That Girl In Question

Chapter One: Welcome to Oxford, New York.

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Hilary Tachibana thought there was something hinky about this town from the day she moved here. Sure, she had been here before, visiting her grandfather but that was a week at most. She had lived here, Oxford in upstate New York, for all of eighteen hours before something had happened. She had been in her new home-room class when the vice-principal came into the classroom and told the class the reason why that no home-room teacher had turned up was because that the teacher, Mr Fox, had disappeared off the face of the planet. Hilary quickly learned through classmates that disappearances and dead bodies were sort of normal around Oxford. Three weeks in, and Hilary was still angry at her mother for moving her from the city. She had no friends, she hated her teachers and her mother had made her get a job at a local restaurant, Papa Joe's, as a waitress. It was a Friday night, the busiest night of the week. Boys were taking their girlfriends on a date, families were trying to not scream and pull each other's hair out as they ate and then there were the usual odd balls who ordered the same thing every time and stared at all the waitresses. Hilary looked down towards the back, near the waitress section. Melissa was standing there, glaring at her. Hilary rolled her eyes as she looked over the tables she was looking after. Melissa was the oldest waitress and thought she could get away with not doing anything but complained about everyone else. Hilary walked over to a table, where the customers were leaving. She smiled at the customers. "Thank-you for coming to Papa Joe's. We hope to see you again." She said, picking the bill. She passed the chequebook to the maƮtre d as she made her way down towards Melissa. "What's your problem?" She asked Melissa as she grabbed a wash cloth and a serviette dispenser.

Melissa put her hands on her hips. "You are a really slow."

Hilary paused. She turned around. "What do you want me to do? Shove food down people's throat?" She asked as she turned to walk away.

"Whatever. I'm just trying to help."

Hilary rolled her eyes. She was about to say something in return when Julia, another waitress, turned up. "She doesn't need any help, Melissa. By the way, everyone in your area is waiting to order." She said, smirking at Melissa. Hilary looked between Julia and Melissa to see who would break off the stare first.

Melissa rolled her eyes. "Fuck you." She muttered as she passed Julia.

Julia stifled a laugh. "God, I can't wait for her to get fired or quit. It will be the best day ever." She said, taking the wash cloth and serviette dispenser out of Hilary's hands. "Andy said you can go home early. Your section is almost empty and it's pretty quite now."

"That's for table eight. Thanks, by the way. For standing up for me." Hilary said.

Julia patted her on the back. "It's okay. Melissa is a bitch who needs to be put in her place."

Hilary laughed. "She sure does. I'll see you next week!" Hilary said, walking into the back corridor, passing the entry way to the kitchens. She paused as she noticed the manager's office door was open. It was never open and the manager was usually walking around the restaurant. Hilary slowly walked past, straining her neck as she looked inside. She could see Andy, tonight's manager, sitting at a desk, looking worried. Across from him was a woman in a white suit jacket and skirt. Hilary looked away and bolted into the staff room. She jammed her time-card into the machine, opened her locker and pulled our her jacket and handbag and exited through the back-door into the parking lot. Hilary pulled her keys out of her handbag as she walked towards her car.

"Hey sexy." Hilary sped up. It was Jerry, one of the regular creeps who ate at Papa Joe's every night. He was a lousy tipper and constantly stared at all the waitresses. "You know, your the rudest waitress here! I'm a paying customer, come serve me!" Jerry shouted at her.

She felt him grab her arm. She struggled as she tried to get out of his grip. "Let me go!" She screamed, trying to get out of the tight grip. She kicked him as hard as she could in the leg but it didn't work. She closed her eyes as she felt his other arm grab her other shoulder. A second later, she felt his grip go. Hilary slowly opened her eyes. The woman in white was holding him up in the air, like he weighed like a nothing. Hilary's mouth dropped as she watching the woman throw him across the parking lot like he was a football.

She walked towards her, with a smile on her face. "And who are you?" She asked. Hilary was frozen with shock. This woman, who was tiny and extremely pale, had just thrown a large man across the parking lot like he was nothing.

"I..I..I'm... no one." She shook her head as she managed to get words out. "I didn't see anything."

She walked towards Hilary, pulling her jacket down. "Do you like parties?" She asked, licking her lips. "Isn't that what you kids are into now days?"

Hilary looked down at her feet. She had no clue how she was doing to reply. She didn't want to be thrown across the car park as well. "I...um...I should probably go home." She said, looking around at everything but the woman in front of her.

"Are you afraid?" She asked.

Hilary shook her head. "No..." She said in a small voice, gripping the strap of her handbag tighter.

"Then, come to my party." She said, she wrapped her arm around my shoulder, pulling Hilary along as she began to walk away from Hilary's car. "My name is Mayla. Yours?"

"I'm Hilary Tachibana." Hilary said as they walked towards a limousine that was parked on the side of the road. Mayla opened the door, gesturing that Hilary got in first. Hilary slid across the cold leather seats.

Mayla slid in next to her. "Would you like a drink?" She offered as they began to move. Hilary shook her head as Mayla poured herself one from the little bar. Mayla leaned back, sipping her drink slowly. "Why have I never seen you here before?" She asked.

"I just moved here, a couple of weeks ago, from New York City." Hilary said, staring at the dark tinted windows. She couldn't see a thing out of them. "It's my third week."

Mayla put down her glass, and lifted her jacket sleeve up. She looked at the white leather strapped watch on her wrist. "It's always good to be fashionably late to a party." She said as she resumed drinking her drink.

"I thought it was your party?" Hilary asked, confused.

Mayla patted her dark curly hair. "It is." She said, laughing a little. "Are you sure you don't want something to drink? It might calm your nerves?"

Hilary shook her head again. "I'm not legal." She said as the limousine pulled to a stop.

Mayla clapped her hands together. "We're here!" She said, as she opened the door and slid out. Hilary followed her, staring up at the huge mansion in front of her. It looked old and grand. Mayla grabbed her arm, goosebumps appeared on her arm as Mayla's hand was freezing and guided Hilary up grey stone steps, opening a large wooden door. Inside was dark, there was loud bass music coming from somewhere. Hilary noticed that there were a lot of people in the room, wearing lots of black and a lot of leather. Mayla guided her through the crowd, down a hallway, that was filled with plants and paintings. Hilary felt stupid in her silly work uniform, a red polo shirt and stiff black skirt. Mayla opened the dark door at the end, pushing Hilary in first. The room was dark, like the other one, with dark red wallpaper, black leather couches, there was a fireplace with a fire in it, but despite the fire, it was freezing. There were eight or so people in the room. Hilary turned around to look at Mayla, who was slipping the white jacket off, to reveal the most skimpiest top that Hilary had ever seen. It was more like two thick strips of cloth covering her breasts, conjoined with one going around her waist. She watched Mayla walk past her, up to a guy with bright red hair. He lent down as she whispered something into his ear. Mayla pulled away, giving Hilary a smile. "This is Hilary Tachibana..." Mayla said to the others in the room. Hilary could feel everyone in the room's eyes on her as she stood there awkwardly.

A girl with white blonde hair that was pulled into a ponytail, raised her eyebrow. "She's a bit... skinny." She said slowly as she looked Hilary up and down. "I thought you would've brought something back with a bit more meat."

Mayla laughed. "She's not dinner, Jasmine." She said, brushing a stray curl out of her face. "Dinner is on it's way already."

Another girl, tall also with white-blonde hair and pale skin stood up. "Then why is she here? She asked, she had a strong German accent. "I thought we had filled our quota already." Hilary looked around the room. She was pretty sure she was trapped. Everyone was extremely pale and stared at her like she was... food or something. It creeped Hilary out. She wished she had never been told she could finish work early. She heard a bang and someone shouting from outside the room. She turned around as the door opened and a thin, pale girl with stringy blonde hair was pushed in, followed by a young looking guy with spiky light brown hair. The girl looked over at Hilary. Hilary stared at the girl. She had something red all around her mouth and down the front of her clothes.

"Miguel," Mayla said, walking towards him. "What seems to be the problem?"

Miguel pushed the girl towards Mayla. "She couldn't keep her hands off the dinner you had prepared for tonight." Hilary couldn't help but notice that they all had an obsession with dinner.

Mayla lifted the girls head up. "Is that true?" She asked.

The girl pulled away from Mayla. "Get fucked! You think just because your Brooklyn's right hand, it makes you all so god and mighty?" She said, turning around to walk away.

Mayla grabbed her by the back of her neck, dragging her back to her. "What did you say?" She asked.

"You heard me, bitch." The girl said through gritted teeth. A second later, there was a loud snap and the girl fell towards the ground but before she could hit it, she turned into dust.

Hilary looked back up at Mayla, who was watching Hilary's reaction. "What the fuck?" She screamed. Mayla opened her mouth slightly, just enough for her to see a pair of pearly white fangs. Behind her, she could see the others. A scary thought went through Hilary's head, had she willingly walked into a house of vampires? She screamed and started to run back down the hallway. Hilary was knocked to the ground as she ran into something. She looked up. The guy with red hair was standing before her with a creepy grin on his face.

"Now, where do you think your going?" She heard Mayla ask from behind.