.: At Least I'll Give You Dark Delight [Jyrki] :. Info

A severe aching coming from every part of my body imaginable woke me up from what seemed like the deepest slumber I had ever fallen into. I didn’t know how to describe the intense sleep, but it felt like I would never wake up. It felt like I was completely dead physically, emotionally, and psychologically. And the fact that pain had woken me up from it should have said plenty about what degree of pain this was.

It felt like a thousand thick, sharp needles were being plunged into me from every direction. Any heroin and coke addict would have been used to plunging needles into themselves, but this was too much. I wasn’t used to this feeling. One or two sharp pokes, I could handle. But when it felt like your blood was about to burst out of every orifice, it was enough to make any pain tolerance melt away.

I tried to yell out for help, but my body wouldn’t move. I wanted to open my eyes to see what the cause of the pain was, but my eyelids felt like someone had sewn them shut. I was helpless. Nobody could save me. And as that realization started to sink in, dread started to mix with the pain coming from every inch of skin, causing me to feel the most vigorous pain imaginable.

The pain continued to intensify until it finally reached its peak. I assumed I was about to die at that moment. Nothing in the entire world could have felt worse than this torment. In fact, I would was practically begging for death to come upon me. Anything was better than this. Anything at all. And that’s when I saw it: a bright light approaching me. My eyes weren’t open, yet I saw it. And I knew what it was. It came closer and closer, taking away a bit of the pain every time it neared. And just as I was about to reach it, my body jerked and my eyes shot open.

I could now move my body. I was no longer numb so I felt every sensation. The feeling of the aching I had felt not too long ago still lingered on my skin, like the burning sensation that you felt after having ripped off a Band-Aid. I knew the irritation would soon go away, but I wanted it gone now so I never had to be reminded of what had to be the worst moment of anyone’s life.

Cold sweat dripped down my temples as I slowly sat up. My eyes adjusted to the light – or lack of light, I should say – as I looked at my surroundings. I found myself to be on an overstuffed bed with a canopy draped overhead so I couldn’t see the ceiling from my spot. The four posers on each corner of the bed were made from rich mahogany and looked as if they had been just polished. The drapery and bed sheets were a deep crimson color, reminding me, for some reason, of blood. The rest of the room was too dim to see.

I looked down at my body and couldn’t help but escape a gasp. There was no way this was my body. I was dressed in a diaphanous white dress , something that looked like it came straight from the Victorian era. My fingers and skin were a deathly pale color and my body structure wasn’t how I left it – I actually looked somewhat healthy for once. I didn’t take on the desperate coke addict look I had most of the time.

But the thing that bothered me the most was the fact that my unusually pale skin was completely fine. It bore no cuts or bruises. Just the healthy, colorless, unaffected skin. I looked around and didn’t see what had caused my prior pain anywhere. No torturing devices, knives, razorblades, or needles. I considered the possibility that I was imagining my suffering not too long ago, but then I didn’t even consider it possible to imagine a pain that extreme.

My whole body was sore, as if I had trained for a decathlon only yesterday. I was just about to swing my legs over the edge of the bed when I felt yes another sharp pain right on my hip. I clutched the place where it hurt and groaned in pain. After the pain had partially subsided, I began to think clearly and my memory of what had happened came rushing back to me.

I suddenly remembered all that had happened. The deal was the first thing that came to my mind. I remembered being so desperate for a high after my parents had abandoned me that I promised Jake I’d be his if he gave me all the drugs I ever wanted. I remembered how unhappy he was after I started backing out of the deal. The fight between the mysterious man and Jake was still a blur to me, but I remembered getting shot in the hip. Somehow, that man had rescued me.

Just as I was about to push myself off the bed in order to stand up, a deep, cold voice shattered the silence.

“Don’t move,” he said. The demand echoed off of the walls as if it the walls were helping him give the statement more effect.

I froze in my spot. If my body wasn’t so numb already, the voice surely would have made my blood run cold. I did as the voice said to and looked around for the source of it.

The first thing I saw approach from the shadows were his eyes. A pair of magnificent icy blue eyes appeared from the shadows, soon followed by the rest of the man’s figure. He was tall and well built, clothed in a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt . His silky black hair fell just at his shoulders and his skin was just as pale, if not paler than mine. This was the man who had saved my life.

“Who are you?” I asked as he stopped just an arm’s length away from me. I had about a thousand questions running through my mind at the moment, but that one seemed most obvious to ask considering I was trapped in a room with this complete stranger.

“My name is Jyrki,” he replied, his words exceptionally accented. His eyes were unmoving and as hard as stone, as if he had no emotion whatsoever. “What’s your name?”

“Andrea Manos,” I replied, as if in a daze. There was something slightly alluring about the man. He had this mysterious aura about him that I found so appealing.

“Andrea,” Jyrki quietly repeated as his eyes scanned me from head to toes, and back again. “Do you know what you are, Andrea?”

I looked at him with confusion etched across my face. “I don’t understand what you mean,” I answered, unsure of what he was expecting as an answer.

He sighed and looked as if he was carefully trying to string his words together. He walked over to the window and drew the curtains, revealing the vast fields of darkness outside. He leaned upon the sill of the window and stared out the window as he continued. “Do you believe in vampires, Miss Manos?” he asked, still staring out the window as if he was looking for something.

The question almost made me laugh. To me, it seemed completely random. To Jyrki, the answer would determine just how serious I thought him to be. “Of course not,” I replied, making it sound as if his question was completely ridiculous.

This must have caught his attention because he finally turned away from the window and looked at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read. Somehow, I could sense it was borderline anger. “Well, you better begin to, Miss Manos.”

I looked at him unbelievingly, not being able to take the statement seriously. Surely vampires were only in ghost stories and movies to dramatize the plotline. Real life consisted of human beings who possessed no supernatural powers. I was a skeptic so these were my beliefs. If I didn’t believe in God, what made one think that I would believe in vampires? “Cute joke. Make it more convincing next time,” I replied, somewhat mocking him, testing him to see how I could push his limits.

It turned out that he had a short temper since his expression turned to one of rage. I could tell he was trying his hardest to keep from lashing out on me. I was sure he couldn’t hold it back anymore though when he started approaching. Instead of doing anything violent though, he roughly grabbed my arm and dragged me to the nearby vanity table. It too was carved out of a rich mahogany that matched the four-poster bed. He stopped me in front of the mirror and let go of my arm, where I was sure he had left a mark from his tight grip. When I looked though, I could see signs of him ever touching me.

“Look into the mirror and tell me: is that how you looked before?” he asked demandingly. I ignored the sudden change in mood and looked at the mirror uninterested, but what I saw caught my attention immediately.

I was not only slightly more pale, but distinctly paler. It looked as if my skin practically glowed in the moonlight streaming through clear windows of the room. My eyes, lips, hair, and all other features seemed exceptionally enhanced, and my thoughts of looking healthier were confirmed as I gazed at this stranger in the mirror.

After taking in every detail of this new me, my eyes shifted to Jyrki, who stood behind me, taking in everything I took in. He was studying me, testing to see what my reaction to this would be. He soon realized that he would be getting no reaction from me. Sure, I was shocked that I looked extraordinarily different, but was it enough for me to believe that I was a vampire?

“When the realization sets in, you can find me in the dining hall,” he finally said what seemed like a few long minutes later, snapping me out of my thoughts and shifting his gaze elsewhere. And with that, he turned away and walked out of the room, shutting the door softly behind him and leaving me alone with my mental debate.