I slept soundly, imagining the ambiance of a coffin. The first time, I felt a soft wave of heat on my wrist. The second time, I felt it crossing my cheek with a sharper burning. Although the third time, when it came back into my wrist, it burned me as if my hand was shackled with fire.
I got up quickly with my fangs out and my eyes red and flew at high speed directly under the cold water jet, which was pouring from the sink. I slammed the door in anger right in front of James, who was standing upright on the other side.
“I’m so sorry!” I heard him apologizing. “At least you’re woken up now! You’ve been sleeping for 5 hours!” You’re a pain in the ass when it comes to waking up!”
I laughed offended. I looked at my wrist which was tingling and throbbing. I sat on the tub and waited for it to heal itself. Then, I got out of the bathroom and saw Adam sitting on the bed, with his hands twined, perking up his look to me. I was waiting for him say something like “good morning, sunshine”. Just like back then when we met, when he greeted me in the morning while I was sleeping in his bed, at his hideout. Instead, he just stood up, looking into the floor, hiding behind James.
I put my hands in my pockets, avoiding looking at him.
“I think we should leave this place. It may be unexpected, but we’ve had enough time to rest.”
Adam laughed and I frowned at him.
“It’s a joke. We won’t make it out alive, the three of us.”
“Who said there’s going to be only three of us?”
“You want Patrick to come along?” James asked shocked.
“Patrick it’s who I am running away from. I’m sure Anna and Carmen are going to help us.”
“Whoa!” Adam interrupted me with a hand gesture. “Anna is not ready. You know she’s also a beginner. She needs peaceful environment to evolve. She doesn’t even know how to discover herself, she lets others do it for her.”
“I can handle it.”
We all heard the knob creaking. Anna entered the room and closed the door without even touching it. I felt like bowing in front of her, because in comparison to us, she was much more mature and rational, although she was the youngest. She appeared to look at us, when in fact she saw into our souls, in order to feel the tension inside us. Because James and especially I were vampires, and our feelings were non-existent most of the time, she had a hard time reading us. Adam, on the other hand, he was an opened book. When Anna finished examining Adam, both of them smiled nervously and started blushing.
Anna was a fragile, fiery haired girl with pretty, serene blue eyes and an angelic way of being; probably, because she was in fact, an angel. Angels were far supernaturally superior to most of other creatures. They owned lots of supernatural powers and they were incredibly hard to kill. Although they were having a really hard time finding themselves and becoming invincible. It could have taken decades for them to finally become a complete angel.
“Hey, Anna.” I greeted.
“I think Carmen is going to support your decision, Andi.” She said, still flushing red.
“I wasn’t brave at all to ask her before, but if she knows something about this place that might prove we are in danger, will she tell us?”
“This place becomes simply dangerous once you settle in, because they won’t let you leave. They’ll tease you and promise you that they will consider your choice, but when it comes to facing their answer, it will always be a no. If you try opposing, they’ll just eliminate you.” Anna said quizzically.
I thought about Carmen and how she just made a life here; she wouldn’t have been tempted to run away and risk her life.
“Is there somebody else here that’s working together with Patrick?” Adam interrupted my thoughts.
“No, not that I know.” Anna answered quietly. “I know Patrick owns the school and everything in it, but I personally believe that he does have people here that work for him. I mean, it would be pretty hard to keep everything supervised all by yourself.”
“For how long have you been living here, Anna?” I asked concerned.
“Too long; for as long as I can remember. I shouldn’t be tired of this, I have everything that I want, is just that I feel trapped and unsafe. Besides, my evolution is way slower than it should be. I can’t exploit myself if everything I do is so predictable.”
I folded my arms and dived back into my thoughts. I peeked at the others to see all of them waiting for me to say something. I sighed loudly and rubbed my palms on my jeans.
“We’re leaving tonight, but we have to convince Carmen to come with us.”
“I can do that.”
James flew quickly beside me, took my hand in his and whispered.
“What if she doesn’t accept and she divulges our plan?”
Anna laughed shyly and looked proudly at James.
“I can help with that as well. I can manipulate her memory or just sedate her and tell her it was all a dream.”
“Thank you, Anna. It’s a heavy load that you took off my shoulders.”
James and Adam let us know that they were going to pack up everything, then, they left the room.
Anna pulled my sleeve and sat me down on the bed.
“ I should be thanking you. I have been waiting for somebody like you, Andrea, to get me out of this place. I know there’s a lot that both of us don’t know about each other, but I promise you that you can count on me.”
I liked Anna, but every time I was with her I felt I should’ve been on guard. She was, indeed new to this, but she was stronger than me and I was the one who should’ve felt used. My father’s words just kept replaying in my head: Trust needs to be earned.
Despite everything, I ogled at her and gave her a friendly hug as a token of gratitude. She got up, arranging her white dress and before she closed the door, I heard her saying.
“Congratulations on your new power! Can’t wait to test the peak of it.”
It was not going to be that soon. I didn’t pay attention to her. I started pacing around the room and get the stuff that I needed on road. It was already a habit that my luggage was never unpacked. I knew how I had to leave again, how I couldn’t stay in one place for too long. I was, in fact, still free because I’d never really gotten to settle in properly; I’ve never even said that I wished to. I could had just left like I’ve never even been in that place.
We let the rest of the day pass ordinarily and at night fall, we all met at Adam’s cabin which was the closest to the main gate. Anna hadn’t arrived.
“She’ll be here, I know she will.” Adam cheered.
“If she’s not coming, we should…”
The door squeaked and opened slowly. We were always ready for when being caught so James and I shifted and Adam took his Taser out.
“Sorry I’m late.” We heard a shrill-tongued voice and a dragged bag. “Thanks for not leaving without me.”
I stretched my head to see Carmen, but there was nobody standing behind Anna.
“I reckon she didn’t agree.” James remarked disappointed.
“She is waiting for us at the gate. She said that we should give her 10 minutes more. What time is it, anyway?”
“A little past midnight.”
“What’s in your bag?” Adam asked.
“Oh, these are Carmen’s weapons. She thought they could be useful at some point.”
“Let me…”
Adam stepped towards the bag to grab it and when he touched Anna’s hand, she thrilled and pulled it back, still blushing. I couldn’t help feeling kind of betrayed. I looked at James who was smirking meaningfully back at me and I frowned, clearing my throat loudly.
“Did Carmen say what she’s doing?”
“No, just that we should wait for her.”
“I’m going out to check on her.” James offered.
“Thank you.” I smiled.
I opened the window for James and handed him a gun.
“What is this for?” he asked putting on his leather jacket.
“Defence, what else for?”
“Baby, I am a fire gun myself.” He grinned, before pulling my hair to kiss me eagerly and jumping out the window.
I looked down, waved him and watched him flying away like a shadow.
We’ve waited for about 5 minutes when I heard voices talking outside. I bent over the edge to see Carmen and James excitedly calling for us to come down.
I fast threw the bags out, helped Anna get down, leaving me and Adam alone to close the doors and make sure nobody heard us.
“I hope you’re still considering what I said because I surely do.”
I rolled my eyes in anger and refrained to yell at him.
“Just close the door and jump already.”
He grabbed my hand and put his leg over the edge, sustaining his weight on my arms and right before letting him down I whispered him.
“Anna likes you the way you are, all the same.”
He fell on the ground and looked inquiring at me, brushing off the dust on his clothes. I stepped back, away from the window, sighing and swearing. I turned off the light, put on my jacket and looked back at the room one more time. When I was just about to jump out, I heard steps approaching and watched the door opening.
I saw Noam. He was looking surprised at me, with some big, yellow eyes glowing in the dark, ready to attack me.
“Andi, come down!” I heard James calling.
Noam stepped back, not saying a word but bowing his head and closing his eyes. I closed my opened mouth and mustered a thankful smile right before jumping on the ground, still looking up.
We took no more time. Carmen told us to stay quiet and guided us to the main gate, where we saw the guardians staring intensely at us but not saying a word either.
Once we were out, we all started running, until, assuring that we were far enough from the school. We stayed close to each other, into a small crowd, with Carmen in front of us, James and Adam behind her and Anna in front of me. I looked at my phone which was out of service, looked at the time and put it back in my pocket. I passed by Anna, patting her on the back, reached and entwined my hand with James’, pushing him further forward so I could turn around to face Adam and confront him.
“You forgot to close the door.”
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