Kathryn

4

I fell asleep listening to the girls' cry.

I'm not sure how long I slept because there were no windows anywhere in the room to tell me if it was still night outside or if day had come. We were in a hole essentially.

My stomach recoiled at the sight of the food sitting in the floor where I left it. Nope, not happening. I did sit up and reach for the water bottle. Water at least didn't cause more pain or violent upchucking. It didn't help with the thirst, but it did help with the cottonmouth.

"Hello?" I called out a few minutes later. "Neely, are you here?"

A few people answered me, but I didn't hear my friend's voice amongst them. Where had they taken her? Was she still alive?

Of course she was. I had to believe that. She was just in another house like this one, scared and trapped. Wondering where I was and trying to come up with an escape plan.

Only I'm not sure she could come up with an escape plan. Neely always got us into trouble and I was the one who rescued us. I'd be the one plotting our run for it and she'd be there as emotional support. I really hoped she was okay, but I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. A really bad feeling.

The door opened and Bastien came in. Another man walked over to the door the woman had come from earlier and knocked. This time she emerged with a large box. I couldn't tell what was in it. She left it beside Bastien, though, and walked back through the door. I heard the door lock after her.

"Ladies." He glanced at each of our cells, his eyes meeting mine briefly. I thought I saw a flash of something in them like concern, but it was there and gone so fast I couldn't be sure.

I snorted. I highly doubted he'd be concerned about me considering he was the reason I was sitting here in the first place. His eyes flicked back to me, almost like he'd heard me snort, but that wasn't possible. It had been too low and he was too far away.

"I hope you all were able to at least get some rest. The food was an unfortunate but necessary lesson."

Lesson?

"You can no longer stomach actual food until your thirst has been quenched and even then, food will still make you nauseous."

What was he going on about? He wasn't making sense.

He reached into the box and pulled out a bag of dark red liquid. "This is the only thing you need concern yourselves with."

"Wha...what is that?" The poor girl was so frightened she stuttered.

"It's blood."

Blood?

He expected us to drink blood?

"No." My neighbor finally got a bit of backbone. "I won't drink blood."

"Then you'll starve until you waste away to almost nothing, but you won't die. You'll remain in in that withered body in a state of perpetual thirst."

"You're crazy."

He smiled and I drew back, a shocked gasp falling from my lips. His teeth...

"That's right ladies," he continued on as if we weren't all freaking out over seeing his very long, very sharp incisors. "You were all turned into vampires to serve the master of this city."

I blinked.

And blinked again.

His teeth were still there on display.

A blood bag still gripped in one hand.

Was he seriously saying we'd been turned into vampires?

But how? No one bit me. Unless it was after we'd been knocked out? I reached up and felt around for bite marks, but there were none. He had to be messing with us. Had to be.