Post by .:.S.:.t.:.o.:.r.:.m.:. on Aug 23, 2009 14:24:42 GMT -6
(Shattered; formerly Frozen. I got kind of tired of the last title and I liked this one much better. Shatter still isn't complete; it's at about thirteen thousand out of the necessary twenty thousand words, though I have more written than what I'm posting on here.)
Prologue
You know when you dream how time seems to stand still? You close your eyes and just day-dream, and when you open your eyes its hours into the future? Well, that's how I've felt for the last century: dreamy, not fully connected, like you can float through anything and fly anywhere. Well, I can float through anything and fly anywhere.
How? Well, I'm not 'fully connected' to this world; I'm half-human half-ghost. I am a part of a small, special race that's dead and alive. We're kind of like the mythological vampires, with a few differences.
We don't suck blood, we're not super strong or fast, we have to eat and sleep, we all have pale skin, light blue or light green eyes, and we all have white hair, as well as the fact that we can't turn anyone else into the same race as us. However, like the make-believe vampires, we don't die, age (though we can change the age we look), and we try to fit in with the humans as best as we can.
Kind of crazy, right? Well, that's life for you.
Chapter 1
"Come on Aurora!" My sister, Audrey, called.
"Coming!" I replied, brushing my long white hair into a ponytail. I then raced down the stairs, my feet barely touching the ground.
"You know you could've just floated, it's not like there's any humans around," Audrey commented.
"I know, sis, it's a force of habit." I stood up, dressed in jeans, white sneakers, and a light blue tank top. My older sister, Audrey, wore white skinny jeans, white ballet flats, and a white tank top with splashes of faded green design. Like me, she has white hair, though hers is cut short, barely making it past her shoulders, while mine flows to my hips. Also, unlike me, she has long side bangs that layer into the rest of her hair.
"Well, come on, we're going to be late!" She said, grabbing her pink and black backpack, while I grabbed my blue one with black straps. We ran out to her car, and drove towards school.
"Is everyone as curious about our white hair in this school as they were in middle school?" I asked. Today was my first day in my first year of high school, while this was Audrey's final year. Even though I can't age, I can change my appearance so I'm as young or old as I need to be for the grade I'm in.
They aren't really suspicious, but if they ask, you dye your hair," Audrey answered. "You won't be the only girl with unnaturally colored hair."
"Really?" I blinked. Last year I'd always been the one everyone would gawk at and say things like: "She must be a ghost!", unaware of how close to the truth they were.
"We're here," Audrey announced, parking her car close to the building.
"Already?" I asked. "That was like, three minutes, tops. Middle school took at least ten to get to."
"Well, high school's a lot closer, and besides, why does it matter?"
"Well, I wanted to have a little more time to assess my current state of mind," I lied.
"So you mean panic?" Audrey smirked.
"Yes, I mean panic," I sighed.
"Don't worry, and get out of my car. Teachers here want a good first impression, so don't be late." I hugged Audrey, stepped out of her car, and closed the door gently. I sucked in a breath, and headed off towards the large brick building I was condemned to for six hours.
"Good luck!" I heard Audrey call.
And I'll need it all, I thought.
Chapter 2
I entered the school, keeping my head down, focused on my feet. I felt my neck burning as eyes turned towards me; staring as I passed. Why must they stare? I can't look that creepy, can I? I whined in my mind. To distract myself, I took out my locker number and combination, which had been given out shortly before school ended last year.
Locker 2170, second floor, top row. Locker combination: 22, 43, 18, I thought to myself.
As I walked down the hall, I kept a close eye on the shiny crimson lockers, until I found mine.
It wasn't far from the main entrance staircase; maybe twenty feet at most, and was close to the Equiptment Room and Ampitheatre.
I heaved a sigh, twirling the combination, and hit the locker when it didn't open.
"Stupid thing," I muttered, taking out the instructions from my jean's pockets. Three times past zero to the right, twice past zero to the left, and one time past zero to the right.
Once my locker finally opened, I sighed, putting my backpack in it and taking out my white E. L. A. (English Language Arts) binder. Once I did that, I took out my dark red binder that I was supposed to bring to all of my classes, which contains all of the essentials; pens, pencils, scissors, erasers, glue (though I really don't need it), my I. D. card which was taken last year, and a highlighter.
Though there was still five minutes left until the bell would ring, I wanted to get into class early, and avoid the stares of the hallway. It was until I reached Room 235 that I realized I had no idea what my schedule was, so, opening my red binder, I took out the crinkly white piece of paper.
Period 1; E. L. A (English Language Arts). 7:50-8:30. Room 225.
Period 2; French. 8:35-9:15. Room 116.
Period 3; Art. 9:20-10:o0. Room 126.
Period 4; Lunch 10:05-10:45. Cafeteria West.
Period 5; Gym 10:50-11:30. Gym 100.
Period 6; Social Studies 11:35-12:15. Room 226.
Period 7; Band 12:20-1:00. Room 193.
Period 8; Math 1:05-1:45. Room 225.
Period 9; Science 1:50-2:30. Room 212.
"Lost?" Someone, a girl, asked from behind me. I turned around, and it was almost like staring into a mirror; same light blue eyes, pale skin, height; but one thing was different, instead of long white hair, she had short black hair.
"No, I have my schedule here," I replied, shaking the schedule lightly in my hand to show her.
"I'm lost, and new. Me, my parents, and my brother just moved here during the summer," she informed me. "Do you know where you're going? I'm going to Room 225."
"Same," I smiled. "Do you want me to show you where it is?"
"Yes, thanks." She said. "Oh, and I'm Holly, by the way."
"I'm Aurora. We don't have much time until the bell rings; we should get going. Maybe after class we could compare schedules?" I suggested, walking back the way I'd come until we finally reached Room 225.
Once we were in the classroom, I picked a seat towards the back, and Holly followed me, sitting in the seat next to mine.
"How long have you been living here?" Holly asked shortly after the bell rang.
"Almost all of my life; I moved here right before pre-school," I lied. It wasn't like I could tell her I was really almost 100 years old; she'd freak and get the teachers to send me to an asylum.
"Cool. So you must know this town inside out then," she smiled. "I'm used to the city; small towns like these are kind of lonely, but nice, there aren't cars always honking their horns or people crowding in together to get to Grand Central Station."
"New York, New York?" I asked. I used to live there once, but that was awhile ago, when having a T. V. was rare and everyone would crowd around the house and watch from inside and out. Of course, it was a problem when the only people who had a T. V. on your street were on the fifth floor of an apartment building.
"Yeah. Astoria, to be exact. 43rd Street. We were in an apartment; we had the whole third floor to ourself. Of course, the apartment wasn't that big, but it was nice. Homey. It kind of reminded me of the 1950's; that's when it was built. They never really did get around to changing it, though."
"Who didn't?"
"The land lord. He was lazy; old, too. He was in his thirties when the building was built, so I guess he's about 70 or 80 something. But he's nice."
"I'm used to smaller towns, I came down here from Canton- it's near the Saint Lawrence River. It wasn't really hard for me to adjust to life here, because, well, it's not really different than Canton. Just a little warmer at times; not saying this is a tropical paradise. We're still in the fourties and thirties when it's Spring, sometimes."
"Not much different in Astoria, either." Holly said. "It might be in the fifties and sixties, but until June hits, that's about as high as it goes."
"Do you have a brother or sister?" I asked. "And are they annoying?" Holly gave me a look as if I were a complete idiot.
"I have a brother named Riley. We're identical twins, except he's a boy, and he's tall. And duh! Don't you have a brother or a sister? It'd make sense if you didn't for you to not know."
"I have a sister, but we get along," I said. "I'm lucky, I guess."
"You have no idea. He's so annoying! Sometimes I just wish he'd...."
"Jump off a roof?"
"No, then my mom would make me go out with a broom and clean up his... Remains," she pretended to shudder. "I wish he'd stop being annoying. At least I don't have to see him until lunch; he's taking Italian, and I'm taking Spanish."
"I'm taking French. Looks like I'll have to survive without you," I teased.
Holly and I talked for the remaining ten minutes of class, while our teacher -Mrs. Whittaker- gave us a list of supplies. I already had them all.
After the bell rang, I went to my locker, and was happy to discover Holly had a locker not far down from me.
Last year it was impossible to make friends and I already have one, presumably, I thought, a smile etching at my face. Maybe this year will be better.
Chapter 3
French had gone by quickly; mostly due to the fact that it was a shorter period and the only thing the teacher -Mr. Abney- gave us was textbooks to write our names in. Other than that all we really did was talk. Or at least that's what everyone else did. Since I didn't know anyone in that class, I just started doodling on a scrap piece of paper.
Soon the bell rang, and I waited for everyone to get out of the classroom before I got out of my chair. I carried my binder and French textbook to my locker, and stuffed the textbook inside while keeping out the binder. Time for art.
Before I turned around, I could already tell Holly was there. "You have art, right?" She asked, hopefully. I nodded, but her face fell a little anyway.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Riley has art now, too. He's destined to be annoying," she said, but she didn't sound sad, or anything like that. She sounded kind of happy- like she wanted him to be in her class.
"You sound happy. You want him to be in the same class as you? I thought he annoyed you."
"Well, yeah, he does. But I'm happy because now I can annoy him and attack him with paint," she giggled.
"Just make sure you don't get it on me," I laughed. "It would never come out of my clothes."
"Hmm, I wonder what you'd look like with pink or blue hair," she smirked. "Your hair's perfect for it. Since it's white, it won't alter the color at all like it would with brown or black hair."
"Don't get any ideas," I threatened teasingly.
"Why should I be scared of you, little girl?" She teased back.
"Because I've been wrestling for five years."
"Well that makes sense, anyway... Oh, look at that, we're here. What a coincidence." Holly ran inside, but kept looking back, smiling.
I had always liked art. Maybe because the teacher would tell me I was good at it, I don't know. I even went to college for it once, back in the 70's.
When I walked inside, I found Holly sitting next to some girl with brown hair that waved down to the middle of her back, tan skin, and dark brown eyes. I sat on Holly's other side, while another boy -one with black hair and blue eyes- sat down across from us. I recognized him as Riley.
"Go away," Holly said, throwing a pencil eraser at him.
"Nah, I kind of like it here," he said, putting his feet on the table and leaning back in his chair.
"Aurora, this is Riley," Holly said. "I'm sure you've already noticed that because of his annoying personality."
"Yeah, and because of the fact that he looks like you." Holly turned to glare at me, and elbowed my ribs.
"Oww, what was that for?" I asked, rubbing my side.
"You said I look like that... Hideous alienic beast!" She replied, jabbing her thumb in Riley's direction.
"You're just jealous that I took up all the looks in the family," Riley smirked, and Holly kicked him under the table.
"Violent," I observed. "So glad my sister doesn't do this to me."
"Hey," I heard a strange, quiet voice say. Both Holly and I turned towards it, while Riley put his feet down and sat up straight.
"Hey," the shy voice repeated. "I'm Michelle." I realized then that the small voice was coming from the girl with the wavy brown hair and eyes.
"I'm Aurora, this is Holly, and that thing's Riley," I introduced, motioning to myself, then Holly, then Riley. Holly waved, while Riley just grunted.
"Attention, class!" The teacher -what was her name? Mrs. Dean?- called. I turned foward, as did Holly and Michelle, while Riley just leaned back in his chair again. "I'm Mrs. Dean, your art teacher. Today you'll be drawing any shapes or designs that you want, so feel free to use any pencil or marker colors that you want. This will be graded, as most drawings of yours will be. For this picture, you can only choose three colors."
"This is so easy," Riley said, taking out a black pencil, a gray pencil, and a blue pencil from the row of bins, while I took out a light blue pencil, a light orange pencil, and a light green pencil.
"Until you get an F, at least," I replied, sitting back down next to Holly, who'd chosen silver, red, and black.
"Hey, Michelle, what colors did you choose?" She asked, looking over. I saw she'd chosen green, brown, and blue- the colors of the earth.
"Enviromentalist?" I asked, coloring lightly with the orange long diagonal lines, and then filling in the gaps between each one. Then, I did the same thing with the blue, but underlapped it so that there would be blue, then orange, and then blue on the other side. All that was left on the paper were four triangles; one on each side of the paper, which I colored with the green.
"Yeah," Michelle said as I walked up to the teacher, paper in hand.
"I'm done," I said. Mrs. Dean looked up, as if she was surprised.
"Already?" She asked. "Well, let me see it then; I want to make sure you actually tried." I gave her my paper, and smiled as she nodded approvingly.
"Very good, I give you an A," she said, taking out her grade book and marking an 'A' next to my name.
"Thank you," I said, walking away and sitting back down in my seat. I looked over at Holly's paper, which had a fire-cracker design on it; silver in the middle, then red, then black, and then silver, and red, and black again, until her whole paper was consumed with it. Michelle's paper was almost a complete opposite; she had circular bands of her three different colors, which were completely neat and flat, unlike Holly's vivid zig-zags. Then my eyes landed on Riley's paper, and I supressed a laugh. He just scribbled with all three different colors at once, making it look worse than scratch art. You could tell where his hard coloring punctured the paper.
"That looks... Horrible. I think I just threw up a little," I laughed. "You know you're getting an F, right?"
"I'm shooting for a D. At least I colored it in."
"Horribly," Holly added while walking up to Mrs. Dean with her paper. I could tell her fingers were crossed. She probably wants to start off the school year with an A, I thought.
"What do you think I'll get?" Michelle asked, showing me her paper.
"I think you'll get an A," I said. "You should show it to her now, before everyone else starts going up and there's a long line." Michelle nodded, stood up, and went to wait behind Holly, who walked back, smiling.
"I got an A!" She smiled. "What did you get? I forgot to ask."
"I got an A, too," I replied. Holly nodded as Michelle came back.
"I got an A," she smiled.
"Good job," Holly said.
After a couple of minutes, Riley went up to the teacher, and you could almost see her face going red. She scribbled something down in her grade book, and waved her hand at him to go.
"I got a D." He didn't really sound dissapointed; it was probably one of his highest grades.
"Plus or minus?" Holly asked, smirking. "And why didn't she fail you?"
"Minus. She said she didn't fail me because it was our first grade, and she didn't want to start out with a failing student." Riley said, leaning back in his chair. I pushed the chair leg under the table, making him crash to the ground. I giggled, as did Holly and Michelle.
"Okay, who did that?" He growled, sitting up straight. I started whistling, while Holly pointed at me. "You are so dead!"
"More than you think," I responded truthfully.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing."
This confused Riley- well, it confused everyone, really, but they didn't ask me what I ment. Instead, we just kept talking until the bell rang, and Holly, Michelle, and I walked out laughing as Riley continued to ramble on about how dead I was for making him fall on his face.
Chapter 4
"So, what are you guys going to get for lunch?" Holly asked Michelle and I as we sat down at a random table. Riley followed after us. Michelle sat on my right side and Holly sat on my left. Riley sat on the other side of the table so he faced us.
"I don't know, some fruit and vegetables, I guess." Michelle said quietly, her eyes looking down at the dark green table.
"Only fruits and vegetables? No meat?" Riley asked, sounding both rude and surprised at once.
"I'm a vegetarian," Michelle replied, blushing and looking down at the table.
"Oh great," Riley said, rolling his eyes. He's rude, I thought.
"Shut up, if she wants to eat vegetables and fruit she can," I said, kicking him under the table.
"Oww!" Riley growled, glaring at me.
"Well, you deserved it." Holly giggled. "Well, anyway, Aurora, what are you getting for lunch? I got side-tracked by that gorilla," she rolled her eyes at Riley.
"Uh, I don't know, an apple, I guess," I said. Even though I did have to eat, I didn't have to eat much, and I could go for about five days without food or water without caring.
"Are you anorexic or something?" Holly joked. "You already look transparent, why don't you try eating something?"
"Because I don't want to," I said.
For a little while Holly, Michelle, Riley, and I talked and joked with each other, until someone interrupted us.
"Hey, is it okay if I sit here?" The new person, a boy, asked. He had blonde hair, brown eyes, and tan skin- I guessed that he was a surfer.
"Sure," I said, moving closer to Holly so that he could sit. "I'm Aurora, this is Holly, she's Michelle, and that thing's Riley. Who are you?"
"I'm Zack," he said, smiling.
"So, Zack, why do you want to sit over here?" Holly asked, arching her eyebrow.
"You know, bored. This morning I talked with Riley, he said I could sit with him. Of course I didn't know he had a sister, or two friends..." Zack rested his gaze on me, and I looked away. His eyes seemed curious; because of my weird snowy white hair, probably.
"And he doesn't like to think of them like that," Riley interrupted. "So, anyway Zack, you up for some races after school? I heard a couple of the guys were going to the fields behind the school, and it'd be nice to see a semi-familiar face there, considering I just moved here."
"Hey, I want to go," I said. "I love to run." It was true; I had always been a huge fan of sports, mainly track. I didn't like to watch them, though, that was boring, I just liked to play them.
"Well that's too bad Aurora 'cause you're a girl, and this is for guys only. You wouldn't make it," Riley replied.
"Hey, dude, I think you should let her run." Zack said, but only made Riley shake his head no. "How about this; if she beats you in an arm wrestle, you let her go. If she loses, she doesn't get to go."
"Hey, do I have any say in this?" I sighed, already knowing the answer before my question was completed. "So, we're deciding on an arm wrestle? Well, let's get this over with. It's going to be best out of three." Riley nodded, and I put my elbow on the table, ready to go. He grabbed my hand, smirking.
"Ready, set, go!" Zack said. I looked around, noticing a few people had turned their heads in our direction, amused. Great, I thought, just what I need. Suddenly I felt a tremendous force pushing against my arm, and by the time I realized the arm wrestle had started, my arm was almost against the table. Riley's original smirk grew even wider as my hand touched the table.
"I wasn't ready," I told him, putting my elbow back onto the table.
"Sure, sure," Riley replied, smirking. Zack said to go again, and I felt the same force as last time. But I was ready this, time, so I pushed hard against it, smiling as his hand thudded hard against the table.
"You got lucky," Riley huffed, and for the final time Zack told us to go.
"Come on, you can do it Aurora," Holly laughed. Right after Zack said go, and before Riley could even respond, I slammed his hand against the table.
"I won, so I'm coming," I smirked, sticking my tongue out. Riley frowned, while Michelle giggled and Zack laughed.
"Riley got beaten by a girl!" Holly laughed. "Oh, I am so going to hold this against you your whole life!" She smirked, an amused gleam in her eye. Riley's face turned a deep red, half of the reason being embarrassment, the other half being anger.
"Riley got beaten badly by a girl!" Michelle corrected, laughing.
"Nice one, dude," Zack said to me. "Anyway, now you have to let her come." Riley grunted, but nodded.
"Ha ha," I said tauntingly.
Chapter 5
I waited for Riley behind the school once ninth period class let out, my hands in my jeans pockets. I had already texted Audrey that I would walk home after school so that she didn't have to wait forever to drive me home. After a few minutes of waiting I saw Riley and a couple of other boys walking toward me, speaking in hushed whispers.
"They think you can't beat them," Riley told me in a low voice. "But I think you can."
I looked up, surprised. "Thanks?" I responded unsurely.
"Everyone, line up here," I heard a voice say. I turned and looked in the direction I heard it coming from, and walked over to it, Riley trailing behind. I stood next to the person who said to line up; a rather short boy, being only a few inches taller than me, with dark gray eyes and tussled blonde hair. Once everyone was lined up, another boy, one with red hair and green eyes, appeared.
"Okay, when I say go, you start running. You go all the way to the end of the field, and then turn and come back. First person to arrive here wins. No cheating," he instructed. Everyone nodded, and looked on intently ahead.
So I have a one-fourth chance of winning, I thought, noting that there were about twenty other people here.
"Go!" He shouted, and we all took off. I didn't bother to race really quickly in the beginning, like the others did. They were wasting their energy so early in the race, and when the time came to actually run hard, they wouldn't be able to. About half-way through the race, when most of us had started to turn back toward the school, I decided to move up from a trot to a sprint, overtaking most of the boys within seconds. They were already panting heavily, sweat smeared across their faces. As soon as the school and the kid with the red hair came into view, I bolted ahead of everyone. I was in the lead, until I saw someone passing me. Riley. I growled, running even faster, until we were even.
"Scared to lose?" He said, turning his face toward me but not slowing down at all.
"Are you sure you shouldn't be saying that?" I taunted, forcing myself to keep running as fast as I was. Soon I could see what they called a finish line; it was just some duct tape taped over the grass in a line. Both Riley and I crossed over the line at the same time, panting heavily when we stopped.
"I won!" Riley shouted triumphantly.
"No you didn't," I said, trying to catch my breath. The kid with the red hair nodded in agreement.
"You both tied," he said. I saw Holly run over to me out of the corner of my eye.
"Congrats, Aurora," she said, smiling.
"Thanks," I replied.
"And I get no recognition or congratulations?" Riley complained.
"Nope, you're not special enough," Holly laughed, sticking out her tongue.
"I should be getting home," I said, picking up my backpack from where I had left it on a bench. I slung it over one shoulder and started walking towards the front of the school with Holly, who already had her backpack.
"Want to come over to my house?" She offered. Riley coughed a 'no', and she glared at him, throwing a nearby twig at his face.
"Uh, I would, but I can't. My parents told me to come home as soon as school let out, I forget why, though. Anyway, they're already going to kill me."
"Oh, okay, well, bye," Holly said, turning the opposite direction I did when we reached the road in front of the school. I started to walk home, and raced into the woods, where no one could see me. From there I dematerialized into a mist before materializing again, this time inside of my house.
"You're late," I heard my father growl before I saw him. When I did see him, I could tell he was really mad. His light green eyes were extremely dark with anger; even his cropped white hair seemed to darken. He had an expensive looking white tuxedo on, and his hair was combed very neatly. Then I remembered why I had to be home early. The meeting that Queen Lily, the queen of my race, had said was mandatory was tonight. Oops.
"I know, I'm sorry. It's just-"
"Audrey told me. You were having a race with some humans. Tonight is extremely important, it will be talking about a threat to our race." He interrupted, his voice low. This immediately caught my attention.
"What threats? No one told me about any threats," I said, shocked.
"The threat is a newly made vampire-demon race. They are very powerful," my father replied, his voice low. "That's why it's so important for you to come to the meeting, and why Queen Lily said that it was mandatory." I nodded understandingly.
I ran upstairs, and changed out of my now sweaty clothes into a long white skirt, white ballet flats, and a white blouse. I took my hair out of its ponytail and combed it thoroughly, so that it looked neat and straight. I ran down the stairs again, ready to go.
"Come on Audrey, Diana!" My father called to my mother and sister. My mother appeared from out of nowhere, wearing a long white dress and white high heels. My sister wore a shorter light blue dress with white leggings and flip-flops.
"I'm already here, Ian," my mother said. "Are we all ready to go?"
"Yeah, I'll meet you guys there," Audrey said, vanishing again into mist. My mother followed after her, then my father, and then me. Tonight would certainly be interesting.
Chapter 6
When I arrived in front of a big, white building, with many people that looked like me, I knew that I hadn't messed up my teleportation. I was known for doing stuff like that. One time I had tried to teleport to my old middle school, and I ended up in a dumpster outside of some diner.
I walked inside with my parents and sister, my father sitting next to Queen Lily, followed by my mother, sister, and finally, me. Apparently my parents were good friends with her or something, which was why we were able to sit next to her. Or at least, as close as you can get, because she's at the head of a long table.
"Can I switch seats with you? I don't want to sit next to someone I don't know," I whispered into Audrey's ear, looking at the seat next to me, which was, for now at least, empty.
"Uh, no. It goes from the order of oldest to youngest. You know that. Oh well, it's just too bad for you," Audrey replied, sticking her tongue out at me.
"Thanks," I moaned, rolling my eyes. I talked for a few minutes with Audrey, before Queen Lily announced that the meeting was starting.
"Thank you for coming," she began, her voice ringing throughout the large room. "As I'm sure you all know, there is a new race that threatens ours; they're a mix of vampires and demons, a very deadly combination. I have called this meeting so that we may discuss how we will deal with this race." Surprised mumbles arose, and Queen Lily waited patiently for them to die down before she continued speaking. "So, now that you have a little background knowledge on this race, at least what they are, what do you want to do with them?"
"I think that we should get rid of them before they attack us," someone from the back of the room said. I turned towards the voice, as did many others, shocked.
"Maybe," Queen Lily said, looking thoughtful. "But we will still lose many. A peaceful confrontation may be more beneficial."
"But then they will have an open chance to attack us with no warning, giving them the advantage." The voice pointed out; and this time I saw who it was. She was about my mother's age, maybe a year or two older, with light green eyes and long white hair, almost as long as mine.
"Yes, this is true," Queen Lily admitted. "If we try to be peaceful, they could become hostile and attack us right then and there. Maybe it is best to attack them first, when they have no idea of our plans. Okay, let's take a vote; shall we attempt peace, or shall we fight? Raise your hand if you want to fight."
I looked at my father, mother, and sister. My sister had her hand raised, as did my father, but, like me, my mother seemed reluctant to. Then I looked at the rest of the room, counting the number of votes in my head; less than half wanted to fight.
"So, it is decided, then. We will not fight." Queen Lily announced. "We will have a few select members go to these demon-vampires to discuss peace. Does anyone want to volunteer?"
Only a few hands went up at first, and then more and more. I bit my lip, and raised my hand. My parents seemed astounded, but my sister was unsurprised. She already knew that I would do anything for peace.
"Okay, Aurora, Sam, and Heidi, will you please come over here?" Queen Lily asked, standing up. "Everyone else, you may go." Soon everyone began teleporting, and I sighed. That was an incredibly short meeting, normally they would go on for hours, and they wouldn't be important, just to check up and see how everyone was doing. This one had decided whether or not to start a war, lasting a mere twenty minutes, if that. A dose of sense, anyone?
I stood next to Queen Lily, with Sam on her other side and Heidi next to me. I was surprised she had chosen us three; we were the youngest people here.
"I have chosen you three to perform this important task for one important reason; your age. Since you are three are the youngest of our race, you will appear much less threatening than if someone older were to go instead, and they will hear you out and know you're not lying." Queen Lily began. "The task itself sounds simple; get into the vampire-demon's kingdom, tell them we're peaceful, and get out, but let me tell you, it is the opposite of easy. They will attack the first person they see that is not one of them, and it takes awhile for them to even listen to what you have to say. Once you are inside, if you say something that upsets them, they are very likely to attack you right then and there. Even if you are extremely careful with your word choice, the tiniest slip-up could provoke them into war." I gulped.
"Well, they sound cheerful," Sam said sarcastically.
"Now that I have told you everything, you may go. But in one week, come back here, because that is when all of this will take place." Queen Lily told us. We all nodded, and she dismissed us with a wave of her hand.
I teleported to a clearing, one which was home to a pond, lush grass, a large rock, wild life, and much more. Sighing, I walked over to the pond, staring at my reflection in it. I always came here whenever I wanted to think; it was like my own secret hiding place. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, it made me dizzy just thinking about it.
I heard a rustle in the woods, and tensed. One thin black she-wolf ran out, its amber eyes alert as it saw me. I smiled. Wolves had always been my favorite animal; particularly black ones. Cautiously I walked over to the wolf, being careful to not scare it away. I reached my hand out slowly, crouching down, and gently stroked the top of her head. She didn't shy away, but instead began to wag her tail, a sign of trust and happiness.
"You must be lonely, too," I murmured softly, the wolf's pink tongue sprawled out of its mouth. "What am I going to do? People I know and love are going to die, I can tell. Even if we do tell the vampire-demons that we're peaceful. I just know it won't turn out well. This is all happening too fast, it's only the first day of school! How can so much happen in one day?" The she-wolf looked quizzically up at me, its amber eyes confused. "Oh, you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"
I sighed, patting the wolf's head. I felt like a complete loon, talking to an animal. But I needed some way to vent out my stress, it isn't like my parents or sister would be tolerable and listen to what I was saying.
After about an hour, I teleported to my house, phasing through the door.
"What'd she say?" My mother asked from the couch.
"That I have to go back in one week; that's when we're going to discuss with them," I answered. "Look, I'm tired. I'm just going to go upstairs and get some sleep. Good night."
"Good night," came the low reply. I trudged up the stairs, my shoes already off, and changed into my pajamas once I was in my room. I plopped down onto my bed, falling asleep within minutes.
The lights are dim, and all I can see are the heads of the vampire-demons ahead of me. Everything is quiet, and the long narrow staircase I'm going down smells musty. It must be made of stone.
"I'm scared," Heidi whispers into my ear, and I reply to her with a small nod, not daring to speak.
After an incredibly short amount of time, I see light ahead. We must have reached their king, I think, noting how the guards step aside and let Sam, Heidi, and I continue on ahead.
I'm right, for I see a young man, maybe in his twenties, glaring down at us with blood red eyes, his black hair greasy.
"Why are you here?" His voice booms, much louder than I expected it to be.
"We are here to discuss peace," I say. A roar of laughter erupts from the other demons, so I stop talking.
"Peace?" The king replies, sneering. "I know not of the meaning to this word, nor do I want to."
"But please, sir," Sam speaks up. "Please, we do not wish to fight with you, we only want to coexist in peace." This just makes the king laugh harder, before pointing to his guards.
"Take these fools away! Let those ghosts know that we will destroy them!" He shouts, and the guards rush towards us, swords in hand.
"Run!" Heidi says. But, before we even get a chance to teleport, she is lying on the ground, motionless. Sam cries out, and I see he too is falling to the ground, his face twisted in pain. And then, as I turn back to the guards, I too feel a sharp pain, followed by nothing.
I woke up with a start. "What a nightmare," I mumbled, looking at my clock. 1:01 A. M. I sighed, turning my head towards my blank ceiling. "It was probably nothing."
But, deep inside, I knew it was more then just a nightmare. It was a vision of what was going to happen. It was a vision of the beginning of a painful war. It was a vision of my death.
Chapter 7
The week went by achingly fast, each day much like the first day of school. All of my teachers, Mrs. Whittaker, my E. L. A. and math teacher, Mr. Abney, my French teacher, Mrs. Dean, my art teacher, Mr. McCoy, my gym teacher, Mrs. Peterson, my social studies teacher, Mr. Daniels, my band teacher, and Ms. Hogan, my science teacher, were all extremely nice. All of my friends -even Riley- were great, too, and it pained me to keep a smile on my face and laugh when I had such a strong feeling that my end was soon.
It was at lunch on Friday that they noticed something was wrong. That whole day I had been edgy, irritable, and distant, thinking about Monday.
"What's wrong with you?" Zack asked. "You've been acting weird all day."
"I just feel sick," I lied, hoping they would buy it. They did.
"Do you want to go to the nurse or something? I'll take you there," Michelle offered, and I nodded. School was something I didn't want to deal with. I walked out of the cafeteria and down the hall with Michelle, stealing one last glance at Holly, Riley, and Zack, biting my lip. This was probably the last time I would ever see them, and they wouldn't find out until it was too late to say good bye.
When we reached the door to the health office, I told Michelle that she could go back, and that I'd be fine. Nodding, she left, leaving me alone. Once I was sure that she left, I went into one of the small stalls in the girl's bathroom, and teleported to my house. I'd deal with the school's complaints later. But for now, I'd have to tell my parents what was going to happen; I'd been holding it off for the whole week, contemplating on whether I should tell them or not. It was just a dream, after all. But it did seem like a premonition, a very, very bad one at that.
"Why are you home?" My mother asked from the living room. I could hear her closing a book. "You should still be at school."
"Look, mom, I need to talk to you about Monday," I said, walking into the living room. I sat down in the nearest chair; a white armchair. I faced my mother, who was sitting across from me in a matching armchair. In between us was a new looking coffee table, a closed book being the only thing on it.
"Yes, what is it?" She asked.
"I had a dream, well a nightmare, really, a couple of days ago... It was about the demons. Me and Sam and Heidi all went there, and... Well, let's just say they weren't peaceful."
"But that was just a nightmare, wasn't it? Nightmares don't come true," my mother pointed out.
"Usually not. And I've never really experienced anything like this. I have a bad feeling that it's going to come true. Please, mom, we have to do something about it. We have to tell Queen Lily, please, mom!" I pleaded, looking blankly up at the tall white ceiling.
"I honestly think that you're just overreacting," my mother replied calmly. "You're just very nervous, and your mind is playing games with you. Whatever happens, I really believe that everything will be alright." For some reason, at that moment, I snapped. Over-dramatic, I know, but I just couldn't help but snarl at her. She turned to me, and her face fell, shocked. "Aurora...?" She whispered. I could then feel myself, not my conscious self, but my body, lunge at her, teeth bared. And then I blacked out.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Are you sure that you're okay, Diana?" A hushed voice asked, thick with worry. It was my father. I stayed silent, listening to more of the conversation.
"I'm fine," another voice answered, more pained. I recognized this voice to be my mother. What had I done? I only remembered talking with my mother, and then... Lunging at her. I shuddered at the thought. Was she okay? Had I hurt her? I struggled to open my eyes, and when they finally did open all I saw was a blinding light. I squinted hard, my eyes barely open, letting out a small hiss.
"Can someone please turn out the light?" I asked.
"Yes, of course," an unfamiliar voice answered, and I could hear him flick the switch to turn it off. I opened my eyes, and everything seemed a little different... Sharper. As if my vision had become better. "Amazing."
I looked at the source of the voice; an older looking man with white hair and light green eyes. One of the few Healers of my kind. At least, that's what we called them. They're like doctors, except they don't heal humans or anyone else, just people like me. "What's amazing?" I asked, sitting up. I felt fine; there was no more rage like there had been earlier. And then I wondered, how long had I blacked at for?
"That you're fine now," he answered, coming over to me. He shined a bright light into my eyes, and I flinched back in response. "I didn't think anyone could heal that quickly, I guess we'll-"
"What happened?" I interrupted, my patience dissolving surprisingly quick.
The Healer remained silent, so I asked again. "What happened?" This time the Healer answered my question.
"Well..." he glanced quickly at my mother and father, "you turned into something else. A demon, to be exact... And you lost control... So they brought you here once you finally stopped, though you didn't return to normal... You still look like a demon."
"Huh? What?" I asked him, looking at my parents. They just gave a weak nod. That couldn't be possible... Could it? That I was a demon? The Healer disappeared for a minute, and came back with a small mirror in hand. He gave it to me, and I looked at it, repulsed at what I saw. My eyes were blood red, and my hair was short and dark purple with bangs. I looked down at my fingernails, which were long and sharp, but a normal tan color.
"I know you must be overwhelmed, but we don't have a lot of time. I have a theory that there's a demon living inside of you. Please, I need you to think hard- very hard. Can you hear anything?"
"No," I said, looking up strangely at him.
"Try to think hard, call it to you through your thoughts." He instructed me, walking out of the room. He motioned for my parents to do the same, and, reluctantly, they did. I could hear the click of the door as it was locked from the outside. Protecting themselves? That would hardly help; I could easily teleport out of here. Wherever 'here' is.
Hello? I thought. Is anyone in here?
Silence. I tried again. Anyone here? Hello?
What do you want? A voice snarled in my head. I shuddered.
What are you? Who are you? Why are you here? I asked the voice; it sounded like a demonic girl's.
My name is Demitria. I am a Shadow Demon; a demon who takes over the lives of others. Yours in this case. She answered; her voice sounded almost smug. I've been in your body your whole life.
But why'd you show up now? Why haven't you shown up already? I growled back.
I only decided to make an appearance yesterday because you were talking about attacking the Demons. I can not have that happen.
Why not? I asked Demitria.
The same reason you don't want your little Ghost friends to get hurt. They're my friends, just like the Ghosts are yours, you know.
Nice friends you have, then.
Yours aren't the greatest, either, she replied. I could feel her glaring at me internally.
Yeah, at least my friends aren't rude and homicidal, I countered.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
In the eyes of someone normal, it is. I sighed, and tried to make Demitria shut up. It didn't work, because she kept talking anyway.
Normal is a loosely defined word.
Good-bye, I told her, trying to shut her off again.
Wait- she began to say, but was cut off. It had worked. I'd actually shut her off. I felt myself returning to normal; my hair growing to it's normal length, and my vision got just slightly blurrier, which told me that my eyes turned back to their normal light blue color. My fingernails shrank back down to their original size, and I felt a little shorter. I sighed. Just when things weren't complicated enough, something would happen to make it worse. Just perfect.
Chapter 8
"How long have I been out for?" I asked them once they came back in. They looked tense.
"About a week," my father informed me, coming down to sit on the edge of the long bed.
"A week?! What happened with Heidi and Sam and the demon/vampires?" Why hadn't they told me this right away?!
"Well," my father looked uncomfortably at the white tile floor. "They went to the kingdom..."
"And what happened there?" I asked, suddenly worried. Something bad had happened, just like I said it would. You didn't have to be a genius to know that.
"Well... Your mother will tell you." I could see my mom shoot a rueful glance at him, and they traded spots.
"Well, Aurora, honey, maybe we should have listened to you," she began, her eyes clouded with pain. "They went there and didn't come back." If this hadn't been so serious, so sad, I would've felt smug and said "I told you so" in her face. But this wasn't something to joke about. Two innocent people had died for no reason.
They deserved it.
Shut up and leave me alone! I growled back. Demitria quieted down again, but I could still feel her in the back of my head. This was going to take some getting used to.
Everyone remained silent for a moment, but then the Healer spoke, changing the subject quickly. "So, did you hear anyone?" He asked, looking intently at me.
"Uhm, yes... Her name is Demitria, she's a Shadow Demon, someone who takes over the lives of others," I told him, looking down at the white blanket. The Healer raised an eyebrow, shocked and interested at the same time.
"You mean there's more Shadow Demons then her?" He moved closer to me, as if I were speaking too softly and he couldn't hear me correctly.
"Yeah, I'm guessing it's a whole species of Demons, though I can't be sure. It... Well she," I corrected myself, "didn't really give me any more details then that. Sorry."
At first the Healer didn't respond, so I guessed that he was lost in thought, or too shocked to reply. Both guesses seemed very reasonable to me. When he did speak, his voice was full of wonder. "Amazing... Simply amazing," he breathed out. That's probably all he could do.
"Yes, very amazing. There's something inside of me that's trying to take over my life. Let's throw a party." Sarcasm bit through my words, and I almost shuddered from the extreme rudeness in my voice. Demitria's hideous personality seemed to be sparking through. Wonderful.
"That's not what I meant," the Healer countered, shock rippling through his words. I wanted to apologize for my rude tone, but what would I say? "Oh, sorry, Demitria said that, not me"? "I meant that the race is amazing... Amazing in a bad way, so it's more like interesting. How someone could completely take over someone's life, it's just... Shocking. We need to know more."
They're not getting any answers, Demitria hissed. I've already said too much.
I'll make you tell me, I replied, my voice every bit as nasty.
Yeah, I'd like to see you try. How do you even plan to make me tell you? Yell and scream and cry? I'd enjoy that.
I'll figure out something.
Sure you will.
"Aurora...?" The Healer looked at my curiously, arching his white eyebrow. "Are you alright, Aurora?"
"Just fine," I lied. "It was just... She doesn't exactly support the idea of you trying to find out information."
"Hmm, I thought as much." The Healer looked at the analog clock above, and the room got tense... Awkward, even. I wanted to get out of the hospital-like room as quick as I could.
"Can I leave now? I mean, I feel fine. Well, physically, at least," I asked him, and he nodded quickly. Seemed he wasn't such a fan of waiting around and talking either. Bad job choice. I took off the snow-white blanket, and saw that I was still in my normal clothes. Good, they didn't put me into one of those hospital dresses. I exited the room with my mother and father, into a narrow, white hallway. Was there any other color but white in this building? It was giving me a headache; something that had never happened before. There's another plus, I thought sarcastically.
After a couple of minutes of maneuvering through the thin hallways, we reached a thick white door, with the word "EXIT" written across it in black letters. My parents opened the door, and we went up more stairs; stone this time. When we reached the end of the stairs, there was a metal latch-like door directly above us. My parents opened it, and floated out, followed by me. When we got outside I saw that we were surrounded by forest, and that the latch was almost completely covered by grass. Underground hospital? That was something I didn't expect. Then again, I don't know exactly what to expect anymore.
"Aurora, are you sure you're okay to go back?" My mother asked, worry thick in her voice. I turned to her, and nodded once, unsure. Everyone; my father, my mother, and I, became silent, just staring around awkwardly.
After a few minutes of this uncomfortable silence, I spoke. "Mom, Dad, can you tell me what happened? To Heidi and Sam, I mean?" I asked them; I had been itching to ask them about this sorrowful topic, though I wanted to wait until we were alone, where no one could hear us.
"Well, we're not sure exactly. All that we do know is they went into the Demon Kingdom, or Tower, or Prison; whichever one you want to call it, and that they never came back out. We have no idea as to whether they're alive or not, we're guessing the latter because they should have been able to teleport out of there if they were alive." I turned my head in surprise to my father's sullen figure; he seemed so reluctant to talk about this earlier, and now he just blurted it out. As I processed this; learning barely anything more, I wondered how I should respond. I mean, it wasn't like this shocked me; two weeks ago I had predicted this, and then it happened, but I was still at a loss of words.
"Okay," I mumbled simply, racking my brain for new conversation starters. Or conversation closers; whichever one I could think of first. "Can we just teleport home?"
"Oh, uhm, sure," my mother said. "I'll meet you guys there." And with that, all three of us vanished.
Chapter 9
When I returned to school that next week, seeing as how I was released on Friday, everyone had a ton of questions. Great. I hated having too much attention, and this was just over the top. As people continued to ask me where I had been and what'd happened, I quickly scanned through my mind for a good lie; one that anyone would believe. I decided on saying that I had the stomach virus; it had been going around lately, and I had a perfect set-up; I'd left school early that day because I felt sick. Now all I had to do was actually say the lie out loud. Easy enough, right?
E. L. A., French, and Art dragged by; I'd missed a lot so I had to spend a lot of time with the teachers instead of my friends. Like I needed it. I'd already gone to college for this stuff; school isn't my problem; the pending war and Demitria, however, are. Once I was finally released from Art I waited patiently for Holly at my locker, knowing she'd come up to get her lunch. After about a minute or two she came up the steps, and the second she saw me she bolted toward me, arms outstretched.
Kill me, I thought as she hugged me tightly; I couldn't even breathe because of her iron-tight grasp.
"You're. Killing. Me." I said, spacing out my words and gasping for breath as a sign of my suffocation. Holly let go, joy flooding through her blue eyes.
"I thought you'd died!" She exclaimed; the joy in her eyes turning into excitement.
"Stomach virus," I informed her, telling her the same lie I'd told everyone else.
"You have so much to catch up on! Starting with the camping trip," Holly said as we walked down the steps and entered the cafeteria. We then walked over to where Zack, Riley, and Michelle were waiting patiently for us. Before they could even ask, I told them that I had the stomach virus.
"Welcome back from the dead," Michelle joked, laughing lightly. I took a seat next to her, while Holly took a seat next to me and Riley and Zack sat on the other side of the table. This was the way we normally sat; girls on one side, boys on the other.
"It's good to be back," I replied. "So, anyway, Holly told me that we were going to go on some type of camping trip. When and where?"
"The Adirondacks," Zack answered. "On the first of October; this coming Friday night. We were planning to meet at my house and go from there because my older brother has a huge Suburban that can fit all of us, including our stuff."
I thought about it for a second. It wasn't like I had to do anything that weekend, and I would be able to escape reality for a little while. It might even do me some good. The least it could provide was a little socialization with some of my human friends; wasn't that a good thing?
"So, can you come?" Holly asked me. Or at least I thought it was Holly, until I realized a second later that the voice was too light, too feathery to be her, and it was coming from the wrong direction. I turned to Michelle, and saw a small, pale girl with hazel eyes and long blonde hair staring back at me from behind her. She was absolutely beautiful, no doubt. Way prettier than me, and even prettier than Holly and Michelle combined. And they're not bad-looking either. "Oh, excuse me, I forgot that you don't know me. My name's Alex, nice to meet you... Aurora's your name, isn't it?" She smiled; just a faint twitch of her pink lips into an upward curl.
"Yes it is. Nice to meet you too, Alex," I responded, just a moment or two late. No one seemed to notice, just like how I hadn't noticed that Alex had sat down next to Michelle. "And of course I can come. I have nothing to do this weekend, anyway, except be bugged by my parents, so sure, I'll come."
When Riley heard I was coming, he groaned. "I was looking forward to having a good time. With her there it's going to be torture," he complained, leaning back in his chair like he always did. Instead of pushing the leg of the chair back so he would fall, I kicked the chair hard underneath him, making him fall backward with much, much more force.
"Don't mess with me." I said, my voice threatening, though at the same time I grinned hugely. If I could see myself in a mirror, I bet that I would probably see my grin stretching from one side of my face to the other. Riley growled once, angry, and sat down in his chair again. I could hear some girls giggling from behind him. It seems the cheerleaders find his anger amusing, I thought with a smirk.
After a few more minutes of discussing about the trip I realized I had no idea where Zack lived. That might be a little bit important if I want to get to his house this year, I thought sarcastically. "Zack, can I have your address?" I asked him, ignoring the chatter of Holly, Alex, Michelle, and Riley. It seemed that the one week I was gone they had already introduced another member to our little 'group'. Though it's not like she's not nice, and I'm actually glad that she hangs out with us. She's pretty funny, and likes to make sarcastic comments, especially when they offend Riley and it takes him a second to realize it. When I looked at Michelle, though, something seemed to be a little... Odd about her. She wasn't talking as much as she normally did, and she looked a little troubled. But before anyone else could notice those small details, a smile was on her face and she was talking again. Had she seen me staring? Probably not; I hadn't noticed her eyes shift in my direction.
"Oh, yeah, sure," Zack said, and took out a piece of paper and pen from his binder. He wrote down his address, and his phone number, which surprised me. It wasn't like I needed it. When I looked back at him, he turned away. I took a quick look at the note;
Fifty-seven Maple Lane, Fulton, New York. Like I didn't know what town we lived in.
563-7892- Call me.
I blushed once at the last two words he'd written, but decided to brush it off as nothing, like I always did with anything that had to deal with humans. I stayed silent for a moment or two, quickly catching up with the conversation. All they were talking about was the camping trip and how much fun camping is. I've never really been camping; not like I haven't had the time, but I've never really wanted to. No one ever invited me to go camping, and I never really asked.
As I nodded at what they said; mainly about what they said about having fun, I hoped they were right. I really did want to have fun and forget everything for a little while, and this was my chance. I just hope I don't blow it.
Chapter 10
I walked to Zack's house, seeing as he lives only a half-mile from me. When I got there, I was the last one to arrive, but barely, because Alex's mom had just dropped her off. The back to Zack's brother's Suburban was wide open with backpacks in it, so I placed my rather small black backpack into it. I never used my school one outside of school; I had a different backpack for everything that it would be needed in, and since I'd never really been camping I'd had to buy this one the day before. I walked up the concrete steps to his front door, and knocked once, not needing to again. Zack had opened the door and welcomed me in, with Holly, Riley, and Alex crowded around him.
"Where's Michelle?" I asked them once I was inside of the house; bathroom, maybe? Or maybe she hadn't arrived yet?
"Oh, she's not coming; she got the stomach virus, same thing that you had," Zack answered. I thought about it for a minute; same thing as I had? But I hadn't even had anything. Maybe she got it from someone else?
"Okay," I responded, taking a seat next to Alex, who had decided to sit on the couch in Zack's living room, which was to the right of the front door. Over the past week Alex and I had grown greatly as friends, probably because of how much time we were spending together, which was good considering she was in a lot of my classes. She's extremely nice, friendly, and very smart, too.
"So when are we going?" Riley asked, plopping down on the couch next to me. "I mean, now that everyone whose coming is here, we should go soon, right?" I could tell that Riley was getting impatient; his voice hinted at edginess, and he kept looking around. Great. I could tell he was one of those people who would constantly ask: "Are we there yet?" I hope Zack doesn't mind if I shove him out the window of the car while it's moving.
"In a minute," Zack said, heading out the front door and checking on the Suburban. I could hear the shut of the trunk, and the opening of a front door. "Come out here; whoever's last lock the front door!" He called.
We all headed out, and piled into the large black car with tinted windows. Zack was in the driver's seat, Holly sitting in the seat next to him, while I was squished between Riley and Alex in the back seat. Zack was driving...? But he was only 14; not even old enough for a permit.
"Uh, Zack," Holly was the one who spoke up; I was glad I didn't have to be the voice of reason. Those were the ones who everyone always laughed at. "You're only 14, just like Aurora, Riley, Alex, and I are. You're not old enough to drive, and we're not old enough to qualify as adults." It was at that moment I realized why he had asked to borrow his brother's car; the windows were tinted so that if any cop cars came by they couldn't tell that he wasn't an adult, or older teenager at least. Though I guess it really doesn't matter; there are barely ever any people on the roads here; especially if you're going up to somewhere like the mountains. And as long as Zack could drive okay, we'd all be fine.
"So? No one can tell, anyway. It's not like there are any people up here, and I can drive just fine. Don't worry; this isn't the first time I've done this." And with that, we drove off. I wish I'd had a window seat; I hated being in the middle.
Prologue
You know when you dream how time seems to stand still? You close your eyes and just day-dream, and when you open your eyes its hours into the future? Well, that's how I've felt for the last century: dreamy, not fully connected, like you can float through anything and fly anywhere. Well, I can float through anything and fly anywhere.
How? Well, I'm not 'fully connected' to this world; I'm half-human half-ghost. I am a part of a small, special race that's dead and alive. We're kind of like the mythological vampires, with a few differences.
We don't suck blood, we're not super strong or fast, we have to eat and sleep, we all have pale skin, light blue or light green eyes, and we all have white hair, as well as the fact that we can't turn anyone else into the same race as us. However, like the make-believe vampires, we don't die, age (though we can change the age we look), and we try to fit in with the humans as best as we can.
Kind of crazy, right? Well, that's life for you.
Chapter 1
"Come on Aurora!" My sister, Audrey, called.
"Coming!" I replied, brushing my long white hair into a ponytail. I then raced down the stairs, my feet barely touching the ground.
"You know you could've just floated, it's not like there's any humans around," Audrey commented.
"I know, sis, it's a force of habit." I stood up, dressed in jeans, white sneakers, and a light blue tank top. My older sister, Audrey, wore white skinny jeans, white ballet flats, and a white tank top with splashes of faded green design. Like me, she has white hair, though hers is cut short, barely making it past her shoulders, while mine flows to my hips. Also, unlike me, she has long side bangs that layer into the rest of her hair.
"Well, come on, we're going to be late!" She said, grabbing her pink and black backpack, while I grabbed my blue one with black straps. We ran out to her car, and drove towards school.
"Is everyone as curious about our white hair in this school as they were in middle school?" I asked. Today was my first day in my first year of high school, while this was Audrey's final year. Even though I can't age, I can change my appearance so I'm as young or old as I need to be for the grade I'm in.
They aren't really suspicious, but if they ask, you dye your hair," Audrey answered. "You won't be the only girl with unnaturally colored hair."
"Really?" I blinked. Last year I'd always been the one everyone would gawk at and say things like: "She must be a ghost!", unaware of how close to the truth they were.
"We're here," Audrey announced, parking her car close to the building.
"Already?" I asked. "That was like, three minutes, tops. Middle school took at least ten to get to."
"Well, high school's a lot closer, and besides, why does it matter?"
"Well, I wanted to have a little more time to assess my current state of mind," I lied.
"So you mean panic?" Audrey smirked.
"Yes, I mean panic," I sighed.
"Don't worry, and get out of my car. Teachers here want a good first impression, so don't be late." I hugged Audrey, stepped out of her car, and closed the door gently. I sucked in a breath, and headed off towards the large brick building I was condemned to for six hours.
"Good luck!" I heard Audrey call.
And I'll need it all, I thought.
Chapter 2
I entered the school, keeping my head down, focused on my feet. I felt my neck burning as eyes turned towards me; staring as I passed. Why must they stare? I can't look that creepy, can I? I whined in my mind. To distract myself, I took out my locker number and combination, which had been given out shortly before school ended last year.
Locker 2170, second floor, top row. Locker combination: 22, 43, 18, I thought to myself.
As I walked down the hall, I kept a close eye on the shiny crimson lockers, until I found mine.
It wasn't far from the main entrance staircase; maybe twenty feet at most, and was close to the Equiptment Room and Ampitheatre.
I heaved a sigh, twirling the combination, and hit the locker when it didn't open.
"Stupid thing," I muttered, taking out the instructions from my jean's pockets. Three times past zero to the right, twice past zero to the left, and one time past zero to the right.
Once my locker finally opened, I sighed, putting my backpack in it and taking out my white E. L. A. (English Language Arts) binder. Once I did that, I took out my dark red binder that I was supposed to bring to all of my classes, which contains all of the essentials; pens, pencils, scissors, erasers, glue (though I really don't need it), my I. D. card which was taken last year, and a highlighter.
Though there was still five minutes left until the bell would ring, I wanted to get into class early, and avoid the stares of the hallway. It was until I reached Room 235 that I realized I had no idea what my schedule was, so, opening my red binder, I took out the crinkly white piece of paper.
Period 1; E. L. A (English Language Arts). 7:50-8:30. Room 225.
Period 2; French. 8:35-9:15. Room 116.
Period 3; Art. 9:20-10:o0. Room 126.
Period 4; Lunch 10:05-10:45. Cafeteria West.
Period 5; Gym 10:50-11:30. Gym 100.
Period 6; Social Studies 11:35-12:15. Room 226.
Period 7; Band 12:20-1:00. Room 193.
Period 8; Math 1:05-1:45. Room 225.
Period 9; Science 1:50-2:30. Room 212.
"Lost?" Someone, a girl, asked from behind me. I turned around, and it was almost like staring into a mirror; same light blue eyes, pale skin, height; but one thing was different, instead of long white hair, she had short black hair.
"No, I have my schedule here," I replied, shaking the schedule lightly in my hand to show her.
"I'm lost, and new. Me, my parents, and my brother just moved here during the summer," she informed me. "Do you know where you're going? I'm going to Room 225."
"Same," I smiled. "Do you want me to show you where it is?"
"Yes, thanks." She said. "Oh, and I'm Holly, by the way."
"I'm Aurora. We don't have much time until the bell rings; we should get going. Maybe after class we could compare schedules?" I suggested, walking back the way I'd come until we finally reached Room 225.
Once we were in the classroom, I picked a seat towards the back, and Holly followed me, sitting in the seat next to mine.
"How long have you been living here?" Holly asked shortly after the bell rang.
"Almost all of my life; I moved here right before pre-school," I lied. It wasn't like I could tell her I was really almost 100 years old; she'd freak and get the teachers to send me to an asylum.
"Cool. So you must know this town inside out then," she smiled. "I'm used to the city; small towns like these are kind of lonely, but nice, there aren't cars always honking their horns or people crowding in together to get to Grand Central Station."
"New York, New York?" I asked. I used to live there once, but that was awhile ago, when having a T. V. was rare and everyone would crowd around the house and watch from inside and out. Of course, it was a problem when the only people who had a T. V. on your street were on the fifth floor of an apartment building.
"Yeah. Astoria, to be exact. 43rd Street. We were in an apartment; we had the whole third floor to ourself. Of course, the apartment wasn't that big, but it was nice. Homey. It kind of reminded me of the 1950's; that's when it was built. They never really did get around to changing it, though."
"Who didn't?"
"The land lord. He was lazy; old, too. He was in his thirties when the building was built, so I guess he's about 70 or 80 something. But he's nice."
"I'm used to smaller towns, I came down here from Canton- it's near the Saint Lawrence River. It wasn't really hard for me to adjust to life here, because, well, it's not really different than Canton. Just a little warmer at times; not saying this is a tropical paradise. We're still in the fourties and thirties when it's Spring, sometimes."
"Not much different in Astoria, either." Holly said. "It might be in the fifties and sixties, but until June hits, that's about as high as it goes."
"Do you have a brother or sister?" I asked. "And are they annoying?" Holly gave me a look as if I were a complete idiot.
"I have a brother named Riley. We're identical twins, except he's a boy, and he's tall. And duh! Don't you have a brother or a sister? It'd make sense if you didn't for you to not know."
"I have a sister, but we get along," I said. "I'm lucky, I guess."
"You have no idea. He's so annoying! Sometimes I just wish he'd...."
"Jump off a roof?"
"No, then my mom would make me go out with a broom and clean up his... Remains," she pretended to shudder. "I wish he'd stop being annoying. At least I don't have to see him until lunch; he's taking Italian, and I'm taking Spanish."
"I'm taking French. Looks like I'll have to survive without you," I teased.
Holly and I talked for the remaining ten minutes of class, while our teacher -Mrs. Whittaker- gave us a list of supplies. I already had them all.
After the bell rang, I went to my locker, and was happy to discover Holly had a locker not far down from me.
Last year it was impossible to make friends and I already have one, presumably, I thought, a smile etching at my face. Maybe this year will be better.
Chapter 3
French had gone by quickly; mostly due to the fact that it was a shorter period and the only thing the teacher -Mr. Abney- gave us was textbooks to write our names in. Other than that all we really did was talk. Or at least that's what everyone else did. Since I didn't know anyone in that class, I just started doodling on a scrap piece of paper.
Soon the bell rang, and I waited for everyone to get out of the classroom before I got out of my chair. I carried my binder and French textbook to my locker, and stuffed the textbook inside while keeping out the binder. Time for art.
Before I turned around, I could already tell Holly was there. "You have art, right?" She asked, hopefully. I nodded, but her face fell a little anyway.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Riley has art now, too. He's destined to be annoying," she said, but she didn't sound sad, or anything like that. She sounded kind of happy- like she wanted him to be in her class.
"You sound happy. You want him to be in the same class as you? I thought he annoyed you."
"Well, yeah, he does. But I'm happy because now I can annoy him and attack him with paint," she giggled.
"Just make sure you don't get it on me," I laughed. "It would never come out of my clothes."
"Hmm, I wonder what you'd look like with pink or blue hair," she smirked. "Your hair's perfect for it. Since it's white, it won't alter the color at all like it would with brown or black hair."
"Don't get any ideas," I threatened teasingly.
"Why should I be scared of you, little girl?" She teased back.
"Because I've been wrestling for five years."
"Well that makes sense, anyway... Oh, look at that, we're here. What a coincidence." Holly ran inside, but kept looking back, smiling.
I had always liked art. Maybe because the teacher would tell me I was good at it, I don't know. I even went to college for it once, back in the 70's.
When I walked inside, I found Holly sitting next to some girl with brown hair that waved down to the middle of her back, tan skin, and dark brown eyes. I sat on Holly's other side, while another boy -one with black hair and blue eyes- sat down across from us. I recognized him as Riley.
"Go away," Holly said, throwing a pencil eraser at him.
"Nah, I kind of like it here," he said, putting his feet on the table and leaning back in his chair.
"Aurora, this is Riley," Holly said. "I'm sure you've already noticed that because of his annoying personality."
"Yeah, and because of the fact that he looks like you." Holly turned to glare at me, and elbowed my ribs.
"Oww, what was that for?" I asked, rubbing my side.
"You said I look like that... Hideous alienic beast!" She replied, jabbing her thumb in Riley's direction.
"You're just jealous that I took up all the looks in the family," Riley smirked, and Holly kicked him under the table.
"Violent," I observed. "So glad my sister doesn't do this to me."
"Hey," I heard a strange, quiet voice say. Both Holly and I turned towards it, while Riley put his feet down and sat up straight.
"Hey," the shy voice repeated. "I'm Michelle." I realized then that the small voice was coming from the girl with the wavy brown hair and eyes.
"I'm Aurora, this is Holly, and that thing's Riley," I introduced, motioning to myself, then Holly, then Riley. Holly waved, while Riley just grunted.
"Attention, class!" The teacher -what was her name? Mrs. Dean?- called. I turned foward, as did Holly and Michelle, while Riley just leaned back in his chair again. "I'm Mrs. Dean, your art teacher. Today you'll be drawing any shapes or designs that you want, so feel free to use any pencil or marker colors that you want. This will be graded, as most drawings of yours will be. For this picture, you can only choose three colors."
"This is so easy," Riley said, taking out a black pencil, a gray pencil, and a blue pencil from the row of bins, while I took out a light blue pencil, a light orange pencil, and a light green pencil.
"Until you get an F, at least," I replied, sitting back down next to Holly, who'd chosen silver, red, and black.
"Hey, Michelle, what colors did you choose?" She asked, looking over. I saw she'd chosen green, brown, and blue- the colors of the earth.
"Enviromentalist?" I asked, coloring lightly with the orange long diagonal lines, and then filling in the gaps between each one. Then, I did the same thing with the blue, but underlapped it so that there would be blue, then orange, and then blue on the other side. All that was left on the paper were four triangles; one on each side of the paper, which I colored with the green.
"Yeah," Michelle said as I walked up to the teacher, paper in hand.
"I'm done," I said. Mrs. Dean looked up, as if she was surprised.
"Already?" She asked. "Well, let me see it then; I want to make sure you actually tried." I gave her my paper, and smiled as she nodded approvingly.
"Very good, I give you an A," she said, taking out her grade book and marking an 'A' next to my name.
"Thank you," I said, walking away and sitting back down in my seat. I looked over at Holly's paper, which had a fire-cracker design on it; silver in the middle, then red, then black, and then silver, and red, and black again, until her whole paper was consumed with it. Michelle's paper was almost a complete opposite; she had circular bands of her three different colors, which were completely neat and flat, unlike Holly's vivid zig-zags. Then my eyes landed on Riley's paper, and I supressed a laugh. He just scribbled with all three different colors at once, making it look worse than scratch art. You could tell where his hard coloring punctured the paper.
"That looks... Horrible. I think I just threw up a little," I laughed. "You know you're getting an F, right?"
"I'm shooting for a D. At least I colored it in."
"Horribly," Holly added while walking up to Mrs. Dean with her paper. I could tell her fingers were crossed. She probably wants to start off the school year with an A, I thought.
"What do you think I'll get?" Michelle asked, showing me her paper.
"I think you'll get an A," I said. "You should show it to her now, before everyone else starts going up and there's a long line." Michelle nodded, stood up, and went to wait behind Holly, who walked back, smiling.
"I got an A!" She smiled. "What did you get? I forgot to ask."
"I got an A, too," I replied. Holly nodded as Michelle came back.
"I got an A," she smiled.
"Good job," Holly said.
After a couple of minutes, Riley went up to the teacher, and you could almost see her face going red. She scribbled something down in her grade book, and waved her hand at him to go.
"I got a D." He didn't really sound dissapointed; it was probably one of his highest grades.
"Plus or minus?" Holly asked, smirking. "And why didn't she fail you?"
"Minus. She said she didn't fail me because it was our first grade, and she didn't want to start out with a failing student." Riley said, leaning back in his chair. I pushed the chair leg under the table, making him crash to the ground. I giggled, as did Holly and Michelle.
"Okay, who did that?" He growled, sitting up straight. I started whistling, while Holly pointed at me. "You are so dead!"
"More than you think," I responded truthfully.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing."
This confused Riley- well, it confused everyone, really, but they didn't ask me what I ment. Instead, we just kept talking until the bell rang, and Holly, Michelle, and I walked out laughing as Riley continued to ramble on about how dead I was for making him fall on his face.
Chapter 4
"So, what are you guys going to get for lunch?" Holly asked Michelle and I as we sat down at a random table. Riley followed after us. Michelle sat on my right side and Holly sat on my left. Riley sat on the other side of the table so he faced us.
"I don't know, some fruit and vegetables, I guess." Michelle said quietly, her eyes looking down at the dark green table.
"Only fruits and vegetables? No meat?" Riley asked, sounding both rude and surprised at once.
"I'm a vegetarian," Michelle replied, blushing and looking down at the table.
"Oh great," Riley said, rolling his eyes. He's rude, I thought.
"Shut up, if she wants to eat vegetables and fruit she can," I said, kicking him under the table.
"Oww!" Riley growled, glaring at me.
"Well, you deserved it." Holly giggled. "Well, anyway, Aurora, what are you getting for lunch? I got side-tracked by that gorilla," she rolled her eyes at Riley.
"Uh, I don't know, an apple, I guess," I said. Even though I did have to eat, I didn't have to eat much, and I could go for about five days without food or water without caring.
"Are you anorexic or something?" Holly joked. "You already look transparent, why don't you try eating something?"
"Because I don't want to," I said.
For a little while Holly, Michelle, Riley, and I talked and joked with each other, until someone interrupted us.
"Hey, is it okay if I sit here?" The new person, a boy, asked. He had blonde hair, brown eyes, and tan skin- I guessed that he was a surfer.
"Sure," I said, moving closer to Holly so that he could sit. "I'm Aurora, this is Holly, she's Michelle, and that thing's Riley. Who are you?"
"I'm Zack," he said, smiling.
"So, Zack, why do you want to sit over here?" Holly asked, arching her eyebrow.
"You know, bored. This morning I talked with Riley, he said I could sit with him. Of course I didn't know he had a sister, or two friends..." Zack rested his gaze on me, and I looked away. His eyes seemed curious; because of my weird snowy white hair, probably.
"And he doesn't like to think of them like that," Riley interrupted. "So, anyway Zack, you up for some races after school? I heard a couple of the guys were going to the fields behind the school, and it'd be nice to see a semi-familiar face there, considering I just moved here."
"Hey, I want to go," I said. "I love to run." It was true; I had always been a huge fan of sports, mainly track. I didn't like to watch them, though, that was boring, I just liked to play them.
"Well that's too bad Aurora 'cause you're a girl, and this is for guys only. You wouldn't make it," Riley replied.
"Hey, dude, I think you should let her run." Zack said, but only made Riley shake his head no. "How about this; if she beats you in an arm wrestle, you let her go. If she loses, she doesn't get to go."
"Hey, do I have any say in this?" I sighed, already knowing the answer before my question was completed. "So, we're deciding on an arm wrestle? Well, let's get this over with. It's going to be best out of three." Riley nodded, and I put my elbow on the table, ready to go. He grabbed my hand, smirking.
"Ready, set, go!" Zack said. I looked around, noticing a few people had turned their heads in our direction, amused. Great, I thought, just what I need. Suddenly I felt a tremendous force pushing against my arm, and by the time I realized the arm wrestle had started, my arm was almost against the table. Riley's original smirk grew even wider as my hand touched the table.
"I wasn't ready," I told him, putting my elbow back onto the table.
"Sure, sure," Riley replied, smirking. Zack said to go again, and I felt the same force as last time. But I was ready this, time, so I pushed hard against it, smiling as his hand thudded hard against the table.
"You got lucky," Riley huffed, and for the final time Zack told us to go.
"Come on, you can do it Aurora," Holly laughed. Right after Zack said go, and before Riley could even respond, I slammed his hand against the table.
"I won, so I'm coming," I smirked, sticking my tongue out. Riley frowned, while Michelle giggled and Zack laughed.
"Riley got beaten by a girl!" Holly laughed. "Oh, I am so going to hold this against you your whole life!" She smirked, an amused gleam in her eye. Riley's face turned a deep red, half of the reason being embarrassment, the other half being anger.
"Riley got beaten badly by a girl!" Michelle corrected, laughing.
"Nice one, dude," Zack said to me. "Anyway, now you have to let her come." Riley grunted, but nodded.
"Ha ha," I said tauntingly.
Chapter 5
I waited for Riley behind the school once ninth period class let out, my hands in my jeans pockets. I had already texted Audrey that I would walk home after school so that she didn't have to wait forever to drive me home. After a few minutes of waiting I saw Riley and a couple of other boys walking toward me, speaking in hushed whispers.
"They think you can't beat them," Riley told me in a low voice. "But I think you can."
I looked up, surprised. "Thanks?" I responded unsurely.
"Everyone, line up here," I heard a voice say. I turned and looked in the direction I heard it coming from, and walked over to it, Riley trailing behind. I stood next to the person who said to line up; a rather short boy, being only a few inches taller than me, with dark gray eyes and tussled blonde hair. Once everyone was lined up, another boy, one with red hair and green eyes, appeared.
"Okay, when I say go, you start running. You go all the way to the end of the field, and then turn and come back. First person to arrive here wins. No cheating," he instructed. Everyone nodded, and looked on intently ahead.
So I have a one-fourth chance of winning, I thought, noting that there were about twenty other people here.
"Go!" He shouted, and we all took off. I didn't bother to race really quickly in the beginning, like the others did. They were wasting their energy so early in the race, and when the time came to actually run hard, they wouldn't be able to. About half-way through the race, when most of us had started to turn back toward the school, I decided to move up from a trot to a sprint, overtaking most of the boys within seconds. They were already panting heavily, sweat smeared across their faces. As soon as the school and the kid with the red hair came into view, I bolted ahead of everyone. I was in the lead, until I saw someone passing me. Riley. I growled, running even faster, until we were even.
"Scared to lose?" He said, turning his face toward me but not slowing down at all.
"Are you sure you shouldn't be saying that?" I taunted, forcing myself to keep running as fast as I was. Soon I could see what they called a finish line; it was just some duct tape taped over the grass in a line. Both Riley and I crossed over the line at the same time, panting heavily when we stopped.
"I won!" Riley shouted triumphantly.
"No you didn't," I said, trying to catch my breath. The kid with the red hair nodded in agreement.
"You both tied," he said. I saw Holly run over to me out of the corner of my eye.
"Congrats, Aurora," she said, smiling.
"Thanks," I replied.
"And I get no recognition or congratulations?" Riley complained.
"Nope, you're not special enough," Holly laughed, sticking out her tongue.
"I should be getting home," I said, picking up my backpack from where I had left it on a bench. I slung it over one shoulder and started walking towards the front of the school with Holly, who already had her backpack.
"Want to come over to my house?" She offered. Riley coughed a 'no', and she glared at him, throwing a nearby twig at his face.
"Uh, I would, but I can't. My parents told me to come home as soon as school let out, I forget why, though. Anyway, they're already going to kill me."
"Oh, okay, well, bye," Holly said, turning the opposite direction I did when we reached the road in front of the school. I started to walk home, and raced into the woods, where no one could see me. From there I dematerialized into a mist before materializing again, this time inside of my house.
"You're late," I heard my father growl before I saw him. When I did see him, I could tell he was really mad. His light green eyes were extremely dark with anger; even his cropped white hair seemed to darken. He had an expensive looking white tuxedo on, and his hair was combed very neatly. Then I remembered why I had to be home early. The meeting that Queen Lily, the queen of my race, had said was mandatory was tonight. Oops.
"I know, I'm sorry. It's just-"
"Audrey told me. You were having a race with some humans. Tonight is extremely important, it will be talking about a threat to our race." He interrupted, his voice low. This immediately caught my attention.
"What threats? No one told me about any threats," I said, shocked.
"The threat is a newly made vampire-demon race. They are very powerful," my father replied, his voice low. "That's why it's so important for you to come to the meeting, and why Queen Lily said that it was mandatory." I nodded understandingly.
I ran upstairs, and changed out of my now sweaty clothes into a long white skirt, white ballet flats, and a white blouse. I took my hair out of its ponytail and combed it thoroughly, so that it looked neat and straight. I ran down the stairs again, ready to go.
"Come on Audrey, Diana!" My father called to my mother and sister. My mother appeared from out of nowhere, wearing a long white dress and white high heels. My sister wore a shorter light blue dress with white leggings and flip-flops.
"I'm already here, Ian," my mother said. "Are we all ready to go?"
"Yeah, I'll meet you guys there," Audrey said, vanishing again into mist. My mother followed after her, then my father, and then me. Tonight would certainly be interesting.
Chapter 6
When I arrived in front of a big, white building, with many people that looked like me, I knew that I hadn't messed up my teleportation. I was known for doing stuff like that. One time I had tried to teleport to my old middle school, and I ended up in a dumpster outside of some diner.
I walked inside with my parents and sister, my father sitting next to Queen Lily, followed by my mother, sister, and finally, me. Apparently my parents were good friends with her or something, which was why we were able to sit next to her. Or at least, as close as you can get, because she's at the head of a long table.
"Can I switch seats with you? I don't want to sit next to someone I don't know," I whispered into Audrey's ear, looking at the seat next to me, which was, for now at least, empty.
"Uh, no. It goes from the order of oldest to youngest. You know that. Oh well, it's just too bad for you," Audrey replied, sticking her tongue out at me.
"Thanks," I moaned, rolling my eyes. I talked for a few minutes with Audrey, before Queen Lily announced that the meeting was starting.
"Thank you for coming," she began, her voice ringing throughout the large room. "As I'm sure you all know, there is a new race that threatens ours; they're a mix of vampires and demons, a very deadly combination. I have called this meeting so that we may discuss how we will deal with this race." Surprised mumbles arose, and Queen Lily waited patiently for them to die down before she continued speaking. "So, now that you have a little background knowledge on this race, at least what they are, what do you want to do with them?"
"I think that we should get rid of them before they attack us," someone from the back of the room said. I turned towards the voice, as did many others, shocked.
"Maybe," Queen Lily said, looking thoughtful. "But we will still lose many. A peaceful confrontation may be more beneficial."
"But then they will have an open chance to attack us with no warning, giving them the advantage." The voice pointed out; and this time I saw who it was. She was about my mother's age, maybe a year or two older, with light green eyes and long white hair, almost as long as mine.
"Yes, this is true," Queen Lily admitted. "If we try to be peaceful, they could become hostile and attack us right then and there. Maybe it is best to attack them first, when they have no idea of our plans. Okay, let's take a vote; shall we attempt peace, or shall we fight? Raise your hand if you want to fight."
I looked at my father, mother, and sister. My sister had her hand raised, as did my father, but, like me, my mother seemed reluctant to. Then I looked at the rest of the room, counting the number of votes in my head; less than half wanted to fight.
"So, it is decided, then. We will not fight." Queen Lily announced. "We will have a few select members go to these demon-vampires to discuss peace. Does anyone want to volunteer?"
Only a few hands went up at first, and then more and more. I bit my lip, and raised my hand. My parents seemed astounded, but my sister was unsurprised. She already knew that I would do anything for peace.
"Okay, Aurora, Sam, and Heidi, will you please come over here?" Queen Lily asked, standing up. "Everyone else, you may go." Soon everyone began teleporting, and I sighed. That was an incredibly short meeting, normally they would go on for hours, and they wouldn't be important, just to check up and see how everyone was doing. This one had decided whether or not to start a war, lasting a mere twenty minutes, if that. A dose of sense, anyone?
I stood next to Queen Lily, with Sam on her other side and Heidi next to me. I was surprised she had chosen us three; we were the youngest people here.
"I have chosen you three to perform this important task for one important reason; your age. Since you are three are the youngest of our race, you will appear much less threatening than if someone older were to go instead, and they will hear you out and know you're not lying." Queen Lily began. "The task itself sounds simple; get into the vampire-demon's kingdom, tell them we're peaceful, and get out, but let me tell you, it is the opposite of easy. They will attack the first person they see that is not one of them, and it takes awhile for them to even listen to what you have to say. Once you are inside, if you say something that upsets them, they are very likely to attack you right then and there. Even if you are extremely careful with your word choice, the tiniest slip-up could provoke them into war." I gulped.
"Well, they sound cheerful," Sam said sarcastically.
"Now that I have told you everything, you may go. But in one week, come back here, because that is when all of this will take place." Queen Lily told us. We all nodded, and she dismissed us with a wave of her hand.
I teleported to a clearing, one which was home to a pond, lush grass, a large rock, wild life, and much more. Sighing, I walked over to the pond, staring at my reflection in it. I always came here whenever I wanted to think; it was like my own secret hiding place. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, it made me dizzy just thinking about it.
I heard a rustle in the woods, and tensed. One thin black she-wolf ran out, its amber eyes alert as it saw me. I smiled. Wolves had always been my favorite animal; particularly black ones. Cautiously I walked over to the wolf, being careful to not scare it away. I reached my hand out slowly, crouching down, and gently stroked the top of her head. She didn't shy away, but instead began to wag her tail, a sign of trust and happiness.
"You must be lonely, too," I murmured softly, the wolf's pink tongue sprawled out of its mouth. "What am I going to do? People I know and love are going to die, I can tell. Even if we do tell the vampire-demons that we're peaceful. I just know it won't turn out well. This is all happening too fast, it's only the first day of school! How can so much happen in one day?" The she-wolf looked quizzically up at me, its amber eyes confused. "Oh, you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"
I sighed, patting the wolf's head. I felt like a complete loon, talking to an animal. But I needed some way to vent out my stress, it isn't like my parents or sister would be tolerable and listen to what I was saying.
After about an hour, I teleported to my house, phasing through the door.
"What'd she say?" My mother asked from the couch.
"That I have to go back in one week; that's when we're going to discuss with them," I answered. "Look, I'm tired. I'm just going to go upstairs and get some sleep. Good night."
"Good night," came the low reply. I trudged up the stairs, my shoes already off, and changed into my pajamas once I was in my room. I plopped down onto my bed, falling asleep within minutes.
The lights are dim, and all I can see are the heads of the vampire-demons ahead of me. Everything is quiet, and the long narrow staircase I'm going down smells musty. It must be made of stone.
"I'm scared," Heidi whispers into my ear, and I reply to her with a small nod, not daring to speak.
After an incredibly short amount of time, I see light ahead. We must have reached their king, I think, noting how the guards step aside and let Sam, Heidi, and I continue on ahead.
I'm right, for I see a young man, maybe in his twenties, glaring down at us with blood red eyes, his black hair greasy.
"Why are you here?" His voice booms, much louder than I expected it to be.
"We are here to discuss peace," I say. A roar of laughter erupts from the other demons, so I stop talking.
"Peace?" The king replies, sneering. "I know not of the meaning to this word, nor do I want to."
"But please, sir," Sam speaks up. "Please, we do not wish to fight with you, we only want to coexist in peace." This just makes the king laugh harder, before pointing to his guards.
"Take these fools away! Let those ghosts know that we will destroy them!" He shouts, and the guards rush towards us, swords in hand.
"Run!" Heidi says. But, before we even get a chance to teleport, she is lying on the ground, motionless. Sam cries out, and I see he too is falling to the ground, his face twisted in pain. And then, as I turn back to the guards, I too feel a sharp pain, followed by nothing.
I woke up with a start. "What a nightmare," I mumbled, looking at my clock. 1:01 A. M. I sighed, turning my head towards my blank ceiling. "It was probably nothing."
But, deep inside, I knew it was more then just a nightmare. It was a vision of what was going to happen. It was a vision of the beginning of a painful war. It was a vision of my death.
Chapter 7
The week went by achingly fast, each day much like the first day of school. All of my teachers, Mrs. Whittaker, my E. L. A. and math teacher, Mr. Abney, my French teacher, Mrs. Dean, my art teacher, Mr. McCoy, my gym teacher, Mrs. Peterson, my social studies teacher, Mr. Daniels, my band teacher, and Ms. Hogan, my science teacher, were all extremely nice. All of my friends -even Riley- were great, too, and it pained me to keep a smile on my face and laugh when I had such a strong feeling that my end was soon.
It was at lunch on Friday that they noticed something was wrong. That whole day I had been edgy, irritable, and distant, thinking about Monday.
"What's wrong with you?" Zack asked. "You've been acting weird all day."
"I just feel sick," I lied, hoping they would buy it. They did.
"Do you want to go to the nurse or something? I'll take you there," Michelle offered, and I nodded. School was something I didn't want to deal with. I walked out of the cafeteria and down the hall with Michelle, stealing one last glance at Holly, Riley, and Zack, biting my lip. This was probably the last time I would ever see them, and they wouldn't find out until it was too late to say good bye.
When we reached the door to the health office, I told Michelle that she could go back, and that I'd be fine. Nodding, she left, leaving me alone. Once I was sure that she left, I went into one of the small stalls in the girl's bathroom, and teleported to my house. I'd deal with the school's complaints later. But for now, I'd have to tell my parents what was going to happen; I'd been holding it off for the whole week, contemplating on whether I should tell them or not. It was just a dream, after all. But it did seem like a premonition, a very, very bad one at that.
"Why are you home?" My mother asked from the living room. I could hear her closing a book. "You should still be at school."
"Look, mom, I need to talk to you about Monday," I said, walking into the living room. I sat down in the nearest chair; a white armchair. I faced my mother, who was sitting across from me in a matching armchair. In between us was a new looking coffee table, a closed book being the only thing on it.
"Yes, what is it?" She asked.
"I had a dream, well a nightmare, really, a couple of days ago... It was about the demons. Me and Sam and Heidi all went there, and... Well, let's just say they weren't peaceful."
"But that was just a nightmare, wasn't it? Nightmares don't come true," my mother pointed out.
"Usually not. And I've never really experienced anything like this. I have a bad feeling that it's going to come true. Please, mom, we have to do something about it. We have to tell Queen Lily, please, mom!" I pleaded, looking blankly up at the tall white ceiling.
"I honestly think that you're just overreacting," my mother replied calmly. "You're just very nervous, and your mind is playing games with you. Whatever happens, I really believe that everything will be alright." For some reason, at that moment, I snapped. Over-dramatic, I know, but I just couldn't help but snarl at her. She turned to me, and her face fell, shocked. "Aurora...?" She whispered. I could then feel myself, not my conscious self, but my body, lunge at her, teeth bared. And then I blacked out.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Are you sure that you're okay, Diana?" A hushed voice asked, thick with worry. It was my father. I stayed silent, listening to more of the conversation.
"I'm fine," another voice answered, more pained. I recognized this voice to be my mother. What had I done? I only remembered talking with my mother, and then... Lunging at her. I shuddered at the thought. Was she okay? Had I hurt her? I struggled to open my eyes, and when they finally did open all I saw was a blinding light. I squinted hard, my eyes barely open, letting out a small hiss.
"Can someone please turn out the light?" I asked.
"Yes, of course," an unfamiliar voice answered, and I could hear him flick the switch to turn it off. I opened my eyes, and everything seemed a little different... Sharper. As if my vision had become better. "Amazing."
I looked at the source of the voice; an older looking man with white hair and light green eyes. One of the few Healers of my kind. At least, that's what we called them. They're like doctors, except they don't heal humans or anyone else, just people like me. "What's amazing?" I asked, sitting up. I felt fine; there was no more rage like there had been earlier. And then I wondered, how long had I blacked at for?
"That you're fine now," he answered, coming over to me. He shined a bright light into my eyes, and I flinched back in response. "I didn't think anyone could heal that quickly, I guess we'll-"
"What happened?" I interrupted, my patience dissolving surprisingly quick.
The Healer remained silent, so I asked again. "What happened?" This time the Healer answered my question.
"Well..." he glanced quickly at my mother and father, "you turned into something else. A demon, to be exact... And you lost control... So they brought you here once you finally stopped, though you didn't return to normal... You still look like a demon."
"Huh? What?" I asked him, looking at my parents. They just gave a weak nod. That couldn't be possible... Could it? That I was a demon? The Healer disappeared for a minute, and came back with a small mirror in hand. He gave it to me, and I looked at it, repulsed at what I saw. My eyes were blood red, and my hair was short and dark purple with bangs. I looked down at my fingernails, which were long and sharp, but a normal tan color.
"I know you must be overwhelmed, but we don't have a lot of time. I have a theory that there's a demon living inside of you. Please, I need you to think hard- very hard. Can you hear anything?"
"No," I said, looking up strangely at him.
"Try to think hard, call it to you through your thoughts." He instructed me, walking out of the room. He motioned for my parents to do the same, and, reluctantly, they did. I could hear the click of the door as it was locked from the outside. Protecting themselves? That would hardly help; I could easily teleport out of here. Wherever 'here' is.
Hello? I thought. Is anyone in here?
Silence. I tried again. Anyone here? Hello?
What do you want? A voice snarled in my head. I shuddered.
What are you? Who are you? Why are you here? I asked the voice; it sounded like a demonic girl's.
My name is Demitria. I am a Shadow Demon; a demon who takes over the lives of others. Yours in this case. She answered; her voice sounded almost smug. I've been in your body your whole life.
But why'd you show up now? Why haven't you shown up already? I growled back.
I only decided to make an appearance yesterday because you were talking about attacking the Demons. I can not have that happen.
Why not? I asked Demitria.
The same reason you don't want your little Ghost friends to get hurt. They're my friends, just like the Ghosts are yours, you know.
Nice friends you have, then.
Yours aren't the greatest, either, she replied. I could feel her glaring at me internally.
Yeah, at least my friends aren't rude and homicidal, I countered.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
In the eyes of someone normal, it is. I sighed, and tried to make Demitria shut up. It didn't work, because she kept talking anyway.
Normal is a loosely defined word.
Good-bye, I told her, trying to shut her off again.
Wait- she began to say, but was cut off. It had worked. I'd actually shut her off. I felt myself returning to normal; my hair growing to it's normal length, and my vision got just slightly blurrier, which told me that my eyes turned back to their normal light blue color. My fingernails shrank back down to their original size, and I felt a little shorter. I sighed. Just when things weren't complicated enough, something would happen to make it worse. Just perfect.
Chapter 8
"How long have I been out for?" I asked them once they came back in. They looked tense.
"About a week," my father informed me, coming down to sit on the edge of the long bed.
"A week?! What happened with Heidi and Sam and the demon/vampires?" Why hadn't they told me this right away?!
"Well," my father looked uncomfortably at the white tile floor. "They went to the kingdom..."
"And what happened there?" I asked, suddenly worried. Something bad had happened, just like I said it would. You didn't have to be a genius to know that.
"Well... Your mother will tell you." I could see my mom shoot a rueful glance at him, and they traded spots.
"Well, Aurora, honey, maybe we should have listened to you," she began, her eyes clouded with pain. "They went there and didn't come back." If this hadn't been so serious, so sad, I would've felt smug and said "I told you so" in her face. But this wasn't something to joke about. Two innocent people had died for no reason.
They deserved it.
Shut up and leave me alone! I growled back. Demitria quieted down again, but I could still feel her in the back of my head. This was going to take some getting used to.
Everyone remained silent for a moment, but then the Healer spoke, changing the subject quickly. "So, did you hear anyone?" He asked, looking intently at me.
"Uhm, yes... Her name is Demitria, she's a Shadow Demon, someone who takes over the lives of others," I told him, looking down at the white blanket. The Healer raised an eyebrow, shocked and interested at the same time.
"You mean there's more Shadow Demons then her?" He moved closer to me, as if I were speaking too softly and he couldn't hear me correctly.
"Yeah, I'm guessing it's a whole species of Demons, though I can't be sure. It... Well she," I corrected myself, "didn't really give me any more details then that. Sorry."
At first the Healer didn't respond, so I guessed that he was lost in thought, or too shocked to reply. Both guesses seemed very reasonable to me. When he did speak, his voice was full of wonder. "Amazing... Simply amazing," he breathed out. That's probably all he could do.
"Yes, very amazing. There's something inside of me that's trying to take over my life. Let's throw a party." Sarcasm bit through my words, and I almost shuddered from the extreme rudeness in my voice. Demitria's hideous personality seemed to be sparking through. Wonderful.
"That's not what I meant," the Healer countered, shock rippling through his words. I wanted to apologize for my rude tone, but what would I say? "Oh, sorry, Demitria said that, not me"? "I meant that the race is amazing... Amazing in a bad way, so it's more like interesting. How someone could completely take over someone's life, it's just... Shocking. We need to know more."
They're not getting any answers, Demitria hissed. I've already said too much.
I'll make you tell me, I replied, my voice every bit as nasty.
Yeah, I'd like to see you try. How do you even plan to make me tell you? Yell and scream and cry? I'd enjoy that.
I'll figure out something.
Sure you will.
"Aurora...?" The Healer looked at my curiously, arching his white eyebrow. "Are you alright, Aurora?"
"Just fine," I lied. "It was just... She doesn't exactly support the idea of you trying to find out information."
"Hmm, I thought as much." The Healer looked at the analog clock above, and the room got tense... Awkward, even. I wanted to get out of the hospital-like room as quick as I could.
"Can I leave now? I mean, I feel fine. Well, physically, at least," I asked him, and he nodded quickly. Seemed he wasn't such a fan of waiting around and talking either. Bad job choice. I took off the snow-white blanket, and saw that I was still in my normal clothes. Good, they didn't put me into one of those hospital dresses. I exited the room with my mother and father, into a narrow, white hallway. Was there any other color but white in this building? It was giving me a headache; something that had never happened before. There's another plus, I thought sarcastically.
After a couple of minutes of maneuvering through the thin hallways, we reached a thick white door, with the word "EXIT" written across it in black letters. My parents opened the door, and we went up more stairs; stone this time. When we reached the end of the stairs, there was a metal latch-like door directly above us. My parents opened it, and floated out, followed by me. When we got outside I saw that we were surrounded by forest, and that the latch was almost completely covered by grass. Underground hospital? That was something I didn't expect. Then again, I don't know exactly what to expect anymore.
"Aurora, are you sure you're okay to go back?" My mother asked, worry thick in her voice. I turned to her, and nodded once, unsure. Everyone; my father, my mother, and I, became silent, just staring around awkwardly.
After a few minutes of this uncomfortable silence, I spoke. "Mom, Dad, can you tell me what happened? To Heidi and Sam, I mean?" I asked them; I had been itching to ask them about this sorrowful topic, though I wanted to wait until we were alone, where no one could hear us.
"Well, we're not sure exactly. All that we do know is they went into the Demon Kingdom, or Tower, or Prison; whichever one you want to call it, and that they never came back out. We have no idea as to whether they're alive or not, we're guessing the latter because they should have been able to teleport out of there if they were alive." I turned my head in surprise to my father's sullen figure; he seemed so reluctant to talk about this earlier, and now he just blurted it out. As I processed this; learning barely anything more, I wondered how I should respond. I mean, it wasn't like this shocked me; two weeks ago I had predicted this, and then it happened, but I was still at a loss of words.
"Okay," I mumbled simply, racking my brain for new conversation starters. Or conversation closers; whichever one I could think of first. "Can we just teleport home?"
"Oh, uhm, sure," my mother said. "I'll meet you guys there." And with that, all three of us vanished.
Chapter 9
When I returned to school that next week, seeing as how I was released on Friday, everyone had a ton of questions. Great. I hated having too much attention, and this was just over the top. As people continued to ask me where I had been and what'd happened, I quickly scanned through my mind for a good lie; one that anyone would believe. I decided on saying that I had the stomach virus; it had been going around lately, and I had a perfect set-up; I'd left school early that day because I felt sick. Now all I had to do was actually say the lie out loud. Easy enough, right?
E. L. A., French, and Art dragged by; I'd missed a lot so I had to spend a lot of time with the teachers instead of my friends. Like I needed it. I'd already gone to college for this stuff; school isn't my problem; the pending war and Demitria, however, are. Once I was finally released from Art I waited patiently for Holly at my locker, knowing she'd come up to get her lunch. After about a minute or two she came up the steps, and the second she saw me she bolted toward me, arms outstretched.
Kill me, I thought as she hugged me tightly; I couldn't even breathe because of her iron-tight grasp.
"You're. Killing. Me." I said, spacing out my words and gasping for breath as a sign of my suffocation. Holly let go, joy flooding through her blue eyes.
"I thought you'd died!" She exclaimed; the joy in her eyes turning into excitement.
"Stomach virus," I informed her, telling her the same lie I'd told everyone else.
"You have so much to catch up on! Starting with the camping trip," Holly said as we walked down the steps and entered the cafeteria. We then walked over to where Zack, Riley, and Michelle were waiting patiently for us. Before they could even ask, I told them that I had the stomach virus.
"Welcome back from the dead," Michelle joked, laughing lightly. I took a seat next to her, while Holly took a seat next to me and Riley and Zack sat on the other side of the table. This was the way we normally sat; girls on one side, boys on the other.
"It's good to be back," I replied. "So, anyway, Holly told me that we were going to go on some type of camping trip. When and where?"
"The Adirondacks," Zack answered. "On the first of October; this coming Friday night. We were planning to meet at my house and go from there because my older brother has a huge Suburban that can fit all of us, including our stuff."
I thought about it for a second. It wasn't like I had to do anything that weekend, and I would be able to escape reality for a little while. It might even do me some good. The least it could provide was a little socialization with some of my human friends; wasn't that a good thing?
"So, can you come?" Holly asked me. Or at least I thought it was Holly, until I realized a second later that the voice was too light, too feathery to be her, and it was coming from the wrong direction. I turned to Michelle, and saw a small, pale girl with hazel eyes and long blonde hair staring back at me from behind her. She was absolutely beautiful, no doubt. Way prettier than me, and even prettier than Holly and Michelle combined. And they're not bad-looking either. "Oh, excuse me, I forgot that you don't know me. My name's Alex, nice to meet you... Aurora's your name, isn't it?" She smiled; just a faint twitch of her pink lips into an upward curl.
"Yes it is. Nice to meet you too, Alex," I responded, just a moment or two late. No one seemed to notice, just like how I hadn't noticed that Alex had sat down next to Michelle. "And of course I can come. I have nothing to do this weekend, anyway, except be bugged by my parents, so sure, I'll come."
When Riley heard I was coming, he groaned. "I was looking forward to having a good time. With her there it's going to be torture," he complained, leaning back in his chair like he always did. Instead of pushing the leg of the chair back so he would fall, I kicked the chair hard underneath him, making him fall backward with much, much more force.
"Don't mess with me." I said, my voice threatening, though at the same time I grinned hugely. If I could see myself in a mirror, I bet that I would probably see my grin stretching from one side of my face to the other. Riley growled once, angry, and sat down in his chair again. I could hear some girls giggling from behind him. It seems the cheerleaders find his anger amusing, I thought with a smirk.
After a few more minutes of discussing about the trip I realized I had no idea where Zack lived. That might be a little bit important if I want to get to his house this year, I thought sarcastically. "Zack, can I have your address?" I asked him, ignoring the chatter of Holly, Alex, Michelle, and Riley. It seemed that the one week I was gone they had already introduced another member to our little 'group'. Though it's not like she's not nice, and I'm actually glad that she hangs out with us. She's pretty funny, and likes to make sarcastic comments, especially when they offend Riley and it takes him a second to realize it. When I looked at Michelle, though, something seemed to be a little... Odd about her. She wasn't talking as much as she normally did, and she looked a little troubled. But before anyone else could notice those small details, a smile was on her face and she was talking again. Had she seen me staring? Probably not; I hadn't noticed her eyes shift in my direction.
"Oh, yeah, sure," Zack said, and took out a piece of paper and pen from his binder. He wrote down his address, and his phone number, which surprised me. It wasn't like I needed it. When I looked back at him, he turned away. I took a quick look at the note;
Fifty-seven Maple Lane, Fulton, New York. Like I didn't know what town we lived in.
563-7892- Call me.
I blushed once at the last two words he'd written, but decided to brush it off as nothing, like I always did with anything that had to deal with humans. I stayed silent for a moment or two, quickly catching up with the conversation. All they were talking about was the camping trip and how much fun camping is. I've never really been camping; not like I haven't had the time, but I've never really wanted to. No one ever invited me to go camping, and I never really asked.
As I nodded at what they said; mainly about what they said about having fun, I hoped they were right. I really did want to have fun and forget everything for a little while, and this was my chance. I just hope I don't blow it.
Chapter 10
I walked to Zack's house, seeing as he lives only a half-mile from me. When I got there, I was the last one to arrive, but barely, because Alex's mom had just dropped her off. The back to Zack's brother's Suburban was wide open with backpacks in it, so I placed my rather small black backpack into it. I never used my school one outside of school; I had a different backpack for everything that it would be needed in, and since I'd never really been camping I'd had to buy this one the day before. I walked up the concrete steps to his front door, and knocked once, not needing to again. Zack had opened the door and welcomed me in, with Holly, Riley, and Alex crowded around him.
"Where's Michelle?" I asked them once I was inside of the house; bathroom, maybe? Or maybe she hadn't arrived yet?
"Oh, she's not coming; she got the stomach virus, same thing that you had," Zack answered. I thought about it for a minute; same thing as I had? But I hadn't even had anything. Maybe she got it from someone else?
"Okay," I responded, taking a seat next to Alex, who had decided to sit on the couch in Zack's living room, which was to the right of the front door. Over the past week Alex and I had grown greatly as friends, probably because of how much time we were spending together, which was good considering she was in a lot of my classes. She's extremely nice, friendly, and very smart, too.
"So when are we going?" Riley asked, plopping down on the couch next to me. "I mean, now that everyone whose coming is here, we should go soon, right?" I could tell that Riley was getting impatient; his voice hinted at edginess, and he kept looking around. Great. I could tell he was one of those people who would constantly ask: "Are we there yet?" I hope Zack doesn't mind if I shove him out the window of the car while it's moving.
"In a minute," Zack said, heading out the front door and checking on the Suburban. I could hear the shut of the trunk, and the opening of a front door. "Come out here; whoever's last lock the front door!" He called.
We all headed out, and piled into the large black car with tinted windows. Zack was in the driver's seat, Holly sitting in the seat next to him, while I was squished between Riley and Alex in the back seat. Zack was driving...? But he was only 14; not even old enough for a permit.
"Uh, Zack," Holly was the one who spoke up; I was glad I didn't have to be the voice of reason. Those were the ones who everyone always laughed at. "You're only 14, just like Aurora, Riley, Alex, and I are. You're not old enough to drive, and we're not old enough to qualify as adults." It was at that moment I realized why he had asked to borrow his brother's car; the windows were tinted so that if any cop cars came by they couldn't tell that he wasn't an adult, or older teenager at least. Though I guess it really doesn't matter; there are barely ever any people on the roads here; especially if you're going up to somewhere like the mountains. And as long as Zack could drive okay, we'd all be fine.
"So? No one can tell, anyway. It's not like there are any people up here, and I can drive just fine. Don't worry; this isn't the first time I've done this." And with that, we drove off. I wish I'd had a window seat; I hated being in the middle.
