POTW 2

HALEY POV

I slowly began to back up, not breaking eye contact with the strange group of people in front of me. All of them were strangely beautiful, yet had a deadly air about them. They just kept on staring at me, as if I was the one snarling and being supernatural. I brought one hand around slowly, as I started to feel roots under my feet, and felt a tree behind me. I must have been at the edge of the clearing; but which edge? If I wasn't going to be heading north, back to the house, I could end up running off into an unknown part of the woods, and with these snarling hallucinations around, running into more mythical beings wasn't on my to do list. Dad would be looking for me, and I had homework to do. Those small, normal tasks seemed hilarious compared with getting away from weird mutant humans-things.

What was I going to say to them, anyway? "Um, sorry to bother you, I'll just be on my way." Yeah, like that would work. This larger group had probably only killed the red-head so that they could eat me instead of her. One of the mutants cleared its throat and stepped forward. He had a young, beautiful face, like the rest of them, with gold colored hair. He seemed to have an authority about him that the others didn't. "Don't be afraid." he said calmly, and even his voice was beautiful. "My name is Carlisle." He spoke calmly, but with a practiced nature, as if he did this every day.

"I have got to be hallucinating." I whispered. My mind had finally landed on a solution that could explain everything that had just happened- I was going insane and hallucinating. This was all just a dream. Maybe I'd picked up some fumes off of my stoner lab-partners and was having a bad reaction.

"You're not. This is my family." 'Carlisle' spread his arm around at the surrounding people. They all said their names politely, as if we were at a business meeting or something. Suddenly, it made me mad. Imagining all of this was ridiculous.

"No, no. This can not be real. This is impossible!" I very nearly shouted. Carlisle opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. "No. Don't say anything. Just stay away." I warned, and then I turned and ran through the trees, batting branches out of my way. I ran until I reached the house. I grabbed my bag and darted inside, not feeling any safer now that I was out of the sights of my own hallucinations.

"Haley, where were you, young lady! Do you have any idea how…"My dad trailed off, his face turning red as he took me in. Suddenly, I realized how awful I must look with my torn shirt, blood stained side and wild hair.

"What? I just fell down a hill ok? I have homework and…" I made up an excuse like lightning, but my dad had reached critical mass.

"WHO IS IT?" he bellowed, taking a step forward.

"Who, what?" I asked, confused. For a moment, I wondered if I was having a hallucination of him too.

"WHAT BOY DID YOU JUST…" he struggled for words, and I flushed as I understood what he was implying.

"Oh, gross! I would never have…sex…in-the-woods!" I spit out. He seemed to relax at my words, at my facial expression. Hot embarrassment flooded through me, but I was also relieved. If that's all my dad thought I'd been doing, maybe I wasn't crazy after all.

"I'm sorry, honey, it's just when you walked in, with the leaves in your hair, and the torn shirt I thought…" He pulled me into a hug. Glad that he hadn't noticed the blood, I changed as fast as I could. Even though I'd given him an excuse, my dad kept an abnormally close watch on me for the rest of the night, looking at me strangely, being overly helpful and friendly…yikes. At least I didn't get a sex talk.

Later, when my homework was done and my dad had shooed me upstairs to go to bed, I lay on my bed, light on, staring at the ceiling. Had what had happened today really happened? Judging by the pink scar that I still had, yes. Judging by reality, no. I knew that I'd never tell my dad or anyone else, so it looked as if this was my puzzle to solve. I got up and paced. It was still Friday, so I had all weekend to figure this out; I wouldn't have to fake attention in school as I frantically tried to understand what had happened. I got up and went to the next room over: my bathroom. After I was done, I looked in the mirror. I needed sleep, and a reality check. Maybe I had inhaled some fumes off my lab-partners. I pushed open the door, intent on getting a good night's rest and froze.

The mutants from the meadow were all in my room, scattered around in various spots. I hadn't heard a thing; how the frick did they get all the way up the stairs, past my dad, and into my room without anyone noticing? All of them were staring at me like they had before. Irritated that I was still hallucinating (whatever I'd inhaled should have worn off by now), I quickly shut the door and strode right up to Carlisle. "Go away!" I whispered as fiercely as possible. "Hallucinations can't follow me around and be in my room!" He blinked, surprised, and just stared. I waited, one hand on my hip, the other pointing at the door. None of them moved, and a minute passed. "Fine…damn hallucinations." I muttered. I shoved the tall yellow haired man with a scar on his arm off my bed and got in, then turned off the light. Ignoring them was probably the best option.

"Haley?" I heard a voice ask cautiously. It wasn't my dad's.

"Go away!" I stage-whispered, and threw the blankets over my head.

OoOoOoOoO

I woke up due to the sun shining in through my window and right into my eyes. I sat up slowly, still sleepy, and stretched to ease a kink in my back. Everything was fuzzy, but the room was starting to come into focus- I stopped dead in mid-stretch as my vision cleared fully. One of the mutant humans was still in my room. He was huge, brawny, with curly hair, and was sitting in my desk chair as if he did this every day. He was watching me. "Some people never learn." I muttered, and got out of bed. I walked directly up to him, wanting to end this as soon as possible. "Get. Out. Now." I barked, gesturing to the door. He just stared at me like he was mute, a little surprised for some reason, as if he was expecting me to act differently than I was. "Hallucinations can not watch me sleep! Only gross pedophiles do that kind of thing!" I said, trying to push him out of the chair. The thing snorted.

"We are real, you know." He said, looking at me with almost a hurt expression.

"Oh, yeah right, real humans can do what I saw in the meadow, real humans can get into my room without anyone noticing…sure, yeah, whatever you say." I said sarcastically, giving up on shoving him out. He was like a rock.

"What are you smoking?" he almost yelled. "We are real ok? Just deal with it!"

"What am I smoking, if I'm imagining you?" I yelled in his face, a slight part of my mind wondering why I was arguing with a hallucination. It spluttered.

"Something really crappy, cause we are REAL." He shot back. Oh look, a hallucination with a sense of humor; fantastic, just what I needed.

"Screw you, you freaky, pedophile mutant." I said, and walked out of my room, and downstairs. Thankfully, there was no one downstairs in the living room. Maybe only that one upstairs had stuck around to annoy me to death. Hungry, I moseyed on into the kitchen and grabbed the box of pop-tarts. As I put it in the toaster, I heard a tiny noise behind me, so I whirled, holding my fork out like a sword. The mutant with boyish features froze, his girl behind him, eyes wide. "Oh…it's just you." I muttered sarcastically, and turned back to the toaster, just as it popped. I grabbed it, cursed as it burned my hand, and poured myself a glass of milk. I plopped onto the couch, and began to channel surf as I ate. When I was done, I went back upstairs. Back to the brawny one, oh joy. He was reading one of my old magazines, looking bored out of his mind. It was funny to see such a burly guy reading a girl's magazine.

"Look, I need to get dressed, and only one of us is leaving, comprende?" I asked, deciding to keep our interaction as short and to the point as possible. His face twisted and he almost ran out of my room. That's what you get, freaky-hallucination-mutant-man, I thought to myself, glad to be free of his presence. Considering it was Saturday, I got dressed in some old sweats, not giving a damn. I didn't have to dress up for my 'guests' anyway. I went into the tiny office that my dad had made out of a closet and kicked the old computer to life. "What are you doing?" asked a voice curiously. I looked over my shoulder at the pixie like one, perched on the couch in the living room. She was as gorgeous as the rest of them.

"I'm learning how to either a) stop hallucinating or, b) how to hire the Ghostbusters." I said, and logged in. The pixie one laughed, a charming sound.

"You aren't hallucinating. Honestly." She said. Like I was going to believe her!

"Never trust your own hallucinations!" I said with fake cheeriness as I opened up Google. She stopped laughing and leaned forward.

"We aren't hallucinations. We're vampires." She said seriously. I laughed, and Googled 'hallucinations'. I was automatically directed to one of those medical websites. I scanned past the ads and warnings about seeing things if you were on a type of medication.

"Seek medical help immediately." I read out loud. "Oops." I'd totally blown that option right out of the water.

"I can help you there." said Carlisle from behind me, appearing from nowhere. Now that I thought about it, I really hated them popping up all over the place. Maybe they were ghosts, trapped here on Earth and they'd decided to haunt me as a group for the fun of it.

"Really? That's fascinating." I said, not looking away from the monitor, reading on about how hallucinations were caused, usually by a strong bump on the head. "A vampire-doctor-hallucination-ghost-thingy."

"Why don't you believe us?" Carlisle asked, sitting on the desk next to me. I frowned, looking up at him. He wasn't passing through the desk- he couldn't be a ghost.

"Um, why should I? I mean, you haven't given me much to go on here." And you are obviously not human, and, therefore, impossible. I added in my head.

"Well you haven't given us much either." He rebuffed me, and I blinked in surprise.

"Um, what?" I turned away from the monitor to stare at his perfection. "You snarl, growl like an animal, have fangs, and move as fast as that red-headed chick. Why would you want to know anything about me? You are obviously not real."

"We're curious because you could defend yourself from her. No human has ever been able to do that, their reflexes aren't fast enough. Your side is also a mystery to us." He said, glancing at it, even though I was wearing a sweatshirt.

"Oh. That." I muttered. "But hey, what is that supposed to mean? Not human? That means you aren't; I knew you were mutant hallucinations!" I said almost proudly, and Carlisle laughed.

"Well, we are vampires, not mutants, and we have never seen any human be able to resist or defend themselves against us. It is fascinating." He said, looking thrilled, despite my mutant insult.

"Glad to help, hallucination-man." I said sarcastically, and stuck out my arm. Maybe if I let him and his friends drink my blood, they'd leave me alone. He looked at me, confused. "Don't you want to like drink from me or something?" I elaborated, and he laughed.

"No, my family and I only drink animal blood. We want to resist from killing what we once were." He said calmly, ignoring my exposed arm. I folded it back into my side.

"Looks like I'm in luck then." I said, turning back to the computer to shut it down.

"So, do you think I'm real?" He pressed. I snorted at the hopeful note in his voice.

"Hell no, your mythical."