Dark Night (18 page)

“I don’t see the guys.” Mereily sighed and
continued, “Probably blowing us off, those jerks!” She dramatically
rolled her eyes and started leading us to a table she spotted at
the other side of the pool.

“Whatever, all I want to do is relax, this
day has been too long already…” Delilah says, she trails off as she
sits and sets her stuff on the table.

“Yeah me too,” Sophie yawns, but she doesn’t
look at all tired. She takes her clothes off, down to her bikini
and she pulls her hair up and takes her sunglasses off. Sophie has
a tattoo on her back. I spot it as she turns to leave. I can’t tell
what it is, but she self-cautiously lets her hair a little loose
covering it up and glances back to see if anyone notices, I look
away and no one else appeared to notice. When I turn back to see
where she is, she is already in the pool swimming underwater.

Very strange.

“ …
Mia! I am talking to
you! Hello earth to Mia!” I turn back to give Mereily my attention,
apparently she had been talking the entire time, I hadn’t
notice.

“Yeah?” I ask.

She glares at me for a
moment and then shrugs. “I was just saying that we should’ve
invited Anna, don’t you think?” She raises her eyebrows.

“Actually, I did ask her but you know…. She
said she had something to do, as usual.” I take my dress off.

“What does she do?” Delilah asks.

Mereily shrugs. “The girl is a wacky pack
sometimes. And I don’t think she had anything to do, it was just an
excuse. One day she’ll give in though. I think Mia is changing her
little by little and it’s a good thing, time for a change.” She
grins at me and stands. “’m going to enjoy this evening, ladies?
Care to join me?”

I look at Delilah and she looks at me, we
both nod in agreement and get on our feet. “Last one in the pool is
a rotten chicken!” I yell as we all make a run for it.

“Eww!” We hear people yell.

After a few days of
relaxation and pampering, we were back in classes. Ugh! I had never
before dreaded school. Not that I didn’t like it here but I was
having too much fun. Now it seemed like everything was calming
down, which was boring, but what could I do.

My classes were going by fast for some
reason. I was doing great in school. Teachers were surprised on how
quickly I had caught up, so was I. I had a three point seven, grade
point average, which was the best I had ever done. My parents would
be proud, I just knew they would.

I visited Blake constantly, it was odd. We
acted as if were old friends and he was so damn attractive, I was
always nervous around him. He didn’t seem to notice any of this,
and good I didn’t want him to know. Sometimes it seemed like he was
flirting with me, but I could never tell. He would play with my
hair, tease me, poke me, the most touching he would do. Smile
crookedly, which I liked a lot. Once I asked him, why he didn’t
take his sunglasses off, but he just shrugged and said it was
better that way, whatever that meant.

Today I was especially in a
good mood. “Mia, could I speak with you?” Goddess Isabelle asked,
stepping close to me. I was in the Library checking some books out
for a project.

“Sure.” I said, putting the book back. I
followed Isabelle to a table in the far back of the Library. “Is
there something wrong?”

“Well, there seems to be a problem in
Sunnyside Institute, which is about an hour away from here, a
student is missing… there was a break in last night. We don’t know
much, and what we do is… classified, you could say. But I am
telling you this because I believe everyone should be on their
guard, and of course every God, Goddess has the decision to make
whether to tell their case or not.” She paused.

“I appreciate it, thank you. Do you think
that maybe we’re next?” Knowing the answer to it, I asked
anyway.

“There… is a probability.
But I do not want you to worry too much, this will pass, I assure
you we will do everything in our power to stop this. I swear.”
Isabelle held a hand over her heart then slightly smiled. She stood
up. “Now, you can return to your studies. Thank you for listening.”
She left just as quickly as she appeared.

But it was too late, there went my good mood,
and I was on high alert. I packed up my things and left the Library
without checking a book out. This was ridiculous, I felt like I had
to do something and now I was really sure that I was losing it. I
headed to the only place I could think.

The auditorium was quiet, I wanted to talk to
Blake, since there was no one else I could confide on, sure I could
tell my friends but what would they think of me? They would
think that I was going crazy like that boy, which I
wasn’t.

So I called Blake twice and when he didn’t
come out. I wondered where he was staying in the first place. I
walked past the lonely aisles, all the way to the front. When I
reached the stage I paused for a second then went up the steps
through the right side and went backstage. There, it was completely
dark, because there was no light. But with my better vision as a
vamp in training, I could see a little. I went straight until it
came to a turn and I took that turn all the way to the end where
there were some spiral stairs, I took them and when I reached the
top it was creepy. It got a little cold and a candle was lit from
what I could tell, someone had been here. I pulled myself up and
kept going towards the candle. When I reached it I saw a door
across from it and hesitated to open it.

But curiosity killed the cat. So I turned the
doorknob slowly and pushed the door slowly. No one was in the room,
which was well lit by lanterns. There was a made full size bed, a
dresser, a luggage bag, a mirror above the dresser, a plasma TV
across the bed and a small table with stuff on it. There were also
two doors side by side. I went to the first door and opened it, a
light came on as I went in, there was a full bathroom. The second
door was a closet, with a blanket over the clothes that were
hanging.

I didn’t touch anything else I stood in the
room looking around for something, not knowing what I went to the
table where I spotted a laptop, I opened it and a picture of me on
the screen saver popped up. I was so chocked I almost lost my legs.
I sat on the edge of the bed with my hand over my mouth. Staring at
a picture of me wearing the gown at the ball dancing with my
friends-was not what I expected to see. I had to get out of his
room, this couldn’t be happening. Why? I closed the laptop, as soon
as I turned to leave I ran into Blake. He had a grip on my wrists
and it would have been impossible for me to run if I tried.

“Mia… I wanted to tell you but… I couldn’t I
promised I would stay away from you until the King and Queen
returned. I know it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I…” He
trailed off. I was only a few inches away, and the fact that he was
touching me made me feel like he was the only one in the world and
I wanted him only, but I swallowed and tried to control myself.

“Why did you pretend to be someone you
weren’t?” I knew it was a stupid question but it was the only thing
I could think of.

He slowly let go of my arms. “Technically I
didn’t pretend to be someone else, I said I go by Blake not that my
name was Blake, second I was always honest with you about
everything we talked about.” Robert said, he took a step away
putting down his hoodie and taking off his sunglasses. “I
finished my training three weeks ago. I wasn’t allowed to stay
longer, so Illyanne and I talked about it and there seemed to be a
way I could stay without bothering you. But it didn’t exactly work
out that way. You were not supposed to know. I was not even
supposed to talk to you at all or see you, but that day… seeing you
sitting there… alone and helpless… I had to, I couldn’t just watch
without saying something. Then I talked to you in your dream and I
had to warn you, because I couldn’t say anything about it. None of
that matters now that you know the truth.” He had been talking this
whole time that I didn’t notice I had him backed to the wall. I
took a deep breath and backed away from him turning to face his TV.
I stared at it for a while without a word to say. What was I going
to say? I couldn’t be mad at him because this entire time he was
trying to protect me. But I also wanted to know what he was
protecting me from.

“Robert, what are you protecting me from
exactly? I really want to know why little me has to even attempt to
solve this mystery of the school, when I don’t know a thing.”

“There is a lot that you need to learn before
we could talk about that. All I can say is that is not only you
that was in danger, is the entire institute. You do not need to
worry though, I was just talking to Illyanne apparently they think
it was humans that did this, and if it was then they will be caught
sooner or later. Now that is in the guard’s hands.” He said. But I
wasn’t fooled, he hadn’t answered my questions if not he actually
made me think there was a lot more than what he was saying. He
stepped back for a second and looked into my eyes. Whatever he
found made him blink and look away.

“So, why do you have a picture of me on your
laptop?” I blurted because the awkward silence was killing me.

“Uh-that was…”

“Are you like babysitting me or something,
because if you are you can stop, it’s not necessary, really.” I
said getting an attitude. I was tired of hearing lies and then
truth. I just wanted the truth, obviously Robert wasn’t going to
spill so that just irritated the hell out of me. “Well since
there’s nothing else I think I’ll just leave…” I began to walk
away, but he caught my arm and pulled me close to him. “Oh, don’t
worry I won’t tell Illyanne I know about you.” I said since, I
couldn’t think of anything else to keep my hands off him.

Then the most unexpected thing happened, he
pulled me all the way to him and leaned in and kissed me like I had
never been kissed in my life. The electricity that was running
through my body was uncontrollably crazy. I craved him as he did
me. I wanted Robert, and he wanted me. For a moment there was
nothing but us in the middle of his room making out and enjoying
it. It was full of passion, and love. Love? That thought brought me
back to reality. I jumped away from him leaving him staring at me
with question in his eyes. Then I started crying.

“I’m sorry… I just… I can’t
do this right now. Robert we cannot do this to Jack, I’m with him
and you’re… with
her
. Just forget this ever happened.” As pathetic as that
sounded it was the truth. I took off like a bat out of hell, and
Robert didn’t bother to stop me. And I didn’t want him to. I wiped
my eyes and kept walking, until my phone vibrated and scared the
hell out of me. Panicky, I flipped it open and saw it was just a
text message from Mereily. It said:
Wer r u? We’ve been lokin’ 4 u. Txt bak.

I paused before exiting the auditorium to
recollect myself and once I did, I walked out and texted Mereily
back. I told her I had been talking to Isabelle, and that I was on
my way to my room because I had a terrible headache.

What I needed was to be alone for a
while and think what the hell just happened? I was completely
confused and didn’t want to be around anyone else. A few guards
stared at me when I walked by, there were a few students walking
around. All in all it was not as noisy I thought it be, I made it
to my room without bumping into anyone I knew, thankfully.
When I went in I realized someone had been in my room. From where I
was standing I saw an envelope sitting on top of my bed. Slowly, I
walked to it and examined it. It was another one of Mylian’s
letters. I wasn’t in the mood for more surprises but you never knew
if it was important or not. So I took my chances and opened it
anyway.

Dear Mia,

The King and Queen Stuart
request your presence Monday morning. You must be at Goddess
Illyanne’s office. Please wear appropriate attire, don’t be
late.
Sincerely, Goddess
Mylian.

Great, now the King and
Queen wanted to return. I guess is for the best. Maybe they would
fix all the problems the institute has been having, or maybe they
won’t. But one thing was for sure, they were going to find out
about me and Robert and that was going to suck, a lot.

I lay down on my bed and after a lot of
thinking and fell asleep.

It wasn’t a normal dream. I could feel how
real it was. I was standing on the sand and looking at the ocean.
There was no one else there but me, somehow I had been there before
but I couldn’t recall when or where exactly this beautiful place
was. The breeze from the ocean waves gave me chills… at that moment
I realized I wasn’t completely alone. Someone’s was standing right
behind me, I was afraid to turn and find someone that I didn’t want
to see. Then he spoke.

“I’m sorry you’re making me do this.” It was
Robert, I didn't want to turn around and look at him, after what
just happened. But, like the moron I am, I did. He had his arms
crossed, he was wearing dark sun glasses, had on a white muscle
shirt-which showed off his spectacular muscles-and black sweat
pants.

“I’m glad you’re here… actually, I would have
done this in person but since you are here. I just wanted to
apologize for running out. The thing is ___”

“You don’t have to apologize for anything.”
He didn’t move, instead he took a half step back, like he was going
to turn his back on me. But he stayed that way. “It was a big
mistake, forget what I told you. It was all Illyanne’s idea. I
don’t care about you in that way at all… it was all part of the
plan. You will understand soon. That was all I was going to say. I
thought it be better for you to know… so you wouldn’t feel like you
did something wrong.. You didn’t.”