• Chapter 13



    " Nikki?" Jessi says, waving a hand in her face. " Earth to Nikki" she says, stopping and looking Nikki in the face. "what?" Nikki asked, finally snapping out of her dazed trance. " Are you OK?" Jessi asks, looking at her friend suspiciously. "yeah, I'm fine". Nikki says, giving Jessi a big smile. " your smiling?" Jessi said happily, glad to see her finally happy. " why are you so happy all of a sudden?" She asks, her smile growing. Nikki leans over and whispers in her ear " I'll tell you later" She says with a grin. Jessi giggled happily and stood up when the school bell rang. " See ya later" Jessi says, giving Nikki a sly grin. Nikki rolled her eyes and headed down the hall to her next class.
    Nikki rubbed her neck nervously as she walked down the halls. Her neck felt really warm and was tingling slightly. She stopped on her way to class and walked into one of the restrooms. She set her stuff down on the ground and looked at her neck in the mirror. She pulled the neck of her shirt down and ran her hand over the two red marks on her neck. She winced when a slight stinging pain began in her neck when she touched the two marks. She looked at the two marks carefully in the mirror. They did not seem to be getting any smaller, but they did seem to be getting lighter. She could feel the warmth coming from them and her neck was starting to really hurt. She heard someone starting to walk into the bathroom and she quickly covered her neck back up. She quickly grabbed her stuff and walked back into the hall and headed for her next class.
    Nikki's next class was biology. She quickly rushed into the room and quietly took her seat in the back of the room. The teacher began taking roll call and then began lecturing about a presentation showing on the overhead projector. " Nikki, do you mind getting the lights" The teacher called from the front of the room. " huh? " Nikki said looking back up to the front. She stood up and went over to the light switch and turned the lights off. She wasn't really paying much attention to anything the teacher was saying. She silently sat back down in her seat and wrapped her hands around her neck. Her neck was burning up. She could hear her heart beat in her head. She looked up at the class to see if anybody was watching her. Nobody was. She gently put her head on the cold desk, turning her head so that her neck was on the desk. She let out a sigh when she felt the cold on her neck and felt her eye lids grow heavy, not realizing how tired she really was from the night before. She soon fell fast asleep.

    She woke up an hour later. She looked around at the class, they were all watching a movie the teacher had put in. She brought her head up, trying to wake her self up. She reached up and touched her neck, relieved that it didn't feel warm anymore. That relief didn't last though. She could feel something wet on her neck. She looked at the tips of her fingers wondering what it was that she had felt, but she couldn't see anything in the dark room. She stood up and walks over to the teacher's desk. " can I use the hall pass" She asks quietly in a hushed tone. " why do you need to use it?" the teacher asks quietly. " Please". Nikki says quietly. The teacher reaches over and picks up a small laminated card and hands it to Nikki, figuring it was just a feminine problem or thing that she didn't want to say out loud to him. " thank you" Nikki says, walking over to the door. She quietly opens the door and slips out into the hall. Nikki looked around the halls. They were completely empty and abandoned. Nikki walked down the hall and stopped at the front doors of the school. There was storm outside and the wind and rain was coming down very hard. She watched as the wind and rain whipped at the trees outside of the school. "It rains a lot here, but it's never gotten this bad before". She thought to herself. Thunder rumbles across the dark sky, causing Nikki to jump. She quickly rushes back down the hall toward the bathrooms. When she sees the bathrooms she lets out a sigh and slows her pace and calmly walks in. She walks over to one of the mirrors and looks at her reflection in the mirror. Her neck still felt wet, but she couldn't see why through the dark fabric of her shirt's collar. Nikki looks around cautiously, making sure nobody else was coming down the halls. Nobody. She couldn't see or hear anybody coming, so she runs back into the bathroom and stands back in front of the mirror. She pushes her collar down very carefully and examines the red bite marks on her neck. They didn't look any different from when she looked at them earlier. Something didn't seem right though. She takes another quick lance around to make sure nobody was near. When she doesn't see anybody she reaches down and pulls her shirt off. She could see all of her neck now and lets out a sharp gasp when she sees what was causing all of her discomfort. There was a small stream of blood running down from one of the bite marks and went all the way down her neck and onto her chest. It looked like she had actually been bleeding for quite a while now because a lot of the blood was dried or drying. Nikki was beginning to panic and she quickly grabbed a fist full of paper towels and ran them under some cool water. She gently dabbed her neck, cleaning the blood off of it. She takes a closer look at the two marks. They didn't look like they were still bleeding. They actually looked like they had stopped quite a while ago. Nikki winces when she accidentally presses to hard as she finished cleaning them. She takes one last quick look at them before she quickly throws her shirt back on. She walks back out into hall calmly. She looks around at the hall with a confused look on her face. It must have been a trick of the light, but the hall almost seemed like it had actually gotten even darker. The hall in all of its emptiness and sudden darkness, seemed a lot like a graveyard. Nikki starts walking faster when she suddenly gets the feeling that she is being watched. Nikki stops by the front doors on her way back to the classroom. The storm had gotten even worse. Nothing could even be seen beyond a few feet of the school because of how hard the rain was falling. She quickly hurries down the hall. It was kinda of spooky how unnaturally quite the school was. Usually at least one of two people are walking in the halls, but nobody was anywhere to be seen. Nikki looks down at her watch. There were only a few more hours left of school. Nikki continues down the hall, the only sound the echo of her footsteps on the grey and white tiles of the hallway. She quickly runs back into the classroom and takes her seat. The movie still had another hour. She gently rests her head back down on her desk. She was still tired and decided to take another nap.


    Chapter 14


    "Hey!" Lance shouts down the hall. " Serist, wait up!" He says, catching up with Serist. " How did you know about Nikki?" He asks curiously. Serist answers with a sly grin. Typical Serist. Knows all, tells nothing. " do you know where Faith is?" He asks, his vampire charm extremely distinct in his voice. Lance grins. " probably in the gun range again". He answers, his grin growing. Serist rolls his eyes and lets out a sigh. " I swear, she spends more time with those guns then she does with her husband". Lance says, the grin still very visible on his face. " don't remind me". Serist grumbles, glaring at Lance.
    The two of them continue walking down the hall until they reach a steel reinforced door at the end of the hall. There are sharp gun shots coming from the other side and the door lets out a loud metallic creak as Serist gently opens it and the two of them step in. The room inside is dark and seems very plain and simple. The walls are made from a dark concrete that stretches back for about 20-30ft. The room is completely empty aside from a table sitting by the door and a few stone figures sitting at the opposite end of the room. On the table sits several different guns and clips of ammunition. Standing at the table is a tall slender women with long dirty blond hair that flows down her shoulders and stops about her mid-back. She is wearing a long elegant black dress that is made from a thin material that almost seems like spider webs that have been intricately woven together. A loud sound snaps through the air as she pulls the trigger of one of the guns. A hole suddenly bursts in one of the stone figures, sending small stone fragments tumbling to the ground. She quickly brings up a second guns and fires off a few more shots. The Figure suddenly explodes as several more holes all burst on its surface, sending stone fragments in every direction. The statue trembles slightly and then crumbles to the ground in pieces. Lance looks at the statue with a suprised look on his face. " Wow! what a woman!" Lance says jokingly, turning to Serist with a impish grin on his face. " Hey, thats my woman". Serist says back, a sly grin forming on his face. Both of them let out a hearty laugh and turn to Faith. "what are you two laughing at?" Faith asks, turning around and setting the guns down on the table. Lance looks up at Serist, waiting for an answer, but Serist was spaced out and looked like he was off in his own little world. " Hey" Lance says, jabbing him lightly in the side. " your wife asked you a question". Lance says, looking up at his dazed mentor. " Huh?" Serist asks blankly, shaking himself out of his daze. " what?" He asks, turning his attention back to Faith. " Oh, nothing". Faith says flatly, rolling her eyes. " Lance" Faith says, turning to the young vampire. " Your sister is looking for you". She says, a sad look suddenly coming over her face. Lance looks at her, a confused look on his face. Not because of the news of his sister, but rather because of the look on Faith's face. " where is she?" Lance asks quietly. " the usual place" faith answers, looking away. " ok. I'll go see her after I go meet with the elders". Lance says sadly, heading for the door. " wait" Serist says quickly, reaching out and stopping lance. " go, ill cover for you with the elders". He says, giving him a reassuring pat on the back. " ok". Lance says almost silently, wealking out of the room. " whats wrong?" faith asks, looking over at Serist, who suddenly had a sad look on his face. " I dont know. Just a feeling. Like something really bad is going to happen or something bad is going on". Serist says quietly, a sense of forewarning in his voice.