Chapter 2

Rebeccas POV

When I woke up, I was in bed. I jumped up and tried to run. But when I got to my feet, I felt faint. I then sat down on the bed again. I must have lost a lot of blood with that whipping I took. Where was I? What is going on? This bedroom was no motel room bed. I have slept in a lot of those over the years. This room had dark curtains. The bed I woke up in had a dark red quilt. I could tell that it was expensive. The bed frame itself was made of oak. The bedposts were tall.

There was a door that was twenty feet away. I can make it if I move slowly and be extremely quiet. I slowly got up, and this time, I felt better after standing up fully. I tried to run again, but my legs were so weak that I started to fall, and in seconds, someone caught me and was carrying me back to bed. It was the man that I saw in the woods. I started to struggle to get out of his arms. Everywhere that he touched me, he sent little shockwaves through my body.

It wasn't unpleasant, but it was surprising. I had never felt that before. It was a different feeling. While he was carrying me back to bed, I did get a look at his face. He had a defined chin. His eyebrows were shaped very well. He had deep emerald eyes, and he was clenching his jaw as he was carrying me. I could not take my eyes off him.

He sat me down gently on the bed. Then, in one swift move, he scooted me up towards the top. He was strong. I could make out that he has muscles. I stared at him, and he stared at me. Something inside me told me I should be afraid of this man, but something else told me I was destined to be with this man. I did not know what to trust. I knew that I had seen this man kill a woman earlier that evening. I did not know how long I had been out. I did not even know what day it was.

I did not know where I was. I'm sitting in a bed staring at a man I have never met. My priorities were not in order. All I was thinking about was this man in front of me. But I was away from my mother and father, who abused me. Luckily, I have never been raped. Almost once, but never actually raped. Thinking about that made me think about Cassie. Where was she? Was she OK?

The man reached for me, and I flinched. He immediately stopped reaching for me, looking bewildered. He then got up and left the room. I was thankful for that. I needed to get myself together and plan my escape. I never wanted to go back to the carnival. I was raised Romani. I enjoyed performing at the carnival and dancing, but I did not enjoy constantly moving around and camping. I wanted somewhere I could call home.

I also wanted to learn to read. My parents didn't teach me how to read or write. The scrolls that I would hold up in my act were blank. Melani would spend hours having me memorize what I was supposed to say and act like I was reading it from the scroll. I hated doing that to people, but that was the way my life was. So, if I could get myself feeling better in the next couple of hours, then I would get out of here.

My back still hurts like hell. I wanted to see what it looked like, but there were no mirrors. It wouldn't do any good anyway to look in a mirror here. The mirror has been extremely foggy or dirty lately, and I cannot see myself very well. I gave up looking in the mirror. It was becoming a pain to try and figure out what it was. I just relied on people telling me if I did my makeup correctly or not.

Most of the time, I do it right. There were a few times that I did not do it correctly. But that did not matter. I wasn't trying to be with anyone we traveled with. After going through my thoughts, I looked around the room again. That's when I noticed a candle flicker. That meant that a breeze was coming in from somewhere. I gathered what strength I had to walk over to where the candle was. I stared at it and watched it flicker again. I then licked my finger and stuck by the candle to see if I could feel the breeze.

I gave up that idea and just walked around the room, finding the open window. When I pulled the curtain back, the window was open, and it was still nighttime outside. That was good because, over the years, I have become sensitive to sunlight. It would feel like my skin was on fire all day. Then blisters would start forming, and black stuff would ooze out of them. My parents told me it was an allergenic reaction to the sun. That's when we started traveling at night.

They said it was for my health, but I did not believe it was just for my health. I overheard them talking about a prophecy about the lost vampire princess. She was half human, half vampire. We lived in Romania, so talk of vampires and werewolves and such was not unusual. That was something you grew up with. Then, there were stories of people being found in the woods with two puncture holes in their necks.

Supposedly, if you get bit by a vampire, you will turn into one. I did not know if it was true or not. I wasn't about to find out either. I needed to get out of there quickly if this guy was a vampire. I leaned out the window, and there was a little drop, not much of one. I then sat down against the wall in the bedroom. I am weighing my options for getting out of here. Suppose I tried to go out the door and find the entrance to this place and hope that I was not seen or found out. I did I want to go out the window.

I then again looked out the window. There was a tree within arms' reach if I stood on the little ledge outside the window. I don't weigh much, so I knew it would hold. I could get to the tree and climb down it. Then I could run into the forest and find the other Romani people who had camped a little ways down from us and tell them what had happened. They could help me leave Romania and go to a different country.

There was always hope of that. Then, I could find someone to help me read and write so I could get a job and start the life I wanted. I carefully crawled out the window. I grabbed onto the top of the window frame to get my feet positioned correctly on the ledge. It was narrow, but I was sure that I could do it.