THE NEXT MORNING, Sophie decided to put her escape plan into action. It wasn't a very elaborate plan. Her goal was just to pretend to be sick and miss breakfast. There was always a break period was scheduled between breakfast and the next challenge. And she wanted to use that time to make a run for it.
When she opened her eyes, it was still dark in the room. Margret's soft snores still echoed within the enclosed space. Her plan couldn't move forward unless Margret left the bedroom. Sophie sighed and turned over on her bed. She pulled her blankets around her head, and focused on wrapping herself within them like a burrito while she waited.
It didn't take long for Margret to wake up. Sophie curled into a tight ball on her side when she heard the other bed start to creak. Margret threw her covers away from her, ignoring them as they slumped nosily to the ground. Sophie heard her yawn. Then the sound of feet slapping against the bounced against the walls.
Margret crossed the room and disappeared into her bathroom. When she emerged again, Sophie focused on looking as pale and sickly as possible. Beads of sweat had already started to form across her forehead, all thanks to the heat trapped within her blanket-burrito.
"You look even uglier than usual," Margret remarked. She stopped in front of Sophie's bed, her arms crossed over her chest. Her gaze narrowed.
Sophie cracked an eye open to stare at her. Then she let out a throaty cough.
Margret's nose wrinkled with disgust. She turned away from the bed and stalked back toward her own, yanking the covers up toward the pillow. "Don't touch anything that's mine," she snapped as she started toward the door. "I don't want to catch your disgusting diseases."
Sophie groaned and closed her eyes again, burrowing deeper into her mound of blankets.
The door slammed shut with a muted thud.
She wrestled out of her sheets and bolted from the bed. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with a towel. Then she quickly brushed her teeth and changed into a cleaner outfit. Then she found some fruit in the fridge and devoured it to quiet her rowdy stomach.
As she chewed, she grabbed her bag and stuffed her clothes and toiletries inside it. Her mind raced with a million thoughts per second. She needed to make sure that she had everything important to her. A small part of her internally cried at the idea of leaving behind her notebooks and new laptop. But she couldn't afford to search the rest of the castle for her old dorm.
She zipped the bag shut and threw it over her shoulder.
The hallway was clear when she poked her head out. She gently closed it behind her and started down the hall, her pace fast. Her shoes tapped quickly against the stone ground as she walked.
It was when she got several corridors and strange twists into her escape, that Sophie realized she had made a horrible mistake. Not only did she have a horrid sense of direction, but she didn't know the castle layout at all.
~
Several hours passed and, suddenly, Sophie realized she was hungry. "It must be almost dinner time," she muttered to herself. She stopped, leaned against the wall, and tried not to bang her head against it.
"I am so stupid!" she groaned. Her hand lifted to her forehead. She squeezed her eyes shut. She tried to remember the way that Aubrey had taken earlier, when she brought Sophie to the new dorm.
A snap sounded, as pressure splintered a discarded twig into pieces.
Sophie's head shot upward. She looked around, her eyes narrowed. While the hallway wasn't completely dark, shadows still lurked around its edges. "Hello?" she called quietly.
She hoped that it was just Eli, who just had ventured out to find her again. Or maybe Mr. Wolfe. The latter also had a knack for finding her in tight situations.
Movement caught her attention, and her eyes immediately located the source. A wispy silhouette danced across the corridor's edges, toward her. Her gaze followed the movement and then she watched as a large man stepped into the light.
It was most definitely not Eli.
Or Mr. Wolfe.
Her heart pounded inside her chest. Alarms blared in the back of her mind, screaming for her to run, and Sophie did her best to ignore them. She flattened her back against the wall behind her and stared at the stranger intently. Her lips twisted with a frown.
The man was tall and bulky; he reminded her of a body-builder. Patches of coarse dark hair covered the visible skin of his arms. A blood-red bandanna covered his head. His thick muscles roiled beneath his skin with each movement. He wore a tattered, blood smeared tank-top and baggy jeans. His eyes were clear, a scary not-quite-white kind of clear. And they seemed to be focused on her face.
"Who are you?" Sophie demanded. She dropped her bag to the ground beside her feet. Those alarms inside her head told her that this man would not let her leave without a fight.
The man stopped. His hands clenched into tight fists at his sides. That made the muscles in his arms flex beneath his tanned skin. She watched him, cautious. He stared at her with his pupils narrowed.
"I can't tell what you are," he growled. His voice was low and deep; he sounded more animal than human.
She gulped. "What does that mean?"
He inhaled, and then his expression twisted, as if he'd eaten something sour. "Vampire. I smell a vampire. But I also smell a human too." His nostrils flared. His lips curled back over his teeth to reveal sharp, pointed canines. "You just happen to be both, little vampire."
Sophie pressed her lips together. Instinct kicked in; the alarms had finally died out, and fear pumped through her veins. She started to edge backward along the wall.
Then he growled at her and crouched. His hands flexed; his nails grew into razor sharp claws.
"What the hell are you?" she whispered in horror.
He tilted his head to the side, and his lips twisted with a grin."Poor little vampire, don't you know?" he cooed. It chilled her to the core. His eyes flashed with hatred. "I'm a vampire hunter."
SPOILER ALERT:
I don't usually try to spoil my own book. But in the four years that this has been posted, I've learned that I need to make this fairly clear. A beloved character will die soon (and, warning, my death scenes tend to be a bit gruesome). But remember...
death is only the beginning.