Bloody Vision

The next day, Olivia and Alexander hauled themselves off to the bureau in search for Silas.

"Oh? Why are you two back here again?" Silas inquired curiously. He had previously seen Alexander run off with Olivia in his arms without a word of farewell and was very interested in what occurred, but he was far too occupied with his work.

"The corpse from before, where is it?" Alexander demanded.

Silas could feel a sense of seriousness behind Alexander's tone so he didn't delay, and led the two behind a set of curtains.

"You're lucky that I haven't sent the body to be buried yet."

Olivia had walked in to see the same body, laying motionlessly, on the familiar metal table. Except this time, a foul smell permeated the air, a sign that the corpse had long begun to disintegrate and rot. The stench, along with the sight of it all, brought Olivia unpleasant memories of her past in captivity.

"Leave us," Alexander ordered, facing Silas.

Silas' gaze flickered between him and Olivia, wondering what on earth the pair were attempting to do with a dead body. Nevertheless, he quietly bowed out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"Do it."

Olivia was slightly roused out of her trip down memory lane with the sound of Alexander's low voice. She looked up, only to find Silas was no longer present, leaving herself and Alexander alone in the room.

"Uh.. do what?" She asked in a moment of inattentiveness, puzzled. She had yet to fully rouse herself back to reality, so right now she was still rather dazed.

Noticing his stare and reluctance to repeat himself, Olivia racked her brain before her eyes lay on the corpse in front, finally understanding what was going on.

"I don't really know how I did it," She muttered with her head low. Having no idea of how she achieved such a feat the previous time she interacted with the body, she felt rather embarrassed standing in front of Alexander, foolishly.

"Try," Alexander's monotone voice broke through her silence.

Olivia grumbled for a while before walking closer towards the metal table. She took a deep breath and began thinking of how to start off. If she remembered correctly, previously, once her eyes landed on those empty eye sockets, that was when she had gone about a change. With that in mind, Olivia's eyes roamed upwards now looking into the eerie black holes, wondering whether something would change again.

Alas, this time seemed to be a failure. Although Olivia repeated every action she made that day, after standing there for close to five minutes, nothing had changed.

She gave an audible and heavy sigh before slowly turning her head to face Alexander who was standing behind her, giving him a sheepish smile.

"It seems to not be working this time round," Olivia was slightly disappointed, but she was not bothered. If anything, she felt that she should be happy because what she experienced before was nothing short of being extremely daunting.

Alexander stood facing her, his face as expressionless as always, "Try again."

Olivia looked at him in dismay. It seemed that she might not be able to leave until she finished this task.

She silently turned back towards the body with pursed lips. She repeated the same actions as last time except this time, her hand inched towards the body. Despite it being a repulsive action, Olivia felt that perhaps direct contact could give her a reaction.

She continued to look into the two, dark and ghostly voids, while her hand finally made contact.

A while had passed with no difference. Olivia was just about to retract her hand and convince Alexander the whole thing might have been her imagination, when she felt her vision begin to turn black. Albeit not being able to see a thing, Olivia kept calm having had experience from the previous encounter.

Alexander continued to observe Olivia. He stepped forward to get a better view, just in time for him to see her eye colour flicker between brown and dark purple. From this, Alexander knew this attempt had become a success. He continued to watch her, his eyes roaming over her person in order for him to not miss a thing.

Soon enough, her hair colour started to change into the same silver-white he had seen before. With this, her eyes had also become a stable dark purple, currently glowing brightly as if containing all the light of the earth within.

Just like what Reginald thought, Alexander too, felt as if the Olivia of now looked as if she did not belong on this world. She made him feel as though looking at her was akin to looking at an alluring and exquisite painting, even as far as making himself feel as if he were a mere mortal standing in front of her. These feelings, although fleeting, made Alexander feel perplexed and uncertain. He had thought he had everything about Olivia in the palm of his hand, yet she had come out with something more.

While lost in his thoughts, his nose was quickly full to the brim with the smell of blood. His ears swiftly picked up the sounds of something wet, splashing on to the floor.

Alexander instantly focussed his eyes on Olivia, to see that she was bleeding profusely from multiple areas. He hurriedly reached over to her, quickly unbuttoning her dress, leaving Olivia in her now bloody chemise. Alexander looked at her, seeing her face pale yet her eyes stayed dazed. She was currently panting yet no other sounds were made from her mouth. He looked over her newly forming wounds, not caring whether her blood dirtied his clothes, only to find that her wounds seemed to look quite familiar.

Alexander's eyes slowly gazed over to look at the corpse that lay on the metal table, only to notice that both Olivia and the dead vampire, seemed to of had the same injuries in the exact same places. He tried calling out to Olivia, even going as far as to tap her on the face, yet nothing could rouse her out of her vision.

As time ticked by, Alexander's throat started to feel dry and itchy. The smell of sweet blood was the only thing permeating in the air. He continued to study Olivia, from time to time, his eyes would gaze at the blood that had accumulated on the floor.

Although Alexander felt his fangs starting to tingle, he didn't make any moves. He continued to observe her, standing by her side silently.

Soon enough, a loud gasp broke through the excruciating silence. It seemed that Olivia had finally broke out of her vision.

Alexander noticed that Olivia's face looked to be fearful and petrified, as her eyes darted around the room. At the moment, she looked small and meagre, similar to a little kitten. He didn't know what she had experienced but he knew it couldn't be anything short of frightening.

Alexander's thoughts were precise, Olivia had indeed had an abhorrent and grim experience. At the moment she had increasingly turbulent emotions swirling in her mind. She turned to the side and noticed Alexander standing there, quietly studying her.

Without thinking, she quickly moved over, holding on to his sleeve with a tight grip. Alexander, on the other hand, wanted to shove her off him but seeing her pale and panic-stricken face, decided to indulge her this once, opting on having a deep frown on his face instead.

After having a few mouthfuls of air, Olivia slowly calmed down. When she first felt her vision turn to black, she repeatedly told herself that what she was going to see wasn't reality yet when all was said and done, she couldn't help but be affected by what she had witnessed. Right now, however, she didn't want to think about what she had seen and temporarily pushed it to the furthest corner of her mind

Seeing that she had come back, she looked around, her eyes widening at the sheer amount of blood that she was covered in. Although she was slightly confused as to why she happened to be so bloody, she quickly understood that what she saw in her vision must've also been replicated in reality, otherwise how else could one describe what had happened?

Thankfully her wounds had already closed up, leaving behind the pool of blood on the floor as the only evidence of her experience.

After having come to her conclusion, she slowly looked up, a pair of deep crimson eyes looking back down at her.

"Master Alexander…" Olivia gave a small laugh but she did not relinquish her grip on his arm.

Despite the fact that he did not give her a sense of security, he did give her one thing. A sense of reality. And so she shamelessly continued to hold on.

Alas, she was not destined to get what she wanted. Once Alexander heard her small, humourless chuckle come out of her mouth, he promptly wrenched her hands off his arm.

"Speak," He already had some sense of what Olivia's new found abilities were but he wanted to hear of it in detail.

Contrary to expectations, Olivia had other plans. She knew that he wanted her to report to him but at the moment she felt hungry and fatigued, enough to feel that she could no longer stand on her own two feet. With this, came a much bolder attitude.

"I want to eat first and have a rest afterwards. I feel too hungry and tired," Olivia complained to him.

Indeed, in his eyes, she looked to be quite the pitiful one but compared to the information she had to give, he didn't care one bit.

"Report. Now."

Olivia gave a sigh, a small gleam appearing in her eyes, "No can do. I feel so dizzy from hunger and tiredness that the information in my head is starting to get all jumbled up."

"Maybe I can rip your head off and put it on again, perhaps that will help," Alexander said in a cool voice. His tone seemed to appear as if he had not just spoken of a threat.

Olivia was truly too tired and retorted in a lazy tone, "Go ahead, it's not like I'll die," The meaning in her words were simple, 'your threats don't work on me'.

At the moment, Alexander's face seemed quite the picture. His jaw was locked and his frown was getting deeper by the second. Olivia picked up these changes and promptly decided to swiftly back down. What a joke. Although he couldn't bring about her death, knowing him over the last few days, she believed that he had many different ways to make her beg for it. This was something she absolutely did not want to see.

"I'll tell you in the carriage," She compromised. His face soon started to look better, returning to its aloof nature.

Once all was said and done, Olivia started to feel cold. She was confused. It was currently the height of spring and she was wearing a cotton dress, why would she be feeling so cold?

Soon, she found her answer.

"Why am I only wearing my chemise?" Olivia questioned Alexander with a weary and flushed face.

Of course, the indifferent vampire did not respond merely kicking the dark, cotton dress towards her, indicating that he wanted her to hurry up and put it on.

At this moment, Olivia did not have the energy to argue. She decided to put it at the back of her mind. The only reason why she had not had a full grown outburst was because he had seen her in a far worse shape. Namely, the first day they met. There was nothing worse than him seeing her in tattered rags that had only come up to her knees, so Olivia did not think much of this incident.

She only felt that, if anything, she should become more cautious when with this seemingly callous vampire. If it was anyone else, however, she would most definitely not let this go.

Once she had dressed herself, ignoring the strong stench of blood on her, she started to walk past the curtains and out of the room.

"Have you not seen yourself?" Alexander questioned, having not moved from his spot yet.

Olivia paused for a moment before growing increasingly confused, thinking about his words. She turned around to face him.

What did he mean? Was he insulting her right now?

Looking at the silly girl's expression, Alexander walked up to her. He lifted up his hand, undoing her neat bun in one swift motion, allowing her hair to cascade down her back.

Because Olivia had not had the luxury of being able to have a haircut over the last 7 years in captivity, her hair had grown and reached all the way down to her waist. Hence, as soon as Alexander undid her hair tie, she immediately noticed the change in colour.

"W-what on earth is this?!"