Hellish Obsession

It was before dawn. The chamber was dark as the sky, the floor-to-ceiling windows displaying the incredible views of the courtyard and the huge entrance gate whose frame was outlined by moonlight against the dark sky.

Aveline's eyes blinked open as if in urgent, waking up from her nightmare, sweating. She didn't have such hazardous sleep before, still, she wasn't tired at all. There was unusual energy boosting her. Her body suddenly trembled. It was neither for the coldness nor for the willingness. Her limbs jerked without her concerns. It seemed like someone else from inside was enforcing it.

To halt, she gripped onto the bedsheet, nails digging into it. But the quake proceeded with greater leverage. She gasped hard when it stopped.

"W-what...." Her voice stuck as anxiety took place in her mind that made her more like a mannequin on the soft mattress than a human of flesh and bone. Sleep has said bye to her totally now. Her brain turned like a violent whirl of thoughts, trying to organize the chaos in her life.

The pieces of puzzles were just expanding when her body pulled herself up. Again by a force. Not willingly. Her body started flooding with adrenaline as her feet led her close to the mirror. Something made her sit on the stool in front of it whilst her hands reached out her hair that was tied in a ponytail. The next second, her hands pulled the rubber out and her long hair flowed down her waist that skyrocketed her heart rate.

Shortly, her hand moved to the drawer and snapped it open. Thereon, she was forced to grab the scissors and placed them on her hair. She widened her eyes, couldn't make a single move except for the moves by the force that was controlling her body. "I don't want to cut my hair." She forced her voice out but wasn't able to scream. It seemed like everything was controlled by someone else.

The scissors along with her hand trailed down to her abdomen and was held on the hair above her abdomen. Her fingers curled tight into the handles as the scissors started cutting the hair.

"No." She tried to shout. "Fucking no." She persisted but still failed to move and scream. After the hair under her abdomen was successfully cut off, she got back the control.

Ave's sweaty body was literally frozen in place until she stood up and fled away from the stool. "It's alright, Ave. Just because... the soul inside your body is not yours." She calmed herself down.

"I have to calm down." She was trying to catch her breath and still deciding if she should call someone or not when a knock at the door drew her attention.

Her brows knitted together as she peeked up at the clock. 3 am. "Who is supposed to come at this hour?" She wandered and swallowed a gulp. Bracing herself, she walked there, dragged the door back, and its wooden bound swung open.

"Peter?" Ave's lips parted in disbelief. Peter wasn't a guy who will not sleep at night. He sleeps a lot. But he was now standing in front of her! Weird! In the dimmed darkness and freezing cold, she could see he was wearing a thin black t-shirt.

He wasn't cold? He should be!

"I don't know if it's my illusion or not. But if it is, I am really relieved to see you. I have a lot of stuff to tell you." She moved aside, giving him space in.

When Peter came in, Ave looked at her friend but as soon as her gaze met his eyes, her heart almost jumped out of its place in dread. "Are you drunk? Your eyes are... as red as blood." His eyes were badly red with no trace of the sclera, his face was passive and slack.

Afterwards, she sighed deeply. "It must be the freezing cold. Why aren't you wearing warm clothes? Let me burn some wood in the fire..."

"NO!" Peter shouted. "Don't make fire. I'm alright." He looked scared like a 10-year-old kid.

Ave was stunned by Peter's sudden exploration but she stayed calm. "Okay. Relax. Take a seat."

Peter nodded and sat on the couch while her suspicious gaze was following his every move. There were hundreds of puzzles in her mind that she was holding back, undone.

"Now tell me, what's wrong?" Ave queried, sitting opposite of him.

"Today." Peter said as his eyes darkened in a dangerous shade. "What were you doing in the purple forest again? Why did you go there? And do you know, whom did you call a 'bastard'?" He asked everything in a fast-paced, in one breath.

Ave chuckled shakily, clearing her throat that had dried up. "I thought you already know."

Peter shifted in his position, just like a robot. "How am I supposed to know?"

Ave coughed as the colour drained from her face and the voice stuck inside. "Right, I didn't tell you about it." A weak chuckle escaped her lips. "By the way, tell me why are you here at this time? Tell me the reason. I don't want to talk about the bastard now..."

"What did you call him again?" Peter's face turned red in resentment, the anger inside him almost vent by his scream.

"Bastard!" Ave tightened her fists as his pink-red eyes darkened, even more, two teeth started extending, growing out from either side of Peter's mouth.

The clock ceased to tick. There was no sound from the outside world, not a bird or engine noise. Then the air was rent with a soft wheezy sound that was so piercing. The air became cold and Ave's body heat quickly deserted her blood for the frigid atmosphere. One after another.

"Your death." With that, the form like Peter but literally a vampire jumped onto her very fastly, giving her no time.

Ave gasped and struggled to push him away from her body. That vampire's huge nails bit on Ave's skin. She winced and pressed her hand on his arm. Though the wound was board, it wasn't bleeding at all but was aching a lot.

That vampire continued trying to bite her but was stopped by the sound. Both of them were completely taken aback when the door slumped open, a few paladins came across, holding fire lamps in one hand.

"I'm apologizing wholeheartedly. I'm sorry, Princess. I thought it's your friend. I didn't know it's a vampire with body transformation." The fragile monk explained between uttering something mutely, holding a silver plain plate, pounding something on it that was like a tool consisting of a solid headset crosswise on a handle.

The sound spread everywhere in a flash, that beast's hands clamped on his ears, trying not to heed the sound. His real form was back now. The paladin's held him, muting something that made him unconscious slowly. When he fell on the floor, they tied his legs and hands with ropes before taking him away from the chamber.

Then one of the paladins and the court lady ran to Ave and bowed apologetically. "Are you hurt, Princess?" The court lady asked.

Ave who was not in her right mind realized that she was hurt. She nodded. "Yeah." And moved the hand from her arm. In another second, she became dumbfounded, froze after seeing nothing there on her arm. Not even a single mark of the wound that the vampire created by its nails. "How is it possible?" She muttered, swallowing her own breath.