The bell rang, signaling the end of geography. Anna was surprised when she realized she was actually looking forward to eating lunch with her new friends. It had been so long since she’d had friends that she’d forgotten how nice it was.
Once she got her backpack zipped up, Anna left with Sharon and Carmine to meet up with the rest of the group. Since the three of them usually got out before Mia or Joanna did, Sharon, Carmine, and Anna were always the ones to find a table. This new plan usually worked quite well, and they were almost always able to find one.
Today, however, was a different story. There were no tables available inside, and it looked like it was going to rain outside. And since none of them wanted to be out in the rain – especially Anna – they decided to sit on the floor in the cafeteria. Mia and Joanna came and joined them a few minutes later, threading their way past the numerous other students who’d had the same idea.
As soon as Joanna sat down, Carmine grinned at her. “Guess what?” she said excitedly.
Joanna looked a little wary, but asked, “What?”
Carmine beamed proudly, pulling the morning paper out of her backpack.
“Look at this!” She jabbed at the paper with her index finger. “See? I told you!”
Anna had never seen Carmine so excited before. She leaned over as casually as she could and tried to see what all the fuss was about. What she saw made her heart skip a beat. The article Carmine was pointing to with such glee read Boy Found in Park – the story about Anna’s attack! She was shocked. It had never occurred to her that anyone she’d meet would not only read those articles but would actually be excited to see them.
Anna was horrified, and started kicking herself all over again. How could she have been so careless? Would Carmine know it was her? She felt like everyone in the cafeteria must know that she’d been the one who attacked that boy – Richard Shubert. Her heart was beating in her ears so loud, she felt sure that it would give her away. Not knowing what else to do, she decided to just stay quiet. If she ignored it, maybe it would all just go away.
“Look at this!” Carmine repeated. “This is documented proof that vampires exist! And there’s one in this city!” Carmine’s eyes were shining. Joanna, however, looked completely unimpressed.
“And how is this proof of vampires?” Joanna asked, sounding more than a little exasperated.
“Because! I mean, just look. This guy was found unconscious with two bruises on his neck! Two. Bruises, Joanna.” Carmine said. “And don’t forget all those rumors, too…people passing out, being attacked in dark places. How can you deny it? It’s so obvious! Wow! Maybe we can actually meet the vampire.”
Anna’s heart was still racing, but she felt just a little bit relieved when she heard Carmine say she’d be interested in meeting a vampire. Maybe she’d be able to tell them her secret after all. Maybe they would understand. Anna began trying to think of how she would tell them, what she would say. But Joanna quickly put an end to that train of thought.
“Carmine,” she said sternly, “you wouldn’t really want to meet a vampire. I mean, think about it. This would be someone who drinks people’s blood. Do you really want to know someone who does that? What would stop them from drinking your blood too?”
Carmine looked pretty crushed at the thought. “Well…I don’t know. Maybe...” But she brightened as a thought struck her. “But, we could still try to find the vampire, right? Could we at least do that?”
Joanna was about to object when she saw the look in Carmine’s eyes. It was clear that Carmine was really excited about this whole thing. Joanna, looking resigned, obviously decided to at least humor her.
“Ok,” she sighed. “Why not? Even though you still haven’t proven it’s a vampire doing it.”
“But it’s so obvious!” Carmine repeated incredulously. “How could it be anything else? What else do you know of that leaves two marks on people’s necks when it attacks them?”
Joanna started to say something, but Sharon cut in.
“Joanna, don’t even bother arguing with her on this. Her mind’s already made up – she reads way too many of those stupid books to be convinced of anything else.”
Carmine just stared at Sharon, a look of hurt on her face. In the interest of avoiding an argument, Joanna decided to skip the debate about what was causing the attacks.
“So how do you plan to go about meeting this ‘vampire’ of yours?” she asked. “Especially without them knowing what you’re up to?”
Carmine looked overjoyed by what she interpreted as Joanna’s acknowledgement she was right. But Anna saw out of the corner of her eye that Sharon was still looking rather annoyed.
Anna looked around at each one of her friends in turn. Carmine looked like she was on cloud nine, and Joanna was looking more than a little exasperated. Sharon had started looking thoughtful and a little uncomfortable. Anna was surprised to see that Mia was looking amused; she was almost smirking. But before Anna had much of a chance to think about it, Sharon spoke up.
“So…you never did say how you planned on finding your vampire, Carmine.” she said. Carmine looked slightly surprised.
“Well…I hadn’t really got that far.” she confessed.
“Maybe you should start by visiting that park where this kid was found.” Sharon suggested. The sarcasm, however, was completely lost on Carmine.
“Good idea! We should check it out tonight!”
“Not a chance.” Sharon said rather sharply. “I have a Spanish test tomorrow. I’m not going anywhere tonight – and I’m especially not going hunting for vampires.”
Joanna, though, was looking thoughtful and asked, “This story’s just like all those other newspaper reports of people passing out and not remembering what happened, right? Except for the fact that he remembered being attacked. You think those cases are connected to this one?”
“Joanna, you’re a genius!” Carmine exclaimed, looking at her friend with awe. “I’ll bet you’re right!”
“Well, these attacks don’t occur every night, do they? How far apart are they?”
“Well, I don’t know for sure. I only hear about them happening every other day or so.” Carmine told her.
“See? So you wouldn’t be able to go tonight anyway – nothing would happen.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense.” Anna blurted out before she could stop herself. The conversation stopped, and Anna could feel everyone’s eyes on her now. Even Sharon, who’d been making a show of being more interested in her math book, looked up.
“What do you mean?” Carmine asked, her eyes narrowing just the slightest bit. Anna could feel her cheeks turning red.
“Well…I mean…” she started. What did she mean? That she only attacked people every three or four days? Anna took a deep breath and composed herself. She quickly decided that the best way to get out of this was to have Carmine do the thinking.
“Well…do vampires attack people every day – or every other day? I mean, is it really that often?”
“Hmmm…” Carmine appeared thoughtful for a minute before saying, “I don’t think so…I think it’s more spread out than that.” Then looking at Anna appreciatively she added, “Good point.”
Anna sighed inwardly with relief; she was off the hook. The conversation about tracking vampires continued, but Anna stopped listening. It was clear no one suspected her yet, and since she wasn’t about to contribute to the group’s knowledge on vampires any more than she already had, what was the point? She decided the rest of lunch would be better spent by starting her biology homework.
Anna opened her book, but she just couldn’t concentrate on the questions. Bits of conversation kept floating over to her; Carmine was trying desperately to develop a vampire-hunting plan, despite the efforts of both Joanna and Sharon to thwart it.
Anna’s head was spinning. She couldn’t believe how fast things had changed. Only forty-five minutes ago, her biggest problems had been homework and facing the possibility of finding a new place to hunt. Now, she was looking at being hunted herself. And what if her friends found out that she was the one they were after? She would almost certainly need a new group of friends if that happened. How could she hope to keep them? But more importantly, would they tell anyone? Would they make sure she never had friends again? Or would it be worse? Would they tell the police? Chase her out of town?
As her stomach turned, Anna was surprised to realize that she was actually more concerned about what her friends thought of her than with who they might tell. She hadn’t been concerned about what individual humans thought of her for over two hundred years; they’d just been prey. Strange how much things had changed. Now all she had to do was figure out how to keep her friends from finding out it was her they were after.
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