Within The Shadows by Julieanne Lynch

crying out
for food, ‘real’ food.
    The old
Gothic style building that stood before me was, without a doubt,
incredible, but it gave me the creeps. Pointed arches and vaults
were visible on the windows and doors with steeply pitched gables
and balanced thrusts in some of the stone masonry. Stone gargoyles
sat on each corner of the roof, their eyes staring down as if they
were watching me. Not having noticed it before made me feel very
out of the loop.
    There I was, wherever that might be , alone,
with no friends, no crazy mother, and certainly no adoring
boyfriend to take that sense of danger away from me.
    The
shadow creatures still hung in my head as
I walked into the front hall. My skin crawled from the fright, and
the wound on my chest stung. My mind was in another place when I
bumped into a woman reading some sort of old book, sending it
crashing to the floor.
    I casually blurted out, “Sorry
about that,” as I picked it up.
    Unable to
the read the strange language of the writing in the book, I handed
it back to her. She was old. Her hair was black with silver
strands, her eyes were of the darkest black, and the left one was
lazy. Her face was a mass of lines, and her teeth gleamed in the
light as she smiled at me.
    Without
giving her time to say anything, I rushed past her down the hall,
and went through the first door I could find. Old ladies gave me
the heebie-jeebies at the best of times, especially ones with
fangs, and right then, I did not fancy talking rubbish with another
vamp.
    “ Giselle, what a surprise!” Turning around, I saw Afanas
sitting at a large table.
    “ Yep, that’s
me, full of surprises,” I awkwardly responded.
    He got up
from his chair, and walked over to me. His freakish looks did not
make me feel any safer, and I wanted to run back out the way I
came.
    “ Don’t be frightened. Please, sit with me a while.” He
pointed to a large, comfortable looking couch, and I sat down
obediently.
    “ I was looking for the kitchen. I didn’t mean to
intrude.”
    He laughed the same sinister
laugh I had heard from him before, making my skin crawl.
    “ The kitchen?” He looked at me as though I was
mad.
    “ Yeah, I’m kinda starving. You know, a stomach ache from
hunger.”
    There it was
again, that horrid laugh. “But, of course, you are hungry. It has
been a long four days. Come, we shall find you lots of nice things
to eat.”
    As surprises go, it was a good one. I could not
believe the amount of food I saw in the refrigerator. Meats,
cheeses, fresh fruit, bread, chocolate éclairs, (my personal
favourite), and, of course, cans of soda. I got stuck into one of
the best sandwiches ever. Afanas spread the mustard on thickly, not
leaving much bread to show. The ham was delicious, and the tomatoes
were mouth-wateringly juicy. All of it was washed down with a gulp
of Coke.
    Heaven !
    Afanas watched me intently.
    “ What?” I
asked, feeling quite uncomfortable.
    He
smirked. “It gives me great satisfaction
watching you eat.”
    I was
totally weirded out by this. Was he some kind of old letch who got
off on young girls eating?
    Gross.
    “ I was
hungry.”
    “ Yes, I’m aware of that. My Lord was right about your
appetite. However, I didn’t quite believe you would need all of
this after feeding from him last evening.”
    Urgh, the
blood thing. Why did he have to remind me?
    “ Yeah, about that. Can we have a conversation where the
subject doesn’t involve the red stuff?”
    “ Absolutely. What would you like to talk about?”
    Sitting beside me, he observed
me as I swallowed the last mouthful.
    “ Where am
I?”
    “ Ah, well, that is an easy one. We’re in the mountains of
Utmish Ato-tem.”
    “ Right, and
that is where, exactly?”
    “ Armenia.”
    Jesus
Christ, I was on the other side of the world. Not good, not good at
all. Of all the places in the world to be stuck in, Alex had chosen
Armenia. I guess I was not too surprised he’d flown me halfway
around the world,