Ember glared at the window.
She had tried to climb out of it and down the stone walls into the swirling wasteland that surrounded the castle. But when she climbed through the casement, she found herself climbing back in... Even when she jumped straight out through the window, she landed inside the room.
Demetri had left her on the floor with her face covered in cum and her own blood, and wearing only her boots. She had managed to undo the belt that had held her wrists together so that she could clean her face. Now she used the belt to hold a sheet she had wrapped around her in place.
Ember shivered as a gust of cold wind filled the room. She knelt beside the fireplace, as close as she could get to the flames without being burned. She breathed in heavily, reigning in a surge of despair that threatened to flood her eyes once more with tears.
I have to escape, or he'll do it again.
With a sudden resolve, she set her jaw and clenched her fists.
I will not give in to him again. I will escape.
+++++++
Demetri faded into Ember's room. This time, however, he chose to remain invisible.
The room was filled with the lingering emotions of his captive: sorrow, anger, despair, confusion. But Ember's spirit was pulsing with a strong energy fuelled by anger and an instinctual will to survive.
He watched her for a couple moments as she paced the room, her fiery eyes flashing restlessly and the heels of her thigh-high boots clicking on the stone floor. Then, she stopped.
"You can't hide," she snarled.
Demetri materialised behind her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her body tightly against his.
"And you can't escape," he said softly.
Ember gasped angrily and tried to free herself from the ghost's grasp. Demetri chuckled darkly and ripped the sheet off his captive. He pushed Ember away from him, continuing to grip one of her wrists. She stumbled slightly as he pulled her around to face him and she fell to her knees at his feet.
Demetri laughed and pulled Ember's face to his crotch.
Ember cried out angrily and struggled to push herself away from Demetri's groin.
"Are you hungry, halfling?" Demetri mocked, "Because I can given you something to suck."
"I'd rather starve!" Ember said through gritted teeth.
"I am not going to let you starve," Demetri said smugly.
He watched her struggle for a few moments more before he released her.
Ember fell backwards, glaring up at the ghost in disgust.
"You are disgusting!"
Demetri shook his head and knelt beside Ember. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her face towards his.
"And you are mine."
+++++++
It could have been half an hour since Demetri's last visit... Or it could have been half a day. The sky outside the window was not lit by any natural moon or sun, and Ember began to wonder if time even existed in this phantasmic realm.
She hugged another sheet around herself and walked over to the window for the hundredth time, looking to see if anything had changed. Just as with the other hundred times, nothing had: the sky (and what should have been the ground) bruised and blanched undisturbed by a soul.
But there must be other ghosts roaming this realm. There must be...
And, with this thought, Ember screamed.
Vampire screams cannot be heard by human ears, but the beings that can hear them, cannot ignore them. In the wild, bats are known to mostly communicate in high-pitched chirps and squeaks, but on occasion they have been known to emit a low, hollow peal. That is what a vampire scream sounds like: like the echoing tolls of a thousand melancholy bells. At first, there is no sense of urgency about the rippling waves of sound, but as the hollow notes echo farther and farther away, they begin to crash together and crescendo into a desperate cacophony.
Ember's haunting scream resounded out of the room and was carried away by the spectral storm... But would someone hear it?
Ember stood in the reverberations of her scream, listening for an answer while her keen eyes searched the sky. But her scream was answered by a silence and an empty horizon. So, she leaned farther out the window and opened her mouth to let loose another haunting scream.
But she didn't get the chance: Demetri's hand was suddenly over her mouth and he was wrenching her away from the window.
"You stupid bitch!" Demetri glowered, spinning Ember around so that her fiery eyes were locked with his. "There are things far more dangerous than me in this realm."
Demetri shook his head at the struggling girl and smirked as the sheet fell around her ankles.
"Though it might be nice to watch an incubus have his way with you when I'm finished."
Ember cried out angrily and tore free from the surprised ghost's grip. She was on Demetri in the same second: her fangs bared and ripping into his neck.
But her teeth did not draw blood and Demetri had overcome her after a moment's struggle. He straddled the girl and pinned her wrists above her head.
Ember let loose an animal cry and struggled beneath the ghost, bucking her hips and wrenching her wrists apart. Then, Ember began to scream again.
Demetri let go of one of Ember's wrists and clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Obviously I cannot keep you in this room," the ghost said through gritted teeth, and he held onto Ember tightly and then faded them both through the floor. Down, down they sank, melting through the castle until they reached the dungeon. Demetri remained straddling Ember as they landed, refusing to let her struggle away from him.
"No one will be able to hear you through these walls," he whispered in her ear.
Ember jerked her head away from him as far as his tight grip would allow.
"What do you want from me?!"
"I want my revenge," he said, letting his words whisper over her skin. "I'm going to whip bloody patterns across your beautiful skin. I'm going to make you scream with every lash until you can barely whisper your surrender. Then I'll fuck you. I'll fuck your pussy so damn hard that you'll beg with your last breath for me to stop."
Demetri ground his pelvis against Ember's and laughed as she struggled violently to escape from under him.
"But I won't," he said.
Ember's eyes welled with tears and she closed her eyes tightly so that she no longer had to look into the eyes of her captor.
"Oh come on," the ghost whispered mockingly, "are you going to give in to me so soon, halfling?"
Ember opened her eyes and tried to choke out a few words, but her trembling lips would not allow it.
So, Demetri kissed them.
He pressed his lips against Ember's and slid his tongue into her mouth, tasting the bittersweet tang of her despair, the subtle spice of her anger.
It took Ember a few moments to even realise what was going on. When she did realise that her captor was kissing her, she did not know how to react. She had never been kissed like this: She could taste the hunger of his anger, the heat in his passion, and the salty aftertaste of sadness.
She tried to pull away from him, but Demetri just pressed his weight harder onto the girl and refused to surrender her lips.
Ember began to get angry, she was not going to let him have her so easily. She renewed her struggle and wrenched her face away from him.
Demetri pulled away from her and smiled at the familiar spark that smouldered in her eyes.
That's better.
Demetri leaned forward to kiss her again, and faded into thin air the moment their lips touched.
Ember rolled onto her side as soon as the ghost disappeared completely and choked out a miserable sob. She held a hand to her lips and whimpered at the sight of new blood issuing from the bloody lip Demetri had given her earlier. She was overcome by the failure of the only reasonable plan for escape she had. She continued sobbing as she crawled slowly towards one of the corners of the dungeon and curled up in the damp corner, shivering with sorrow, anger, and cold.
+++++++
When Demetri reappeared in the damp dungeon he found the halfling shivering in her sleep in a corner.
