Cursed Blood |Lesbian Story| - Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Everyone moved in fast motions. Doctors and nurses came and went about me. I sat down heavily on a waiting chair of the hospital. The bright lights above my head caused me to hunch my shoulders to keep my eyes away. I stared at the white floor with my mind chasing in a maniacal speed, replaying the scenes over and over again. Mom was already inside the emergency room with other nurses and — Alyssa.
The Headmistress and Cammie were trying to contact Alyssa's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Schell. And the only person who stayed with me was Octavia. She had rushed back to the school after my call and even brought me a clean sweatshirt. I put it on to cover the blood-stain on my white blouse. I couldn't thank her enough for her thoroughness.
"You look tired," Octavia said, handing me a carton of milk. "Drink this. It'll make you feel better."
"It's my fault," I said, shaking my head. "I should've stopped her."
"It's not your fault," Octavia soothed me. "Nobody expected it."
She wrapped her arm around my shoulders and gave me a gentle rub.
"I couldn't believe she's a psychic vampire," I said again, gritting my teeth a little. "How come? She doesn't show any signs to us?"
"A person who could suck the energy of another person is not necessarily an actual vampire," she replied. "A human can do that too."
"So she's not really a vampire at all?"
"She might be one of those people who was born with a need for energy, but anyone can do that, humans and non-humans alike."
"Well, she's a human without the humanity anyway, I should have..." I wanted to say something nasty, instead, I let out a miserable sigh, "I don't know what to do."
"Sometimes we try to do the right thing," Octavia said, "but if it's what makes you feel wrong, it's not worth it. We might want to hide some secrets, but we can't hide the truth forever. I'm sorry too that I underestimated your human will. Maybe, you should let them know the truth."
"No!" I gasped, turning to stare at her. "I can't let them know what I am. They can't handle it, they will freak out!"
"How do you know if you don't even give them a chance to decide?"
"What if I tell them and they don't accept me?"
"Do you love your best friends?" she asked.
"Always do,"
"Then trust them."
I kept staring at Octavia without knowing what to say. Suddenly, we heard someone approaching. I looked up and saw the Headmistress and Cammie heading toward us. We stood, waiting for their first question.
"How's Alyssa?" Cammie asked me. I just shook my head helplessly. The Headmistress sighed. It had been the hardest time for her that something was disturbing the peace of the Ultara Academy. Then the emergency light went off and the metal door finally opened. Mom stepped out with an intent look on her face. We all swarmed around her immediately.
"How is she?" This time our headmistress asked, and we were all waiting for the first answer from Mom.
"She's still unconscious," she replied. "We'll still keep an eye on her."
"Is she falling into a coma or something?" I asked nervously.
"We can't say anything yet, honey," mom said.
"What's caused her sudden collapse?" The Headmistress asked again.
"Extreme exhaustion, it's like nearly all her system was shut down from the lack of energy," she said, "That's all I have found, nothing broken physically. She's only lost too much strength."
I felt Cammie gazing at me with quizzical eyes. It seemed as if she'd just remembered my frantic behavior when I came to her suite. Then we saw Alyssa's parents walking hastily toward us. Mrs. Schell had already gotten her eyes swollen with tears. The mayor also came with a worried face. They went up to Mom quickly, asking more questions than she could manage to answer. And while the adults were talking, Cammie gripped my elbow and lugged me aside. She walked me to the corner away from everyone.
"You knew that something was going to happen to Alyssa, didn't you?" Cammie stated in a husky voice, her eyes stared at me intensely. I flinched and looked away, knowing all the lies I had fed to the Headmistress earlier had not fooled Cammie. Who was I to kid? With her kind of IQ, I might as well sound gibberish. But I couldn't tell them, 'Oh there's a succubus in our school and I've seen her sucking energy from Alyssa!' Like that would help.
"I have told you, by the time I was there, I found Alyssa fainted on the floor, and the broken window was just my panic attempt to get her some fresh air, you know, like something we learned in Health Education?"
"No, you have told me about Jacques!" Cammie hissed.
"Sssh!" I hushed her and quickly glanced over her shoulder to our parents. They were still in a deep conversation far away, only Octavia turned her face to our direction.
"What's that?" Cammie's voice grew more impatient. "Are you hiding something?"
"We can't let anyone know about this," I told her.
"Know about what?" She asked.
"Cam," I bit my lips hesitatingly. "There is something I want to-"
But I had to break off our private talk because I heard Mom starting to walk toward us.
"Excuse me, girls," she said. "I think it's time for you to go back and have some sleep. Alyssa is in a good hand now. Let the adults take care of everything here."
"Can I stay with Cammie tonight?" I turned to ask Mom. She looked at me. Maybe, it was my harmful appetite that kept her weighing the options. I took her hand and steered her away from Cammie. "Please mom, trust me. I won't hurt anyone. My best friend needs me," I reassured her.
"That's not what I'm worried about, honey. I always believe in you," she said.
"Thank you, Mom. I'm in a better control now," I said, trying to forget the impulsive thirst I had felt with Jacques's blood earlier, but that wasn't the case.
"Take care, honey," Mom said.
Then Cammie and I went back to the Ultara mansion again. When Cammie got into the room, she flicked on the lights around the walls. I stepped inside after her. Cammie walked to the center and spun herself around to look at me. I shifted my eyes away, feeling like a person standing in the court. She spread her arms and let them drop to her sides again.
"Now what?" she said. I swallowed hard and drifted to the other side. Cammie's eyes followed me. I stopped by the bookcases lined two of the walls, the books ranking both alphabetically and by subjects of academic interest- physics for Alyssa and languages for Cammie.
The comfy cushion facing a giant-size plasma TV and a sound system. The cream-colored suite that smells of delicious flora and the scent of two teenage girls.
"Are you ready to talk now?" Cammie said. I took a deep nervous breath.
"Nobody's found out about this," I started, "except me."
"Just tell me whatever it is, Viv,"
"Jacques is the cause of all these mysterious collapses in our school," I went straight to the point. Cammie looked at me dumbfounded.
"Seriously?" she finally asked.
"Yes," I nodded. "I don't make it up."
"But how could she be the cause?"
"She's not normal, Cammie," I said.
"You'd already told me that," Cammie pointed out.
"No, I mean she's not like anyone else," I said and tried to force the words. "She's- a psychic-vampire."
"A psychic what?" Cammie echoed out bewilderingly.
"A succubus if you prefer," I said again. "You read a lot. You know what dhampire is. You better know what a succubus means!"
"Wait a minute, Jacques is a succubus?" Cammie said completely bombshell. "Are you sure there is no freaking joke about it?"
"She sucked people's life force, Cam," I said. "I have seen her doing it to Alyssa with my own eyes!"
"Holy crap!" Cammie cried. "How could that be possible?"
"Cammie, I know it might sound foolish, but it's true," I said, watching her pacing back and forth like a caged tiger. I was kind of getting dizzy from that.
"Vivienne, this is crazy!" she said again. My shoulders slumped in dismay.
"If you don't believe it, there's no way I can explain it to you now,"
"No, that's not what I meant," Cammie tried to tell me, twisting her hands like she wanted to punch something. "I do believe in whatever you said, but I just don't understand!"
Then it was time I had to tell Cammie about the incident, starting from what I read in the books, only editing bites and pieces so that her eyes wouldn't pop their ways out too much. And when I finished, I expected her to faint or have one hell of a hysteric scream, but Cammie was too strong for that, so she just dropped herself on the bed heavily, trying to grasp everything.
"There, I said it," I exhaled, feeling lighter after revealing some part of the secret.
"Oh. My. Gosh," Cammie murmured in a daze. "That's why every time we were around her, we felt as if the air was sucked out of the place. I never believed there were such things as psycho vampires."
"Psychic—" I started to correct her again, but before I got the word out, Cammie quickly stood up like a soldier.
"We have to report this to my mom!" She declared.
"No!" I cried. "We can't."
"Why not?"
"Because... because..." I said nervously.
"Of what?" Cammie asked.
"She knows something about me," I admitted shyly to myself. Jacques knew what I was, and if I ratted out on her, she would do the same on me, and the world would turn inside out­­- meaning hell on earth.
"What does she know about you?" Cammie asked again, frowning hard at me.
"Cammie," I stepped forward. "Can you promise me one thing?"
"Anything," she said without a pause. I looked at my best friend with my heart filled with gratitude, but also feared that she wouldn't be this confident after she knew the truth.
"You have to keep it as a secret," I said cautiously.
"Cross my heart," Cammie reassured. She sat down on the edge of her bed again and waited for me to continue. "Now just tell me your secret."
"Do you remember the last time we talked about vampires?" I asked and Cammie nodded at me. "Well, they do exist in the real world. There are always predators to the humans," I went on without stopping.
"Whoa, first a succubus, now vampires are real, too," Cammie said. "Wake me from this dream when you finish."
"Cam, this is the reality that has been kept hidden since the beginning of time," I said.
"You know, I would have laughed if Alyssa wasn't in the hospital right now," Cammie said and I scowled at her. "I meant, if someone like Jacques is a vampire, so who am I to argue?"
"Jacques is not exactly a vampire," I told her again. "At least, not the kind of vampires that feed off blood."
"So what?" She said, "Feeding off blood or energy doesn't make a difference to me."
"Yes, right," I grimaced to myself then took an uneven breath. "And I'm just like Jacques in this sense."
"What are you talking about?" Cammie knitted her perfect eyebrows at me.
"Do you remember the night we went out to the carnival?"
"Yes, like a rerun,"
"Well," I exhaled, walking across the room away from her. "I looked sick, but I wasn't really sick. It was something called Awakening. It's a transition like when we are going through puberty or something."
"What do you mean?" Cammie started asking in a fretful tone.
"Cam," I said slowly. "I'm not a human."
"I beg your pardon?" her face lighted in alarm.
"I mean... I am," I added, "but not a hundred percent human."
"That's not funny, Viv," She tried to say despite her shock.
"No, I'm telling you the truth," I said, looking into her widened eyes with my heart pounding.
"Don't tell me that you are a succu—" Cammie started.
"No, no, I'm not like Jacques."
"If you're not human, then...then what are you?" She asked. Obviously, Cammie's super genius mind was of no help in this case. I sighed to myself.
"I'm not a psychic vampire," I said again slowly. "I am a vampire."
I sort of expected Cammie to jump to the ceiling, but Cammie just blinked at me as hard as she could like she didn't understand the language I spoke.
"Cammie?" I said, wondering if I had paralyzed her mentally.
"No freaking way!!!" Cammie suddenly burst, raising herself out of the bed again. "I don't believe you!"
"I know, it's hard to believe," I tried to speak, feeling a little jumpy with her reaction. "But this is what-"
"I need a proof!" she said, "Have you got any proof on you, that you are what you claim to be?"
"Cammie, I'm a living proof!" I said.
"That's not enough," she said. "If I were Alyssa, you would end up in a one-way glass room or lock in a space tube in the Science lab by now."
"Okay, fine," I said a little louder, "I'll show you, but don't scream your gut out when you see this."
Then I turned my back around and walked away to the other side of the room. "Now turn off every light."
"I'm sorry?"
"Just do as I said," I waved my hand over my shoulder anxiously.
"Alright," Cammie walked toward the wall and flicked all the lights off. When everything went black like a cave, I twirled myself around and opened my eyes again slowly, letting Cammie witness the florescent irises that glowed in deep liquid gold.
"Oh, my god! Your eyes shine!" she gasped with her jaw hanging.
"They glow, Cammie," I corrected her with a grimace.
"No, no, I bet you are wearing that glow-in-the-dark contacts,"
"Oh genius," I murmured, rolling my florescent eyes at her. This was harder than explaining the combination of mitosis cells in biology.
"Alright, whatever. Just turn the light back on," I simply said. "But I'm telling you, everything I have said is not a lie, and that's that."
"But you don't have fangs!" She still protested. "Vampires have to have fangs!"
"Oh, please!" I groaned. "Not every vampire has fangs."
"No, I won't believe you unless I have a good view of it," Cammie said stubbornly. I thought even someone with the highest IQ still hadn't prepared for this brand new world. Cammie just needed an extra dose of shock.
"Alright, fine!" I said, "Remember you ask for it,"
Then I pressed my lips together and began to extract my hidden canines that tucked securely inside my gum. For a moment, I felt the muscle tissue squeezed the fangs out. They slid gently against the inside of my cheeks. I turned to Cammie who was observing my action curiously.
Then I bared my teeth, flashing a white set of razor-sharp canines at her.
And a black belt or not, Cammie just jumped onto the bed with a panic cry. I had to shut my mouth again and quickly retracted the fangs back.
"Cammie, it's okay!" I said, putting my hands up to prove my harmlessness, "I won't hurt you."
"You're a vampire!" She shrieked frightfully. Great, my last chance of friendship went through the window. I knew it from the start that nobody could accept this about me.
"That's what I was trying to tell you," I kept my voice steady and tried not to give in to tears. But to my great relief, Cammie got down to the floor again although she wasn't at all in her usual daredevil mood.
"So vampires exist!" she said, sounding like she was talking about dinosaurs.
"Yeah, they have always been around as long as humans have."
"But why didn't you tell us?" she said, looking at me, "Oh!...so that's why you don't want to be with us?"
"I have to stay away from you, because..." I trailed off, unable to look at her in the eyes.
"Because...?" She explored.
"I'm a predator! Cammie," I said, "You are smart enough to figure out what vampires do to survive!"
"I don't care!" She snapped back, "I just want to know how my best friend suddenly becomes a vampire. Tell me who bit you? I'll kill it!" Her strong concern made my heart warm but also made me ashamed of myself.
"No, Cam, no one bit me," I confessed, "I was born this way. It's in my DNA. Anyway, my mom is a human, so I'm just a hybrid."
"You mean you're half-vampire and half-human?" Cammie said.
I lowered my face and gave a weak nod.
"Oh, Vivienne," Cammie said with a tight tone like she wanted to cry. Every girl cries, but not Cammie, and that made me want to cry, too. "I had no idea you've been through this all alone. I'm terribly sorr—"
"Camilla!" I broke her off, "You have every right to run for dear life, call the police or even a zoologist, but you're not supposed to be sorry!"
"Why on earth do I have to call a zoologist?" Cammie sure didn't grasp the idea.
"Because I'm not human! Can't you see?"
"So what? Human or not, you're still my best friend," Cammie argued. My heart skipped a beat. She stared at me with understanding. That was the unconditional acceptance that I had wished for.
"You really don't mind what I am?" I asked.
"It's who you are that counts," she said.
We looked at each other for a moment then Cammie walked over to me and held out her hand. "Will you rejoin?"
I smiled so wide, my fangs almost burst out again, but I reached my hand to her.
"Absolut—" before I could finish my word, Cammie made one smooth move and flung me onto the floor hard. I felt like the air knocked out of my lungs. This was an inappropriate thing to do to a vampire. Besides, it hurt.
"Ow! Cammie, what was that for?" I arched my back in pain.
"It doesn't hurt as much as what you did to us," Cammie said, getting down on one knee and pulled me to a seated position. "So what do you say?"
"I'm sorry,"
"Good girl, you're forgiven," Cammie patted my head and helped me up again. I almost hugged my best friend, but I decided against it. Then I glanced at the clock, it already chimed past twelve, and the night was as black as pitch outside the window, I didn't want to cut Cammie out of her sleep.
"You better go to bed, it's late now," I suggested.
"Right," She nodded. "Tonight, you can sleep on Alyssa's-" but then she trailed off, probably remembered our other best friend in the hospital.
"I'm fine, Cam," I told her. "I can stay up. No prob."
"Oh! Do you have to sleep...you know..." Cammie asked and then lowered her voice, "...in a coffin?"
"No! I'm not dead!" I said with a laugh, perhaps it was the only myth about the vampire that made me laugh. "It's just that my vampire gene has set a false jet lag for me. I tend to get a bit more active at night, you know...awkward nocturnal."
"Oh, I'm sorry,"
"That's okay. Not offended," I shrugged.
"Well, I'm going to bed now," she said. "Gotta kick some butts tomorrow."
"Huh?" I looked at her, but Cammie just walked off without answering.