Merton whistled cheerfully as he danced his way down the corridor to his locker.This morning he had woken up with a beautiful girl in his arms, a real one! And she didn't even try to kill him! She'd just kissed him good morning and got ready. She even stayed for breakfast!
Merton couldn't believe the look on his parents and Becky's faces as He and Emma had peered sheepishly around the kitchen door. Mrs Dingle actually shrieked with delight that her son had done something so normal as have a girl around, though she didn't approve of Emma staying in Mertons bed. As for Becky, the look of disbelief on her face would stick with Merton forever. She spent the entire meal gaping, open mouthed as Emma chatted politely with their parents.
Emma seemed perfectly happy however, as they'd walked to school Merton could see that something was bothering her. Worried that she had already begun to regret spending the night or that she'd been put off by his family he babbled nervously.
"It's Becky isn't it?" He'd moaned, " Please don't let her put you off. She's like that with everyone"
Emma had shaken her head and patted his arm reassuringly. " It's not that," she'd sighed, "It's just that... I still don't know what to do. Tommy wants to kill Vince but i can't let him! I just don't know what to do. I wish I could talk to mum and dad."
"Why don't you?" Merton had shrugged.
To his alarm tears once again welled up in Emma's dark eyes. She'd pushed the two purple strands of hair away from her face angrily. "They're dead" She'd muttered " He killed them"
Merton hadn't known what to say to that. All he could do was wrap his arms around her and promise in a soft, calming voice that everything would be alright. He was amazed to find that this worked. Emma wiped the tears away and kissed him greatfully on the lips. "Thank you," She'd whispered. "I don't know what I'd do without you"
He'd walked the rest of the journey with a spring in his step. Merton could hardly remember a time when he had been so happy. Not even the fact that he and his friends were in grave peril could dampen his mood. Sure he was concerned that the order were after Emma and Vincent and that Vincent was after everyone else, 'But when you're in love' he mused fiddling with the combination on his locker, 'nothing seems that bad. We'll find a way to stop Vince without killing him and everything will be back to what passes for norma. Maybe things'll be even better! I mean, I've got a real girlfriend! Maybe that'll stop the bullying!'
Mertons new found optimism was short lived however as he felt himself being slammed forward into the cold, hard metal of his locker door. He winced in pain as a chubby hand pressed his head against the surface.
"hey dork!" Came Travis's gruff voice "why are you such a dork?"
Behind him his brother Tim gafawed loudly as though Travis had just said the wittiest thing that he'd ever heard. Which, knowing the T'n'T brothers, was entirely possible.
Mertons vision began to blur "Good question," He squeaked as though attempting to reason with a bullying gorilla. " It's a little hard to answer though, as the pressure you're applying to my head is causing me to ..black...out" Slowly Meton slumped unconscious to the floor and lay still. The bullying brothers glanced nervously down at the boy wondering for a horrible moment if they'd gone too far and killed him. They sagged with relief as Merton's chest rose and fell slowly. He was breathing at least.
The two hauled the unconscious goths pasty form up and stuffed it into the nearest locker just as he was coming to. Their victorious cry of "T'n'T rule!" was the first thing to reach his ears as he pounded desperately on the door. To his amazement and relief it was opened almost instantly. By a small stroke of luck he had been stuffed into Tommy Dawkins locker.
Merton stumbled out and slammed into the werewolfs chest
"Merton?" Tommy asked, almost surprised " Let me guess, T'n'T again?"
Merton smiled back sarcastically and peeled one of Tommy's gym socks off of his coffin shaped backpack. He sniffed it with a theatrical look of disgust and threw it back into the opened locker as Tommy sighed sadly. " You need to stand up for yourself buddy."
"Against T'n'T?!" Merton moaned shrilly "They'd kill me!"
"You've fought worse" Tommy reminded him
"No, you've fought worse. I've hidden in the background occasionally yelling encouragement."
There was no arguing with that. With an acknowledging nod Tommy extracted a pile of books from his locker and slammed the door shut. He'd never fully understood why everyone picked on Merton so much. Sure he was a bit of a miss fit with slightly dorkish tendencies but once you got to know Merton he was a great guy.
Tommy had thought that with him hanging around with Merton the others might lay off him a little. After all, being best friends with the star of the football team couldn't hurt. It hadn't done, but it hadn't had quite the effect that Tommy was hoping for. People were a little less openly rude to Merton admittedly, but the weedy goth was still stuffed into lockers on a regular basis. 'maybe having a girlfriend will help'.Tommy thought as the pair headed off for their first lesson 'Especially as it's Emma, everyone seems to like her. She's only been here a day and already most people know who she is.' This reminded him, he still hadn't been told what had happened after he'd left the pair of them.
"So?" He asked Merton suddenly as they rounded the corner on the way to history class. Merton looked perplexed at Tommy's sudden change in subject.
"So what?" He asked totally bemused.
"So what happened with Emma after Lori and I left?"
"Ah" Merton said as comprehension dawned on him. Now that he finally understood what Tommy was talking about he beamed broadly and nodded his head triumphantly. "She kissed me!" He thrilled "Tommy, it was amazing! And my parents like her to. They were talking for ages at breakfast!"
"Breakfast?" Tommy breathed incredulously " She stayed the night?"
" Yeah. Oh not like that" Merton rolled his eyes, "You have a filthy mind you know that? We just went to sleep in each others arms" Meron zoned out at this happy, romantic memory. With a slight bite of inpatients Tommy snapped him back to reality.
"What's she doing about Vincent?" He asked. Merton shook himself mentally.
"hmm?" he replied,"Oh, she doesn't know yet"
"Well she needs to decide soon, " Tommy sighed, " before someone else gets.."
His sentence was interrupted by an anguished wail at the other end of the corridor. A senior girl with red curly hair that Tommy didn't know came rushing tearfully down the corridor. Tommy held out an arm to stop her.
" What's happened?" He asked concerned
"He's dead!" The girl screeched as the other students stopped and stared open mouthed at the display. "Marshal's dead!"
"Who's Marshal?" Tommy asked Merton out of the corner of his mouth.
" Marshal Griffin?" Merton asked the tear soaked girl. She nodded back unable to speak. "he is.. sorry was head of the school newspaper.
Tommy looked shocked for a moment "We have a school newspaper?"
Merton glared at him and waved an exasperated hand in the crying girls direction. Ashamed with himself Tommy gripped the girls shoulder comfortingly. " How did he die?" Tommy asked softly.
The girls voice jarred in between sobs as she explained. "They... found... him... in..an..alley...this...morning"
Tommy and Merton's heads snapped towards each other and a look of pure terror passed over both boys.
"Drained of blood?" Tommy demanded urgently. The girl looked offended at the sudden harshness of his tone. She nodded in response and was slightly disturbed by the boys reaction. Tommy grabbed merton by the arm and led him off down the corridor.
"Sorry for your loss!" Merton called back to the girl appologetically. She wasn't listening. At their rude departure she had moved down the line and was now being comforted by Natasha Decon from their english class.
When they were a safe distance away from evesdroppes Tommy pounded the nearest locker in frustration. merton flinched at the noise it made.
"Tommy..." he began, but his friend cut across him angrily.
"We should have stopped him!" he growled.
"Tommy," Merton said reasonably, "we didn't know that he'd kill again"
"He's a vampire Merton..."
" Technically..."Merton attempted to cut across but quailed under Tommy's furious glare.
"Whatever he is he's a killer and we should have stopped him!"
"Emma thought we had more time" merton sighed sadly.
"She was wrong!" Tommy snapped. "Where is she? We need to tell her about this."
Merton didn't even need to think. As though it were a pre conditioned response he itoned "9:30 gym class with Lori"
"have you memorised her timetable?" Tommy asked exasperated as they hurried off for the gym. Merton gave a wry smile that changed to a look of terror as a huge tremmor shook the building. In the distance they could hear students screaming in terror.
"What's the betting, " Tommy called as they broke into a run, " That was the gym?"
Merton didn't even bother to reply. The two of the tore across the campus running against the flow of fleeing students. As they neared the gym the air became thick with dust. They coughed and spluttered past a group of shrieking girls in net ball uniforms. Lori and Emma were not amongst them. A horrible feeling of dread rose up in the pits of their stomachs as Tommy paused at the door to the gym and glanced across at Merton. The already pale goth gave a terrified nod and took the other handle. Together the boys wrenched open the doors of the gym to a horrific sight.
Aw! my first cliff hanger ending. How was it for you?