RED

Red {8}

In the waiting room for the hospital, stood two lone figures.

One was tiny, red-headed, and slim.

One was tall, dark-haired, and muscular.

Catus and Melodie stood, together but honestly alone, each silently praying for Leia. Melodie couldn't have her plans ruined. Nor could Catus imagine a life without his beautiful wife-to-be - because, he thought fiercely, she was going to win. She was. That's why Katy did this ...

Was? asked a sly voice in his head. So we're talking about her in the past tense already, are we?

Tears burned behind his eyelids. He closed his eyes. He couldn't cry, not now, not in front of Melodie ... but he knew that tears were trickling down his cheeks already, and now he didn't care. Melodie looked at him matter-of-factly. "You're Prince Catus," she said.

"Well done," snapped Catus impatiently.

"And you're dating Leia."

"Anything else that you want to clear up?" he snarled.

She said nothing, which irritated him. When he yelled at people, they usually yelled back, mainly because it was his father who was not in the least afraid of his son, and his friends who weren't especially afraid either. Only Leia flinched away, or didn't reply, and Melodie's silence reminded him of this all too painfully. He resisted the urge to rip out her stupid red hair.

"Who are you, anyway?"

"Melodie. I'm a friend of Leia's."

"And you went to the ball wearing red."

"Anything else that you want to clear up?" she mocked tauntingly. He growled at her. She stared determinedly back at him. This was nothing like Leia whatsoever, but it annoyed him just as much.

He gritted his teeth. "So what happens when she wins? She'll eat her best friend?"

"I'm going to drop out," she replied calmly.

"What do you mean you're going to drop out?" he almost screamed at her. "So you're going to let Leia go through it all, you probably just wanted to look cool for that night-" Somehow the injustice stung him. Here was Leia, lying in a coma because of what she did for love, with some irritating girl calling herself Leia's friend  not even having the bottle to go through with it even though she was perfectly alright. He knew that this was twisted logic, but he didn't honestly care.

"No. I wanted to be there in case nobody else challenged Katy. An immortal Mandon? Ha. No way."

"What do you mean?" asked Catus, curiously.

Melodie looked at him contemptously. "You vampires are all the same. To busy caught up in your own blood-sucking world to realize what's happening in the mortal one. They're talking control of everything. If Katy had become immortal, the Mandons would have become way more powerful than your father, with complete control over both worlds. They are blackmailers, thieves and murderers. I had to get rid of Katy somehow."

"So you went in?"

"But as Leia's doing it for me, I don't need to."

"So she's just a tool in your pathetic little scheme," Catus snarled, "a pawn in your game..."

"Yes. Friends?" Melodie laughed - a humourless laugh. "I had lots of friends once. Gone. Katy killed them. And her father killed my father, and her mother killed my aunt, and her grandmother killed my great-cousin. I've lost so many people, Catus. And now I'm losing my life."

"What do you mean? You're dropping out."

"Yes. But I've got cancer, Catus. Terminal cancer. I'm not going to live anyway."