Doe's POV:

I was running.

The only thing that I knew that I was running through the halls of the castle.

No one else was in sight but I knew not to stop

My legs burned and lungs ached for just a moment to catch my breath.

In a time like this, I knew such a moment would never come without dire consequences.

My body ceased at the sound of a familiar female laugh echoing and bouncing off of the walls surrounding me.

Somehow I pushed myself harder, swallowing the sting in my throat and just now noticing the tears on my face.

My panic rose with each passing step, the same five words repeating themselves through my head.

I don't want to die! I don't want to die!

I didn't know where I was. I knew these halls but they weren't the same.

They were endless with no sign of safety, nowhere for me to hide.

Not a door or window in sight.

But still, I ran with the hope that something would show up before she caught me.

Before she killed me.

Three more steps and I realized that these halls were getting longer and I was starting to slow.

No... No!

My feet stopped in place, cementing themselves to the floor.

No matter how hard I pulled or begged they didn't budge.

That laugh sounded again behind me, sounding closer than before.

Much closer.

The sound caused every muscle in my body to tighten, restricting me from moving at all.

The game was over, and I had lost.

I knew immediately that I wouldn't be granted enough time to fully accept this fate, but that didn't stop me from trying.

After all I'd been through in general, you'd think it would be easier to accept death once it finally came to me.

I used to think that, and maybe at one point of my life it would have been easy.

My fists clenched in anticipation, and not even a second later, she reached me.

I felt myself get shoved forward and hit the ground with a thud, her knee pressing hard against the middle of my back.

My head, however, never hit the ground. Courtesy of her holding my head up with a hand over my mouth.

Her sharp claws pierced the skin on my cheek, while the sharp points on her other hand scraped almost teasingly across the skin of my throat.

I barely even heard my own muffled cry as her knee pressed harder into my back, now realizing that my hands had become as useless as my feet.

Her petty snicker came before her words.

"You know running is futile, yet you still try," Layla began, her claws digging harder against my neck.

"I commend you for your efforts at least," She inched her way down until she was right by my ear, "You know how much I enjoy the chase."

Without a second hesitation, her claws sunk themselves into my throat, causing my cried to come to an abrupt end and the only sound left was the sound of me choking on my own blood.

I awoke with a quick inhale, eyes shooting open wide and my back arching.

My hands immediately moved so they were flat against the blanket below me before they bunched the fabric between them to solidify the fact that this was real.

As soon as I knew that much, I carefully pushed myself up, noting the new fact that my body was trembling and my heartbeat felt like it was in my throat.

Even my breaths came out with a tremor.

I stared down ay my hands the best I could in this darkness, slowly bringing them both up to my throat.

Nothing. No blood and no injury that didn't already exist before I fell asleep.

I felt myself physically relax with a relieved exhale, letting my hands fall down to hold onto the opposing arm.

My head fell against my knees, I just sat there for a moment.

You're okay. Everything is okay. It was just a dream.

I kept telling myself that, trying to force the remaining panic in my body to leave and denying the urge to cry.

Crying would signify that she won.

That she got into my head.

Even though none of that really happened, I wouldn't let myself cry.

It was useless to everyone else, but it was the moral of it to me.

Nightmares like this happened quite often.

I'm sure they happened to most pets given the circumstances we're in.

And like most pets, I was left to comfort myself.

Which I guess over time I had become relatively good at.

Unlike most pets, I constantly refused to let that fear consume me entirely.

I didn't want that to become my fate.

PlusI still had one more day before Layla returned.

Swallowing hard, I lifted my head to the room around me through the cage I was in.

From the sound of it, Xander was still asleep.

Which was usually the case, I guess I wasn't a vocal dreamer.

Which was good.

I tossed the blanket that sat over my legs to the side, realizing how much I had been sweating.

I knew that I wouldn't be falling asleep any time soon, and wanted to take a shower.

More specifically, I wanted to sit under some hot water until my fingers wrinkled.

It aided in the comfort, and just all around helped me calm down enough to get back to sleep.

The door to the cage was already open.

In fact, I don't really remember the last time it was closed and locked.

Xander never even came near it in general.

No one did.

Which is why I found a strange sort of safety to it.

It was my own little space where no one came near me.

It became a solace whenever I needed it to, and it helped that Xander always tried to make sure it was comfortable.

I don't know many vampires who cushion the bottoms of their pets cages, let alone a pillow and comforter.

It was still small, but not necessarily cramped.

Honestly, at the end of the day, I'll just take what I can get.

Out of all the things I had to go through being here, at least I wasn't completely sleep deprived.

I shifted myself out of it as quietly as I could, standing and stretching my arms above my head.

Tucking the hair that hung in front of my face, I turned to get a look at the time.

2:18 a.m.

A little earlier than when I usually wake up from a nightmare, but not too bad.

on my way to turning my head back to its prior position, it stopped as it faced towards Xander.

For a bed as big as it was, he always slept on the far left and more often than not slept on his stomach.

He must have felt my stare or something because only a couple seconds passed before his eyes opened and that glowing green looked back at me.

He blinked groggily, eyes setting on me before he lifted his head a bit.

Me getting up in the middle of the night was a common occurrence.

I've asked him if he hears it when I turn the shower on or get up in general, and it's about a 50/50 yes or no.

Its less common that he wakes up before I reach the bathroom, but even if I do wake him up, he's never minded.

We just kind of looked at each other silently for a few seconds before I turned away.

I hoped my initial fear had washed away by now because the last thing I needed was Xander asking about it.

He was really good at sensing human emotions.

He says he can pick up the slight hormonal or pheromonal changes and memorized what each one means.

Or at least that's what he tells Layla whenever he brags that he can do something that his brother cant.

But according to both Layla and Nico, it was a useless skill, saying that it didn't matter what we felt.

If I'm being honest, I didn't much care for it either.

I didn't like being an open book for him, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it.

He says he doesn't do it often, but how much of his words could I really believe?

Shaking my head, I forced my legs to move towards the bathroom, and although I couldn't see it, I knew his eyes followed me the entire time.