My So-Called Half-Blooded Vampyre Life ; Intro and Chp. 1

Intro

Sydney said I should be safe, but I don’t feel like I am. I wake up from dreams about them coming after me; they take me back to that place. I wake up screaming. Ben is concerned about me; he always is. I tell him that I am all right, but I don’t feel it. My mind is scattered at school. I am so scared! I don’t know what to do…

As I close my journal, I look out my window at the grey clouds in the sky. It’s going to rain soon, and I have to walk to school.
I get out of bed, and head for the bathroom. Before starting my shower, I stare at myself in the mirror. My face is sunken in from loss of feeding; my teeth are pointed and poking into my bottom lip. I hate waking up like this. I hate who I am.
After taking a shower and getting dressed, I walk slowly down the stairs. My foster mom, Sydney, is in the kitchen. She is pouring a red liquid into three glasses: hers, Ben’s, and mine. I grab the fullest glass and down it in five seconds.
“Someone’s hungry,” Ben says as he walks into the kitchen. “Bad night?”
“Yeah, sorta,” I say, sitting down at the table waiting for Sydney to get me another glass. My face, I can feel, has become more like normal.
I should probably explain. You see, I am—as you might have figured out—a vampyre. So are Sydney and Ben. We all came from the same place: Vampyre Institute. This is a school for, well, vampyres. Parents, like mine, send there kids there so that they can become a vampyre. This, to me, is wrong. Completely wrong! One reason is that becoming a vampyre is horrifically painful. I don’t even know how to describe it to you. Even thinking about it, I can remember that incredible pain. It gives me the chills. The other part isn’t painful, but sticks with you for the rest of your life. You have to kill someone to fully become one. I still remember that day; I was ten years old. I was nine when I had the first part of the “transformation.” The full year in-between was them teaching us how to feed…and kill. I hated it. They sent me to the headmaster’s office so many times! Anyway, the guy I killed was probably about twenty-two. His name was James Gallin. I was told to pretend that I was in trouble and needed help. When we were alone, I attacked. I didn’t want to, but something pulled me into doing it. Next thing I knew, his heart had stopped…and I was a vampyre. To this day I hate myself for doing that.
I escaped from VI when I was fourteen and ended up here with Sydney. She is one of the few people in the world who helps escaped students. As a student and teacher there, she saw what they went through. That changed her. She believes the same thing I do; what they do at that school is grossly wrong.
Ben also escaped. I was the one that found him. He was lying in the middle of the woods; his face was sunken in so much, he looked like a skeleton. I brought him back to Sydney where she gladly took him in. He is thirteen, which is two years younger than me. Since then, we have become like brother and sister.
“Here you go, sweetie,” Sydney says as she hands me another glass of red liquid. As you can guess, the red liquid is blood. Sydney gets it from the blood supply at the hospital. It is way better then the animal blood we used to drink.
“Thanks,” I say, downing this glass, too.
“Are you guys ready for your first day of school?” Sydney asks Ben and I as she sits down at the table with her breakfast. Unlike me, she takes small sips of the blood in the glass.
“Yeah, I guess,” Ben and I say at the exact same time. We look at each other and laugh. Sometimes we have that brother/sister connection.
Sydney was laughing right along with us. Then says, “You guys are so weird! Anyway, I have got your lunches packed. If people ask about the red liquid, tell them its fruit punch. And I also packed you a sandwich. Eat it, please, so that people don’t get suspicious. Do you have your backpacks packed?”
“Yup,” we say. Sydney can be a lot like a mother. We don’t care, though. It’s good to have at least someone there for us…
Getting up from the table, Ben and I head back upstairs to get are things for school. Before leaving, I look around my room. It’s like any other teenage girl’s room; there are posters of different boy bands, the closet is over-flowing with clothes, the walls are painted with bright colors, and my bed is unmade. I sigh, before closing my door.
I enter the kitchen and say goodbye to Sydney before heading out the door. The high school is only two blocks away, so I don’t have to walk very far. I look at the sky again; the clouds are getting worse. I speed walk so that I don’t get rained on if it starts to pour.
When I enter the school, people, tons and tons of people, overwhelm me. All different colors, shapes and forms push past me. Vampyre Institute was such a small school; I have never known such a big school.
I finally get the guts to push past all the people to get to the main office. As I enter the office and close the door, the sound of the crowd outside mutes. Looking around the office. I notice two teenagers sitting in chairs, each on the opposite side of the room. They look a little beat up. One of the guys is holding a white cloth up to his nose. Half of it is covered in blood. I stop and stare at the blood for a little bit. A sense of wanting over comes me. My eyes don’t even blink. I come out of my daze when the guy says, “What the hell are you looking at, freak?”
I quickly turn away, and head towards the reception area. The lady behind the desk has thick black hair pulled up into a tight bun. Her eyes are covered in this greenish eye shadow and have thick black eye liner surrounding piercing blue eyes. The color of her lips reminds me of blood. She looks kind of scary.
“How may I help you?” she asks in this sweet, high-pitched voice that doesn’t suite her look.
I reach into my bag and pull out the papers Sydney told me to give to the school. “I’m a new student here.”
“Oh, goodie! You must be Mae Vamp! So nice to meet you!” the smile on her face really freaked me out. If she was a different person, it would have been a nice comforting smile…this one was like a devil trying to be nice, but really wants to convince them to go over to the other side. She reminded me of my old Headmaster.
“Yeah…thanks. Do I need to do anything?” I asked, trying not to look as scared and appalled as I was.
“I have all you information here with me. All I need is for you to sign this paper and you can go ahead and check out the school.”
When I was done in there, I quickly walked out of the office and into the crowd of noisy teenagers pushing past me. I tried to look at my schedule to see where I was supposed to go, but someone ran into me and I dropped all my papers on the ground. As I bent down to pick them up, people parted around me just far enough not to touch me. Sandals, tennis shoes, high heels, you name it, were repeatedly stepping on all my papers, and no one seemed to care that I was even there.
I leaned over to try and grab my paper that had flown away from me, when someone stepped on my hand. I screeched and cradled my hand.
“Hey, are you alright?” I looked up to see a hot, tanned hand holding out my paper. When I took my paper, I saw his face. His hair fell into his eyes just low enough to frame the golden-specked, brown eyes that could melt Antarctica. His hair was blonde with beautiful brown highlights that complimented his tan completion. He was wearing a skin-tight band T-shirt (the Beatles) and baggy dark wash jeans. I nearly melted in my shoes.
“Um…yeah…I think,” I stuttered as I said this, causing my face to flush. I didn’t realize that I could blush as a vampyre until now. It made me feel just a little more human.
The boy held out his had to help me up. I took it, and felt him shudder a little at the coldness. He seemed to dismiss it and pulled me up so that I was only inches away from him. The smell of his cologne and blood made my mouth water and I could feel the tips of my fangs start to grow. My alarm system went on and I backed away from him and into someone behind me.
“Hey! Watch where your going, newbie!” said the person I had bumped into. He was a big guy and I backed away slowly towards the boy with the golden eyes.
“Fuck off!” he said at the big guy who yelled at me.
I must have looked a little shocked when he said this, because he looked and me and said, “Sorry. The only way you can handle a guy like Mark is to be aggressive right back. I’m Sam, by the way.” He smiled at me and held out his hand.
I took it gently in my hand; I could feel his pulse pumping in his hands. “I’m Mae. Mae Vamp.” I smiled at him, trying to distract myself from the sudden urge to bite his neck.
“Nice last name! Mines stupid: Jones,” Sam said, smiling. He was looking at me in a weird way, like he couldn’t quite figure me out.
“Um…do you think you can show me where my first class is? I have no freaking clue where I’m going,” I laughed nervously, still cautious of him staring at me.
“It would be an honor.” This guy seemed nice, but kind of dorky. I had to laugh at him as he bowed and held out his hand, wanting me to take it. When I put my hand in his, he took it and gently placed his lips on my shaking fingers. Again, I was shocked when I felt my face turn hot.





Chapter 1
Everything New

Sam met me at every one of my classes to show me to my next one. During lunch, he introduced me to his very interesting friends. I expected him to hang out with the jocks, but they were anything but.
In the group of six people, there were only three girls: me included. The first one, Kate, had bright green and blue hair. It curled up at the bottom, and underneath it, the hair was bright pink. Her nose was pierced with a silver hoop, along with her eyebrow and lip. She wore natural makeup that brought out the bright green in her eyes. As she stood to shake my hand, I saw that she was wearing long black flare jeans with thick black boots. Covering her top half was a way-to-huge black shirt that was cut half way up the stomach. Underneath was a shirt as pink as her hair. Taking her hand, I noticed that her nails were painted blue and green. Even though she looked scattered and wasn’t matching, she pulled it off.
Eva, the other girl, wasn’t as wild; she was the exact opposite. Her hair was a natural red that curled just right. It framed her makeup-less face perfectly. In her hands was an acoustic guitar. Her shirt was a plain cream-white shirt that flowed down to her hips. Dark wash flare jeans flowed down her legs and showed a peak of her black Indian moccasins. She was absolutely beautiful…and was dating Sam.
The guys were as miss-match as the two girls. Alex’s hair was jet black with red streaks through it. His jeans were baggy and black; chains and pockets covered the fabric. His shirt was a black v-neck with love written in blood red. To my surprise, he wore no shoes and his toenails were painted black. Along with Kate, he also had silver hoops in his nose, eyebrow, and lip.
Zach, the tallest one of the group, and the quietist, wore a white T-shirt with a band name on the front: The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. His jeans had two large holes in the knees and were falling apart at the seams. The hair on his head was a bundle of messy, wavy brown hair. It looked like it wasn’t brushed and fell over his forehead in wavy pieces. He wasn’t all that attractive, but he made my face flush a bit; he had an effect on me.
The only spot at the table was next to Zach. I sat down nervously and he smiled at me. I smiled back then got out my lunch. The sandwich Sydney had packed was peanut butter and jelly. Before I became a vampyre, these were my favorite. I can still taste and enjoy human food, but it does nothing to subdue my hunger.
“So, where are you from?” I looked up and saw that they were all looking at me. I had almost forgotten they were there.
“Um…I’m from a small town in Maine.” I wasn’t lying to them; the Institute was in Maine.
“Oh, that’s cool!” Zach said, “My aunt lives there.”
I turned to him and said, “Cool,” even though I really didn’t think so. I would rather not have anyone in my group of friends that had family in Maine.
For a moment, I just stared at Zach’s neck as he was eating. A need to eat almost consumed me, but then Zach turned to me and smiled when he noticed I was staring at him.
“Yes?” He said, smiling in a shy way.
“What? Oh, sorry…” I stared at my sandwich, trying to fight the urge of biting anyone. As my sandwich was almost finished, I pulled out my “fruit punch” and took a long swing of it. My hunger slightly subdued and I began to think straight again.
“What’s your next class, Mae?” Sam asked me, taking a bite of his banana.
I pulled out my schedule and looked for my next class. “Um…Drawing and Painting.”
“Oh! I have that class too!” Zach turned to me, smiling.
“Great. Now I won’t be alone in at least one of my classes.”
When lunch was over, Zach and I walked to E hall to where the art room was. We walked in an awkward silence all the way there.
The art room was filled with paintings and drawings I guessed the art students had done. They were all amazingly good. I gaped at all the photos on the wall until Zach grabbed my arm and pulled me toward a table with stools surrounding it. No one was sitting there, and Zach seemed to like that. He plopped on a stool right across from me and pulled out a sketchbook covered in a beautiful collage.
At the Institute, each vamp was required to take a fun elective of there choosing. My guess was that they wanted us to believe we had some power, even though we didn’t. I took art. The teacher there was really nice. Of all the teachers there, she actually didn’t agree with what they were doing there, but she never voiced that in front of the Headmaster or any other teachers, only to her students. All the people in that class were the ones who wanted out, so none of us ratted her out. The projects she had us do voiced our want to get out, but it was all very secret. The teachers there, and the Headmaster didn’t really have an artistic eye. The only thing the Headmaster said about our paintings were, “On, that’s wonderful,” and, ”Wow, how did you do that?” It got really animated after a while, like she didn’t care at all, but she wanted to “take an interest” in her students. Like she actually ever cared.
My favorite form of art was pencil drawing. That’s what I am good at. Today, in my art class, we are doing a free draw, which means we get to draw or paint whatever we want. At first, I had no clue what to do because I didn’t have a sketchbook or a pencil. When Zach noticed this, he called the teacher over and she gave me this empty pad of paper and a box of pencils.
“Welcome to my art class. This book is basically like a journal of your life. Draw whatever you want in it, as long as it is school appropriate, “ she winked at me and smiled before she walked away.
I turned toward Zach and saw he was totally engrossed in the start of a drawing. Since it was only the beginning of one, I had no clue what it was. I decided not to bug him and flipped my book open to the first page. I picked up a pencil and started drawing the side of a face. My teacher always told me to get a basic structure down before drawing, but every time I tried, the drawing didn’t look all that great. She gave up on me after my third attempt and said to do whatever the hell I wanted.
My drawing was going to be of a girl with wings and vampyre teeth. Every sketchbook I’ve ever had always started with this picture. It represented my need to get out of the Institute; the vampyre teeth represented me and the wings were what I thought was my only escape.
When school was over, Sam showed me the whole school. Zach came along, which I was glad of, because Sam was his ride home. He was pretty quiet, I noticed, so I talked to Sam, who was a very animated person. I enjoyed talking to him, but I really wanted to talk to Zach. In art, we just sat at our table and drew the whole time. When class was over, I found Sam outside the classroom, so I followed him. Zach went the other way.
“And our final stop is the most awesome place in the school; the photography room,” Sam said. As we walked into the room, I noticed all these beautiful photos of nature, people, and anything you could think of. They all seemed to be taken by students at school. My favorite was a picture of a swing set with a girl sitting next to it on the ground. She held her head in her hands and she seemed to be crying. The light was just behind here head and made her bight red hair shine. It took me a little bit, but then I realized it was Eva. Sam came up behind me when he saw I was staring at the picture.
“I took that a couple months ago, when Eva and I first became friends. I gave it to her on our one-month anniversary because she was the first girl I actually had a real connection with her and she wasn’t a cheerleader with a super skanky body and bleach-blonde hair. I never really looked at the world around me before I met her.
“At the end of last year, I was a complete wreck. The football team had just won state and there was a big party. I got drunk and punched a guy in the face. That was a turning point for me. They called the cops on me, and I went to jail for underage drinking and assault. Luckily, my parents had connections, so I was let out with minimal charges, but then they forced me to quite the football and join in art classes where they knew my football buddies wouldn’t be.
“In college, my mother took a photography class and she loved it. She said it changed her. Looking at her work, I was shocked to see what she took pictures of. They were beautiful; totally didn’t match her personality now. I decided to take that class and I ended up being really good. I was getting more distant from my football years in every picture I took. I met Eva through a partner project. We were placed with an acting student to help us take animated shots and used imagination. As you probably have guessed, I was paired with Eva. The moment I took that picture, I was in love with her. We have been going out ever sense. She introduced me to the friends I have now. I love who I am now and I don’t regret waking up in the morning, because I know I didn’t do anything bad the night before. It feels great.” Sam finished his story with a sigh. I was so shock he started talking about his life like that. Nobody has ever been that open to me.
I turned to him and saw that his eyes were glazed over, like he was remembering his past.
Zach interrupted us by saying, “Hey, dude, I need to get home before my dad freaks.”
Sam jumped and said, “Oh, sorry. Haha. Wow. Lost in the past for a second.” Zach seemed to ignore the fact about him being in La-La Land, and started to walk out the door of the room. Sam looked at me and said, “Do you need a ride? Cause I can take you home if you want. Maybe you can spend more time with Zach.” He said this with a smile that was totally unexpected.
“What?” I said, my eyes opening wide with shock.
“I see the way you look at him. It’s cute. He needs someone in his life.” Sam didn’t seem to mind the fact. I just stared at him. He noticed this and said, “You know it’s true. You like him.” With that he smiled and started walking out of the room.
“You coming?” he yelled at me when he was pushing open the door. I followed him out to his car with the shock of him saying what he did still over my head. Mortals: they are really interesting beings.

~~~~~
When I got to my house, I thanked Sam and headed toward the front door. I almost reached the door when I heard someone call my name. When I turned around, I nearly ran into Zach.
“You forgot your jacket,” he said, handing it to me.
“Oh, thanks,” I said, “See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, see you then.” Then he turned around and headed back toward Sam’s car.
I walked into the house and found my brother drinking a snack at the table. Sydney wasn’t here because she has a job at a local restaurant as a waiter. Just as I walked inside, drops of rain started to fall out of the sky. I was shocked that it hadn’t started sooner, looking at how the clouds had looked this morning. Ben was staring as the raindrops came quicker and quicker with every minute. It always rained at the Institute. This weather always brought back the memories of that place. The way we had to “hunt” in this weather on the street. “It is the best cover for creatures like us,” they always said. Every rainfall they made us go and practice. The only good thing was that they didn’t watch us, so I never hunted at that time. I just went to a local café I liked and drank a cup of coffee. The people in there were really nice, and I felt welcome there. The people who owned the place were actually escapees from the Institute. I always thought it was risky staying so close, but they never got caught. They were the ones that helped me escape.
“It’s scary out there, isn’t it?” Ben said to me as we watched the sheets fall.
“Sure is,” I said.
“You hungry? I can pour you a glass,” He said, standing up and heading toward the fridge.
I nodded and said thanks as I walked toward the table and sat down. Ben brought me the glass and I drank it slowly, staring at Ben as he walked back to the table.
“Did you have a good day at school?” I asked when he sat down.
“Yeah. People are really nice there. I have some new friends already.” He smiled at me and said, “How ‘bout you? I heard a car drive up and drop you off. And that guy who brought you your coat, who is he? You breath caught when he came up to you.” One bad thing (but sometimes can be useful) is that we have really good hearing. Ben smiled at me with a childish grin.
“He’s a new friend of mine. His name is Zach. And the guy who drove me here is Sam. They are really nice.” I tried to stay nonchalant about this, but it was weird saying this to him.
“And which one do you like?” Ben, again, smiled at me as he took a drink of his blood.
“What are you talking about? They are just my friends. And I’ve only known them a day, I barely know them.” It would have been a perfect lie, but then I started thinking about Zach and then my face became hot again.
“Oh. I get it.” He smiled in a devilish I’m-up-to-no-good smile.
I glared at him and was about to say something to him, but then we both heard a car pull up in the driveway. We looked at each other; Sydney doesn’t get home until five.
Ben ran to the upstairs window and looked out. “Mae, come here.” I was there in two seconds, looking out at a black car sitting in the driveway. All the windows were blacked out making it impossible to see who was inside. The rain didn’t help either. We waited there for about five minutes, but, still, no one got out.
“Ben,” I whispered to him, “we need to get out of here. Lets sneak out the back.”
Ben nodded and we both ran for the exit Sydney had placed so that we could make a quick escape. I went first and Ben followed, cautious not to make any sound. He closed the door quietly and we ran as fast as we could through the tunnel that leads to the shed in the back. The shed has an emergency kit in case we need to move out of there, but we didn’t need it now. All we need is to get to Sydney’s work. Ben opened the door quietly and we both creped through the lawn toward a whole in the fence. We slipped through it and ran at vampyre speed all the way to her work. Ben and I were breathing hard from fright when we ran into the restaurant and quickly sat at a table. Sydney didn’t notice us come in, but when she came to take our order she almost jumped out of her socks.
“What are you doing here?” she said, looking around guessing something was wrong. “What happened?”
I spoke, saying, “There was a black car that drove into the driveway. Nobody got out and we couldn’t see inside. We didn’t no what to do, so we freaked and ran here.”
Ben and I looked at each other, and then to Sydney. Our eyes filled with fear when we saw that she, too, seemed to be freaking out. She turned around and ran toward the kitchen, probably telling her boss that she needed to go. We got up and waited by the door as she took off her apron and said goodbye to her coworkers.
“There is a friend here that we can go to, but we got to hurry. They were probably scouting out the house to see for possible runaways,” Sydney explained as we fast-walked to her car. Ben got in the back and I got into the front. Sydney quickly pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the house.
“Why are we going back to the house?” Ben said, sounding scared.
“I’m just checking if they are still there. When they notice no one is home, they leave really quickly, not wanting people to think something is up,” Sydney said as we turned into our neighborhood. As the house came into view, we saw that the car wasn’t there anymore. Ben and I quickly scouted out the place with our eyes, ears, and nose, making sure they weren’t hiding out, watching the house. When it was clear no one was there, Sydney pulled into the driveway and told us to quickly grab all the important stuff. All my clean clothes fit into my suitcase perfectly, but I had to stuff my dirty ones in a garbage bag. I grabbed my backpack and a suitcase of my clothes along with the garbage bag full of the dirty clothes. My bedroom wasn’t full of much stuff I needed, so I ran my stuff out to the car and put it in the back of the car. As I went back inside, I ran upstairs to make sure I hadn’t missed anything and to grab my electronics. When I had everything of mine in the car, I went in to help Sydney and Ben clean out the rest of the house. We grabbed the food from the fridge and cabinets and ran all the stuff to the car. When we were sure we had everything, we left the house with a full car and a sad heart.
I had no clue where we were going, but I knew it wasn’t going to be far, since it wasn’t a good idea to up and leave because that is what they expected us to do. We drove for about ten minutes before we came to a red house only two neighborhoods over. There was a car in the driveway and pretty flowers in the yard. It seemed like a nice family home.
“You guys stay in the car while I tell them the situation. These people are runaways too. They are good friends of mine.” She smiled at this and walked up the walk.
I turned around and faced Ben. “Well, this was a fun afternoon, wasn’t it?”
Ben just looked at me, and then smiled. “Yeah, it was. Ha. This life is fun.” Even though he was smiling, I knew he was scared. I reached back and took his hand.
“Everything will be alright. Sydney knows what she is doing. She has thought this through and planned the whole thing out. Everything is going to be fine.” When I said this, the fear in his faced subsided. He smiled at me and turned to stare out the window.
I turned around and looked at the door of the house. Sydney came out of the house with a guy I didn’t recognize. They were talking intently about something all the way down the walk. When Sydney reached the car, she opened my door and said, “Here. Dan said we could stay here for as long as we need. The whole family houses vampyres in need. He, also, was at the Institute, but was never fully turned. I was there with him.” She smiled and then went to the back of the car and grabbed a bag of her stuff and walked it up the walk. Ben and I got out and followed her lead. I took my backpack and Ben grabbed his suitcase and we both walked toward the door, following Sydney.
“You can bring your stuff downstairs. There are rooms down there and fridge’s to hold all your food. It is almost exactly like a house, except it is under a house.” Dan smiled at his joke and walked down the stairs. Ben and I looked at each other and then followed.
When we walked down, I noticed he wasn’t exaggerating about it being a house under a house. We had walked down into what looked like a living room, furniture and all. I walked toward a hallway across the living room. Inside were four small bedrooms with beds, dressers, and a TV. Sydney had claimed the one to the far left, which was the biggest one. I grabbed the one across from her, which had hard wood floors and a green plush rug. The bed was made up with the same color green sheets and bedspread. The walls were a creamy orange and had a beautiful light fixture hanging from the ceiling. I liked this room.
I sat my backpack down on the bed and headed back out to the car to get my other things. When the car was fully unpacked, we headed into the living room of the upper house. Dan was sitting on the couch with what I believed was his wife. There were two other people sitting in the chairs on opposite sides of the couch. It took me a little bit, but the person sitting across from where I was standing was Alex. I stared at him and he stared back.
He blinked and said, “I should have known you were a vampyre. That fruit punch was a little too thick.” He smiled at me and moved his hair out of his eyes. I just stared at him, totally in shock.
“You guys know each other?” Dan said, turning his head from Alex to me.
“Um…yeah,” I said, unsure what to say.
“Sam found her at the main office. He brought her to us.” Alex smiled again, but this time to no one in particular.
“Oh! Well, he chose a perfect girl for you, didn’t he?” His dad smiled at Alex, which seemed to say he wanted Alex to make a move on me.
“Dad, I have a girlfriend. Remember Kate; the girl with the crazy hair and wacky clothes?” Alex looked at his father and made a face that meant ‘duh!’
“She is just…not the right girl for you. Look at how she is making you dress. It is totally not who you are.” Dan looked at his son’s choice of clothing and shook his head.
“Dan, he is only being who he is. Remember your days as a teenager just out of the Institute, you looked almost exactly like him,” his wife said, done with the argument that has probably taken place many times before.
‘Whatever,” Alex said, “I’ll be in my room. See you around, Mae.” He smiled at me and then walked off toward the back of the house.
Sydney looked around at the people remaining in the room, and then to Ben and I. “Well, let me introduce them. That, as you now know, was Alex. Then, of course, you know Dan. April here is his wife, and this little girl in the chair is Bridget.” Bridget smiled at me, and then went back to reading her book.
An awkward silence fell upon the room as everyone just stared at everyone.
“Well, I’m going to go unpack and stuff,” I said, wanting to get out of the awkwardness.
“Yeah, me too,” Ben said.
“Okay. I’ll be up here catching up if you need anything.” Sydney smiled at us and then sat in the chair that Alex had been sitting in. Ben and I walked down the basement stairs and flopped onto the couch.
“Well, this is different,” Ben said, looking around at the room. It was a beautiful room; different from the one we had just left. It was filled with nice warm colors, like rusty orange and dark coppers. There was a nice flat screen TV facing us as we sat on the couch. Behind us was a tiny kitchen, with a small counter and a small fridge. Bottles of blood sat on the counter, waiting to be put in the fridge.
“Yes it is.”
We sat there for a moment, and then Ben said, “Well, I’m going to go unpack my suitcase and decorate my room. It seems we will be staying here for a while.” He got up and walked toward his room. I just sat there, staring at the wall. After twenty minutes or so, I got up and put the blood in the fridge and then went to my room. The clock on my bedside said it was nine 0’clock. I opened my suitcase, got out my PJ’s, toothbrush, and comb, then went to the bathroom to get ready fro bed. When I was done, I got into the nice, cozy bed and fell right asleep.
~~~~~
My eyes looked left and right before I ran through the forest. I could hear the two footsteps behind me, but I kept running. I dodged trees and bushes as I raced as fast as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough. The smell of the forest enclosed my nose as I nearly ran into a log on the ground. The footsteps behind me became closer, but when I tried to go faster, I couldn’t. I whipped my head around behind me, but didn’t see anyone, but I knew they were there. All of a sudden, there was a body in front of me, I almost dodged him, but he caught me and swung me to the ground. He held my arms and legs down, pushing my face into the dirt. I could feel him binding my hands…
My eyes jolted open as I screamed from the nightmare. I sat up in my bed, breathing hard. It took me a second to realize I wasn’t in the forest, but in our new “house.” The alarm clock on my dresser said it was six in the morning, ten minutes before my alarm will go off.
I got out of bed slowly, my muscles ached and I felt dizzy. The mirror on the wall showed my dead looking face. It was pale and sunk in; I was scared of myself.
Before I went to eat, I took a shower and got ready for my second day of school. My hair was a tangled mess, and hurt like hell when I tried to brush it out. In the shower, my body felt like a dead body, ready to break. When I was done, I went out to find Sydney and Ben sitting around the table, blood in hand.
“Here, sweetheart, you look like a train wreck. Did you have a bad night?” Sydney looked at me with concern as she handed me a glass.
“Yeah. Bad dream.” I swirled the liquid in the glass around, but didn’t take a sip. My head ached from loss of food, but I still didn’t take a drink.
“Mae, eat,” Sydney, demanded, “you look terrible.”
I took a small sip, but then I couldn’t stop. I downed the drink in less than two seconds.
“See, you need to drink before you go and be around humans. That blood could have been from something other than a glass.” I just stared at her, then got up to pour myself another glass. After three more glass, I felt over fed.
The clock on the microwave said it was 7:10. I didn’t know how far the school was from here, so I had to leave early.
“Well, see you guys later,” I said, grabbing my backpack and heading up the stairs. When I reached the top, I saw the Alex was heading outside, too.
“Hey,” he said, startle when he saw me.
“Hey,” I said back.
“Do you need a ride or something, because Kate is picking me up. She could give you a lift as well.” He smiled at me.
I stared back. “Would that be a good idea? I don’t think people should know I live here. They might think its…weird or something.”
Alex smiled again and said, “I will just tell her I saw you walking and I thought you might need a ride. She would understand.”
“Oh,” I said, “Okay. But don’t you want, like, quality time your girlfriend?”
He laughed at this and said, “It’s okay. We pick up Eva and Zach, too.”
“Wouldn’t Sam give them a ride? He gave on to Zach yesterday.”
“He usually goes to school around six to catch the sunrise and the beauty of night. It’s cool. His best pictures are the ones he takes in that time.” I heard a car pull into the front of the house, but Alex didn’t seem to notice.
“Um…Kate’s here,” I said to him.
He looked outside and saw a car parked out front. “That’s not her car,” He said, frowning. It took me a second, but then I realized that car was the same one I heard pull into the driveway yesterday.
“Shit! I need to go find Sydney.”
“What,” Alex said, “what’s wrong?
“That car is the same one that showed up at our house yesterday.” I ran back down the stairs, but realized they must have heard.
“Oh, god,” Ben said, breathing hard. “That’s…that’s the car from…from yesterday.” Ben’s eyes were huge as he said this. I took his hand in my and squeezed.
“They won’t do anything if you are with a human. I don’t know if the have pictures of us or not, but just act normal. Ben, go with her. Did Alex say his girlfriend is giving him a ride?” Sydney was instructing us with sharp, fast words.
“Yeah,” I said, still holding Ben’s hand.
“Ask Alex if she can give Ben a ride, too. I do not want him out there alone. The schools will be safe, I promise. “ Ben and I started walking toward the stairs, when Sydney said, “And Mae, watch you language.” She smiled at me before turning around and heading back toward her room.
We walked back upstairs to find Alex waiting by the door.
“What did she say?” His eyes were wide as he looked outside again, but when I looked out with him, the car was gone and was replaced by Kate’s.
“That we need to go to school. Do you think Kate might give Ben a ride to school? It’s not that far from the high school.” Ben was standing behind me, looking at Alex. He seemed sad, for some reason. Ever since yesterday he hasn’t been himself. Usually he is happy and excited, but now he is shy and sad.
“Yeah. The middle school is right next to Eva’s house, so it won’t be a problem.” Alex looked behind me toward Ben and smiled. Ben smiled back, but seemed distant.
All of us walked out into the overcastted outside. We got into Kate’s car and Alex explained the story.
“It would be a pleasure to drive them to school.” Kate smiled at us as we climbed into the back seat.
She drove a giant silver Tahoe that could hold up to eight people. The interior looked brand new and still had the brand new car smell.
“I just have to tell you some car rules,” Kate said. “First: no food or drinks are EVER allowed in my car. If you have them, give them to me and I will put them in the back. Second: please keep you shoes on. It is really gross to have my car smell like feet. Even Alex has to obey this rule. See, he has a pair of shoes in my car so he can have nice, covered feet in my car.” She turned to him and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled at her and kissed her, too. “Third: please no iPod’s or MP3’s in my car. I like to talk to people and if they don’t respond, I will get mad. Forth: do not leave anything in my car, except for backpacks. I want my car to be spotless. Are these rules understood?” She turned around and smiled at us. Ben and I looked at each other, and then nodded at her.
She kissed Alex one more time, and then started the car. It took us only three minutes to get to the middle school. I kissed Ben on the head and helped him get out of the car. Usually he would have groaned at that, but he accepted it and ever said he loved me. I hugged him and watched as he walked to the school. Something was definitely wrong with him.
“Hey, is your brother alright,” Kate asked as she pulled out of the parking lot, “He seemed a bit down.”
“I don’t know. He has been like this since yesterday. Don’t worry, though, he gets these phases.” I turned toward the window and hoped this was true.
After we picked up Eva, Alex turned around and she handed him a CD.
“What band?” He asked her, plopping the CD into the player.
“80’s,” she said. “I got it in the mail yesterday.” Then she turned to me and smiled. “My dad is a music freak and every week I get a new CD from him. It has music on it he likes and wants to share it with me.”
“Where is your dad?” I asked her, hoping it wasn’t a personal question that she would be appalled at.
“He’s at this rehab in Florida. Alcoholic.” She didn’t seem embarrassed at this, like some people might be.
I didn’t know what to say to this. Luckily, we had pulled into the parking lot, so I didn’t have to respond. Standing next to the school, with camera in hand was Sam. On his left, scribbling intently into his sketchbook was Zach. They both were so absorbed in what they were doing; they didn’t even realize we had pulled up to the curb next to them.
Eva got out of the car and ran to her boyfriend. When Sam looked down at his camera for a second to check what he had taken, she tackle hugged him.
“Whoa! Hey. Jeez, you scared me.” Sam smiled at her and she smiled back. I got out of the car and walked toward them.
“Hey, Mae,” Sam said, still holding onto Eva. He smiled at me and then kicked Zach’s foot. Zach’s head jerked up as his pencil ran across his drawing.
“Hey, man, what the hell?” Zach stood up and punched Sam in the arm. Then he looked down at his picture and saw the extent of the damage. “God, look what you made me do?” Sam just looked at him as Zach glared. After a moment, Sam smiled and looked down at the drawing.
“Look at it” was all Sam said. Zach’s head turned back the picture. His face softened and he started to smile.
“Hey, that looks actually kind of cool.” Zach turned back toward Sam and said, “Thanks man.”
They smiled at each other as Alex and Kate came up behind me.
“What did Sam do now?” Kate asked as she held onto Alex’s arm.
“He fake ruined my drawing. See, look.” Zach turned his sketchbook around for all of us to see. The picture was of a girl sitting on a table in an empty classroom. She was curled up into a ball and her head was in between her arms. She looked sad and lonely. I noticed that the line that “ruined” the photo looked like the start of a wing. It was a beautiful picture.
“Wow. That is awesome!” I looked up at him and smiled. He had been looking down at me while I was looking at his drawing. It appeared as if he just noticed I was there.
“Hey,” he said in a soft voice. I could feel the weird sensation of my cheeks turning red. Alex came up behind me and whispered in my ear, “Can I talk to you for a sec’?” I turned toward him with a weird look on my face, but I followed him toward the car. Nobody seemed to notice us going toward the car because they were all talking in a small circle.
‘What?” I said when we were out of hearing distance.
“Did I just see you blush back there? I thought vampyres couldn’t do that.” He seemed as confused as I was about the fact of blushing.
“We can’t,” I said. “Well, I thought we couldn’t, but now I’m not sure.”
“Wait, has blushing happened to you before?” The look on his face was funny. I nearly cracked up, but then I composed myself.
“Only yesterday.”
“Have you asked Sydney about it?” He seemed worried.
“No, but what is the big deal? I mean, it makes me seem more human.” He seemed scared for a moment, but only for a moment.
“My family has housed runaway vampyres for a while. I know a lot about you guys.”
“Anybody my age?” I asked him this, seeing if maybe there was an explanation.
“Well, no. Only people who had been teachers or graduated students on the run stay at our house. You’re the first ‘children’ to stay there. But, still; they tell a lot of stories.” He stood there for a moment and then jumped when the 7:30 bell rang.
“Alex!” Kate yelled at her boyfriend as she ran to us. “I have to go pick up my guitar from the band room. I left it there yesterday.” She smiled at me as she took his hand.
Before she could drag him away, he called, “Ask about it!” Then, he turned around and walked away with Kate. I walked back to the three remaining people and conversed with them until the bell rang, signaling that it was five minutes until class started. We all went our separate ways to our classes and promised to meet up at lunch.