Darkness (Book 1 of The Royals Trilogy)

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

ANA

I sighed as the doctor checked me once more. Today was the day I would finally be released from this prison and their flavorless food, I had spent almost a week in supervision but after that experience, I never wanted to step back into a hospital again. "Okay miss Drew, it all seems to be in order but you'll have to stay with that cast on your wrist for two more weeks." I nodded barely paying attention to what he was saying, I was anxious to get on my feet and out of there.

My aunt was busily signing papers but sneaking a few glances my way as if I couldn't see them. When she finished reading and signing the last paper, she handed me my clothes and I went to the bathroom to change.

I opened the bag and took out a yellow autumn dress. I did like it and it was one of the few dresses I owned but I wasn't sure it was the right time to wear it since my bruises and scratches were still faintly visible. Unfortunately, my aunt left me no choice and I walked out wearing the summer dress and sandals. "You ready, kiddo?" she asked, she looked as anxious as me to get out of the hospital.

I nodded eagerly and my aunt laughed. "Thank you doctor," she said to the young doctor who had assisted me.

"No problem and Ana, don't go climbing more trees for a while" he called after us. I laughed and responded, "no promises doc." My aunt still looked skeptical whenever supposed reason came up since she'd never seen me as an outdoor person but she didn't question the story I told her about how I had gotten hurt. Both the doctor and my aunt thought I had gotten hurt by climbing a really big tree in the woods and that I accidentally tripped and landed on the ground, hitting branches on my way down to the ground.

When we reached the exit, I ran out of the hospital and closed my eyes letting the scents around me engulf me. It felt good to finally smell wet dirt and nature instead of smelly chemicals.

Once back at my aunt's house I walked up the stairs. My room still looked like how I'd left it. The door across from mine made my heart tighten. It once was the studio but a couple of days ago it had been Emma's room.

Slowly, I made my way to her door and cautiously opened it.

Her bed was made and her things looked like before. The room still looked empty and unused. The furniture she had bought was still wrapped and the walls were half-painted.

I felt as my aunt placed a hand on my shoulder, "she'll be fine in college." I tensed, so my aunt didn't know, of course she wouldn't have known. I sighed and nodded before walking to my room. It was still early, almost noon and my aunt insisted I stayed home for the rest of the day and the only reason I was allowed to go out was to school and back until they removed my cast.

Two weeks later, my cast was taken off. My wrist was back to normal. Sadly, just my wrist was back to normal, I wasn't. I had seen too much and felt too much. Ethan, Emma... they hand't called nor showed any sign of life, not that I had expected them to. They were on the run all because of 'hunters'. I never knew such a thing existed, then again, I didn't know vampires existed until the crash.

I got up, not really in the mood to get "dolled up" so instead I left with an apple for breakfast that I ate on the drive to school. The journey was shorter and I would've liked but I still got out of the car and into school. Just a few more weeks before winter break.

"Hey Ana!" yelled Clary from behind me. I turned and saw that she was waiting for me with her books in her hand. I took my books out and closed my locker. "Hey," I said with a smile.

Clary and I began walking and talked. Well, she did more of the talking and I just listened until I spaced out in my thoughts. I really missed Emma but I couldn't tell Clary about it, it sucked, she was my best friend and I couldn't tell her things like what had happened to me the last couple of days. Soon, we arrived at Clary's classroom and she walked inside while waving at me. I barely acknowledged her and started walking to my classroom.

Inside I could see that most of the seats were empty. I looked at the clock and realized I still had 20 more minutes before class started. I took my seat and searched in my bag for something to do. I considered doing some homework due for another two days or reading. I shrugged and thought, screw homework, before taking out the book I was reading.

I was so caught up reading that I didn't realize the classroom was filled and that the teacher had arrived. "Hello class," said Mr. Norris, our calculus teacher. I internally groaned, I was in the best part of the book and I had to put it away, I hated that feeling. The morning classes quickly flew by and I was still feeling a bit down and annoyed.

At the end of my last class before lunch I tried rushing out of the classroom when someone bumped into me. "Hey, watch it," I snapped before thinking twice. I looked up at the tall guy in front of me, his face was emotionless but his black eyes pierced into me making me feel uncomfortable. Quickly I walked past him with my head down. Curiosity got the best of me and I turned back just to see that the mysterious guy was watching me, that is when I realized he had a t-shirt that showed his strong, built arms that had, what seemed to look like tattoos. The tattoos disappeared under his sleeves and I quickly turned away, walking faster through the crowd.

Alone, I walked to the cafeteria where Clary was waiting for me at our usual table. I was glad to have brought lunch since the line to buy food was very long that day. I sat across from Clary who was too distracted to notice me, she was too focused on her homework. "What is that?" I asked. There was a few seconds of silence before Clary responded, "it's just some stupid history homework I forgot to do and you know how Mrs. Hess is." I nodded and began eating my sandwich while I tried to read my friend's homework.

Clary looked up and saw I was trying to read her homework because she handed it to me. I read what she had been writing and realized it was about World War II. "This is so cool!" I muttered under my breath and Clary looked at me like I was crazy.

"How can you say that? It's so boring and I hate history because of that. Why the hell do I care about some dead people and their problems?" Clary said with a frown and I tried to hold back a chuckle. "You know what? Screw this, I'm just going to ask for an extension," she said while taking the papers from my hand and shoving them back into her bag.

"Mrs. Hess doesn't give extensions," I said while taking one of the fries in her plate. Clary eyed my hand and then stuck her tongue out at me. I rolled my eyes at her childishness.

"She will if I ask her nicely," she said confidently and I shrugged. The bell rung signaling the end of lunch and Clary quickly hurried away, "see ya girl, wish me luck."

"Good luck," I called after her. Mrs. Hess was never going to give her an extension, not even if hell froze over. I felt stares on my and I turned to see the mysterious guy who had bumped into me and a girl next to him watching me. I shifted uncomfortably. I looked more closely at them and realized the guy had short thick-black hair while the girl next to him was short and had long, dark brown hair. She also had marking on her arms and her grey eyes were cold and hostile.

I grabbed my hoodie tightly around me as I rushed out of the cafeteria and to my next class. Who were they? I had never seen them before, not that I knew a lot of people in school yet but I would think I would remember someone like them... wouldn't I?

They seemed really intrigued by me, but why? I was a normal eighteen year-old senior. Yeah right Ana, keep on telling yourself that, I thought to myself. The next few classes were just as boring as the morning classes except for when a guy in my science class combined chemicals wrong and ended up with ashes on his face due to an explosion. Bright kid, really.

When school ended, I went looking for Clary who was at her locker. "Hey," I said next to her. My friend slammed her locker shut and turned to me with her arms crossed. "Whoa, hold on, what happened?"

Clary sighed and began walking towards the exit and I followed. "You were right, Mrs. Hess didn't give me an extension."

"Told you so," I said with a smile and she glared at me.

"Yes I already said that you were right, happy?" she snapped and I stared at her bewildered. She must have noticed how mean she sounded because she turned to me with a guilty look in her eyes, "sorry, I shouldn't be taking out all of on you. It's just that I really should have done that homework, now it will really affect my grades and I tried to hand her in what I had even if it was incomplete and she refused! I could have gotten a 5 or 6 but I got a 0." I nodded an put a hand on her shoulder trying to calm her down, when she was stressed she started rambling.

"That's okay, you can still get into the college you want," I said trying to be supportive, one missing homework wasn't the end of the world.

Clary nodded and once we were out of school she said, "Oh and just to clear things up, Mrs. Hess is a bitch." My eyes widened and I shook my head quickly as I looked past my friend. Behind her stood Mrs. Hess who apparently heard everything.

"Excuse me girls, you will be coming with me right now," said Mrs. Hess sternly. She looked very mad as she led us to the principal's office. Her almost white hair was cut very short and her brown eyes angry. I gulped and walked with my head down after glaring at Clary who looked nonchalant.

After leaving the office Mrs. Hess walked up to us, "Miss Reed, I had considered giving you an extension for your paper so you wouldn't be very affected but now that is not going to be possible," she said angrily before walking away. Once she was gone I turned to Clary, "way to go Clary."

Clary glared back at me, "oh come on, it's not like you had anything better to do in the afternoons." She was right, most afternoons I was alone while I finished my homework and I made dinner for my aunt and I but that wasn't going to be possible for the next week. I groaned and walked over to the classroom where detention was going to be taking place. We had been sentenced one hour detention for a week.

The sign on the door made me cringe: DETENTION. I walked in and found a couple of other students who actually deserved to be there. They stared at Clary and I in surprise and quickly I took a seat next to the wall, close to the door. This was going to go into my personal record.

"Look Ana, I didn't want to drag you into this but Mr. Tate and Mrs. Hess wouldn't listen to me," I heard her say behind me. Mr. Tate, the principal, had barely allowed us to defend ourselves and that's how we ended up here.

"Miss Reed, no talking in detention," said the teacher keeping watch on all of us, it was Mr. Norris, I couldn't believe I would have to spend another hour in a classroom stuck with him, calculus was bad enough. Clary nodded and kept quiet for the rest of detention. A bit over an hour later I was back at home. I rushed into my room where I worked on my homework.

There was a knock on my door and I looked up to see my aunt at the doorway. "Hey Ana, heard you got into trouble at school," she said sounding worried, it was clear she couldn't understand why my sudden my change of behavior.

I shook my head, "it's not like that aunt Daniela, it's just a misunderstanding." My aunt nodded and she walked inside and sat on my bed. Oh no, here it goes.

"Look Ana, if there's something you want to talk about, you can always reach out to me. I could try to help you and if you're having a rough time at school I need to know," she said reassuringly and I nodded again.

"I know, but there isn't anything to worry about, Clary just got into trouble and I was at the wrong place at the wrong time and she dragged me down with her and Mr. Tate didn't even try to listen," I said and my aunt sighed in relief.

"Well now that that's cleared, I'll go make something for dinner while you finish your homework," she said and I smiled, "sure, thank you aunt Daniela." She winked and then she was gone. I sighed and looked at the books sprawled on my bed, I still had a long way to go. Lucky me, not.

I looked out the window and saw the moon shinning brightly. I stood up in front of the window as I stared out. I wonder if Emma or Ethan are also looking at the moon wherever they are. I quickly shook my head and closed the curtains before getting back to work.