Guest From the Future

Ivie Richman hung upside down from a tree, her leg twisted firmly around a thin branch. The ray of sunlight that escaped from the leaves that refused to touch casted against her so that parts of her shadow were visible. But instead of her shadow falling against her, it sitted on the thin branch Ivie was hanging down from. Only the parts of Ivie the sun managed to touch was seen on the shadow and so the shadow's right hand was missing, parts of its face gone, only the middle of the stomach was visible and it was without legs. "I look hideous!" It shrieked, you could see what looked like the bottom of a face moving. "Get out to the sun fully." "Shut up." She propelled her body forward so that she could swing, wondering how and if other vampires had talking shadows that had minds of their own. If they didn't, well it would then be the special thing about her, an Underdog. "Remind me why we are here again?" her shadow asked. "I love what you do on the field!" "I'm thirsty, that's why. You should be actually useful getting me blood whenever I need one, I'm sure Elowen would be delighted to hear, 'Hey, I'm Ivie's shadow and I'll get six blood-inside-coke-outside cans, please?' " "Little Spark is the name, and if you look well enough, I don't have legs." "How can you be called little spark when you are my shadow?" Ivie cried out, gulping dry. She really was thirsty, it had been two days she last had blood. She could go to the lunchroom and grab one of those blood-inside-coke-outside cans, but who could assure her Coach Kene wasn't having a frantic trip to Underdog Lodge in search for her, or a dismissive trip back to the locker room to question Gaga who would keep a straight face saying she didn't know where she was while hoping whatever madness that had decided to invade Ivie should disappear soon enough for her to return. They were a few minutes away from their match for goodness' sake! Too engrossed in her thoughts and her own hunger, she did not hear the approaching footsteps. Which was strange, by the way, seeing that she was a vampire, one of the creatures with a heightened sense of hearing. Or maybe, the oncoming person wasn't a human! "Captain?" Startled, her leg on the branch gave her away to the ground. She landed with a hard thud. "I hope the earth does not crack underneath you?" Ivie's head shot up. For a moment, she thought it was Balthazar Blvck standing there and her heart did three black flips. She had always gone out of her way to make sure she was not in his. And now he was in hers and she carried the lot of two days' thirst. The man overjoyed in giving students merited detention, taking his school keeper job more seriously when it came to dishing out detention. 'Detention in the evening,' was his watch word; sorry, the word you should watch out for. However, it was Chi Beelzebub, the detention chaplain. She felt relieved for a while, then tensed again. "Chaplain?" This one punished the students serving detention in that awful detention cellar. He was staring down at her, wearing that smile she didn't trust but still wondered how his lips didn't hurt from stretching so much. He wore his usual black robe, his presence too palpable to ignore. "Shall I seek to arrange an invitation for you to rise? Perhaps, you're waiting for a gentleman like myself to whoop you off the ground." "Of course not!" She sprang up, hoping Little Spark or whatever name her shadow went by would dutifully stand at her back before the priest noticed anything. "W-what are you doing here?" He appeared amused at the question. "I doubt you're in any position to ask, you're the one breaking school rules, after all. And, don't you have a match in," he checked the non-existent watch on his wrist, "twenty minutes?" Captain, her. She mentally palm faced herself. "Er.. Fresh air... You? I..em..I've heard a lot about you," she said, wanting to keep him talking so his eyes wouldn't wander around. He wasn't a vampire, at least, so it may be more difficult explaining why her shadow decided being close to her wasn't its best option. Well, she could always compel him to forget about it, but she wasn't taking chances. "You'd be deaf otherwise," replied Chi, looking skyward at the blistering sun, his hand shading his eyes. "The sun threatens to send senses to oblivion and you camp out here." He stepped under a tree whose canopy provided enough shade against the sun. Ivie followed, thankful her shadow would disappear for a while. "Why are you ditching class again?" Was that detention she smelt? Wait— "Have you been monitoring me, Chaplain?" "Well, that would imply I'm actually interested in you, which I am actually. Have we met before?" Ivie stared at him, confused at the question. "Met before? Well, if you consider the time we passed each other by at the training ground or infirmary or lunchroom as a meeting, then," she nodded, "a fair number of times." "I didn't mean that, little spark," he stepped forward, the distance between them reduced. It was like a song whose tune he remembered, but the actual words were floating; he couldn't get hold of it. Little spark? Ivie's eyes flared in question. She started to speak when she became torturously aware of the blood rushing in his veins; she could hear the sound of it, like a mighty waterfall. She gluped, her eyes turning red immediately and she clenched her teeth to hide her fangs. It didn't help that she carried two days' thirst, she could feel her fangs begging for a taste. It would be faster than going to the lunchroom anyway and she had only a few minutes left before the bell would ring for the next match, but it was against the school rule to bite a teacher, she could get expelled for it. "I mean way before this school," Chi was saying, unaware of her plight. "I don't think so," she replied, terribly aware her fang kept elongating with every passing second. "I mean one of us would have remembered, right?" "You, of course, " he said in a matter of factly tone. "It would be impossible to come across me and forget, people once paid to have me tell them my problems. So common, jog that little brain of yours and see where you'll find me." What a mouth! Feeling insulted, she retorted, "It's you who have been monitoring me miss class, so maybe it's you who should jog that lit— brain of yours and see where you find me." A lopsided grin appeared on Chi's face. "Feisty," he replied, obviously pleased. "Now just put this energy into recalling, I'm sure you'll find something." Ivie nearly rolled her eyes. The time for the match wasn't far behind anymore, she should go. At least, she was already in her Underdog Fountain uniform, one less bark from Coach Kene. "I think you've got the wrong person," she said to Chi, glad that he may have probably forgotten to give her detention, and that she was getting her annoying thirst under control. Then Chi did something that shattered it all, he took another step forward, nearing her. She could now smell him, she smelt blood. Already at her limit, Ivie cursed loudly at him, "Motherfucker!" then grabbed his robe and tore it before sinking her fangs into the flesh of his neck. But immediately she took the first gulp of his blood, something terrible began to happen. Ivie pulled back, alarmed. She felt a tightened around her throat, choking her. Her eyes were unsteady, switching between the vampire red and human black. Her gum ached from where her fangs protruded. It was Chi who told her, "Your body is rejecting my blood." Too engrossed in the moment, it did not occur to her to think why the idea of a person taking blood from another didn't terrify him, or how he knew about a body rejecting blood, she just did as she was told, "You need to vomit it out." She bent over and retched, the aftertaste of something bitter filling her mouth. With the ache in her gum increasing, she could feel her left fang shaking, trembling from the root. She bent again, trying desperately to repel whatever was making her feel it was better outside than inside her, Chi's blood perhaps. The shaking of her fang became violent, the ache in her jaw terrible. She bit back a silent scream that tore at the back of her throat as she felt something drop in her mouth. She spat it out and saw, her face clouded in disbelief and horror, her left fang lying on the ground. The bell rang; it was time for the match.