Marked By Him

Chapter 1

If there’s one thing horror movies have taught me, it is to never go in the woods at night unless you want to die. I’ve always been wary of the woods, especially at night, because nighttime is when the creatures lurking in the shadows come out of hiding, thirsting for blood--human blood.

As someone who knows about the supernatural, I know that I'm supposed to stay as far away from the woods as possible, but my two best friends though, Maya and Emily, don’t seem too worried about driving to the woods at night!

Maya’s like, “You watch too many horror movies, Rue.” She knows it’s not just the horror movies that have got me scared of the woods. She knows about werewolves and vampires. Heck, even our very own best friend is a vampire.

Em, in the backseat, chimes in, “Yeah, chill out,” and then she takes a sip from her beer can. That’s her third can now. She’s going to get drunk before we even get there. She continues, “Nothing bad is gonna happen.” I understand why Em doesn’t understand my fear; she is a vampire, so she can handle herself just fine. But the same cannot be said for us humans, Maya and me.

“Besides—” Maya makes a left turn, driving farther and farther away from civilization. I have half a mind to tell her to turn around and take me back home. “—there are gonna be others there.”

Right – the others who are going to be at the party. Dylan’s party, to be specific. Dylan is like the party god of Oak Ridge High, known for throwing “legendary” parties, according to Maya, every goddamn month! Like why do people need to party that much? I just don’t get it. At all.

“Doesn’t make it better,” I mutter under my breath, but of course, Em hears me. Curse her super vampire hearing.

Em says—more like slurs— “Seriously, R, you gotta step out of your comfort zone sometimes.”

Yeah, like me being here doesn’t count as me stepping out of my comfort zone. I should be at home right now, lounging in front of the TV, watching a Harry Potter marathon, stuffing my face with not-so-healthy food, and throwing popcorn at the TV every time Draco Malfoy shows up on the screen. Instead of doing all that, I am going to spend my Saturday night at a party in the goddamn woods. Am I seriously the only one scared of being mauled alive by a werewolf?

It seems like it because Maya says, “Tonight is gonna be fun! You wait and see, Rue.”

I look out the window at the full moon and think to myself: I should have stayed at home.

“Oooh, this is my song!” Em says. “Turn it up, R!” Em is too loud and too drunk, but I don’t say any of this; instead, I reach for the dial, increasing the volume, “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus blasting through the speakers. Maya and Em start singing along, with Maya tapping her manicured hands on the steering wheel and Em holding her beer can in the air with her eyes closed, moving to the song like she’s already at the party. It really is Em’s favorite song. I shake my head at their antics with a small laugh.

“Come on, R, sing with us!” Em shouts from the backseat. From the rearview mirror, she can see me shake my head no. She juts her bottom lip out, giving me those puppy eyes of hers. I roll my eyes, but I end up singing along too. No one can resist Em’s puppy eyes; they are her secret weapon.

Twenty minutes later—maybe, I don’t know—Maya’s driving on a muddy track. (It had rained last night.) The headlights are the only source of light in the dusky woods. Em is drinking her fifth – no, wait, it’s her sixth can of beer now. When I had told her to slow down a bit, she’d said with a dismissive wave, “I’m a vampire; I can handle it.” And I had left it at that because it would have been futile to argue with Em, especially when she has alcohol in her system. As Maya drives deeper into the woods, the muddy track bumpy and slippery, we see the light up ahead and hear the faint sound of booming music. We are getting close to the party, and that makes me all nervous.

“Do you think Dylan will notice me tonight?” Maya asks. And then there’s Maya’s crush on Dylan. Maya has had a crush on Dylan since sophomore year when they’d kissed at a game of spin-the-bottle at another one of Dylan’s parties. “He’s such a great kisser,” she’d gushed. It had been Maya’s first kiss, so… had he really been a great kisser?

“Don’t worry, M, he’ll notice you.” Em has a habit of calling people by the first letter of their name instead of their full name. “You look sexy tonight.” And that was true; Maya really did look sexy tonight. Em too.

“Yeah, you really do, Maya,” I say, agreeing with Em.

Maya is wearing a tight black dress that I would never wear—it reveals her cleavage, and it barely reaches the top of her thighs, showing her model-like legs. Overall, she looks goddamn sexy, and I love the dress on her. Compared to her, I’m not wearing much. I’m wearing light blue faded jeans, sneakers, and a black hoodie. Simple and yet comfortable.

Maya bites her lip, apprehension written all over her face, and then she says, “You think?”

“Yeah! b***h, look at you!” Em is like that: she always knows how to make people feel good about themselves; she is always hyping us up. “Don’t you worry, M, don’t you worry!”

Maya smiles and nods to herself, convinced. “Yeah. Totally.”

…

Dylan is the captain of the football team and the most popular kid at Oak Ridge High, so I am not surprised when I see that almost everyone from school showed up. And maybe some from Richmond High in the neighboring town showed up, too; Maya had mentioned that they would.

What also doesn’t surprise me is that Maya and Em ditch me the second we arrive. Of course, Maya’s gone off to look for Dylan, and Em has gone off…somewhere. So, I’m holding a red cup in my hand, standing with my back against a tree, not knowing what I’m supposed to do with myself, with my body. Do I dance? Sing? Make out with someone? Seriously, what the hell do I do?

There’s a bonfire, and people are dancing around it like witches performing a ritual. Bodies are grinding against each other; people’s lips are locked in sloppy, drunken kisses. Everyone’s having the time of their lives, and I’m in the shadows, bored the hell out of my mind. I’m never allowing Maya and Em to convince me to come to a party with them ever again. This is the first and last high school party I’m ever going to.

Someone—a guy—stumbles his way over to me and slurs, “Wanna dance?” He has boyish features, but he’s handsome. Like me, he’s holding a red cup in his hand. But unlike me, he is drunk.

I consider for a second saying yes, but then I say, “Nah, I’m good.” I bring the cup to my mouth and take a sip, trying to seem cool.

“You sure?”

I swallow, trying not to make a face at the bitter taste of the alcohol. I nod. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

Licking his lips, he says, “Yeah, okay. If you change your mind, come find me, yeah?”

I doubt I’ll change my mind, but I say, “Okay.”

He turns to leave, and then I'm alone again. I should have gone with him, I think. I spend about fifteen minutes standing against the tree, watching everyone enjoy themselves. In those fifteen minutes, about two guys approach me to ask me to dance with them, but I tell them I don’t want to dance.

Another fifteen minutes pass and my legs and feet feel like they have needles in them, so I think, ugh, you know? Screw this.

I dispose of the alcohol and the cup, shove my hands in the pockets of my black hoodie, and I walk away from the party and deeper into the woods. The moon in the black-inked sky shining through the thick canopy of trees barely casts a light on the muddy path snaking through the woods, so I take out my phone and turn on the flashlight. The logical part of my brain screams “Bad idea!” at me, but the not-so-logical, bored-out-its-mind part of my brain eggs me on, so I walk deeper and deeper into the woods, away from the party, away from safety.

Dead leaves crunch under my sneakers, and the twigs snap. The muddy path cakes my sneakers, squelching as I walk through it. I whip my head around and stand still when I hear the loud footsteps, but then I realize it’s my heart pounding in my ears. I drag in a long, slow breath, and then I walk farther away from the party with no clue where I am going, but there’s this… buzzing in my bones, a pull that makes me walk into the woods.

Suddenly, it becomes eerily silent, a stillness in the air. It’s so silent I can hear the deafening sound of my pounding heart. I slow down, stand still, and listen. If it weren’t for the quiet, I never would have heard the faint sound of a breaking twig. I jump in alarm, eyes darting around in the dark. Nothing. I see nothing. Phew, that was close. But then, the sound of crunching leaves fills my ears. I freeze. f**k, what if that’s a werewolf? I push that thought to the back of my mind. No, I shake my head. It can’t be. It’s probably a rabbit or a squirrel. Yeah, that’s it.

Fumbling with my phone, I turn off the flashlight and take slow steps backwards. I try hard not to breathe or to make a sound. And just as I’m about to run back to the party (well, if I can find my way back, considering I’m in the middle of the woods!), a feral growl makes my whole body seize up.

And at that moment, the one thought that goes through my mind is: Tonight is the night I die.