Chapter 2

The Change You Can't See

No matter how hard someone tries to block something out of your mind, it always has a way to slip back into your thoughts. It's different for everyone. Some people see something that reminds them of it. Maybe they even hear a sound that reminds them of the thought the try so hard to purge from their mind. For me, those thoughts get me when I am most vulnerable. While I sleep, I am plagued with terrible nightmares. Contorted images of my past haunting me when I cannot do a thing to defend myself, nothing to block them out. Sometimes, the dreams aren't even memories. Sometimes they are images of what every person in the world is afraid of, being completely alone. Being banished from everything you once had.

At least, that's what I fear the most.

It has been two years since the incident with Elaine. I'm fifteen, turning sixteen in a few months. I'm now in my second military school. This one being down in Virginia in the middle of nowhere. I've heard nor seen anything relating to the strange woman from those past years. The only thing that reminded me of her was my dreams. It happens as if it is on replay.

The dream is of me, just wandering in the streets of New York City. I'm completely minding my own business, enjoying the grey skies above me from the recent summer rain. Then, my arm is grabbed as I walk by an alleyway. My eyes are covered and I am dragged away. All I feel are cold hands gripping my arms as I am tugged to this unknown location. Soon later, my eyes are uncovered, finding myself in a simple empty concrete room. I am thrown into the wall. Hitting the wall with a hard 'thud', I look up to see my captor. It's Elaine. She's wearing the same thing I saw her in the day I met her, but this time, her eyes are bright silver, glaring at me as she approaches me. I was frozen stiff, just like the day I met her. She walks towards me, her eyes keeping me where I am. When she reaches to me, she smiles, showing her teeth. They are pearly white, completely normal teeth. Her smile calms my nerves. Her smile turns into a devilish smirk. In a quick flash, her teeth a covered in blood, her eyes matching the color of the blood on her teeth. My heart begins racing, I can smell the blood on her teeth. I feel my nerves twitching throughout my body. She smiles again as she blows some air into my face. I feel the hairs on my arms stand up as her breath sweeps up into my nostrils. Her breath was not the only thing invading me; I smelt her sweet aroma along with the thick smell of blood drenched on her lips. My mind was spinning into a whirl again. She moved her neck up to my lips. I breathed in, taking in her scent more. I heard her voice slip into my mind, taunting me with her words.

"Take your first bite Michael… It's my job to feed you after all...."

My body reacted on its own. My lips parted as I felt my teeth graze the skin on her neck. It tasted sweet and my body wanted more. My teeth then sunk into her neck, grinding together slightly to break the skin enough for me to feel her blood flow into my mouth. My eyes widened as my arms grabbed and gripped hers to try to control myself. I felt the sweet taste of her blood lathering my tongue. My mind being gone, all I could do is keep feeding off of her. I felt my heart racing more. My body felt like it was trapped in simple bliss, the taste of her blood making wave after wave of pleasure surging through my body. Soon, I pull my lips away from her neck, having my fill. I feel a heavy burden being lifted off my shoulders. A sigh of relief escapes my lips as I look up, feeling a high from getting so much blood on one sitting. I lean my head back on the wall behind me and close my eyes; the cold stone wall didn't bother me at all. I was too far into bliss from the blood. Then I heard a sweet voice speak out.

"My turn…"

My eyes shoot open as I feel teeth break through my flesh, sending a wave of pain through my body.

"AHHH!"

I shoot up from my bed, my neck in scorching pain, feeling like it was torn open. I grab where the pain is surging from. My sudden screaming seemed to awaken my roommate.

"Yo, Blanchard! You alright man?"

My roommate, Max Rudy, was an easy kid to wake up and get up. Sadly, he always overreacted with things.

"I'll go get the Sergeant. I'll be right…"

"No… It's fine Max. It was just a bad dream is all…"

I spoke with a slight tremble in my voice, still shook up from the nightmare. I placed my head into my free hand. My other hand was still gripping onto my neck still. Max looked at me with his normal worried eyes and replied.

"Alright man… Try to get some rest. Okay?"

I sighed as I laid back down, facing away from Max as I responded.

"Yes Mom…."

Max chuckled as he lay back down and fell asleep in a matter of minutes. He must've been really tired if was asleep so quickly. I, on the other hand, was wide awake, just facing away from him the rest of the night, staring at the wall. My mind was lost in confusion. If I have a dream so many times… Why would it keep bothering me as if it was a new one? Also, why did I feel pain in my dreams…? I thought no one does.

For hours I stared at the wall, thinking about Elaine and what she said to me two years ago. For being two years ago, it certainly feels like I heard her say those words to me just yesterday. Ever since the dreams started up, all I could think about is what she meant by what she said… Her words echoing in my head all the time, the thoughts of her take up most of my time. She distracted me from my daily duties in military school, my homework, and my friends. I sighed silently as I was about to close my eyes. Before I could even do that, I hear the school wide wake-up bell go off. Max jumped out of bed in an instant, grabbing his robe to go shower and begin his day. I groaned in annoyance, realizing I was staring at the wall for a good three hours, depriving myself of the sleep I needed to carry on throughout the day ahead of me. I roll out of bed, grab my robe and towel, and I head to the showers. I enter the bathroom and grab one of the open stalls. Considering most of other kids on the hallway don't actually get up until fifteen minutes before breakfast, I had the time to enjoy a nice long shower. There are six stalls in each bathroom and twenty to thirty kids on each hallway. Fifteen minutes in the shower is an extremely long time to most people who are used to military school. I, a second year cadet, am one of those people who are used to military school. I close the curtain to the stall and throw my towel over the towel rack in the stall. I remove my robe and hang it up on the rack as well. I twist the little silver knob on the wall, releasing the warm water to pour on me from the shower head. After washing my hair and my body, I found myself leaning on the wall, letting the water hit my face as I day dreamed. Elaine was occupying my mind completely; it was never this bad before. All the showers were running. Each occupied by a cadet in my platoon. We were always the first ones in the showers; we woke up early enough to get there first. My roommate was two stalls down from me. We seemed to quietly claim a stall as our own over time. I was the last one from the door to the hallway; next to me was our platoon's athlete, Mark Ridge. I could smell his shaving crème. He was indeed shaving in the shower, for good reason though. I don't think he wants people to walk by his room and see him shaving his leg hairs. It was swimming season, so it made sense to me. However, instead of a normal morning, I hear Ridge's voice make a sharp noise on the other side of the stall wall.

"Ouch… Fucking razor cut me."

He normally spoke aloud, but that wasn't on my mind when he said that. A few moments later, I felt the scent of blood rush up into my nose, driving me insane. I clutched my head and leaned as far away from his stall as I could. The water drowned out my voice as I whispered.

"No… not now, not here…"

I looked down to try to distract myself. Instead, I noticed a red liquid oozing its way towards the drain I forgot was in my stall. I started to panic. The scent was so strong and tempting. Though, I couldn't give in here. How was I supposed to explain to people at school…? 'Oh yeah, I seem to have this crazy craving for blood. So could you not bleed around me so I don't BITE YOUR FUCKING THROAT OPEN!? Thank you.' I took in a deep breath. Dumbest thing I could do. I felt a hurtful burning feel scorched down my throat. I quickly shut the shower off, wrapped myself in my towel and left the bathroom in a rush. When I made it to my room, I slammed the door and released the air from my lungs. I was breathing normally. The smell was still tainting my nostrils as I tried to regain my composure.

"What the fuck….?"

That was all I could muster out after that. Why did so little blood affect me this time? It was a scratch for Christ's sake! Yet it stood out in the water, screaming at me to lean down and taste it! I stepped away from the door, holding my towel at my waist with one hand, and in the other was all my shower supplies. I set down my toiletries and grabbed a pair of boxers to get changed into after I dried off. I took my towel and quickly dried myself off. After I finished that, I threw on my boxers and a new, clean undershirt. Suddenly, my head began throbbing. I staggered over to my footlocker to sit down. I leaned my head into my hands, thinking the sudden pain would go away if I just relaxed. No such luck. The pain surged through my head, moving down to my neck where I would be bitten in my dreams. It burned. It felt like smoldering coal was being pressed into my neck. I closed my eyes tight, trying to not cry out in pain. Soon, the burning began to settle down. My breath was heavy as I sat there. My head was running with different thoughts. Yet one question was repeating itself in my head over and over.

"What is happening to me...?"

I was sitting. Just sitting there, lost in my thoughts once again. The entire world seemed to blacken around me the more I thought about it. A voice then called me out and snapped me back to reality.

"Blanchard! C'mon man. Get dressed and ready for breakfast. We've only got ten minutes left."

I blinked a few times before I shook myself out of it. I looked up to see Max. He was all dressed and ready. He raised a brow and looked at me with his worried look.

"Ya alright Blanchard? You've been sitting there like that for a good twenty minutes."

I nodded slightly. I then opened my mouth to speak.

"Yeah… I'm fine. Just tired from waking up so early. I must have dozed off from it."

Max rolled his eyes. He grabbed his coat and head towards the door.

"I told ya man… You should've gotten your rest." He said with a small smirk.

"Yeah yeah… Thanks for the advice mom. Now get outside before you're late too."

Max looked at his watch and shrugged. He then opened the door and began to walk out. He spoke as he left.

"You've got seven minutes left man. Get dressed before you are late as well."

After he said that, he left the room and closed the door behind him. I stood up and stretched out my arms, realizing how stiff they wore from sitting there so long. I didn't even realize how long I was just starting off into space like that. Max must've been freaked out a bit. I sighed and closed my eye briefly; collecting myself so I can ignore this morning and move on with my day and my life.

I wish I knew how much of my life was going to change in the course of the next couple weeks. However, the future is impossible to predict. At least precisely predict. I wish I knew ahead of time about what was going to happen to me. I wanted to know what was going on already. However, life is filled with surprises. After getting dressed and leaving the room, I wish I realized that leaving the room and going on with my day was going to start the long and spinning road of my 'normal life.'

Author's note: So, there is the second Chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it. I tend to have massive amounts of writer's block, so fire me a message or comment with ideas you would like to see. I tend to shoot ideas down a bit, so don't be offended if I don't use them. Though, if I do use them. It might be later than soon when I do. Thank you. Reviews!