reVAMPed

Emily Maverick was your average teenage girl. In fact, she was the perfect definition of average. Her brown hair and eyes were just as plain as her wardrobe. Make up had never once grazed her face; everything was simply "au naturale." Her parents anual income was average, her house was in an average neighborhood, her appearance was average, and most important of all, her popularity was average. However, there was one thing that was not so ordinary about Emily. It was the fact that she had the innate ability to read minds. Mind you, it didn't happen at will. It was only if a person was ever panicked or distressed that their innermost secrets, thoughts and desires came rushing to the surface. Only then was it easy for Emily to realize just what they were thinking.

Apart from those times, Emily was your perfectly average human. She had an eclectic variety of friends, all of whom stood out, leaving her as the median in their mix.

It was the day before the first day of senior year. Many Delta High students were out partying, enjoying their very last moments of freedom before they had to return to "study" once again. Some students prepped and did last minute summer homework while others blew off the idea altogether. After all, doing homework during summer vacation was a bit hypocritical. It wouldn't take much to guess that Emily was on the nerd side of the pendulum. While all of her friends were out and about having their fair share of fun, Emily found herself getting ready for bed quite early so that she would not feel tired the very next day while at school. Not to mention Emily's long lost best friend was moving back to Crescent Falls, and tomorrow would be the day that they would be reunited after TWO devastatingly long years of absence! At 9 p.m. sharp it was lights out.

"Emily,"a man's voice called out to her in her sleep. Within Emily's dreamworld it was too dark to see anyone or anything. The voice that she had heard she instantly assumed to be her subconscious calling out to her."What is it?"she answered as she took a few wobbly steps forward. Carefully testing the stability of the ground she was walking on before placing a firm step down. The man chuckled,"what are you doing?"Perplexed by this question, Emily stopped to raise her eyebrow. Not that anyone would be able to see it."What do you mean?"

"The longer that you keep me out the longer you will stay in darkness."He answered. Emily cocked her head to the side out of confusion. What in the world was going on? Her breathing became ragged all the while she strained her ears to listen for the voice again. Maybe it could give her a clue as to which direction to head."Where are you?"she called out to her so called sub-conscience. The man sighed, obviously he was somewhere in front of her. All of a sudden the distant sound of footsteps began getting louder and louder. He was walking towards her."Are you sure that you wish to see me?"In other words he was asking if she really, actually wanted to find out the truth. Before Emily could answer him a faint glimmer of white came into her vision. Out of sheercuriosity, Emily leaned forward and squinted to get a better look. Four pearly white fangs came into her vision."What are you looking at?"Emily's hypnosis wasinterruptedby the sudden question.

"I-I-"Emily gasped as she saw the man smile. The only thing that was visible was his smile and she did not miss the over-sized, glistening, canines that were staring back at her. Before Emily could say another word, a razor sharp hand broke the skin of her chest and pushed itself past her rib cage until it her very heart in its grasp. The unimaginable pain paralyzed Emily. The brunette had instantaneously lost control of every part of her body as she felt her life force slowly slipping away."Your heart is in my hands. Isn't that cute?"The voice chuckled.

"You know.. If I really wanted to all I would need to do is squeeze your heart just a little bit and it'd kill you."Panic forced it's way into Emily's mind.'Move!'she told herself but she couldn't. She couldn't even will herself to lift one littlemeaslyfinger. The only thing that remained unaffected by the sudden attack was Emily's voice.

And it was her blood curling scream that woke her from her own nightmare. Emily's hand shot up over her heart while at the same time she sat up in bed. Looking down at herself Emily realized that she was fully in tact.

"Just a bad dream."Emily reassured herself as she glanced over at the clock. It was 6:55 a.m. Her alarm would go off in about five minutes. Although Emily had slept around 10 hours it felt like she had, had no sleep at all.

Her dream had been so vivid that it felt as though she had been awake the entire night."Ugh,"the girl groaned as she forced herself up, slamming her hand down on the alarm clock in the process in order to turn it off.

"Not a great way to start off the day."It was only now that her spiked heartbeat began to steady itself.

Soon enough Emily remembered.Chloé Palmer (Emily's bestest friend) was back in town that day! With that in mind Emily prepared for school in record time. Sprinting out the back door Emily made her way into the woods. On the opposite side of the small patch of forest lay Delta High. Although it may have been creepy to walk alone in a forest so thick it was shrouded in darkness, Emily was too lazy to go the long way. From a choice between a five minute walk and a thirty minute walk. The option that Emily would choose wasobvious.

Arriving at the backside of the school Emily was surprised to see someone was already running around the track. It was only 7:45a.m. and school started at 8:15a.m!

Usually people didn't show up for the first day of school until around 8:14 in the morning!

Watchful eyes remained on the boy all the while Emily stepped closer. For a moment Emily looked away, distracted by a hawk flying away with the catch of the day. Once Emily turned back to face the track she was greeted with the stranger just a few inches from her face.

"Goodmorning."he greeted. Startled, Emily jumped accidentally throwing the book she was carrying as if it were a hot potato.

"AH!"she shrieked.

In one swift move the boy caught the book before it had a chance to fall on the dew covered dirt and grass."Sorry about that."the boy apologized while Emily shook her head. "It's okay. I was just distracted."

"Well good. For a second there I thought that I must stink."a smirk crept up on his lips.

"Now that you mention it..."Emily trailed off. Only to burst out laughing a few seconds later after his smile fell to a frown."Kidding."

"I don't make it a hobby of mine to go around smelling strangers after they work out."Emily added. Uhm. Can you say stupid? What kind of a freak would EVER smell people for pleasure? Way to go Emily. This boy was too cute. Too cute to keep her mind from getting frazzled. Too cute to be talking to someone to average Emily.

Then again.. there was nobody else around.

"Ah, sorry. My name is Phillip. I just transferred to Delta High. My family moved to Crescent Falls about a week ago."

That would explain why Emily had never seen Phillip before.

"I'm Emily. It's nice to meet you. I'm sure we'll have some classes together."although Emily might have been plain, her smile could definitely light up a room. Had she been a vampire, that would have been quite ironic. But, as far as she knew those things were just myths.

"Likewise."Phillip shook Emily's hand and suddenly an awkward silence overcame them. Phillip cleared his throat while Emily panicked! Out of desperation Emily asked a question."So, how come you are here so early?"

"I'm still used to east coast time. In Florida it's almost 11 a.m. right now. I've been up for a long time."

"Oh that's pretty cool. Is it nice in Florida?"

Before the conversation could go any further the first bell rang. Warning the students that there were ten minutes left to get to class.

"It's great. Girls don't like it much since the weather messes up their hair."Phillip commented as he glanced over at Emily's hair. Awkward. The brunette quickly tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear."I'm going to get to class. Have a nice first day of school."Emily announced as she turned on her heel to walk away from the ever so good looking Phillip.

After this conversation he would find himself a pretty little cheerleader girlfriend and that would be that.

"Thanks! You too!"Emily heard Phillip's voice call out after her.

The classes before lunchtime went by in a blur. The students had all reported to their homeroom teacher, they doublechecked their class schedules for the semester, old friends caught up and absolutely no homework was assigned. The process went by relatively quick considering that the entire time Emily was awaitingChloé's arrival.

Lunchtime.. they would finally meet then."Oh my God."a red haired girl spoke as she sat at the usual table out in the quad."My science teacher sat me down next to Stevie, the kid with the severe dander condition. I couldn't even snack in class for fear that he might season my food with his itchy scalp."Rebecca whined while the rest of the girls laughed at her misfortunes. Emily included.

Rebecca, Stephanie, Arlo & Emily each took a turn updating the rest of the crew of their daily findings. However, Emily held off on mentioning her chance encounter with Phillip. That juicy tidbit she was saving forChloé. Best friends deserved to learn information first!

As if right on cue, a pair of warm hands covered Emily's eyes."Guess who!"the bubbly voice chirped.

Emily's eyes widened as she broke free fromChloé's grasp! Quickly jumping up Emily engaged her friend in a death grip hug."OHMYGODCHLOé!!!IMISSEDYOU!!"Emily shrieked into the blonde's ear while toppling over to the bench.

"Ems! I can't believe it's been so long! You haven't changed much at all!"Chloé laughed. Emily laughed. And the rest of the girls laughed. It was just like Emily to remain a constant appearance.At times the girls had tried to force a make over on Emily but nothing seemed to work. Emily was just too lazy to care what others thought of her. She had her close knit circle of friends and she was content with it.

"Tell me something I don't know."Emily retorted while she stood up from her seat."I need to go to the bathroom."

"I'll go with you."Chloé announced. Soon enough the girls were on their way to the bathroom.

"I met a pretty cute guy today. He's new to school and to Crescent Falls. You'll absolutely love him. Maybe you two could bond over being new to school."Emily teasedChloé.

"Oh? Well it sounds to me like you already have a crush on him."Chloé jabbed back at Emily.

"Oh look! There he is!"Emily announced as she turned to watch Phillip walk to the lunch counter to buy some uneatable cafeteria food.

"Let's see just how cute this mystery boy really is."Chloédidn't sound like she believed Emily. After all Emily's taste was a bit.. weird.

The moment thatChloé turned around and her eyes landed on Phillip she froze. Without even realizing itChloé's entire body tensed up at the sight of Phillip.

Chloé's had not had time to update Emily on all of the shortcomings of her life. Her friendly demeanor had kept anyone from guessing that something was wrong.

"Chloé?"Emily called out to her friend.

"Helloooo? Earth toChloé!"Emily tried again. This time waving her hand in front ofChloé's face but to no avail. Her eyes would not leave Phillip's figure.

"Hey, are you okay?"Emily reached out to touch her best friend's hand. It was at that moment that Emily was able to "hear"Chloé.

Emily was immediately subjected to listen in onChloé's thoughts. Rather than thinking anything, a recorded image replayed over and over again in Chloe's mind.

Last night Chloe had been in her car driving the rest of the moving boxes over to their new house. The sun had set hours ago and the clock read 11p.m.Chloé was tired. In order to keep herself awake she turned on the radio and began to sing along when all of a sudden there was a figure in the middle of the road.

Chloé screamed as she hit the brakes, but it was a little too late for the car impacted with the human crossing the road."OH MY GOD!!"Chloé screamed as she grabbed her cell phone and ran out of the car to check on the body."Please be alive, please be alive."her shaky voice quivered even more after being exposed to the cold.

Upon approaching the manChloé dropped to her knees while pressing in the buttons 9-1-1 on her phone's keyboard. The bloody body lay limp on the concrete and tears began to run downChloé's rosy cheeks.

"Don't cry."A voice stopped her from overthinking her worst fears."Someone as beautiful as you should never be sad."The man spoke as his hand gently brushed the tears off of her cheeks, then tucking a few stray strands of hair behind her ear."I feel fine. Don't worry."the man reassured her as he sat up.

"Bu-but we should really get you to the hospital."Chloé stammered whilst he stared into her eyes."That's quite alright. I prefer to have my blood transfusion now."Chloé's eyes widened at the sight of the man's smile. Oversized canines protruded from his mouth.

BeforeChloé even had time to realize what was going on and could run the man pushed her head away from her neck to provide an opening. A sharp pain followed as he bit into her neck, easily holding her down with his unnatural strength in order to keep her from running away.Chloé screamed, pleaded, beat her hands against him until she felt her limbs begin to go numb.

It was only once she had calmed down did the man pull away."God, you taste fucking delicious"The man announced as he looked her over. At that point the headlight's of her car hit his face. The glistening white fangs were stained a blood red as the remains of her blood dripped from his chin and off onto the pavement.

As disoriented asChloé was becoming. His face was clear as day.

It was none other than Phillip's face.