“You said you knew the perfect place to run to. A place that was empty of people, and buildings, and far, far away. A place covered in blood-red earth and sleeping life. A place longing to come alive again. It's a place for disappearing, you'd said, a place for getting lost... and for getting found.
I'll take you there, you'd said.
And I could say that I agreed.”
Laying hopelessly on the cold, muddy floor of the forest, Damon was barely conscious nor able to remember where he was, let enough how he had got there. Just about able to force his eyes open long enough to look around the area that surrounded him, he saw nothing but thick, dense forest and shrubbery. Instantly feeling himself start to panic he attempted to sit up, the pain however instantly crippling him and resulting in him falling back to how he was.
Letting out an agonising groan of pain, Damon knew he was wasting his time, after all who would find him here in the middle of nowhere? No one. He was destined to die, either from blood loss or by an animal attack. He remembering hearing in town and reading in the paper all about the rise in missing people and animal attacks. Or so they was made out to seem, though Damon knew otherwise. He had witnessed it with his own eyes and now he had ended up like them, something she had always promised he wouldn’t. What a fool he had been to believe her, to let her trick him into playing along with her games, only for her to do this to him… Leave him like this.
Feeling his eyes fill with tears, Damon couldn’t help but fear what was about to happen. Things weren’t meant to be this way. Not at all. In fact Katherine was meant to turn him and the two of them were meant to live out their happily ever after. But now all he had to look forward to was finally dying and being free from the agony she had inflicted on him. Sensing himself start to become weaker and his vision start to blur, Damon slowly started to give up, knowing that within minutes it would all be over.
However just as his eyes shut he suddenly heard someone’s voice, a woman’s voice at that. Just about able to open his eyes enough to see her, Damon felt a mixture of feelings, unsure as to whether he was imaging it or if the woman was actually there to put him out of his misery, believing he was beyond help. “W-Who are you?” he murmured, just being able to string a sentence together. “Are you here to put me out of my misery? Please… Please make it stop. I just want to die.” he begged, desperate for the pain to go away.
Despite Rose’s attention momentarily being aimed at the battered man, she knew the culprit lurked nearby — if not already gorging on the neck of another. That’s how the darker side of her species worked. They craved one thing and would do anything to ensure they had it. Ironically, they were all once human, but now had little regard for their life. A normal night for the woman would entail roaming the forest and picking up the pieces left behind. Pieces? Humans. She’d bury the dead they left in their path, help those she could, and take measures to guard the vampiric side of life. Granted, some humans knew, and had started to kill those they suspected. Little to their knowledge, not all vampires were bad. Rose stood as a prime example.
“You can’t let them win,” a hushed voice barely hiked above the rustle of leaves. “I know. I know it hurts.” She could only sympathize at each black and blue body as they rekindled the painful memories of her human encounter. Although, as you can guess, her attack didn’t end in exactly the same way. That type of pain was hard to forget: the firm grip of their fingers, their darkened eyes, and the agonizing feel of elongated fangs ripping through the skin of your neck. Needless to say, Rose was one of them and the desire was still there, yet each fiber of her body fought against it. Even the tempting smell of the man’s blood provoked hunger, but she forced herself to not to give in.
“You’re going to have to trust me.” One of her slender hands gently propped his head up, the other pressed against her mouth as a short grimace of pain forced eyes to clasp shut for a second. “This will ease it, okay? This will ease the pain.” Compulsion would be used as a last resort. It was an ability she only used when telling those she had saved to flee. Run far away from this town and forget what had happened. If only someone could have done the same to her.
Without further hesitation, Rose’s head once again looked around before pressing the pierced wrist towards his mouth, “please.” Green eyes glimmered in ethereal persuasion whilst whispering the feeble plea. Again, she nudged closer, hoping one or two drops had fallen in reluctantly.
