Dark Night

by Stefany Rattles

  “There is a lot that you need to learn before we could talk about that. All I can say is that is not only you that was in danger, is the entire institute. You do not need to worry though, I was just talking to Illyanne apparently they think it was humans that did this, and if it was then they will be caught sooner or later. Now that is in the guard’s hands.” He said. But I wasn’t fooled, he hadn’t answered my questions if not he actually made me think there was a lot more than what he was saying. He stepped back for a second and looked into my eyes. Whatever he found made him blink and look away.

  “So, why do you have a picture of me on your laptop?” I blurted because the awkward silence was killing me.

  “Uh-that was…”

  “Are you like babysitting me or something, because if you are you can stop, it’s not necessary, really.” I said getting an attitude. I was tired of hearing lies and then truth. I just wanted the truth, obviously Robert wasn’t going to spill so that just irritated the hell out of me. “Well since there’s nothing else I think I’ll just leave…” I began to walk away, but he caught my arm and pulled me close to him. “Oh, don’t worry I won’t tell Illyanne I know about you.” I said since, I couldn’t think of anything else to keep my hands off him.

  Then the most unexpected thing happened, he pulled me all the way to him and leaned in and kissed me like I had never been kissed in my life. The electricity that was running through my body was uncontrollably crazy. I craved him as he did me. I wanted Robert, and he wanted me. For a moment there was nothing but us in the middle of his room making out and enjoying it. It was full of passion, and love. Love? That thought brought me back to reality. I jumped away from him leaving him staring at me with question in his eyes. Then I started crying.

  “I’m sorry… I just… I can’t do this right now. Robert we cannot do this to Jack, I’m with him and you’re… with her. Just forget this ever happened.” As pathetic as that sounded it was the truth. I took off like a bat out of hell, and Robert didn’t bother to stop me. And I didn’t want him to. I wiped my eyes and kept walking, until my phone vibrated and scared the hell out of me. Panicky, I flipped it open and saw it was just a text message from Mereily. It said: Wer r u? We’ve been lokin’ 4 u. Txt bak.

  I paused before exiting the auditorium to recollect myself and once I did, I walked out and texted Mereily back. I told her I had been talking to Isabelle, and that I was on my way to my room because I had a terrible headache.

  What I needed was to be alone for a while and think what the hell just happened? I was completely confused and didn’t want to be around anyone else. A few guards stared at me when I walked by, there were a few students walking around. All in all it was not as noisy I thought it be, I made it to my room without bumping into anyone I knew, thankfully. When I went in I realized someone had been in my room. From where I was standing I saw an envelope sitting on top of my bed. Slowly, I walked to it and examined it. It was another one of Mylian’s letters. I wasn’t in the mood for more surprises but you never knew if it was important or not. So I took my chances and opened it anyway.

  Dear Mia,

  The King and Queen Stuart request your presence Monday morning. You must be at Goddess Illyanne’s office. Please wear appropriate attire, don’t be late. Sincerely, Goddess Mylian.

  Great, now the King and Queen wanted to return. I guess is for the best. Maybe they would fix all the problems the institute has been having, or maybe they won’t. But one thing was for sure, they were going to find out about me and Robert and that was going to suck, a lot.

  I lay down on my bed and after a lot of thinking and fell asleep.

  CHAPTER 19

  It wasn’t a normal dream. I could feel how real it was. I was standing on the sand and looking at the ocean. There was no one else there but me, somehow I had been there before but I couldn’t recall when or where exactly this beautiful place was. The breeze from the ocean waves gave me chills… at that moment I realized I wasn’t completely alone. Someone’s was standing right behind me, I was afraid to turn and find someone that I didn’t want to see. Then he spoke.

  “I’m sorry you’re making me do this.” It was Robert, I didn't want to turn around and look at him, after what just happened. But, like the moron I am, I did. He had his arms crossed, he was wearing dark sun glasses, had on a white muscle shirt-which showed off his spectacular muscles-and black sweat pants.

  “I’m glad you’re here… actually, I would have done this in person but since you are here. I just wanted to apologize for running out. The thing is ___”

  “You don’t have to apologize for anything.” He didn’t move, instead he took a half step back, like he was going to turn his back on me. But he stayed that way. “It was a big mistake, forget what I told you. It was all Illyanne’s idea. I don’t care about you in that way at all… it was all part of the plan. You will understand soon. That was all I was going to say. I thought it be better for you to know… so you wouldn’t feel like you did something wrong.. You didn’t.”

  “What are you talking about?” I snapped at him. But he stayed silent to give me a minute -to think what he had said -through. I felt like someone had just cut my tongue off, and I had a knot on my throat. This was just messed up, he had played with me. Now, he didn’t have a problem admitting it. Before I would break down I had to ask him. “Even the kiss?” I barely was able to ask. He nodded and turned away. It was humiliating, to say the least.

  I woke up sweating, remembering every single detail of the “dream” I had. Knowing that I was just about to tell Robert that I had feelings for him, I couldn’t deny, until he interrupted me and basically saved me from embarrassing myself more than I already had. I hated him for doing that to me, but what could I expect from him. We barely knew each other, well before he was Blake, now I knew that part of him but still, we always argued, it made no sense. I was convinced though, that there was something there, no matter what he said.

  I went to my bathroom to take a shower, definitely needing it. It was around dinner time, after getting ready pretty fast I called Jack to tell him to come to my room. What I was about to do, was the most selfish thing I had ever done. But I was positive that Jack and I were not going to keep going out while I was thinking about another guy, I refused to do that to him. As soon as I heard the door bell, I felt so nervous I had to take a few deep breaths before opening it.

  “Hey.” Jack said, leaning in to kiss me, when I dodged the kiss by giving him a hug. “What’s wrong?” He asked, looking around. I didn’t know how I would do this, but I prayed that he would forgive me.

  “Jack. I don’t know if there is an easier way to say this…” I looked down at my hands and then got some guts to look up at him. But like he knew what was coming, he held a hand up to stop me.

  “I know what you’re going to say, it’s okay I understand.” He said looking a little sad, though I could see the understanding in his eyes, which made me feel one hundred times better.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, I mean we treat each other like best friends but that’s about it. I like you, just don’t know how much just yet. If we were meant to be together then maybe one day we’ll be.” He said with a slight smile. He patted me on my head and walked to the door. “Good luck.” He said before he closed the door behind him.

  I was relieved that Jack basically broke up with me, not that I liked getting dumped but he did deserve better. I sat down on the sofa and just when I was about to relax the door to my room opened and Robert walked through. My heart literally skipped a beat, then I had to recover I couldn’t show him how much his prescience affected me, it would be terrible. Instead I got up and grabbed my cell, went to the restroom and took a look in the mirror before I took off. My hair was perfect, my outfit was too. I walked out of the bathroom to find Robert standing by his bed opening his bags. Apparently he was officially back. But I just pretended he wasn’t there, and walked right by him, when he grabbed me by my arm.

  “What
do you want?” I made myself sound annoyed, when really I wanted to throw my arms around him, but that was not going to happen.

  He sighed, and let go of my arm. “Just wanted to let you know that I’m back now,” He didn’t look at me, instead he went back to unpacking.

  “Well, that’s obvious. But thanks for making sure I wasn’t blind.” I said as I slammed the door when I walked out. I raced to Mereily’s room and knocked.

  “Coming” Someone said from the other side. Then the door opened and Sophie was standing there smiling her dorky smile.

  “Hey, Mia, want to come in? She asked opening the door wider.

  “I was just looking for Mereily. Have you seen her?”

  “No. last time I saw her was hours ago, she was supposed to come back and get ready, we were going to go to dinner together. I tried her phone but it’s off.” She shrugged.

  “I bet she’s with her boyfriend then.” I said thinking to myself.

  “He just came by, he hadn’t seen her either.” She shrugged.

  “I saw her talking to an Elder, about an hour ago.” Anna said approaching us.

  “Oh, she did say she was going to work on her homework.” Sophie realized tapping her head.

  “In that case, we should go to dinner, she’ll probably meet us there.” Anna said.

  “Okey-Dokey” Sophie shut the door behind her.

  Anna cleared her throat. “So… I hear Robert’s back.” I thought for a moment before answering, but it wasn’t a question though I knew what she was implying.

  “Yeah, he’s back.” Okay, so I was being evasive but it was really something I didn’t want to discuss in front of Sophie, not that I didn’t like the girl, it was just that we weren’t great friends. The deal with Anna was that in a freakish way I was like her and I felt like I could trust her.

  “Hey, I’ll catch up with you guys later I’m meeting… a friend.” Sophie blushed and took off. I wondered if she had known what I was thinking.

  We walked in silence for a few seconds before I pulled Anna to the side of the hall that was by the dining room.“ What is it?” She asked curious.

  “Okay, you caught me. I just didn’t want to say anything in front of Sophie… but yeah I knew Robert had been back...” I said looking at her grin and then I looked away.

  “It’s all right. I knew there was something between you two, for a while though I gotta say you hide it pretty well. Nobody has noticed from what I can see… but I don’t know, maybe you need to talk to Jack he’s___”

  “I know, I already did,” I trailed off. Watching some students I recognized from my classes pass by, hopefully thinking they didn’t hear anything.

  “How did he take it?” She asked uncrossing her arms and searching for something.

  “Actually, he kind of broke up with me. It was.. Awkward.” I had to admit I felt better telling someone about all that had happened in the last few hours. I went on talking to her in whispers while we made our way inside the dining area where we found Delilah sitting by herself waving a hand over to where she was sitting.

  “Hello!” She smiled genuinely. “What have you guys been up to?”

  We took our seats before answering. “You know the usual.” Anna sighed.

  “There has been some stuff going on, but that’s not important right now. You look like you had a good day.” I said changing the subject.

  She didn’t notice. “I have actually. But that’s not what I’m going to tell you. I got the 411 on the newbie’s.” She said looking around the room to make sure no one was listening in on our conversation, which no one was.

  “What newbie’s?” Anna and I asked in unison.

  “You guys don’t even know?” Delilah asked surprised, putting her fork down.

  “Spill,” I said.

  “Well, there are these new students. They are transfers and I guess they were sent here from a couple different schools. From what I hear it’s permanent and I heard that Illyanne said and I quote “the king and queen sent them ahead of time, but they will be arriving soon.” She tried faking Illyanne’s old English accent, which she didn’t have to try very hard since after all she had a hint of British accent herself, just like Robert. Robert..

  “And?” Anna asked annoyed, while she toyed with her now short hair that she had chopped off this morning, because I had just realized that-I felt stupid. But as soon as she noticed me staring she rolled her eyes, and waved her hand as if to say: no big deal.

  “And some of them are not allowed to come out of their rooms until they say so, which is the weird part.” Delilah whispered. “Seriously, this is like classified stuff. The only reason I know is because Mereily was in Illyanne’s office and she texted me after she overheard her talking to the secretary.”

  “When was this?’ I asked while I was putting some food in my mouth.

  “About an hour ago or so… why?”

  “Nothing… is just that we’ve been trying to get a hold of her, but her phone’s off or something.” I told her covering my mouth while I chewed my food.

  “Huh.” She shrugged.

  “I have some things to take care of, guess I’ll see you guys around.” Anna neatly stood up and left.

  “What’s with her?” Delilah said wiping her mouth very neatly.

  “That’s Anna.” I shrugged.

  “Did you know my brother’s back?” She eyed me suspiciously, I wondered if she knew. I wondered if I had it written all over my face that I liked Robert a lot, and that I cared a lot when someone spoke about him. So, with Delilah being his sister I decided that maybe I should tell her about her brother. But right when I was about to confide in her, Robert walked in… holding Genevieve’s hand and the whole room started spinning.

  “Are you alright?” Delilah asked leaning over the table and putting her hand on my head. “You don’t have fever.”

  I blinked, and took a second look at Robert and Genevieve, Delilah followed my gaze and then she knew what was going on.

  “Oh I’m sorry girl. I didn’t know they got back together. When I talked to Rob earlier he seemed… different. I didn’t expect for him to hook up with that tramp again, it’s seriously wrong___”

  “So you know?” I stared down at my plate, suddenly feeling sick.

  She touches my hand and squeezes, making me feel warmer. “I think I’ve known since the day he became a Vampire, it’s okay though I won’t say a word.” She stood up and came around the table to pull me up. “Come on, we got some shop-ping-to-do.” She sang.

  I didn’t glance back.

  CHAPTER 20

  After coming back from a shop -a -thon with Delilah. We headed straight to my room (luckily Robert wasn’t here). But before we could get comfortable a loud knock on my door made us both jump. While we exchanged a look of: What the hell? I walked over to the door and opened it.

  Sophie was standing there with hands over her eyes, and when she put them down to look at me, I could see that she had been crying for a while now, her whole face was red, and she was still crying. “W-why didn’t you answer your phone?” She asked desperate. We had turned our cell phones off so no one would bother us.

  “What happened?” Delilah demanded stepping outside the hall where Sophie had leaned against the wall.

  “I-It’s Mereily… she I-is…” She couldn’t finish before she started bawling.

  “What? What’s wrong with her?” I asked, my mood changing.

  “She’s at the infirmary. She’s very sick, and I doubt that....” Robert was saying when he walked up to us. Our gazes meet and then broke by Sophie’s sobs.

  “I-is because she’s sick. It came back after all, they had said she would be okay… but she’s not! She’s not going to be okay anymore! All because she took the V2 too soon! It was their entire fault!” Sophie whisper shouted.

  And even though I’m taking in every word in my mind is on Mereily, before someone else could say another word, I sprint past them all leaving them to console Sophie, while
I find my friend. I ran as fast as I could (trust me I run pretty fast now) towards the infirmary, which was located by the other offices in the main lobby of the institute. Not by Illyanne’s, she had her own reception area. When I finally got there, it was quiet. There was a secretary leaning on her desk searching for something before she spotted me and then she stood up and stiffened up. There were a few other students in there but they were all talking amongst themselves not paying attention to me.

  “How can I help you?” The strange woman says. She was tall and thick, she was a full vampire.

  “What room is Mereily Jolie in?” I ask, not interested in being formal.

  “Room 4 but she’s not allowed to__” I walked past her and through the narrow hall where there are only about ten rooms and when I see that Mereily’s room has a Restricted sign on the door I don’t even knock I just go in anyway.

  I gasp as I walk in and shut the door behind me slowly. Mereily is lying on a hospital bed with all kinds of tubes going in her and when I look at her face she almost looks… dead. Only she’s not because with my ultra-hearing I can hear her heart beating from across the room. I step closer to her, worried that I may wake her up, but hoping she would open her eyes. As I look around I see how it all looks just like a hospital. The white walls the machines the bed, everything, except for the V2 that they’re still giving her, through a tube and into her veins. Before I could turn and bolt out the door and tell Illyanne off, Mereily speaks.

  “Please don’t leave me.” I could barely hear her begging whispers, but when I do I go stand by her bed and look at her, I mean really look at her. The eyes of my friend were not even hers, she used to have the most beautiful blue eyes, now they were almost white. Her face had gone so pale it hurt to look at her skin. Her lips were purple and it was a scary look for a girl that had always been so pretty and full of life.