Hunted

Chapter 3

... Daniel ...

Elizabeth's hand goes limp and I put my head to her chest, only to find one last heartbeat. No, no, no! This can't be happening! I start sobbing against her shoulder and that's the only thing that could be heard in the vacant street.

"Man, she's going to come back." Sam, one of the kids from the other group, sits down next to me and pats my back awkwardly.

"She might not!" I say between heart-wrenching sobs. If the body is injected with too much venom, the poison overtakes everything. Makes it to where they don't wake up. Ever. And by the looks of it, it was being pumped into Lizzy by the gallons. Even the Vampire started getting a little pale, which is saying a lot.

"Come on, we have an hour before she wakes up." Isaac pulls me away from her.

"She'll be hungry when she wakes up. Tracy, go to the hospital and get some AB- from the blood truck." Sam orders and she goes running. "Isaac, contact Ms. Keefe and notify her that Elizabeth was bit." Isaac grabs a phone out of his pocket and dials a number.

"Ms. Keefe? Yes, we've had an incident." Unidentifiable mumbling comes from the phone. "Elizabeth was bit. Before she... Died, she said she wanted to do it the traditional way." He runs a hand over his face, tears welling in his eyes. "Ok, I'll tell her when she wakes up." He hangs up.

He pockets the phone and turns to me. "She can come back to school, as long as she doesn't attack any of the other students. If she does act up, we have to kill her." Even if she does act up, I couldn't kill her.

"There's a park about five minutes away. We could bury her there." I suggest, finally getting a hold of myself.

"Yeah, let's just wait for Tracy to get back." Isaac sighs. I look down at the peaceful face of my Lizzy. Her copper hair is pooled around her head with a kink in it. Her ponytail must have come out when the Vampire... bit her. She's extremely pale, causing her naturally bright red lips to stand out. Her hand is still in mine.

I hear footsteps, and I look up to see Tracy running back with a bag of blood in her hand. "It's AB-. Why the specific type?" She pants and hands Isaac the bag.

"I think she'll enjoy her own blood type more than another one." Sam walks up to us and nods. As the oldest person in both groups, he's the unofficial leader.

"We thought about going to the park to bury her." Isaac informs him.

"Yeah, sure." He nods and I gently lift Lizzy off the ground. Her head droops over my arm and her teeth rattle as I shift position. She's as light as a puppy, probably only a hundred and ten pounds or so. Some people would find her heavy, but me being a hundred and thirty, and constantly training, she's light.

We all start walking towards the park, our footsteps the only sound in the night. I look down at my beautiful Lizzy, and can almost imagine her alive and laughing once again. I picture our first date from two years ago, at the campus shake shop. Irresponsible fifteen year olds, laughing and smiling at each other's lame jokes. Those times were so much easier than now. I wish I could go back.

We finally reach the park, a small, shabby place only consisting of swings and a slide. Off to the side, is a patch of grass. I look around at the rest of our group and realize that no one thought to bring a shovel.

"Don't you guys have a shovel?" I ask in disbelief. "We're burying a person and you didn't think to bring a shovel?" Insensitive, I know, but I'm angry. And we only have about thirty minutes before Lizzy wakes up. If she does.

"Sorry, we didn't expect to bury someone today!" Sam shoots back.

I sigh and gently set Lizzy on the ground. "Tracy come with me." Tracy is the smallest in our group besides Lizzy, so if we have to crawl through a shed window to get the shovels, she can do it.

We walk to the nearest house and quietly open the metal gate to the back door, opening it only a crack in case it creaks. A wooden shed stands in the corner of the yard, looking as if it's about to topple in on itself.

"Here, I can open it." Tracy whispers in my ear. She draws her stake and puts in the door before leaning onto it, loudly popping the door open.

"Sh!" I glance over at the house windows, but it stays dark.

"Sorry." She shrugs and disappears into the dark shed.

"We only have about thirty minutes. If she wakes up and she's not buried, imagine how angry she'll be." When you don't bury a Vampire- to- be, and they wake up, they are extremely angry and will do just about anything for blood.

Another method for waking up a Vampire, is to throw them in a large body of water and get them to sink. That's called the calming method. They are a lot happier when that happens, then waking up on or in the ground. I think Lizzy would have chosen that if there was a body of water here.

"Well, we better hurry then." We start digging furiously into the soft dirt. By the time we reach four feet, we're achy and sweaty. A large pile of dirt is next to each of us.

"How much further?" Sam asks.

"Only about one foot or so." I check my watch. Five minutes. "Never mind, let's just do it now. We only have five minutes." I throw down my shovel and walk over to Lizzy, whose still in the same position she was in before.

I gingerly pick her up and walk back over to the hole and set her down inside of it, one of her hands over her stomach, the other one lying next to her. She seems so peaceful, it hurts.

"Alright. Let's get this over with." We start putting the dirt back inside the hole. Once we're finished, there's a large clump of brown dirt over next to the green grass.

"We should probably stand back." Sam guides me to the swing set and I sit on one of the many swings.

"Man, I never thought I'd have to do this." I shake my head.

"Everything in life is unexpected. You think you're going to love one girl forever, but then she goes and rips your heart out." Isaac walks over and sits next to me. I know he's talking about Mandy, a girl he dated, for about three years, before she dumped him for Brad, a tall, muscular, popular guy. Yeah, and look where Isaac is now. Killing Vampires.

I look at my watch and its eleven forty three. It's been an hour. "She should be out within the next ten minutes." I inform them, but as I do, four kids walk into the park. Oh crap.

"Hey, kids!" I call to them and they run over to me. "You may not want to be over here for now. It's not safe." Two of the small girls look scared, while the older boys just seem defiant.

"You can't tell us what we can and can't do. It's a free country." One of them scoffs and I shrug.

"Alright, if you want to see a grumpy Vampire, you can stay." I reply and look at the grave.

"Vampires aren't real."

"If you want to find out, stay. But keep your distance." I look at my watch again. It's been five minutes. She should be out by now. Suddenly, I see the dirt shift on the grave.