It was lashing rain and the sky was a dark shade of grey.
Jamie stood outside the school building, the rain wetting his hair and dripping into his eyes, making them blur as he stared at the doors, too scared to go inside in case Sam had told people his secret. As he thought back to yesterday, again he wondered how she knew. Am I really that obvious?
The school bell rang, indicating the end of whatever class had been in session. Students from the outside buildings ran towards the main one, holding either umbrellas or coats above their heads. Jamie stepped aside to let them pass.
Sam was with the crowd.
She scrutinised Jamie passively as she walked through the doors. He held her gaze as she watched over her shoulder, and followed her into the building. Once inside she looked away and continued through the halls.
She knew he was following.
She didn't care.
Jamie walked through the halls with a crowd of students. A red-haired girl bumped into him, her books fell to the floor.
"Sorry," she mumbled, as she went to pick them up. Jamie bent down and helped her.
"It's okay," he said reassuringly as he stacked the books into a small pile and handed them to her.
She looked at him curiously. "Are you new?"
Jamie thought for a moment. "Sort of," he said and relaxed a little. This girl didn't know him at all. In fact, as he looked around he noticed that not only was there not a single person who looked at him as if they knew him, but none of them were looking at him at all.
Which they surely would be doing if Sam had told everyone about him.
The girl stood, as did Jamie. She smiled at him. "I'm Madison," she said, clutching her books to her chest with one arm as she extended the other.
Jamie took her hand and shook it momentarily. "Jamie," he replied.
"Is it your lunch period now?" she asked. "Because it's mine, so I'm going to the cafeteria if you need to get there."
"I'm actually just waiting to talk to someone," he said. "Thanks anyway."
"Oh." She looked disappointed. "Is it the principal? Because she usually doesn't see people during lunch."
"No, actually, it's a girl." Jamie assessed Madison, allowing his psychic senses to seep into her mind, not to read her thoughts exactly, but to get a grasp on what type of personality she had. He smiled to himself when he found confirmation of what he'd been thinking. "You seem like the sort of person who knows everything about everyone," he stated.
She smiled proudly, taking his observation as a compliment. "If you're looking for gossip, you came to the right girl."
"Her name is Samantha Jacobs," he said. Jamie saw a look of recognition sweep across Madison's face. "What's her deal?"
Madison smiled. "That's a story that could take a while." She directed him down the hall. "Walk with me." Madison started walking towards the lockers. Jamie moved alongside her. She stopped at one of the lockers, opened it, put her damp books inside, then closed it and started walking again.
"She moved here when she was thirteen," Madison began, linking her arm through Jamie's. "She didn't start in school until she was fourteen, though. She was homeschooled until then, so she didn't really have any people skills, I guess. She and her brother moved in with their grandparents after their parents were murdered."
"Murdered?"
Madison nodded. Then paused for a moment as if to think. "I suppose it was twice as bad for Sam, because her birth parents were murdered when she was a baby, then her adoptive parents were murdered when she was thirteen."
"Damn," Jamie mumbled to himself. "No wonder she seems so closed off."
Madison nodded. "She wasn't always like that," she said. "She was fine until her grandmother was killed. A week after that happened, she came into school, broke up with her boyfriend, told all of her friends, me included, that she never wanted to see them again. She just stopped talking to everyone. I mean, not like, totally stopped talking. Like, she'll talk to you for a few minutes about whatever it is you want to say to her. And after that she'll just walk away. She never hangs out with anyone."
Jamie sighed. He couldn't imagine what Sam's life must be like, to lose that many people in such a short amount of time . . . it was tragic.
"Things got worse three years ago," Madison continued. "When her brother left for the army, then a year after that her grandfather died." They walked through the cafeteria doors. "You wanna sit with me and my friends?" Madison asked, and pointed to a crowded table which Scott was sitting at. Jamie remembered how he'd behaved yesterday at the mention of Sam's name. Her ex perhaps?
Jamie tilted his head, turning his attention to the other side of the cafeteria where he could see Sam sitting by herself, eating lunch and doing homework.
"No," he replied. "But thank you for the offer, and for the information."
Madison smiled. "Remember who to call when you need dirt on your neighbours."
Jamie smiled as Madison walked away, before he began making his way towards Sam.
Feeling slightly morose now that he knew her story.
Losing people was something he could relate to, they were feelings he could share. Not that they were good feelings to have.
A long, long time ago Jamie had lost his brother. No one ever found out what happened to him. He was just gone one day, vanished into thin air. Then a couple of years later both of his parents were killed. When Jamie had been Turned he had to leave behind everything that was familiar to him. Which wasn't an easy thing to do, but he'd had a lot longer to adjust to his situation than Sam had to hers.
And then there was Bethany, who had been taken from him.
He knew what it felt like to be alone.
Not to have a single person left in the world.
Jamie sat down on a seat across the table from her. Sam looked at him and sighed. "What do you want now?"
"We need to talk," Jamie stated.
Sam chewed her lower lip as she stared at the notebook in front of her. Almost as if she was thinking about speaking to him. She closed her eyes for a moment. "No, we don't." She stood and gathered her things.
"You can't run from me Sam," Jamie said.
"I'm not running," she stated. "I'm calmly collecting my things so I can casually walk away."
Jamie reached into his pocket and took her necklace out. He held it up for her to see, holding it by the chain, the gem swinging back and forth. Sam looked at it for a moment, then she reached out to snatch it from his hand, but Jamie moved it out of her reach. "If you want it back you have to talk to me."
Sam glared at him. "Give it back right now, or I'll scream Vampire as loud as I can. I swear to the Gods, I will out you right here." She threatened him despite the fact that she kept her voice low and was looking around as if to make sure that no one was listening. It gave Jamie the impression that 'outing' him was something that she didn't want or plan to do.
Jamie put the necklace back into his pocket and stood. He blanketed every mind in the cafeteria with his Powers, influencing them to forget that he or Sam were ever there. Then he persuaded them not to see what happened next.
Jamie moved across the table, using his heightened speed to his advantage he seized Sam around the waist, slung her over his shoulder, and grabbed her bag before running out of the school with her struggling to get free.
They were through the woods and inside his house in less than two minutes.
He slammed the door behind him and set Sam down on her feet, dropping her bag by the door.
She shoved him away from her, then took a step back and looked around. "Where am I?" she asked, striking him on his left side with her hand. "Where did you take me?"
"My house," Jamie replied simply, keeping his back pressed against the door so she couldn't leave.
Sam tried to push past him but he kept himself planted firmly in front of the door, not allowing himself to be swayed. She wasn't leaving until he got the answers that he wanted.
"Move!" she demanded.
"Not until you talk to me," Jamie said, staying calm.
"Fine," Sam exasperated. "What do you want to talk about?"
"How did you know?"
"Know what?" she asked. Giving him a look of pure innocence, one which she had shown him more than once during their last few encounters. It made him wonder how long she had been playing him for.
"How did you know that I'm not human?"
She laughed humourlessly. "You're stupider than you look if you haven't figured out the answer to that one by now," she snapped. "The answer is simple. Three guesses."
Jamie took a step towards her. "I'm not playing games Sam. Now tell me, how did you know that I'm not human?"
"Easy!" she yelled. "Because I'm not human either!"
Jamie took a step back in shock. He could feel his eyes grow wide. Even after all he had witnessed, and after everything that Claudio had said, hearing Sam say it out loud shocked him. "What?"
She wiped stray strands of blonde hair away from her eyes. "I'm not human," she repeated quieter and calmer than she had the first time, fidgeting nervously with her hands as she spoke, almost as though speaking those words aloud made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
"But you're not . . . I mean, are you . . . " Jamie took a breath. "Vampire?"
Sam laughed a little and shook her head. "No."
"Then what?" Jamie demanded. "What are you?"
Sam looked away. She sighed, then shrugged. "I don't know."
She's lying.
"How could you not be human, and not know what you are?" he asked rhetorically. "You're lying, now tell me how you really knew."
"I just did!" she yelled. "I knew you were a Vampire the first time we spoke. I could see it in your soul."
She's crazy. Jamie gave her a look that reflected his thoughts. "I don't believe you," he said.
"Fine," Sam snarled. "You believe whatever the fuck you want to believe. I don't care. Just give me back my amulet."
"Not until you answer me!" he replied, speaking to her in the same manner and volume she had used when she spoke to him.
Her mouth formed a tight line, the corners of her lips twitching in anger as her expression filled with fury.
"Give me back my amulet," she repeated through gritted teeth. Jamie's mouth opened, as he attempted to say no, but the word stuck in his throat as he saw what appeared to be fire . . .
A ball of purple fire, which had begun to form in the palm of Sam's hand.
"Now!" she screamed as she released the fire-ball.
Jamie flinched instinctively, his arms coming up to shield his face from the impending impact. Only realising once he heard the smashing of wood that she had aimed it at the bookshelf, destroying it and all of its contents, rather than throwing it in his direction and causing what could have been potentially fatal injuries.
When he turned his head away from the wall where the paint was now scorched and looked in Sam's direction, he could see her fingers twitching as if preparing for another fiery release. He got the feeling that if he didn't give her what she wanted, he would end up like the bookshelf and be in pieces all over the floor.
But no matter how his brain attempted to coax him into movement, he couldn't bring himself to reach into his pocket to pull out the necklace. His body frozen by the overwhelming shock of what he'd just seen. "You're really not human," he whispered. Sam shook her head in reply. "What are you?" Jamie asked in astonishment.
Sam sighed. "I already told you. I don't know."
"But how can-"
"Because!" she yelled, she took a breath to calm herself before she continued to speak. "I'm not a Vampire, I'm not a Ghost, I'm not a Lycanthrope, I'm not a Witch, I'm not a Demon, I'm not a Faerie . . . I wasn't human and Turned into something else. I was just born with all of this Power, and . . . " She closed her eyes and put her hand to her head as if talking about this was giving her a headache. "I just don't know. I don't know where I came from. I don't know who I am. So how could I possibly know what I am?"
"Sam, I'm-"
"Save the sympathy," she said and held out her hand. "I don't want it. Just give me back my amulet."
Jamie reached into his pocket and took the necklace out. He held it out to Sam, she took it from him and put it around her neck. The clear crystal stone turned purple at the touch of her skin. Jamie watched at it curiously. "How does it do that?" he asked.
Sam looked down at the stone. "Magic," she mumbled.
"Magic?" Jamie asked. "Like . . . real Magic?"
"Yeah." Sam waved her hand in the direction of the wall where the bookshelf had been. The pieces of wood and paper that were strewn around the floor picked themselves up and reassembled into a bookshelf and the books that had been inhabiting it.
Jamie leaned his back against the door for support. How can this possibly be real? He was feeling conflicted, his emotions a mix of a child who was filled with excitement at the prospect of Magic, and an adult who was filled with an immense fear of the unknown. Magic is real.
Jamie looked at Sam's expression. She didn't look happy, or excited. She just looked sad. Jamie stood up straight and walked over to her. "What's wrong?" he asked.
Sam looked at him with cheerless eyes. "You should have stayed away from me," she said.
At those words Jamie got the same nauseating feeling he'd gotten when Claudio told him it would be best for him to stay away from Sam. In the back of his head he knew he should listen. But in his heart and soul he felt like he couldn't.
"Why?" Jamie asked.
She closed her eyes and turned her head away. "Because now you're going to die."
Jamie looked at her, his eyes widened as a thought struck him. Is that why she stays away from people? Because she thinks that if she doesn't they'll die. Jamie smiled and put a hand on her face. "I'm fine," he said reassuringly. "I won't die."
Sam placed her hand on his and moved it away from her. "You will," she muttered. "I know for a fact that you will. It's just a matter of how. And wh-"
The rest of Sam's sentence was cut off by the sound of the window next to Jamie smashing. Before he could turn around to see what had happened an arrow pierced through his chest, paralysing him instantly. His body fell to the floor with a hard thud. His eyes started to blur.
Sam was kneeling beside him, shaking him, telling him to stay awake.
But he couldn't stay awake for her.
Her voice was drifting further and further away.
Until he couldn't hear her at all.
And then Jamie lost his hold on reality and everything went dark.