It's Either War or Peace

Katie Vereeka's Point of View

I felt like someone was watching me through my bedroom window. Big, bright, blue eyes. My only shield was my blanket. I shivered in the right ball I was curled up in.

Yes. I, Katie Vereeka, was very, very creeped out at the moment.

It’s normal to feel like someone’s watching you right? That’s all you feel where I live. Chicago. Southern Chicago. Southern Chicago is our worst area. Gangs were guarding every corner and if you do one simple thing they don’t agree with, then goodbye to you! Talk about scary. Gunshots were also heard at random moments throughout the day. Luckily tonight there was silence. Then again it was 1:00 AM. Everyone should be sleeping.

What the hell am I talking about? I’m saying everyone should be asleep and here I am wide awake under the covers. Hypocritical much?

The feeling of someone watching me disappeared. I fell asleep to the sound of a cricket chirping.

Almost immediately, a foggy image appeared in my head. You know that foggy feeling you get when you’re about to dream? Yeah. That was what was happening. I was alone in a dark forest. The one that’s behind my backyard to be exact. Leaves crunched behind me, signaling that someone was following me. Human instinct told me to run. My brain told me to hide. My heart told me to stop moving because I was tired but I would still be safe.

I listened to my heart and sat on the ground. People always say to listen to your heart, right? Why not give it a try?

Before I knew it, someone wrapped their arms around my neck from behind. All access to oxygen was taken away from me. I was picked up off the ground and shaken violently. I started to scream.

“Help me!” I yelled. My voice echoed through the forest.

“Shut the fuck up!” a voice said behind me.

Another person walked in front of me. I started to cry. The tattoo he had on his arm was a gang sign. He pointed a gun at me. I squirmed in my capturer’s arms.

“Why me?” I asked but it was choked out.

“What do you think? Look at your skin,” the gangbanger with the gun said.

I shuddered. Let me tell you, I was the whitest person of all white people. My skin looked as if I was albino. The only reason people knew I wasn’t was because instead of white hair, I had strawberry blonde and my eyes weren’t red. They were dark gray. A stereotype for Chicago gangs was that they weren’t too fond of white people.

“Hold still,” the gangbanger said. I heard the click of the trigger.

I started screaming and squirming. Then, a loud pop deafened my ears and I blacked out.

I woke up screaming. When I realized I wasn’t asleep anymore, I held in my breath to stop myself from making any further noise. Why do people say listen to your heart? It doesn’t work out in the end half the time!

Sigh. Dreams. Yeah. I hate those. Most of mine were visions of the future. They would always come true later, even the simplest dreams. A thirteen year old like me should not have dreams that show the future. Isn’t that a bad sign? According to the things I’ve read, if you had a simple thing wrong with you a loooong time back like seeing visions of the future for instance, they would burn you. Apparently it was accused as witchcraft or something.

Because of my dreams of the future, I was scared about this one. What if it was really going to happen?

“Katie!” someone yelled. It sounded like my mom. “Katie!” It also sounded like it came outside my window.

My floor creaked once my feet touched it. It was cold and immediately I wanted to be back under the covers. Cautiously, I moved a blind so I could look out the window. Darkness. That was it. Complete and utter darkness. Even the trees from the forest couldn’t be seen.

“Katie!” my mom yelled again. I opened my window. “Katie! Help me!”

Yup. It was definitely coming from the forest. How did I know this? A shadowy silhouette just disappeared inside of it.

“KAAAAATIE!” my mom screeched.

I have to help her. I should right? No. What if the dream I had was another déjà vu vision? I would be killed! Then my mom wouldn’t be safe!

Human instinct and my brain told me to stay where I was. My heart told me to help my mom. And we all know what happened in my dream when I listened to my heart.

“KAAAAATIIIE! KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATIIIE!”

Alright. That’s it.

After shoving my feet into my black DCs, I quickly ran out of my room. Thanks to my blurry eyesight, I felt my way around. I would’ve put my contacts in but my mom’s life was more important.

Once I got outside and in my backyard, the humidity was overwhelming. You see, here in Chicago our summers could get pretty hot, even without the humidity. Once the humidity is added to the heat, it gets hard to breathe. Almost impossible. It’s only the beginning of June but in July and August, it’s even worse. Right now, I had to gasp for air. Running wasn’t helping the situation either. But my mom was in danger and you gotta do what you gotta do.

I finally reached the forest. Twigs snapped under my feet and tree branches constantly hit my face. I couldn’t see an inch in front of my face so hopefully I was staying on the path. God, please don’t let me run into a pile of poison ivy.

“KAAAAAATIIIIIE!”

“I’m coming!” I yelled frantically.

Five minutes of running later, I still didn’t reach my mom. I stopped and looked around, breathing heavily. Where the hell was that woman?

Suddenly, twigs started snapping behind me. I listened to what Human Instinct said in my dream: RUN! Branches began to hit my face again and twigs seemed to snap more obnoxiously. People started to talk. Feeling like I was in some kind of cliché horror film, I ran even faster. The cliché forest murderers were out to get me!

A big, obnoxious looking tree came into view. I started to climb it. Luckily, branches were at every area so it was easy finding something to grab onto. I climbed as high as I was able to and sat on the branch. Let’s wait here until the people walk ahead. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

Many shadows started to form and move around me. Was it my brain playing tricks on me? To make things even worse, the shadows began to whisper. I crouched down on the branch, getting ready to pounce off whenever the time came.

To my surprise, a short human walked to the foot of my tree, not some creepy murderer shadow. I couldn’t see what it looked like exactly but I was able to see its eyes. Its eyes were a bright butterscotch color. It kind of reminded me of the Twilight characters’ eyes, I’m not gonna lie.

“Katie,” the person said. It had a high-pitched voice. Must be a girl. But… how the hell did she know my name?

I got ready to pounce off the tree branch. The girl heard my DCs scrape against the bark.

“Katie, do not jump off the branch,” she said.

“KAAAAAATIIIE!”

“Mom!” I screamed. I pounced off the branch.

“No! Katie, it’s a trick they’re playing on you!” the girl exclaimed.

Luckily I had some mad ninja skills. I grabbed onto the branch before I fell to the ground. “What do you mean a trick?”

“The gang. They recorded your mom saying your name and edited it so it sounded like she was screaming for help. They knew it would get you over here,” the girl explained.

“How do you know all of this? And how do you know my name?” I asked. She must have been a stalker.

“I can see the future Katie. You should know. You read the Twilight books after all,” the girl said.

She was right. I did. But wait… What did that have to do with all of this? And hopefully she wasn’t serious about seeing the future. That just happens in story books right? But then again there’s me…

All of a sudden, something snapped and I jerked forward. I wrapped my arms righter around the tree for dear life.

“Katie, move to another branch. Slowly,” the girl said. Her eyes were wide and she sounded worried.

I tried to do what she said. I stretched my legs as far as they would go. It was a struggle for me. I was only five foot one after all. My toes touched the next branch but before I knew it, the branch I was currently hanging onto snapped off the tree. As the tree branch fell, I fell too. The fall was too fast for me to scream. The girl screamed for me instead.

I hit the ground hard. Something snapped and it wasn’t the tree branch. It was my neck. Pain shot through my body. It felt like knives were being stabbed into my neck. Tears streamed down my face. Big, hot tears. To make matters worse, my body felt empty. I swear I left my stomach at the top of the tree. And I wouldn’t be surprised if my heart was there too.

“Katie! Where are you?” the girl yelled.

I moaned in response. I couldn’t move at all. Only my fingers. I felt the spot I landed in. Because of the fuzzy leaves I felt, I knew I was in a pile of poison ivy. Great. Juuuust great.

Two people suddenly stood over me. One of them pulled out a giant recorder from behind his back. He pressed what seemed like the play button.

“KAAAAAAATIIIE!” the recorder played out. “KAAAAAAATIIIE!”

Oh those bastards.

“We tricked you,” the gangbanger without the recorder said. He pointed a gun at me. “Adios!”

A gunshot echoed throughout the forest. I screamed. The bullet hit my ribs. Blood gushed out rapidly and by the looks of it, I probably wouldn’t survive this. Goodbye thirteen year old Katie Vereeka…

The two gangbangers walked away laughing. What did I do to them to deserve this? If it’s because I’m white then why do they even care? My skin color should not affect their lives. Those sick bastards. They won’t get away with this. Hopefully.

So much blood oozed out of my body that it became sticky. I was also losing consciousness. My neck became numb too. Because of that, I knew my life was slipping away from me. Each drop of blood that left me was another part of my soul disappearing. I close my eyes. So this was what it felt like to die.

I heard the leaves around me crunch. More people. Maybe they’re here to save me. But I knew that was too late. My breaths were already turning into gasps.

“We need to save her,” a voice said. It was the girl.

“How?” another voice asked. It sounded like a teenaged male’s voice.

“Bite her!” the girl exclaimed.

“Alice, no,” the teenaged male said.

There was silence. I had a feeling the girl was glaring at the boy. “If you don’t, I will.”

“Don’t you dare Alice Cullen!”

Alice Cullen? This girl said she can see the future too… And now she was talking about biting me to save my life… No. No. It can’t be…

“But Edward-”

“No. She’s only thirteen. The Volturi don’t want vampires that age. It’s forbidden. You know that.”

How did this guy know I was thirteen? And his name’s Edward… Is his last name Cullen too?

“But Jane is thirteen!” the Alice girl yelled.

“Aro didn’t want her power to be wasted. She and Alec are their only exceptions,” the Edward guy said.

The Alice girl whimpered. “Carlisle, will you bite her?”

Better not be Carlisle Cullen…

“You heard what Edward said,” a male with a slight British accent said.

Yup. Had a similar description to Carlisle’s. Who’s next? Esme? Emmett? Rosalie? Renesmee? Bella? Jasper?

“That’s not fair!” Alice cried. Her voice squeaked.

“I know,” Carlisle said soothingly. I heard two bodies collide. Hugging. Then Carlisle began to talk again. “Her heart is about to give out. Let’s go.”

All but one left. As this last person knelt down next to me, my heart beat got slower and also louder to my ears. It sounded like some kind of drum beating from a traditional Native American dance.

I felt two tiny hands wrap around my face. “I’m sorry I have to do this,” the owner of the hands said. It was Alice. “It’s going to hurt. I would stay but I have to leave right after I bite you so they won’t expect anything.”

Before I had time to respond in any way possible, teeth sunk into my neck. Alice grabbed my hand. A burning sensation began to rip through my body.