Blood of the Past

Marcos hadn’t been by in a few days for whatever reason. I just knew that I missed the food and water he would bring, and my stomach was trying to kill me for it. I clenched my abdomen and curled over, yelling out from the sharp pain.

It wasn’t easy to go days without eating, to eat, then cut out food for days again. I was having to reteach my stomach every few days to adjust to starvation, and the pain was excruciating.

Well, the screaming irritated the leader. He came in with rage in his eyes, ready to backhand me. But I suppose he pitied me when he saw me curled into a fetal position, the same position my own baby was in. “Shut the fuck up already, will ya?”

I unburied my face to look at him. “I’m so hungry…”

“Do I come off as the guy who’s going to feed you?” To me, he looked like anyone else. The pain was affecting my vision. He grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling me towards him as I yelled out. “Keep your damn mouth shut or I will have to cut out your tongue.” He dropped me on the floor before leaving the room.

I didn’t dare make another sound. I didn’t doubt his threat for even a second. Vampires had no mercy.

Picking myself up off the floor, I hesitated to go back to the bed. I decided to study the room instead, and what I could possibly use to escape. The room itself was empty, aside from the bed. So there wasn’t much I could have used as a weapon.

I coughed, which eventually turned into dry heaving. I had nothing in my stomach to get rid of, and it hurt like hell.

I leaned my back against the wall and slid down, rubbing my throat. As I closed my eyes, a few tears fell from my eyes. I silently begged Noah to come back to me wherever he was. I knew he was watching over me and I needed him now more than ever.

He would have told me never to admit my weakness. However, I couldn’t make that promise anymore. I was weak and begging for mercy. I wanted food. I wanted a real toilet. I wanted someone to come in and kiss away the nightmares when I woke up terrified. But that wasn’t the case anymore. When I woke up from a nightmare, I lived another.

“You fucking left me,” I choked. “You left me here to fend for myself. Now you’re nowhere to be found and I’m stuck in this shithole. Do you even care?” I coughed some more, knowing my throat was dry and itchy. I didn’t have any water for that either.

“You don’t care, Noah… Vampires and werewolves exist, and yet you can’t even come back as a ghost to get me out of here.” I dropped my head as I pulled my knees up to my chest. “You used to be my rock. You promised to always be there.”

Nobody responded. No ghosts came to my aid. I was just there by myself, enduring all the pain that Noah had left for me. How could a husband do that to his wife? To his own child?

The door creaked as the leader stepped inside the room. “I have a special task for you today.” He approached me and grabbed my arm, pulling me. “Up!”

I scrambled to my feet and he led me out of the room I’d been trapped in for days, or weeks. I had no way of telling time. I studied the hallways and doors. I studied the stairs and every single inch within my view. We went down a few flights of stairs and I knew we were deep underground, where nobody could hear me scream.

He let go of my arm and I stumbled forward, falling onto my knees and biting my lip to keep from screaming in pain. “You get to see the ugly little creature inside of you, and when we see what we have going on…” He walked over to a machine, patting it. “We’ll have bigger leverage to get your alpha begging for your release. He’d never sacrifice an unborn child.”

A few more vampires emerged from the dark and pulled me to my feet. They lifted me onto the table, and I wanted to fight it, but I had no energy left in me. They laid me down, each one holding an arm and a leg.

I started to squirm, not liking where this was going. Why did they need to hold me down? What was about to happen?

“Relax.” The leader pushed forward the machine, and what I assumed was the sonogram. “We won’t hurt it. Yet.” He pushed my shirt up to expose my stomach while he squirted gel on it. “I was a little surprised to hear that we had kidnapped a pregnant wolf.” He grabbed the metal tool, sticking it on the gel and rubbing it around. I shivered, still struggling under the restraints. “I suppose everything happens for a reason.” He turned the machine on.

I looked away, trying not to see what they saw. They had no intention of keeping me or the baby alive. They had no moral compass to do such a thing. They planned to kill us.

He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at the screen. “You should see this, too. It’s only the happiest day of your life.”

What I saw was far more surreal. A head. Torso. Arms. Legs. The baby was so developed in just months. My stomach wasn’t even that big. How was that possible? That couldn’t be… But it was. The little body inside me was all I had left. When I saw my baby, I saw Noah, remembering what it had felt like to fall in love with him. I had to protect our child at all costs. I needed a plan to escape, and now I had somewhat of an idea after seeing the layout to this place. I just needed to convince Marcos to follow my lead.