I Don't Believe In Vampires

III. The Encounter

    BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. My eyes flew open.  I was covered in a cold sweat, my blanket was tangled around my legs, my breath was heaving and my my alarm clock was ringing. I looked over at the clock and turned off the deafening noise that it emitted.  It was almost 7:00AM. I rolled out of bed and shuffled my tired legs, the sprint home last night did not do me any good.  I rustled though my drawers looking for something halfway decent to wear to school. After a few minutes of tiredly staring into space my mind pulled itself together and I got a well worn pair of jeans and an old t-shirt out of my dresser and hurriedly threw them on.  With only five minutes to get to the bus stop I got a cold pop tart and ran down the block to the corner just as the bus arrived at my stop. Arriving at school, the bus doors opened and I walked to the glass doors that opened into the main hallway.  I opened the heavy doors and walked to my impending doom.  I to went down the art hallway see Cali, knowing she would be there, she always is. "Hey Cali!" I say as I approach her short frame, clad in another colorful outfit.

 "Hey Ash, how are you?” She chirped tiredly.  She was the master of energy, as long as it was after 10:00AM.

"I  am well, thanks.  You?”

 “I'm good" Cali said with a look on her face.  

“What?”

“Tell me whats wrong.” 

“No.”

“Yes!” She demanded.

“Later.”

“Well, I gotta get to class.” She said with a yawn.

“Okay, see you later.” I turned out of the art wing and headed to class and took a seat on the cold metal stool of Mr. Mountain’s biology class.  As I took out my notebook for today's lesson I noticed Brian walk  into class. 

"Hey Brian!" I say.  He looks over at me and nods.  I survey his outfit as he walked to his desk.  He was wearing sunglasses and had his ear phones in his ears, his music blasting metal music. I could smell peppermint and I saw the subtle move of his jaw that indicated he was chewing gum.  He ignored my staring and walked to his seat. The teacher asked politely for Brian to take the sunglasses off and take the earphones out of his ear.  

"No, you can't make me." He replied  back.  The teacher stood there shocked over his sudden outburst. 

“Brian, I’m going to ask you again.  Will you please take off your sunglasses and put away your music?” Mr. Mountain asked again. 

"No, if i don't want to, you can't make me." Brian snapped.

 “Brian, go to the office. Now!” Mr. Mountain said with a pointed glare. "You can talk to them there and see how they like that attitude." Brian walked out with a swag of arrogance. 

Megan leaned over the top of her desk so her face was close to the back of my head.  “Hot!” She whispered.

“Alright class, after that outburst we are running short on time.  If everyone would take out their notebooks and start to copy what I have written on the board.” Mr. Mountain ordered with a sigh. Megan recoiled like a scared snake. I took out my notebook and looked at the board at the front of the classroom that held today’s notes.  I started to copy down the paragraph about chlorophyll. I was already well acquainted with the subject due to all the reading I did yesterday.  Shortly after we all started on the days assignments Brian comes strutting back into the classroom still with his sunglasses on and music still blaring through the tiny white headphones in his ears. "Well?" the teacher asked as he entered. Brian turned walked out. "Where do you think you're going?" 

"I'm going for a walk." Brian answered defiantly.

 “You can't leave school." Mr. Mountain said loudly. 

"Oh really? What am i doing now?" He backed up slowly, arms wide to emphasize his question. "Oh look, I'm leaving and you can't do anything about it." He turned and walked out the door. Where is he going? I wanted to run after him and find out all the secrets of this walking mystery, but I knew I couldn't.  Not today at least.      

The day was like any normal school day could be.  I went from class to class and the teacher gave us an introduction to the unit we were starting and then we read and took notes.  Biology was the only class with much action today. Even Cali was calm, which is rare, but after the day I had I wish she had at least a little life.  I got home from school to an empty house. Today felt like it went by so slow. I was happy to be out of school. I opened my backpack on the kitchen table and started to do my homework. I couldn’t  find it in me to concentrate I kept thinking about Brian and if he was going to be in school tomorrow. I remembered what happened last night. I decided that I should  go on another walk later at night.  

My mom came home around about the time I was finishing my homework.  She warmed up some frozen lasagna that she had in the freezer. We don’t usually talk at dinner, this was one of those nights.  With our dinner eaten and dishes done we each retreated to our different sides of the house. Got ready for bed like usual and waited for the deafening quietness that meant our house was asleep. I ended up falling under the clutches of my tiredness while waiting for my mother to do the same. I was jolted awake by the same nightmare that haunted me yesterday, I turned over and looked at the clock,1:30am.  I got up and got dressed for my walk. I silently opened my window and sneaked out of our small, one story home.  I walked to the park that I visited yesterday.  I went to the same table that I spotted the boy with the red eyes.  The thought of the boy sent a shiver through my spine, and self-inflicted fear started to stir in my gut.  The small children’s park was empty. Of course it was I’m pretty sure people like to be sleeping at this time.

 I lifted my face to the star filled sky, closed my eyes and enjoyed the new silence. The quiet at my house seemed to suffocate you and crush the air from your lungs. The absence of sound here was different, it was calming and fresh.  Just as I was starting to drift off to sleep I heard the loud ring of laughter.  I lifted my head and looked around. I could see a group of people walking in my direction. It was too dark to see their faces but they seemed big. That fear from yesterday was starting to make a comeback to so I ran to the little clump of trees near the table I was on.  I climbed the tree in the dark. The group came walking over to the table I was just on.  They didn’t see me, which I was grateful of because they were all guys, five of them.  Just as they were walking away my eyes locked onto the face I have been thinking about all day.  

Brian.

 The group was well away from me now, I don’t know why but seeing him here, now, with them, scared me.

The fear that started when I noticed Brian was getting worse and worse.  Brian stopped dead in his tracks about ten yards away from the tree I was in. "What's wrong Brian?" one of the guys said. 

"Someone else is here." he said to the boy next to him. I felt my stomach turn. Oh, no! How? He didn’t look up, I didn't make any noise.  How did he know I was here?  

"Then this place isn't safe for us to hunt." Said the broadest of them.  Hunt? Did he just say hunt? I hope they're not doing what I think their doing!  This is the safe zone! They could get arrested! Hunting season doesn’t start for another two weeks! They all left at once, jogging up to the road. The feeling of fear had left me, but my curiosity had started creeping up, but that always gets me in trouble. I decided to follow them, I jumped out of my hiding spot in the tree and started to try and catch up.  The were running now, and being boys that was fast.  They took a sharp left and cut away from the road and disappeared into the woods. 

"Alright." Brian said. "Lets go get dinner."  I heard them all start to yell in an excited cheer. I looked around the tree that blocked me from the group.  They were all standing there in a lopsided circle around Brian.  Then they all dropped  pointy sharp teeth from their canines it looked like from where I was standing. Then, they all split up in different directions around the woods.  Am I really seeing vampires hunt? There was no way! I saw the broad guy go running, faster than normal, through the small clearing where the rally was, chasing a deer.  He leaped and tackled the poor thing like it was in a football game.  He barred his teeth and before I could cover my eyes he had bitten its throat and was drinking it. 

"That's disgusting! Ugh! That's just not right!" I whispered to myself in disgust.  The broad guy looked up.  I finally got a good look at his face.  He had shaggy blonde hair that fell to the top of his dark green eyes.  His mouth was dripping with the blood of the deer he had just taken down.  I felt like I was going to vomit from the sight, but I couldn't because I would put myself in danger. Following a group of vampires is dangerous enough, but letting them know I was there would be a death sentence. I decided it was a good idea to go home now.  I thought I was dreaming so I decided to stabbed myself with a piece of sharp wood. Nope, it wasn't a dream. It was real! It was real??