Beauty in the Dark
CHAPTER THREE-Protests Of The Cross
"And the school is letting two of them attend, it's an outrage!" The loud ranting of her mother pulled Lark out of her heavy slumber. She cleared the crusted sleep from her eyes and the light forehead sweat, a reminder of last nights self pleasure. It had been 5 days since Lark met Draven Lunette and she couldn't get him out of her head. His voice rang in her ears, she saw his face every time she closed her eyes and she thought she could feel him, or something else watching her. "Why am I feeling like this? I met him once, yet I can't stop thinking about him. Have I finally gone crazy?" Lark muttered to her cat Xena, running her fingers through it's black fur. Xena's purring calmed Lark's mind, blocking out as much of her mother's shouting as it could. Sighing, she got out of bed and began get ready for school. Her outfit of the day consisted of high waisted leather breeches, black lace long sleeved crop top, knee high platform boots and pearl jewellery. Lark shoved a handful of vials of fake blood, a bronze goblet, a plastic athame and a aqua velvet make-up sack, into her shoulder patchwork bag. "Hope the class likes this performance" she thought as she pulled on a long blood red velvet, Gothic coat and smiled at her appearance. After kissing Xena on the head, Lark rushed out of the house, ignoring her mother's continued ranting and ordering.
Lark never usually ran to school, she much rather avoid the torture chamber. However there was two reasons to her hurrying. The first, and most important was that Skylar was returning to school and she couldn't wait to see her. The second reason was that she wanted to see Draven again, and his sibling. She didn't fully understand why, weather it was sheer curiosity, her interest in vampires or something else all together. She dodged cracks in the pavement and the swarm the busy people heading to work, or one of the many coffee shops in town. The closer she got to the school building however, Lark noticed a sea of people with sighs and megaphones. The chanting made her roll her eyes in disgust, "we don't want no vamps", "get the suckers out", "they do not belong" and "fanged rapist need to die!" Leading the protest, which didn't shock Lark at all, was Luvena holding a sigh saying "save the children from the fanged monsters" and punching the air. Lark shoved her way through the crowd towards the front gates, biting her tongue so she didn't say what she was thinking. She didn't have time to pick a fight with the angry horde. Her eyes lighten at the sight of Kirby leaning against the gate post, talking to Skylar. Without a second thought, Lark ran to her friends and coiled her arms around the rounded shape of her friend, squeezing hard. Skylar was a chubby and beautiful girl who was the same size as Lark with light brown skin, dark freckles dotting all over her face, large chocolate eyes surrounded by black cat-like eyeliner, shoulder length straight jet black hair with a sky blue streak and was wearing a black jumper dress with dark brown ugg boots, black tights and a black studded leather biker jacket. "I've missed you so much, my blueberry marshmallow" Lark said with joy, nuzzling her friend's neck. Kirby chuckled with a big smile, it's been a long time since they'd all hung out together. "I've missed you too ginger biscuit, but you are sucking the life out of me so could you loosen up please" Skylar laughed, holding Lark's wrists. "Sucking your life? I want, to suck, your blood" Lark lightly nibbled at Skylar's neck, while also loosening her arms. Kirby unleaned himself and placed his hands on each of his friend's shoulders. "Aw, it brings me such happiness in my black heart that we're all together again. I only wish, that I had a cute foodie nickname for my own" he said dramatically. "We did, in fact we had 2, Pocky but you didn't like it coz it's, and I quote 'a skinny and a bit racist biscuit'" explained Lark with a smirk. "Yeah, and the other was strawberry sorbet and you said that it was too silly and made you sound cold" chuckled Skylar. Kirby rolled his eyes, "between the two I prefer strawberry sorbet."
The laughter and anger suddenly died as two strangely dressed figures, one tall one small, appeared on the school path. The short one was female and wore a magenta power suit with splashes of multi-coloured paint on the sleeves and bottom of the pants, a black shirt, black converses and her deep red waves were formed into two messy buns on either sides of her head. The tall one also wore a suit, but his was more Gothic in dark colours and a tall black top-hat sat upon his flowing hair, black with silver streaks. Lark's eyes widen, it was him-Draven. All eyes were on him, and the girl at his side. 'They look so alike, that must be his little sister' Lark thought, not moving an inch. The two vampires moved slowly towards the school entrance, ignoring the sea of hate and signs which had awakened from the initial shock. They got closer to Lark and her group, Draven's eyes locked onto her own and he stopped in his tracks and smiled. "How nice to see you again Lady Lark, and what a wonderful welcoming party. I feel so much at home" he said with charm and sarcasm, tipping his hat. Lark was speechless and felt unusually shy, she had never been called or seen as a lady before. All she could do in return was blush and try to hide her face in her hair. She could tell her friends were taken-aback by her reaction, she'd had always been the outspoken, take no prisoners type. Breathing in, she looked at Draven and put on a mask of confidence and no-fucks-given. "Yeah, it's good to see ya too. We made sure to get the best of the best Church folk and red-eyed haters in town for your arrival. I'm glad you enjoy it" she said, crossing her arms and continuing to speak upon hearing Kirby coughing in acknowledgement, "oh, yeah, right. Draven these are my good friends Kirby and Skylar." Draven smiled and bowed to the both of them. While Kirby saluted and winked, Skylar waved but looked uncomfortable. "Pleasure. This happy little berry is my sister Lila" Draven introduced merrily. Lila wasn't so happy-go-lucky, her face was boiling red with hate and a look which said 'I don't want to be here, I am above this', and spoke as such "No need to be too friendly to these humans brother, it's clear that we will not be here for long. Let's just get the day over and done with." And with that, she walked into the building with her nose in the air. Draven just laughed it off nervously, "I forget sometimes that she's only 15, due to the way she talks. I do apologies for her bluntness." "That's cool, the raging bitchiness can bring out the worst in people if you linger too long" said Kirby, rubbing the back of his head. Lark chuckled and gave Draven a sympathetic look, "Kirby is right, you don't need to say sorry. However she was right about one thing, we should head in and get this day over with. All this chanting of blood freaks and rape is giving me a headache." Skylar nodded in agreement, "this would give aspirin a headache. But ya right, lets get inside hell and away from Luvena and her sheep" she said, sounding like herself but yet still uncomfortable.
Through-out the day, tales of the sinful vampires spread around the school and some students felt conflicted about them. Draven seemed to be very much a gentleman to all, polite to teachers and somewhat flamboyant. In Gym class he showed off his ballet and tango moves and practically put on a mini concert in Music class. As for Lila, it was clear to all, including Lark and her friends, that she was highly intelligent, creative and active. She beat all the girls easily in track and field, her art work left her class mystified and she ended up teaching Math class, much to Lark's amusement. But no matter how kind or studious they were, most either avoided them or mocked them, even throwing food and death threats at them. When English class arrived, Lark was a little drained from all the talk of vampire scum and how Luvena was planning something cruel to get rid of them. Luvena sat right in the center of the class, her eyes burning a hole into Lila's head who sat in the far corner. In fact, most of the class was looking at the young Draculina. Even with Lark and Kirby standing at the front, dressed in clothing styled from the 1600s with a touch of Goth and covered in blood and face paint, didn't course a reaction from the normally judgmental class. They were too focused on Lila, and a part of Lark kinda liked it. She was so used to being laughed at, that she kinda liked that the negative attention was on someone else. "Alright Miss Eirlys, Mr Cook. Lets see your interpretation of the final scene of Romeo and Juliet. You're at the church and Juliet is laying on a tomb" said the teacher, Lark laying on his desk while Kirby knelt before it.
Kirby; Oh sorrow, what have I done. I have taken the souls of two men and now look, my dear Juliet lays here upon this tomb. I cause this travesty upon our love. I took the blessed air from her lungs, though did not kill in person. Never will we have our embrace nor last kiss nor happy future together. With that I can not go on living without my beloved. To hell with life alone, I wish to be together in heaven with my Juliet. Here's to my love. [Brings out a vial full of water from his pocket, brings it to his lips] I will be with you soon my darling and only. Death, I will come to your embrace. Take me to her quickly. With a kiss, I die. [Drinks the water and falls to the floor, 'dying'. Lark wakes up from the desk and sees Kirby on the ground, shocked at the corpse]
Lark; No, oh no my Romeo. My loving Romeo, what have you done? What have we done? You are gone because of me, because of my selfish actions. [Picks up the vial] An elixir of death? This poison is what took your soul to God? Oh if you'd had known my plans or if I would of waken sooner, we'd be embracing right now. Damn our families war for keeping us apart. The Earth is not livable without you my true love. I will not go on alone, I will join you with the angels and the saints and no one will part us again. [Drops the vial and picks up the athame] Oh happy dagger, this is my poor strife. Return me to my beloved, bring me to God's Kingdom. Let me die. ['Stabs' herself in the chest, piercing a bag of fake blood and falls onto the floor besides Kirby, 'dying']
Silence raised over the classroom, there was no grand applause, nor giggling nor heckling. Just a whisper of clapping from Skylar and the teacher. Kirby and Lark stood and bowed to the disinterested classroom and sat in their seats. "Very good you two, very good. What do the rest of you think of their performance?" the teacher said. "Wonderful, truly a dramatic masterpiece. Bravo" exclaimed Skylar, over-acting her joy and clapping like crazy. "I thought it was too over the top" said one student, while an other simply shrugged. "It was shit interpretation of an already sinful play. I mean Romeo and Juliet sleep together before marriage, Romeo murders two people, they go against their parents and then they kill themselves. Why must we learn about this awful tellings of lust. It's sending the wrong message to young, clueless girls" ranted Luvena. "Shut your face Lu, with your religious crap" Lark snapped, despite Skylar's quiet begging to not saying anything. "I think it was a good performance, I liked the use of fake blood and the acting, while a bit over-the-top, was better than a lot of plays I've seen" spoke Lila, causing the whole class to turn to her with their mouths open. Lark was the most surprised, thinking that Lila didn't like her for some reason. 'And I felt happy that she was getting ostracized by the whole school' she thought with sadness and some regret. "You would like it, you freak. Bet you got turned on by all that blood. I'm surprised you didn't jump out of your seat to get a bite out of that Gothic sluts neck" teased Luvena, with an evil smile plastered on her face. The cruel chuckles fell out of the once silent lips from the other students. Even when the teacher tried to stop them and carry on the lesson, they kept on chuckling and Luvena stood up to continue her tirade. "You shouldn't be in this school, you shouldn't be in this town. You're a monster and so are the rest of your family. Your kind kills children and innocence and you feed off the hard work of us normal people." Lila stood up too, her face reading calm but her eyes turned snake-like, which Lark knew was a sign that she was becoming enraged. "Luvena, don't" she muttered, rising to her feet slowly. "It's alright Miss Eirlys, I can handle this ignorant shrew. You're wrong about me, I don't kill children nor do I want to bite the necks of humans, nor do I or my family take anything from your kind. We work just as hard as you, we live off the donated blood and wild animals from the forest. We don't harm your kind. And even though I do not want to be in this town, I have heard the stories from my night brothers and sisters, I will not be ran out of this town by the likes of you" Lila said with conviction and bravery, which made Luvena's blood boil. "YOU'RE A LIAR AND A SINNER! YOU'RE ALL ALIKE, TAKING AND EATING AND BEING A DISGRACE TO HUMANKIND! WE ARE NOT SAFE WITH YOUR KIND IN OUR TOWN! WE WANT YOU GONE! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT AN EVIL, TWISTED, BABY KILLING, CUNT!" screamed Luvena, slamming her fists on her desk. Before Lila could do anything, Lark had enough and grabbed Luvena by the shoulder and with all her might, punched her in the face.
Lark never usually ran to school, she much rather avoid the torture chamber. However there was two reasons to her hurrying. The first, and most important was that Skylar was returning to school and she couldn't wait to see her. The second reason was that she wanted to see Draven again, and his sibling. She didn't fully understand why, weather it was sheer curiosity, her interest in vampires or something else all together. She dodged cracks in the pavement and the swarm the busy people heading to work, or one of the many coffee shops in town. The closer she got to the school building however, Lark noticed a sea of people with sighs and megaphones. The chanting made her roll her eyes in disgust, "we don't want no vamps", "get the suckers out", "they do not belong" and "fanged rapist need to die!" Leading the protest, which didn't shock Lark at all, was Luvena holding a sigh saying "save the children from the fanged monsters" and punching the air. Lark shoved her way through the crowd towards the front gates, biting her tongue so she didn't say what she was thinking. She didn't have time to pick a fight with the angry horde. Her eyes lighten at the sight of Kirby leaning against the gate post, talking to Skylar. Without a second thought, Lark ran to her friends and coiled her arms around the rounded shape of her friend, squeezing hard. Skylar was a chubby and beautiful girl who was the same size as Lark with light brown skin, dark freckles dotting all over her face, large chocolate eyes surrounded by black cat-like eyeliner, shoulder length straight jet black hair with a sky blue streak and was wearing a black jumper dress with dark brown ugg boots, black tights and a black studded leather biker jacket. "I've missed you so much, my blueberry marshmallow" Lark said with joy, nuzzling her friend's neck. Kirby chuckled with a big smile, it's been a long time since they'd all hung out together. "I've missed you too ginger biscuit, but you are sucking the life out of me so could you loosen up please" Skylar laughed, holding Lark's wrists. "Sucking your life? I want, to suck, your blood" Lark lightly nibbled at Skylar's neck, while also loosening her arms. Kirby unleaned himself and placed his hands on each of his friend's shoulders. "Aw, it brings me such happiness in my black heart that we're all together again. I only wish, that I had a cute foodie nickname for my own" he said dramatically. "We did, in fact we had 2, Pocky but you didn't like it coz it's, and I quote 'a skinny and a bit racist biscuit'" explained Lark with a smirk. "Yeah, and the other was strawberry sorbet and you said that it was too silly and made you sound cold" chuckled Skylar. Kirby rolled his eyes, "between the two I prefer strawberry sorbet."
The laughter and anger suddenly died as two strangely dressed figures, one tall one small, appeared on the school path. The short one was female and wore a magenta power suit with splashes of multi-coloured paint on the sleeves and bottom of the pants, a black shirt, black converses and her deep red waves were formed into two messy buns on either sides of her head. The tall one also wore a suit, but his was more Gothic in dark colours and a tall black top-hat sat upon his flowing hair, black with silver streaks. Lark's eyes widen, it was him-Draven. All eyes were on him, and the girl at his side. 'They look so alike, that must be his little sister' Lark thought, not moving an inch. The two vampires moved slowly towards the school entrance, ignoring the sea of hate and signs which had awakened from the initial shock. They got closer to Lark and her group, Draven's eyes locked onto her own and he stopped in his tracks and smiled. "How nice to see you again Lady Lark, and what a wonderful welcoming party. I feel so much at home" he said with charm and sarcasm, tipping his hat. Lark was speechless and felt unusually shy, she had never been called or seen as a lady before. All she could do in return was blush and try to hide her face in her hair. She could tell her friends were taken-aback by her reaction, she'd had always been the outspoken, take no prisoners type. Breathing in, she looked at Draven and put on a mask of confidence and no-fucks-given. "Yeah, it's good to see ya too. We made sure to get the best of the best Church folk and red-eyed haters in town for your arrival. I'm glad you enjoy it" she said, crossing her arms and continuing to speak upon hearing Kirby coughing in acknowledgement, "oh, yeah, right. Draven these are my good friends Kirby and Skylar." Draven smiled and bowed to the both of them. While Kirby saluted and winked, Skylar waved but looked uncomfortable. "Pleasure. This happy little berry is my sister Lila" Draven introduced merrily. Lila wasn't so happy-go-lucky, her face was boiling red with hate and a look which said 'I don't want to be here, I am above this', and spoke as such "No need to be too friendly to these humans brother, it's clear that we will not be here for long. Let's just get the day over and done with." And with that, she walked into the building with her nose in the air. Draven just laughed it off nervously, "I forget sometimes that she's only 15, due to the way she talks. I do apologies for her bluntness." "That's cool, the raging bitchiness can bring out the worst in people if you linger too long" said Kirby, rubbing the back of his head. Lark chuckled and gave Draven a sympathetic look, "Kirby is right, you don't need to say sorry. However she was right about one thing, we should head in and get this day over with. All this chanting of blood freaks and rape is giving me a headache." Skylar nodded in agreement, "this would give aspirin a headache. But ya right, lets get inside hell and away from Luvena and her sheep" she said, sounding like herself but yet still uncomfortable.
Through-out the day, tales of the sinful vampires spread around the school and some students felt conflicted about them. Draven seemed to be very much a gentleman to all, polite to teachers and somewhat flamboyant. In Gym class he showed off his ballet and tango moves and practically put on a mini concert in Music class. As for Lila, it was clear to all, including Lark and her friends, that she was highly intelligent, creative and active. She beat all the girls easily in track and field, her art work left her class mystified and she ended up teaching Math class, much to Lark's amusement. But no matter how kind or studious they were, most either avoided them or mocked them, even throwing food and death threats at them. When English class arrived, Lark was a little drained from all the talk of vampire scum and how Luvena was planning something cruel to get rid of them. Luvena sat right in the center of the class, her eyes burning a hole into Lila's head who sat in the far corner. In fact, most of the class was looking at the young Draculina. Even with Lark and Kirby standing at the front, dressed in clothing styled from the 1600s with a touch of Goth and covered in blood and face paint, didn't course a reaction from the normally judgmental class. They were too focused on Lila, and a part of Lark kinda liked it. She was so used to being laughed at, that she kinda liked that the negative attention was on someone else. "Alright Miss Eirlys, Mr Cook. Lets see your interpretation of the final scene of Romeo and Juliet. You're at the church and Juliet is laying on a tomb" said the teacher, Lark laying on his desk while Kirby knelt before it.
Kirby; Oh sorrow, what have I done. I have taken the souls of two men and now look, my dear Juliet lays here upon this tomb. I cause this travesty upon our love. I took the blessed air from her lungs, though did not kill in person. Never will we have our embrace nor last kiss nor happy future together. With that I can not go on living without my beloved. To hell with life alone, I wish to be together in heaven with my Juliet. Here's to my love. [Brings out a vial full of water from his pocket, brings it to his lips] I will be with you soon my darling and only. Death, I will come to your embrace. Take me to her quickly. With a kiss, I die. [Drinks the water and falls to the floor, 'dying'. Lark wakes up from the desk and sees Kirby on the ground, shocked at the corpse]
Lark; No, oh no my Romeo. My loving Romeo, what have you done? What have we done? You are gone because of me, because of my selfish actions. [Picks up the vial] An elixir of death? This poison is what took your soul to God? Oh if you'd had known my plans or if I would of waken sooner, we'd be embracing right now. Damn our families war for keeping us apart. The Earth is not livable without you my true love. I will not go on alone, I will join you with the angels and the saints and no one will part us again. [Drops the vial and picks up the athame] Oh happy dagger, this is my poor strife. Return me to my beloved, bring me to God's Kingdom. Let me die. ['Stabs' herself in the chest, piercing a bag of fake blood and falls onto the floor besides Kirby, 'dying']
Silence raised over the classroom, there was no grand applause, nor giggling nor heckling. Just a whisper of clapping from Skylar and the teacher. Kirby and Lark stood and bowed to the disinterested classroom and sat in their seats. "Very good you two, very good. What do the rest of you think of their performance?" the teacher said. "Wonderful, truly a dramatic masterpiece. Bravo" exclaimed Skylar, over-acting her joy and clapping like crazy. "I thought it was too over the top" said one student, while an other simply shrugged. "It was shit interpretation of an already sinful play. I mean Romeo and Juliet sleep together before marriage, Romeo murders two people, they go against their parents and then they kill themselves. Why must we learn about this awful tellings of lust. It's sending the wrong message to young, clueless girls" ranted Luvena. "Shut your face Lu, with your religious crap" Lark snapped, despite Skylar's quiet begging to not saying anything. "I think it was a good performance, I liked the use of fake blood and the acting, while a bit over-the-top, was better than a lot of plays I've seen" spoke Lila, causing the whole class to turn to her with their mouths open. Lark was the most surprised, thinking that Lila didn't like her for some reason. 'And I felt happy that she was getting ostracized by the whole school' she thought with sadness and some regret. "You would like it, you freak. Bet you got turned on by all that blood. I'm surprised you didn't jump out of your seat to get a bite out of that Gothic sluts neck" teased Luvena, with an evil smile plastered on her face. The cruel chuckles fell out of the once silent lips from the other students. Even when the teacher tried to stop them and carry on the lesson, they kept on chuckling and Luvena stood up to continue her tirade. "You shouldn't be in this school, you shouldn't be in this town. You're a monster and so are the rest of your family. Your kind kills children and innocence and you feed off the hard work of us normal people." Lila stood up too, her face reading calm but her eyes turned snake-like, which Lark knew was a sign that she was becoming enraged. "Luvena, don't" she muttered, rising to her feet slowly. "It's alright Miss Eirlys, I can handle this ignorant shrew. You're wrong about me, I don't kill children nor do I want to bite the necks of humans, nor do I or my family take anything from your kind. We work just as hard as you, we live off the donated blood and wild animals from the forest. We don't harm your kind. And even though I do not want to be in this town, I have heard the stories from my night brothers and sisters, I will not be ran out of this town by the likes of you" Lila said with conviction and bravery, which made Luvena's blood boil. "YOU'RE A LIAR AND A SINNER! YOU'RE ALL ALIKE, TAKING AND EATING AND BEING A DISGRACE TO HUMANKIND! WE ARE NOT SAFE WITH YOUR KIND IN OUR TOWN! WE WANT YOU GONE! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT AN EVIL, TWISTED, BABY KILLING, CUNT!" screamed Luvena, slamming her fists on her desk. Before Lila could do anything, Lark had enough and grabbed Luvena by the shoulder and with all her might, punched her in the face.