She's an Ancient (rewriting)

Chapter 4: Hayden Marcis [rewritten]

My eyelids fluttered open as the bright morning sunlight filtered into my room. I yawned and raised my arms to stretch, crying out as pain shot through my entire body. My eyes shot towards my arm. It was still there, but it was so numb I could barely move it.

"You're hurt." A fatherly voice announced from across the room. I sat up with some difficulty, clenching my shoulder as I looked to Tear for an explanation. His soft eyes stared at me through his light brown bangs and modern red rimmed glasses as he pursed his lips together.

"Akira." He said simply. I raised both of my eyebrows at his single word reply.

"Akira?" I asked. Tear nodded his head as he closed his laptop, his teeth clenched together.

"She fed off of you. I imagine your arm will be numb for a while." He mumbled. 

"She ravaged your shoulder though." He added. My mouth opened to speak but Tear held up a single hand as he shook his head.

"You better get ready for school." He said, more as an order than a friendly suggestion. I watched his ears twitch as he looked towards my wall to the front door. His eyes flickered to me and he let out an irritated sigh as he shook his head.

"He's a human you know. You'll outlive him and every grandchild he'll ever have." Tear stated, lifting his arms in subtle frustration. I tilted my head in confusion as I heard a few knocks on the front door and realized he must be talking about Kyoni. I blushed as hopeful thoughts of opening the door to find flowers in his hand burrowed into my imagination. Kyoni had been coming to walk with me to school lately, and though he never brought me flowers, I didn't have any problems with it. I threw off my blankets and stood up to look for some suitable clothes for the day. I hesitated before I put a long sleeve shirt on and walked over to the mirror to see the wound on my shoulder. I winced at my reflection and pulled down my shirt as I turned away to go about my day. Kyoni was right, the wound looked like I had been attacked by a pack of savage wolves. I would have to patch that up later. I glanced over into the kitchen to see Tear silently glowering as his cup filled with coffee that was just as bitter as his attitude towards Kyoni. 

"Hey, Mara." Kyoni said with an awkward wave. I could tell he felt uncomfortable under the watchful eyes of my brother and I pushed him out the door.

"Bye." I called. 

"Be home before dark." Tear yelled back, just before I shut the door behind us.

"I don't think your brother likes me that much." Kyoni sighed as we walked down the street towards school. I laughed a bit at his sullen expression and shook my head as I nudged him.

"Don't worry too much, he's like that with everyone." I lied. Kyoni smiled and I turned my gaze away as his eyes regained their usual, cheerful confidence that I loved so much. 

"Its going to be kind of hot today, do you want to run back real quick and change your shirt?" Kyoni asked. I shook my head at him.

"I'm okay, did you finish your homework?" I changed the subject, peeking through my bangs to look at him. He shrugged and glanced away but I nudged him until he finally looked back at me.

"I... got caught up doing something else..." He said, running his hand through the back of his hair. I rolled my eyes, knowing he wasted his entire night playing games. 

"Doing something else?" I asked. He lifted a water bottle to his mouth and nodded.

"You were watching porn, weren't you?" I questioned. Kyoni spit out his drink and began coughing as he choked on a little water. 

"Wha-Why would I... No." He crossed his arms and gave me an I-cant-believe-you-just-said-that look. 

"I'm just kidding. I know you're not that kind of guy." I nudged him again. He laughed a bit as his arms fell to his sides. We walked in silence the rest of the way until we reached the gates of school. Kyoni and I locked eyes with each other knowing that we had classes on opposite sides of the school.

"Well... I'm going this way." I said pointing to my right, even though he already knew where my class was. I hoped he would offer to walk me to class, but I knew I wouldn't be that lucky and sighed internally as he replied exactly how I expected him to.

"Yeah, see you at break. The usual spot?" He asked. I nodded with a smile. Kyoni nodded back and I could feel his eyes trailing after me as I strode towards my morning class. I dragged my feet every step I took further away from Kyoni until I found my class and opened the door to see only a few people already there. I sat down at my normal seat, glancing around at the various students in class. I saw no one of interest so I turned my eyes down and stared at my desk for the remaining 10 minutes until class started. 

"So did you finally let Kyoni 'do his homework with you'?" Issi asked. I glanced up to see her smiling down at me with a twinkle at the corner of her eye.

"No, Issi." I sighed. She smacked her lips together and fell dramatically into the seat right in front of me, one of her palms pushed into her cheek as she stared.

"We all know you two like each other. Why don't you ever want to go out with him?" She said in a matter of fact tone. My face turned bright red and my mouth fell open.

"Issi! I do not like him!" I objected. Issi pursed her lips together.

"You don't like just as much as I don't like wrestling, right?" She laughed. I bit my bottom lip, feeling my face burn at her words. I tried to think of some witty comeback but my mind was coming up blank. Thankfully, her attention was stolen by a new face walking into the class, someone neither of us had ever noticed before. The guy was tall, and undeniably handsome with his dark hair. His skin was a little on the darker side with peppered freckles all over his face that accented his features oddly well. My stomach grew uneasy as a trail of black smoke seemed to follow at his heels. He met my gaze and as our eyes locked I felt as if the air would suddenly be stolen from my lungs. His eyes were so dark I felt like they could swallow me whole if I stared any longer. I tore my gaze away from him and lowered my head to the desk surface. His eyes reminded me of my own. Deep, and full of a certain kind of pain that could never be spoken. Whoever this boy was, I didn't want to get involved with him.

"Excuse me, can I sit here, beside you?" A pleasant voice asked.

"Yes! Of course!" Issi jumped in before I could deny him the spot.

"Thanks. I'm Hayden Marcis." He held out his hand which Issi didn't waste a moment grabbing it with her own. My eyes widened a bit as the blackness around him swirled down his arm towards Issi's hand. I snatched her hand away and the blackness pulled back like a scared animal. Hayden raised his eyebrows slightly and Issi shot me a glare.

"It was just a friendly gesture, Mara." Issi shook her head and turned around in her seat, though she continued to shoot seductive glances towards Hayden. Relief washed through me as the teacher walked into the classroom and all eyes turned to him, including Hayden's. The comfort was short lived as a note landed on my desk. A note from Hayden. I glanced towards him but he wasn't looking at me at all. I unfolded the paper and read the words he had written in his neat little handwriting.

'Don't be scared of me Amaranth' 

It read. I furrowed my eyebrows at the words, all my nerves suddenly jumping to red alert. How the fuck did he know my full name? I swiftly armed myself with a pen and scrawled down my reply.

'Who said I was scared of you?' 

I crumpled the paper loudly and threw it back onto his desk. He didn't bother to respond but instead, pocketed the crumpled paper and shot me a wide smile.

"Don't worry. I won't bite." He whispered.