"Mana! Get up, we're late!"
I heard Yuki open my bedroom door and hurried footsteps.
"She's already gone?!"
The footsteps left.
"Zero, she's not up there, we're late!"
I faintly heard Zero's voice until it was cut off when the front door slammed shut. I waited for a few seconds before opening the doors of my wardrobe and stepping out with a relieved sigh. I wanted to just bunk today.
I wasted no time to dash into Yuki's bedroom and look through her things. I found my headphones in her underwear drawer then rushed back into my room to plug them into my music player and started listening to my music. I had thrown on some casual clothes, hiding away my uniform that I had put up ready to put on for the morning. That's what gave Yuki the idea that I had gone off to school early.
I set my timer to go off ten minutes before the first break started. Yuki and Zero will cotton on soon enough that I'm not in class so I'll be off to the town to escape them until at least past the lunchbreak so perhaps after that I'll be bothered to put on my uniform then join them for crossover at least. Boy, I might be facing quite the music today. …Ha.
But where should I go to hide? Not a restaurant, I don't want to bother spending money on a meal. Don't really want to go to the music store in case I end up buying a bunch of CDs and have no more allowance to spend for the month. Bookshop? Mmm, nah, there aren't any places to sit and relax. Perhaps a café then? My eyes wandered to the café card that Kuran had given me. My stomach growled with the desire for that strawberry mochi Kuran had a box of. Fucking bastard.
You know what actually? Fuck it, I'm going there. I slipped my headphones off and grabbed Pearl Beauty and my purse, ready to go out to town.
It took a while to find the café, it wasn't a very obvious building to be a café. I vaguely recognised it, it must be a new café. This building used to be some antique business that went bankrupt and it became abandoned. I wonder when it got remodelled into a café.
When I went in, it didn't look like business was exactly booming. There was a young couple by the window sharing cake but they didn't look completely comfortable. I wonder why…
"Ah, table for one?"
I jumped at how quickly a waiter practically glided up to me equipped with a menu and a rather creepy smile. His blue eyes sparkled as he eyed me up and down. Dude, don't you even think of trying anything.
"By a window? Or would you prefer a booth tucked away in the corner of our humble café?"
Let's go by a window! Where there are hopefully plenty of witnesses… I gestured to one of the tables by the window, the nearest to the door. The waiter moved quite quickly to pull a chair for me to sit on. I sat down as he placed the menu in front of me and pulled his notepad and pen out.
"We have a special offer on strawberry mochi with any hot beverage," he smiled wider as I inched away from him "We would normally give ten percent off for this deal but for a young lady like you, we can give twenty-five percent off."
I stared at him silently, suddenly put off the mochi. I opened the menu and looked through the drinks. I pointed to a simple black coffee and he scribbled it down.
"And some extra mochi specially for you," he smiled with a wink which made me shiver "Our compliments to such a beautiful lady."
…You, sir, need charisma lessons. I took my notepad out to insist that I just want the coffee but he was gone. I lowered my notepad, biting my lip nervously as I saw two other waiters move about the café. One with ginger hair held back with a headband hovered around the young couple, causing them to shoot him a few dirty looks. The other with dyed blue hair began pulling down the blinds to the windows, which was strange. It wasn't that sunny.
The couple suddenly stood up, the man placing down some money on the table without even asking for the bill and leaving. They hurried out, looking a little displeased as they shot more dirty looks at the waiter that had practically creeped them out until they couldn't stand it. I would have watched them walk outside, hadn't the blue haired waiter pulled down the blinds down my window.
"There we go, miss," he purred with a smile.
I didn't ask for the blind to be pulled down, buddy. I'd really prefer them to…be… I watched as he walked off towards the counter. I saw fangs. I suddenly looked to the waiter with ginger hair and it took a while to realise that he too, had fangs. They practically showed them off with their grins. Why didn't I notice it before?!
"Here we are…" the blue-eyed waiter smiled, his black hair now loose, as he sauntered over with a cup of coffee and a plate of mochi that were neatly piled into a small pyramid.
He placed both plate and cup in front of me and grinned, his fangs now clearly visible.
"Enjoy…"
He backed off as I watched him warily then looked at the coffee and mochi. Something was not right, not right at all. I don't feel safe, nuh-uh, I need to get out of here. As soon as I made a slight movement to withdraw, they stepped forward at the same time. I froze, I hadn't even moved an inch. The way they were watching me, they were like a pack of wolves. My heart raced as I reached for Pearl Beauty whilst surveying my surroundings. My blood ran cold when I saw that one of the waiters had switched the open sign to say closed. They wanted me alone and to make sure no-one saw me.
Well fuck, I'm trapped. I took another look at the coffee and mochi. Was it their plan to drug me then drag me off somewhere where they could suck the blood out of me in a private area? Yeah no, not going to happen. I moved my chair back again and the black-haired waiter drew closest.
"Is something wrong?"
I drew Pearl Beauty out and clicked her out. A couple of vampires came out from the kitchen area after apparently lurking by the door. The blue eyes of the dark-haired waiter turned red.
"Now, now, young miss. There's no need to be so cautious."
I slipped down from the high chair and backed off towards the door.
"You won't be able to get out," the ginger haired vampire purred as he held up a key.
"It would be wise to cooperate…" the blue haired vampire grinned as the kitchen vampires stepped out onto the floor.
I cracked Pearl Beauty in warning and he snarled.
"You're outnumbered, girlie," he hissed as the other two waiters moved closer "You don't have a chance."
He then lunged for me and I cracked Pearl Beauty at him, striking across his chest and tearing his uniform. He yowled as blood splattered on the floor and I lunged for the cup of coffee on the table as the other two lunged for me. The coffee splattered into the dark-haired vampire's eyes and I let the coffee mug fly and hit the ginger head on the forehead. The dark-haired vampire stumbled as he covered his eyes and the ginger-head tackled me into the door. I banged my head on the glass and met his fierce glare.
"You fucking bitch."
I let the sleeve of my shirt slip over my hand and gripped Pearl Beauty's cord lightly in an attempt to loop her around his neck so I could strangle him. The hooks lightly grazed my fingers and I realised my mistake when his eyes lit up red. He gripped the front of my shirt and shoved me harder against the door, shaking my grip off Pearl Beauty's cord but I still held onto her handle. I saw him lick his lips.
"He said to not feed off her!" the black-haired waiter suddenly barked from behind him.
"Just one taste, Kou…" the bloodthirsty vampire purred as he eyed my neck "Just a little…"
"Yuuya!"
Yuuya was pulled away and I raised Pearl Beauty.
"Don't you dare!"
The blue-haired vampire had recovered and was going for me again whilst Yuuya and Kou began fighting. I struck him twice, the first strike hitting him vertically from his head and the second wrapping around his neck and I pulled to behead him. He turned into dust at my feet and whilst this went unnoticed by the waiters, the vampires that had come from the kitchen weren't happy.
They both lunged for me and whilst I managed to strike one, the other kept coming for me. I lifted my left hand to defend myself and his claws sunk into it, tearing skin and my throat burned as I tried to scream my pain. I struck Pearl Beauty at him, striking him across his hips and groin, enticing a scream from him.
I pressed my hand to my shirt, thankfully it was a dark one so it would be hard to see the blood. I struck Pearl Beauty again and she wrapped herself around this one's leg, tripped him up and I managed to pull him a little closer (he was as heavy as fuck). I pinned him down and flayed at his chest, a bit frantic to make sure I could at least make him bleed to death or something.
It was a while but he stopped moving and I moved my attention to the other vampires, wondering why they hadn't stopped me. I felt a little dizzy and I probably was a little delirious from losing a bit of blood but the other vampires were eying me hungrily. Even Kou looked as if he was ready to tear my neck open to feast on me, despite saying that I wasn't meant to be fed off from. Why was that? What do they want with me?
Actually, this is a bad time to ask questions, I need to find a way out! I bolted for the kitchen. The other chef vampire followed me as the waiters continued their brawl. I ducked as he swiped at me and I heard metal bend and suddenly smelt gas. I glanced up briefly, the pipe had been completely severed. I tackled the vampire and he hit his head on one of the cookers, knocking him out cold. I began coughing and moving away from the split pipe, wheezing and trying to find fresh air. I let out a breath of relief and noticed the emergency exit at the back of the room.
"Oi, you bitch!"
Yuuya had caught up and he lunged for me, grabbing my injured hand and holding it up to his face as he pinned me to a wall. He slowly dragged his tongue up the gashes, forcing me to hiss out my pain as it began stinging. His eyes shone brighter as his fangs grazed my skin.
"I see why you're so popular now," he purred and I stared at him, my heart thumping against my ribcage.
He licked his lips as he twisted my hand more, fangs poised to sink into my hand. At this point I managed to knee him square in the nuts. He fell and I spied the box of matches by the cooker. I began coughing again, the kitchen was quite small after all and I grabbed the box of matches. I rushed for the emergency exit and stumbled out, still coughing and feeling a little dizzy from my injury.
"Damn you, I'll kill you!"
Yuuya had gotten back up and in my haste, I tipped the box of matches over, grabbing one and striking it. I prayed to the gods as I flicked it at Yuuya. It was sort of heard, the room had filled up quicker than I had anticipated. The match lit the gas, I saw Yuuya turn to ash and my poor left hand got scorched (as if it hadn't gone through enough).
There was a loud bang as I flew back, flames lapping at my shirt and hair and I landed against the alleyway wall. The heat was fierce as metal creaked and I shuffled as far away from the heat as possible. Then I hopped onto my feet and as I began hearing the panicked shrieks from some townspeople, I bolted through the streets, tucking my left hand under my shirt and putting Pearl Beauty away.
I got a lot of odd looks from those who were out during a weekday and I'm not surprised considering I probably had burns on my face, my clothes were a little singed and they might have seen blood. I didn't care. I just needed to get home and break out the first aid kit.
When I got back to campus, it was lunchbreak so there were a lot of students about. I had to sneak around, though it didn't really help that I stunk of smoke. I resorted to climbing up my favourite tree to hide for a while. I hissed as I realised tucking my hand under my shirt was not a good idea. It was sticking to the fibres and it was painful prying them off. And my hand looked nasty.
Not only do I have some nasty gashes down my hand and wrist but now it was raw and starting to darken a little. Ooo, it was nasty and it was sore as fuck, like shit, I should have thought of a more effective way than fucking exploding a café! It's brought too much attention, I can see the smoke from the town and I can hear fire sirens. Fuck! This is what I get for bunking and going to a vampire infested area by myself! FUCK!
Yuki and Kaien are going to freak! Zero's going to freak! I have a feeling Kuran will freak! All the students will be demanding why I have this injury! It sure doesn't look like the result of a cooking accident (although it did take place in a kitchen…).
I heard the bell ring, signalling that the lunch break was over. I held my burnt hand out as I used my uninjured hand to carefully make my way down the tree. Of course, as luck would have it (to say I was having a bad day was the ultimate understatement) another branch snapped under my weight and down I went. Thankfully after getting scratched up by a few branches, I managed to grab a low branch with my good hand before I landed on the ground. I let out a soft sigh before dropping down and landing on shaky legs. I need to get back home, get a drink then treat the burn and try to get rid as much evidence as possible.
I managed to get back home without much incident. I went straight to the kitchen, grabbed a glass and ran the tap. I hissed as the water hit the burns before pausing to fill then drink my glass. I closed my eyes, taking in deep breaths and mentally kicking myself for my luck. I'm going to blame fucking Kuran for this, if only he didn't offer to take me to that café and tempt me with mochi. Well on the plus side, I won't have to go on that stupid date on Saturday.
After a while I pulled away and grabbed cling film from one of the drawers. After pulling my shirt off, I wrapped my hand and wrist in it before going upstairs to find the first aid kit. I did a pretty shoddy job in bandaging my injury, I wasn't too great in the first aid course and I was only using one hand. I also noticed I had some black marks on my face in the mirror. I might have to nick Yuki's make up to cover those.
I then rushed downstairs and considered throwing my shirt out considering that it was covered in blood and had obvious burns. Shame, it was a favourite. I shrugged, deciding to throw it away another time and jogged upstairs to strip down and fit on my school uniform, ready to sneak into class. I pulled the gloves I had for Pearl Beauty to cover my bandaged hand and sighed. Please, please let there be no more incidents today.
