A Touch of Scarlet

34

I sit cross legged on a wooden stool, one arm props a colourful paint pallet against my knee and the other holds a brush against the canvas.
I sing absentmindedly to All Time Low's "Therapy" as I paint.

"My lungs gave out As I faced the crowd. I think that keeping this up could be dangerous..."

I sigh happily. This room is my haven, in this art studio; studio B3 to be exact. Here I have found refuge.

I watch my hand as it silently moves rhythmically to the song.
Over the last few months I've been different; emotionally and physically.

"Give me therapy. I'm a walking travesty But I'm smiling at everything.
Therapy..." I continue to quietly sing along to the out of date song.
I glance to the paint-splattered full length mirror at the back of the studio. I silently hop off of the stool and make my way over to it.

I glance over my toned body and stare openly at my features.
Somehow I've turned into a predator.
I mean ... To vampires, humans are their prey.
So my newly perfected features are meant to lure in prey I assume.

If I were standing here staring into the mirror at myself about one year ago all I would've seen was a 5'4 girl with averagely limp dark-brown hair, pale skin with lots of freckles and pale blue eyes.
Now the girl that stares back at me looks perfected. As if each flaw was erased and re-sculpted until perfection occurred.
Her dark brown hair flows healthily to just past her shoulders in small natural waves, her pale skin has an unnatural glow almost like porcelain, that causes her pale blue eyes to stand out even more against her black-mascara coated lashes.

"Hmm" I hum to myself, I glance back towards my canvas.
Weighing my options: continue to examine every inch of the vampire version of my complexion ... Or go back to painting.

I walk back towards my canvas and climb onto the wooden stool.
I sling one leg over the other and pick up my paint pallet.
The world around me crumbles away, piece by piece as I brush in every stroke.
My painting comes to life over the next hour. I paint soundlessly as if I'm the only one in the world, just me and my brush.
Every event from the past few weeks dissolves into nothingness.

⋆⋆⋆

"BZZZ", "BZZZ", "BZZZZ".

"Lydia check your damn phone" Jordan sighs from the couch,
"Fine" I reply, hopping off of the opposite couch and jogging towards my phone that sits noisily on the table.

I flip the device over to find a handful of text messages from Elliot;

1:14pm - 'Hey wanna hang out?'

1:30pm - 'Lydilalala pick up your phonee'

1:54pm - 'You alive kid?'

2:23pm - 'I'm trying to decide right now if your avoiding me ... or if a shark came to your door, wrestled your phone out of your hand and devoured it'

A small smile breaks out on my face as I type in a response:

Lydia - 'Hey El I'm alive, wanna come over to eat some shark-sushi from the shark that I just wrestled? It's fresh ;)'

Elliot - 'Mmm as appetizing as that sounds I was thinking something a little more fun'

Lydia - 'were you now?'

Elliot - 'yes ma'am I am. so come meet me'

Lydia - 'K'

With that I place my phone back on the table and dash to my new 'room'.

I throw on a pair of jeans with a mint green sweater,
Then I sling my purse over my shoulder and make my way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Jordan asks,

"To meet Elliot" I reply before quickly shutting the door behind me.

⋆⋆⋆

"Do you realize that you spend every second of your day with boyzz?" Elliot asks pointedly, but it's more of a statement.
"No I don't-" I start but she cuts me off,
"That Lydia Ames is BS, you have no girl time whatsoever".
Is it on the passenger seat of her car silently, "oh".
"So today I'm taking you away from Reece, Jordan, Carter and-" she pauses "Nate".
I send her a smirk "how's it going with Nate by the way", she sends me a scolding glare quickly before turning back to the road. "No boy talk. Today it's just us women" she states, "alright".

Here I sit, it's been about an hour since we got out of Elliot's car and she walked me into the building that I now sit in.
"WOOO" she cheers from the archery lane that she stands in, her bow slung over her shoulder and her hands in the air. My eyes dart to her target where yet another metal arrow sits perfectly splintering the board in the very centre.

Elliot is one of the most competitive human beings I have ever met.

"Lyd get over here" she gestures towards the lane beside hers, where I'd moments before dropped my bow in defeat and walked away.
"Nah I'm good" I reply, she gives me a warning gaze "Lydia you will get your little arse over here and you will have a great time".
I let out a nervous laugh and hop over to my lane picking up the abandoned bow.
"Elliot I'm no good" I wine, then to prove my point I place an arrow in the bow, pull the string and arrow fledgling towards me, I breathe then let it fly.
The arrow slams into the board with such force that both I and Elliot wince.

"I don't understand how there can be such power in your flick of the arrow, cause that's literally all your doing, flicking the arrow forward" she observes.

I'll trade in this damn vampire strength anytime in return for some talent in the area of sports/activities anything basically in that area.
"I was uh ... I was just born with natural strength" I murmur sarcastically,
"Oh yeah? Where was that strength when you dropped that eight pound weight on your foot last year in gym class?" She asks mockingly.
I narrow my eyes at her "never. ever. ever. bring up that class in my presence again" I hiss jokingly, she gives me a smile before reloading her bow again.
"Chris wait!" I hear a cry from one of the far down lanes followed by a ear piercing scream, I glance around the nearly vacant room.
Other than Elliot's and my own there are only three other occupied lanes.
Two lanes down from mine is a group of 3 teens ... Around maybe fifteen years-old?
One guy has dropped his bow and is running towards the lane beside his own.
In the lane itself is a boy standing gauntly, empty bow in hand, his jaw slacked and his face drained of colour.

Finally slumped against the wall is a girl her face equally pale to the boys, however unlike the boy her shirt is tarred near the bottom and is turning a deeper and deeper shade of scarlet every second that passes.
"Holy hell" I hear Elliot exclaim in the distance, but it's quickly forgotten as I advance the sweet smelling girl.

The closer I get the more severe her wound appears. In the centre of the tare is a bright blue metal arrow, the raw-ripped skin around the wound folds back unevenly under the quickly escaping blood.
I feel my pupils bleed out, fully covering my blue irises. I mentally flinch at the pain of my canines piercing into my lip causing two small droplets of blood to squeeze to the surface. I lick my blood coated bottom-lip and hiss as I watch the blood ooze down her open wound.

I now stand above the girl, her body is too weak to acknowledge my presence, the boy who ran over to her however cowers away from me in fear, "what the hell are you?" He whispers.
I ignore him, using every inch of my strength to not bite into the poor girl and suck the life out of her, the sweet coppery taste floods my senses.

Instead I on instinct bring my wrist up to my mouth, rip open the smooth flesh and press it against the girls slightly open mouth.
The slightest bit of blood enters into her system, when I notice her colour starting to return I place my hand around the arrow in her body and mentally count to three.
"I'm sorry" I whisper through my barely controlled lips, then pull, the girl lets out a blood curdling scream but when I notice the wound starting to turn light pink and seeming slightly smaller, I step back.
I quickly shut my eyes, squeezing them painfully tight then turn around And stiffly walk away but not without shoulder checking Elliot on my way to the door.

"This is why I spend every second of every day with those boys" I hiss, leaving a venom filled aura in the air behind me.