blood-borne

12. detached

Two months bled together and dragged on agonizingly slow. What terrified me more than anything during that time, I lost all contact and communication with Rory. Each day that passed me by and I was without him was absolute misery.

It was currently mid-December. The last time I saw Rory was on my birthday. I've tried calling, but his phone never rings. It always leads me straight to his voicemail. When I would stop by his house to get answers, his car was never there. His mom and Rina never opened the door to even talk to me.

I've been stressing and worrying about this constantly. Mainly because this wasn't Rory, not at all. I wondered if all of this was happening because of what happened the night of my birthday party. If it had something to do with Grayson and what he did. But why would that make Rory cut off all ties with me? Or worse... What if he had gone missing? Like all of those people, I read about in the newspapers.

Rina and Rory weren't showing up to school and after a while, the teachers stopped bringing them up altogether. They assumed both of them had dropped out.

I have had a challenging time sleeping at night, but that was nothing new. Not knowing what happened, if he was okay, or his whereabouts were driving me insane. I hated being kept in the dark.

Besides Rina and Rory's absence, school has also been making me feel like I was losing whatever sanity I had left. A couple of weeks ago, two of my classmates, Peyton and Phoenix Winters went missing. There were search parties for days, the whole nine yards. They couldn't find them anywhere. Now, they are back at school like nothing had ever happened to either of them.

I was relieved they were found and unharmed, I wished Rory and Rina would show up like how they did.

However, Peyton and Phoenix came back differently and things became strange.

On the day they returned to school, both of them kept complaining about the lights. I assumed maybe they had a migraine or were especially sensitive to the bright lights. However, I witnessed their eyes start bleeding from contact with the intensity of the fluorescent lights. Both of them got it taken care of by getting special types of contact lenses that are supposed to help reduce the sensitivity.

Several of my other classmates started absurd rumors about Phoenix and Peyton being vampires.

As if all of that wasn't bad enough, we've officially hit snow season. Harlow has a reputation where the snow period of the year lasts for about five months. Also, all of the teachers were preparing us for final exams. The only class we didn't have to take a final in was physical education.

Nothing was the same without Rory with me, even being in the cafeteria was making me feel lifeless.

Since he was gone, I haven't had the urge to go to art class, and that was something I loved about school. Mrs. Connelly was one of my favorite teachers. Being in class now was sorrowful, having to be trapped at our empty table alone for an entire hour.

Mrs. Connelly ended her lesson; I finished my project for the day. As I placed it on the drying rack, I saw that even my artwork was changing. I returned to my table, opened my backpack, and pulled out some other homework to work on to pass the time.

That's when I started missing him badly. I missed his jokes, the way he corrected my horrible homework mishaps, and the irresistible half-smile he would flash after he corrected me. As much as I made him believe it annoyed me, I got attached to those small, simple things.

The bell sounded off, catching me off guard. I began to put away my textbooks and notebooks.

Before I could escape the classroom, Mrs. Connelly's voice stopped me. "Hailie, wait a minute."