Blood and Ballet (PREVIEW ONLY)

Chapter 3 - Prisoners

The day I decided to give up dancing was one of the longest and hardest in my life. I pondered it for weeks. With each passing moment of consideration, a little more of me died.

Some decisions are strengthening, like when you make positive steps towards becoming more responsible or take the higher road in a tough situation. Doing what is right will always make you a stronger person, even if it hurts. Other choices can destroy you. I'm talking about the ones that make you feel so guilty inside, it appears you might wither and die.

It took time and many long train rides through the European countryside, but after a while I realized that giving up ballet was the right choice. After getting kidnapped, I was faced with a different choice, and this one made the previous look like cake. Just like the last, I felt a small part of me wither.

After Caius left me with an ultimatum, he relocated me to a new room. Anghor Manor, he called his abode. Although he got the definition of manor wrong, because it was very nearly a castle.

When he showed me to my bedroom suite, he told me in his rich accent, "These are to be your accommodations for all of eternity. Unless you decide to die before eternity comes to pass." He said this with a sadistic grin like he was Dracula, and my life merely a game.

I didn't find anything funny about his rude joke. Just before leaving me on my own, he told me that I was permitted free range of the manor. "Do not try to leave; you will find the doors secured."

The first day I was too frightened to venture beyond my new haven, but eventually hunger drove me out. I was never told where I would find the kitchen, so I began an exploration of Anghor Manor that lasted many days. I found the kitchen of course, but I also stumbled across much more.

Caius was correct: every single door and window to the outside world was hardwired into the high-tech alarm system. Each had its own keypad, and without the code, wouldn't open. After trying to guess the code several times, triggering the alarm, I admitted defeat.

Not long after I set off the alarms, I tried to escape through other means. There were computers around the manor, but every single laptop computer was locked with a password. There were no phones since these vamps all used cell phones of their own. The security seemed a bit extreme. I couldn't understand why they'd gone to such great lengths against me, that is, until I realized I wasn't the only prisoner here.

I didn't see them at first—the other girls. Once I discovered them, I figured out where all my clothes had come from. It was quite a shock the day I stumbled across Adel. Eventually, she became my first true friend in what I began to consider a gilded cage.

"You don't look like a vampire. Did they take you too?" I asked when I discovered her in the hallway outside my room. She didn't speak great English, but yes, they'd taken her too. After a long conversation, mostly whispered, I learned that she and the other girls were never given the option I was, to become a vampire or die. Why was that?

When she heard my fate, the choice I'd been given, her eyes grew wide before she turned and left me standing in the shadowy hall. It wasn't exactly the reassurance I was looking for. All I could think was, becoming a vampire was a horrible act to be avoided, so I had every intention of doing so.

Felix still visited me daily. I told you I was growing on him. In time, I began to see him as less of an enemy. I also came to understand why his gaze was so hungry: he was a vampire and I, a human.

I read in some stories that Vampires were seductively good looking. I found that to be true. Every male and female vamp I'd seen was jaw dropping good looking. So much for creepy Dracula and red eyes.