Ophelia

Chapter 7

Casper, Elizabeth and Elliot walked in together, followed by Benjamin trudging slowly behind. I watched them as Elliot said something, making Casper and Elizabeth laugh. As soon as Elizabeth saw me, she waved and skipped over. "Hey! So what are you doing later?"

"I'm actually calling my family to see how they're doing. Why do you ask?" I smiled.

She shrugged, "Maybe tomorrow we can have a girls day? Seeing as classes are cancelled-"

"Speaking of which, the reason we are here in the first place, what's going on?" Benjamin deadpanned. He glared at Elliot, "You said vampires like our kind is deranged."

Elliot rolled his eyes, "Nothing against vampires personally. It's just that factually, the only ones acting out are the vampires. We've had four attacks now."

Casper's eyebrows furrowed, "Four? I've only heard of two."

"That's because I was attacked and so was Elliot. Different times of course, but now there's another on the loose and-"

"And they are not so easy to deal with. They lock in on the prey and attack until the target is eliminated or they themselves die. They're ruthless, deranged and strong. So far... we've gotten three of four." Elliot and I both looked away awkwardly.

The three stayed silent. I cleared my throat, "I've been trying to figure out what's going on. When werewolves go wild, they're almost always rogues. It happens because they've been away from a pack for so long, the wolf side takes over completely and becomes ruthless. But these vampires..." I looked frown at my hands, remembering what I was experienced first hand.

A rugged man all but slithered out from behind the trees. Crouching on all fours like a rabid animal, baring fangs of a vampire but with strange black markings reaching up his neck. His eyes sunken in and dilated, irises a glowing blood red. He snarled and spit like a dog with rabies. "Who are you?" I called out once more. He crept towards me, eyeing me up as if I was his next meal. "One last time, who are you? What... are you?"

In reply, he screeched and hissed. He couldn't even form a correct reply, only noises. His long talon looking claws dug into the dirt as he got closer. With a final step, his entire body rocked back before lunging forward at me. With a wave of my hand, his body flew away from me and was impaled by a tree branch. But it didn't kill him. He barked in pain and laughter as he dangled in the air. What is he? I wondered. With a snap of my fingers, his neck was broken and he was lowered down to the ground.

I studied him one last time. His skin unhealthy and pale, almost transparent enough to see veins, arteries and muscles. The markings on his neck traveled down to his chest but ended there. Simply touching his hand, I could read into his past. He was once a vampire, following a clan. But anything about his markings was absent. Cut out of memory almost.

I looked back up and found everyone watching me. "Sorry, what was I saying?"

"You were describing the vampires," Benjamin's eyes were narrowed but his eyes were soft.

"They're rabid," Elliot took over. "They were prowling like animals, with red eyes and transparent skin. Their body was so taken over by whatever's going on that they couldn't form coherent sentences, just growls, snarls, and hisses. They were completely inhumane."

Elizabeth looked terrified, grasping the sleeve of Benjamin's jacket. "They also had these strange markings," I put in.

"Strange markings?" Casper asked.