Sempiternal

The next morning it was hard to convince Angel that Trevor and I were just hanging out, and that nothing awful happened, yet again. It was even harder to convince her that I was not in love with Trevor or that I had some major secret crush on him or any of his friends, since Emma blabbed that Jonathan was ‘oh so hot’.

During classes it was easier to dodge Trevor this time, since he wasn’t watching my every move and had his eyes plastered to me during every second of our classes together. I was certain he got the hint this time, and I was confident that him or his friends wouldn’t bother me until I was ready to continue. It was even better at lunch when he didn’t sit at our table and give me sad knowing eyes while I ate.

Although the Trevor situation was handled for now, on the other hand I had the stress of friends. I was reminded of this when I sat down during lunch with Angel and was immediately bombarded with questions.

Emma pulled the chair I usually sat at closer to her, shaking her head, “Nuh huh, you don’t sit until you explain who that hottie was yesterday.” Ignoring her I pulled the seat back and sat in the chair. Now that Emma met Jonathan I had no other choice to tell them some of the truth between the three vampires and me. Well it was now or never.

I knew I had to say anything just to get Emma to leave him alone. “That was just Jonathan, one of Trevor’s friends that I met the other day. He’s a pain in the ass just like Xavier,” I smiled at the boy sitting across from me. He smiled back with food still in his mouth and nodded, he knew he was a pain in the ass and he was never offended when we mentioned it.

Emma rolled her eyes, “So when is ‘Just Jonathan’ coming back around? I’d like to get me some piece of pain in the ass.” I feigned gagging, really I didn’t blame her though. If I hadn’t personally known Jonathan I’d be in the same boat as her.

“Ew, really sister?” Julie said before swallowing her food, and then looking at her sister with disgust. “Have some morals, you are not Rachel.” There were huge differences between Rachel and Emma. Rachel flirted and dated anything that was attractive and worthy of her time. Julie just had her many crushes and fixated her time on them, never more than lusting after them and going on a date or two if she was lucky.

“Julie I am not Rachel, I just like to have my fun. I didn’t say I was going to have sex with him. I was just looking for a little makeout session or something.” The boys at the table rolled their eyes and began talking about something else to avoid all this girl talk and gossip.

I interrupted, worming my way to get Emma to stop thinking about Jonathan. “Well cute or not, Jonathan’s not a good guy. You guys thought Trevor could be bad, this guy is dangerous, and not the hot type of dangerous. The scary kind, really, you don’t want to be around him.” I shivered, remembering the night when Jonathan held me under his gaze and transformed to a horrifying vampire right in front of me.

Being fair, all three of the boys could be as equally scary once they transformed into a vampire. Though Jonathan was the only one etched in my memory, he was the only one I was truly afraid of. As for Trevor I was just mad at him, for suddenly pushing all this on me, I just put all my anger towards him at the moment. I hadn’t spent enough time with Cameron to figure him out, but I knew he was a sweetheart compared to the others.

Emma groaned, “Fine Mother Shannon, I won’t go after this Jonathan guy. But if he comes back around there’s no telling what’ll happen.” Great, I just had to make Jonathan keep his distance too. “Speaking of, if he’s this awful guy why are you hanging out with him?”

“He’s friends with Trevor. I’m not really hanging out with him, I’m hanging out with Trevor and then he invites himself in,” I lied. I hated lying to my friends, but I knew it was the only way to keep them safe and out of harm’s way. Emma eyed me skeptically but nodded anyway, then turned to her sister and Jameson to talk about something unrelated to the three vampire boys I was hiding.

It was easy to draw Emma away from a boy, she’d find a new one to draw her attention to soon. I was just glad Jameson hadn’t met Cameron, that would be a more difficult one to seperate. I wished that I could combine the two worlds instead of keeping them apart. It would be so much easier if my friends knew Trevor’s friends, then I would be better at making excuses to be with them rather than being with my loyal trustworthy friends I’d known for years.

However, I knew that would never happen because it would include them finding out about the supernatural quickly. I had no idea what would happen to my friends if they found out, I didn’t know if there was some type of protocol for humans finding out. I was a special case of course, I had to know about the supernatural if I were to making this prophecy thing come true. But, I couldn’t stop to think about other humans who found out, were they killed, used as blood bags and food, were they Changed?

Suddenly I wasn’t very hungry anymore as I thought about my friends possibly dying by becoming food or being turned into one of those monsters. I told my friends I’d see them all tomorrow and stood up with my tray in hand. Angel followed me without a word, put her tray on top of mine and left the dining hall. I realized she hadn’t said a word all through lunch. I was neglecting my best friend, I knew that, but I didn’t think she’d be giving me the cold shoulder about it. Usually she’d be all on my tail to see what was happening.

I started to follow my friend to try and make amends, but I was stopped in my tracks. I turned to see Trevor looking down at me. I closed my eyes and tried not to burst into unnecessary anger, I was not in the mood for this. I also needed to stop putting all my anger on Trevor, it’s not his fault that some dumb prophecy said I was the It Girl and had to save the world. He was just doing his job.

“We have to meet tonight,” he said, releasing my arm and putting his hands in his pocket.

I shook my head, I needed to be with my friends, at least for now. All this vampire stuff was getting too much, I needed room to breath, process, and accept everything. Plus, I blew up at him last night so I needed to stand my ground. “No, we can meet Friday after I have dinner with my mother. Tonight I need to be with Angel.” It wouldn’t hurt to hold off for two days. Joseph said the war was moving fast, but I didn’t think anyone would send a PSA out about vampires, werewolves, and witches in the meantime.

Trevor looked annoyed and impatient. I knew he was going to protest about something, but I turned away from him and followed the path my best friend took to our dorms. I would deal with supernatural things on the weekends, on weekdays I wanted to at least pretend I was a normal teenager for as long as I could.

When I got to the dorms and stepped into my room Angel was laying on her stomach on the bed, facing the wall on her phone and with her earbuds in both ears. It was strange, I knew my best friend since we were kids, she never put both her earbuds in both ears unless she was upset. I sure as hell messed up bad this time.

I gently put my bag near my bed and sat at the edge of hers, waiting for her to acknowledge me so I wouldn’t annoy her any further. I could hear the blaring music coming from her ears, I waited patiently and stared ahead. It took awhile before she spoke, taking out her earbuds she turned to me, “Okay what?” she said with annoyance laced through her voice.

I didn’t know what she was mad at me for and I knew there was a bit of everything going on in the last few days I had to be sorry for, but I knew that apologizing for everything would be a good start. “I’m so sorry Angel. I know senior year is supposed to be amazing with friends and leaving high school, but I made it all shit. With everything that happened last year and things are happening so fast this year I didn’t even stop to think. I didn’t want to leave yesterday and I haven’t been meaning to come back so late whenever I hang out with Trevor. I know I’ve been an awful friend to you and everyone else lately, I’m sorry, I’ll do better.” I blurted out all at once, speaking too fast for her to get a word in.

Angel sat up on her bed and faced me, “Yeah you have been kind of a shitty friend lately. We don’t blame you though, you can’t get over Brian in just a blink of an eye, things like that take time. What I’m upset about is that you’ve been spending so much time with Trevor, I thought you were replacing me with him.”

Surprised and hurt I thought for a moment, I haven’t even thought about Brian recently. With all this vampire mess going on I felt guilty letting Brian slip my mind. I felt even more guilty that my friend was feeling replaced, by a boy of all people.

I scoffed, “Angel, I could never replace you. Trevor is just some boy, you are my best friend. Just because I’m spending time with someone else doesn’t mean you aren’t still my best friend. I love you, and I’d never replace you.” Content with my answer Angel smiled and hugged me.

She was laughing in my arms and when she didn’t release me I realized that she had been crying instead of laughing. When I asked her what was wrong she stayed in my arms but leaned back enough so I could see her red face, “I’m just so happy! I didn’t want to lose you and now I know that everything is okay. Now I can tell you how excited I am that I’ve been accepted to NYU!” Instantly I shrieked and engulfed my best friend back into my arms.

Not only have I not thought about my late boyfriend or my friends, I hadn’t thought about plans after high school. I always wanted to go to college, even though I wasn’t sure what for yet. I never had amazing grades so I never expected to go to any private college or do something amazing. Now I had probably waited too late to turn in any applications or secure my place into any college anyway, I’d have to wait for next semester.

The thought crossed my mind for a moment, that with all this vampire stuff going on I probably wouldn’t even be able to go to college. I’d be too busy saving the world. If college was even a small possibility I’d be majoring in vampireology. At least I knew one of my friends would be away when this was all happening.

The rest of the night Angel and I talked like old times, and celebrated her getting into college. It was a great night finally being able to hang out with my best friend, and she didn’t pestre me about Trevor and his friends the whole night. I might be keeping secrets from them about the whole vampire thing, but I made a promise to myself to never put my friends on the back burner while all this was happening.

The week went by too quickly and it came closer and closer to when I had to meet Trevor and his friends. I was able to spend more time with my friends, giving them lies about Trevor and me. Trevor was hardly in my train of thought this past week, only occasionally reminding me about the big pile of shit that was going on during class and when passing me in the halls.

As the week went by I was able to think about ways to get me out of class, sneaking away from friends and my mom while training with the boys. I also made a headache inducing mental schedule of when a good time would be to train and when a good time would be to hang out with friends. It was like Stress Fest 2.0, I had to please everyone and if I didn’t the world would be over, quite literally.

When Friday rolled around I took the slowest lunch with my friends, trying to soak in all the fun of being a carefree teenager as I could. As my friends made plans for the weekend I reluctantly, and falsely, told them I’d be with my mother this weekend and I’d try to come back if I could. It wasn’t a total lie though, I would go to my mother’s apartment and spend my nights there. However, I would have to spend my days among vampires, hoping that neither of them wanted a bite to eat out of me.

“Alright,” I said to my friends while they were eating their lunch. I stood up and grabbed my tray, “I should start heading to my mother’s house, you know how bad traffic could get on a Friday afternoon.” Plus, I wanted to drop my things off before my mom got there so I’d be able to slip out and meet with the boys before she saw me and I’d have to make up another excuse I wasn’t ready for.

They told me their goodbyes and I quickly left the lunchroom, going to my dorm and picking up my bags before heading on the road to the apartment. It was only an hour after school had let out and I knew my mom was still at school and working, which would buy me time to avoid seeing her until later tonight. When I got to the apartment I quickly changed into more comfortable clothes. Trevor told me we’d be training so I’d be able to defend myself, and we’d also be discussing vampire history and other things I should know.

I knew it would be a long night so I wore comfortable leggings and an old tee shirt. I slipped out the apartment without running into my mom and made the long trip to Joseph’s mini-mansion. As I drove my mind went in circles thinking of questions to ask about vampires. One thing I had in my mind since day one was how did they turn into vampires? There was so many myths, legends, and stories on them it never occured to me which one would be accurate.

Then there was so many other stupid questions I had. Can they eat garlic and see themselves in the mirror? Can they turn into bats or something? Were there aversions to crosses, holy water, and churches? What about being invited into places? Did all vampires have some type of witch magic to help them not burn in the sunlight? Do vampires have any other special abilities other than the typical speed, strength, allure, and controlling people into things?

I knew these were ridiculous questions, which is why I’d kept them to myself this whole time and waited until my questions were slowly answered through observation. Plus, I knew that if I asked most of these questions one of the boys would find some way to laugh at me.

In my overthinking and day dreaming state I made it to the house in no time. Once I parked in the driveway the boys were already waiting outside for me. Before I turned the engine off Trevor was quickly by my side with the door opened and pulling me out the car. I blinked at his quick speed and shook my head from the already forming headache that was coming.

“About damn time you showed up, we have to get started.” As he pulled me out the car by my arm I groaned and let Trevor lead me into the house. Once again I was briefly struck in awe at the wonderful home inside. I wasn’t able to admire the architecture because Trevor began dragging me down the stairs and into a very large basement.

It looked like a small gym or work out area without too many large exercise machines, there were only a few punching bags hanging from the ceiling and a treadmill hidden in the dark corner. The basement was dark and cold, only a few small lamps giving a dim glow to the room. In the middle of the floor laid a few blue matts that reminded me of my time in gymnastics. Adorning the wall were a few weapons such as knives, daggers, and swords, there were no guns on the wall.

In another corner was a large black metal box, at first it appeared to be a storage container, probably for more weights and exercise equipment. Although, when my eyes adjusted to the dim room I saw the small opening in the middle of the box, it had black metal bars, and below that another slim door that slid to close and open. I instantly realized it was a cage, and I quickly turned from it, only slightly wondering what they would want to cage up.

I shivered and shook the thought from my mind, “Alright, what are we going to do and why are we supposed to be doing it?” All I knew was that I was supposed to be training today, and I understood that was in order to protect myself. However, I didn’t understand if I was expected to kill other people or supernaturals. I didn’t want to be branded a murderer, soul or no soul in the person, I wasn’t killing anyone.

Once Trevor confirmed that I was training to protect myself I decided to give it a shot and ask all the stupid questions I had today, I had to find out sooner or later. “I wouldn’t have to purposefully kill anyone, right?”

“That’s unsure,” Trevor said, meeting my eyes. “You’ll have to do what you have to do, no matter what.” I gulped and I could feel the blood drain from my face, but I nodded anyway. The boys were silent for a while, awkwardly standing in front of me and looking between each other. Finally Trevor spoke again, “Okay then, I guess we’ll start with the basics.”

After we starting doing a little warm up Jonathan and Trevor slowly went through the basics of self defense with me. While Cameron was sitting on the steps, saying encouraging words and helpful tips. I figured he was more of the brains of the whole operation, doing more studying and strategizing than actual fighting.

Okay, I admit, I was not the most agile person. I knew that exercise was imperative to good health and blah blah blah. I never thought much about working out, although it wasn’t as if I was totally out of shape. But in that moment I felt like the most out of shape person in the world. Every punch I threw, every kick, jump, dodge, and dive I took had me out of breath and my muscles already aching. We repeated this for what felt like hours, but when I asked Cameron for the time it had only been one hour, and I was sweating buckets.

I sat down next to Cameron and swallowed down the bottle of water he gave me. “I am so not good at this,” I mumbled to him. Jonathan and Trevor were delivering false punches and kicks to me, telling me what to do in each situation. Where as I was giving them real punches and kicks, I knew it wouldn’t hurt them due to vampire strength and all, but I wasn’t giving it my all. I had never gotten into a fight or hit someone, I still felt guilty trying to fight or even do the fake punches.

Cameron smiled back at me, “You’ll get better, plus you might surprise yourself in an actual fight. This was just practice and training. With adrenaline running through your veins who knows what might happen.” He bumped me with his shoulder then stood up, “Give yourself a minute, then come over here and we’ll start some actual fighting. Like I said, what happens might surprise you.” He winked before jogging over to where Jonathan and Trevor were hunched over and talking.

I had no idea what he was hinting at, the only thing that would surprise me is if I didn’t fall straight on my butt again after Jonathan mock punched me in the stomach. I took a few more sips of water and ate a granola bar one of the guys gave to me earlier. I didn’t want to get up and get back to it, but I knew that if I didn’t they’d eventually make me. I stood, letting my aching hamstrings and calves send pain through my legs. I slowly went towards them.

When I got closer to them the boys immediately stopped talking. Cameron turned and took me by my shoulders, pushing me to the center of the sweaty matts we were previously working on. “Trust me?” He asked. I thought it was silly at first, that I was able to trust a vampire or the fact that he even asked me that question. I nodded anyway. “Close your eyes,” he said, “clear your mind, focus on nothing else. Just breathe and concentrate to your surroundings.”

I followed his instructions, slowing my breathing and heart rate. Cameron kept delivering me instructions, but as he continued he sounded further and further away. He told me to focus my mind, I did just that, and instantly I felt a similar unease at the pit of my stomach and my stomach crawled. I shivered, but shook it away, focusing again but never getting rid of the bubbling anxiety.

Suddenly my anxiety spiked and I could feel it at the base of my throat, instinctively I threw my arms up and came in contact with something. I almost opened my eyes, but Cameron was screaming at me to keep them closed and follow my instincts. I did just that, the waves of fear kept coming, up and down. I kept throwing random punches and kicks, as if I knew when danger was in front of me or not even with my eyes closed. The only way I could describe the sensation to myself was that feeling like you know you’re being watched or you know someone is behind you and coming closer. Then when they finally do and that great moment of relief when you defend yourself at the right time and get away.

The crawling on my skin slowly stopped, the goosebumps went away and I felt comfortable enough to open my eyes. In front of me Jonathan and Trevor were heaving and sweating, Cameron came running up to me smiling brighter than the lamps illuminating the dim room.

“My goodness, I was right! Shannon, that was amazing.” Cameron patted me on the back and handed me another water. I took it and slowly opening it and taking a few sips. I was so confused, was he proud of me for being frightened and flailing my arms in the air like a total idiot while my eyes were closed?

When I asked what was going on Cameron was quick to respond, “In the prophecy it says that you were to lead a war, I thought it was strange that a human could even do something as great as bring the forces together. Then I thought and teamed up with a witch, she said only a human with unnatural abilities could do something like this. So, I researched and came up with this, if you focus enough you’d be able to have great strength and power. Only, I don’t know how far that power will go,” Cameron talked so fast and then trailed off into his own words.

Still confused I shook my head, “I don’t understand. When my eyes were closed it was like I felt so scared and terrified. I didn’t even know what I was doing, I thought I was flailing my arms around trying to get away from more fake punches Jonathan and Trevor were giving me.”

Trevor stepped in front of me, standing beside Cameron, no longer looking winded. “Maybe the fear you felt was our anger. Cameron told us to focus on thinking about hurting you and danger. When we did that it was like your body took over and you blocked every hit we threw and you actually made some good hits at us too.”

Finally it came to me and I remembered that unease I felt around Trevor when he first came to school. It was the same nerves I had when I was just focusing, the danger I felt took over and let me defend myself. It was like I had a vampire tracker in my body that made me super nervous and put into defense mode when I was in danger and needed to fight. Great, I groaned, another thing to worry and wonder about.

“So, I have this internal supernatural tracking device in me that lets me know when vampires are around and when I’m in danger. I have strength enough to cause you guys to actually feel the pain when I fought back. Does this mean I’m like you guys?” I was not some type of vampire slayer, there was nothing said about that in the prophecy. Although, I never actually saw it or read it myself, so how would I know?

Cameron shrugged and shook his head, “You have supernatural abilities, you’re not supernatural. But it is odd for a human to have these type of abilities. I’ll have to research more and get back to you,” suddenly he was running up the stairs and out of eyesight. Great, I sat on the matt where I was standing, I had to help with a war and I had supernatural abilities. At least I had some pretty cool ones where I could kick a vampire’s ass if I needed to.

Jonathan and Trevor came to sit next to me. I guess now would be as good a time as any for the Q&A portion of this training session. “What was it like when I had my eyes closed? For me it was like I blacked out and all I could feel was fear and anxiety, my body took over and I could only remember doing what I had to do.” I asked them, truly I had no idea if I threw punches at them. Trevor said I did, but the only aching I felt from fighting back was from previously when they were still teaching me.

Jonathan spoke up, “It was strange, suddenly you blocked every attack we made. We didn’t use our speed, but you were quick to block us and duck when it was needed. When you hit us it was strong enough to cause us pain and make us step back from surprise. It was so cool.” Trevor agreed.

I let that information sink in for a moment, I really had some cool supernatural abilities. This whole time I went through life thinking I was some average girl with nothing to offer. I wasn’t sure if I should be grateful or terrified. It also had me wondering if I was born for this prophecy or if this prophecy was for me, there were so many questions I had that I knew couldn’t be solved without Cameron doing some heavy research.

“Do vampires have any other abilities too?” I asked, sipping on my water. I thought it would be better to ask the simple easy answering questions before the hard or embarrassing ones. Besides, it would be important to know if they could read my mind or something.

Trevor sat beside me on the matt, “The only abilities we have are fast speed, strength, and something similar to mind control. It’s more like coercion, we can make people believe or forget something they otherwise wouldn’t. For example if a human interacted with one of us we would look into their eyes and go into their minds to make them forget they didn’t see us and believe they were somewhere else.” Sounds like mind control, acts like mind control, it was mind control to me. I didn’t like the fact that they could alter someone’s memory without that person's consent or knowledge. I also didn’t like the way Trevor used the word ‘interact’ between humans and vampires.

“Why didn’t you use that on Rachel instead of just letting her blab around school that you’re some scary monster?” I also had the thought that what if one of them used this mind control coercion thing on me and I didn’t know. I immediately shook the thought from my mind, not really wanting to know if my memories have been altered all my life or not.

Jonathan gave Trevor a sharp look that just read ‘you let someone find out who we are’ and ‘you’re so dumb’. For once I couldn’t agree more with him. Trevor ignored his friend and answered my question, “Rachel ran away before I could wipe away her memory of my blood lust.” Hah so I was right! “Then when I went to her dorm to do the same she wouldn’t even look at me, she just kept pacing around her room and telling me how psycho I was. So, I thought it would be better to have her think I was a bad guy then to have her know the truth.” I nodded, I understood that, but I still believed Rachel deserved the truth, that Trevor wasn’t all that bad and he didn’t mean to hurt her, completely.

I slowly nodded and continued on with my mental list of questions, “Okay, what else should I know? How do you die? What are your aversions?” I chose the word carefully, hoping he would get at what I was trying to say. I didn’t want to dumbly ask, ‘so do you shy away from garlic and crosses?’

This time it was Jonathan who spoke from his corner of the room, he didn’t come closer to us, but he was leaning on a pillar with his arms crossed. “We die in the sun without something like this,” he tugged on his leather necklace that had a cement formed circle at the end of it. I figured that’s what they meant the other day about witch magic protecting them. “Wooden steaks to the heart kill us most effectively, witches usually have a way of killing us, and werewolf bites do the job slowly but effectively.”

“Now as for aversions,” Jonathan continued, “we can wear crosses, since we’re not crafted by the Devil or some bullshit. We don’t have souls, but that doesn’t hinder us from wearing some type of jewelry or walking into a church. As for the silly fairy tales mostly all are false. Garlic, mirrors, bats, flying, sleeping in coffins, all are false. For the most part we’re like you, like humans, except we die differently and drink blood to survive.”

I was glad that Jonathan answered most of my questions so I didn’t sound like an idiot asking these things. Suddenly feeling very tired I stifled a yawn and got off the matt. “I think it’s time for me to get home. Unlike you guys, I actually need my sleep every night.” Jonathan and Trevor were quickly behind me and following me up the stairs, I became dizzy for a moment before centering myself. I was going to have to get used to his super-human speed thing before I pass out.

As the boys lead me out of the mansion and to my car I had one more thing to ask them, something that would ensure me of my friends and family’s safety in this time of vampires coming out. “It’s true that vampire’s can’t be let into a house unless invited in, right?” I asked quietly, in fear that they would say no.

Jonathan was quiet for a moment before answering me, “Vampire’s can’t walk into private homes or buildings. As for public buildings, such as schools, hospitals, churches, things like that, those are all fair game. Regarding other supernatural beings, they’re able to come and go however they please.”

I took this in and nodded to him, saying goodbye to Jonathan and Trevor I slid into my car. I started it up and began to relax my body, but my mind continued to circle in thoughts. My friends and family were safe from vampires, the thing that could drink their blood and cause them harm. The other supernatural beings were still a concern, I would have to find out how they could be safe from other dangers. Until then, I’d have to use all my new found abilities to keep them safe and out of harm's way, no matter what it took.