Magick High

Hope this story goes over well here. (':

Going to say this is probably rated PG-13. I don't remember the content of the chapters very well since it's been a couple of years since I've looked at them. Due to this I will go over all of them and check for any language that may be bad and star it. Just for safety. Hah hah... I do remember that I loved this story so much that I wrote and finished it in less than half a year. This was written during the second semester of my senior year in high school - two years ago. Critique as hard as you like. Especially description.

This fiction contains: Wizards, witches, zombies, vampires, werewolves, mild gay romance, mild hetero romance, some violence, possible gore, school life, some swearing, lots of texting (hah hah).

* All mystical creatures are portrayed as the laws and physics of this world would require them to be. As such, zombies, vampires, and werewolves may act much differently than in most other fictions. Please allow the story a chance regardless. *

Summary: Magna Crawfield School of Magic and the Magical has never once been a normal school, accepting anyone from reanimated corpses, magically gifted humans, to witches themselves. However, it turns out this school is also hiding some deep secrets that Arista, a sophomore attending this magical school will soon uncover with abilities she never knew she had. Will she and her friends be able to stop this school's devious schemes before it's too late?




I clutched my books tight to my chest as I walked down the hall to my next class, Magick History, when he came up to me. His eyes were cold and hard, and I couldn't help but want to get away from him, though, I felt utterly compelled to stay where I was.

“H-hello,” I felt myself stutter out to him, wishing I didn't sound so nervous.

I swallowed and looked him up and down, trying to find something other than his cold eyes to focus on, but found nothing. I decided to look past him and his gray-tinted skin. He remained quiet, though, and I shifted with growing unease, wishing he'd just say something so I didn't have to feel so nervous. Then, before I could say anything else to him, he turned and walked away in the opposite direction that I had to go. I felt my jaw drop some as I stared after him and the bell rang, making me late to class for the third time this week.




“What happened to you earlier, Ari?” Alec asked at lunchtime, his voice a kind of lispy whine that managed to make him almost adorable, and never ceased to bring back the memory of our first day of class where the principal kicked him out for wearing the girl's uniform.

There had already been a lot of controversy about Alec joining our school in the first place, with both of his parents being human and all. Unlike a lot of us who had wizards and witches as parents, unless we were werewolves or something else magical. Having a human that possessed magick talent enroll was almost unheard of, but Alec was plenty talented enough.

As for myself, I'm one of those from a family of wizards and witches. A line centuries upon centuries old. Then there were our friends Celess, a half-human that was lucky enough to inherit as much magick power as she did, and Emil. Emil couldn't really use magick, but he's plenty magical in the fact that he's a werewolf.

“Hello! Earth to Arista!” Alec chimed, snapping me out of my fantasy world and back to reality where all three of my friends were staring at me.

And him.

I swallowed as I made eye contact with the boy from earlier, and Celess followed my gaze. She made a scoffing sound and rolled her eyes as I looked over.

“Pah-lease. Even you have better taste than that, Ari.” I frowned. “Since when do you date the undead? Since never!”

Alec whistled. “He's pretty hot for an undead guy.”

Emil elbowed him in the side, succeeding in making him whine in his oddly cute way. While the three of them argued about where on the "scale of sexy" mister undead guy fell, I couldn't help but find myself feeling almost hypnotized by him. He had some odd magical allure about him that made me fell almost incapable of not staring at him like a total creep.

He walked passed our table and paused for a moment to whisper something to me in a cool, calm tone of voice. “Maybe you should stop staring before they wonder about you.” And before I could reply back to him he'd walked away to sit at a table with a few other students with gray-tinted skin like his. Some of whom were missing body parts while seeming totally unfazed by the lack of them.

Yet, even though he'd told me to stop staring, I couldn't. I kept wondering what had happened. I'd learned earlier this year in Magick History that the undead are made undead. That it's not a choice, and usually not a pleasant life. Suddenly, I felt my heart sink as sadness took a light hold over me, making me feel sorry for him; them.




“Yeah, there's controversy over them even attending this school, why?” Alec said as we walked along to our Psychology class together.

“Just wondered,” I mumbled.

I saw him smirk and raise an eyebrow at me in his knowing way, silently asking me what he was just about to ask in words. “You like him, don't you?”

“No!” I answered to quickly, not thinking to catch myself before it slipped out how it had.

“Why?” He asked, walking into the room and heading to the back of the classroom where we usually sat and gossiped all period long, sliding easily into his seat.

I sat beside him and shrugged my shoulders. “I don't know, Alec. I just do. Y'know?”

He pursed his lips and shook his head before giving me a concerned look and laying a hand lightly on my shoulder. “No, I don't know. But what I do know is that it's said to be dangerous to be around the undead.”

“What? From your human movies of zombies being mindless, brain eating machines?” I made a sarcastic sound and laid my head on the desk. He'd never understand how it felt to like that guy, whatever his name was.

The bell for class to start rang, but I didn't bother to move my head. Instead I kept it planted on the desk, just where it seemed to belong right now.

“Could everyone welcome a new student to our class, though he's not quite new to the school?” she asked, a smile in her voice, though, it seemed nervous. Strained.

Alec elbowed me lightly in the side and I sat up some and noticed why she sounded nervous. Beside her stood the undead boy from earlier today in all his sexy, cool glory. I swallowed, my nerves already acting up again, as our professor directed for him to sit in an empty desk next to mine.

“Arista will help you catch up with what we've been going over in class,” she said, volunteering me without asking my consent first, just as any teacher does in cases like this.

I wasn't sure whether to be happy or freaked when he came and sat next to me. Class passed slowly, and Alec left without me, winking at me as he did and making me blush as I realized that he was forcing me to spend time with my crush, mister undead guy.

He looked over at me, his eyes still as cold as they were this morning. His face was unsmiling and his hair fell into his face so he had to flip it out of his eyes. I felt myself blush just looking at him, and almost forgot that he wouldn't have the warmth of a normal person if I were to hug him.

He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, seeming to be waiting for me. All I could think to do was stand there and watch him, looking about as stupid as I ever could. I knew I was doing something wrong, or forgetting something simple, when he let out a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes.

“Remember? You're supposed to help me catch up with what you're doing in psych?” A hint of sarcasm played in his voice, though, I'm sure it wasn't friendly sarcasm.

I gave a small, nervous laugh and picked up my bag. “Oh, yeah. Right. Hah...I forgot. Sorry.”

He shook his head and lead the way out of the classroom and down the hall with me trailing behind. My heart almost skipped a beat as I wondered if we were going to his dorm, but my mood quickly died when I saw the entrance to the library. Nothing special, just the library. Not his dorm, just the library. Not even my dorm. Not that he'd know where it was, anyway.

Inside the library we took seats across from each other, and as I talked he listened. I'm sure he did. He kept his eyes locked on me the entire time with his hands held to his mouth the entire time as well. His eyes never once wandered away from me or faltered, and his focus never seemed to fade, unless he was really good at hiding daydreams.

Finally, our tutoring cession ended and he stood and left immediately, leaving me alone in the cool library and needing to walk back to my dorm by myself without anyone to pass the time talking to. He'd barely even given me enough time to put my number in his phone in case he needed to call for help later, not that he would. He was probably way smarter than he acted like.

Sighing, I stood and shouldered my bag and walked back to my dorm in silence.




“I told you things wouldn't go well with him, Ari. He is undead. You're crazy for even liking him!” Celess rambled on, shoving me further and further away from my little fantasy of being together with him.

“Can't you at least let a girl dream? Yeesh,” I grumbled, shooing her out of my room so she'd finally shut up about him and go take her shower while I pretended to sleep.

She rolled her eyes and left my room, closing my door harder than necessary behind her as she did so. I grumbled and flopped into my bed, silently begging my phone to ring so I could hear his voice or see a text from him, even if it was telling me to screw off. At least it would be a reply; an acknowledgment of my existence. And maybe it would get me away from these desperate, and pathetic, thoughts I kept having.

Sadly, though, I ended up dozing off without a single phone call or text message from the undead guy of my dreams.




I grumbled and rubbed my eyes, wondering why my hand was vibrating when I looked down at my phone, sleepily reading that I had one new message.

“Probs from Alec or Emil,” I grumbled to myself, knowing Celess was never up past eleven at night so it couldn't be her.

I flipped my phone open and selected the text to read it and noticed an unfamiliar number. Who's Lloyd? I found myself wondering, and then realized that he must be the undead guy. He'd be the only unfamiliar name in my phone since silly me forgot to check and see what he put his name in as.

“meet me outside” was all it said, but it was enough to get me out of bed and downstairs - even past curfew! - just to see him. Even if all I'd get would be a good slap in the face. I had to know why he wanted to see me. I just had to.

Agggh! Cliffhanger! But I love this. xD The sentence, "Alec whistled. “He's pretty hot for an undead guy.”" made me laugh... Then my brother stared at me. Will you post more, soon?

I love Alec. He's one of my favorite characters. To be honest, I was a little worried that him being gay might make this story a bit of a turn-off for you guys.



I darted outside, still wearing my pajamas, and looked around the courtyard. A quick once over provided me with no viable information as to whether or not he'd really come, so I walked around the area slowly, as if I was afraid that if I walked too fast I'd miss something.

I checked under the trees, blinking my eyes a few times and squinting hard, my eyes unused to the midnight darkness. My pulse began to quicken as I looked around more, afraid that maybe he wasn't actually going to show up. I wanted him to. I wanted him to be here so badly that it almost hurt.

I clutched my phone to my chest and shut my eyes tight. Maybe he'll text me again and tell me exactly where to look for him? I wondered silently to myself.

I blinked my eyes open as I realized that he'd just said to meet him outside. He'd never specified the courtyard. That had merely been an assumption on my part as it was a place students frequently used as a meeting place. It made sense to me, but he could have meant a number of things by “meet me outside”, like outside my dorms or his dorms. Or outside by the gates to the school, even.

I let out a sigh and flipped open my phone as I leaned back against a tree, deciding that I might as well text him to find out just where he was.

“where r u?” I typed as the message before selecting send and sliding down the tree into a sitting position, not minding the damp ground as long as there was a promise, or even a glimmer of hope, that he would come see me.

As I waited for my phone to vibrate again with his reply my eyelids began to feel heavy and felt myself begin to doze off until a voice startled me into being nearly wide awake.

“Right behind you,” replied the voice. His voice.

My stomach did small flips just from the joy that I'd been right about who I thought the text was from. I wanted to hug him and have this moment last together. Even if it wasn't meant to be a special moment, I didn't want it to end. Any moment with him sent a rush of giddy joy throughout my body that was irresistible.

I looked over at him and couldn't help but smile at him as he sat down beside me, pulling his knees up by his chest and resting his elbows on them. I swallowed and tried to ignore the open wound on his neck that had been sewn shut. It was an obvious reminder about what he was, even if he looked gorgeous. That didn't change anything.

He let out a breath and relaxed himself, leaning against the tree as he did so, and seemed to wander off in thought. I watched him. How he acted while his mind wandered in search of something to say and he sat beside me. It never really occurred to me how awkward that might have been for him. Sitting by me while I stared at him like the biggest fan girl in the school. He probably expected me to start drooling over his undead body, or to start groping and kissing him.

My face flushed and I instantly pulled myself out of my trance and tried to focus on something else. Which was hard. About all I could really make out was darkness and the occasional light in one of the schools windows from a teacher making rounds to make sure everyone was in their dorms.

“Surprised you're not asking me why I wanted to meet you out here,” he said, snapping me out of my mildly perverted thoughts and back to what I'd really been wondering about.

“I have a theory, but I don't know if it's right,” I blurted, and quickly regretted saying it.

It was more of a hope than a theory, but now that I'd brought it up he'd want me to tell him what it was. I'd end up spilling that I liked him so soon after meeting him. For all I knew I'd hate the guy. I'd only just met him. All I knew was that he was over the top attractive for being undead. He didn't even smell bad like some of the other undead students at the school. In fact, he smelled great! Wonderful! I could stay by him for hours and relax in his embrace with his scent and the knowledge that he was there. But, it was just a hopeless high school crush that would never go any further than just that. A crush.

“Go on,” he urged, just as I'd known he would.

My lip twitched, and I tried to hide the fact that I was blushing, which was pointless. My ears and cheeks were already warm, and he'd probably already noticed. After all, with my luck he'd be able to see just fine in the dark.

“It's nothing,” I mumbled in reply, unwilling to let him in on the real reason.

I looked over at him and saw his brow furrowed. He wasn't going to take that for an answer. I could just tell.

I looked away from him and tapped my fingers against my leg, silently wishing that he wouldn't look at me that way. That it wasn't this hard to tell someone something like this.

Would it seem rash if I told him? I wondered to myself, chewing on my lip a little, almost forgetting that he was sitting right beside me and could see every little thing that I was doing, or, at least, that's what I'd convinced myself of as the truth of the matter. Whether it was or not, I didn't know.

Then, he stood and brushed off his pants. I looked up at him, my heart sinking in my chest and sending painful sadness flowing through my body.

“I thought maybe we'd talk,” he mumbled, “but if you're going to be quiet, I'll go. No point in sitting out here all night until we're caught.”

And he turned to leave, my already sore heart feeling like it had been stabbed multiple times. Myself feeling like I'd just been knocked off a cliff and left in a perpetual state of falling.

I couldn't do anything right.



“What?” Alec said, astonished.

I nodded my head, stirring my soggy cereal and trying to ignore the disapproving glares coming from Celess.

“Girl, if he texted you like that in the middle of the night you should've known that he already knew and just wanted to hear it to be sure,” Alec went on and took a bite out of his bacon, egg, and toast sandwich.

“I know. I'm dumb,” I mumbled. It seemed I was always mumbling now.

“It's probably a good thing, though,” Celess said, irritation layering her voice as she grabbed her backpack and stood with tray in hand. “He's undead. He wouldn't have been any good to you, anyway.”

“Hey!” Alec snapped as pain welled in my heart. Was Alec really the only one that was going to side with me on giving Lloyd a chance in being my boyfriend?

If he'd still be my boyfriend. I was pretty sure I'd ruined any and all chances I'd ever have with him by how I'd acted last night.

“Fine, be a bitch!” Alec yelled after Celess, throwing part of his toast's crust at her as she walked off, giving him the finger. “Some friend,” he grumbled and took another bite out of his sandwich.

“Maybe she's right.”

“Uh, maybe she's not!” He gave me one of his 'girl, please' looks before rolling his eyes and gaining back his typical peppy disposition. “Text him.”

“What?” I blinked over at him and away from my cereal that I'd decided had become so soggy it shouldn't even be called 'cereal' anymore.

“Text. Him. It'll work, I'm sure. And he can't really get mad at you about texting him. You're not going to see him until sixth hour, which is forever away,” he said, exaggerating the 'forever'.

I looked back down at my now less than appetizing breakfast and chewed my lip, considering. “Might work.”

“Will work.” He gave me an encouraging smile before standing with the rest of his sandwich in his mouth as he shouldered his bag. I blinked up at him, confused, and he took his sandwich out of his mouth to give me a brief explanation. “Emil's meeting me in the library before first hour. Needed help with something he said.”

I nodded my reply and he took his sandwich back in his mouth before hurrying away. I glanced over at the clock. Twenty more minutes before I needed to be in my classroom. It only took me a moment before I put Alec's advice into action.

“meet me by rm 201” I typed and sent before getting up and disposing of what was going to be my breakfast and hurrying away to my first hour classroom in hopes that he would listen and meet me there as I'd asked.



I heard a bag drop by me and looked up from my phone and felt my face heat up right away.

“Hey,” Lloyd said and sat down beside me.

Relief, followed by the familiar giddy excitement being around him gave me, washed over me before I could say what I wanted to say.

“I can't stay long. My class is near the other side of the building,” he explained, and hinted to the clock that said we had about fourteen minutes left. “I was already there when you texted me.”

“Could've left your stuff there,” I mumbled. Again. Always mumbling.

“Not really.” He moved his face close to mine. Close enough that our lips almost touched, and my heart beat harder. “People. Don't. Like. Me.”

He moved away and I let out a small sigh. I almost wanted him to do that again, or even better, close the space between our lips the next time. Even if they would feel cold, I still wanted to feel them against mine. My heart thudded hard in my chest again at the mere thought of it.

“So, what did you want to talk about? Or are we going to sit in silence for an hour again like last night?”

“We sat for an hour?”

He nodded, but didn't seem at all amused by such things. I wished he'd at least smile once in a while. I liked him. I liked him a lot, but I'd like him more if he'd smile or laugh a little like everyone else.

I shifted some. “So, why did you come?”

“Because you asked me to,” he replied simply, sounding almost annoyed by such questions. Almost like he just wanted me to cut to the chase so he could leave.

I checked the time again. Eleven minutes. Wow time went by fast. I grimaced for a moment, realizing I'd have to speed things up a little, no matter how much I didn't want to, so he could get to class on time and I didn't make him any more annoyed with me than he already was. That way it would be a win win situation, even if he rejected me. I'd have it off my chest and he'd be in class on time.

Still, I couldn't help but continuing on with another trivial question or two before I got down to business. Stalling was something I excelled at while still being quite bad at it. Everyone always figured out sooner than I did that I was only beating around the bush.

“So...what if it had been someone else that had texted you and asked you to meet them somewhere to talk?” I asked, realizing only afterwards just how much I was pushing his buttons and testing his limits.

“If I felt it was important enough then yes. I would've come. Just like I thought this was going to be important, too,” he grumbled, gathering his bag and beginning to stand again before I could finish what I wanted to talk to him about. What Alec – and Lloyd – were making me talk about. No matter how shy I was about bringing it up.

“Wait!” I said, grabbing the hem of his jacket.

He sat down beside me again with an exaggerated sigh and I let one out, too. I swallowed, trying to figure out how to say this without sounding stupid or desperate.

I decided to be blunt, and probably sound both stupid and desperate at the same time. I probably wouldn't be able to avoid either one, anyway, and trying to would only annoy him further because of how long it would take me to figure out how to avoid sounding that way.

I looked over at him and then back at the ground in front of me, ignoring the flushing of my cheeks and ears that was no doubt present. I swallowed and shut my eyes tight as I clenched my fists, no doubt looking pathetic as I spoke.

“I like you.”

I kept my eyes shut. If he was going to leave, I didn't want to see it. I'd stay until Celess came to the room to tell me to move or until the bell rang. Whichever came first.

I heard his clothes rustle and felt his bag move away from me as a similar rustling followed with him shouldering it. I forced myself to keep my eyes shut, knowing he was probably just going to leave now. I really didn't want to see that. I didn't want to see myself being rejected in such a blunt manor.

But my eyes shot open. Not because I couldn't resist watching him one last time. No. His cool, yet still-soft lips were pressed lightly against mine.

Slowly, he pulled away and gave a small, crooked smile as he said in almost a whisper, “You're worth being late to class for.”

Before I could ask what he meant the bell rang and he was walking towards the stairwell to head to his first hour, late. Though, he paused long enough to wave and flash me another brief smile. I turned my head an looked at the clock.

I'd actually kept him until the bell rang.

“Wow, Ari. Not cool.” I jumped and saw Celess standing by the door, glaring at me with her lips pursed.

She'd seen.

Oh my God.... That's intriguing. I just read the first chapter, working on the second.
There's nothing wrong with Alec being gay, I think it adds a certain level to the story that you couldn't get without having a gay character, kind of a.... I don't know how I want to say the idea I have... But, do you know what I mean?
I laughed when Ari's just like "the undead guy of my dreams." xDD

Ahaha, I'm only a few paragraphs in to the second chapter, but I have to comment: “Right behind you,”... It's like hello undead guy of my dreams... at midnight.... in a forest.... xDDD

Okay, I just finished chapter two. All I can say towards the end: AWW! That's so adorable. And I don't like Celess. Guess: She's either really superficial, and thinks humans are above the undead, or she likes Lloyd. I guess I'll find out later if I'm right.
Drooling on his undead body.... xD That made me laugh.

This is really well written, it's funny and has a bunch of characters that bring such interesting conflict. It's really good.

I agree with Eileen, I have no problem with homosexuality. To me, love is love, and it doesn't matter who it's between.

Aww... the end was sweet. It felt a little rushed, but it's kind of realistic for high school romance.

I love the diversity amongst the characters. You've got representation of a different personality in all of them. It's pretty fantastic. And funny all at the same time, which is hard to pull off. *Applause*

@Eileen
Awkwardly enough, I tend to dislike the dislikable characters as well. For me it seems to make it easier to keep them dislikable.

Thank you. It will become more apparent later on how much trouble I have describing backgrounds and scenery, though. Characters are easy for me, though. To an extent. I'm sure there are places I can improve.

@Lauren
Thank you. That actually makes me feel really good. About myself and this story both.

I understand. Much of this story probably is rushed.
1. It's two years old and..
2. Chapter one was kind of intended to indicate that Ari has been basically drooling over Lloyd for some time.

That's awesome. (: I want my characters to be different in very obvious ways. I don't like all of my characters being a bunch of Mary Sues like you seem to see in stories now a days. I feel like every teen romance novel I pick up has the same girl with a different man and a different name.

I'll go ahead and post chapter three, now, since I'm up. I'm waiting for Alex to come to bed. He's laying with his niece trying to get her to go to sleep.



My lips twitched as I tried to form a smile, and I gave a small, nervous laugh.

“Wh-what? Is something wrong, Celess...?” I asked, trying to play dumb.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes as she turned to go back into the classroom. I frowned, quickly becoming anxious and unsettled. I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder as I headed inside the room, receiving a disapproving look from the teacher as I went to take my usual seat by Celess.

Class began in silence between her and myself. Usually we whispered the class away, discussing boys and what stupid things we'd seen people do. Like this one time when one of the upperclassmen enchanted a chair to hop anytime someone touched it. It didn't really accomplish anything but a ruckus of laughter and mockery towards the teacher and a week's worth of detention for him.

Finally, halfway through class my phone vibrated. I couldn't help but smile as I took it out and glanced at the message. It was from Celess.

“ur stupid u kno?”

I looked over at her, my expression hurt, but she gave me no sympathy. She only glared at me until I looked back down at my phone to type a quick reply. Apparently we weren't actually going to talk to each other.

“why?” I replied back to her.

I heard her sigh and I looked over at her to see her give me a look of “are you really asking me that?”. Like it was a stupid question.

Why was she so set on making me miserable now? Why did she have to be such a bitch towards me just because I liked Lloyd. I couldn't help that. I can't change the fact that he's sweet, even if a bit detached. I can't help that he's dead and his body is cold. It doesn't make him any less kind.

My phone vibrated again, and I unwillingly looked down to check to see what she'd said to me this time.

“cuz u like him & he's ded”

My lip twitched and my brows furrowed in frustration. I was starting to not even want to try and explain things to her after class, even if Alec would be there to help me out. I knew I should, though. So I replied to her quickly with “so” as my one word reply before sending Alec a quick message, forgetting for a moment that he hates texting during class.

“I need help w/ celess. It's about lloyd & me” I typed up before hitting send. Just as a new message from Celess arrived.

“so? So my ass.”

I glared. “talk to u aftr class”

After that I shut my phone and stuffed it in my pocket, not receiving any reply from Alec, but confident he had read what I'd sent him. He always read his messages, even if he didn't reply back to them.

Finally, after sitting in silence with nothing to do but listen to our teacher's boring lecture the rest of the period, class ended. And she left. She didn't even bother to wait for me.

I stood rooted to the spot, not sure if I should have expected her to act as she had and brush it off as nothing. As Celess being moody ol' Celess, or if I should be pissed and confront her about that later, too, when I tried to discuss my dating Lloyd with her.



The discussion about Lloyd had to wait until lunch, during which time I sat at our usual table stirring my chicken noodle soup while sitting across from Alec and waiting for Celess and Emil to return from the lunch line.

“It'll be okay,” Alec said, reaching out and placing a hand on top of mine to try and reassure me.

I looked up at him, my expression grim, and couldn't help but smile back at his smiling face. His happiness wasn't something that one could ignore. It's the kind of happiness that's contagious, like the common cold, only not crappy. It was also another reason that I liked being around him so much.

“What'll be okay?” a cool, familiar voice asked as he slid in to sit next to me.

I felt my face flush as I looked over to see Lloyd sitting at my other side. The benches were big enough for four people each, and we only seated two per bench, so Celess couldn't complain about not having room to sit. She would, however, probably complain about the fact that he's sitting here. Heaven forbid that my boyfriend sit next to me at lunch.

The thought of calling him my boyfriend sent a giddy rush though my body, and I felt my face become a little warmer with the thought. I nearly face planted into my soup, and probably would have hadn't his arm shot out and he caught me and kept me up.

I giggled like an idiot and tried to brush it off and start a new topic to forget my embarrassment. Or, I would have if Celess hadn't come and ruined the moment between Lloyd and I.

“Now he's sitting here?”

I looked over at her to see her lip curl in disapproval. Emil quickly moved out of her way before she inflicted injury upon him, the closest person to her. He slid in beside Alec, sitting almost too close to him to be just friends. I brushed Emil's sudden friendliness off and glared back at Celess. I was really getting sick of her discriminating against my boyfriend just because he happened to be undead. It's not like he can change and become alive again, and he can love. I know he can. He's already started to show me proof of that.

“What's it matter if he sits here?” I snapped at her.

Alec wrapped an arm around Emil and pulled him closer, a similar action to what Lloyd did with me. His cool hand placed gently against the side of my neck made me shudder, but I was too angry with Celess to become embarrassed about him touching me in such a gentle way.

“What's it matter?” She barked out a laugh. “Are you going to be saying that when he starts eating us, too?”

“Hey!” Alec chimed in, his temper getting worked up as well.

“He's not eating anyone right now, is he?” My voice was layered with rage as I glared at her while saying those words.

“Exactly my point. He's not eating anyone right now.”

I wanted to slap her. To kick her and hit her and make her cry uncle. Most of all, though, I just wanted her to stop. I was sure she was hurting Lloyd's feelings. He clearly had emotions if he loved me, and I didn't want him to be sad.

“You're being a bitch, Celess,” Alec grumbled. “You didn't pull this crap when you found out that I was gay.”

“It's obvious that you're gay,” she scoffed. “And I hate it. I hate you.”

I didn't even need to look at Alec to know how much that hurt him. We'd been his last choice for friendship because he didn't like most of the other gay people here, and he wanted a variety of friends, not just gay friends. He'd found that with us, in more ways than one. Our backgrounds and personalities both were enough to separate us from most of the other groups in school. Except Celess. She was part of two groups. Unlike us, she was unusually well accepted. Very unusual due to her not being full blooded witch.

I heard Emil growl. So she'd made him mad, too. I wasn't surprised that he'd growled at her, but I would be if he actually made comment. With how quiet he is it's rare to not just hear him speak, but to hear him yell is rarer.

“You're not going to stop until I leave, are you?” Lloyd asked, making me jump since he'd been quiet the entire time.

“No. No I'm not, but I'm not going to stay, either.” She tilted her head up and turned on her heal to try and find another table to sit at with people better and more normal than us to talk to.

Good, I thought. At least she won't be bothering us anymore.

Though, I did miss her. She'd been nice while she'd been with us, and she'd never before seemed fazed by how obviously gay Alec is. In fact, she'd seemed to like it. It really made me wonder what had happened to her. To the Celess that we knew.

“Stupid bitch,” I heard Alec mumble through tears. “Who needs her, anyway?”



“I'm sorry about making you lose your friend,” Lloyd said to me after Psychology.

I looked over at him and flashed him a smile, hoping it looked real enough to him. I still hadn't gotten over what had started just before first hour and lasted all through the day. Especially what had happened at lunch.

“It's fine, don't worry about it, 'kay?” I said, trying my best to sound happy and cheerful. For him. And a little for myself, too.

Alec looked over at us, waiting for me to walk with him. His eyes didn't have their usual happy shine. They hadn't since lunch. I frowned when I saw it, and wished he'd be okay soon.

I looked back over at Lloyd and clapped him lightly on the shoulder. “I'm going to go try and cheer Alec up, alright? I'll call you later.”

He nodded and gave me a small, reassuring, crooked smile before waving and leaving. I turned back to Alec and flashed him another false, but hopefully convincing, smile.

“You didn't have to do that, you know,” he mumbled.

“I know, but I wanted to.”

I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him, hugging him to me and wishing he'd feel better. He just wasn't one of those people that was meant to be sad. He was meant to be happy; perpetually happy. Almost annoyingly so. It was just wrong for him to be upset like this.

He returned the hug and laid his head against my shoulder. There, we just stood like that for a while. Holding each other and wishing that today had never happened. Holding each other in a small attempt to try and bring smiles back to our faces.

I lightly rubbed his back and almost jumped at the sound of footsteps behind me. I looked over my shoulder, not letting Alec go, and saw Emil. I smiled and gestured with a motion of my head to come over so we could both try and cheer our friend up.

Emil's lip twitched in a small, brief smile, and he, too, came over, though, his eyes gave away that he didn't really want me there right then. That he wanted to be alone with Alec. Still, he wrapped his arms around Alec and buried his face in the crook of Alec's neck. After a few more moments of our group hug I released him and shouldered my bag a little more securely.

“I'll talk to you guys in the morning,” I said as I started to walk back to the girls' dormitories. “Call or text me if you need anything.”

The two of them nodded, and I turned around so my back was towards them and walked down the stairs, two at a time.



“that's great. I'm hapy for u” I texted back to Alec, glad to know that he'd been cheered up by the latest happenings with Emil, who had finally gotten courage enough to ask him out.

He replied with a smiley face, and moments later another reply that said simply “night”. I smiled and tucked my phone under my pillow, grumbling when it rang moments later. I sat up again, flipping my phone open to answer it.

“Hello?” I grumbled groggily.

“Hi,” Lloyd's voice greeted me from the other end. “Are your friends doing better?”

His tone of voice suggested that he was asking more out of trying to be polite than actually caring to know, but I brushed it off as being because of what he was. Not because he actually didn't care.

“Fine,” I replied back to him.

“That's good.”

“Mm hm.” I stifled a yawn, and wondered if I was being rude by not sounding very interested in talking to him. I was tired, not annoyed.

“How about you?” he asked. This time he actually did sound a little like he cared. I smiled before replying.

“Better. Glad to hear that Alec's cheered up.”

“Yeah.” The line was quiet for a while before he replied again. “I'm not going to be in class tomorrow.”

I stayed quiet, unsure of how to reply to that. He must have realized when I didn't reply in a timely manor, as he continued on explaining what was going on. Vaguely, but still explaining.

“I need to go get some...'medicine'. For my condition.”

My heart sank. I'd always assumed that once you were a member of the undead you didn't rot or anything like a normal corpse. Was that what his 'medicine' was for? To keep him from rotting? Maybe I was just being overly paranoid. I decided to go with that solution than that I was right. I didn't want to be right.

“Are you going to be totally gone all day?” I asked.

“Mm hm. Sorry. I should've told you sooner.”

Yeah, that would've been nice, I thought. “It's okay. At least you told me, now.” I hoped the smile I'd tried to incorporate into my voice hadn't sounded too fake.

“Yeah. I just wanted you to know, so...”

“G'night?” I suggested.

He was silent for a few extra moments. More than one typically would be before replying to me. “Yeah, good night. Dream sweetly.”

I smiled. “I will.”

“Good,” he said, and we hung up the phone.

I don't get why other people don't get that.....

Yeah, it definitely does sound like high school.... xD

I know, it really is fantastic.

Yeah, I kind of gathered that she's been drooling over him for a while. xD

Okay, I'll read chapter three in a minute then.

The new chapter's good. Alec and Emil!!

Ooh, good. It's good. What's happening with Celess, indeed. Hm... Can't wait to read more.

I know, it's really cute!

I'm glad you two are liking this so much.


My alarm went off to signal another day of classes, but today I rolled over and pulled my pillow over my head instead of hopping out of bed to dress and head to breakfast to see my friends. I didn't want to face the truth about today; about Lloyd not attending class. I wanted to see him, not be without him. Especially after what had happened yesterday with Celess.

I curled into a tighter ball, my heart still aching from her violent departure from our group of friends. The words she'd screamed at Alec and I echoing through my mind.

“He's not eating anyone right now.”

“It's obvious you're gay. And I hate it. I hate you.”

I made the ball I'd curled into a little tighter and wished that Lloyd would show up in my bed to hold me. With how much my heart ached and my body didn't want to move, I was convinced that there was no way I'd be able to face today. Even with Alec's contagious smiles.

Just as I'd begun to doze back off into sleep and skip class, my phone vibrated. I sighed and pulled my phone out from under my pillow.

As if I'd had some false hope that it would be from Lloyd, even though I knew that would be highly unlikely, I groaned when I saw that it was from Alec. I loved him to death and all, but I just didn't want to talk to him right now. Still, I flipped my phone open and went to the message to see what he could possibly want at this hour in the morning.

“wher r u? It's almst 1st hr”

I jolted up in bed and whirled around to look at the clock. It read seven-fifty-eight in the morning. Oh shit, I thought. I hadn't been serious when I'd thought about skipping classes today.

Quickly, I hopped out of bed and stripped my pajamas off, cringing at the thought of needing to skip a shower as I spritzed on a little body spray and put an extra layer of deodorant on. I pulled my uniform on and brushed my hair as fast as I could before jogging out of my room and down the stairs out of the dorms, pulling my shoes on as I went.

I pulled out my phone as I hurried down the stairs, my bag hanging clumsily from one shoulder, as I texted a reply back to Alec before he started to freak.

“i'm coming, i'm coming! Srry, slept in”

My phone buzzed again, not long after I'd sent my text, almost causing me to trip down the long flight of stairs as I rushed to my first hour, on the other side of the building from the girl's dormitories.

“it's ok, jus dont make a habit of it, k? Scared me & emil”

“srry” I replied back again and darted into my first hour Basic Mathematics class, bumping into someone and knocking them over.

They hissed at me. I tensed. The face I looked at below me was not a familiar one, and my teacher – our teacher – looked at us both with a disapproving gaze. Almost like she thought I'd knocked him to the floor on purpose.

My phone vibrated once again, and I quickly clambered off the guy and headed to where I normally sat. The space beside me was empty, and when I looked around the room I saw that Celess had changed her seat to another point in the room, closer to the front. There, she sat gossiping to another girl. They both looked back at me, and I instantly knew what the topic was. So I was dating an undead guy. A zombie, even, if you preferred that term. Okay, what's your point? I love him, and he loves me. That's all that matters right? Apparently that's not what matters to them.

I scoffed and took my seat, nearly slamming my head into the desk when I realized that the boy I'd just tackled to the ground mere moments ago was my new desk partner. What luck! I was really beginning to wish I'd taken a sick day.

Once the bell to signal the start to first hour rang I tried to pull myself into reality and pretend that I wasn't having the worst day of my life, but with my oncoming headache that was proving to be quite difficult.

Before our lesson for the day began she gestured to the new student that sat beside me and began an introduction for him, beckoning him to stand by his seat and greet the class. This was starting to remind me of Psychology earlier this week on Tuesday. What was it with days beginning with T's and my classes getting new students?

He stood as she'd asked and bowed to the class. Way too polite for my taste. He's the only student so far this year that actually bowed before introducing themselves to the class.

“My name is Victor,” he said, his accent causing him to roll his R's, and intrigue me somewhat. I looked over at Celess to see if he'd caught her interest, and boy had he. “I come here from Transylvania. I am not a wizard, but I am magical, yes?” He smiled, flashing his teeth – and fangs.

Everyone in the class caught on.

Everyone in the class hated him. Instantly. And he frowned, ducking against the paper that was being thrown at him, and sat back down in his seat.

I gave him a sympathetic look as he glanced over at me from under his arms. Our teacher went on attempting to calm everyone in the class down so that we could get on track with what we were to be doing in class today, and thanks to everyone acting out we received extra homework.

Today just kept getting better and better.



“Everyone, this is Victor,” I said, gesturing to my new vampiric friend. Already today he'd been in three of my classes: Basic Mathematics, Introduction to Alchemy, and Magical History.

Alec smiled and held out his hand to shake Victor's chill-inducing one. “Heya, nice to meet you!” He smiled his perky, contagious smile and grasped Victor's hand tightly, giving it a good shake.

When he pulled away he rubbed his hands together, breathing into them to warm them up. “Wow, cold skin.” He gave a small chuckle as his boyfriend shyly waved 'hi' to Victor.

No one questioned the contents of the red drink he was slowly gulping down during lunch. None of them questioned anything about him. Not his fangs, not his accent, nothing. It's almost as if their meeting Lloyd had been a prep for them meeting Victor, someone who was also undead and equally dangerous as Lloyd. Which brought back a reminder.

“Does anyone know what 'medicine' Lloyd might have been talking about? He mentioned it on the phone with me last night.”

Alec almost choked on his drink and Emil looked to the side. My lip twitched and I turned my attention to Victor hoping that maybe he'd give me an answer. I'd already brought up some details about Lloyd with him earlier today as we talked while heading to class.

He cleared his throat and pulled at the collar of his old school's uniform, which he wore because he hadn't yet had time to buy the uniform for our school. He swallowed and gave an anxious look to Alec and Emil, both of whom sat across from him. Neither one took the liberty of answering, so he looked at me, a little nervous.

“It's not something bad, is it?” I asked, my stomach doing a flip as I spoke the words and the thoughts of all the horrible things that might be going wrong with him flashed through my mind.

Worms infesting his body, limbs growing weak and falling off, his vision and mental state deteriorating until he was a blind vegetable. I shuddered at the thought of all those things, and more. Like his organs liquifying. I didn't want to even think about that. I didn't want to think about him becoming even more dead than he already was. I'd never thought these kind of risks might come up in our relationship until now, and now that I'd realized they were very real risks...I didn't even want to think about facing them. Some girlfriend I was.

Victor's voice broke the horrific trance I'd locked myself in, and I looked over at him.

“Sorry, what?”

“It is not...horrible,” he started, “but it is not good, either. Very bad things could happen to him if he does not drink enough of this...'medicine' as he's chosen to call it. Limbs could fall off, organs could liquify. He could actually die. Why he has not told you the details, I do not know. Maybe he is still a little bit in denial about being undead instead of...dead-dead? Who knows.”

He let it off with a shrug, and I left the table with Alec calling after me, but no one stopped me from leaving. And if they tried, I didn't notice it.



“You have reached the voice mailbox of seven seven two, eight nin-” I ended the call and sighed, not wanting to hear that I'd reached Lloyd's voice mail again after trying to call him for the fifth time again tonight. I'd waited practically an hour in-between each call. I'd hoped maybe he'd be available by now.

I checked the time and yawned. Eleven-fifty-three. I should really get some sleep, I thought to myself, knowing that I wouldn't, even if I begged myself to sleep. I wanted to hear from him too badly. To know if he was okay, and why he hadn't told me what his “medicine” really was when he'd mentioned it last night. But that was his business, not mine. I shouldn't pry.

I was going to pry and I knew it. Even I couldn't keep myself from being selfish sometimes, and he'd probably tell me. Maybe. I hoped.

I decided to text him in hopes that maybe he'd reply to that instead, since he hadn't been taking my calls or calling me back. I didn't want to let myself fall into a pit of darkness where I thought that he hated me and was purposely ignoring me. So, I typed out a short text and sent it to him.

“r u ok?” I asked.

I ended up dozing off before I could find out whether or not he'd actually taken the time to reply to me.



When I woke that morning I still didn't have any messages. I called him while I was getting ready for classes, but he still didn't answer. This time I decided to leave him a voice message asking how he was and that I loved him. I hung up my phone and stashed it in my jacket pocket before jogging downstairs to breakfast.

As I was making my way downstairs, though, my legs became heavy. Too heavy to move. I fell, collapsing down the stairs; falling all the way. I didn't feel the pain as they hit me. Everything seemed to be in slow motion.

Finally, I stopped falling. The people that ran over seemed to be going too slow. Run faster, I thought. Run faster, I'm hurt.

I didn't feel hurt, but I knew I was. I knew they should hurry. I knew something was wrong. The feelings I was experiencing reminded me of a spell that I just couldn't place a name to. It was on the tip of my tongue, but it just wouldn't come to me. Instead of thinking of the name, my mind kept wandering back to Who hexed me?

Who hexed me, who hexed me, who hexed me?

I tried to open my mouth to ask, but I couldn't. Nothing worked. I couldn't stand, speak, or even hear. It seemed like everything but sight had been shut off, too, because the pain still hadn't come. And then the blackness began to come.

I felt a vibrating in my pocket, and I tried to look around. Then, I noticed someone familiar put down their cell phone and flip it shut. Their face was so familiar, despite that it was contorted with worry. Shock, fear. All those negative emotions.

Lloyd, I wanted to say. I wanted to smile. He was okay, I was happy.

Everything went black.

I really wish more people could read this... It really is amazing. (:

And the new chapter was sweet. ^.^ I like Victor. (:

It really is.

That is fantastic. I really want to know what happened. Post more soon, please? I'm assuming it was Celess who hexed her? Hm.
Yeah, Victor is cool. (Literally, and figuratively. Ahaa... ahaha..... aha... ha.... xD)

Sorry for vanishing. I'll post two chapters this time.

I wish more people would read it. I posted it on deviantART, but no one there cares about anything more than fan fiction and fan art.



I woke to voices in the hallway, and looked slowly around me at all the bright whiteness that surrounded me. Why are hospitals always so white? I wondered. Do they want their patients to go blind, too, so they have more to work on? I grumbled and tried to pull my pillow over my head. To my surprise, this task was much more difficult than I'd imagined it would be. The pillow felt like it weighed hundreds of times more than it should, and my arms just couldn't bear it. So I gave up.

I turned my head to look over at the door that lead into the hallway, silently wishing I could be out there wandering that hall, heading to class. Seeing Lloyd, even. Alec, Emil, and Victor, too. My friends. I missed them.

Silently, I wondered how long I'd been in here. There wasn't as much noise in the hallway as there usually was. Just two separate voices. No noisy students with a hall pass going to the restroom or their dorms to get books or papers they'd forgotten. No teachers running errands to the Teacher's Lounge while students worked on tests and quizzes. No nothing that occurred on a normal school day.

Finally, someone came into the room, and I sprang up in bed, only to lay back down again after feeling light headed. I weakly placed a hand to my head as the nurse rushed over to me. Behind her stood Lloyd, and I almost sprang up again, but for her holding me down against my will so I wouldn't.

“Lloyd!” I squeaked.

He forced a smile and gave me a small wave before putting his hand back into his pocket.

“This nice, young man carried you in here yesterday. My goodness, such a strong hex to use on such a little girl. You'd have no chance in deflecting it at your current skill level, sweetie,” she rambled on.

“Yesterday?” I said.

“Today's uh...today is Saturday, Ari,” Lloyd mumbled. “You've been out for over thirty hours.”

I stared at him. It was all I could do. Here I'd been worrying him over nothing – hopefully – when all I'd wanted was to be with him. Was it so bad that I wanted to be with him? Did someone do this to me to spite me for liking him? Or did they just do it for easy prey due to my being a Freshman?

I clenched my jaw, but not for too long. The effort was too great. Much greater than it would normally be if I were at full strength. I let out a heavy sigh and he sat in a chair by my bedside, lightly taking my hand in one of his cool ones.

After taking my vitals and administering a few tests, the nurse hurried off leaving Lloyd with the message to not stay too long. That I needed my rest. He apparently agreed because not even a half an hour later he stood to leave, promising me that he'd visit later on and tell my friends how I was doing. I thanked him, though I didn't him to leave. But I wanted to make him happy, so I'd try to rest. For him.



It seemed to take forever for me to get out of the hospital, and I had a week's worth of make-up work. I grumbled as I stumbled off to Alec's room so he could help me catch up, wishing I'd never been hexed in the first place. Recovery sucked, and homework, especially extra homework, sucked even more. Right now, I was strongly debating crawling under a rock and dying.

I knocked at Alec's door, waiting for him to let me in while pretending my arms weren't aching from the load of books I was carrying.

Just as the door was opening, and Alec was greeting me with his usually happy-go-lucky cheer everything went silent. I was there, I know I was. Standing right in front of his door. I could see him, I could feel the strain on my arms from the books, but I couldn't hear. I couldn't hear anything except for a ringing in my ears.

And I blacked out again, this time in Alec's arms.



“Shouldn't we tell the nurse?” I heard the voice of a soft-spoken male say. The name played at the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't seem to capture the memory of what it was.

“Yeah, but I don't want to. She was so miserable in there.” This one was familiar, too. I could place a face with this lispy, girly voice. It was feminized male face with long, blond hair, held back in a short ponytail. His name played at the tip of my tongue, too, but I just couldn't seem to grasp it, either.

“Alec...” came the quiet voice once more.

Alec...my friend since the beginning of this year. The crazy, happy-go-lucky, and openly gay boy who was also my best friend. My main man. My brother from another mother. Now I remembered. His contagious smiles, his gray eyes, how he could top everyone in how happy he was. He was the kind of guy you'd want around if you needed to have a good cry.

“Emil,” he said in a somewhat whiny tone of voice.

Now I remembered. It was no wonder I'd had trouble placing him since he rarely spoke, but Alec? The biggest talker at our table; in our group of friends. Emil's polar-opposite? They were practically the definition of opposites attract.

Emil had black hair and brown eyes, and almost never spoke unless needed. However, he wasn't violent or short tempered. In fact, he was very shy. He'd let you beat on him rather than beat on you. He wasn't exactly what you would imagine a werewolf to be, but I was glad that I'd made friends with the kind of werewolf Emil was rather than one of the others that roamed the school.

Slowly, I opened my eyes, the lids of them feeling heavier than I'd expected. I almost wanted to shut them again and take the easy way out of this and just fall back asleep, but they'd already noticed.

“Ari!” Alec said, and pulled me up into a bear hug. “You're not allowed to scare us like that again, you hear me?”

I nodded my head weakly, wishing I had the strength to giggle and laugh like I wanted to. He always made me happy, and he was doing it again. Damn him and his joy having a drug-like addictive quality to it.

I weakly turned my head to look over at Alec's boyfriend and made myself smile a little bigger for him. He smiled back, though it was small, and looked past me at Alec.

“I still say we take her to the nurse.”

I frowned. Alec had been right about me not wanting to go back there. A week's worth of staying there followed by a week's worth of work to make up was enough for me. I'd rather attend class, thank you very much.

“I don't want to,” I said, trying to sound defiant.

Alec and Emil both frowned at me, and I was starting to feel outnumbered. It wasn't changing that I didn't want to go back to the nurse, but I couldn't argue very well against more than one person. Especially two boys that were clearly stronger than me.

“The hex isn't wearing off, hun,” Alec mumbled, looking down at the floor and twiddling his thumbs. “We thought it might fade away at first, but clearly that's not the case. That only leaves us with one choice, and that's the nurse.”

“I'm fine, though,”I grumbled, trying to make my voice sound stronger than I actually felt.

Not wanting to be told anymore that I was still unwell and needed to go back to the nurse, I stood and gathered up my books before leaving Alec's room. I wasn't mad, no. I just didn't want to go back. I felt fine, for the most part, and if I felt fine, even if it was only for the most part, than that mean that I shouldn't need tending to, right? That's how I saw it, anyway.

I continued on to the girl's dormitories and went up the stairs to my room where I fell onto my bed and looked at the stack of books that sat by my bed. I've never been so glad that it was the weekend in my life, and not because I wanted to have fun. I had a shit-load of work to do.

I pulled out my phone and texted Lloyd.

“can u help me with hw?”

I sent it and laid on my bed waiting for my phone to vibrate with his reply. Please say yes, I thought to myself. We never got to be alone together, and I wanted to be. Even if we'd be stuck doing homework for most of the time, if not the whole time.

My phone vibrated and I quickly flipped it open to see what he said.

“i thot alec was goin to & he said ur sick still?”

I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. Just great. Lloyd knows, too, now. I didn't need to hear it from two of my friends and my boyfriend that I needed to go back to the nurse.

“I hate my life,” I grumbled as I typed out a reply back to him.

“no, im fine. Alec is jus freakin out ovr nothing”

He sent me a frown followed by an actual reply.

“fine, i'll com, but if u get sick im taking you to the nurse”

I grumbled, but went along with it.

“ok” I sent back to him, and waited in my dorm for him.



He knocked before coming in my room where I sat in the middle of the floor trying to figure out how to tell the difference between a true to life Love Potion and a potion that just causes obsession for a person or thing. Everything seemed to sound the same to me, and it just made no sense.

Lloyd came and sat down beside me, having made no noticeable noise with shutting the door or walking over to sit by me. “They're one in the same,” he said.

I jumped, nearly tearing the page I was reading to try and find the answers, and looked over at him. I grimaced, and felt my face grow warm with embarrassment for being so jumpy around him. It wasn't like me to do that sort of thing.

“Sorry,” I mumbled and hung my head, turning back to my work.

He lightly rubbed my shoulder, assuring me that I was alright. That I'd done nothing wrong.

I scotched closer to him, and he opened his legs so I could sit between them and we could cuddle while I worked. Even if his body was cool like death, he still brought me comfort. In fact, I'd never been more comfortable around anyone. Just him. Just Lloyd.

Just Lloyd.



“I should go before anyone wonders why I'm in a girl's dormitory so late at night,” he mumbled, standing up and helping me to my feet.

I smiled at him, but pleaded to him with my eyes. “They won't notice if you stay late enough into the day,” I whispered.

He gave me a suspicious look, almost questioning my true desires, and my face grew bright red. I held my hands in front of me defensively. “No, no, no! N-nothing like that!” I squeaked, wondering how he could have even come to a conclusion like that. “Just...just to snuggle, y'know? You and me.”

“You want something from me,” he mumbled.

I swallowed, wondering if my intentions were really that transparent. It was true that I didn't want sex. I shuddered at the thought of sex. I was way far away from even being ready for it. However, I did want something, but it was just a little question.

I let out a heavy sigh, prepping myself for it. Hoping he wouldn't get defensive.

“What is it really?” I asked.

He gave me a quizzical look, and I quickly searched for further ways to explain what I wanted to know. Would it be okay to be blunt in this instance? I wondered, and found myself to be totally unsure this time.

“What is it...that you drink? Your 'medicine'?” I asked.

He tensed. Every muscle in his body became as ridged as it could, and he sucked air hard. My eyes flicked around me, not sure of how to react. Clearly I'd said something I shouldn't have, yet, I wasn't sure how to make up for it. I had a right to know, right? I was his girlfriend after all.

He swallowed hard, his eyes slightly narrowed and cold. “It keeps me 'alive'. It keeps me...sane. It makes me able to be around you and the others.”

He turned his back towards me, his forefinger and thumb raised to pinch the bridge of his nose as he let out a sigh. I reached out towards him, but pulled my hand away and looked towards my bed.

I cleared my throat and my eyes flicked back towards him and away again.

“You can still stay if you want,” I offered as I walked over to my bed and climbed in.

He looked over at me, his eyes still cold towards me, when usually they were warm. For me, at least. “No, I'd better not,” he mumbled, and turned to leave, waving good-bye as he went. “Night.”

“Night...” I whispered back as he shut the door behind him.



That night...I had the first nightmare I'd had in a long time. It scared me more than any other nightmare I'd ever had.

That night, I dreamed some horrible things that I never wanted to see. In my dream were Alec, Celess, Emil, Lloyd, Victor, and myself. In my dream, it wasn't a dream. It was horrifying beyond all belief. It was something that I never wanted to relive. Something that I wish had never come to me.

Wizards and witches say that you know when you have a dream of prophecy. It just feel true. It doesn't always feel real, but it does always feel true. This one felt that way. This one felt true. It felt real, too. Like I was actually there.

They were right. You do just know when your dream is prophetic to the future. You can feel it in your skin and bones. They almost seem to tingle with the electric current of magic. That's just how I felt right now.

In my dream of horrors I saw fire in the school, not as if to say the school would burn, but as if to say a great evil was currently seething, and becoming hotter and brighter each day. And in my dream I saw people made of darkness surrounding my friends and I. With them stood Lloyd, his eyes glazed over in trance.

In my dream...Lloyd kills me.


I lay in bed, unable to fall asleep despite being as exhausted as I was. I'd slept fine until my dream came, rousing me in such a cruel manner. It was at least three times as bad as someone walking into your room and actually waking you to tell you “Hey, you can sleep in, we have a snow day!” instead of turning your alarm off without waking you. It was more like “Aw, you like your new boyfriend? Well suck on this!” and bam! Bad ass images of shit I never wanted to see in my life.

I know he eats flesh, at least at some points. Not around me, though. I kind of just figured he did it on his own little flesh-eating zombie time. After all, he needs to eat flesh, right? Well, in my dream, I saw it. I saw him snap Mrs. Becklie's neck and rip the flesh from her neck with his teeth, holding her down with his hands as he did so. Her bones cracked from the amount of pressure he placed upon them while he ripped and tore at her skin and muscle to swallow it down without hardly any chewing.

I shuddered and looked over my shoulder at the time. Nine-oh-two.

I swung my legs out of bed and hurried to get a quick shower to try and calm myself down before throwing on some clothes and rushing downstairs to Saturday breakfast in hopes to meet Alec there. Hopefully he'd be awake. I needed someone to talk to about this...dream I'd had.



As I hurried towards our table in the cafeteria I heard Victor's unmistakable Transylvanian accent and Alec's trademark gay lisp talking back and forth to each other about Emil and his monthly absences. I quickened my pace and slid in beside Victor, startling him and muting their conversation.

I didn't really realize that I was as worked up as I was until I didn't manage a smile at Alec's pink, gray, and black plaid skirt and pink tank top. It was adorable on him, yes, and he'd even bothered to wear flip flops with it, too. Also pink, and definitely not mandles.

I took in a deep breath as it occurred to me that they were staring, and I was attracting more attention than Alec's outfit. I fussed with the hem of my shirt, pulling it down over the edge of my jeans and crossed my legs as I tried to figure out how to word what I wanted to say.

“Something up?” Alec offered as an icebreaker.

I nodded my head and bit down on my lip almost too hard. He and Victor both frowned, and I tried harder to word it just right in my head so I could tell them just what was going on.

I took another deep breath to prepare and spat it out. “I had a nightmare.”

It was quiet, but not for long. Victor was clearly unimpressed as he put his chin on his hand, resting his elbow on the table. He gave me a sarcastic “aw” and rolled his eyes. Alec shot him a look and put his hand on top of mine.

“What about?” he urged.

“L-Lloyd,” I stuttered. “He...killed me.”

Alec's eyes grew wide and Victor lifted his head up from his hand. “What?”

“It...it felt so real,” I continued on. “So real, so...true. You know?”

Neither of them said anything. They both just stared, and nothing more, but not at me. I realized this just as Alec started to speak again, and I looked over my shoulder to see what they were looking at just in time to see Lloyd turn his back and rush away.

“Lloyd!” I called out while at the same time Alec said: “Holy shit, Ari... You're a prophet.”



No one ever said it was hard to tell if someone was a prophet or not. No, that's not the hard part. The hard part is dealing with the dream visions you get, whether in actual dreams or day dreams, and finding a way to possibly prevent what bad events might happen and make sure what good things you see possibly happening do happen. Sadly, my first vision happened to be a bad one. A very, very, horrifyingly bad one involving everyone at the school, but mainly myself and my boyfriend. Or, at least, myself and him were the main concern to Alec and Victor.

I was pretty sure that whatever the dark figures in the background were would be the most important aspect to be concerned with, but good luck convincing them. They wanted to make sure I stayed safe, even more so, now, that they knew of my special ability. After all, not every magical person gets a special ability. Like Victor, for instance, he's special, too. He can use telepathy, whereas, Celess has no magical ability other than being a prick and a bitch.

Either way, I played along and let Alec and Victor try and help me out. I was content with them helping me as long as Victor didn't bite me and I didn't lose Lloyd as my boyfriend. Which reminded me of one other problem.

This morning.

He'd come. He'd heard. He'd left.

Just because I'd told them that in my dream I'd seen him eat me didn't mean that I wanted to be with him any less. I was only trying to find help to find a way to prevent that from happening. I didn't want to go ask any of the teachers because of the dark figures in my dream. What if they were teachers. Then which teachers would we know we could trust, and what if we asked a non-trustworthy teacher?

Right now, everything just seemed to be whirling around in my head and overwhelming me beyond all belief. I just wanted a break, but I didn't want to stop. Stopping might mean losing Lloyd.

Because I didn't want to lose him no matter what, I'd made a point to text him during one of my times away from Alec and Victor so I could see him without them being there freaking out and attempting to help. I loved Alec, but he could get stressed far too easily, and Victor seemed like an honestly nice person, just too...easily stressed. Like Alec, only less hyper.

“meet me in my room @ 5”

I typed and sent the message, and pleaded for a quick reply, and he granted my wish. My stomach did a flip, and I couldn't help but smile.

“ok” was all it said, but that was enough to satisfy me.



“Thank you for coming,” I said, smiling as I opened the door and let Lloyd in.

He nodded, his expression still solemn. I frowned as he sat down on my bed. I didn't want him to be upset while he was here.

“Is it my dream?” I asked, sitting beside him, close enough to touch. Close enough to kiss.

He let out a heavy sigh and stood up and moved over to the chair that sat in the corner of my room. “I don't...want you to be afraid of me,” he said, and looked over his shoulder at me. His eyes cold and hard, just like they always seemed to be whenever he was upset.

I frowned. “You think I'm afraid of you?”

“Yes.”

I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him before he could move away from me. I stayed that way with him, hoping that it would sink in that I wasn't afraid. I never really had been afraid. I'd seen no point. He wasn't hurting anyone at the school, and he most definitely wasn't hurting me, so why should I be afraid?

It seemed to take ages before he wrapped his cool arms around me and held me close to his body. I felt a smile play at my lips, but I still wanted answers, so I forced it to stay away.

“Can you help me figure out what's going on?” I asked.

“Hm?” He petted my hair, almost mechanically, but I knew he didn't mean it that way. I knew he honestly cared.

“With my dream. I'm certain it wasn't just a dream, Lloyd,” I mumbled into his stripped T-shirt.

He kissed my forehead and gave me a simplistic answer. “Prophecy.”

“I know that, but...I don't know how to prevent it.”

I felt his chest rise and fall with a sigh, and he gently moved my body away from his, holding me out in front of him. I looked away, angling my gaze towards the ground.

“Look at me,” he ordered, but not harshly. I did as he instructed. “I don't know, either. I don't think any of us are going to know, so lets go to a teac-”

“Can't,” I said, cutting him off, and making my voice clipped as well. I winced when I realized how that must have sounded to him. “There was something else in my dream, too, that I never got a chance to mention to Alec or Victor.”

He released my shoulders and stood with his arms crossed, his weight mostly on one leg. “Go on.”

I swallowed. “In my dream...there were multiple dark, shadowy figures. I think, no, I know they're teachers from the school.”

“And?”

“And they radiated evil,” I muttered, looking up at him from under my eyelashes, my head hung partway.

He tilted my chin up and leaned in towards me, concern lightly painted on his face. “So you don't know who to trust. Ah,” he breathed. “Makes sense, now.”

I bit my lower lip and nodded. He gave me a small kiss and went to sit on my bed again. I followed him like a stray and positioned myself right beside him.

“Will you stay the night?” I asked, looking down at my hands.

He didn't reply, and looking over at him showed waring emotions. I frowned a little more, not wanting to force him, but really wanting the company. I didn't want to sleep alone if it meant I was going to be waking up like dreams from this other nights, too.

“I don't sleep,” he muttered. “None of the undead sleep. Vampires included.”

I nodded my head, trying to understand the best I could. “Then, stay the night anyway? Just...so I'm not alone...?”

He sighed, and I quickly added on. “You can bring whatever you need, I don't mind.”

He looked over at me, his fists clenched into loose balls. I saw his adam's apple move in his throat as he swallowed, the tendons that showed through the deep,unhealing cut on the side of his neck moving with the swallowing motion as well.

“That potion, for instance,” I offered. “Or...something else, maybe?”

He sighed, but I saw the crooked smile that played at the corner of his mouth. He wanted to stay and keep me company, and not just because it was possible that a part of him, even if just a small part, thought I might make a tasty meal.

“Fine, I'll stay.”



That night my dreams whirled around, focusing on the figures in black, and their misty appearances. Who are they? I kept finding myself wondering as I slipped in and out of sleep. The question plagued me all night long and sent me in and out of sleep multiple times.

I tossed and turned that night, despite having Lloyd in my bed for company. I remember waking up from seeing one of the shadowy figures coming towards me and hearing him making gentle shh, shh, shh, noises to try and soothe me as he petted my hair as gently as he could.

I think he knew I woke up a couple times. I think he knew that I didn't sleep well at all that night, as, when I woke, he told me to try and rest some more. That he'd still be there with me when I awoke again. I took him up on his offer, but only for one hour longer. I couldn't stand returning to the horror filled prophetic dreams any more after that. Not until this coming night, at least, and I wouldn't be able to do it alone. They frightened me too much.

When I awoke and decided to stay awake he told me stories of how sleep actually went for me. He'd told me that I'd tossed and turned so badly he was standing by my bed half the time to avoid falling and making sound. I'd whimpered and cried in my sleep from the fear, and he'd tried to soothe me by petting my brow, and hugging me close to his body whenever he could. He said I'd screamed and yelled at the nothingness in the room to “go away and leave me alone”, and that I was lucky all pain sensations for him were extremely dulled due to where my fists, knees, and feet ended up on his body at some points during the night.

He wasn't mad. He was more worried than anything, and I was growing even more frightened. I hadn't thought they were this bad, though, I couldn't see myself from the outside.

He offered to bring his video camera the next time.

“But they'll find out you stayed with me if we show them!” I yelped.

“Who said we'd show them? I intended to show Alec and the others, not the school staff.”

I still felt dis at ease with the plan, but decided it would be for the better. It was better proof than just my stories of what went on during my nightmares.

So, Sunday night we set up a camera in my room. Lloyd had brought his uniform with him, assuring me that all would go well and if he was caught he'd explain everything the best he could without giving away what, exactly, I was seeing.

So we went to bed together again with the camera on.

In the morning, when we woke up, the tape was gone.

Okay, now I want to know if Lloyd's still in the room, 'cause if so.... Dun dun dun.
Those were really good chapters. I can't wait for more!

Ooh... Suspenseful. Can't wait to read more. It's great so far.

In definite agreement.