-Sophia xoxo

My veins pound wildly against the inside of my skull. My face feels otherwise numb. I can't think - I can't remember - I don't know if I even want to remember. Not if the past left me in this state. My whole body is aching and I move against the hard surface underneath me, but something holds me still. I wrestle against something cold and metallic and bump my wrists against it.

The bright light bores right into my eyes and seems to burn holes in my retina, and for several seconds black spots appear in my vision, leading me to the conclusion that I'm blind. I rattle uncontrollably until my eyes adjust to the luminous space around me. I find myself in a completely white room: white tiles cover the floor, blank plastered walls and white foreign beeping machines are the only present 'decoration' in the room. It all looks too sterile to seem familiar, without any personality or indication as to where I might be. 

I look downwards where several metallic-looking cuffs are binding me painfully to the hard rock surface. My body is covered in a plain sheet thrown neatly over me, leaving no view of the rest of me besides my neck and face. For a moment I wonder if I don't actually have a body anymore and I'm somehow dreaming from still living brain cells in my dead body. Because I'm supposed to be dead. Aren't I?

"Enjoying your stay?"

My heart jolts back with surprise when the familiar voice fills my ears and sends a painful ringing through my head. With my hands strapped beside me, the only thing I can do to endure it is squeeze my eyes shut and bite back the excruciating agony the sound gives me. Every part of me feels so sensitive, and I'm worried that my ears might go deaf from those simple words. Suddenly, a hard hand grips my chin in a forceful manner and I see his face - that face- in the lines between my half-shut eyes.

"When I ask you a question," he hisses, anger evident in his tone, "I expect an answer."

I remain impassive as he grips harder, shove the pain to the back of my mind and fix him straight in the eyes.

"Hello, Liam." Liam's face contorts into surprise before he sends his hand flying across my face, and I feel the impulse of the slap throbbing painfully on my cheek.

"Don't you dare. Not after what you did to my father. You are lucky to be alive." He retorts, turning his back to me and walking towards a monitoring machine. He presses some buttons and turns a handle and a sharp sting surfaces in my left arm. I crane my neck at an awkward angle and see the translucent liquid flowing through the nearly-invisible tube that bores into my arm and stretches out towards a big sort-of-plasticky looking container. The lid is sealed but the glass around it leaves it open to view to the same liquid draining little by little into my body.

I chuckle humorlessly and he sends me a surprised glance, arching a perfect eyebrow. "I doubt that death is much worse than this." I see his jaw twitch and I lay my head back, fixating my eyes on a random spot in the bright hospital-like light.

If it wasn't a crucial life or death situation I would characterize the stretching silence between us as awkward. Even more awkward than the time when he broke into my bathroom and saw me in a towel. The only thing that was covering my body. Ironically, the sheet across me is serving as the same purpose, the only difference being that I can't move it or tighten it to my preference. A sudden and unwanted blush threatens to creep up and I feel my cheeks turn a million shades pinker at the thought. 

"Are you going to kill me?" The question seems weirdly natural on my tongue, as if it has been repeated several times in my mind without my knowledge. He looks puzzled for a moment before he seems to realise something. "Of course you were put out. Should have fired those bastards anyway..." He mutters and I glare at him.

"Excuse me?" He shoots me an annoyed look. I press on further, "What's going on?"

He nods towards the opposite wall. I squint my eyes in the bright light and hold back a jump when a glass wall slowly begins to appear. Not that I could have moved much anyway. Behind the glass are several seats and tables. I squint my eyes further and notice the faint outlines of numerous people in white lab coats. Their heads are bent down towards some tactile-seeming things that look like notepads and they look over at us from time to time, before tapping something down again on the little screens.

I feel like a lab rat being examined.

And that's exactly what I think I am.

"You were put out on your way here." He says simply, fixing me intently, until the point where it becomes really uncomfortable. "Not that easy since your little friend was extremely hard to negotiate with." He mutters silently, but loud enough for me to hear.

"What was that?" I ask, trying my best to control the anger rising little by little in my voice.

He looks at me with amusement. "Do you love him?"

"Excuse me?" I reply, feigning ignorance, but the nervousness is sure to be clear in my tone by now, as the thought of Jay abandoning me rises to the surface of my mind. But he wouldn't do that - would he?

"Ah - so you do." He concludes and for a moment I'm sure that his eyes harden before they are replaced with the same careless glint. "Too bad that he put up so much of a fight. Would have been nice to see him again before -" he finishes, letting the rest of the sentence linger between us.

My body begins to shake violently and I send him the most venomous glare I can muster. "What did you do to him?"

He chuckles. "You shouldn't be preoccupied of what we did to him. More like where he is now."

My silence serves as the only answer. He shrugs and walks towards the glass wall, but the hatred that I feel for him, for this place, is already consuming me completely. He throws open a little hatch situated in the wall and says something quietly to an elderly-looking woman. She nods briefly and presents some sort of futuristic touch screen that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, mutters a word before he heads back in my direction.

I only have time to see the woman roll her fingers across the screen before my whole body stiffens and I feel a razor-like sting that seems to pass into my skin and all the way through my arm. I look down towards my left arm just as Liam takes out the tube. The end of it has a fine set of needles around the edge and a huge one in the middle. He wipes it off quickly and sets it on the tray beside me. On my skin is the perfect form of the needles from the tube. I bounce my head back on the 'bed' and bite back the pang of the wound.

"Don't take it too personally." He shortly declares. I raise an eyebrow and chuckle without meaning to.

"What? Being abducted from my date and stabbed in the arm? Don't worry. No hard feelings." I finish. He notices my sarcasm and flashes me a mocking grin.

-It isn't like your date finished that well anyway." My eyes widened with horror and realisation. How could I forget? Jay bit me. He bit me. Again! "You should think about this as a favor. We practically saved your life."

-Who's we?" I choke out, lost of words from the betrayal that I feel.

-Hunters. I'm their leader now. You did kill my father after all." I glance at him hesitantly but there's no anger, no hatred dominant in his eyes. Only the same arrogant attitude.

-Where are we?

-You have many questions don't you?

-I'm allowed.

-I didn't say you weren't.

-Good then.

-Good!" He snaps back and I grin, feeling the satisfaction from my annoying self cover up the brief moment of sadness at the thought of my so-called beloved.

-We're underground." He just says and his tone leaves no space for anymore questions.

...°...

"Let me out!" I roar, banging against the bars. They are made of an unknown material, specially designed to keep out vampires. Or in my case, keep them in.

-You'd like that wouldn't you?" The hunter spits out. I snarl and bare my fangs, seeing the fear present in his look for just a second before his same attitude is back. "Shouldn't I just let your little girlfriend in here so you can bite her some more?"

Suddenly, with all the strength I have, I charge into the bars and detach the chains holding me from the wall. They were supposed to be vampire-resistant. But the thought of Emma somewhere dangerous, vulnerable, scared and alone enrages me.

"I will kill you." I seethe, venom dropping from every word. 

-They'll kill me if I let you out anyway. So I'd rather not take my chances thank you very much." He defends but I keep the same attacking position, glaring at him right in the eyes.

-Oh..." I chuckle, walking around the cell in fake-thoughtfulness. "Your death will be so much more painful if you don't."

He just sighs and slumps back down on the single chair in the dimly-lit room, fanning himself lazily from the stifling heat occupying the small area. "You won't want her that much more after the transformation anyway. In fact, you'll both be disgusted by each other." His answer suddenly sparks my interest and something dark coils inside of me at the thought of what they're doing to Emma. He chuckles to himself at his own little inside-joke. 

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I growl, gripping the bars hardly until my knuckles have turned completely white. He looks surprised for a moment, but that surprise is quickly replaced by a smug look on his face.

"Oh... but you see, fang-face... after the transformation, your dear friend will be one of us." He flashes me a crooked smile full of hatred. "A hunter."