Chapter Text
She slowly opened her eyes, heavy and blurry from sleep. She sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes. Shelby looked around, mind foggy from sleeping, taking in her surroundings. She was in an unfamiliar room, with a bed, a nightstand, a small window and a door on the other side, but she couldn't see very well.
She tried to squint her eyes, tried to make them work properly, but her eyes would not cooperate. Everything was slightly blurry, getting worse the further away she looked. She had blamed it on sleep earlier, but her mind was fully awake now, and still, her eyesight hadn’t gotten any better.
And where was she? Why was she in a room she did not recognize? Why wasn’t she in the castle? Had the humans captured her? Imprisoned her?
She tried to steady herself, calm herself down. Breathe in, and breathe out. She felt her heart starting to calm down, beating slower now.
Wait, what?
Her heart- it was beating. Like she was alive. It shouldn’t be beating, it hadn’t been for weeks on end now- no.
They couldn’t have, right? The humans couldn’t have done this to her. They hadn’t even got a cure from what she last knew.
But all the signs were there. Her heart was beating. She was breathing. Her eyesight was as bad as it had been before. She had been sleeping. Something she hadn’t been able to do since that day. All signs of life.
She had felt strong, she had felt free as a vampire. Gotten a family, a coven. Had people care for her, and her care for them. And now the humans had taken it all away from her.
She couldn’t remember anything happening. It was hard placing her latest memories as to when they happened, but she had no memories of the humans capturing her, no memories of her with the townsfolk. She didn’t have anything to do with them anymore. After she was turned, they only saw her as a monster. They couldn’t accept her as a vampire, they needed her to be like them for acceptance. Acceptance she had stopped seeking.
They wanted the old Shelby back, the one they knew before. But that Shelby died long ago. And just because they might have turned her back into a human now, doesn't mean that that Shelby would be coming back so easily. Because she won’t. That Shelby is dead.
She felt an unsatisfiable anger bubbling in her veins. And she knew exactly who it was aimed against. They had now taken everything, everything from her.
Suddenly she understood Owen.
Humans were indeed selfish, cruel creatures. A self-deprecating laugh escaped her throat. That she had not realized it sooner. They were pathetic beings, thinking they had the right to do whatever they wanted to do for the cause of survival.
They didn’t think of her as a person when she was a vampire. In their eyes she was a monster, a threat to their lives. No matter how many times she tried to convince them that she would never hurt a human, that she would never drink human blood without them offering it to her first themselves.
And still, she was a monster.
They had forcefully turned her back into a human. None of them asked her if she wanted this. She had made it clear she liked being a vampire. They had captured her, and turned her back into this weak creature.
She had never felt this rage before, the want of revenge before. Even as a vampire, she had never felt so angry.
She sat up on the edge of the bed, and looked over at the nightstand. On it, a glass of water sat, and a pair of glasses. She avoided the water, and reached out and picked up the glasses, examining them. They were strangely familiar to her old ones, with the exception of small details. She put them on, pushing them up her nosebridge.
Now that she could see better, she looked around, but there wasn’t anything she really had missed, just a few small details. She looked at the door from where she sat. A normal spruce door to the normal eye, but notably the handle was silver.
A small detail that meant so much. To keep her in. Or to keep the others out. Though, presumably it was the latter of the two, as it couldn’t hurt her anymore. She was a human, silver didn’t hurt her anymore. But she didn’t want to test it out.
Shelby walked over to the window in the room, looking out to see any hints about where she was. And when she did, her suspicions were confirmed. The window didn’t show much, but it was facing the new town's wall they were building, after the coven had burned the old one.
This time around, they were building it out of stone, instead of wood. Guess they had learnt their lesson.
There wasn’t much else to see, as the window didn’t have a view of much other than the wall. If the window were facing the middle of town, it could’ve helped, but of course not. At least she could try to keep somewhat control on the time, looking at the sun and moon.
As there wasn’t much else to do, she went over to the bed again, sitting down on it, staring into nothingness. She had ruled out the door as fast as she understood where she was. Silver still stressed her out, and it could be locked, making it an hopeless attempt at escape. And even if not locked, she didn’t know who might be waiting on the other side. She didn’t want to make the town know she was awake. She would not play into their game. She wrapped the blanket around her, digging her claws- nails into the fabric.
She sat there for what felt like an eternity, with no signs of the townsfolk or the other vampires. It wasn’t before the sun had set, hours after she had awoken, that someone knocked on the door. Her head swung up, caught off guard from the sudden sound. Her eyes stared fiercely at the door, but she did not make a sound.
After a few seconds, a muffled “Hello?” from the other side was heard.
She recognized the voice as the doctor’s. Of course.
When he realized he would get no answer, a lock was turned, and the doorhandle was pushed down. So she was locked in for real. She was relieved that she hadn't tried the door now, it would’ve just been for nothing, and would’ve just warned them that she was awake.
The door swung slowly open, revealing the doctor on the other side. He was wearing his usual doctor's robe, his monocle, and he was holding a tray with some stuff on it.
She glared at him, not trying to hide the rage bubbling inside her. However, instead of crumbling by her glare, he kept his professional mask of “I can help you” face. She could see sympathy and a sadness in his eyes. He shouldn’t be feeling either of these things.
Sympathy? They were the ones who did this to her! They were the ones who made her into who she now was! He was probably the one who “cured” her. “Curing” her of her gift.
And sadness? Sadness for what? The monster she had become? The one they created? She could not believe him.
“Hi, Shelby,” He greeted her, and she could hear in his voice that he was tired.
She didn’t respond. He understood she wouldn’t reply, so he kept talking to her calmly and professionally.
“I understand that you don’t want to talk, but we have to, for the best of everyone,”
“No,” Shelby said, her voice barely a whisper.
A flicker of hope flashed his eyes when he heard her speak, but it was quickly masked by the professional look he had probably been using for years.
“What was that?” he asked, acting like he didn't hear her clearly, a way to get her to talk up. She realized that, but she still took the bait.
“No, we don’t,” She said firmly, her voice getting louder and clearer with each word.
“Shelby, I know this is hard, but the easiest way to get by it is by talking about it.” Legundo tried to reason with her, but she was done with the conversation.
When he finally realized that himself, he started to walk in the room, getting closer to her. Closer than she would like. If she could choose, she would've had him as far away from her as possible.
He walked up to her, so close she could lunge at him, she could attack, she could escape. But she resisted the urge. There was probably someone else waiting outside the room, and multiple people in town. He placed the tray in his hands on the nightstand, then he backed a few meters away from her, towards the door, clearly knowing she was uncomfortable with him so close. On the tray, there was a bowl with some soup, a book, and a notebook with a pen.
“I assume you’re hungry?” He asked her.
Shelby glanced over at the tray, looking in the bowl, at some type of soup. She couldn’t tell what kind of soup it was, but it looked relatively normal. It was true, she was hungry. Living on almost only blood for weeks on end hadn’t helped her now mortal body. But she didn’t want to eat anything from them,she wouldn’t accept anything from them. I felt like giving up in her eyes. But she couldn’t deny the hunger.
She silently nodded.
“That’s some vegetable soup there. There’s also a book for you to read if you get bored, and a notebook. You like writing, right?” The doctor asked her.
“Yeah, I do,” Shelby quietly confirmed.
“That’s good. Just remember to say if there’s anything that you need or that’s bothering you, there’s always someone around who can help you,” Legs smiled at her, a comforting smile to a normal person, but she knew what those words meant. There would always be someone around. No way to escape.
Legundo started to walk towards the door, only stopping right by it, turning around to say,
“I’m coming back tomorrow morning, by sunrise,” He told her. “Get some sleep, Shelby. I think tomorrow might be a long day for everyone.”
Then he turned around, closing the door, leaving her alone. She heard the lock turn. She waited a few minutes, but when nobody came back, she lowered her guard. She ate a little bit of the soup, but she could only stomach a little of it, before feeling a bit sick. Only eating raw meat and drinking blood has not helped her digestive system.
Guess she should get some sleep like Legs said. It will probably be a long day tomorrow. It ended up being a long night too. Hours went by, until her eyes finally closed, and she got some rest.