Four
Brooke
The next thing I knew, I was waking up in a dark place. My eyes cracked open, and my nose was punched with a musty odor. My body felt like it had been run over several times. Everything hurt, even my hair, although I knew that was impossible. I tried to move, but it wasn't going to happen.
“You're fine, love,” a British voice said. It was bright and sharp in the darkness. My eyes started to pick out details. I was in a stone room, about twenty feet square. The floor was dirt, and the ceiling was about twelve feet high. From the way his voice echoed, I could tell we were underground. I took a breath and heard an awful sound. I panicked, trying to get up. A hand touched my arm, pushing me back down. A face came into view. It was familiar, but not. I wanted him to make the pain stop.
“Do you know who you are, love?”
“Brooke. I'm Brooke.” My voice sounded different. It was clear and cold. I took another breath and heard the awful noise again. It was almost like a wheeze. As if the air was scraping the insides of my lungs.
“You don't need to breathe, Brooke. Your lungs no longer need the air. Do you understand?”
All at once I was assaulted by the room, him, the smells, and the sounds, and it was all too much. I closed my eyes, hoping it would go away. I just wanted it to go away.
“It hurts.”
“I know. It will be over soon.” A cool hand brushed my forehead. “Open your eyes, love. This is a whole new world, and soon you'll get to be a part of it. There are so many things I want to show you. We're going to see the world.”
“What happened?” The more I thought about the pain, the worse it got. I needed to stop thinking about it.
“I told you I was going to make you immortal. That's why you don't need to breathe. Look at your arm. It's healed from where I cut you.”
I glanced down at my arm. It was perfect as I turned it over. It also had a subtle glow in the dark of the stone room. I turned it over, marveling at how smooth my skin was.
“Just one more day and you'll be perfect. Then we'll see what you're made of.”
“What's your name?” I couldn't remember his name. I could only remember mine.
“I'm Ivan.” He stroked my face with the back of his hand. His eyes were two different colors. The left one a deep brown, the right green. They had flecks of other colors in them, subtle as a whisper. I stared at them and they stared back at me. I slowly sat up, putting my hands on the ground. The soil was moist and reeked of decay, dust and years.
“Steady, there.” He helped me to my shaky feet. His arms were strong, but so were mine. I felt his skin give beneath mine. “You're strong.” He seemed surprised. He tried to pull me into his arms, but I resisted. What was he doing? Why was he touching me like that? I moved away from him, slamming my back into the stone that encased the room. There was a bang, and little bits of stone and dirt rained down on us.
“Easy, easy,” he said, holding his hands up.
I wanted out of the room. I ran to the other side, which took less than a second. I tried the other. I just wanted out. Out of this room, out of my body.
“Brooke, listen to me. You can't go out or you'll die. Do you understand?”
I looked up and saw a trapdoor. It was high up, but with a jump I could do it. Ivan's words reached me.
“I want to get out,” I said.
“I know you do, but you can't right now. We just need to sit for a while.”
I looked at the door again, but his words scared me. I didn't want to die.
“Do you remember anything?”
“Anything about what?” I searched my brain. I remembered my name; I remembered him. But... nothing else. “What's happening?”
“Brooke, you're sixteen years old. You liked a boy named Dillon, and your best friend is Cara. Do you remember that?”
As he said the words, murky images swam through my brain, but as soon as I tried to grab them, they slipped through my fingers. I tried harder and I was able to hold onto them for moments before they slipped away again.
“You think you hate your mother and her boyfriend. Your favorite color is sea-foam green. You hate Mondays and flossing and eggs. You love moonlight and silver jewelry and sunrises. Remember?”
I heard his words, and they triggered little flashes in my mind. Little pieces that I tried to pick up.
Yes, I was Brooke. I'd gone to hang out with my friends at the railroad tracks and met Ivan. He'd taken me into the woods and I thought he was going to kill me, but we talked instead. He kissed me. And now I was here.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“It's 6:34 a.m.”
“What day is it?”
“It's Sunday.”
“Sunday?” I had to reach, but I remembered the night I'd gone out had been Friday. Two days.
“Where are we?”
I traced my hands on the walls, trying to feel our location. It was cool in this room, around 52 degrees. I didn't know how I could tell the temperature. I just could. Like how I could smell that no living person had been down here in at least fifty years. This was a secret place. Only rats and other creatures had been here. I could smell them, hear them scurrying around. They didn't bother me. I used to be afraid of rats, I thought.
“We're in New Hampshire still. I would have carried you farther, but the sun was coming up and I had to get you out of it.”
“Why?”
“The sun will hurt you now. Soon you will revel in it, but for now it will hurt you. You're safe here,” he said.
“Why?”
“You like that word, don't you? I am not sure I can answer that. I am not normally impulsive. My plan was to kill you. To drain your blood. That is what our kind do. That is what you will do. We need blood to function. But something about you, maybe it was your eyes, or maybe it was something else... I don't know. Something about you reminded me of her. Of my Josie. She has been gone for so long, but I always search for her. I've been searching for her since the moment I lost her.”
“What happened to her?”
“She died, a long time ago.” He looked away from my face.
“You love her.” Anyone could have seen that.
“Yes, I love her. I will always love her. Even if I could love someone else,” he said, taking a step away from me.
“Do you love me?” I asked.
“Not yet. But I could. There is another girl who — never mind. She is in love with my brother.”
“Ouch. So you're stuck in the friend zone.” I didn't know where the words had come from. My mouth said them without thinking.
He stared at me for a moment. “You are still somewhat human. I hope that doesn't change too much.”
He touched my face and I moved away. I didn't want him touching me. I remembered the kiss. What was wrong with me? I knew nothing about him, he'd done something to me and I'd kissed him.
“How long do I have to stay here?”
“Until something happens.”
“Until what happens?”
“You'll know,” he said, brushing my hair back.
“Stop touching me.”
He smiled, stepping back. “Will you promise me one thing, love?”
“Maybe. Depends on what it is.”
“Will you promise me that you will spend one entire day with me?”
“A whole day? I don't even know you.”
“Will you do that for me?”
Did I have a choice? Maybe he would let me go. “Yes.”
“You have to say that you promise.”
“I promise.”
The air in the room changed, crackling with something that I could taste on my tongue. Something settled over me like a heavy blanket. I looked at him and he smiled at me.
“Welcome to eternity, Brooke.”