Desperate

Chapter 5

At first, Vlad thought the terrified screams were coming from the dream he was having. But when they became more consistent, he jolted awake and instantly changed into his ghost form. He flinched when the scream sounded from next to him and turned to see his daughter with tearful eyes and a reddened face. He glanced at the clock, noticing it had only been an hour since he fed her and put her to bed, so he knew it wasn't feeding time. "Oh, sweetheart," he whispered and picked her up, "it's alright."

She glanced up at him before screaming louder, making him wince then sigh as he remembered she wasn't used to him being in his ghost form. He quickly changed back and rocked her, humming to help calm her down. "Sh, Elizabeth." He brushed his thumb across her cheek and waited until she calmed down a bit before setting her back on the bed. "You're okay."

He quickly checked her diaper, pursing his lips in confusion when he saw she wasn't wet and didn't have an accident. Then what caused her to wake up screaming and on the brink of tears? He laid down next to her and rubbed her tummy, hoping the soothing action was enough to lull her back to sleep, and listened as her cries reduced to hiccups. The only logical answer to his question were nightmares; the reddened face, the terrified look in her eyes; it had to be nightmares. With that assumption in mind, he hummed and continued rubbing her tummy, watching as her hiccups vanished and her eyelids started closing. "Don't worry, sweetheart," he whispered then kissed her forehead gently, letting it linger for a moment before pulling away, "you're safe now."

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Who knew trying to convince a baby into liking a different pacifier would be so difficult? She didn't like the red ones, the blue ones, the purple ones, or even the other green ones!

Vlad sighed in frustration as Elizabeth, who rested in the car seat inside of the basket, threw another pacifier to the side. "Elizabeth, please, choose one; I don't want you sucking on your thumb all the time."

In response, she blinked up at him before placing her thumb in her mouth, making him question if she could actually understand him and chose not to obey him. "Oh come on," he muttered as he rested his hand on his forehead, feeling utterly frustrated that his daughter decided to not obey him at such a young age. "Fine. If that's the way it's going to be." He picked up the one she tossed, put it back, and grabbed a random pacifier then threw it in the basket. "Then I'm choosing your binky for you."

He pushed the cart forward, leaving the pacifier section and heading to the baby clothing aisle. He pulled up to the dresses and picked a sparkly blue one up from the rack. He rose his eyebrows with satisfaction and showed the dress to Elizabeth, who cooed as a smile graced her lips. His eyes softened, and he placed the dress in the basket before picking a few more and heading to the pajamas.

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Once shopping was done, Vlad walked into the hotel room with Elizabeth nestled in his arms and held the door open for the four bellhops as they carried in his shopping bags as well as the car seat. They heaved as soon as they dropped several bags, including the car seat, on the ground before walking out the door and taking the twenty Vlad gave them for their assistance. He shut and locked the door then smirked. "Weaklings," he insulted under his breath before walking over to the bed and laying Elizabeth down on it then began unpacking.

As soon as he finished, he dusted his hands off then took a bottle out from the fridge to feed Elizabeth. Right as he picked her up, his new cellphone he had to replace rang in his pocket. He set the bottle down and readjusted his hold on Elizabeth to carry her in one arm before fishing his pocket for his phone. He pulled it out and flipped it open then placed it up to his ear. "This is Vlad," he answered then bent his neck to the side and scrunched his shoulder as he held the phone between the two, keeping it in place.