Worthless (Darkmore series, 1)

Fitting in - Leo

Me and Alex get a seat, our waitress being a pale girl, and when she talks it shows her pure white fangs. A vampire. I thought I was supposed to be human, and it was dangerous for me to be here, but I fit right in. I've been given a few dirty looks, probably because this place is small, and I've just got here. I can imagine tourists don't come here much. I did a shit load of research, and I learned a lot about witches, which is what Alex is. She told me, and moved a few things with her mind, holding up her hand in the process. I wonder if she's in a coven, like most other witches are. I'm not going to ask. 

Alex sits across from me. Our waitress comes back a few seconds later, putting a piece of paper on the table, and Alex gets up to the buffet. Assuming the ticket means we can go. I get a plate, and go towards the tables.

There is still animals moving, and I almost gag when I see some buff guy use the tongs to pick up a tentacle. It's not even possible for it to be alive. I know that. But it's tentacle moved. Moving to the next dish, it seemed to be some kind of fruit. A group of people, all of them being pale, take one and put it on their plate. Vampires. Is that what Elkhart is full of, vampires?

I don't find much normal food, I even see fingers, that aren't chicken fingers. They look human. I overheard a conversation about them, some girl talking saying "Make sure you take off the nail," she reminds her group of friends. Her pack, I'm guessing. Well, isn't that a werewolf thing? 

I get pizza, a classic thing that is almost everywhere, MAC, corn, and cornbread. It's the only thing I can find that looks normal. Alex is already at the table, and she has two slices of pizza and cornbread. I sit down, taking a bite. 

"You're a witch, right?" She nods after a moment. "Why don't you eat what their eating?" I question. 

"Just because I'm a witch doesn't mean I can't have human food." She says sternly, like I offended her and I probably did, actually. I don't apologize. "If I wanted to, I would."

"Don't want to scare me, do you?" I tease.

She doesn't answer, taking a bite out of her pizza almost the same time I do. "I don't care, you're you, I'm me." I can tell she's lying. I know she doesn't want to scare me, and I wouldn't want to scare her.

"It doesn't matter, I can still eat it, so who cares if I do? Don't worry about what I eat."

I shrug. 

"Alex?" I ask as she takes a bite out of her corn bread. "Can you tell me everything your parents made you do? If you don't want to, I completely understand, no pressure." What am I even thinking?

She keeps her mouth on her cornbread, looking at the table, then pulling her mouth away from the bread, putting it on her plate. "Okay, I trust you. Only if you trust me, and swear not to tell anyone. Including your family." I nod, and she puts her pinkie finger out, showing me that she wants me to promise. I lock my pinkie finger in hers, shaking it afterwards. Her fingers are even bruised and beaten, or maybe that's just the glass. Or her cutting herself. It's hard to tell which one it is. Probably all. 

She takes a deep breath, looking at the ceiling for a minute. "When I was little, really little, I was put into a group called The First Base, There are fifty, and each state is a different number. One being the more advanced, then the higher the number the easier it is. I was little, so I could grow up and watch them, so it would just be a part of my life. I was taught how to use my powers and how to fight. There was an attack on the building, and it was supposed to be secret, no one knows where it was. It doesn't even have an address. They attacked, not many people got away, but me and my friend, Brandon, escaped." She pauses, swallowing hard. 

"But he told me that he was going to stall, and he dropped me off at my parents' house. They seemed really nice at first, I'm not going to lie, but Brandon was working on his crazy mind control skills, and he made them that way. A day later? That's how they are today. That all happened when I was fourteen. Ever since, I've been beaten for leaving the milk out, forgetting to put cheese on a sandwich, cooking wrong, pointing things out, things like that." She tries for a smile. "When my dad called me a slut, I know why he did it, actually. He read the messages me and you sent each other, and even looked at the old ones. When you asked me if I could Skype and stuff. Then look at our three hour long conversations almost every day. He thought I was doing slutty things on screen, I guess." She takes a bite into her pizza.