I glare at the paper in front of me, exasperated. Tis chock full of pointless maths, maths I never would have imagined learning five hundred years ago. Amanda tells me it is what all schoolchildren learn, and insists I must get a common education as well, but at the moment it is just plain frustrating. I have years to learn this nonsense, but only six days left to find the next Girl and I'm doing this? And furthermore, in the grand scheme of things, finding the Sleeping Girl is far more important than learning this. People have survived for hundreds of thousands of years without these pointless numbers, but not without a Sleeping Girl.
Frustrated, I stand up, unclenching my hands and letting my pencil, the writing tool I was given, fall out of my hand. Clattering noisily, it falls to the desk, making a small mark at the paper. Grabbing my new bag that I purchased yesterday, I walk out of my bedroom, slamming the door behind me. I can hear it resonate loudly in this large house. It seems to ring almost eerily around.
I hurry down the stairs and walk to the dining room. I feel the urge to get out of here. Get out of this stiffing house. I've been asleep on the Earth for five hundred years and I suppose all of this new civilization is hitting me forcibly, like a slap in the face. I've been awake for not yet a whole day, but I've already started to feel claustrophobic.
In the dining room, Amanda appears to be in a heated discussion with Ember, Charlotte, and Aaron. Charlotte and Aaron are standing at one side of the table and Amanda on the other, her hands folded across her chest. Ember is standing in the middle, and there almost appears to be smoke coming off of her. They don't see me come in. I stand off to the side of the room, curious.
"She's our only chance!" Charlotte is yelling, her face turning pink with what appears to be rage. "Let them go find her! Let her go find her. We don't have a choice, Amanda!"
"Six girls before this next one have all found society," Amanda says lowly. "The next one will come. She must. You heard of Keela's pain yesterday. The girl's mark will burn. She will be burning up and writhing in pain if she does not fulfill her duty. The Sleeping Girl has a destiny! She physically cannot ignore it!"
I slink back into the shadowy hallway, suddenly aware of the topic of the conversation. Namely, me. They're talking about finding the next Girl. About me finding the next Girl. Or rather, Charlotte is talking about me finding the next Girl. Amanda is talking about me not finding the next Girl. I press against the wall, curious.
"Exactly," growls Aaron darkly. "Keela's pain. Keela has to find the Girl. Unless you want us all to die? There is a reason her mark is hurting, Amanda. She has a destiny. She is not done being the Girl until the next one goes to sleep."
"She could be anywhere!" screams Amanda, her calm apparently gone. "The world is one heck of a lot bigger than it was five hundred years ago. Or a thousand years ago. Or three thousand years ago when there was the first girl. We are just in one tiny town! In millions. Keela is the strongest amongst us and we cannot afford to lose her on some mission to find the Girl! Who should have been drawn!"
"Should have, but wasn't," snaps Charlotte. "It's our only hope. This 'tiny town' is all we have. Do you have any better ideas? Or are you deliberately trying to kill us all?"
"I assure you, I am not trying to get us killed," seethes Amanda. "I am leader of society for a reason. It's because I am strong and equipped to fight the dark. That is true, but more importantly, I care about society. And not just society, but protecting the world in general. What are you suggesting, Charlotte, when you say I want to murder us all?"
"Everybody, calm down!" screams Ember. She appears to be in such a state that there is now not just smoke, but also sparks flying off of her. "Charlotte and Aaron, Amanda is correct in saying that all the Girls Keela and before have been drawn. We do still have almost a week. And the world is huge. But Amanda, Charlotte and Aaron are right in saying that Keela can lead us to the Girl and we have to let her try."
"Whose side are you on anyways?" asks Aaron, sounding irked.
"Why do we have to have sides?" cries Ember. "The point of this all is not to divide society! The point is to get the next Girl! We can't do that if we're all fighting! We have to work together! That's why society formed three thousand years ago in the first place! To work together to defeat dark magic. We are going to tear ourselves apart if we keep fighting like this. We have to stop."
Charlotte sighs. She sags back against Aaron. "You're right of course, Ember. I'm really sorry for losing my temper, Amanda. But I stand firm in the belief that you cannot stifle Keela. You have to let her find the next Girl! I have faith that she will find her. And if you really care so much about society, you should have faith too. If you believe something can happen, you have a greater chance of it happening than if you don't."
Amanda glares at the other three of them, eyes slightly narrowed. Finally, she uncrosses her arms. "Alright. I'll contact the rest of society; our other divisions to see if they've heard anything new about the Girl. But Keela is five hundred and sixteen years old. We can't just set her loose. She doesn't know how the world works in this day and age. And I'd say there is a far greater chance that the Girl is not in this city, or even state. Maybe she isn't even in America! The world is huge, Charlotte."
"Maybe she is here," says Aaron. "Think about it. For the past few decades, this state, and particularly this city, have been quite a few vampires and dark fey. But in the past fifteen years alone, their number has more than doubled what it was even then. We've all agreed in that past that it's unreasonable. There's never been so many in such a confined space before. We kill far more than ever before, yet they still keep on coming. Why would they all be here? Maybe it has to do with the Girl."
"He's right," Ember remarks, sounding intrigued. "Why indeed would so many creatures come here if not for the Girl. And they're always fifteen to nineteen, so fifteen years would be just about right for when the Girls might have been born. We know that they attacked Keela when she was still a little girl, tried to kill her on more than one occasion before she slept. Why would they stop. Once Keela was asleep there was nothing they could do about her, but they could use the next Girl. And the next Girl doesn't have society to protect her."
Amanda nods thoughtfully. "I suppose so. But we still can't just let Keela out alone. And she still must be learning. It's the only way she'll survive in the world in this year. And, I think that knowing more might help her harness her magic. We are so much more advanced than we were when she grew up. Furthermore, there are many of us in society and just one next Sleeping Girl. We just may be able to find her without relying entirely on Keela."
That's it. I do not want to stay cooped up. I have to find the Girl. I'm the one with the mark, not them. I can't believe they're just out there calmly discussing what I'm going to do. I am going to be in charge of my life! It's my life! They cannot control me! My earlier frustration now completely turned to anger, I storm loudly into the room. They all turn to see me, looking startled.
"Have you been there for a while?" asks Amanda. "Were you listening to us?"
"I was there long enough to hear you tell everyone that I'm useless," I snap. "I'm five hundred sixteen years old, so I must not anything, right?" I glare at her. "Learning mathematics is completely and utterly pointless right now. I assure you, I will be able to fight dark creatures perfectly fine without knowing how to multiply numbers. We need to be focusing all of our efforts on finding the next Girl. We have less than a week before the leftover magic is gone."
Amanda rolls her eyes. "We know that, Keela. We're trying. What do you think we were just discussing?"
"You're wrong," I snap. "You are not going to find her without me; you will not find her on your own. I am the only one who is drawn to her, the only one who can find her. And I will not going to sit here idly while time is ticking away."
"You can't be looking for her twenty four-seven," says Ember. "You need to look for her, you're right, but we can look for her too. And you have to know more about what children learn these days before just going out. Go back to your studies, Keela. We can send an organized group out to look for the Girl later, and you can be in it, I'm sure."
With that statement, my patience snaps. "I am not a child!" I scream. "I was the Sleeping Girl! I ought to have a say in our society. You cannot tell me what to do!"
"Calm down Keela," says Charlotte. "We're all stressed out too. It's not just you. Why don't you take a break from your studies? Carmela's watching Ev over at my house, why don't you join her? Do you need directions? It's just in this neighborhood, and I'm sure you'll have a really fun afternoon if you do that. Just leave the planning to us."
"I don't 'join her' because I want to find the next Girl," I snap. "I was thisclose yesterday. And don't imagine for even one second that being the Girl is easy for me. Because I have news for you. It's. Not. And I was born for this. Raised for this! Groomed from birth for this! Denied even a proper childhood so I would be perfect at this. I know that tis even worse if one has no prior knowledge, like Tegan did. Or actually, like Tegan didn't. Everyone I knew is dead. Everything I know is gone. My family, my friends, the world I grew up in is never to be again. Ever."I glare fiercely at them, seething with rage.
Amanda sighs. "Look Keela, you're right, okay? But you understand that the world is different; we cannot simply let you go out. You wouldn't know what to do. You would be singled out immediately. You can't go out without someone with you. It's just for now, okay? Just calm down. It'll all be fine."
I'm angry. Oh, so angry. I do not want to be babysat. I am being guarded and watched, just like before, and I don't like it. Everyone is always protecting me. I don't have a life. With all this supervision and such, I'm just a puppet. Good for drawing out magic for five hundred years, but that's. It. And I refuse to be treated like this.
"Watch me," I snarl, whirling around. Firmly holding my bag, I storm out of the house, ignoring their shouts. The Sleeping Girl should not be restless like this. There should be another Girl that I must tell what to expect. I should be running free, using my especially strong magic to fight off darkness. I should not be stuck in a stuffy room looking at black marks on paper. How dare they treat me so!
"Keela!" I hear Amanda's irritated shout. "Get back here right now!"
Slamming the door behind me as I exit the house, I pointedly don't look back. Getting out into the fresh air cools my head. Long time as it has seemed, one week is not yet up. I still have an especially strong connection with nature, with the natural magic of the world. I suppose I should not have stormed off like that, but this is making me crazy. They are making me crazy.
I wish I had been born a normal girl. Not marked. Not the Sleeping Girl. Not magical. Maybe not even a girl in society. Just a peasant girl growing up in the fifteen hundreds. Wearing light cotton dresses and tending a farmhouse, raising children and doing needlework. That's what my life would have been like had I not been born who I am. I never would have had to deal with, with, this.
Suddenly I feel like I can't stay here right now for a second longer. I'm outside, but I am still being stifled. I begin to run. To run, run, run. I'm not sure what I'm running from. Maybe Amanda's house. Maybe my worries. Maybe society. Maybe just my life. I know I can't outrun my fate, but for the time being it cools my head.
Amanda's house is in a nice community. The streets are lined with houses on both sides. At first it seemed fun to have so many neighbors so close by, a concept I'd never known before. Now though, it's simply irritating, not being able to just leave. I have to pass house after house after house; I cannot escape.
I can feel the wind rushing past my face as I run. My new skirt fans around my thighs, my long silvery blonde tresses blow out behind me. I inhale the crisp air and smile. This is what I like to do. To just run, let everything off my shoulders.
Once I'm far enough away, I slow to a walk. I realize that I don't know the way back, but that is not really a concern right now. At the moment, I just want to distance myself from society. Although I have only been here for one day, I already feel stifled.
After a brief while, I realize that I've left Amanda's neighborhood. Looking around, I see that I am in the woods that I woke up in. Although I have only been awake for one day, I feel like I know these woods like the back of my hand. Better than the back of my hand. Better than I know myself, maybe even. I can feel the magic pulsing through the woods, through me. Right now, it is me.
Suddenly, the pain from yesterday returns, stronger even that it was before.I stare down at my midriff. I pull up the corner of my shirt. Sure enough, the flower is glowing and twining around the way it was doing yesterday. I'm close. I have to be close. The world may be big, but the Girl is here. She has to be.
Yet the woods appear deserted. I can see on one besides me here. Shrugging my shoulders, I slowly start to walk around until the lessening of pain alerts me that I am going in the right direction. On impulse, I decide to close my eyes. It feels nice. I can almost ignore the pain. It's a good pain. A pain that lets me know that for once, I'm doing something right.
After walking for a little bit, the burn suddenly stops. Gone. Disappeared. I open my eyes. I'm standing a few feet to the left of a young girl, perhaps Ev's age. I'm confused.
She cannot be the next Girl. Like Ember said, the youngest Girl ever was fifteen and the eldest was nineteen. This cannot be the correct girl. The Sleeping Girl. Yet somehow, the pain has resided. If it was not leading me to the next Girl, what could it have been leading me to?
And then suddenly she turns and I catch her aura. Five hundred years ago Tegan told me that after my slumber, I'd be able to read auras of particularly magical or important figures. Almost no one can do that. Only powerful sorcerers and witches and the likes of them. And the awakened Sleeping Girl.
Auras tell what the person (or as often it is, not a person) is, and the intent of their heart. It links people to others, such as family or close friends. It gives off feelings or moods. Reading this girl's aura, I suddenly know three very important things. That change everything.
One: my mark is not going to just lead me to the next Girl. It won't be quite so simple. I wish it was, but tis apparently not the way of things. I know the Girl is in the world, but if it was just that easy, she would be with us, with society already. No, my mark shall give me clues. I must find the next Girl on my own.
Two: this girl is not human, and she is not with society. Suddenly, I am certain that she is a vampire. And a dangerous one, too. Or if she isn't, someone she knows is.
And three: in some way or another, this child vampire has something to do with the absence of the next Sleeping Girl.