Lifeline (Chills Fanfic)

10 - Autumn

We reach the library within three minutes of leaving the house. But when we get there, none of the staff have seen or heard from Arlo in a week. So after checking the library, and finding nothing, we head back to the house. As we walk inside, the scent of blood has left and is now replaced with the chill of a frozen sun.

Instantly, I step back, bumping into Dylan on accident as I do. My hand hurts in response to the colder-than-death wind that wraps around me and freezes my lungs. Dylan's hands wrap gently but firmly around my arms and I nearly fall down from the force of cold air.

"You okay?" Emma asks me.

I blink up at her as she walks past us and closes the door. She winces in pain as she touches the cold doorknob.

"Emma, what about Soren and Darwin and the girl?" Dylan asks.

Emma's eyes widen and she turns, throwing open the door and running into the house. Dylan swears and looks down at me. "You okay, Autumn?"

I nod.

"Good." He brushes past me and runs into the house after Emma, vanishing in the fog that fills the rooms of the house now. I shake my head. My friends are insane. I just want to remember that when I run in after them, the cold stinging my eyes and lungs and burning my skin.

"Did you know that some Cryo Vampires are able to survive beneath snow and they wait beneath it to kill their prey? Haha, I guess none of you are that kind of vampire."

I look up as the man belonging to that eerie, unfamiliar voice steps out of the mist clouding the rooms up. I stop and stare at him as he approaches, not wanting to open my mouth and make the air scorch my lungs.

"Ah, you must be the infamous Autumn," he says.

"Who are you?" I ask, not caring about the sting of the cold air. He smiles darkly, and steps closer so I can see his features.

He has gray eyes and blond hair slicked back, and he leers at me, pretty unsettling. I step back away from him, and he smiles darkly.

"You're a perfect vampire specimen ..." he says, more to himself than to me. "But still ..." His gaze flicks up and down me very possessively.

"What are you?" I ask him.

"I'm not a vampire. No, but I'm also not human." He folds his hands im front of him, and I have to wonder how the hell he is not freezing. Is he a demon, like the thing that Dylan had to fight in the burning woods? "Well, it is always fun seeing a young love blossom and grow, and then to take it and shatter it."

"What? What do you mean?" I ask.

He smiles and then spreads his arms out wide and he steps back into the mist around us, and then the mist grows until I can't see anything but white everywhere. And then, it fades, and with it, the cold air fades.

But it is still cold in the house, but I start to walk through the house, and I find Dylan in the kitchen beside Emma, both looking disoriented.

"Hey, are you guys okay?" I ask.

Emma nods. "I think so ..."

"Who was that?"

"Who?" Emma asks.

"He didn't say his name but he had gray eyes and blond hair. He was creepy."

Emma looks at me. "That is who you saw?"

I nod. "Yeah, why?"

She sits down and looks at me. "Did he say anything to you?"

I nod. "He said something about seeing love blossom and then shatter it. Like he'd done before."

She sighs. "Okay. I think I need to tell you what happened and why Arlo left."

"Arlo left?"

"No. I think that man you saw took her. Because she and I were ... a couple. And they took her ... to make our love break. Why? Because he is related to Gabriel, that stalker from before. And I...  I can't handle this."

"We're gonna get her back," Dylan says, his tone darkening. He looks at us. "We can't let this happen to you two, we gotta get her back."

"Arlo and I had a fight, and she left. He capitalized on that and kidnapped her ..." Emma says.

"Hey, it is not your fault, Emma," I say. "Please don't do this to yourself. Okay?"

She nods, but she is still crying. "Okay. Well, at least now I know where I have to go."

"Where we have to go," I say.

"Count me in, I have nothing better to do," Dylan says.

Emma shakes her head. "I couldn't ask you to do that...."

"You aren't. We're here because we want to be," I say.

She smiles a little and then stands up. "Okay. Um, can we get going? I want to get out of here asap."

Dylan and I help her stand up, and then we head down the hall and out of the house, and Emma smiles at me.

"Luckily, we don't have to be up above ground for long, but we do have to go up."

"Where is Arlo being held?" Dylan asks her. "I assume you knew where it was?"

"It's a place called Tamanos. And now, he is holding her there, and I don't know what the hell they're doing to her. But I have to find her. I have to save her..."

"Okay, well, let's get going," Emma says. "We're losing night."