All of her life, Maria Alvarez has been sure of three things.
1.) The Lord God will protect and guide her thought all of the trials of life.
2.) Vampires are soulless husks of their former selves, little more than animated bodies feedi...
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Maria was very tired the next day. It was to be expected, as she only slept for three hours before the screaming of Carmen's alarm so rudely woke her. Carmen, for the most part, seemed unbothered by her lack of rest, sitting crossed legged on her bed as she happily did her makeup. Maria laid on the ground, groaning and dreading simply having to even brush her hair.
Eventually, Carmen climed down to her and pestered her into getting ready. It wasn't very characteristic of her to be so sluggish; she usually liked to be ready an hour before she even had to leave for something.
"I'm so tired." She complained to Carmen as they walked down the stairs.
"Yeah, no shit." Carmen scoffed. "Not only did you not get any sleep, you also lost a good amount of blood, thanks to me. I honestly think you should really stay home."
"There's no way I'm doing that." Maria frowned.
"I know." Carmen said. "And I don't blame you."
Once they were in the car, Maria promptly fell asleep slumped against the window. Luckily, it was a four hour drive, so she could at least catch up a little bit on her sleep.
She woke up about twenty minutes before they arrived at the capital, her stomach in knots. She looked over to Carmen, but she didn't look too composed herself.
"Are you nervous?" Maria asked. "Because I feel like I might pass out."
"Right there with you. I feel like I might puke." Carmen said, doing nothing at all to ease her fears.
"What should I do when the members of the church see me?" Maria asked.
"Well, the mature thing to do would probably be to ignore them, but I honestly feel like causing a scene." Carmen said. Her eyes became distant, and her bravado suddenly fell. "I am worried about possibly seeing Mitzi there."
"Do you think she would say anything to you?" Maria asked.
"Probably not." Carmen said. "But the Bite article is probably going to go live not long after we get there, so who knows what might happen."
"So we should probably lay as low as possible, right?" Maria said. "I'm sure the article is already going to make them mad enough. You don't think they'd try anything, do you?"
"Not with so many people around, no." She said, though her voice sounded less certain. "They're sneakier and slimier than that."
Maria hoped that she was right.
They arrived at the capital not long after, just as the sun was setting. It took them a solid half hour just to park in the midsts of the chaos. It took another fifteen minutes to meet up with everybody two blocks from the capital building.
