- 500 years later -
"Oh, fudge!"
She watched the flashlight tumble on the stairs with frustration. She stood on top of the stairs watching the stupid flashlight, rolling on the stairs as she cursed under her breath. She couldn't believe that she still had to sleep in the basement. Ever since she was a kid, this has been her place in their house. It was the only safe place for her because of her blood.
Creatures of the night sought her. At first, she didn't believe the so-called curse in her blood because she had a yearly checkup and there was nothing different or special with her B+ blood type. She thought her parents just didn't like her that was why they hid her here in the basement. It won't be surprising if they do hate her since she wasn't their favorite daughter.
She stopped thinking that they hate her and keeping her in the basement was her punishment when she got taken when she was eight and her abductor tried to bleed her to death who kept on saying that her blood would make him rich.
When she heard the flashlight hit the foot of the stairs, she slowly descended. She didn't really need the lights going down the basement since she knew every nook and cranny of this part of the house even with her eyes closed, yet, the soft yellow lights emitting from the fallen flashlight, pointing on the adobe wall was still helpful in the dark.
There is a storm and the electricity is cut, hence, the flashlight.
She was on the last three steps of the stairs when her right foot stepped on something wet and slimy. A crease appeared in between her brows as she slowly lowered herself on the step by sitting down. Her action was because of the limited light in the room. She crouched down and touched her foot.
The moment she lowered her body, a smell of rotten flesh assaulted her senses. The smell of decay was mixed with the coppery scent of blood. The thought of blood made her skin crawl.
She half-crawled the remaining two steps of the stairs and grabbed the flashlight on the floor. She waved it in front of her face as she scurried to put her back on the wall, pulling her knees to her chest—a sorry attempt to protect herself.
The basement was quiet, other than her ragged breathing. And the yellowish light from her flashlight, darting side to side made the room scarier than it should be. The basement wasn't a dreary basement because it has been renovated to suit her needs. It looks like a small flat. She has everything she needs in this room. And it was designed like any other seventeen years old girl's bedroom, cooler because it's a huge room. It's big enough for a small family of three.
"Hello?" She called in the darkness, for she turned off the flashlight and gripped it to her chest.
The room was quiet but Iris could feel that she wasn't alone in the room. She slid her butt to the other side of the wall when she pressed her hand on something sharp on the marble floor.
"Ouch," she muttered under her breath in annoyance. She turned on the flashlight and put her left hand under the light and saw that a piece of sharp stone was stuck in the inside of her palm.
'Stone?' She swept the floor this morning before she left for school.
"Blood…"
"Aghhh!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and crawled on her four on the floor, holding the flashlight in her right hand.
"Who are you?" She asked bravely because she was thinking that the hoarse voice that she heard was just a figment of her wild imagination.
"Give me your blood…"
She shrieked once more when she heard the same hoarse voice answering her questions. She pushed herself up and pivoted in the direction of the stairs but before she could take a step, a strong, gnarly pair of hands snatched her left elbow and a cold reptile-like tongue ran across her palm.
She was aware that her mouth was opened and in her head, she was screaming but no sounds came out of her mouth. She lost it when she saw the red pair of eyes staring straight into her eyes. Her knees buckled and her body was folded in half as she lost her strength and consciousness.
When she came around, the first thing she noticed was the familiar feeling of her mattress on her back. She pushed herself up and scooted to the far end of the bed. The image of what she thought was a man with burning eyes flashed in front of her eyes and she was ready to jump away from her bed to run up the stairs but the room was well-lit and the rotten scent was no longer in the air.
She sniffed the air like a bloodhound and there wasn't any strange scent that she could smell. She looked at her hand and there was no sign of a wound.
She furrowed her eyebrows, confused. Was she dreaming? But the flashlight on her bedside table reminded her of what happened. The room appeared to be peaceful in the blaring lights but she didn't trust the quietness of the basement.
Even when the room seemed to be undisturbed, she still felt scared. Because she still felt the cold tongue that ran over her palm, the cold hand that held her elbow, and the hoarse voice that asked for blood—her blood.
"Hello?" Her voice crooked as her thundering heartbeat rang in her ears. "Who are you and what do you want?"
The bravery that she was feeling was from what her father had told her that this basement was safe from any creatures that wanted her blood. He said that this basement is the safest place for her. But now, she wondered if her father had just lied to her all these years. She won't be surprised for it wasn't the only lie that he fed her.
She recently found out that she wasn't her father's biological daughter. The people upstairs that she considered to be her family weren't related to her at all.
She acted like she didn't know a thing because what else could she do? She's seventeen and being hunted by every vampire that walked the earth among the living. Where could she go?
Iris bit her lower lip when it started to tremble. 'No, don't go there," a soft voice whispered in her ears.