The Last Living One

Chapter Three

Chapter 3

Maddie's P.O.V

"You want me to believe that we're . . . vampires?" I exclaimed, confused and slightly hurt. This is what I get for even listening to him, he probably had a camera hidden so he could post all of this on the school web site.God, I am so freaking gullible; I thought angrily at myself. Vampires? This is all so laughable! Maybe I deserved what ever came from this prank; teach myself not to be so freak stupid.

"I'm telling the truth, Maddie. You might not believe me at the moment, but everything I've told you is true," Ashton replied, almost glaring at me.

"If this is true, then why hasn't my mom said anything?" I asked, throwing my hands up. Azura meow grumpily at me, sinking her claws into my leg. "Azura, my leg isn't a scratching post!" I snapped, grabbing her paws and moving them.

"Because we usually start showing the symptoms in ninth or tenth grade. Most of us are told about it when we start showing the symptoms and we keep it a secret. The school knows, of course, it's a school for our kind. For all the paranormal kids," Ashton explained quietly, petting Matt.

"If this is kept a secret; then why are you telling me?" I asked, looking away from him. "I don't think I have anything to do with this; I would have noticed if something was going on."

"How would you know if you don't even know what to look for?" He asked, smirking. I rolled my eyes, choosing not to answer him. "Exactly. The symptoms can come in different orders, so nobody can really tell you what comes first; but I can tell you a few of them. First, for me, was Matt. He just showed up one day. I was kind of shocked, like who would let this puppy run around on his own? Kelsey found me later that day to show me a puppy had found her too."

"Wait, Kelsey has a dog?" I asked, unable to picture this. Kelsey, in her name brand clothes and stilettos holding a huge dog. It made my head hurt just trying to picture this.

"Yeah, a Pomeranian; I swear that dog hasn't walked anywhere since she found her," he told me, shaking his head with a smile.

"Now that is more like it," I replied, laughing. Kelsey, name brand clothes, stilettos and expensive purse with a Pomeranian riding around in it; I could definitely see that. "So animals are one of the symptoms? Can they be any kind of animal?"

"Yeah, I've seen someone have a parakeet. Anyway, the animals find us when they're little and they stay with us until we die. The second and most common symptom, is our eyes. I know you've seen it. The vampire part some how changes our eye color. They explained it, but it's kind of boring so I'll spare you that headache. Just remember, the more shocking and uncommon the color, the stronger the bloodline," he explained, locking eyes with me as his flickered to that unmistakeable, icy blue and back to his green.

I narrowed my eyes, knowing he did that on purpose. "Can you tell when they change?"

"Yeah but only because it feels like liquid fire crawling through my body," he answered, his face completely blank. I stared at him in shock, before shaking my head.

"B-but doesn't that hurt?" I stuttered, knowing from the hollow feeling in my stomach that I wasn't like him, Kelsey and their kind.

"We kind of get used to it; I can barely feel the burning anymore," he told me, looking down. "You are like us, Maddie; I know it."

"How can you know that, Ashton? The only thing that matches what you have told me is Azura." I sighed, the hollow feeling getting worse. "And even that can be explained."

Why was I even still here? It was clear that I wasn't like him, no matter what he said. No liquid fire or eyes changing color. And Azura didn't find me, I choose her from a litter of kittens that a stray mama cat had. The stray trusted me because I fed her and the kittens. I had kept them all alive for a while but when it flooded, I got there too late to save them. The only one who was still alive was Azura and I don't have any idea how she survived; it was nothing short of a miracle.