Hidden

Chapter Thirty-two: Cassidy

I felt hungry when I woke up. How long had I been out for? I ate breakfast this morning; if it is still Monday. The last thing I remembered before passing out was a sharp pain in my left shoulder. Like something had stabbed me. It still hurt. I found the spot where the needle was jabbed in as I lay on the floor. I winced at the tenderness of it. A bruise would form soon.

I forced myself up. It didn't take long to realize that I was surrounded by thick iron bars. Baffled, I immediately dashed toward them, clenching the bars with my hands.

Bad decision.

Pain seared my hands as I felt the skin burn intensively. I yelped and tore my hands from the metal. Was it holy water? If it was (and I'm pretty sure it was) I would sure to have bleeding wounds in minutes. Great.

My eyes widened when they landed on a person way too recognizable to mistake for someone else. He stood against the wall over a passed out, bleeding Drew, an evil grin plastered on his face as he fiddled with a pen-like object. It was a tube with a dark green liquid inside and a sharp needle point at the end. It was David. David! He'd taken me, put me in this cage. To think, he'd just saved my life days before and now he had me caged in like some science experiment.

He looked at me with red eyes. A hunter eyes; evil. "Oh, you're awake," he said. His condescending tone burned my ears.

"David! What are you doing? Let me out!" I grabbed a hold of the bars, and was quickly reminded by the excruciating pain they caused me. I cursed.

He chuckled lightly. "Don't bother trying to break free. Because trust me, you can't." He held the small tube out in front of him and I watched as it turned into a pen. He stuffed it into his pocket. "I'm afraid that I have some business to take care of," he said with a mischievous smirk. "Please, don't get to rowdy."

...

I was going absolutely crazy. It didn't matter how painful the burns had been, I always somehow found myself grasping the devil's bars and deeply regretting it after. I was starving and impatiently waiting for Rosie to awake wasn't helping.

I hoped and prayed that Brandon had somehow seen David take me---or even take Rosie. David had struck me with the needle only minutes after the teacher had scolded us for not being in class. Maybe, just maybe he'd seen him take me.

My head whipped toward Rosie's body. I could only see her legs because the rest of her body was blocked off by a wall. I heard her cry out but David's punch cut her off. I screamed at him and grabbed onto the medal bars once again, which caused me to scream again in pain.

My gaze was fixed on David as he pulled Drew's bleeding body toward the cage.

Blood.

The boy looked half-dead with his blood-stained cloths and open cuts, but the scarlet liquid seemed to be the only thing that I saw. But then I remembered as his body inched closer to me. Human blood. It was human blood. I didn't drink human blood. But I was so hungry. Maybe just one gulp would be okay. I couldn't even believe I was considering drinking human blood. That would be totally against my family values. But again, I was so hungry.

My eyes were captured by the crimson liquid as David opened the cage. In just seconds Drew's body would be inside. My heart threatened to beat out of my chest, my pulse was on fire. The body was in the cage; the delicious blood. The door shut.

The next few seconds were a blur; but somehow my teeth had bitten into Drew's neck. And the blood tasted good. I had no control. I was focused on one thing only and that was feeding on Drew's blood. I was unaware of what David was doing, if he was hurting Rosie or not. It felt as if I was in another world.

But I still saw them. I saw a new face too. At least new to the room. I saw Brandon's face as he stood in the doorway, eyes wide and face stunned. But my mind was only on the blood.