Erik
HAYLEE
Erik, a surprise, had come to tell me that the others were going hunting. They'd said they'd bring me and him something back.
"Why didn't you go with them?" I asked. He shrugged.
"Didn't wanna." He said. He stared at Joshua.
"You like him, too, huh?" I asked.
"Yeah. It's good to see that there are untouched humans." He said, smiling. I smiled, as well.
"Yeah." I said. There was an awkward silence that didn't seem to pass.
"So." He mumbled.
"Y'know," I said, turning from Josh to him, "I know nothing about you."
He nodded.
"Erik Chance, I'm 16 years old. My favorite color is orange, dogs are my favorite pet, I love pizza. Well I did. My favorite drink used to be sprite and my favorite desert use to be cake. Chocolate cake to be exact." He said.
"Haylee M'kenzly. I'm 14 years old. My favorite color is green. Pizza is my favorite, too, and I loved Dr. Pepper. I loved ice cream, all types of it, to be honest. And, don't laugh, but my favorite animal is the duck." I said, giggling when he started laughing at my reply.
"A duck?" He asked.
"Yeah! I always wanted a pet duck." I laughed, a little bubblier this time.
He smiled at me.
"You're a strange girl, Haylee." He said, leaning down on the bed. He shot straight back up.
"What is it?" I asked, stopping my giggles.
"Hang on here and watch Josh. I'll be right back." He said, opening my window and jumping out. I'd only ever said about five sentences to him and here we were. Talking and laughing like we've been best friends forever. This would probably all stop soon. I was never good at keeping friends for long. About fifteen minutes later, I heard someone come through my window. I looked up and saw Erik. He had something in his shirt and his hair was a mess. He had a sloppy grin on his face, causing me to stifle a laugh.
"What happened to you?" I asked.
"Oh you know. I'm just the most amazing person ever." He said, pulling the lump out of his shirt. He was holding a little white duckling.
"No way!" I smiled.
"Yeah, I figured since you wanted a duck, I'd go and get one. My dad owns a pet store. He knows about the change and all so I didn't have much trouble explaining." He said.
I smiled, and gingerly took the duck from him. I sat the duck down and it waddled around my room. I did something to surprise myself. I surprised him as well. I wrapped my arms around him, tightly and he repeated the motion to me. I pulled back and smiled.
"I know it's kind of lame to get all emotional because of a duck but no one has ever really been so nice to me so fast because they usually see me as bitchy or something but that's not the point, the poi-" I began. I was rambling. I stopped myself and laughed a second. "Thank you. That's what I want to say."
"No problem." He smiled back. Josh started moving and he woke up.
"Josh," I said, as he crawled over to me and sat in my lap, "This is Erik. Erik, this is Josh."
Josh smiled at him and started playing with my hair.
"I'm Josh." He giggled. Erik smiled and for a while we just watched Josh. The duck jumped onto the bed and Josh's eyes widened. The duck jumped the bed and Josh followed. I giggled and Erik laughed. I was actually having fun. Erik stood and popped his back. It sounded disgusting, to be honest, but nothing I haven't heard a thousand times.
"Come on, we can watch movies." He said. I nodded and stood with him. We walked down the stairs and found Josh playing with the duck. Erik got us blood bags since my throat was burning. We put on a kid movie and all watched t.v. After a while, the others came back and gave us more blood. Damien glared at the duck but said nothing. He never agreed to anything I liked, obviously. Josh sat in my lap and Jamie came over and sat beside me.
"How has your day been?" Jamie asks, drinking a blood bag.
"Great, you?" I ask.
"Good." He says.
It's quiet and awkward for some odd reason.
"We'll talk later." I whisper and I see him nod.
~X~
I'd said we'd talk later but we hadn't gotten to. I'd fallen asleep and it was evening by the time I'd seen him the next day. Damien said we'd be doing an exercise today- one that would further some people's abilities. He said mine and Hannah's would most likely because we had a psychical type of power. He said he'd be doing one on one practices with each of us this week. He'd give us all two hours and if nothing happened then- well nothing was going to. I hadn't really cared either way. Doesn't matter to me.
"Well, lets go ahead and do regular training, now." Damien says. I groan. We hadn't trained in what seemed like forever- why start now? I stood like the others, though and we all walked outside. I'd been training on my own lately- just lifting objects here and there. We were going to do two things, is what Damien said. Improve the abilities we now had and try to find another one. "Haylee, you first."
"Good. Let's get this over with." I say. We're outside and I'd changed into a black sports spaghetti strap and black Nike shorts. I was barefoot.
"They say psychic users who are given physical mind power are often able to lift certain objects. If they ever lose something, some can just go somewhere, think of it, and if it was in that room, only that item would levitate." He says.
"Even if I'm not looking at it?" I ask.
"Even if you aren't looking at it." He confirms.
"Cool." I say.
He brings a lot of objects out of a sack that I'd just noticed. He has clothes, toys, weapons, shoes- a variety of things. He'd set them all down and showed me one. It was mine. It was a necklace my mother had given me. Anger raged inside of me. He'd been in my room.
He'd stolen from me. He will die. Painfully. He hides it in the pile while I close my eyes. I am still angry- very angry. I would kill him. Even if I didn't, he will die. He tells me it's hidden and I open my eyes. I imagine the necklace. It has a silver chain and a black diamond. It's simple, not diamond that's too big nor too small. It was perfect. It was my mothers.
It was mine.
I'd been focusing on the pile so I wasn't sure why everyone'd been looking behind Damien. Then it hit me. I stopped.
"You hid it behind you." I say. He nods.
"Good job. The necklace was moving around, though it never lifted. We'll work more on it." He says. Hannah had worked on reading more than one person's mind at one. It almost worked but she said the second person was distant- barely audible at all.
One by one, we all went. Josh'd been sitting there, watching us. When we were done with ability practice, we'd started with hand-on-hand. Thank God. I'd been paired with Taylor. I punched him in the jaw, he sent a swift kick to my side that barely fazed me. It would have hurt worse with shoes but it still sucked. I kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying into the tree, and punched at his face. I would have hit his nose but he moved and I'd hit the tree. He'd grabbed my right hand and twisted it behind me. I elbowed him with my left arm and used his grip on my right as an advantage by judo flipping him.
He got back up and kicked my stomach. I held my ground, not willing to be slammed into a tree like him. I kicked upward- kicking him in the nose, and did a back flip in the process. I'd landed and kicked him in the stomach. He flew into a tree and it was obvious who'd one. Just in case you don't get the hint- it's me.
He glared at me but if there's anything I could say of Taylor- he's a good sport.
"You got me. You're not as bad as you seem." He says. "Nor as weak as you look."
It was barely a compliment but it was a compliment none the less. Besides, I'd just kicked his ass. That's as good of a compliment as I'd needed. Soon, our practice was over and we'd all gotten one blood bag.
"There are going to be new rules from now on. 1. Only at least three blood bags a day. Four if it's a day your group doesn't hunt. 2. Only certain amount of groups will hunt at certain times now. 3. We will practice every day from now on and if it's your turn to hunt, you hunt after practice. So far that's all I have. If I have more, you'll be informed." Damien said.
That was it? Just like that. Well, I'd already sort of slowed down on the blood bags anyway, but still. Certain hunting days? I hadn't been hunting in a while and blood straight from the source is always better. It's- fresher. I'd grabbed Josh, taking the blood bag and putting it between my teeth, and carried him to the room.
"Is that blood?" He asked. I couldn't lie to him.
"Yes." I say. "We won't hurt you, though- I promised I wouldn't and I will keep that promise. I promised to protect you and if that means killing all of them- I will." I say.
Not Hannah. Never Hannah. Not Jamie or Jacob. Not even Erik. Only because I knew who they were. I knew they wouldn't do anything to Josh and the wolves weren't capable of it. Not at all.
"I know. I trust you." He says. "What's it like?"
"What?" I ask.
"Being you."
"A vampire?"
"Yeah."
"Different."
That's all it took. I'd made it up the stairs and to my room. I opened the door and we walked in. I sat him down on the bed and pulled out my diary and the sparkly pen. I opened the diary and uncapped the pen.
February 18, 2012
Dear Diary,
There's been new rules here. We aren't capable of thinking for ourselves anymore, obviously, considering the one who'd come up with them would be Damien. He's obviously our leader- or so he thinks. I run him. I could ruin his afterlife. My brother is his creator and he is the one who rules for us; not Damien. Aside from my aggravation with Damien, he'd said we'd be trying to claim new abilities. He said it would be easy for Hannah and I- probably easier for us than anyone else. We've also been practicing our abilities- the only ones we have for now. I will soon be able to lift objects without even knowing where they're at. It's pretty cool... and I'm eager to be able to do it. I found out Erik's last name. Chance. Erik Chance. It gives me hope. It's sort of a sign- that we vampires have a chance. Maybe. Just maybe. The rules that Damien gave us were simple.
1. Only at least three blood bags a day, four if it wasn't one of your days to hunt.
2. He'd assigned certain groups to hunting on certain nights- he'd tell us the groups tomorrow.
3. We will practice everyday from now on.
4. If it's your day to hunt, you don't hunt until after practice.
They were easy rules but most times the easiest rules were the hardest to follow. But I did love the practice- mainly because I'd kicked Taylor's ass. Big score- definitively a big score. Erik and I'd hung out yesterday. He'd gotten me a duck. Josh loved the duck and so did I. In fact, now the duck is on my bed. Josh is playing with it.
I am tired and I don't like the fact of doing this every night and then the fact that he has to split up hunting is odd. Is there something going on? I'll ask Mase tomorrow but for now... I just wait.
I'm impatient. I better'd not wait too long.
-Haylee
I put the diary down and looked at Josh to find him staring at me.
"Can you read me your story?" He asks.
"It's a diary- but yeah. I only have two entries for now, though." I say. He shrugs, probably only able to understand half of my sentence. I read him the two entries and he crawls under the blanket. He falls asleep just as I end the entry. I'd have to read to him more- my diary especially. I liked telling someone and he was young. It was fine for him to know.
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