Bloody Attraction

[Elflady]

Darkness enveloped her like a soothing cover, her thoughts as loose and free as the wind, in this peaceful state nothing mattered anymore. Vague memories floated around in Ariana's mind but she couldn't get a firm grasp on them, they glided away from her whenever she tried and it was so hard to resist the comforting darkness.

Something forced her to try and clear her mind, to force her memories back to her, gradually they got sharper as they came into focus. Gradually regaining the meaning they once had, the first time she fell of a horse, her first trip to the ocean, her first crush. With that the rest came crashing back at her like a wave.

Suddenly Ariana snapped her eyes open, it didn't matter much as it was almost as dark as it were behind her eyelids. Confused she tried to move but her limbs were like lead, she lay slumped on her side, left arm bent awkwardly beneath her. Her head throbbed painfully, forcing her to seize her attempts to move as even the smallest shift increased the pain.

Staying as she was Ariana racked her brain to remember what had happened. She had gone to a late yoga class that much she knew but what had happened after that. From what she could gather she was still dressed in her usual jeans and sneakers, her navy blue, long sleeved shirt was twisted around her waist uncomfortably, had she just tripped or been hit by a car? Although she didn't feel any other pain except her head ache and the collar of her short jacket rubbed roughly against a sore spot on the side of her neck.

Slowly lifting her right hand Ariana awkwardly drew her fingers across her neck, flinching as she came across a wound, her fingers came away sticky with blood. Fear settled in her stomach as the tendrils of darkness rose from her mind, what kind of accident could she have gotten into to injure just her neck like this?

A chilly breeze reached her and Ariana suddenly remembered walking down an empty street, shivering in the cold, her still damp hair not making it any easier walking home in the chilly autumn nigh. When she actually had needed a cab no one could be seen. Frowning she gasped in pain as she twisted around to free her cramped arm, vaguely recalling finally being able to hail a cab, too tired to pay the driver any attention, just giving her address before slumping down into the seat.

After that her mind was blank, no matter how she tried she could not figure ot what had happened after getting into the cab. Unable to lie still Ariana did her best to ignore her head ache, as she fought to sit up it attacked with vicious throbs and Ariana had to shut her green eyes and concentrate before trying to pierce the darkness around her.

 

[Laur]

He was standing over her, silently watching her awaken. His dark, thick eyebrows rose with surprise, and even he couldn't tell if it was a negative surprise or a positive surprise that moved him. Just surprise - shock, even - that the cold, pale girl he had brought out into the middle of the forest to dump was moving, breathing, alive. He usually dumped bodies in this forest, not people. But somehow this young girl had resisted the transition from human to corpse even after he had sunk his teeth into her not once, but twice, in an attempt to drain every last drop of her rich, nourishing blood.

He had thought he had finally gotten it after she completely lost consciousness and her skin had turned nearly white and her limbs and neck completely limp. But at the same time, somewhere in his mind, he knew she wasn't dead, not as he placed her in the backseat of the car she had previously entered voluntarily, and not as he took her out to toss her onto the plant matter and roots that covered the damp forest floor. That's why he had stood there waiting for something for several minutes instead of just leaving her there and driving his hornet-yellow five-passenger car back home. Because he knew she would open her eyes again, knew she would be up groaning and groping at her neck wondering what had happened to her. Yet he was still surprised, and unsure of what to do with the still-living girl he had already kidnapped, drained, and dumped.

So he stood over her, staring, waiting for her to say something, or stand up, or see him and react however she would to his presence. From her point of view on the ground he would look like a dark tower at his height of 6 feet, all shadowed in except for maybe his very light blue eyes which almost seemed to glow in the dim moonlight.

 

[Elflady]

Everything spun as Ariana tried to focus her gaze, steadying herself with a hand to the ground to avoid falling back down Ariana blinked rapidly but the dizziness wouldn't go away. The low hooting of an owl far away, almost drowned by the rustle of leaves, snapped Ariana's attention to her surroundings, the damp earth of the forest floor and the pricking of needles and bark against the palm of her hand. She was in a wood. How on earth had she ended up in the forest when she where on the way home near the center of the city?

Looking around the trees loomed above her, stretching for a sky she could not see, craning her neck to see better she jerked backwards with a groan of pain as her eyes fell on the dark figure standing close by. A pair of ice blue eyes that gleamed in the dark like they sucked up even the faintest trace of moon light, they sent shivers down her spine more effectively than any wind.

Fear began to course through her for every heart beat as the silent figure kept his eyes on her, it was too dark for Ariana to see if it was a male or female but her instinct said to run. Scrambling backwards she soon hit a tree, the rough bark grabbing her clothes as if to keep her there, with an effort she bent her legs underneath her although she doubted she could stand, and even if she could Ariana knew she wouldn't be able to run. Maybe some people would start screaming and crying at this point Ariana, scared as she was, couldn't quite muster the energy to do that. It was as if she was drained completely and utterly of energy.

"Who are..." her voice broke off and she had to swallow a few times before trying again. "Who are you? What happened to me? Where am I?" Even her voice sounded frailer than usual, especially as the forest stood dark and quite around them.

 

[Laur]

The tall man knelt on one knee in front of the girl, his arm crossed over his other knee as he examined her. Indeed, the four, fairly deep fang marks he had left on her throat were still there, leaking trace amounts of blood. So she hadn't healed yet - so she was definitely human. Yet she still had enough life in her not only to awaken, and to move, but to speak, asking him who he was and why she was there.

"I'm Asaf," he replied, for the sake of it. "And it doesn't matter where you are, because you're coming with me." At that he reached out to grab her, not too quickly, but taking his time considering even if she tried to get away, there was no way she would be able to outrun him in this forest.

 

[Elflady]

When the man knelt down and seemed to examine her Ariana felt the need to hide, to get as far away as she could yet she had an uncomfortable feeling that she wouldn't succeed if she tried. Instinctivly shying backwards, both by the eerie feeling the man brought and the simple fact that he was a stranger presumably having something to do with her ending up here, the small movement sent waves of nausea through her and for a moment the world spun again. Where was he planning on taking her? What was going on? Nothing made sense to her and wihtout memories of the past few hours she couldn't even begin to sort it out, she just knew she wanted to go nowhere with him.

As the stranger stretched out a hand towards her Ariana did her best to stand, using the tree as help, but her knees buckled under her before she had even straighted up and she slumped back down, darkness seeped back into her vision, clouding over her mind. Ariana struggled violently to keep awake, afraid of what would happen if she blacked out. She may not be able to do anything even if she was awake but then at least she would feel like she had even the slightest measure of control.

 

[Laur]

Just as Asaf grabbed the girl, her legs seemed to collapse underneath her and she slumped towards the earth. He thought maybe at that point she had finally died from the draining, but positioning his ear close to her face he could still hear her faint breathing. Sighing with a mixture of frustration and confusion, he wrapped his arm around her back and lifted her up by her knees, carrying her back to his car. There he placed her in the back seat where she had been before, and he returned to the driver's seat to drive back to his house, where all the confusion had begun.

 

[Elflady]

In a daze Ariana felt herself be picked up but hadn't the energy to fight against it, her weak struggle not bothering the man much. Being dropped of in the backseat of a yellow car Ariana started to feel a bit better again when she kept still, it still felt like her head was stuffed with cotton but at least she hadn't fainted. This brought back memories though, wasn't this the same cab as earlier, the one that picked her up? Of course it could be another one but it seemed like a weird coincidence in that case.

The engine rumbled to life and she could see the strange man in the front seat, wondering just why the heck he had brought her out here, if he had done that, and ten just taking her back again. Wherever 'back' was. Was he a psychopath, a kidnapper or a raist, whichever was bad enough but Arianahad never believed that she'd fall victim to either with her average looks and flat figure, of course maybe not everyone went on looks, maybe anyone living was good enough.

The sounds of the engine, the dark night outside and the warmth inside the car was enough to lull her already dulled mind into a halfsleep and she didn't notice much about the surroundings, not that she saw much anyway in the darkness. Finally the man pulled up by a house and the killed the engine, the door that opened let in the fresh, chilly air and it made her more alert again, the strange weakness was not gone but it did get better slightly as the time went on.

 

[Laur]

Again Asaf was checking to see if the girl was alive. He opened the door and reached to grab onto one of her wrists, pulling her. He could tell at that point that she was breathing but wanted to see if she might even be conscious.

"Come on," he said in a stern voice, pulling, causing her weak body to flop forward. He put out his other hand to stabilize her, then waited to see if she would walk out on her own. If she suddenly sprung to life and started to run he would have no problem catching her and no problems with anyone trying to save her either.

The place he had brought her was to his own house at the end of a special neighborhood - a complex built specifically for the independent living of senior citizens. Most of his neighbors were deaf, or blind, or less than mobile, or senile enough to be convinced that the screams for help they heard were all in their heads. Asaf himself barely looked twenty, but had acquired his residency by submitting the documentation of his 92-year-old "grandfather." No one would guess that the elderly resident and his youthful "grandson" were actually the same person - if you could call what Asaf was a "person."

 

[Elflady]

The man pulled causing Ariana to fall in that direction, she wanted to resist, to scream, to do whatever to get away but she could muster just enough energy the keep upright. For the hundreth time she wondered what was wrong with her, had she been drugged or was there another reason? Her only wound seemed to be the one on her neck, there had been plenty of blood around the small wound but could that really have drained enough blood to make her feel this way, unless of course the attacker had knicked an artery.

Although if that had been the case she should've been dead by now, of cousre on TV there were always shows about people that had survived the unthinkable, fallen several stories, impaled things through head and body and lost blood, she had just never imagined she herself could be one of the lucky survivors.

Ariana looked around but she couldn't see much in the heavy darkness, moving her legs seemed like moving lead blocks but she could soon feel ground beneath her feet again. Wanting to avoid being carried off again Ariana tried to rise out of the car on her own, this man may have kidnapped her and she may not be able to get away at the moment but she for sure wanted her independence. Using the car as help she pulled herself up on wobbly legs, now they seemed more like jelly than lead.

"What do you want with me?" She asked, her voice more stable now than in the woods. "Why not just let me go, you have already done your best hurting me so what more do you want?" Of course she wasn't entirely certain this man Asaf was responsible for her injuries but it was a huge coincidence otherwise. Moving a few steps forward, not with the intention of running away but to try and get her muscles to cooperate once more, she didn't get very far before shad had to chose between falling and feeling embarrassed and weak or grabbing something to keep upright.

Snatching a hand out she felt fabric and took a firm grip, managing to stay upright Ariana let go of Asaf's arm as fast as she could, wobbling closer to the car where she felt more comfortable using it as a hand hold. "What in the world did you do to me?"