The flickering flas danced upon every surface like they did every other night, painting each single touch of silver adorning the interior of that manor with the richest of golden hues.
Arabella stood at the center of that, seemingly never-ending hallway, utterly clueless as to the ans that got her to that point.
Although intrigued, her only concern was returning to the safety of her room where a restricted number of faces ca to see her.
Out there, there was no limit, she could stand nose to nose with just about anyone, stranger or not. The pity and judgent in Ada, Allegra and Katherine’s eyes were enough...
And so, Arabella walked at first, head turning from left to right in the hopes of spotting her door, but to no avail.
Each one was identical to the previous and then the one next to it, yet none resembled hers. Nowhere near allowing the slimst chance of confusion even.
The shadows that obeyed the whims of every fla they were condemned to mind, sohow grew bigger and wider on her path, engulfing almost every ounce of light guiding her.
As if that hadn’t rattled her heart in its cage enough, voices ca with the cool breeze that brushed her skin. Well above a whispering range, they did not blare too loud either. The scariest part of them was that they involved familiar voices along with foreign ones. They laughed one second and then seed to argue the next about sothing that went over Arabella’s head completely.
Their words intelligible, the only certainty in them was that they were traveling closer to her frantic figure.
And thus, the walking turned to running as the young woman grasped and then tried with all of her might to turn the knobs in her way for the desperate need to leave the corridor that left her exposed before everyone’s eyes.
But warmth and safety weren’t so easy to find. No door allowed it. None of them opened for her.
Only the sound of her restless panting mingled with the voices that threatened to materialize in front of her at any mont.
When all failed, Arabella halted sowhere down the long way her feet had traversed. Gasping for new breaths, her eyes went from left to right again, darting manically only for her to realize that nothing had changed.
The hallway extended before and behind her the sa it did in the beginning. Not a sliver of progress in sight.
By all accounts, it looked like a hallway in the Eleazar manor and yet... The doors riddling its walls on both sides resembled none she’d ever encountered.
Her ponderings however were cut short as the thing she dreaded the most finally happened. The voices riding the air acknowledged her existence. One of them did, at least.
A feminine and quite familiar one, "Arabella?"
"Katherine? Is it truly you?" her vocal cords ignored all warning signs and yelled back.
"Arabella, please!"
The pleading tone of Katherine did not put a dent in Arabella’s quest. The young woman resud the running, her bare feet tapping the floor faster and louder.
"Katherine where are you?" she cried.
All of the sudden, a strong set of hands gripped both of her shoulders, forcing her to stop in her tracks.
No matter how hard she tried or how fiercely she fought them, they simply were much stronger than her.
Even more so terrifying, those hands had neither shape nor form, completely invisible to the human eye.
Under their hold, her body began to shake back and forth as though pulled one second and then pushed the next.
"Arabella! Wake up, please!"
Katherine’s voice blared much closer and louder until her face finally appeared, hovering over Arabella’s figure.
She took a few seconds after her eyes had fluttered open in order to take the environnt around herself in.
But the relief that washed over her the mont her hands gripped at the bed sheets beneath her, was healing.
It had been all but a dream or... A nightmare. Just another one of those.
"Arabella, dear," softly as silk Katherine had whispered.
It was as though she feared even the vibrations for her voice would break Arabella.
"Was I dreaming?" the young woman stuttered a few tis throughout her question.
"Yes, and I don’t think it was a pleasant one," the vampiress grimaced a smile while helping Arabella into a sitting position.
"It wasn’t," the young woman shook her head slowly.
She wiped at the tears that escaped their sockets during her... Less than faulty slumber.
"I am sorry, you had to co and baby again. I don’t an to take from your ti,"
"Now, now. Don’t be silly," Katherine poured a glass of water and extended it to Arabella, "I was still in the room actually. You fell asleep on the chair, and you started growing more and more restless as I put you in bed,"
The young woman gulped the water down to the last drop like it was liquid life served in a glass.
"Well, I am still sorry. I’ve been causing nothing but trouble since my arrival and-"
Sothing turned her tongue rigid in that mont, but it wasn’t Katherine’s protest.
Well, it was Katherine, but it wasn’t about sothing she said and rather what the vampire did.
Katherine’s upper body suddenly bent forward, her hands grasping at her side as she groaned in what Arabella could only assu was pain.
"Katherine? What is it?"Arabella practically leaped out of bed to stand by Katherine.
"I... I don’t know what is happening, but oh Lord! This is atrocious!" through a clenched jaw Katherine had grunted.
"Please, sit!" she helped her slowly turn around and lower herself onto the bed, "What do I do? What do you usually do when you feel ill?"
"Nothing. I am sure the pain will subs- Ahh!"
The vampire hadn’t had the ti to finish her sentence that another scream escaped her and that ti around, much louder than the first.
At a loss of words and actions to help Katherine, Arabella did not hesitate a second and rang the summoning bell. Surely soone else would be better equipped to handle the situation.
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