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TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR: MENTIONS OF PAST ABUSE, PTSD EPISODE, PANIC ATTACK
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I'D FOUND ALEC IN HIS ROOM AFTER THE ALARM STARTED BLARING, DAZED AND CONFUSED AS TO WHY HE WAS THERE.
Never before in my life had I heard an alarm like this. Even AMBER Alerts didn't terrify me like this one. It was my first order of business to find Jane and Alec, though, as they were still kids and needed some protection despite their guard status.
He was on his bed, Alec. There was a little part of me that knew what had been done, but I just didn't want to believe it and shoved the feeling down.
"Alec, where is your sister?" I asked him, hoping that he would have some idea as to where Jane was. "You have to tell me where she is so we know that she's safe, okay?"
His eyes were dead, so blank and off. Every theory on uncanny valley could be applied to humans and near-human things, but I felt it. This is what uncanny valley felt like in a vampire, seeing one of your own not right. It was him, of course, but his eyes, his facial expressions, they didn't match up with the shy boy I'd played Air Hockey and Wii with in the Rec Room.
"What's going on?" He asked as if suddenly snapping out of his trancelike state. "Why is the alarm going off? What happened?"
I didn't know, but we were in on the lower floors, the closest to the entrance. It would be stupid for us to go out and figure out what had happened. Nobody had sent a message saying what exactly made a member trigger the alarm.
"Alec. do they ever trigger the alarm by accident?" I asked, hoping desperately that the answer would be yes and just like my time in school, someone was pulling a prank. They'd be accosted for it, but it would be better then the alternative of being in real, tangible danger.
To my dismay Alec shook his head. "Never."
God, that meant we were stuck in his room, not knowing where people were. I listened in to the outside, hearing plenty of vampires shuffling around and screaming at one another. Seasoned Guards, ones I knew were older than the country I wash born in, sprinted around inside, checking for whatever had caused the alarm.
It was Renata who opened up the door and slammed it behind her, beginning to move Alec's dresser in front of the entrance.
"Alec, good, you're in here. Your sister is upstairs." Renata lifted the dresser as if it were a feather before her eyes turned to me. "I'm expected to guard you from now on, River, someone has compromised the castle."
"The whole castle?" Alec asked in disbelief. "Who could get inside?"
"We don't know who or what or when or where exactly." Renata picked up more things to place in front of the door. There were thankfully no windows in this room, but if the wall was taken down, it lead straight into the street. "It's daylight, we can't get out."
