Free Vampires of the Sun by Kathyn J. Knight Page B

were the ones to do it and just like before, they showed no expressions or empathy towards her. Their eyes were zoned out and everything they did was mechanical in motion.
                  She waited a couple of days before trying to hide the pill in her hand but it was easily found out. This time, her arm was twisted until tears of pain leaked down her face. The dosage was stronger and for a few hours after she took them, Norah felt like she was high and her movements were jerky. It was hard to not take a nap on them. She hated it.
                  One afternoon after about a week of being in the room, the guards caught her in the closet, untwisting a piece of metal. She had resolved her determination and was going to slice her wrists. Her punishment was sedation and the pills were forced down her throat. They took all of the metal hangers and replaced them with flimsy, soft fabric ones that barely held the weight of her clothes. Norah was weak-willed. She was losing the will to fight or even get out of bed. One good thing about constantly being drugged to sleep, Norah had plenty of time to begin thinking about the fangs.
                  The clues Mauve had left behind were easy to piece together; after-hours businesses, fangs, tablets of blood, an office with no windows, cold hands, strangers who cornered you in the dark without trying to rob you. All of the clues in her head lead to vampires. Norah didn’t want to believe it. It must be an elaborate hoax or she had finally completely snapped from reality. But what if it was true?
                  Part of Norah was intrigued at the existence of vampires. She watched movies, read books, and enjoyed the mythology of it all but  vampires being real? She’d never believed it. How could she? If she thought vampires were real than what was stopping her from believing in werewolves or mermaids? What about fairies or elves? Believing vampires existed meant opening a can of worms Norah didn’t want to explore but wasn’t Mauve living proof with the word living being a loose description? And wasn’t Jack? Maybe she hadn’t seen his fangs but he knew about Mauve so who was to say he wasn’t one either?
     
     
                  Two weeks passed by before Norah saw Mauve again. She knew Mauve saw her. She didn’t doubt that Mauve was watching through the camera over her bed. If Norah was in the closet too long, she sent the goons in. If she was in the bathroom too long, there was even a female goon who came and checked on her. The door didn’t have a lock. Just so no one would bother her, she laid on her bed in the open, taking minimal time to get cleaned up and rested every day.
                  The last act of defiance Norah could think of was to not eat. Already quite thin, her bones were beginning to prominently sticking out. Mauve tried to counteract by having her guards stand over Norah while she ate and then block the bathroom so she couldn’t throw it all up after the left. They’d wait for an hour while the food digested.
                  Norah had begun to despair. The food was good and she was so hungry all of the time. She hadn’t the strength to make a grand escape and it wasn’t unknown for the guards to hurt her or scare her into submission if she didn’t do what these people wanted. She just started to obey them, going through the motions.
                  At the end of the second week, Mauve stopped by in person to see her progress. “While I’m not happy with where you are at physically yet, it’s nice to see you’ve calmed down as you’ve realized struggling is completely useless. I’d like to hear what your theory is about what you saw last week.” Mauve turned the couch with little effort to face Norah’s bed so she could sit down. It was almost like being back in her office in one of their little sessions.
                  “Vampires,” was