"You're the new girl, right?" Aaaand there it was. I was wondering how long it'd take for that question to pop up. We'd moved around a lot ever since I was a kid, so I was very used to the rigorous annual grilling I got on that first day of my newest school. We'd lived in Missouri for nearly 2 years, a record for our family, and I'd thought that maybe, just maybe, I could stay in a high school long enough to actually be close to graduating. Sadly, it was not so, and I couldn't even blame my parents for it this time. I was standing next to my best friend Farley's locker, waiting impatiently as she sifted through each and every scrap of paper that had congregated there. In the whole 2 years I'd known her, she'd never cleaned out her locker once.
"Farley, can we please hurry this up? You know Mr Sanderson freaks out if I'm even just a microsecond late. What are you even looking for?"
She stopped rooting through the locker and raised her head to look at me, shaking her copper-coloured curls out.
"I gotta find that note from Tyler! You know, the one where he gave me his cell number!" She shot me a grin and dived back inside.
"Farley! That was last year! He's probably got a new one now!" I sighed exasperatedly, and shook my head. That girl was going to get us all in trouble. Just then, the bell rang. Everyone started making their way to their next class, everyone except me and Farley. The hallway grew quieter and quieter, until the only sounds to be heard were coming from inside Farley's locker.
"Look, I'm heading to class. Sorry, Far. He'll crucify me if I'm any later. I'll wait for you after sociology, you have that fourth period don't you?"
She bobbed her head enthusiastically from inside the locker. I took that as a yes.
"Well, I'll see ya later. Hope you find Ty's number!" I laughed, and turned on my heel to face my Latin class, which was in the opposite direction. I think it's safe to say that I didn't expect to see a dead guy standing in front of me. Well, he wasn't dead, but you know what I mean. Everyone knows about theirkind of people. The vampyres. I knew exactly why he'd come, but I really wasn't ready to hear what he had to say. I was vaguely aware of Farley's horrified gasp somewhere behind me, but I didn't pay any attention to her. I was captivated and repulsed at the same time by the Tracker's face. His sapphire blue crescent Mark stood prominently against his translucent face, matched perfectly by the intricate loops and serpent-like design of his tattoos that framed his equally-blue eyes. I gulped.
"Haydie Van-Calico! Night has chosen thee; thy death will be thy birth. Night calls to thee; hearken to Her sweet voice. Your destiny awaits at the House of Night!"
He finished his ceremonial speech and held out a palm to my head. A searing hot flash of pain hit me directly above my eyes, and I fainted.
When the pain faded to a quiet hum at the back of my mind, I opened my eyes. Farley was standing over me, tears dribbling down her face. "Oh Haydie, he Marked you! You've got the blue moon thing on your head! Oh God, what are you going to do?" I blinked a couple times, trying to suss out if I'd hurt myself when I fell. I didn't feel a rush of pain anywhere, so presumed I was okay. Farley's tears were starting to rain down onto my head, like my own personal rainstorm.
"Stop crying on me! I'm fine, look, I'm not dead!" yet.Echoed in the back of my mind. I shook all negative thoughts away, I had to make the best of this. Farley took a shaky step back, and extended a hand to help me up. I got on my feet, though it took me a while, and faced her. She was still sobbing and couldn't look me properly in the eyes. I let go of the hand I was still holding, and adopted what I hoped was a serious, no-nonsense tone.
"Look, I may have been Marked by that freaky vamp dude, but I'm still me. I'm still your best friend! Remember the first day I moved here, and you told me that I was only a freak if I thought I was one? Remember? Right now, I'm feeling pretty freakish, but only because you are looking at me like I'm Dracula reborn or something! Farley, I'm still Haydie. That's not going to change."
She lifted her head out of her hands. For a moment, a glimmer of hope rose in me. I thought that I might've just got my best friend back. I smiled reassuringly at her, only to be met with a scowl. "You aren't Haydie anymore. Not my Haydie. I can't be friends with a freaking VAMPYRE! What will the guy's say? What if you start drinking my blood or some weird shit like that? I'm sorry, Haydie. I just… I can't do it. I can't be best friends with a… a freak of nature." With one last forced smile, she spun on her heel and sprinted off up the hallway.
I ran into the nearest girl's bathroom. Thankfully, it was empty. Everyone was in class. I threw my purse down on the side next to a sink, and slowly sank to my knees. Great. My best friend in the whole world had abandoned me, and also called me a freak of nature, I'd been Marked by some weird un-dead vampyre who'd just up-sticks and left, leaving me flat out on the floor, and to top it all off, the throbbing headache had returned. Wasn't my life just peachy? A small sob escaped from between my lips, and they started to wobble. Why couldn't I just be normal for once in my life? Broken Arrow high school had been my salvation after being bullied relentlessly for being the 'abnormally smart new girl' at all my other schools. Farley had taken me under her wing, and nobody messed with her, she once drop kicked a guy so hard down there that he was in hospital for a week, and he needed surgery. We got on like best friends do, we shopped, partied, took rides to the coast, argued, hated each other, made up, crushed on guys… It was exactly what I'd yearned for. It took 2 years for me to finally start to be happy, and now some stupid vampyre had come along and stolen all that from me. I wiped the tears from my face. Well, crap. No way I could change anything now, everyone knows that if newly Marked kids don't get to a House of Night fast, then their body automatically starts to reject the Change, and they die. There was no way around it, I had to go.
I sighed heavily, and stood up. When I looked into the mirror, the sight that greeted me took my breath away just a little. The girl staring back still looked like me, and moved every time I did, but her sparkling cesious eyes seemed different, more colourful and cat-like. Her features seemed more defined, her small, button nose went perfectly hand in hand with her plump, poppy red lips. My lips had never been poppy red before! I always had to use those JustBittenlip stain things. There was no mistaking what I'd see when I looked at my forehead. The sapphire crescent moon seemed to jump out at me, as if it was beckoning me, calling me to my destiny. Okay, this was seriously creepy. I backed away from the mirror, and so did the strange vampyre girl. I grabbed my purse, whilst trying not to look at the un-me girl in the mirror, and bolted out of the bathroom.
Just as I thought I could make it through the double doors and past the secretary's office to the parking lot where my car stood, Miss Harper bustled out of the office, balancing a pile of canvases in her hands. She was my art teacher and the only teacher at the school who cared about her students, so I figured she wouldn't come down too hard on me for being out of class. She spotted me standing there awkwardly, and smiled.
"Haydie, whatever are you doing in the hallway? Are you okay, you look rather pale? Would you like me too…" her voice faded out as she clocked the Mark on my head. The canvases she was carrying all clattered to the floor as her hand flew to her mouth. Oh no, not Farley 2.0. I couldn't deal with another person wailing about how awful it was blah, blah, blah. In actual fact, I was getting quite used to the warmth my crescent moon radiated; it felt nice against my skin. I was actually starting to… acceptit. I don't know who was more shocked, me or Miss Harper. She practically ran at me, and grabbed my hands.
"Oh you poor thing, you must've had quite a shock! You'd better come and sit down, my room will be the best bet. We don't want to… startle any of the staff. When did it happen?"
She pulled me until I started walking, and we hurried down the hall until we came to her room. I'd always loved that room; it was so magical and otherworldly. She'd hung paintings of goblins and angels and sprites and goddesses and all kinds on her walls, fairy lights were strung from one end of the class to the other, and lavender-scented incense sticks were burning slowly in a candelabrum on her desk. It was gorgeous. I looked forward to the 4 lessons of art I had a week simply because of how safe it made me feel in there. She pulled out a chair and sat me down, parking her butt on a table opposite me. I started coughing, it was nasty and phlegmy. That was weird, I wasn't even sick. As soon as she heard me cough, Miss Harper's face contorted into a strange expression, it was like my cough was painful for her to hear. I smiled ruefully,
"Sorry, Miss. I guess it's just the incense or something messing with my lungs."
Instead of smiling back at me, she just shook her head sadly.
"No, Haydie, it's nothing to do with the incense. I wish it was. It's your body rejecting the vampyre Change, and if we don't get you to the House of Night, I'm almost certain you'll not see tomorrow morning."
I bit my lip, okay now it was just getting damn scary. I'd only been Marked maybe an hour ago, and now I was being told that I was gonna die before morning!
"Well… what do I do?"
I replied, my voice shaking slightly. Another bout of coughing took hold of me, and my body rocked with the force of it. Miss Harper seemed to not hear me; she just sat staring at her feet, deep in thought.
"Miss… If you don't mind me asking, how do you know all of this? I mean, you're not a vamp… are you?"
That seemed to stir something inside of her, as she looked up at me and smiled slightly.
"No, I'm not a vampyre, which is something I've always found very unfortunate, but I do have knowledge about their kind as my younger sister was Marked when we were at high school. She was just as scared as you are, and seeing you like this, it just brings back a lot of memories, I'm sorry if I scared you or worried you Haydie. I just know that when a vampyre rejects the Change, it's… horrific. My sister, Beth, was visiting us at home when it happened. I'd come back specially from college as she didn't see us a lot and we were always very close. We'd just ate dinner and were sitting in front of the TV, all of a sudden she started coughing, quite like you are now, and when she took her hand away from her mouth, it was full with blood. I'll spare you the details, but she bled from everywhere that blood could seep from. It looked as if a whole army of people had been murdered. By the time her High Priestess got to us, it was too late. I couldn't… I would never wish that to happen to anyone, which is why I am so worried about you."
She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself, and then patted my shoulder.
"However, there is no need to worry. I'll call your parents now and fill them in, then they can collect you and you'll have to be on your way. I think the nearest House of Night is Tulsa, Oklahoma. They will look after you there, and you'll have a very good life, Beth seemed to adore it." She stood up, and reached for her purse. Digging deep inside, she finally pulled out a white iPhone (4, the newest version, the one I had in black but had begged for in white) and handed it to me.
"Dial your parents' number, I'll explain. I know how to word it, I've done this before. It'll be okay, I promise." She smiled reassuringly as I punched in the digits. After it rang a couple times, I heard someone pick up at the other end.
"Is that Mrs Van-Calico? Hi, I'm Amanda Harper, calling from Broken Arrow. I'm Haydie's art teacher. No, she's not in trouble, far from it, but there is something that just happened which needs to be sorted out. Yes, I can hold."
She gave me thumbs up with her free hand, then went to sit at her desk. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed, prayed to my new god, oops, Goddess, that my mom wouldn't freak out, that she'd help me, that she'd still love me no matter what. I prayed as hard as I could, I prayed until Miss Harper's cool, matter-of-fact voice faded into the background, I prayed and I prayed. I'd never prayed in my life, but now I knew that I needed as much divine help as I could get. I prayed to Nyx, the vampyre Goddess of Night, and I hoped to hell she was listening.
Just as Miss Harper ended the call, I heard a soft voice whispering inside my mind, caressing all the negativity until everything felt so insignificant.
Hush, child of mine. Everything will turn out okay. You are blessed with my Mark, you walk the path of Light by my side. You are one of us. You need not be afraid…
My eyes snapped open. NYX? The freaking vampyre Goddess herself had just spoken to me! Woah, this day was getting weirder and weirder. Miss Harper raised her eyebrows at me, but didn't ask any questions. I just smiled gratefully.
"I've spoken to your mother, she's calling your father as we speak and loading up the car with your things. They're going to drive you to Tulsa tonight. I explained everything, she seemed rather upset."
I buried my head in my hands.
Well, crap.