Turn

21

At the moment Catherine's scream had awoken Virginia, Greyson's sleep was interrupted by the echo of her scream in his ears. It would have woken her neighbors and no one else, but Greyson had been paying a lot of attention to Catherine's well-being lately. He sat bolt upright, and the disturbance woke Quinn.

"What is it?" asked Quinn.

Greyson slammed his hand against his bare chest. It hurt, almost like his still heart was beating wildly with fear. He almost remembered there what it was like to be human.

"I think it's Catherine," he intuited.

"What about her?" Quinn slid out of bed.

"The hypnosis, when I rewrote her memory," he shook his head. "I think something went a little haywire."

Quinn narrowed his eyes. "Greyson, what does that mean?"

He looked at his progeny darkly. "I think Catherine was holding tighter to that memory than I thought, and when I tried to knock a part of it loose, it made the memory...fluid."

"What does that mean for her, Greyson? For Virginia?" he asked.

Greyson sighed and ran his hands through his short hair. "I'm not really sure. I'll figure it out though, for both of them."

Quinn pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?" asked Greyson.

"I'm texting Virginia," he said.

"Why?" Greyson propped himself up on his elbow.

"Because if something happened with Catherine that woke you up, it sure as hell means Virginia is up dealing with it right now," and he sent a message to Virginia. Is Catherine ok?

Greyson knew Quinn was right. "Should we go see them?"

She is now, answered Virginia.

"I think they're okay," Quinn nodded. "But you should probably talk to her."

How did you know? Virginia sent another text.

Greyson did. Quinn replied.

"What did she say?" asked Greyson.

"You probably should text her, let her know that something's up," he answered.

"I will," Greyson grabbed his phone. "I'll take care of it. Don't worry, Quinn."

Nodding, Quinn went back to bed. His Maker had a habit of thinking he knew everything when vampires ten times his age were still figuring things out. But it wasn't Quinn's place to argue, so he just went back to bed. They would fix it, that Quinn knew.

On that Monday, Virginia found it hard to focus on any of her classes. They were assigned new reading in Lit, but she kept staring at the two boys sitting across the room from her. History only reminded her of them, and how they had seen the Berlin Wall fall. They were old men in their minds and souls, but youths in their body, and it unsettled her. Greyson had said they would talk about everything the next day, and they had talked, but it left her no closer to the answers she wanted. She wondered how and why these creatures existed, but Greyson wondered the same things.

As for Catherine, there had been another nightmare Sunday night, where she fought for life after having her throat torn out by Quinn. Virginia had caught up to Greyson after class to tell him about Catherine, to talk about it more than their short text-conversation, and all he said was a cryptic "I got it", and walked away. Now, as she sat in Tracey's room, with her roommate gone, she picked at the polish on her nails, trying to avoid the thought.

Tracey pulled off her shirt and discarded it into the pile of dirty clothes beside her bed. "So are you going to ask me, or not?"

"What?" Virginia snapped out of her trance to look at Tracey.

"You obviously came to ask your older, wiser friend something, so ask away," Tracey shrugged a new shirt on.

Virginia sighed heavily. "So I have a secret."

Smirking, Tracey sat down on the bed next to Virginia. "Ooh, juicy. Is it about that hottie you've been talking to?"

"Greyson?" a lump rose to her throat.

A wide smile spread across her face. "It is, isn't it?"

Pursing her lips, she shrugged.

"Okay, tell me. Now," Tracey looked at her intently.

"I can't," Virginia sighed. "It's not my secret to tell."

Sighing, Tracey nodded a little. "That's the problem, right? You really need to tell someone what's going on, what the secret is, how it makes you feel, but you can't because you made a promise."

She just nodded and Tracey went back to changing. When she slipped out of her jeans, Virginia's eyes went to the open wound on her hip.

"Oh my god," Virginia leaped up. "What happened?"

Tracey looked at her, shocked, then down at her hip. "Oh, that."

"What do you mean 'oh that'?" she demanded, crossing the room to examine it closer. "Are you okay?"

Her friend laughed, short and sharp. "Okay is a tough word. That, Virginia, is my secret."

And she pulled on a new pair of pants. Virginia sat back on her heels.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"I've talked about it a lot, and it never seems to help," shrugged Tracey, casting a smile at her. "Nothing really does. I just grin and bear it, and eventually, it subsides. Don't worry about me, Virginia."

Nodding, Virginia didn't promise. She knew she would worry whether Tracey wanted her to or not. But she wondered if Tracey's philosophy would apply to her own situation, to just grin and bear it until it eventually subsided. And if that night passed with no nightmares from her roommate, she would feel better about the idea of letting it lie.

As she walked back to her dorm through the less than well-lit campus, her phone buzzed. It was Greyson.

Can we try doing something normal? He asked.

She replied; Probably. What were you thinking?

From where she was standing, she could see Greyson and Quinn's window, with their light on.

I heard a rumor about the tunnels under Eaton Hall.

Smiling, all she had to say was: I'm in.

She went back to her room and it was empty. She thought about texting Catherine to see if she wanted to come, but she thought better of it. Catherine was probably studying in Alexa's room and Virginia was almost thankful for evening where she could let herself not think about what was going on with Catherine.