CHAPTER 7

Sophia's P.O.V.

I felt a stinging pain at the back of my head. When I opened my eyes, I would see a black void. The previous fight between me and Daniel would occasionally replay itself. I would look away every time I see his hurtful expression and angry eyes. I would call a "Hello" or "Anyone there?" once in a while but nobody answers. I often hear footsteps and someone calling me by my name but no one was there when I turned to look. 

There was a cold and wet feeling on my body as my eyes fluttered open. My only clothes were wet and soaked. My face was covered in water. I was shivering and my hands and legs were tied to a chair. There was no one in the room. Luckily. The room was plain white and the only furniture in the entire room was the chair I was sitting on. I struggled and struggled. Trying to get free was hard. Especially if it was chains and not ropes. Boy, how much I wished I was a fire- specialized moroi.

Suddenly, the door opened. I snapped my head to the door and saw a shadowy figure standing there smirking. It started laughing. The laugh was so loud and cold which sent shivers down my spine and goose- bumps appear. I realized it was just a guy. He came out of the shadows and I gasped. It was a strigoi. He had the usual red- ringed eyes, chalky white skin and super sharp fangs, ready to drink from a helpless moroi or dhampir. Preferably moroi though.

"My,my. How much have you grown, darling.." he stated.

He was standing about six feet away from me but with his fast speed, he was beside me in less than a second. He touched my cheeks and my hair as if inspecting me. "You're so young and beautiful" he said, smirking wickedly. "Just like your mother". My eyes widened. 

He laughed again. "Yes. I know your dear mother. So so well. It was an interesting story, actually." I gulped. His cold hand was making me shiver so badly. I wanted to wrap myself in someone's arms. Dimitri or Adrian or Christian or...... Daniel.. wait... what?  God. I should be thinking of how to escape.

"How do you know my mother?" I questioned.

"Do you want to know the whole story?" I just stared at him. "Fine"

He told me the whole story. About mom and Lissa and Eddie breaking his brother out of prison, about my mom killing his brother in cold blood even though they helped save Dimitri. I couldn't help but feel a little sympathy towards him but I felt like he wasn't telling me something. "Now, you see why I want revenge" he said ending the super long story. I sighed

"Sooo...you want revenge on my mother just for killing your brother... half brother to be exact?" just then, I realized an important detail.

"Yes" I scoffed.

"What's your name?" I asked slowly, afraid if-

"Robert Doru"

"Who's your brother?" I questioned, already alarmed of the answer that's going to come out of his mout-

"Victor Dashkov" I gasped.

"Your brother almost killed Queen Lissa and my mother!" I said accusingly.

"No. he was going to die. Not her or that Hathaway, the bloody foolish dhampir" he spat.

"Watch your mouth! She's still my mother" I growled.

He scoffed and got up from his squatting posture. "Dear child, you don't know how long I have planned on this particular revenge" he said grinning.

"Well...., since you mentioned it, how long?" I questioned.

"Since the day you were born" he hissed.

He walked out of the room and locked the door. Again, I struggled to escape from the chains. I used all of my energy to break the chains but no luck. Ugh! This was getting so irritating. All I could do now was sleep to conserve my energy. Which probably wasn't much anyway. I leaned my head onto the spine of the chair and stared at the ceiling. After what felt like hours of staring, my eyelids finally felt heavy. I had drifted off to sleep.

I woke up panting. I didn't know what time it was since there were no windows in the room. I glanced around. I was still in my nightmare. What is worse is that every time I sleep, more nightmares happen. I blinked, trying to keep tears from pouring out. The door opened again and there, at the doorway, stood Robert Doru. He was smirking. I silently sobbed a little.

"Oh, deary. Don't cry" he said as if in awe.

He was beside me in less than a second and he started playing with my hair. "You have nice hair" he complimented. What the fuck was his problem? God. This is so awkward. "Too bad then" he said. Wait... wha- he pulled my hair so hard that a handful actually came out. "Oww!" I screamed.

He then moved in front of me and started slapping my face over and over again. I swear to god that there would be gigantic red marks on my face forever. My skin was twitching and stinging from the pain. After about a hundred times of slapping me on both my left and right side, he began kicking and punching me. All I could think of was about dying. Too bad I had such a short life but it was better than enduring all the pain. He then drank from me. I became high and couldn't resist the pure ecstasy from the bite. I felt disgusting but I couldn't do a damn thing as I haven't had a single bite of food and a sip of water for god knows how long.

He wiped his mouth and walked out the door slamming it shut on the way out. I leaned my head on the chair and let the endorphin kick in and relax myself more. I didn't have visions but everything was black probably due to the endorphins. It felt so much relaxing and for a moment, I forgot I was in this crazy situation.

         *                      *                         *   

I woke up to my head throbbing like it was about to explode. I couldn't say anything. I was too weak. I didn't know how long I was in this hell hole. All I could think again was dying. It was always the first thought I got when I woke up every day after getting tortured and drank from. Today, I really couldn't bear with it any longer.  I still had a little strength left in me. I knew that If I died, all my friends and family would go crazy. It was pretty easy to die but not to survive. And I had to survive. Especially If I want to guard Sara and travel the globe and prove to everyone , mostly my mom that I wasn't a pathetic child like she thought I was. If only I could say "I love you" to her one last time before something really bad happens to me.

Or, at least be able to let my biological father know the truth about me. And say goodbye to my friends. One last chance would be good for me. But I knew it was impossible. This place was well guarded. At least according to Robert, he had at least fifteen followers or more and they were all strigoi and since fighting my fighting wasn't as good, it wouldn't help much. I also wouldn't happen to find a stake lying around somewhere in a house full of strigoi.

And the only thing I remember is being tortured, then my blood is drank and I'll be knocked out for the rest of the time. This process has been going on for the rest of the time. Today, it was a little different. Usually, I would awake to the muscles in my body aching and my head throbbing but I actually slept.... peacefully.

I thought to soon because just then, Robert came in. he ran to me in his inhumane speed and started torturing me again. I grunted and tried screaming for help and in pain but no voice was coming out of my dehydrated mouth. Soon, I was coughing blood instead. I knew I needed to get out of this place badly. To tell you the truth, I was actually scared of dying. He knocked my head with something hard and my eyelids dropped.

I didn't know how many hours passed but there were bloodstains on my t- shirt, my cheeks were full of dried tears and possibly nail marks, my hands wounded and bloody, my clothes half torn apart, my legs were wobbly and numb, my face was stinging with sharp pain and my head throbbed as if a hammer kept on falling on it again and again. All I could hear was my rapid, shaky and painful breath and my fast heart beats due to my heart trying so hard to pump blood to keep me alive. If I still had blood in the first place. All I knew was that I was barely alive and I wasn't a strigoi for sure. Dimitri used to tell me I would feel a difference if I was one when I asked him.

 I found myself staring into a wall and reliving the moments when we would be playing outside and once we stopped, I would tackle him with questions. I would ask everything about strigois as the subject always intrigued me. Normal children would ask for toys but I wanted to know more about strigoi and fighting. Yeah, my mom was mostly with Lissa but sometimes, Dimitri would try to play games with me when he got home to cheer me up. If he couldn't, Lissa and Christian would.

I remember the one Christmas. My mom and Dimitri were at St. Vlads. I was with Sara's family. Andre, Sara and I would  stay awake to see Santa. Lissa always charmed a ring and handed it to Christian who would look like Santa. He climbed out of the fireplace carrying a huge red gift bag. I tackled him thinking he was an intruder and started tickling the hell out of him until one guardian had to get me off of him and remove the ring from his finger.

 A stinging pain to my left cheek brought me back to reality. I was slapped by Robert. As usual, he was wickedly smirking like something real bad was about to happen. The smirk on his face was colder than any I've seen on him. "Get ready. You're going to die" he cackled. "A horrible and painful death" he continued. I gulped. Unsure of what to do, I kept focusing on slipping the chains off my wrists first. He started walking towards me slowly, trying to taunt me and increase my fear of being tortured.

I panicked and thought harder. My wrists started to sizzle with heat. I could smell a faint burn. Sharp pain shot up throughout my hands. I then realized that my shackles were burning...., somehow. I continued focusing on the ones on my wrists and slowly the ones on my legs. The chains melted and I only had the ones on my legs then, I could escape. Somehow, Robert didn't realize the burn smells or sounds. I gathered all my happy memories and all my faith, will, hope and everything else and put it into this single move. The distance between Robert and me were closing in and I knew I had to hurry up.

He picked up his pace and punched my stomach again and again. I couldn't do anything to avoid suspicion so I could only endure it. After, the chains melted. I started coughing up blood again but this time, Robert noticed the chains had melted. I tried to smile innocently but couldn't do it properly. So, I shrugged but a pain shot through, making me wince. He gasped. "You're moroi?" he said surprisingly. "Beats me" I replied. I gathered up all my hatred and angry moment I've had and punched him on his face with everything I got. It only took one blow to remind him that I was fighting and free.

He grabbed my hands and threw me on the floor, successfully breaking one or two ribs but I kept going. Wherever this adrenaline was coming from, I enjoyed and savoured the feeling of absolute power in me which also made me forget about the pain I felt. I kicked his stomach and he slipped a bit. It would be enough to escape if I was a trained guardian or had proper training but I wasn't. before he could grab a hold of me, he suddenly caught fire. I turned around looking for anyone who did that but I didn't see anyone. It wasn't me because I knew I wasn't thinking of torching him. Whoever it was, I was grateful and thankful. I knew I couldn't stay because his henchmen would have heard and would be coming to check on things.

I was too exhausted and before I managed two steps, three strigoi marched into the room cornering me. Took them long enough. I bit my lip and looked around, thinking of an escape plan. I stared at all of them. One had blonde hair and a muscular chest which meant he was dhampir. He would be the hardest to take down. The other two were moroi who was a brunette and auburn- haired. I glanced between the three of them.

At the count of three, I decided to tackle the dhampir one first but they all caught fire at the same time. I was getting more exhausted by the minute. I reached a room and opened the door. There was a safe and some nice antique furniture. I scoffed. I didn't know strigoi had good taste in furniture. I took a fire extinguisher at the end of the room and knocked open the safe with all my strength.

It made a loud bang which probably alerted the strigois in the area. I needed to be quick so I kept on knocking it until the dent formed a large hole. I threw everything out and looked for any sharp object to use to kill the strigoi.

Dead end.

There was only money in there. I took a couple of hundreds and put it in my pocket in case I had to stop a cab or a bus to take me to court. I turned to find another strigoi standing at the door smiling at me. I gave a polite nod and started thinking of a plan to get out. Much like the room I was kept in, there wasn't any windows but there was another door to my right. I glanced at the door and smiled at the strigoi.

I wanted to pick the fire extinguisher and throw it at him but he acted fast and knocked me down, which hurt a lot. Once again, it reminded me of the pain which was unbearable. I guessed I had more broken ribs now when I heard some cracks. I grunted and pushed him off, knocking his head on the fire extinguisher. I got up and quickly ran to the door and shut it. I was in awe when I saw what was inside. There were guns and many weapons inside. I knew I didn't have time because the strigoi could break open the door. My eyes picked up a shiny object covered with something else. I pushed it aside and noticed it was a stake. Hooray!

Just as I grabbed it, the strigoi busted through the door. I didn't have practice with stakes but it was worth a shot. I rammed onto him and plunged it into his heart... I think. He shouted and stopped moving. Right place, I guess. Thank god I was good in science. At least Dimitri's organ placement lessons helped.

I grabbed a gun and a handful of bullets and ran out the door. The sooner I get out of this mess, the sooner I got to eat, sleep and drink water. And end up at court and change out of this disgusting clothes. At least, I'm lucky I wore jeans that day.

In the hallway, another six strigoi formed a circle to prevent me from escaping. I pulled the trigger on the gun and shot a few bullets at two of them. They weren't dead but they were unconscious for a while. Another two aimed at me and I dodged. First, I shot a bullet through its heart and plunged the silver stake into his heart. He fell silent after a while and I knew he was dead. I pulled it out just in time to hit the other one. Right in the heart. I must have been really lucky today. The two with the bullets started burning into crisp. I smirked at the last two. They looked at each other and both pounced at me at the same time. They pinned me down easily, causing my stake to fly across the hallway. I concentrated again and they caught fire. I smiled only to find myself with more second- degree burns. Great.

I left them there and ran down the stairs. I picked the stake up and got ready for any strigoi lurking in the shadows to attack me. There were another four. God! Why do they keep coming? Again, I set all of them on fire and staked them just in case.

Soon, there was no one else in that house or building or whatever except me. I was panting and sweating real hard but I missed one's heart. He kicked my back and made me fall with a crack. I managed to roll upside but he kicked my stomach. I coughed up more blood. I slowly and painfully got up and tried finding for the stake but couldn't. after, I noticed a silver object about three feet away from me and it was the stake. I couldn't grab it because he kicked my head.

My head was throbbing and my vision started to blur. I turned unexpectedly and kicked him back. He fell to his knees but recovered quickly. I kicked his head a few times out of anger. But he grabbed my ankle and threw me into the wall. I hit the wall and heard yet another famous crack. I most probably broke another rib. Luckily, I fell near my stake. I grabbed it and slowly got up.

He was faster and grabbed my neck. He hadn't realized that I had my stake with me now. With the time I had, I plunged it into him. He fell and I fell under him. I grunted, shoved him off and got up groaning and wincing in pain. I took the stake out and slowly started to walk but could only manage a limp. I struggled but used the wall to help me walk.

I walked out the door, feeling 10 % more relaxed because it was almost dawn. And, if there wasn't anyone else coming for me, that meant no other strigoi henchmen left. I reached a stream in a few hours past sunrise. The same one I passed by before getting kidnapped when I had fought with Daniel. Oh, Daniel. How I wished to be in his presence and say how sorry I was for fighting with him. Even if it was his fault....mostly.

I picked up my pace in limping, ignoring the strong and sharp pain and travelled the same way I came from a long time ago. I finally saw Sonya's house and limped faster than my fasted pace. I knocked on the door urgently. Someone opened it and gasped. It was Sonya. I smiled and fainted. But before, I felt someone holding me and I heard Sonya shout "Emily! Call Rose and your father! Now!"

Sarah >>>>>