Fresh Scars - Short Story

The Whole Story

 I was asleep in a land far, far away when I heard it, the dreaded alarm clock. I had already pressed snooze twice by now, and that annoying beeping was getting on my nerves. Regretfully, I turned it off and got out of bed. I have been on summer break for just over two weeks now. My summers are the most uninteresting time of the year; although school is unremarkable, it keeps me busy. Today we are going shopping. I despise shopping for mundane things such as groceries. Now that I am dressed, I head downstairs for coffee.

 Several hours later, we are walking through Stop & Shop, our local grocery store, when I saw him. He had the darkest eyes I had ever comprehended. He looked up and saw me. For a moment that felt like an eternity we just regarded at each other. Then he was gone. As fast as I blinked, he was here, then he wasn't. I thought of ever way that could have been possible. I could think of nothing. How could he have just disappeared? I asked myself. He was right there!

 "Did you hear me, Bella?" my mother asked

 "What?" I said, startled out of my... whatever that was.

"Hand me the jar of Welch's jam please." 

"Yeah sure," I grabbed the jar, "here you go." 

The remainder of my day elapsed uneventfully, as did the next few weeks. I continuously contemplated out that scene in my mind when I was not occupied elsewhere, which was quite often. 

 I am sitting on my bed late one evening, close to one in the morning, reading a vampire romance novel. I hear an odd tapping or clunking noise. I get up, curious as to what the mystery sound was. I glimpse out my window, at first I see nothing and am about to turn back to bed when I see him. He was tossing pebbles at my window! How romantic! I soundlessly pulled open my bedroom window.

 "What are you doing down there?" I asked.

"I came to see you, Isabella," he replied.

"But why? And how do you know my name?"

 "Will you allow me to come up and explain?"

"Yeah, but how? My bedroom is on the second floor?"

"I will show you." He started at a slow jog, then he jumped, and landed in my bedroom right next to me.

"H-how?" I asked not believing my eyes.

"Let's start at the beginning. How can you see me?" 

"What do you mean? You are right next to me. How you got here, I have no idea." I said.

"Vampire romance," he grumbled.

"What is wrong with my reading selection?"

"Werewolves hate vampires" "And?" I said, now getting a little annoyed with his games.

"Why don't you sit down," he suggested. "NO! Tell me now," I said.

"Okay," he said, looking surprised at my sudden outburst 

"My name is Jayce. I am a werewolf." 

"What? Are you crazy?" I practically screamed. He wasn't. He told me about our history, where we came from and that I had been adopted. 

My real parents where werewolves. They had decided after I was born that I would be safer away from them. I would have been, had war not broken out between vampires and werewolves. Now there are only 10% of the werewolves there were one year ago.

 For that reason, I am now an asset to the werewolf community, since the vampires have no idea I exist. Although I won't Change for another year or two it is essential that I train several hours every day (or in my case night) so that if I get attacked before I can Change I will have a chance at surviving.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has been three weeks since Jayce told me who I am. Every night for the past few weeks we have sneaked away to practice. During the day, I stay at home, but I no longer read fiction. I have been spending my free time writing a "fiction" novel about werewolves. I look forward to my nighttime practice battles with Jayce all day.

 Tonight we are going to the park to practice. When Jayce came he was acting tense. He assured me that he was just tired, so I put his odd behavior to the back of my mind. We got to the park, but the air felt evil. I don't know what it is, but something is wrong.

I look around and Jayce and I are surrounded by people. No, vampires, I tell myself. Soulless demons. They have sparkling teeth and sleek, black hair.

 We are both fighting hard, but it is hopeless. There are at least fifty of them and only two of us. Jayce Changed. He fights better and harder when he is in wolf form. He has glimmering golden eyes and beautiful silver fur. I have nothing but a dagger to fight for my life. All I can think of is surviving. I allow nothing else to cloud my reflexes. It is the only way to win a battle against a coven of vampires. 

 To my surprise, and utter relief, there were only three vampires left. I threw my dagger and killed one vampire. I bend down to grab a thick, broken stick to kill the other vampire, but it is faster than I am and launches itself at me. Before I can even think to move Jayce is on top of it in an attempt to save me. The vampire and my werewolf battle, I want to watch, but I have to kill the third one. I pick up the stick and hurtle it at the last vampire, providing the fatal blow.

 I look back at Jayce and the vampire. They both are disintegrating. That is what happens when vampires and werewolves are killed. I ran to him, but it was too late, he sacrificed himself for me.

That night will now be forever known as The Night in the werewolf community. The night two young werewolves (one who couldn't even Change yet) went up against and beat fifty-three vampires, and only one came out. 

I left home. I moved to a werewolf training school in Colorado. My (adoptive) parents know what happened and what I am. They understand why I had to leave. Merely a few weeks after meeting Jayce, he was gone because he saved me. I will continue to fight the vampires. I think thay is what he would have wanted for me. I hope to someday be able to go home, but it won't be anytime soon. There are still too many fresh scars there.