The Garden of What Once Was

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Six days passed since Ember last spoke or even spared a glance at any of the High-tiers. The four of them were now strangers to her, ones that gazed at her far too longingly whenever she passed them in the halls. She tried her hardest not to let her eyes wander over to them, but, sometimes, the urge grew unbearable. Though, whenever she finally went to look at them, they were gone. In place of them was always an unfamiliar face that occasionally gave her an awkward smile. It was not their smiles she wanted to see but the High-tiers'. Maybe seeing them smile might make it easier for her to do something other than frown. That constant frown on her face was present as she walked across the quad. The familiar sound of another set of footsteps beside her was nonexistent. She was all alone, as per usual. Such a thing used to be normal for her, but, now, it was nothing but unnatural and painful. A long, drawn-out sigh fell from her lips. That was probably the fifteenth time she had sighed that day. Unfortunately, it was only lunch time which meant that more sighs were to come. Sure enough, when she rested herself against the trunk of a tree, another sigh came from her. Her eyes began to flutter close as she invited the idea of taking a nap. At least in her sleep, she could escape this deafening silence.

It seemed that there would be no escape for Ember though. As soon as she felt herself slipping into a dream, an annoyingly shrill voice cut into her ears, "After seeing you in that compost pile, the High-tiers must have realized how well you fit in with the trash!" A laugh interrupted Scarlett's poorly crafted insult that didn't even rouse a smidge of anger from Ember. "It's good that they finally came to their senses. Now I don't have to watch you pathetically hang all over them every damn second."

Ember, who was not in the least bit interested in engaging in a meaningless argument with Scarlett, folded her arms over her eyes, obscuring the nasty view of Scarlett from her view. The last thing she wanted to do was engage in meaningless banter. She may have felt otherwise earlier, but now, she wasn't involved with the High-tiers. Anything Scarlett said about Ember's relationship with the High-tiers meant nothing to Ember. Nothing at all.

When no immediate reaction came from Ember, an evident scowl formed on Scarlett's face. She used the tip of her shoe to poke Ember like Ember was a piece of garbage. "Don't ignore me when I'm talking to you!" Her shoe poked Ember harder this time, almost kicking Ember. Still, there was no response from Ember, not even a simple glare. "Fine, keep on ignoring me! Let's see if you can keep it up after I beat the shit out of you!"

Not a single one of Scarlett's threats made Ember move from the comfortable position she was in. In all honesty, there was nothing Scarlett could do to get a reaction from Ember. That is unless Scarlett put a paper bag over her head and taped her mouth shut. At least that would get a good laugh out of Ember. Unfortunately, all Scarlett was doing was droning on and on about how she would make Ember regret ignoring her. The funny thing was, she wasn't actually doing anything, just talking and talking and...talking.

Realizing that none of her threats were working, Scarlett decided to resort to immature insults. "Why am I even wasting my time with you? The High-tiers probably just pushed you aside after they finished having fun with you. I'm sure you begged them to let you stay with them, but, of course, they rejected you. That only makes sense. I mean, come on! You're just a human and they are High-tiers. Those types of vampires have no reason to commingle with humans."

Nothing came from Ember, just pure silence that ate away at Scarlett's pride. She had to at least get a reaction from Ember once, even if it was small, or else this whole ordeal would be useless.

"They're a bunch of fools for letting you stay around them for so long," Scarlett slowly said this so that Ember heard every nasty word, "I bet those idiots were tricked by you somehow. I wouldn't put it past them. They don't seem like the smartest group."