Chapter 16

Anton was like Jesus; saving me from bad situations and all that. Instead of spending my day in detention, I got to train with one of my best friends, now that was just awesome. I seriously had to talk to Jake about asking Charlie to the masquerade before Ashley got in first. I really wanted those two to be together because after all of the bullshit we’ve been through, they deserve each other. After climbing a lot of stairs, we got to the strategy room that was exclusive to Anton's - well, I like to call it his secret ninja training club. When we got into the room, there was not only Jake, but also a girl with bright orange and black dreadlocks, dark mysterious eyes and dark, heavy eye makeup. She was definitely a Goth, judging by her dark clothing that she wore. She peered up from the ground upon our arrival and then Anton went to introduce her,

“Avril, Jake, this is…” Anton began but the girl cut him off,

“The name’s Blaze,” she smiled, her blinding-white teeth contrasting with her black attire.

“Avril,” I smiled in return; this Blaze chick looked like the kind of person who could kick major vampire a*s out on the battlefield and I would soon see evidence of that, right when Anton issued us our scenario. Jake soon introduced himself to Blaze and then Anton turned from relaxed into strict-teacher-mode in like 0.5 seconds. It was kind of scary he could do that; it was amazing, but scary. He led us into the practice room, which was so different from yesterday. He explained that there was a spell weaved on this room that always equipped it for all sorts of strategy scenarios.

“There was a witch in a different part of Skeldergate when the original Mavra was alive. She was a good friend of Mavra’s, before he was a wolf and then even though he was a wolf, they still remained in good friendships. At one stage, he asked if she could remove the curse; she told him no and they reached a compromise.” Blaze was yawning and Anton glared and then continued. “Mavra’s original vision was to create an army of werewolves to face up to the Valeskas. The original Colvin, also a good friend of Mavras, suggested using his site. And so from that day fourth, this became the strategy training room.” Jake and Blaze weren’t really convinced, but I was open-minded. I was a fricken half-wolf kid for crying out loud, anything’s possible in today’s world.

Anton moved to the control panel near the door that I could have sworn just appeared there out of nowhere. The room changed quickly from a normal metal room to one that was on a tropical island. There were authentic grains of cream coloured sand, realistic waves crashing on the beach at high tide and even the shrubs surrounding the entry to the beach. It had the heat of the blazing sun beaming down on it. I wondered how vampires could survive in the sunlight �" they couldn’t, so that was a little bit of a flawed plan on Anton’s behalf. He went out of the room and �" again with the religious references. Yep, I was definitely brought up at a Catholic orphanage �" like God’s voice or something coming from the sky, Anton explained what we had to do.

“You were at the beach one day, trying to get away from the pressures of everyday life and then you hear a scream coming from the shrubs near the entrance way to the beach. At first, you think nothing of it, but then, it gets louder and more intense and then you are compelled to see the racket. When you get to the shrubs, you see a vampire, draining the life from a mere human and then it smells your scent, drops the human to the floor and comes after you, ready to attack. What do you do to: a) get the human out safely b) make sure you remain unnoticed by the other people at the beach c) kill and dispose of the vampire and d) make sure no-one else is in danger and get out safely yourselves.” Blaze’s eyes lit up �" or at least I thought they did; they were so dark that I just couldn’t tell what emotions were in them at all. It would be fantastic to have that in a game of poker, I suddenly thought to myself. She would be a valuable team member. “You are to be placed at different parts of the beach never to meet up with the others. The first person to fulfil each task successfully earns the title of best wolf, until the next round, that is.” I looked at Jake and Blaze, who now had the same looks on their faces as mine; anticipation to start. At first, I didn’t know how he was going to segregate us and then big metal walls came down and Jake and Blaze had disappeared.

Let the games begin.

Soon, the walls were transformed into just never ending parts of the beach and I just wanted to sit here, soaking up the sun and relaxing, but I knew that if I did that, I would let my guard down and things could go wrong. Something we’d learned throughout our years of running from the vamps was: always be alert.

We didn’t know when the scream was going to happen but then God-Anton spoke to us,

“Relax and forget everything I told you at the start. Your time does not start until you hear the scream and if you anticipate the scream, the longer it will take.” You just told us heaps of things and now you’re telling us to forget them? What’s the point in that? I didn’t have to be told twice to relax. I love the beach but I Hate sand, like seriously. Once, I told Tegan that my life’s mission was to get rid of every single grain of sand on the planet. Look how that turned out. I thought I may as well relax while I was here. Removing my Chuck Taylors from my feet, I let the serene tune of the crashing waves fill my ears and then I sunk into the sand, willing its warmth to just bury me. But if it didn’t, that was okay too. Smiling and feeling my body relax; I let the sand course through my toes, closing my eyes, ready to drift off.

It was then when I heard it.

It’s nothing! Five more minutes and then if it happens again then I’ll... It grew louder and more urgent, this time.

“Son of a b***h!” I muttered; just when I was getting used to relaxing, I remembered where I was. My timer had begun.

I ran bare-footed into the shrub, regretting it instantly but I couldn’t see the vampire and then I moved and it was there; draining the blood from an innocent person. They make me sick. The vampire didn’t even need to look up from its prey to sense me. He came at me with great speed, so much, in fact, that when it came time to kill me, he could not stop himself in time and so I quickly ducked. Vampires are so stupid. Only just dodging him, I turned to face him. Never turn your back on a vampire. Trying not to be noticed by the other people that now filled the beach; I subtly slipped back into the shrub and waited for the vampire to make the first move.

Like a sucker, he came at me but it was with a lethal weapon �" one that I was not expecting. A little potion bottle and judging by the look on the vampire’s face, it was wolfsbane. That was something that could kill us even by touching our skin; it’s very hard to extract from plants. I was extra cautious now. Somehow, I had to get the semiconscious victim out first. Scooping her up in my arms, she was murmuring jargon like “vampire... beach...” and some random guy’s name; Chad I think it was. I rushed out onto the beach and picked my shoes up and then someone looked at me funny.

“Um, are you okay?” He asked; his brown, curly hair shining in the sunlight.

“Yeah, fine,” I smiled, “Just forgot my shoes.” It was really good being me sometimes because I was just such a good actress. I walked back into the shrubs, but the guy was watching me, so I had to go the long way; out the archway entrance to the beach and then “disappear” into the shrub. The girl was losing blood and from the nuns �" actually from Charlie, who had learnt it off a television, I’d learnt that if someone was ever gushing, you have to apply pressure and then put them in the recovery position. I made a makeshift bandage, with my jersey and my shoelaces, making it tight, so that she wouldn’t continue to bleed and then I put her in the recovery position and went to pursue the vampire.  He actually caught me by surprise. Looking up, I saw that he was in the tree and so I climbed it too. Noticing me, like a spider, the vampire crawled around the branches, as if weaving a web, to distract me. It didn’t work of course and so, I dived for the thinnest, most lethal weapon I could find. A branch. I successfully broke one off and it was long, but it wasn’t thick enough to stab him in the heart with and so I climbed higher for a thicker branch. When I climbed trees, my fear of heights momentarily vanished. What made it even better was that the vampire had lost track of me because instead of having my distinctive werewolf scent, I was covered by the human’s blood. Got it! I exclaimed in my mind, getting a thick branch from the tree. Now, it was time for the real mission. Climb down the tree. I swung on branches, thankful for the calluses on my hands that I had got from climbing trees in my time, in a desperate effort to get down and find a way to sharpen my stick. Somehow, I ended up further down from the beach and it was like a rainforest. I got down from the tree and saw a blade-sharpener, with liquid silver that was still rather fresh. Cautiously, I dunked the tip of my branch into it, trying hard not to get it on my skin because silver was a b***h. Not only did it kill vampires, but it could also kill werewolves if we were exposed to too much of it. Finally, the silver dried onto my blade and I was back in business. “Where are you, bloodsucker?” I murmured quietly. If he were here, he would have heard me because they had super hearing. Hearing me, as if on cue, the vampire plunged at me, wolfsbane in hand and I swiftly dodged it, watching it spill to the floor, as I moved to a tree behind me. I stood beside the tree, daring him to turn around and come at me. He did. Transiently, I held my blade out to the exact spot where he were to end up but I had to be quick about it and because I’m not the fastest of people, I had to do it fairly early but this vampire seemed to have delayed reaction time, just like me and so, it was perfect timing. I jammed it directly in his heart and pinned him to the tree. Watching all of the undead life drain from his face, I knew he was actually dead. Now to dispose of him. I unpinned him and took him to the silver table and dropped him onto the silver table. He was steaming and melted like fire into water.

I had to make sure everyone was okay, once the vampire had gone and so I went to check on the first woman that I had helped. When I got there, she started to blink and then she opened her eyes.

“What happened?” She asked, her voice drowsy. I smiled at her and then said,

“You were climbing a tree to get my Frisbee and then you fell out and started bleeding and I didn’t know what else to do. I got someone else to get it down for me. You had quite a nasty fall.” I gestured up to the top of the tree where I had been swinging and then she nodded. I was so glad I could make up random, believable stories.

“Thank you for helping me.” I just shrugged, a little embarrassed. I helped her get out of the beach safely and the guy who asked me if I was okay earlier, asked where his girlfriend was. I told him the story and he brought it, following after the girl. I ran and secured the perimeter, exiting the beach after them and then a little red button appeared on the archway and so I pushed it and the simulation had ended.