That son of a bitch!

My wrists sting as I pull against the straps around them, holding me to the bed.

I'm not going to let him get away with this. He can't keep me locked up like this. I won't let him treat me like a child being punished by their parents. Everyone always wants to treat me like a child.

I relax for a few moments before pulling even harder, feeling the straps dig into my skin like they've been doing for the last however long it's been.

They all think that I need to be saved. That I'm some little girl who can't do things without a helper who can teach me what to do. I will NOT be treated like a child. I'm done with that.

I sit back again, letting my arms drop to the barely soft mattress on the hospital bed as I fall back on the bed to recover a while.

I came here to get away from all that. College was supposed to be different. I was supposed to be able to do what I want, when I want, and not have people looking over my shoulder to tell me what I'm doing wrong. But now I'm trapped.

Looking down at the straps around my wrists, I can't help but clench my fists at the feeling it gives me.

They've trapped me here like a child who needs a time out. But they don't know anything about me. They don't understand who they're dealing with.

I pull forward again, feeling the sting of the straps dig even deeper into my skin.

That failed and pathetic attempt at a hero doesn't know how far I'm willing to go. What I'm willing to sacrifice to make my own decisions. To do what I want, when I want.

The stinging gets unbearable but then, all the sudden I start to feel it.

Yes, that's it... just a little more.

With every little bit of strength that I have, I pull forward and it finally happens. Recently healed wounds in my wrists open up, breaking the skin.

"FINALLY!"

As I fall back onto the hospital bed, I raise my right arm to look at the shallow cut in my wrist. There's a little bit of blood dripping from it.

Okay, time to test the theory out... I wish I wasn't tied down.

Watching the straps around my wrists, nothing happens.

Come on...

"I wish I wasn't tied down."

Again after a few moments... nothing happens.

Damn it... where's a decent vengeance demon when you need one? I mean... I've had more than enough crap in my life to be worth one. Hell, I actually had one come to me once and grant my wish. Since then I've had all kinds of crap happen to me that deserves vengeance. What the hell is D'Hoffryn thinking, leaving me hanging like this? There are so many people I wish I could take vengeance on. So many people I'd like to see suffer for what they've done to me. Maybe when I get out of here, I'll find a way to invoke him and get a little payback.

If anyone deserves to get a little payback, it's me. And if anyone deserves to suffer for what they've done to me, it's them. If I could do it myself, I would. I'd make them feel every last bad thing they've ever done to me. All the pain and suffering that I've ever felt.

I look around the prison of a hospital room I'm in, clearly alone.

But I guess that's not going to happen.

My eyes go back to the straps around my wrists.

I just... want these straps off me.

Suddenly, there's a tingling feeling on my arm and then the straps come off my wrists.

What?

I can't help but watch my wrists for a few moments to make sure I actually saw what happened.

I'm... I'm free.

I pull my wrists away and grab my right wrist with my left hand to feel the burning that the straps digging into my skin did to me.

No thanks to those idiots.

When my wrists start to feel somewhat normal, I reach out and grip the side of the hospital bed. Pushing the guard rail down, I climb out of the bed and feel the cold hard floor against my bear feet.

But they don't matter anymore. What matters now is that I'm free. But the question is... why?

Moving over the chair where my normal clothes are, I pull off my hospital gown and throw it on the floor. Then I grab my shirt and start to put it on.

What is it that made whatever happened, happen? It's obviously connected to my blood in some way, but I don't understand how. I've bled plenty of times in my life. Scraped my knee, cut myself with a knife in the kitchen, other fake memories that were put in my head to make me think that I'm real. But even the ones where I was actually around never made anything like this happen. I've always been just... a girl. A nobody, less than a nobody even. Not worth a thing. Why would this happen to me?

My shirt comes down over my head and I pull the hem down so I look halfway decent.

The only thing even remotely close to something like this happening is...

I stop halfway to reaching for my pants.

The tower. When Glory's idiot lizard minion bled me for being a stupid Key.

I grab my pants and put them on.

But that was the world ending. That was an evil hell god from an evil dimension who had the idiotic plan to go home by destroying the world. This is just... me.

The fabric of my right pant leg feels good against my skin.

It doesn't seem to work like a wish or a spell. I can't seem to just make it happen whenever I want. I just... don't understand.

My left leg enjoys the jeans leg and I pull my pants up to just below my hips.

Why now? What triggered it exactly? Why not before when I was bleeding into the sky? Or before that? Or after that? What's so special about now?

I get the pants around my waist and do up the button.

And more importantly... what can I do with it? How far does this go? Is it just things around me that I can affect or does it go further than that? Is it only certain people or things?

Running a hand through my hair, I sit down and put my shoes on.

Is it temporary? Permanent? Could I change something back if I wanted to? What if I wanted something to be temporary? What would happen? Was it this thing that made Sarah become human or was that always going to happen and I just did something at the same time? What if I went into her hospital room and tried to turn her back?

I stand up and move towards the door.

Maybe I should test that theory.

Opening the door, I poke my head out into the hallway to look around.

Doesn't look like anyone's in the area right now, but it is a hospital, that probably won't last.

My eyes move to see if there's any sign of the idiot wanna-be and then go right into the hall.

She's supposed to be somewhere nearby. They put her in a room not far from mine if I remember correctly.

I walk up to the nearest room door, grabbing the folder and looking for the name.

Not her.

I turn to the one next to mine on the right and pull the folder there.

Not her either.

Quickly, I go to the next one.

Bingo!

Dropping the file on the floor, I move to the door and push right through. She's sitting in her bed, eating something out of a cup. My presence has her looking up with a bit of surprise.

"Oh... hi Dawn."

"Hey..."

I move slowly so as not to make her uncomfortable.

"How are you?"

She watches me for a while.

"Okay, I guess."

She guesses?

"You guess?"

"Well, I'm still not entirely clear on what happened. It hasn't come back to me. And talking with you didn't exactly clear that up."

Right...

"I'm sorry about how I handled that. I just woke up from what happened. It was pretty traumatizing."

Again she watches me for a moment.

"I get it. When I woke up, it wasn't exactly the best feeling. Things didn't make any sense for me either."

"So... you really can't remember what happened?"

"Nope..."

"Not even a little bit?"

"It's like I said, the last thing I remember is our date. I was actually having a lot of fun. I... really liked you. I kinda hoping that..."

She stops mid sentence. I keep my eye on her for a few moments, studying her face.

You know... I think I actually believe her.

"What?"

"It's nothing."

The way she's blushing says it all.

"Come on... tell me."

It takes her a while to say anything as she watches to see if I will change the subject.

Not likely.

"I... I was kinda hoping that we'd... you know."

"Really?"

"Yeah..."

"What is the last thing you remember?"

"Oh, wait... did we?"

"No, we didn't, but... it was heading that way."

"It was?"

"Yeah, I mean... at least I think it was."

Again she blushes at the thought. I grab my wrist and run my thumb over the cut there, feeling for blood.

Damn it, I think it's starting to heal up.

Digging my nail into the cut, I try to open it up again without showing it on my face.

Can't have her see what I'm doing before I do it.

"You know... I think I might be able to help you remember."

She watches me for a while.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, if you're up for it. I don't know if it'll work, but... it can't hurt to try right?"

She takes a few more moments to watch me.

"Sure... what did you have in mind?"

"Well, I mean, I know we kinda met in the occult class, but I'm also taking psychology. I was thinking maybe we'd try and combine the two."

"How?"

Moving closer to her, I sit on the edge of the hospital bed. I reach out and hold her hand in mine. The blood on my fingers touches her skin.

"Do you trust me?"

There a few seconds of silence.

"Yes."

"Then close your eyes and tell me, what do you remember?"

Her eyes close.

"I remember... our date. We were, at a coffee shop. I think it's the campus eatery."

Of course that's what she remembers.

"Good, what else?"

"Walking home."

Suddenly, I can see a flash of us walking down the street in my head.

I guess it must be working.

"Whoa, did you see that?"

Might as well be honest with her.

"Yeah, I did. Feels like it's working."

"I didn't think it would. Did you?"

"I had hope. Come on, let's continue."

She closes her eyes again.

Come on...

"What else do you remember?"

There's a few moments of silence, before another flash of us standing together gets into my head. It's longer this time and I can see the way she's looking at me as we talk.

Looks about right to me. Except...

"Something's... I don't know."

"What?"

"I don't know... I think someone's watching us."

You're right, they are.

"Are you sure?"

Another flash of memory comes back and we're turning to see the vampires around us.

"Oh, god... who are they?"

"I... I don't know. I never really got their names."

Or at least I don't need to tell you who they are.

Suddenly, a flash of their faces vamping out hits my head.

"Oh god... what... what are they? Oh god..."

That's it... just a little further.

Another flash goes through my head and it's of being bitten. Suddenly, my neck and shoulder start to sting.

Damn, what the hell is that?

A flash of being bitten goes through my head and it's different from the last one. Then I feel a sharp bite in my neck and shoulder.

"Ow! Fuck..."

I let go of the idiot and grab my shoulder. I feel blood coming out of it.

"Damn it..."

My focus turns back to her and the look on her face doesn't exactly feel right.

She looks like she did right before she...

"I remember..."

She remembers?

"What? What do you remember?"

"I remember what you did to me."

I did it.

She vamps out in front of me.

"How you got me killed."

Oh crap... I did it.

I all but jump out of the hospital bed next to her and back up several steps. She gets up from her bed and it makes me move back even further. After a few tense moments, she pulls back her fangs.

What is she doing?

"What did you do?"

She's asking me that?

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

"You... I was... human."

"You remember that?"

"Yes, you... you got me turned into a vampire... and then I wasn't a vampire. And... now..."

She grabs the nearest reflective surface and tries to look into it.

I'm guessing she's not going to find it.

"I'm a vampire again."

And yet she's still an idiot.

"Looks like it."

"How?"

Oh come on... she can't be that dumb.

"I don't know."

"What?"

"I honestly have no idea."

She really doesn't seem to like that answer from me.

"You did this to me and you have no idea how?"

"I'm not even sure it was me."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

It's not that hard to figure out.

"I just wanted to see if I could do it."

There's a long couple of moments where neither of us are saying anything.

"You don't even see me, do you?"

What?

"I'm not a mirror, I can see you."

"That's not what I mean."

"You might want to be a little more clear then."

"What I mean is... you don't care about me at all."

All I can do is shrug my shoulders at that.

"Not really."

"You used me before, and now you're using me again."

And that's a surprise?

"So? That's what people do. They use each other."

"And that makes it okay to do this to me?"

"That's what using people is. It's getting what you want out of people."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Would I have done it if I wasn't?"

The look on her face tells me this isn't what she wanted to hear.

"You're a horrible, horrible person."

"You're not exactly the best person yourself. It's kind of a prerequisite of being a vampire."

She vamps out.

"You deserve to die."

"Then do it."

She moves into a position like she's going to attack and I get defensive.

"Do you want to die?"

"No, it just would be better than having to stick around here and listen to you complain forever."

She throws a punch and I deflect it.

"See, isn't this better?"

She throws another punch at me, which I dodge.

"Last time you ambushed me when I was drunk and kidnapped me. You remember?"

That seems to push a button in her. She throws a punch that I just barely manage to avoid.

"Yeah, I was trying to spare you the pain."

"Well that worked out well. I definitely didn't feel any pain during the torture."

Again she throws a punch and this one actually connects.

Damn... that almost actually hurt.

"You made me do that. You pushed me into it."

Another punch is thrown and I don't even try to avoid it.

Ow! Okay... that hurt.

"Whatever you need to tell yourself."

She tries to hit me with another punch but I quickly deflect it.

"You're a horrible, horrible person."

She throws another punch and this time when I dodge it, I throw one back at her. It connects with her face, making her stumble back into her hospital bed. Her recovery is almost instant, coming back at me so fast I almost don't see it. She hit me in the face and it sends me back into some of the medical equipment.

Ow! Fucking bitch!

I pull myself up, trying to block out the obvious pain going through me.

"Don't blame me if you can't see the truth."

As quickly as I can, I come at her but I'm still not completely healed and she hits me in the face. Next thing I know, the back of my head against something really hard. Before I know what happened, I feel her hands grab me by the shirt and pull me off the floor. Almost as fast, I have to catch my breath when I'm thrown up against a wall.

"Your truth. You selfish, cynical bitch."

I barely manage to get over the pain of being shoved so hard when I'm pulled off my feet and thrown across the room. I hit the floor almost halfway to the nearest wall, or at least I assume so because I roll a few times across the floor until I hit things that come crashing down on top of me along with it.

Well this is going well.

The pain shoots through me as I do my best to throw off the metal and plastic that hit me. My head starts swimming when I try to get up.

I guess I'm not as healed up as I thought.

I wipe away something that is hanging off another something that is on top of me. My vision starts to go between blurry and back to focus that makes my head swim even more. I get a firm footing underneath me for one foot but it doesn't last long, sending me back to the floor with my face hitting hard against the marble floor.

FUCK! That wasn't a fun feeling at all. This might be ending badly.

"I'm going to..."

Just then, the door to the hospital room opens and...

Definitely ending badly.

The wanna-be stops just inside the door and I think I see a dumb look on his face through the in and out blurriness of my vision.

"What's going on?"

If I didn't feel like I was about to pass out, I'd probably answer that.

The vampire turns to the moron and I assume he gets what's going on but my attempt to pull myself up by one arm collapses and I hit the floor again.

"You were human, I saw it. How is this possible?"

"Ask the selfish bitch lying on the floor over there. Although to hear her tell it, she has no idea."

Oh, sure, blame the one who can't stand or defend herself.

"What did you do to her?"

"Not nearly enough."

Again I try and pull myself up by my hands but I don't really have the strength. Fighting sounds start to be heard in the room but with my vision screwing with me and the pain running through me, I can't be sure. Then I hear what sounds like crashing sounds as I assume the fight escalates. Things start to get darker when I try and pull myself up to even a sitting position. Eventually, I think something explodes but I pass out before I can be sure.

Stupid bitch.