Chapter 180Other Eyes 7 - A New Thirst

No one had talked to us at all. Only once did we see the little opening used to watch in, not long after we dropped in. They turned off the light after that, leaving us in the darkness that was complete after closing the opening in the door. No light at all from any corner.

The darkness...

Negating time...

Only the darkness...

Swallowing us whole...

Days must have passed, as our bodies with their more innate sense of time made us sleep regularly. By our sleep I counted only two days, but somehow it was hard to hold on to that thought. Thoughts felt so slippery here, getting away everytime you blinked or were distracted. Holding on to a thought here was like trying to hold on to a thousand marbles all at once.

And I was losing mine.

Valerie was doing much better than me. She tried to talk to me now and again, telling stories or jokes, asking me what I was seeing or trying riddles, anything to keep me together. Even though we'd just drank before we got here, I knew she could be without blood for a few days without feeling the thirst. But I...

I was starting to feel it.

The true thirst.

The fierce, unquenchable, undefeatable, undeniable thirst.

The thirst for blood that would not be denied.

The smells were driving me crazy. The window was pretty well closed, it wasn't from outside. And it wasn't constant, a constant smell would dull my senses and be ignored after a while. But the door closed off light, but not smell. The room behind the door was left empty, but beyond that, getting sharper over the dark time, people were sometimes present.

I could smell it all, strengthened by my thirst, strengthened by my vampiric senses.

Their sweat.

Their blood.

Too much...

Every time my thoughts wavered, I longed for them as one can long for a drink in the desert.

And, to my disgust, I knew I wanted to finish the drink. To drink all of them dry, feel their thoughts, their fears, their prides, their shame. Valerie told me, a long time ago, that with the last drops came almost everything a person was. You didn't just suck their life, you sucked their being. But you didn't take it all in naturally. You had to pay attention, to be aware of what you were doing.

My head felt as if it was filled with water, under pressure. My body felt a little better, if weak. Though I somehow knew that I could crush bone beneath my fingers when I needed to. The difference between my current strength and weakness were as distant from me as the light from this room.

Not too far, but completely out of my reach.

Why?

Why did they keep us here?

Blood.

Smells.

Sounds.

Why didn't they talk to us? Communicate? Demand?

How much longer would I be able to hold on to my sanity, not to become the beast I feared so much. What frightened me most of all was that I might like it, enjoy is to much I would become like him... The one I had hated and loved. I didn't want to become like him!

I..

How long...

How long would this go on?

How much longer would I last?