The Human Condition

Twelve

The sun had set some hours ago and waking up if I thought my sleep from the night before had been restful this one was something else entirely. I knew Ryan was a deep sleeper and I managed to stand from the bed before my absence was noticed and he rolled over, lazily opening one eye as the satisfaction was felt equally between us.

"I hope you're not planning on running" His amusement was clear, certain that I would be unable to get away from this place.

"Not at all" It was a lie but he didn't need to know that and right now I had no intention of it either. Walking into the bathroom I looked back to see he was again sleeping and went about washing my face before taking a moment to look at myself. I appeared as a shadow, a pale outline in the darkness of the room. Looking closer I gingerly ran a finger over my lips that were full and swollen from the assault they had just endured and the smile appeared involuntarily.

But this changed nothing.

Going back to the bedroom I dressed quickly, grabbing the Watchers boots I headed out into the kitchen surprised to find the remains of Valerie gone and the kitchen cleaned. I became instantly alert; I had not looked around properly and could I really have missed something vital like another resident or was there a guard outside the door? There was no sign of anyone and not wanting to waste the chance to get away, I went over to the windows and tried to open the door as quietly as I could.

Now I planned on escaping.

Looking down from the tiny balcony edge Andre had done as I asked and waving I got Owens attention from beside the Night Watcher van parked in the street. I had no idea what he had planned but clearly the curtains Andre and Valerie had set up for my fake escape hadn't been missed by him from where I had left them to hang down the building. But clearly he did have a plan and wolf whistle sounded into the night followed by the shrill whoosh of cord sounded from behind me and turning Terry was jumping down from the roof.

"Come on Lucy" He whispered, extending his hand I didn't hesitate it taking it as held attached me to his harness and we were hoisted upwards onto the roof. Cam and another I did not know went about pulling up the rope as they all moved efficiently like they were on some well thought out military style operation.

"What now?" I had no idea what was next, I only told Owen where I was, knowing he would know what to do. The other thing I had asked was for Mandy and my parents to be taken somewhere safe so since he was here, I prayed that had been done too.

"You come with me" Luke emerged from behind the air conditioning unit but something felt off from the low tones he spoke with and how his eyes never reached mine. He was usually full of confidence, and that was missing so all I could think of was my first rule, you can never trust a vampire.

"No"

"What?" Cam asked confused, "But he's like your friend"

"I'm not going to make assumptions over any of this family bullshit" I threw his own words back at him and he looked a little impressed.

"I told you that you were a smart girl, and to confident" He teased; stopping his approach he lost the playful attitude. "We leave now or do you sentence more to death?"

He looked between the three with us; it was a never-ending game, keeping the balance of a life for a life and he knew he had won when I nodded and walked towards him. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe" I doubted that but followed him anyway, I didn't really have much choice. We took the stairwell on the other side of the building and seeing his bike I reluctantly got on behind him. To my surprise we ended up at the Corner Mile, which was still crowded even in the early hours of Sunday morning.