Authors: Alexandra Hope
Both Olivia and Troy thought back on the fire he created as he sat in front of Alexa and then he asked, “So where does your fire come from?”
“You'll figure it out one day...” she said optimistically.
When Olivia sat down beside Noah, she felt a stab at her brain and her eyes fluttered several times before the pain left. He turned to her slowly, “Did whatever you needed to do?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Good,” he said in a somber voice.
He looked back onto the calm water after he stopped thrashing his legs about. He felt for his friend and understood her plight but he couldn't help but feel out of place when she went off with Troy on whatever supernatural business they had to do. He let out the quietest of sighs but Olivia heard it clearly and wondered what could be aching him. He almost didn't hear the sound of the wooden planks as Olivia stood up but when she dropped her jacket, he turned to it. “What are you doing?” he asked when he looked up from the jacket.
“The water looks nice. I wonder how it feels.”
She kicked off her sneakers and Noah grinned as he followed suit. He pulled off his shirt, vest and shoes and then jumped in the water, it's waves rippling outward and shards of liquid crashing against her skin and soaking it. The dive into the water forced Troy's eyes on them and despite his best efforts to turn away as Olivia pulled her shirt off, he couldn't. His eyes bored into her and followed every scar that traveled across her skin as they dipped beneath her bra before emerging on the other side. He knew he had seen her regenerate before and figured those were the scars too far engrained into her skin to escape. The ones she got as a human. He couldn't figure out what kind of person would make children fight to near death, but then again, he couldn't figure out what kind of human actively drank another human's blood. His brain was at a loss for understanding either of them.
“So, are you trying to kill her with your laser death stare or are you just a gigantic pervert?”
Troy turned away and cleared his throat but he didn't speak as he walked away. Olivia was pulled into the water by Noah and he splashed her several times in the face. He watched her sink to the bottom and remain under water, showing off her impressive skills. Troy resolved not to look in their direction but couldn't silence the sounds that came from them, as if she truly enjoyed his company even if the laughter was absent.
Of course she did
, he thought,
because even if he wasn't in love with her, she had to be in love with him
.
He left the lake and Olivia and Noah remained in the water for a bit longer until he declared that it had gotten too cold for him. She felt nothing and stayed in as he pulled his shirt and vest back on.
“I'd say get out so you don't freeze to death but you're already dead,” he tried to say as a joke but was hurt by his own words.
She pulled herself onto the pier and after putting her shirt back on, spread herself onto the planks. She watched Noah put on his shoes and told him to go on without her after seeing his shivering body. All she had left to deal with was Erika who insisted she stay behind. She walked over to Olivia just as she was pulling her body upright and crouched down to be eye level with her with a wicked smile on her face.
“Been going out on nightly blood runs with Troy? I can smell it on.” There was a twinkle in her eye as she spoke. “I'm not a blood drinker but I imagine every feed leads you down the slow descent to ecstasy...”
“If you are relating feeding to intercourse—”
Erika chuckled. “Actually, I'm not. But if I were relating it to something, it'd be a Requiem. There's something sad about watching humans die in your hands, isn't there?”
Twenty One
Olivia welcomed the day briefly, catching a small glimpse of the sun before drawing the curtains over the window to avoid it's rays. She left Bear in the living room downstairs and had sunk into the bed for a day's worth of sleep. When her eyes closed, the darkness that she saw dispersed as white filled it.
She once again found herself in a endless white void, reminiscent of the hallway from her previous nightmare. Dressed in black, she walked down it with only the sound of water splashing beneath her feet as a reminder that she was moving. The hall did not narrow out or change course or color making it hard for Olivia to find it's end, if it had any. As she trudged along to a seemingly nowhere space she thought she heard the faintest of sounds, like silverware clattering together.
When she took her next step she saw a small metal knob, the only hint she had that what lie before her was a door. She tugged at it and when she stumbled through, she was met with another white room but this time something had filled it. There was a long table, its top made of marble and it's legs a dark espresso that flexed outward in a curve. Ceramic plates and lavish silverware adorned the table neatly amongst the folded napkins and glassware. At the head of the table sat her mother, her dark brown hair falling over her shoulders in waves. Gaudy jewelry hung from her ears and neck and she noticed that she was wearing the black dress she wore in mourning.
Olivia followed her mother's hand that motioned her to a chair at the opposite end of the table and she took steps toward it but hesitated and did not sit down. She heard the tug on the chair and turned to see it had been pulled out by Troy who was once again in a black suit and tie. His hair was slicked back and he had a lustful grin on his face as he awaited her to sit. When she did, he tucked her chair into the table and went to his seat. Alexa had walked in and sat down across from him, followed by Noah who sat by her. Olivia tried to speak and she knew her mouth had been moving but no words were coming out. She watched as Noah pulled a glass of scarlet liquid from his lips and grinned at her.
She opened her mouth once again to speak, but still no words came out. She heard the chatter amongst Noah and Alexa, and heard Troy join in as well but it all came to a halt when her mother stood up from her chair with a glass in hand. Her eyes had darkened and when Olivia looked away, she saw that Troy's blueish green eyes had hollowed out to an empty blue and Alexa and Noah's had done so as well. The three wore broad grins as they focused on Olivia and listened to each word as they came out of Mar's mouth.
“
Tonight we celebrate the death of my dearest Olivia,” she said then took a sip of blood. “Her permanent death.”
Mar's movements were fast and with the glass already back down on the table she was behind Olivia. Her hands were on Olivia's shoulder who had turned to her and she was shaking the girl. She heard her name being called but she had closed her eyes, too afraid to look. She felt her mother's hand travel to her neck and tighten as she began to constrict her airway. Olivia forced her eyes open and pulled a large, sharp knife from the table and stabbed it through her mother's heart. She ripped the knife from her heart and stabbed her once more. Blood had trickled down Mar's lips as a name left her mouth one last time.
“
Olivia....”
Bear's barks had pulled her out of her nightmare and when she forced her eyes open she sat on the kitchen floor with Noah lying in a pool of blood beneath him.
She had tossed the bloody knife to the side, the clanking of the metal against the tile forcing Bear away. She turned Noah onto his back and shook at the sight of the blood, her lips trembling as she screamed for help. Pulling him onto her lap, she bit her wrist and held an unsteady arm over his lips, the blood falling all over his face. She screamed out again, her voice so full of tears that she was almost incomprehensible. “Troy!”
She was crying as she wiped the blood from his face and tried to feed him her blood again. He was unresponsive and she shook her head defiantly, unwilling to allow him to succumb to death. “No! You cannot!” she cried out. As Bear listened in on her sorrowful sobs, he went in search of Troy, running upstairs and barking frantically at the room door that was left ajar. When the dog came back down, he saw Olivia had been bleeding all over after cutting herself with the knife to pour out as much blood as possible. She lay over Noah's body, her head buried in his neck as she whimpered and the tears ran the blood off of his skin. She had yelled out one last time for Troy and knew deep down that he wouldn't come.
She didn't move from his body and instead lay over him as hours passed, the sky now darkened and telling her it was time to wake up. She didn't have to wonder how she had gotten downstairs as it was easily apparent to her that something in her sleep had beckoned her to kitchen, that she had been sleep walking as Alexa had once told her. She heard the creak of the door and was in the foyer with pleading eyes as Troy looked at her blood stained skin and clothes.
“What happened?” he asked, his eyes frantically searching for Bear.
She shook her head slowly as more tears streamed down her face. “Please help Noah...”
Troy dropped his gym bag and followed the blood trail to the kitchen where he lay in his blood. He was stunned by the sight and she heard the hasty thump as his heart revved up after it paused for a moment. He pulled Noah up and leaned his back onto the under sink cabinet doors, his hand pressing onto his chest despite the fact that all the blood had already poured out of him.
“Please give him your blood!” she shouted with urgency.
He took the knife and slit his wrist then brought it to Noah's mouth. As he waited, he pulled a frantic Olivia into his arms to keep her eyes off the sight but she pulled away and fell to Noah's side crying out, “Why has it not worked? Please feed him more!”
“I don't know if it'll help, I'm only half,” he said with regret.
“But you must!” she cried out. “You must! Please!”
He pulled out his cellphone and each time he dialed a number he was met with the same message. He yelled into the phone and as he did there was a knock at the door. Olivia answered the door and almost fell into the girl's arms as she begged Erika for her blood. Erika placed a palm up in an effort to stop her cries which had quickly given her a migraine. She slowly followed her into the kitchen and her eyebrows perked up at the sight.
She sighed and spoke nonchalantly. “This is what happens when you reach out to that vampire. I told you it wasn't a good idea to search for him, in real life or your dreams.”
Olivia couldn't hear her words as she focused on Noah and then once again asked Erika for her blood. She looked at Olivia in disbelief then took a step towards Noah, falling into a crouch as she examined him.
“Isn't he passed his expiration date?” she asked, her face contorted.
“Couldn't you just try?” snapped Troy.
“I could, but why would I? He's clearly dead beyond repair.”
Troy shook his head and tightened his fist. “Just try!”
“Fine then,” she relented. Blood poured out of her bite marks and she yanked him forward with no sense of delicacy. She rested his body back against the cabinet and they waited for another hour or so. Troy had cleaned up most of the blood and Olivia had absolutely no thirst as she sat there awaiting his rebirth. She had grabbed a blood bag from the refrigerator and sat on the floor in front of him.
“How long does it take?” she asked Erika.
“He should've been up already,” she replied, shaking her head. “He obviously can't be made into a vampire.”
“Why not?” asked Troy, angry. Olivia lifted her head at the unexpected passion in his voice. He may have hated her and disliked Noah, but even he didn't want to see him dead, she figured.
“Blood drinking human,” was all Erika said.
Troy quickly caught onto her words and asked as he thought back on something else, “So if he won't come back a vampire, would he come back as a zombie?”
“Oh, I just made that up to scare Alexa. There's an actual science behind creating a zombie.”
Olivia blocked out their nonsensical conversation as only one thing came to mind. Noah hadn't been a blood drinker and therefore, could not be brought back.
Twenty Two
The silence between them had been the most comforting thing for Troy and Olivia who sat on the steps. Her hands ran back and forth against her jeans, dark splotches of red fading into nothing as blood soaked them. Noah's blood. She had buried him but couldn't find the strength to wash away what remained. Troy thought about consoling her but he couldn't figure out the words to say to a girl he had been so cruel to. He hadn't been able to see her as anything less than a monster, but even he recognized that she didn't deserve to bury her best friend. She rubbed a hand across her face and down her neck, leaning forward as she began to think. Nothing appeared in her thoughts as she was devoid of them, unable to conjure a single mental word or image as she sat there.
“He didn't deserve to die,” said Troy. He knew it wasn't the best he could offer but how could he say 'I'm sorry' to the person's killer.
How much better would that have sounded,
he thought.
“That, unfortunately, does not make him any less dead.”
He quickly regretted opening his mouth when she countered, now recovered from her distressed state. She didn't mean to sound harsh and had been directing the words at herself but they were already out, drifting between them before the wind whisked them away and Troy filled the void with more cautious words.