The End of the Vampire

                He suddenly lunges at me with his hands reaching outwards to grab me. On instinct, I quickly pull the satchel off of me and I swing the bag towards him. It whacks him in the face, making his fangs dig into his upper lip.
                He lets out a yelp of pain as he stumbles backwards, holding his bleeding lip. He pulls his fangs out of his upper lip, making blood drip onto his bottom lip and onto his pale chin. He wipes away the blood from his face. He glowers at me. “That wasn’t a good idea,” he growls.
                A shiver runs down my spine. I can feel his anger from here. The hatred in his eyes is proof enough that he wants to kill me. Crap, I nervously think, What do I do? I can’t fight him off with my noodle arms!
                Just then, Emmett lunges at me again. As he jumps towards me, I leap to the side, dodging his attack. He lands on his feet in the spot I was standing at moments ago. Whoa. He’s fast, I think.
                “Piper, it’s useless to keep running,” he remarks.
                I raise an eyebrow. “What am I supposed to do? Let you eat me?” I say sarcastically.
                “Yes.” He darts towards me with his hands outstretched towards me. His eyes are wild with hunger. The look in his eyes sends me running. He looks scarier than ever.
                I suddenly trip over my own two feet, making me clumsily fall onto the ground with a yelp of surprise. My elbows and knees throb with pain as I land on the hard, cold ground. Piper, you idiot, I bitterly think, Why do you have to fall at the most inconvenient of times?
                I look behind my shoulder to see Emmett standing over me. My heart pounds in fear. He’s caught me.
                “I told you, Piper. Running was useless.”
                Fear washes over, freezing me in place. I try to stand up, but my body won’t move. My body only trembles instead. Oh, God, what should I do? I wonder, trying to figure out a way to save myself.
                Emmett gets on his knees and he grabs my arm. I wince in pain at his tight grip. He opens his mouth wide enough to fit my entire fist in it.
                He’s about to bite down on my wrist when I suddenly swipe my free fist across his face on instinct. He grunts in pain when my fist connects with his cheek. He releases his grip on me to hold his swelling cheek.
                I look at my fist and think, Thank you, body, for doing that.
                As Emmett mutters about how much pain he’s in, I quickly jump to my feet and sprint towards the door. There’s no way I’m staying near Emmett any longer.
                Before I can open the door, the door swings open and Ezra steps outside. “Piper, I looked for them, but I couldn’t find them.” He suddenly notices my frantic look and he curiously asks, “Did you find them?”
                “Yeah,” I reply, pointing towards Emmett who’s slowly rising to his feet with his hand still gently placed on his swelling cheek.
                Ezra looks to where I’m pointing. “Oh,” he mutters, not looking enthusiastic about finding Emmett.
                I agree with his lack of enthusiasm. I want to run away from this terrible situation and safely leave the school with Ezra and Hannah, but I know I can’t do that. Emmett would just find someone else to become his prey. I have to stop him from doing that.
                But how?
                “Ezra, what should we do?” I ask, my voice trembling with fear as I nervously watch Emmett turn his head to give me a deep glare of hatred. His icy glare sends me shivering.
                “I can handle this,” Ezra confidently says to my surprise. I thought he wouldn’t have had a clue of what to do.
                Just as Emmett begins to charge towards us, the ground trembles beneath my feet. It reminds me of the time the ground shook when I first met Ezra.
                Roots emerge from the ground and they wrap around Emmett’s legs. The branches from the bushes stretch towards Emmett, becoming longer as they move towards him, and they wrap around his arms. The plants lift him in the air, far from the ground. He struggles to break free from the plants’ grips, but he can’t release himself. He’s trapped in the air.
                I stare at the plants in amazement. Ezra’s powers still astound me. It’s incredible to see something so strange yet fascinating happen.
                “See? Handled,” Ezra says, looking proud to have captured the vampire.
                My amazement subsides. “Are you sure anyone won’t notice that?” I ask, wondering if anyone will notice Emmett hanging in the air with plants wrapped around him.
                Ezra’s prideful look vanishes. “What’s more important is to find a way to get rid of him,” he says, completely ignoring my question, “What does the journal say about that?”
                I remember reading that the journal stated that to kill a vampire, it needed to be beheaded or burned. I wonder why Ezra wants to know this information. “Do you want to kill him or something?” I question, wondering if Ezra has intentions of killing the vampire.
                “Yeah,” he says simply, seeming to not care at the idea of becoming Emmett’s murderer.
                I’m shocked to hear him say something so vile. “We’re not doing that,” I quickly say. We’re not going to kill anyone. We’re going to solve this problem rationally.
                “Then what other ideas do you have in mind?” he asks, leaving me in a tight spot. I don’t know what else to do to solve this problem.
                I suddenly hear something snap. I look away from Ezra to see Emmett breaking the grip the plants have on him by ripping the plants apart. One of his wrists is free.
                “Is that supposed to be happening?” I ask Ezra, guessing that Emmett shouldn’t be breaking free from the plants’ grips.
                Worry settles on his face. “No.”
                Another snap. One of his legs is free.
                “Ezra, do something!” I urgently shout. We can’t release Emmett yet. He’ll try to kill us.
                The branches of the bushes try to wrap around his arms again, but he grabs the branches before they can restrain him. He brutally tears the branches off of the bushes and throws them aside. “No!” Ezra shrieks, watching the torn branches fall to the ground in horror. He dramatically falls to his knees. “No, no, no! How could you do that?”
                Another snap and another. I look away from the whimpering Ezra to see Emmett free from his restraints. The plants that confined him are torn from the ground and tossed aside, making Ezra almost cry.
                I’m about to cry, too. Emmett isn’t confined any longer. The anger burning his eyes tells me that he won’t leave Ezra and me alone without ripping us apart first. “That wasn’t very smart of you,” he growls, his voice filled with venom.
                “No,” Ezra roars, his voice as deep as it was when I first met him, “That wasn’t very smart of you.”
                The ground shakes beneath my feet. It’s much more violent than it was when I made Ezra angry when we first met. I watch in shock as thick, pale roots emerge from the ground. The roots dart towards Emmett. I watch in dismay as the root aims for his neck. If the roots pierce through Emmett's neck, it would kill him.
                Emmett leaps to the side, but he isn’t out of the root’s reach. It cuts the side of his neck, marking his skin with a thin scratch that dribbles blood.
                I stare at Ezra in horror. He’s trying to kill Emmett. “Ezra, what are you doing?” I yell, giving him a deep scowl. He isn’t supposed be trying to kill him. We were going to find a different way to solve this issue together.
                “I’m going to kill him!” he shouts angrily.
                Ezra wasn’t this angry until Emmett hurt the plants. He’s going to kill him over plants. “Aren’t you being a little too overprotective over those plants?” I question. That wasn’t a good question to ask because right after I ask him that, roots emerge from the ground underneath me and tightly wrap around my arms and legs, restraining me from being able to move. I try to pull my wrists away from the roots’ grips, but I’m not strong enough to break free from them.
                I give Ezra a deep glare. “Ezra, what are you doing?” I ask angrily. He’s supposed to be on my side. He isn’t supposed to be fighting against me.
                “I’m a nature spirit. I’m supposed to guard and take care of the plants, but look at what he’s done to them! I have to make sure he doesn’t do this again and I don’t need you getting in my way, Piper!”
                “So, you’re just going to kill him? What the heck, Ezra? That’s a bit of an overreaction!” I shout, but he gladly ignores me. He continues to make the roots attack Emmett.
                I watch in apprehension as another root leaves a scratch on Emmett’s neck. “Try again, plant-boy!” Emmett laughs.
                Another root rises from the ground behind Emmett. He doesn’t seem to notice the root darting towards his neck. Before the root can pierce through his neck, I shout in a panic, “Emmett, behind you!”
                Emmett turns his head to look behind his shoulder far too late. The root slices through part of his neck, cutting off a patch of his skin. It isn’t enough to kill him, but it’s enough to make him wail in pain.
                The set of fangs in his mouth suddenly reverts back to a set of human teeth. His fangs! I think in astonishment, Why did they suddenly change?
                Despite Emmett kneeling on the ground helplessly, holding his bleeding neck, the roots continue to dart towards him to attack him. Emmett is unarmed and unprepared for the attacks. This time he will die.
                I can’t let that happen.
                “Ezra, that’s enough!” I screech at the top of my lungs. The roots immediately stop moving as if they’ve been suddenly paralyzed. They sink back into the ground from where they came from.
                The roots wrapped around me release me and they return to the ground with the other roots. The branches of the bushes return to their normal size.
                The scowl disappears from Ezra’s face. He looks at me apologetically, but I give him a frown instead. He should have known when to stop attacking Emmett.
                I run to Emmett’s side despite the danger. I need to know if he’s okay. I need to know if he’s even still a vampire.
                Emmett looks up at me with fear and anger etched into his eyes. “Don’t come near me ever again,” he snaps, slowly rising to his feet. His words make pain settle in my chest. No one has spoken to me sounding so hurt before.
                “Emmett, we can help you,” I say softly. I don’t want him to be afraid or angry at me. I just want to help him get the medical help he needs.
                “Piper, look at this,” Ezra says with amazement, catching my attention. I look to see Ezra holding the patch of skin that was cut from Emmett’s neck. A vampire fang is embedded in the patch of skin.
                I stare at it in fascination. How did that get there? I wonder. I’m about to ask Emmett, but when I look up to see him, he’s gone. I scan the area until I see him wandering to the front of the school.
                “Should we stop him?” Ezra curiously asks.
                I remember when his fangs disappeared when the patch of skin with the fang embedded in it fell from his neck. Something tells me that the fang he had in his neck is the reason why he ever had the set of vampire fangs. I don’t know how it’s possible, but there’s no other explanation to explain how the phenomenon happened.
                Ezra must realize this, too, since he isn’t looking at Emmett as before when he was a danger to everyone.
                “No,” I reply, “I think he’s fine now.”
                Ezra plucks the fang from the skin and he stares at it curiously. “This makes me wonder how many more vampires there are and if they’re all like him.”
                His remark doesn’t settle well in my stomach. I don’t even want to think about vampires anymore. “Well, if there are, I guess we’ll deal with them later.”
                “Yeah.” There’s a short moment of silence before Ezra asks, “Want to go back to the dance?”
                After everything that’s happened since the dance started, I quickly come to a conclusion of saying, “Not really.”
         ***
                After recollecting ourselves, Ezra and I walk back to the gym where the homecoming dance is being held. Despite my desire to go home, I know I can’t leave Hannah alone at the dance. That would make me a horrible friend.
                The two of us walk into the gym to see Hannah leaning against the wall near the table of food with a look of boredom engraved onto her face. When she notices us, a grin spreads across her face and she comes running towards me. “Piper, I thought you left!” she remarks.
                “I wouldn’t leave you here alone,” I say, giving her a small smile.
                She looks at the two of us before asking, “Do you guys know where Emmett went?”
                Ezra and I exchange glances. We both know that we can’t tell Hannah anything about what happened to Emmett. We can’t let her know about what Emmett was. “No, sorry. I think he might have left,” I lie.
                Hannah looks crestfallen. I feel bad to have said that, but I couldn’t think of something else to tell her about Emmett’s disappearance.
                “Actually,” Ezra states, “Before he left, he told me to tell you that he had to leave because, uh, well, he got a call from his mom saying his cat was sick and he was worried about his cat, so, uh, he left.”
                ‘His cat was sick?’ Ezra, are you serious? I think. Although I’m glad that he’s trying to make Hannah feel better, there’s no way that Hannah will believe his lie. It’s too stupid to believe.
                A smile spreads across her face. “Really? I understand then! I hope his cat feels better.”
                How? How did she believe that? I wonder in amazement. Maybe his lie isn’t as stupid as I thought it was.
                “So,” she continues, “Do you guys want to stay here any longer?”
                “No,” Ezra and I say in unison. We’ve both have had enough with this homecoming dance.
                She laughs. “Let’s go home then.”
                I remember Hannah being excited to go to this dance. I don’t want her to leave because we want to. “Are you sure you want to leave?” I ask.
                “Yeah, I do want to. This dance is boring!” she replies, beginning to look as bored as the other kids mingling in the gym. I smile, relieved that she wants to go home as much as we do. The three of us can finally go home after having to go to this horrible homecoming dance.
                As the three of us walk out of the school building and to the bus stop, Hannah tells Ezra and me how boring the dance was.
                I think she would have changed her mind if only she knew what we were doing during the dance.