Final Destination

But no one faced what's coming my way.

And I will let my fear fade away

Whatever may be, I'll have to find out.

……

Jenny

8/28/10

9:18 a.m.

"All of you, stay upstairs until someone comes to get you. We don't know what she'll be like when she wakes up. No matter what you hear or see. Understood?" A deep, calming voice that was vaguely familiar popped the bubble of black silence in my head and made me stir. I immediately started to wrack my memories as a group of feet moved slowly but surely closer to where I was. The one man had bitten me, like a cannibal, and it had hurt. The cold as ice feeling spiking into my veins had made me fall into an icy hell that slowly warmed until I had been being burned alive.

I had been in a room, with two women I hadn't recognized, Hermione, and the man who had watched me the whole time silently, with almost an angry face that unnerved me. Then I had fallen asleep when the flames vanished. Hermione had…apologized for 'not protecting me', and she had mentioned telling me things, but her speech in my memory was hazy.

The stinging from my bites had faded, and I was only sore now, but confused as hell. Why was I attacked? Where was I now? When my head stopped pounding, I opened my eyes and looked quickly around. The room was full of people, talking tensely with each other. All of them had sticks; that made me tense. The man who had attacked me called them wands, but that was ridiculous, magic didn't exist-

The slightly balding man with the glasses that had appeared in my kitchen made a slightly strangled noise when he met my gaze, and instantly, all the people in the room had their stick-things pointed at me, and I felt an instant pang of fear. Last time one of those was pointed at me, that terrible pain had come from my bones. "Are you Jenny Quinty?" An African American man with the deep, calming voice spoke suddenly, making me flinch.

"Yes," I said, and winced. The bite on the side of my neck had stretched slightly, and ignoring the people in front of me, I moved my hand to cup the spot; my eyes closing and my jaw clenching when I felt each individual wound from each tooth.

"Who is the girl you met last summer, and what did you teach her how to do?" The man spoke again, making me eyes open. His gaze was emotionless.

"Her name was Hermione Granger. I taught her how to cook, splatter paint, rock climb and self defense." I whispered, after my first few words made my face twist and the bite twang. I wondered worriedly if I would ever be able to normally talk. The slightly angry man from the previous night stepped forward, then walked calmly over until he was right next to me. I shied a little away from the side of the bed he was on. His stick-thing was so close to me.

"Let me see your neck." He said this flatly, and I hesitated. It was still so sore, my whole body was. Slowly, I propped myself upright, and I couldn't help but gasp with pain several times. My whole body felt like it had been beaten with a bat. Then I closed me eyes and winced as I turned my head away from him, so that the side of my neck was exposed. I heard him move, and felt two fingers lightly touch my neck, making me flinch. Several people shuffled in front of the bed, but I didn't open my eyes, I was too afraid. The two fingers suddenly poked me, making me gasp sharply and tense. Ever been kicked in a heavy bruise? That's what it felt like, but ten times worse. The two fingers turned into a hand lightly on my head that applied slight pressure, and I willingly moved my head to a new angle. For a moment, there was silence.

"She's alright. If she had changed, she would have attacked me when I poked her." The man next to me said, and I slowly opened my eyes to meet his gaze. "And I apologize for poking you, but the test was necessary." The man said kindly, looking friendly; a stark contrast to the coldness he had previously showed me. "We're going to need Hermione," He said out loud, and someone in the back of the room left. When I still didn't say anything, he cleared his throat. "My name is Remus Lupin." He said in the same, kind tone.

"Jenny…Jenny Quinty." I whispered, and Hermione suddenly rushed in and took one of my hands, and gave it a fierce squeeze.

"Jenny! How are you?!" She looked positively panicked. "I know that you are probably very confused, and I'm so sorry." She said in a rush.

"Hermione…I don't know how…but that ridiculous name you told me saved my life. You shouldn't apologize." I said softly, went to raise my hand to touch the bite as it twanged, but I set it down again at the look on Hermione's face.

"Jenny…I know that you don't know who any of us are besides Hermione…but we need to know what happened to you. Then we will answer any question you have." Lupin said as Hermione just bit her lip and smiled timidly at me, her eyes lingering on the three visible bites. I looked around the room, looked each person firmly in the eye. They didn't look like the men that had attacked me, but I hadn't expected that to ever happen.

"I'll start if I can see your left forearms, please." I said as bravely as I could muster. After an awkward moment that was filled with loaded looks that were passed around the people in front of me, everyone in attendance pulled up their left sleeves. I was relieved to see that none of them had the dark tattoo that I had seen on the one man's arm. "I'm sorry…I just had to check." I apologized softly, but the smiles and nods of approval I got from people in attendance shocked me. Apparently, I had impressed them. I took a deep breath, trying to assemble my thoughts. "I was home alone; my parents were out seeing a movie at the theater. I was bored, so I decided to make something to eat when someone kicked in the door and said, "Honey, I'm home." I thought it was Brian, my boyfriend." The angry noise someone made from what sounded like outside the door made me stop and rub the scar on my neck. After some throat clearing, Lupin asked me to continue. "I came out of the kitchen and found two men in the sitting room. One was pale, thin and blond, he looked sick to his stomach. The other was huge, buff and dark haired. He was shirtless, and he had a tattoo on his left forearm. It looked like a skull with snakes. They had these…stick things, like you all do, and the big one called them wands. He somehow locked the door without being near it. I ran back into the kitchen, and they followed me and locked that door too." Hermione started to cry silently next to me, so I gave her hand a light squeeze.

"The big one was…instructing the pale one, coming closer, but the pale one seemed so…reluctant. He looked like he was going to throw up. The big one set his stick thing down and tried to touch me."

"Typical cocky little-" someone muttered, but the noise stopped quickly as it started. Again, it sounded like it came from just outside the door. I ignored it and continued.

"The move I used should have knocked him out, but he wasn't even bleeding. Then he used this…I guess it was a chant or a spell, and he used his wand-thingy. It felt like my bones were s-shredding. When it stopped, I had fallen over, so I opened one of the cabinets and started throwing plates. The big one thought it was funny." I almost growled on the last word. "But the blond one didn't even defend himself, even though his…teacher was making them explode somehow. Then…he bit me. Once on the shoulder, and then my side." I stopped talking, moving my hand absentmindedly from my neck to my right shoulder. My nose and eyes felt prickly, like I wanted to cry, but I tried not to.

"What happened next?" Lupin asked calmly enough, but I could sense an anger building in him, like last night.

"I felt along the counter for a weapon, even though the bite was… excruciating. The man bit me again, on the other shoulder when I found the kitchen knives, and threw one at the pale one as he tried to stop me. Then I grabbed the biggest one and went to stab the one biting me in the back, but it went right into his neck, and blood went everywhere, in my mouth, on the ceiling…everywhere." I took another deep breath, even though tears had started to trail silently down my face. The feeling of someone else's warm blood on my face had been repulsive. "I had been trying to remember the strange name-word Hermione had told me; she had warned me about men like this, but I thought that I would never run into that kind of trouble. I finally said it right. The man bit me for the last time, right in the neck, so I put all my weight on the knife. I remember people coming in, then nothing else." Hermione suddenly was hugging me with everything she had, starting to sob.

I bit my lip as my shoulders twanged uncomfortably when I put my arms around her trembling back, too tired to hug her back. "Thank you, Jenny. I'm certain that telling us the truth with that much detail must have been hard for you." The man with the deep voice said. As Hermione let go and sat back, wiping her eyes, he spoke again. "Now I think it's time you got a full explanation of what is going on."