3.

She didn’t realize her safety would come at the cost of complete imprisonment.

Instead of sporting a peace of mind, Madelle thinks she’s suffering a form of cabin fever after her 5^th day of entrapment.  Her new so-called roommates were always out and about, doing their “jobs”. Whenever they returned in the early hours, they would lazily wave her way, grab a blood packet from the fridge and stumble into their rooms.

It was all right, she would tell herself, they were working hard to her sake. She knew they were giving their all in order to stop Malima. However, no amount of self-appeasing would help her deal with one particular problem and that problem was her appointed caretaker. Out of all of the twelve to watch over her, Kai with his once again distasteful attitude was chosen for the task to babysit her. He grumbled about, kept at a distance and confided himself within his room for most, if not all, the time.

Although appearing unconcerned about Madelle’s wellbeing, Madelle can recall a time when Kai rushed out of his cave right after Madelle had dropped and broke a glass of water on the kitchen floor. He was quick to tell her that he would take care of the mess and that she should be careful not to cut herself. His tone may have been as sharp as the shards littering the floor, but she felt a twisted sense of contentment from it. They were words directed at her and it was sadly the most that had been said to her in days. She entertained the thought of breaking more items if it would bring more attention her way. Was it so terrible that all she craved for was some form of conversation?

In the absence of words, she tried wasting time through various other means. She cleaned every inch of the dreary apartment twice over, played a lonely game of solitaire a few times too many, read the same ‘Vampires 101’ manual three times and quizzed herself on it regularly. Once, her guts managed to gather themselves and she tried to engage Kai in a game of War using the aged and wrinkled playing cards she found. Although he expectantly declined, her heart couldn’t help but sink.

Staring out the living room window on the 5^th day, Madelle got thinking. Was she a burden? Was that the reason behind Kai’s behavior? She understood that he would rather be with the others and help with the plan on retrieving and punishing the rogue. She also got the hint that her being his blood companion wasn’t the swellest news for him either.

Maybe…maybe she should just leave. Her life may be in peril, or however the twelve would word it, but she felt that she just couldn’t handle the confinement any longer.

And thus, a plan began to formulate.

Escaping was a grand idea, but the tricky part was escaping without Kai noticing. Outthinking a vampire with super senses is not something easily done by just an ordinary human.  However, when Madelle’s eyes ran across a cupboard that stocked a few syringes filled with sedatives especially made for vampires, it clicked. Escaping a conscious vampire was difficult, but an unconscious one was a different story.

The next day, after the others left in the early evening, she set her plan into motion.  Kai went off to his room and Madelle quietly worked in the kitchen. She silently opened the cupboard door and took out a syringe gently. After popping the cap off slowly, she reached for a blood packet in the fridge and unsecured its lid. Ever so carefully, she took the syringe and inserted the needle tip inside packet. With one shuddering breath passing through her lips, the clear liquid of the syringe vanished without a trace into the blood.

She quickly placed the lid back onto the packet and left it on the counter while she hid the emptied needle. With all the cupboards closed and the blood packet lying still on the counter, she waited. A door clicked opened down the hall and her heart raced. No, she thought, be steady.

Kai ignored her as he walked across the living room and stepped into the kitchen. When he opened the fridge door, she found herself speaking.

“Ah! I got one for you already.” She spoke, though she barely recognized her raspy and neglected voice. Kai raised his eyes to her as she snatched the blood packet off the counter, “I’ll microwave it for you.” And she quickly turned around. She tossed the pack into the microwave and her fingers shook as they punched in numbers and pressed start.  

She gripped onto the edge of the counter tightly. Her grip only loosened once she realized how white her knuckles had become. She glanced over her shoulder to see Kai leaning his back against the fridge, eyes glued to the floor.

One chance. She’ll give him one more chance.

“After this,” she began, “do you maybe want to watch a movie with me? I saw a DVD for this comedy and I—“

“I can’t.” Kai blurted out quickly. “I…can’t. I’m sorry, I have a few articles to read.”

It was the same excuse. He couldn’t even bother to think up of another lie to tell her. The microwave beeped, signaling Madelle to take the heated packet out. With her hands more steady and determined, she retrieved the packet and handed it to Kai.  After seizing the warm packet, he pulled off the lid and on the tainted blood.

Without one glimpse her way, Kai turned and took a few steps out of the kitchen. She watched on as his feet slowed to a stop and his legs began to quiver. His hands dropped his sides; the packet falling and splattering traces of blood across the wood floor. Madelle was there to catch him as he swayed. He faced her with his lids struggling to stay open and his weight becoming increasingly heavy in her arms. He gurgled, eyes rolling as he struggled to stay aware.

“I’m sorry,” She whispered when they both slumped to the floor together, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I should stay here any longer.”  She moved Kai’s fringe away from his eyes. His muscles pulsed and shook with struggle before relaxing altogether.

She sighed as her eyes looked over his features. It was almost as if he was sleeping. At least, that’s what she may have convinced herself to believe in order to subdue her guilty conscience.

She wasn’t sure how long the sedative would last due to the fact he didn’t ingest much of it, so she worked fast. She dragged Kai’s limp body to the couch and painstakingly placed him in a somewhat comfortable position. She quickly cleaned the blood off the floor and made sure that the remaining liquid in the packet was washed down the drain. With one last glance around the apartment, she shut the door and sped walk away from the building.

It was a little difficult for Madelle to find her home from an unknown area, but she managed with little time wasted. She retrieved the hidden key tucked under a loose tile and unlocked her apartment door.  Inside was just as she left it; tiny, bare and homey.  She took a quick shower with flashes of the past few days pulsing through her mind. She could only will the memories to wash away with the water.

She laid down on her mattress situated in the corner of the room after towel drying her hair. Staring at the stained and cracked ceiling above her, she figured out her next steps.  She thought of her job and whether she was still employed at the convenience store.  She knew that taking an abrupt and unexplained leap of absence wasn’t an example of all-star employee behavior. But, she still prayed they would take her back. It wasn’t like she had anything else going for her and the money she had saved up was going to run dry real quick. Too quick. Burdening her family again was not even an option. She already achieved her independence and she didn’t want to give it back. She fell asleep with the hopes that her normal routine would be intact when she woke.

Light peering through a thin makeshift curtain persuaded Madelle to rise and shine. She wasn’t so sure about the shine part, but she did put on the nicest clothing she owned and ran over pitiful excuses to feed the convenience store manager. 

It was strange wandering through the streets when the sun was up. The brightness was hard on her eyes and the people walking and shoving by were hard on her shoulders. She stood in front of the convenience store door for a few moments before pulling open the door. A few frantic beeps signaled her entering and she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

She greeted the cashier with a casual wave before walking to the back of the store where the manager’s office was located. Luckily enough, the manager seemed relieved to see her. After the manager questioning their concerns and Madelle’s sincerest apologizes, she was told that her usual shift awaited her that night.

The sun didn’t burn and her shoulders felt weightless as she walked back home. It was okay. Everything would go back to the way it were. She napped with a tiny smile contently on her lips until her alarm went off again hours later.

She quickly tossed on her uniform and locked her apartment door as she left. The streets had traces of people here and there, some finishing their shifts and while others like her were on their way to start.

She just turned a corner when a blast of heavy and dense air blew onto her neck. Madelle immediately whipped around with her hand covering where the air touched. She saw nothing. However, a metal garbage bin fell to the ground with a loud clatter next to her and her body took it as a sign to bolt.

She ran until she made it into the convenience store. She punched her time ticket into the reader and tried to catch her breath. It’s okay, she told her, stop being so paranoid. She clasped her shaking hands together as she stood behind the counter. Minutes went by, as did the different customers and soon the practiced smiles and gentle tones naturally appeared again. She wished her shift would never end but her co-worker did arrive on time and it was her time to go home.

With her coat on and a hand clutching a fully loaded sedative syringe, she cautiously began her trek back home. Every sound had her twitching, every flicking light had her picking up her pace, and every passing second had her asking why the walk was taking so long.

Pain.

Sharpness embedded itself into her wrist and pushed her into a dark alleyway. She cried out when her head was slammed harshly against a brick wall. When her blurred vision focused, she was greeted with a hollowed face snarling with its pointed fangs protruding from shriveled lips. She had never seen such a creature like the one before her. She was frozen in fear as groans escaped the creature and hot air panted across her face.

Her hands reflexively tightened and it reminded Madelle of the syringe within one of them. She popped off the cap as she did in her last attack, except this time, the creature noticed. A clawed and wrinkled hand grabbed her hand and crashed it. The glass of the syringe shattered in her palm and pierced into her skin. A voiceless yelp of pain immediately escaped her.  She wasn’t quite sure of the condition of her hand, but she knew there must have been something broken and blood was mostly definitely being lost.

The creature must have sensed the blood because its nostrils flared and a raspy chuckle of an ugly sort echoed in the air. Its black eyes stared mockingly at her as its jaws widened at an impossibly large angle. She knew it was aimed to come down right on her neck and all she could do was close her eyes, wait and pray her family would continue to survive without her.

A shrill shriek and the feeling of claws extracting themselves made Madelle open her eyes. The creature had stepped back and edges of its figure started to ash to the ground. Soon, the creature collapsed and crumpled into a pile of grit on the pavement.

Tears escaped her eyes as she stared at what was left of the terrifying creature. Her legs quivered and then buckled under her weight.

“Do you understand now?”

Madelle jumped and frantically looked to the familiar voice. There was Kai, looking as grim as ever. The words he spoke started to process in her head.

“H-How long?” She asked, then her voice elevated in volume, “How long were you watching!” Kai remained silence and simply watched as tears of fear turned into tears of anger. “T-That thing was going to kill me. It crushed my hand, Kai! And you just let it happen!”

“I wanted to make sure you understood why you’re no longer safe.”  Kai spoke, “I’m sorry but it was the only—“

“Shut up!” she yelled, her eyes barely able to distinguish Kai through her tears, “Y-you just watched, you waited so you could teach me a lesson! Well, are you happy? I’m terrified. I’m— so terrified.” She honestly tried to chock back her sobs, but it was a battle she was losing.

“Come on, we should go before others come.” Kai whispered.  She barely heard it, but once it processed, her breathing stopped although.

“Others? What, they are more of those things?” She asked in horror, eyes wide and wild.

“Yes, so it’s best we leave.” He took a step forward and clutched onto her uninjured arm. She tried to pull back, her body impulsively rebelling because being touched by someone you're absolute livid with isn't pleasant. The world around her wasn't so considerate of her distress and so, began to morph and spin around too fast for her to even flinch an inch. Soon, she found herself back in the apartment she had fled the day before.

“Follow me.” Kai stated in a stiff manner before he quickly turned.

“No,” Madelle said, “Bring me back right now.” Call her foolish, call her crazy, but her anger refused to follow orders from a man, vampire or thing that just watched as she was viciously attacked.

Kai retaliated against her resistance with a sharp glare, “Do you still not understand?” He asked, facing her once more. “You will die if you aren’t being protected by us. Not only that, but anyone you know will also be at risk because Malima will stop at nothing in order to get to you. Do I make myself clear?”

She hissed in a deep breath through her clenched teeth, “I’ll be fine, I’ll move away and go somewhere where no one can find me—“

“No!” Kai yelled, “No matter where you are, you will be found and you will die. Sedatives can only do so much for you.”

One step closer and his smell entered her senses. She stubbornly set her jaw and kept her eyes locked with his. No, she would not let a wonderfully musky smell overtake her.

“That soulless vamp did a wonder of your hand, didn’t he?” Kai whispered against the shell of her ear and it sent shivers across her back, “Can you guess what he would have done to you after that?” After a moment of tense silence, he continued, “He would sink his teeth into your neck, right about here-" She jumped when fingers pressed onto the side of her neck, “-and he would you dry. Some would go as far as to rip you to shreds so they can get every.last.drop. So, you can try and fight, Madelle, you can try and run, but we vampires can and will always find and devour you in the end.”

Her anger dissipated with each word Kai spoke and it was replaced with shameful helplessness. It was true. She knew what Kai was saying was the truth but she was hoping to convince herself otherwise. Her hope was futile because those haunting moments from only minutes before continued to replay in her mind.

Madelle was in danger, major life threatening danger to be more accurate, and it was all due to the stoic vampire in front of her. She wondered, her hand was still bleeding and the pain was taking up about half of her conscious state of mind, but how much was it affecting Kai? She examined Kai for possible signs of him reaching out to sink his own fangs into her jugular. Her search came out dry, in fact, he looked just as he did during her days of isolation except he was much closer to her, much much closer.

It reminded her of why she left in the first place. His eyes were beginning to soften and his expression showcased fatigue unlike that of a regular vampire. She may be in danger, but she refused to be the cause of any unnecessary problem. She knew her blood tempted Kai but it must have been excruciating to deal with a person you crave but are so bitter towards at the same time.

“Fine,” Her words shook as they broke the silence once more and Kai stiffened against her, “You win. I won’t run, but I think it would be best if you transferred me to another one of your vampire divisions.”  

Kai’s reaction came as a surprise to Madelle. She didn’t think he would be pulled away so harshly and regard her with such disbelief and furrowed brows. “Why? Is that why you left? Because you don’t think we could protect you? That I could protect you?”  

She raised stunned eyebrows of her in response, “Well, despite the fact that you pretty much put my life on the line earlier tonight, no that is not why I left. You made it clear that you were having a problem protecting me. I was tired of waiting around and being a burden.”

Then there was just confusion, Kai rustled a hand through his hair to showcase his frustration and looked away. He took one deep breath before facing her with a stricken expression, “No,” He said, “No, that’s—you’re not the problem, you were never a burden. You’re wrong, Madelle.”

Her lips kept shut as she impatiently waited for Kai to connect the rest of his response. He searched her eyes, mouth gapping open and close with words not quite escaping.

“I’m sorry.” He managed to say, “I…I wasn’t thinking. I kept a distance thinking it would be best because I didn’t want to get attached to you. I didn’t realize how that affected you. I’m just—God, I’m sorry, I wasn’t being fair.” His hands raced up to rub his face, a mixture of embarrassment and regret expelling from his posture. 

She didn’t know how she felt at that moment. What was she supposed to feel? Maybe she was feeling guilty because what she concluded earlier was wrong; Kai didn’t dislike her after all. Maybe she should be upset because he thought avoiding her would solve his troubles. Above the sum of everything though, she knew that she didn’t resent Kai. He wasn’t perfect after all, and their situation wasn’t one that happened often.

“I wish that you would have talked to me a little.” She whispered, “I was really lonely and I thought…I thought you would have rather me gone—“

“No, I told you that’s—“

“—You wouldn’t even look me in the eyes sometimes. If you spoke to me and told me what bugged you, we could have worked something out. I forgive you, Kai but please… just talk to me next time.”

He met her eyes and she was thankful for it. His eyes appeared grateful for her forgiveness, while she was just thankful to see that the barrier Kai had put between them weakened exponentially.  

“Okay,” Kai spoke lightly, “but in return, please tell me if you’re not comfortable here. Your safety is the highest priority and I—No, we don’t want you to run off again.” Madelle nodded her head, eyes maintaining contact with his to ensure that she meant it.

Kai’s eyes left hers to travel down to her injured hand and then away. Madelle observed how his hands clenched tightly and loosened repeatedly. “I’ll go clean up.” She mumbled as she slipped past Kai in order to get to the nearest bathroom.

Once lightly closing the door, she the tap to a lukewarm temperature and reluctantly placed her bloodied hand under the stream of water. She hissed as soon as water touched. Although Madelle could wait for Lay to arrive and heal her hand, she understood that the blood caking and still slowly seeping out of her wound was indeed affecting Kai. His control was something she did have a decent amount of confidence in, but it still wasn’t a risk she was willing to take.

With a feather’s touch, Madelle painstakingly tried to take off the dried blood on her hand and its trails down her arm. Her clothes were stained with splatters of blood as well, which caused complications due to the fact she didn’t really have much clothing in the apartment to begin with.

She cleaned what she could and wrapped toilet paper around her hand. It would have to do until Lay came back.  She entered the room she stayed in before and it looked just as did before she left. Taking a clean set of clothing, which was provided by the gang on her first day there, she changed and left the room. When she entered the living room, she found Kai sitting on the couch looking as contemplative as ever. He immediately stood up upon seeing her.

“Is everything okay?” He asked, his eyes switching between her face and her hand. She was a little content in seeing that he appeared a little more relaxed than prior to her wound cleaning. Unable to form words to fill the awkward tension around them, she chose to nod back.

And then they were back to square one. They stood while avoiding each other’s glances, Kai’s hands fumbling and Madelle’s feet shuffling. Her eyes traveled to the television set and the stack of DVDs next to it. Her feet moved towards it and looked to the first movie on top of the pile.

Picking up the movie, she hesitantly turned to Kai who was observing her closely, “Want to watch a movie?” She asked. The few times she asked him before impulsively prepared her for rejection. She tried to conceal her pleasure when Kai nodded and took a seat on the couch behind him. “Are you in the mood for anything?” She asked, her excitement irritably obvious in her voice. She took a closer look on the DVDs and immediately picked out her favourites.

“Not really, go ahead and watch what you want.”

Oh, she’ll make him regret those words, and he knew it too when he saw the smirk stretching wide across her face.

The movie was a melodramatic romance that, in all honesty, wasn’t at all her top pick. The way Kai squirmed at the puke worthy cheese scenes made her satisfied in a way that may be considered a little short of sadistic. However, there were many times the overdramatic lines were too much and the both of them burst out into laughter. There was a moment where they caught eyes and Madelle just couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Unable to remember what started their laughter in the first place, they continue to snicker at each other until their lungs begged for a proper breathe of air and their abs were thoroughly sore.

Madelle credits this moment to be the most pivotal in their relationship, right after their first meeting of course. After Lay had healed her hand, their interactions were almost normal considering the enclosed circumstances. They kept a tally on the fridge stating who won the most games. Kai was in the lead and it led to Madelle challenging him over and over again, only to have one more line added to Kai’s tally.

“No vampire powers allowed.” She would bitterly say before a game. He would only laugh and insist that she had a terrible case of sore losing.

When Madelle got sick of bruising her ego, they sat down on the couch together and watched movies. They would take turns picking out the movies, genres varying from action to sci-fi.

It was Madelle’s turn to pick a movie and she finally gathered her guts to pull a particular movie from the collection stored. It was a classic vampire movie made when they were just creatures from story books and not citizens of modern society.

Kai didn’t seem bothered by her pick by any means, and if anything, he looked amused. The opening grayscale scene depicted a castle where bats flew about (with the clear strings keeping them afloat visible). As the movie progressed, Madelle’s questions grew. How different were vampires today from the fables?

Before she could rationally stop herself, she took the remote controller and paused the movie. Kai immediately turned to her, most likely confused. She nudged her head toward the television screen, “Is there…any truth to this? Like, before your kind came out?” The vampire on screen was in the middle of putting the leading actress into a hypnotic state, obviously fake fanged teeth gleaming from its mouth.  Madelle knew about vampire life from the Collaboration, as the government deemed it, and onwards. She knew very little of the life a vampire might have led before then.

“Why yes, we regularly lured young pretty girls to our stony lairs and had our ways with them.” Kai responded with a lazy smirk adorning his face. Madelle in return laughed and lightly kicked him.

“You know that’s not what I meant. What did you do before? What did other vampires do?”

Kai sighed and stared at the television screen in thought, “We acted like everyone else did. We worked in the same jobs and used the same money, but only at night of course.”

Madelle recalled reading about how sunlight did not, in fact, fry vampires, it merely makes them heartsick. Something about the UV rays not agreeing with their system so well, or something along those lines. She felt no need to explore the vampire biology chapter in her vampire manual too intensely, considering it was much too complicated for her to understand.

“I worked at a hospital night guarding for a while,” Kai continued, fiddling with the fringe on one of the pillow next to him, “it was convenient because blood packets were easily accessible and it really helped weaken my bloodlust. It was a sad place, with people coming and going, but I think I’ve met the greatest and strongest people there.” His sad smile struck something within Madelle. Her body slide over closer to him and she knocked her shoulders against his.

“How did you join the agency?” she whispered, hoping the change of topic would lighten up the mood. Kai knocked his shoulders with her as he sighed.

“It was an coincidence really. A rogue vampire went loose in the hospital when I was working and I took care of it before the guys at the agency showed up. I was offered a job on the spot. They put me together with the rest of the guys and that’s pretty much it.”

She nodded as she took the new information in. It would be a lie to say she wasn’t happy to learn more about Kai. When the Malima fiasco was all over and done with, she hoped that maybe she could still keep in contact with him. Was it selfish of her to think that way?

Madelle straightened herself in a more comfortable position against Kai when she realized that body heat was radiating off Kai. She looked down to the arm she was leaning against, confused. Kai caught on quickly and questioned her.

“Well, it’s just…I’d expect you to be more cold.” She mumbled and began resenting her face when it decided to become red.

Kai must have thought her as funny because he smirked with an eyebrow raised, “Did you not read about that in that book of yours?”

She didn’t take well to the mocking tone and pouted minimally. She faced him completely in a huff and latched onto one of his hands, she was surprised to find it so much colder than the rest of his body. Her puzzled gaze was met with laughter. “Despite your legends, vampires are not dead. It’s more like a mutation. One of the side effects are that vampires have very poor circulation, hence my cold hands and feet.”

Curiosity was her intention, honest. The purpose of her hands traveling up his arms was to feel the temperature difference. She didn’t mean to lean in closer and elicit shivers. Her body moved on its own accord once more when it came closer to Kai and her hands ventured where ever they liked. Muscles stiffening didn’t sway her but the shuddering breath against her hair did. That breeze made her take a breath of her own and that smell she swore to never be overtaken by filled her senses.

Kai moved and this time, Madelle was the one to become frigid. His hand reached up and over her, sliding across the exposed skin of her forearm ,but then it kept going. It shuffled behind her and suddenly the movie began playing again.

She calmly moved away and went back to her original position beside Kai. Her heart pounded and the moving images on the screen had failed to captivate her attention. All she could focus on at that moment was her rising body heat and Kai’s tightly clenched fists.

This wasn’t a good sign.

This wasn’t a good sign at all. 

There it is folks! Sobs. I'm sorry for such a long wait. My excuses are being weirdly busy (my school courses this semester demanded a lot more assignments, essays and exams than expected annnnd I picked up shifts at work because I need money) and major writer's block. It's not a completely solid chapter, I might go back and edit a little later, but I hope this satisfies you for now. 
I'm going to try to finish this story before the next semester starts (in early January). Just saying. Christmas break is wonderful. 

MAJOR thank you to all of you who are still subscribed and even commented! You guys are troopers and deserve EXO plushies. 

I am tired. I need sleep. I just worked a shift at a postal outlet and its Christmas time. Let's just say I'm pooped.

Much love and let's all drool over this image of Kai.