It's Either War or Peace

Katie Vereeka's Point of View

I took my hand away from Alice’s cheek and then covered her mouth as fast as I could. Her screams were muffled out and thankfully the Chicago Coven didn’t hear them. When she was done screaming she began to shake. Ugh! Why did I leave my hand on her cheek while thinking about the demigods?

Alice shot up into a sitting position. She glared at me, breathing heavily. “WHAT ARE YOU, CRAZY?” she screamed. It echoed throughout my room. “WHY WERE YOU GIVING ME IMAGES OF SOMETHING I’M AFRAID OF?”

I put my hand on Alice’s mouth again. She tried pushing me away but thanks to my newborn skills, I was able to push her to the ground and keep her pinned there. Her glare hardened.

“I did it by accident,” I said.

Alice kept the glare on her face.

“You stubborn thing. You really think I would do something like that to you?” I asked.

Slowly, Alice’s face softened. I moved away from her body and let her sit up. She didn’t look at me. In her mind, she was humming “One Thing” by One Direction (ooh look. She’s a Directioner). Ugh. That meant she was trying to hide something from me. I rolled my eyes and walked out of the room. Alice didn’t stop me.

Demi and Renee were the only ones on the first floor. They were in the kitchen and having girl talk. Both pairs of eyes looked at me as I shuffled (no, not the dance) my way in. I sat down next to Demi.

“How’s Alice?” Renee asked.

“Okay, I guess,” I said.

“Is she still scared about what just happened?” Demi asked. She rested her head on her right hand.

I shrugged. “She’s not thinking about any of it. She’s humming a One Direction song.”

“Oh, I absolutely love them!” Demi exclaimed.

Renee and I raised an eyebrow at her.

“I love Harry Styles the best!” Demi sighed. “Swoooooon!”

“Um, Demi?” I patted her shoulder. “You’re married bro.”

“So? Can’t I swoon over them anyway?”

Renee and I rolled our eyes, Renee laughing along.

The next day, Alice and I left the house to be by ourselves. Without discussing it, we both walked to the meadow we met in. It was cloudy in Chicago today so we didn’t have to worry about sparkling. We sat against a boulder. I checked my bare skin to make sure I wasn’t sparkling. Better safe than sorry. Not to my surprise, there was no crystal-like sequence appearing anywhere.

Alice hugged her knees. “Hey Katie?”

“Yes’m?”

She started rocking back and forth. “This has been bothering me for some reason. Do… do you know what Jackson was thinking before he attacked me?”

“He was humming ‘I Want it That Way’. That’s it. He used it to hide what he was really thinking,” I said. I kept what Jackson thought a week ago a secret. Alice needs to be dead. She created a fucking monster. Once she’s dead, Katie will be next. I shuddered softly so Alice wouldn’t see it.

“I just want to know why he attacked me,” Alice whispered.

“If I knew I would tell you.” What a lie. I did know. He thought it the day I attacked Taylor. Because of that, he thought I was a monster and blamed Alice since she created me.

Alice stayed quiet. She began to hum another song in her head. “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars. Hmm. Good song actually. But she’s hiding something from me. Again.

“What are you really thinking Alice?” I asked.

She looked at me abruptly with wide eyes. Then she shook her head rapidly.

I groaned. “C’mon Alice.”

“Just about the demigods. What else is new?” she exclaimed.

“You know, if you want more info about them, ask Demi. She read the Percy Jackson series so she knows a lot about them,” I said.

Alice shrugged.

I sighed. Now that we were talking about the demigods, I might as well bring the daughter of Athena and Poseidon into the conversation.

“They… they know the parents of the demigod who’s supposed to kill you,” I said. “And technically she’s a ‘goddess’ since both parents are gods. But they call her a demigod because she isn’t really a goddess of anything.”

Alice’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped.

“Her mom’s Athena and her dad’s Poseidon,” I said.

Alice looked away. Her mind was racing. All the voices talking in her head were buzzing. I couldn’t understand a word they were saying. That made me paranoid for Alice. Was she really this scared? Because of this the demigod made me scared too.

After five minutes, Alice said, “That’s one powerful demigod. She’ll get her wisdom from her mother. No wonder she’s the one to kill me. She’s gonna figure out how to kill vampires.”

“You mean, she’s gonna figure out that in order for us to legit die, she has to put our ripped up pieces in fire?” I asked.

Alice nodded.

Ugh. Great.

“What I don’t get is why Zeus won’t let people under the age of sixteen be immortal unless they’re demigods. Why do they get to be young? From what my friends from school told me demigods find out they’re a demigod when they’re twelve,” I said.

“Don’t forget that they’re half immortal though,” Alice said.

“Not if you’re the daughter of Athena and Poseidon,” I said. “Plus, even though normal demigods are half immortal, they’re still very powerful. From what Demi told me they live harder and more powerful lives than vamps.”

Alice stayed quiet. She pushed the demigods aside and thought about Jasper. She was wondering what he was doing now. Was he still mad at her? Was he worried about her?

“You should really visit Jasper,” I said.

“Why?”

“You’re always thinking about him.”

“Stop stalking my mind,” Alice said.

“It’s kind of hard not to. Don’t you want to know if he’s still mad at you?” I asked.

“He still is.”

“And you know that how?”

“I would’ve seen it in my visions if he changed his mind,” Alice said.

I sighed. Lying down in the grass, I listened to the meadow fall into complete silence. Soon I found out it was because I was having a vision. There wasn’t much to it. It was just Alice, the Chicago Coven, and I in this meadow. Across from us were about nine people. Wait a second. I’ve seen three of those people before… The boy had shaggy blond hair, a girl had dark brown hair with light brown tips, and another girl had medium brown hair with black tips. Where have I seen them before…? Right. They were in that vision I had my first night as a vampire. But who were they? They seemed like normal humans. There was no way they were of any importance to me –

Hold up.

Was that a satyr I saw standing next to them? You know, those things that have human tops, arms, and faces but their legs are goat legs? This one had horns. Male. If he was next to these humans that meant these humans weren’t humans at all.

The girl with medium brown hair with black tips walked closer to Alice, the Chicago Coven, and me. We tried to protect Alice but the girl pushed us aside. I caught eye contact with her. Her eyes were sea-green. She changed the bracelet on her wrist to a sword in front of my very own bloodshot –red eyes. The girl whipped the sword across Alice’s neck and Alice’s head fell to the ground. The Chicago Coven and I started to scream while the people across the meadow yelled out the girl’s name in glee. Her first name started with a Z and her last name with a C…

Alice shook me out of my vision. My throat burned. I have been screaming.

“What did you see?” Alice asked frantically.

She didn’t see. She didn’t see the vision I saw. That only meant one thing.

“Alice,” I said, breathing heavily. “I can see demigods in my visions. The one who is supposed to kill you was in the vision I just had.” The voices in the vision finally cleared and I could make out the name they were saying. “Her name is Zoey Cornell.”