I need a doctor...auror, somebody? {{OPEN}}

Chris was oblivious to the presence of a much older vampire, in her instinctive ditch to help the man she had forgotten to even check if there was anyone else around. Right now, it was still the last thing on her mind as she pressed her pale palm now soaked red against the man’s neck. Her own eyes were wide as she tried to ignore the low thudding that was becoming more strained, the moments of silence in between stretching as the man’s head turned towards her. Chris tried again to mutter some words of comfort but instead she only repeated the phrase she had just said, yet with the man looking and feeling so fragile against her she was finding herself fighting the overwhelming thirst that was scratching against her throat.

"And exactly how do you plan to do that?"

The voice that spoke caused Chris to jump, her arm moving protectively over the man’s chest as a flurry of panicked thoughts entered her mind, ranging from the fear that the other vampire had returned, or that a police officer had found her. It took her a moment longer in her anxious state to register that the woman was no officer, but she was no human either. Her question seemed to linger in the air as Chris looked back at the man, her brow furrowing so much it was causing her a headache, or perhaps that was the hunger? “I, I. . .” She tried to make sense of how she was going to help him, she couldn’t move him, but she couldn’t let him die like this.

The woman knelt down next to her and Chris felt a mixture of relief and frustration. Relief because the woman’s presence was helping her to focus on something other than the hunger, and frustration because she had the terrifying feeling in her gut that she was going to have to do something that she wasn’t prepared for.

"I don't think you have very long to decide," the woman’s voice was calm, and Chris had the feeling that she was much older than she looked. Chris swallowed, feeling a thrill of anxious excitement roll through her chest, but she couldn’t move, she stared back at the woman, her hand still resting on the man’s chest. Her head felt dizzyingly light.

“I can’t,” she managed. “I’ve never. . .I don’t know. . .” she was struggling to get a sentence out amid the pangs of hunger that were causing her throat to close over. “We need to help him, please?” When she did manage to speak, she couldn’t help the strain of desperation that was present.

Chris couldn’t focus, it was like every thought in her mind was trying to clamber of every other thought, but really they were all just shouting until it was just a band of noise clouding everything.

It was all she could do to stare back at the woman and see the way her lips curled and feel so small and useless. "Well, that is most unfortunate. Especially for him." The woman’s words drew a whimper from her lips as her wide eyes looked down to the man, she was still holding his throat trying and failing to keep the blood from seeping out. She was faintly away of her lips trembling and clouded vision which was caused by the tears in her eyes.

Even as she said the words, she wasn’t even sure that the opportunity to help the man hadn’t already passed, she could feel his heartbeat getting weaker. As it did, her own panic grew. The smell of his blood was filling her chest with burning hunger, and his blood was slowly caking on her hands. She could feel the air around her going thinner, but she knew it wasn’t because she had stopped breathing, it was for something her body needed more than air.

"You wish to prolong his life then?" The woman asked and Chris barely managed to bite back the frustration as she responded with a “I want to help him.”

The woman moved and Chris’ eyes darted to see what she was reaching for. It turned out to be a phone, Chris blinked, somehow part of her didn’t think that calling anyone would help this man now, and yet it was like the woman had held up a golden ticket, Chris could feel the relief slowly prying away the tension that was gripping at her own throat.

"I could call for help, but we both know there's a chance that he won't survive until they arrive. You can hear his heart slowing, can't you?" Chris looked back at the man as a tear trickled over her waterline and down her cheek, her head barely moved as she nodded. It was what she had thought. Then the woman suggested something that Chris had tried not to entertain, nor did she want to just yet,

"You could end his suffering. A quick snap... and just think of the pain you'd spare him."

“No,” her own voice was breathless, “no, I can’t.” She stared down at the man, transfixed and frozen. She had managed this long without hurting anyone, this long.

"Or,” The word was like a prayer being answered, Chris drew in a sharp breath looking over to the woman, her own eyes full of hope as she listened, but what she heard wasn’t what Chris has been wanting for. “You could turn him. Though, we both know that could be just as much a curse as a mercy." The woman pressed the numbers on the phone, the faint beeps pulsing painfully against Chris’ eardrums. It only added to the volume of emotions and sensations her sense were experiencing. "What will it be, young one?"
Chris looked down to the man to realise that her trembling hands were causing him to shake. Another whimper of frustration and anguish left her throat. “I don’t know,” she whimpered, “I don’t know what to do, can’t you just do it? Can’t you just decide? I don’t want to hurt him, I don’t want to turn him, but I don’t want him to die. Please just give an answer, tell me what to do.” Her voice became more strained and her knuckles began to whiten as she looked to the woman, begging her. She had to know the answer, she had to. Chris could tell she was far older than she looked, so why couldn’t she decide? Why did it have to be Chris?

“Please,” her voice trembled as she tried to hold the woman’s gaze, her own blurred from tears welling in her eyes. “I don’t want him to be in pain.” A tear trickled slowly down her cheek as the words rang closer to her heart than she thought they would have.

Chris trembled as she looked to the other woman for guidance. The hunger was growing in his chest, tearing at her throat and causing a deep longing within her. Part of her wanted it to just stop, she knew how to make it and it wanted her to just give in. Another was clinging desperately to the hope that despite everything Chris had learnt to be true there was still an option for this man that she just didn’t know about yet. She had almost lost control before, but she had managed to pull herself back. Chris was terrified of what would happen if she gave in, it just wasn’t an option right now, she couldn’t be a monster.

"Well, that's simply impractical," The other woman said in response to Chris’ hopes. "One of the three will happen, and before long the decision will be out of your hands entirely." She was looking at Chris and Chris could feel the frustration matching the hunger as the frown on her features grew more prominent. "You already made the decision to approach when you could have just as easily turned away. One would presume, you had something in mind. It wouldn't be my place to make the decision for you."

“I couldn’t just leave him here!” The words came tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop him, “How would that make me any better of a person? Nobody should suffer alone, nobody should be alone when they’re hurting.” Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she fought to keep herself under control, the air was growing thinner around her, and she could feel a headache creeping forward across her head. It caused her mind to feel hazy and she felt her grip tighten on the man.

His heart beats were becoming fainter and with each on Chris could feel her sense of control seeping out, desperation growing. She looked down to the man, eyes trailing over his face and a terrifying thought crept over her mind, what if he wasn’t alone, what if he had a family, people who loved him. It was more than what she had. Chris found herself frozen as a cold blanket seemed to slowly drape over her shoulders. She barely heard the other vampire’s voice, as the frown on her own features slow faded away.

"I really do believe muggles struggle with the concept of an emergency."

She wasn’t sure what was happenin but it was like everything else in the world was falling away, the heartbeats may have been fading before but now they seemed to grow louder as the sounds of London quietened. In fact, nothing else seemed to exist but the man, and this little voice in the back of her mind that was telling her he didn’t matter.

Everything was falling away and it felt to Chris as if she had all the time in the world, but she didn’t. If she didn’t do anything then the man would die, if she did anything, then she wouldn’t be able to claim that she hadn’t hurt anyone, a burning sensation was rising in her throat, causing it to feel scratchy from a thirst she wasn’t prepared to trade a life for. Yet doing nothing was just as bad, wasn’t it? She could feel a tugging under her jaw, as her eyes seemed to bore a hole in the man’s neck.

The woman’s voice seemed to echo inside her head, the words causing anger to ignite in Chris’ chest, "and some would say, no one should suffer at all. He's in agony right now. You can put a stop to it... and yet, you haven't."

“So this is my fault?” She snapped without warning not sure where the anger had come from but glad for the distraction from the craving she now had to tear the man in her arms limb for limb. “How is this my fault?” Her voice was strained, eyes holding a dangerous light as she put all the confusion and fear she had been feeling into fury towards the other woman. “You think this is easy? You think this is some sort of a joke, that I can just take advantage of this situation? I’ve managed a year out here on my own. I haven’t hurt anyone and you’re just sitting there like this[/] is nothing. It’s not my fault I found him like this. It’s not!”

"Is it for his sake... or your own?" The words seemed to cling tighter to Chris’ heart as it thudded and she felt the fear and anguish returning. The tears on her cheeks had not stopped falling despite the sudden rush of conflicting emotions and they trickled down her cheeks even now.

She reached up to angrily wipe them away, smearing the man’s blood on her cheek. Chris tensed, the smell caused a rush of euphoria inside her just then and her eyes widened, heart thudding so quickly it drummed in her ears. She stared at the woman in a silent plea but before she could ask the woman to stop, it was like someone was gripping her by the head and forcing her face back in the direction of the man. She turned back to him her demeanournw a stark contrast to the tension it had held before.

Suddenly she felt like she was in a dream, this time, she did have all the time in the world. There was a voice in her head telling her not fight this, a voice only made louder by the man’s heartbeat which seemed to be the only thing she could hear now. Without realising what she was doing she lowered her lips towards the man’s neck, and the smell that had struck her cheeks now seemed to fill her head and drown out everything else around her.

Chris’ lips were millimetres from the man’s skin, she could smell the sickly scent of his shower gel wafting to her like the light tones of a candle, but his light was flickering and there was a fire burning in her throat as another wave of that sensual metallic smell scorched her nose. She needed this, she thought, more than anything she had ever needed in her life, more than air. All was forgotten, the man’s wide eyes, the woman next to her, the sound of sirens in the near distance, everything else paled in comparison to the urgency Chris felt inside her to give in and drink from him.

Then, as if pulled from a trance Chris registered a pain in her shoulder, at first she was willing to ignore it. But the voice near to her caused her head to turn and the image of the woman seemed to swim into focus. Chris blinked at her momentarily forgetting who this woman was and what exactly she was doing here. She didn’t register the words and took her a moment longer before she felt her own eyes widen, but not from the other vamp’s words. She hadn’t heard them, from what she had just been about to do.

Chris sat frozen, as if stunned as a sudden wave of conflicting yet overwhelming emotions cascaded over her, she could only decipher rage and embarrassment but soon anguish and fear joined in and then an onslaught of flashing blue lights and a sharp ringing caused her to grip her head as she cried out in pain. The ambulance was turning the corner at the end of the street but Chris remained still, doubled over and clutching her head as she cried out. She couldn’t have moved if she tried but in her confusion she reached out to grab the woman’s wrist, they needed to get out of here, but she couldn’t see from being dazzled by the sharp blue lights and the screaming in her ears.

Chris felt stiff, as if every muscle was seizing up, but somehow the other woman pulled her up with strength Chris hadn’t anticipated. Her own eyes were still shut tight, white sparks visible behind her eyelids as the blinding pain caused by the sirens rendered her useless and at the other woman’s mercy. She registered her feet trailing across hard ground as her grip on the woman tightened and the ringing in her ears made the world around her difficult to comprehend.

She flinched as two loud thuds sounded; the doors of the ambulance cracking like gun shots. It was all Chris could do to hold on tight to the wrist in her hand, the fluttering thuds and voices and a smell that caused her heart to thud excitedly in her chest were too much for her to ignore or make sense of. The wrist in her hand, that was the only thing she was sure of.

She couldn’t be sure when she had opened her eyes, staring ahead of her, panic-stricken, she barely registered where she was. Instead Chris could only think of one thing; the man lying out there in the street. The smell of his blood was trapped in her nose, and she wanted it. She needed it. She could explain it, but she knew, if she didn’t go back there, something bad would happen. She felt a low guttural whimper escape her throat, unaware of the words that followed it, “I need to go back.”

A strange sensation was taking over her body, and she loosened her grip on the woman’s wrist. “I need it.” She gasped and as the words broke free, she could hear the hunger in her voice, the deep longing for the man’s life-force. She’d never felt anything like it, and a spark of dark pleasure rippled within her chest. But the noise and the lights were too much, she couldn’t get near without pain. She stared longingly down the alleyway, everything inside her pulling her to return to the man in the street. Selfishly thinking of way her throat ached, oblivious to the dark circles around her eyes.

A shadow crossed her vision and she blinked, glaring at the woman in front of her, the woman who had pulled her away from him. She was speaking, her lips were moving but Chris struggled to hear her over the ringing still in her ears.

"When was the last time you've fed?"

Her eyes trailed over the woman’s shoulder as she heard two thuds of the ambulance doors and she took a step towards the street. They couldn’t leave, she couldn’t let them, she needed them to stay, she needed what they had. Yet the grip from the other woman was too strong and she could only watch as the blue faded from sight.

Just as quickly as the thrilling sensation had occurred, it left her and instead Chris was left feeling shaky and feverish. At the back of her mind she knew that her shivering wasn’t the result of being cold because of her surroundings, she had only experienced this sort of response once before, when she had been human, trying to escape from reality. Now her body felt heavy and her eyes trailed back to the woman still standing infront of her; stopping her from returning to the street. They were now left in the silence and the realisation of what had just happened crashed down around Chris. It caused her to sink to the ground, her head in her hands as a sob escaped her throat.