Chapter 2

Lorraine's POV

I woke up in a dark, airtight room. A twinge of fear hit my stomach when I realized it wasn't my room.

Did I sleep walk after having a nightmare? I asked myself.

Stifling a yawn, I rubbed my eyes. It was as if a big elephant was stepping on my eyelids, making it impossible to open them

How did I get here?

I can't remember everything that had happened but in the dream… There were some men looking for me and then… just when I was about to die another man stepped in and… did he save me?

Abigail? Where's she? Did she make it out? A lot of questions crashed into themselves in my head.

"Where am I?" I asked myself, widening my eyes to scrutinize the whole room carefully.

"Help," I shouted when I finally found my voice but the echo of my voice rang back at me. I blinked several times hoping that all these would be just dreams, a nightmare.

"Help! Somebody help! Help me!" I wailed at the top of my voice, making sure I was as loud as I could be.

I stood up and moved towards the door and began to hit it with my hands, "Somebody help me."

Staggering backwards, I looked around, scanning the room one more time. There was a tray containing a bottle of water and some loaves of bread.

Suddenly, I began to hear the sounds of footsteps approaching the door and it immediately put an end to my thoughts. I began to tremble backwards.

Suddenly, the door opened. A huge shadow stood in the door for a moment. The glint of light was hitting my eyes directly making it impossible to open my eyes and see the man's face. Then he walked inside the room. A young bearded man he was, could be around six feet tall, dressed in a white top with well-fitted jeans.

He was followed immediately by a much older man, about the same height, but he had a broader chest. He was in a starched white collar shirt, tucked in blue jeans, his sleeves folded halfway up his arm.

"Please, don't hurt me. Please, I'm an orphan," I whimpered, begging for mercy. Although I was scared, there was something about the men that made them look harmless.

The starched white-collar man stopped walking. From where he stood, he said, "I'm James." Pointing towards his companion, "And this here, my brother, David, " he continued. "You are?"

I downed the huge lump of fear in my throat. By now, I could see their faces clearly. I had seen them before but I wasn't sure where I'd seen them before.

"I told you, James. You should have left this girl in the woods for the vampires to drain the last sip of blood out of her" David snorted, with a grin on his face, "not even a 'thank you for saving my life' huh?" He said, clenching his jaws and fixing his eyes on me.

"Calm down, Dave. Give her some time."

"Is she the girl Ellie spoke about? I don't want to waste precious time with the wrong person," David said, pouting his lips.

"Yes, she is. That's why I followed her in the first place," James replied, admitting that he had been stalking me throughout the party.

I froze, unable to say anything. Who was this Ellie? And what did they mean by am I the girl? What girl are they talking about?

Staring blankly at the two brothers, I began to cry, "Please, let me go. I promise not to go to the police. I'll leave this town and never return."

"Police? The same police that will get a promotion if any of them is able to kill you?" David said, giggling.

I could no longer hide my confusion as my mouth opened to form a big O of surprise. Why would the police want to kill me?

"That's it, Dave. I'll do the talking," James frowned. "We won't be hurting you. We just want you to tell us everything you saw in the… "

"Otherwise, we will only cut off some of your fingers to feed the dogs since you're so ungrateful. Moreover, James, the dogs are hungry," David interrupted, smiling devilishly.

I was struck for a moment. Then I glanced through their faces again and suddenly, I remembered where I'd seen these brothers before.

It was at the party last night. The two brothers had arrived at the party in a black Volvo S60 and they had caught everyone's attention with the way they drifted the car as though they got it for free.

James!

He was the guy who had asked me for a dance. The same guy who kept staring at me.

I have never felt this way before. This fear, I couldn't find her voice. My body began to shake as I raised my face to the men's faces again.

James turned his head towards his brother, "Dave!" He shook his head in annoyance.

"C'mon James, I was just having some fun, man," David gave his brother a grin.

"Forgive my brother's bad attempt at humour," James tucked his hands into the pockets in his trousers, and his face became serious as he began to speak, "We're not here to hurt you…"

"Well, we won't hesitate if you give us a reason to," David cut through, interrupting him again.

James had a friendly smile on his face, his mouth was small, he had a long slim nose, and his eyes were.

"C'mon Lorraine," I berated to herself. How can I be thinking about his appearance when I don't know if he would jut a knife through me like he did last night to the man in the woods?

These two lunatics are trying to make me believe that vampires exist. Hell no!

I jolted back to the wall as if to penetrate through it.

"Please! Let me go home, I'm an orphan, I don't have anyone. I have an assignment to submit today," I pleaded, sobbing slowly.

The two brothers broke into laughter at my naivety. Maybe they thought I was drunk too. Then, it crossed my mind.

Abigail!

"Abigail. Where's she?" I asked, recalling the mayor's words asking his men to kill whoever it was.

James squinted, lowering to my level, his hands placed on his knees to support himself. He looked straight into my eyes, his face carried a warm and comfy smile. "What's your name?" He said.

I scoffed. Tears were dropping from my eyes. I swear to God, I could not remember what my name was. I knew I had a name, but what was it?

"What's your name?" He repeated the question when I didn't respond.

I swallowed the spurt of fear in my throat. "My name… my name is… My name is Lor… Lorraine," I stammered, finally remembering what my name was.

"Lorraine, can you tell me what you were doing in the woods by that time?" He asked, stopping to let the words sink down in my head. "Calm down, we're not going to hurt you, okay? You're safe here."

Blinking my eyes several times, I processed his question slowly before I answered.

"We were coming back from the party, and we heard some voices coming from the woods." She swallowed again. "We thought maybe someone was in trouble…"

"And you went to check, right?" James shook his head.

"Yes," I answered, my voice barely above a whisper.

From the little moments I've gotten to stay here, James was the nice guy while his brother, David, was quite the opposite.

"Well, you've gotten yourself in trouble," David guffawed, making me tense with fear.

Trouble? What trouble is he talking about?

"Who did you see?" James asked.

"I saw the mayor with some men. They were talking about missing goods. I don't know what the goods are. Please, find my friend. They'll kill her," I answered.

"What else did you see?"

I heaved a sigh. "I saw a man wearing a red cloak. He seemed to be the owner of the goods," I said, recalling the man's voice.

"You mean the governor was here last night?" David interjected, interrupting his brother.

"I don't know. I didn't see his face," the words came out of my mouth faster than I expected.

"James, if the governor was here, then we need to…"

"I know what we have to do," James fired at his brother. "Call the rest of the team, we need to talk."