Each class the same, I would sit and listen, they would sit and think of boy things, for four months we would go day in day out they would sit with me a lunch, Theodore would come over I would leave, I would listen to their thoughts in the study halls, in the class rooms, I would even sometimes sneak out at night just to catch a glimpse of their dreams. Then Christmas came, and things changed.
“Hey, Kat” Marcus said catching up with me “what are you doing for Christmas break?”
“Nothing” I was on my way to the lunch room and grabbed his thoughts before he even saw me, he was thinking about inviting a couple of us over to his house for Christmas.
“Well, I was wondering there are only a few of us staying for the holiday, Chris and I because we live here, but you and a couple others will be stuck in the dorms, so I was wondering if you would like to come over for Christmas dinner?”
“I will have to think about it.” I know it is supposed to be sunny that day and I don’t know if I can risk it. But I can feel the disappointment so I add “I will probably come but it depends on the weather, you know snow and all. Don’t you think it is weird you are inviting a teacher?”
“Oh, okay, my dad has a truck so we can always drive over and pick you guys up if you can’t make it. And you are not a teacher yet which makes you cool.” At that point, I smelled his dad, he was coming down the hall and again I was distracted, this was going to have to stop. To be around mortals, I had to be focused or at least the part of me had to be, but Theodore Simmons is testing fate.
“Oh, Marcus, where is your lunch?” Theodore was trying to get Marcus to walk away from me.
“Oh I left it in my locker, Kat, I will be right back then we can go to lunch.” Chris and Marcus are the only ones who sit with me and they still think it is weird I don’t eat food, but they don’t say anything.
“Katyla, I would like to see you after to school to talk to you about your presentation today.”
“Fine, I will be there after the final bell rings.” With that I turned and walked away I haven’t hunted in the last couple of weeks and Theodore’s sweet smelling blood was way too tempting I would have to skip my next class and hunt. So I skipped out on lunch and my last two classes I told the principal I wasn’t feeling well. I hunted up north a bit, got me a nice polar bear who was a little more active than I thought it would be, and got myself a nice gash that is healing very quickly. But my shirt was ruined, so I went and changed into one of my gym shirts before heading to Theodore’s classroom. It was dark out now, we were in winter mode.
I walked in and found him, his blood all over. The smell hit me, I wanted the blood, but a large unknown force made me focus on him, not his blood. He was dying, and I knew the mark the killer had made on his hand, it was Argo’s assassin, Gavin. The mark was cut into his hand; it was two sickles shaped into a cross. I could do nothing about the mark but I would save his life, I could not turn him that would bring Marcus into the vampire world to soon. So I preformed the only spell I knew to heal the damage. “From the Heavens above, the Hells below, from the north to the south, from the east to the west, the sprits of the earth, air, water, and fire, and of my soul, I call upon these powers to heal the man before me, Theodore Simmons, so mote it be!” With those words I collapsed and my wound from the bear reopened, I would need more blood to heal, I left though the window. I ran as far as I could and happened upon some deer, after killing seven I was healing enough, after twelve I was healed. The only reason I don’t do that spell is the need for blood afterwards, one human would have done the trick, but I have sworn off human blood, totally since the fateful day my life was destroyed before my eyes. I could have healed without the blood but it would have taken a month or so, it would have been a mortal wound if I had been human.
I ran back to the class room just as Theodore was waking up. The scar on his hand there forever now. It is a mark of death in the vampire world, nobody had lived after Gavin gave them that mark, not before Theodore. Due to the loss of blood, he smelled different, which I did not like for some unknown reason, but it was allowing me to focus a bit more around him.
“What happened” Theodore was sitting up. “I was standing here waiting for you and this man came in and attacked me, did you see him leave? I could have sworn I was cut.”
“I didn’t see anybody, Mr. Simmons. When I got here you were laying on the floor, I was wondering about what to do when you started to wake up.” Lies but necessary I can’t bring Marcus in to this world yet. And Argos has found me, but why go after Theodore I do not spend time with him, nor do I a spend time with Marcus. “Did he say anything to you?” I asked helping him to his desk chair, then sitting down at the closest desk.
“Yeah, it was strange, he said ‘Tell her that we know where she is, we know what power she processes. Tell her she will not win, she shall never see her son again.’ It was strange but didn’t give a name, to tell.”
“Should I go to the office and call the cops?” I was worried. I was to receive that message. Why not turn him? Or at least drain him, why give him a message just to kill him?
“Yeah, I guess we should call the cops, we don’t want anybody getting hurt. Hmmm… funny he cut this symbol in my hand but it is healed up…” Theodore just let the sentence die, got out his cell phone and called the cops. I excused myself to use the rest room, or so I said.
Once I was outside I did a tracking spell and realized that Gavin was close by pissed that Theodore lived he wanted to kill another, I snuck up on him, and I discovered the reason they knew to attack this man. They turned a seer, once a seer in life, more powerful in death. He had seen my son and Theodore, and me; he had shown Argos my happiness. Argos gift was to be shown what others saw, if he had turned them. That is why he turned this seer. To know when the last days of his reign were coming to an end. He was sitting in the woods about two miles out of the school yards. I took my knife, and I cut his head off, his body turned to ash, Gavin normally was not stupid, but he was worried about Argos, he was becoming crazier and crazier, he was only on this mission to keep Argos from killing more vampires. Too bad he will never go back to Argos. I went back to the classroom; it only took me thirty minutes.
“Katyla, we were starting to worry, you were gone awhile.” Theodore said as I walked in, he was leaning against his desk his arms crossed.
“I wanted to pull myself together; there is some blood over there by the window. It upsets my stomach.” Not really but I wanted to drink his blood and it had a stronger pull over me than any other. I went and stood in the corner of the room.
“I understand. The officers were just asking if I could give a description, all I could remember was the red eyes, are you sure you didn’t see anybody leave Katyla?”
“A figure, he had a black coat on he wasn’t running or anything so I didn’t take notice.” No matter how good of look anybody got, they were never going to find him Gavin is dead, ash to ash dust to dust. I even took a hand full, and sent it to Argos, can’t wait to see his reaction to that.
“Sorry we couldn’t be more help officers, but we thought it should be reported.” Theodore’s thoughts were confused, as were the police officers, there was a lot of blood but no injuries they could see. “I wish I could explain the blood, but I don’t seem to be hurt, and I could have sworn he cut me.” Theodore was explaining, next time I will have to remember to leave a minor wound but I had no time to make a specific enough spell, he was almost dead.
“Officers, he left though the north exit.” That would lead the officers away from the woods were Gavin’s ashes were and away from the dorms, and towards town.
“Is there anything missing?” The first officer, is tag said P. Charles, was wondering if this was some type of joke now. Theodore looked around and noticed his wedding band was gone.
“Yes, my wedding band, I was wearing it, I guess he must have taken it.” Theodore was upset that is the only thing his late wife had given him, which he could hold on to forever. Then I knew the whole story, Theodore was upset it was missing not because he loved his wife, but because of guilt. It was his fault she was driving in that area that day. He had asked for a divorce. He knew she was seeing someone else, and did not think he could ignore it, even though he had fallen out of love. He never told Marcus that they were discussing a divorce. They had met the divorce attorney that day; they left with most of the stuff agreed upon. She went one way, towards her boyfriends place, and him another. Theodore got a call ten minutes later; a bus had run a red light killing Sarah, his wife, instantly. Theodore was feeling guilty because if he hadn’t asked for the divorce, then she would never have been near that intersection. Gavin must have sent it to Argos, because it was not on his person, and since I am assuming it was blessed by a priest of some sort like most bands are, it would not have turned to ash, when the vampire did, it was a holy object.
The police officers were making notes, and wondering why we were still in the school building after school hours most of the kids and staff take off to the study halls and dorms, he was wondering if there was something going on between us, but I was just standing very still in the corner of the room, and Theodore was leaning against the edge of his desk. He thought something was off but, he was telling himself he was just imaging things. The second officer spoke as they were leaving, his tag and said G. Harn. “Well, we will see what we can find, sir, miss.” With that they walked out the door.
“Well, that sure was interesting.” Theodore said sitting down and rubbing his hand across his face and in his hair. I went to stand in front of his desk. I was looking at the damage, a simple spell would make things right, I would do that tonight after Theodore left.
“Do you still want to talk about my report?”
“Might as well, after all tonight starts Christmas break.”
“What is wrong with it?”
“Nothing, I just wanted to speak to you again about some of your sources.”
“Okay, what about them.”
“How did you find all these sources for your Shakespeare presentations?”
“I own the books.” True, I even wrote some of them, even though I didn’t like Shakespeare, I needed to be able to make a living, though I have enough for a hundred lifetimes right now, but I am going to live a lot longer than that.
“I thought you didn’t like Shakespeare?” Theodore was sure something was off with me, I didn’t act like a young adult, and didn’t look like one, he was thinking I have old eyes, wouldn’t it be a shock to find out he was right. Not that he saw my real eyes, but an illusion, so they looked as brown as they were when I was human.
“I don’t but schools teach Shakespeare, I have a family member who was a big fan. And I minored in English; it is kind of hard to avoid Shakespeare.” The lies were going to wrap around me soon, nobody ever questioned me before Theodore. Don’t get me wrong I can remember everything told to me and everything I say, but I just don’t like lying though it has been part of my life for almost six thousand years.
“Alright, I am going to clean up here, you can leave for your dorm.” Theodore was standing up going to his closet.
“I will help, since I have no homework in any of my classes, and only a handful of papers to grade.” I turned to start a simple spell.
“That is not necessary; you have been though a lot today.” Theodore was right behind me.
“No it is fine, I like to stay busy.”
“Why Alaska, why stay here?”
“I have an allergy that most people don’t know about, it is to the sun, it is very rare but real, here I can stay out during the day and not worry about sunburn.” I couldn’t tell him the honest answer, which was I was a vampire and I didn’t want to bring Marcus in to my world until he was older.
“Oh, how many more classes at the college do you have left?” Theodore, was not moving he stayed right behind me while I stood there answering his questions.
“I…” I couldn’t think straight for the first time since the change. “I will graduate in the spring with a B.S, just next semester’s two classes and my student teaching hours.”
“So you are going to be a history teacher?”
“Yes, or biology, the school here wants to hire me, but not sure what class to hire me for, they have a few other applicants, since the head of history and head of biology are leaving, leaving an entry level position open in both.” It doesn’t help that all of a sudden both ‘won’ some money to retire, and Marcus was going to be a junior next year.
“So you plan on staying here then?” He was not moving, even to clean up, and my spell died on my lips.
“Yes, I have realtor looking at houses for me, I plan on making my life here.” At least for the next few years, before the fact I don’t age starts becoming an issue.
“That is nice, the houses over by mine are easily affordable on a teacher’s salary and there a few of them for sale.” I knew that but I wasn’t going to tell him, and I stopped trying to get around whatever was blocking his thoughts.
“I will have to check those out, do you have paper towels?” I asked bringing us back to the situation at hand.
“No I have some napkins and shop towels, I will go get some from the janitor.” He was shocked to see how close he came to me, and how we just stood there talking.
“Okay I will start while you go and get the other towels, this may be enough but don’t want to risk it.”
“I will be right back.” With that Theodore left the room, and I breathed out and in, did the spell, make sure the paper towels and stuff we had were used, so by the time he came back the cleaning was done, and I was gone. I left a note on his board:
~Theodore, I have cleaned up, didn’t take too long. Tell Marcus I will try to make it for Christmas. ~Kat
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