6 Skeleton

Iris was brought to a small room. The room only had a stone slab placed across from the door inside. It was in a hallway with a hundred or so similarly sized rooms from what she could tell. The vampire who had brought her, the same one who had misted her earlier, was standing at the door watching her silently. She didn't let it bother her. She paced around this small room trying to think. Sure her thoughts weren't being watched but Iris still considered it a very tough decision from at least a moral standpoint.

As if on cue the observing vampire spoke, "It is an easy decision, serving the master is the safest option and you aren't strong," Iris half decided that her thought may be being read. She had also decided that everyone here was rude at the least, even if most of them sounded robotic to her.

Turning to him now she spoke, "Can I sleep on this decision?"

He spoke without giving her time to think, "As long as you don't sleep for a day," and left, closing the door behind him. It was another blood run device like every door here so she expected they thought she wouldn't open it out of fear of starving. She laid down now on the slab. Maybe work would let her clear her head.

* * *

Iris was walking home now, early. Work had gone terribly. Her coworkers either suggested she eat something, gesturing to nearby stores as they did, or stayed away from her. Her thoughts were dominated by what decision she should make when she woke up next, She couldn't even do her job right. Everyone commented on her almost skeletal appearance and by lunchtime she was seeing red and sent home. She knew exactly what she do when she got home, though not what to say to that child. At least the streets were clear.

Oddly she hadn't pulled the slab through with her when she fell asleep tonight, maybe something to do with yesterdays occurrence? Much like the day before she felt someone poking her shoulder distantly. She was hoping no one was trying to wake her up. It stopped and she continued to walk.

Someone interrupted her, "How is it your both asleep and awake? I swear there is two of you here." It sounded like that child. She couldn't be anymore than a foot away from her yet Iris looked around and couldn't find her. She continued to walk home.

"So have you made up your mind? Not like you can hear me but you really need to," Iris kept walking, she would act like she wasn't hearing voices, "Listen it should only be a choice of safety, right?" She had heard something similar from that other vampire too. It might have been a cultural thing for all she knew, or their world was just that dangerous.

"Besides I doubt you last much longer the way you are out there, doubt you can go more than a day before you lose it," Iris felt like she was being looked at in a condescending manner for some reason, "Seriously have you looked at yourself recently or do you just hide under that coat of yours? I swear your burning through energy so fast theirs two of you."

She actually hadn't looked at herself recently for very long. Sure Iris changed when appropriate but she hadn't taken a good look at herself. She couldn't have changed much though, after all vampires rarely ever looked different physically ignoring wounds. She would take a look when she got home, it couldn't be very different. It was silent even after she had gotten home and opened her door. She took off her coat and ran to the bathroom.

It was an old myth that vampires never appeared in reflections, at least for most vampires. If she had absurd strength it would be true but she could see herself just fine in them. She may not of had much furniture but each apartment had installed mirrors in the bathrooms. Besides that this room only served as a storage closet for her, closets not being provided and vampires not needing to relieve themselves. Iris was not ready for what she saw in said mirror however. What looked back was not her. The entity looked somewhat like her, the head, feet, and hands looked the same for example. Its body looked like a skeleton covered in skin otherwise.

She ran to her fridge and pulled out one of the bottles, attempting to drink it. She blanked out for a moment. When she returned the bottle was empty and on the floor. That had happened the last few days as well actually. She picked it up and threw it away, spacing out for a moment to count the bottles.

She had drunken one bottle each day for the past three days, as well as' two extras for various reasons. That left 6 bottles. That would not be enough by her count. Maybe there were some services to help people who had reached her position? She guessed that was why you were supposed to report yourself to the police when this happened. She would do that after she gave the child her answer tonight.

With that thought she entered a panic. She still was not sure what the right answer was. Well honestly, she knew the answer morally was to not and leave 'her territory'. From another perspective however it was actually a good idea to side with this person, maybe she could get something out of it. Around this time a smell passed her nose.

It smelt like a pool of blood. She checked herself for bleeding but found no wounds. Iris now followed the smell to its origin, an easy thing to do in this starved state. It came from in front of the fridge actually. A very fresh pool that couldn't be any more than a minute old. It was next to 2 similarly sized but dry stains. A thought came to her head.

She laid out the plastic bag she had in her coat pocket on the floor and grabbed out another bottle. Opening it and bringing it to her mouth she blanked out again. Looking down she saw both the bottle and a bloody bag. She grabbed the eighth bottle and laid on the floor. She brought it to her mouth before opening it and stabbed into the bottle with her fangs. A foul fluid flowed into her mouth, one which her body instantly rejected as she began to gag, rolling over and dropping the bottle to the floor. Frightened she put her coat on and pocketed a bottle. Iris had a plan.

She laid down on her slab and tried to sleep, falling asleep instantly. Waking up in the other world she looked over to see that child staring at her. She had pulled in a stone and was sat on it. The bowls from earlier had followed her, thought Iris had no idea how they had done so.

The child spoke, "So your finally awake... yet you still seem asleep. That doesn't matter have you decided?" While Iris had not decided she had some things to say.

For one she wanted to ask if the child knew anything about this fluid she had with her. Secondly she wanted to figure out what was so bad about the area outside her lands. Thirdly maybe they knew something about her switching back and forth, though that was not high priority. Iris' thoughts were interrupted however by a loud rumbling emitted by her body. In that moment her head went fuzzy and she heard herself say one thing

"If you feed me I'll join you," Iris had no control over her body now. It acted on its own and all she could do is watch. She hoped the child wouldn't take her up on that offer just yet and give her some time to think.

The child spoke instead, "Sure, I can do that."

* * *

They had been walking down the stone hallway for at best fifteen minutes, but to Iris it felt like an hour. She wasn't even sure why she was following the child or why she gave her answer earlier. She tried on occasion to open her mouth but every time she did no words came out. The child had brought her bowls with her as well, carried by arms similar to the ones that opened this cave. They did not talk during the walk, the child seemed happy about something but didn't mention it. They eventually reached an exit, similar to the one Iris entered through.

The child looked into their bowl, "Now if I remember right the next one should be dropping by any time." she paused and looked at Iris, "okay seriously that was a goo-" the child was interrupted by a falling woman. The child sighed, "You know I wish we didn't need to do this whole dropping thing, very pointless really,"

Iris and the child walked up to the person. They did not react at all, simply laying there. Iris assumed they must have been killed by the fall, but they looked completely fine. She then realized she just had that thought without any care at all and tried to snap out of her current state.

"Okay so normally this would be my job but I will leave it to you," and the child walked behind Iris. Iris just stood there frozen. What did she mean? Well Iris knew what she meant but that wasn't right, right?

"If your worried about them biting back they lost sentience the moment they fell," The child sounded annoyed now, "though seriously in your state that shouldn't matter." Iris would have been irritated by that statement but she honestly didn't hear it. It stayed like that for several minutes, during which the child slowly approached the person. At the ten minute mark the child had dragged the person to Iris. The child walked away at this point only to come back a half hour or so later with another vampire.

"I see that she's still... dead? No that is not dead... no matter, you," and the child pointed to the vampire, "Grab that force it into that," and she pointed at Iris. Iris was still mentally deciding on a decision she should have made nearly an hour or so ago and didn't hear them. The vampire grabbed the human with no effort and lifted their neck to Iris. Iris finally snapped out of her stupor and jumped back, biting the air on reflex. The child walked up to the now floored Iris and sighed once again.

"Would you prefer if I just sent you out of my domain, cause your no use to me in this state, seriously a good wind make you a good kite, then again..." Something red was leaking out of Iris' pocket now. Iris began to question the quality of the bottles they sold in modern times.

"I, I... I'll drink this," and Iris pulled out the broken bottle, looked at the child, and tried to choke it down, only to start spitting it up. The child pulled it away and inspected the stuff.

"Why do you have poison on you, seriously I could smell it for a while but I didn't expect you to be drinking it," The child poured it on the ground now and threw the bottle to the other vampire, who began to walk towards the exit.

"NO... I mean it's not poison honest, its bad tasting sure bu-" mid-sentence something warm was forced into her mouth. She was not sure what it was at first though something sweetish was flowing into her mouth which was never a good sign. Her fangs seemed to have caught it and her eyes had forced themselves shut. After her mouth had filled with the fluid whatever had forced the warmth into her mouth stopped and she dropped a heavy weight as well as the fluid. Iris heard sighing.

"Seriously this is just cruel, I mean they are basically just a plant at this point mentally but jeez it be better if you just committed," Iris could barely make out what the child said, she had a low tone and had half buried her face into her hands. She opened her eyes to find the person from earlier in front of her, bloody and bleeding profusely from their neck.

The child was berating her she was sure, even if this was technically that same child's fault on some level, Iris did not hear it. Something mentally had snapped inside her currently. Unlike most things however it was not a slow process. Almost instantaneously the person before her looked less human. The thing before her looked more like a pulsating slab of flesh. The rest of the world slowly followed suit.

Iris blacked out.