Page 120 of Afflicted

Sam watches with detached curiosity as I stumble away from her, my back quickly connecting with the opposite wall in the tiny corridor.

“No.” It’s all I can say. It’s the only word that’s running on a loop in my head. “No. No. No.”

“Yes, Silas.” Sam takes a step towards me, clasping her hands in front of her. “Believe me, this will be for the best. Once she’s gone, you can forget all about her.”

“No.” I shake my head, raising my hands to ward her off as she takes another step towards me. “No.”

“Silas, she’s not for you.” She lifts her hands as though to touch me. “You’ll be so much better off without her.”

“Who ordered it?”

“That doesn’t matter now.” Sam’s hands land on my shoulders. “What matters is that you need to get over this.”

“It was you, wasn’t it?” A white hot ember of rage runs up my spine, settling in the base of my skull as my vision goes red. “You ordered them to take her away, didn’t you?” My hands aren’t my own anymore. I curl both hands around Sam’s throat and slam her into the wall. “You ordered them to take her away from me, didn’t you?”

Sam’s cool demeanor shatters ever so slightly, her eyes widening as she claws into my arms. “Silas, let me go.”

“I want to hear you say it.” I growl in her face. “I want to hear you say that you ordered them to take her away to be raped, over and over again. That you ordered them to tear her away from me.”

“Silas, stop!” She pushes back against me with all her might, shoving me into the wall behind me.

But it’s not enough, not nearly enough. The image of Juliet being forced away, the very idea of losing the woman I love more than anything I’ve loved in my life, gives me strength that Sam isn’t prepared for. With every ounce of loss and grief I’ve been forced to endure driving through my veins, I pound Sam back across the corridor and into the drywall.

Her exclamation is caught by my hands landing around her throat again, crushing her neck in my hands. She squeaks, like a distraught animal, her eyes bugging out. She lands punches in my middle, too weak to deter me. Blood trickles from her nose as I squeeze harder and harder.

“No one takes her from me. No one.” My vision flashes bright red, and with a twist of my hands and a loud crack, I wrench Sam’s head from her body.

My shoulders are heaving, my fangs digging into my lower lip as her shocked, wide-eyed face stares back at me. Her body slumps down the wall, spilling blood on the ground, her fingers still twitching as her nerves register her body’s final death.

Fuck, what have I done? My mind starts to race, trying to think what to do next. I take a deep breath, trying to calm down. I need to think logically.

It’s late in the day, the gym will be empty until tomorrow morning. I have that much time, and I need to use it now. I have to get us out of here.

I deposit Sam’s body and her head in a cubicle in the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. The corridor’s covered in blood, but it’s not visible from the door. Unless an errant vamp gets nosy and sticks their head in here, no one will smell what’s happened.

I look down at myself. I’m covered in blood. I hurry into the other bathroom, turning on the shower and stripping off my clothes. I bundle them up and throw them in with Sam’s body once I’m clean.

I cross the gym, to the lockers, tearing them open until I find one containing a spare set of clothes. I leave the gym, closing the door securely behind me and casting a glance through the glass just to make sure the blood truly isn’t visible from here. The compound is quiet, as preparations for dinner begin. The sun is low in the sky. I only have a few hours of daylight left.

I head straight to my cabin, pulling out a duffel bag from under my bed. I throw in a change of clothes and a bottle of blood before pulling on my sneakers. I cross the room to my desk, pulling out the gun from the drawer, then hesitating as I see the notepad I sketched Juliet in. I toss it in, before swiping the polaroid of Harriet and I along with the worn out cassette tape into the bag as well.

After leaving my cabin, I go straight to Sam’s office. I check that no one has seen me before pulling the door closed behind me. Inside, I go straight to her computer. I click on “Perimeter” and disable all the sensors. The whole grid goes down without even alerting anyone.

I kill all the security cameras, and set the connection to the obs tower to go down in ten minutes. It’s not much time, but I need to find Juliet now. Then I select the fence charges, and set them to go off in ten minutes as well. I open the drawer to Sam's desk and pull out the handgun she has stashed in there. I pull out a battery bank from the storage cupboard, and pluck the keys to one of the trucks from the wall.

Throwing the duffel bag over my shoulder, I head out of Sam’s office. I look left and right, before sprinting across the grass to Juliet’s dorm. The vamp at the door looks up at me and nods. “Hey man, they’re all showering.”

“Oh thanks.”

I try not to walk too quickly towards the shower block, and as I approach, Juliet is coming towards me, her face red and puffy, her hair wet. Her eyes are fixed on the floor, she doesn’t notice me, her shoulders trembling as she cries quietly.

When she’s right in front of me, I reach out and brush her arm. She flinches, her hands flying to her mouth as her bloodshot eyes land on my face.

“What are you-”

“Is there anything in your locker that’s important?” I ask, my fingers curling around her arm to draw her close.

She frowns, shaking her head. “What? Important?”

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