Have you ever entered a room a people and known that they were all talking about you? Well, I've entered several, and it never gets any easier. My homeroom don't want to look at me as I come in and sit in my normal place beside Harriet. They don't know what to say to me. For the first time in a long time, I feel completely alone. No-one wants to talk to me; they are too afraid that they'll say the wrong thing, that they'll do it all wrong and that I'll run out of class, bawling my eyes out. The stares make me want to shrivel up and die, and eventually I cannot take it any longer.
"Excuse me Miss?" I put up my hand, "can I go to the bathroom?"
Mrs Leigh gives me a slightly confused look, but nods and goes back to talking about joining Debate Club. I smile at her thankfully. Harriet squeezes my hand supportively and then lets me go. Jamie does the same, and my feeling of isolation is lifted for just a moment. Still, I need to get some air, so leave the classroom, feeling the pitying stares of my fellow students piercing my back. Once I'm out of the classroom, a feeling of dread suddenly enters my soul. The outside is quiet.
Too quiet.
Usually a hum of chatter can be hears from each classroom, but I can hear nothing. I quickly duck behind a nearby chest of drawers as I hear a door open, presuming it is a teacher and I'll get into trouble for truancy. But it is several people, and still the silence continues.
"Let's split up. She can't have gone far." I hear a piercing voice say menacingly. Jake's voice.
I can't physically move. I hold my breath and listen to them as they run down the stairs, shouting instructions at one another. Efficient and ruthless. Trying not to vomit, I go back to my homeroom, and what I see makes me scream.
Noone in the room is moving. It is as if someone had frozen them. I scream again, running backwards in dismay. I must be going mad. I open the door to the classroom just across the hall and see exactly the same thing. What is happening to me?! I hear 7 pairs of footsteps running up the stairs, and without knowing why, I sprint down the other set of stairs, trying to ignore my beating heart. I take a sharp left towards the drama studio. Vacant people in the corridors, unmoving, stare into space. I try not to scream when I see each one, even when I see the headmaster, his mouth in midsentence as he points something out to the caretakers. Again, trying not to vomit, I open the door to the main drama studio and run inside. I put all the lights on so I can see the small rope ladder, leading up to the props cupboard, which is always left unlocked. I climb the ladder quickly and open the door quietly, before positioning myself behind the hat stand.
Time seems to stand still. A whirlwind of questions fills my brain as I crouch behind a sombrero. Why was I being hunted? How? For how long? These questions plague my thoughts and try to fill up my existence. But, alas, I cannot find the answers. I am powerless. I must wait for my fate.
I hear the opening of the door at the far end of the hall. They have found me. I must keep quiet and not move.
"We got her this time Jake." I hear Nate chortle, "and there is noone to help her."
"She really thought she could run from us?!" asks Kelly, which gets a laugh from the rest of the group.
"We know you can hear us Lauren!" yells Kevin, and my heart stops, "we know everything."
His words hang in the air like that goddamn anvil. I know I have to get out. Without thinking, I jump out of the window of the props cupboard, landing on the stage with a thump. I sprint towards the nearby door, pulling at it, but to no avail.
"Come out Lauren, we know you can't get out." this is the first time I hear Jake speak, "we promise we won't hurt you if you give yourself up."
What a load of bullshit, I think, but his voice somehow seems to make me move towards him. I try to resist but I can't. I start screaming and grab on to the nearby curtain chain, which suddenly comes off. I scream again and try to run forward but this unstoppable force keeps pulling me back. My heart races even more until I see them. Staring at me with hungry eyes. Standing in a circle, not giving me a way out. This was planned. I don't know how or why, but it was in some sort of fucked up way. I'm struggling to breathe as I am pushed onto the ground, at the mercy of these abominations.
Jake goes onto the floor beside me, looking at me with a strangely passive expression. Nate and Kevin grab me from behind and twist my arms back, so that I yell in pain. I will not give them the satisfaction of crying.
"Oh Lauren..." he whispers, stroking my hair which makes me shiver with revulsion, "why couldn't you have just behaved?"
I don't reply.
"If you had just stayed with me, I wouldn't have to have killed Leighton, or framed Mr Greig, ot killed..."
He pauses, and I work out immediately that he killed Kenny. I let out a roar of anger and pull myself away from the others, nails bared. I punch his face, and keep on punching until I lack the strength to move my arms. I taste blood, my blood and look at my hand. There is only my blood and I touch my face, feeling the blood as it pours down like a tsunami. I stagger backwards, and the last thing I remember is Jake's cold cruel laugh as I drift into nothingness
End of Part 1
YOU ARE READING
The Price of Blood
VampireTwo parts. Two stories. Two points of view. Two outsiders trying to fit in in their respective worlds. One extraordinary event will bind them together. They should not be together. They should be enemies. Can they be more than friends?
