The New Girl

Chapter Eight

"Help! Help!"

I shouted toward the swimming pool, because the people inside the house would never hear me with all the music blasting on. I squatted and looked down at Mariana then.

"Mariana! Mariana! Can you hear me?"

She didn't respond. She lay rigid, face down on the earth. The fall had given her a bleeding nose and a small wound on her head. But the serious injury was on her neck. It was punctured with two tiny holes, from where the blood was gushing and staining her ivory dress and the grass her body was pressing down. Were those holes a bite mark?

"What did you do to her?" It was Matt. Why it had to be him first to see me like this? I hate my luck.

"I did nothing. Please call the ambulance."

Matt was dripping wet in swimming trunk. He studied me suspiciously, and then dashed inside the house. He alerted everyone, telling, "Nerd killed the girl, nerd killed the girl" and ushered them out in the garden.

Killed? I didn't like to believe Marianna was dead. She must be unconsciousness or something. But not dead.

The music had stopped in the backdrop, and murmurs and whispers and gasping sound were all I could hear for next two minutes as everyone surrounded Mariana and me forming a curved line. Accusing eyes held me in the spotlight like a culprit and that made me feel more miserable. Why anyone not calling the ambulance or the cops? And where was Lovina?

"Bloody hell, this will end my party life," Avalanna said more to herself, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "Mimi, call my father's assistant and ask her to come here this instant." Mimi retreated toward the house, taking Caybe with her. Avalanna pointed a blaming finger at me. "What did you do to her, dork?"

"Nothing, I swear -"

"You're lying."  

"No, he is not!"

When did Lovina arrive on the scene I did not know, but there she was now standing in the front line four people away from Avalanna speaking on my behalf. She took a step forward, faced the crowd and announced, "This party is over. Everyone go home. Mariana is dead. The police will be here in few minutes."

The crowd dispersed. Meanwhile Lovina called the nearest police station.

I felt my stomach drop. Suspecting was one thing, but when someone trusted confirmed the doubt there was nothing one could do but believe it. I rose to my feet, guiltiness coursing through my body like poison. Only if I hadn't taken my eyes away from her...

"You shouldn't have brought them here," Avalanna said outrageously to Lovina after she had ended the call. "Now you handle all this. Otherwise I'm going to sue you."

Lovina didn't say anything back to her.

Avalanna glared at Lovina and then me, threw the tiara from her head on the ground, turned and disappeared in the comfort of her home. She was so enraged that if she had only lingered back a bit longer we could have seen the white smoke curling up in the night air from her nostrils like a bull.

I was expecting a lot of questions from Lovina, but strangely she didn't inquire me one. Also, she didn't go near Mariana's body. When she remained quiet and upset, I decided to speak.

"I - I had only turned my back to her for like a minute to speak to David on phone... why would anybody bleed that poor girl to dead for nothing?"

At last Lovina opened her mouth. "It wasn't for nothing. It was to satisfy its hunger."

"Hunger?" I recalled David talk about vampire. "You mean by drinking blood?"

She kept her shiny blue eyes on anything but me. "Yes. Like a vampire."

I felt a cold chill expand in my chest. I directed the flashlight on Mariana and gazed at the fang mark on her neck. This time I believed it:

A vampire is living among humans.

But who could it be?