Cleovim's Story
Chapter 1:
Cleovim stood at the balcony. The view was breathtaking. She
had never seen anything like it before. She looked down at the people going
about their lives below. She wondered if they would hear her if she screamed.
“What are you doing?” A voice made her jump.
“Just admiring the view.” She turned to face the tall man.
“And planning my escape.” She thought as she meet his disapproving look with an
unhappy glare. “Is that a problem?”
“Not for the moment.” He answered.
There was a long silence as they stared each other down.
This man had kidnapped her hours before. The other men who were with them
before had split ways, talking about meeting up at the ‘fort’ later. He had
brought her to this hotel, bond and gagged in a large suitcase. She hated him. There
was only one problem that stood out in her mind.
“Why?” She asked through gritted teeth. He arched an eyebrow
at her, but stated silent. “Why did you kidnap me?” Cleovim crossed her arms.
He smirked. “You’re worth a lot.” He walked up to her and
grabbed her under her chin and forced her to look up at him. “Imagine how much
money and land your family will give us to just have you.”
Cleovim gritted her teeth and squirmed out of his grasp. She
knew of cases like these and she didn’t want to be another body in the river.
“And what will become of me once you guys have what you want?”
The man shrugged. “That’s boss’ call. Not mine. I’m just
supposed to keep you till we get to the fort. So be a good little birdie and I
won’t have to put you in the suitcase again.” He patted her on the head before
she turned on his heel to leave. “I have some errands to run, so don’t try
anything.”
Cleovim glared at the closed door for a minute or two. Then
she began to look about. She needed a way out of this hotel without anyone
noticing her. She didn’t want to risk bumping into him or anyone he worked
with.
She walked back onto the balcony and stared down. She was up
at least 6 to 8 stories. So she couldn’t just jump out the window. He took the
hallway, so she definitely wasn’t going that way. She walked into the bathroom
and beamed when she saw a window. Her grin grew bigger as she saw that there
was a tree by the window with one of its branches nearly touching the building.
The window was smaller than most of the windows in the hotel. But Cleovim
crossed her fingers as she hoped it was big enough for her to fit through. It
took some elbow grease, but she eventually got it open.
She found a small foot stool under the sink and placed it in
front of the window. She stood on it and pushed the window up as far as it
would go. It was barely big enough for her to fit through. She put her leg out
of the window and stayed straddled there for a moment. With one arm holding the
window on the outside, she drew her other leg into her chest as she carefully
twisted her body around. Her feet and thighs scrapped against the metal lining
in the center of the window. She hissed, but kept going. She finally got her
other leg out the window, causing her to sigh in relief. She cursed a second
later when her shoe fell off her foot.
“I had to wear slip on shoes today.”
She grabbed on to the top of the window again and slowly
rotated her head and upper body out of the window. She felt like some circus
act doing this. Cleovim wished she was in the circus doing this. At least there
would a net to catch her when she fell. She stared at the tree. One of its
branches was 2 inches from her. But from here, she could see that it wasn’t as
thick as she thought and she wasn’t sure if she could reach it. She took a
breath and sent a silent prayer to gods to protect her.
She slowly stood on the small sliver of the window seal. Her
feet protesting from being on the slightly slanted surface. Her mind went blank
as her body pushed itself off the building. Her body slammed against the branch
as her limbs wrapped around it. The limb began to bend under her and she
scampered like a squirrel to the center and hugged the base. She stepped
sideways on a lower branch and kept doing this crab step until her feet finally
touched the concrete.
Cleovim’s brain finally kicked back in as she stood there
hugging the base of the tree. She looked around and noticed that people were
walking passing her. She let go of the tree and looked up towards the window
she leapt from. She could barely see it from the ground. She needed to get away
from here. She stepped out of the square that the tree was rooted in, only to
pull her foot back at the heat of the concrete.
I must have lost my other shoe when I jumped.
She skimmed the ground and smiled with relieve that her
shoes were laying on the ground. She dealt with the heat as she tipped toed to
her shoes and picked them up. She slipped them on her feet and looked around as
she tried to get her bearings. It was a city, but which one? She walked to an
intersection and looked that the sign.
It proudly proclaimed itself, “West Chapel.” While the other
sign called itself, “Jefferson Avenue.”
Cleovim had never heard of those streets before. She turned
right and kept walking. She looked up at the sun and cursed. She was at a
disadvantage. The sun was never a good thing for her people. She couldn’t
afford to be found cowering in some dark space. That would probably be the
first place they would look for her when they realized she was gone.
“Ra, don’t burn me too bad.” She murmured as she crossed the
street with a group of people. No one looked at her, which relieved her. But
she couldn’t help but notice that the people of this city dressed differently
than she did. She wore a purple dress with leather sandals and silver gorgerine.
An ankh dangled from the center of her gorgerine while different colored beads
dangled off the necklace over her shoulders. The people of this country wore
pants and t-shirts. Some wore belts and others didn’t.
Cleovim had heard of how other countries dressed differently
than those in her country. At first she thought it was interesting. Now,
however, she hated it. How was she supposed to blend in and lose her captures?
She glanced up and cringed. The sun sure was bright. Luckily
though, it seemed to be getting lower in the sky. Which meant she wouldn’t have
to worry about combusting anytime soon. Her skin was showing signs of a sunburn
which meant she had been walking for nearly 2 hours. Her feet were sore, but
she had to continue.
She had been keeping close to alleys and away from the road.
He had probably returned by now and realized she had escaped. They were
probably looking for her already, though she was hoping that the guy who was
left to watch her was too stupid to actually drive around looking for her.
Still she wasn’t going to take any chances that he might be smart enough to actually
drive around. She knocked three times on a brick building as to not ruin what
little luck she had.
She looked down at her clothes and grimaced. She needed to
find clothes that would help her blend into this city. Just hiding in big
groups of people couldn’t hide her strange outfit. She also didn’t like that
some people had now started to actually look at her. She didn’t like gawkers. They
always seemed to get under her skin like an annoying splinter. She wanted to
confront them and make them speak, but this wasn’t the place for it nor was it
the time.
Clothes. She
reminded herself. I need to change my
clothes and blend in.
She took a deep breath and decided to walk into a store she
had seen people walking in and out of. She hesitantly walked in, relieve that
she wasn’t repelled.
This must be a store.
Cleovim looked around the area and smiled. What
luck! There were several aisles of clothes. She walked up and down the
aisles, amazed to see just a broad range of colors. Though they didn’t have the
textures and patterns that many of her clothes had back home, they still amazed
her. She had never seen so many shades of one color before.
“May I help you, Miss?” A light, cheery voiced chimed from
behind her.
Cleovim turned around confused. She hadn’t comprehended a
word the woman said. They must speak a
different language here. She fiddled with her fingers. She didn’t
understand the woman, and wasn’t sure if the woman knew Arabic. But still she
had to try. “Hello. I am looking to buy clothes. How are your sizes organized?”
The woman raised her eyebrows at her. “Oh my! I’m sorry. I
don’t know what you’re saying.” Cleovim slumped her shoulders as the woman
shook her head and raised her arms to wave them in front of her. She didn’t
know Arabic.
Cleovim sighed. She couldn’t stay here too long. She would
have to hope that the woman was manipulable enough for her trick.
“Hold on, let me see if we have someone who speaks or knows
what language you’re speaking.” She began to hurry off but Cleovim grabbed the
sleeve of her orange blouse. She turned to her with a smile. “Would you like to
come with me?”
Cleovim stared her in the eye as she grabbed her hand and
squeezed. The woman’s brown eyes flashed a copper color as her face became
blank. “Of course, Miss. Come right this way.” She gestured towards the back of
the store.
Cleovim was glad she had been practicing this trick. Her
father was right, mind control tricks were a necessity for their kind. It
didn’t take long for the woman to pick out an outfit for her: a button up
flannel shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of converse. Cleovim was even able
to learn some of the woman’s language, English. It was a confusing language,
but if it was what she needed to speak to get around, she would.
“Where are the vampires in this region?” Cleovim ordered of
the woman as she changed clothes.
“Vampires?” The woman tilted her head. She was under
Cleovim’s control, but she seemed generally confused. “No one believes those
are real. They’re just stories we used to entertain ourselves.”
Cleovim bit the inside of her cheek. So no one here knew of
her kind which meant just walking to the nearest hospital and asking for blood
to fix her sunburns would not go well. She needed to get blood soon though. Her
stomach had started to complain less than an hour after her escape and it
wasn’t getting any quieter.
She knew she wasn’t supposed to feed off of mortals, but it
was an emergency and therefore, would hopefully be forgiven. She only took a
small amount. Not enough to make the woman dizzy. She covered the bite marks
she left with a large band. She sighed with relief as her sun burns began to
heal. She didn’t take enough to fully heal them, but it was enough to relief
the pain.
The woman handed Cleovim a back pack with some bottles of
lotion and sun screen. Cleovim thanked the woman as she grabbed hold of the
woman’s hand. “Return to work and remember nothing of me.” She gave the order
before she left the store.
