Ophelia

Chapter 11

I searched through an old grimoire gifted to me by my uncle. On one of his trips, he came across it in an old temple. It was gross, creepy, and covered in dust but it had information that I had either already known or at least heard of inside of it. This book had nothing based around any viruses, rabid behavior, or black veins. This either meant the Rabids' behavior is caused by something either older than this book or it's fairly new. Yawning, I set the book down and made my way to the kitchen counter to snatch an apple.

Suddenly, the front door was broken open. I went into defense mode expecting someone with bad intentions, but when I saw it was just a friend I relaxed.

"What is my brother to you?" Elizabeth stormed in, slamming a small painting down on the kitchen counter in front of me. My eyes were wide as she glared me down. I glanced down at the painting and noticed the familiarity of the a sad face and white hair. Gasping, I reached down a land hesitantly slid the image towards me. A solemn girl, snuggled into the crook of my favorite chair in the school library, looking out the window. Her hair was tied up into a messy bun, her hand held up her chin as her elbow dug into the armrest. She stared out the window thinking about life and wondering if she would really be able to take on the responsibility of the Rabid issue on her own. The girl was me, two days ago. I had never noticed anyone watching me, especially not Ben. I must have been really lost in thought. "Well? Are you going to tell me or not?"

I'm sure I was gaping like a fish, I didn't know what to say. Ben had painted a picture of me, it was so amazingly detailed and beautiful. I looked up at Elizabeth and noticed how angry she was, her eyes swirled red with anger as she huffed in and out. "I... he's..."

"Spit it out!" She roared.

"He's supposed to be my mate..."

She sighed in relief, "Oh okay I thought you were going to say that you were his- wait! What?!" She sped over to the other side of the counter and got in my face. "You either are or you're not. What do you mean supposed to be?!"

"Well, he sort of just refused to be my mate." I watched Elizabeth as she sputtered in shock. "He wanted to continue to be with others and wanted me to just be on the side waiting with my arms open."

Suddenly, she whipped her phone out and began to dial. As soon as I saw Ben's name pop up on screen, I snatched the phone from her hand and hung up. "What was that for?" She frowned, "I wanted to give him a piece of my mind."

"He doesn't need it." She stared at at me for a long while in silence. I listened to the patter of rain outside my balcony while the painting caught my eyes again. "He either accepts me or he doesn't. Some days, he acts like he does. Other days I don't exist. I told him I'm not going to sit around and wait."

Elizabeth suddenly snatched my hand and pulled me towards my bedroom. She went straight for my closet, looking through my clothes. I could hear her mumbling no's and ew's along with the scratching of hangers. She came out with a small suitcase on one arm and an outfit rolled under the other. "We're goin got a trip." She threw the clothes at my face and attempted to walk away without being questioned.

"A Trip? It's almost winter break! Couldn't it wait?" I looked at the clothing she threw, noticing the jean shorts and crop top. "Elizabeth, it's winter. If I wear this outside, I'll be looked at like a nutcase." She walked into my bathroom and started gathering essentials into my travel bag.

"It's just for the weekend! I'm sure Rabids can wait for you to come back!" She huffed from the neighboring room. "You need a mini vay-cay anyways. All you do is study, train, and protect. Girl, how do you sleep at night not having a stress free day to your name?"

I scoff, "I don't." I said it more to myself but she heard it and came back into my room.

"Exactly. That's exactly why you need to chill. No boys, no Elliot, no monsters, just us girls and our piña colada's." She tossed me my bag and grabbed my hand, pulling me up with her. "Now zap us over to my house, I gotta grab us some things before we hit that beach!"

The manor crowded, vampires rushing around almost in panic. Elizabeth was clearly confused and grabbed the nearest person—causing them to halt to a stop. "Lady, what the f- Oh! Lady Elizabeth!"

"Yes, now what's going on?" Elizabeth released the man and watching him stumble back.

"A couple members of our clan have been discovered missing, everyone is trying to count heads which is kinda hard to do when everyone is rushing around and all." I looked past him to see Casper just sitting on the couch of the living room in the midst of all the chaos. His head lay in his hands, his blonde hair hanging down like a shaggy curtain.

Elizabeth's head whipped to the side, facing me with a concerned look. "Could it be? You know, the—"

"Rabids." Casper said, appearing beside me. "They were our own and no one noticed their disappearance. For creatures with supernatural senses, we sure are disappointments," he gave a sad chuckle. Glancing up, he noticed the travel bag. "What's up with you guys?"

"Nothing!" Elizabeth snatched my hand and tried rushing me away but Casper grabbed my other hand and yanked me right back.

"Elizabeth..." he drawled our like a condescending father. "I wouldn't have cared but then you acted like a teenager trying to sneak out of the house to a party."

"Cause you're going to tell Benji like the rat you are, Cas!" She tried pulling me back towards her. My body was then the prop of a tug of war game.

Casper pulled. "Just tell me what you're doing!"

Elizabeth pulled. "No!"

Casper pulled. "I won't tell Benjamin, I promise!"

Elizabeth pulled. "NO!"

"Stop!" I growled, yanking my arms away from them both. They froze in fear; in fact, every vampire in the house froze. My voice echoed off the walls, the floor shook, paintings fell and glass cracked. Casper's eyes were wide, obviously in shock over the power in my voice. Elizabeth's body rattled with chills as a smirk slowly rose to her face. Her eyes glanced between Casper and I, obviously amused at how shaken Casper was. Then she noticed the rest of the house still frozen in place and watching our every move.

"Beat it! Scram! Get out of here!" She shouted at them. They all immediately scattered back to whatever they were doing. She turned to me with a sudden smile, "I'm going to go grab my things! I'll be right back!"

She was gone, leaving me in an awkward uncomfortable silence. I rocked back and forth on my heels waiting for a reaction. "Ophelia... I had no idea you were that strong. You definitely don't give off that kind of energy!"

I shrugged, "I get that a lot... So..."

"So..?" He repeated.

"One of your guys just said that vampires were discovered missing, but they didn't seem to know that they were found." Casper glanced away guiltily. "You didn't tell them, did you?"

He grimaced, "Benjamin has working so hard on cracking this, I didn't want to break his flow and tell them that the creatures were coming from us. He'd be heartbroken. Besides, he'd be the one to tell everyone else, not me."

All I could do was give a sad smile. They deserved to know. It was their family and friends disappearing and turning into monsters after all. Casper needed to tell Benjamin; whether Benjamin liked it or not, his people were in danger and it was causing humans to be in danger. No one was safe with this virus going around.