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Daniel’s whole body ached. His leg’s muscles throbbed from getting pushed way past their limits, his side bruised from being dropped on the floor, and his neck stung from the chunk taken out of it. On top of the physical damage he’d sustained, he felt like he had been gutted with how hungry he was. “Please I need to eat,” he begged the vampire, who stood as still as a statue further in the shitty San Francisco apartment. The growls of his stomach had started to sound like some sort of monster from a horror movie. Thankfully Armand had placed him on a chair, finally relieving his muscles, and turned on the television, giving him something else to focus his mind on than his imminent death. The only thing keeping him sane was the hope that the fact he was still alive meant something. It would have been so easy for Armand to kill him—the dead body he’d carried out with ease had been evidence enough of that. He was alive for a reason.
Daniel’s hope grew as Armand approached the kitchen in the room and grabbed a box of crackers from the side—likely tired of his constant pleading. Yet, instead of just throwing him the box for Daniel to eat from, Armand pulled up a chair in front of him and held up a cracker in his fingers, as if testing whether he was desperate enough to humiliate himself so. Daniel, who had done much more humiliating things for much less, grabbed the cracker with his teeth and chewed. It was incredibly stale, but Daniel forced it down, ignoring his rising nausea. It continued like this for some time—Armand offering him a cracker and him eating it. All in complete silence. The vampire’s eyes were unblinking watching the process as if it were some part of the mystery behind what made him so fascinating.
Daniel felt his skin crawl at the thought that Armand was invading his mind, reading his every thought. The violation of any sense of privacy he’d ever had. The distress it caused was matched only by Daniel’s jealousy. He wanted that—the power of it, the knowledge it would bring. Above all else he wanted to live forever—to be a vampire.
“Blind naivety… Is that what makes you fascinating?” Armand mumbled this time to himself rather than Louis.
Daniel’s heart rate picked up again. He thought to himself that if he ever escaped the damned apartment, he probably wouldn’t be able to hear the word ‘fascinating’ without his adrenaline spiking. It was strange to Daniel thinking about the first time he had seen Armand—the way his heart rate had elevated for a completely different reason. It made Daniel mad the way he still couldn’t help but find the vampire so incredibly beautiful, the way his curled hair framed his face, the confidence in the way he moved, his angelic features.
Armand blinked and Daniel was reminded again that he could read his mind. Suddenly, his thoughts exploded into tons of expletives—both in anger at himself and embarrassment. Armand’s lip twitched upwards in a quick, small, amused smile and then he stood up leaving Daniel on his own.
He breathed a sigh of relief that he got to live another day.