Stone Cold

Chapter 8

"Faith."

She could hear someone calling her name from a distance.

"Faith."

Someone was shaking her. She could feel cold hands on her face, tapping her cheeks gently. She tried opening up her eyes but her eyelids felt heavier after every unsuccessful attempt.

"Her eyes moved! Her eyes moved!" Was it Duke?

There was a slapping sound.

"Hey! Why did you hit me?"

"We all have eyes. We can see that genius." That was Claire.

She could put names to those voices now. She tried once again to open her eyes and succeeded this time. The brightness of the room blinded her for a moment. Her hand moved abruptly to shade her eyes from the light.

"God! You're finally awake. You had us worried sick about you."

She peeked through her fingers to find April's face leaning over her. Creases formed on her forehead as she started down intently at her.

Faith tried getting up and was hit by a severe headache. She gripped her temple wincing with pain.

"Slow down. You must've hit your head when you fell down." Alex placed her hand on Faith's shoulder, trying to stop her from making any rapid movement.

'Fell down...', She thought as she looked around. Besides Alex and April, Claire was also standing beside her, staring at her with hidden concern. Duke stood next to Claire. He had a goofy smile plastered on his face. Was he trying to reassure her or creep her out?

She moved her eyes away from Duke to Caleb. He was behind Duke,  leaning against a portrait on the wall. A portrait of.. Lord Ares King.

Last night's event came crashing down on her as her eyes went wide with horror. The statue came to life. Ares was alive. He was a Vampire!

She turned her head rapidly, the movement causing another piercing pain to strike her head. Taking in the details of her surrounding, she realised she was in the throne room, sitting in front of his portrait. Wasn't she in the basement? He drank her blood and she fainted. What happened after that?

She licked her lips and realised there was no pain from her busted lip. She gingerly placed her fingertips on her bottom lip but the skin over there was soft and new. They just felt a bit dry, because of dehydration. She touched her neck next, looking for any traces of two punctured holes there. She couldn't find any. She patted herself all over but there was no pain in her ribcage. It was like her ribs never got broken last night.

A coughing sound tore through the chain of her thoughts. She looked up to find Caleb staring at her with a raised eyebrow. Not only him, but everyone around her seemed to gaze at her with question in their eyes.

She straightened herself immediately.

"Uh.. I was just looking out for any injuries." She said sheepishly.

"We already checked for it. There's no notable damage." April said with a sweet smile.

"But how did you end up here?"

Their gaze burnt a hole through her as they waited for her answer. She couldn't tell them anything. They would never believe her. Heck! she wouldn't believe this stupid story either if she were in their shoes.

"I.. I couldn't sleep last night. I decided on roaming around and ended up here. I don't know what happened afterwards."

"You probably fell for the hot dude!", Claire said with a playful wink.

"So now, A dead man can make you feel more comfortable than your living breathing friend? You hurt my feelings, Faith.", April placed a hand on her heart.

"But he's a hot dead man." Claired retorted.

"Babe stop. You're making me feel uncomfortable." Duke pouted as everyone laughed at his failed attempt at acting cute.

She felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment as she recalled the kiss from last night. His cold lips, burning her from inside out. Was it all a dream? Did she imagine everything?

Suddenly two arms engulfed her in a tight hug. "We were so worried Faith. We woke up and you weren't anywhere to be found. We called you but your phone was switched off.

She hugged April back. "I'm sorry for making you all worry."

April patted her back. "It's fine. Let's go back."

"Weren't we going to travel to another nearby town?" Faith leaned back to look April in the eye.

"I think we should stop for now. It has been a very eventful outing. We better head back and rest for the day." Claire smiled at Faith.

She felt bad. It was her fault that their trip had to be cut short.

"Some of us have classes tomorrow too!" Duke tried again, miserably, to reassure Faith.

"And Duke here is planning to top his classes this time." Claire smirked at him.

"Yes. Sh- Hey! When did I say that?" Duke started tickling Claire as she kept trying to push his hands away from her sides.

"I'm out. How can you all be so energetic in the morning?" Caleb stated walking away.

"Let's get our things and go back." April helped Faith up. She felt weak.

"Oh! And here's your phone. We found it next to you. The screen is damaged though."

Faith looked at Alex's outstretched hand that held her broken cell phone. It had a crack on its screen. It resembled the crack from last night.

She grabbed it. The events from last night swarming her mind. She gulped inaudibly.

She wanted to move that portrait to find if there was indeed a secret passage there, but lost the courage when April grabbed her hand.

"Come. What are you waiting for?"

"I... nothing." She started walking behind April out of the big hall.

When she reached the door, she turned her head to look at the beautiful lord one last time. It felt like she was walking away from a long lost love. Her heart ached like how it ached last night—supposedly in her dream. But what she felt right then was stronger.

'Why is it so hard walking away from you?' She thought as her gaze met his emerald one.

A medieval lord lost in time, who she was slowly losing her heart to. His eyes were enchanting. If she stayed one more second there, she'd end up losing her mind too. She tore her gaze away from the portrait and started walking ahead with a heavy heart.

She wasn't looking at him anymore but the emerald eyes still stared at her. This time, not from the portrait.

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