Authors: Alexandra Hope
“A machete is Felicity's first weapon, made known to her opponent,” he announced then turned to Olivia. “Close your eyes so she can pick her second.”
Olivia did as she was told. The second choice weapon was for the element of surprise and considered most crucial.
Felicity tied the machete to her waist and grabbed her second weapon without much thought, the clanks sounding familiar in Olivia's ear as Felicity let them fall into her sleeve. Olivia opened her eyes when prompted and scanned the table and sure enough all six
shuriken
, Japanese throwing stars, were absent.
It was now Olivia's turn. She picked a pair of daggers,
Kris
, and flinched as she remembered how her sister wielded them so skillfully. As Felicity did, she examined them just to give a show. She had no intention of using them of course.
“A pair of
Kris
, daggers native to South East Asia!” said their teacher, surprised. “Is this your choice weapon Olivia?”
“Two weapons in my hand... it will leave me at a disadvantage,” she said as if instructing rather than contemplating, “...so my weapon of choice will be the
kunai
.”
She thought she heard almost the faintest of laughter coming from Felicity. She looked at the girl who was more than a little amused.
“It's a great weapon, the
kunai
. Such a powerful little thing.”
Olivia nodded her head in agreement. “Yes, it is.”
Mr. Stevens put his hand to Felicity's shoulder. “Turn so Olivia may pick her second weapon.”
Felicity turned her head and closed her eyes allowing Olivia to pick up a hook sword, the hilt moderately heavy and the end of the thin blade expertly curved. The awed utters of her classmates had wiped the smirk from Felicity's face while her back remained turned and her eyebrows now furrowed together over her closed eyes.
“Forty steps into the forest,” he told Olivia who complied and was gone. She slammed her back against a tree, throwing the hook sword to the ground and kicked fallen leaves over it. She heard the crinkle of dead leaves underneath Felicity's sneakers as she entered what their teacher affectionately called “The Devil's Playground.”
Felicity didn't tread lightly through the forest and used the machete to knock low branches down. Olivia remained still against a tree until her scent became stronger, almost too much to stand.
“I know hiding is prey mentality but come on,” Felicity whined, feigning disappointment.
“I'm not hiding,” said Olivia as she stepped from behind the tree and showed herself. Felicity threw two
shuriken
as soon as she revealed herself, their sharpened blades just missing Olivia's arm and embedding themselves into a tree. A blur before her eyes, Olivia was gone and replaced by leaves and dirt stirring in the air.
“What the hell....” her voice trailed. She tucked her head into her shoulder and put her arm up to shield her eyes from the dirt.
When the dirt and leaves had settled she turned and saw Olivia had ran off. She took a machete to a tree, only managing a dent to its massive bark. “This is hardly fair Olivia,” she yelled.
She pulled out a third weapon from her jacket pocket before whispering, “It's a good thing that I don't fight fair.”
Felicity shrugged the jacket off, tossing it to the ground and walked through the forest, alert. At every slight movement she threw
shuriken
and always just missed Olivia who scrambled behind trees and further into the forest. Olivia thought of the many times she was forced to play predator in these woods and how her heart raced with each close call. She imagined if her heart could beat at that moment it would pump itself right out of her chest. When she had gotten far enough away from Felicity she lay quietly onto her back, her arms sprawled out to the side. A branch rattled above her, leaves falling down and as she looked up a bird spread it's red wings and flew into the night sky.
Relieved, she closed her eyes and buried her head back into the damp ground. It was no more than a few seconds before they shot back open. Felicity's machete was coming down quickly but as she looked on, it felt like it was barely moving toward her. The blade was closer than it seemed when Olivia tried to roll to the side. Her shirt, soaked and dingy, was caught under Felicity's foot, forcing her to squirm out of it or fall prey to the blade. She was out of the shirt and back on her feet before Felicity could see anything. Though the night was cold and she was now only in a camisole, she felt no different as she sped through the forest. Her movements were fast and fluid like globs of light streaming passed Felicity forcing her to throw three more throwing stars with poor precision. She took a right to avoid the attack and grabbed onto a large tree.
Olivia was only a third of the way up the tree when she felt Felicity tug her leg. She kicked her leg back, striking Felicity at the jaw. Stumbling back, she spat red and her blue eyes had turned a piercing cold. Olivia was sitting on a branch when Felicity stuck her third weapon, a
sai
, into the trunk and used it to scale the tree, pulling it in and out as she went up. Olivia leaned backwards and her legs wrapped over the branch before she could plummet to her un-death. After hanging backwards and awaiting Felicity, she lifted her legs from the branch and fell gracelessly onto the ground. The landing was anything but soft, her body cut up and blood seeping out as she sprinted away. Within seconds the wounds closed up leaving only a dull pain as a reminder that she had been cut. Felicity slid down the tree and took in the scent of Olivia's blood, a smile creeping on her face. She followed Olivia’s scent but stopped when her foot came over something buried under the leaves. She picked up the hook sword and added it to her collection of unauthorized weapons then continued after her scent. When she heard rustling to her left, she stopped and pointed the hook sword in that direction with her last
shuriken
in her other hand. Olivia had been deliberately rustling leaves under her feet to beckon Felicity toward her,
kunai
in hand.
The final
shuriken
struck Olivia's arm and she cried out.
“First strike's mine,” Felicity declared as she appeared in front of her. Though Olivia had expected her to attack, even with her vampire senses, she couldn't detect the direction it was coming from. Olivia held tightly to her injured arm, the wound unable to regenerate as the weapon remained lodged in her. Felicity's eyes had warmed up unexpectedly when she saw Olivia clawing at her arm.
“Stop moving, I'll get it out,” she said. She fell beside Olivia and put her hand to her arm but was caught by Olivia. With the
shuriken
still stuck in her arm, she grabbed Felicity's wrist and held it tightly.
“I've finally gotten your last throwing star.”
“You wanted it to get lodged in your arm?” she sat back, bewildered.
“Surprised?” asked Olivia, her voice getting smaller but a faint smile on her face.
“At your stupidity? Yes.”
Olivia's grip was tighter on Felicity's arm, so much that she could feel the bones grinding beneath the skin. She winced at the pain, but tears did not well in her eyes. “Are you enacting your revenge? Quite the sore loser you've become,” Felicity commented through gritted teeth.
Olivia pulled out the
kunai
from her pocket.
“I never wanted to do this,” Olivia admitted.
“Do what?”
The
kunai
struck Felicity's jaw and blood spurted from the cut. She took her free hand to her face but still did not cry. Her eyes were bold. “You wanna kill me? Go on, do it. It's natural order....considering how many I've killed.”
“I would never kill you,” she confessed. “But I couldn't...”
The scent of Felicity's blood had stopped Olivia in her verbal tracks. Felicity smiled, a rather sweet smile.
“You smell it too? Something—”
“Shut up,” her voice was more pained than annoyed as she screamed at Felicity and then her eyes went dark.
Olivia pulled her head from Felicity's neck, her body languid and covered in blood.
No
, she thought as she sank into the trunk of the tree.
“Olivia?”
Felicity's voice was a murmur as her name choked out of her month. She coughed. “You're a vampire...but how?”
She looked down at a bloody Felicity, her eyelids hanging over her blue eyes and threatening to close.
“I wish you didn't...”
“Didn't what?” she asked through coughs, her eyes studying Olivia's.
“I wish you didn't know that I was a vampire.”
Felicity's eyes shot open, her imposing blues bright on her face but without their usual iciness.
“I wish you would just forget...” Olivia's voice was almost a whisper as she stared at her.
“Forget what?” Felicity asked, her eyes blinking rapidly. She put her hand to her jaw then to her neck, pulling back a crimson stained palm. “What happened?”
Nine
Felicity had not awakened for three nights after the incident. Having lost so much blood, a house call was made to Dr. Patel who showed up on the fourth night and took her vitals grudgingly. Even Mar didn't feel she should sully her hands on account of Felicity and her accident. Olivia had only guessed that her blood would seal up the wound but it made sense when she thought back on all that her mother said in her Vampire History class. She had learned that vampires also came equipped with their own magic, mind tricks that they could impose on humans but didn't know how true that tale was until she had involuntarily stripped Felicity of her memory. Still, with her mother aware of what she was she figured it would be easier for incidents like this to be covered up.
She fell back on the couch just outside the infirmary. It was a room set up in Anne and Ferris Arlington's home where Dr. Patel could tend to all the wounded students after fighting, falling out when blood had no longer became enough for their survival or in the rare case they drank bad blood. The couch smelled of cigarettes and wet clothes as she tossed on it, pathetic weeds she intended to pass of as flowers in her hands. She wanted to feel sorry for what she had done, and deep down she did but nothing, no one's death or hospitalization could ever hurt her like Alexa's. She thought of Troy's cold eyes, a stark contrast to the warm and inviting eyes he had smiled with when she had saw him by the water and at the recreation center. How was he? Was he still slumped over Alexa's body? Had he set up the funeral arrangements? Would he try to reach out and find the family she had hidden from him? Or maybe he had called the police and they were on a manhunt at this very moment. Her head shot up and the door creaked open, a tired looking doctor pulling a hat over his head and bidding them goodnight. He forced a smile to Olivia before walking out the door.
She pushed the door open and saw Ferris' hand at the base of his wife's back as they stood over Felicity. They turned and noticed too many balls of blue were staring at her as she stepped back lost in the color, their faces drowned in the blur. Anne smiled at Olivia and held her hand out to her.
Olivia stepped cautiously forward then took her hand.
“She's stable now and will probably be awake soon,” said Anne.
“That was amazing, what you did,” added her father. “I'm sure she would've found it inspiring.”
“I'm honored, considering she is the best.” She spoke highly of Felicity since she was asleep and being in front of her parents, it was the least she could do.
Ferris agreed. “It's high praise. Felicity doesn't yield to many and even those she admired, she would never let them know. Her pride is her strongest defeat.”
Olivia didn't know what to say to his words. She felt uncomfortable as they continued to talk about their fight in the forest like an epic Pay-Per-View match. She broke their cheers.
“Still, I'm sorry for doing that to your daughter.”
“You can't be sorry for your actions and be a vampire. They just,” he said with a shake of his head, “don't go together.”
“What weapon did you do that with?” Anne gestured to Felicity's jaw.
“A
kunai
.”
“It's a great weapon,” she said, glowing.
“So I've heard.”
****
Felicity had barely been up for more than a few minutes when the Matriarch had paid a private visit to her recovery room. She brought her human food and medicine when she had awakened, most of which she spat out in disgust even though it did make her feel better. She was slipping her bandaged arms into an ivory jacket when Mar got up from the bed and spoke.
“Go on a hunt tonight, with Olivia.”
She didn't wait for a nod or word from Felicity before she shut the door behind her. Felicity pressed two fingers against her ribcage and winced at the aching sensation throbbing from a wound that wasn't healing fast enough, and she was pretty sure she had broken a few bones but didn't know if they had operated on her. The soles of her feet burned as she slipped her feet into her shoes, opting for running shoes rather than her usual boots. She limped out the door, slamming it behind her, angry that her body refused to cooperate with her. When she was outside, she saw Olivia sitting at the steps of her house and marched toward her, albeit with a limp.