Authors: Alexandra Hope
Natalie debated for a minute and decided it was too hard to say no to Olivia, especially in her current state and finally gave in. “Just make sure you're home before the sun rises.”
“Sure, sure. Thanks Mom!” He leaned in and kissed her cold, sunken in cheek.
Mar had made her way to bed and Natalie left, leaving Noah and Olivia alone in the living room. Automatic shutters went across the windows to keep from letting any light in during the day, except in Olivia's room where manual ones needed to be pulled down. Noah jumped up from his seat, “Let's go to your room!”
He followed her upstairs and down a hallway to her room. Clothes were strewn about the enormous room and wads of paper filled the trashcan while larger papers covered her bed. Noah hopped over the piles of clothes and mess to get to the window. “Is it me or has your room gotten messier since the last time I was here?”
“It is messier,” she replied, unashamed to hide it.
“It's probably worse than my room.”
“It probably is. I'm not going to argue that.”
“Well come over here,” he said as he held out his hand.
Kicking her clothes out of the way, she cleared a pathway to the window and reached for his hand. He pulled her to him and then turned her to the window. “What did you dream about in class?”
“Death. I keep dreaming about death. Like it's all around me and trying to tell me something.” She put her hand to her head and pushed her bangs out of her face.
“Maybe it's the blood getting to you?” he suggested. He pulled out something from his pocket, a small item wrapped in plastic and handed it to Olivia.
“Whats that?”
“Something better than blood,” he whispered.
“You are the one who has been sneaking human food into the colony,” she said, taken aback by his indirect confession.
He covered her mouth and the indulgent scent of something unfamiliar drifted into her nose. “Let's not alert the media Olivia.”
She shook her head away and spoke softly, “They know. My mother and yours. They know. I heard them talk about someone who brought human food in—”
“Newsflash friend, we are humans. This vampire stuff is nonsense and besides, blood tastes horrible and even the sight makes me cringe.”
“I understand this lifestyle isn't ideal, but—”
“But nothing Olivia. We made a promise to leave this behind. The plan hasn't fallen to pieces because of what happened, please don't tell me you're gonna abandon it,” he pleaded.
Her eyes lowered as she searched herself for the words to appease her pleading friend, “Nothing is certain Noah, but OK, I will try to leave this place behind.”
“Even if that means leaving me behind?”
Her eyes widened as she looked up at him, “What?”
“Tomorrow is your chance to leave, so just go. Don't come back.”
Her eyes fell again and she spoke softly in a voice faintly mimicking amusement. “If I do that, it will make it impossible for you to get out. You do know that, right?”
He rested his hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. “Consider this me thinking more about the beginning of the rest of your life than my own.”
They rested their tired bodies but remained awake as they fell into the loveseat between the two large windows in her room. Noah kicked his feet up on the arm and Olivia sat against his black skinny pants as she contemplated his words. Hours passed by and the moon set giving way for the sun to rise, its rays hitting the window but barely illuminating the room. She sat up and walked back to the window, followed by Noah who looked on, amazed.
“Is this window film I spot? Pretty cool!” he exclaimed. “I can't believe the Matriarch allowed it...”
She put a finger to her own mouth and the realization caught up with him.
“She doesn't even know” He looked at her, shocked. “So sneaky.”
“I like to look at the sun,” she pressed her hands to the window, “and this blocks the rays. So it is a win-win and my little secret.”
“Oh, and you don't want me to tell?” he grinned widely at her as he stroked his chin.
She gave a light, almost non-existent blow to his stomach as he laughed and nodded at her, “Your secrets safe with me.”
“Thank you. I wonder what the sun feels like.”
“Amazing....I bet,” he stretched his arms out and yawned, “Probably like the best thing on Earth.”
“Yes, it probably is.”
Two
Olivia slunk through the forest, the leaves crushing beneath her feet as she tiptoed backwards, her breathing light. The branches of trees were a mangled mess of brown with darkened foliage barely hanging on as it rustled in the wind. She looked up and peered through the trees, the moonlight shining between them and glowing her pale skin a milky white while darkened shadows contrasted the color. She caught the sound of footsteps moving in closer and stood up,
rattan sticks
, in hand and turned to run deeper into the forest. She stopped when she heard the echo of objects fidgeting in someone's hand and wiry string being pulled back. A quiver reverberated through the forest and then she heard the splitting sound of wood cutting through the air, headed towards her. Olivia turned and her
rattan stick
came down swiftly and collided with the arrow, knocking it away before it could pierce her skin. A second arrow was drawn and came toward Olivia quickly. She didn't have the same reaction time and winced as the serrated arrowhead grazed her arm, cutting through her shirt sleeve. She stumbled back and ignored the blood that oozed from her arm and positioned the sticks in front of her in a defensive stance. She knew she wouldn't have had the energy to fend off the first attack if not for getting a good day's rest due to Noah staying with her to ward off the nightmares. She couldn't dwell on it now though, not while she was in class. She put her right foot over her left slowly then swiftly pointed her feet in that direction, taking slow and silent breaths so that she could listen in for her attacker.
She heard another tug of string, the arrow poised so steadily between the attacker's fingers that it seemed like there wasn't even one in the person's hand. The string had been let go and Olivia braced herself for the arrow, but it never came. She whipped her head around as she tried to listen in to the sounds in the forest. There was a scurry of feet across the leaves behind her and when she turned back a girl was running toward her with a blade in her hand instead of a bow. She lifted it above her head with both hands, her height over Olivia giving her an advantage as she let it come down on her. Olivia crossed her sticks and crouched, holding them over her head as she blocked the blade from hitting her face. The wood splintered but they were not cut in half. The girl jumped back, her pink lips pulling up into a satisfied smile as she watched Olivia. Her platinum blond hair was a silvery ash in the moonlight and shaped into a pixie cut with long strands falling into her eyes. The girl wiped the sweat from her forehead and pushed the hair away from her face as she let out heavy breaths, “That can't be all you've got!”
It would've been easier for Olivia to concede defeat but Felicity wouldn't allow it and neither would her teacher, Tomas Stevens. Olivia took the half torn into sticks and slammed each one against the bark of a tree, breaking the top half off and unveiling the jagged splinters of wood at their tips. The blade of Felicity's weapon, a
dao
, glinted in the moonlight as she twisted the embellished hilt in her hand. She pulled it up to her face, two hands gripping the hilt as she pointed it toward Olivia.
“Run,” she said, her voice low yet forceful.
Olivia took off before she could catch the sadistic smile that had crept on Felicity's face as she watched her disappear into the distance. She ran after Olivia, closing the gap between them without much effort. She was running beside Olivia and had pulled something from her waist with her free hand. The item snaked behind her before she whipped it into the air and lashed it at Olivia, the leather biting into her flesh as it wrapped around her wrist. Olivia was halted in her tracks and wrestled to the ground by Felicity's whip. She dragged her back and kicked her foot into Olivia's side, turning her onto her face and twisting her restrained arm upward, causing her to let out a scream. She stomped her foot onto Olivia's back.
“Nothing satisfies like hunting prey,” said Felicity, as she drove her foot deeper into Olivia's back. She undid the whip, releasing Olivia's arm and then finally pulled her foot off of her. Olivia rolled over, red streaming from her lip and cheek where dirt and sticks were affixed to her skin.
“And once again, I am the winner,” she said, extending a hand to Olivia. She took it and was pulled onto her feet. The trees around them were more spread out where they stood and Olivia could tell they were closer to the entrance to the forest, behind Mr. Stevens' home. They were quiet as they walked out of the forest where Felicity emerged victorious and unscathed. She was met with mostly praise from her peers and she soaked up the cheers, relishing in her own glory. It had only been half their class who met them at the edge of the forest and Olivia knew the others were inside, watching the other fight. Mr. Stevens' class had always been broken up into two types, the hunting and weapons training portion and then the combatives portion.
When she slid the patio door open she saw her teacher observing two boys sparring on a black mat before him. It was a two story home where the first floor had been fully transformed into an MMA style sparring ring flanked by a cage and in it, a brown haired boy was struggling as he was pinned to the mat by another. Mr. Stevens declared the winner and Noah stood up with a smile then pulled the boy up. His brown eyes were filled with rage as he thought of throwing a punch at Noah, just to wipe that sickening smile off his face but didn't act on it.
“Good try, Randy,” he said, his chest falling up and down.
They shook hands and exited the cage where Noah bent his head down toward Allison and wiped his sweaty face on hers playfully. She pulled away, visually disgusted and yelled out in her high pitched childlike voice, “Ah, Noah, stop!” She began laughing as he went in again and rubbed his curls against hers. When he stood up straight he turned to his teacher who looked down at him unimpressed, maybe even a bit annoyed as he took in a long breath and shook his head.
“Good work, Noah,” said Mr. Stevens. “I hope you continue to take this seriously considering you will be hunting soon.”
“Yeah, very seriously,” he said dismissively.
After the class was dismissed, Olivia went home to change. She peeled off her dirt stained and sweat drenched shirt that clung to her skin and tossed it to the floor. The dark red gash on her arm made her skin look like it had grown paler in less than twenty four hours and her skin had sunken in so much that her ribcage was visible, each bone jutting out glaringly. She bit down on her bottom lip as she pulled a broken piece of metal out of the cut on her arm.
“What's wrong?”
Noah was pulling his shirt over his head when she turned her arm to him without saying anything. His face contorted at the sight of the wound that had begun gushing blood again.
“Felicity did that to you?” he asked, dropping his shirt and walking over to her. He shook his head as he gently placed his hand on her arm and pulled it close to examine. His touch, albeit gentle, felt odd on her skin, the warmth unfamiliar. She was used to his touch but now it was foreign as it grew increasingly warm, prompting her to suspect that he had been out in the sun against the Matriarch's wishes. She fidgeted with each prod as his fingers slid across her skin and came close to the wound. He put it back down and said, “Well, there's nothing in it.”
“Yes, I've taken care of it.”
She walked to her closet and pulled out a towel and swung it across the back of her neck. Noah had stepped out of his shorts and was zipping up the zipper to his skinny jeans when he caught sight of Olivia's back. He threw a long sleeve burgundy shirt on, stuffing his unruly curls through the hole then rushed over to her. A darkened bruise, black with strips of blue, crawled up her back and twisted over her shoulder and he traced his fingers across it gently. She could feel the warmth from his breath and tensed under the pressure as his fingertips traced the outline of the bruise. “She did this too?” he asked, gritting the words through his teeth.
She did a slow nod and he pulled his hand away and closed it into a tight fist.
“There has to be rules against that! She's gone too far with that one!”
“Her attack was within the rules of the system, and therefore, was allowed.”
“You can't tell me you had a good time having the crap beat out of it.”
Olivia half turned but remained quiet, her light brown, almost amber eyes fixated on the night sky. Noah had begun his passionate argument but Olivia had already checked out of the conversation, excusing herself to her bathroom. Under the harsh lighting, Olivia took in her scarred and damaged body and the depressions across her skin, namely her abdomen that hadn't much meat. She took off the rest of her clothes and hopped in the shower. The water hit her body in a tiny beads, warm and jagged against her skin, yet oddly comforting as it ran the weariness she felt down the drain. When she emerged from the shower and opened the door, she noticed Noah had left. She pulled a black and gray striped shirt overhead and slipped into a pair of gray jeans, completing the outfit with black and gold sneakers that hadn't been there before. When she had picked them up, a small paper fell from between them, the words
Happy Birthday—these better fit
scrawled across it.