The weather the next day was so severe that I had to ask Stoner to drop me off at school in the car. There was no way that I’d attempt to ride in a storm like this, even getting here by car had been treacherous enough.

I quickly thanked Stoner for the lift and made a swift beeline for the front entrance of the main building. There were a lot of students huddled in the foyer, greeting friends and staring out at the ominous winter storm which was preventing them from venturing any further outside.

“Pretty rough out there today huh?” Tully had walked up beside me. “I know they were forecasting a storm but who would have thought it’d be this bad?”

“Yeah it was pretty nasty trying to get here this morning,” I replied, shrugging out of my jacket. Despite the freezing weather outside, the heaters were working overtime to keep Liabrooke’s vast maze of corridors and rooms comfortably heated.

“We got biology first up today, it’s only theory though. What a drag,” Tully whined.

I used to share his sentiments with scribbling down paragraph after paragraph of information from the board. However with my recent condition, I think I’d rather be doing that over cutting up body parts from some animal.

I gathered the books that I’d be needing for the first few periods and walked over to the biology room. Tully accompanied me, babbling the whole time about some girl he managed to score for the Christmas Ball.

The Christmas Ball was only a week away now, and then a week after that it would be our Christmas break. I was looking forward to spending some time with Lisa away from school. I didn’t have to pretend when she was around, but I did need to be cautious. I’d never be able to face myself in a mirror again if I did something to her…

“So what’s Lisa Monroe like?” Tully suddenly asked.

The question momentarily caught me, as though he had read into my thoughts. He was probably just talking about his new girlfriend and drifted on to asking me about mine. I couldn’t really say that I was paying much attention to him.

”Lisa usually keeps a low profile,” he continued, “so not many people know what she’s really like these days. I guess not being able to speak pushes people away. I head she used to be very popular though, and kinda bitchy too. Her and that Rachael Rodriguez  girl were inseparable until a few months ago when they had a massive falling out.”

“Say what?!” I yelled incredulously, not being able to hide my surprise. Lisa and Rachael used to be friends? That did seem to explain why Rachael was so vicious towards her, but why would Lisa neglect to tell me such an important fact?!
“Woah, is that a problem?” Tully was visibly taken aback by my reaction. “T-that’s just what I heard anyway, you know, through the grapevine. Who knows what goes on between those upper-class girls anyway.”

Tully seemed to know more about my girlfriend than even I did. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that this new knowledge had me very intrigued. I wasn’t usually the sort of person to care about other people’s affairs. If they weren’t going to tell me, then I wasn’t going to ask.

“I guess I don’t really know that much about her then,” I sighed. “She’s a nice girl, but we don’t get to spend much time together.”

”And the ‘no talking’ thing doesn’t bother you?”

“It makes things difficult, but only for her. It would be nice to know what her voice used to sound like though.” It felt strange talking to Tully about things like this. It felt like an unnatural thing for me to do.

“Well if you want my opinion, I think you two go really well together.” A small smile of amusement crept onto Tully’s face. “You’re both quiet and introverted, and if you ignore all of the back-stabbing rumours that the girls spread about her, Lisa’s a really hot chic. Hell, I’d do her.”

I snorted a laugh at his remark. Tully was a disarmingly honest person, I guess that’s why I tolerated him.

Biology passed by very slowly, as did the English lesson that followed. Both lessons were wrought with theory, involving a lot of copying from textbook passages and definitions. It gave me some time to think.

I knew to take idle chit-chat with a grain of salt, but after my conversation with Tully this morning, I was starting to see Lisa in a different light now. It was answering a few questions that I hadn’t even thought to ask.

When I had first met Lisa, she came across as timid and weak. But the more I got to know her, the more things I saw that struck me as out of character. The prank she played on the girls in the shower where she appeared to have put food colouring into their shampoo bottles. Lisa wanting to jump from the roof, just to get revenge… Oh and then there was her fearless disposition when it came to me, and her eagerness to get close to me despite my warnings.

Maybe Lisa Monroe was stronger than I gave her credit for. She used to be part of the popular group, which means she was probably more than capable of covering her own back. She also used to be friends with Rachael, something she had neglected to mention to me. Now it seemed like Rachael had something against both of us. Either way, I needed to speak to her about it over lunch.

- - -


The hours droned away till the liberating sound of the lunch bell finally chimed. I gathered my books and made my way over to my locker.

Speaking of the devil…

“What do you want this time?” I growled at Rachael, who was standing against my locker as though she were waiting for me.

“It’s Lisa. She’s in trouble,” the Spanish girl informed, looking serious for once.

”What have you done to her?”

“I didn’t do anything, it’s the girls. You know what they’re like. They took her into the back of the auditorium.”

I felt my temper flare. “If you knew this why didn’t you go help her?! You used to be friends right?!”

Something flashed across her eyes that I didn’t completely catch. Apart from that, she seemed unperturbed by my words.

I shot Rachael a disgusted look and made a run for it. I didn’t have time to deal with her right now anyway. I burst out of the main building and ran through the storm over to the creative arts building. There weren’t many students inside, most of the public transport systems had been shut down due to the weather conditions, so not everyone had managed to turn up at school today.

I barrelled down the main corridor and into the auditorium. There I stopped, breathless. I really needed to exercise more… Or smoke less.

“Underneath the stage,” came a voice behind me.

I jumped, startled, and whipped around to see that Rachael had followed me. I gave her a warning glare as she pushed past and led me down to the backstage access staircase. There were a few narrow corridors and rooms underneath the stage that I never knew existed. We stopped and listened for any sounds of a struggle.

A scream suddenly erupted from a room at the end of the corridor and we both ran towards the source of the noise. I barged the door down with my shoulder, pushing it off its hinges in the process.

The scene in the storage room before me had me a little confused. Lisa sat on the chest of a fellow classmate, a small vinyl carving knife poised over the girl’s face. A second girl stood in the corner of the room, her face pale and panic-stricken.

”Don’t do it! We’re sorry! Please! Just let her go!” She begged the blonde girl.

Lisa’s hands were shaking. The tip of the vinyl knife was already covered in blood and I noticed small stab wound on my girlfriend’s right hand. Or rather, smelt it. I was more than a little familiar with the smell of Lisa’s blood.

Without thinking, I raced up to Lisa and pulled the weapon softly out of her hand. She looked at me with desperate eyes before flicking her gaze over to Rachael.

Rachael looked back at Lisa with an unhidden sympathy before quickly turning her attention to the two cowering girls.

”Shit, what a mess,” she sighed, planting her hands on her hips. “You two girls, come with me.”

They quickly scrambled to follow the Latin woman out into the corridor.

” Hey!” I yelled after her. “Where are you going? You can’t leave me alone with… this.” Hesitantly, I turned my eyes back to Lisa. She was holding the small wound on her right hand, looking a little unsettled.

Not good. My fangs were already out, the smell of her blood was burning into all of my senses.

“Run.” I told her.

Lisa looked defiant, shaking her head.

”Are you insane?! Damn you, run!”

The room was already starting to grow dark around me. I could hear her quickened heartbeat in my ears, or was that my heartbeat? Either way, my mental state was taking an abrupt nosedive. Lisa looked at me, then at the door and started to make her way towards it. I felt my arm reach out behind me, grabbing Lisa by the forearm just as she reached the corridor.

“You should have listened to me sooner.” I growled through gritted teeth.

It happened so quickly this time, already I had no control over myself. I screamed inside my head over and over to stop, but I hadn’t fed in so long… and my instincts demanded that it was time to take more blood.

I pulled her back into the room and pushed her up against the far wall. Again, Lisa didn’t squirm. She just looked at me with a pained expression. She shouldn’t be so damn submissive, did she actually want to get bitten?

I nuzzled the side of her neck, taking in her body’s scent. Again, I made a vain attempt to restrain myself. I dug my fingers into her arms, which I had pinned against the wall and tried to utilise every ounce of self control I had left to pry myself away from her, but to no avail. I gritted my teeth and closed me eyes, the last thing I could hope for, was that she survived this…

I bit down into warm flesh, the blood entered my mouth, hot and metallic. However, unlike the usual moment of euphoria I felt from consuming a victim’s blood, this time it did nothing to satisfy my hunger. My fangs ravaged deeper, desperate. But all I could feel now was an acute stinging sensation in me left arm.

After a few moments of disorientation, I realised what I had done. Slowly and carefully, I pulled my fangs out of my mangled left arm and numbly inspected the damage. I had bitten right down to the bone, pulling away muscular flesh which now hung off my arm like a chilling scene out of a horror movie. Lisa’s face was white with shock, and I was pretty certain that mine looked the same.

My brain refused to comprehend the severity of my injury, allowing me a crucial few moments to get help before the shock started to fade away and I ended up screaming with agony in a heap on the floor.

I didn’t have my phone on me, so clumsily ran back out into the service corridor, yelling for help. Surely Rachael and those two girls couldn’t have gone far. Lisa didn’t follow me out of the storage room, or maybe she did, my vision was starting to sway in front of me, and it felt as though I were falling.

I stumbled to the side and collided with a wall, unable to run straight any longer. It was like I was so drunk that everything had gone numb. Blood loss… no doubt I had severed one of my own main arteries. But I couldn’t be sure. Maybe I was just blanking out from the pain.

Who knows?

Certainly not me...

---

I awoke in a hospital bed. Again. Misha and Lisa hovered over me, looking concerned. Why was I here again? I remembered attending the first few lessons of school that morning and then… nothing. I couldn’t remember a thing.

“What did I do this time?” I sighed, trying desperately to recall what I must have done to end up here.

“Um, your arm.” Misha pointed over to my left arm, which had been heavily bandaged. “You bit your own arm.”

“I did?”

“Lisa enlightened me on what happened. She said you did that to stop yourself from attacking her.”

I looked over at my arm. A mild burning sensation could be felt from underneath the bandages, and I wondered how much damage I had done to it. I tried vainly to wiggle my fingers but they didn’t seem to be responding.

“You might not have much feeling in them for a few days,” Misha informed, noticing what I was trying to do. “Apart from the scarring, you didn’t cause any permanent damage, but you still made quite a mess of it. Must have been painful, which is probably why you can’t remember much.”

Bullet wounds, broken bones, car accidents and now this. I must have been costing someone in The Order a lot of money…

“I couldn’t get a hold of Chris so I managed to contact his girlfriend to come and pick you up.” The school nurse pursed her lips. “What was her name… Cindy?”

”Sandy.” I corrected.

“Yes that’s her, the hooker.”

”Stripper.”

Misha got up off the chair at my bedside and looked across at Lisa. “Are you staying here or coming back to school with me?”

Lisa pointed downwards, signalling that she wished to remain at the hospital.

”Ok I’ll be heading off then. Try to stay out of trouble Lucian, just till after the Christmas holidays. Please?” Misha pleaded with me as she backed out into the hallway. “I want a holiday where I don’t need to worry about you this year!”

I waved her off and turned my attention to Lisa, who appeared to be fidgeting nervously in her chair for some reason. Not like her at all. Did I really scare the girl now? I didn’t blame her for feeling so uneasy around me.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” I said softly.

Lisa looked up at me and shook her head vigorously.

”No it’s not alright,” I continued to push. “Do you realise how close to death you just came? Honestly, what’s wrong with you?”

She looked down at the floor and frowned. We both sat in silence for quite a long time. I tried to recall the events that had occurred only a few hours ago, but I was having great difficulty doing so. I remembered being in a hallway somewhere, and a storeroom. They were unfamiliar though, places I’d never seen before. I vaguely remember seeing Lisa there, and the smell of blood.

That’s right! Lisa’s blood.

My eyes did a quick scan of the blonde sitting beside my bed. Her right wrist was in a light bandage. What the hell had happened?

“Hey do you mind filling me in on something?” I asked.

Lisa visibly stiffened.

“What happened back there? I can’t remember a thing, and how did you get that injury?”

She pulled out a small notebook from her blazer pocket and began madly scribbling down the story for me.

’Rachael’s followers were bullying me. They threatened to stab my right hand to stop me from playing the violin. They only managed to nick me though, it’s a very minor injury. You came to my rescue, again.’

She smiled weakly at me and mouthed a ‘thank you’ before adding. ‘I think the blood must have gotten to you though, you were about to bite me when you suddenly turned the attack on yourself.’

Well at least Lisa was alright. But there was one other niggling concern…

“One more question.” I asked again. “Rachael, you two used to be close friends right? How come you haven’t told me this?”

Lisa tried to stifle her reaction but I caught the brief moment of surprise that flashed across her features. So she was hiding something from me. I continued to stare expectantly at her, waiting for her answer.

She sighed and shook her head. ‘Yes, we used to be friends, but I don’t really want to talk about it.’

No. That wouldn’t do. I couldn’t have people hiding things from me when I trusted them with so much. Who knows, maybe this secret that Lisa was hiding was the reason why all this shit kept happening to us.

“Tell me.” I pushed.

Lisa shook her head again. ‘It was a very difficult time for me.’ I noticed her hands were shaking as she wrote this. I’d hit a nerve. I didn’t want to push her into recalling anything that upset her, but then again, what about me? I’d been shot on my work break, I’d been threatened, and had my past dug up just to be thrown back in my face by some crazed Hispanic woman. I think I deserved an explanation.

I stood up, ignoring the dizziness, and leaned close to her. “Come on Lisa, this is important isn’t it?”

She looked up at me, sweat dotting her brow despite the cold temperature of the room. She continued to stand her ground though.

I gripped her shoulder, trying hard to swallow the anger that was suddenly starting to bubble to the surface. “Answer me!”

Lisa’s features slowly crumpled and she began to sob. She roughly pushed my hand off her shoulder and ran out of the room, leaving me feeling a little dumfounded. I hadn’t meant to be so hard on her… Maybe I was just getting to the end of my rope.

Feeling defeated, I sat back down on the edge of the bed and began to absent-mindedly pick at my arm bandage. My mind was working overtime, trying to process all of the new information that I had acquired today.

So Lisa and Rachael used to be close friends. It seemed like they had a pretty rocky falling-out judging by the vibe I was picking up from Lisa. Then there was Rachael who somehow knew about my past, and obviously had a vendetta of some sort against me. Or maybe she was just using me to get to Lisa? That would explain why Lisa kept thinking this whole situation was her fault.

I couldn’t figure it out. All I seemed to be doing was wandering around in circles. Frustrated, I leaned over and rifled through my schoolbag for a packet of cigarettes. I needed to get some air. There was no use trying to piece together a puzzle if you didn’t have all the pieces.