Two Hearts: The Hunt [Slowly Editing]

Chapter Five

Adrianna's POV

The minute the bell rang at the end first period, I bolted out the door.

I couldn't take it anymore. The overwhelming smell of human blood running through the veins of every student in the class was too much to bear. At one point I thought I might actually lose my self-control, but distant memories of a darker past came flooding into my mind, reminding me of the person I truly was.

I was not a monster.

Sure, I sucked blood from live humans and killed animals and was not the nicest of beings but I was definitely not a monster. I never did those things out of pleasure; I did them out of need. Well, except for the 'not being nice' part. That was just a part of who I was.

I ran through the halls as slowly as I could manage so that nobody walking to class would get suspicious of some girl disappearing in one spot and appearing at another in just a matter of seconds. As soon as I pushed open the double doors of Mill Creek High's front entrance, I bent down with my hands on my knees and took in many gulps of fresh air, thankful that there were no humans outside.

I had never felt as grateful for the outdoors and its clean, natural air as I did at that moment.

I straightened up and looked out at the scene before me. I was at the front of the school at the top of a wide flight of stairs and I looked up to see the Sun's rays being muffled by dark stormy clouds. In front of me was a long shelter held up by a series of beige columns-most likely the area where students got picked up/dropped off from school by their parents. A loop road circled around a grassy area, where a bronze statue of a Raven stood proudly in the center. Beyond it was a tall fence and then a straight, surprisingly flat road, considering the overall hilliness of the roads of Fairview Hills. This road acted as a line between the safe haven of Mill Creek High and the dense, green forest beyond it-a forest that hid dozens of dark and mysterious secrets.

For some reason the quiet scene soothed me. Out here there were no humans watching, waiting for me to kill them; to drink from their veins and satisfy my hunger. I couldn't hear anybody breathing; couldn't smell any sweet blood. It made me feel free, like I wasn't being confined in a tiny stuffed up area filled with temptation.

Huh.

Maybe I actually was claustrophobic.

I couldn't go back inside. Not with this hunger ripping my stomach apart. Not with this thirst burning the insides of my throat with its searing dryness. I stepped down the flight of stairs and made way for the forest on the other side of the road.

I needed to find blood. Thanks to stupid Esmeralda and her teacher's pet attitude, my entire thermos of blood had been thrown out. Screw the fact that I would be acting like a hippie vampire by preying on fragile forest animals. I was so thirsty at that moment that I would have even drunk from-what were the tiniest animals in the forest? I didn't know. But I was so hungry I would have even drunk from that.

I zipped into the thickness of the forest, running as fast as I could until I reached a point that was far enough from the road and presence of civilization.

Quieting my breaths,-which were never really loud to begin with seeing that I hadn't even broke a sweat from that run-I stood quietly in the center of the forest surrounded by its tall pine trees. I was vaguely reminded of the night that I had been bewitched with a masking spell that hid my scent from the werewolves on the other side of Fairview Hills. I should have been done with this stupid quest by now. Yet here I was, running away from humans and hunting animals instead.

I mentally laughed at myself. I had become so pathetic.

A movement to my right caught my attention at once, and I instantly allowed my primal instincts to take over. Here, I was the predator. And what stood behind that ruffled bush at the corner of my eye was my prey.