I don't need much sleep, only a few hours before sunrise at most. I think I have adapted to the human timezone pretty well. The next morning, Joy knocked on the door of our suite. It was like a huge hammer banged on my skull the first time I heard it.
"Whoa... Joy, I thought a bulldozer just crushed through the hall," I said.
"She wanted to make sure that you're still breathing," Jennie's voice said from the inside. Joy glared at her before she turned to me.
"Come down for breakfast," Joy said, "Jisoo is waiting."
Then we went to the Lunch Hall and saw Jisoo there. She waved at us enthusiastically. Jennie also came along. She was about to go off to her usual table, but Joy blocked her.
"Uh uh... where do you think you're going, mademoiselle? From now on, you're sitting with us," Joy said. "I don't want you to victimize any of the Ultara students ever again."
Jennie just rolled her eyes, but she didn't protest. She walked back around and took a seat next to Jisoo, who slightly blushed at the mere closeness of her. I wasn't sure what would happen if my best friend found out that she was no longer a virgin.
Mom had packed my milk for me. I didn't need to worry about my growling stomach.
After a while, Jisoo started asking Jennie a million questions. I didn't know if Jennie could absorb energy through that or not, but Jisoo looked even more energetic than usual. I knew the two of them would get along without me being a pathetic peacemaker.
"Is it true that you can see an aura?" Jisoo said in awe. "Do you see all rainbows all the time?"
"No, it's not like that," Jennie said. "Everyone has their dominant aura, which reflects their personality. If I want to make out someone's aura, I have to focus for a few minutes, and it will appear in a mist-like form."
"How awesome!" Jisoo gasped. "And what else can you do?"
"Well, something like this," Jennie picked up a silver spoon and held it up in front of her. She looked at it for a minute and then the spoon started to bend backward like it was made of wax. I tried not to drop my jaw at that. Even Joy's eyes went wide.
"Oh. My. God. That is ah-may-zing!" Jisoo cried out. "Can you teach me that psychokinetic stuff, too?"
"Why not?" Jennie said. "Everyone can learn kinesis abilities. It's in our nature."
Joy and I exchanged a look. Obviously, we both didn't want our school to be the next Hogwarts.
"Do you have any baby-steps that I can start with?" Jisoo continued excitedly. Jennie seemed to think for a while before she pulled out a coin from her skirt pocket. She put the coin on the table and then spun it.
"Try to keep the coin spinning with your mind," Jennie instructed and held a glass of orange juice to her lips casually. And for a very long moment, the rest of us were still waiting for the coin to stop spinning itself, but it never did. The silver metal kept going on and on until Joy slammed her palm down on it.
"Show-off," she muttered to Jennie sternly.
"So," Jisoo decided to change the subject, (that didn't help brighten anything because she just chose to talk about the only thing we had tried to avoid) "If your plan to be a vegetarian doesn't work, what do we do?" she asked, looking eager and innocent.
Jennie's eyes darted out to me. I haven't thought of that either.
"We'll find another way out," this time, Joy answered before I could. I almost dropped my milk carton all over myself, because Joy had never said anything about helping Jennie out, but now she was starting to count herself in. I tried to rack my brain thinking of what to say in support.
"Yeah," I said. "There's a lot of ways to be a vegetarian, or maybe Jennie could be a part- vegetarian because the three of us will take turns to be her feeders...I meant donors. She doesn't need to take energy from other people anymore, right?"
"So you all don't mind having sex with me then?" Jennie said, with a slight smirk. We fell silent, not knowing how to respond to that. Then Jennie just went on, "Don't make your lives miserable because of me. I've heard some psychic vampires can draw life force from anything, the places with a dynamic energy flow like waterfalls, ocean, and forest, or natural disasters like thunderstorms or lightning, even rains. Once I figure out how to do it, I could even convert my feeding to feed off sadness, depression and also some diseases, which are also energy, just negative. But if I succeed, I'll be free from this curse."
I was certain that we all listened with a surge of respect towards Jennie. She also has a fighting spirit deep down. I really started to see her true color despite this arrogant surface.
After a while, we finished breakfast and went to our classes as normal. I was still thinking about how I could get out of school. Lisa and I had agreed to go on a search for Florentine, but things took a different turn when I was stuck in here.
Then I met Lisa in Biology. She was sitting on our table as usual, but she didn't look up when I took a seat next to her. Something about her expression made my mouth turn dry.
"Hey," I said. Lisa turned and stared at me for a long moment as if she was trying to detect something in her mind.
"You okay?" I asked. Then she inhaled and let out a sigh.
"Yeah, you?"
I looked back at her with a frown, and then I felt the guilt poke inside my gut again.
"Fine," I said. "I'm... er... fine."
I didn't know why we had to waste more than five minutes just to greet each other. The awkwardness seemed to raise its ugly head out of nowhere. And I had never experienced it before with Lisa. Sure, she had teased me numerous times, but never once I felt this uneasy around her. This was little off to me. Then I decided to brush it aside and asked her whether she had been investigating on her aunt.
"Did you get anything new from the outside?" I asked, sounding like I was a prisoner.
"Some vague trails and clues," she said, "But nothing leads to anything."
"You know where the true-bloods most likely meet?"
Lisa pursed her lips as if to think.
"Where there are preys, there are predators," she mused.
"Somewhere crowded with a lot of people?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.
"Like nightclubs, casinos, and bars, right?"
Lisa nodded in response. I made a mental note right away. The first chance I get to sneak out, we go to one of those places. Searching for someone we don't know might be both challenging and dangerous, but we would rather see what that stupid prophecy had of us than living in fear. Now, the bad guys could be around the corner. I still didn't know why my evil uncle did that to my father, and what he was up to. There were too many questions but not enough answers.
After class, Jisoo came running towards me, her two hands waving in the air.
"Chaeyoung...wait!" She called out. "I've got something to show you!"
And that's how she brought us to the gym. It was quiet at this hour. No one was around. We moved into the supply room. Jisoo pressed the button and the door slid open. Then we went inside. And the fact that Jennie and Joy were also there and not strangling each other was a rare sight. They just sat on the metal bench on either end, looking at us.
"Why did you bring us here, Jisoo?" I said. "Self- defense class is not today."
"I know," she said. "But I have something to show you."
Then she opened her backpack and pulled a box out. Jisoo opened the lid and took something out that looked like a torch.
"Here you go," she said excitedly.
"Um...thanks," I said. "But why did you give me a torch?"
"It's not a torch! It's a sword!" Jisoo said, looking hurt.
"Oh," I frowned, staring at the object blankly. "Make me understand how a torch turns out to be a sword?"
"Gosh! You should read more sci-fi fictions," Jisoo scoffed. "I practically modeled it after a lightsaber in Star War. I couldn't make it with a laser, so I settled on steel. But this one is still a deadly hand-made weapon."
Then she took the torch-like sword from me. Jisoo held it and pointed down to the floor. She clicked on a tiny button and a black metal blade shot out instantly. The sword was slightly shorter than a samurai's sword, and instead of having a flat razor- edged blade, it was rounded with a pointy tip like a giant needle. The sword somehow resembled an incredibly long black stake to me.
Then I recalled the pile of electric junk on Jisoo's table the day we went to the masquerade ball. I didn't realize she had been engineering this. When Jisoo was three, normal girls were chasing butterflies while she collected screwdrivers and mechanical parts. When Jisoo was eight, normal girls discovered lipstick and hairsprays while she built robots from a cardboard box and actually made it work.
"Be careful when you open it," she warned, handing it back to me. "It bursts out strong and the tip is really sharp."
"Wow, that's so cool," Joy breathed like it was love at first sight. If I could see her aura, I think it would be bloody red now. By the look on her face, Joy was dying to have a grip on anything that kills.
"Jisoo, I know you're a genius, but making weapons is illegal!" I said.
"If something as cheesy as a sword is illegal," Jennie said from the bench. "Why did people who made nukes get rewarded?"
"Good point," Joy supported with a nod. Then she winced as if she just remembered she didn't like Jennie. I stared at them with opened mouth. Turning this cool thing around in my hand, I guess I could protect myself from any marauder that wants to harm me.
"I can't have it," I said softly at last.
"Why not?" Jisoo asked, surprised. And I hated to see her face fall. I looked over at Lisa. For a split second, we both knew why I couldn't accept this gift. Even the true-bloods want us gone, but we are still part of them.
"It just doesn't feel right to me," I said with an apologetic tone. "But I think there's someone who deserves it more than I do."
"Who?" Jisoo said. I walked towards the bench and stopped in front of Joy.
"Joy," I smiled at her. "I feel like the sword chooses you."
"What?" She blinked back at me.
"I remember the undead thought you were a slayer," I told her. "And I guess maybe they were right. Maybe you were born to be a vampire slayer." Joy's eyes sparkled when she heard that. Her skin glowed with pride. She reached out and took the sword, smiling gratefully at me.
"Well, I have picked up a little swordplay from Shakespeare, too," she said with a cool shrug.
"Except you can't slay any vampire like some bloody sushi," Jisoo added. "But if you twist the end of the hilt, the sword will release a strong discharge of electricity. One touch of the blade, and you'll take a very long, long nap."
Joy twisted the hilt to check, and a blue electric shock went crackling and running through the steel blade insanely. I didn't need to touch it to know if it could cure my insomnia, though.
"Does everything you do always involve with lighting up people's hair, Jisoo?" Joy said.
"Only when I'm bored," she shrugged. Joy untwisted the sword and ticked the button to retract the blade back into its hilt. How Jisoo made such a long thing shrink back so easily I had no idea, but Joy kept staring at it like it was her birthday present.
"Okay, that settles it then," Jisoo said. "But I still have another cool thing to show you."
She went to stand next to a life-size dummy that I hadn't noticed was there. But I didn't want to offend Jisoo again, so I tried to say something smart. "Mmm...is it a new model robot?"
"No, it's a dummy," Jisoo said, looking at me like I had grown some fungus on my head.
"So what is it doing here?"
"The dummy is designed with extra sensors to measure your physical strength," she said.
"And you want me to hit that thing?" I asked.
"Yes," Jisoo answered. "So that we will know how strong you are."
I had to admit that the stuff was pretty impressive. There were wires and devices attached from the inside of the dummy to Jisoo's laptop. She checked the equipment twice before the experiment began. I glanced at Lisa, who stood watching like Joy and Jennie. After a while, I was asked to attack the dummy using all my force. I felt like a laboratory rat, but I came to stand before the figure anyway.
After a few seconds of summoning the strength in my body, I lifted my clenched fist and punched the dummy in the chest.
"Ouch!" I cried, shaking my hand in pain. "I think I have cracked my knuckles!"
"I forgot to tell you," Jisoo said sheepishly. "It's made from hard plastic. They use it to experiment with car accidents."
"Gosh... why didn't you tell me earlier?" I hissed.
"Ohmygosh!" Jisoo burst out, staring at her computer screen. "Chaeng, you're not going to believe this. The force of your punch could have killed a full-grown cow!"
"Really?" I asked then looked at Lisa again. She just smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. Suddenly, I wanted to know how strong Lisa was, too. It would be great to know our own strengths and weaknesses.
"Lisa, you're on," I said.
She blinked for a moment and then she shook her head 'no'.
"Oh come on, Lisa!" Jisoo said and walked up to pull her to the dummy. "Just a punch or two."
Lisa still hesitated. But I gave her an encouraging smile. She rolled her eyes and turned to face the figure at last. Lisa inhaled and repositioned her feet. Then she stole a glance at Jennie, who was also gazing back. I could have missed their eye contact if I wasn't looking at them from behind. Lisa raised her hand in a proper angle and finally let out a blow. The movement of her hand was like a lunge of a cobra. It was too fast that it came out in a blur. And after a smashing sound, we all realized that Lisa's entire fist was shoved right through the dummy's chest. She simply pulled her hand back without a scratch, leaving a big hole there.
"Well," Jisoo gulped. "I don't think we need to measure that."
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