Evolution Of Vampires

Chapter Six- Shelby

Shelby drove up to work, heading straight inside and walking to the front counter where the computers were. She clocked in for her shift and saw Dave prepping pizzas in the kitchen. She sighed and walked around the corner to the back room where the drivers take phone calls for orders and grab the pizzas for deliveries. She looked over at the hot box that holds the pizzas that are ready to be taken out and there was one sitting in it. No other drivers were around so she grabbed a pizza bag and put the pizza in it. She assigned herself to the delivery and walked out the back door to her car, seeing Dave standing beside it. She didn’t even hear anyone walk out.

She walked up to him with a smile as she held the pizza with her left hand tucked under it and resting against her arm and shoulder.

“Hey.” He said, plainly.

“Hi.” Shelby replied in the same tone.

“I... I’m sorry.” He sighed, looking down. She knew he felt bad, she could feel it which made her feel worse. She had to push her empathic side back so she could only feel her own emotions.

“Why?” She asked him.

“I’ve been distant. I’ve been ignoring you. I just... there’s a lot going on and I can’t.. you know you’re my best friend and I would tell you anything. I tell you more things than Dillon and he’s my best friend too.” Dave told her, getting frustrated with himself as he spoke.

“No.” Shelby shook her head with an annoyed sigh.

“No?” He asked, confused.

“You don’t talk to me about anything. If you did then you would tell me what the hell is going on with you.” Shelby stated, anger is starting to lace her tone but she tried to push it back.

“I know... I would if I could tell you but I honestly can’t this time.” Dave tried to reason with her, putting his hands in his pockets as she shook her head at him.

“Can’t or won’t?” Shelby asked him, staring into his blue eyes. She had to make eye contact with him to be able to read him further.

“I can’t. You wouldn’t believe me.” He told her after hesitating to answer She could see him fighting with himself. What was holding him back? Why?

Shelby rolled her eyes as they teared up slightly; she nodded to him before putting the pizza in her car and hopping in on the drivers side.

“Well, I hope you figure it out.” Shelby told him before starting her car and driving away.

As Shelby drove to her destination, she was becoming more and more angry with Dave. She couldn’t understand why he was shutting her out all of a sudden. She hated the way it made her feel, she hated how she felt like he was lying to her all the time. It reminded her too much of her past.

Shelby was homeschooled and forced to live a very sheltered life by her parents. She could barely go out, barely made any friends because she could only be friends with people after they allowed it or chose her friends for her. She never understood why they kept such a tight grip around her and even to this day, they still haven’t told her except for the same thing they always said.

“We just want to protect you from the evil in this cruel world.”

Even at a young age, she understood that there was evil out in the world, but being so sheltered made her feel like she didn’t fit in anywhere. She never understood outside worldly things, or it took a long time for her to catch up on it and by then, even her so called friends would make fun of her. Her parents never explained why they had to basically keep her locked up like she was Rapunzel in a tower, waiting for her Prince Charming to save her. They never explained why they would be gone for days at a time and have to stay with her Uncle Derryk and return home without a word of where they had been, no matter how many times she would ask. They never explained why the world was too cruel for her to explore even though every part of her told her that she needed to explore every inch possible. If they had explained at least one thing, just one, maybe she wouldn’t have had to leave and cut off communication for a couple of years.

When Shelby turned 18, she got b***h slapped across the face with reality because her parents didn’t teach her how to defend herself from the world. She had to teach herself, and the first step to that was getting out of her parents control. The moment she did and she moved out with the help of her friend, Marren, they were extremely unhappy but they finally came to realize they couldn’t do anything about it anymore. She could feel how worried they were, but they were always such a closed book with her and wouldn’t be straightforward about anything. The little bit of trust she had for them disappeared from the amount of times that they lied to her face and she was sick of it. They would say the same thing Dave had said.

“I’m sorry. We can’t tell you.”

Those words have always made her furious. If there was one thing she hated the most, it was being lied to by the ones she loved the most, and if there’s one thing that any of her loved ones know not to do, it’s to lose her trust. To this day, she feels like she barely knows herself because her parents kept things from her. She feels like there’s something so much deeper to her being than what she currently knows about herself, but she doesn’t know what it is. She hopes to find it one day.

Even though she has gone through so much with her parents, she still loves them deeply and has dinner with them regularly. They have built a better relationship now, but there’s still things they don’t share with her which she has come to accept. She has every intention on finding it on her own because she realized in the end, she was her own Prince Charming that saved her from her dreadful tower.

She realized her knuckles were white from tightening her grip on the steering wheel. She loosened up and sighed, wiping a tear away from her eyes. 

Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, there was a man standing in the middle of the road out of nowhere, facing directly toward her car. She slammed on her breaks, coming to a halt and skidding from the rain that she almost didn't even realize has started. When she opened her eyes, there was no one there. Cars behind her started honking and yelling, so she cautiously continued driving.

"What the hell is happening to me?" She whispered to herself.