Betrayal

A young adult Mallory learns betrayal comes in many forms

Betrayal

 

They had nothing to say to each other.  It was enough they had spent the last two days fighting, talking, fighting, talking and now no more words found their way into each other’s heads.  All had been expressed, all had been said.

            She looked over her shoulder at the room, her room, her sanctuary.  Her belongings were neatly stored on shelves and in drawers, posters on her walls were neatly hanging in rows and the floor was immaculate.  Her bed neatly made, as always and her computer hummed quietly in the corner.  She sighed as she signed off.  They fought before, but this was the worst. 

            She went to the bathroom and washed her face.  A close look into her pale blue eyes betrayed her inner feelings.  Her eyes bore the dark circles of a person lacking in sleep, not eating well and crying on top of it all.  Why shouldn’t she cry?  She was heartbroken over the break-up.  Two years of her life was shattered by one posting, and she hated him.

            Hated him for all the hurt he just caused her, hated him for betraying her trust in him, hated him for posting that picture from the beach.  To most, it would seem innocent enough, but to her and those who knew her well, it was a deep, dark scandal.   How could he do this to her and her friends?  He knew they were all good girls, he knew how she felt about that picture and yet he posted it anyway.  That was only the start of their trouble.

            Yes, she went to the beach when she should have been working her shift.  She took the day off, so there’s no harm in that, right?  Her supervisor said she deserved the day off, her first in over a year.  She worked hard, and she needed to take a sanity break.

Her swimsuit was stunning and she had the body to show off as well.  Even that was not a problem. 

            It was history, they were history and nothing would ever change that.  The picture said it all, and he had to post it.   Mallory didn’t have many secrets from her friends.  She did try to hide what she did late at night, when things go bump in the night.  Never did she have to worry about the daylight hours, until now. 

            She trusted Jonas with her life’s secret, never knowing he was a betrayer.  Mallory’s best friend learned she was a slayer only after Mallory had to save her from a Graveling who wanted her as a midnight snack.  Actually, her friend was probably going to feed a generation of Gravelings, but that’s beside the point.  Mallory’s friend Amy was a virgin at twenty-three, and that made her too tempting for an evil creature who needed innocent blood ever so often. 

            Amy ignored Mallory’s warnings that night, so she had to follow her.  The Graveling was sneaky, stealthy and nasty.  It’s cold eyes glared at Mallory as she followed, but the scent of fresh innocent blood trailed Amy very closely and it intoxicated the nasty night demon, clouding its judgment so completely it could not break off its quest.

            When it pounced on Amy, it went straight to the source of her scent.  Amy had no way of knowing her late night stroll to ease her cramps sent this creature insane and placed her life at risk.  Mallory was ready, stun gun in hand and stopped the night creature in its tracks.  The short blast knocked Amy unconscious, sparing her from the grisly sight of the Graveling in its death throes as Mallory hit it with a larger dose of electrical power.  Its body lay in a smoldering heap, flesh melting off its bones from the intense reaction with electricity. 

            Mallory quickly moved Amy to safety as other Gravelings would follow them after feasting on the fallen scout.  To her surprise, Scott was in the park as well.  He helped her move Amy to a bench and helped to wake her. 

            She remembered the creature and pressed Mallory for the truth.  She told Amy everything, as much as Amy could tolerate anyway, and had to live with her roommate’s suspicious eye on her for the rest of the semester.  For some reason known only to the night demons themselves, Penn State was home to some nasty little creatures and Mallory dealt with many of them. 

            Scott found out about Mallory in much the same way, except a very young Graveling, posing as a mangy squirrel tried to attack him in broad daylight.  Mallory sighed to herself as she quickly pulled her stun gun and went into action.  Scott fell backwards as the squirrel leapt at him, allowing Mallory the angle to stop the hideous little creature in mid-flight. 

            Scott was shaken up by the attack, but refused to let it show.  He refused Mallory’s hand as she offered to help him up, but he did let her help brush the dirt and leaves from the back of his coat. 

            “Never seen a squirrel do that before,” he confessed. 

            “Wasn’t a squirrel, but that’s beside the point,” Mallory teased.  “It caught you off-guard and I warned you to stay on your toes.  Now that they know you are with me, you are fresh blood and fair game for any of these creatures.”

            “Lucky me,” he scoffed.  “What are you, some sort of vampire hunter?”

            “A Slayer, and I don’t kill vampires, unless they come for me.  They have their place.”

            “I was joking,” he protested.  “I wasn’t serious, but you are?”

            They had been together over a year then and Mallory was content to let things stay as they were until that day.  She quickly pulled him aside and kissed him to keep him from asking anything else in the open. 

            “Come with me, and don’t ask anything until we’re alone,” she demanded. 

            He followed her, looking around him with a suspicious eye at everything that moved, especially the squirrels.  When they found a quiet spot, she made sure no one else was around and she told Scott her entire story.  Starting with the night she killed her first adult Graveling using her own innocent body as bait, she explained what she was to Scott. 

            “Slayer?  Innocent looking little Mallory kills things that go bump in the night?”  His expression was exactly what Mallory expected, one of disbelief and amazement all in one. 

            “We keep order in the world, between them and us.  One of them steps out of line, they must stop attacking humans or pay the price.  That’s where we come in.  The Gravelings are sneaky little nasties who love to prey dying animals, but when they turn on innocent human flesh, they get very nasty, almost intoxicated with the taste of human blood and they have to be stopped.  That’s where we come in.”

            “Nasty much?”

            “Yeah, more than you may want to know.”

            She told Scott about the secret and trusted him to keep it to himself.  Only the most trusted could ever know the identity of a Slayer.  Too much could go wrong, and the death of a Slayer left a void that was very hard to fill.  Slayers are born, not trained and many in the new-age moralities shunned the task.  Finding some of the night demons was harder now in part to the Goth looking makeup and attire, once loved by only the human forms of such night demons. 

            Their relationship began to suffer after that day, and then he suggested they go to the beach.  She thought it was the perfect way to get away from Penn State for a short time and patch up the relationship, or end it cleanly.

            She decided it best to meet Scott at the beach.  It would go better for them both should they break up.  A long ride back from the beach would be awkward at best should that occur. 

            Scott was there ahead of her, and the day was perfect.  She changed quickly into her bright green bikini, a suit which turned heads every time she wore it.  She liked the attention she drew, and Scott liked the suit a lot as well.  She felt very good as she spread her blanket out beside Scott and lay down beside him. 

            He greeted her with a quick kiss in the cheek, one that promised nothing, and gave nothing away.  He seemed distant and avoided direct eye contact with Mallory.  That troubled her a bit, but she followed him into the water as he decided to be a little warmer towards her and frankly, less of a jerk. 

            Mallory felt safe in the water, she felt secure here in this public place.  No night demons frequented the water, or the beach for that matter and much less in broad daylight. 

            “Hey, why go so far out?” she asked as Scott continued to swim into deeper water. 

            “Good exercise, don’t you think?” he protested as he playfully splashed water into Mallory’s face.  Mallory splashed Scott back and raced him to an outcropping of rock where they climbed out of the water to rest.

            “I know things haven’t been that great the past few weeks,” Mallory started.  Scott cut her off quickly.

            “You gave me a lot to think about,” he defended.  “You can’t expect me to just go about my life and act like nothing ever happened.  Something attacked me, and you are something I never knew existed.”

            “It’s not like I’m an alien or anything like that.  I just do this job, like my father did.  I’m born into this.”

            “Yeah, and it’s still hard to accept.  Supernatural beings killed by mortal humans?  Our lives can be in danger from things we can’t see until it’s too late, yet you can see them and intervene in the nick of time to save us.”

            “We don’t always get there in time.  Amy would have been killed that night if I hadn’t followed her.”

            “I know.  I was there and I still don’t believe what I saw.  That was one nasty little creature, then it vanished without a trace.”

            “I told you, they came and finished it off.  They eat their dead.  It’s their way, and that one stepped out of line.”

            Scott still argued with Mallory as they sat on the rocks, then to end the conversation, he jumped into the water and raced back to the beach where a few of their friends were gathering. 

            “Wow, I didn’t know this was going to turn into a party.  What’s up?” Mallory asked. 

            “It’s a party of sorts, but not the kind you or your kind like.”

            As he raced up the beach, Scott kept his distance from Mallory.  She thought he was going to get her towel for her, but instead, he did the unthinkable.  Scott, her trusted boyfriend, betrayed her.  He betrayed her right there, and she had been so gullible a newby Graveling could have taken her out. 

            Mallory soon realized Scott was angry with her.  His face gave the fact away as he turned the camera on her.  As the camera clicked off several frames, the group surrounded Mallory, leaving her no path to escape.  She began to feel fear once again, the same sort of fear she felt when the first Graveling stalked her. 

            She felt exposed as Scott started talking about her.  The revealing bikini did not reveal as much about her as Scott revealed in his extended accusations rolled from his tongue.  Her father warned her of this.  As Scott’s words burned in her ears, she caught the shocked expressions of those closing the circle around her. 

            “Let the Slayer be revealed!” boomed a loud voice from the back of the crowd.   

            Now Scott and the rest of the crowd looked very frightened as the dark figure entered the circle.  Mallory standing in the middle of everyone had to think quickly as the creature in human form entered.  She grabbed two girls close to her height and pulled them into the center with her.  They pulled two more girls with them so five girls stood in the center of the circle, the circle of betrayal. 

            “You promised me the one!” it bellowed as it whipped to the center to face Mallory. 

            “I delivered her to the circle,” Scott protested.  “She found a way.”

            “You know the circle must have the one.  I can only accept the one from the center.  There can be no doubt.  The circle is void!”  The human form left to vanish into the falling darkness. 

            Mallory was crushed.  Scott tried to reveal her to a shape shifter, one of the feared night demons.  The girls she drew into the center glared at Scott, and helped Mallory gather her things as she prepared to leave.  The rest of the crowd dispersed; disappointed that Scott’s promise was not fulfilled. 

            Mallory knew what that promise was.  He promised them they would see something fantastic, a show of mysticism and magic.  All they had to do was play along and they would see the show of a lifetime.  Mallory foiled his plans and he failed to deliver on his promise to them. 

            Then there were the photos.  They could reveal her, and that was what Scott posted.  Even creatures of darkness used the internet these days, so she had to watch over her shoulder even more now than ever before. 

            “Thanks so much Scott,” she thought to herself as she checked her newest weapon.  The powerful stun gun fired blue-white arcs from its contact points.  Powerful enough to stop a charging elephant, this would be her front line weapon against anything she faced. 

            The shape-shifter knew who she was.

 

Reviews

[Ice Queen of the Vampir..]

Mmm-hmm, I really enjoyed this. I'm behind in reviewing all the Mallory stories but I've read them and you do a great job writing them. Awesome write!!!

Heather