ROSES? FOR? RACHEL
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#Episode_16
I turned around, holding the ropes in both of my hands and sat down on the swing facing him. “So, you like the way I look tonight?” I asked shyly.
He bur-st out laughing, shattering the peacefulness of the room, and I couldn’t help laugh a little with him. “Is that a joke?” He asked. “Of course I like it, I’m a male after all.” He chuckled and stepped forward, gr-abbing the ropes and pushing them back a little then letting go so that I’d swing. “When I saw you walk out on tonight and those esc-rts took off your jacket, I almost lost my mind. I wasn’t sure if I should just sit back and admire you, or run up to you and make you put that damn jacket back on so that no one else could see how perfect you looked.” He told me.
“I was frozen though.” His voice was low like he was reliving the experience in his head. “I couldn’t do anything but stare, and then your speech…Rachel, that speech was really something.” He laughed. “I know that all of this is really ha-rd on you, but hearing you say that you’re willing to try, it just made my life. All I want is for you to give me a chance to show you that this doesn’t have to be terrible. If you give me a chance I will do everything I can to make you happy here.” He said gently.
His words made me flush, but I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face either. “I do want to try.” I told him, and in that moment, I knew it was true. I’ll give this whole thing a real chance if it means getting to spend time with this amazing guy. “I really do like you, Calvin.” I whispered.
He gr@bb£d hold of the ropes again, pushing them back, lifting me in the swing until my face was level with his. He was only a couple of inches away and I could see the smolder in his eyes. “I like you so much, Rachel. More than you know.” His voice made me believe every word. “and for the record.” He added. “I didn’t just like the way you look tonight. I have thought you were the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen from the moment I la-id eyes on you in that ballroom the first night. I tried to deny it and lie to myself about it, but you had me. Right then and there. If you’re willing to give it a chance, I want to see what this can be between us.”
“I do too.” I admitted.
“Good.”
“Good.” I whispered and bit myl-ip. His eyes dropped to my mouth, and he li-cked his ownl-ips before leaning even closer to me. He looked back up into my eyes and then just as ourl-ips were about to meet, the mood was killed by a perky voice.
“Oh, there you are, handsome. I’ve been looking everywhere.”
Calvin’s eyes shadowed to black, then back to blue as he sighed heavily. “Hello, Frankie.” He said less than enthusiastically, as he lowered my swing and turned around.
She waltzed into the room and smiled at him, then to me. “You don’t mind if I steal him away, do you? Me and the other girls haven’t had a chance to see him tonight.” She said in her fake nice voice.
Calvin smiled politely to her, crossing his arms. “Actually, Frankie, Rachel has had less time since she was sick and didn’t get to p@rticipate in the d@t£s.” He told her.
I stood up from the swing. “That’s alright, Cal.” I told him with a pat on the shoulder. He turned to look at me with a grin, narrowing his eyes. “I’m sure the people want to see you back at the ball anyway.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “I’m sure you’re right.” He replied with his eyes cut at me.
I just grinned and bit myl-ip, then stood on my ti-ptoes to whisper in his ear. “You were right.” I said. “I’m not done being a pain in your as-s. We’ll just have to pick up where we left off another time.” I leaned away from him and reveled in the adorable smile that pla-yed onl-ips as I took off my jacket and handed it back to him. “I’ll see you later.” I said over my bear shoulder, walking towards the door.
“Yes.” He called after me. “You will.”
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I was on a literal cloud as I walked out of the room and twisted into the corridors. My mind was racing repla-ying every single word we’d spoken and still trying to feel his t©uçh on my skin everywhere he’d put his hands. I was so lost in my own head that I wasn’t even looking where I was actually going. After a while I kept coming to dead end after dead end. I knew I should have been paying more attention when Calvin walked me to the room, but I had been a little more focused on him, rather than which turns we were taking.
The further and further I went, taking turns on a whim, it started to get colder and darker. Even more concerning, the pas-sages began to get smaller around me until I ha-rd ly had a foot of clearance between me and the t©p of the we-t corridor. The racing in my heart turned to a different kind of pounding, no longer excitement, but more fear. When I hit yet another dead end I finally decided I nee-ded to quit being so stubborn and just ask for some help.
“Gua-.” I started to call out, but quit when a small man appeared in front of me like he c@m£ out of thin air.
“Can I help you, Miss?” He asked politely. I looked around still feeling on edge, the little voice in the back of my mind telling me something wasn’t right. The man inclined his head to me, waiting for me to respond. “Miss?” He asked again. When I further inspected him, I noticed he wasn’t dressed like a guard. He had on plain black p@n-ts, and a black t-shi-t, but the guards always have on nice clothes, suit jackets even. This guy just seemed too casual.
I laughed nervously. “I seem to have gotten myself lost.” I explained. “I was just going to have a guard esc-rt me back.” I took a tentative step backward, not trying to let my discomfort show on my face.
He laughed, his squinty dark eyes roaming over me. “I’d be happy to give you directions, Miss.” He told me nicely, something about his posture and the clos£ness of his eyes reminding me of a rat. “Just keep going this direction.” He pointed into the darkness the way he’d come. “I know it’s a ti-ght squee-ze, but you’re in the old section of the castle, it’ll level back out soon. When it does open back up, take the first left, then continue down that hall until you reach two black doors with crosses on them. The old elevators are just throu-gh there.” He smiled creepily, and I started walking quic-kly, just in a hurry to get away from him.
He wasn’t kidding when he said it was a ti-ght squee-ze. If I were claustrophobic I would have been in a heap of trouble down here. The black stone walls of the corridor were so ti-ght that I could feel it brushing the t©p of my head, and the sides of both of my arms as I made my way throu-gh. The further in I got, the more condensation was built up on the walls, and the air bec@m£ increasingly cold and moldy smelling. My heart skidded with joy when the pas-sage finally opened up at the end to two separate hallways. There was a large sign in front of me, but the writing on it was another language. It looked a little like Latin, but I hadn’t ever been very good in my language studies clas-ses. That had been Greer’s specialty.
I lingered in that little opening, nothing but a single lightbulb hanging over my head that fli-ckered every few seconds, trying to decipher the sign to no avail. Taking the left seemed to be going down an even darker path, whereas the right seemed a little safer and less creepy. My head and my b©dy were at odds on which way to go, but finally my head won out, convincing my b©dy that that nervousness I was feeling was just from being lost, nothing more.
I followed the hallway to the left for a long time. I could finally see a dim red light hanging above a set of black doors at the end of the hallway, but as I looked around I moved slower and slower. The walls and ground were covered in…scratches? They were scR@p£d up with what looked to me like nail marks.
I st©pped dead in my tracks, my heart racing. “Guards!” I called, but no one c@m£ running. I started to walk the other direction, back up the hallway I’d come from, but then I st©pped again. I closed my eyes, counting to ten and tried to convince myself that I was being silly. The man told me that this is the old section, that’s probably why it’s so scary and run down. Just for the hell of it, I called the guards one last time, again no response, so I started back towards the doors again.
As I got close to them, I could see another sign on the door. Again it was written in Latin. Around the sign were large red crucifixes painted in what looked like blood, but was probably just paint. I told myself I was almost there, and pushed the doors open. They were heavy, and covered in some kind of slime, but I f0rç£d them open, in a hurry to get out of this creep fest. I took a single step in before letting out a blood curdling scream.
I had just walked into a dark and we-t cave, the only light coming from tiny grey orbs on the floor that just ba-rely illuminated what was directly next to them.
The cave was ginormous, and every single surface was covered with bodies-Still, n-ked, pale bodies.
My first thought was that they were the dead, people the vampires had alre-ady su-cked dry for everything they could get out of them. And honestly, as sick as it was, I was wishing that it could be true. My wishes were killed when, one by one, their heads all turned slowly towards me, eyes popping open and mouths chomping at the air. I screamed again as a woman, who I hadn’t seen was lying on the floor so close to me, reached out lethargically, her skin stretching unnaturally and gr@bb£d the bo-ttomof my dress. I jumped away from her, but she just to-re the bo-ttomhalf of my dress away, then lunged again, digging her nails de-ep into the skin on my th!gh. I yelled helplessly as I felt the h0t blood pour from the wound. As the smell of my blood filled the room, every single vampire began to move, all trying to get up to come after me.
“Rachel! Run!” I heard a voice from behind me scream, right before the heavy doors finally cli-cked shut, ma-king it almost too dark for me to see anything.
Calvin was at my side, eyes black and wi-de. He closed his eyes for a brief second as he sniffed the air too, leaning scarily close to me with hungry eyes as they popped back open. Hisl-ips pu-ll-ed back and I thought of all of the vampires in this cave, that he was going to be the one to kill me, but then he leaned away, shoving me ha-rd towards the door as a large pale man jumped onto his back. “Calvin!” I screamed as I watched in horror while at least five sickly vampires converged on him, taking him out of my view for just long enough for me to think he was a goner.
Calvin let out a low holler as the man on his back bit into the curve of his n£¢k, taking a chunk away. I didn’t know what to do. Run for the door, or try to help Calvin, but both options seemed helpless. Calvin’s screams broke my heart, forcing me to make a decision. I backed myself up to the door, the stinging in my leg giving me an idea. I gr@bb£d my bloody bits of dress hanging from my leg and waved it around. “Hey!” I screamed. “I’m the one bleeding! Come get me!” I taunted them.
It got the attention of the vampires. All the ones who were up and nearby wh!pped their heads up to glare angrily in my direction and started stalking my direction hunched over re-ady to lunge. All of the ones who were still lying on the ground further away began to crawl or drag their bodies my way too, sniffing the air obsessively. Calvin dropped to the floor as the angry vampires that were attacking him, left him to go towards me with the rest of the herd.
“Calvin, get up! Come on!” I screamed as they were moving in closer and closer. I turned my b©dy to pu-ll on the stupid heavy doors, shifting it open enough for me and Calvin to fit throu-gh, then holding it open with my b©dy in between. I turned my head back just in time to see a big angry man lunge to me, his teeth chomping at the air and st©pping just before ma-king contact with my shoulder.
Calvin was behind him, gr-abbing him back and flinging him to the ground, then pushing me throu-gh the door. “Go, Rachel, go!” He shouted as I fell to the ground on the other side of the door. Calvin gr@bb£d ahold of the door handles, pu-lling them towards us to make the doors shut fas-ter, but as he did the hall was filled with an awful sizzling sound and Calvin’s mangled cries.
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The doors shut and he coll@psed to the ground, still screaming. I crawled to him, gr-abbing his head and pu-lling it into my l@p and brushing his hair from his eyes. “Calvin, oh my god, are you alright? What’s wrong?” He was rocking back and forth. “What can I do? Just tell me what to do!” My voice was frantic. I didn’t decide to give him a chance just to have him die in my arms a few hours later.
“Get it off of me, plea-se, Rachel!” He hollered and I looked down to his hands. The skin on his palms was bubbling sickly. I remembered the slimy substance that covered the doors and I gr@bb£d what was left of the bo-ttomof my dress and began to wipe his hands vigorously despite the way my stomach turned as the skin wiped away with the goo. “That’s good, that’s good.” He repeated, his hands shaking slowing. “We’ve got to get out of here, I can’t…” He g@sped for breath, gr-abbing hold of me for help. “I can’t breathe down here.”
I ignored the stinging of my leg and helped him up from the ground, using every ounce of strength I had to practically drag him back the way I’d come. When we c@m£ to the tiny corridor it bec@m£ even more difficult because I was trying to support his weight, as well as fit throu-gh the small space together.
The further throu-gh we got, the more he started to regain his strength. Once we c@m£ to a sp©t that was more familiar, he pu-ll-ed my arm, st©pping me from walking, then slid down the wall to sit on the floor. “Are you alright?” I asked exhaustedly, coll@psing down on the floor beside him, gr-abbing his hands and inspecting them myself.
“Yes.” He said firmly. Looking at his hands you wouldn’t know that anything had happened to him. His white shi-t was covered in blood, but the places I’d seen him get bit were alre-ady healed like nothing was ever wrong. I only wished I could say the same for my leg. The g@sh ran from the inside of my upper th!gh, all the way down to my knee, and blood was still oozing out slowly. He looked down at it, his eyes shifting slightly. “Rachel, you’re hurt.” He whispered, leaning away from me a little.
“I’m fine.” I lied, feeling a little lightheaded. I leaned my head back against the wall behind me and tried to steady my breathing.
He shifted his b©dy so that he was facing me and stared de-eply into my eyes. “You saved me.” He said in an astonished whisper, looking down at my leg again for a moment. When he looked back up he brou-ght his hand up to the side of my face and I leaned into his cold t©uçh.
“You saved me.” I whispered back weakly. “How did you know where I was?”
His soft expression changed. “Yes, I suppose I did. I felt that you were in danger. It was weird, like I s-en-sed it and I just knew where to go.” He muttered. “Speaking of, though.” His voice changed, sounding more like himself. “What the hell were you doing down there? Are you insane?”
I didn’t have enough strength to argue with him. “I got a little lost on my way back from your mother’s room and I ran into some guy.” I explained. “He gave me directions. He told me that going down that way and throu-gh those doors would lead to the old elevators to get me back to my room.”
His expression was unre-adable as he held my face in his hands.
“A man told you to go in there?” He asked me very seriously.
I nodded my head, remembering his directions exactly. “Cal,” I said. “Did someone just try to have me killed?” I whispered, glancing up into his eyes.
He bit down on his thick bottoml-ip. “Yeah, Rachel.” He sighed. “I think so.”
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Story_Continues