"Vampyres," I asked incredulously.
"Yes," he replied, "they are a central point of my existence."
He looked up to see if I thought he was crazy, but all he probably saw was interested amazement. I looked back down at the pavement on the parking lot embarrassed by my thoughts. Juan had never said anything bad about me in the 3 years I'd known him. I'd met him during our freshman year. . I've known him for so long; how could I so easily say something bad about him? Still, I worried; I could clearly remember the last time someone told me they thought that mythical creatures existed.
"You've got to believe me," Catalina kept shouting at my retreating silhouette. I was using the shortcut to my apartment through the alley and I kept going when she stopped.
"Why don't you believe me?" she screamed as I turned around to look at her.
"I'm not crazy, Catalina! Catalina, Cathy, my friend; I can't believe you because you didn't believe me when I told you about the person stalking me."
"Yes," she said, evidently very angry now. "You are crazy. You don't believe me because you like everyone else, thinks that no one in their right minds would stalk me."
I kept shaking my head back and forth as my stalker's face protruded through the wall I kept around it.
"You kept saying your stalker wasn't human. Like anyone would believe that rubbish," she blurted.
"That's enough," I screamed.
"I've had it with you; you've driven me into crazy thoughts. Now you've made me all paranoid. You've got me thinking someone is stalking me! I probably don't even have someone stalking me. If you would just stop talking," by this point she was in my face with her hands around my neck, "I might be able to live a normal life." She lifted me up against the wall and began to wring her bony hands- though they were still attached to my neck- and my argument was cut off. A strange ripping noise started and I was shaking terribly.
The noise was growing loud and my body was convulsing. Only when I had looked down to see Catalina's frightened face did I realize that the ripping noise was me. I was sobbing with extreme force.
Then Juan shook me and I came back to reality. Tears were streaming down my face and my hands were wrapped around my neck. I had been reliving the emotional and physical parts of the memory at the same time. I could still hear the ripping sound echoing on the school lot.
Juan's face was coming in and out of focus.
"I think she's going into hysterics," I heard a familiar voice. At the sound, a deeper touch of hysteria began creeping into my sobs.
"Should I slap her?" I finally heard Juan. The indecisive pain in his voice was touching and I slowly tried to suppress the hysteria.
"No," I managed to choke out, "this has happened before. Right, Wynter?"
Juan was surprised I knew the boy, I could tell, even though he hid it well. I knew when he dragged me home, I would hear it. I also knew that if I could sense his surprise and jealousy, Wynter could sense them too.
"I see you remember me," Wynter said a little too cheerfully. At my facial expression he unhappily added, "And the unfortunate circumstances under which we met."
I hugged Juan with all my might because I felt the memory tugging at my mind.
The last thing I heard was Juan screaming my name. It was too late to pull me back. I was back in the alley with Catalina still choking me. I was beginning to fight back.
There was a sound at the other end of the alley. Someone was running towards us. Catalina let go of me and I fell to the floor in a convulsing heap. My sobs stopped as suddenly as they started and a wave of calm crept over me. Catalina started retreating towards the apartments when the person jumped at us. I could see it was a woman now that she was so close. Not a woman really, for she had a cats agility.
There was an expression of pure enjoyment on her face as she landed less than a yard away. She saw my state and the enjoyment morphed into rage. She said something I couldn't hear and was joined by a man. His face was handsome. He walked over and tried to comfort me. His face, though, was too beautiful to be of any comfort. Then the women jumped again and landed in front of Catalina. Catalina screamed and started back the other way. The woman caught up to her in four bounds and grabbed her arm. Cathy shut up almost immediately when the female started talking to her in a quiet voice that sounded like a stream. She sat down and the woman tied up her hands. Then the man talked to me and I shied away when he reached out for my hand. He saw that I was anxious so, he began to say things like: "its okay" and "it'll be alright soon".
I looked at the hand and at the face of my rescuer. I hesitated but took it and hauled myself to my feet. The moment my foot touched the ground, I screamed out in pain and doubled over to grab it. My knight in shining armor grabbed me just in time to set me down on a box. He examined my foot and declared it was a broken ankle.
He went over to Catalina now and scooped her off her feet. I thought the woman had gagged her and that that was why she hadn't been making a sound; but she hadn't been gagged at all, she was simply unconscious. Although he set her down softly, she woke up with a start and just stared at me with antagonistic eyes.
He came and sat by me on the boxes. I flinched and yelped at the same time as his movement disturbed my ankle. I flinched again as he extended a hand to adjust my legs position. I heard myself giggle, though it was far off. My flinch had been extreme.
He looked me over and then sighed and walked back to Catalina. He called the female. She picked Cathy up, dropped her at my feet, and kneeled down next to her. When he whispered something in her ear, my friend screamed and dropped her head. The woman grabbed Catalina's hair, raised her head, and Catalina screeched like a banshee.
The man's honey voice turned gruff and he said, "Why are you trying to kill her?"
"I was just trying to shut her up," she said through her sobs, "she's been talking about me all year."
"She didn't believe a word you said, did she?" he said slightly amused.
"No," Cathy just barely managed to squeeze out.
"Well, I am the stalker she kept trying to tell you about, you know when you didn't listen to her," he said seriously again, and then added in a lighter tone, "except I was not stalking her but… Okay I was stalking her."
"We are not human, but we once were, since that seems to be something you desire to know," the female said out of nowhere, very calmly looking at Cathy. The man licked his lips and bared his teeth. There were 2 fangs in place of the canines. He lowered his mouth to her neck and whispered something so that she stopped screaming. He called the woman over, said something to her, and walked towards me. The woman looked surprised that he was giving Cathy to her. The woman bared her teeth and sunk them into Cathy's flesh. Catalina fell limp in her arms after only 5 minutes. The man looked upset. He swore and turned to the woman. She had a hungry thirst in her eyes and she launched herself at me. In mid-flight, the man threw himself against the female, sending her to the alley wall. He seemed to be fighting her to save my life.
Once he had chased her off, he turned towards me. Drowsiness slid over my body. But it wasn't going to win; I would keep fighting. It stopped almost immediately after that thought.
Minutes passed in silence. "Who and what are you?" I finally inquired as the lethargy revisited my exhausted mind in a stronger wave.
"My name is Wynter. I am Vampyre."