Hunters of the dark (Nanowrimo 2013)

Chapter 13

“Alright, so let’s just stick to the plan and it’ll all be fine.”

Julie nodded at this.

It wasn’t going to be easy: not only did Nate, Ellie and Julie had to attend regular classes, but they also had to spend time paying attention to everyone’s actions since ANYONE could be a spy. Even the teachers.

Ellie went to her Magical Powers class, while Nate and Ellie headed to training.

“You take a look on your own class as so will I, alright?” Julie told Nate before they parted on different ways. Nate nodded and hurried to his class.

Julie entered the sparring room. All of her classmates were already fighting each other, while Julie was just about to get ready right after the teacher grounded her for being late.

Everyone was supposed to be fighting in pairs this time, but as Julie feared, everyone seemed to already have a partner.

Everyone but Ashton, apparently.

“So, it’ll be me against the vampire, uh?” Ashton mocked as he got ready to fight her.

“May I remind you that I’m naturally stronger than you, not to mention faster?” Julie smirked.

Suddenly, Julie found herself face first against the gym’s floor.

“It doesn’t matter what abilities you have if you can’t use them properly. 1-0, Hamilton.” Ashton grinned.

It wasn’t normal for him to move that fast and for Julie not to notice his movements first even with her enhanced eye sight: nevertheless, this was Ashton we were talking about, AKA, the only guy who seemed to literally live in the gym. Maybe it was just one of the many advantages of training all day.

Julie got up and dusted herself off, then readied herself for the next attack.

The fight went on for a really good time, since one of them had to get 10 points before the fight was over. Still, Ashton was just WAY too good of a fighter to be true.

“It would seem that hard work at the gym is paying off really good, huh, Ashton?” Julie asked once their score was 9-9.

“It’s called talent, Hamilton, so don’t try to excuse your incompetence.” Ashton glared at her.

They launched at each other again, but this time, Ashton used all of his force against her, thus breaking Julie’s right arm in the process.

A loud crack was heard throughout the room and Julie fell to the ground and shouted in pain. The teacher called for a healer immediately.

There was no way a normal human would be able to break a vampire’s bone just like that, no matter how much training he had endured.

Julie glared at Ashton: just what kind of creature was he?

“It looks like I win, loser.” Ashton hissed at her as he walked away.

That’s when something caught Julie’s eye: was that a tattoo he had on his wrist?

The healer arrived almost immediately after that and helped Julie, but Julie was focusing on something else: the tattoo.

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“That’s not even permitted in here, you know that?” Ellie said as she found Julie sitting in the lunch room.

“I know, that’s why it caught my eye, besides, it wasn’t like a normal tattoo: it was like this intricate sort of flower…” Julie said, deep in thought.

“Who are you to judge another person’s tattoos, anyways…” Ellie muttered, as Nathan sat down with them.

“Found anything yet?” Nathan asked them.

Julie and Ellie just shook their heads no.

“Well, I think I have.” Nathan announced proudly.

Julie and Ellie just looked at him with disbelief. “For real?” Ellie asked.

Nate nodded and motioned them to come closer.

“There are this guys in my class who were just chatting with each other and they suddenly became REALLY good at fighting; if I didn’t know better, I would say they’re vampires or something.” He said.

“Who were they?” Julie asked, suddenly interested.

“Just the jocks in my class…” Nathan said.

“Maybe they have been training really hard lately?” Ellie proposed, knowing it would be really hard for that to happen.

“Did they have any kind of distinctive marks or anything?” Julie asked, not really paying attention to Ellie.

“Not that I recall…” Nathan said while thinking about it, “I mean, they’ve all got the same necklace, but it could just mean they belong to some club or something. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just that Ashton suddenly got better than anyone in my class, I mean, he even broke my arm! And he had this weird tattoo on him… Maybe it could mean something?” Julie told Nathan, as he smiled.

“Little Julie got mad because she got beat up?” Nathan mocked, “Anyways, he’s always got that tattoo… The one on his wrist, right?”

“Yeah, that one…” Julie said, suddenly let down.

“Yup, he’s always had it… He’s always hidden it too, being that it’s against the school rules and everything…!” Nathan told Julie.

“Alright, so we’ve practically got no clues.” Ellie summed up, although Julie couldn’t let go of that feeling that something was wrong.

“Well, back to square one.” Nathan sighed.

Julie got up from her seat. “Then let’s keep searching.”

“Maybe there isn’t anything to find, you know?” Nathan told Julie even though he knew it could cause her to be mad at him.

“We can’t lose anything by just looking.” Julie told Nathan as she walked away towards her class with Richard.

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“What’s on your mind today, Julie?” Richard asked her since she had been distracting herself way too much during training.

“Nothing, really…” Julie answered sitting down.

“Come on, tell me.” Richard pushed her.

“I don’t know if I can really tell you…” Julie muttered.

“I can read your mind, remember that?” Richard said as he gathered all the stuff they had used during that training.

“DON’T.” Julie warned him.

“If it’s affecting you, it must be something important, right?” Richard said, wondering out loud, “Maybe it’s about spies in The Fortress?”

Julie didn’t know what to answer and chose to remain silent.

“I was just kidding, Julie.”

“Oh, sorry.” Julie tried laughing it off.

“But seeing your reaction, it must mean I was right?” Richard smiled at her.

“Kind of…”

Richard sighed. “Don’t give it much a thought, those must just be rumors.”

Julie looked at him suspiciously: why was he saying that all of a sudden?

“I don’t think they’re just rumors.” Julie stated.

“Well, I personally don’t think you’re going to find anything, anyways. Even if there WERE spies, they would probably be well hidden.” Richard said before he got out of the gym.

What was up with him?

Just then, Julie caught a sight of something on Richard’s wrist: the same tattoo that Ashton had.

Something definitely was wrong and they had to find out what before it was too late.