Guest From the Future

Whispers In The Corridor

She tried again, her heart thudding in her chest, "You did not come to the forest, you were waiting at the bleachers for the match."

At this time Chi was grinning wickedly, as if enjoying her plight. "But I did."

Ivie took a staggered step back, the hard truth a slap to her aching jaw; the priest could not be compelled. The words rang forever at the back of her head, what had she done? She had bitten a staff, one of the rules she should never break and she had bitten someone that could not be compelled.

"H-ow?" Compulsion had always worked for her, it was every vampire's ticket to a free meal without having to be caught.

Chi ran his hand over his cat thoughtfully, then said, "Dinner is going to be over in a few minutes. Ready to face your peers yet?"

The thought of facing pairs of judging eyes was enough to shake Ivie's resolve to immediately demystify what had happened. "I'll be back."

He watched her leave the cellar, the smile on his face thinning. She was turning? He had noticed her eyes and seen the human blackness. But vampires didn't turn like that. It was too fast, too easy.

Later that night, after dinner, the students went to the Dorm Hall excitedly. From the dorms one could hear music echoing across the hall. Students already loitered around, banners designed in shawty colours displaying the forty points Half-elite Rangers just won. Other teams were there too, Pure-elite Stingers prided in the victory that was theirs but wasn't. Communal Queens came for the food, and no Underdog Fountain was in sight; the only Underdogs present weren't in the Underdog Fountain team.

At a corner of the dimly lit room, a boy's face was buried in a girl's neck. It looked like they were making out, especially to the humans who had no knowledge of vampires, but the boy was actually drinking from the girl. His left hand clamped over the girl's mouth, so that she wouldn't scream, with that vampire strength the girl couldn't shake off.

After he pulled away, he looked into her eyes and compelled her. Returning to her table, the girl looked dazed and when her friends asked her what she had been doing, she gaped at them and asked what they were talking about, she had only gone to get drinks.

At another corner, three girls circled a table, they were communals; humans. One was watching an Elite bargain for twelve cans of coke from Elowen who looked like she wasn't going to give in.

"Twelve cans!" she said. Her name was Elizabeth, but her friends called her Beth or Lizzy. "These Elites behave like their lives depend on this coke. I mean, it's just coke!"

"It's weird too, how they keep making out without discretion," another, Beatrice, said. She was looking at another couple, this time two ladies, one nibbling the other's wrist. "It's disgusting. I suppose Mr. Blvck should give them detention for this."

"C'mon, let's go check out this coke, maybe there's something that isn't coke in it." Elizabeth dragged her friends over to the counter. "Hey, Elowen."

The woman raised her head up. She looked pleasant, a smile plastered on her face. "What can I get you?"

"Coke! The one you just gave that boy." Having captured his face, she pointed to him.

Elowen took one look at the boy, Silas, the pureblooded Elite. Had he done something to make the humans suspect, the arrogant fool? She smiled at the trio, turned around to open the fridge. Aware of their watchful eyes, she pulled out a coke similar o to the one she had given the boy. On the outside, it was the same coke, but this one was a carbonated beverage while the other was blood. She pushed it to the girls.

Elizabeth quickly opened hers and took a slow sip as if she would mistake something if she took a large fast one. "It's coke," she whispered.

"You didn't expect it to be piss now, did you?" Elowen asked, having heard the whisper with her supernatural hearing.

Elizabeth laughed awkwardly, "Of course not. Bye!" She dragged her friends back to their table and they started to talk about the hottest topic of discussion, the match.

One person who was surprisingly in attendance for the party was Little Spark. She drifted unobtrusively amongst other shadows on the ground floor. It seemed Ivie was out in the sun or was exposed to any kind of light that could produce a shadow. Little Spark came out whenever Ivie was out in the light and she was free to walk wherever she went whether Ivie was there or not.

Earlier Ivie had gone to a very cold place Little Spark felt she would disappear for ever. She had then paraded the corridors and followed the students when they hurried for the Dor Hall.

She was mingling with everyone else unnoticeably until she noticed parts of her body started to disappear. It seemed Ivie was entering a really dark room, or was closing the curtain or door.

"No, no, no! I'm just starting to enjoy myself, the music—" the darkness swallowed her.

The next morning, Ivie stood before her mirror for twenty minutes, tugging at her hair. She parted it deeply on the left, letting the thick, dark strands fall like a heavy curtain over her human eye. It was a precarious shield; one gust of wind or one quick turn of the head, and her secret would be laid bare.

She didn't wear her football jacket. She felt like a fraud in it. Instead, she pulled on a high-collared sweater, hiding the tension in her throat.

Walking into the main building felt like stepping into a lion's den. She had waited until after breakfast, had ignored the knocking on her door under the disguise of sleep.

"Did you see her eyes during the match?" The vampires whispered along the corridor. "I heard she's turning into a human, her fang broke." She heard one.

"Really?" Another said. "My papa broke my cousin's fang, but she never turned."

"Maybe because she's not an elite, you know those Underdogs." They laughed.

Ivie clenched her fist but kept moving.

"I can't wait to taste her when she turns," one of the elite vampires said,it was Silas. "I've never tasted a turned before."

The whispers trailed after her like smoke. Ivie kept her gaze fixed on the floor, counting the tiles. One, two, three. She could smell blood, coffee, and the sweat of hundreds of students, but the scents were confusing now. They smelled... overwhelming.

She slipped into her seat at the back of the Nocturnal and Diurnal Creatures I class, aware that there had been a great pause and everyone had stopped to look at her and started to murmur. Nocturnal and Diurnal Creatures was a subject for the students with Nocturnal syllabus, the first part of it was taught to the Underdogs while the more advanced was for the Elites.

Ivie sat in the far corner, her neck stiff from holding her head at a sharp angle. Her hair felt like a heavy, protective shroud over her left eye. Every time the student next to her shifted their chair, she flinched, terrified the slight breeze would expose the human blackness she was hiding.

But her mind couldn't stop replaying the events of the previous day. Why hadn't Chaplain Chi been compelled? Was it something to do with him, or was it because she was turning?

She felt Gaga's presence before she saw her. Her friend sat down, leaning in close, her voice a low, worried vibration.

"You look like you're heading to your own execution," Gaga said. "And your hair is a mess."

JohnMary nudged her. "You must feel sorry about yesterday, Ivie, we do too."

Really? Then why did it look like Gaga was giving her one of those I told you look.

"Well, I did tell you," said Gaga confirming her suspicion. "But that doesn't mean I'm glorying in the accident. They had a party last night, loud music everywhere."

"We didn't go, of course," said JohnMary.

"Coach Kene had fumes coming out of his ear. I mean, literally."

"Thanks, that really helped," Ivie responded.

"Let me see." Gaga brushed her hair aside as she stared at her eyes. The colours were visibly contrasting, only to vampires though, humans could not see the vampire's red eye.

JohnMary stopped. "You should see Master Dennis after class, he should know what to do." His gaze flew to the angry lines on her hand. "What happened to your hand?"

The scratch from the previous day was still visible, something that would have healed if she was a vampire.

Exactly what she was going to tell the Headmaster; that she drank from a staff, something she was not supposed to do, lost a fang, and couldn't compel him. She bit a remark about Chi back. "Nothing. And I'm not going to Master Dennis."

Gaga sat beside her. "Ivie, you're turning to a human."

"Great, say it louder, I don't think everyone heard you," she rolled her eyes.

"How did you even lose your fang in the first place? "

"I..er..broke it."

"Broke it?" Gaga was appearing angry.

"Maybe she doesn't want to talk about it," JohnMary intervened, "yet," he added quickly when he saw the look Gaga shot his way.

"She doesn't want to talk about it?"

"Yet. She deserves some privacy."

"Privacy? We're her friends."

"Doesn't make the privacy less deserving."

"Are you crazy, I'm trying to help her here."

Just then, Lauretta Gateway, teacher for Nocturnal and Diurnal Creatures I stepped into the class and the murmurs of noise began to die down.