Sorry for vanishing off the face of the earth. Work, where I hate my job and drag my feet on getting a new one, has been killing me, and some other stuff. Needless to say, I haven't been very creatively-inclined to my fanfics but I hope to rectify that. I've also been getting back into some old animes I used to watch (mainly Princess Tutu) and have been devouring Reylo fanfics since I saw the Rise of Skywalker.
Just A Little Luck
17
Amanda swallowed hard, staring into Mrs. Winters's piercing eyes and feeling her stomach turn. "What will...I do? Nothing," she said in a squeaky voice that gave away how terrified she was. This was nothing like Ray's methodic approach in the gravesite, seducing her with his voice and his eyes; if Rey was the kind to seduce his prey, Mrs. Winters was the kind that paralyzed hers with terror.
Mrs. Winters let out a long, throaty purr, crowding Amanda, invading her space. The chill off her skin made Amanda shiver but she couldn't move as the older woman smiled, flashing her canines threateningly.
The very thought of those fangs sinking into her jugular made her stomach flip with fear, and unbidden she thought of Ray, pale like a lily in his big, maroon jacket, his voice slow and dragging at every nerve-ending in a song of desire and heat. That hadn't been nearly as scary as this—this strange woman who was taller and older and stronger than her, who could easily entice her to lay back so pretty and feed from her until she was ice-cold and her heart stopped.
Vomit roiled at the back of her throat, sharp and acidic, as she tried hard to not hyperventilate.
Would she make her one of them?
Amanda couldn't become a vampire. She loved sunshine and sunburn and running in warm weather and playing volleyball when the season started. She was fifteen, and she didn't want to be fifteen forever; she wouldn't move out of her house, wouldn't go to college or prom. She wouldn't tick things off her bucket list like losing her first kiss, dying her hair a crazy color, or getting her belly button pierced. If Mrs. Winters bit her now, she'd never live.
"Oh, sweet girl," the vampire breathed, blowing ice-cold, minty breath, making her shudder in her chair. "That Thurston boy is so weak in mind, so ill-suited for our life, to find himself infatuated with a mortal."
Inexplicably angered, she summoned all of her courage and snarled, "He is not! He's not the one trying to feed from a paralyzed girl!" Every nerve ending burned and stung as the vampire's hold on her faltered, the shocked expression flashing across the older woman's face making it clear she wasn't expecting such resistance or rage, and tears flooded Amanda's eyes at the unparalleled agony that flooded her.
An ice-cold sweat sprung across her skin, soaking her t-shirt and made the fabric stick to her back, around her chest, under her armpits as Mrs. Winters's feline snarl filled the space. She crept ever closer, wedging her knee in the slot between Amanda's thighs, and trailed lethal fingernails—long and ending in sharp points like claws—down her throat, making her skin prickle with pinprick unease.
She thought about her mom, her dad, Josh, and Ray. As much as she hated everything he put her through since she entered Dark Falls, she couldn't say she regretted meeting him. He was the first boy to confess to her. The memory made her heart beat faster. Ray, she thought desperately as Mrs. Winters's nails raked roughly through her hair and left stinging trails, baring her throat further, Ray, Ray, please, please, please save me!
"Amanda! Let her go!"
There was noise, a flurry of snarling and squealing, and then silence.
Amanda opened her eyes, blinking away the layer of hot tears that burned, and found Ray's wild, concerned eyes gazing back at her. She opened her mouth to reply but all she could get out was a soft squeak before she dissolved into uncontrollable sobbing. His cold arms wrapped around her, dragged her out of the chair, and they sat on the floor together, his hand rubbing soothing circles into the expanse of her back; she was too upset to think of how sweaty she was.
"It's okay," he whispered against her sweat-soaked hair, his breath like eucalyptus shampoo against her burning scalp. "I've got you."
Mrs. Winters was disposed of—Ray wouldn't tell Amanda what exactly he did to the older vampire—and it felt like the anvil that had been pressing down on her ribs was lifted. Class, however, was difficult, especially with everyone knowing she'd walked away with Mrs. Winters and returned without her.
Her burning and itchy eyes blinked tiredly as she stared down at the paper, trying her best to ignore the whispering that she could hear in the silences that punctuated work time. Time seemed to stretch on endlessly as her cramped handwriting filled worksheets and lined paper.
"...Mrs. Winters…"
"…you see? That bitch…"
"…not one of us, honestly! Why is…"
Amanda ducked her head down as she sat at a table in the corner of the cafeteria. Normally she'd have her headphones in but she'd forgotten them this morning in her rush to try to catch a ride and she was forced to listen to the swarms of conversations.
Most of it was asinine chatter and laughter but she could hear snippets of people talking about this morning, about Mrs. Winters and Amanda, and then she heard Ray's name and she stilled for a second, forgetting to breathe.
His name came from the table next to hers, a cluster of girls with dark dresses and skirts and layers and spools of hair. Elizabeth sat with them, fiddling with the sleeve of her cable-knit sweater as she glanced up at Amanda, their eyes connecting across the room.
Amanda felt a chill lance through her, making her shiver. The skin of her bare arm stuck to the metal of the chair.
"Ray was defending that human, can you believe it?" one of the girls asked.
Elizabeth frowned, plucking at a loose thread without looking away from Amanda. "Maybe she's his pet."
A pet. A pet. It would make sense, more sense than him wanting her, than him letting everyone talk about her to badly, than him scaring her, than him finding a way to be everywhere she was.
She looked away from Elizabeth and spotted that head of blond curls—Ray, watching her from the outskirts of the cafeteria.
