Beyond the Blood

Chapter Two

Autumn had split from Caroline, Bonnie and Elena in the morning because she had fine art class whilst they had geography. They had a few split options; for example, Autumn took music whilst they took religion. She had been playing piano since she was old enough to sit at the stool, lately though she hadn't sat down at it much, finding little reason to play.

She met back up with them at lunchtime and was nearly barreled over by Caroline as she came over to the table where Autumn had sat, having just bought her lunch.

"Have you seen the new guy?!" Caroline hissed excitedly, but loud enough that everyone nearby heard her anyway.

"Er… no?" Autumn asked with her spoon of yoghurt halfway towards her mouth.

"He's really hot!" Caroline said sitting down next to her and stealing one of her strawberries. She smacked her hand lightly with her spoon as Caroline went for another one. It also amused her that the first thing Caroline had to say about the boy was whether he was hot or not.

"What's his name?" Autumn asked as Elena and Bonnie came over.

"Oh, talking about the new guy?" asked Elena sitting down.

"Yeah," said Caroline answering for me, "Isn't he gorgeous?"

Elena smiled and blushed, "Yeah he definitely is; I don't think he saw any of us though"

"Wait, you've not had classes with him?" Autumn asked, "How do you know he's new then?"

"We saw him picking up his schedule from the office" said Bonnie

"Oh okay, stalkers" Autumn said with a grin.

"It's okay though," said Caroline chirpily, "We'll get to check him out in history class this afternoon!"

"How do you know that?" asked Elena

"Well we know he's a Junior, so he's either going to be in that class or in tomorrow morning's set, he looked pretty smart so I'm guessing it's going to be this afternoons" said Caroline.

"I equally love and am appalled by the fact that you spent time figuring that out," Autumn said, "Anyway, who says this afternoons class if for smart people? They let you in"

"Oi!" said Caroline in a mock offended voice and hit her on the arm. She giggled at her friend and Caroline huffed in mock outrage.

At the beginning of the history class, however, Autumn couldn't see anyone who looked remotely out of place, so she figured Caroline must have been wrong. Halfway through Mr. Tanner's speech about European Revolutions, however, there was a knock at the door and a boy she didn't recognise walked in, clutching a piece of paper in his hand.

"Hi, is this Mr. Tanner's history class?" asked the guy softly. She had to agree with Elena and Caroline as her eyes drank him in, he was very attractive to look at. He had mid-brown hair and a well-built figure, accentuated by the shirt he was wearing. She couldn't see his face properly as he was still turned to talk to our history teacher.

"Yes, and you are?" asked Tanner rudely

"Stephen Salvatore, I'm new here today," said the guy seemingly unperturbed by Tanner's manner of speech.

"Well take a seat Mr. Salvatore and try not to disturb the class any further," said Tanner before turning back to his notes.

The newcomer turned to take the only seat that was available; the one next to Caroline and as he did so he looked up, taking in some of the face of his classmates. His eyes slid to Elena's face, his own features curiously blank, then to Bonnie's and then down the line to Autumn. She dropped her gaze so he didn't think she was staring but not before she'd seen a look of intense shock in his eyes.

She wondered why he would be shocked; most people were intrigued by the identical nature of Elena and herself. He hadn't looked intrigued but simply taken aback. She shook it off as Mr. Tanner continued to bombard us with questions about stuff he hadn't actually taught us yet. Who the hell cared who Napoleon's younger brother was? She thought Tanner just liked to sneer at our ignorance, although surely it was him who appeared more ignorant through his domineering nature?

After class we all had Maths and as she walked down the corridor beside Elena, she felt eyes watching them go, but when she turned around the hallway was deserted, everyone else already having gone on ahead.

"What's up?" asked Caroline, noticing her unease.

"Nothing," Autumn said with a smile, "Just thought I'd dropped something was all"

Most of them didn't like Maths, except Bonnie who seemed to thrive at it. All the symbols and diagrams just seemed to click in her brain. Autumn just didn't really see the point; after school she was never going to have to find the radius of a circle ever again.

When the bell rang for the end of school she felt it hadn't come a moment too soon. They all walked out into the afternoon sunshine and stopped outside by the parking lot. She saw the new boy, Stephen, get into his car and drive away, turning left out of the lot and towards the outskirts of town.

"Hey Elena, do you mind driving home, I'm going to visit mom and dad," Autumn said rummaging in the pocked of my bag for the car keys before dropping them in her hand.

"Yeah that's fine, you sure you don't want company?" Elena asked, she had been to visit them yesterday so Autumn doubted she would want to come again.

"No, it's alright, I'd like to go alone," Autumn said, "Can you take my bag though?"

"Sure," Elena said taking it off me.

"Alright, well I'll see you guys later then?" Autumn said to the group as a farewell.

"Yes, remember that Bon and I are coming over later to discuss outfits for tomorrow!" said Caroline excitedly.

Autumn grinned at her, "Alright, but make sure it's after Jenna does dinner, she won't be pleased if that gets interrupted… again"

"Alright, alright," said Caroline with a roll of her eyes.

"See you later!" Autumn said, waving as she walked off in the direction of the back of the school, and the footpath past the houses that led to the cemetery. It was a nice walk today in the sunshine, and without her bag it was positively pleasant. It seems odd to consider a walk to see dead parents as "pleasant" but seeing as this was the only way she got to talk to them these days, she figured she needn't be morbid about it.

The cemetery itself is empty; it backed onto the woodland that eventually led to Wickery Bridge and the river where her parents died. She moved through the headstones, some weathered, some new, until she found the one she was looking for and sat down in front of it upon the freshly mown grass. She hadn't brought flowers but the ones Aunt Jenna had bought three days ago were still going strong.

The conversation that she held was usually just mindless chatter, but it was nice to feel as though they're listening. She told them about her day and about the new boy in class, who looked something close to horrified when he saw Elena and her in the same room. She tried to hash out what that was about but she couldn't figure it out in her head, in the end she guessed it was nothing, just an overreaction.

I drew my cardigan a little closer around her shoulders as the wind started to get up. She looked skyward and saw that clouds had closed in on the blue sky and the weather was turning fairly fast. She figured she still had at least half an hour before it even threatened rain, however, so she continued to talk. She talked about how she hadn't played the piano in a good long while and was worried that she would have forgotten how to do it properly by the time she came to again. She pushed her hair back from her face as the wind started to whip it against her cheeks.

It was then Autumn felt all the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and the feeling of being watched returned to her. She looked around her but the cemetery was still deserted but the feeling of being watched didn't go away. She looked above her into the trees, feeling almost foolish as she did so, and noticed a large black crow sitting amongst the branches of an old ash tree that was overhanging where she sat. She laughed in spite of herself, and also because of relief; there was nobody here, just a crow with a beady eye.

She turned back to the headstone as she felt the first drop of rain on her cheek. She said her goodbyes and turned to head away, towards the path that led to Wickery Bridge. She walked swiftly because the graveyard was making me feel really uncomfortable, and she couldn't help but feel uneasy about what appeared to be a gathering thunderstorm. A dead rose head flew past my ankles where it had been blown off its stem by the vicious wind, and she watched as it hit a tree trunk and lay still.

The rain started to fall in earnest, bringing with it the prickly feeling on the back of her neck once again, there was nobody in the cemetery so she guessed nobody would think it weird if she started to jog. As she picked up my pace, however, it did nothing to shake her feeling, she felt as if it were following her, riding on the wind and in the droplets of rain. Her heart was beating fast as she started to run in earnest, from what she wasn't sure but she was almost positive that this couldn't be just a feeling. Her sense of unease had almost grown to one of danger and every instinct in her body was telling me not to turn around.

Her feet pounded the ground at a pace that was almost a sprint as she saw Wickery Bridge ahead of her; something told me that she would be safe once she got across it and out of the way of the cemetery altogether. Her foot caught on stick as she ran and she came crashing to my knees, ignoring the stabbing pain in her shin however as she picked myself up and hurtled towards the bridge. her feet clattered on the wooden planks as she ran over it, and the second she was on the other side she doubled over with her eyes closed to catch my breath. The ominous feeling had lifted with the sound of running water and she rubbed at her side to work the stitch out. She stayed bent over for about ten seconds as her head cleared.

Autumn stood up steadily and she let out a little yelp of surprise. Directly in front of her stood a dark haired man; with a look of what might have been concern and yet confusion on his angular face. His black leather jacket, jeans and boots could have been the outfit of a motorbike rider, only she could see no motorbike parked on the road.

"Katherine?" he asked, his voice testing out the word as if he hadn't said it in this questioning manner for a very long time.

Regardless of whether that was the case or not she was quick to set him straight, "No sorry, I'm not Katherine"

"Oh," he said, his chocolate eyes looking even more confused and alarmed if that were possible, and for just a second, she thought she saw something move in their depths. His composure quickly returned, however, as he took in my heavy breathing and the bleeding cut she had just registered on my shin.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice as smooth as velvet, his voice sounding positively bored.

"Umm yes, I'll be fine thank you" Autumn said, registering that the rain had stopped and the awful wind appeared to have died down. She made to move past him and began to head away down the road towards the path that led to her house. That man was the second person to day to be almost alarmed upon seeing her, and it wasn't something that she could shake. She wanted to look back to see whether he was watching her go, but for embarrassments sake she tried not to.

She vaguely wondered whether he was lost, or a newcomer needing directions. She had never seen his face around the town before and she realised she had been terribly rude by not asking him if needed assistance. Autumn turned back to see whether this was the case but the road behind her was empty. Her eyes darted around to the side of the road and across the bridge but he was nowhere to be seen. She shook her head, that was odd, where could he possibly of gone so fast?

She turned on heel to continue walking, determined that next time she came here she would bring someone with her. Today had just felt a little bit uncertain for her liking. As she turned left to take the path to the house, a large crow flew over her head and towards the outskirts of town. It had flown so close that she had felt the rush of air on her face as its wings beat towards its body. She shuddered and started a steady jog the rest of the way home.