What if they have my brother? What if they have killed him?
She is silent for a second or two, letting me freak out before she clicks her fingers, getting my attention. “It’s normal to have a panic attack or ten. Try breathing slowly and counting to ten. Then count to twenty. And so on.”
I do as she asks, even when it feels like each breath hurts more than the last, but I say each of the numbers. Eventually I calm down enough to rest back, my hands still shaking, but I don’t feel seconds away from passing out anymore.
“My name is Riona Dark, and my friends call me Ria. What’s your name?” I eventually question. We are stuck here together, we might as well get to know each other.
“Ann Hellerud,” she replies, and I wish I could see what she looks like, to have some connection to normality out here. But it’s too dark, I can only make out the shape of her head when she moves and maybe dark brown hair. “And, Ria, I hope we survive whatever is coming next.”
“Same,” I whisper back, though my voice carries across the room. “Do you have a family? Someone who would be looking for you?”
“Two little brothers and my dad,” she replies, and I can hear the affection in her voice. “I was the first one in my family to go to university, and I wanted to get a good job, show my brothers they could do it. My mum died a few years back from cancer, and she so desperately wanted me to make a difference in the world. So I was going to be a social worker, help anyone I could. Now...”
“You will get back to university,” I firmly reply, though I have no way to make that happen, but it doesn’t harm anyone to hope. Hope might be what gets us through this. She is a strong person, I can tell from her voice alone. “Just like I will find my brother and somehow escape whatever these vampires want with us. Did you hear them say anything that might give us a clue?”
“Yes...,” she admits, but that fear is back in her voice. “They said something about auctions and food. I think they are going to sell us to other vampires.”
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath, and I close my eyes, resting my head back. “I’m not being some vamp’s long-term snack, that’s for sure.”
Ann doesn’t reply to me, not that I blame her, as the mood is sour at best now. I stare up at the top of the ceiling, through slight gaps in the panels of wood, and I can make out the moon and stars in the sky. I shiver from the cold as my eyes drift shut, and sleep soon lulls me into a false sense of safety.
“Time to get them up!” I hear a man bellow outside the room we are in, many days later from when we were taken. The cold has well and truly seeped into my bones, and I’m clueless how Ann and I are still alive and not dead from frostbite. Ann mentioned that the blood taste in our mouths might mean they gave us vampire blood, and perhaps it is somehow keeping us alive and healthy. I prefer not to overthink on that subject. Other than throwing bottled water and stale bread at us, this is the first time we are actually going to leave the room, by the sounds of it. A part of me is excited as much as I am terrified. The ship is still rocking slightly, but it seems less harsh now, and I wonder if we are anchored somewhere.
The door swings open, and a bulky man with green eyes, dark tanned skin, and a mixture of tattoos all up his chest and arms looks in at us with a flashlight, the light filling the room. The rapid change in light makes my eyes water and sting to hold open, but I force myself to. His clothes are old fashioned and remind me of what a pirate in a fairy-tale book might wear, and he looks between the other girls and me. Getting a good look at my new friend, I see she does have long dark brown hair and slightly tanned skin with tattoos down her arms from her shoulders. With only cut-off denim jeans and a white tank top that is covered in her blood, she must be as freezing as me. I hear dozens of other footsteps nearby, more doors opening, and the distant sound of the ocean waves as Ann’s wide brown eyes fall on me before we both look at the vamp, who lets out a long sigh.
“Ladies don’t like to wear much clothing anymore, do they? Not like in my time, with the big dresses,” he states, disgust and pity in his voice. He lowers the flashlight in his hand.
What century are these vamps from?
The man doesn’t say another word as he eventually walks in and goes to Ann first. Even in the darkness, which I’m now realising these vamps must be able to see in, I hear Ann’s relief as the man undoes the cuffs, and they fall to the floor. I can’t wait to get mine off; they are digging harshly into the skin on my wrists, and I think they are bleeding a little bit.
“Behave or you will regret it,” the man warns, his accent very unfamiliar to me the more he talks. It almost sounds Scottish, but it’s not, and I’m unsure where I’ve heard it before. Ann and I don’t reply to that threat, mostly because what can you say?
I’m hardly going to enthusiastically say yes and be a good little girl, now am I? The man undoes my cuffs next, and instantly I sigh at the relief as I rub my sore wrists, feeling the cuts and bruises those cuffs left as I stand up next to Ann. I place my hand on my neck, running my fingers over the two bite marks I find there and the dried blood stuck to me even though it’s been days.
The man shoves me hard in the middle of my back, and I stumble out into the corridor, the light hurting my eyes from the fire sconces lining the walls. Eventually, I settle my eyes and look to Ann, who staggers to my side, her arm brushing against mine. I’ve never seen her around the university, but it’s a hella big university, and I would guess she is a first-year anyway, as she looks younger than me but not by much. I never thought to ask her age in the days we have been trapped here. In fact, we haven’t spoken much about anything serious or real.
“Keep moving!” the man shouts behind me, and I trip with my bare feet across the wooden floorboards, almost slipping on some of the wet parts until I get to stairs at the end. I climb up them, hearing screams behind me that make the situation so much more petrifying. I’ve always been a strong person, and I don’t intend to let this break me. But it’s hard not to scream, to not freak the hell out. Every step feels like I’m walking to my death, and I likely am doing just that. I wrap my arms around myself, my pink dress doing nothing to curb the sheer cold wind as I step out onto the deck of a ship, my feet sticking to the deck panels, and into the crowd of people dressed in party clothes and smothered with blood. A few of them are openly weeping on the floor, others are shaking from the cold and huddled together. I can’t hear much over the weeping and the sound of the sea, and the odd laugh from the vampires at the front of the group, talking together. The ship is a mixture of old and new, by the looks of it, with old floorboards and a glass top above us, stopping the pouring rain from soaking us to the bone. There are modern lights on the sides of the walls, and overall, I’m more freaked out than ever.
But as much as the ship is distracting, it’s nothing compared to the island in front of me in the distance. Even at night...I know this place is nothing like anywhere on earth. Or nothing I’ve ever seen before. Three mountains tower into the sky in the middle of the island, disappearing into the clouds, and red snow pours down them like a fog, moving softly. Around the mountains is a vibrant city, and I can just make out the many, many lights of the buildings. The edges of the island look like thick forests, and one side seems to have beaches and the other just sheer cliffs. Several ships, like the one we are on, line the harbour of the beach, and I can see piles of people being herded like cattle into the forest line off the beach.