Chapter 1 (re-upload)
The early morning dew sticks the the grass, and the birds sing songs, while I sit here in school. I gaze out the window, waiting for the hours to click by. The teacher’s voice calls my name, I look to her. I wasn’t paying attention. She continues teaching, something about math. However, I already know how to do this. It’s easy. I lean back in my chair and listen anyway.
The classroom was bare and colorless as usual, just the normal tan desk and chairs. This is my homeroom class, not exactly homely. The white board is covered in stained black marks from previous works. Red mark lays on top of it. The art of math is covered all over the board. From algebra to geometry. To the right of the first board on the right, is the door out of this prison. the door is a wooden texture with a light tan stain. In the middle of the door is a thin vertical window. I take a glance outside, tall pine cone covered pines sway and dance in the soft winds.
I tune my focus back to Mrs. Harp. Her hair was pulled back into a bun of blinding black. Her blazing grey eyes land on my friend, sitting next to me. I look to Sophie, her hair as usual was back in a red french braid. Her blue eyes meet mine, filled with worry. “Sophie, what did I tell you? This is not art class!” The teacher’s voice was like the devil, with a thick british accent.
Sophie stiffens up and swallows hard, my friend is silent. Mrs. Harp gives her a cold stare down, sending shivers down my spine. The class is casted into awkward stillness, no one makes a sound. Steve, a thin tall kid with ruffled brown hair sneezes. Mrs. Harp tunes her deathly gaze on him. For a split second, I swear her pupils turned a blood red color. Steve starts to choke on air, he starts coughing and coughing. No one seems to notice. The all look back to Mrs.Harp, and Steve stops choking. His weary and fear filled eyes meet mine. He mouths to me, what the heck happened? I shake my head, not knowing. He then mouths to meet him after class.
Class finally ends. I rush out the door with the other kids and meet Steve at the end of the hallway. I start walking to the end, before someone grabs my arm. I turn to face Mrs. Harp. Fear swells inside me. “Beware” She whispers in my ear, I pull away and start running. Almost tripping on the way. I run over to Steve, “This school is getting crazy, First it was Mr. Dan and now it’s Mrs.Harp” I say.
“You noticed? She doesn’t have power over you?” He says, I give him a confused look.
“....What do you mean?”
“Since I’m part vampire, I can see the myths.”
“Vampire? Myths? are you joking?” I say, this guy must be on drugs. I begin to walk away, “wait, come with me, it’s not safe here to talk...especially since Mr.Dan is next” He says. I sigh, I really didn’t feel like going to Mr.Dan, despite it being my english class. I unwillingly follow him, and we sneak out the school.
We start walking down the hallway, then stop at our lockers. I stall time by pretending to have a hard time opening my locker. The bell rings and the teachers walk inside, giving me disapproving looks. I see Steve starts walking out the door near the end of the hallway. I follow him unsure of what to do. Fresh air fills my lungs as we walk outside, “run” he says. I blink and turn around to see Mrs. Harp with her red eyes. Without another thought, I run. Steve was greatly faster than me. Mrs.Harp catches up to me, adrenalin pulses through me. I go a little faster, but not fast enough. She leaps and lands on me as I crash into the ground. I start to panic and try to push her off, fangs grow from her teeth. Fangs! She’s a vampire! The sharpness and deadliness of her teeth remind me of a shark. Wait a shark, I punch her in the nose, well more like between the nose and mouth as I wasn’t really aiming.
All it did was anger her. She hisses like a monster cat. My heart pounds in my chest. I can just picture it jumping out and running away. I don’t see Steve anywhere. I close my eyes, afraid of what will happen next. But instead I feel her wait lift off of me. I turn and look behind me, I tall older woman maybe in her 30′s, with long flowing red hair just saved me. She un-extends her arm. It was like she threw him without touching him. She makes eye contact with me, then fades away. Mrs. Harp groans on the ground, and I start running again as she may get up again.
I find my way lost in a forest, as I ran straight and didn’t stop. Now, I hope no idea where here is. I lean against a tree, and let my back fall down it. With a sigh, I place my hands in my hands. My head is pounding. I look up at the sky, it’s sunset. At least no one will be missing me. I then realize I can’t leave my cat. Even though she isn’t human, she’s like my baby. I get up and start trying to build a fire. I grab any rock I can find and a dry stick, in hopes of starting a fire. I set it up and start turning my hands. It’s hopeless.
After a couple dozen tries, it actually works. I add moss and grass to hopefully keep the smoke up. I add some more sticks whenever it gets too low. I stare up at the stars. The full moon is up above and shining bright. Howls scream in the distance...
The moist smell of rain and humidity fills my lungs as the night soon comes. The dense forest is filled with howls and crickets. I rest against a tall pine, the fire’s glow on my face. I wait to warm up before moving and looking for a way out. After getting bored, I get up and kick some dirt onto the fire. The fire goes out and I feel the cold creep in. I start moving, the howling starts getting to me. I feel as if every shadow is going to consume me. I look for moss growing on trees so I could go a general direction.
A sound of a stick breaks behind me, I see pairs of glowing eyes. I’m being stalked. I look around me and they are surrounding me. “Great...” I murmur. I swallow hard and tell myself to run. I look up to a tree. I’m a primate, aren’t I? I go for a tall pine tree, this is going to hurt. I reach to the closest and most stable looking branch. I reach for ut and pull myself up, but I hear it start to break. I reach for the next one higher as it breaks. It holds me, although I’m not far up and they are closing in. I use my free hand or dangling hand. I take my belt off and wrap it around the bark. I start using the belt to carry myself up by holding onto the ends. I look down, big mistake. The yellow-eyed creatures are at the base, and I’m far up. I see a branch that looks stable enough to hold my weight. I carefully make my way up, to the branch. I use my elbow to get onto the tree before letting go. I quickly grasp the branch and pull myself up using thick vines on the tree, I hear the belt hit the ground. I swallow hard, but when I look down the monsters disappear. It’s a long way down, i’ll have to go faster than the branches that are snapping.
As I start going down, I feel like a cat stuck in someone’s backyard tree. It’s not pleasant, nor is it anywhere near it. Terrifying is an understatement. I go to the thicker ones first, reminding myself to just be patient. I see the ground is closer, but not close enough. I look on the tree and see thick vines or something on it. The vines won’t give myself enough grib to go down. Maybe if I roll, it will hurt but won’t break any bones. I close my eyes and push off, I roll onto the ground. The wind is knocked out of me, and I stand up to breath better. I hear something move in the trees, a wolf jumps out. I turn and just just in time. But the wolves are close on my heels. I look behind me, big mistake. I trip on a tree root, but the wolves seem distracted. A piercing howl rips through the trees and they retreat. I sigh with relief. I get up and my right ankle hurts, not broken or twist. It’s just sore.
I didn’t get any sleep. I’m literally too afraid to sleep, despite my eyelids want to close. I get out of my tent and sit on a long. I lean my head against a tree, I look in the corner of my eye and see a wolf pop out. I get out and pick up the nearest stick and point it at the wolf. The wolf’s eyes flash with amusement. I shake my head as the wolf smiles, wolves don’t smile. And where’s the rest of them?
“Relax, i’m a friend of Steve” The wolf says. I blink, confused.
“i’m a werewolf” He says, then a white aura surrounds him and in his place is muscular, tan, and tall, man. His hair is dirty blonde, with bright grey eyes. I slowly back up, but a shooting pain arises in side me. I ignore it, but then it intensifies and I fall to the ground.
“were you bit?” He says running to my side, I shake my head barely able to form words. I looks on me and sees nothing. My phone starts to ring from in my bag, Steve’s friend takes it out. “Dad” is flashing across the screen. “Don’t answer” I manage to say as soon as I see “Dad” on it. The pain creeps up more, and I scream out unwillingly.
“why does this have to happen on my birthday....” I whisper to myself, but Steve’s friend hears it and looks to me with curiosity.
“Is your parents like supernatural entries?”
“No, not that I know of...they don’t have fangs or howl at the moon.”
“how old are you turning?”
“18” I say, his face goes pale. He slowly backs up but stops. My phone rings again. He turns to the phone and answers it. He walks away with it so I can’t hear. How fun. I lay my head in some moss, trying to fight the pain. I open my Apple Watch and text my friend Lucinda. I say one simple word, help. Then I add, at the place camping where we always hangout. I let my hands fall to the side with a soft sigh.
After awhile, Steve’s friend doesn’t return. I get up, leaning against the tree. I make my way to where he was, and he’s gone. My phone lays on a rock with a note, saying sorry. I walk back over to see Lucinda with her silky black hair pulled to a braid on the side, her blue eyes meet mine. She runs to my side seeing how pale and weak I look. She helps me over to a stump, “Drink this” she says. I shake my head, but when the pleasant smell of peppermint hits my nose I take it. Taking a sip, I feel the pain wash away.
“What happened?” Her voice is soft and caring, not like her fierce self.
“not sure...just felt this pain...”
“ohh, well we need to talk...I’m a witch.”
“And how does that help...”
“Your turning...well you don’t know but um, your birth parents are reapers.” I feel nauseous at those words, my head starts to spin and I plunge into never ending darkness. I feel my friend carry me somewhere then place me on a bed which wasn’t there before.
