Vampire Boarding School

Vampire boarding school - chapter 14

Chapter 14

I could see the light shining through the partially opened curtains in a long rectangular line along the floor, blinding me and blurring my vision. I didn’t know how long I had been lying there, but I didn’t care.

Everything had changed so much in just a week, and I didn’t really know how to deal with any of it. I had no way of coping with this and I felt incredibly uncomfortable being where I was.

Since being brought here to the Boarding School I had found everything incredibly difficult. I hadn’t had a chance to meet anyone since my second night here as Damian had refused to let me leave the room. It was an odd way of living. Every morning I would be brought food, and a couple of bottles of water. I would then shower, and dress in one of the very extravagant dresses that I found in the wardrobe. Then I’d be brought some lunch, usually just a sandwich and more water bottles. I would be stuck here all day, and although the door hadn’t been locked from the outside, I knew not to leave – Damian had made it very clear that I must stay here no matter what time of day, and no matter how desperate I was to leave. Although he hadn’t exactly threatened me, there was most definitely an underlying meaning to his words.

I had never known what it felt like to be trapped until now.

The one piece of excitement of my day was when Damian would come to meet me for dinner, and then we would go to bed. It was an odd relationship and one that I couldn’t quite grasp. On the one hand he was a captor, someone who was keeping me from the people that I had wanted to befriend, or even letting me make some kind of connection with people here, but on the other hand he always showed an odd form of affection for me in the evening time. We would eat together, talk for a while, then sleep. I supposed I just enjoyed the company really.

But every day, without fail, I would wake up completely alone. Today was no different.

I crawled out of bed, and walked over to the door. I unbolted and opened it before grabbing the tray of food that had been yet again placed on the floor just outside the room.

Taking it over to the bed I lifted the cover – waffles again. Don’t get me wrong they’re nice enough, but they get boring after a couple of days.

And as usual, there was a note stuck to a single rose. I knew that Damian was trying to build affections from me but I was still feeling incredibly neglected, and there was no amount of inappropriately sweet notes that could take me out of this funk that I found myself in.

The note contained the usual – just more awkwardly worded affections. It seemed as though Damian felt forced into doing what he was doing. Over the last few days Damian had explained some of what was going on, just about being his mate. I knew that we were connected, and I could most definitely feel it, but that was all I knew. I didn’t feel any kind of ‘love’ for him at all. I did have my affections, but he was the only person I knew, and so it stands to reason that I would cling to him.

The day went fairly quickly. There was a large bookshelf to one corner of the room, and I had been working my way through the books – it seemed to help me pass the time rather effectively and before I knew it Damian was calling to me to let him in.

Every day he would greet me with the same small smile. It still seemed like he was trying to make the best first impression possible, but it obviously wasn’t working – it was far too late for that now.

As we sat down to dinner I could feel Damian looking at me. ‘Did you want something?’ I tried n to stop it from sounding too harsh and ‘snappy’ but I was having trouble with that lately – everything I said seemed to come out wrong, and made me feel guilty for being harsh.

He looked troubled, like he was struggling to come to terms with something. ‘Jessica, I know I’ve told you some of what it means to be a mate, but I’ve been leaving something pretty major out of our discussions. I was hoping it would fix itself but it hasn’t, and I can’t keep expecting it to when I know that nothing I do can help.’

It was obvious that there was something he had been leaving out. He had told me the answers to almost everything I had asked, but there was something missing – I still didn’t understand the point of having a mate when there were other ways for them to breed. Damian had already explained to me that there were other ways for them to procreate, and women who actually volunteered for the task, but when I had asked my role he had been pretty vague.

‘It’s all about love. Having a mate is to know love. I’ve had friends find their mate, and I’ve seen the way they look at each other, the way they behave – it’s magical.’ He looked to his hands, like he was ashamed of what he was about to say. ‘We don’t fit. I know you feel it to – or don’t as the case is. You don’t love me, and I don’t love you.’

It seemed nice that he was finally admitting it, but I really didn’t see what the big deal was. There are couples all over the world who are breaking up right this minute, so why was this any different?

‘Then I can go home? Or back to the other school at least?’ I finally felt my first smidge of hope in days, but it was soon taken away when I saw the look on his face change.

‘I – I don’t really know. I’ve been speaking to Shires about it. It’s where I’ve been the past few days.’ It wasn’t all that surprising really, where else could he have gone to? ‘This is unheard of. I’ve tried to show affections towards you but I think we both know that it hasn’t really worked.’

‘Well then how do you?’ I asked. ‘How do you I’m really your mate … you seem to have made a mistake.’

‘No, I know. I don’t love you, but I feel that connection, I know when you’re sad, or happy, or frightened. And you do appeal to me, I think you’re beautiful,’ to this I can’t help but feel embarrassed. ‘So I know you are definitely my mate.’

I didn’t exactly know where we stood on this, but I knew from day one that although I though he looked good, I didn’t think anything else of him. He was just kind of there.

‘Shires and I decided that for the sake of the other boys you need to stay here, and we need to keep up appearances. Who knows, we may even fall in love one day,’ and with that he gave me a small wink. I couldn’t help but giggle slightly. Besides, who can expect love to happen overnight?

And from that Damian and I arranged to keep up appearances, but with leniency of course. There was no way I was going to live out my days in this single room.

‘I actually wanted to talk to you about that,’ I could only question this. ‘I’ve got something for you.’

With that Damian led me out of that room for the first time. It was a short walk, about a minute, but it was difficult to remember exactly which turns to take. But once we were there I was definitely not disappointed.

Damian looked me right in the face, right in the eyes, and I looked back. There was so much mystery in the eyes, now starting to fade into that light red shade. But before I really got a chance to examine them, he opened those big double doors into that had to be the most amazing room I had ever seen.

I had never been to a ball before, but this seemed to make up for it. The room was huge, with massive glass windows to one side. The ceiling reached at least two or three floors high, with the most amazing design painted on it. I could have stared at it for hours, just studying it, if it weren’t for the fact that I was so distracted by how beautiful the rest of the room was. The walls were gold, and the floor a similar colour, but so shiny that you could barely see. And finally, to one side, was a huge balcony, filled with bookshelves, and a small red reading chair.

It was magnificent.

‘It is all yours. You are doing me a favour after all,’ and for this I was grateful. It would finally give me something to do during the day!

That night, while lying in bed, I found myself becoming fonder and fonder Damian. He had finally given me something to look forward to.