Hearts of Stone

Chapter 5

Janet and Alia's dorm room^^^ (the walls are sky blue in the story though)

While sipping my steaming hot coffee, I stared intently at Alia for approximately ten minutes without saying a word. Other than the night crickets' chirping, the silence in the room was palpable. Alia was seated across from me, her eyes fixated on her own mug. It had been an hour since I found her in the woods. Her hair was damp from the hour-long shower she took, but the water hadn't properly washed away the splotches of blood on her arm.

While she had been depleting possibly the entire hospital's water supply, I took the responsibility of putting us both on leave for tomorrow. Of course, Ducette was irate but finally complied after considering our frazzled conditions, thinking we were still in shock from the little girl's death. He told us that we had to get used to such incidents in the future, but we were forgiven because we were mere interns.

Finally, Alia looked up at me. "Stop looking at me like that," she snapped.

Her voice startled me out of my thoughts. I slowly lowered my cup onto the table, feeling as though making any sudden movements would make her fangs shoot out again.

"Like what?"

"Like I need help. Like I'm some sort of freak or monster," she sobbed defensively. She swiped clusters of hair behind her ear and clenched her mug tightly, making her hands deathly white.

Before I could lose my nerve, I swiftly got up and sat next to her. She eyed me cautiously, and something within me knew that my roommate would never be the same again.

I did not know how to console her, so I simply declared the words on the tip of my tongue. "I'm a witch."

She sipped her coffee wearily, then spoke through gritted teeth. "Not funny."

I sighed. It wouldn't hurt to use just a little bit of my magic to prove myself. I put my finger on my pendant and closed my eyes, concentrating hard. At first, nothing happened, and I distinctly heard Alia say "What on Earth are you doing?" Suddenly, small wisps of magic crawled into my finger. The feeling of having it in my body again, even a minuscule amount, was euphoric, to say the least. I opened my eyes and gazed at Alia's now empty mug intently. I pointed my finger straight at it and slowly guided it up. Alia's eyes widened as the cup escaped from her hands and floated in the air.

"Do you believe me now?"

She nodded breathlessly, but her surprise quickly faded. I suppose nothing could shock her anymore.

I relaxed my finger and the mug gloomily dropped into her pale hands. She set it on the table and curled herself into a little ball. I suddenly realized that I had nothing to be afraid of. All that was in front of me was not a sickening creature but a scared girl, who had nothing but her friend to console her. I inched closer and put my hand on hers reassuringly. She looked at me gratefully, and I could see her cheery personality creeping into her dull face.

"When did you know you were a vampire?"

She stared at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"I've always known, ever since I was little. I didn't expect to be awakened so early though. The little girl's death made me blindly angry, and before I knew it, I was chewing on a rabbit and its blood tasted heavenly. I wanted to eat the entire animal kingdom at that moment." Suddenly, she burst out laughing. "I sound like a psychopath."

I was relieved to see she was herself again and after hearing her familiar cackles, I couldn't help but join in.

We talked for a long time. I was relieved to learn that vampires were not interested in human blood but only that of animals. Alia's career would have definitely been on the line. We both laughed as Alia zoomed around the room at a ridiculously fast speed; all I could see of her was a blur. When she sat down, I explained to her about my magic situation and after rubbing my shoulder sympathetically, she burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, but it's hard to be afraid of a Scergle when the name sounds like some sort of worm,"

"Yeah, it's all fun and games until it literally sucks the magic out of you and you die. You do realize it can take our magic and kill us both?"

"Okay, you pessimist. Let's watch a movie now."

We stayed up for hours, watching tons of Flexnit movies on the large holographic projector screen. Before I knew it, it was midnight. Even though we had the day off and Alia protested that we watch more, I did not want to exhaust myself. After turning off the lights and telling Alia goodnight, I slid into bed and checked my phone. A large notification was on the lock screen.

20 messages and 11 missed calls from "Mother".

Since when did my mother get a phone? Oh, right. Now that she couldn't harass me with magical parchment she was going to harass me on screen. Finding out my roommate was a vampire was one thing, but getting several missed calls and messages from my mother was another level of scary. I apprehensively clicked on my message icon and wondered what on Earth my mother was on about. 

I groaned, and sent a message saying only the words "I'm sorry." I muted messages solely from my mother and turned my phone off.

Why did my parents have to be "traditional" Healers? Why couldn't they become doctors like my aunt and uncle, who were millionaire surgeons? Oh well, this was simply my fate. With bitter thoughts in mind, I eventually fell sound asleep.

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes and the clock on the ceiling read 7:45 AM. I groaned and sat up, and yelped loudly when I saw Sean's muscular figure sitting on the sofa across my bed. His hair was disheveled and his feet rested comfortably on the table. He was fully ready with his black gray suit on and he was scrolling through his clipboard intently until he was startled by my shriek. He immediately regained his composure and slid his feet off the table, grinning from ear to ear.

"Mornin,' Sunshine."

I slid out of bed and marched directly in front of him. "How on Earth did you get in here?!" 

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this chapter remember to vote and comment, that will make me super happy:) Until next chapter, tOoDle-doO

Muktha x