Pitch Black

I could feel his eyes watching me as Blake and Louie attempted to pry answers out of him. I didn’t mind it so much, his blue eyes were tantalizing. It had been such a long time since a new set of eyes had looked at me that it was almost comforting.

“Ashling, you’re smiling.” Sam whispered to me. I quickly changed my expression, and buried my face back into my book. “It’s ok, I liked having a new person too.” Sam bumped my arm with her shoulder, smiling at the ground. I threw my arm around her shoulder and pulled her close kissing her temple.

“He could have been worst looking.” She laughed at my joke and then turned to Liam. She was the only thing innocent left in this dark world. She was my push, no my drive to find a cure. The day I see her turn or worst get drained will be the day I give up all hope on humanity.

“Lead the way Neil.” My sister’s voice was covered with a thick coat of distaste.

“Niall.” He corrected her.

“Whatever.” Blakely picked up her bag and motioned me to come with her head. I leisurely shut my book and walked towards her. She rolled her eyes when she relieved what I was doing. “I want you to stay away from him Ash-“

“No.” I cut her off. “He put down his gun and its clear that he doesn’t want to hurt us. We’re in a world when humans are and endangered species, I’m not going to be savage helping their extinction.” She was shocked by my anger, which was understandable. I was never the one to argue with her, and I was normally compliant. I was always the last one to get angry.

Her eyes went from shocked to a glare. “Fine, just be careful. I don’t trust him yet.” It was beyond clear that she was not ok with his pretense in our group, and she was going to do anything she could to make sure his stay didn’t last. I don’t care what her feelings on the matter are; I’m going to attempt to make friends with him because friends are sparse in these times.

Sam took my side as we began to walk again, watching me as I messed with numbers in my notebook. She wasn’t able to get much schooling when she was younger because, well the apocalypse happened. She stared at my formulas, which were gibberish to her. When we had extra time I taught her little things; simple algebra problems and basic chemistry.

“What ‘re ya workin’ on lass?” His thick, Irish accent danced around my head for a few seconds before I could reply. I hadn’t even noticed that he was next to us. I glanced over to see him peering over my shoulder at my notes.

“If you must know, I’m working on a cure.” I tried to act like his existence was nothing to me, but I was never good at hiding my feelings. Before he could reply to my comment Louis was intercepting our interaction.

“So we’re note going to be ambushed tortured and our women raped when we get there right?” No one laughed at his joke. Niall glared at him, but held his tongue. The walk was pretty silent from then on out, besides the occasional banter between Blake and Niall. I love both of my sisters dearly but Blakely just needs to let her guard down a little every once in a while.

We walked for hours on end, until finally Sam said she needed a break. I sighed in relief. I tried to stick out most of our long walks being that I was already considered a weak link. Yeah I was a good shot but I was mostly a book junky who preferred to try and talk things out before just killing. That quality in me had gotten me into some sticky situations before, so I tried to keep my mouth shut.

Once I drank some water, I wandered over to a shady spot under a tree and buried my face into my notebook once again. After flipping some numbers around and doing the numbers in my head twice over I decided to try the new numbers. I carefully pulled out my supplies, displaying them in front of me.

I pour a veil of vampire blood into a beaker and began to mix some different chemicals. Once the chemicals settled I carefully poured them into the beaker with vamp blood. I watched the blood begin to change. Everyone was about ready to get going again, so I packed up the rest of my supplies. When I turned back to the beaker, my heart skipped a beat. The vampire blood that was once nearly black was now turning back to a deep red.

“BLAKE!” I screamed, while dancing around in a circle. “I DID IT! I FUCKING DID IT.” Every one took notice to my parade now and began to come closer. I grabbed Sam and swung her around. “Look at the beaker. Its back to normal.”

Everyone looked at the beaker and nodded as if they understood. “I don’t get it.” Of course Louis was the one to speak up. I rolled my eyes and began to rummage in my bag for a Vamp Veil. Once I found one I handed it to him.

“See how the blood is almost black here.” Everyone shook their heads to note they were following. The blood in the beaker is stabilized, thus for it is a deep red just like ours.” The shook their heads again, “I found the cure. See look at it clos- Fuck!” As soon as I lifted the beaker I dropped it. I could smell the singed skin of my left hand. I fell to the ground looking at the broken glass and the red contents all over the ground.

No one said a word as I jus looked at the ground. I tried to not cry but the tears were too many for me to hold back. Suddenly I lost it.

I ripped out pages of my notebook and ripped them in half. I tossed my notebook in total in a random direction, and emptied out my backpack of everything that had anything to do with chemistry. I got a few punches at the ground and burning mixture before someone wrapped their arms around me and held me back. I wanted nothing to do with that stupid book.

I cried for what seemed like hours, unable to control it. I was so sick of failure, that I just couldn’t do it anymore. It didn’t take long for me to notice that Niall had been the one to grab me. I assumed it was because the others didn’t know what to do, they had never seen me like that. I had only ever broke down like that once and that was when our father died.

Finally I regain composure and began to stand up. Everyone salvaged what he or she could of my notebook and supplies, and I instantly felt like a retard for trashing everything. Everyone was silent as I put my bag on. My hands were in serious pain but we didn’t have the time or supplies to tend to my wounds. Sam was the first one to walk up and hug me.

“You’ll get it Ash. You’re the smartest person I know.” I hugged her back tightly and shook my head. It seemed to be that everyone had to hug me before we could begin the rest of our trip. Once we started going I watched at Blakely caught up to Niall. I could just barely hear the conversation.

“Thanks for that back their Niall.” Blake looked at the ground. “None of us knew what to do. She just never really gee-“ He put his hand up to stop her.

“I understand.” He stuck his hand out in her direction. “Do you trust me now?”

She looked at his hand for a couple seconds but finally shook it. “Yeah I guess so.” Instant relief fell over my body. I reached up to my hair to put it into a ponytail but had to stop due to the cuts and burns. I gasped in pain, as they began to seer in pain again.

“Hey Danielle.” I said, she looked at me with kind eyes. I didn’t even have to finish what I was going to say, she already knew. She quickly braided my hair back so it wouldn’t get into my face.

“When we get to my camp, I’ll fix up your hands.” Niall was at my side before I knew it. I couldn’t help but smile as he stood next to me. Everyone’s mood had lightened up, and Niall wasn’t as much of an outcast as he was earlier. I was entertained with elaborate stories of Ireland as we walked.

Right before the sun began to set we came up to an old building. Niall walked up to the door but we all hesitated. No one seemed to want to enter, so I decided I would start the trend. I walked up to where Niall was and looked him in the eyes. Sam followed and held onto my wrist. I looked at everyone else and motioned with head for them to come on. Slowly we walked into the sketchy building, to meet the other half of Niall’s group who could be ready to kill us or accept us.