Chapter 12
Come
“Come,” Mrs. Moorer called, waving me toward her. She’d positioned herself in the doorway, and was rapidly moving her head back and forth in the hall. I did as she asked, feeling the white-hot stares of my classmates follow me as I moved. I ignored their whispers. Once I’d joined her at the door, Mrs. Moorer wrapped her right arm around my shoulders and took me quickly up the empty hallway. Looking back, I could see the others leaning out of the classroom, staring after us.
“Where are we going?” I asked her, feeling her iron grip pull me closer.
Mrs. Moorer didn’t answer right away. Her eyes were darting around in their sockets, watching everything and everyone. “I don’t think you understand how grave the situation is Anastasia.” Her voice dropped low. “That boy, he was a vampire—inside Brighton. That isn’t supposed to happen. Until we’ve figured everything out, you’ll be safest at home.”
I wasn’t sure which was more shocking, Mrs. Moorer being a witch, or being told that my visitor had been a vampire. Okay, definitely the latter. A door flung open directly in front of us.
“Is everything alright?” asked a stubby chocolate colored woman as she stepped out of an office.
Mrs. Moorer didn’t miss a beat. “This student is very sick, Principal Reardon. I’m taking her up to the nurse’s office right now.”
“But—,” replied Principal Reardon. It was too late. We had already turned into another hallway.
We walked the length of this second hallway to the gray double doors at the end. She stepped out first, and then called for me a few seconds later. She retook her protective stance, keeping me close to her body, and we ran, as fast as was possible, to a small gray compact in the teacher’s parking lot. Once we were inside, she backed out of her space and then sped out toward the main road.
She pushed the car through traffic at a dizzying pace, running through yellow lights, and going around red ones. I kept an eye out for police lights. She looked hysterical. I gripped my seatbelt. This could only end badly.
After reaching the “Old Brighton” sign, the car finally slowed, and she pulled onto the shoulder of the road. Her breaths were heavy and her forehead was covered in sweat.
She pounded her fist against the steering wheel.
“Are you alright Mrs. Moorer?” I asked, cautiously.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. “It’s just that…if they’ve found a way to enter the city, everyone in our community is in terrible danger.”
“Mrs. Moorer…” I said softly.
“Yes?”
“I don’t think he was a vampire. I’ve seen him before—he snuck up to my room last night. He’s just some stupid boy from the neighborhood. My grandmother said so herself.”
Again, she was quiet. She began to shake her head and kinda zoned out. “It is strange that it could be so close to you and yet have the restraint necessary not to attack. However, the way it moved, the ease with which it avoided Charlie’s foot, I’d know that supernatural grace anywhere. I was about your age when those animals descended upon my grandparent’s farm. I was in the barn—I’d snuck out to meet some friends there. As I kept an eye out for a sign that my grandparents might have gotten out of bed, they appeared on the horizon. I thought they were angels at first sight, so beautiful, their movements so effortless. My grandparents had never told me about the existence of vampires. Those demons ensured that they’d never get the chance.”
She reached under her seat and came up with a cell phone. I watched her dial a number and then hold it up to her ear. Immediately, I remembered what my grandmother had said to me last night, how she’d stressed the importance of protecting me. My grandmother finding out about what happened was going to cause the mother of all overreactions, I was sure of it. I tried to think of something to say, something to make her see that she had to be wrong. Another vampire in my room? It was just impossible.
“Mrs. Moorer, he doesn’t even look like a—“
She put her hand up to silence me.
“Duncan,” she said into the receiver. “Sound the alarm.”
By the time Mrs. Moorer and I pulled into the parking area on the near side of the house, it had already been filled with vehicles, with dozens more resting in the surrounding grass. Duncan was waiting for us, pacing the center of the paved space with obvious concern.
“What’s happened Sharon?” he called, running up to meet the car as we came to a stop.
“A vampire, Duncan,” she answered through the open window. “Inside the city limits! It literally sat down beside her today at school. They’re toying with us Duncan—how else to explain its giving up such an easy kill? Of an heir, no less! There’s no telling how many may have entered the city without our knowledge.”
Mrs. Moorer’s mouth opened to say something more but she had suddenly remembered my presence. “We should get her inside,” she suggested. “We’ll have more words once she’s safe.”
Duncan led me quickly across the grounds, taking the same protective stance with me as Mrs. Moorer had done. My grandmother was waiting at the entrance to the ballroom. She rushed towards us once she had noticed our approach.
“Are you alright?” she asked, wrapping her arms around me. “What happened?”
“I’m okay,” I replied. “That boy from the other night snuck into my classroom. Mrs. Moorer thinks that he’s a vampire.”
“A vampire?” my grandmother scoffed, breaking our embrace. “Impossible.”
“She seems fairly certain,” Duncan inserted.
“I don’t care how she seems. To get everyone worked up like this over nonsense. It’s reprehensible.”
She called to Helena, who was passing by the ballroom’s entrance inside.
“Yes,” Helena answered, stepping out into the sunlight.
“Call the “heirs” and tell them that they’re presence isn’t necessary—“
“Shouldn’t we at least hear her out?” Duncan interrupted.
“I will not have the other heirs leaving the safety of their havens for what I know to be impossible,” my grandmother answered. “I have a good mind to cancel tonight’s meeting as well.”
“I’d like to hear what our heir has to say on the matter,” Duncan said, firmly.
My grandmother’s jaw clenched. “Very well, then.”
Both their eyes turned to me, and I felt every bit the deer in headlights. I wilted in the glare.
“I don’t…I mean, whatever you guys think,” I mumbled.
My grandmother put her arm around me. “She’s not ready for—“
“Let her speak,” Duncan insisted. “Ask yourself this, Ana,” Duncan said in a calm voice. He lowered himself so that his eyes were level with mine. “Can we really afford to be wrong?”
I glanced up at my grandmother and swallowed hard before answering. “Maybe she should get a chance to speak.”
“It is decided then,” Duncan announced, crossing his arms.
My grandmother looked furious. “I suppose it is.”
My grandmother and Duncan stayed to speak to Mrs. Moorer, who had just emerged from the path with several of the kids from school. I had wanted to wait to see if Darren was with them, but my grandmother insisted I go inside to show everyone that I was all right. I didn’t want to go against her again; she was my grandmother after all.
Cheers went up as I entered the ballroom and I felt my face flush. It amazed me how people who knew me so little could care so much. Helena showed me into the main room at the front of the house and we stopped in front of a clock that I had never noticed there before. She turned the clock hands to 12:01, smiling when she whispered, “It’s the exact minute you were born.” There was a loud click and she slid open a hidden door.
A thin, well-lit h
allway lay beyond the secret door, lined on both sides with very old looking books. Long strips of wood made up both the ceiling and the floor, and they creaked as Helena stepped first into the hall.
“Come child,” she said motioning for me to follow. “This is your family’s private collection of spells. They’ve been passed down for generations. When your abilities manifest, you’ll be studying from these books.”
I followed her into the hall, staring up at the rows of dusty looking books. The fact that I was descended from witches—that I myself was a witch, still surprised me.
The hall emptied into a small room with doors on either side. Helena moved for the door to the right that was shut; my attention was on the opposite door— it was slightly ajar and vibrated loudly with the sounds of voices. There had to be a hundred people in there.
The room we entered was small, with bare wooden walls and a couple of plain, low-lying benches. Helena’s expression read as apologetic.
“I’m afraid that underage witches are not allowed to attend council.”
“You mean I have to stay in here?”
“A few of your classmates will be joining you soon. But you will, as a future council member, have to wait here, at least until this preliminary session is complete.”
I frowned and nodded my head. I tried to focus on the fact that this might mean that I’d get the chance to spend a little extra time with Darren. Unfortunately, it could also mean extra time with London, too.
After Helena’s exit, I spent what felt like an eternity alone in that room. I thought about the boy who had caused all of this, the mysterious visitor who’d been so desperate for my attention. I thought about his question to me: “If I come for you, will you leave with me?” How could I have agreed to that? Well, he didn’t look like a vampire, at least not like the one I’d encountered back in South Carolina. Mrs. Moorer’s words came to me next, “I thought that they were angels at first, so beautiful, their movements so effortless.” That description did fit my green-eyed stalker. Honestly, it frightened me how little I truly knew about them. The question remained. Could I have really agreed to leave with a vampire?
The door creaked open and a red-haired girl poked her head inside. She said “Hi” nervously and quickly moved to take a seat on an adjacent bench. I could feel her staring. I looked over at her and she immediately looked away. I turned back around and she said, “My mother and father talk about you all the time, about how much you look like your aunt. They’re hopeful that you’ll be just as great as she was.”
What in the world, was I supposed to say to that? “Me too,” I said, hoping that was the reply she was looking for. It must have been because she was now beaming.
“You and Darren make a cute couple,” she followed.
“Oh, thanks,” I said, this time dropping my head. “But I don’t know if we’re actually a couple or anything.”
Before she could respond, the door had swung open again. Two dozen or so of my classmates—I recognized some of them from Darren’s lunch table—came in all at once, each nodding their hellos. I looked through the crowd for Darren, but he wasn’t with them.
Time seemed to freeze for London’s entrance, as everyone stopped what they were doing and took notice. She still had on her cheerleading uniform, so her long legs were on display. The edge of her mouth rose slightly. “Carry on,” she told them. Then she came to sit directly next to me.
“So what happened?” she asked curtly, as if merely speaking to me was some kind of annoyance.
I was going to ignore the question. That is, until I realized that everyone here was waiting for my reply. I took a deep breath and answered her. “Mrs. Moorer thinks that a vampire came to visit me at school today.”
Some of the boys burst into laughter. Others just stared disbelievingly.
“But that’s impossible,” London replied.
I bit my lip and shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t think he was a vampire either.”
“Man, I always knew Mrs. Moorer was off her rocker,” said one of the boys. “Heard she sleeps with all her lights on.”
“Shut up, Aaron. She’s been through a lot,” returned the red-haired girl. “You know what it’s like outside of Brighton.”
The boy’s face sobered.
“Hey, my brother’s in Council,” announced one of the others. “If I dial his number, we can listen to what’s going on across the hall on my cell phone.”
“Do it,” Aaron insisted.
He sent his brother a text message explaining what he was trying to do. After getting the okay from his brother, he dialed the number and we all huddled into a circle to listen. He clicked on the speakerphone and my grandmother’s voice blared out of the receiver:
“Sharon Moorer would have you believe that we are under siege by an army of vampires. An army that only she has noticed. Zero reports of violence over the past week. Then she proclaims that one of them came by my granddaughter’s classroom to have a quick chat. These are the kinder, gentler vampires, you see. You all laugh but this is the reason we are here today, is it not Sharon...?”
I stood up and went back to my spot on the bench. They were all laughing at her—my grandmother was making her sound like a fool. I couldn’t listen anymore, not when all she was doing was trying to protect me— and everyone else for that matter.
The Council Meeting dragged on and on, and I felt myself getting drowsy from the monotony of it. I also realized that Darren probably wasn’t coming. Once I’d found a comfortable place to rest my head on the wall behind me, I closed my eyes, prepared to let sleep carry me through the rest of this.
“I know you can hear me. We’re alike you and I.”
It was London’s voice, as clear as if she were whispering into my ear. Only, she wasn’t anywhere near me. She was still down on the floor listening to the Council Meeting with the others. Okay, so I was very much awake now.
“We have the same gift Ana, we can read the thoughts of others. It’s how I knew that Mr. Bonderman’s cheating on his wife. I know you feel bad for Mrs. Moorer, but don’t, it has to be this way. You’ll see. I wish I had time to explain things, but I’ve only got a few minutes to do this. I’m going to show you something, but I need for you to stay calm, okay? I need for you to trust me. My hating you is only an act. Blink twice if you understand.”
As I listened, I also watched her. Her lips hadn’t moved, nor had she so much as looked in my direction. It was surreal. When she did glance over, I blinked twice.
“Good. Now I want you to try to remember what happened the other night. I know it’s a blank spot in your memory, but just focus on that time period.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated on the missing pieces of my memory. Slowly, images began to emerge: I saw myself running...I was in the maze...and then I saw his face, he was holding me.
My eyes shot open and I met London’s gaze. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t had an anxiety attack. I’d been running to meet him.
“I can't show you everything. Whatever they've done to make you forget is powerful magic. Are you willing to meet with him again?”
I nodded. I had to know what was going on.
“Then go, he’s waiting in your room.”
Emotions stirred up inside of me, and I stood up and ran out the door. I turned down the slender hall and pushed open the hidden door. The main room was filled with people, and my exit had everyone’s attention.
“Is it over?” a man asked.
“What have they decided?” a woman inquired loudly.
I didn’t know what to say. Thankfully, Helena appeared.
“Another anxiety attack?” she asked, putting her arm around my shoulders.
I nodded.
She guided me through the crowd and up the stairs. Once we reached the top, I tur
ned to her. “Helena—“
“I know he’s here,” she interrupted. “I’m the one who let him in.”
“What is it they don’t want me to know?” I asked. “Why did they make me forget what happened?”
She smiled. “Why don’t you see for yourself?”
She moved past me and pushed open my door. I took a calming breath and followed her inside.