Black Hellebore

by Maya Shepherd

  Even this does not impress Orlando. He can’t remember what it is like to be alone. Since becoming a vampire, he has always had the protection of his family; the protection of Chasity, queen of the vampires. It seems ridiculous to him that something like that could ever change. He doesn’t seem to even care that Chasity is sticking her neck out for him.

  “The people are starting to talk”, Orlando mocks Vivienne playfully. “Why don’t you call her by her name? We all know that Claudia doesn’t like to let anyone have any fun, but that is because she is so frustrated herself. If she went out and had a little adventure of her own, then maybe she would ease up on everyone else. She is just jealous.”

  “Her opinions are not totally unfounded. Spending too much time with humans is dangerous. If they find out what you really are, then it won’t be long until we are all discovered. Is that what you want?”

  “It is ridiculous that we hide away from the humans when we are so much more powerful than they are. If it weren’t for the sun, we would have conquered them a long time ago...” Orlando says thoughtlessly, to which Vivienne just tighly closes her eyes.

  “I don’t care what you get up to in your own time, but you should stop it as soon as possible, not just for your sake, but for the poor mortal girl who has fallen for you.”

  Her voice is trembling with anger. Orlando hasn’t seen her like this in a long time.

  “Hey, what’s wrong with you? Nothing happened; trust me I have gone through worse...” Orlando jests, but then moves back in shock as Vivienne crushes the wine glass she is holding in her hand, her own blood as well as a stranger’s runs down her arm and falls to the floor as she stands there, her entire body shaking. The cuts on her hand heal quicker than the eye can see, but her voice takes on a threatening tone.

  “Can you even imagine how it feels to kill the people that you love, just because our rules state it or because you simply can’t control yourself?”

  An image flashes into Orlando’s head. It is a pale woman lying helpless in his arms, her heart pounding. He shakes his head to try and get rid of the image.

  “The few who do survive your attack feel nothing but hatred and contempt for you, and yet, you can’t help but continue to follow them, watching from the shadows as they grow older and weaker, and then eventually die.”

  The woman’s breathing comes to an abrupt halt. Blood is pouring down her neck from a wound left by his sharp fangs. No! He doesn’t want to think about this, but Vivienne relentlessly continues.

  “This is not the life that was meant for humans. The human life should not last centuries. The longer we live, the less human we become.”

  Shouting and crying, he presses his cut open arm against the woman’s open mouth, but it is too late, her heart has already stopped.

  “This is the last time I will lie for you and Mary!”

  Vivienne’s words are unusually cold and leave no doubt in his mind that she is serious. He has never seen her like this. She is usually such a calm person, never short-tempered and never loud.

  “Mary? Did something happen?” his voice is panicked, as her well-being is what he cares most about in the world, or at least after his own well being.

  “She was found sucking a security guard dry on Manor Street, in open view under a street lamp not two houses down from the entrance to the Italian Gardens. You can imagine the effort it took to erase this man out of people’s memories and to clean up all the bodies, because as you know, humans don’t turn to dust in the sun.”

  Orlando swallows hard, his eyes wide.

  “What bodies? I thought you said it was just the security guard...” he asks quietly.

  “Chasity killed all of the guards that were on duty at the time of her escape, not to mention the security guard’s pregnant wife. It would have brought up far too many questions if she just forgot the man who got her pregnant. A lot of people still think she should have just killed Mary. If she doesn’t get her thirst under control, then sooner or later someone will take it upon themselves to do away with her. They won’t stand for it for very much longer!”

  “I would never let that happen!” Orlando says defensively. Vivienne just raises an eyebrow in disbelief.

  “Oh right, and how exactly do you expect to stop it happening when you are never here? You wouldn’t know anything about it.”

  These words stay with him. He knows that Vivienne is right, and that he can’t talk his way out of this one.

  “Where is Mary? Is she okay?”

  “She is in her room. You should go to her, she has already asked for you several times, but as always, you were not here. She needed you Orlando!” The accusation in her voice is unmistakeable, and that really hits home. He and Mary have something in common; they both have an addiction, albeit to completely different things.

  Mary is lying on her pink four-poster bed, her tear-stained face staring at the ceiling. Directly abover her, there is a painted mural of the most beautiful sunrise; something that none of them will ever see again in person without paying for it with their lives. Orlando sits down next to her, but she turns her little back to him. She has fallen into another one of her very frequent bouts of depression.

  “Be glad that they only locked you in your room and not in the dungeon.” He tries to comfort her, but without any success. It is useless trying to get through to her when she has decided to ignore everyone. Maybe he should try to apologise for not being there for her, but Orlando knows a better way to get through to her, something that always grabs her attention because she longs for it so much more than anything, but will probably never experience in her own life; love.

  “I saw her again last night.”

  Mary stays perfectly still, but he notices her ears perk up so she won’t miss a single word.

  “She was exactly the same as before.” Orlando continues, lost in his thoughts.

  “Were you expecting something else?” Mary gives in, her curiosity too strong to stay sulking.

  “I wasn’t sure if my memory of her was maybe a bit different to what she really was.” He thinks about the shy girl he had seen the night before, but Mary doesn’t need to know about any of that. He doesn’t even understand it himself.

  He has caught her interest, and Mary turns to him.

  “I suggested that you see her again so you can get to know her, not just to spend another night between the sheets with her. That’s not romantic at all. Do you even know her name yet?”

  “We didn’t speak to each other. She doesn’t seem to be interested in conversation.”

  “Then you should make the first move.” Mary says dryly, as if it were the easiest and most obvious thing in the world.

  “Maybe she doesn’t want to get to know anyone.”

  “I know you better than you even know yourself, and I know that you aren’t even half as shallow as you prentend to be.”

  “She is just another woman, she is nothing special.”

  “Don’t play dumb with me! She already had your interest the moment you first saw her. She is nothing like the others; she is something special, because she is the only one whose blood you can’t have.”

  “We don’t even know that yet!” Orlando says defensively.

  “Oh, so why didn’t you try it again? You would not willingly let something like that go, and we both know it!”

  As much as it annoys Orlando to have to admit it, Mary is right. His dreams are filled with the confident, silent woman with the eyes of cold stone, but he just can’t help but obsess over the girl with the sad green eyes. It is her that he can’t forget, but she instills fear in him at the same time.

  - 9. Lia Green -

  “Where is Lindsay?” is the first thing out of Lia’s mouth as she leaves the classroom and sees Mike standing in the hallway.

  He seems disappointed.

  “Is that all you care about? How about, ‘hey Mike, I am sorry for how I acted in the club on Friday’?”

  Lia looks at him, annoyed as she is unus
ed to criticism from Mike. She doesn’t remember much of that night in the ‘Exit’, so she doesn’t know what she should be apologising for. She does know that she went home with her handsome stranger again, but that’s surely not what’s got Mike so upset. She has told him many times that they will never be any more than friends. She can’t even understand what he sees in her. She is usually in a bad mood, she is always depressed and just a natural pessimist.

  “Hello Mike, do you know where Lindsay is?” She answers annoyed, but can’t help but crack a little smile.

  “She’s gone ahead to the lunch room” he says, and the two of them head off in the same direction.

  Of course the room is already overflowing with people, but her regular table by the bins is still empty, completely empty, no Lindsay in sight. Lia hates having to look over the room full of her classmates, but this time it is necessary. Astonishingly, she spots Lindsay sitting at one of the big group tables in the centre of the room with the girls from her drama group. She seems to feel Lia’s eyes on her back, because she suddenly turns to look at her. She gives her a short smile and a reluctant wave before turning back to the other girls. Disappointment spreads over Lia. What has happened to make Lindsay suddenly not want to be with her? Did she do something so terrible on Friday night that it has made Lindsay want nothing more to do with her? But why did she smile at her then? Is it silly for her to be thinking this way just because for the first time in two years, Lindsay wants to sit at another table? Unlike Mike and herself, Lindsay has other friends, and would probably have way more if she stopped hanging out with the two biggest losers at Scarborough Grammar School.

  “Are you coming?” Mike asks as she walks past her, carefully balancing his over-filled tray of food. The table feels empty with just the two of them sitting there for the first time in over two years. As Mike notices Lia’s worried look towards Lindsay, he places his warm hands on hers.

  “You didn’t get anything to eat, are you not hungry?”

  Lia shakes her head.

  “I have a swimming lesson right after lunch, and I already feel sick enough as it is.”

  Mike shrugs his shoulders and starts digging into his chips, dropping the Lindsay topic altogether. But Lia can’t just let it go so easily.

  “What did I do on Friday night that was so terrible, that Lindsay won’t talk to me anymore?”

  “Lindsay is not mad at you”

  “So why won’t she sit with us?”

  “Maybe she just wants to spend some time with other people.”

  “After two years?”

  “Maybe...do you want some chocolate pudding?” Mike tries to change the subject.

  “Did she not say anything to you in class?”

  “Damn it Lia! The world doesn’t always revolve around you. Just because she wants to sit at another table doesn’t mean that she is mad at you. You are starting to get paranoid!” Mike says scornfully, and Lia just can’t understand the world anymore.

  This is not the Mike she has known since she was three years old. Since they met, he has never said one negative word to her. It has been exactly the opposite; he always has something nice to say to her, but in the last couple of weeks he has been snapping at her more and more often, as if she had done something wrong.

  “What happened between you two on Friday night?”

  “Nothing happened between us. But that’s just it! Imagine, something happened that for once wasn’t about you.” Instead of calming himself, Mike gets himself in more of a rage, and he notices this himself, he decides it would be best for him to leave.

  “Sorry Lia, but I need to be alone today. It’s really nothing to do with you.” He says as he carries away his barely-touched food tray, leaving Lia sitting alone at the table next to the bins.

  Turns out her headphones are her most loyal friends after all. She drowns out her surroundings with “Hurt” by Johnny Cash.

  “What have I become, my sweetest friend?

  Everyone I know goes away in the end.”

  Lia’s knees shake and her stomach turns as she enters the lobby leading to the indoor swimming pool. Mondays really are the worst, but to have to end the day with a swim lesson is pure torture. She skips the lesson as often as she can or pretends to be on her period, but the teacher is not stupid and knows that that excuse can only be used once a month. She had it two weeks ago, and last week she just didn’t show up, using a headache as an excuse. Having already missed two in a row made it impossible to skip a third one. Lia has to make it through today, no matter how much her entire body is trying to fight it.

  All of her classmates stare at her as she is the last in the queue for the turnstile, which means she is also the last one in to the large communal girls changing room. She quickly runs into one of the private changing rooms, which is of course met with loud whispers from Tracy and her posse.

  “It’s not like she has anything we haven’t seen before.”

  “She probably has hangy tits and doesn’t want anyone to see.”

  “Nah, she has no problem taking her clothes off, she just thinks she is better than the rest of us!”

  Their words cut Lia like a knife. She doesn’t even want to fit in with them, she just wants to be left alone. Even being completely ignored would be better than this constant gossip and mean words, which are no longer limited to whispers behind her back, but are now right in the open - for everyone and especially for her to hear. Lia tries not to listen, to think of something else, something nice. But lately she just doesn’t have very much in her life to make her smile after now losing Mike and Lindsay as well. Still, her thoughts go to him. She still doesn’t know what to make of him. Is he a blessing or a curse?

  Lia waits for everyone to leave the dressing room, and then waits a little bit longer to make sure that nobody is waiting for her in the halls on the way to the pool. Maybe she really is becoming paranoid.

  Minutes later, she rushes into the swimming hall and jumps straight into the pool before any of her classmates or the teacher can say anything. Because the whole pool is rented for the entire two hours of the lesson, it is divided into eight separate lanes, each of which has to be shared by four students. Lia sees Tru in a lane with two other people and so goes to fill the remaining space. There are two boys with her, but as it is neither Bradley, nor any of his friends, it seems good enough for her. Tru smiles when she sees Lia swim up next to her. Her long chestnut hair is already wet and stuck down on her head, emphasising her big doe eyes. One look is enough to reassure Lia, making her feel safer and a little bit less lost.

  “Are you sure you want to swim in my lane? Tru says, unusually cheerful, making Lia’s forehead crease with concern.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well! I will crush you and make you look like a total loser if we go up against each other.” Tru says cheekily. Lia is slightly taken aback, but when she sees the smile on Tru’s lips, she answers back playfully.

  “We’ll just see about that. Plus, I am already a loser so I have nothing to lose!”

  Tru laughs heartily. “That’s the right attitude! Don’t let the others ruin your good time!” There is a twinkle in her eye, and just then, the starting whistle sounds. Tru really is a very fast swimmer, much faster than anyone else in the class, and it takes a lot of effort and energy for Lia to keep up with her, but she manages to do just that. They swim back and forth together, so fast that the teacher tells the two boys that were meant to share the lane with them to move into two different lanes. He is impressed with Lia’s talent, which she has kept hidden until now. She doesn’t have the same level of stamina or speed that Tru does, but she is very much in the same league as her, the only difference being that Tru has more practice.

  When the two hour lesson comes to an end, Lia can’t believe how quick it has gone, when usually it drags on seemingly forever. It seems to have passed in no more than a few minutes, but as fast as she was swimming in the pool, she tries to stall leaving it for as long as she can.
She is dreading having to shower with the other girls. She can’t always rely on Tru’s help after all. Feeling lost, she looks hesitantly over at Tru, who is climbing out of the pool. Her eyes widen in shock as she sees Tru’s back, which is covered in old scars. They criss-cross her back, almost like the pattern on a Scottish kilt. Although she has been in the same class as her for a few months now, Lia had never really taken any notice of her. Tru seems to feel her gaze, quickly throwing her long hair over her shoulder, covering her back and walking towards the showers, giving Lia an aggravated look.

  “What’s wrong Liandra? Don’t you want to leave the water?” her teacher asks, starting to roll up the lane barriers.

  “Would it be possible for me to stay a bit longer? I would really like to keep practising so that next time I can beat Tru.”

  Her teacher laughs.

  “Of course you can stay for a while longer, but it would be enough for me if you would just show up next time. You seem to have a real natural talent for swimming.”

  When Lia finally does get out of the water, her stomach is rumbling and her legs are shaking from the exertion. The hot water from the shower feels amazing as it runs down her body. She has managed to survive the day and it wasn’t even as bad as she thought it would be, thanks to Tru. She is kind and helpful, and yet somehow completely unapproachable. In reality, she doesn’t know anything about her, other than their common love of rock music. Tru is also an outcast and a loner, but nobody would dare to mess with her. The craziest stories are told about her. Some say that she is in a motorcycle gang, and a gangbanger. Some say that she has been in prison. Others say that she is a drug dealer. Lia doesn’t believe any of it, even after seeing the scars on her back. They must have been very painful.

  Lia’s thoughts once again turn to the handsome stranger. If only she knew his name, or anything that would tell her what kind of person he is. He might be just another idiot like Bradley, but she hopes in her heart that she would be able to tell. She just can’t imagine that being the case. He is so different to all the other boys, but she just can’t put her finger on why.