The Masquerade

The Set Up

"What's going on Mack? Why are you in danger?"

Mackenzie sighed, "I'll tell you, but you can't be involved in any of this Ali. You need to stay away from me for a while."

Allison gaped at her, "But-"

"No, she's right. You can't be involved." Julian sat up straight, causing Allison to shrink back a little more. "Listen, little girl, and I'll tell you about something we call the masquerade."

Mackenzie watched Julian explain the masquerade in casual manner, which was quite the contrast to how she'd learned of the concept. Allison grew more visibly frightened by the word, and by the end Mackenzie was at her side, with her hand on her shoulder.

"So this vampire is after you just because you know?" She asked. Mackenzie nodded.

"Yup. Stupid ass reason, am I right?" She said. Julian shrugged.

"Hunters are very rare. They're usually vampires teetering on the edge between complete animals and sane vampires. In some part of their mind, they think what they're doing is absolutely right," He explained.

"Like I said, stupid ass reason."

***

-Sophia-

"So why'd you wanna see me?" Tate Saunders asked. He was combing through his hair with  long and tan fingers as they walked down the gravel path next to Mackenzie's house. Sophia kept her distance from the boy, who smelled like a wet dog. 

"I wanted to know if you would like help controlling your transformations," She stated. Tate pulled his hand out of his wet hair and put it on Sophia's arm. She eyed it and then took it off of her, brushing at her blouse.

"There's a way to do that"? Tate asked, not batting an eye at her distaste for his hand touching her.

"There is. It's a long process, though. It takes some wolves hundreds of years to learn."

"What? Did you just say hundreds?" The boy stared at her, his nose crinkled.

"Yes," She said slowly, "You are immortal."

"Like, never growing up? That kind of immortal?" He asked dumbly.

"Yes, that kind of immortal. I'm assuming you're not a born werewolf, as you said the changes only started recently. You must have been bitten, which means that you would be immortal and unchanging," She responded. He puffed his cheeks and blew out a large breath.

"I wasn't told about that."

They walked in silence for a while until Tate seemed to digest her words. His steps were loud and his Vans pat against the gravel and flung the little rocks backwards. The noise grated at Sophia and she wanted to reach down and hold his feet to the ground.

"So Mackenzie Kenison. How did she get into all of this?" Tate asked after a while. Sophia was grateful for a distraction from the awful crunch of the footsteps.

"My dimwit of a brother." was all Sophia said. She figured the explanation would suffice.

"And she's in some kind of danger?" Tate asked, "She's taking it pretty well."

"No she is not. She is just not showing any of us how this is no doubt effecting her." Sophia could tell that the girl had not gotten any sleep the night before, and that she was very stressed. For the sake of everyone she hid it though. Sophia understood her reasons well, so she didn't call her out on it.

"You're pretty cool," Tate said from out of the blue. Sophia looked right at him for the first time in their walk together.

"How do you figure that?"