WASTE
Three
The doors that Maggie led me through were old, and rickety. At eye-level the double-doors were boarded up where glass had once been, and above them was a worn plaque reading 'Office.' The room we walked into was large with high ceilings and not-so-crappy furniture. Old and new rugs covered the old-marbled floor, while blankets and pillows were piled up near the far corner in neat stacks. Bookshelves lined one wall filled with, well, books. From what I could see most were old and tattered, while the few decent ones were stacked on the lowest shelf, and the crappiest were on the highest. It made no sense. I would've put the crappier ones and the bottom, and least crappy at the top.
There was a cough, and my eyes were drawn to the people who sat in the furniture. There were only two women among the group of men, and all were over the age of thirty. Maggie pushed me forward as the man in the middle nodded to her, before leaving abruptly. For a few long, agonizing moments all they did was stare at me.
"Please, take a seat," the salt-and-pepper haired man said from the middle. His voice was stern and commanding, as if he were used to ordering people around. I listened, of course. It just so happened that a chair was conveniently placed in front of them.
"Now, would you mind telling us your name, and how you turned up in the situation you were in?" a woman to his left said. Immediately, she got a glare from the middle man, who shook his head. "Or, how about just your name, dear?" she rephrased, looking to the man for confirmation. There was a slight nod of his head.
"Fly." I decided to stick to one-word answers being that there was less pain, and little to no thinking.
"You're full name, dear," the woman snapped bluntly. Again, she received a well deserved glare.
"Josie Fly Highlander," I answered, and all I got back was silence. "My dad used to say that my mom had a sense of humor." I said it as dryly and emotionless as I could, but I could feel a wry smile make it's way onto my mouth. The other woman nearest me smiled just a bit at my added comment.
"And where are they? You're parents?" one of the men asked. He had the least amount of gray in his light hair.
"They... uhm... passed away." I wiggled in my seat, uncomfortable speaking about that particular area of my life.
"And how did that happen?" the nosy woman said, plunging on before I could take a breath. I sighed, and looked towards the floor.
"Child-birth. Vampires." The man in the middle winced, as did the woman nearest me.
"And what were their names?" I flinched.
"Joseph and Cassie Highlander." The words came out as a croak.
"And how did you come to be in the situation we saved you from?" The woman was relentless; did she not notice how much it bothered me to speak of these things?
"I believe that is enough questions for now, Tabitha," an exotic looking man said from the left side of the middle-man. "You wouldn't want to overwhelm the child." I hadn't noticed him before. He was younger than the rest of them, maybe in his late twenties, or early thirties. No traces of gray in his hair, or frown-lines on his sharp face.
"You have no say here goat-sucker." The woman, Tabitha, hissed, before her face snapped back to me. "The boy that was dragged off by the vampires, what was his name?" I didn't open my mouth to reply. Was it only two days ago that he had died? Only two days since he took his last breath? It couldn't have been. It felt longer. Like centuries. And at the same time if felt fresh, as if he had only died seconds ago. Had it only been two days since I saw his eyes, filled with desperation and courage in the face of death? Or had it been decades since he looked at me, wise despite the fear evident in his every move?
A high keening noise filled my ears and suddenly I was snapped back to the present. Tabitha was staring at me like I was a nut-job. So that had been me that made that strange, odd noise...
"His name was Dex."
"And were you and... Dex in a sexual relationship?" The woman didn't miss a beat.
"Okay, Tabby, don't you think that question is a bit irrelevant to her situation?" the exotic man said, his dark brows drawn together in a frown.
"Again, you have no say here whatsoever, Nash." As if nothing happened, her eyes snapped back to me, glaring heatedly. "Well, are you going to answer me, little girl?" I stared at her for a long, hard while. She didn't give way under my glare, and I could feel her anxiety start to stuff up the room. Why was it so important?
"No."
"No, you're not going to answer me, or no you weren't in a ... relationship with that boy?" Her head cocked slightly to the side, almost curiously, while her dark eyes glared daggers at me. Suddenly, a wave of anger made me grit my teeth. Why did this annoying woman have to be so nosy and rude? Was she an oddity that didn't experience human emotions? "Well?" I grit my teeth together and stared her down. The rage and adrenaline that coursed through my veins caused my cheeks to turn red, and I stood quickly to leave the room, before I decided to deck her. The chair toppled to the floor as I stalked to the door.
Pausing as I grasped the handle in my sweaty hands, I turned back once more. They were all looking at me oddly, except for that strange man. They knew something I didn't.
"You may not leave," the Tabitha woman hissed, her eyes a mix of anger and confusion. My guess is that no one ever thought to disobey her.
"Sure I can," I sneered at her, before yanking open the door and slamming it behind me.
I didn't know where I was going, but I knew that I couldn't stay here anymore. These people were strangers. They knew nothing about me. Nothing at all. They knew nothing of Dex. I hadn't like him like that. Maybe I would have, if it hadn't happened. If he hadn't died. Dead, dead, dead. Just like everyone else I've ever known. My mother, Dad, Lilly, Mr. Jax, Garrett, Dex, and countless other faces that I barely remember. Soon, my legs were running without my consent as my muddled thoughts tried to sort themselves out. With every pounding of my heart, my feet echoed twice as fast.
It was no surprise that after I had calmed down and regained my wits, I was lost. Completely and utterly lost. On top of that, I wasn't in my ideal place of being. Instead of being surrounded by miles of wild-grass, overgrown plants and trees, I was stuck in a concrete jungle. And the topping on the metaphorical cake? The sun was sinking behind the buildings at an alarming rate.
Overgrown grass sprouted up through cracks in the cement roadway, and vines climbed the walls of dilapidated buildings. Almost all doors were broken, and windows were boarded up. From my place in the street, I couldn't see past the darkness in the entrances to the buildings. A tremor of fear went down my spine. There were things in there, I would bet, and they wouldn't come out until dark. I picked up my pace, going deeper into the abandoned city. Every building had some type of easily-accessible entrance into it. There was no safe place to hide. No trees, or safe-houses, nothing. I would be lucky if I survived the first few minutes of night. By the time I had finally figured out that there was no place to run to, I was standing in the middle of a rode near an old statue of a horse.
I watched in awed fear as the last rays of sunlight finally disappeared, and the light of the moon took it's place. For a few long minutes, there was no sound save the loud beating of my heart.
Then, a wolf's howl filled the silent night and a symphony of odd grunts and screams followed.
My mind could only think of one thing: run. I took off down the street in the opposite direction of the commotion. I could hear whatever it was getting closer and closer. In the distance, the sound of metal falling to the ground blocked out all other sound, before growls and screeches covered it up. I pushed myself harder, sprinting down the street like a bat out of hell.
I looked over my shoulder, only to see that five blocks back was a huge creature standing in the shadows. That moment was all it took to lose my balance, and I tripped over a crack in the ground taking a nose dive into the nearest pile of junk. I scrambled to my feet seconds later, clutching an old metal pipe, only to see that the creature was no longer there. The night had become eerily silent.
Tap. Taptap. Tap tap tap. Taptaptaptaptaptap. Tap. Tap.
I didn't have time to turn around and see what was coming, because I was suddenly pushed to the ground. As soon as I hit the concrete I heard a giggle and a hiss. I clutched the metal pipe tighter.
"Ah ah ah. Look what we got here. A cute little girl, straying from the herd," the vampire girl in front of me said with a lilting voice. Her mouth was covered in blood, and as she talked, some of it slowly dripped down her chin and onto the ground. A hand roughly grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet before it was gone. Another vampire stood next to her now, his crazed eyes gleaming. "This looks fun, right Tate? A fun little hunt right under their noses?"
"She seems off." The female vampire huffed and threw up her hands.
"You're just picky, that's all," she said, stepping close to me. "We have to hurry, Tate. If they catch us then it won't be fun anymore." Her face was turned to the man. This would be my only chance. I lifted up the pipe and swung for all I was worth. It connected solidly with the back of her skull, and she crumpled in a heap.
"Wretch!" The male vampire launched himself at me with a roar and we went tumbling to the ground. Or, more precisely, I went tumbling to the ground while he, with all his undead gracefulness, stood above me. The wrath of an angry vampire was something I had never seen before. Before my eyes the man's features sharpened in his rage. The blackness overtook his eyes in a dizzying void of darkness. With the strike of a cobra he grasped my neck and held me in the air. I gasped and clawed at his hands as he laughed and before I could scream a familiar pain ripped into my neck.
A foreign instinct resonated from the tips of my toes to the top of my head.
An anger so odd and different that I had no choice but succumb to it. It filled my mind to the brim with waves of heat and fire, and a black feeling beyond that. In that moment, something inside of me changed. It was so rapid and quick that I barely noticed it beyond the anger and pain. My mind began to speed through a place void of emotion, trying to find that piece that was off and fix it. I was so close to figuring out that little bit that was off, so, so close...
And then suddenly I was dropped to the ground as my physical eyes perceived a wolf-like creature ripping the vampire from my body.
The world around me seemed to slow down. The creatures around me moved sluggishly, as if through a thick wall of water. They tore the two vampires apart with their clawed hands as if they were strips of paper. Almost instantly the vampires turned to dust, their screams of pain abruptly cut off. Once finished with that task the wolves dusted their large clawed hands against their bodies, before turning menacing, snarling mouths on me. Still oh-so-slow, I watched as the nearest launched it's body at me. With wonder in my eyes, it came closer and closer, and I didn't dare move. When it was an arms-length from me, it's jaws opened wide, and I was reminded of a story my father had told me.
"What large teeth you have," I told it, a wicked smile spreading across my lips.
Like pressing fast forward on a remote, the world shifted again. Before I could even think about it, my hands had grasped the wolf's jaws and tossed him to the side effortlessly. Surprisingly, it went flying into a concrete building and busted through the wall. As one, the remaining beasts came at me. I moved and dodged under their outstretched claws, narrowly missing the sharp teeth to my leg. A wild giggle escaped my throat as the play continued. They charged, I ran. They went to bite, I punched them in the nose. They couldn't catch me. This wild feeling of freedom and danger was new and fun. But then something went wrong.
Somehow, the world began to slow down to normal speed again, and I found that I wasn't nearly as fast as I had been moments earlier. The strange feelings escaped me and retreated back into the void of my mind, locked away again behind a wall. My foot caught on the concrete and I went tumbling to the ground. I only had a second to glance over my shoulder, before the jaws of the wolf came down.
"Now, beasties. Shouldn't you be playing nice with Miss Highlander? She is under the protection of the city's Northgate Pack, after all." My eyes, which had been squeezed shut, opened and I stared at the man standing over me. His red hair was hanging menacingly around him in long, unbrushed tendrils. But it was not he who spoke. The man, Nash, stood on the other side of the road, arm crossed over his broad chest. His hair was pulled back in a pony tail, with large, matted chunks framing his face. Dreadlocks, I think.
"We will let the peace remain. In turn, for our leniency, we expect to be informed of the next gathering." The speech that came from the wolf's mouth was garbled and rocky at best. With the air of royalty, the beast turned around and loped off down the street. The other werewolf paused for a moment as it's alpha disappeared around the corner.
"You should teach your younglings the boundaries, for next time we wont be nearly as kind." With a snarl and a flick of his tail, he too was gone, followed quickly by the third wolf that I had tossed through the building.
"You shouldn't wander off like that," a scolding voice came from above me. I hadn't even heard him walk across the street, yet Nash was leaning over me. He and the red haired man were bent down towards me and too close for comfort. They checked my arms and legs, for injuries I guess, before the red haired man grasped my chin and turned it towards the side. Nash let out a low whistle. His fingers probed at the dried blood on my neck and I winced.
"They got you good, didn't they honey?" Nash asked.
"We'll need to clean that when we get back," the red haired man said. He and Nash hauled me to my feet. The second their hands left me I stumbled a bit, finally feeling the outcome of my actions.
"How... How did I survive that?" I asked, staring at them with wide eyes. They looked at each other for a second, eyes communicating what mouths could not.
"It seems that you are no longer human, Josie Highlander," the red haired man said at last. "All will be explained once we get back to the Northgate base."
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Ms. MeggieLeigh, my very first reviewer. Sorry this chapter took so long. I'm not satisfied with it at all. But if I didn't put it up then I wouldn't be able to move past the road block. :/
P.S: I will be putting up links to the cast of WASTE on my profile, but I need some help. :) I can't find a good picture for Fly, and I know I haven't really described how she looks. She has blue eyes and dark hair, and has pretty plain facial features. She is supposed to have long, dark hair, but I'll take what I can get. If you find a good pic that might fit her, then PM me the link or put the name of the actor/actress/model in your review. I also need help with Nora (who is around eight or nine-ish), her brother(ten or eleven-ish), Tabitha(well, forty-ish?), and Dex(eighteen-twenty-ish, blue eyes).