Time went by and the time for the new school year to begin arrived. He remembered his first day in highschool. It was a cold, cloudy day and he expected rains to fall later. It was the first day he would take a step into ninth grade and what high school life meant.
To him, it was just another day. But he believed others his age would have another opinion. They would be all excited to begin this new chapter in their life called high school, but not him. As long as he was left alone, everything would be just fine by him. But he doubted that would happen. He had that gnawing feeling that his life might be derailed as soon as he got out of the house.
Uncle Pavel, the old man taking care of him, was at least not interfering in his life. Sure, he was there to get him out of trouble, sometimes teasing him when he was unable to get out by himself, but he wasn't a bad person to have by your side when things turned out to be dangerous. He kind of sort of adopted him while they were on the hunt.
As his house was too big for him alone, uncle Pavel just moved in and became a sort of butler. Sure, this butler had no idea how to run a house, but it was fine by him as long as he didn't return to an empty house. Today, he would drive him to school. He took a deep breath and walked out of the house and into the car waiting for him outside. He was quiet and just looked out the window at everyone hurrying in every direction possible.
Here a mother stopped for a moment to wipe a little boy's face with a napkin, there two children took off running ahead of a man and a woman trying to keep up with them. Everything looked so normal, so natural, but to him, it looked strange. It made him feel uncomfortable watching the others just have a normal life. And he felt a little bit jealous of everyone that lived like that. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the window, shutting out everything around him until he felt the car stopped.
He has arrived. He got out and mumbled something unintelligible in response to the old man's well wishes and lost himself in the throng of people, mostly students like him, heading in the same direction toward a large complex of buildings of two stories up on a hill, surrounded by stone walls twice as high as him and a large black iron gate that allowed access to the twisted road leading up to the high-school buildings. He stopped at the entrance for a while, waiting for the entrance blocked by the multitude of students to free the access. As soon as it was his turn to pass through the gates, he couldn't stop himself from comparing the gates to the open mouth of a creature ready to devour him whole. He shook his head and, twisting his shoulder to better arrange the strings of his rucksack, hurried after the others to get inside the courtyard for the opening ceremony.
He entered the schoolyard and heard a man's voice amplified by a microphone go over the usual stuff said at the beginning of each new school year. He was at the back when hurried footsteps came from behind him and despite approaching him at a fast pace, didn't appear to slow down. Tried turning around, but barely completed the action that he had no time to think about dodging. It appeared as if the person did it on purpose as a body tackled him and they tumbled to the ground. The air went out of him with top speed, making him unable to even groan at the knee which found it's way in his crotch. His face grew dark red as he gulped for air looking up at his assailant. Well, there's a small world indeed. The blonde hair caught in a ponytail, although a bit longer, the blue eyes and curled cherry lips muttering something while trying to get up were quite familiar. Even the situation was familiar to him. But the pain between his legs was new. The last time, only his face and upper body had to suffer.
"Dumbass! Watch where you're going!"
He was startled awake from his stupor. Yep, it was his fault all over again. As she tried to get back up, he helped her by giving her a shove. Maybe it was a bit petty, but she jumped straight up on her feet tumbling back a few steps until she managed to regain control over her balance.
Not caring about the ruckus the both of them created she jumped back at him and he tried to dodge the slap coming at him, but time seemed to flow differently and her hand found the back of his head with a loud thump, making him see stars.
He was pissed off. He barely touched them for a bit and she just went crazy on him again!
"I'll kill you for that, you know that?"
His raising hand slamped down against his body after a turmoil inside his head between beating the crap out of her and finding it not worth the consequences. He let out a loud breath of air as he turned around trying to lose himself in the middle of the crowd, but he had no such luck.
As he turned to run away, a voice cried out from behind them.
"Diana, wait for me! Please! I love you!"
As he was about to disappear into anonymity, the walking disaster came crashing back down on him, and he felt his left arm being grabbed and squeezed. Then, looking at the dark-haired, pale boy that shouted before, she shouted back.
"Florin, stop following me! You're dead to me. For real, you're dead! It's too late now! We're different. He's my true love. And we're going to the same school, see?"
She shook their entangled hands, while Vlad jumped in shock when he felt the meat over his ribs being grabbed and squeezed to bruises. Her voice sounded for his ears only as he looked in confusion from one to the other.
"Just go with it and I'll let everything you did to me be in the past, dead and buried. If not..."
She left the rest of her words unspoken, no doubt a threat of intimidation. He was floored. Was this girl crazy? What was wrong with her brain? In what world was she living? Actually, it didn't matter! After their last encounter and the one currently in progress, there was no doubt left in his mind in regard to her mental health.
The pale boy looked at their united hands and fires of hell seemed to burst from his eyes. Vlad, for the first time in years felt a sense of threat from that teenager. From instinct he tried to reach for the knife, but he didn't find it. It was back home. With a sigh he turned towards the troublemaker holding his hand.
"Let go of my hand! I'm not your love! I don't even know you. So, back off..."
But he was interrupted by her.
"My love, I'll wait for you in the classroom. Bye!"
With that, the troublemaker let go of his hand and ran towards the main building. Vlad looked after her, then felt a smoldering heat in the back of his head. Turning his head he looked at the pale boy. He seemed pissed. His eyes moved to his hand. The one she held. The boy snapped.
"Watch your back, intruder. Don't ever touch her again or I'll kill your entire family and break every single bone in your body. And, after I'm done with you, not even her could bring you back!"
After that, the pale boy turned around and left. Vlad looked after him. He felt puzzled and finally a bit exhilarated. Finally an idiot to occupy his time with. Finally, something fun! He felt his hands begin to tingle, while the blood mist started flowing over his eyes. His eyes turned red. But, he tried to control himself. It was lucky nobody was nearby. With an effort of sheer will his eyes returned to their usual green color while he regained control over his body. Cracking his neck while shaking it from side to side, he turned arround and entered the main building.
But, when he entered the classroom, the sound of his happiness, of his earlier exhilaration died in a whizzing of air exhaled like a fast deflation of a balloon. Because he saw the troublemaker from earlier in this very classroom. She was sitting in the third row beside the door.
When their eyes met, she smiled and waved at him.
"My love, come here! I saved you the place next to me."
Her words were loud enough to cover the others voices. Everyone turned their eyes towards him. For the first time in his life, he didn't know what to do. He was undecided whether to smother her to death or bury himself deep underground. It was a tie between those options.
Deciding to ignore her, he passed the offer and walked to the last row next to the window. Then, he turned his head and looked out the window. He didn't hear when someone sit next to him. That was because his eyes were looking at the pale boy from earlier. And the boy was also looking at him. He did not know how he managed to see him, but his eyes were concentrated on his person.
But the silent confrontation ended with a loud bang on the desk next to him, followed by the voice he was starting to hate.
"Dumbass, beat it! It's time for you to look for a new seat. This is my seat now!"
The boy mumbled something, but he got up and walked towards her old seat. Vlad dropped his head on the desk. What did he do so wrong in life to get her attention? He felt his head ready to explode from the barrage of unasked answers and her questions were coming one after another.
"Fancy seeing you again! I'm Diana. Sorry about earlier. I needed your help to get Florin to leave me alone... He was my love, but now, it's complicated. Even though he says he loves me, I'm scared of him. Can you help me get rid of him? By the way, what's your name? I should know the name of my new love!"
The last words were followed by giggles. He felt he wanted to strangle her just to stop her giggling.
"I'm Vlad. But from now on, you're not allowed to talk to me. Whatever you have to say, just keep it to yourself. I'm not interested!"
Her eyes grew wide. And slowly, nodded her head. The following silence felt so good to his ears. All five minutes of it.
"So, where do you live? Do you have any pets? I have a little hamster. I call it Buster. That's because he always tries to get out of it's cage. You can come visit at my house. I'll show you something fun. Or I could come visit your house..."
The first day of highschool was like that. When it was over, he darted out the door, leaving everything behind. When he was out the gate, uncle Pavel was waiting for him. He jumped into the car as a thirsty man in the desert when he gets to the water.
But, turning his head, he gasped. The disaster was after him. Waving her hand towards him, she started running. Luckily the car started and he saw her falling behind. Finally, a sigh of relief was out of his mouth as he let himself fall back into the seat.
"Anything wrong, Your Majesty?" Uncle Pavel was looking at him with a smile on his face.
"Shut it! It's just a minor nuissance at school."
"Oh, a minor nuissance! It doesn't seem to be a minor one by the way you felt so relieved just now."
"Shut it, old man! I'm not in the mood for your jokes right now! Did you find out those whose names I gave you?"
"Yes. I did. But, you still need training to be able to take them on..."
Later that day, a knock at the door interrupted his training. Putting his knife down, he went to open the door. He was dumbfounded as he saw Diana walk inside holding his bag, which he left at school.
"Finally, I found you. You forgot your bag. I looked through your wallet inside to find your adress. Hope you don't mind! So, here is where you live, huh? Wow, great knife! Can I touch it?"
"NO! Out! Get out of my house!"
She just grabbed the knife and flopped on the couch holding it up to her face, turning it around to admire the engravings, and just treated him if he said not a single word of protest.
That was the beginning of how his "no"s were ignored and his walls started crumbling one after another through sheer pressure of callous disregard of all resistance.