Oh god no...

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no...

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Not again... please tell me that it didn't happen again.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

The pain of my own being comes back to me as consciousness rushes back.

I can't do it again. I can't do it.

Feeling starts to come back me in my body and I use that to start squirming in what feels like a bed.

"No... no... I can't... I won't..."

As more and more feeling comes back to me, I can't really deny that it's happening again.

"Don't make me..."

The way I move stops as I feel something around my wrists and ankles holding me down.

"It's not FAIR!"

Eventually, I'm forced to open my eyes and look around at the horror in front of me.

"I'm STILL FUCKING ALIVE!"

I'm in a hospital room, in a hospital bed, still alive.

I keep trying to get free despite the pain of it all, and eventually I feel someone try to hold me down. My eyes turn to them and it's the idiot wanna be hero.

"Get off me! Let me go!"

The more I struggle, the harder he holds me down.

"Get the hell away from me!"

"Stop... Dawn... stop... if you don't stop, I won't let you go."

For a while, I keep struggling against him but he's too strong. I don't have enough strength to really fight back so I stop. He keeps holding me down to make sure I mean it and then lets me go, standing back from the bed.

"It's all right Dawn, you're alive."

"If you actually knew anything about me, you'd know how wrong both of those statements are."

It takes him a second to say anything.

"Well, clearly I don't know you. Which is something you proved pretty well the other morning. I thought I had you figured out, but clearly I didn't give you enough credit."

That has me smiling.

"Of course not, everyone thinks they know me. That's what made it so easy to screw with you... literally."

There's a little bit of anger in his face but he quickly covers it up.

Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

"You know, it doesn't have to be this way."

I can't help but watch him for a moment.

"Really? You think so?"

"I know, that sounds like I'm trying to be some kind of self-help guru or something. But I actually know what I'm talking about. I was like you once."

"You think you're like me do you?"

"I do. I know what it's like to have given up. To think that the whole world is a place of pain, and suffering, and death. That it would be better off if it all just stopped. I've had that feeling."

"Really? Because you seem like a pretty happy-go-lucky guy."

"I guess that we have something in common then don't we?"

"What's that?"

"Neither of us really knows anything about the other. Because my life has been anything but happy-go-lucky. It's actually been the worst kind of hell... literally."

"Yeah, right..."

"Ever hear of a hell dimension?"

"You mean other than the one we're currently in?"

He watches me for a moment, obviously not enjoying the jokes.

"Yes, I know about them. Even met someone who wanted to go to one. She was a lot of fun."

"Well now you've met two people who've been to a hell dimension. I grew up in one."

His words have me eyeing him suspiciously.

"You? Really?"

"The worst one, actually. It was called Quor'toth, the darkest of the dark worlds. That's the actual title. It lives up to its name. I was kidnapped as a baby and raised there by my father's worst enemy to hate him. When I escaped and found my father, I tortured him because the man who raised me tricked me into believing that my father killed him, which he didn't. And that's barely even half my story."

"Thanks for the history lesson... why the hell should I care?"

"Compared to the place I was raised? This might as well be a paradise dimension, which I hear actually do exist somewhere."

"Good for you, but they sound exactly the same as far as I can tell."

"Not if you'd seen what I saw. The vampires and demons and other things that exist here? They don't even compare to what you deal with in Quor'toth. It's... words don't come anywhere close to describing it. And if I can get through all of that and worse? You can live with a few vampires and demons."

He really doesn't get it. He's even more of an idiot than I thought.

I try and turn on the bed away from him so I don't have to see his face.

"It's not the vampires and demons that I have a problem with. It's the humans. Demons don't lie to you. They don't pretend or deceive you. They're just demons. Vampires too, you know exactly what they want because they'll tell it to you. All they want is to destroy. There's no bullshit. Humans are nothing but bullshit."

"I used to think that too, but there are good parts about them."

"Yeah? Shows what you know."

"When I first got here? I met this drug dealer. Pretty terrible guy, he was using this girl who was addicted to his product. I tried to help her out but she was too far gone. She overdosed. I went after the dealer in a misguided attempt to get justice. He eventually got his, no thanks to me. So I get it. People can be terrible. Doesn't mean there isn't some good to them."

"So you learned that and lived happily ever after? Good for you."

"No, actually, I didn't live happily ever after. I went on a rampage and tried to kill a bunch of people, including myself. But then someone showed me that there's a better way. My dad, he gave me a second chance."

"Sounds like a saint."

"Not really, no. There's a reason why he had a mortal enemy who used me as a pawn in his game against my dad. He didn't really get along with people, left more than a few bodies in his wake. But he found a better way. He showed me that I could have that too. And so can you."

People are always trying to save me. They think that all they need to do is help me and that makes everything better. People are idiots.

I turn back towards him on the hospital bed.

"Hey! I'm not your pet project. I'm not a damsel in distress for you to save. You're wasting your time. Just leave me the hell alone."

He watches me for a moment and then moves towards the hospital room door.

"Fine, I'll leave you alone for a while, but before I do, I think there's someone you should meet."

Oh god... he didn't get me a psychiatrist did he?

He opens the door and looks out.

"You can come in now."

After a few moments, someone walks in and it's...

Sarah?

"What the hell is this?"

She's wearing a hospital gown and has an IV with her on wheels that has a heart rate monitor on it.

"Hi Dawn, I hope you're feeling better."

I look at the idiot.

"What are you doing?"

"Just listen. Go ahead Sarah."

"I... Connor told me that you were in here too when I woke up in a room down the hall. He told me that, we'd gotten attacked and that's why I woke up there. I don't really remember any of that, but I hope you're okay."

This... doesn't make any sense.

"What the hell kinda game is this?"

"It's not a game, it's real. Tell her Sarah."

"Connor also said that you were in the hospital because of me. Like I said, I don't really remember what I did, but if I did, then I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. He also said to show you this."

She turns the IV on wheels so that the heart rate monitor is facing me and...

Is that... is that a heartbeat? She... she has a heartbeat?

"You're... alive?"

Sarah looks at me like she doesn't understand the question.

"Of course I'm alive. What else would I be?"

This has to be a trick or...

"This is a joke right?"

He shakes his head at me.

"It's not a joke. Thank you Sarah for your help. You can go back now."

"Okay..."

Sarah starts going back to the door, stopping before she leaves to turn to me.

"I hope you feel better soon Dawn. And... again, I'm sorry."

She leaves the room while the idiot stays.

"What the hell is going on?"

He shrugs.

"I have no idea. I could've sworn she was a vampire."

"Trust me, she IS a vampire. I have the fang marks to prove it, I can still feel them in my neck."

"Not anymore. I mean, you saw her. She's human. She has a heartbeat. She has no fangs. Her room has direct sunlight and holy water doesn't do anything to her. Trust me, I checked. She's not a vampire anymore."

What the hell?