The Stupidity of Humans... Or a Vampiress

 

            I was rushing around the house, grabbing some things as I flew to my room. I pulled a suitcase out from under my bed and threw clothes and food into it, zipping it together. A boy of seventeen rushed into my room. His chocolate hair was messily flung around his head, his deep brown eyes looking confused and worried.

            “Lindsay! Where are you going?” he asked.

            “Not me. You,” I said. I handed the suitcase to him.

            “M-me?” he said. He gave me a confused look.

            “They know. They know everything.” I answered without looking up.

            “Who? What are you talking about?”

            “Them.” I said. His eyes grew wide. He understood what I meant.

            “But how?”

            “I don’t know.” I answered truthfully. “But they are coming. They are coming for us… For you. When they find you, they will kill you. They can’t kill me, so I am safe, but you are in danger,” I explained. “You need to leave now! Before they come!”

            I began to push him near the door. He turned and gave me a hug before running out the door. As he ran, he stopped and turned back. The hesitation cost him dearly. As soon as he turned and looked at me, a spike came through his chest. I froze in horror as his crumpled body fell to the ground. Finally, I felt feeling come back to me, and I realized in terror what had just happened.

            “Drew!!”

 

I shot up from my bed. My hand was reaching out, as though to grab something. I slowly pressed my outstretched hand on my temple before rubbing my eyes. I slowly dressed myself. Another day of the exact same routine, which I have been doing for the past 50 years, and probably before that. I combed my hair over my left eye again, and once again it fell messily around my head. I sighed in defeat.

“Here we go again…” I mumbled to myself.

 

*            *            *

 

I was walking through the halls, towards the lunchroom. I could take as much time as I needed, for I don’t eat as it is. As I was walking, I saw the boy with chocolate brown hair standing by his locker, which had a large dent across it. He was leaning against it and staring at the ceiling, as though thinking about something. I stared at him until a girl named Shannon, whom I had met before in this school, came to him and led him to the lunchroom. I sighed and leaned up against the wall, sliding down it. I felt the presence of someone behind the wall next to me. I immediately pressed up against the locker, hiding behind the wall. I peeked out and saw the arm of someone hanging out next to the wall.

“What a mediocre job of hiding… Now, who could that be?” I quietly whispered the self-directed question in a sarcastic tone. I relaxed, coming up behind the wall. I already knew who my stalker was. I grabbed his ear, pulling him out from behind the wall. “Ow!” I heard a yelp of pain. To my unsurprised disdain, Jacob came tumbling out from behind the wall. I held him up by his ear. He looked at me in surprise and slight horror.

“Is there a reason you’re following me?” I said calmly.

“Uh- me? Uh- no, I don’t- heheh. Please, spare my ear,” he said. He looked pathetic as he stuttered, wincing in pain every time I shifted my grip on his ear lobe. He was obviously afraid of me.

“Why are you following me?” I repeated.

“I- I, well… I wanted to say I was sorry for giving you all those rude comments. I am afraid of you, and I just wanted to see if I could get you to think I was tough. I want to apologize,” he said sincerely. I could see in his eyes that he was telling the truth. I sighed.

“Fine, just don’t follow me. Don’t try the tough guy act either.” I said, and I started to smile. He smiled back, but he still looked tentative. I was fine with that. I let go of his ear and he dropped to the floor with a thud.

I finally entered the lunchroom, taking a seat next to Jenine. Jacob sat on the other side of me, rubbing his ear lobe. A tall Italian girl named Maria, whom I had also known before, took a seat next to Jenine. Shannon, the girl who escorted the unknown boy, sat next to her. The boy sat down in front of her. I tried to keep my eyes on Jenine and Jacob and their failing attempts at humor, but they kept curiously wandering towards him.

“Ha! Do you get it? … Am I going to fast for you?” A voice crawled into my ear, and I looked to Jacob to see him looking at me expectantly.

“Uh, sorry. Say it again?”

“Hey, do you never eat?” he asked me. He looked to his empty tray, which had been filled to the brim until that of a few minutes ago, and then looked at the empty table space in front of me.

“Uh, not hungry.” I said quickly.

“Well, you can join that weirdo’s club over there,” he added. He motioned towards the boy whom I have been following. It doesn’t sound right to say I have been following him, but I guess that’s better than saying I have been stalking his every step... Which I have. I shook my head (surprising Jacob, who received a full whack of my swinging hair), realizing that I was becoming no better than Jacob- and that was just sad. The boy had no food on his plate, either. This only made me more interested, much to my dismay. I stood up to talk to him, when all of a sudden, I tripped over something small on the ground. I realized as soon as my foot had caught that I was going to fall, and I threw my arm in front of me, and did a one-handed cartwheel. It wasn’t as surreptitious as I had hoped it to be, but it kept me from making more cracks in the floor.

“Augh! Sorry!” The bump I had tripped over said. I was quite surprised at first, until I turned and realized it was a small boy. He had short dirty blonde hair, and wore a long sleeved shirt over a short-sleeved t-shirt. I raised my eyebrow at him. A normal person would be steaming hot were they in his current outfit, especially since it was still August. On top of that, he was wearing two or three sweatshirts around his waist. He must have been a cold, cold individual. “Sorry about that,”

“I didn’t notice you,” I said. I began to walk away.

“Wait! Who are you?” he asked, grabbing my arm. He spun me around. “I don’t recognize you,” He had deep, curious brown eyes.

“Lindsay,” I said, and I tried to walk away again.

“My name’s Andrew. Nice ta meetcha!” he said in a childish way. He even winked. “Everyone says I’m like a monkey. Hey, I wanna make it up to ya. Wanna come see a movie this weekend? I can see ya already know Jacob, and my birthday’s comin’ up. Why doncha come?” The abbreviations of his terminology were easily flickering my nerves.

“I’d rather not. I don’t usually go to that many parties,” I said, trying to neatly turn him down.

“Wait! It’ll be fun. We’re seein’ Twilight¸ that vampire movie made from the book. Arncha interested? I thought all the girls were,” he said, innocently. I had heard about the book, but I am more interested in old Shakespeares than romantic novels.

“Alright, I’ll go.” I said, sighing in defeat. Angela told me to make friends, not break hearts, which I seemed to have a recurring habit of performing.

“Yay! Don’t worry, this’ll be fun. I’m bringin’ popcorn, and candy…” He excitedly bounced off. I don’t think it was his accent that caused his unappealing abbreviations, rather his slothfulness keeping him from articulating the entire word. I figured it was just another annoying trait of humans. I saw several teachers stand up and organize students for returning to class. I sighed, turning away from Jenine and Jacob to saunter towards the door. I watched the floor, seeing all the different shoes clatter and smack onto the floor as students walked around me. Then, for a split second, I saw a tennis shoe step in front of me, before I collided with someone. For the first time in decades, I felt pain in my head and shoulder. It was such a foreign sensation, for, being a vampire, I was nearly indestructible. A loud clanging sound echoed off of my shoulder, and much to my surprise, from the person’s shoulder as well. What surprised me most, though, was the intense heat I received from colliding. My shoulder and head instantly felt as though they were in flames- an element easily feared by vampires. And if not, I fear it enough for many vampires combined. I fell to the floor, grabbing onto my shoulder, which had received most of the heat. I felt my head spinning. It slowly came to a stop, even though my shoulder still had immense heat waves pulsing from it. I tried to shake off the confusing heat, wondering how, being so cold, I could feel burn, when a voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Are you okay?” A deep and melodic, yet worried tone echoed from above me. I slowly looked up at whom I had collided with. It was the mystery boy. I had seen him before, but he looked completely different up close. His dark brown, almost black hair seemed to sparkle in the light. It was perfectly messy, to be oxymoronic. His deep, dark brown eyes seemed to be slightly worried, and were staring straight at me.

He was beautiful. Instantly my face was red and felt warmer. I don’t know if such a thing was possible for vampires, but if it was, I sure hope he didn’t spot it. I was awkwardly frozen in my position. He seemed to be puzzled at my silence and frozen position, but I was mesmerized. Coming back to Earth, I shot up, completely ignoring his outstretched hand. I shot up before he could move, and the top of my head hit his forehead. It stung for a moment, and then I remembered that I probably felt like concrete at 100 miles per hour against the poor boy’s head. I looked up, but he looked fine. He was staring into me again, probably still wondering if my head was okay.

“I- uh- y- yeah, I m-mean… Uh… I’m t-tougher than that…” I stared at the ground. I looked up once, and saw him giving me an incredibly confused look. He must have been dafter than I expected. That, or less observant. “I’m- uh- okay, I’ve b-been through much worse. Uh- yeah- s-sorry for… Running int-” I couldn’t stand embarrassing myself much longer. I quickly scurried away, losing myself in the crowd. I was still blushing immensely and staring at the ground. I decided it wasn’t exactly intelligent to not pay attention to where I was going after what had just happened. I looked up in time to see Jenine and Jacob. I lightly hit Jacob, running completely into his chest. I looked up and saw for a split second a trace of a blush from his cheeks before scooting away. I saw him shiver slightly, but he shook it off.

“Hey where did you go? You just sprinted away. I had to wait in that line forever.” Said Jacob.

“Are you okay? You look red. Do you have a fever?” Jenine asked. She looked worried. I shook my head.

“You sure? You look kinda sickly,” I nodded. He stepped forward and put his hand to my forehead once, finding it was less cold than the rest of my body. He still shivered. Shrugging, he put his hands behind his head. “If you say so. If you need help, though, I’ll take you to the nurse’s office.” I attempted to shake off the heat in my face. I smiled at Jacob.

“I’m okay! Thanks, though,” I said, surprised by his random kindness. He shrugged. He turned around again, walking forwards. Jenine looked at me for a minute more in concern, but turned away.

“Looks like someone has found true love!” I spun around to see where the voice had come from. It was the Italian girl, Maria. I had met her before- she spilled milk on my shoe during lunch a few days before. “I saw your little ‘accident’. Sure looked purposeful to me!”

“Accident?” I asked. She smirked at me, and cackled to herself.

“I know your secret.” She said. I instantly froze, and my eyes widened it surprise. Did she know I was a vampire?! “You have a crush on someone!” I instantly fell forward in surprise.

“Eh?!” I looked up at her. “Who?” She have me a confused look.

“Don’t you know? You just ran into him. You should know who you are seriously crushing on,” she said. Did she mean the boy I had just run into? “Do you even know him? He’s a good friend of mine. I could introduce him to you. His name-” She was cut off by Miss Michaelson approaching her from behind and bonking the back of her head.

“Get to class, childer! This is no time to be goofing around in the hallways!” The teacher said, wagging her finger playfully.

“Talk to you later, kay?” Maria said to me, and ran off.

“Hey, wait!” I said, reaching out towards her. “What was his name?!”

“Co…!” Was all I had heard. She had called it over her back while running into a classroom. I silently muttered to myself. It didn’t get me any farther. I figured I should give up the hunt on the poor C-boy. After all, I had never been this interested in a human before. I incorporated all the details of him, nevertheless. The boy had a freezing atmosphere around his body- although, when I touched him, he was scalding hot. He was tough as stone, and incredibly pale. The coincidences were too great.

“What if he’s not human?” I asked myself. I sighed in defeat, remembering when I had seen the boy bleeding. Vampires couldn’t bleed, and it was almost impossible to break the skin of a vampire to draw blood. I hung my head, entering my sixth period classroom, algebra 2. Existing for 50 years or more, and I still did not understand it. I entered the classroom.

“Welcome to Algebra 2. I am Mr. Dunham, and I will be teaching you today. I only say this because I heard we had new students, and I was not sure which one is new, so I will introduce myself anyhow.” He said.

“Isn’t it kind of sad when you don’t know your own students?” Came a voice. I looked over to see Jacob with his head rested on his hand.

“Who said that? Was it you?” The man said, pointing to the boy next to Jacob. I saw it was Andrew, the boy from the lunch table. “I have the power to fail you for this entire year, for your information.” Andrew looked terrified, and I could tell he was trying to make himself look innocent.

“It was me, dimwit! And, even if you did fail us, we would retake it and have you again. Would you jeopardize your own job and fail a student, two years in a row? Don’t you think the school authorities would have you discovered by then?” Jacob said again, louder. Mr. Dunham stared straight at him, yet Jacob appeared unfazed. Mr. Dunham looked as though he might explode.

“I will not take this treatment from a student!” He said, red-faced.

“How do you know I’m a student? I could just be some street-wanderer who walked in. You wouldn’t know the difference. Heck, I could be your son and you wouldn’t realize it.” Jacob said. I winced. He was taking a huge risk, disrespecting an explosive teacher like Mr. Dunham.

“I will give you lunch detention, young sir!”

“And how will you know I even attend? You can’t even remember my face, which is why you don’t even call us students by our names. Don’t you think it’s pathetic?” Jacob said, relaxing his hand. “But after all, you are you. I’d like to see you try and get me in trouble, or even try to fail me. Face it- you wouldn’t have an authority. You don’t even have authority over your own respect. Sad.” Said Jacob, finishing up by putting his hands behind his head and leaning back into his chair. Mr. Dunham slammed his hands on his desk.

“I will not take this disrespect!” He pulled out a meter stick. As much as I didn’t care, a couple whacks to the head would attract attention from authorities… And might hurt Jacob (although that would be an improvement). Crap. You’ve done it now, Jacob! I said to myself. I picked up my pencil, pretending to walk over to the pencil sharpener. Mr. Dunham failed to notice me. When he pulled up the stick in front of Jacob’s head, in flash I was knocking it from the teacher’s hand and sending it soaring through the air. I caught it, standing between the angered Algebra teacher and the slightly afraid Jacob.

“Violence is prohibited, from students and teachers. Control your anger.” I said. Mr. Dunham glared at me, but turned back, snatching the meter stick from my hand. Students were gaping in awe, some were even clapping quietly. I turned to Jacob, giving him a furious glare. He shrugged, looking slightly scared. I saw him sigh in relief before I took my seat.

“Open your books and do the pages on the board! NOW!” screamed the aging man, furious. He spat onto his teachers’ guide when he spoke. “Any other interruptions and you will be with me at lunch for the rest of your young lives!”

‘Young… What a coincidence. Not to say I’m old- I’m just, not as young as I used to be. Then again, technically, I don’t age. That means… I’m only… Fifteen, right? Well, 47or 67 or something, to be exact, but… Geez, I sound much older when you say it like that. But going back to the original subject, how old does that--’

“Psst!” An extremely loud attempt of a whisper pounded on my eardrums, interrupting my thoughts. I looked up for a moment to Mr. Dunham. He was staring straight at me, but when I saw him, he looked straight down, sweating slightly. Guess I have more slack this year. I turned to see who had tried to surreptitiously notify me of his existence. It was Andrew. “What kind of candy do you want at my house?” I sighed.

 

*            *            *

 

I was lying on my bed, staring up at the dark ceiling. I lay completely covered in my day clothes, not bothering to change out like other humans did. My covers were thrown off of my bed, left to the untamed abyss of my bedroom floor. I closed my eyes, trying to go to sleep. All I needed were a few hours, and I would find myself nourished for another immortal day. Until I got thirsty. But-! That would happen when it happened. That was a problem for an entire other day.

I began to let my mind wander, taking in everything that had happened. I began to think about the boy. I summed up everything about him. To me, he was just an interest to me, which would only last a few decades before his death. I sighed, thinking about how I tried to limit the few relations I had, for they would end soon anyway. I would lose everyone I knew, whether I liked it or not. There was nothing I could do about it. My immortality was a curse. I silently cursed to myself.

‘If we were meant to exist, we would be normal. If we were meant to be here, we would live and die like everything else in the world. And we can’t live or die. What does that make us? Killing machines! We are meant to kill humans. That is what we were made for. It’s a curse, a one-way road. Once you are born as a vampire, there’s no going back.’ I screamed in my head. I sighed, calming myself down. Every time I start to think about my vampiric existence, I only ended up in an endless rant with myself. I sighed again. I seemed to be doing that a lot nowadays. I opened my eyes to see something glowing on my ceiling. Two lights, equidistant. At first I thought two fireflies has flown in, but I realized what they were soon enough.

Two dark red eyes were staring straight at me. As soon as I realized that they were, I launched myself up, swinging my open hand up. My sharp claws went straight through the spot the person has been sitting. They had moved away. I sensed their presence behind me and spun around with my claws out. The shadow ducked away, and out my open window, which had not been open when I retired for the night. I stood completely still, remaining alert. After a few minutes, I relaxed, retracting my claws. Yes, I had retracting claws. I don’t know why, normal people didn’t seem to have them. They didn’t seem to have my strength either, but isn’t that just a vampire thing? Or am I my own race? I scowled to myself, finding that asking myself questions wasn’t getting me any answers. Perhaps that was a good thing- if I actually answered myself, then I had real problems to deal with.

Reviews

[Mark]

your book is intriguing and suitably different from other vampire series's i have heard before. but i would bounce a few things off you.

1 your vampire seems like she weighs 40000000 tons. when she merely falls on the concrete it gives the reader the image of her falling excessively fast and way too hard. i appreciate that your trying to emphasize the indestructible strength of the vampires but think about it. after 1000 years your bound to have some agility lol. :P

2random spelling errors or typos just in there places lol. certain elements of your phrasing could be more consistent. i liked it when you were having "lindsay" speak in a more elegant tongue.

i know your not finished but right now so between chapters seems fairly choppy kinda loses the flow. if you did want specific's about your phrasing id be happy to go back through and tell you how i see it lol.

i dunno just tryin to help im no superstar big shot writer either but im a college student with a few published poems under his hat lol. thnx for the read :) i always enjoy a good fantasy