Fated Fangs

Chapter 10: Close Quarters

Eleni cried for an hour. It felt like forever. She felt betrayal beyond anything she had ever felt was possible. It felt like a black hole had torn through her chest and was throwing every good thing she had ever felt deep within its darkness. The weight in her chest was unbearable, and each sob wracked her body, making it hurt worse.

When she finally regained composure, she sat sniffing and hiccoughing on the floor for a long time still, just staring straight ahead. Every small detail of her life kept coming up in her memory, tainted by the lies she had been fed. It hurt to be so let down by those she had loved and cared about. She began to wonder if even finding a job at the cafe had been orchastrated.

Eleni may have stayed there forever if a knock on the door hadn't startled her out of her torment. She didn't bother wiping her face. She didn't care to. She stood up, though, and made her way to the door. She was going to open it when she realized it was locked. Duh. She was a prisoner, right? She dropped her outstretched hand to her side.

"Yes?" She said at last.

"I, uh, don't mean to bother you, but Bram was wondering..." Cassandra murmered from the other side of the door.

"Bram can go to hell." Eleni said evenly.

There was a long pause. Eleni began to wonder if Casandra was even still there. Eventually, there was another smaller knock.

"Can I come in?" Cassandra asked quietly.

Eleni sighed. She was so sad and so broken feeling. It would be nice to have a little company in her misery, even if it was one of her captors.

"It's not like I can stop you. You have the key." Eleni retorted, none too gently. There was a long pause again, and Eleni grew frustrated. "Come in, then." She grumbled as she stepped away from the door.

Cassandra unlocked the door and walked sheepishly into Eleni's room. Eleni looked her up and down in annoyance. For a vampire who could kill her as easy as look at her, she was acting pretty silly. Eleni stiffled a gasp. Right, she was a vampire. Wouldn't her scent overwhelm her and make her unable to stop herself from sucking Eleni's blood dry?

"I'm not going to hurt you." Cassandra said, almost as if she had heard Eleni's thoughts. "Only the young bloods have such a hard time controlling their thirst." She added, as if that meant anything to Eleni.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" Eleni stammered, embarrassed.

"It's okay. You've had to take in a lot the last few days. I remember when I turned. It was different circumstances, but it was still scary."

Eleni tried hard to hold back fresh tears. She really did. She didn't need to be crying in front of the enemy, but with Cassandra standing there, trying to empathize and make her feel better, it was difficult to see her as an enemy at all. She hardened her defenses and decided to redirect.

"So, uh, how long have you been a vampire, then. What constitutes a 'new blood'." Eleni deflected.

"I've been a vampire for a couple hundred years." Cassandra said casually.

Eleni couldn't help it; her jaw dropped. Did she just say a couple of hundred years old? She looked like she was twenty-five years old, tops. Would she still look the same as she did now in another two hundred years?

"Yeah. It seems like a long time, but it has really just kind of passed by. I definitely don't feel like I have lived that long. A new blood is any vampire under one hundred years old. They are like children to the older vampires." Cassandra shrugged. It really didn't see to phase her.

"Great. I get to go back to being treated like a kid?" Eleni groaned.

"No, no. It's not that bad. It just takes a while to adjust. The thirst takes a while yo grow acustomed to." Cassandra tried to explain.

"Oh, great. So, I am going to be an uncontrollable monster that kills everyone I encounter. Sounds magical. Sign me up. Oh wait, I don't have a choice, do I?" Eleni grumbled, oozing irritation.

Cassandra shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. This wasn't going well. She looked like she wanted to leave. Eleni couldn't handle being alone, then, though. She took a deep breath in and tried to reign in her anger. It wasn't Cassandra's fault she was here.

"I'm sorry. You're right. I have been through a lot in the last few days. I am taking my frustration out on you when you haven't done anything to deserve it. Thank you for checking up on me. Why did you, though? Check up on me, that is." Eleni asked curiously. She figured Bram had sent Cassandra to keep her calm.

"No one checked up on me." Cassandra said honestly.

Eleni found herself stunned yet again. Cassandra was obviously an amazing vampire. She worked directly under Bram, after all. She would have to be tough and strong-willed. But she was so up front and honest as well. It was intriguing.

"Is there anything I can do to make this easier for you? I don't really remember what being human was like." Cassandra volunteered.

"I could really use some entertainment. Maybe some paper to write on? Some actual food would be nice as well." Eleni suggested.

"Was the food no good, then?" Cassadra said, trying to stifle a laugh.

"It was more snack like than actual meals." Eleni complained.

"I don't even remember what food tastes like." Cassandra laughed as she moved over to the table that the snacks had been left on.

"Can you not taste it anymore?" Eleni asked, incredulously.

"Not a bit." Cassandra grinned as she picked up an almond and popped it into her mouth. She chewed it and swallowed. "Nada."

"You can't be serious. Vampires don't have taste buds?" Eleni asked, genuinely concerned. Would she lose her taste buds as well? That didn't sound enticing at all.

"I can feel the texture. But, no, it doesn't really taste like anything. I can sort of tell there is some underlying note of something, but it is so faint that I couldn't even begin to describe it.

Eleni began to feel sad again. She flopped down on the loveseat nearest her and stared sadly at the small spread of food. She would never even get to enjoy beef jerky again, and she wasn't particularly fond of it. That thought led to all of the delicious foods she would never get to eat again, and pretty soon, she was crying again.

"Oh, oh no. I'm sorry. I don't miss it at all, really." Cassandra said quickly, trying to comfort Eleni. "Blood is just like food, with different flavours. It's really quite good!"

Eleni paused, looking at Cassandra in horror, before beginning to cry again, much harder this time. Cassandra was thrown off. She didn't know how to make Eleni feel better, and she felt she was bungling everything. A thought came to her, and she tried her luck once again.

"Do you want to watch a movie? You mentioned you were bored. We have a great selection of movies here." Cassandra tried to sound enthusiastic.

Eleni tried to stop crying, but the weight of the day felt like she was being crushed by an elephant, and everything made her want to cry. She nodded feebly.

"T-that would be nice." She managed to whisper. She didn't blame Cassandra for the predicament she was in. She couldn't really blame anyone. This was what her life was meant to be since the day she was born. There had never been any other fate in store for her. She could at least make a friend here, seeing as she was stuck.

Cassandra jumped up at once and ran out of the room. She yelled back behind her that she would be back soon with tons of movies. Eleni sat numbly on the couch. She couldn't stop the slow river of tears that continued to make a path down her cheeks.

She thought about her father and the mother she had never known. She thought about all of the plans she had had for her future and how none of them would be possible once she was turned into a vampire. She thought about the cafe, her apartment, he favourite places to go out to, and her friends. She would probably never see any of those places or people again, at least not until her thirst was under control.

Eleni slowly slumped down on the couch until she was laying down completely, staring blankly at the wall. It was so late. She had been up all day, and she wasn't used to being awake at night. She tried to stay awake. Out of all of the hell she had been through, she had one small thing to look forward to, at least. She wanted to watch a movie with Cassandra. Want what she might, Eleni couldn't fight her heavy eyelids for long and was soon fast to sleep.