Dark Night (25 page)

I heard footsteps coming from down the hall,
but then they stopped and I heard a door open and then close. I
walked over to the door and tried to hear for any more noise, but
nothing. Something was wrong, I tried calling Isabelle, Robert,
Illyanne, but no one picked up. What the hell was going on? I
knocked on the bathroom door lightly.

“Genevieve?” I whisper shouted.

“What?” She yelled back.

“Shh! Open the door, there’s someone out
there.” I whisper shouted again, that got her attention. She
quickly opened it and stepped out the minute the bathroom door
clicked close, there were footsteps out in the hall again.

“Shit.” She said. “Come on.”

“Where the hell are we going? News flash we
can’t get out without being noticed… if someone out there wants
us.” I didn’t follow her. She didn’t say anything for a minute.
Genevieve opened my closet door very quietly and didn’t even bother
turning the light on, I could barely see what she was doing. She
pushed all my clothes from the back to one side and then I called
her when she didn’t answer I said. “What? Do you really think this
is the time to play dress up?” She ignored that too and instead she
took my right hand and got my thumb.

“Press hard.” She wanted me to press hard
against the wall, I did feeling stupid. But then without making a
sound the wall went up and Genevieve pulled me in with her. “Hurry,
close it.” She showed me where to put my thumb again, and I pressed
hard. The wall went down again. It was pitch black.

“What is this place?” I
asked confused. She just smiled and then made a waving motion in
the air that made the light turn on. It was a very narrow hall and
at the end were some stairs, it looked like it was part of a secret
entry way. There were no doors, which meant we had to go down the
stairs.

“Let’s go, Ask questions later.” I followed
her all the way down, it seemed like we were now on the fourth
floor. But there wasn’t a fourth floor. “This is underground you
know, like a basement.” Except it wasn’t a basement, it was a large
room with at least eight more doors. “They each lead to different
places, but first….” As I looked around the room I found steel
drawers, tables and all sorts of fighting stuff. On one wall there
were different size of swords, and knives. “We need to take
something to protect ourselves. We don’t know who’s out there, or
what’s going on. I had tried calling every single one of my friends
back there, when I was in the bathroom, but no answer.”

“Yeah, I tried calling Isabelle too. Whatever
is happening, it can’t be good.” I agreed. One of the doors opened
and out stepped Anna, Delilah, Payton, and Robert.

“What are you doing here?” Payton asked
us.

“What does it look like we’re doing? You
moron,” Genevieve said, back with an attitude. I rolled my
eyes.

“Back off, Gene he’s serious you know better
than to come down here just because. This is… only for members.”
Payton said looking right at me.

“It’s alright she is a member.” Robert told
him, with that Payton shut up and blushed in embarrassment.

“So what are you guys doing here? Do you know
what’s going on?” Delilah asked curious. The rest were already
going through drawers.

“Yeah we know. Someone left this in my room.”
Genevieve handed her the picture. Robert, Anna –who winked-and
Payton all gathered around Delilah to look at the picture.

“Whoa. What the hell?” Anna said taking a
closer look. “Check this out… it’s our paper__”

“Yes and it was taken yesterday.” Robert
concluded.

“Duh, now you see why we’re here. We told
Isabelle… she said to stay in her room but we heard footsteps and
they went into her room after we left. Don’t know who it was, but
they were looking for us, and we’ve tried calling someone…
including you Robert and we didn’t get an answer.” She was glaring
at Robert.

Robert pressed his lips in
a line. “I’m sorry I was dealing with something, but you did the
right thing.” He was nodding, and then he looked at me and almost
smiled.
Almost
,
"By the way, you and Bonnie never showed up." He said to me, and I
remembered we were supposed to meet with him after the
ceremony.

I shrugged. Whatever it was, it could
wait.

“
Well, thanks Genevieve even though you and Mia… don’t get
along you did the right thing and I am so grateful for
tha
t...” Genevieve was saying,
sarcastically.

And now it seemed the best time to put our
differences aside and deal with whatever was waiting for us out
there.

Genevieve took off the white button up shirt
and underneath it she was wearing one of my red tank tops which she
fixed as she put a… bullet proof vest on? Everybody else was in
their own little world, looking for their things.

I just stared, when she looked at me she
pulled another one out. “Look, I don’t have time to explain this to
you, but when something like this happens, it’s like if we were
going to war, we have to be prepared for the worst. It’s one of the
lessons that you still haven’t learned yet, I guess I’ll have to
have a chat about this with mom and dad…” I took off the cardigan
sweater I was wearing, leaving me with the black tank top and the
vest on. She also pulled out some steeled, fashionable boots. “What
size? Seven?” I nodded and put them on as well. She walked across
the room-to where Payton was busy looking at a gun-and used a pad
to open up a drawer that opened up a lot of others.

I looked to see what was in there…

“Guns… seriously?” I saw all different kinds
of guns, and weapons I could not believe. Genevieve just rolled her
eyes.

“I guess it be worthless to give you one, if
you don’t even know how to use it.” She shrugged. “Oh well…. Now
let me see which one, which one… there we go… my favorite.”
She took a gun that looked like it weighed about fifteen pounds,
for a minute I thought she wouldn’t be able to hold it but very
gracefully she pointed at the wall with one hand. “A Colt 45, only
the old school best. Sometimes old school is better than fancy.”
She thought about what she said for a second. “Pretend I never said
that.” Which Payton and Delilah both heard. Then she went to the
wall and took a very sharp looking knife and made some kind of fast
movement with it that would have scared anyone else but me.

Now, knives, swords they were my thing. I
took a larger knife and a small sword that I had practiced with
Abi. “How are we supposed to carry this stuff?” I asked not taking
my eyes off the sword. Robert wasn’t putting anything on, all he
was doing was pretending not to look at me and picking out guns and
looking at some knives.

Genevieve left me alone while she showed off.
Anna handed me a waist belt where the sword could safely be put
without me worrying about it, and the knife. “Now for the good
stuff,” She basically skipped to another drawer and took out two
mini backpacks that were almost weightless, but looked full. “ You
have three silver stakes, a V3 hand held gun that can put a vampire
to sleep in point three seconds, two shots of V2 and a vile of
serum that gives you extra strength when you need it, it’ll only
last for an hour or so use it wisely. Oh. I almost forgot, here.”
She handed me a walkie-talkie cell phone. “Yep, the latest tech,
just dial one and it works like a cell phone only you can’t text,
yet. Okay, so Robert how do you want to do this? We split up or
what?” Anna asked while everyone gathered in the center of the
room.

“Two groups, Anna, Gene and Mia is one and
’lilah, Payton and I are two is that clear?” Robert was all
business like.

“Yes sir.” Everyone said, but me. He didn’t
care.

“Alright, we’ll check the dorms. Meet you at
the dining area. Make sure no one sees you.” His group left us
alone. Now we were on our own.

Anna turned the lights off and handed me a
small flashlight that had a whole lot more light than you’d think.
We went through a door and walked up some flight of stairs, then
out to some other door, this time Genevieve did the thumb thing and
took out her gun.

When we were out in
the open, we realized the lights were all out it was completely
quiet and I didn’t recognize where we were. “Okay, I hate to say
this because I’m scared shitless. But we have to split up, you two
go left and I’ll go right. That way is towards the dining area,
I’ll go to Illyanne’s office. Keep in contact, remember just press
one and call. Go now.” Anna and I nodded.

We left Genevieve by herself and regretted
it, she seemed a whole lot more mature than I had thought she was
capable of. It was completely dark and quiet, and I wondered if
anyone was out here besides us or if they were all stuck at the
dining room, which I didn’t want to know, honestly. But I had to be
brave and remember all the practice I had with Abi and Robert, and
how much I learned in such a short time. I held my flash light in
one hand and the knife on the other. I felt a little heavy but was
too numb to care.

I kept my body pressed to the wall and tried
to be fast and quiet, Anna was as quiet as silence. Seriously the
girl was good, until I heard footsteps coming from behind me.
That’s when I moved to the opposite side of the wall and bent down,
turned the flashlight off and waited. When the steps were close
behind me I moved quickly, I had no idea I could move that fast.
Anna was ahead of me so I didn’t know if she could hear anything. I
grabbed a stiff wrist pulled it behind their back and put the knife
to their neck. She gasped. “What are you doing?” Sophie whispered,
in terror. I let go of her and took a step back. Anna came up to
us, Sophie didn’t see her.

“Shh. What’s going on? And why are you
strolling down the hall like it’s just another day?” I asked
irritated, Anna came closer.

“I-I was visiting Mereily when the lights
went out. I don’t know what’s going on. Did something happen?” She
was afraid, from what I could see and she looked small and
worried.

“Yes. Someone is doing this, we don’t know
who or why but I need to get to my parents, have you seen
them?”

She thought about it for a second. “I saw
them by Mereily’s room, I think they were talking to her parents,
but I’m not sure. Here, come with me the other way.” She was
shaking when she took my hand. “Don’t you have something I can
defend myself with? Hey Anna, I didn’t see you.”

“You need to be more careful, you don’t know
what’s going on.“ Anna said seriously. I gave Sophie my backpack
with the little stuff, I was sure I wouldn’t need. She nodded, and
we kept moving, fast and without making much noise. Surprisingly
Sophie was good at this, it was weird really but I knew she had to
know more than me, everyone that had been here before me had
too.

When we reached the
infirmary, I followed Sophie to Mereily’s room while Anna kept
watch. It seemed like it was dead, my flashlight was the only
source of light and nothing else. The nurse that had been in here
wasn’t, in fact it seemed too lonely. Once Sophie opened Mereily’s
door I heard a shout coming from the hall we were just on, Anna.
Sophie pushed me in and closed the door behind me.

“Stay in there, I’ll go check it out.” I
tried to open the door but it was locked from the outside. “I
promise I’ll be right back, take care of her Mia, please.” When I
looked at Mereily she seemed dead, almost, if it wasn’t for her
opened eyes.

“Oh god,” I went to her side, dropping
everything. “Mereily, you woke up! Finally! How do you feel?” She
didn’t answer she just stared, it didn’t even seem like she was
breathing, but I hugged her anyway. “Hey, it’s going to be alright.
Don’t you worry, Sophie and Anna are going to get some help
alright… you hang in there okay?” She still stared ahead, didn’t
even move or anything, “Mereily?” There was a lamp in the room with
dim light. Her face was pale and cold. I turned my flashlight
towards her face, and tried to get a pulse…. Oh god… she was dead.
I ran to the door and tried to open it but couldn’t, finally I
kicked it hard only making a huge hole, then I kicked it two more
times before I could open the door from the outside, the key was
hanging, I opened it, and ran. I didn’t know where I was going to
go, so I took the walkie-talkie cell phone out and dialed one. No
one picked up right away then I heard Genevieve’s voice.

“Yeah?” She sounded annoyed.

“Mereily’s dead. Where the hell are you?” I
was crying and almost choking the words out. Genevieve seemed to
struggle with that.

“Dining Room,” Was all she said, I tried to
call her back but she didn’t answer, Robert and the other group
didn’t answer either. I wiped my eyes quickly and ran for the
dining area.

Once I was there, the door to the dining room
opened, as if it was waiting for me. When I stepped in, I realized
that it was the only place with light then doors shut behind me. I
turned to look and there were two guards standing there, I was
still holding my knife. “Where’s Genevieve?” I asked them, but they
just ignored me and stared ahead. The room was still filled with
people, sleeping all over. There was no movement, I didn’t see my
parents but I saw Delilah and Payton when I checked their pulse,
they were alive, but they were snoring and all of their things were
gone. I tried shaking them but no answer. Same for everybody else,
people were sleeping all over, some with their heads down on the
tables and others just on the floor, as if they had fainted. Then,
the light went out. I screamed, and ran to the door but they
wouldn’t open, the bodyguards weren’t even there anymore, “Help!
Someone please, help me!” Then I felt a hand go over my mouth. I
tried kicking and screaming but it did no good.

“Hush.” Robert said, and that immediately
made me shut up. He let me go, but took my hand instead. I didn’t
ask any questions. The feeling I was getting from his touch was
like electricity, I knew he felt it too. But he didn’t let go, and
I didn’t want him too. He took me to the other side of the room,
then the lights came on again. In surprise he let go of my hand and
I didn’t even look at him because something else had caught my
eyes, and I was sure Robert’s too.