Tenecrils Eighth

“Get UP!” Roxy shouts as she throws a pillow at my face. “Gawd! How long does a girl needa sleep??, its 8:30 and school starts in like,” she checks the clock, “ 15 minutes”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t get as much sleep as you because you ditched me, thanks for that by the way, I got forced to dance with Xander” I struggle to sit up straight and catch my reflection in the mirror. A reasonably presentable girl stares back sleepily.

Roxy laughs at my ‘rotten luck’ and vows to never ditch me again on the condition that I get to my first class on time. I fish my phone out of my purse to check for any updates on my town as promised and find a text by my boyfriend, Vinnie instead. Smiling, I open the message and read.

Hey Priya

I stop, he never calls me by my name, he’s always had a thing for calling me Jones.

I no ur busy and all, but i got 2 tell u this b4 its 2 late. i srsly don’t believe this is gonna work, and i no ur gonna b pissed seeing as u saved my life and all, but, i don’t wanna be with u. its ova. just plz don’t call me. I don’t wanna hear from u or see u eva again. bye. - Vin

My breath catches in my throat and I fight to get air through but then I realise miserably that I should have seen this coming. I knew boys who find me date worthy only like to use me. Using my anger and misery I race the clock and rush into my class seconds before roll call starts.

Miss Maskeráde swoops in and silences the excited chatter in the classroom just by her presence. As she scans the class with a cheerful expression, you’d think she were on her first day at the job.

“All right guys,” she begins, “you can sit wherever you want as long as you listen when I tell you to listen and do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do, absolutely NO arguments we clear?” her eyes lock with mine and another wave of uneasiness washes over me as she waits for me to nod my head.

As I seat myself at the nearest table and look at the clock, trying to calculate how long the school day would be, a group of kids swoop down beside me and the desks nearest to me. I don’t take notice, they were probably the only seats available. But when a hand waves in front of my face, I turn over, wondering just what they want. Instead I find one of the hunky warriors sitting next to me and 4 others around me. Kind of feeling out of my depth in the presence of all these muscly and deadly warriors, I realise that Xander isn’t among them and that they probably want me to move out of their leaders’ seat. I remember the necklace I needed to give back and stay glued to the place. Finally breaking the silence as Miss Maskeráde starts calling out the role.

“If you’re gonna try and make me move so that your leader can sit here, you can think again, I don’t care if I’m new, I chose this place to sit and I’m gonna sit here until I feel like moving” I whisper, loud enough for only them to hear.

“Tina?”

“Here”

The red haired guy next to me raises an eyebrow and a smile plays about his lips. “Look, we weren’t gonna make you move” I look ahead

“Its Priya right?, I’m Seth” he extends his big muscly and surprisingly scarred hand in a friendly move. I just stare at his many scars. He smiles “there’s a lot more where they came from”

“Priya?”

“Here Miss” I say.

She’s just about to continue the roll when her head snaps up to the door seconds before Xander bursts in. They share worried glances as the bell goes.

School doesn’t start officially for another 2 days for me. The school had some policy where all the new kids get two days to get used to their classes before work is really given out. I’m satisfied with most of my classes, except roll call, English, Maths, Science and Sport as all the warriors are there. I don’t mind defence classes though. Even though it was inevitable that the seven Immortals were going to be there, it’s pretty awesome. You know, dodging and punching and really getting into all the fitness and exercising.

Finishing one last lap of the room, I jog over to my bag and pull my hair together with a loose ponytail and creep out, desperately wanting some peaceful me time. When I was sure there was no one around I pulled out the tattered but interesting book I had started reading on my way here. Smiling at the calendar I had added, so far I had been away from Silencer Height for about 1 week and a half because the plane trip took so long. Skimming through the contents page I came across the chapter I had become acutely interested in and flipped my way to the page.

Origins of our People

For many years, the generations of our kind have evolved into countless other things. Many of them mating with someone different to create a wholly new and more powerful kind. Some of the people in our society simply are their own way because of the choices they make. Here is a list of the money different kinds and origins of the different people on Earth.

Vampires

Vampires are age old cannibalists who, until recently, only could get a hold of their food by brutal murder. They were created when a man in the 2nd century accidentally killed someone, and ate the meat. The man found the meat thoroughly enriching and became crazed with the taste, it wasn’t until his 20th murder that he realised that he had a taste for the blood of his victims and not necessarily the meat. As the years progressed, he would drain the blood of his victims and, even kept a woman in his home who he tortured and abused. Before her death, she gave birth to an infant boy, who is, until this day, the most feared, and modern of all his kind, making a deal with Gorslici. Over centuries, he has been tirelessly creating the illusion to further comfort his prey that his kind has weaknesses such as bursting into flames in sunlight and garlic weakening them. Only a stake through the heart can kill them or something of extremely painful proportions, after all, they are just a smidge inhuman, their bloodlust is nothing more than an unstoppable addiction. Anyone part vampire is a force to be reckoned with.

Well then, I suppose I won’t need my puny little homemade stake which I carry around for protection if Brett decides to pop by. I knew I should’ve brought that silver sword along with me; after all, that was what I had used to give him his fatal-like injury.

Angels: Pure and Fallen

Angels are and always have been, the purest of the human race. Their descendants are mainly warriors, who fight to protect any innocent. There are angels on earth, but there are few known as knowledge of their whereabouts always falls into the hands of evil and their lives are ended.Fallen Angels, are those who have developed a love for killing, and their judgement of who to kill and who not to has corrupted and they don’t know right from wrong. Surprisingly, the first fallen angels did not appear until the Great War, and the starting point of that gruesome war is not known as it spilled on and on for hundreds of years. Fallen Angels feed off the fear of their opponent, innocent or not, if you find yourself fighting with a Fallen Angel, you must remain calm, and fill your mind with happy and loving thoughts. Their strength is their weakness and if you can manage to feed off happy energy, good will conquer evil. Some who have survived the attacks of Fallen Angels, have told of miraculous occasions where all injuries were healed and the Fallen Angel had become pure again.

I’m about to turn the page to see what’s next when I just suddenly know that the bell is about to ring. As I quickly shove the book into my bag and try and think of ways to successfully sneak back into class, I hear a distant twig snap. Crouching in an instinct I seemed to have forgotten I had, I press myself to a nearby tree and stealthily move about, trying to stay out of sight. When I focus more on the voices, I’m shocked to find that I can hear them as if they’re speaking to me and not like hundreds of metres out of my sight.

I’m getting more and more powerful….what has Brett done to me?? I feel the need to fight, the need to stay in the know, the need to always ACT like some sort of spy or assassin. I am so going to kill him-again-if I ever see him again.

Quickly trying to stop thinking about the voices, I head to the window where I hope the girls changing rooms are and wiggle my way through. When I land softly I breathe out a sigh of brilliance, happy that my smart and fool proof plan didn’t get me in trouble on the first day. When I hear the door slam open though, my first reaction is to hide in an empty locker and when I hear groans and sounds of appreciation for “the girls hot bodies” I mentally face palm myself and further mould into the locker, wishing myself to be invisible.

“So, what do you think of the new evicted chick?” One guy asks.

“She’s like, HOT” I smile “but she’s like a midget, like whoa! She is TINY!” I suppress a growl.

“I think she’s pretty cool, I mean, she’s new to this school bro, and I reckon she’s doing good for an evicted chick” I grin this time, whoever that boy was, seemed to know me well, even though I didn’t know him. I’m still wishing I’m invisible though, and that I wasn’t in my current situation.

I hear the male coach bark into the room “Alright pretty boys, stop bitching and start stripping, get back into your normal school clothes cos if you walk outta here like a sweating pile of shi-, I mean, shrivelled clothes, I’m gonna make you feel pain like you’ve never known”.

Oh no. I blush scarlet, which is hard because bro! I’m a proud Indian. They’re gonna go au-naturel for a while. Wishing I could be anywhere else but in that stupid locker, I almost don’t realise that a rush of something, some rather irritating buzz, is travelling down my spine and I feel somewhat detached from myself, but, I almost slip up, almost scream in anticipated horror when the locker door in which I was hiding in flies open and I come face to face with- a guy with a towel wrapped around him. I wait for the horrified shout or the punch or something! But he seems to look right through me. And, obviously not finding what he was looking for, bangs the locker door shut, unfortunately leaving too big a crack for my liking. But as I realise that it could’ve been worse, a lot worse I send a silent prayer to the heavens.

Thank you Tenecril.I dunno why I specifically thanked him, but, it somehow felt right. As I beg for the bell to ring, I hear the door fling open again, expecting the coach to tell them off for getting changed so damn slow I smirk, waiting for the powerful voice to boom through.

Instead, I hear nothing but footsteps retreating and a few muffled voice, then my heart stops when fottsteps, coming closer, until I hear they stop outside my locker. As the door flings open once again, I see Xander, and no, he was fully clothed.

“Get out, I know you’re in there, I saw you climb up the wrong window, and I sensed you going invisible”.

That breaks my concentration and he smiles happily as I come into his view again.

“I was really invisible??!!” I ask, dumbfounded.

“If I hadn’t barged in here, you would’ve teleported too” he nods, a slither of respect flashing through his eyes.

“Epic” is all I can say.

Xander suddenly seems to remember where we were and he shoots me a disapproving look, “What were you doing outta class?”

“I could ask you the same question” was my automatic response, but it dawned on me a second too late that he was a warrior and guardian of the school, not a student.

“Should I take that as a compliment?” he asks, breaking my thoughts, a teasing smile firmly planted on his face.

When I look up to him and force myself to meet his eyes, I gasp, body going wobbly as a truly invisible force hits me. I can see Xander fighting me, like, really fighting me, only he’s not alone. As the vision ends with me being locked away and him discussing tactics to get ‘information’ out of me I’m thrown back into reality. Finding myself once again, in his arms instead of on the floor.

“Are you alright? You blacked out there for a sec”

“I’m fine” I blurt “Um, the bell just rang I gotta go” and I barge my way through and out the door, pissed, dazed and hopelessly confused. What.The.Hell??

I’ve just finished an exhausting last period of English, discussing the tragic flaws in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. As I stand up and make my way out with the rest of the crowd, my arm is grabbed by someone and I’m pulled back in. I take a fighting stance and whip around, instantly relaxing when I find its only Miss Maskeráde and the 7 immortals of our time. Their looks are grave and they all crouch down in a defensive position.

“What’s going on?” my eyes sweep through the absolutely swell audience I’m talking to.

“We need to talk” Miss Maskeráde smoothly starts, inching closer to me with seven immortals behind her in what looks like a heavily practiced formation.

I’m just about to ask why we need to talk at the end of a school day when out of the blue, all eight attack me at once. My body goes into overdrive as I dodge and block all of their attempts to immobolize me and one by one I gain the advantage. First, I stop Miss Maskeráde’s attempt to knock me unconscious by grabbing the chair and hitting it over her head instead. Everyone stops for a split second and stare in shock at her still body, but, I don’t even have time to check if she’s okay when they’re at it again.

A brunette girl rips off the legs of a table and grabs a pocket knife from her belts to sharpen the ends. Then starts coming towards me, jabbing and blocking, trying to find a way through my defence whilst the rest of the group continue to try and distract me and when I’m backed up against the board and she comes through, the slightest smirk comes across her face.

Feeling bewildered, pissed and scared all at the same time I desperately look around, get a crazy idea and let her run toward me. At the last second, I launch myself against the wall, relying, hoping and praying that it supports my weight for a few seconds and doesn’t crash through to the next classrooms. Miraculously it does, and as she watches me defy gravity for a few seconds’, confusion shadows her face then fear as I slam my foot into her face and she crumples to the floor as I make my way back down onto solid ground, hearing a crack as I make the connection with my foot to her face. Two of the male immortals jump at me whilst Xander pulls her away to safety with the help of the other blonde girl. In this time, I kick at the two home-made swords she had created and allow them to drop comfortably into my hands.

As I dance around the warriors I hear my brain work at a million miles an hour Duck! Strike! Watch out for the girl! Behind you! Flip! Dodge! And how the heck am I doing this? What the hell is happening to me? Why are they attacking me? Seth managed to creep up behind me whilst I fought off Xander and the other 3, I am knocked of my breath as he jumps on me, but, my instincts feeling the movement behind me, move out of the way before he can tackle me to the floor and defeat me, instead, he resorts to a headlock I scramble to get out of. My body reacts and my brain searches through random facts when I suddenly remember a Jujitsu move. Grabbing hold of his arm, I’m nervous, he’s twice my height and weight but it was worth a try. As I dig my feet into the ground I bend over and pull him over me.

He gasps as he’s lifted and flipped over me, landing headfirst into the ground. 3 down, 2 immortals, 5 to go. By this time, I’m just about ready to admit defeat when I get an idea to get rid of them all in one go. I dodge all their fists and legs as I run to the back and grab the little shower head from the sink and point it at them, adjusting the setting. All of them freeze and stare at the shower head, and then all four burst out laughing. Apparently, a shower head could not be made into a dangerous weapon.

“What’s-What’s so funny?” I managed to pant out, hurt, even though I had not executed my plan yet. I eyed the wall, in all the chaos, the wall had cracked and wires had become exposed, I hoped that these guys didn’t remember too much about conductivity or else I was screwed. I creeped along to the wall.

“The fact-that-you think-you can beat us-with a-showerhead” a dark haired boy bursts out in laughter.

Xander seems to recover from the laughing fit first and once his stance got into the offensive again, the other 4 immediately followed. Knowing that there wasn’t much time to finish off my plan, I spray the water all over them and hope and pray that electricity to be somehow weaved into it. As I cringe, waiting for the impact of 4 immortals smashing me to the ground I open my eyes to find 4 lying on the ground with soaked clothes and water sprayed everywhere. I see that Xander is not there and realise too late because my arms are twisted behind my back in my own move.

“Not such a nice feeling is it?” he whispers into my ear then pulls his face away and looks around, turning me around with him, he whistles “ wow! I’m shocked you got past Ruby when she came at you with the swords”

“What can I say? I hate it when people come at me with instant SWORDS in their hands” I spat out.

“Is this feisty woman sad because the big boss won this round?” he teases.

I remember what he did to me when we had our first fight and smile to myself.

“Nope, this girls not gonna give up without a fair fight” and with that I kick my leg backward, pushing his leg out of balance and sending him crashing to the floor, loosening his grip on me in the process. Getting out of his hands before I crash to the ground with him, I quickly sit triumphantly on his back, dig my knee in, unsheathe his own machete and put it against his neck.

“Now,” I whisper sweetly, letting my fast breathing slow down, leaning right in next to his ear” Wanna tell me why your friends just tried to kill me?”

“Figure that out for yourself,” he snarls “Now, you can either knock me out which will buy you a few seconds at most or let me go and surrender to me peacefully” he growls, and starts to ferociously rock about. But, still sitting firm on his back with my knee digging in I just turn his machete around and bring it down hard on his head, knocking him out. I find my school bag under a broken table and fish out his necklace, ripping out a piece of paper I scribble:

Courtesy of the bossy girl you danced with less than 24 hours ago then bashed up minutes ago. No thanks needed. Kisses - Priya

“What a great start to school” was all I could murmur as I kneel down and place the note and necklace next to a soundly sleeping Xander before standing up, dusting myself off and leaving the room. Heading straight to my dorm and making short work of packing my bags.