Chapter 12

The Little Bastard Who Escaped.

The rest of Sunday went by out of boredom. Becca and Joshua didn't get home until somewhere close around six. They had gone on a long trip to the amusement park for a date. Cute, but boring.

I lounged on the couch, flipping through channels on the TV as Becca made dinner. Joshua was sitting in the armchair reading a newspaper. Lame and boring. I heaved a heavy sigh and threw my head back so that it hit the arm of the couch.

"What are you doing?" Joshua asked me.

"Dying." I muttered dryly.

"Why?"

Oh lovely. I say I'm dying and he merely asks why. I rolled my eyes and sat up. "There's nothing to do here! At least at the Darquecaster's I could tease somebody or clean or something! But here, if I tease you you'll chuck something at me, and if I tease Becca, she'll threaten to ground me. And I can't clean, because this place is spotless already." I complained, throwing my hands into the air. Joshua raised an eyebrow at me.

"Dinner will be ready soon. Then you can go to sleep." Joshua suggested, shrugging a shoulder and flipping a page in the newspaper.

I sat up and turned towards him. He looked over at the top of the paper at me, raising an eyebrow. "How did you and Becca react when you found out about the Darquecaster's secret?" I asked curiously.

Joshua let a nostalgic smile appear on his face as he set down the newspaper. Clasping his hands together, he leaned forward toward me. "You really want to know?"

I nodded. Joshua sucked in a deep breath.

"I had been in love with Cassidy, and Becca had once been in love with Claude," he began, and my eyes widened at this info, "and when they each figured out our feelings, they showed us they were already in love with each other, and not us. Well, Becca had a hard time letting Claude go, so she overreacted a bit."

I found myself suddenly knee-deep in interest. "What did she do?!"

"She told Cassidy that she wanted Claude, and Cassidy sniped an attitude with her. Becca slapped her, and well…it went downhill from there."

I stared at him in disbelief. Becca of all people?! "So basically Cassidy revealed the fact they were vampires by severely overpowering Becca?"

Joshua nodded. "After the incident, Claude became angered and divorced Cassidy for hurting Becca. The relationship Becca and Claude have now is nothing more than friendship."

"That's why Cassidy moved across the US?"

"Yep. Rebecca still had scars on her body to this day. And she let her love for Claude go because she didn't want to be with a vampire." he said wistfully.

"So she married you and lived happily ever after?" I mused, smirking. Joshua laughed.

"Maybe. Who knows?" he shared my smile.

"Dinner's done!" Becca called out to us. Upon hearing her voice, I never would have believed she'd have started a cat fight with somebody else. And to love Claude? Awkward.

On Monday, the guys weren't there. I had to listen to Elly complain about how her Alec wasn't at school. The whole time, I felt like slapping her. It wasn't like I was jealous…much…besides, I wanted a boyfriend. What girl didn't?

After school, I met up with Max. We were going to hang out for a bit at a park and chat. Elly was restless and claimed she wished to go with us, but we said it was our time together. She took the wrong idea and giggled, claiming that we were the perfect match.

Which was not true. In fact, a part of me wanted to say that she wasn't a good match for Alec. But what proof would I have to back that up?

"You okay?" Max asked me as we walked. I had been silent for a long time now, and we were almost at the small park already. I offered him a reassuring smile.

"Yeah…just thinking about some stuff."

"Like?"

I blushed. Like I was going to tell him I was thinking about Alec. Psh, yeah right. "I was just wondering about Elly and…Alec." I paused, making sure I didn't put too much emotion in his name. Ugh, it was all Rylan's fault!

Max and I sat down on a bench, and I studied the large field of blooming flowers. It was springtime. "Yeah, she's gotten pretty annoying since then. Alec this, Alec that. But I can't really blame her."

I looked at him, surprised. "Why not?"

Max hesitated and then smiled sheepishly. "Because Alec is pretty hot."

My jaw dropped. "Oh my God! You're gay?!" It wasn't like I cared, because he'd still be my friend, but I had thought this whole time he liked me!

Max's eyes widened and he furiously shook his head. "No, no! I like boobs! Trust me. I was just saying because he's a vampire and all…" he rolled his eyes and I laughed.

"I was just messing around." I patted him on the back and leaned against the bench. Sighing, I looked up into the sky.

"You know…" he trailed off a moment, and I looked at him before he continued, "I'm surprised you haven't fallen head over heels in love with any of them."

I sat up, confused. "Max, you know me better than that. I may have crushes, but hell, what girl doesn't like being surrounded by guys? Besides," I added quickly because of the look on Max's face, "I don't like any of them like that. I want to be able to love somebody and have them love me back. I want to be able to run to them when I need to, and cry on their shoulder when I have to." I found myself blabbering, and I realized that I had never really spoken my feelings to anybody before. "I want them to cry when I cry. I want them to feel happy when they see me smile. Ah…I should shut up."

Oh God, how embarrassing. I was probably blushing seriously. My face felt hot. Max smiled though. I gave a nervous grin in response. "No, I like it when you talk. Your voice is soothing." he said quietly.

I heard a bird chirping in the trees behind us, and I quickly looked away from Max. Was this one of those stupid, cheesy moments in a romance movie where the woman pours her heart out to a man and then the man declares his love for her? Oh no…

"Ava?" Max asked, and I felt him touched the top of my hand. I blinked, and suddenly stood up, my bag falling off of my lap.

"I just had a brilliant idea!" I lied, "Let's go to your house and play video games!"

Max let out a groan. "I've been playing video games for ages. Let's do something else. Something dangerous." he coaxed.

I shot him a look. "I'm already going through exile because of the stupid things I've been doing. I'm not going to get into more trouble." I admonished. Max stood up, picking up my bag. He rolled his eyes.

"Come on. There's going to be a bonfire party tonight behind the old building beside that apartment complex. It'll be loads of fun."

"No." I said boldly, though it sounded really….really tempting.

Max nudged me in the side with his elbow. "There'll be alcohol~!" he said in a sing-song voice. I cracked just a bit more.

"Absolutely not." I turned my nose up in the air.

Max sighed and set my bag back down next to me. "Looks like I'll just have to enjoy the loud music, large fire and alcohol by myself then…with no Ava there." he sighed melodramatically. He began walking off, hands in his pockets and shoulders and head drooped.

I shattered. "Wait! What time is it?!" I cried out. If there were tons of people, then none of us needed to worry about one nightwalker except a few people. Max stopped and turned to me, a triumphant smile on his face.

Aw, shit.

I glanced warily at my clock. It was currently twenty minutes after ten PM. I slipped on my thin jacket and gave myself a once over in the mirror. My hair was down and slightly curled from my shower, and I was wearing an old pair of my holey dark denims and my favorite shirt, if you can remember correctly, that said, "I Consider Biting Foreplay" scrawled across the front.

Then I slipped on my flats and snuck out of my room. I walked carefully by Becca and Joshua's door, and I heard the light snoring of Joshua. Satisfied, I went straight to the door without a moments hesitation. Outside, I waited in the dark for a few, eerie minutes before a car drove up. Max was in the passengers seat, and Elly was driving. One of Max's other friends were in the back, and I quickly sat next to him.

"So, are we going to make it in time, captain?" I asked Elly jokingly.

"Yeah, maybe." she said curtly. She sounded like she was pissed off. I looked to Max and he shrugged.

"Alec couldn't make it." Max whispered to me. I sat back, irritated. That goes without saying.

The party was amazing. The fire was smackdab in the center of a large clearing in the forest, and lit up the whole perimeter. It flickered in the night sky, and the entire area was crowded with students from the school. Just like Max had said, there were nearly seven coolers full of beer and other sorts of alcohol.

And the music…was great. They were playing stuff from techno to rock to hip-hop. Elly disappeared into the crowd, and Max went somewhere with his friend. Oh, what a hypocrite. I stood to the side, keeping a watchful eye out for anybody…suspicious.

"Want a drink?" somebody random asked me. I looked at it. It was a wine cooler. What harm could that do? I smiled and took it, and the person walked off. I tested the cap to make sure it was still attached just in case they tried to drug me. Sure enough, it was screwed on nice and tight, and even I had trouble opening it.

Surprising myself, I downed in in a few large gulps. And that was when Elly whisked me away to dance.

A few more wine coolers.

More dancing. The fire seemed to get hotter. Somebody passed me a beer, but I didn't want to drink it. For some reason, I did anyway. My head began to get fuzzy and my vision blurred just a bit. I danced even more, wanting to burn off my sudden burst of energy. It seemed like hours passed.

Max was dancing with me now, and I wasn't sure what he was planning, what with his hands crawling underneath my shirt and-

The music screeched suddenly, and then went off. Max and I jolted quickly, and there was a scream on the other side of the clearing. What was happening? I felt too muddled to think straight.

Someone screamed again. Max and I shared a shocked look, and then someone shouted, "Call 911!"

But somebody else replied, "Are you fucking insane?! We'll all get busted! Just leave the damn body!"

A loud, scared murmur rose among the crowd, and I realized they were all gathering near the place where the screams had arisen. Max quickly grabbed my hand and we ran -me stumbling- to the front of the tumult of people. What I saw on the other side made my head spin dangerously more so.

There was a body laying on the ground, surrounded by shattered bottles. Blood rested in small puddles around the body, and I realized with a horrid shock, that this boy was Max's friend.

"Oh God…" Max trailed off, his voice shaking. His friend, Jake, I think his name had been, was motionless, eyes wide and scared. They were glazed over and lifeless. The sight of his throat made me want to throw up. I staggered backwards, staring wide-eyed at the torn up, gaudy flesh.

That was wrong. Disgusting. Vulgar.

"This has to be a joke…" I heard Elly sob behind me. She clutched onto my shoulders, but my concentration was on Jake. Lifeless Jake. Murdered Jake. One thing came to my drunken mind.

Nightwalker.

"Everybody needs to get out of here! Leave in groups and as fast as you can!" I heard Max shout around me. There was a sudden blur as the students starting screaming and crying out as they ran around us, trying to grab their stuff to leave. Elly was clutching onto my shoulders so hard, that I was sure if I was sober it would hurt like a bitch.

"Why aren't we leaving?!" Elly cried out exasperatedly. I turned to her, finally starting to sober up just a bit from shock.

"We need to make sure the others get out of here safely. Shit… I need to call Claude about this…" I cursed, reaching for my cell phone. The clearing went quiet, save for shouts in the distance and Max throwing water and dirt over the bonfire quickly to prevent a forest fire.

Just as I pulled out my phone, it was knocked from my hand so hard, I could have sworn I heard my wrist pop. I fell backwards from the force, watching my phone fly across the clearing and hit a tree. Elly was looking past me, her mouth open in a silent scream. I looked over quickly.

Standing there, all too familiar, was the nightwalker Max and I had encountered before, and he looked even more frightening tonight than ever. His black, hungry eyes were focused on me, a terrifying smile etched onto his face. Fangs, covered in blood were protruding from his mouth, and smears of the red liquid were across his chin and over his right cheek.

"What the fuck are you?!" screamed Elly. I winced. The vampire's eyes landed on her, and my heart sped up.

"Shut up, you annoying bitch." the vampire snapped, and Elly stumbled backwards. Max caught her. The vampire looked from her to Max, and then his mouth lifted into a snarl. "You're the little bastard who escaped from me!"

Huh? Wasn't I the bastard who escaped from him? Max just helped me. What the hell was this nightwalker thinking?!