That day I didn't see Jacob on the bus. I knew he must be going to school, so maybe he was running late. But when I couldn't find Thalia either, I wondered if they were both sick, or playing 'hooky'. The bus was full, and by the time we reached the school only the seat directly besides me remained vacant. When the bus came to its final stop, I was pulled along with the mass of people getting off and fought through the crowd to our classroom. But unlike other days where every seat was up for grabs, both rows either side of me remained vacant while a couple of kids stood at the front talking to their friends.
What are they talking about so intently? I ask myself as I settle down on my desk, where I notice a small square bit of paper. Curiously, I picked it up and turned it over in my hands.
My heart stopped. My breath caught in my throat.
In my hand was a small photograph. Of me. I was lying on the floor with a large man leaning over me, there was blood on my face, and I was clearly frantically biting the mans wrist. The image was dark, but there was no mistaking that it was me. It must have been taken last night, but how?
No. How didn't matter.
Without looking, I felt the people around me, whispering and staring. Suddenly, because of this small flimsy bit of paper, I was surrounded my enemies. Slowly, I lifted my head, I watched little cliques of people studying their own copy, muttering, and staring at me with contempt. This classroom, full of memories of the amazing things that I've learnt and the friends I'd made, had become the lions den. I thought of all the horror stories I was told, barman with his girlfriend, mum and father, even those in human history books. I grew up surrounded by stories of the horrors of humanity, the cruelty they were capable of and the terrible things fear had driven them to. And my story was about to become another.
I let the photo drop from my shaking fingers, the shaking grew, spreading from my fingers up my arms and down my back until my entire body was trembling. Slowly, I pushed myself up so that I was standing, but along with the action, the noise and murderous intent intensified.
"Well, is it you?" a girl called jasmine yelled at me from across the class.
My voice wouldn't work, instead my heart thumped so load I swear they could hear it. Every set of eyes bore into my skull, but I couldn't look at them, not when I knew that it would be returned with a glare of betrayal and hate.
I stepped back, knocking the chair behind me to the floor, another step back- it scrapes along the floor in a terrible high-pitched noise. One more, and another. Before I knew it, I was running. My body was running- through the corridor, down the stairs, out the building, then through the front gate. Away from the sounds of horror and anguish that trailed after me. I ran around the corner, but the bus had already left, so I kept on running.
My friends- those humans that so easily opened their hearts to me, had turned so radically in a matter of a morning. Was this the truth of humanity I was desperately searching for? Was this, all there was to know? Fear?
Without a destination in mind, or knowledge about the town, I soon became lost, so much in fact that I didn't even know which way I came. The winding streets came smaller, and shabbier until I found myself in the slums, where homes we made from spare bits of wood and scraps of fabric so close that they merged together. Shacks were built upon shacks, trash was used as building materials, and the place smelt even worse.
I was an outsider. I got the impression that I'd made my situation worse.
What do I do? Could I go back to the village? I wasn't running anymore, but I was walking at a quick pace, trying to get out of the slums. My mind was going too fast to think. The thought of going back to the vampire city brought nausea to my stomach- or that could have been all the running. I wasn't sure. The way they looked at me… I stifled back a cry. I didn't want this. Why did they have to find out? Why did it have to end? Why-
There was a man blocking my path, I hadn't been paying attention to my surroundings, I'd been randomly taking turns to try and escape the slums but instead I found myself in the middle of the industrial district with little pedestrian traffic. He was tall and wide, and his face was rough as if his nose had been broken a few times. He was going to move, right? He'd let me past, won't he? I wasn't trespassing, was I? Should I turn around? He's kinda scary looking, I should turn the other way- the passage was narrow and there weren't any side streets, the only way out of the path was to turn back the way I came. But his presence was strong and ominous. I decided it was best to turn around, even if I looked odd.
I backtracked, and after a few steps, I checked over my shoulder to see if he was following. He wasn't. Just as I let out a sigh of relief- whack! Out of the corner of my eye I saw something large and metal hit me in the side of the head out of the bushes besides me.
Wha- I'm falling. Thump.