It'd been a week now and life went on. You were finally feeling comfortable with Epiphany being alone with Alex. You couldn't help but feel worried for your younger friend back then; you kind of felt like her immature mother. As you hung out with Alex and Epiphany more you started to loosen up.
"Couples really do look like siblings." You had said with a laugh.
Why is that? You thought to yourself. School went on as normal, except now you were getting into more complicated topics and the workload was getting harder. You found yourself at home spending less time on things you like and more and more on homework. Reading books and catching up on extra worksheets. It really got you down. This early morning at your locker Epiphany stood beside you in her patient way waiting for you to be done.
"Hey Scarlett, you look beat. How 'bout you take a break and come out with me?" She suggested. You looked at her finally and noticed her expression: worried and caring. It made you feel happier that someone cared for you.
A) "Well uh, what day?" You ask.
B) "I'm not beat, don't worry about me..." You remark on what she said.
A) "We we're thinking Friday." She says.
B) "Come on I can see your exhaustion from a mile away. We're planing on Friday." She said.
"We?" You question.
"Yeah, Alex originally asked his friend to come hang out with us, then she asked her friend, and now I'm asking you. Wanna come?" She explained.
"I guess I can spare... one day to hang out." You gave in. A huge smile widened on her face.
"Really? That's great!" She held your shoulder and jumped up and down. You couldn't help but laugh a little.
During biology class you noticed that Rosetta looked down in the dumps. She sat there looking at her sheet with a frown.
"Hey..." You softly said and nudged her arm lightly. She looked up to you quickly.
"You good? What's the matter?" You ask quietly so that others couldn't hear.
"Hmm..." she sighed. You watched her quietly, wondering if you should say something or give her her time. Maybe she doesn't want to talk about it.
"This is going to sound dumb, like I'm overreacting, but I'm having a difficult time with Serenity..." She said quietly. You mouthed the words 'oh'. The lights were off because the class was watching a documentary.
"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?..." You trailed off.
"Well, she yelled at me. This morning. I thought we were fine, but she yelled at me unleashing all her feelings and situations..." She stopped herself from talking when the documentary got really quiet. She looked at you then broke a piece of loose leaf, scribbling down on it then she passed it to you to see her nice writing:
I guess I noticed that we had problems and that we were distancing but I didn't want to acknowledge it. She's ignoring me now so I have to.
It said. Serenity was her close friend. You...
A) Wrap her into your embrace.
B) Write back to her, I understand that... If she's a good friend you guys can hear each other out and fix things. Don't worry about it.
A) She pauses for a moment then you see her smile, and she closes her eyes as she holds your arms tightly. "Thanks for being here for me, Scarlett..." She says lightly.
B) She takes the paper and reads it, her eyes flickering from one side of the page to the next. Then a small smile appears on her lips and she whispers, "Thanks for being here for me, Scarlett..."
You nod with a small smile when an idea pops in your head. You pull out your phone, hiding it from the professors view and start texting Epiphany. You say, hey, can my friend Rosetta come? The one you met the other day.
You put down your phone and start to pay attention to the documentary. If you didn't, who knows what your marks would be on the worksheet.
Near the end of class you feel your phone vibrate so you quickly pull it out and check. It was Epiphany with her reply, Yeah of course she can come! The more the merrier. She sent with a smile face. When you two left biology you brought it up to Rosetta.
"Hey, do you want to hang out with me and a few others Friday?" You ask. She looks at you excitedly and quickly nods.
"Yes! Thank you for inviting me!" She says cheerfully. You laugh lightly.
It is now Friday and you settled it all out: You would go to Rosetta's, then she would take you to the meetup spot. When you got to her place you nervously walked up to her front door. About to knock, the door suddenly burst open and you saw Rosetta standing there with a wild expression.
"Ready to go?!" She asks. You smile and nod your head, eyes a little wide from the sudden jumpy atmosphere.
"Good, lets go!" She grabs your hand and drags you to the driveway.
"Where's your car?" You ask. She looks at you with a smirk.
"Not here today. My brother has it. But that's not a problem, we're going to get there another way..." She grins to you. Her sharp canine teeth peeking out every now and then when she speaks. You had a nervous feeling well up in you.
A) "What are you up to?..." You question cautiously.
B) "Rosetta..." You look at her carefully.
"Hahaha! What?! Nothing... Okay actually, I want to show you the true speed of a Vampire. Get on my back." She gestures to her back. You look at her suspiciously. She smiles and laughs out.
"What, don't trust me yet?" She giggles. So you carefully get on her back and she says,
"Just hold on tight and we'll be there in no time." You take her word and clutch onto her shoulders as she runs at an incredible speed. Wow... You think to yourself. After a few turns and stops you see people up ahead. They settled to go on a walk around the beach and town. This town you've never been to in your entire life. You saw a sign and it said, Dire Bay. That must be where you where. Dire?... You think to yourself. A name like that gave you the feeling that the reason you didn't know this place was because it was never meant for humans in the first place. Rosetta set you down, holding your arms in case you were dizzy.
"Here we are." She smiled. It was a sunny day but since it was October you needed a jacket.
"Wow, Rosetta..." Is all you could say. She laughed at your reaction.
"Liked it?" She questioned cheekily.
A) "Yeah. It was crazy." You answered bewildered.
B) "It was kinda scary..." You mumble shyly.
Suddenly you two hear calling so you look to see a girl with a cute pink bob waving her arms around.
"Hey!! Over here girls!!" She calls waving her arms dramatically. You two smile at the sight and you guys walk over. When you get close enough you run into her arms, and she's wearing a pastel puffy jacket. You sink into it and she laughs holding you back. Rosetta's next to her side as well, pulling her arm playfully. You notice that it's just Epiphany though.
"Where are the others?" You ask as you pull away from her embrace.
"Oh, they're down there at the beach." She points to water and you look down the tiny dirt/sand sloop. When you look down you see Alex, Angelina and Duke all together at the edge of the water.
"I told them it's too cold for that, but look at them do it anyways." She laughs and shakes her head slightly. It's because they're vampires... You think to yourself.
"Well, it's just their feet they're dipping in, so it can't be too bad." Rosetta comments but you know she's mostly doing it to cover up their secret. Epiphany shrugs and says,
"Yeah, I guess so." The three of you make your way down and the three beautiful teenagers turn around to look at you guys. Angelina studies you for a moment before smiling and waving. Duke just watches with a smirk that makes you feel uncomfortable and Alex smiles, stepping up and saying,
"Hey girls." Rosetta seems to be looking at Angelina suspiciously.
"Hey, how are you guys doing? It's nice to see you again, Angelina." You look to her and she smiles to you, stepping up.
"It's nice to see you as well, how's life?" She asks. Such a broad question... You think to yourself.
A) "Pretty good." You say.
B) "Could be better." You shrug.
A) "That's great to hear, I'm having a nice time myself. I hope it's the same for you, Rosetta." She comments looking to her now. "Yeah, I'm fine." Rosetta smiles.
B) "Oh, well, I hope it gets better for you soon." She frowns.
"Hey, I'm tired of standing here near the water, how 'bout we head up to town? They have a nice shop ahead." Duke suggests.
"Yes, let's!" Epiphany cheers and takes your arm. You guys walk through town and you see a really sweet place.
"Oh dang, I forgot my money." You frown.
"Oh don't worry about it, I got you." Alex says. Your eyes widened and you're surprised for a moment.
"You don't have to, it's-"
"What were you interested in?" He asks, cutting you off. Wha!!? You exclaim mentally.
"Uh... I guess....
A) this teddy bear, please."
B) maybe a few gemstones...?"
C) I kinda like this journal..."
He nodded and took it into his hands and went to the counter, paying for it. He smiles when passing it to you.
"Wow, thank you so much, Alex." You say.
"No problem, don't worry about it." You show Rosetta what you got and you two go explore some of the other places. Rosetta watching the other shoppers and till workers carefully. It took some pressure off of you knowing that she was watching out for your safety. When you guys stopped into the arcade you learned that Epiphany is surprisingly a genius at playing most of the games. After she was done playing Pac-Man as a victorious winner she muttered,
"Wow, this feels so familiar to me. Hmm, I can't remember ever playing it before though." She said thoughtfully.
"Wow Epiphany, you're really good at these! Maybe you were born to be a professional competitor!" You exclaim.
"Yeah no kidding!" Duke said. Alex smiled at her and took her hand giving it a kiss.
"Hahaha... no... I'm not that good.... YET." She smiled big and ran to the next game. You guys followed but you noticed that Angelina and Duke have been fairly silent most the day. Every now and then you would see them mutter things to each other. You wondered what they were up to. By now you were out of the arcade and taking a walk. You guys sat down at a bench and Rosetta was holding your hand. You noticed that her skin was as cold as the air. Duke, Angelina, and Alex were standing as you, Rosetta, and Epiphany crammed onto the bench. You yawned slightly and Duke pulled something out of his dark pockets.
"Look at this nice crystal I got." He said as he pulled out a medium biggish dark red crystal. It was beautiful. A little jagged, but it was so deeply red, some spots looking a little black, some spots translucent.
"Wow." Epiphany looked at it in awe as he held it up.
"It's beautiful." You say and Rosetta nods. However, their face expressions changed suddenly. You look at them weirded out. Angelina was looking at the stone in an almost grossed out way, looking deeply disturbed and Duke looked confused, Alex though... he looked purely stunned, shocked. His eyes were wide and his mouth open. Suddenly he fell back, and Angelina rushed to his side helping him up. Duke slipped the stone back into his pocket.
"Alex, are you okay?!" Epiphany stood up quickly, and so did you and Rosetta.
"He's fine, but we need to go now. We've enjoyed our time with you girls. See you at school." Angelina said quickly, Duke and her helping Alex up. You could've sworn you saw tears in Alex's eyes. What on earth happened?! You thought to yourself, heartbeat going quickly and mind completely confused.
"You're just going to leave?" Rosetta asked as they started walking away.
"Yep, goodbye." Duke waved. She furrowed her brows.
"Why you..." She grumbled angrily. You pat her back, her looking to you as you said,
"Just leave it... I have a bad feeling about this." You said quietly to her. Epiphany however looked devastated.
"I..." She watched as they walked away.
"I guess I'll get the car..." She frowned and turned around. You grabbed her wrist.
"It's okay Epiphany, we'll walk there with you." You look at her with sympathy, feeling worse for her.
"O...okay." She agrees and the three of you go along the path. After a moment of silence Rosetta speaks up.
"I don't know what the heck their problem is..." She says bitterly.
"Me neither..." You mumble.
"I thought everything was going so good..." Epiphany frowns, looking at each step she takes.
"It was... I don't know maybe he just got really sick?..." You question. Rosetta raises her brow and you know that's not the answer, you're just saying it for Epiphany's sake.
"You know... we have such a good connection... If he's troubled I would hope that he would tell me... it seems though that I'm not trustworthy enough for him..." Epiphany says sadly. You frown, not knowing what to say.
"Hey, how about we buy a pizza?" Rosetta suggests, taking both yours and Epiphany's hands. You two smile and both say,
"Sure."
(Go to the chapter called, 'Epiphany'.)