Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

1 - ᴠᴀᴍᴘɪʀᴇ

IT HAD BEEN two hundred years since she had set foot on the soil of Forks and it hadn't changed one bit. The wolves still ran freely on the reservation, creating all sorts of racket as their paws squashed the earth beneath them. The trees still spread across most of the town, getting older with every passing second. The one's she had planted on her first stay here stood tall, peering down on all those around it. She smiled as she passed them in her yellow car, she loved leaving little stamps in the world that no one else would recognise. The population had grown since then but thankfully, as if she had not meticulously planned every move in her life, those people no longer remembered her. Well, apart from one.

During all her years, something pulled her towards Forks. Call it what you will but she just had a feeling, a feeling that was constantly threading want into her mind. As soon as it had been safe to make the move, she bought the first house available and was out of her old house by noon that day. One pro of the Vampire lifestyle - packing speed. She drove at the usual speed and just admired the passing scenery- reminiscing about all the places she had been in her long afterlife.

Athena arrived at her new two-bedroom home deep in the middle of the night and wasted no time unpacking everything from her car - that way she could do it at her own speed and not have to slow down for any midday strollers. She decorated her entire home top to bottom within four hours, making sure everything was placed perfectly. She had a few cups that resided in the kitchen, for guests, but other than that the kitchen remained untouched. She had a large television in the living room in front of the most comfortable sofa on the planet. Books littered any and all surfaces possible: some were stacked in corners, topped with hanging plants, others stacked in rows on the many shelves that were dotted around the room and the rest of them took up the majority of the room in the spare bedroom that she had converted into an office. Layers and layers of books covered three of the walls and the other had a desk, already covered in various papers, facing out of the window. Her bedroom had a double bed - for show mostly- and had so many plants, posters and other memorabilia plastered over the walls that she could hardly see the grey paint underneath them. That's how she liked to live- surrounded by organised chaos.

The following morning, she changed into something suitable for school. A simple oversized knitted sweater, jeans and boots. She left her pale brunette hair hanging in its unruly yet perfect style that stopped just as it reached her shoulders. With one final check over, she grabbed her things and headed out of the door - choosing to walk the short distance to the school in order to enjoy the scenery.

With music playing in her ears, she arrived at the school and internally groaned at all the faces already starting at her - each with perplexion yet intrigue written all over their faces. By now Athena had learned how to ignore the gaze of mortals, how to block the thoughts that swirled in their minds from her head. So she just walked on, climbing the steps without as much looking in the direction of anyone. "Athena?" a small voice, dulled out by the power of her headphones, asked. She smiled and nodded, pausing the music as she pulled the buds from her ears. "Athena, the new girl?" he asked as if she hadn't heard. She smiled and nodded, knowing he had an entire introduction planned that she didn't want to interrupt. "I'm Eric, the eyes and ears of this place. Anything you need, tour guide, lunch date, shoulder to cry on?" he smiled, awaiting her answer.

"A tour guide would be great actually, thanks Eric," she smiled gratefully. Eric's face lit up as she showed him her timetable.

"Okay so, you have Mathematics first which is totally boring but the teacher's alright. Then History, which is just down that corridor there," he stopped walking and gestured to the corridor to their left. "And then English, which I have too so I can show you that after lunch if you want. Oo I should probably show you the cafeteria too," he grinned, quickening his steps. Athena followed, walking a little quicker alongside him. She smiled at how happy Eric seemed to be just by showing someone around, she had realised long ago that it was the little things that humans enjoyed most. She liked being a part of something that could bring him the smallest amount of joy for a little while anyway.