Hello, Drudel…Run!

EPISODE THREE:WE NEED HER BLOOD

Atheia stares at the note for a long time, her hands shaking. As much as she tries to calm herself down, she cannot.

Is this a prank? A joke? Who the hell is messing with her?

She looks around to see who the mystery sender is, but everyone looks normal. Nothing seems to be out of place.

To be honest, Atheia is scared. Could this note be from the same person that she felt was watching her at school?

Is her life in danger? Why would anyone ask her to run from her family? The same people who gave birth to her and raised her?

Nah, this must be a joke. An expensive one.

Atheia stands up to show the note to her friends, but as she walks towards where they are dancing, she spots Kai and Mr. Bachor, Victoria’s father.

Shit!

Atheia quickly stuffs the note in her bra and goes to alert her friends. They try to file out of the club before the duo gets to them, but it is too late.

Guess who they see at the entrance?

Everyone. Atheia’s parents. Ava’s parents, and Victoria’s mother. Soon, Kai and Mr. Bachor join them.

Busted!

Angry, Donald drags his daughter’s arm towards the car.

“Dad, you are hurting me!” Atheia screams, trying to pull herself out of his firm grip, but she soon finds out that this is impossible.

“You should have thought of that when you lied to us! I can’t believe this!” Donald says as he shoves her into the car. Kai joins in the backseat while Rhea, their mother, gets in front.

“You even drugged Soren. I am so disappointed in you, Atheia.” Rhea says, shaking her head softly while she looks back at Atheia.

“Well, it is not my fault that all of you keep caging me! I am going to be eighteen soon, and that was my first time at a rave party!

What is it? Haven’t you done enough? Why are you so damn overprotective?”

Atheia is so mad that she just keeps talking and talking. Surprisingly, Kai is quiet.

“We do this because we care for you, Atheia.” Her mother explains.

“I don’t buy this excuse, Mom. Kai is only twenty-two, and he has always been free to do whatever he wants. Is it that you don’t care about him?” Atheia lashes out. There is a familiar tightening in her chest, a pain that she only feels when she is terribly upset.

“Kai is a man. You are a girl. We are protecting you, and you are so blind and ungrateful that you can’t see this!” Her father yells at her as he parks the car in the driveway.

At this point, Atheia’s anger has graduated into rage. She opens the car door, jumps out and races into the house.

She is blind with rage, and she needs to get to her room before she kills someone.

Atheia gets to her room and locks the door, bursting into tears immediately. All she wanted to do was have some fun, and her family managed to ruin her night.

She goes into the bathroom to take off her makeup. She looks at her face in the mirror and gasps.

Why are her pupils purple?

Atheia blinks severally to be sure that she is not seeing things, but the color remains the same.

Her eyes have always been black, matching the color of her long, wavy hair, so why the hell is she seeing purple?

Don’t people normally see red when they are mad? How then did purple come in?

She makes a mental note to ask Layla about it after she showers. Of all her household, Layla is the one person that Atheia can talk to about anything.

As Atheia undresses, the note falls to the floor, and she picks it up.

“Don't trust your family. Run!”

She looks at the note again. It does not look like the handwriting of anyone that she knows.

*

There is a knock at the door. Atheia opens it. It is Layla. Just the person she wants to see.

“I was just coming to see you, Layla.” Atheia says as she slips under her duvet.

“Really? What for?” Layla asks.

“Check my eyes.” Atheia says. “Can you spot any difference?”

Layla scans Atheia’s eyes for a moment, furrowing her brows.

“No. Your eyes look pretty normal to me.” She pauses and then asks, “What is wrong with them?”

Atheia sighs. “I could have sworn that they were purple just a minute ago.”

Layla’s eyes widen for a second. She looks down, looks up and then holds Atheia’s hands.

“Maybe it is the stress from the partying.” She says.

Atheia knows what she saw, but she decides to drop the topic. “Yeah. I guess.” She says.

“About tonight, I don’t want you to be mad at your parents. All they want is for you to be safe.” Layla explains.

“I know, but they are overdoing it.” Atheia says. “That is what is getting me mad.”

“I understand. You should get some sleep.” Layla says.

“Goodnight.” Atheia says.

“Goodnight.” Layla says and leaves the room.

*

It is about two in the morning when Atheia wakes up with a raging heartburn. It hurts so much.

Damn, it must be the chicken wings from the party. They were spicy as hell. In retrospect, she probably shouldn’t have eaten them.

Atheia staggers out of bed and throws on her robe. She tiptoes down the stairs, not wanting to wake anyone.

Just as she reaches the foot of the stairs, Atheia hears some muffled voices. It sounds like the voices are coming from the study at the far end of the passage.

She moves closer, and as she does, the voices become clearer.

“…well, her skin has been glowing.”

“…what about her eyes?”

“She told me that they turned purple last night.”

Atheia gasps as she hears this.

“We need her blood quickly…”

“Relax, Vienna is in just two weeks..”

“We will get her blood.”

As Atheia listens, her heart beats fast, and the contents of the note start to makes sense. She needs to run away.

But before she can even move, Atheia feels a sharp pain at the back of her head, and the last thing she sees before it all becomes dark is Soren’s face.