Here With You

It had been a typical Monday for everyone. We had gotten up, each of us pissed about having to get up for school, and went to our classes. It was the normal studies, and lunch was as normal as it ever is.

Heidi had avoided our table since the incident the other day, and that hadn’t changed over the weekend. I’d gotten confronted about if Matt had told me that he loves me, and under the frightening you-better-tell-us-the-damn-truth gazes that I’d received from all of my female friends I’d cracked.

They’d all bragged about how they’d saw this one coming, and then thankfully let it go. But they had also made it very clear that I was not getting out of going to the dance which was now about three weeks away. And like I had the day of the forced shopping trip I’d made it very clear that I did not want to go. It didn’t matter, they were still winning.
After school I’d talked to my mom like I normally did, and she’d told me that I would have a good time at the dance. She had also added that she would be right, even if I didn’t believe her. I’d told her that we would have to see about that when I’d gotten through the “occasion”.

Next I went up to my room to get some reading done since my mom had to head back to her classroom to get some stuff done. I’d sat down on my bed and picked up my book and began to read.

The reading was short lived, and that is when my entire day turned from normal to frighteningly strange day. I was happily reading my book, not tired at all when I suddenly fell asleep. The book fell out of my hands and off the bed as I fell back. Then everything went black, for only a short period of time.

I could see the large ballroom of the school decorated for the dance, and the music was blasting. Everyone was dancing and I was with my friends, including Matt who had his arm around me. We were talking, but it was all just a hum of noise. I couldn’t make out any of the words from any of us. Then a strange feeling brushed across the room. Every one of the student’s heads snapped up at the same time, and looked to the door.

It opened and revealed a clear star-filled night sky outside. But that isn’t what everyone was looking at. Everyone was staring at the girl standing in the door way. She had every eye in the large room on her, and she knew it. Her smile was made of dazzling white teeth that were perfectly straight. Her hair fell straight all around her shoulders. She didn’t look much taller than me, maybe even a little shorter. It was hard to tell. Her eyes were crystal clear, but also cold.

Her face was clear of any blemishes, and flawless. Her features fit her well, and she wore a pink dress that stopped at her knees. She was more than just very pretty. She was beautiful, and this was coming from another girl. She walked confidently, and her presence seemed to awe almost everyone in the ballroom. Everyone except my friends who were all staring at me.

Her presence didn’t awe me. It didn’t make me feel insignificant like it did the girls who were closer to her. Her presence woke something deep inside me that shouldn’t be there. I wasn’t feeling what everyone besides my friends were feeling. I was feeling a sense of danger. Some unspoken danger that this girl brought with her.

She smiled warmly at the crowd that was staring at her, some with their mouths wide open. At least it looked like a warm smile. I saw through it. She wasn’t smiling in a friendly way. She was smiling in self-accomplishment, like she’d just won part of some battle or war.

She wasn’t actually beautiful in the way that most beautiful people were. Her beauty was dangerous, and it was a mask of what she was. It was a dangerous beauty. A beauty that captured the people who saw it and held them prisoner to it. She was a evil beautiful. One of the Professor’s whose class I wasn’t in walked up to the new girl and greeted her with a hug, before turning to the crowd.

“Everyone this is Medea, our new student! She has just moved here from Miami and I expect that each of you will treat her in a way that welcomes her.” The Professor stated loud and clear.

“Hello everyone.” The girl said in a voice disguised in a honey-sweet tone of voice. I heard through it. Then the scene abruptly changed and I was outside. I had no way of knowing what day it was, or what time, or even where it was on the school grounds. But Medea was standing in front of me.

When you say past the false beauty that she radiated you could see her. She was just a pretty teenage girl in reality. She could have been beautiful but her evil personality reduced it and she looked like anyone could.

“You don’t know what you are up against.” She practically growled at me with no trace of the honey-sweet tone that she had used at the ball.

“Neither do you.” I recognized my own voice.

“Just remember that I am capable of more than anyone but you knows. Danger is lurking around every corner of this place and everyone is under my control. That danger is waiting for you Sapphire, so watch your back. You don’t know when it will come for you. And with that danger may very well await your death, along with your little friends.” She laughed evil and then added “Just remember there is danger around every corner now. They are on my side, under my control. Watch your back.”
Then it disappeared into darkness.

Not a calm darkness of the night, but a darkness that brought a feeling of discomfort and terror with it. A blinding darkness of a situation of horror. And it was then that it stopped. It all stopped as abruptly as it had began.

I sprang up and took deep breaths, trying to fill my lungs that felt like they had been sat on and compressed flat. I knew my voice would be weak. I felt weak, but I couldn’t be alone right now.

“Anybody?!” I yelled as my weak voice cracked.

“What is it?” Sarah asked bursting in with Mary, Lilly, and Dani following her.

“I-I don’t know. Someone get Matt. Now.” I said as they gasped as they looked at me.

“I’ll go.” Mary said turning and running from the room.

“Sapphire what happened?” Lilly asked coming closer.
“I told you guys I don’t know!” I drew my knees to my chest and let my head fall as I took some deep breaths in an attempt to calm myself and catch my breath.

“I’ll go get you some water.” Dani announced. Everything went silent except for my breathing when suddenly the silence was disrupted.

“Saph what happened?” Matt’s voice asked as it approached me. I looked up and sighed.

“I don’t know.”

“Saph have you saw yourself?” He asked lightly.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“He’s talking about this.” Mary said handing me a small mirror as Matt sat down at my side. My eyes were completely red, except for the pupil. The white part and the color had been turned a dark red. Not the fire red of my pissed off reactions. Even more than that I had been sweating heavily.

“Holy shit.” I mumbled as I thought of water and made the mist around me appear. Thankfully this worked and my eyes turned to a sapphire shade.

“Here you go.” Dani said handing me the water which I gulped down and took a deep breath before meeting each of their curious gazes.

“I’m not exactly sure what happened, but it was bad. Real bad.”

“What do you mean that you aren’t sure what happened?” Sarah asked the question that I knew was on their minds.

“I mean one minute I was reading and the next I just fell asleep.” I answered taking another deep breath.

“You are freaking out because you fell asleep?” Lilly asked, obviously confused.

“No. It’s what happened when I did. It was like a dream but it was too clear. I could feel stuff and I wasn’t on the verge of waking up like you always do with a normal dream when something isn’t right.” They gasped, all except Matt what just wrapped his arm around my shoulder and moved closer.

“What happened in the dream?” He asked in a whisper.

“We were at the ball and a girl I’ve never saw before showed up. She seemed beautiful at first, but she wasn’t. She was bad, really bad. Then it changed and I was outside talking to her. I don’t know what she was talking about! But she was talking about danger and death, and how powerful she was and that I didn’t know what she was up against, and then it all stopped!” I explained, hearing the horror in my own voice.

“Was it like the dream about the mystery girl?” Sarah asked me. It hit me like a million bricks tumbling down on me all at once.

“It wasn’t like the dream about the mystery girl!” I shrieked at once “She wasn’t like the mystery girl! She is the mystery girl! It’s her! She’s coming! She’s evil! Something bad is going to happen! It is going to bring danger! It’s coming!” Then I felt two arms around me and a voice in my ear.

“Saph, shhh, it’s okay. It’s okay. Calm down.” Matt cooed. I hadn’t realized that I was crying until that moment.

“Give me a piece of paper please.” I said. Sarah grabbed my note book and a pen. I wrote down the warning and the description of the girl. They all passed it around except for Matt who was still trying to comfort me.

Under different circumstances I wouldn’t have been clinging to him like this and crying in front of anyway, or even clinging to him and cry like this. But I couldn’t control it. I was terrified by not knowing what was coming.

Everything after that was a blur for a long time. I could hear everyone talking but I couldn’t make sense of what they were saying. It had to have been an hour and a half or maybe two hours after the dream when they left my room after Matt told them that he wanted to talk to me alone. I’d ask them to tell everyone else what was going on since I was sure that I couldn’t force it all out again yet.

“Saph?” Matt asked when we were alone.

“What?”

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t understand Matt! I just don’t understand what happened! I want to know more!”

“No Saph, I mean are you alright?”

“Yeah pretty much. Just freaked out. It feels like it means something.”

“I think it does.”

“Huh?”
“Don’t freak out okay?”

“Okay.”

“Saph you can do so much already, I think it might have been a vampire vision.”

“I haven’t been here that long. My language please.”

“Last year we learned about vampires who had visions of the future. Sometimes they only saw bad things that were coming. And sometimes the visions started coming to them in the way of what you just experienced.”

“Please tell me that you are kidding.”

“Nope.”

“Perfect, because I didn’t already have enough to live with!” I grumbled.

“How about you go take a shower and I’ll go get you something to eat when you get out?”

“Okay. I need to clear my head.” I stood up and then looked at him again. “Promise you’ll be here when I get out.”

“I promise Saph. I’ll be right here.”

When I got out of the shower and had put on my pajamas (where were of pooh-bear, tigger, and piglet by the way) I went back into my room. Sure enough Matt was still sitting where he had been when I’d went to take my shower.

“I’m going to go grab something from the kitchen. You want something?” I asked grabbing his attention.

“I told you that I’d go get you something.” He reminded me.

“Well I’m stubborn so I’m going to get it myself.”

He sighed and stood up. He followed me into the kitchen where I looked through the fridge for something that looked good. “I don’t think it is just food you want.” Matt’s voice said out of no where.

“Matt please, right now I want to feel normal again.”

“Saph that is part of being normal. And I’m just saying. What ever happened took a lot out of you.”

“Yeah. I know.” I finally settled on a bowl of cereal and Matt joined me. After that I heard my mom.

“Hello Matt.” She smiled at him.

“Hi Professor Heart.” He replied.

“Please call me Natalya. I didn’t expect to see both of you awake.”

“It’s a long story mom.” I sighed before I explained it. She told me the same thing Matt had, and then noted why I looked so drained.

“Sweetie maybe you should stay here tomorrow instead of going to classes. I’ll let everyone know okay?” She suggested.

“Mom, I don’t really want to be alone.” I admitted, and she nodded in understanding.

“Then I’ll make sure that one of your friends stays with you. Although everyone is already asleep.”

“Can Matt stay?” She looked at me then at him. She was weighing the idea of leaving me alone with my boyfriend all day.

“Okay. I trust you not to do anything.” She shrugged. It wasn’t long after that when Matt came back up to my room with me.

“Saph you know what you need.” He told me.

“Yeah I know. But it is your call.” He smiled after I responded and cut the skin on his neck. As I drank the blood I began to feel better, but even after that I didn’t feel completely better.

“I should go.” He told me.

“You can have my blood tomorrow.” I told him. He laughed.

“Okay. But I really should go.”

“Will you at least stay until I fall asleep?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks.”

“Goodnight Saph. I love you.”
“Night Matt. I love you too.” I kissed him and turned my light off. I could feel him sitting on my bed close to me. I finally managed to drift off to sleep.