Sudden Darkness (Chapter One)

1
Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion.
- Mark Twain1


 
I could feel everyone looking at me, but it was something I was use to by now. One thing I had learned after transferring to this school was to act like nothing bothered me. When you’re strange, like I am, people always tend to stare. It was nearing the end of sophomore year and our pregnant teacher was bobbing around the room like an over inflated balloon.
“Hey, Victoria. Your name’s on the ballot for the school dance royalty.”
My sole friend at this school, Mary, poked my arm. “Yeah. Must be some elaborate joke the pop-kids thought up.” I always called the over-preening popular kids pop-kids, I think it covered there clique perfectly. I turned to Mary, the guy next to her – Jeremy, I think his name is - looked away. Huh, he had been staring at me. I glanced over at the ballot Mary was holding, having thrown mine away. My name was definitely on there, as a runner for princess, but I knew it was a joke. No one would vote for me as princess in their right mind. The teacher was still bobbing around the room in excitement over the voting, mistaking the vote for something important just because this school was big on ‘tradition’. Yeah, this might be a nice school on the outside, with its big parking lot covered with expensive cars and nicely trimmed sport fields, but it was pretty much just like any other high school. Everyone was looking over the ballot, trying to stretch the decision making out so the teacher wouldn’t launch into a lesson. At least most of them were, the rest of us were chatting or texting on their phones. I watched the ones filling out the ballots as they cast glances my way in confusion. Right there with you. I grimaced. Anyone else might have been embarrassed, but I wasn’t someone to make a fuss over something this stupid.
“What are you going to do?” Mary poked my arm again. I rubbed it, “Nothing. Who cares?”
“Well, I’d watch out. It can’t mean anything good.”
I smiled, “Like I said, who cares?” Mary was good for thinking over things seriously, but not too good at taking things humorously. She was nobody special, just like me – we didn’t conform to what everyone else at the school was like. She was an art-nerd and I was just a rebel. They were probably going to post the votes in the school newspaper, more than likely I wouldn’t get any votes. Then again, it would be cool to get two or three votes. “I’m going to vote for you,” Mary started filling out her ballot. “Whatever, Ra, don’t worry about it. We both know you’ll be the only one to vote for me.” I turned back in my desk, wondering if I should fish the ballot out of the trash and vote for myself. A voice came from the back of the room. “This is HILARIOUS!” Everyone turned. Mary rolled her eyes. “Hilarious,” the voice repeated. I looked at the pop-kid speaking from the back. He was an athletic guy, dressed in the customary polo and khakis with his perfect blonde crew cut. Obviously, another trend follower. Most people here had gone out of their way to ostracize me. The teacher was too stupid to ignore him, “What’s hilarious… um….?” “Heath,” he reminded her drolly, “Heath Lykens.”
“Heath.”
“Don’t you think this is funny?” he smirked around at everyone in the room. He kicked his feet up on his desk, “I mean having her on the ballot?” He pointed his finger at me accusingly. People giggled. “Yeah, well, I didn’t put myself on there,” I flippantly mentioned, “It’s just some weird pseudo-bureaucratic stuff anyway.”
“Exactly,” he said. “Who are you? Why should you be treated as royalty? You’re a freak. The people on this ballot were chosen on the basis that they matter.”
“Yeah, whatever. Sounds peachy.” I lazily leaned back in my own desk, “You’re all sheep anyway.” Most of the students gawked at me. I noticed a few people stayed silent. He got up and took a few steps towards me, “Yeah, well you’re a beast.” He pissed me off, so I jumped out of my chair. “Well, if you’re so hot, why aren’t you on the ballot?” He raised an eyebrow and looked at me a little humorously. “I definitely would deserve it more than you.” I stared at my name, I guess this was his chance to get his blows in. Everyone did, probably his one chance to get at me. “Yeah, well, go get some plastic surgery first,” I sat back down as he walked closer to me. His eyes were light blue and he had perfect facial structure. I winced inwardly, he definitely didn’t need any. “I’m lucky I’m not as ugly as you. You’re ugly; plastic surgery wouldn’t even help you. I bet you’re not even smart or strong enough to be useful. You’re just a beast.” Beast, which was a word I’ve heard often, but not usually when it came to my looks. I felt myself stiffing, but brushed it off as nerves and anger. 2

“That pop-kid in Math is an asshole,” I vented to Mary while we head for English. “Yeah, he really ribbed on you,” she agreed.
“That was nothing.”
“Sure, so that’s not why you’re all foaming at the mouth about.”
“I haven’t been foaming!” It was true, though, what he has said about me being ugly really got to me. It was stupid though, what did I care what he thought? “Whatever,” Mary commented. “Okay, I was a bit pissed,” I agreed. “Stupid people like him piss me off. Someone should teach him a lesson.”
I strongly believed in that, but I was trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal. Being elected as a princess and everything was kind of stupid, but it was kind of cool. Too bad that jerk had to ruin it for me. Normally I would think harsher words, but something about that guy, the way he looked at me, made me be a little more reserved. Jerk definitely described him though. Later, after leaving Math, I saw him again. I was roaming the hallways during class and it seemed he was doing the same thing. He was leaning against some lockers as he texted messaged; the skylight above him was dark. It was getting ready to storm. “Someone should teach him some manners.” I thought as I remembered his words from early. What bullshit. He’s no different from anyone else… just a little better looking… and probably richer… Killer smile, I bet, if I ever saw it. I sped up my pace, usually I keep a light lazy walk, but I wanted to have a few words with him. I was caught off guard when the vice-principle stepped in my way. “Where are you going, Ms. Paul?” If you rubbed the VP the right way, they would leave you alone. I gave him a respectful look – a little boost for his ego- one that let me get away with stuff, usually. “Just wanted to run by my locker, sir.” Never give too detailed an explanation or he wouldn’t believe you. He hmphed for a second and then nodded his head. “Go ahead,” he snorted. “You better get what you need quickly.” He scooted off in the directions he came from, just giving Heath a nod of his head. “Thank you, Mr. Stevenson.” I moved forward when his back was receding far down the hallway, and then strolled over to the locker Heath was leaning against. I slammed a hand down on to the door of the locker. “You’re good at playing the authority, huh?” he said. “I’m a professional at it.” I gave him a mean smile. I looked at his phone; it was one of those new expensive ones with the touch screen. When he saw me looking at it, he slipped it into his pocket. “Aren’t phones band from use during school hours?” I asked, being snide and at the same time wondering what stupid thing could be so important he skipped out of class to text. Weird, most of the kids just did it under their desk during class and the teachers just ignored it. He ignored the question, “What do you want?”
“What?” I stopped. “I’ve been at this school for six months by now and you just start laying into me. Not that I’ve noticed you at all.” He raised an eyebrow. “Then what do you want with me?”
“I was just wondering.”
“Really,” he smirked, “if you want my phone number, I’m going to have to say no.” I frowned, “No way. I was thinking about what you said in class, I want to know why you think I’m so damned ugly.”
“Really?” His fake smile faltered for a second. “Yeah, really. I know you’re people judge by looks and someone like me let’s face it, isn’t the norm. But I know I’m not ugly.”
“You mean besides the biker-Goth get up, short hair, and bad attitude?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to get in to details. I’m pretty hot even if I’m not some glammed-up blonde bombshell.”
“Why do you care?”
I shrug. “Never thought about it, you know? I mean, I can’t help liking what I like.”
“Interesting,” he said. I smiled at him, still a bit mean, and moved a little closer even though I felt like hurling a fist at him. “Yeah, I’m pretty interesting.”
“By interesting, do you mean weird?”
“Fair enough.” I looked at my watch, like it mattered, I was already ditching class to talk to an egotistically ass. “So what was it you wanted me to tell you?”
Jerk. “I was thinking about what you said and thought maybe we could make a bet. You know, try looking like one of you people.”
“My people?”
“Exactly. So what do you say? I think it would be a good time.” He stared at me, his blue eyes getting dark a moment, and he looked like he might actually be thinking. Impossible. Then he grinned. It was a strange, secretive smile. “I have a better idea.” “What kind of idea?” I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous about his change of attitude. “Give me your number. I’ll figure some stuff out later and we’ll make a plan.” I shook my head, but doled out my number to him.3

I wasn’t even in the door of my house when Blake Hailey, a typical Goth-guy-to-piss-off-mummy-and-daddy, Black-Berry toting, bottled-black hair, pierced son of a CEO and stalker rang my cell. I hit ignore. He rang. And rang. And rang. Finally, I gave up with a muffled explicative and answered. “Some popular dude is telling everyone he is going to the end-of-year dance with you!” He shrieked, pretty impressive for a guy. What the hell? Where is Heath going with this? “News to me.”
“So you’re not going with him?”
“Not that I’ve heard.”
“Really?”
“Why would you care anyway, Blake?”
“Well… I was going to ask if you’d go with me… and like…” I chuckled. “No, don’t.” “Why not?” He was becoming suspicious. “Well, c’mon, a dance? Me? I can’t believe you even believed the rumor. Plus, you have other girls vying for your attention.”
“I guess so. Whatever.”
“So, no problem. He’s telling everyone I’m his date. Just damaging his rep, anyway.” “Yeah, you’re right,” he answered enthusiastically.
“I’m always right, Blake.”
“Sure, but um Victoria?”
“Yeah?”
“You really won’t go to the dance with me?” That was one thing I was sure about in this conversation, “No way, Blake.”
“Victoria?”
“What?”
“I would buy you a really kick ass dress.”
“Hmmm, sounds nice. Still. No.”
“Seriously, a real nice one and flowers to go with it.”
“Nope,” I said, it may be a little hard to get him off my back, but he was still besotted enough to back off sometimes. We hung up.4

After I got off the phone, I looked in the school director for Heath’s number. I didn’t really trust Blake not to start anything, so I figured I should give the guy a heads up. When I looked in the directory under L, there was no Heath Lykens. I went through every single name and couldn’t even find a Heath. He must have transferred in like I did, no wonder he wasn’t a top-dog in the pop-kid clique yet. No doubt he would be. Around eight, I was watching some show about vampires when I heard my Mom’s key in the door. That was strange; she normally didn’t get in until I was fast asleep. I could’ve have vacated the room, but I was right in the middle of the show. Plus I kind of wanted to see Mom and tell her about the ballot thing. It was stupid, but Mom might actually pay attention to me because of it. “Hey, Mom, guess what?” I said. “What, Victoria? I’m right in the middle of a conversation. Can it wait?” She shooed me with her hand and gave me a look, she was on her Bluetooth. Personally, I hated the thing. She went into her bedroom and kept talking; I was tempted to jack up the volume on the T.V. That always pissed her off. Finally she got off the phone and clicked her heels to the kitchen, rummaging in the pantry for some Crystal Light. I heard her shaking a bottle of water. She came out then, furiously shaking the bottle. “How was school?” She had obviously not had a good day at work, but then again I couldn’t remember the last time she had one. “Great. I was put on the ballot for the school’s spring dance.” She had always wanted me to be a pop-kid. “That’s great, Victoria.” She looked down at her cell phone. “I have to take this.” I was a bit shocked that was the only reaction I got from her, but I guess that was how far gone our relationship had got. She clicked back off into her bedroom. 5

Okay, so Blake hadn’t stirred anything up with Heath over the whole dance thing, but everyone else was a-buzzed with the rumor. Heath had definitely told everyone. When I got to school, quite a few girls gave me quizzical looks. It was obviously hard for them to wrap the information around their pea-sized brains that were over filled with fashion and boy bands. Mary was at my side as soon as I hit the door to class. “Heath Lykens.” She held up her hand in front of me as if warding me off. “What the hell? Weren’t you guys just trading insults the other day?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say we got over that.”
“Got over that,” she mocked. “He’s a freaking pop-kid!”
“Well, whatever.”
“Whatever, indeed.”
I figured Blake would still be stewing in his melodrama, so I was surprised when he came up to me in the hall between classes. “Hey.” He tried draping his arm over my shoulders possessively, which I shrugged off. I looked around, spotting many disgruntled girl faces. They were probably pissed that I now had to decent guys’ attention, even if one of them was slightly ‘defective’. I chuckled to myself. He looked flustered. “Yeah, well, whatever.” He walked off stiffly. Oh well. Some of the girls watching us looked a bit smug and went back to gossiping in their little groups. Mary and I moved further down the hall when another arm draped over my shoulder. “Listen…” I tried shrugging the arm off thinking it was Blake. “Good morning, gorgeous.” It was Heath, I couldn’t release his grasp from my shoulder, but I managed to keep my cool. “Hey. I tried calling you last night.” He paused for a second, but he kept with my pace as Mary began to trail behind a bit. “I’m not in the directory. I’m a transfer student.” He continued to hang on to me. Some girls walked by and gave me a few sumptuous glares. “Ouch!” Something pricked my neck. “Sorry.” He pulled a pin from his sleeve. “New shirt. So we still on for the dance?” He gazed at me. “I don’t know I don’t remember being asked.” I moved a stray hair from my forehead. He leaned into me, almost intimately and I watch as some of the girls watching us gasped and cover their mouths to gossip. This would be heard around the school by lunch. “Meet me on the roof at lunch,” he whispered into my ear. “We’ll talk about it then.” I nodded as he took my hand and began walking down the hall again.
He let me go and made his way down an adjacent hall without another comment. Mary chose to rush up to me at that moment. “What was that all about?” she asked furiously. “I let you know when I find out.”6

Lunch time rolled around and I found myself making my way up the stairs to the roof, deftly avoiding any inquiring teachers or worse of all any arrogant Vice-Principals. When I got there, Heath was already sprawled out on one of the benches that graced the roof. “So, what’s going on?” He smiled at my question. “This is what’s going on. You are going to do a total one-eighty for me and we are going to the dance together. I have an elaborate plan. Did you know that my people have their own agenda about the spring dance and you?”
“I figured. It was odd that my name would come up on the ballot like that. You have to vote people on to the ballot to begin with, so yeah I assumed it was some kind of joke.”
“They plan on embarrassing you at the spring dance, but I have something even better in mind. Something that will launch me into their ‘high society’ and consequently give you a leg up into it as well.”
“Well, I’m not really interested in that. I don’t see how I should help you with this. I was thinking of something more subtle, like just pissing them off by being better than them for once.”
“Well, that’s the plan in all isn’t it, it’s just a little more… glamorous this way. You can rub it in their faces for the next two years, afterwards.”
“Oh, well, you know how I’m all about the glamour.” I replied sarcastically. He sat up and gave me an appraising look. “Well, you aren’t yet, but you will be when I’m done.” I scoffed at him, “What are you? A fag?” He quirked a slight grin, “No. I’m even better. I’m rich.” I thought about that a moment, “I guess money can change anything.” He gave a broader grin this time, “Like lead into gold, sweetheart.” He got up and threw his arm around my shoulder as he lead me back to the door and down the stairs, whispering in my ear the whole way about the ‘changes’ we were going to make.7

Everything from there on out was pretty basic. I was forced to drive around with him in his new mustang; a gift from his ‘daddy dearest’. I had my face pulled, pinched, and made over. When we got to the hair, the stylist practically cried over my shorn locks and complained to Heath that she had no idea what she was going to do. He just told her to make it work. Over the next week I was changed from Goth-Rocker to Glam-Princess. Thankfully, I didn’t have to change my clothing style or anything else during the process, he wanted me to try and remain as much the same I was until the night of the dance. I almost felt excited about going to the dance with him.
The day of the dance, I got into my Maladrino dress that Heath had bought for me with his dad’s credit card. One great thing about him having a dad that’s never around is that Heath could buy whatever he wanted with the credit card. I talked to Mary on my cell phone while I waited for the limo to pick me up. Thankfully, my mother was working late that night and I had failed to mention that I was going to the spring dance. I checked my fridge for the bootaneer I bought Heath. He had told me several times to buy him a rose for his lapel. So, of course, I had bought him his stupid rose. “You know what, I kind of feel like I’m prostituting myself out to this guy,” I said to Mary on the phone. She laughed for once.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Heath dropped probably about a thousand dollars to pull off this whole thing and I’m just along for the ride. Or rather just another part of his plan that he bought. I feel like a total tool.” She got quiet for a second. “Well, I just hope you don’t get hurt in the long run.” I nodded even though she couldn’t see me and pulled out the plastic box that held the rose. “Yeah, I got to go.” I got picked up by the limo as planned, Heath making a big show of bowing and opening the door for me. I pinned the rose to him, tempted to poke him in the chest with the pin. As we drove on, I stared at the box on the limo’s floor. Part of me felt like I just wanted to jump out of the moving vehicle and give up the whole plan. I had, oddly enough, gotten slightly attached to Heath. That had not been part of the plan and I know he did not feel the same. We stopped over at his house where Heath’s mom whipped out the newest digital camera on the market to take pictures. She began cooing about the crowning of the prince and princess, telling us we were gorgeous enough even if we didn’t get crowned. I hadn’t even thought he was on the ballot. I blushed a little at the realization. I pushed that aside and started putting on best performance. It didn’t hurt that I was absolutely gorgeous in the dress Heath bought. I smiled nice for the camera. 8

The dance was at a fancy hotel. When we got there, Heath handed over our tickets to a girl who was checking everyone in. She was one of the pop-kids and she gave me a sly look; which I returned to her surprise. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had whipped out her cell phone right then and there; texting all her friends who obviously had something planned for me at the dance. I followed Heath into the dance, as his guy friends surrounded him, giving me side long glances, but obviously shocked at my transformation. He broke away from them a second and whispered in my ear, “Well, here’s where it all starts.” He leaned back up and spoke a little more loudly, “What would you like to drink, beautiful?” I looked up at him, narrowing my eyes just bit before answering. “Anything would be nice. Thank you.” I watched him gracefully walk off to the refreshment table. His guy friends hung around in a loose knit circle nearby me, all eyeing me speculatively. Probably wondering how changed from freak to clique-worthy. I noticed one of the guys hanging slightly away from them. “Jeremy, right?” He looked up at me with soft brown eyes. “Um, yeah, hi.” He sidled over a bit closer. I began looking around the dance hall at all the students, many of whom were giving me the same glances that Heath’s friends were, but a bit more venomous. Jeremy leaned down, “I hope you know what you’re doing?” Before I had a chance to respond, he had already slipped back into the crows of guys and started joking with them. As they moved further away, Heath came up to my side, handing me a drink. “What did he say to you?” I took the drink, “Jeremy? Nothing. I hoped this drink isn’t spiked.” Heath gave me a wide grin and I worried for a second, but took a drink anyway. Maybe a spiked drink would be just the thing to get me through this dance.9

I found myself sort of smiling during the dance. I wondered if all the girls got this excited over stupid dances like this. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been to a dance. Anyway, it was fun, even when I saw Blake dancing with one of his many admirers. I looked around for Heath. I’d almost forgotten about Heath, but my timing was perfect because there he was, cuddled in the corner with one of the top pop-girls. The girl was wearing a slinky black dress that looked like a second skin. “Hey, where’s your decency?” I asked as I slid over. “Oh, Victoria, I was just chatting with someone.” I saw a flash of contempt on the girls face; she obviously had thought she knew what exactly was going down. I tossed her a winning smile as I slid my arm through his and drew him away. “Sorry, I’m going to have to commandeer my date.”
“Smooth move, my dear.” Heath smirked down at me. I whispered harshly back, “We are supposed to be doing this together. You can’t just go off on your own tangent and leave me behind.” He scanned the crowd on the dance floor, “Really. I think you handled that very well. Maybe it’s you who don’t need my help.” I gave him an exasperated look. “Okay,” he said. “Just get onto the dance floor with me.” Heath had also paid for dance lessons for me, though I hadn’t seen the reason in it. It was, after all, just a high school dance. “Fine.” I went with Heath onto the dance floor. As we danced, I pointed out that people were watching us. “Of course.” That was when Blake spotted us. Even though he was pissed off at me, he was the type who’d never miss the opportunity to cause a scene. He glided up to Heath, grabbed his arm, and spoke in husky tones. “Would you mind?” I was starting to wonder what kind of high school dance this really was. I felt like I had danced off the floor of a hotel into some castle, where all the guys knew how to be passive-aggressively polite. Weird. Something definitely wasn’t right. I let go of Heath as he stepped away. Blake took me in his own arms, keeping a polite distance away and began dancing with me. “What are you doing?” I had expected Blake to go all melodramatic on me. It was funny how everyone kept asking me that tonight. I’d looked forward to this night for awhile that the question actually annoyed me. But instead I said, “What do you mean?” He gazed down at me, “You have no idea what you are doing.”
“I know exactly what I am doing!” I smiled. “I’m all dressed up in this get-up and I’m going to prove to all those pop-kids I’m as good as they are.”
“You have no idea what you are doing.” He looked over my shoulder at the people we were passing by, repeating himself. “You have no idea what you are getting into.”
“Jesus! Don’t sound so critical! And stop stalking me!” I wrestled out of his grasped and made my way back over to Heath in a huff were he stood on the edge of the dance floor. Heath casted a patronizing grin to Blake as he took my arm and led me away. I laughed. “So are you ready to do this then?” he said. “You and I really at this dance together even though it is all just for show, are you ready?” I laughed again. “Everyone is making this all seem so cryptic tonight! But, yeah. You actually thought I might back down at the last minute? I want to show them I’m as good as they are.”
“No, I didn’t. But I hope you won’t mind going along with my decisions.”
“What decisions?” Behind me, Blake was starting to follow, muttering under his breath. Soon other people started following until finally the small top group of pop-kids was vacating the room with us. I could barely think straight. I looked at Heath. He wasn’t smiling. He wasn’t looking happy either. He had this intense look in his eyes, like he was concentrating really hard. I almost expected Heath to start acting strange – like killing people just by looking at them. But instead he said in a voice only I could hear, “You’ll see.” And we walked out of the hotel.10

I was quite sure, but I figure the dance had just been some sort of pre-party for the pop-kids. I kept thinking about Heath’s words to me: You’ll see. I turned to Heath, almost startled. “We missed the crowning.” He grunted. We were both in a limo surrounded by all side with pop-kids. Everyone was eerily quiet. We the limo stopped, we were at a lonely looking mansion. Everyone piled out of the limo and made a silent line up to the house. I felt as if I was part of a funeral party. “What are we doing here?” I said it loud enough to hide the fact my voice was quavering. My hands felt clammy and I could feel my blood pounding like I was climbing a mountain. I was surprised to find us in a plush, albeit dark, lounge room. I hadn’t been expecting anything like this. I just didn’t know what was going on. He stared at me. I noticed his eyes again, a light blue that looked almost icy. I began having weird thoughts: What if he was in with pop-kids already? What if this had been the plan all along? Crap. “Why are we in this house?” I repeated. He smiled. I noticed for the first time that he held a glass, a crystal glass filled with wine. He peered into as he talked, “Rebirth. Living poetry. Life. Immortality.” I stared. In the moment he spoke, he didn’t look as good looking as I had once thought. It was his eyes, those icy blues eyes. His skin seemed almost bleached out as well. “What do you mean, ‘Immortality’?”
“It’s exactly as it sounds, Victoria. You should know what I mean. You’ll be it. It means living forever.”
Living forever. Over the years, I had read lots of books – vampires, fey, gods – about immortality. It was always fictional. Usually, I would never have taken the subject seriously. Or at most fantasize about it. But what is he was some kind of psycho that believe in it? “Look,” I said. “I don’t know what’s going on tonight. But this isn’t funny. I know you don’t really like me, but I didn’t sign up for this.” I tried playing cool and collected. He was obviously crazy. What if he had a knife or something hidden in his jacket? “I know.”
“Know what?”
“Know you didn’t ‘sign up’ for this.”
“Oh.” I gave him a look I usually reserve for the pompous Vice-Principal. One that says I’m all good kid. When I did, I noticed something strange. His teeth, which I thought were always perfect, weren’t. Must be the dark. “Good. So, can I head out?”
“I know you didn’t sign up for this, but I know you’ll want to be a part of this. Victoria, I know you love the dark side of things, the strange, and you fantasize about that stuff. I think you’ll enjoy this opportunity.” I met his eyes. His eyelashes looked perfect. Sculpted. I backed up a little. “I don’t know about that.”
“Really?” His lips looked blood red.
“Seriously, what’s going on?”
“I told you. Immortality. You’ll know what it’s like to be forever beautiful, to live forever. That’s if you take to it well, who knows if you’ll survive. If not, I guess you’ll be dead.” As he spoke his smile got broader. He shed his tuxedo jacket to reveal his slender body. Something was wrong – how come he looked so different? I was starting to freak out, but I couldn’t back off. Not if it possibly meant my life was on the line. So I tried again. If charm didn’t work, maybe my mom would. I spoke in quiet terms, “You know my mom will wonder where I am – she’ll look for me.”
“So?”
“So I know it will be hard to hide me…or my body. My mom will come looking for me. She’ll find out what happened, she’ll get investigators, cops, and the news. How will you hide what you did? They’ll find you at school. You’re rich, I know, but they send rich people to jail too.”
“So you really think so?”
“Sure... yes…” I paused. He was laughing.
“I don’t really go to that school,” he said. “I don’t go to that school at all. I’m not even a kid. I am old as I am young. Otherworldly beings don’t get caught.”
Oh. Oh shit! “So you’re telling me you’re…a…a vampire.”
His eyes seemed to shift from icy to liquid to icy again. I realized I was holding my breath, waiting for his answer. “Yes.”
“Sure,” I said. He was really nuts. “Victoria Paul, you are going to be forever beautiful. Don’t worry, this isn’t my first time. You know you’ve dreamed about this all your life and now for all your life you will be immortal. All the top children of your school, your so-called pop-kids, are immortals.”
“No way. That can’t be true.”
“Yes way. Two months ago I changed one of the girls in your class, Francis Terrybaum. She was out for a week.”
“That was flu.”
“No. Six weeks ago the school went on a field trip to an art museum – two kids ‘got lost’, Randall Laurens and Sarah Davis. You were told later they skipped out.” He looked at me, “Don’t you think that’s odd?” Yes. Instead I said, “That’s just kid stuff. Normal stuff for people. Things like that happen all the time.”
“At the beginning of your transfer here, Samantha Winston died. You didn’t really know her, but I know you heard all about it. Even though the school tried to protect their students from such things. Did you ever hear about how she died? Think about it.” I thought about it, trying to remember if I heard anything about how she died. I almost couldn’t bear to think about, no one had even rumored about why or how she had died. “You’re right,” I said. “But that could have been anything! She was a student; people might not want to talk about it.” I almost believed what I was saying. He was right. There was something wrong about all of that. I didn’t ever think about why some students went randomly missing. Whenever it happened, I promptly forgot about it. Maybe I just didn’t really care about people at all. But that wasn’t it, not really. It was just because they were kids that never bothered with me. In the living room, the others shuffled in, smiling and chatting. “You’re right,” he spread his arms wide. “Those instances weren’t not like that. In some places, maybe it is like that. Things like that do happen. In this case, it’s not.” He seemed like he was getting closer and closer to me without moving. The room felt like it was growing darker and spinning around me. “Are you crazy?” I looked at his hands suspended in the air, watching to make sure they didn’t swoop down on me like hungry bats. This couldn’t be happening, he couldn’t be a vampire. The others finished talking and were watching us now. Jeremy and Blake hung back from everyone. It was surreal that they were standing feet away while I felt my world collapsing in on me. Heath touched my shoulder, tilting my head. “Victoria Paul, welcome.” I looked up at him and gaped at the sight of his elongated incisors. “What are you going to do to me?” When I said it, it sounds as if I my voice was fading. It came out soft and distant. He lowered his face. “You will be transformed.” I blacked out.