Catrina Billowson

People were staring.

Still.

Especially when Harvey and I were walking down the hallway together. The two nerdiest kids in school turned out to be the two hottest icons in the halls within a few days. No one was expecting that. Not even me.

Puberty doesn’t work that way.

Harvey said he loved me. Or, said he thought he did. I never understood why or how, and I felt nothing but anger toward him and a connection only we would know, something apparently burrowed deep within my body that’s uncontrollable and animalistic. It’s like I couldn’t stand being away from him, even when that’s all I wanted.

But I’d never tell him either of those things.

The homeroom bell rang, and Harvey walked me to my classroom. He said, “Don’t get too thirsty,” and chuckled. He squeezed my arm lightly, caringly, and walked off to his class. I can’t help but notice the way his body language has changed, like something from a movie.

I took a breath before stepping into my classroom, Koby nowhere in sight. I started to freak out. The project was due tomorrow and he was missing.

Everyone turned around and whispers began to circle the room. Apparently I looked way different to everyone else. Even Mrs. Callaway was staring.

“Hi,” I said to them, shifting uncomfortably. Pressing my lips together, I shuffled over to my teacher’s desk, muttering beginning to circle the room. My face heated, and I felt like every inch of me was being scrutinized, a soft buzz creeping up my throat. It began to itch, and I cleared my throat trying to stifle the slight pain. “Uh, Mrs. Callaway, umm... is Koby here today?”

She snapped out of her trance at the sound of my voice and stuttered, “Uh, um... it doesn’t look like it, Catrina. But I’m sure you will finish the project in time.”

She gave me an awkward smile, her eyes lingering too long and filled with too many questions. I make a popping noise with my mouth as I turn toward the rest of the classroom, eyes darting to and from me. Biting the inside of my cheek, I made my way to my seat at the back of the room and buried my face in my arms, my throat now on fire. It’s as if my senses have magnified. I can smell shampoos and body odor, and even the rancid morning breath of some. My ears picked up conversations about me. Some thought I’d hit puberty, finally, while others were absolutely clueless and way off track. And then someone said it.

“Vampire.”

IT was a whisper, but it made me sit upright in my chair. My eyes flickered quickly across the students’ faces to find who said it, but I couldn’t tell. Perhaps… they were only joking.

Halfway into the course of homeroom, they were still talking about my transition, and it was starting to annoy rather than embarrass. So was the sound of their pulses and the blood rushing through their veins. It seems as though my senses are gradually enhancing as I spend time as a… vampire.

I groan, my throat prickling with thirst.

Why me?

After wallowing in self-pity for a good minute, I stood up and went over to Mrs. Callaway’s desk, prying pupils surrounding and watching my every movement.

“Can I get some water from the water fountain?” I asked her.

She nodded and said, “Just sign out.” After a pause, her eyebrows furrow. “Did you do something to your face? Not that it looks bad—it just took me by surprise—”

I cleared my throat and gave a small, timid smile. “It’s okay, Mrs. Callaway. Took me by surprise too.”

I signed out on the piece of paper by the doorway and headed down the hall. My hunger for what I assume was the blood of my classmates was fading. Good. Would I go feral if I was thirsty enough, though?

What was once a quiet hallway suddenly erupted with noise. No one was out there, but it was so loud. Like everyone in the school was talking at once. I jumped at the sounds. I don’t know where they came from, but I could hear them echoing… as if they were inside me.

I froze where I was standing. Was I hearing ghosts? I couldn’t be... That was impossible...

But so are Vampires.

I looked into the classroom to my left. Regan Andrew turned around, my eyes focusing on her.

Is that Catrina? What did she do to herself? She looks so different, I heard. It sounded like Regan, but her mouth wasn’t moving. Why is she staring at me? Regan turned around. Creep.

I returned to staring down the hall, and I heard all the voices again. I started walking, shaking my head. I could hear thoughts? I could read people’s minds?

“Whoa,” I said aloud. This is crazy.

My thirst for blood disappeared as I reached my destination. I took a sip from the water fountain, and turned back around, something making the back of my neck tingle, as if someone was watching me.

Koby was standing there, sopping wet.

The voices disappeared suddenly. I jumped back, accidentally knocking my knuckles on the metal of the water fountain. “Koby?”

He nodded, and raised a finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet. I nodded.

Can you hear me?

My body stiffens, straight as a board.

I gasp.

“Koby? Was that you?” I whispered to him, terrified I’d be wrong and that I looked like an idiot.

He nodded.

I’m talking to you through my thoughts.

“How?” I whispered. “You can’t be a… a…” I clear my throat, which doesn’t seem to burn as he takes a step closer. “How are you able to do that?”

I’ll tell you later. Try it, yourself. Just think something and press it outward to me and I’ll hear it, he told me. I made a face. But… I’m the only one who can.

This was all too weird.

“Okay, I’ll… try, I guess,” I said, balling my fists at my sides to keep them from shaking. I closed my eyes tight and took a deep breath, wondering if maybe I willed him to hear me speak, he’d hear me. Can you hear me?

He smiled, his green eyes lighting. Yes. I can.

Why are you here? I thought you weren’t coming today.

Well, you thought wrong, he smiled. I came here to show you this trick. And I have to tell you something. Like really soon. And no one can know I was here. Not even Harvey.

I didn’t know y’all knew each other, I thought.

Better than you could ever know him yourself, he sneered.

“Why aren’t you actually speaking to me?” I asked. “And why can’t you just tell me now?”

He’ll hear my voice and come running for you. Come to with me to my house after school. I’ll meet you at the front so I can show you the way. I have something to explain… and to admit to you.

I nodded.

He started to leave, and I called out to him with my thoughts one more time. Wait! How can you speak like this? And how can I speak like this? And why are we—

I’ll tell you everything after school. He smiled a beautiful smile. It made my heart melt and my head spin, even through all the strangeness and the crescendo of voices that aren’t really there. And, yet, Harvey’s face seemed to press through it all, that sickening feeling returning for a brief moment.

“Okay,” I said, bearing a strangled smile.

He chuckled, concern lacing his eyes, slipping through the doors of the school and letting the smell of rain tumble through the hallway.

I went back to homeroom, my stomach twisted around itself, hearing all of these voices once again. I was actually glad that it wasn’t ghosts I was hearing, but actual people. If not, this would be a completely different story.

When the bell rang, I headed to history class, Mr. Sought still subbing. His yellow eyes watched me as I walked in the door. They followed me as I sat down at my desk. The fire of the thirst of a Vampire flared in the back of my throat as the smells of high school all hit me at once, teenagers filled with hormones rushing to get to their seats. The tardy bell rang and Mr. Sought began to take role of the class, seeming to already know all of our names and the faces that matched. It struck me as odd.

Regan, the girl I’d accidentally stared at earlier, came over to talk to me, and I scratched at my throat, as if that’d relieve some of the aching.

“What did you do to get your face to get that clear?” she asked, wondrous as she ducked closer to get a better look.

“Uh, I don’t know really. I guess not wearing makeup paid off,” I chuckled.

“Oh,” she said simply, disappointed.

I cleared my throat and squirmed in my seat as a soft clicking began to come from it. Regan most likely couldn’t hear it from where she stood. “Why do you have to worry anyway? Your face is flawless.”

“Oh, I know it is. Just I would’ve never guessed that would happen to you, especially with what you looked like before.”

Her eyes glistened with cruelty as she laughed in my face.

I froze. Smiled as if to brush off what she said, my cheeks flushing as I grew more and more embarrassed.

Ouch.

And then I buried my face in my arms on the desk.

Mr. Sought continued through the roll call, and when he got to my name, I said here, and he asked if he could see me in the hall when he was done with attendance.

“Uh, okay,” I said, unsure of myself more than ever. Can this day get any worse?

He finally got to the last name on the list.

“Zachery Webber?”

“He’s not here,” a guy named Henry told him.

“That’s it for attendance. Catrina?” Mr. Sought said, and motioned toward the door. I sighed, got up, and walked out the doorway and into the cold hallway. What did I do?

Mr. Sought walked out and stood in front of me. My throat sent off little ‘clicks’ that felt like warnings not only to me, but to him too. These were louder than the ones I’d had deep in my throat when Regan was close to me. I swallowed to stop them, a burst of pain shooting though my throat and nose as if I’d held in a burp caused by Sprite.

Strange... It was the same type of clicks the Werewolf made...

“Something’s different about you today that wasn’t the same yesterday.” He hesitated with a slight glint in his eyes. “Or even the day you were born.”

Red flags wave like crazy in the back of my mind as my eyes widened and took in the man before me. I stumbled backward, my footfall seeming to echo thorugh the hallway as I clutched my chest, the clicks starting up again. Once again, I swallowed, pain shooting through my throat.

“What—” I croaked, looking for an exit. “What are you talking about?” And where is this coming from?

A slight whimper bubbled from the depths of my throat, but my sealed lips kept it from slipping outward. I was taken aback by the sudden sounds coming out of me… Were these normal sounds to vampires?

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, so many questions to answer, Catrina.” He started to pace in front of me like a predator playing with its food. “Catrina, you are one of the children that were born with a certain ability. A special ability.”

“You’re crazy...” I said, flustered as I started walking away from the strange substitute. I knew subs were always weird, but… this one gave me the creeps. And he sounded crazy. Two negatives don’t make a positive in the real world. Especially now, since… I wasn’t a part of the real world anymore. Could he be a vampire, too? It’s possible, right? His eyes… They were so abnormal…

“Crazy, I am not,” he said evenly, his chin up.

I tried listening to his thoughts like I had earlier with Koby, narrowing my eyes onto his face as I still. Nothing. Maybe it turned on and off? Or maybe I needed to learn how to use it and hone its abilities.

“Uh-uh-uh,” he said, much like I was a child and I was doing something wrong, an animalistic glint in his eye. “You can try and listen to my thoughts, but it won’t work.” He stopped pacing directly in front of me, and a chill rushed down my spine, pooling in my stomach and making it churn. “No matter how hard you try.”

Suddenly, I wasn’t at the school anymore. I was in a large, dark forest, a golden gleam to everything. The gold was slowly ebbing away.

I stand alone between the darkened trees.

“Where am I?” I whispered in awe, nearly stumbling over my feet as I took a few steps.

I heard virulent laughter echo throughout the trees.

“Who’s there?” I yelled. I couldn’t shake the feelings of fear, and the clicking started up again, growing louder. “Mr. Sought?!”

“Hello, Catrina.”

I spun around to where the velvet voice was coming from, the clicking cutting out immediately, fire in my veins taking its place.

“Harvey?” I asked, shaky as my eyes fell on him. He stood a good distance away, but far enough for my eyes to make out the expression on his face.

I felt my guards go up, my teeth sharpen in my mouth. This wasn’t a game. This was... my dream. The dream I’d had. A place where Harvey doesn’t have this strange power over my emotions and I know more than I think I do. A place I could get into a lot of trouble.

He came to my side in a flash and started to circle me like a cat would a plaything. His eyes were a dark red. He was thirsty. He would put up a fight.

“Welcome to dinner,” he hissed, licking his venom-dripping teeth with his tongue.

“You can’t beat me. I’m stronger,” I stepped up to him and put my face in his, my heart pounding in my fingers. It wasn’t me saying these things. It’s the dream-like state I was in. I was in a dream, right? “And faster.”

How the frick could I possibly know that off the top of my head?

“Oh really?” he smirked as he stepped back and crouched.

Before I knew it, my muscles reacted to his aggressive stance and I was rushing through the trees, aware my threats came across as a challenge to him. Why hadn’t I just punched him in the gut or something? I was strong now, right? Like how Vampires were in movies when they’re first bitten? Who knows? It’d been a day and I hardly knew anything about this species I’d become, and all I was going off was movies and books. I hadn’t even read Dracula.

I groaned.

This was a lot like what happened in my dream.

Only, this time, I was a mythical creature spurted from legend.

All of a sudden, Harvey was straddling my waist, licking the venom from his lips as it drips from behind his fangs like a snake. He leaned down as I struggled, obviously the weaker of the two unlike I assumed and threatened, and he hissed, as if to taunt me.

“Now who’s stronger?”

His eyes were saturated with a thirst that I wished wasn’t the one they were locked onto as he dipped closer, something inside me rendering my will to escape useless. Is this… the power he has over me? It hadn’t affected me until this very instant.

I heard someone shout “Help!” in the distance, and I cocked my head toward the sound. Instinct. Bad idea.

Harvey sneered and sat upright, muscles tense. I pushed him off and rolled, pinning him to the base of a tree. “Me.” I whispered, and delivered a blow so hard to his skull, his head got stuck at the base of the tree, embedding itself into the wood and dirt. I had the blood of a newborn Vampire running slowly through my veins, and that’s probably what was making me crazy and say things I never would have said, making me suddenly feel things I hadn’t just before. As for the person who had yelled… I could smell him, and I could practically taste the blood pumping through his system, my eyes fast-flickering as Harvey struggled to regain grip over his slurry mind. It made my mouth swell with venom, which I spat out because it tasted absolutely disgusting.

I shoved away from Harvey and darted through the trees, picking up the human’s trail. I could hear his breath, and his fear snuck under my skin and made me giddy. This was a side I’d never seen before of myself, of anyone, and for good reason, too.

And then I found him, a ginormous wolf clamping onto his arm.

Werewolf, I heard in my head. It was Harvey’s voice, and I could feel his presence just over my shoulder, a sudden tingling washing through me.

Dinner, Harvey smirked, his eyes trained on the human.

The wolf moved a slight inch to the left, and I caught a glimpse of the boy’s face.

Koby.

I had heard Koby call for help. The story he told me about the lichen was real—it had happened to him.

He was the Werewolf.

I snarled sprinted toward the beast, clicks suddenly erupting from my throat, our bodies colliding and tumbling into the dirt and debris as an animalistic roar rips itself from my mouth, soil and leaves caking onto me. The werewolf whimpered in pain, and the glowing yellow eyes glared at me, standing upright as I found my own feet, wiping away the venom trickling down my chin. The clicks resonated in the back of my throat, barely audible to anyone who would come close.

“Catrina. Why would you interrupt my feeding?” I heard the wolf say. It transformed into Mr. Sought, his yellow eyes glowing as bright with hunger as Harvey’s had, and maybe even more than that. An unexplainable hunger and thirst to not just kill for the sake of living, but to kill and destroy.

“Mr. Sought?” I asked, shocked. A moment later, I figured I shouldn’t have been surprised. However, I was only more confused.

This had to be a dream… right? I fell asleep in class, thinking Mr. Sought was weird, and now…

“Please, call me Von,” he smiled.

“You could have killed him!” I shouted.

Koby stood and ran rather quickly from the forest, holding onto his bloody arm for dear life. He was safe. For now.

“You could have killed him just as well, but it seems like, once again, I underestimated you—even after killing important people in your past,” he said, chuckling in pleasure, the sound like a purr from a cat. My body stiffened and the clicks in my throat grew louder. I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t feel safe and my stomach was queasy—I wanted to go home. I didn’t want to be in this dream any longer.

“I—” I sputtered, my throat closing around my words. “I don’t understand—”

I stumbled backwards, holding my head. This is just a dream, right? Just… just a dream.

However, something told me it really, really wasn’t.

“Not all of us have abilities, Catrina, like you and me. You hear the thoughts of others, while the past is mine to manipulate—for a price.”

Past… manipulate… We couldn’t be in the past… we just couldn’t be. That’s… impossible.

“What’s—what’s that price?” I exhale, not absolutely certain this was real, or even that a dream could be this believable. He had to be bluffing. Bluffing with a Cheshire grin, but bluffing nonetheless.

Right?

He lunged towards me.