Empire of Vampires ✔️

Chapter Seventeen

The twins searched throughout the school, James pacing nervously and Marie trailing aimlessly behind. They checked the student lounge, cafeteria, and even the courtyard, but it was to no avail.

'Let's split up and check all the classrooms as well,' James finally said, 'He wouldn't have left the premises without a jacket, or even a pair of shoes in this weather.'

'He did when he came to find us,' Marie pointed out.

Her brother frowned but made no reply as he hurriedly set off in the opposite direction.

Marie sighed and hopped onto the bannister. She wrapped her limbs around it and started slowly inching her way upwards.

'Life is always so hard,' she moaned to herself as she pushed up against the awfully boring force of gravity.

Truth be told, Marie was insanely worried about Andrew, but she always felt that she needed to put up a worry-free façade to calm her little brother. Someone needed to balance out his nervous fretting.

Marie easily pulled her thoughts away from Andrew's eventual, unavoidable demise. All her friends died sooner or later anyway, and there was no use getting upset over what hasn't even happened yet. She didn't usually stick around long enough to witness their deaths, however, due to her little aging problem. Marie hoped either way that Andrew could at least make it through the next five years of school without dying.

She was pulled from her flippant thoughts by the sound of gentle sniffling. Marie hopped off the bannister and padded her way up the rest of the staircase.

As she turned the corner, she was greeted by the sight of long, scarlet hair. It hung over a puffy, freckled face, wet with tears.

'Whoa, hey... hey.'

Georgie looked up at the sound and rubbed unsuccessfully at her tear-stained face.

Marie reached out and gently swiped her thumb at the corner of the girl's forest-green eye. With Georgie's lengthy hair falling to the side, Marie noticed that her ear was quite pointed. Together with her pointy chin and snubbed pointy nose, the girl looked rather like an elf.

'What's wrong?' Marie asked, in a tone much gentler than her usual boisterous voice.

'You didn't hear the news?' Georgie hiccuped.

'What news?' The blue-eyed girl felt her chest tighten with dread as she somehow had a feeling what Georgie's next words would be.

'Murder.'

The word hung gruesomely in the air.

'Where?' Marie finally asked, her voice sounding strangled as it left her cotton-dry throat.

'Everywhere,' the elf-like girl replied, 'Cargo planes carrying lilies came crashing down; the crew were pale like crystal and drained of blood. The fire from the crash caused seven more deaths on the west of the crater. Twelve fresh bodies lay in a perfect heart-shape by the old wars tunnels. I'm afraid, Marie. It's terrifying.'

'They lay in a heart-shape?' Marie's eyes widened in horror. The thought was sickly and gruesome.

'They weren't drained of blood, the twelve by the tunnel. But a hundred lilies sprouted beneath them... and there's evidence that many have been picked. The killer must have picked them up,' Georgie whispered, 'To use for- for...'

'I'm sure the crater folk picked them, Georgie, you know how much those are worth,' Marie soothed, 'Besides, the lilies have always been left alone.'

And the bodies have always been drained. Marie shuddered at the thought. Was it possible that maybe... perhaps just maybe, the eternal had simply had their fill? Marie hoped that this was the case, that there wasn't another murderer on the loose; a far more sinister one.

'Did the crash and the deaths by the tunnel happen at around the same time, Georgie?' she asked, dreading the answer.

'I- I don't know.'

Marie knelt on the step below the crying girl and chewed anxiously on her bottom lip. It wasn't often that she was at a loss for words.

Marie awkwardly dragged her sweaty palm down Georgie's face in an attempt to clean it and the latter let out a half-hearted breath followed by a hiccup.

'Do you want to talk about it?'

Georgie didn't reply right away.

'Or we could just sit here in silence, that's okay too.' Marie tried to smile, ignoring the feeling of nausea the news had brought her.

'The news broke just an hour ago,' Georgie started slowly, 'I was in the student lounge with a few of my friends and... Jesse, he was really...' Georgie faltered for a minute before suddenly changing her next words, 'The new kid was there too, he almost fainted; then he rushed out before anyone could calm him down.

'...Andrew?'

'I think that's his name, yes.'

Marie silently cursed underneath her breath.

'I should- I should go check on him,' she said hesitantly, torn between wanting to find Andrew and wanting to stay with Georgie.

'Don- I don't want you to leave.' Georgie gulped, her eyes filling up with tears again.

'I'll be back, I just need to-

Forest-green eyes stared into her own beseechingly, fear etched upon the delicate elf-like face.

A storm brewed within the vampyre's mind. She was in unmarked territory with this fragile human girl. It seemed an intimate thing, to dry a friend's tears.

Marie would be the first to admit that she could never commit to anyone, friend or lover alike. The thought that she was currently Georgie's sole source of comfort terrified her like no other. It was much too much responsibility for the careless girl with the carefree attitude.

She turned and fled.