she replies, and I can hear the affection in her voice. “I was the first one in my family to go to university, and I wanted to get a good job, show my brothers they could do it. My mum died a few years back from cancer, and she so desperately wanted me to make a difference in the world. So I was going to be a social worker, help anyone I could. Now...”
“You will get back to university,” I firmly reply, though I have no way to make that happen, but it doesn’t harm anyone to hope. Hope might be what gets us through this. She is a strong person, I can tell from her voice alone. “Just like I will find my brother and somehow escape whatever these vampires want with us. Did you hear them say anything that might give us a clue?”
“Yes...,” she admits, but that fear is back in her voice. “They said something about auctions and food. I think they are going to sell us to other vampires.”
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath, and I close my eyes, resting my head back. “I’m not being some vamp’s long-term snack, that’s for sure.”
Ann doesn’t reply to me, not that I blame her, as the mood is sour at best now. I stare up at the top of the ceiling, through slight gaps in the panels of wood, and I can make out the moon and stars in the sky. I shiver from the cold as my eyes drift shut, and sleep soon lulls me into a false sense of safety.
“Time to get them up!” I hear a man bellow outside the room we are in, many days later from when we were taken. The cold has well and truly seeped into my bones, and I’m clueless how Ann and I are still alive and not dead from frostbite. Ann mentioned that the blood taste in our mouths might mean they gave us vampire blood, and perhaps it is somehow keeping us alive and healthy. I prefer not to overthink on that subject. Other than throwing bottled water and stale bread at us, this is the first time we are actually going to leave the room, by the sounds of it. A part of me is excited as much as I am terrified. The ship is still rocking slightly, but it seems less harsh now, and I wonder if we are anchored somewhere.
The door swings open, and a bulky man with green eyes, dark tanned skin, and a mixture of tattoos all up his chest and arms looks in at us with a flashlight, the light filling the room. The rapid change in light makes my eyes water and sting to hold open, but I force myself to. His clothes are old fashioned and remind me of what a pirate in a fairy-tale book might wear, and he looks between the other girls and me. Getting a good look at my new friend, I see she does have long dark brown hair and slightly tanned skin with tattoos down her arms from her shoulders. With only cut-off denim jeans and a white tank top that is covered in her blood, she must be as freezing as me. I hear dozens of other footsteps nearby, more doors opening, and the distant sound of the ocean waves as Ann’s wide brown eyes fall on me before we both look at the vamp, who lets out a long sigh.
“Ladies don’t like to wear much clothing anymore, do they? Not like in my time, with the big dresses,” he states, disgust and pity in his voice. He lowers the flashlight in his hand.
What century are these vamps from?
The man doesn’t say another word as he eventually walks in and goes to Ann first. Even in the darkness, which I’m now realising these vamps must be able to see in, I hear Ann’s relief as the man undoes the cuffs, and they fall to the floor. I can’t wait to get mine off; they are digging harshly into the skin on my wrists, and I think they are bleeding a little bit.
“Behave or you will regret it,” the man warns, his accent very unfamiliar to me the more he talks. It almost sounds Scottish, but it’s not, and I’m unsure where I’ve heard it before. Ann and I don’t reply to that threat, mostly because what can you say?
I’m hardly going to enthusiastically say yes and be a good little girl,