From the living room came Ramsey and Lucas and they stopped in place when they saw Ronald staring at Farrah with his mouth open. They changed confused looks and then Lucas broke the silence.
“What is going on?” he asked and looked at Farrah. “Not to be rude or anything but what are you doing here?”
Farrah pointed at Ronald. “I know about you”, she said and then moved her finger and pointed at Ramsey, “and I know about you. A werewolf and a warlock working together, something I thought I would never see.” She looked at Ramsey. “I come in peace, you have to promise to not harm me.”
“Why would he hurt you?” asked Ronald who had finally recovered from his shock and managed to get his voice back. Ramsey and Lucas didn’t seem like they knew either what was going on but then Farrah turned her eyes on Ronald.
Her eyes changed, the dark colour disappeared and was replaced with white. Two fangs peeked from under her upper lip and when Farrah slightly opened her mouth, Ronald could see the fangs painfully clearly. He gasped and stumbled back in a shock, while Ramsey lightened up his green fire and stepped forward.
“You promised not to hurt me!” Farrah said, staring at Ramsey with her white eyes which made her look fucking scary because the brown tone of her skin made the eyes look even whiter.
“I promised nothing, vampire”, Ramsey hissed.
“I told you, I come in peace”, Farrah said and turned her eyes on Ronald. “Please, tell him I’m not a threat.”
Ronald wanted to tell her to fuck off because seriously, she was a vampire and she hadn’t told Ronald? But then Ronald realised that why she would even tell him? They weren’t close enough to share a secret like that. And as he looked at Farrah, he didn’t just see a vampire with its fangs out. He saw the girl who he, despite of everything he had just learned, liked so, so much.
“Ramsey, back off”, Ronald said weakly. “We need to at least hear her out.”
Ramsey narrowed his eyes, glanced at Ronald and then turned his eyes back to Farrah and the green fire disappeared from his hands. Farrah relaxed a bit and her fangs disappeared too and her eyes turned back to normal.
“Can I come in?” Farrah asked.
Ronald nodded and Farrah stepped inside, took off her jacket and they all walked into the living room. For a moment it was completely silent and then Ronald spoke.
“So… you wanted to talk with me?”
“Yes”, Farrah nodded. “I followed you in the park after you ran away from me. I saw everything, how you turned, how the other werewolf came, I saw him”, she pointed at Ramsey, “appear out of nowhere and then grabbing you and Lucas and disappear.
“I couldn’t believe it at first but I figured I should follow the other werewolf just in case it’s in the hunting mode. I fought with that werewolf because it tried to attack some teenager who was walking back to home.”
“Hold on”, Lucas said. “You fought with Ransley last night?”
“That’s his name?” Farrah asked and then nodded. “Yes, I had to. I understood from your words in the park, Lucas, that he isn’t friend of yours?”
Ronald shook his head. “He is the one turned me just a couple of months ago.”
“I’m sorry”, Farrah said sincerely.
“And he was Lucas’s boyfriend but it turned out he was only using Lucas to get us into the woods so he could play his sick game with us”, Ronald said. Lucas looked down, pressing his lips together and stayed quiet while Ronald kept talking. “Ramsey here is hunting him because apparently he is out of control and needs to be stopped.”
“Good”, Farrah said and looked at Ramsey. “If you need help...”
“I don’t need help from a vampire”, Ramsey said immediately.
“I bet you I’m much older than you”, Farrah said and raised her eyebrows. “I’ve killed so many werewolves I have lost count. You sure you don’t want my help?”
Ronald looked from Ramsey to Farrah. “So… everyone’s in war with everyone? Warlocks and vampires don’t get along, warlocks and werewolves don’t get along and werewolves and vampires don’t get–“
“Ronald, we get it, no one gets along here”, Lucas interrupted and looked at Ramsey and Farrah. “I think it’s time for a truce.”
Farrah nodded in agreement but Ramsey just gritted his teeth and crossed his arms.
“Come on, Ramsey”, Ronald said. “It’s not a bad thing to have allies.”
Ramsey hesitated but eventually he groaned and mumbled a quiet ‘fine’. Farrah nodded and then she opened her mouth.
“I think I need to explain myself a little bit”, she said. “You should hear my story.”
She waited but when neither Ronald nor Ramsey or Lucas said anything, she took a deep breath and started telling her story.
“I’m 600 years old”, she said and smiled tiredly. “I used to be quite the wild one but nowadays I don’t kill people anymore. I experienced awakening and I only drink blood as much as I need and I leave them alive and just control their memory so that they will forget it.”
“You can do that?” Ronald asked, surprised.
“Yes. I can control humans to forget or do things. It’s kind of like mind control. I hypnotise with my eyes but it requires lots of concentration”, Farrah explained. “I only use it when I have to make my… umm–“
“Blood bags to forget?” Ramsey offered and Farrah gave him an angry look.
“Anyway”, Farrah said. “I have had many names during these centuries and I don’t even remember what my first name was and I haven’t been going to school in over fifty years, until now of course.”
“Why did you go back to school? You’re freaking old, you must know everything already!” Lucas said, spreading his arms.
“Travelling gets boring when you do it too much and have seen everything already”, Farrah said and shrugged. “In school I have a chance to have an actual life. Find friends, perhaps fall in love...”
“How can you walk in sun?” Lucas asked and Ronald pointed at him.
“That is a great question”, he said.
Farrah looked amused. “Don’t believe everything you hear about vampires in the movies. We can walk in sun, it just weakens us and makes us more hungry. But we live in England, there’s not much of sunny days and even if there is we spent most of our time inside the school, out of the sun.”
“Garlic?” Ronald asked.
“Fake.”
“Holy water?” Lucas asked.
“Fake.”
“Wooden dowel in to the heart?” Ronald asked.
“True.”
“Really?” Lucas and Ronald asked.
“No”, Farrah said and rolled her eyes. “You have to rip my head off or my heart out if you want to kill me. But that’s gonna be real hard because I’m fast and strong.”
“So you’re an old vampire”, Ramsey said. “Why this small town this far in the south?”
“I was travelling and ended up here and I started liking this town and its people. I always go to the city when I need to feed myself, I never drink from the town’s people.”
“How noble”, Ramsey muttered but no one listened to him. They sat in the living room in silence until Lucas realised something and groaned.
“Aw shit, am I the only boring, normal one here?”
That eased up the tension and everyone except Ramsey laughed.
“What now?” Ronald asked.
“I suggest we go back to our normal lives”, Farrah said. “Like go to school normally so we don’t raise any unwanted attention.”
Ronald and Lucas agreed with Farrah.
“And we have to plan what to do with Ransley. We have to stop him before he does something again, has another victim”, Ronald said.
Ramsey groaned in frustration.
“I thought I told you already”, he said sternly. “This is between Ransley and me. You don’t have to get involved and get yourself killed. Understood?”
“No”, Farrah, Ronald and Lucas said in unison.
“You can’t keep us away”, Ronald said. “We are already way too deep in this.”
“You don’t do anything stupid, okay? Stay in school, live your lives and leave Ransley to me.”
“How are you going to catch Ransley if you’re always with me when there’s full moon?” Ronald asked.
“Like I have told you before, I just have to wait until you can control yourself and then I can go on and continue my fight with him.”
“Why don’t you just pick up a gun and shoot him while he’s in his human form? If you can’t use your powers to kill him?” Ronald asked.
“Because he’s still a half-human, I physically can’t harm humans, it’s how we warlocks are. Not even shoot them. It’s impossible”, Ramsey said, sounding annoyed. Clearly it bugged him.
“Ah, shit, that’s a stupid-ass system”, Ronald said. “So… we have no other choice but to wait until I’m capable of controlling myself?”
“Nope”, Ramsey said. “Unless your little vampire friend here is willing to commit a murder on my behalf.”
“Not today”, Farrah said coldly. “I’m not like that anymore.”
“So we wait”, Ramsey said. “I will keep an eye on him. Lucas?”
“Yeah?”
“You tell me immediately if Ransley tries to contact you, okay? Stay as far away from him as possible.”
Lucas looked down. “Got it.”
Ronald felt bad for him. His best friend’s heart must be so broken and there was nothing Ronald could do to make him feel better.
When the night came, Farrah, Lucas and Ramsey left, leaving Ronald alone in the house. He didn’t mind, though. It was nice to be alone for a bit. He ate a little and then he went to bed, falling asleep quickly.
Next morning he saw his mother when he woke up and went into the kitchen to eat breakfast. Ronald’s ribs were still hurting and he walked a bit stiffly but luckily his mother didn’t notice anything. Or if she did she didn’t say anything.
“Good morning, sweetie”, his mother said.
“Morning”, Ronald replied and took cereals and milk. “How late did you come home last night?”
“I don’t know, pretty late”, she said. “Were you sleeping so deeply you didn’t hear us walk in? I dropped a water glass on the floor and broke it.”
Ronald shook his head. “Didn’t hear a thing.”
“Well that is good”, she said and eyed Ronald from head to toe. “You look tired, though. You have all these little cuts everywhere. What happened to you?”
“I fell”, Ronald lied and realised that wasn’t believable so he added, “I was skateboarding with Lucas’s skateboard and I fell.”
“Uh-huh”, she said, still eyeing him suspiciously.
“Oh, would you look at that, I have school”, Ronald said fake happily and pointed at the clock on the wall. “Gotta go.”
He quickly left the house and walked to school as fast as he could. He met up with Lucas at the front doors and they walked in together.
“You’re hurting, aren’t you?” Lucas whispered to Ronald. “And you look like shit.”
“I am and thanks”, Ronald replied under his breath. He had to clench his teeth because otherwise he would whimper in pain. It hurt to walk, his whole body was sore, especially his ribs.
The school day went on slowly. Lucas did what he could to help Ronald get through it but there’s only so much one can do. When lunch time came, Lucas carried Ronald’s food for him and they sat on a table in the corner, far away from everyone else.
Ronald was staring out of the window while eating when he noticed that almost all the leaves had fallen from the trees.
“Lucas?” he asked.
“Yeah?”
“What am I going to do when the winter comes?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean when I turn… If I’m unconscious afterwards I can’t turn in the woods. I will die of hypothermia”, Ronald said. He didn’t know whether he would be unconscious every time he turns back to human but so far it seemed like it.
“Man, I never thought about that”, Lucas said. “I have no idea.”
Silence fell between them when both of them tried to come up with an explanation of how Ronald is going to survive the winter.
They were almost done with their food when Farrah, who they had not seen all day, came to their table and sat down just like that.
“Hi, boys”, she said.
Lucas and Ronald glanced at each other then the people around them. Many were giving odd looks at them but there wasn’t any whispering which was positive.
“How are you?” Farrah asked from Ronald. “You look a little pale.”
“I’m managing”, Ronald said truthfully.
Farrah gave her a smile and rubbed her hands together excitedly.
“I have never in my life had a werewolf friend”, she whispered. “We don’t usually get along with werewolves so this is exciting and cool. We are gonna have so much fun!”
Ronald looked at Farrah and wondered that yes, the girl was weird but he kind of liked it. He smiled at Farrah and thought, for the first time, that maybe he will survive this after all.
“What is going on?” he asked and looked at Farrah. “Not to be rude or anything but what are you doing here?”
Farrah pointed at Ronald. “I know about you”, she said and then moved her finger and pointed at Ramsey, “and I know about you. A werewolf and a warlock working together, something I thought I would never see.” She looked at Ramsey. “I come in peace, you have to promise to not harm me.”
“Why would he hurt you?” asked Ronald who had finally recovered from his shock and managed to get his voice back. Ramsey and Lucas didn’t seem like they knew either what was going on but then Farrah turned her eyes on Ronald.
Her eyes changed, the dark colour disappeared and was replaced with white. Two fangs peeked from under her upper lip and when Farrah slightly opened her mouth, Ronald could see the fangs painfully clearly. He gasped and stumbled back in a shock, while Ramsey lightened up his green fire and stepped forward.
“You promised not to hurt me!” Farrah said, staring at Ramsey with her white eyes which made her look fucking scary because the brown tone of her skin made the eyes look even whiter.
“I promised nothing, vampire”, Ramsey hissed.
“I told you, I come in peace”, Farrah said and turned her eyes on Ronald. “Please, tell him I’m not a threat.”
Ronald wanted to tell her to fuck off because seriously, she was a vampire and she hadn’t told Ronald? But then Ronald realised that why she would even tell him? They weren’t close enough to share a secret like that. And as he looked at Farrah, he didn’t just see a vampire with its fangs out. He saw the girl who he, despite of everything he had just learned, liked so, so much.
“Ramsey, back off”, Ronald said weakly. “We need to at least hear her out.”
Ramsey narrowed his eyes, glanced at Ronald and then turned his eyes back to Farrah and the green fire disappeared from his hands. Farrah relaxed a bit and her fangs disappeared too and her eyes turned back to normal.
“Can I come in?” Farrah asked.
Ronald nodded and Farrah stepped inside, took off her jacket and they all walked into the living room. For a moment it was completely silent and then Ronald spoke.
“So… you wanted to talk with me?”
“Yes”, Farrah nodded. “I followed you in the park after you ran away from me. I saw everything, how you turned, how the other werewolf came, I saw him”, she pointed at Ramsey, “appear out of nowhere and then grabbing you and Lucas and disappear.
“I couldn’t believe it at first but I figured I should follow the other werewolf just in case it’s in the hunting mode. I fought with that werewolf because it tried to attack some teenager who was walking back to home.”
“Hold on”, Lucas said. “You fought with Ransley last night?”
“That’s his name?” Farrah asked and then nodded. “Yes, I had to. I understood from your words in the park, Lucas, that he isn’t friend of yours?”
Ronald shook his head. “He is the one turned me just a couple of months ago.”
“I’m sorry”, Farrah said sincerely.
“And he was Lucas’s boyfriend but it turned out he was only using Lucas to get us into the woods so he could play his sick game with us”, Ronald said. Lucas looked down, pressing his lips together and stayed quiet while Ronald kept talking. “Ramsey here is hunting him because apparently he is out of control and needs to be stopped.”
“Good”, Farrah said and looked at Ramsey. “If you need help...”
“I don’t need help from a vampire”, Ramsey said immediately.
“I bet you I’m much older than you”, Farrah said and raised her eyebrows. “I’ve killed so many werewolves I have lost count. You sure you don’t want my help?”
Ronald looked from Ramsey to Farrah. “So… everyone’s in war with everyone? Warlocks and vampires don’t get along, warlocks and werewolves don’t get along and werewolves and vampires don’t get–“
“Ronald, we get it, no one gets along here”, Lucas interrupted and looked at Ramsey and Farrah. “I think it’s time for a truce.”
Farrah nodded in agreement but Ramsey just gritted his teeth and crossed his arms.
“Come on, Ramsey”, Ronald said. “It’s not a bad thing to have allies.”
Ramsey hesitated but eventually he groaned and mumbled a quiet ‘fine’. Farrah nodded and then she opened her mouth.
“I think I need to explain myself a little bit”, she said. “You should hear my story.”
She waited but when neither Ronald nor Ramsey or Lucas said anything, she took a deep breath and started telling her story.
“I’m 600 years old”, she said and smiled tiredly. “I used to be quite the wild one but nowadays I don’t kill people anymore. I experienced awakening and I only drink blood as much as I need and I leave them alive and just control their memory so that they will forget it.”
“You can do that?” Ronald asked, surprised.
“Yes. I can control humans to forget or do things. It’s kind of like mind control. I hypnotise with my eyes but it requires lots of concentration”, Farrah explained. “I only use it when I have to make my… umm–“
“Blood bags to forget?” Ramsey offered and Farrah gave him an angry look.
“Anyway”, Farrah said. “I have had many names during these centuries and I don’t even remember what my first name was and I haven’t been going to school in over fifty years, until now of course.”
“Why did you go back to school? You’re freaking old, you must know everything already!” Lucas said, spreading his arms.
“Travelling gets boring when you do it too much and have seen everything already”, Farrah said and shrugged. “In school I have a chance to have an actual life. Find friends, perhaps fall in love...”
“How can you walk in sun?” Lucas asked and Ronald pointed at him.
“That is a great question”, he said.
Farrah looked amused. “Don’t believe everything you hear about vampires in the movies. We can walk in sun, it just weakens us and makes us more hungry. But we live in England, there’s not much of sunny days and even if there is we spent most of our time inside the school, out of the sun.”
“Garlic?” Ronald asked.
“Fake.”
“Holy water?” Lucas asked.
“Fake.”
“Wooden dowel in to the heart?” Ronald asked.
“True.”
“Really?” Lucas and Ronald asked.
“No”, Farrah said and rolled her eyes. “You have to rip my head off or my heart out if you want to kill me. But that’s gonna be real hard because I’m fast and strong.”
“So you’re an old vampire”, Ramsey said. “Why this small town this far in the south?”
“I was travelling and ended up here and I started liking this town and its people. I always go to the city when I need to feed myself, I never drink from the town’s people.”
“How noble”, Ramsey muttered but no one listened to him. They sat in the living room in silence until Lucas realised something and groaned.
“Aw shit, am I the only boring, normal one here?”
That eased up the tension and everyone except Ramsey laughed.
“What now?” Ronald asked.
“I suggest we go back to our normal lives”, Farrah said. “Like go to school normally so we don’t raise any unwanted attention.”
Ronald and Lucas agreed with Farrah.
“And we have to plan what to do with Ransley. We have to stop him before he does something again, has another victim”, Ronald said.
Ramsey groaned in frustration.
“I thought I told you already”, he said sternly. “This is between Ransley and me. You don’t have to get involved and get yourself killed. Understood?”
“No”, Farrah, Ronald and Lucas said in unison.
“You can’t keep us away”, Ronald said. “We are already way too deep in this.”
“You don’t do anything stupid, okay? Stay in school, live your lives and leave Ransley to me.”
“How are you going to catch Ransley if you’re always with me when there’s full moon?” Ronald asked.
“Like I have told you before, I just have to wait until you can control yourself and then I can go on and continue my fight with him.”
“Why don’t you just pick up a gun and shoot him while he’s in his human form? If you can’t use your powers to kill him?” Ronald asked.
“Because he’s still a half-human, I physically can’t harm humans, it’s how we warlocks are. Not even shoot them. It’s impossible”, Ramsey said, sounding annoyed. Clearly it bugged him.
“Ah, shit, that’s a stupid-ass system”, Ronald said. “So… we have no other choice but to wait until I’m capable of controlling myself?”
“Nope”, Ramsey said. “Unless your little vampire friend here is willing to commit a murder on my behalf.”
“Not today”, Farrah said coldly. “I’m not like that anymore.”
“So we wait”, Ramsey said. “I will keep an eye on him. Lucas?”
“Yeah?”
“You tell me immediately if Ransley tries to contact you, okay? Stay as far away from him as possible.”
Lucas looked down. “Got it.”
Ronald felt bad for him. His best friend’s heart must be so broken and there was nothing Ronald could do to make him feel better.
When the night came, Farrah, Lucas and Ramsey left, leaving Ronald alone in the house. He didn’t mind, though. It was nice to be alone for a bit. He ate a little and then he went to bed, falling asleep quickly.
Next morning he saw his mother when he woke up and went into the kitchen to eat breakfast. Ronald’s ribs were still hurting and he walked a bit stiffly but luckily his mother didn’t notice anything. Or if she did she didn’t say anything.
“Good morning, sweetie”, his mother said.
“Morning”, Ronald replied and took cereals and milk. “How late did you come home last night?”
“I don’t know, pretty late”, she said. “Were you sleeping so deeply you didn’t hear us walk in? I dropped a water glass on the floor and broke it.”
Ronald shook his head. “Didn’t hear a thing.”
“Well that is good”, she said and eyed Ronald from head to toe. “You look tired, though. You have all these little cuts everywhere. What happened to you?”
“I fell”, Ronald lied and realised that wasn’t believable so he added, “I was skateboarding with Lucas’s skateboard and I fell.”
“Uh-huh”, she said, still eyeing him suspiciously.
“Oh, would you look at that, I have school”, Ronald said fake happily and pointed at the clock on the wall. “Gotta go.”
He quickly left the house and walked to school as fast as he could. He met up with Lucas at the front doors and they walked in together.
“You’re hurting, aren’t you?” Lucas whispered to Ronald. “And you look like shit.”
“I am and thanks”, Ronald replied under his breath. He had to clench his teeth because otherwise he would whimper in pain. It hurt to walk, his whole body was sore, especially his ribs.
The school day went on slowly. Lucas did what he could to help Ronald get through it but there’s only so much one can do. When lunch time came, Lucas carried Ronald’s food for him and they sat on a table in the corner, far away from everyone else.
Ronald was staring out of the window while eating when he noticed that almost all the leaves had fallen from the trees.
“Lucas?” he asked.
“Yeah?”
“What am I going to do when the winter comes?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean when I turn… If I’m unconscious afterwards I can’t turn in the woods. I will die of hypothermia”, Ronald said. He didn’t know whether he would be unconscious every time he turns back to human but so far it seemed like it.
“Man, I never thought about that”, Lucas said. “I have no idea.”
Silence fell between them when both of them tried to come up with an explanation of how Ronald is going to survive the winter.
They were almost done with their food when Farrah, who they had not seen all day, came to their table and sat down just like that.
“Hi, boys”, she said.
Lucas and Ronald glanced at each other then the people around them. Many were giving odd looks at them but there wasn’t any whispering which was positive.
“How are you?” Farrah asked from Ronald. “You look a little pale.”
“I’m managing”, Ronald said truthfully.
Farrah gave her a smile and rubbed her hands together excitedly.
“I have never in my life had a werewolf friend”, she whispered. “We don’t usually get along with werewolves so this is exciting and cool. We are gonna have so much fun!”
Ronald looked at Farrah and wondered that yes, the girl was weird but he kind of liked it. He smiled at Farrah and thought, for the first time, that maybe he will survive this after all.