"Fuck! What do we do?" Lyra's voice echoed through drowsy ears, I could hear the heavy, frantic pacing of footsteps on hardwood floors.
"We can't enter the sigils... uh..."
"Come on, Simon. Think. He's bleeding out."
"I know! Quick, see what belts you can grab from the corpses. Maybe we can hook him some how." There was a lot of shuffling. My body felt heavy. Blurred images, lights, and sensations shifted through my acknowledgement like the flitting of fishes beneath the surface of a moon-cast lake. I was incredibly tired, no matter how hard I struggled; consciousness would continue to fight and slip through my fingers.
It felt like minutes would bleed into hours, but experience told me that it was unlikely to have even been more than few seconds. The floor was getting colder, that much I could notice. Something was swatting me. Like a gentle slap, and eventually I felt myself just barely beginning to move along the floor.
"What the holy fuck are you doing!?" I heard a female voice, angry, yet unsure, shout. I couldn't hear the reply however. It was slowly being muffled, or blotted out somehow. I was getting weaker, had I lost that much blood?
As the adrenaline had left my body a fair time ago, I suppose I had nothing to keep pushing me forward.
I could taste metal on my tongue, and down my throat. The urge to splutter and cough, crossed my mind somewhat, but I found it hard to muster up the effort. I wasn't myself, I was gripping and pulling something closer to my mouth, my lips. Something warm. I was hungry or thirsty, it was an amalgamation of both and it was like an anchor sunk and battered the core of my stomach.
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My head pounded. Screeched on the underside of my ears, and I clutched the sides of my head, with a dry, and hoarse, groan that clawed at the inside of my dehydrated throat. My eyes squeaked open only for me to squeeze them as tight as I possible could; the instant whatever horrifying light that was violently assaulted my eyes with it's brightness. As if I had looked at the sun in the height of summer.
Questions of where I was rushed briefly into my mind, as I rolled off the bed I apparently lay in. The coolness of the soft wood beneath my bare feet provided some comfort as I reached with an outstretched arm. A dull thud spiked my forearm as it smacked into what I presume to be a side table.
My body began to shiver as I became aware of how cold I was. It grumbled when I realised how hungry I was, and my chest tugged heavily in the direction of the floor, as if to pull me to its core, when the memory of what had transpired seeped its way back into my thoughts, causing my hands to tremble uncontrollably as if the weight of the knife still lay clutched beneath my fingers.
I clenched my fists. Gritting my teeth, and taking a solemn breath; I slowly, and shakily, stood up.
Deep breaths. Deep Breaths.
Ever so carefully, I peeked my eyes open, raising my arm up to shield my vision from the light that was unnecessarily bright. Which only confused me further when looking upon my surroundings. I was in a bedroom, not mine. A simple room that didn't hold much furniture. A double bed with tossed, plain, sheets. A table on the side with a book, and a chair beside that. A small rug held the centre of the room, also plain in colour. For a moment I had considered the possibility that I had gone colour blind, as nothing held any. Even the circular knob of the door had been painted a pale grey, to match the wood of its door.
My eyes reached for a glass jug of water that sat on the table, only for it to crack and smash the moment my fingers graced its surface. I withdrew my hand immediately, squinting my eyes as I reached for the quilt to mop up the rapidly puddling water.
It's got to be a migraine. That'd explain why I'm so clumsy and why the light seems so bright.
After cleaning, I couldn't help but notice the dryness of my throat a little more than before. So, being as gentle as I possibly could, I cupped the bottom half of what remained of the glass jug and poured the cold water into my mouth. It was refreshing, although I was somewhat disappointed with how it didn't seem to be quite enough to sate my thirst.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
I fell to the floor at the sudden barrage of noise, like a frightened animal.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
It continued with such weight and force, that I was amazed that the earth didn't move with it. It only seemed to be getting louder and I wondered why my ear drums hadn't packed their bags and left my head.
Soon, a high pitched whine screeched through the once calmness of my surroundings, causing me to clutch harder at the sides of my head in a rather pathetic attempt to block out the noise. My eyes creaked open once more, to see Elizabeth standing in the door way.
She looked worried, probably with how panicked and confused I looked. Not to mention I probably looked horrible. That was when the thought dawned on me. Why was Elizabeth in the city? Unless... Unless we weren't in the city any longer...
A delicately gloved hand graced the switch that sat just to the left of the door, lightly turning the white dial that was there and the light seemed to dim to a more comfortable level.
"I think I might have a migraine..." I said, immediately scowling at the rumbling of my own voice and how much it shook the inside. It was as if I hadn't ever spoke before and was no longer used to that sort of sound coming from my body.
"What happened?" I whispered, relaxing slightly as it didn't cause any discomfort. Elizabeth rounded the bottom of the bed, approaching me silently. Something about her movements didn't seem quite as fluid as before. It was still beautiful to watch her do so, almost mesmerising, but I seemed to notice the crook in her elbows a little more. The bending of her knees, the roll of her heels. She was purposefully trying to lighten her walk, to make sure she made as little noise as possible. Must be because of the migraine, strange that I could still hear gentle clacks against the floor. Usually she had no issue with being completely silent in her movements. It was unlike her, and it caused another bout of confusion that I was picking up on such things. She was clearly worried about something. Obviously appearances weren't important to her right now. Not that there was anything wrong with how she looked.
"It's wonderful to see you. I am sorry I don't look a bit more presentable. I'm sure I look terrible." I whispered, watching for her reaction. She tilted her head to the side smiling sweetly. Why wasn't she talking? And why was it frightening me so much?
"Am I home?"
"Yes." She whispered sweetly, and a swell of relief washed over me as she responded. "Our home."
"Why am I not at Tithe Manor?"
"Better for you to be here while you... heal..." Oh I didn't like the way she said that. I didn't like it one bit. I furrowed my brow in confusion, before immediately beginning to inspect myself. Patting down my arms and legs, my torso. Everything was fine. I felt fine, better than ever aside from the migraine, and this incredible force of dehydration that I was trying to fight with my own spit unsuccessfully sucking on my tongue. It didn't help that I was also famished. It felt like I hadn't eaten it weeks.
"Elizabeth... What's happened?" I asked, gritting my teeth in defiance as I spoke rather than whispered. Fighting the discomfort of my own sound, and clutching my stomach as it growled once more, only adding to my unease as I tried to ignore it. She observed me nervously, losing the unspeakable composure she normally held. But did not answer. "How long was I out?"
"A week." Her whispered words were a bit daunting, but not unexpected. I had lost a lot of blood, and we had gone through quite the battle to secure Victoria. Something I was well aware I wasn't willing to face.
"Have they--"
"No. They haven't given her a funeral yet. Your father wanted to wait for you, Avery."
"Elizabeth there is something you're not telling me. Please, whatever it is, just tell me. I've been through enough. I've got a migraine like a jack hammer going off in my brain, I've never been so hungry in my life, or as thirsty for that matter. I really don't think I can handle having a secret being kept from me yet dangled right in front of me. I can take it." I said rubbing my forehead and temples in a soothing motion. At least my own voice wasn't as assaulting as it was before, but I suppose I was too focused on everything else. This was all too much for someone who's just woken up from presumedly a week long coma.
She rose to step towards me, her touch as she placed her hands on my bare shoulders was unreasonably sensitive. It almost hurt. Like my skin was new and unused to contact or weight. The confusion this caused was enough to distract from the discomfort though as my eyes focused on hers.
"Simon had to, Avery. If he hadn't you'd be dead."
"Simon had to... what?" I asked taking a defensive step back, and knocking into the side table slightly as I clutched my hand to my chest. The tumbling of the book dropped like rainfall as the thunder in my mind cracked with realisation. A storm, burning through the clouds, and bringing with it an all new tempestuous fury.
Yet somehow, my body refused to acknowledge such things. Still it urged me to ask. To get confirmation. As if there was the slightest chance of it not being true, just tantalizingly round the next corner, I just had to go over there and look.
"Simon had to what, Elizabeth?" I asked, a little more firmly this time. The hand at my chest balling a fist in my shirt.
"You're one of us now, Avery. A Vampire."
A/N: Holy shiiiiiiiiiiit. How was that? What are your thoughts and opinions on it? Let me know! If you're feeling like its getting close to the end now, you're almost right. It's true, I only know its ending soon, but I'm not sure how many chapters it's going to take even if I am pumping them out fairly regular like. If you had to choose whether the ending was happy or sad, what would you pick?