Two updates in one day! I AM ON FIRE! The book is almost done still a few more chapters to go; start mentally preparing yourself now for the dramatic conclusion!
Picture: A boy and a girl in close proximity
Song: Problem by Max Shneider
Chapter 12 - Confusing moments
Night Walker Code 009- Day Walkers are not our friends, nor our enemies.
Hayden
Next week was Halloween. Not only could she not leave the school grounds to celebrate, she could barely leave her room! Ever since Head Master Isaac announced two weeks ago to the entire student body about Maria, Tanner and her “conditions”, students have been lining up outside her room so she could read their souls. At first she didn’t mind, but now? She started charging twenty dollars per reading, hoping that it would reduce the number of vampires, sadly it didn’t; it just gave her extra money to put in her pockets. Tanner had apologized at least ten times since the students started asking for the readings. He’d been incredibly nice to her since their talk in the staircase two weeks ago, she knew that telling Tanner about her drinking the Half-Breed blood wasn’t the best idea, but it had felt good to get the weight off of her shoulders.
“Hay” Aria said to her. “C’mon we’re going to be late.” Hayden grabbed her stuff and headed out the door with her twin.
......
The bell rang for fourth period and Hayden followed the wave of students out of the classroom. When she turned the corner to go to her locker, she ran right into Tanner Preston, because she was just that lucky. At the sight of him; she got that annoying butterfly feeling in her stomach that she hated so much.
“Hi.” He said to her with a dashing smile.
“Oh, hey.” Hayden responded taking a step back.
“Hi, Tanner!” Aria spat out breathlessly.
For a moment, Hayden had forgotten that her twin was walking with her. “Oh, hi hum…” Tanner responded trying to remember her sister’s name.
“Aria” Her twin responded grinning like an idiot. “My name’s Aria, remember?”
“Right” Tanner replied. “I knew it sounded like some sort of disease.”
Aria’s mouth dropped, and Hayden burst out laughing but quickly stopped when she realised how impolite it was. Her twin glanced at Hayden before dramatically stomping off.
“I was looking for you Brooks.” Tanner said bringing Hayden’s attention back to him.
“What for Preston?” She asked the Day Walker.
He shrugged before answering. “I wanted to know if you were going to the Halloween party.” Oh yeah, Hayden suddenly remembered. Head Mistress Olympia had announced about a week ago about a big party in the cafeteria happening Halloween night, costumes were sadly obligated.
“Asking me to the dance Preston? Kind of cliché, don’t you think?”
“Nah, I’m taking my sister. I just don’t plan on staying with her all night.” He gave her a flirtatious smile, which she’d been getting a lot these past two weeks. “Are you going?” He then asked her again.
“I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it up until now.” Hayden responded. “I’ll give you an answer in afterschool.”
“Yeah, sure take your time.” He said walking pass her. “Later, Brooks.”
For the past two week, Mrs. Hail made Maria, Tanner, Chayton, Evander, her and sometimes even Aria meet with her every Wednesday after school, so they could “explore” their abilities. The teacher explained that when a Walker gets an ability, their twin is most likely to get one soon, so Aria was expecting hers at any moment now; sadly, no one could really predict when.
Sitting in History; her last class of the day, Hayden let her thoughts drift to the Halloween when she was five, the night that she still had nightmares about.
She had wanted to go out trick or treating, but he parents hadn’t let her. She had argued that it was night time and that she was allowed going out, but they didn’t want to change their minds, so she had locked herself up in her room. Hayden had been a very tough kid; well she had been more of a brat than anything else, so her father had said—and still did. At that age she kept asking herself all sorts of different questions, the ones a five year old Night Walker shouldn’t ask. Why was her skin so pale? Why was she always hungry even after she ate? Why wasn’t she allowed to go outside when it was day time? Why was she so different? At the time, she and Aria weren’t close at all—well they were even less close than they were today. Her twin had preferred to play Barbie with their cousins instead of playing outside with her. Hayden had been alone most of her childhood until she met her circle.
That night, Hayden had snuck out of the house with a pillow case to collect candy. She had walked a long time before spotting a house where kids were climbing up the steps. Hayden had hurried to join them, and then got her fair share of treats. She had done a lot of houses that evening. The Humanas had assumed that she was disguised has a vampire, because of her dark clothing, pale skin, black hair and fangs. When Night Walkers were younger, they weren’t able to retract their fangs, unlike Day Walkers.
Eventually, Hayden’s bag had gotten heavy and she had decided to go back home. She had been walking along the streets too lost in her five year old thoughts to notice the car pulling up beside her. In a moment, a man had grabbed her and shoved her in the back seat of his car and drove away in the opposite direction. At first Hayden hadn’t fully understood what was going on, she hadn’t screamed because the stranger said that if she yelled or talked he would kill her. The man had driven a long time before finally stopping in an empty parking lot. He had gone in the back seat with her and had stared at her for a long time.
“You’re a very pretty little girl, you know that?” He had said to her as he caressed her cheek.
When his hand had come close to her mouth she’d bitten it so he would back off, her fangs made it too easy. That was when the smell hit her. She had never yet smelled blood before; Walkers usually despised blood up until the age of twelve. But the smell, it was so sweet. Before she even knew what she was doing, Hayden had leaped on the man and dug her fangs in his neck. She had been five years old when she’d first started drinking blood.
....
Because it was Wednesday, after class Hayden of course had been forced to tell Mrs. Hail about her first feedings because it was somehow linked with their abilities. Apparently the teacher had never heard anything like her story. “What was it like after you first victim?” Mrs. Hail wanted to know.
“My parents got mad at me.” Hayden lied. When she had gotten home that night, her dad had given her a serious beating. “They only gave me one bag of blood every week. They told me if I ever killed anyone again before I was old enough they would kick me out of the house.”
“Assholes” Evander muttered. He was sitting in a far corner at the end of the classroom; keeping his fair distance from everyone. He was in a bad mood today for some reason; no one bothered to ask him why.
“Wow” Maria said, she was sitting beside Tanner. “Our parents don’t see that bad compared to yours. I mean sure our mom’s a bitch and our dad’s a—”
“Maria.” Mrs. Hail interrupted. “Watch your language and speak nicely of the woman that gave birth to you.”
“Evander doesn’t need to watch his language.” Tanner pointed out defending his sister.
“Damn right I don’t!” Evander proudly spoke obviously enjoying the sudden change in conversation.
“Evander” Chayton whined. “Do you really have to—?”
“Alright” Mrs. Hail shouted stopping all conversation. The teacher took a deep breath before continuing. “Chayton, did your Walker development go smoothly?”
“Evander and I started our feedings normally; a blood bag everyday when we turned twelve.” Chayton responded.
“Damn right.” Evander muttered.
“Evander” Chayton whined. “Do you really have to—?”
“Alright” Mrs. Hail shouted stopping all conversation. The teacher took a deep breath before continuing. “Chayton, did your Walker development go smoothly?”
“Evander and I started our feedings normally; a blood bag everyday when we turned twelve.” Chayton responded.
“Damn right.” Evander muttered.
Hayden smiled, Evander and his bold choices of words. “What about you guys?” Hayden asked the Prestons. “How did you start feeding?”
Neither Tanner nor Maria said anything. Tanner was suddenly captivated by the ceiling and Maria was looking down at the floor. “Well?” Mrs. Hail questioned. “Spit it out children!”
Tanner sighed loudly. “We we’re about eleven.” He said. “Our parents were out as usual, so Maria and I were home alone. We we’re watching TV, when we heard someone knocking on the door.”
“It was some hiker that got attacked by a bear” Maria continued. “He wanted to come inside so he could call an ambulance or something and—”
“…He was bleeding.” Tanner proceeded. “His entire stomach was opened... it was really disgusting. But the sad part is, if we would have called an ambulance like he had asked the guy might’ve lived.”
“…He was bleeding.” Tanner proceeded. “His entire stomach was opened... it was really disgusting. But the sad part is, if we would have called an ambulance like he had asked the guy might’ve lived.”
“We got so focused on the blood.” Maria explained. “We’d been asking our parents for a while to try it but they wouldn’t let us.”
“There he was, right in front of us, bleeding.” Tanner finished. “We knew even back then that it was against the Codes, but we couldn’t help ourselves. We drank every single drop of blood he had and we realised too late that we’d killed him.” Day Walkers weren’t allowed to drink directly from Humana vain; the Preston’s had broken their specie’s law.
“When our parents came home we were looking for blood bags.” Maria added. “It’s weird but it was like once we tasted blood we needed more. Drinking that Mortalis dry hadn’t been enough.”
“We started feeding regularly after that, but the amount of blood we drink still feels like it’s never enough.” Tanner concluded.
Mrs. Hail looked intrigued when Tanner and Maria finished talking. The teacher wasn’t as captivated as she was when Hayden told her story, but something captured her attention. She turned to Hayden. “Did you have an addiction?” The teacher then asked her.
The Night Walker shook her head. “I can go easily a week without blood.” She responded.
Tanner sighed again; Hayden supposed that this walk down memory lane wasn’t pleasant for him. Aria chose that moment to arrive. “What did I miss?” She said entering the classroom as everyone got up.
“Sorry dear.” Mrs. Hail said. “But I’m afraid are small session is finished for the day.”
Her sister didn’t seem to care; her gaze was immediately focused on Tanner, again. Hayden would never admit it out loud, but it really annoyed her when her sister looked at him that way, didn’t she see that he wasn’t interested?
As everyone walked out the door, Tanner suddenly caught hold of Hayden’s arm. “So” He said pulling her gently apart from everyone. “Are you going to the party?”
“Sorry, don’t have a costume.” She responded smiling, happy to have found an excuse.
She tried to walk away but his hand was still on her arm, he didn’t seem to notice, but she certainly did. “The sowing club makes really great costumes.” He told her. “It costs money but it’s worth it.”
There’s a sowing club at school?
Hayden immediately thought. “Fine” She replied, not willing to argue with him. “But if you’re going to make me go to this stupid thing, you better dance with me.”
“Deal” Tanner said smiling, still holding onto her arm.
Aria
She had her costume on, and she was ready to go. But naturally her twin wasn’t. Aria was waiting for Hayden to emerge from the bathroom stall. Her sister didn’t tell her what she was disguising herself as; she said it was a surprise. As she waited, Aria examined herself in the bathroom mirror; her cat woman costume made her body look perfect. It was a cross between Halle Berry’s in Cat Woman and Michelle Pfeiffer’s in Batman. Aria was wearing heels, so she was not only hot but also tall. Maybe for once vampires will be looking at her instead of Hayden.
Finally, her sister appeared out from the stall, and for a moment Aria was at a loss of words. Her sister had made the effort to straighten her long black hair and was wearing a tight short black dress with small sparkles, fishnet black tights, high heeled boots with small chains on it and a dog collar around her neck with small spikes. She even put on make up, but the real show stopper were the long black wings hanging from her back. Her twin was the sexist dark angel in all of hell.
“Don’t stare at me like that!” Hayden snapped.
“Sorry.” Aria said immediately looking away. “I’ve just never seen you put such an effort into the way you look. Where did the idea come from anyway?”
Hayden smiled. “Just something I learned with Mrs. Hail’s sessions; it inspired me I guess.” She said as she walked passed Aria and exited the bathroom. Aria hurried after her.
The hall was deserted, everyone was probably already at the party. She and her twin were able to hear the music perfectly from their dorm bathroom, which was all the way across campus. If the music was loud there, it must be even worse in the cafeteria Aria thought.
They entered the school cafeteria, it was full of students and the music was so loud it hurt her ears.
There were bright party lights all over the place, so that the Day Walkers could see. Aria and Hayden easily found Chayton and Evander in the corner of the room. Evander was wearing his normal clothes with a black cape; Chayton had the more completed costume of his twin. He was disguised as Zorro; he at least made the effort. The brothers seemed to be arguing about something important, and stopped when they noticed them arrive. The Chriss’ both stared wide-eyed at Hayden.
Woah!” Evander gasped. “You look hot!”
“What!?” Hayden screamed over the loud music. “I can’t hear you!”
“I said; you look really hot!’ Evander shouted again.
“What!?” Hayden screamed again obviously getting frustrated
“YOU LOOK DAMN SEXY!” Evander shouted, and of course the music stopped at that moment.
Many Walkers laughed, including Aria, she saw her sister blush of embarrassment
“Ari” Chayton said to her. “Do you want to dance?” She gladly accepted, happy to see that someone was actually paying attention to her tonight and she wasn’t going to let it go to waste.
Tanner
For some reason, Maria had insisted that they entered the cafeteria together.
He had no clue what her costume was, but Tanner knew that they would be matching. Ever since they started dressing themselves on their own, they always seemed to match. Neither of them had a clue why. If he wore blue, his twin wore a different shade of blue. If he wore green his twin wore something similar, but not red; and they never did it on purpose.
“Maria, hurry up!” Tanner shouted knocking on the door yet again. “I want to go!”
“I’ll be ready in like three seconds.” Maria’s voice replied.
“That’s what you said thirty minutes ago!” Tanner angrily responded.
He was tempted to clone himself and leave, but Maria would know the difference. Even now, no matter how hard he tried (and he tried a lot), none of his clones ever came out perfect; it frustrated him to no end.
Finally after an eternity of waiting, Marias came out of her room; Tanner smiled, they matched just as he had predicted. His sister was wearing a long light green medieval dress with pink flowers, and he was a musketeer. On another boy, the costume would have looked ridiculous, but on Tanner it just made him handsomer than he already was.
Looking at Maria, he remembered a time when they were five and absolutely fell in love with the Disney movie Hercules. They had started playing a game they named “I’ll save you”. Basically, Maria would play a damsel and distress, and Tanner needed find a way to save her. Most of the time Maria thought he did a bad job so she ended up played the hero and he was the damsel in distress.
“Alright” Tanner said to his twin. “You look great, now let’s go.” He started walking away when his twin grabbed his arm.
“Wait” His sister whined. “You don’t want to take a picture?”
“Ria” He had started calling her that again. “This isn’t prom, and even if it were I would not your date.”
“Fine, but it would have made a nice picture.” Maria walked past him and Tanner watched as she tripped on her dress and nearly fell; he held back his laughter.
......
If anyone wanted Tanner’s personnel opinion—which he highly doubted—the party sucked. The music was way, way, way too loud and incredibly bad, the snacks and beverages were awful and the lights were too bright and too much to make the place look nice. Had the teachers ever planed a party before?
When they arrived, a lot of people were dancing; Tanner assumed it was because they gave up talking over the music. Maria went off to go and find Drew and Gwen, which left Tanner alone. He spotted Jonas, Dylan and Viola dancing together. Dylan was disguised has spider Spiderman, Jonas as the black Spiderman and Viola dressed as a hippy. He was going to join them, when the music abruptly changed into a slow song. Many vampires left the floor as others paired up. He saw Maria twirling around the dance floor with Blake, having fun. Maybe he’ll dance with her later, he thought.
“Nice costume Preston.” A voice said from behind, startling him.
He turned around and saw… Hayden? Was that really her? She looked so…he didn’t have the words to describe her. Maybe the lights were playing with his sight. Probably, he thought.
He stared at her, like he’d been doing for the last two weeks. He was surprised that he hadn’t started drooling every time he saw her.
He cleared his throat. “You don’t look so bad yourself.” He said to her, attempting to sound casual.
Tanner saw the Night Walker’s face lit up. Now that the music was slow and soft, they were able to almost hear themselves talking.
“Do you want to dance?” He asked her without thinking. “That’s our deal right?”
“Why of course.” Hayden responded smiling. “And I shall hold you up to your oath until you fulfill it, my dear musketeer.” She said with a British accent that was rather spot on.
Tanner laughed, grabbed her hand and led her to the dance floor. He put his hands around her waist and with a slight hesitation she placed her arms around his neck, and they slowly started dancing to the slow music.
For some reason he couldn’t stop staring into her eyes, her big beautiful blue eyes. To his surprise, she was staring at him too. Tanner brought her closer to him; not even a paper could past between them. His heart was pounding at a thousands miles an hour. He was scared it would suddenly burst out of his chest and splatter her; it wasn’t a very pleasant thought to have in his current situation.
“You know this song sucks.” He said to her, looking away.
“Tanner?” She then said, and he immediately noticed that she called him by his name. He looked at her.
The Night Walker slowly lifted herself up on her toes, and Tanner found himself leaned in. Was he really going to do this? Wasn’t it against the Day Walker Codes? He needed to think this through! What was going on!? Why was everything happening so fast? Maybe he should just let her go and make a run for it; maybe she wouldn’t notice? His lips were closing in on hers, too late to run. Tanner closed his eyes, ready for whatever was to come…but nothing happened. Without even realising it Tanner abruptly backed away, for some reason suddenly disgusted and angry.
Who does she think she is!? Why the hell does she want to kiss me!? I am Day Walker and she’s a Night Walker; end of story!
Tanner thought. She tried to come forward, but he pushed her away rather hard.
Hayden seemed confused. “Tanner are you okay?” She asked him worriedly. She called him Tanner again! What the hell’s wrong with her! He thought.
Then suddenly, just as abruptly as before, his emotions changed again, he felt sad and devastated. Was he hurting her feelings? Did she think he was a freak? Was he a bad vampire? Then he felt confused. What's wrong with me!?
Hayden tried once again coming towards him, but he backed away. He wasn’t able to think straight and he knew that he and the Night Walker were causing a scene. Tanner ran out the cafeteria, pushing a few Walkers along the way. When he was out, he tried to catch his breath; he felt perfectly normal again, as if nothing had ever occurred in the first place. What exactly had just happened? Was something wrong with him? Was he developing a new ability? But quickly all those thoughts vanished as he suddenly started thinking about how he and Hayden had almost kissed; what had he been thinking? He was a Day Walker, she was a N— he sighed. Did it even matter anymore?
Damn! So close!
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