Something burns. Like an itch. But I can't scratch it, I can't even move. I can't feel my eyes, and the air around me is dirt, like breathing in dust and grit. Maybe if I make a sound someone will hear and wake me up, maybe I will hear it and realise I'm asleep. But there is no air, there is no throat, no eye lids, no sight. Wherever I am, it's absolute darkness, and the burning is growing stronger. I want to reach out, to observe what is happening, to feel anything in the blackness. But there's nothing. I don't feel anything except the growing burn all over my body, as if I'm being dissolved from existence, like I'm a memory in someone's mind. Is this compulsion? Am I a memory disappearing forever? Or am I being remembered right now? I'm here, don't let me go! Don't you dare forget! You have to remember!
Mina!
"She isn't why you're doing this! You miss them, don't you."
"Jules, that's ridiculous, this is all I've ever wanted! Starting a family with you, with everything your success has afforded us, there is no better life! But that little girl in there is not going to pay the price for my past."
"Our past!"
"Jules, it is catching up to us too quickly to escape, it needs to be handled now."
"Then let's leave! We can leave everything behind, it doesn't matter."
"Don't you get it?!"
"Nick..."
"As long as I'm here, she'll never be safe! I have to go and fix this before we can't go back! Do you understand? I can't stay with you..."
"Nick, please... I don't know what I'll do without you...."
"I know... I feel it too. I'm so sorry, baby, but I need to fix this..."
"Nick..."
A door closes and sobs spill over it.
"Nick....NICK!"
I choke awake, as if I'd been holding my breath for hours. What a strange dream... and even now I can't entirely remember it. I think back, there was a woman's voice... and a man's...and they were arguing then one of them left. I shake my head, I have more pressing things to worry about... Like how I can enlist the help of Covas, I can feel his arm draped over me, a protective gesture but an empty one none the less. I'm on my own in this. I've tried to make him understand my position, to show him that my life, a human life, is worth saving. I refuse to let myself become some sort of siren broodmare for them to exploit, I'm getting out of here. Covas stirs next to me, his patterns of waking and sleeping look so similar to mine, he could almost be human.
"Mina... how are you feeling this evening?" Even after being here over a month, I still struggle with the concept of waking up in the evening.
"I had a strange dream..."
"About?" Wait... I just recalled something...The man in my dream had called the woman, 'Jules', and there was something very familiar about that name. Was the dream about running away?
"Just had a dream about my human life."
"Mina..."
"Ye I know, I can't go back." But I will.
"Time to go, my dear!" A deep authoritative voice sounds from outside the door, I look back to Covas who seems to wince at his words just as I had.
"Give us five minutes to get her ready." I can physically feel the frustration boiling behind Covas' words. I hear a faint huff behind the door in response. "Mina, get into something conservative, high-necked with a low hem, you can't have too much skin showing today."
YOU ARE READING
The Blood Bank
吸血鬼~ He leans down and brings his lips to my ear, his breath brushing against my skin, causing havoc to my heartbeat. My eyes close of their own accord... ~ Mina lives like any other person with a messed up family, she just gets on with her life...
