[b]Cassandra[/b]

Cassie had been restless for the remainder of the night. She always felt that way after a feeding. The new blood moved through her body, making her alert and full of energy. She wanted to [i]run[/i] and being locked away in this room didn't allow for that. She imagined breaking the door down would be easier now that she'd fed but she restrained herself. She didn't want to cause more trouble for herself. She couldn't overpower all of the men if they frightened and tried to kill her. She could hear so much now. People whispering to one another on the deck and in the rooms above her and around her. The quiet whistling of one or two as they passed through the hallways. She could hear the sound of the waves lapping against the sides of the ship and the creaking groaning sounds of the wood as it strained under the weight. She could hear the heartbeats too, though they didn't call to her like they had before she'd fed. She could control her urges for now.

She had paced the room throughout the night and then lay on the bed hoping that sleep would claim her but it never did. Images flickered across her eyelids when she closed them but she wasn't dreaming, just imagining. It would have been nice to sleep, to pass some of the time, but she couldn't. She wasn't sure she ever would again. Not now that she was...what she was. Many men passed by her door, some paused and whispered to one another, joking about what they could do to her. Nobody attempted to enter, however. She was left alone until morning and grew tense. What if they tried to pull her up onto the deck while the sun was high in the sky? She wondered if she would burn up to a crisp and die or if the sun would simply irritate her like it did when she lay too close to the window at home. She did not want to take the risk of finding out. If nothing else, it made her feel itchy and burned her eyes. She would rather remain in the shadows.

More boots came along the hallways but stopped outside her door. This time, they were followed by a knock. Cassie sat up on the small cot and looked towards the door. She could tell from the scent of the blood that it was the man that had spoken to her the night before. He called to her and her assumptions were proven accurate. She didn't answer for a moment, part of her not wanting to answer at all. She wanted some control back. She felt far too helpless locked away like this. If only she'd kept the key. Perhaps she might have felt better then. Someone had locked her back in the previous evening and she didn't know who it was. If they had seen her reenter the room...she wasn't sure what would happen.

"I'm awake," Cassie replied. finally. She didn't stand and she didn't hear him make any move to unlock the door. Part of her hoped he was afraid to. She had threatened to kill them all, after all. Perhaps her show of removing her bindings the night before had unsettled him. "But I'm not hungry." She wondered what would happen if they thought she was starving herself. If they really wanted to use her as ransom then they would have to keep her alive, surely? But she didn't even know if that was the reason she had been taken. Perhaps they intended to sell her. Perhaps she was dispensable. For all she knew, there were other women locked away in the ship in areas that she couldn't hear. It was a very large one, after all. She imagined it was easily possible.