Slayer

Chapter 3

"So, where did you move here from?" Tyler's breath smells rancid. I don't make a face.

"Arizona."

"Oh?" He moves closer to me. I don't do anything-- Brooke wouldn't-- and take a bite out of my sandwich.

"Yeah, near Phoenix."

"Cool."

I nod and eat more of the food. Tyler doesn't know it, but the food I'm eating would kill a normal human with one bite. It is laced with the medicine that makes me able to stay alive so long, that makes me able to look like a teenage girl when I've been living for so much longer than that.

The bell rings, and we leave the lunchroom. I'm glad to get away from him. He's not supposed to know who I am. I'm supposed to blend with the crowd.

I go to the next class-- English. The class I share with Tyler. Just great. This will just make him notice me even more, and then things might get messed up....

Nothing bad will happen. I am experienced and mature. I'm not going to be defeated by a stupid mosquito.

I had convinced myself that this was true by the time I entered the classroom. I sit in the desk they assigned to me, and keep my head down while the teacher starts the lesson. I don't raise my hand.

Then, just a few minutes before the bell rings, Tyler catches my gaze. It's impossible to look away. His eyes, blue when I first met him, glow a bright red, and he licks his lips excitedly. There's a thirst in his red eyes. I imagine his long fangs sinking into my neck, me crumpling to the ground, bound to him for the rest of time...

It won't happen.

He looks back up at the board, and I am able to look away again.

I know what just happened, when he mesmerized me, made me unable to move. He was marking me, choosing me as his next target.

I grit my teeth. I won't be his target. It's supposed to be the other way around. I'm not going to let someone so stupid bring me down.

The rest of the school day crawls by. I find myself thinking about Tyler more and more. I need to just kill him already.

I slam the car door behind me and speed home. I practically sprint to the front door and lock it behind me as I fly into the house.

"Why so hurried?" Mom asks, looking at me above the newspaper.

 "He-- he saw me... He marked me, looked into my eyes..." A little tear runs down my cheek. I'm going to lose my job, I'm going to be bonded with him forever.

"Oh, my God, Violet," Paige says, breaking persona, "are you going to be alright? Oh, my God, no... You know what happens when you can't get a target, and when you become his target..."

"Paige, this has happened before," I say, attemping (and failing) to calm myself down. "I've always been able to kill them in the end."

"But, this is different. Before, it was in and out-- he sees you, you kill him, we go home. This will be harder." She leans in close, and whispers like it's a secret. "Nothing at Harrington High is at it seems. Not even you."

She puts something into my hand. "Don't look at it until it's time."

Then, she floats away and goes back to her newspaper, as if nothing had happened.