The Healer's Guardian

Still Me

A girl wakes up in a strange house and there is a crazy guy with her... 

I woke up this morning and felt different...I don't know what it was, but I liked it. I sat up 'this isn't my room' I thought looking around, it wasn't even my house. I heard footsteps so I lied back down and pretended to be asleep.

"I know you're awake, your heart is racing I can hear it," a young man's voice said, walking closer to me. I felt a tug at the back of my shirt and I was sitting up.

"Open your eyes!" He ordered growling, still holding my shirt. I did as I was told. 

"Good girl...Phoebe, isn't it?" He asked smiling. I nodded, scared, but he did the strangest thing... he hugged me. My jaw dropped in shock; I thought he was going to kill me! 

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" I asked confused, he stopped hugging me and held me at arm's length.

"I'm AJ, from when you were younger, we were best friends." He smiled excited. I nodded nervously, he seemed crazy I'd never met him before! 

"I'm sorry, I don't remember..." he cut me off. 

"It'll come back to you eventually," he smiled. The look in his light hazel eyes told me that he was friendly. I flung my short, black ponytail off my shoulder and stood up, I felt woozy so I sat back down.

I'd felt something funny on my neck, so I rubbed it on the left side... little wet holes, I looked at my fingers and I instantly knew why they were wet. It was blood, my blood. I looked at AJ, he was smiling at me. I started blacking out, I was fainting and I didn't know whether it was from blood loss or seeing my own blood... or something else.

When I woke up for the second time, I was in a queen sized bed and AJ was nowhere to be seen so I stood up, I wasn't woozy anymore. 

"Feeling better sweetheart?" AJ asked standing behind me. He had been in the doorway when I woke up. I couldn't speak... not because I had nothing to say, but because I literally couldn't say anything.

"..." I opened my mouth. He came over to me and hugged my shoulders. 

"I'm sorry baby," he kissed my cheek. 

"My boyfriend... Cooper..." I started, he cut me off.

"I'm your boyfriend!" AJ growled suddenly standing up and hovering over me. I cowered back, scared of this new, angry AJ. I finally recognized him; he was the guy from the gas station, the one who had asked me out, the guy who... I'd rejected... 

"The gas station... you asked me out... I..." I stopped, realizing why he had taken me hostage.

"Yes, yes! You're beginning to remember," he grinned, his gray eyes glistening. 

"Are you gonna kill me?" I asked fearfully backing away into the posts of the bed. 

"You're already dead, you're one of us," he said sinisterly. I froze. 

"What? I'm one of what?" I stared at him scared out of my wits, AJ grinned. 

"A vampire," I then got up and lunged at him furiously.

It took me a few days to get the hang of my new speed, strength and hunger. I got it eventually though, as much as AJ scared me. Sometimes and I hated him without a doubt, I had to admit he was a good teacher at this vamp stuff. I finished learning all the positives and negatives of being a vampire I left AJ behind. I headed towards Michigan, a place where there is a fair bit of crime... not too much though.

"Thanks for everything AJ, but I've gotta go... I have a vampire life to learn... on my own." I showed him half a smile and waved goodbye before beginning the two hour super-human run to Detroit, Michigan.

I checked my phone, there were two messages from my boyfriend Cooper. 

"Meet @ noon 4 lunch" and "where r u? I'm getting worried". So I gave him a call 

"Hey, Cooper... I know, I left my phone at a friend's place and they couldn't get hold of me... I can't meet up for a while... I can't tell you, yet... I love you too. Always." I hung up and I expected a tear to roll down my cheek, but vampires don't cry.

I arrived at 4:30 pm and it was starting to get dark. The sky was a pinky-reddish color, beautiful. Phoebe tries to move on with her vampire life but when she runs into another vamp that she recognizes. Things change... 

I found an abandoned house on a quiet street to live and ripped off to two wooden panels blocking the door and walked in. It was much quieter than I was used to. I used to live with my parents, older brother and younger sister, a noisy household. Now I lived on my own, on a quiet street... alone... forever.

I decided to go back to school under a new name 'Brianna Woods'. When I got to the school though, everyone was staring at me. I went straight to the office to collect my timetable but on my way I bumped into a junior from the school and she fell. 

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention" I apologized helping her up. 

"It's OK, I wasn't paying attention either... I'm Tracey by the way." She smiled. She was beautiful; her long, brown hair was pulled into a clip with only her layered fringe dangling in her face. 

"I'm Ph...I mean Brianna, I'm new to the school." I explained, smiling back. We both stood up at the same time as the bell went. 

"Bye." We both waved as we parted ways, I left for the office while Tracey went to her class.

I was marked down as late for class by my ancient history teacher and I ended up with a lunchtime detention. I didn't responded to my new name in class when the teacher was asking for answers to questions. 

"Brianna! Brianna! Yoo hoo! Bri..." He was calling me. The person I was sitting next to nudged me. 

"He's talking to you Brie." I turned around and saw whose voice that nudge belonged to. 

"Huh?" I sat up. 

"Thank you for finally gracing us with your attention Miss. Woods. Now the question is 'What is the truth about vampires?' Mr. Flounder asked. 'You don't wanna know' I thought. 

"They don't exist." I answered confidently. 

"Correct!" He smiled and continued on talking while I thought about what was going on in my life.

The day sped past and eventually it was time to go home I bumped into Tracey again but grabbed her before I knocked her over again. 

"Oh my gosh! Sorry Trace." I apologized, she looked up. 

"Brianna? Hi, how was your first day?" Tracey smiled giving me a hug. I hugged her back and slowly slid away again. AJ had taught me how much stronger vampires are compared to humans. 

"It was ok, school is school, but if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hang out with you tomorrow?" I leered keenly. 

"Sure, why not?" She smiled. We parted ways after a little more conversation and I walked away happy.

Tracey brought out something I thought I'd lost when I became a vampire, from what I'd seen in movies, read in books and learned from AJ, vampires were meant to be evil, kill. I wasn't like that though. I got a few blocks away and heard a scream, I turned towards the direction the scream was coming from and ran to help, proud of my new found goodness. I arrived seconds after the scream and found another vampire snacking on Tracey. 

"Hey!" I growled. The vampire's head snapped up. I could recognize that face anywhere. 

"Cooper?" I shrieked, he looked at me closer. 

"Phoebe?" He returned my shriek. 

"You're a vampire?" I asked, he threw Tracey to the ground and I ran to her. 

"Are you ok?" I asked her, she nodded. 

"Brianna, what's going on?" She asked trying to see me in the dark alleyway. 

"It doesn't matter, run! I'll find you tonight and explain... I think." I told her, and she ran.

Cooper gave me a furious look. 

"That was my dinner." He growled, I shook my head disgusted. 

"She's my friend, and how long have you been a vampire?" I asked. 

"20-25 years." He guessed then shrugged, "Give or take." Then he lunged at me, I guessed that it was because I had saved Tracey. racey and Phoebe/Brianna become closer friends 

I ducked and Cooper fell to the ground... hard. I ran a few meters, I felt he was close so I turned and kicked him in the mouth. 

"OW!" He yelped, then stood. 

"Ow? Jeez, you're a wimpy vampire." I scoffed. 

"I am not!" He said standing up and holding his jaw, it was bloody. I didn't remember my strength from when AJ taught me.

"Look we can argue about how wimpy you are later but for now I want you to leave and well leave, yeah that's all I think." I told him relaxing, he smirked. 

"That's all?" He kept the 'up-to-something' grin. 

"Don't kill anyone on your way out." I cautioned, "Or I will show you how wimpy you are." I finished. He frowned and walked away but not before mumbling that he'd kill me.

I walked home exhausted and when I got there I saw Tracey lying on my front porch, I ran over to her. 

"Tracey? Are you ok? I completely forgot about your bite." I told her while helping her to her feet. 

"It's ok." She smiled drowsily. We got inside and I carefully lowered her onto the old couch in one of the front rooms of the house before running through the house like a madwoman looking for something to stop the bleeding. I finally found some antiseptic cream and a hospital bandage and fixed up Trace. 

"Thanks... Who was that guy? Why did he call you Phoebe?" She questioned confused, I sat next to her and sighed. 

"He, Cooper is my... stalker, he calls me Phoebe coz he's insane." I lied, I hated doing it, but Tracey would flip out if she knew that I'm a vampire.

The two of us talked for about an hour or so before I showed Tracey to a bedroom and let her sleep while I crashed on the couch with my mobile phone and Tracey's. I put my number in her phone and her number in mine then I text her mother from Tracey's number saying that 'I'm just staying at a friend's place tonight, we were studying and lost track of time' so she wouldn't get into trouble... well, much trouble, her neck might bring up a few questions.

I woke Tracey up at 8 am so she could get ready for school. She did seem curious to know why I lived in such a dump. 

"Hey Brie, do you live here alone?" She asked. 

"Yeah." I nodded. 

"What about your parents? Brothers? Sisters?" She asked shocked. 

"I don't have any of the above. Not any that live around here anyway." I told her. Tracey looked sad for me, I gave her a hug and whispered in her hair that I was OK and she didn't need to worry about me.

We walked to school together and when we got there she pointed out Cooper and I tried not to snarl at him. Tracey and I quickly ran to the back gate of the school and sat down together. 

"I can't believe that guy has come to our school just to stalk you." Tracey scoffed while huffing and puffing. 

"I lied Trace." I told her. 

"What?" She asked looking at me confused. 

"He's not my stalker, he's my ex-boyfriend." I explained, Tracey gave me a foul look and grabbed her bag to leave.

"Wait! He's still dangerous." I yelled after her, getting up to chase her. 

"He's dangerous? You're the one lying! How do I know you won't hurt me?" She shook her head and turned to leave but Cooper was in front of her when she turned. 

"Cooper, leave her alone! She is an innocent girl." I begged before looking at Tracey regretting that I'd lied to her. Cooper punched Tracey then pushed me into the tree behind me hard.

I awoke in a jail cell with Tracey bloody in the same cell. 

"Trace, Tracey get up." I shook her gently. 

"What? I'll get you when I want breakfast mum." She mumbled as she weakly attempted swatting my hand away. 

"No, Tracey, get up!" I hissed, she sat up and got a fright. In a package with that fright was a scream, one that nearly deafened me. "What's going on?" She cried sliding closer to me. The cell wasn't even tall enough for us to stand in and the blood on Tracey's head was trickling down, making me slightly hungry.

"Tracey... get on the other side of the cell." I begged sliding myself away from her, I couldn't kill her, she'd been so nice to me when I first got to Michigan. She sat up and gave me a questioning look.

"Why? Brianna, why are you moving away from me?" She wiped the blood off her cheek and looked at me concerned.

"Are you squeamish with blood?" She asked. I nodded and looked away. I heard footsteps and my head snapped up while Tracey whimpered.

"Enjoying yourselves I hope." Cooper joked. He stopped walking when he reached the cell and knelt down to face us.

"I'm surprised you haven't eaten your friend by now, she is very tasty, I tasted it already... you are very strong-willed aren't you baby girl Phoebe?" He giggled reaching in the cell to grab my chin. I growled at him and felt my teeth grow.

"Get away from us!" I shouted and heard Tracey gasp. I was so shocked that she had seen my vampire face that it changed back. I turned to face her and she began to cry with her body curled up in a ball while sitting down.

"What are you?" She whispered between tears. I crawled over to her and sat beside her. 

"Vampire... he's one too, but I'm more safe than he is." I told Tracey as I held her close to me. Cooper giggled as he left the room.

"Your name's not Brianna is it?" Tracey asked me that night, I shook my head. 

"No... it's Phoebe." I whispered feeling guilty over the lies I had told Tracey since I'd met her.

*BANG* *CRASH* *BANG* 

Tracey and I jumped and looked around. 

"Who's there?" I asked as Tracey and I shifted ourselves on the ground so Tracey was away from the bars and I was in front of her. 

"Phoebe?" I heard someone call.

"AJ?" I yelled shimmying to the front of the bars to see what was going on. I saw someone face down on the ground with another person sitting on their back. The person on top stood up and ran to the bars. I saw AJ's face and smiled.

"Behind you!" I shouted when I saw Cooper had gotten up. AJ turned and got hit in the face with a trash can lid.

"Hey!" I scolded Cooper. He turned to me and growled before walking past the cell to get to AJ but I grabbed his ankle and he fell flat on his own face.

"Payback's a... not very nice thing." I told him a bit snobbish.

It took ages for the fight to end and I continued to interfere by grabbing the ankles and legs of Cooper whenever possible so AJ had more time to be on the offense. When the fight did end after AJ locked Cooper up in another cell he had found, AJ came back to us.

"I don't know where the keys are." Tracey said scared. AJ and I looked at her and smiled as he grabbed the lock and snapped it off. Tracey and I were quick to get out of the cell and run towards the exit with AJ following behind. Since AJ had driven his car here, we drove to my place and after Tracey got out I turned to AJ after he switched the car off and kissed him on the lips, at first he was shocked but after the shock wore off he began to kiss me back. "Thanks for saving me." I smiled then got out of the car and opened the front door, Tracey wolf-whistled at me and I blushed.

"Shh!" I hissed then walked inside first.

We settled inside and Tracey wouldn't stop staring at AJ. 

"So, are you the one who turned Br... Phoebe?" Trace asked fidgeting. 

"Yeah, and I don't regret it. She's not a snob that only cares about herself anymore." AJ smiled at me.

"Shut up, I wasn't that bad... ok maybe a little bit nasty, but some people deserved it." I glared at him but when he and Tracey laughed at me I decided it was funny enough to laugh at because that wasn't who I was anymore, I'd left that person behind.

Author's Note

ignore grammar problems, what do you think of the dialogue