"I'm in love with you." The words slip out of my mouth and my breathing stops just as they do. This has to be the most nerve raking thing I have ever done. The look on Harrys face makes it worse. Emotionless. That's what it is and honestly I'd rather him have a horror face on because the waiting, is more torturous.
"What?" He breaths as his eyebrows furrow down, pointing at his nose.
"I'm in love with you" I say, but it comes out more as a question. A weak laugh comes out as I try to make it less awkward, but he looks the same.
"You're in love with me?" He says so quiet, it burns. I wish he would speak louder.
"Yes" I breathe with a hopeless shrug. His emotion changes several times making me confused and more keen for an answer.
"Ellie..." he trails off and I can tell by his voice and face that rejection is underway.
I hold my breath in, but jump when I hear crackles from the bushes beside us. I quickly whip my body around and notice Sir Zayn poke out from the leaves. He sighs when he sees us before rushing to Masters' side.
"I found you." He starts and I look back to Harry who is still looking at me with a struggled face. Its as if he doesn't even notice Zayn is here with us. I keep my eyes focused on his as Zayn continues to speak, "Gemma is looking for you. We are about to do the sacrifice."
Sacrifice?
"Sir?" Zayn taps Harrys shoulder after he doesn't answer him. He finally looks over to him, breaking our eye contact.
Why does this always happen to me? Whenever something important is going on, its always interrupted.
"The sacrifice?" Harry mumbles.
"Yeah... The one we do every year." Zayn laughs and Harry nods his head.
"Yes, I remember." He looks lost. I can tell Zayn notices because he's looking at him like he's crazy.
"Can you give us a second?" Harry gestures to me and him and my tummy turns thinking about going back into the awkward conversation we just broke into.
"Of course, Sir. Hurry though. We need you there." Zayn smiles before heading back to the party.
"Harry, you know what? Forget what I said." I say before he can. I can tell he's just going to reject me which makes my heart slowly shatter, so I might as well just end the conversation now before I can get hurt even more.
"Forget what you said?" He sounds angry. "That's not something you can forget."
"Yes it is. I'm just a girl. I'm sure they're not even real feelings" I try and laugh my way out, but Harry stays stone.
"Ellie, I need you to know..." He leaves the sentence unfinished, leaving me on my toes. Just spit it out, I cry inside. He takes a step forward, closing the space between when grabbing my arms and pulling to him.
"Fuck." He looks down. "Ellie... I.. i think that..." A smile almost creeps on my face. Is he about to tell me he loves me? I feel if he didn't he would just tell me, but his stuttering could mean he's nervous to tell me he feels the same right?
"I think you're a fool." The words hit me like a brick. His hand drops from my arms and I'm left with rejection and emptiness just like I thought would happen.
"I don't love you Ellie." He says and just when I thought I couldn't feel anymore pain, I was proven wrong.
"You can't love me." He says, with almost a questioning face.
"How can I not love you?" A pained cry comes out.
"I'm.. well, it's against the rules." His voice becomes harder.
"Your rules." I whisper.
"Yes. My rules. You're aren't allowed to love me and I'm not aloud to love you. Even if I could love you, I wouldn't!" His voice raises, crushing my already broken heart.
"Maybe, it's best if we didn't spend time with one another." He says. I look at him in more shock as tears threaten my eyes. he wants me to leave again? I don't want to. He raises his eyebrows waiting for me to speak.
"Goodbye then." Tears roll down my face as I turn on my heel away from Harry. I start to walk away, but he grabs my arm, spinning me around.
"No." he says and I plunge out of his grip.
"What!?" I scream.
"You are to stay at Shadow. I own you. I just won't be spending time with you anymore, like before." He states with a pained look and I try to hold back tears. I have my best hard face, but the more time looking at Harry slowly breaks it down. My lip trembles as I look up to hold back the tears.
"Don't cry, Ellie. Please." His tone is soft, making my blood boil.
"Don't cry? You're hilarious." I shoot him a glare before turning to the bushes and pushing my way through.
"Where are you going?" He demands an answer, following right behind me. I don't answer him as I push past the branches. I can hear him behind me, groaning from my no response.
"Ellie!" He blows.
"I'm going to find Michael so he can take me back to Shadow." I grunt once I'm out of the bushes and back to the party. Some people look at me, but I don't care. I pick up my pace, finding the familiar carpet again and following it past the dance floor. I don't hear Harry behind me anymore and I want to look back, but rule against it. I notice Michael standing by the large bar, so I make my way towards him.
"Ellie?" Michael places his drink on the table before pulling me into a hug I physically asked for.
I squeeze him tight wanting comfort from him. He isn't even really my friend. He lied to me and it's his fault I'm in this situation right now, so I should hate him, but I need someone to hold me.
"I'm guessing things went bad?" He says into my hair and I lift my head and give him a blank stare.
"Okay, so it did." He laughs and I push my head into his chest.
"I know you're a girl and you need like affection and stuff.." Michael begins to whisper in my ear, "But you're also human. I don't think this looks good unless my teeth are in your neck." He laughs and I release his hug. I look around and notice some vampires at the bar are looking at us with disgust.
I don't care honestly. All I can think is that I'm in love with someone that doesn't love me. My chest is in pain and my eyes are bloodshot from crying. My sniffles are continuous and I probably look disgusting.
I notice Michaels drink on the bar and grab it before gulping down the poison. It tastes horrible and I almost cry more just from how bad the flavor is.
"Ellie!" Michael exclaims and grabs the drink from me. "Don't do that."
"Why? I have nothing to live for anyways. My life is useless." I begin to cry more and all the people at the bar have turned to my attention. I notice one of them is a human, close up to a red eyed, older looking vampire. He gives me a sympathetic look while everyone else gives me glares.
"Control your human would you?" A woman states with an eye roll before turning back to her scotch.
Michael gives her a rude look before grabbing my arm and pulling me to a quieter part outside. We stand by a tree across the bar that is far from the bar and closer to the dance floor.
"Don't talk like that Ellie. I know you're human, but.... I don't know, you can find someone at Shadow. You can fall in love... just not with Harry. Just focus on finding someone at Shadow and getting pregnant like you are suppose to do." he says. I forgot that's my main purpose in Shadow besides slaving. I'm surprised more woman aren't pregnant. I've only seen three at Shadow so far.
"Even if I get pregnant, it gets taken away from me! What's the fun in that?" I remind him and realize why most of the girls refrain from getting pregnant.
He looks lost in words.
"I'm just... done. Like, first I lost my sister and now this? Why?" Tears fall again.
"Ellie, I really am sorry. I don't know what to say."
"Can you call Henry to come pick me up?" I breathe.
Before he can answer a loud microphone squeaks before someone speaks into it. My attention turns to Gemma standing in the middle of the dance floor made of white tiles. The music has stopped playing and Harry stands beside her while everyone else at the party is crowded in a circle around them.
"Fuck, I gotta go." Michael tells me before giving me an apologetic smile and shooting across the yard towards them. My heart aches when I look at Harry. He looks upset which makes me more sad. He must think I'm an idiot for falling for him.
"Alright! Everyone.." Gemma begins, but I turn away and begin walking away towards the way we first came in. I'll just wait until this party is over.
I faintly hear Gemma's voice as I walk down the white rug. Everyone cheers and whistles causing me to grow curious. It gets the best of me and I turn around before stopping myself. I open my ears to see what is going on.
"Which one of these humans do we want to sacrifice?" She says and I notice several humans gathered in a bunch next to Michael and Harry.
"Vampires choice of course." She laughs and I'm disgusted by her. Why are they sacrificing a human? That is just cruel. This is all just a stupid game to them.
People begin calling out descriptions of the humans standing beside Gemma and her brothers. I notice Michael laughing while Harry is looking around the crowd with a determined look on his face.
"The one wearing the red shirt! She tasted amazing!" I hear someone say.
"No! The boy in blue! He tastes way better!"
"Let's get the fatter one, that way there's more blood to go around!" Another one says.
"You're an idiot! that doesn't matter!"
Everyone begins to break out into arguments and Gemma shushes them down as I begin to walk back towards the crowd. This is horrible.
"Everyone calm down. It doesn't matter size. There will be enough blood to go around for everyone."
Are they going to drink one of the humans until they are dried out? That's worse than the drainers. These people are disgusting.
"Just like last year, we will go around and which ever human has the loudest cheer, hmm?"
Everyone agrees and I bump shoulders with one of the vampires in the back of the crowd. He looks down to me, but I quickly look down and move away from him. I stand next to a blonde older woman in tall heels with a human standing beside her. Its a girl with light brown hair. Her bright blue eyes find mine and I smile. Shes a little shorter than me and her wave is welcoming.
"Aren't you glad we aren't up there?" She laughs and I notice a strange accent. It kind of sounds like Luke's.
"I guess." I shrug. It wouldn't matter if I was up there anyways. It's not like the love of my life wouldn't want me to or I had a sister to live for.
She gives a bizarre look before looking back to Gemma pointing to each human individually- some cheers louder than others.
"Where did they come from?" I ask.
"The Drainers. They do this every year." The girl speaks quietly to me. Her owner coughs beside her and looks down at her with a scowl.
"Keep your mouth shut, Jen." The intimidating vampire says.
Jen nods before giving me an apologetic look, "Yes, Natalia."
"Why do they do this every year?" I whisper as quiet as I can. I know she's not aloud to talk, but I'm too selfish to care. Natalia doesn't hear me over the cheers of people.
She hesitantly looks at me to speak, "Its a celebration of when the vampires took over, I guess. They kill a human to show there power." She shrugs.
"How do they do it?" I ask. She lets out a breath before looking at her owner. I can tell she doesn't want to get in trouble, but luckily she answers me.
"They use this draining device and everyone takes a sip of it." She whispers. Just as I thought.
"Jen, doesn't Master Harry look different this year?" Natalia looks to her for an answer and Jen quickly pretends as if she wasn't talking to me. She looks up to Harry and shrugs. Even the mention of his name hurts.
"His hairs a tad longer maybe?" Jen questions herself.
"That too, but he looks angry."
"Doesn't he always?" Jen rolls her eyes.
Two humans stand next to each other as Gemma explains that it's debated between the two of them. Both of them are boys, one skinny and the other is built with muscle. They both have panic on their faces and I feel sorry for them.
"I hope the skinny one goes. The other one is hot." Jen jokes.
"Jen, be quiet. Cheer for the bigger one. I tasted him earlier. He tastes delicious." Jens owner scowls.
Jen rolls her eyes and I look back up to the center. Harry is glancing around the crowd every once and awhile. His hair looks messy, like he has been messing with it. A long strand is in front of his eyes, messily, but he still looks beautiful. My chest is still in pain and it hurts more when I think of what he told me.
My life sucks and I just wish everything would just.... be better, but there is no way it's going to. The only thing I have to look forward to now is dying. And I doubt that is happening anytime soon..... wait.
"Alright! Whoever wants this man right here, scream!" Gemma yells and a lot of people cheer for the skinny boy as I debate the decision forming in my head.
"And this one?" Gemma asks and Jen hoots with the majority of everyone else, ruling out the skinny one. I see the pain in the winners face and I make my decision a reality for him.
"Looks like the person sacrificing today is..." Gemma pulls his arm up into the air and I raise my voice before she can speak more.
"Me!" I holler. Jen gasps and every single person slowly turns to look at me. A smirk grows on Gemma's face as she drops the guys hand and notices me. I look over to Harry to see his expression. He looks mixed emotions, kind of how I feel right now. His eyebrows furrow while his mouth opens. He looks like he wants to say something, but doesn't.
"The sacrifice today will be Ellie." Gemma points to me with an grin.