I woke up at 6 and decided to wear comfortable clothes for the tour. I chose a loose sweater and some jeans. I took a nice long shower and got dressed. I checked my neck to see the handprints were much more visible. I took out the makeup box Care had forced me to buy and tried my best to cover the prints up which proved to be difficult since I rarely do makeup. I had booked a ticket for a tour which would last the whole day. It would go through all the parts of New York even stop for an hour at the Museum of NYC. I was excited about all of it. I would get to visit all the landmarks and even experience it at night. I decided to take a small bag with me. I put stakes and darts in it along with a bottle of water, my phone, journal and some candies I bought yesterday, because well it's chocolate. I also took the Polaroid camera dad had bought for me so that I could capture the best of New York and paint him pictures when I get back. I had decided to walk since I had time. I locked the apartment and put the keys in my bag, before taking out my phone and calling Jer. He picked up after the third ring.
"Hello?" He asked sounding half asleep. Oops? "Hey, Jer. Sorry, I woke you up." I told him as I walked the streets seeing it was filled with people even though it was early and a Sunday. "No Elle it's fine. Everything okay?" He asked a bit worried and tired. "Yeah, Jer everything's fine. I just wanted to ask you something." I told him and saw a small bakery deciding to go eat something and get some coffee. "Okay. What is it?" He asks with a yawn. "So last night I took Care and Ty's advice and went to the club. As I was coming back home some vampire attacked me..." Before I could finish my sentence, Jer shouted down the phone. "What? Oh my god, Elle are you okay? Do we need to come there? Are you in the hospital?" Before he could freak out more. I told him to calm down and continued, "Relax Jer. I'm fine. I, um killed him. But that's not what I wanted to talk about. So after I killed the vamp two people just walk in and claimed that they want to train me to kill vampires and one of them was a vampire. Wow, that sounds weirder when I say it out loud. So I was thinking that it wouldn't be a bad idea since getting training from supernatural creatures would be very useful. What do you think?" I ask him while chewing my bottom lip, nervous for his answer. "I don't know. I mean it would make sense to take training from them but can you trust them?" The question that has been bothering me. "I think so. I mean I don't get a bad feeling from them. You can think about it since I really want your opinion. I'll call you after my tour?" I ask him since I didn't want him to answer me right away too scared he would say no. "Yeah okay. Have fun, Elle. I love you." I smile at that and feel glad to always have him. "I will. Love you too Jer." I cut the call and realize I haven't even ordered yet. I go and order a coffee and a breakfast muffin. I thank the woman at the counter and sit to eat.
I had finally reached the place where I was supposed to board the bus and waited for it. "Well if it isn't the huntress." I hear someone say from behind me and turn to see the two guys from last night again. Great. "So what you're stalking me now?" I ask them with an irritated look. "We just wanted to make sure you were safe. It is a big bad world." The vampire says with a smirk. "Right. You were such a great help last night, I don't think I would've survived without your help." I tell him with a sarcastic smile before continuing. "Look can you please leave me alone to think. I just want to relax today. From tomorrow my classes are going to start and everything will be hectic. So just leave me be for a day. Okay?" I say with a little anger and they both exchange a look before turning back to me. "How about you come with us? We'll take you to tour New York and there will be no mention of our offer. Just a day off. This way you can get to know us and decide whether or not to trust us." The non-vampire asks with a small smile. "I don't know. You know I don't even know your names, trusting you is far fetched right now." I tell them while also debating whether or not to go. "Right. How rude of us, we haven't formally introduced ourselves. I'm Ares." The non-vampire says while offering a small smile. "I'm Noah." The vampire says also smiling. "Arielle," I tell them and extend my hand to Ares. He takes it and gives a small squeeze. I smile at him and decide that it can't be that bad since if they wanted to kill me they would've already done it. Noah smirks as though he knows I'm going with them. Creepy. "Fine. Let's go." I say and Ares grabs my hand and drags me to their car I think. I'm proved right when we stop in front of a very beautiful sleek black BMW.
Dylan O'Brien as Noah
Harry Shum Jr as Ares
Their Car
I sit in the backseat and put on my seatbelt since Noah was in the driver's seat and I didn't trust him. Plus he's a vampire he's probably used to going way too fast. "So where all do you want to go?" Ares asks me and I look up from fixing my seatbelt, I'm very paranoid with cars ever since the accident. "Well I read about a lot of places but I'm only interested in a few places, Empire State Building, Statue Of Liberty, Museum Of Modern Art and Broadway," I tell them and they give me an amused smile. "What?" I ask a bit scared. "You want to go all but 4 places and you thought a whole day tour would be worth it?" Ares asks and I shrug my shoulders, "Well I thought since it was a whole day trip I won't have to worry about what else to do." I tell them before I remember something, "Oh can we also stop at a shop to get a dress?" I ask since I wanted to send Care a dress as a present and apology for leaving her alone to deal with the boys and Miss Mystic Falls. "No offense, but you don't seem like a dress girl," Noah says with a raised eyebrow. "It's for a friend. And I'm not a dress girl for sure. So can we?" I ask Noah with a smile. He just smirks and starts the car. Weirdo. "Of course we can. Don't worry about anything." Ares tells me before turning around to the front. I relax back into the seat which was very comfortable while looking out the window as we speed through New York.
I was looking out the window at the passing buildings, people and cars when I felt a tap on my knee. I turned to look at Ares, "So what are you doing in New York? You obviously aren't from here." I smile a little and answer, "I'm here for a short art course in Brooklyn. It's going to start tomorrow. Do you do anything or just stalk people?" Ares and Noah laugh before Ares answers, "No we do work. I'm a fashion designer. Noah, on the other hand, is a chef." I feel a bit shocked, I didn't expect supernatural creatures to have a normal life and normal jobs. "Wow, sounds great. And I can see it, not with him though." I tell Ares while slightly shaking my towards Noah to emphasize my point. It was true Ares could easily be dubbed a designer, he dressed like it; with a designer suit and makeup that would make Caroline ashamed of herself. Noah on the other seemed like he would rather sit around all day and order people than actually do anything. "Thank you," Ares says while Noah scowls at me through the mirror.
"What problem do you have with me exactly?" Noah questions with an angry and annoyed tone. "Well, I don't have any problem. I just don't like you mostly because you're a vampire and I don't trust you yet. Ares on the other hand; while I don't know what he is, somehow makes me feel comfortable and I don't have the urge to hurt him." I tell Noah with a wide smile in order to annoy him, which for some reason I found funny. "I'm a Warlock. And Noah isn't half bad. He can be annoying but he's still a little useful." Ares tells me and we both laugh as Noah throws an angry glare at us. "If you both are done irritating me would you mind telling us how you know about all of this and how you can hunt?" Noah asks me with a serious tone and a hint of curiosity.
I lean forward a bit and answer him, "This is actually very new to me. So the town I live in has apparently always known about vampires and I found out when I saw a vampire kill my history teacher. From there I just fell into a deeper hole of the world of things that bump into the night. As for hunting, I took up classes for archery and self-defense since I knew I had to protect myself and my family. I've only known about all this only for a month and it still terrifies me." They both look at me with sympathy. "Is that why you were crying last night after killing the vampire?" Noah questions with a smirk and a bit of shock, most probably from the fact that I had only been doing this a month. "You know Ares you can do so much better and to answer your question Noah I cried because not everyone is okay with killing okay?" I tell Noah while smiling sympathetically at Ares to annoy him. They both look at me shocked for some reason. "What? Did I say something wrong?" I ask them and they shake their heads.
They both seem to shake off the shock quickly before asks me, "How did you know we were together?" I look at him a bit weirded out since it wasn't hard to tell. "Sorry to disappoint if this is supposed to be a secret; but your rings are a dead giveaway plus you both look at each other the same way my parents used to. It's actually very cute." I tell them with a smile. They both look at each other the way I hoped someone would someday look at me. Then Ares turns to me and smiles, "You are very observant. Tell us more about yourself." I look at him confused as to what I should tell him since there wasn't much to tell. "Well, to begin I'm 17 and have an annoying older sister, an adorable little brother and an amazing aunt. My parents died almost 5 months ago, I love painting and sketching. I have three best friends and I don't have much else to say." I tell Ares and he looks thoughtful before his eyes glimmer with excitement, "Could you paint us? And what do you like to paint or sketch?" I laugh a little since his tone is childish and I hear Noah do the same. "Sure I could and I usually like painting nature and sometimes people or even just things around me if I'm bored." I explain and they both smile at me again before Noah stops the car and turns around declaring, "We're here." And we all get out of the car. We were near the place where we would board on a ferry to go visit the Statue Of Liberty.
Noah puts an arm around my shoulder as we start walking towards the port? I think. "Uh, don't we have to book tickets earlier on? I read its necessary to pre-book since there's always a rush." I ask them as Ares walks on my other side. They both chuckle before answering. "Don't worry your pretty little head. We can go anywhere, anytime we want..." "Its called compulsion so don't worry we'll make sure you can see the whole of New York before you leave." Noah starts and Ares continues which is a bit creepy in my opinion. I stare before saying, "Right I forgot about the amazing ability of mind control. Sounds fun." They both chuckle again. It seems like I'm their personal entertainment. "It's not like we're hurting anyone. Also, you do know that there are about 400 steps if you want to go up to the crown, right?" Noah asks me and Ares gives me a once over before smirking and continuing walking. Okay weird. "Yeah there are 354 steps and I think I can climb all the way up." I hope I can and I also hope not to embarrass myself. "Well then let's go," Noah says with a smirk and goes off to get us a ferry. He came back after a while and we headed towards the ferry, as we got on I gripped the side of the ferry and Ares's hand to which he just gave my hand a squeeze. I had an irrational fear of deep water, even looking at deep waters scares me a lot for some reason I couldn't explain. Because of this fear I had nearly had a panic attack when my dad had forced me to take up swimming. I remember reading about it, Bathophobia is the extreme fear of depths and even though I know its irrational I can't control it which is common. This phobia also leads to a fear of valleys and caves. I sigh in relief as we step on Liberty Island and realize I'm still holding Ares's hand but he doesn't seem to mind so I don't bother pulling it back.
It's a few minutes' walk to the statue itself from the port. "Sure you can do this? We could just speed all the way up and no one would know." Noah says as he stands in front of me with a very smug grin. I'm definitely climbing on my own even if it is long and will probably leave me tired for tomorrow, but I'm not going to let Noah win. "No thanks. I think I'll be fine. But if you can't do it the human way we would understand completely so go ahead." I tell him and Ares chuckles beside me while Noah scowls and walks ahead. "Is he always so childish?" I ask Ares as we follow the path towards the statue. "No. I haven't seen him like this in some time. It's always just the two of us and he's paranoid; but you, you have this... just this thing about you that makes him a lot less tense and more himself. Its something about you that's just relaxing, knowing you aren't judging us; even though you tease him." He tells me and smiles at me before turning his attention to Noah who is still childishly pouting in anger and walking ahead of us. Ares and I laugh as Noah stops and turns around to look at us with an impatient look with his arms crossed over his chest. We speed up a bit to reach him when we do he takes Ares's other hand walks with us.
We reach the statue and head towards the door since they both have obviously been here before they lead the way. We enter through two glass doors to see the original torch at least that's what the website had said it was. "That's the original torch which was removed during the 1900s during reconstruction," Ares whispers as though its some secret and I laugh while taking a picture in the Polaroid. I put it in the bag before taking a picture of Ares and Noah who were laughing at some joke. They looked really cute together. Ares waves me to come towards them and I walk towards them. "The stairs are through there. Come on we'll stop at the museum later. I want to see if you actually make it upstairs." Noah tells me with a giddy smile and pulls me towards the stairs, I look to Ares but he just shrugs. "Why don't you think I can climb up anyways? Many people do it every day." I ask him and turns to look at me. "I want to know how easily you can climb all the way up do we can know how much stamina you have and well if you can't make it up without a lot of breaks then I can tease you when we do become friends." He says ending with a dark smile. I stare a bit creeped out before answering, "Sorry to disappoint you but being your friend means actually liking you and I happen to be a human which means I don't have half a millennia or so to start liking you." I hear Ares laugh before trying to cover it up as Noah glares at him. He turns to me and says, "That was actually a good one. Don't worry we'll be friends real soon. Now let's go." I laugh at his eagerness but let him pull me along as we start climbing up.
We were almost to the pedestal while Noah kept asking if I was okay to which I would just stare at him. That's what he was doing now as he turned to look at me, "So you okay?" I sighed and then finally decided to reply. "Look Noah if you want to take breaks just say so, don't try to push it on me. I'm still young unlike you old man; so I think I'll be just fine climbing." I smirk and push past him hearing him mutter under his breath as Ares says she's got you there. I laugh and we finally reach and I immediately go towards the pedestal balcony; the pedestal is basically where the actual statue starts. I lean over the balcony which is a bad idea since I'm also scared of heights. I take a step back and take out my camera once again because it has a great view of Manhattan and clicks a picture. "You okay?" Noah asks from behind me and this time I can tell he's sincere. "Yeah. I...I just have a fear of heights. You can laugh if you want." But instead of doing that he wraps an arm around my shoulder and walks closer to the edge. I gulp but go with him and look around a bit before giving him a smile as thanks. He smiles back at me and Ares joins us. We roam around the pedestal taking in all the views. "Let's go I want to see what it's like from up top," Noah says practically bouncing with excitement. "Yeah Noah, calm down. We're walking if you haven't noticed" he just gives a look before continuing on his way. We start our way up to the crown; the stairs leading there were narrow. As we reach up a man stands there and points to a window of a sort from where you could see the tablet. I peek at it before backing up and going to look through all the tiny different windows which were a part of the crown. We stay there for a few minutes taking pictures. Ares and Noah were both very enthusiastic and I took lots of pictures of them too.
We descended the statue which was a lot easier and thankfully a lot faster. We then went to the museum where Noah gave me and Ares an amazing tour. The museum had information about the two nations and the difficulties they faced to build the statue. It also had the statue through its different interpretations. Noah mostly gave his own comments and told me about how he remembered which was amusing since he thought all of the effort was just a waste of time. When we got to the port I checked the time to see it was 9:30 already. "Do you mind if we stop to eat something?" Ares asked me as we sat on the ferry. He gripped my hand and I smiled in appreciation. "Of course not. I'm a bit hungry too." I told him and he gave me a small smile. It took us fifteen minutes to get back and then we were back in the car.
We stopped at a cafe which thankfully didn't have a rush of people. We went and sat down inside. "What will you have?" Noah asks Ares who looks a bit sick. "The usual. Calm down love, I'm fine." Ares tells him with a little smile while squeezing his arm in reassurance. Noah kisses Ares's head before looking at me. "Uh, a coffee. I'll just have a coffee." He gives me a smile before going to order food for us. "Are you okay?" I ask Ares as Noah leaves. "Not you too. Don't worry I'm fine. Like I said before Noah is paranoid, he thinks that because I'm not a vampire I'll die even if I miss a meal." He says with a small laugh probably remembering something. "Well, he does love you. Also, you look a little sick." I inform him and he gives me a tired look. I dig into my bag and take out a Kit Kat. "Here," I say and hand him the Kit Kat. He smiles and takes it. Noah comes back with a tray within a few minutes. "Here we go. Eat. Both of you, please." He places pancakes in front of both of us along with coffee. "Thanks," I tell him with a smile. "So I was thinking. We could go to the Museum of Modern Art after this then we go for lunch. After lunch, we could go to SoHo to shop for the dress you want and then for a Broadway show. After the show we could for dinner at Little Italy and then finally end with the Empire State Building as the view will be better at night. We'll drop you home by midnight. Sound okay?" Noah asks me as I finish my coffee. "Sure sounds great," I tell him and sit back a bit since Ares is still eating. "What Broadway show do you want to go for?" Noah questions and I feel a little worried but not ashamed to tell them my choice. What if they think I'm weird? Oh well. I gulp before answering. "I want to see Aladdin," I tell them and they both stare at me. "Well it is different, we have already seen the other shows. It sounds fun." Ares says as he gives me a smile as though saying he doesn't think I'm weird. I give him a smile back. He finishes eating and we all leave for the museum.
We reached the museum in half an hour and as we go to get tickets it turns out the museum will open in an hour. I was going to suggest we wait somewhere before remembering Noah is a vampire and see what he's already compelling them to let us in. We spent two hours in the museum and got to take a lot of pictures thanks to Noah's compulsion. I'm not going to lie I didn't understand most of the art there, I also didn't understand why people would stand contemplating over a painting which is basically a throw up of colors. Yeah while I love to paint I'm not one of those people who can understand 'abstract art'. Turns out neither were Noah and Ares. We made fun of paintings we didn't understand and a lot of people would turn to glare at us while some would agree and laugh along. If it weren't for the compulsion I'm pretty sure we would have been kicked out. We were at the moment in the gift shop at the museum. There was also a restaurant on the fifth floor where Ares suggested we eat to save time.
So for the next half hour, we were going to waste our time in the gift shop. I was looking at the different books that were in the shop. They were about different art forms, styles, even about music, theatre, and photography. I was looking at the two books I had selected. One was for Jer; it was about the different ways of sketching and painting at an intermediate level. Some of the techniques I knew and had tried while others I had only read about. I also bought one for myself but it was at a professional level. I knew I would need it for my course as it had all the information from the basics like color combinations to the way you can create a 3D picture. After paying for the two books I went to look for Ares and Noah. I found them ordering an employee to pack the paintings they liked and to deliver them. "You guys done?" I ask them as they stare at a particular painting before turning towards me. "Yes, we are. What did you get?" Noah asks me pointing towards my bag. "Oh I got two books about painting and sketching," I tell him and he nods before we leave.
We sit at the restaurant called The Modern in the private dining area. Noah ordered for all of us. Thank god, because I've never been someplace like this before. It's like one of those places you see on TV where everything is just odd, a place where you can't eat a burger and fries and be done with. In Mystic Falls there was only The Grill and a cafe that did not serve 'fancy' food. When the food did come I was confused as to what I was going to eat and was still confused when I did finish eating. It didn't taste bad, it was just something I wouldn't eat. The dessert though was great, it was chocolate so I loved it. After lunch, we sat there for some time as Noah went to talk to the chef who was his friend. "Do they have a Beauty and The Beast show at Broadway?" I asked Ares who was drinking wine? I think it was wine. "I think so. Why? I thought you wanted to see Aladdin." He asks me while leaning forward a bit. "Yeah, but I like Beauty and The Beast more," I tell him just as Noah comes back. "Well, we'll see which one is there and if there is Beauty and The Beast we'll see that," Ares tells me with a smile and we get up to leave. We get in the car and drive towards Broadway, according to Noah it was an hour away. So I practically melted in my seat and tried to get some rest as I could feel my legs hurting from all the climbing and walking. I could feel exhaustion taking over and close my eyes to get some sleep.