Seeking Sanctuary

Music trickled through the closed windows, soft and jovial as the party-goers danced the night away. On the balcony, separated from the ball by ornate glass doors, Eliza pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders. Half-empty and abandoned, her goblet stood forgotten on the stone wall overlooking the grounds.

Behind her, the French doors were pushed open and the butler joined her. He wasn't much older than her yet he bowed, low and respectful.

"Milady," he said. "Please, it is cold tonight, come inside."

"In a moment, Braeden." Eliza smiled and directed her eyes skyward. "Aren't the stars beautiful?"

"Undoubtedly, Milady."

"Do you ever wish you could join them?" Eliza asked.

As Braeden hesitated, Eliza took the moment to study him. He'd tied his hair out of his face with a black ribbon but the dark strands still fell into his eyes, brushing his cheekbones. The casual disarray added a strange touch of elegance to the carefully pressed suit he wore.

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Braeden admitted.

"They're so free," Eliza said. "Serene and peaceful. Unbound by all the rules and regulations sealing our lives in a ceaseless spiral."

A cold breeze disturbed a nearby cherry tree and a handful of blossoms tumbled to the ground. Eliza held her shawl tighter but didn't shiver, only closed her eyes and basked in the chill against her cheeks.

"Milady, please come inside," Braeden said. "Lord Nolan is about to make his speech."

"No doubt to sell me off to the highest bidder," Eliza said. She scowled at the night sky. "Do you love me, Braeden?"

"Of course." He sounded certain but confused, unsure where she was going with her sudden questioning.

"But not enough to run away with me?" Eliza asked.

She didn't need to look at him to know he'd looked away.

"It isn't my place, Milady."

"Don't start this nonsense again!"

As Eliza whipped around to face him, her shawl slipped from her shoulders. It caught on the wind and snagged on the branches of the cherry tree. Alarmed, Braeden stepped after it but Eliza's voice, filled with a thinly veiled fury, stayed him.

"Do you think I care about my status?" Eliza demanded. "How are we so different? Are we not sold and bought by those who think they know best? Are we not tied by schedules and routines? Is my blood not red like yours?"

Braeden floundered. "I am a mere butler, Milady. My blood is that of a servant. A common man. Yours is untouchable, to someone like me."

Laughter floated through the closed ballroom door. The music swelled as the orchestra reached the crescendo, the final dance before her father's speech. His announcement of whoever he'd chosen as Eliza's betrothed.

She didn't dare consider how many prospective fiancés sat expectantly waiting for her hand in marriage. Her time had all but run out.

"Who would know?" Eliza asked, desperation seeping into her words. Her hands shook and she clasped them together. "If we ran, we would be free from all of this. We could sink into obscurity and finally be together, away from all this rubbish. Free from expectation."

"This is your home, Milady," Braeden said. "A sanctuary far more suitable for your beauty than the squalor of the common land…" He shook his head. "I refuse to allow my selfishness to rob you of the world you belong to."

Eliza laughed, thumbing away her tears before they could fall. "A sanctuary? No, Braeden, this home is little more than a gilded cage and I will die here… Locked away like a bird with no will left to sing."

Futilely, she looked back to the stars, trying to block out the music and Braeden's gaze. "I can't imagine anyone would ever seek sanctuary here."

* * *

The stone steps up to the French doors were covered in weeds and fallen cherry blossoms. Sprinting up the uneven steps, Reagan hardly noticed the wear on the ancient stone.

Although the hotel had once been one of the finer establishments, the original mansion repurposed after a fire destroyed much of the building, it'd long since been ransacked by looters. Now, the only ornate designs were the rusted remnants of gilded scrolls. Even the stone wall overlooking the grounds was chipped and lying half in ruins.

The French doors were broken too and Reagan's boots crushed the fallen glass shards into dust as she scrambled into the old ballroom. As the hotel's restaurant, the chairs and tables were laden with broken glassware and forgotten dinner plates.

In her haste, she tripped on a broken chair and crashed to the floor. Uttering a vicious swear under her breath, she hurried to her feet and raced for the stairs.

Her rucksack bounced against her back as she ran, the worn material bashing against the blisters on her hips from her trek. Ignoring the sting, Reagan hit the stairs just as the first of the vampires pursuing her leapt through the once ornate doors.

It crouched for a moment, hunched over on all fours as if frozen in place. Almost skeletal and covered in the remains of its last prey, the vampire shook itself and straightened. Its nostrils flared as it scented the room before tipping its head back with a fierce screech.

More glass broke on the first floor and Reagan stopped halfway up the stairs, watching with dread as another vampire shuffled into place on the landing above her. It hadn't seen her, its attention on something further down the hall.

Holding her breath, Reagan backtracked, making for the 'staff only' door leading to the kitchen in the cellar.

Navigating the maze of counters, Reagan poked her head through the battered dumbwaiter doors. The lift itself was stuck somewhere on the upper floors, trapped without electricity to work it.

Reagan glanced over her shoulder and slung her rucksack over her front before climbing into the shaft. Bracing her back against the wall, she eased the door shut. It clattered with a metallic clanging, the sound ringing through the shaft. She stopped moving, staring at the door and listening to the shrieks as her pursuers focused on the noise.

The kitchen door slammed against the wall and Reagan flinched. Heart in her throat, she waited. She could hear the vampire's trembling breaths as it scented the air.

It paused right outside the dumbwaiter, death rattling its inhale as it pressed against the fragile door. Reagan closed her eyes and cursed her foolishness even as she acknowledged her fate.

At least, she mused, she hadn't made it far enough to threaten her family on the second floor. Most of the staircases were blocked, leaving only the dumbwaiter and one fire escape offering a way up.

Provided her group kept quiet, the vampires would never realise they were up there.

Still, that didn't mean she'd go down without a fight. She reached for her revolver, cringing as the vampire's claws pierced the metal door.

A car alarm sounded. One of the vehicles her group kept in the main driveway.

Drawn to the noise like a moth to a flame, the vampire knocked several pans over in its haste to leave. The distant shrieks of its fellow hunters sounding their battle cry as they sought easier targets.

Reagan didn't allow herself a chance to breathe a sigh of relief and started climbing. She wasted no time in pushing the door open on the second floor and tilted her head at the barrel of the gun she found pointed at her.

Marlin blinked, holstered his weapon and helped her clamber out of the shaft. "What did you do, bring half the city with you?"

Depositing her bag and all but collapsing into a chair in relief, Reagan could only grin. Against all the odds, she'd made it home.

End