As requested, Katie had been taken out of her cell, and both Jim and Vincent along with her were on their way back to the castle. It was the first time Katie had left the cell and was wide awake. So turning head around, she took everything in, seeing the fantastic site.
Everything around them looked as if it had been made from the Victorian era. Yet, somehow there were signs of modern technology being used in certain places. A cashless society, kids playing with virtual machines and such, and they even had automated delivery systems. Vehicles that seemed to be moving without the need of any help from outsiders.
“Where the hell am I?” Katie asked.
“Shut up, don’t you talk to him like that!” Jim snapped at the girl, and it looked like he was about to hit her at the back of the head as a reminder, but Vincent had turned around before he could do so, and his eyes, he could read his eyes…They were telling him to stop.
“You don’t need to know,” Vincent said, as they continued on walking towards the castle.
It was clear to her that this man was the one in charge, and he had been the organiser of the whole thing at the nightclub. Perhaps he was even the reason for the boys who had gone missing earlier as well. The question was, just what was about to happen to her and the rest of them.
When she had come to, they were walking through the hallways of the prison, and she had seen things she only imagined in her nightmares, or on the movie screen.
‘Is this hell?’ She thought. If she had died and gone to such a place, she definitely would have believed it.
Finally arriving at the castle, they had gone to his research lab immediately, and Jim, as usual, was kept out of it. So the only ones in the room were both Katie and Vincent. She hadn’t been tied up or anything, and simply brought along.
‘Are they not worried I will try to escape?’ She thought.
Not saying a word, Vincent got straight to work, wrapping a plastic tube around the top of her bicep and inserting a needle taking some of her blood. Katie wanted to move, she wanted to reject, but when there two eyes had met, she was frozen in place.
Her body wasn’t listening to her, and she felt like she could do nothing.
Katie remained seated on a stool that was placed in the corner of the room, and Vincent, with his new blood, looked happy. As if he could make great progress. He continued to work and work, and finally, the silence was broken with a question.
“What are you doing with my blood?” Katie asked. She knew she wouldn’t get an answer of where they were or what they had seen, but maybe he would have answered her on this.
“I’m trying to create a blood substitute for us. That way, we no longer need to rely on your kind. Maybe we can even move planets.” Vincent said without moving his head from his work.
‘Move planets?’ Katie thought the man was mad. The humans hadn’t even been able to step foot on Mars yet, but here he was talking about moving to another planet. Although there was something else that he had said that worried her, the words your kind.
Seeing how engrossed Vincent was in his work, Katie thought she needed to do something to get out of here. The images of those creatures kept popping in her head, and she was sure this wasn’t a safe place. Looking to her right, there was a cabinet that was full of large glass flasks and beakers.
Slowly, she started to lean over, and out from the cabinet she grabbed a large glass container and kept it behind her, and all she did now was wait.
After the first blood sample was taken, Vincent was ready to take another. When he walked over to Katie, he noticed that the cabinet was open. Not to mention he could hear her moving about before.
Still, he decided to continue walking forward as if he knew nothing, and when he had gotten close enough. From behind her back, she swung the glass container as hard as she could hitting Vincent right on the face.
A loud smash was heard, but Vincent hadn’t even flinched, nor did his head move. The container was no more as it had shattered with the impact. When looking at him, she could see several cuts that had been made across his handsome face.
However, a few seconds later, and in front of her very eyes, those wounds started to heal at a pace that she could see. Not knowing what else to do, she decided to run to the door.
It was right there in front of her, with nothing blocking her way, if she could somehow make it, maybe she could escape. She didn’t really know what she was thinking, but she just wanted to leave.
But then, suddenly Vicent appeared directly in front of the door as if he had teleported. “There is a reason why I felt no need to tie you up,” Vincent said.
In her hopeless situation like this, Katie felt like the only thing she could do was smile.
After that incident, Katie was returned to her cell with the rest of them, and in her own cell was Gavin as well. Vicent went away back to his room, and most of the vampires would now sleep as the sun started to rise.
Of course, the prison cell was mostly covered, so the sun hardly shone inside in the first place.
“Are you okay, did they do anything strange to you?” Gavin asked. Gavin was Katie’s partner, and he had also been taken to the vampire settlement.
“I’m fine…More than I should be.” She thought as she felt like she had gotten off lightly. At any point and time, she knew the man was able to kill her but had chosen not to.
“What about you, did anything happen here?” She asked.
“They seem to be selecting some people at random. At first, someone came over, and they took a bit of blood from everyone.” Gavin lifted his arm showing the small mark. “It was strange, it was like we couldn’t do anything to fight back, as if our minds were forced to do what they had said.”
“But then after, a couple of strange-looking vampires game in, I saw them talking to the guards. They then looked at us all…like we were some type of animal in a zoo and eventually, the vampire raised their hands pointing, and they were picked off somewhere. I thought the same thing had happened to you, but you’re the first one to have returned.”
They waited that night for the other people to return that Gavin was talking about. Still, unlike with Katie, those two people never did return, and this just made it even harder for them to get to sleep that night.
Each day they were fed food and water like normal, and someone would come over to take their blood every two or so days, nothing was said, and they weren’t informed of anything.
As for Vincent, he too would come every day and ask for Katie. It was the same routine, he would take her to his lab, and they would talk for a bit. Without fail, she would try to escape in some elaborate way, but it never worked.
Through their conversation, Katie found out that they were vampires. As time went by, Vincent started to be more honest with her. He saw no reason to hide it. She would be here for the rest of her life anyway until she was no longer of any use to them.
Eventually, Katie saw no need to try to escape anymore. It felt useless but more so than that, she was looking forward to her talks she would have with Vincent. Unlike the others, they were never taken out of the cell unless it was for blood or to be cleaned up and such.
But, She was able to go outside and experience the settlement. She never saw the sun again but she now understood why.
However, one day something had changed. Two well-dressed vampires had appeared, and Gavin recognised them straight away. They were the vampires that had come during the first day, while Katie was away with Vincent.
These vampires talked to the guards once more, and there seemed to be a slight exchange of something between their hands. Unsure what it was, but Gavin noticed it was bright red in colour and crystal-like.
The two men went cell by cell, inspecting and looking at all of the humans. “Why do all of their eyes look incredibly dull and weak.” The vampire said. “I can’t have one dying on me that quickly like the last one.”
“Perhaps, but you must also remember that human bodies are several times weaker than vampires, you have to control your strength.”
Eventually, the two vampires had reached the cell that Katie and Gavin were in, and the vampires had spotted her. A human beauty who still had a fire in their eyes. Not looking dead like the others.
“Oh, she is a nice one, indeed. I’ll take her.” The vampire said.
The cell doors were open, and Katie was left with two unknown vampires. For the first time, she was being taken away, and it wasn’t by Vincent.
*****
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