chapter five

She woke up when he was driving. She met a pack of blood on her legs when she woke up.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You fought me and I won. I snapped your neck. Apparently, you have no control of your hunger and I don’t think you should go to school anytime soon”

“I’m fine. I can’t skip school. I wouldn’t hurt anybody” Anna said, hoping she was right

“You can’t control it. There are humans in school. You can lose control when you’re with them” Alex said.

She was about to reply when her phone rang. She reached her pocket for it. She looked at it and saw that it was her mom. She tossed her phone to the side.

“Is that mom?” Alex asked.

“Yeah it is” She responded, looking away.

“Why aren’t you picking it up then?” He asked.

“Because I don’t want to talk to her. It’s that simple” She said.

“Maybe you should. I think you should forgive her and move past this issue. One thing life has thought me is to forgive people and let a lot of things go because life can be very surprising. Someone can be here one moment and then gone the next. You can’t really be sure of much time you have with someone” He said.

“I don’t want to talk to her! She lied to me. If you hadn’t shown up in our lives, she would have kept the fact that you and dad existed from me” She said.

“She did what she thought was best” Alex said, defending their mother.

“Best for who exactly? For me or for herself?” Anna asked.

“Don’t say that. You know Mon would do anything for you. Fine, she might have gone about it the wrong way but she does care about you and she would do everything in her power to protect you. She literally left her life behind just because it would be safer for you. Don’t ever doubt that” Alex said

“Well, I already do. Just let the matter be” she said.

The rest of the drive home was pretty silent. When she got back in, she went straight to her room and locked the door behind her. Alex got the point and decided not to bother her about it anymore. He realized that she just needs time. Her world was about to change drastically and she needed all the love she could get.

Monday morning came by fast for the both of them. She skipped breakfast and he offered to drive the both of them to school. He pulled up in the school’s parking lot and held her back before she could get down.

“Can we talk? I hate the fact that you’re really mad at me and there’s this silence that is hanging around us” Alex said

“Sure” She replied. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Us. I am sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard. I realized that we have been taking things at my own pace and I really didn’t care if it was convenient for you. It was selfish and unreasonable of me. I shouldn’t have tried to get you to forgive Mom. I can’t relate to a parent lying to me. I haven’t had a parent around me in a while so I don’t know how it feels like but I know I would give anything to be with them again. I would give anything to grow up with a parent and know what it feels like. I really would and I don’t want you to regret any of the actions you’re making right now because you’re angry at Mom” He said.

“I understand, I really do but Mom wasn’t going to ever tell me about you. I would have died all in the name of she was Tryon to protect me. I just don’t think it’s possible to just let go and act like it didn’t happen. I just can’t do that” She said.

“I know and it’s fine. We’d take things slowly. We would do things at your pace” Alex assured her. “I love you, don’t ever forget that”

He hugged her and kissed her forehead.

“I love you too” she said, hugging him back.

“Call me when you’re done with class. We would go home together”

“Alright. I would see you later” Anna said as she got down from the car and headed to class.

She headed into the school building and walked to her class. She started to smell the fresh blood from everywhere. She could suddenly hear their pulses and literally hear their blood flow through their body. She growled and her eyes grew blood red. She tried to fight it. She needed a distraction and she needed it as soon as possible. She got one.

“Annabelle!” she heard someone scream across the hall.

She looked back and she saw her best friend. That was the perfect distraction she needed. She noticed that the strong urge wasn’t there with her best friend. She hugged her. She was so glad to see her.

“Where have you been? I have tried calling you. You were not picking your calls or replying your texts. Where have you been? I wanted to come over but my mom wasn’t letting me out of the house. How are you doing? You said you were feeling sick in your last text. How do you feel now?”

“I’m okay now. Thank you Hailey. I’m sorry that I couldn’t reply your texts. I was actually really busy throughout the week. I’m here now. How are you?” Anna asked her back.

“I’m good. How are you?” she asked, her eyes beamed at her.

“What?” Anna said.

“You’re going out with one of the hottest guys in the school. I want to hear everything about it. How did you guys meet?”

“We met on the school bus and he is not my boyfriend. He’s….. Well, it’s a long story”

“How long is the story? You have to tell it to me!” Hailey demanded.

“That might have to wait” Anna said as the teacher walked into the class.

It was break time when the bell went off. She walked out of her class and found herself in the midst of humans. She started to smell the blood of humans and started to lose control. Her fangs came out and she was about to sink it into someone’s neck when she sank it into someone’s wrist instead. Someone had stepped in and had interfered. He grabbed her by the waist and sped off with her as she fed from him.

Took her a while for her to look up at him and she saw Damian. Her fangs sank back in and she cleaned the blood stain off her lip

“You’re welcome” He said

“Well, I’m not thankful. What do you want with me?”

“Nothing. You were losing control and I stepped in. What is your problem? For once, just drop this stupid pride of yours and treat me like a prince” Damian said, angrily.

It was fun to annoy him and Anna knew this. For some weird reasons, she enjoyed it. She rolled her eyes at him and turned to leave. He stopped her.

*****

He heard something. He looked behind her and he wasn’t sure. She turned to leave when he held her hand. He was in the school garden and there were trees everywhere.

“Let me go!” Anna said.

“Hold on and shut the hell up!” Damian said

“I would do no such thing. Who the hell do you think you are to shut me up?” She said as her eyes grew blood red.

She was dragged by her hair from behind. Damian’s eyes glowed and he attacked the man who dragged her. He grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the other side of the garden.

“Who are you? Who sent you?” Damian asked, angrily.

“I would tell you nothing!” The man said.

Damian rammed his fist into the man’s chest. The man screamed in pain.

“Stop!” Anna screamed.

Damian wasn’t listening to anybody. He didn’t care. Nobody was supposed to come near her. He squeezed the man’s heart tighter and the man screamed louder.

“I would ask you one last time. Who the hell sent you? Why are you after her?” Damian asked.

“You need the information. You can’t kill be because the dead doesn’t speak. You have to keep me alive if you want to know who sent me and why I’m here” The man said in pain.

“No you’re wrong. I don’t need information and I definitely do not need you alive” Damian said as he pulled the man’s heart out of his chest.

He threw it on the dead body and walked out. Anna followed him, angrily. He couldn’t understand why she was angry. He just saved her life again and she was here, acting like an ungrateful child. She tried talking to him and he wasn’t listening. He kept walking away and that pissed her off. She grabbed him.

“Let me go!” he screamed at her, his eyes glowing.

She held his arm tighter.

“You didn’t have to kill him. You could have let him go!” she said.

“And then what? He’d come after you again? What is wrong with you? Nobody! I repeat, nobody comes close to you! Nobody tries to hurt you! He did and I had to pass a message across to the person who sent him. I think my message has been delivered clearly. Now, let me go!” he said.

“You are messed up, very messed up. You are not in any way different from your father. You are a murderer just like him. You are a killer!” She spat at him.

“And so is your brother. How different is he from me? You think it’s always going to be this way? There are some situations where talking wouldn't get you anywhere. It's either your life or theirs. You either kill them or they kill you. If you hold back and let them go, it is only a matter of time before they return to finish up what they started. So tell me, how different would you be from me?” He said.

She gave no reply. He sped off. It took a while before she could get herself. She headed back to class. She grabbed her bag and headed to the parking lot. She met Alex there and he took her home. She wasn’t opening up about what happened so Alex decided to let it be. The week went back fast for all of them as it was Friday and they were in a mall. She and Alex decided to do some shopping for the fun of it. They were on the cereal isle when someone bumped into her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there” she apologized immediately

“It’s fine. I wasn’t looking either”

Alex came from the other isle

“Is anything the matter?” He asked his sister

“Nothing is. I was just leaving” The lady replied as she touched Anna on her wrist.

Anna noticed that her wrist stung a bit immediately it came in contact with the stranger but she paid no attention to it. She picked her shopping, paid for it and they headed back home.

*****

It was almost midnight when Alex noticed that something was wrong. He could have sworn that he heard the front door open. He was reluctant to check it out but he started to feel uneasy. He groaned, got up from his bed and slipped his feet onto his bedroom slippers. He decided to check on Anna. He knocked on her door.

“Wolfie, are you in there?” He asked

He waited for a couple of seconds and repeated the act. He got no reply and he opened the door. He saw that she wasn’t in bed. He checked her bathroom and her closet. She wasn’t there either. He removed his phone from his pocket to call her number.