It's Okay to be Different

30

I haven't compelled someone in so long. I'm shocked that it worked.

Scott looks confused as fuck.

"Scotty I'll explain later." I tell him. Right now I'm worried about figuring out if anyone noticed Scott's Soul eyes.

"Mr. Updegraff is Scott okay? His eyes must have been irritated they were so... red... I didn't get a good look, though. I could be wrong." A female voice in the classroom speaks.

"Yeah it was crazy. I almost thought I heard growling! Isn't he super sexy though?" Another girl speaks and then I hear her thoughts. 'I would love to hear him growl my name in the bedroom!'

Too bad he already does that with me.

"What, do you two have a crush on him? He's only been here for like a month and he's hella creepy. But it's a lowkey kind of creepy so it's chill I guess. TBH though, I think he's already got a bae. He's always with that Mitch kid."

Lowkey? Chill? TBH? Bae? What are all of these strange terms? Is this some type of teenage dialect?

"I wouldn't call it a dialect Mitchie." I hear Scott chuckle at my thoughts. "It's more of a slang that teenagers use. We have other words too. Lit, ship, Netflix and chill, Thot. I can elaborate when we get home."

Teenagers have their own slang now? Wow this is crazy.

I just nod my head and listen back in on the conversation going on in the classroom. I'm glad that crushing on Scott has replaced the conversation about his eyes.

"It was weird... He just like appeared by Nick and grabbed his wrist... he looked like he was going to bite it or something. Then Mitch screamed and suddenly he was gone. Him and Mitch."

Shit. Of course all it takes is a second.

I guess this generation isn't as dumb and oblivious as I thought.

I glance over and Scott and he looks really upset.

I place my hand on his back and rub soothingly. "What's wrong?"

"They all saw me." Scott's main concern when we concluded that we would go to school was that he wanted to fit in. He gets really anxious sometimes because when he first came out he got bullied a lot for it. He lost all of his friends and even his own father threatened to disown him and kick him out if he ever brought a boy home. So Scott doesn't like it when people realize that he's "different."

"Not everyone saw you, baby. A lot of people in there don't even know what that girl is talking about. There's nothing to worry about."

He sniffles and then looks at me with hopeful eyes. "Mitchie!" He exclaims. "How far can you project that ability of yours?"

"Scott I haven't used it in 120 years."

"Why not?" I take a deep breath.

Here we go...

"When Alex first changed me, he put me through an abundance of tests to see what abilities I wield. I was able to do many things that most regular vampires can't do and I could do them in many ways. I could project my compelling powers to almost the whole state of Texas. Thousands of people at the same time.

"Alex was feeling a bit famished one day and decided that he wanted to have a 'big snack'. So he used me. I compelled over 700 people to come to the mansion he had back then. He locked them all up and if they got too rowdy, he made me compel them to think everything was okay. He killed all 782 people over a time span of a couple years.

"But that's not the reason why. About twenty years after he changed me, we went out to eat at a restuarant. The waitress was very sweet and energetic but you could tell that she had been through some tough shit. She must have been having a bad night, because when she brought us our food, she tripped. All of our food spilled on Alex. He was calm, or at least he looked it. He just calmly told her that it was okay and that we were going to leave because it was getting late.

"He ended up forcing me to compel her husband to abuse her... mentally, emotionally, and physically. He told me to make him rape her. He told me to make her life miserable. And when I tried to refuse, he killed me and brought me back to life again and again until I finally complied.

"A month later, I saw in the newspaper that she commited suicide. She left a note and all it said was, 'My husband changed. The abuse is too much for me to handle. I'm useless anyway. No one will miss me.' It was at that moment that I vowed to never use that power again."

Scott just stares at me with his jaw touching the floor. "Holy shit..." He mutters.

"Yeah so if I wanted to or if I have to. I could compel every student in that classroom to forget anything that happened in the last 20 minutes."

Again, he looks at me with hopeful eyes. In the classroom they are still speaking about the events that occured. Right now two students are arguing over it.

'Crystal, how do you even know you saw it? Your seat is all the way in the back and you never even moved to help.'

'In the back of the class, I could see everything. I saw Scott and Mitch sitting at their desks and then suddenly Scott was gone. He was in the circle of students around Nick. Then he and Mitch were gone in the next second.' The girl argues back and the boy she's quarreling with scoffs.

'You're just a dumb gothic bitch. You're probably just trying to say that it was some paranormal spooky shit to justify your craziness.'

'Wow I'm shocked that a dumb jock like you even knows what the word paranormal means.'

The boy just scoffs.

It's quiet for a moment in the classroom until a small, high pitched male voice speaks up.

'I saw everything... And I heard everything too.'

Scott makes eye contact with me. He meets me with pleading eyes now.

"Mitchie please."