by Last, K. A.
I let it drop to my side. “She’s the one those vamps are after. I saw her face in their minds,” I said, staring into the forest.
“If she’s a vamp, and thought you were a vamp, why was she trying to stake you? I didn’t think they killed their own kind.”
“They don’t,” I said, turning to walk home. “It’s like an unwritten law.”
What I didn’t tell Archer was what I’d read in her eyes. She was different, and in all my years I’d never seen a vampire like her.
TWO
JOSH
Monday Morning
Boarding school was the ultimate test. I swear the idea was created by some mad lunatic scientist who wanted to experiment on the cause and effect of teenage life experiences. I was glad to be starting my final year as I didn’t think I could take much more. No escape from school was every teenager’s nightmare, and I envied the students who got to walk out the front gates at the end of the day. Living in the country was great, but it definitely had its drawbacks.
The drive from our property near the small town of Flats End took a couple of hours. I lived on a cattle farm with my dad and spent most holidays helping him out. We wound along the highway as fast as the old ute would go, and that wasn’t very fast. The scenery was breathtaking and had a calming effect. I liked staring out the window and watching the hills roll by.
I needed to be calm. I’d spent the entire Christmas/New Year break rehearsing how to let my girlfriend down gently. Even though she lived across the creek, we’d only seen each other twice since school let out last year, and neither of those times seemed right to break it off. I was beginning to think that no time would be right to tell her I didn’t love her any more. I was actually hoping she’d get the message from being ignored.
“You ok, Son?” Dad asked as we rounded another bend. “You seem a little distant.”
“Abby,” I replied, reminding him of my plans.
Dad chuckled but smiled at me warmly. “The ups and downs of teenage relationships.”
“Three years, Dad. Do you think I’m throwing everything away?”
“That depends. Do you love her?”
“I thought I did, but not anymore.”
“Then no,” Dad replied.
We spent the rest of the trip in silence. The early morning air had been crisp, but as I stepped from the ute onto the school’s gravel driveway I could feel how hot the day was going to be.
“Well, another year. Your final year,” Dad said as we stood at the big wrought iron front gates of Hopetown Valley High School.
“Yeah, final year,” I replied with a tragic half smile. I pulled my suitcase from the ute’s tray and threw my backpack over my shoulder.
“Hey, come on, Josh. I thought you liked it here.”
“I do, Dad. It’s just with Abby and…” I trailed off.
“I know. I miss her, too.”
Dad knew that my mum’s death still affected me even though she died over seven years ago. He thought I hated coming to Hopetown Valley because I didn’t want to leave the farm, and him. That was mostly it, but not the entire reason. Mum was buried in the school’s cemetery and I preferred not to have her so close. It’s not that I didn’t love her, she was a great mum; it was just distracting. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away from her grave and I’d be there more than I should.
“See you term break,” I said, giving him a smile I hoped was more convincing. After watching my dad drive away, I pulled my case towards the gate. The monotonous drone of the cicada’s song was all around me and a magpie stood on the gravel with one clutched in its beak. Oh to have a simple life, like a magpie or a cicada, but maybe not the cicada since it was being eaten. I passed through into the school grounds and instantly heard a familiar voice.
“Josh, you’re here.” My girlfriend, Abigail West, came walking quickly towards me. “I’ve been wondering when you’d show up.” Her pretty face was plastered with a huge smile. She threw her arms around my neck and gave me a tight hug.
“Here now,” I said, giving her a quick half-hearted kiss on the cheek. I pried her off and continued to walk towards the boys’ dorm.
“I came in last night,” she said, then jabbered on about some new girl and how she thought she was weird and god knows what else. I blocked her out.
“Joshua Chase, are you listening to me?” Abby stood in my path and put her hands on her hips. Short of pushing her out of the way I was forced to stop, too. Her platinum blonde hair flowed loosely over her shoulders. She looked more confused than angry, and for a second I wondered why I’d made the decision to break up with her. Then it all came flooding back. Abby may have been beautiful, but she was shallow and we had lost our spark. I was just an accessory to her; something she could show off to her friends. There was no love in our relationship and it had taken three years for me to notice.
“Abby, I just want to get to my room and unpack.”
“But I didn’t see you much over the break. Josh?”
Oh boy, this was going to be harder than I thought. But I suppose, how do you tell your first love, the girl you’ve spent the last three years with, the girl that you first … well you know, that it’s over? The way she looked tugged on my heart strings but I had to be strong, I needed to stay focused. Now was probably as good a time as any to say what I’d rehearsed.
“See here’s the thing,” I began.
I watched as her face fell and her beautiful features contorted into a crumpled mess. “You’re breaking up with me, aren’t you?” she whispered.
My prepared speech flew out the window. I had absolutely no idea what to say. What could I say? Nothing was going to change the way I felt, or how much she hated me in that moment, and trust me, I could tell she really hated me.
“I can’t believe you’re breaking up with me.”
Her hands were shaking and tears spilled down her cheeks making her mascara run. I hadn’t even said anything and she was already crying. The good guy in me wanted to take her in my arms and hold her until she stopped, but I knew it would make it worse. These things had to be done like ripping off a Band-Aid, quick and in one smooth motion.
“I’m sorry, Abby. I just don’t love you anymore.”
Reluctantly, I left her standing on the path to the dorms. I walked past a few other students and I’m pretty sure they could hear the sobbing. It was loud. Claudia Spencer, Abby’s best friend, came down the girls’ dorm steps wearing a questioning expression. She glanced from me to Abby then offered me a reassuring smile. Claudia had known this was coming. Our whole circle of friends did, everyone but Abby.
Sighing, I climbed the front stairs to the boys’ dorm. The housemaster, Mr Bruner—who also happened to be my coach and P.E. teacher—looked up from behind the front desk. We exchanged the usual, ‘How was your break?’, conversation while I signed in. He also proceeded to remind me of the rules, the same way he did every year. I nodded in all the right places then trudged off down the hall to the stairs. I knew as long as I signed in and out and was ticked off the class roll, no one would bother me too much.
My case bumped up the stairs. Room twenty-nine sat on the top floor, and as a senior I was lucky enough to have a room to myself. The juniors were the ones that had to share, and I was glad my sharing days were over. Everything was just the way I’d left it the year before. The bed was freshly made, but the walls were still plastered with posters of Maradona, Harry Kewell, and Kelly Slater. I know, big difference between soccer and surfing, but I loved them both. Obviously living in the country put a slight limitation on the surfing. However, I was captain of the school soccer team.
Mr Bruner had left my timetable on the bed. I picked it up, had a quick glance, and noticed my first weekly chore was to empty the common room bins. There were worse things; I could have been given bathroom duty.
After dumping my case in the corner I sat on the edge of the bed and put my face in my hands. To stop myself from punching something I stood back up and paced the
room. Training was what I really needed. Kicking a soccer ball was a fantastic stress reliever, especially when you pictured someone’s face on it. But training didn’t start for a few days. I stopped in front of the mirror and stared at my reflection for a moment, running my hand through my messy dark brown hair.
The dorm rooms at Hopetown Valley High were like shoe boxes, but I was amazed at what they managed to fit into them. Each room was identical and consisted of a small cupboard, sink with mirror, single bed, and a desk under the window. I went to the window where I could see some students walking across the yard. I assumed they were on their way to breakfast—cafeteria food was another great joy of boarding school life.
Then I spotted her. She was with her twin brother.
Grace Tate.
There was something about the way she moved that mesmerised me. I know I’d broken up with my girlfriend of three years literally two minutes before, but I’d been watching Grace for a while. We’d been at school together since the seventh grade, although she probably didn’t even know I existed. Our conversations never really consisted of more than two words. ‘Hi Josh’ was pretty much the extent of it.
Grace was beautiful but in a completely different way to Abby. She had an ethereal presence. I loved the way her short black hair stuck out oddly all over her head, and her eyes were two perfect pools of blue. As far as I knew she never dated—even though she could take her pick—eventually the guys at school stopped trying, including me. We all knew the answer would be no, and I wondered if she knew I’d had a crush on her all those years ago. Maybe now she’d start to take notice since we were all a little older.
She was attached at the hip to her twin brother, Archer, who sometimes seemed a bit over protective. He was kind of intense, and Grace didn’t strike me as a girl who needed protecting. Plus, they didn’t even look like twins, they were completely different in so many ways it wasn’t funny. He was tanned with sandy brown hair and hazel eyes, she was blue eyed and perfectly pale, like porcelain. Grace wasn’t a boarder either, and I wondered why she was here so early. I knew I wouldn’t be if I lived only ten minutes from school. I’d probably be late every day.
Eventually I tore my eyes from the window, threw my suitcase open and dug out my grey pants and white school shirt. They were a little creased, but after a few good shakes they’d do. I shrugged out of my T-shirt and jeans and got dressed. Then after attempting several times to knot my school tie, I gave up. I still hadn’t mastered it after the first five years of high school so I probably wasn’t going to be able to now. I left it hanging around my neck, flipped the lid to my case closed, grabbed my back pack and left for the cafeteria.
Hopefully I’d run into Grace.
THREE
GRACE
The feeling was always the same. The elation I felt when the cool breeze brushed my face. I could feel my hair trailing behind my head, and the gentle flap against my thigh as my white dress fluttered in the wind. I dove elegantly through the air relishing the faint rustling noise my wings made as I descended, never wanting it to stop. But I knew it would as it was how most of my dreams ended. If only I was out there flying for real, something I didn’t get to do often.
My dreams were a way of consulting with the Council. I never knew when they’d come, but I had them pretty regularly. It was Heaven’s way of checking up on me to make sure I was toeing the line. After spending so many years on earth I didn’t always do everything by the book, but so far I hadn’t got into too much trouble. It was like having nagging parents.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and propped myself up on my elbows. After the fog in my head cleared I threw my legs over the side of the bed and wrapped my summer dressing gown around my shoulders. I bounded down the stairs from the loft two at a time, hurried across the shed and burst out the door into the fresh morning air. As I walked briskly across the clearing to the seemingly neglected weatherboard cottage that stood on the other side, I hoped Archer wasn’t already in the shower. I was in luck. The warm water was heaven on my skin and I let it wash away all the tension in my body. I wished I could stay there all day, but eventually I turned the taps off and stepped out to get dressed. When I walked back into the shed Archer was not alone.
Wards of the state, that’s what we technically became after Pa died. I didn’t mind as long as we got to stay together and on the property. This was agreed to on the basis we had a social worker visit every few weeks. This morning was one of those visits. Archer hated them, so I was left to do most of the talking, which was not always a good thing. Our social worker, Annie Sage, was quite an attractive woman with friendly brown eyes, but she wore her chestnut coloured hair pulled tightly back in a bun, giving her face a sharp angular look. She was dressed in a smart cream suit and low heels, and had a delicate silver chain around her neck. It sat as if there were something hanging from it, tucked inside her blouse.
Annie sat across from us at the old Formica table which stood on the kitchen side of our shed. I’d lived on the Tate property for well over a hundred years. Originally we were in the tiny two bedroom weatherboard cottage, then when the house got to a certain stage of disrepair the shed had been built in the early sixties. It was never quite fitted out properly, comprising of one large room with the loft as our bedrooms, but we loved it.
The cottage serves as our arsenal and also has the only functional bathroom on the property. Archer and I spent some time last year after Pa died fixing it up. There are a lot of memories for me in that house, and the last thing I wanted was for it to fall down. On the outside it looks a bit decrepit with cobwebs everywhere, dirty walls and peeling paint. But on the inside the walls have been re-lined and freshly painted, and the floorboards fixed and re-polished.
Archer and I were already in our uniforms—there’s nothing like grey and navy to brighten your mood—waiting for Annie to start. Archer so lovingly left me with the job of answering the usual questions. Are you eating right? Is there enough money? Are you being responsible? Are you both happy? Blah, blah blah. We’re two seventeen year old kids living with no parents. Do you think we’re happy? Happiness would result when we were free of the system which would be in one week. Our eighteenth birthday couldn’t come soon enough as far as I was concerned.
“All seems to be in order, then,” Annie said. “Archer, you’re doing a great job of looking after Grace. I’ll let you two get to school.”
I rolled my eyes when she left, and Archer hid a grin behind his hand.
“Ha! Looking after me indeed,” I grumbled. Archer laughed. “It’s me who’s looking after you,” I said, pointing my finger at him. “And don’t you forget it.”
Annie was obviously not a feminist. I bet she still waited for doors to be opened and cheques to be paid. She had no idea I could flatten a mob of angry men in less than a second with one swift flick of my wrist.
“Come on, Arch, let’s go. I call driving.”
“Hey, not fair! You know I can’t get there as quickly as you.”
“Not my problem,” I said with a smirk.
I orbed into the front seat of the Defender and waited for my slow coach brother to catch up. He slumped into his seat and pretended to ignore me.
“Come on, look on the bright side. It’s another few weeks before we have to see Annie again,” I said, turning the key in the ignition. “You can drive home.” No response. Grow up you big baby, I pushed into his head. That put a small smile on his face.
“You don’t play fair,” he said.
“Since when is life fair, Arch?”
The Defender bumped down the long dirt driveway towards the road. I turned right and we headed east to school and the small country town of Hopetown Valley. The highway was lined with dense forest and our driveway could only be seen if you knew it was there. The drive took all of ten minutes door to door, not really long enough to have a decent conversation, especially when my brother was being an idiot.
“What’s the deal with that girl vamp last night? S
he was pretty cute, for a vamp,” Archer said.
“I’m not really sure, but I know we can’t kill her.”
“What? Cute or not she’s still a vampire, Gracie, we kill them. It’s what we do in case you’ve forgotten.”
“It’s not that simple, and I really hate it when you call me Gracie.”
“What’s not simple? Vamp, stake, dust.”
“She’s different.”
“Oh no you don’t, do not go all political on me. It’s us and them. There is no in between.”
“Oh look, we’re here. Can we talk about it later?”
“This conversation isn’t finished,” he said.
I swung the Defender into an empty spot in the student car park at Hopetown Valley High. Before jumping down onto the gravel—I was five-feet two-inches, and a little vertically challenged—I threw my brother a look that said, it’s over for now, and he recoiled. Archer wasn’t usually scared of anything, but he knew what I was capable of. I grabbed my bag from the back seat and flung it over my shoulder then walked the short distance to the school’s main gate. I loved that gate. Big wrought iron arches held up by beautifully carved sandstone pillars. I couldn’t say the same for the two Moreton Bay Figs that flanked it though. They just gave me the creeps. I never really knew why, there was something about them that sent shivers down my spine.
“Remind me again why we had to be here so early?” Archer asked, annoyed.
I lead him across the yard towards the school cafeteria. I knew he wouldn’t stay mad at me for long. He was a good fighter, and tough on the exterior, but deep down he was a big softie.
“Breakfast.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” he said.
“No, I like the food here.’
“Everything tastes like cardboard.”
“Yes, but while eating said cardboard the view is great,” I said, with a skip in my step.
