10: Lights Out

Once the lights went out a surge of static electricity flowed through the entire structure. The emergency lights burned a distant red glow in place of standard florescence. The fire light was enough to cause Rebecca to anchor in place as if mesmerized. Rose watched as she basked in the glowing blaze as if frozen in time. Her cross necklace reflected its radiance, which only made her seem more frightening. It was as if Rebecca was stunned or immobilized by an overload of her senses, like a deer frozen in head lights.

More footsteps echoed in empty dark hallways, followed by more shadows. A shape descended behind the stunned vampire, it reached around and grabbed hold of Rebecca. The figure pulled her away and down the hall in a quick, almost fluid, motion. It wasn't the only stranger, a flashlight broke through the red fog and Rose realized she was in the company of dozens of security officials. They were all wearing thick tinted glasses, the man leading them sighed in relief. Darkness trailed them, making their silhouettes almost fizzle like a mirage.

"Thank god! We thought you were a goner" His voice was strained, "Are you alright?"

Rose was shaking, her entire body from head to toe couldn't keep still. Despite her anxiety the leader of the rescue team helped her gently to her feet and draped her clammy skin with a sailors jacket. She clung hold to it like a lifeline.

"Please…don't drink me," Her voice was a rasp of exhaustion and latent fear bordering on panic. She kept repeating the words over and over again as they lifted her to her feet and helped guide her from the inner guts of the ship. Weirdly enough she was far further down than she realized, it took nearly an hour for them to find their way back to the upper decks and living quarters. Once she could see sun light Rose let out a gasp of relief, but still wouldn't stop muttering the same words over and over again. "Please don't drink me."

Eventually she found herself in the medical wing, the room was packed full of vampires. Dozens were hurt from the ships sudden course change and power loss. Several had sprained or broken limbs, while the most grievous injuries were being treated behind white curtains.

There was a small medical staff on board, one of the nurses simply took a look at Rose before giving her an examination. It was clear to them she was traumatized, but for the most part healthy. They gave her some medicine to help her sleep then ushered her away to return to her room. The time from being discovered to walking back to the cabin was like a blur, one event shifted into the next on mute. Once the leader of the expedition who found her brought her back to her bedside she just sat there staring into the darkness. The lights throughout the ship were either off or replaced by warning lights, which were glowed blue instead of red on this level. The only other light came pouring from the porthole window.

"Please don't drink me," she whispered to nothing. The only thing that broke her from the trance was when someone placed a hand on her shoulder.

At some point Maggie had come to sit next to her, although Rose never felt her approach or even sit down. "Ok so maybe I left a few things out about vampires," she said.

Rose stopped whispering to herself, and looked up at Maggie. She felt like she wanted to scream, "No kidding!"

"I'm sorry, I really am! I should have come clean about some things." Maggie pushed herself away to give Rose some space.

"I thought you said vampires were like normal people! She wouldn't stop! She freaking chased me!" Rose's temper was a mix of outrage and panic.

"I know, and she's really sorry about that. I told you we still have to drink blood, we're just usually more controlled than this. Rebecca just lost control, but believe me she wouldn't have hurt you." Maggie paused, as if re-evaluating her statement, "Well I don't think she would hurt you intentionally anyway. But still regardless of that we are still normal! We just happened to have evolved a little differently, humans are predators too you know. And for some of us the raw instinct is hard to shake."

So far this sounded like a terrible excuse, "She attacked me!"

"You remember that thing I mentioned earlier about if a pig walked into the room you wouldn't just rush over to devour it right? Well, just so you're aware, there are some people in the world who probably would go after it and roast it on a stick. And if you are born to a group of people like that…well could you imagine how hard it would be to adjust?"

"What the fuck are you talking about." Rose wiped a layer of sweat from her brow.

Maggie cleared her throat, then tried to clarify, "Lets start with the basics, every vampire values family just like normal people, a large collection of families form a clan. Each clan is special, we all care about each other and often live fairly close to one another. Vampires that leave their clans, voluntarily or not, are simply clanless. Most clans, like mine, integrated with the rest of human civilization generations ago."

Rose listened to her speak cautiously. She analyzed each word for signs of deception or worse.

"Rebecca's clan are known as the Seraphine, they're an ancient family that goes back to the old world. They keep to themselves and have more…traditional ideas on human blood consumption. I've never had fresh blood before, but Rebecca has. In fact she was practically raised off of it." The ship groaned in the background as Rose listened, "Rebecca left her clan years ago, I've been taking care of her since and trying to help her assimilate into society, its been hard but she's getting better."

Rose looked away and rubbed her eyes, "This…this is disgusting. Wait…" Rose remembered something Rebecca mentioned earlier, "Didn't you drink blood from…you're ex?"

Mentioning her ex was a mistake. Rose saw the spike of aggression on Maggie's face, her entire body seemed to tense up. "So…Reby told you about that huh."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to…" Rose stopped herself. Clearly she shouldn't have brought that up. She slumped her shoulders and looked away completely forgetting that it was a vampire next to her.

"A few times…" Maggie's voice was barely a whimper, "She let me drink a little…but it wasn't fresh. And I never pushed her for it."

Rose looked back at the vampire. Maggie's temper was still on a razors edge, her hands searched for a canteen nearby and she downed a healthy dose of its contents. "Look, Rebecca lost control. It won't happen again, I'll make sure of it."

"That still doesn't explain how she could bend shadows…" Rose shuddered as she vividly recalled how Rebecca hunted her. The way the darkness draped her slender shoulders was almost ghoulish.

Maggie froze, her shock clearly emboldened on her face, "Wait what?"

"Speak of the devil," The door opened and Rebecca stepped inside. It was evident she had been crying, her hair was a mess and she held onto herself tightly. She wanted to sound sarcastic but could tell it didn't work. Rose scooted to the opposite side of the room on the edge of her bed, she was already shivering.

"I'm so sorry…" Rebecca began sobbing, "I'm really sorry!"

How could you! Was what Rose wanted to say but found that she had lost her voice.

Tears were streaming down Rebecca's face, she got on her knees and continued to plea, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She covered her face with both hands.

"Sorry's not good enough!" The voice of the captain interrupted her. He had accompanied her to the cabin in full uniform. Even in the shadows Rose could see the lines on his face, clearly he was stressed. "You drank the blood of a human without provocation or necessity! For that you're going in the brig until we've salvaged this situation. Now grab your things so we can get on with this."

"No please don't!" Maggie jumped up from her seat in defiance. She threw herself in between the captain and her friend sobbing on the floor.

"It's for everyone's safety, not just the human's. We're suffering a serious incident and we can't have a rogue Seraphine free to roam around." The captain wasn't a tall man but his air of authority seemed to tower over her as he stood his ground.

To her credit Maggie didn't balk, "How dare you! You can't just single her out because of her clan!"

"Maggie its ok," Rebecca tried to rub the tears from her eyes. She sounded pathetic and miserable, "I deserve this…"

"No!"

Rebecca hushed her up with a simple nod, "It's only until you get the power back on right?"

The captain adjusted the tip of his cap and looked at her carefully, "If you can behave yourself, I'll think about it."

Rose could tell Maggie wanted to fight, and had it not been for Rebecca's pleading she might have done so. Rose and Maggie watched as the blonde girl looked back at them pitifully, her eyes full of remorse. The last words she spoke before leaving the room sounded more desperate than ever before, "I'm sorry."