I barfed when I saw the blood.

Okay, I will admit I can have a weak stomach, and considering what I had just seen, yeah...

Maybe I should slow down. Nico and I, we were attending this boarding school thing for a while. I was in science class, and apparently our teacher, Mr. Koon, decided to do an experiment with blood. Apparently, in order to pass his class, you had to prick your finger and test for your blood type.

Anyways, let me start at the beginning. Science is my first class of the day. Nico was in a different grade, so of course he wasn't in my class. So, as I was walking into the science room, my friend Aisha came up to talk to me.

Aisha was one of the more annoying types. She had dark brown hair that was crazy curly. Her eyes were deep brown, and her face was freckled. She was a talker. You literally had to scare her to get her to shut up.

Aisha walked up to my lab table, and went on talking.

"Hey Bianca!'' She said, in her usual peppy voice.

"Hey." I said. I usually didn't talk much in the mornings.

"So did you hear that we're doing that finger pricking thing today! Aren't you excited?"

"The what?" I asked. I had never heard of the "finger pricking thing."

"Oh, you know! We get to see what our blood type is! I think it'll be so cool!" That didn't sound good. Partially confused, I looked up at her.

"Wait, so we have to prick our finger?" I asked, warily. I began to see the last of the kids pile into the room. Before Aisha could answer, Mr. Koon was already at the front of the room, ready to start class.

"Yes, yes, take a seat." He said, raising his hands up then down. Once the class was quiet, he gathered his books, and stood at a small podium at the front of the room. He cleared his throat. "Now, as some of you know, today was our set date for the finger pricking test."

My face went pale. I hated seeing blood. Seeing blood was like seeing slime crawl out of your body. Gross. Mr. Koon didn't notice that I had freaked out, so he kept talking. Mr. Koon was a middle aged man with grayish black hair that strung out everywhere.

"Now, we are going to do this one at a time, so nothing gets too out of hand." He reached into his pocked, retrieving a tool that looked like something a doctor would use. Then, he pulled out a small white slip of yellow paper.

"Can I have a volunteer who is willing to go first?" He said. Several hands were raised, excluding mine. Mr. Koon picked a kid named Don. Don was a muscular, dark-skinned boy. He looked like he could be a wrestler one day. Mr. Koon instructed Don to hold up his middle finger. Pressing the tool to his finger, he kept talking.

"I am going to prick the finger like so, and then the blood will go to the slip of paper. You will then put the slip of paper under your microscope. Using the guide in front of you, you will determine your blood type. Got it?" Several heads nodded. I then heard a small 'click.' I realized that Mr. Koon had pricked Don's finger. A small amount of blood gushed out of his finger as Mr. Koon put the slip of paper to the blood and gave it to Don, along with a band-aid. I looked away.

I heard a few of the boys comment on how "cool" that was. My head was dizzy. Mr. Koon went on to the next student, pricking her finger. I was in the middle of the room, so it would be a while until he got to me. I buried my face in a book and pretended to read it. Minutes passed. I decided to see where he was. Just my luck. I looked up just in time to see blood gushing out of someones finger. That's when it happened. I barfed.

"Bianca barfed!" I heard Aisha say vaguely.

"Oh dear." I heard Mr. Koon walk up to me. I felt sick. I was bent over my desk, white faced and shivering. Looking up, I saw Mr. Koon examining me.

"I'll let you walk down to the nurse's office, but lets get the finger prick over with now. I won't have the equipment tomorrow.

I froze in fear. "N-no! It's fine, really."

"No, really." Mr. Koon already had my wrist in his hand. I was kind of embarrassed because my hand was shaking violently. Looking up, I realized that he didn't have the tool. What he did have was worse. His fingernails-now a dark brown- had grown. Grown! They were pointy beyond belief. I looked up at his face, and I realized his eyes were glowing. Glowing! I knew that wasn't normal. He had on a creepy smile, as if he had triumphed over something.

He moved his pointed nail not towards my finger, but the middle of my wrist, and put pressure on it.

I screamed. I didn't know what had overcome me, but something wasn't right. My hand jolted away from his grasp, and I dashed for the door.

Not looking back, I ran down the hallway, and turned a corner, slowing down to a walk. My breath was heavy, and I still felt sick. Walking down the hallway, I thought about what I had just seen. I was almost positive Mr. Koon had sharp nails, and glowing eyes. Why hadn't the other kids seen it?

Slowing my pace, I saw a kid down the hallway. He started to shout my name. It took me a while to figure out who it was, but I soon realized that it was Nico.

"Bianca! Bianca! Hi!" Nico said, ecstatically. We rarely saw each other at school.

"Hey, Nico." I said, tiredly.

"What is wrong?" Nico asked, curiously.

"Nico, please, I got sick. Can you come with me to the Headmaster's office?" I asked. Nico seemed thrilled.

"Sure! Why are you goin' there? I would think you would go to see the nurse! What happened? Did you throw up? Did you get a nose bleed? Did you-

"NICO!" I raised my voice so he would stop talking. "Just come with me." I grabbed his hand, and we walked down the bare halls to the Headmaster's office. I was half surprised that we didn't pass anyone. Usually the halls would be more busy. I asked Nico why he was wandering around. He simply said that 'he was taking a bathroom break.'

The Headmaster, Mr. Holiday, was an uptight, over-organized man. he was about the same age as Mr. Koon and had the same grayish black hair. His office was in the front of the school, near the front doors. The large wooden door marked a plaque that read "Headmaster" in important looking black letters. I knocked on the door.

"Mr. Holiday?" I called. A deep voice called from inside.

"Who is it?"

"B-Bianca di Angelo. I need to talk to you about Mr. Koon. He-" I was cut off.

"Ah, di Angelo. I've been wanting to talk to you. Is your brother here?"

"I'm here!" Nico piped up.

"Leave him outside."

"Um, okay." That was strange. Something didn't feel right here. "Wait here." I mouthed to Nico. He nodded. I pushed open the door and headed into the office.

His office was dark. In the middle was his desk, and on the sides were bookshelves filled with thick dust-filled books and files.

I was starting to retaliate from the accident in the science room, bit I still had to speak with about Mr. Koon.

"Mr. Holiday," I said despairingly. "one of your teachers, Mr. Koon- he, he's not-" Mr. Holiday cut me off again. He stepped forward from the darkness of his seat.

"Shut up and listen, di Angelo." He said in a low voice. I froze in my spot. I began to back up to the door to run, but Mr. Holiday was a step ahead of me. He snuck from behind me and yanked me away from the door. I squeaked in shock.

"Don't try anything funny, di Angelo." He said in a low voice again.

"M-my name is Bianca." I said softly. I didn't know what was going to happen. I was fearing for my life at this point. I had heard what other teachers and staff members at schools sometimes did to students.

"Look up at me girl." He said, more sternly. My head slowly lifted up to face him. Oh man. His eyes were glowing, his fingernails were sharp. I felt hot tears of fear stream down my face.

He raised an eyebrow. "Thats more like it." He smiled slyly, clicking his long sharp nails together. Then, he made a swift move. He lunged forward at me, and shoved me against the bookshelves.

I screeched again, in fear. I heard some books fall behind me.

"AH-" I began to scream, but his hand clamped hard over my mouth. His glowing eyes gazed into mine.

"Daughter of death." He said, his voice raspy. He raised a long sharp nail, and touched the tip of it to my throat.

"What?" I thought. "What does he mean?"

"Thou shalt die!" He yelled, his eyes fiery. More tears streamed down my face as he began to press his nail against my throat, making it difficult for me to breath.

Then, the door slammed open. It was Nico. Mr. Holiday whirled around, releasing me. I dropped to the ground. Whimpering, I looked up.

"Bianca! What have you done to her?" He yelled, in fear and shock. His face went white. That made two of us. Mr. Holiday didn't bother to answer his question. He just stepped toward him.

"Son of death, you don't deserve to be here." He said in that creepy raspy voice. "Neither does your sister."

"G-get away from him." I said, almost too quiet." Mr. Holiday whipped his head around and heeled me in the shin. I yelped in pain.

"That'll teach you to keep your mouth shut." He said.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Nico yelled in rage, and pounced at Mr. Holiday. Mr. Holiday just shoved him off, until Nico did the unthinkable. Reaching into his pocket, he retrieved a switch blade.

Don't ask me where he got the switch blade. They prohibited weapons at the school, so I didn't know how he had smuggled one in. Anyways, Nico lunged the blade towards Mr. Holiday.

My eyes were wide when I saw what happened next. He exploded into dust. Just like that. I didn't know how. I could tell Nico was serprised too.

"Whoa." He said, simply, putting the blade away, hesitantly.

"Nico, we need to go." I rasped.

"Why?"

"Nico! There are people here who want us dead!" I half scolded him.

"Where will we go?" He shouted.

"I don't know. We can take a loading bus out of here or something, but we need to go." I went to get up, but I fell back down, due to my shin Mr. Holiday had kicked.

"I'll help you." Nico said, softly.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

We hopped a train later that day. We were both starving, but I didn't mind. We were in a closed boxcar, so it was pitch black. I didn't know where in the car Nico was, but I was huddled in the far corner, trying to figure out what had happened.

I swear, I wasn't crying.

Okay, I was crying. I could feel Nico's head a little ways over. He was sleeping. Phew. He was usually a heavy sleeper, so I could get away with sobbing- which I wasn't doing.

Okay, maybe just a little.

Or.. a lot. The feeling of being alone again hit me. I would take care of Nico like I always did, I knew that.

Now, all I had to do was wait, and play it by the day.

A/N- How you like this chappie? I think it was longish... It had me scared for a bit! Please, for the life of me, review!