Made of Glass Chapter 30

A Chapter by Charlie

The escape attempt! This is so freaking exciting that I just can't stop! It's a little gory too . . .

My heart was beating so hard I thought it would bust out of my chest. I need to calm myself down so I could focus on stopping their sense of smell before they got a good whiff of the gas.

Luckily they gave me plenty of time to get a handle on myself. They weren’t gone for just a few minutes but what felt like an eternity. I’m sure the time stretched on extra long since I was in such a panic. I was beginning to think I should have just made a run for it after all.

I tried to put myself in the trance so I would be ready to seize James’s power and use it against them but I kept getting distracted by the many flaws in my plan. What if all of them didn’t return together? I would have to hold the other two nose’s closed until the third arrived. What if one of them wasn’t James? Without James I couldn’t do anything. And what about the mysterious fourth? How was I going to get them to light the stove so the spark would ignite the rest of the gas? Would it even work that way or was this just a fantasy formed by watching too many movies? Would there be enough gas in the air by the time they came back? Would there be too much and would I be obliterated? Would the explosion be big enough to harm the vampires? How toxic was the gas from the stove and how long could I breathe the air that was being saturated with it before I would pass out from asphyxiation. I was thinking I should just give up now.

No, I had to be calm. I had to be calm. I focused on steadying my heart beat. But once the tingling in the back of my mind returned my heart set off at a dead sprint again. They were coming. I immediately slipped into it and focused on manipulating it to my will. I didn’t know how close James had to be before I could sense his power but I was pleased that it seemed to be a long distance. I had a solid fifteen seconds from the time I felt him till all three of the vampires emerged in the door. I almost completely lost my calm when the first thing that James did was sniff at the air. I held my breath watching anxiously wondering if I had done it or not. Then he took a few more calm steps into the room and faced me.

“Good girl, I’m pleased you didn’t try anything stupid.”

Ha! Didn’t try anything stupid! My focus was so complete on holding their sense of smell that I couldn’t find enough self control to hold back the giggle that came from that comment. This was probably the stupidest thing I had ever done in all my life. But risks had paid off for me in the past. I could only pray at this point.

James looked at me suspiciously when I giggled but let it go quickly.

“I’d like my lunch now please,” I said meekly. I wanted to sound normal and unaffected but trying to talk and focus on the power was a gigantic strain. It was like trying to tense a muscle and hold it that way while a bunch of flaming knives were flying toward my head. The amount of concentration it took prevented me from thinking about anything else and the effort exhausted me. If they hesitated and I was forced to coerce the lunch out of them I wasn’t sure I would be able to hold it.

“I’ll get it,” Laurent volunteered.

“I’m tired of peanut butter,” I said flatly. I couldn’t put any emotion into my words. I sounded so strange to myself. How were they not calling my bluff right at this second?

“Well that’s too bad,” Victoria snottily replied.

“Didn’t you say you had macaroni and cheese or something? I mean if this is going to be my last meal . . . ” I asked in a monotone. This was a pretty serious gamble. They had never mentioned it to me before. If they realized that fact and got curious about how I knew the game was up.

“I don’t have any idea how to make it,” Laurent turned to Victoria.

“Why the hell would you think I would know how? It’s because I’m a woman, isn’t it? And why are you catering to her needs anyway?” she turned to address me “Don’t be selfish, human. Take the crackers,”

“No that’s alright, Victoria. I think she deserves a reward for being such a good captive,” James came to my aide.

I almost started to cry.

“I can walk you through what you have to do. It’s very easy. First you just have to boil a pot of water. Do you have a pot of any kind?”

“Yeah I think we have something that will do?” Laurent started to wander toward the kitchen.

Too soon! Too soon! I needed to get to the bathroom before he started. I needed to remain calm.

“You just fill it half way up and put it on the stove until it starts to boil.”

“I can handle that,” Laurent said as he disappeared behind the door.

I was starting to breath heavily as the concentration took its toll on me.

“Can I use the bathroom now?” I asked James politely.

“Yeah,” he waved to Victoria she slowly strutted over to me.

Everything she did the entire time I had been here had been at super high speed and now she feels the need to crawl?!!! I could hear the sink turn on in the kitchen as Laurent filled up the pot.

Victoria finally made it over to me and cut off my tie. Every ounce of the effort I had left was spent in telling my legs not to sprint to the bathroom. It didn’t entirely work. It was more of a power walk than an all out run though. Hopefully it just looked like I really had to go rather than I was fleeing to safety. I was ready to start crying when I pushed open the bathroom door trying to slide the blanket in front of it out of the way without any extra noticeable movement. I practically slammed the door behind me and let out a long breath. Then I turned the water on the faucet on to hide any extra noises I would be making and hopped into the tub pulling all the layers of blankets over me.

I wanted to do a little dance for my success so far but I just crunched up in a little ball to stop my shaking.

My breath came quick and shallow as I waited for the fateful moment. Again the holes in my plans were being shown. What if Laurent didn’t light the stove? It was quite possible he didn’t know how. What if I was forced to come out of the bathroom before he managed to start it? As the seconds ticked by and nothing happened this outcome seemed more and more realistic. There were too many variables to control with all of this. What if James and his keen eyes noticed how strangely I was acting and decided to bang open the bathroom door and exposed my plan? What if-

My heart stopped as James gently knocked on the door. “Dolly,” he called politely through it “What are you doing in there?”

So that was it. I had lost. I would have to come out and face him and the explosion would take me with them. Hopefully it would take them. Well at least I would save the Cullens.

Eddie. I would miss him. I hoped he wouldn’t be destroyed by my death. I pictured his face one last time and imaged my parting words to him when James knocked on the door again this time a little more forcefully.

“Dolly!”

With one last imagined kiss and a deep breath I readied myself to stand up out of the tub.

A massive Kaboom! Interrupted the action. I couldn’t hear anything besides the world erupting into fire all around me. I squeezed my eyes tight shut and plugged my ears but I still felt the massive wave of heat surround me from all sides. I was actually quite happy that I was noticing the explosion around me. That meant I hadn’t been vaporized in it.

I had survived? I was going to survive? This bouncing back and forth between sure death and survival was really wearing on me.

I couldn’t get ahead of myself. I wasn’t really sure of the outcome and I wasn’t willing to wait to find out. I didn’t wait for the ringing in my ears to stop before I threw the blankets from on top of me off. The scene around me was complete chaos. This scene was more similar to hell than anything else I had ever witnessed in all my life. All around me wild flames were consuming anything they found editable. The door of the bathroom had blown completely off the hinges and smashed the sink which sat directly in front of it. If there was enough force to destroy a sink there had to be enough to kill at least one vampire right? I didn’t bother to look into the other room which really had just morphed into this one room as the wall was mostly destroyed. Instead I evaluated my exits. Another poor planned part of this whole thing. I hadn’t actually believed I was going to survive so I didn’t think I needed to plan out what I was going to do next. I clearly wasn’t going to be able to make it back out the front door. Not only because the flames engulfed the entire pathway to it but, also, there might be three angry vampires on fire somewhere around there. I took it as a good sign that I didn’t hear any agonized screaming. I didn’t want to think about how bad of shape I was in. If I was on fire or had third degree burns somewhere I was going to have to notice another time. Right now I had to get out of this cabin.

My only other option of escape was the small window high above the counter of the bathroom. I wished I had taken the rusty wrench with me. It would have been a good thing to break through the window with. All I had now was the plunger.

I climbed up on the unsteady counter and took the plunger in both hands. The window had already been broken in the explosion but large shards of glass were still sticking up every which way. I swung the plunger just like a baseball bat at the window with all my might. It broke through another large piece but not enough so that I could fit through it.

“Goddamn, well built windows! How did this thing even survive the blast at all?! Just let me out!!!” I screamed in frustration.

(I might have been going a little crazy at this point.)

Luckily the adrenaline was running thick through my veins. I swung hard again and this time the window shattered away completely. I brushed away a few pieces of stray glass and grabbed the ledge and hoisted myself up. It’s amazing that I was thinking at all at this point but I did manage to be impressed at how easily I did the pull up. I would dominate the presidential physical fitness test if I ever took it while in the state I was in now.

I didn’t think about easing myself easily out the other side of the window. I just threw one leg out and then the rest of my body followed. I landed hard on the large pile of glass I had collected on the other side. One six inch shard embedded itself deep into the arm I had used to catch myself. On top of that I was fairly positive my arm would have broken from the fall yet miraculously I didn’t feel a thing. I just felt jittery like I had one too many Mountain Dews. Or seven too many.

Without thinking like a med-student I pulled the shard right out and was on my feet immediately.

I trained my eyes on my escape route, my head spinning, my ears ringing, my lungs burning from inhaling too much smoke, but I had one clear thought. I was so going to make it. I took one step toward my freedom before I froze as something hot and sticky wrapped around my ankle and clamped down. Hard.

I turned to look behind me and a blood-curdling scream the likes of which I had never let lose in all my life escaped my lips. There, lying in a burnt and bloody mess face down on the ground, was James. He looked a little worse for the wear. His legs were so burnt and torn up they had no hope of supporting his body. One leg was missing everything below the knee. The rest of his body had exposed areas that you should never ever have to see of yourself. I could see the tendons in his arm flex as he gripped my leg hard pulling me off my feet toward his deformed mess. He looked somewhat like Two-face in that new Batman movie. It was totally disgusting and something no human could ever have survived. It was a miracle he was even moving but he was pulling me toward him. His gleaming white fangs hadn’t been affected by the explosion in the slightest. They were bared for me as I drew closer. He smelled disgusting.

I screamed again and used my one free foot to start kicking at his face. It didn’t seem to affect him at all so I changed my target to the tattered arm that held me. I kicked at that thing with every ounce of effort I could muster. Finally his grasp faltered and I yanked my leg away from him. I scooted away from him looking about wildly for any sort of weapon. I didn’t know how fast vampires could heal themselves, but I imaged it would be faster than I could run. I decided fight over flight since this was probably my best opportunity to win.

The shovel I had discarded earlier caught my eye just a little ways away. I scrambled over to it and gripped it like I was gripping to life itself. I turned back to James who was making these odd grunts and groans like maybe he was talking to me. I didn’t understand any of it and I wouldn’t be distracted. He was also moving his arms along the ground like he was doing the breast stroke. I guess he was trying to pull himself over to me but since he didn’t have the use of his legs he was having a hard time of it. I spared him further effort and ran over to him. I took aim at the tendons and sinew exposed at his neck. I brought the shovel straight down with all my might and struck somewhere below the left shoulder blade. I was going to have to practice chopping firewood or something before I did this again.

James brought one mangled arm around and swept my legs out from underneath me. I hit the ground with a thud and felt my vision start to go. It wasn’t because I hit my head I quickly realized. James was using his power against me. Two could play at that game.

I slipped into my trance faster and easier than I had any other time and started mentally wrestling with James. His shock at the failure of his attack gave me a distinct advantage. My vision completely returned to me and I saw James start to look about wildly like he had lost his.

I gripped the shovel in both hands again. This time I did shorter more controlled strikes rather than trying to lop the whole head off at once. I struck again and again at the back of his neck as he laid on the ground screaming in agony. I struck over and over again each chop ripping and tearing more flesh until one strike met with solid ground. I was in too panicked of a state to realize that it was over. I kept swinging wildly like a mad women till I had chiseled away at a pretty sizable hole in the ground between James’s head and his body.

When I finally realized what I was doing I staggered back a few steps and dropped my shovel. My shocked eyes took in the lifeless mutilated form. What had I just done?

I couldn’t think about that right now. I had to get out of here. I wasn’t safe yet.

I didn’t look back behind me as I sprinted hard away from the cabin.

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