WOW! I wasn't expect such nice responses from you! I was going to be happy with one review, and I got four. THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint!
On a side note: The one disappointing thing? I still don't own Gakuen Alice.
Mikan stood in front of the mirror, looking at the only piece of evidence that last night really happened.
"Doesn't look that bad…" She said to herself. The mark itself was barely noticeable, only two dots that looked as if she was pricked with the tip of a pencil. Using some cover up, she made the mark invisible on her neck.
Suddenly the bathroom door flung open, and Mikan jumped away from the mirror. "Are you finished yet? You know I don't like waiting."
"Sorry, Hotaru! I'm ready, just give me a minute." Mikan ran around her room throwing her things into her bag as fast as possible, then grabbed Hotaru, running out of the house.
"You know I hate exercise more than waiting," Hotaru said, as Mikan continued running down the street.
"Right, ri-right. Sorry," she panted.
"And stop apologizing. You know—"
"—You hate that. I got it." Mikan stayed crouched over her knees as she tried to catch her breath. "How can you hate exercise, but never be out of breath?"
"Because." And with that, they continue their walk to school.
Hotaru looked over at Mikan. "Are you feeling okay? You look pale."
"Do I? Guess I just put on too much cover-up this morning," she laughed nervously.
"You don't use cover-up except for pimples."
"But I wanted to try it out today! Is it really too much?"
"…whatever. You're obviously sick and delusional." Mikan gave Hotaru and friendly shove and giggled, while Hotaru pushed her to the ground as paypack.
"Ow…Hotaru, wait for me!" Mikan laughed, as she ran to catch up with her best friend.
When they arrived at school, their friends Anna and Nonoko were waiting for them.
"Mikan! You look terrible!" They said, using their 'twin telepathy' to talk at the same time.
"Thanks a lot! You guys know how to make me feel good!" The three friends laughed and gave each other a group hug, while Hotaru stood off to the side, refusing to take part in it.
"You know we love you, Mikan!" Anna squealed, hugging Mikan even tighter.
"Yeah, yeah, we love each other. Now let's go," Hotaru said, already starting to walk away.
"Hotaru!" The girls yelled.
The girls split up to go to their classes. Hotaru headed to engineering, Anna to history, and Nonoko and Mikan to algebra.
Nonoko sighed as she took her seat next to Mikan. "Don't you just hate Mondays? I'm so tired."
"What? No way! I love Mondays because I get to see you!" Mikan grinned, full of energy as usual.
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?" Mikan tilted her head.
"Have so much energy!" Nonoko laughed.
"OH! Well, I have a good breakfast, and I try to listen to music in the morning to get me pumped, and I—"
"You know what? Nevermind, I'll never have energy on Mondays, and that's that."
"Aww! But Nonoko, if you just—"
Mikan was cut off as Mr. Jinno walked into the room, speaking two dreaded words. "Pop quiz." The entire class groaned.
When the test landed in front of Mikan, all hope was lost. She could only do one thing, and that was her name.
"Guys, I failed." Mikan moaned at lunch, laying her head on the table in resignation.
"Typical." Was all Hotaru said, while Anna and Nonoko tried to comfort her with pats on the back and encouraging words like, 'I'm sure you got some right.'
The rest of the school day passed with Mikan's mind on one thing; tonight. She sat in her room trying to concentrate on her math homework, which was hard enough for her as it is, but her mind kept wondering to how tonight would go.
At midnight, she was ready to leave. Camera in hand, and all the garlic in the house somewhere on her body. She even wore her rosary as a precaution.
When she arrived at the field, she switched her camera on, and waited. No noise was heard, but she saw a glow from the trees to the left of turned and took a picture with her blinding flash, just as she did the night before. This time, the red-eyed boy felt the gleam. "Gah! What the Hell did you do that for?" She didn't reply. The vampire walked over towards her.
"Really? You brought garlic with you? I thought even you would be smarter than that," he said, continuing towards Mikan.
"Don't get any closer! Or…I'll throw some of the garlic at you!"
"And you really think that will work? The only thing you'll succeed at it making me smell as awful as you."
"But it said so on TV! It makes our blood smell bad and…and you can't stand it. You won't drink any."
"Oh, my mistake. If it's on TV and said by a human, it must be true."
"But why do people think that if it's not even true!"
"Even vampires have a sense of humor, little girl."
"But it's not funny! What about those people who go out at night with that stuff?"
"We leave them alone, like we always do. Let them think what they want to think."
Mikan shuffled her feet awkwardly, smelling the overwhelming scent of garlic all over her. "So where is he? The newborn, I mean."
"By the tree, resting." The boy walked over and shook the newborn awake. "Ruka, wake up. Go get some blood before you become the first vampire to find a way to die."
He stood up shakily, and made his way towards Mikan, not without tripping over his feet a few times. Once over by her, he collapsed against her neck. He looked up into her eyes, and she was frozen. Today, there were a dull pink, slowly becoming red from the blood he has consumed. "I'm sorry," he murmured, before sinking his fangs into her neck.
There was that pain again. She wanted to twist away, to make some noise to show she was in pain. She wanted to look over to the other vampire and plead for help, even. But she was immobilized, and had to let the vampire drink.
"Enough. She was already low on blood when she came." He pried the vampire named Ruka off of her neck by his hair, and he gave a cry of indignation, clearly wanting to drink more. Ruka turned to look at Mikan hungrily, and she stiffened. But he didn't attack. "Don't worry, he doesn't want to drink your blood, he just has to. He barely even touched those deer last night."
"Well of course he shouldn't want to! It's wrong!"
"It's life. We need to survive too, you know."
"I don't think so…" Mikan mumbled. Suddenly, the red-eyed boy was in front of her.
"What did you say?" She gulped. "You think humans are any better than us? That you're so different? You kill animals to be eaten, so why shouldn't we? We even let our prey live, unlike you savages. You use every possible piece of a creature in one way or another. For clothes, food, shoes…it's disgusting."
"Then what about him! You killed him!"
"He wanted to be turned!"
"Who would want that!" Mikan shrieked.
The two stood in silence, fuming. Then quietly, a few words were spoken. "Natsume…is my friend. I wanted…to be with him."
"Ruka, don't waste your strength on this girl. She's not worth it."
"Excuse me?" She huffed, crossing her arms.
"We got what we came for, you can leave. Don't come tomorrow, come on Wednesday. You're blood isn't replenishing as fast as I thought it would. And anyway, we wouldn't want to kill you or anything." He sneered, anger still burning in his eyes.
Mikan looked down at the ground and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll be here."
"Good. Now get out of our sight."
Mikan turned on her heels and ran home, tears running down her face. 'I don't want to, I don't want to! It hurts. I hate them, I hate all vampires!'
When she arrived home, her mom was asleep. Tiptoeing up the stairs, she stayed quiet until she reached her room, and then fell onto the bed and screamed into her pillow. It could have been a few minutes or a few hours, Mikan didn't know, but she finally calmed herself down. Next to her on her bed laid her camera.
Taking a deep breath and hesitantly picking it up, she looked at the pictures she had taken of the vampires. She looked at the newborn first. The boy's eyes were large and frightened, like a deer caught in headlights. His clothes, a simple white t-shirt and jeans, were torn slightly, as if someone had clawed at them. His hair was a blond color, but she didn't pay attention to that; She was looking at his face. Even without the eyes, you could see the terrified expression on his face. He looked as if he was in some internal agreement. 'To kil, or not to kill,' Mikan thought bitterly.
Except for the eyes, Mikan noticed he looked like a normal boy. It was hard to tell his age, because his face appeared to be ageless, but if she had to guess, it would be between fifteen and eighteen.
She then looked at the red-eyed vampire. 'Natsume.' In the picture, he was standing in between the trees, his arms crossed and eyes narrowed. 'What, is he glaring at me?' Mikan rolled her eyes. He wore black clothes, matching his raven hair.
If it had not been for the eye color, the two vampires could pass as teenagers. Mikan let out a sigh of relief. She had been expecting the look of a monster; teeth jutting out from the lips, fire in the eyes, skin like sandpaper, the works. Sure, on televisions they tell you vampires take on the appearance of a human, but they had never show a picture before, leaving everything up to your imagination, and all the people who have had 'encounters' with vampires say the most terrifying things that you would never expect them to look so…ordinary. 'Human' was the word that came to Mikan's mind, but she shook it out and replaced it with 'demon.'
Slowly, she got up and walked to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, she saw a dead-looking face stare back at her. Examining her neck, the bite marks were in the exact same place. No blood dripped out of them; the flow of blood seeming to stop from flowing after the vampire leaves. The wounds were obviously open because there were no scabs, but it like it was only marker.
Sniffing herself and grimacing, Mikan stripped and stepped into the shower, despite it being so late at night. One hour and a bottle of soap later, Mikan finally smelled fresh and clean. Sighing happily, she jumped into bed and curled up, her hair still wet. About to fall asleep and have garlic-free dreams, Mikan opened her eyes and felt her blood run cold. On the window, written in blood, were two words.
Don't forget.
So? I hope it wasn't as boring as the last chapter, which was mostly an introduction to vampires.
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. R&R?
Pretty please? :3