LITMIR.BIZ

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complete blackness. She felt a cold, metal pain on her wrists and ankles, and her limbs were sore. She realized she was chained. Standing. Her arms were outstretched, by her sides, and she tried to move them, but they didn’t budge. Neither did her feet. She heard a rattle as she tried, and felt the cold, hard metal dig harder into her wrists and ankles. Where the hell was she?

      Caitlin opened her eyes wider, heart pounding, trying to get a feel for where she was. It was cold. She was still dressed, but barefoot, and she could feel cold stone beneath her feet. She also felt stone along her back. She was up against a wall. Chained to a wall.

      She looked hard about the room and tried to make something out. But the blackness was absolute. She was cold. And thirsty. She swallowed, and her throat was dry.

      She tugged for all she was worth, but even with her newfound strength, the chains did not budge. She was completely stuck.

      Caitlin opened her mouth to yell for help. The first attempt didn’t work. Her mouth was too dry. She swallowed again.

      “Help!” she screamed, her voice coming out raspy. “HELP!” she screamed again, and this time gained real volume.

      Nothing. She listened hard. She heard a faint, swooshing noise somewhere in the distance. But from where?

      She tried to remember. Where was she last?

      She remembered going home. Her apartment. She frowned, remembering her Mom. Dead. She felt deeply sorry, as if somehow it were her fault. And she felt remorse. She wished that she could have been a better daughter, even if her Mom wasn’t great to her. Even if, as her Mom had blurted out the day before, she wasn’t really even her daughter. Had she really meant it? Or was it just something she had thrown out in a time of anger?

      Then…those three people. Dressed in black. So pale. Approaching her. Then… The police. The bullet. How they had stopped the bullet? What were these men? Why had they used the word “human”? She would have thought that they were merely delusional, if she had not seen them stop that bullet in mid air.

      Then…the alley. The chase.

      And then…. Blackness.

      Caitlin suddenly heard the creak of a metal door. She squinted, as a light appeared in the distance. It was a torch. Someone was coming towards her, carrying a torch.

      As he got closer, the room lit up. She was in a large, cacophonous room, entirely carved from stone. It looked ancient.

      As the man got close, Caitlin could see his features. He held the torch up, to his face. He stared at her as if she were an insect.

      This man was grotesque. His face was distorted, making him look like an old, haggard witch. He grinned, and revealed rows of small, orange teeth. His breath stank. He came within inches of her, and stared. He raised a hand to her face, and she could see his long, curved, yellow fingernails. Like claws. He dragged them slowly along her cheek, not enough to draw blood, but enough to make her repulsed. He grinned even wider.

      “Who are you?” Caitlin asked, terrified. “Where am I?”

      He only grinned further, as if examining his prey. He stared at her throat, and licked his lips.

      Just then, Caitlin heard the sound of another metal door opening, and saw several torches approaching.

      “Leave her!” shouted a voice from the distance. The man standing before Caitlin quickly scurried away, backing up several feet. He lowered his head, admonished.

      A whole group of torches approached, and as they got close, she could see their leader. The man who had chased her down the alley.

      He stared back, offering a smile with the warmth of ice. He was beautiful, this man, ageless, but terrifying. Evil. His large, charcoal eyes stared at her.

      He was flanked by five other men, all dressed in black like him, but none as large or as beautiful as he. There were also two women in the group, who stared back at her with equal coldness.

      “You must excuse our attendant,” the man said, his voice deep, cold, and matter-of-fact.

      “Who are you?” Caitlin asked. “Why am I here?”

      “Forgive these harsh accommodations,” the man said, running his hand along the thick metal chain that held her to the wall. “We’d be more than happy to let you go,” he said, “if only you would answer a few questions.”

      She looked back, unsure what to say.

      “I will begin. My name is Kyle. I am Deputy Leader of the Blacktide Coven,” he paused. “Your turn.”

      “I don’t know what you want from me,” Caitlin answered.

      “To start with, your coven. Who do you belong to?”

      Caitlin wracked her brain, trying to figure out if she had lost her mind. Was she imagining all of this? She thought she must be stuck in some sort of sick dream. But she felt the very real cold steel on her wrists and ankles, and knew she was not. She had no idea what to tell this man. What was he talking about? Coven? As in…vampire?

      “I don’t belong to anyone,” she said.

      He stared for a long while, then slowly shook his head.

      “As you wish. We have dealt with rogue vampires before. It’s always the same: they come to test us. To see how secure our territory is. After that, more follow. That’s how territory shifts begin.

      “But you see, they never get away with it. Ours is the oldest strongest and coven in this land. No one kills here and gets away with it.

      “So I ask again: who sent you? When do they plan to invade?”

      Territory? Invasions? Caitlin couldn’t understand how she was not dreaming. Maybe she had been slipped some sort of drug. Maybe Jonah had slipped her something. But she didn’t drink. And she never did drugs. She was not dreaming. This was real. Too awfully, incredibly real.

      She could’ve just dismissed them as a group of completely crazy people, as some weird cult or society that was completely delusional. But after all that had happened in the last 48 hours, she actually found herself thinking twice. Her own strength. Her own behavior. The way she felt her body changing. Could vampires be true? Was she one of them? Had she stumbled into the middle of some kind of vampire war? That would be just her luck.

      Caitlin stared back, thinking. Had she really killed someone? Who? She couldn’t remember, but she had this awful feeling that what he said was true. That she had killed someone. That, more than anything, made her feel terrible. She felt an awful feeling of pity and regret wash over her. If it was true, she was a murderer. She could never live that down.

      She stared back at him.

      “I wasn’t sent by anyone,” she said, finally. “I don’t remember exactly what I did. But whatever I did, I did it on my own. I don’t really know why I did it. I’m really sorry for whatever I did,” she said. “I didn’t mean it.”

      Kyle turned and looked at the others. They looked back at him. He shook his head, and turned back to her. His glare turned cold and hard.

      “You take me for a fool, I see. Not wise.”

      Kyle gestured to his subordinates, and they hurried over and uncuffed her chains. She felt her arms drop, and was relieved to have the blood flow back to her wrists. They uncuffed her ankles next. Four of them, two on one each side, got a tight grip on her arms and shoulders.

      “If you won’t answer to me,” Kyle said, “then you will answer to the Assembly. Just remember, you have chosen this. They will show no mercy, as I may have done.”

      As they led her away, Kyle added, “Make no mistake, you will be killed either way. But my way would have been quick and painless. Now you will see what suffering is.”

      Caitlin tried to resist as they dragged her forward. But it was useless. They were leading her somewhere, and there was nothing she could do but embrace her fate.

      And

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