Deidre searched for the mechanism to release the little door concealed in the stone wall. she flinched away from the hot, moist breath of the misshapen creature blasting the back of her neck. the thought of being touched by one of its clammy, malformed, sticky appendages sent her into a panic. Deidre was frantic, by the time the door slid open. She tumbled through and forced the little door closed on the CREATURE’S grasping fingers.
Its ear-piercing squeal of pain sent Deidra running in hysterical circles, looking for a hiding place. She was in a dusty room full of floor to ceiling shelves. It took several minutes for it to register that she was in the back end of a cavernous library of some sort. With seemingly nowhere to hide, Deidra backed into a dark corner and crouched down, waiting for her heart to stop galloping. She could hear the CREATURE’S claws scraping against the door, trying to pry it open. The noise gradually slowed and stopped.
Deidra thought she could hear the thing limping away. Too tired to run any further, she heaved a sigh of relief. Fear and exhaustion had taken their tool. Deidra sat motionless, blankly staring upwards at dust motes floating in the weak shafts of overhead florescent shining down from the library’s high ceilings. Going back wasn’t an option and the way forward seemed impossible. Deidre’s mind’s eye recalled the sight of Caitlyn’s face as she dove out of the upstairs window. She had been so calm… as if…as if she had was ready for the struggle to be over.
Feeling helpless and hopeless, Deidra allowed hot tears to boil out of her closed eyes. She had fought so hard, since she had been kidnapped and awoke to a nightmare in this castle of horrors, to be strong and keep hope alive but things had gone from bad to worse. Sooner or later, they would find her. Deidra shuddered at the thought of THE TORTURE she would have to endure as penance for her disobedience. They all blamed her for Caitlyn’s death.
If only Deidra could find a way out of the accursed place. Sitting up slowly, she used her sleeves to wipe away the tears blurring her vision. Deidra took stock of her surroundings. All she could see were floor to ceiling shelves on both sides of the room crammed with dusty old books and large sheets of rolled up parchment paper. Deidra shakily got to her feet and walked in the direction of sunlight. There was a row of six windows high up along the right wall. She was standing on tiptoe, gazing through the closest window when a man’s voice made her jump.
“What are you doing in here? Who are you?”
Startled, Diedre jumped back from the window, poised to turn and flee. the stranger emerged from the shadows and there was no cat-like glowing eyes or deathly pale skin. Her taut shoulders relaxed slightly. So, he was human. He stepped into a shaft of sunlight, a which made his SNOW-WHITE hair glow. Her first thought was that he was elderly, but his smooth unlined skin belied that impression. He pointed an accusatory finger at her.
“You’re that girl that everybody is looking FOR, aren’t you? Wait don’t run away. I’m not going to tell anyone you’re in here. I can see you’ve been through a lot. I’m here against my will too.”
Deidre heard the clink of metal and saw a shackle around the man’s ankle. It was attached to a long chain that trailed off into the darkness behind him. Her gaze travelled up from his bare feet, took in his worn jeans and rumpled coffee-stained shirt hanging off of his spare frame. Deidre didn’t know what to think. What was with the chain? was he dangerous?
“My names Deidra by the way. Why are you chained up in this big, old library?”
“I’m Harvey and this is not a library. It’s an archive of their history. They keep me here, so that I can scan all of the pages in these dusty old records into a database.”
“Who is they? That’s something that I’ve been trying to figure out. If I told you what I witnessed upstairs, you’d think I was crazy. This girl just mutated into a…into a…”
“Vampire? You seem surprised. Why do you think my hair is prematurely gray? I have seen some pretty horrific things.”
“How long have you been here?”
“I’ve been trapped here for two years. They abducted me and brought me here so that I could digitize the historical record of a bloodline that originated with Vlad the Impaler.”
“Wait I remember reading about that guy in school. Wasn’t he some bloodthirsty military leader with the last name Dracula? Wasn’t he a vampire?”
“Some say he was the first vampire.”
“I’ll bet reading all of this stuff is fascinating. I’d rather have been abducted to do what you’re doing instead of just being a slave.”
“I wish I could trade places with you,” said Harvey wistfully.
“Why is that?”
“I have a feeling that they’re going to kill me, once I finish digitizing all of these records.”
“Then come with me. I’m getting the hell out of here,” offered Deidra.
“I wouldn’t leave, even if I wasn’t chained up in here like a dog. They’ll kill my family. These….these monsters are very secretive. It’s how they have survived here for centuries without the rest of the world knowing they even exist. The same thing will happen to your family, if you leave here.”