Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

LOMD Chapter 8 - The Sleepy Town

Chapter 8

VIVIENNE WENT home in a hurry. That was the only place she had wanted to be, at home with her head under the covers. As she walked up to her front door, she began to panic. Her mind was suddenly preoccupied with what she would tell her parents about where she had been, coming home so late. Vivienne decided they would never believe the truth. At best, they would think she was doing drugs. In fact, she didn't really believe what she had seen that night. Maybe, if she got some sleep, this would all turn out to be a dream.

As Vivienne made a fist to knock on the front door, she found it ajar. She felt her heart suddenly skip a beat. What if the monsters had found her parents? She rushed in through the door, ready to be greeted with the gory remains over her beloved family. However, her concern was quickly interrupted as she tripped over a pair of fancy patent leather heels.

"Can you watch where you are going, you little klutz?" Janun yelled from the living room couch. "I don't need this right now!"

"Viv!" Her mom yelled from the kitchen. "Are you finally home? Your mashed potatoes are about to get cold."

"Yeah, mom." Vivienne stuttered. She didn't know whether to be relieved or angry that her parents hadn't even realized she had been missing. "I was out doing schoolwork. I'm going to take a shower."

"Coming in at this hour? Please, Viv, don't tell us you have a secret boyfriend too," her father added as he calmly continued to read the newspaper. "No, Janun, you can pout until your lips fall off. The answer is NO. You are not going to that party with this gangster boy."

"Julian isn't a gangster. If you gave him a chance, you would know!" Janun retorted. "I hate you! I hate you all!"

"I'm not hungry, mom," Vivienne said, sheepishly. She started to sneak up the stairs, out of the hurricane of screaming in the living room.

"You won't let me see him because of Vivienne," Janun screamed and threw a remote control into the stairwell banister. "You think just because a gorgeous boy takes any interest in me he has to be bad news. All I know is that if I got kidnapped by Manna City, I would never come back!"

"Janun," Vivienne said. "Please."

"Vivienne," her father said and continued to hide his face in the newspaper. "Just ignore her. She's hysterical. You can take a twenty out of my wallet and go grab a burger at the diner with your secret boyfriend if you want. Janun put down that lamp!" Her father's tone was playfully sarcastic, and that was just setting Janun off even more.

Vivienne chuckled a little as she continued up the stairs. Janun continued to wail from downstairs. As Vivienne sat down in the safety and comfort of her room, her fingers found the cameo necklace Blake her given her in her pocket. She had no idea how it got there or who had placed it there. Her parents thought handsome, dorky Julian was a monster. If they knew about the monsters in their other daughter's life.

~*~

Two weeks passed without a visit from Calbert or from the monsters in the forest. The high school in Remin was surrounded by forest. It had been calming to Vivienne when she first started school to be surrounded by so much green. In Manna City, everything was made of concrete and marble. The buildings were all stacked on top of each other to squeeze use out of every inch of space. Remin, however, was built low to the ground and they shared their houses with the beetles, ants, and spiders.

Vivienne never liked bugs, but now there was something else lurking inside the forest for her to fear. Suddenly, the swaying trees didn't calm her. They were hiding a deep dark secret, just up the mountain. She was so preoccupied with thinking about the hungry beasts in the woods that she didn't even see Zissa gliding down the hallway, toward her.

"Watch where you're going, loser," Sam yelled and slapped Vivienne's books out of her hands. She kicked Vivienne's Calculus textbook across the hall and ran away laughing. Vivienne knelt down to gather her things. She could hear the girls whisper to themselves as they gathered around and watched.

"What is she wearing? Is there a hole on her elbow?"

Vivienne immediately shifted her books to cover the hole. The only clothes she had were Janun's hand-me-downs. She had lost most of her things since they left Lewisville. This fact hadn't bothered her at all. Not until now. As Vivienne stood up and ran away, she suddenly wished that she remembered to brush her hair that morning. Catching a glimpse of herself on a shiny surface in the school trophy case, she realized they were right. She looked like the bastard child of a storybook witch and a bridge troll.

Vivienne thought about going to the bathroom to undo the giant knot in her hair with the period bell rang. That sound meant she was supposed to be in her next class by now. Vivienne sighed and found the nearest down stairwell.

Her next class was Music Appreciation. It had the unfortunate distinction of being in the basement. Vivienne supposed the school was expressing its lack of appreciation for music by holding the class in the windowless, dark, and damp basement. One didn't need natural light in order to appreciate Mozart or Bach. At least she couldn't see the haunted forest from that particular room. But, as Vivienne quickly realized, having Zissa and her gang waiting by the classroom doors was a threat enough.

"Hey, taking the fat-headed boyfriend to the dance?" Zissa asked with a smirk on her face. "He hasn't been around in a while, has he? Did he dump you?"

"I hope you guys are using protection," Sam added and erupted in giggles.

"Shut up," Vivienne whispered through clenched teeth. She pushed past them and took her usual seat at the back of the room.

"All right, class, settle down." Their teacher, Mr. Macker struggled to maintain order. He was a balding dwarf of a man who walked with his hand on his popped hip. He was largely ineffective against the chatter of excited teenage girls. "As you all know, we have a new student in this class. He is a home school visitor who needs some credits for applying to college. So, I expect you to all be welcoming."

"I heard he's cute," Sam whispered. The girls in the front row giggled. At least, for once, they weren't giggling at the new girl, Vivienne reflected. She tried to make herself smaller by hunching her shoulders and cradling her textbooks closer to her chest.

"Now where is he?" Mr. Macker muttered. "I hope he isn't lost."

"I'm here," a voice from the back of the class interrupted. Vivienne barely looked up as a tall flurry of blond hair, and black cargo pants took the seat beside her. "I think I found someone I know."

It wasn't his words that made her lookup. Rather, it was the sudden silence from the peanut gallery of annoying teenage girls. Vivienne's moved over to see a pair of black, messily tied combat boots, a dark green shoulder bag. He was wearing a dark gray t-shirt that looked artfully ripped to mimic the kind that young people in high school wore. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw his sharp, amused eyes.

"Blake," she whispered.

"See, she knows me."