Death is Only the Beginning: A Guide to Vampirism

Three: No Escaping School, Not Even Through Death

Trapped

There is no escape

Not even through death.

Tortured

There is no escape

Though I try with each breath.

Trashed

There is no escape

My life is such a mess.

My Name Is: Esmeralda.

Yup, I've decided to change it. After all, I desperately need a cooler, more Vampirish name than 'Tiffany'. Who trembles in fear from a 'Tiffany'? Honestly! Esmeralda sounds much better, very exotic and colorful.

Though Victoria sounds good, too. I quickly scratch 'Esmeralda' off on my name tag and put 'Victoria' instead. It has a nice gothic-y sound to it. It goes with my new look.

The burns on my arm haven't healed yet (no-good lying books... I'm healing slower than EVER! I'm diabetic, so healing was already a problem...), so I decided to sacrifice my super-soft black sweater to make arm warmers. Sort of like leg warmers for the arms.

To make things more match-y, I ended up wearing more black than I usually did when I was alive (I didn't even know I OWNED black jeans until I finally dug all my clothes out of the closet). I'm trying to not feel embarrassed about wearing arm warmers. I'm no trend-setter. And I don't like standing out. But I like answering questions about scarred arms even less. For the first time, I'm glad my friends aren't with me.

This time of night, they were probably all hanging out at the coffee shop, hoping the cute college guy who works there finally notices them. What I need is a shot of caffeine. A vampire hopped up on caffeine... no good could probably come of that.

Do they miss me?

A little maybe?

Okay, so what I really need at this very moment is a new name tag since this one has three scratch outs on it (the name I chose originally was Antoinette, but decided that I needed a name with a less tragic history. Mine is tragic enough, thank you). It's not my fault they make us use permanent ink markers and don't give us any white out.

Whap!

A hand slaps down on the table in front of me. I can't help but jump, my heart racing (okay, it's not racing as fast as it probably would, but it has slowed down A LOT since I died). I'm way too skittish for a fiendish undead-type person. I'm going to have to work on that.

Huh, what about that.

A new name tag!

I ought to wish for something better this time. I scrunch my eyes shut and wish I wasn't forced to go to night school. Its bad enough Gabe has me working on the mother of all projects, but now I'll have regular homework on top of that. Talk about impossible tasks! What am I, some Greek hero on a quest now? Of course, I haven't gotten past page one on Gabe's assignment. Just looking at it makes me tired. I barely had energy to lug that thing onto my desk. I figured that counts as working on it.

Technically I LOOKED at the first page. That counts.

What? It does!

"Thanks," I mumble as I click my pen to write my new name. Hmmm. How about Elizabeth? That's a good name, too. Old-fashioned and classy. It could make all sorts of good nicknames. Like Beth or Betsy. Liz, Eliza, Ell...

"Hey!"

The woman snatches my name tag right out from under me! Right out of my hands!!! Why bother giving me a new one if you're just going to take it away? I change my wish to wishing that she has four flat tires when she goes back out to her car. I'm just mean and vindictive that way.