Post by silent.lullaby on Jul 7, 2010 14:23:14 GMT -5
Dusk .::Chapter 15::. Picked Up
When Monday came rolling around I noticed that Scarlet wasn’t there. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Finally I broke silence lunch of Friday. “Have any of you heard, or seen Scarlet?” I asked.
Ingrid shook her head, her ponytail swung. Zakia shook her head as well, “maybe she had to go to shopping in Paris,” she said starkly with a sigh, “I miss Paris.”
“You went once,” Jacques said smiling, “next time you go, I’ll come with you, show you the true beauty of the place.”
Zakia looked shocked as she stared at the smiling french kid before she regained her composure, “I’ll keep that in mind,” she responded.
“Seriously guys,” I interrupted, “she’s been gone for like four days.”
Faust shushed me, “fleshies at three o’clock.” We all looked over to see Ethan, Duke and Kayleb come over and sit with us.
“Have any of you guys seen Scarlet?” Ethan asked, “I’ve called her phone a few times, but no answer.”
“She’s shopping,” Zakia replied, “that’s the rumour, she’s shopping in Paris. She does so frequently, you shouldn’t worry, she rarely warns anyone when the mood strikes her it’s all last minute plans.”
“Oh,” Ethan replied with a sigh. “I just thought... she’d call... or something.”
“True blue bitch,” Faust said with a laugh as he cracked open a can of Pepsi and took a swig.
My cell phone brought me away from the conversation as it vibrated in it’s side pouch. I dug it out and looked at the caller ID, an unfamiliar number so I hung up on it. Silence from it for a second before it begun vibrating once more, the same number so I answered. “Hello?” I stood nearly tripping off the bench.
“Aerabella,” it was a quick whispered name, “I thought you weren’t going to answer,” the strong, masculine voice said.
“Calum?”
“Calum?”Marlowe, Zakia and Ingrid spoke together, I moved away from them but they were buzzing about it. I stepped into the girls bathroom by the cafeteria and checked to make sure no one was inside before putting the cleaning sign on the door and locking it. “Why... why are you calling me?”
“Someone had to, and I volunteered.” He replied, “I wanted to hear your voice.”
My hearts hammered and I wished for the umpteenth time that I had some powers of seduction of an old movie, powerful, beautiful ladies with confidence and power who always had a perfect line to say and sound oh so smooth while saying it. “Oh,” was instead my response and I felt the need to hit my head against the wall.
“Sadly, it’s a business call, the elders wish to see you.”
“Me?” Panic struck my vocal cords. “Why would they want to see me? I haven’t done anything.”
Calum cut me off before I could continue on my panicked ways. “You were the one to report Scarlet’s hypnosis to your father, who reported them to the council, you must be there for the tribunal.” My breathing hitched in worry. “You okay?” I should have known he’d hear the panic and fear in just my breathing.
“When... when do I have to be there.”
“It’s this afternoon, I’ll be picking you up from school after your next class.”
“Okay,” I responded shakily.
“Don’t worry, tribunal’s aren’t that bad.”
“Yeah... sure.”
I heard him sigh on the other end, “I’ll be there soon, try not to think of it too much till then.”
“‘kay, bye Calum.”
“See you soon Aerabella.”
Despite Calum’s advice not to think about it, it was all I did. The girls had looked ready to badger me about Calum when I returned to the lunch table but once I sat down I could feel Zakia’s warm brown eyes on me, studying me and she called off the dogs. The conversation continued as if I weren’t even there.
In class all I could think of was that Scarlet knew I was the one who told on her, what if I was wrong? Did they have a way to test to see if you had used hypnosis? If so could the Elder’s figure out if they’d used it properly (to hide our existence) or improperly (like forcing a fleshie to love us?) I sighed and my sociology teacher continued talking monotonously making it that much easier to stay in my head with my thoughts.
The school bell scared me so much that I not only jumped in my chair but screamed earning a glare from my teacher and a few strange looks from my peers. I grabbed my books and nearly ran out of the school to the front parking lot. I took a deep breath in and let it out, but it was shaky both ways and didn’t make me feel any calmer.
The door to a shiny blue BMW opened and Calum stepped out and walked toward me at the painfully slow human pace and my hearts longed to run in vampire pace to him. Resisting I stood there not trusting my own feet. How I wished he couldn’t hear my hearts racing each other in my chest. “Stop panicking little one,” he said as he stood in front of me, he went to touch my face when he stopped and put his arm down.
“Excuse me,” a male teacher approached us. “What are you doing with our student?”
“Dentist appointment.”
“Really are you family.”
“Brother.”
“Actually, I taught Miss William’s brother Tobias, and you certainly aren’t him.” The teacher crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Calum before turning to me, “you should get to your next class.”
“I can’t,” I responded, “cavity.” Though I’d never had one. “And he’s like a brother he means, he and Toby go way back.”
“Only family members,” the teacher glared specifically at Calum for this, “real family members can sign out students.”
“Well isn’t that lucky that I’m not signing her out. I’m just driving her, she’s skipping class,” he shot me a smile, “little rebel you.”
Rebel? Me? Ha, good joke.
“Look Mr...”
“Asher, it’s Mr. Calum Asher.”
“Mr. Asher, you can’t take a student of Clark High-“
Calum cut him off, “well she’s not, she’s a St. Vic’s student.” He grabbed my hand and I felt like I’d been reading too many romance novels cause I swear I felt sparks. “And we’re going to be late for her doctor’s appointment.”
“I thought it was a dentist appointment,” the teacher responded.
“Well we both know that’s bullshit.” Calum said putting a hand on the teacher’s shoulders and stared into his eyes. “You didn’t see me, you didn’t see Miss Williams, now return to what you were doing before.” Calum left the teacher stupefied and lead me to his car, opened the door for me and I sat down and buckled up before he shut it again. Around the car he opened his door and sat in, “just couldn’t take that man any longer. Glorified hall monitor.”
“You... hypnotised him without drinking his blood.” I said gaping.
“Perks of old blood, my family’s old so even though hypnotising with out the blood transference is tenth life or so gift, I could do it since my second.”
I smiled at him, “impressive.”
He smiled back at me, “not really, I didn’t have to wait out ten lives, that is impressive.”
“I don’t think so, it’s just living.”
“You’re in your first life, you little naive thing.” Calum sighed, “the things I’ve witnessed in five hundred years...”
A heroine in a romance novel, might have touched his hand in comfort, perhaps pushed a lock of hair from his face, or just ran a thumb over his cheek. Perhaps she would tell him why she did one of those something like ‘it’ll all be alright,’ or ‘but the future is looking bright’ or something beautiful, but words and actions eluded me and I rubbed my palms against my knees nervously and proceeded to change the subject. “I didn’t think he was going to let us leave school grounds, but really, plenty of kids skip, or get picked up, I wonder why he was so heated about it.”
Calum’s hands gripped the wheel, “he probably thought ill of me. Probably thought we were dating.”
I swallowed hard and muttered before I could catch myself, “what would be wrong with that?”
“I’m a little over five hundred years older than you are for one. And at least to him, you’re a highschool student Aerabella, I look thirty, and even in this life am a little older than that.”
“In this life... how old are you?”
“Thirty four.”
“I’m sixteen.”
“I’m over double your age in this life, he probably thought I was some pervert.”
“You’re not!” I shouted intensely.
He smiled and I heard him chuckle. “I know I’m not, but they don’t know that vampires see age so much differently, they don’t know we exist yet.”
“Yet?”
Calum clammed up and stared at the road, checked his GPS and took a turn. “They might find out some day. Lives from now.”
“I guess,” I replied with a shrug, “I guess it could happen eventually.”
Calum nodded, “we’re nearly there.” Nerves took me and conversation died.