The Unread
Chapter Four: Blame It on the Morning

I felt her fear before I heard her screams.

They were the first words I saw when I woke up, their shaky afterimage hovering in my sight, like looking into the sun too long. My cheek was pressed to something square and hard, and I was sure it would leave and imprint where it mattered. Damn, now I couldn't go out for another day. Not that I could get up in the first place. Do you know how much I hated health class until now? A hell of a lot, especially as it continued to remind me of my own stupidity. It was the second rule! The one that was hammered into me from kindergarten – if you run fast, don't let your legs stiffen up. You are stuck wherever for as long as it takes to heal. Want to know what the first rule was? Never leave the one you guard. Yeah, I'd broken that one too.

So I was here for another day, immobile, with nothing but my shorts and tank-top to cover me, and this weird square thing as my guide. Looks like it would be an interesting day. Not. Seeing as I would be in for a long day I pondered the meaning of the sentences I saw last night and now, more recently, this morning for a brief time. I felt her fear ... how could someone feel fear that belonged to someone else? And anyway, fear was not a luxury I could afford most of the time, but who said it was my sentence anyway? My head was clouded with new thoughts; so many that I could barely string them together. Ugh, I was so not a morning person.

The morning light was getting stronger, and I shuffled through the pain to a place nearer to the bordering forest where I could get some shade. As I was going along I finally caught sight of the square thing that I had been sleeping on all night. It was mostly black, with red words imprinted in a square paragraph shape spanning from about three centimetres around the edge of the square. It was around then I realised stupidly that it was a book, of course. If Lissa was there I'm sure she would have given me a face-palm by now. I could only imagine my stupid face as I stared quizzically at what was quite obviously a black book with a red blurb telling of its insides. Hey, I just blamed it on the morning.

I reached out and grabbed the book – it was fairly thick and paper backed, but despite this it seemed new – and (very un-Rose like) I hesitated. How did it get there? Did it have anything to do with the mysterious sentences that had appeared to me last night? But then my impulsiveness kicked in (a little late if you ask me, but I blamed it on the morning) and I went to read the blurb, which was facing up from the dirt, a weed poking in between the bottom pages. So it had been here for a while, but didn't have a fingerprint on it, and it wasn't dirty. Hmmm. As I was reading, I was struck by something familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It was then that two words jumped off the cover at me.
Lissa Dragomir.

No. Beeping. Way.

It all came rushing back to me then, and I imagined a spark growing in my eyes like in those corny detective movies when the annoyingly obvious truth seeps into the thick skulls of the characters, just in time. The hovering red words, standing out against the black background of what I thought was my mind, but was just the cover of the book through my exhausted eyes. The prediction they made – about Liss being a Moroi and me dedicated to protecting her. Right about the Strigoi that were always on our tail, and the guardians who wanted us back just as much as the Strigoi did. Right about our whole lives up until Lissa had decided to compel the guardians to her will and we escaped. Until that one stubborn Russian decided to come back. Why now! Couldn't the world wait for a couple of days to give me something this big, when I had Lissa back? Stupid morning, I blamed the time of day.

And yet, it was more the stuff that didn't happen that scared me. No, not scared, worried, Rose Hathaway didn't get scared. I had seen the words last night, and the last words said ... that Lissa and I were captured together and taken back to that hell-hole, the Academy. And the supposed cutthroat ranks of Moroi performing unspeakable rituals ... I had never heard of anything like that happening. The worst I knew of Moroi getting was a pack of party crazy popular girls, and while that was a force of its own I wouldn't exactly call those rituals unspeakable. But still. I had this gut feeling that there wouldn't just be this random book about my life if it wasn't true. There was a slight chance that some writer somewhere just happened to make up a character that was the same person as me, but it was even less likely to have Lissa and the Academy in the same place. Okay, so maybe that was just common sense, but the words of the blurb remained a mystery to me, so I turned over to look at the front cover, to see if anything lay there.

And there, in red format and staring flirtatiously over her shoulder and her dark hair flipped around, was me. The photo looked recent, and it was engraved into the laminated cover like it had been printed there, not just stuck on. A photo of me on a book about me ... how did this happen? Who wrote this? I scanned the bottom half of the page but there was nothing there, nothing to show for this book that told of things that had and hadn't happened. And maybe ... maybe things that were going to happen, too. That was the only remaining explanation now. I was all out of excuses for this little bundle of weirdness that was this book. This book called ... I looked down, hoping at least the title of the book was there, and there it was, in red gothic type with its own true symbol and everything.

Vampire Academy. I blamed it on the morning.

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while ... I was busy. And I'm not exactly feeling the love from you reviewers! I hoped my silence would prod you into reviewing, but now I have had no choice but to leave you with a cliffy. Ha! That'll teach you. Now please ... I need to know what you guys think of this all. I try to write, and when I get no reviews then I can't write. Find it in your hearts. Review.
- AD
PS. I'm now doing story recommendations. If you want me to put a small advertisement in here for others to read then PM me or send a review with the story, author and a small summary.

Today's Story Recommendation:
Romeo Belikov by random-friend
When Dimitri comes back from a surprise trip to Russia Rose notices something's up. Suddenly he's no longer strong and silent; he's serenading her with love songs and chucking pebbles at her dorm windows. Dimitri's gone corny! Will Rose ever get back the man she loves?