From everything that has transpired to this point, the time is now. Carter must talk to Liza, with or without Evelyn's prompting. She needs to know more, more so the truth. One minute, she seem to be connecting with Liza. The next, the girl pushes her away with all force. Liza is obviously hiding something, something much bigger than herself. Carter wants to know her, to be there for her. Yet there is also something about Liza that puts the worst gut feeling in her, her intuition begging her to run as far from her as possible. More of a warning was Carter's run in with Nate before ditching school to head to the Thomas house. All of this stood as evidence that there was way more to Liza, something wild and unpredictably dangerous.
"Speak of the devil..."
Carter thinks to herself as she arrives to the high school parking lot only to see Nate there, opening his car door as he looks around nervously. She can't help but to approach him, not only due to both their bizarre encounters with Liza after school yesterday, but also after seeing his reaction to Dylan's private run in with the girl in the hallway this morning. It was obvious to Carter that Nate knew something was off about Liza too, possibly knowing something she didn't. So what else to do than to interrogate him and maybe get a better idea of what she was really getting herself into.
"Got a reason you're ditching fifth period?" Carter asks as she approaches the boy. Nate just looks down to the concrete blankly.
"I could ask you the same question Brown." Nate responds with no emotion, not even a hint of sarcasm or toughness in his voice, as if he had lost his power to be in control or to even fight back.
"Who said I was..." Carter lies as Nate continues to look down.
"Good for you Carter. Now go away will you?" The jock speaks quietly again, his response only making Carter's eyebrows raise at him.
"Don't you have anything else to say to me? What no comebacks? No threats?" Yet something shocks Carter as Nate finally meets her eyes as if in angered urgency, more vividly, fright.
"WILL YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!" Nate shouts, making Carter become emotionless herself. It makes her solidify why she approached Nate in the first place.
"Look, I know we have never been friends. But even I notice you've haven't been yourself, ever since after school the other day. What really happened, between you and...
Nate just lets a heavy huff out before Carter can finish her question.
"Look, I can't...Liza is crazy okay? If I were you Brown, I'd watch your back." Nate had no hint of hesitation in his words. He had every reason to be afraid of Liza from the first incident after school. Yet whatever she had done made him paralyzed with fear. Carter could tell just by looking into his eyes as he spoke her name, for she wasn't expecting the jock to ever admit it. Nate Hoffman wasn't afraid of anything or anyone, not until the Thomas' moved into town that is.
"You will never speak of this Nate..."
Carter remembers the bone chilling moment Liza had spoken those words to him. Whatever she had done to him definitely fucked him up, breaking his cocky spirit. Carter needed to know why. Why is he so afraid of her?
"Crazy? And is that supposed to be a threat?" Carter asks genuinely, almost dreading the answer.
"Take it however you want. Just don't say I didn't warn you." And from there Nate says nothing more, getting into his car. Just before Nate starts his engine Carter sees Evelyn further down the lot, the younger girl's expression dark with no readable emotion.
"Go to her, Carter. Get the truth." Just as Nate's car passes by, she is gone. There is nothing more Carter can do other than do as she is told. She must get to the bottom of the unending mystery that is Liza.
Carter anxiously arrives to the front porch of the Old Gardner house. As she is about to knock on the door it lightly nudges open. As it does she hears the sound of the most beautiful piano melody being played from upstairs. It was so intricate she could hear a sadness within the song, almost haunting to the ears. She hesitates to go inside, instead taking a step within the opening of the door.
"Hello?" Carter shouts into the house. No one answers her call, the piano playing however ceasing. She decides to take the leap and finally go inside. As she shuts the door, she finds it creepy as it is the middle of the day that it is completely dark. The now dead silence just adds to the deafening suspense.
"Hello? Anyone home?" Carter calls out again nervously as she furthers into the foyer only to feel herself stepping on something. She goes down to pick whatever it was up. She takes her phone out to turn on it's flashlight, only to throw an empty blood bag out of her hands with a yelp. She scoots back frightened as she points her flashlight to find four more empty bags left from the middle of the room where she was standing to the bottom of the stairway. There was no blood on the floor, for the bags completely are empty as not even a drop was wasted.
"WHAT THE?" She panics out loud to herself, frantic as she shines her phone around the room.
"Get out of here Carter!" Carter hears Liza's voice echoing towards her. She looks around, not being able to find the red haired girl in the midst of the partially darkened room. She is indeed scared, almost enough to obey the harsh call of Liza's demanding voice. Yet she knows she needs to toughen up and be brave if she wants get the answers she is seeking. Carter calls out into the shadows.
"Liza? Look...I want to talk with you. What is your problem with me? All I've tried to do is be a good person to you, and you've been so cold to me. Why? Explain it and I'll leave." Something then happens that makes Carter jump within her own body. She feels a sharp winded pressure on her back, a cold presence behind her. Her phone drops out of her hands to the floor with a smash, the flashlight still working as it lands face up. The sudden chill is the only thing Carter can focus on, breathing heavily as Liza's hidden silhouette is gripping her from behind. Liza starts to speak lowly in her ear. She's not playing a fake part anymore, letting Carter see her for who and what she really is.
"If you value your life, you will just leave me alone Carter. I'm not like other girls." Liza's breath travels to Carter's neck, making the girl's heart rate speed up rapidly. Liza's grip is soon no longer on her. In seconds, Carter sees her shadow as she is standing on the railing of the upper stairs.
"How did you...?"
"Are you starting to get it now?!" Liza calls to her.
"Nnn..no. You won't explain anything to me. And no, you're not like other girls, that's why I like you." Liza immediately jumps from her place to gracefully appear in front of Carter. What Carter sees makes her still in shock. Crimson eyes are now staring into Carter's, glowing as if warning her. She begins to slowly back away from Liza, only for the girl to stalk forward meeting her every movement. Carter turns to run only to end up at a dead end of a wall. As she turns back around Liza moves in closer, opening her mouth with a light hiss as she eyes Carter with lust. And right then Carter sees the impossible in her sights. Fangs as sharp as knives are visible within the other girl's mouth. Liza nears until she fills the gap between Carter as her arms wrap around her, ignoring her noticeable hesitance. Carter doesn't know what to think, nor can she even move.
"You're..." She pauses, shocked.
"Yes Carter, I am a vampire. So you must understand why I cannot allow you to like me. However, I can't deny that I like you too. It's quite a shame..." Liza inches up to speak ever so quietly against Carter's neck.
"Because if I continue to like you, you'll end up dead." Carter just stares at the creature in front of her. Carter now knows the big secret: Liza is a vampire. It begins to all make sense; her insane strength, her eyes changing color at random, her strange ass behavior. It is crazy for Carter not to be immediately registering that her life is in danger with a vampire literally at her neck. No wonder why Evelyn hinted she was rooting for her to come out of her encounter with her sister alive. It makes Carter realize that she must be a vampire too. But that isn't the main thought running through her mind. Carter is only thinking of Liza, having so many questions. And as Evelyn also promised she wouldn't leave this house without getting some answers, not like she would end up leaving in one piece anyway.
"That's why you've been pushing me away? Because you like me?" Liza pulls away, her hand trailing along the side of Carter's face. The butch girl doesn't dare to react as blood red eyes are deadlocked to hers, then back to her neck.
"It's more than that. When I'm around you, I want to kill you." Carter backs up fully into the wall, only for Liza to force her hand upon it so it is ever so closely by the other girl's face. Her other hand goes to touch Carter's neck, her fingers guiding down to her pulse as she watches her.
"Ever since I met you, you have tempted me Carter, beyond what I can bear." Carter feels a tightness forming within her throat as she looks at Liza, watching as she struggles even just talking to her.
"I truly do not wish to harm you. Yet besides my sire, I have never felt a pull this strong before. What is it about you?" As Liza speaks her head nears further towards Carter's neck with every word.
"I know you won't hurt me Liza. And...well...maybe we even share something in common." Carter response comes out shakier than usual, her anxiety hiking to how close Liza is getting. But her words pull the girl away completely, smiling widely to both of Carter's suggestions. She moves a few steps back as her smile fades to an amused smirk with her arms crossed.
"Oh? And how do you figure that?" Carter looks into her eyes sincerely, almost forgetting that a vampire was just looking at her neck like it was her dinner. Carter takes herself off the wall, now the one who is nearing towards Liza. Yet she stops to keep herself at a slight distance as Liza's expression becomes entirely hard, her body appearing to have gone into defense mode. She backs up with each of Carter's movements, crouching slightly with a guttural growl as her eyes glow with more intensity with each step the human girl took. Carter puts her hands up as a peace offering so Liza wouldn't end up jumping her.
"Woah hey...it's okay. I won't hurt you, you won't hurt me. I'll answer your questions and you'll answer mine. How does that sound?" She tries to coax Liza as she is eying her suspiciously. Carter sees full well now that the creature standing before her is far more of a threat to her than she was to Liza in this moment being a mere human. Even so she keeps her cool as she attempts to read Liza through her body language, wanting to know for sure whether it is safe to lower her hands. Yet she is getting too caught up in what is lighting up the room a tint of red to do anything.
"You were saying..." Liza's voice escalates impatiently, making Carter jump as she was visibly distracted by the girl's unnatural eyes.
"Oh! Right. Well...for one thing we both like different. I've wanted to find someone like you, for there is beauty in not being like everyone else." Liza's body calms as her hunger partially subsides to her answer. Her eyes begin to fade to green as she looks at Carter with a faint grin. Carter slowly puts her hands down, more at ease as Liza's eyes appear to be more human than they were seconds ago. Yet Liza's softer expression begins to falter as she backs away a step.
"Even so, we are way too different. You seem to forget that vampires must feed off your kind to live Carter. Doesn't that much different scare you?" Liza asks as the human girl just looks at her with the utmost sincerity.
"What if I told you Liza that I've never been like everybody else...and I honestly don't want to. So no amount of different can scare me off that easily." After a moment of silence passes between the two Carter begins to walk aimlessly about the dimly lit foyer, still keeping herself somewhat distant from Liza as she resumes speaking, now nonchalant in her tone.
"And truth to be told, the vampire thing, doesn't really scare me at all. Hell...I think it's kind of cool." Liza raises an eyebrow as Carter goes back to the center of the room to look back at her, her cold blooded expression turning slightly wicked. She knows Carter is trying to be brave, for her and her own pride. She finds it to be rather adorable, adorably stupid of a human trying to lie to a vampire. Her eyes flash completely crimson again, moving forward rapidly to capture Carter in an intimate embrace. Carter realizes she can't move again, for the vampire's grip is too strong. Liza's head slowly goes to Carter's neck, nuzzling it as she takes a deep breath in. She hisses as she inhales her pulsing blood. In an instant Carter feels something sharp grazing her skin, frozen in immediate fear. Liza chuckles at the human's quick change of reaction. She can sense the girl's internal panic as her heart is beating ever so loudly in her chest, her racing pulse making the vampire's fangs ache with a bloodthirsty desire.
"Not afraid? I would be. You have no idea what I'm capable of, especially when I'm hungry."