Turned

Chapter 13: Escape Attempt

Kate was starting to hate this cell. Not that she liked it in the first place, but it was beginning to get on her nerves. There was nothing to do. She would just sit on the mat, pace the cell, or try shouting for people out the small barred window (which never worked.)

She sighed, laying down on the mat and studying the dirt ceiling. Maybe I can dig my way out? Kate thought. She shook her head, staring at the ceiling.

"I have to do something to get out..." She murmured to herself.

That was another thing, since she'd been alone for so long Kate had been murmuring to herself. It wasn't a full on conversation with her conscience, but it was still troubling.

Kate stood up and jumped, tapping the ceiling with her fingertips. The dirt was solid and firm enough that it would take some time to dig away. By the time she would even get a good start on a hole out, someone would probably walk down the hall and say, "Hey there's not supposed to be a hole there." And things would go downhill from there.

Kate turned and kicked the brick wall in frustration. The bricks shifted slightly from her kick, and her foot didn't hurt nearly as much as she expected.

"One of the great mysteries of being a vampire... Yay me!" Kate muttered with fake enthusiasm.

She kneeled down in front of the loosened bricks. Kate wiggled the bricks with one hand and ran her other hand through the grout of the bricks. She shook the brick harder and pulled back, the brick came out slightly. Kate smiled, and yanked on the brick. She tumbled back as the brick snapped out of the wall.

"Hallelujah!" She cried and crawled back to the hole in the wall. She ran her fingers over the soil to find it was soft a moist, perfect for a jail escape tunnel. Kate went into a system of wiggling the bricks and yanking them out of the wall. Once she had a hole big enough for her to crawl through, she began digging.

Her progress was slow and steady as she dug the hole. Scoop dirt with one hand, toss it to the side and scoop with the other. She smiled, not caring she was becoming filthy in the process.

Kate stopped momentarily to examine her work. She had a gaping hole in the brick wall and a tunnel in the dirt large enough for her to sit up in. Right before she went back to digging, she realized how stupid this could be.

Kate could be miles underground for all she knew! She couldn't just dig up and hope to break the surface. And who's to say a guard won't come and notice she's missing? It won't take them too long to discover the hole...

But she could use this to hide...

A new plan formed in her head and she began to replace the bricks, on the other side of the brick walk. After a while (she couldn't track time well in her underground cell) she had the bricks aligned so well, you had to look closely to notice they had been moved.

Now all she had to do was wait in her pocket of earth until a guard came. Once the door was open she could run for the door, breaking through the bricks and racing down the hall. The plan still left questions but it was the best chance she had.

●○●○●

Magnus had finished dinner and went to circle through the tunnels for a routine search. He had been confused what Luke had wanted with the new blood... And the way he acted with it... Luke was planning something, Magnus knew him well enough to be able to tell. Luke may as well wore a sign that said: "THINKING!" In bright neon letters that lit up the room with blinding light.

Magnus just couldn't tell what Luke was thinking. He had almost treated the new blood like an equal. Maybe he wanted to gain its trust to get information it held? But what information would a new blood have?

Magnus had been in such deep thought that he almost walked into a wall. He cursed himself for being so distracted and headed down the cell hall. He hated walking down this hall, it smelled like them, and could hear their hisses and shuffling from inside the cells. The creatures made Magnus' skin crawl.

He quickened his pace down the hall, trying to get through the cell hall as fast as possible. As he passed a certain door he faltered, stopping in front of it. Magnus wasn't sure why, but something was off with the room. Then he realized what it was, it was too quiet. To add to the queerness, it was the new bloods cell. Why was the new blood so quiet compared to the rest?

Magnus cautiously peered into the cell through the barred window. The room appeared empty. Magnus reflected on how she had pressed herself against the wall to stay out of view. He frowned, staring at the empty cell.

"Don't suppose you want food then..." Magnus bluffed. He wasn't sure if it would work, he didn't have food for her- or blood he was willing to give. The new blood could probably smell he didn't have food, but he still tried.

"I order you to come out!" He shouted. "Don't make me come in there..." He really didn't want to go in there, but he began to flip through his keys to open the door.

He half hoped the new blood would show itself before he opened the door, but it didn't. He put the key in the lock and turned it. There was a click of the tumbler turning, signaling it was unlocked. He gingerly opened the door, peering into the corners she could have hidden.

He tensed even more when he saw she was no where to be seen. "Oh crud..." He walked back towards the mat. Others had tried to dig their way out and used the mat to cover the hole up...

CRASH!

Magnus spun around on his heel to see a figure dart out from inside the brick wall, sending bricks flying. The figure left in a flash, out the door and down the hall, faster than Magnus could react.

Magnus cursed loudly and ran after the creature. As he was running, he called upon his deeper senses- as all werewolves have. His vision tunneled to the chase, his nose picked up on just the targets smell, and he had a sudden burst of speed.

As he ran, his bones shifted and cracked, fur sprouted, his muscles shifted and grew stronger, and he began to run fluently on all fours. The change was so sudden, he was a wolf in an instant. Magnus loved his wolf, the power that surged through him, how everything seemed more vivid and easier to understand. At the moment, he was in a frenzy to catch the new blood.

Her scent was distinct, different from the rest... Almost un-vampire like, but not quite. The smell was most definitely vampire, but upon deeper thinking, one cloud tell something was different.

The thought only lasted a moment. Magnus focused on racing down the hall and trying to get to the new blood before it went into civilian parts of the tunnel... If it got to people and attacked... Magnus couldn't let that happen. He had to catch the new blood.