~
I woke up to a sudden chill overtaking my entire body. Perhaps it was the fact that Will was no longer by my side, or anyone, for that matter. It shocked me a little bit, and I felt more alone that I had in a very long time. I looked around me and noticed the moon light flooding in through the window, creating eerie shadows across the room, the only source of a faint light showing me where I was. And as I'd predicted, I was still in the very bed that I had been, for what felt like days. My body felt extremely stiff, and I felt as though I hadn't moved my muscles in far longer than was healthy.
I knew then that I desperately needed to get up, and surprisingly, I almost felt completely normal again. I had the energy this time to fully open my eyes, and sit up in the bed. I swung my legs over the side and put a bit of pressure onto my feet. It felt incredibly liberating to finally be freed of being bed ridden. I looked over to my right and noticed that I still had an IV drip in my arm - YUK. That sort of stuff made me squeamish. I was becoming increasingly creeped out by the shadows, and in the blink of an eye, I pulled the drip out whilst looking away, and winced slightly at the pin prick pain that it had momentarily caused.
A tiny bit of blood seeped out from where it had been so I quickly pressed my hand over it to stop the blood flow. I took in a deep breath and slowly began to stand, trying to get my balance. That was when I had also noticed what I was wearing. A white hospital gown, eww. I cringed at how hideous I probably looked, dressed in this ugly thing, my hair probably a birds nest, not to mention that I hadn't showered since before the whole forest incident. Yuk.
I finally regained my balance and began making my way towards the door. My heart sank just a little bit too, realising that no one was here by my side, watching over me, waiting for me to wake. There better be a bloody good reason for that though, I thought.
As I was approaching the door, I heard in the very faint distance, what sounded like my name being called. It was almost...mesmerising. I had to follow it. I needed to know what it was, who it was, where it was coming from. I so desperately needed to know, and I needed to know right then.
I gently pulled the door open, and began tip-toeing down the hallway, not wanting to wake anyone. It was as if I was on a mission, a mission to find the source of the voice, that so desperately needed me to follow it.
I made my way down the stairs into the large and elegant entrance hall, the cold white marble stinging my feet as I slid across it, the cold creating a numbing feel. I felt like I had been walking for an eternity, winding around hallways on the ground floor, until I had finally approached a set of very long looking stairs, which appeared to lead down into a basement.
"Mirandaaaa..." I heard again, this time much more clear. This time, apparent that it was coming from the bottom of the stairs. It was a male's voice, so soothing, so alluring...
"That's it Miranda, come down the stairs." I listed to the voice. I had no choice. The voice was calling me, and I had to come. There was no doubt about it. As I approached the door, I heard it again.
"That's it Miranda. Now, place your hands on the door knob. Feel the doorknob. The doorknob is a part of you. Use your mind, your powers, use them to twist and turn the locking mechanism. You can do it Miranda, I know you can, you can unlock the door." It told me, and I then knew that it was one hundred percent right. I needed to unlock the door.
I did exactly what it had asked me to, and I used all of the strength inside of me to picture the locking mechanism in the knob. It turned, it creeked, it clicked, until it finally opened. I twisted the knob and slowly opened the door up. As soon as I was in, I was grabbed so violently and thrown across the floor, the door slamming behind me.
That was when I was broken from my daze, and looked up, only to come face to face with the most bone chilling golden eyes that I had ever seen. Sebastian's eyes. How could I be so freaking dumb?! I fell for it! I fell for his stupid hypnosis!
"You cease to amaze me Miranda. Such a stupid little witch." He chuckled. Oh no. Not again. I was sure that if he came near me I'd burn this whole damn house down, I was that angry.
"Get the fuck away from me Sebastian, or I'll burn a hole right through your chest. You've seen what I can do, you know what I'm capable of." I spat, as I began to stand up and face him, defensively.
"You're not going to win, you know that by now. You will never have me Sebastian, I will never love you, I will never be yours. How can I possibly love a heartless, worthless, pig of a being. I belong to Will. Will is who I am destined to be with, and he is who I am going to be with." I told him sternly, eager to hurt his feelings as hastily as I could.
He then broke out into an evil laugh, one that sent shivers all the way down my spine. "You think that you can actually be together? Yeah, good luck with that one. There's no way that the vampire kingdom will ever let their inheritance marry a mere witch. You're kidding yourself if you think they'll let that happen, no matter what status your precious little lover boy's family hold."
His words sent my body into a world of shock. What the heck was he talking about?! KINGDOM?! You've got to be freaking kidding me! And at that moment the door slammed open so forcefully, and relief washed over me the second that I saw none other than Will, standing there in the doorway, looking more furious than I had ever seen him.
I looked at him with so much confusion consuming my face, my body, my entire form, and only one thought was dominating my brain, running through it like a streaming, urgent river. I couldn't get this stupid thought out of my head, and whether it was appropriate or not, I had to get it out right then, before it drove me to insanity.
"Will is Seb lying to me? Kingdom, what does he mean when he says kingdom?" I asked, looking between Seb and Will, Seb looking completely amused, whilst shock washed over Will's face before he threw a death glare at Sebastian.
"Will?!" I pleaded again. This cannot be good.