Midnight Falls

19: Arianne

How much longer are we gonna wait here? I ask Victor with a simple thought. I haven’t spoken aloud since we started moving. Part of the agreement. Still, if it got us out of here, I’d do anything. Besides, I don’t really like my voice all that much. Too high for me.

“Come out, girly~” said another very high and childlike voice from about an aisle over. She seemed to be enjoying this a lot more than any of the others. “You too, Vicky.” Despite the situation, I snicker. Victor glares at me, warning me to be quiet and not to mention what she just said at all.

Fine, I won’t. For now. I smirk at him and he rolls his eyes, going back to searching for anyone who would see us if we move. We must have stayed there awhile, because huddled with all the hunting clothes, I felt way too warm. 

Finally, though, he deems our path safe and motions for me to follow. But somethings off about our path. We passed by barbeques and lawn furniture, heading towards the lawnmowers and garden tent. Far from the front door. Victor sensed my confusion and answered as quietly as possible.

“The front is too guarded. As is the back-” he shuts up and it’s a good few minutes before he deems it safe to speak again. “So we go through the side.”

Sounds like a plan, I tell him, matching his smirk. Then his disappears and is replaced by a scowl, his eyes focused on a figure behind me, now fading to golden in a threatening way.

Someone tsks behind me, and I feel the ghostly cold imprint of hands on my shoulders. I knew who it was even before I heard her speak. And it’s still getting warmer in here. Am I just overheating?

“Careful,” the Child Lady spoke quietly. “With a single thought, she’ll be fried to a crisp. Though,” she says as she sniffs me from the bottom of my neck to my ear. I shudder as Victor growls deeper than I’ve ever heard him. It’s weirdly comforting coming from him and in this situation. “She would make an interesting-”

“Don’t you even think about it,” I mutter, trying to scramble out of her grip. The hairs on the back of my neck and my arms stand on end, the air buzzing with electricity. She laughs her stupid, annoying child-like laugh, amused by my attempts to escape. I used a nasty curse word that I heard once, which does nothing but make her laugh more.

“Oh, Akiko will like you.” Victor takes a sharp intake of breath. The name means something.

“You’re not taking her.” 

“Oh, I think I am.” Victor’s eyes widen and I realize he’s reading her mind.

“You’ll have me! I’ll go without a fight! Just let her go back to her brother!” he yells, but I can tell he thinks it’s in vain. It’s a wonder no other vamps come at the sound. But my eyes are starting to water and my throat feels like it’s closing up, so I can’t focus on anything else but their conversation at the moment. Maybe I just don’t see them.

“Kontary saw what this girl could do. She’s just as fast as any vamp; I’m willing to bet she has a power too.” I can’t help myself. I tense under her grip and look at the blurry version of Victor, hoping to all hell that he could hear my silent plea. The girl gasps with feigned surprise, as if she could read my thoughts too. Maybe she can; I don’t know anymore. “And she knows what it is. She’s discovered it.” She sniffs me again. “What is it, I wonder?”

“I-i don’t know wha-” I try to say, but I end up in a coughing fit. My eyes are watering so much more and I feel like I’m about to throw up.

Victor, what’s going on? I yell in my head. I can’t do anything else. Help me! 

“You set fire to the place?!” I faintly hear Victor yell. I think Child Lady shrugs only because she moves slightly. I try to use that movement to get away, but a tiny shock numbs my arms.

“You only have yourself to thank, little one,” she whispers in my ear. Of course. I was the one to pull the alarm. It only makes sense they’d use it to their advantage. “So, I’ll be taking you both in now.”

“Not going to happen,” I hear before a thunderous crack that nearly blows out my eardrums. But in the next moment I’m free. “Run!” 

He doesn’t have to tell me twice.

* * *

I suck in that delicious wet air, butter to my dry throat, lungs, and eyes. I’m just outside the garden tent, plants not burning just yet. Fire is usually slow to spread if there aren’t many flammable things around, but  Walmart is full of them so it’ll be here soon enough. I wanted to run to the crowd, to find Carl, but Victor was still in there. Fire was a weakness of vamp’s, one of the only things that can hurt them along with silver. He saved me, he saved Carl. 

Isn’t there anything I can do? Am I really that useless?

It seems like hours before he comes rushing out, the smoke showing where he was beforehand. He was moving so fast, but I could see him like he was running at a normal speed.

“Are you alright?” he asked me, leaning down and grabbing my shoulders, looking me over, making sure I had no scratches or wounds. When I nodded, still trying to catch my breath (I hadn’t even realized I was breathing heavily), he looked around us. “Where’s Carl?”

“Um, I don’t know,” I mutter, my voice sounding hoarse. The air helped, but my throat was still sore. 

“You didn’t go find him?”

“No. I was worried about you.” Victor seemed surprised at the statement and his face was unreadable. I was surprised when he pulled me into a hug and even more surprised when it felt like he was using all his strength and I was fine. Again, the hug was fairly long.

“We need to go find your brother,” Victor said as he pushed away. He made me give him my hand as we walked to the crowd. 

We searched it up and down, left and right; nothing. Victor and I both asked everyone around if they’d seen a man of the same description of my brother. Nothing. And the few people who did see him all said the same bone chilling thing. 

That he had already walked off with Victor.