Fading Slowly

It was hard to keep track of time when locked away in a cellar.  No sun, no clocks, nothing to indicate how long he'd been held captive here.  

Had it been hours?  Days?  Weeks?  It couldn't have been longer... Could it?  

He was cold, yet sweat dripped from his body.  

He felt nauseous, yet he hadn't eaten anything for quite some time.  

He was stripped down to nothing but his boxers, and he was chained up like a dog.  Not that he needed to be.  He felt too weak to hardly move at all.  

The bullet holes in his thighs were festering.  

The German man had said he'd keep Tomaso from dying, but what if it had been a lie?  What if he did die here?  

After seeing the way that Gerhard violently assaulted the vampire captive in front of him, the possibility seemed far too likely.

Edric amused himself in the hours that Gerhard wasn't blessing him with attention by humming in a chillingly cheerful voice.

Right now he was humming a eerie rendition of 'Doggie in the window.' His blue eyes were on the little puppy chained up across the room as he hummed.

The pup seemed in over his head here. He wanted to see if he could scare him shitless.

Edric's attempt to unnerve Tomaso were effective. Weren't they in the same boat? Why did the other captive feel the need to taunt him like this?

The young lycan felt his gut retch and he lurched over, gagging but unable to vomit due to the empty contents of his stomach.

A pained groan escaped him after the gagging relented and he was able to breath again.

His humming came to an abrupt stop and was replaced with singing, in the same cheerfully eerie tone. His words were lisped slightly. He was learning quickly to talk well without teeth, but there were still telltale signs that his pearly whites were missing.

That didn't stop him.

"I read in the papers there are robbers
With flashlights that shine in the dark
My love needs a doggie to protect him
And scare them away with one bark."

He gave a playful yap.

Tom glared at the vampire, the cold sweat littering his brow.

It was obvious how sick he was.

It was obvious that he was going to die soon if something didn't change.

"Stop it." He grunted, his voice sounding hoarse.

"I don't want a puppy or a kitty
I don't want a parrot that talks
don't want a bowl of little fishies
He cant take a goldfish for a walk"

He'd continue, running through the song over and over again until it drove the man insane.

He wanted to see the quiet little puppy show his teeth.

"Stop." He said again, lip curling.

"Stop."

"Stop!"

He lurched forward in his binds, unable to move more than a few inches. The chains rattled and shook, clanking loudly.

The more sick he became, the less human he was. The more the lycan inside of him tried to take over.

He snarled at the vampire across from him, his teeth clenched together.

If he wasn't tied up, sweet kind Tomaso would've torn Edric apart.

"Well you bark," Edric mused, leaning his head against his bicep.

"It's not going to scare anyone away any time soon, though. You'd be a terrible protector, little puppy." Edric didn't realise how much that comment would hurt the puppy.

He barked playfully again.

Tomaso growled animalistically, Fawzi's face rushing through his mind.  He tried to push back the memory of her beaten and tied up and him not able to do anything about it.  

He knew he was weak.  He knew it.

And he hated it.  

"Big words coming from a man who's mouth got turned into a fleshlight."  He snarled.

The sudden movement had made it feel like his blood was on fire within his veins.  Every artery throbbed and he was certain that his skull was going to burst.

"If anyone every wants to fuck my throat, the wont need a spider gag to keep me from biting their cock off, will they?" Edric asked optimistically.

There was a mad glint in his eyes as he grinned almost toothlessly at the Wolf.

"I have nothing to protect so I don't need to be the big, scary guard dog."

That wasn't the response that Tomaso had been hoping for. Edric had cried when Gerhard had used him like that.

But now he didn't seem to be effected by it at all.

As his heartbeats returned to normal, the pain of his sickness came surging back in agonizing waves. It crisped his skin, roared in his head, stung his eyes.

He screwed his eyes shut and slumped down again, his breaths thick and labored.

"And now you're giving up?"

Edric pouted.

"Boring little puppy. Do you curl up in the corner every time you're kicked?" Tomaso really was boring. He was so dull and normal.

That was just no fun.

"I'm dying." He said quietly, his voice raspy.

The way he said it was almost like a self-realization. As if before that moment he didn't want to believe it fully. But now he was accepting it as truth.

He felt too young to die. Even in human years he was young.

He remembered the pain and fear he'd felt when Raisa had bitten him and he'd been forced to transition into this new life.

At least then he'd had Fawzi and Raisa and 'Liq there to try and help him.

Now he was alone.

"Yes, congratuations. So is the rest of the world."

Everyone died. It wasn't an unusual thing. People died every day, whether they were young or old.

Tomaso dying wasn't an unusual thing.

"Shouldn't have got in with the German cock." He jerked his head upwards, gesturing vaguely to Gerhard.

Tom looked at Edric like the man were a lunatic, which frankly that's exactly what he seemed to be.

"And what did you do to land yourself down here?" He asked, trying to change the subject from himself. He didn't much care to tell this insane vampire anything personal.

"I got in with the German cock."

Edric shrugged, awkwardly with the way he was trussed up with his arms above his head.

He'd fucked up and suffered for it.

Tom huffed at Edric's careless and vague response. He didn't understand how the vampire could be so calm about all of this.

But his head hurt far too much to try and make sense of it.

So instead he stayed slumped, trying to focus on taking deep breaths.

He was calm about this because he wasn't so scared. Not really.

Gerhard was the sort of person that would fit in well with his fucked up family. That meant that he had had experiience with people like him. He got scared, he cried, but he was ready to face the pain and torment with a grin.

Edric returned to humming 'Doggie in the Window.'