Two monsters. Scary monster and terrifying monster.As she curled up under the blankets she wondered if she was an idiot to stay. He was down the street at the hotel. It could be an ideal time to escape. She looked up at that green button and chewed on her thumb.What was out there? Happiness? She scoffed. Tristan was the only thing resembling happiness she’d ever felt so far. Being in his arms, being close to him... she knew how utterly pathetic that sounded and a few weeks ago she’d have chastised someone for staying in this situation but she just felt so drawn to him, so totally and completely addicted to him. She knew this bond existed so that she wouldn’t want to get away. He probably smelled like dessert to magnetise her in the first place. This bond existed so that she’d want to have him drink her blood. She guessed it existed at her own expense because it could very well be the death of her.Right now, though, she felt like she could leave but was choosing not to. She felt like she had free will and could physically hit that green button and make a run for it if she wanted to. But she didn’t want to. Maybe there was a way that she could be safe around him. And he had held back, she could see it. Something stopped him from draining her. She felt a ray of hope somewhere because of that phone call Sam had made, too.Or maybe the test would fail and Tristan would kill her. Maybe her birth control would fail and she’d get pregnant and die giving birth to some super royal vampire baby. Or maybe he’d come back from the party and smell her through the walls and doors and he’d click the lock open with his mind and kill her tonight.The phone vibrated from on top of the bar-sized refrigerator that was beside the bed. It said ‘Kyla’. The photo on it was a picture of the sun. She picked it up and answered, “Hello?”
“Hey.” It was him. The softness in his voice alone soothed her aching soul. There was a lot of background noise.
“Hey.”
“You okay?”
“Uh huh. No. Shit, I don’t know. You?”
“Surviving. Nice sunset.”
“Huh?”
“The picture assigned to my name on your phone. Nice sunset.”
“It’s a sunrise. You brought me out of the dark.”
“Oh God.” She felt a pang of emotion in her chest.
They were both silent.
He broke the silence with, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Not running.”
More silence.
She moistened her lips with her tongue.
“I’ll be back soon as I can, okay?” he whispered.
“Kay,” she barely croaked out.
He switched off first and she put the phone down and closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh.
I’m a stupid idiot for not running. But how can I run? Sunrise? Why does he have to say the perfect thing like that?
She wondered how much agonizing she’d do over the next bit while waiting for him to get back. Her stomach was still crampy so she took some of the menstrual pain medication and then got back into bed. Time dragged on and she didn’t feel sleepy.At 3:15, she’d been playing Solitaire on the computer, the phone buzzed a text message from him.
“Be there in 5.”
“Ok.” She replied.
She braced herself and said a little prayer hoping that they’d make it through the night.A few minutes later a window of the view from the front entrance of the apartment popped up and she saw Sam and Tristan enter. They were in mid conversation,
“Created it five years ago and has been waiting for another test case,” Sam said.
Tristan was shaking his head, “Well, I hope so. It’s a big risk.”Tristan was soon on the view from the bedroom. He was standing there, loosening his bow tie, “Are you okay?” He asked the camera.
Kyla reset the intercom for hands-free,
“I’m fine. I’m going to try to just go to sleep now that you’re here, I think.”
“Sam and I are camping out down in the living room. Distance the better, I think.”
“That’s probably best.”
“Goodnight, Kyla.”
“Goodnight, Tristan.”
Pain spread across his expression and then he moved away from the camera.
She saw him change into a pair of track pants and take blankets and pillows and go downstairs. Sam was on one side of the sectional sofa. Tristan tossed him a blanket and pillow and pair of track pants and settled on the other side of the sectional. She watched him fiddle with her iPhone.
A text rang through with her name on it.
“Hi”
Kyla lay down on the bed with Tristan’s phone and answered his text.K: “Hi, yourself.”
T: “Are you ok, really?”
K: “Not really, but I’m trying to be.”
T: “I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight, knowing you’re alone up there.”
K: “I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight knowing you’re down there, maybe wanting to kill me. But let’s try. I think sleep will do us both some good. I’m fine, don’t stress.”