Page 6 of This Blood That Binds Us
My calves ached in sync with my throbbing shoulder. Every step hurt as I sped down the busy hallway of Johnson Hall, a long corridor with high arches and light peeking through the windowsill at the end. It was the longest hallway our college had, and the end of that hallway just happened to be my writing class. I glanced at my phone. I’d make it just in time. My body was still sore, and I cursed myself for not accounting for my slowness.
As I reached the end, dirty blonde, disheveled hair caught my attention. A vague sense of familiarity set my nerves on edge. My feet stopped before I knew what was happening. Standing twenty feet away from me was the monster that had haunted my dreams since Thursday. He strolled with a group, two other guys at his side. One of them had to have made a joke because they were all laughing. His white teeth glistened in the morning light, and my stomach sank. Their laughter carried up the walls and up to the ceiling. His eyes...just brown. No hint of darkness from before.
It was him.Thatvampire was at my school. In my hallway. My heart kicked my ribs, and I ducked behind the person in front of me. My jagged breaths were getting me weird looks as I clawed my way against the flow of traffic. I wanted to run back to my dorm. But my class door was open, and I had already used up all of my sick days when I got the flu that winter. Missing meant dropping a letter grade. That wasn’t an option for me.
I spun, just in time to watch him disappear in the room two doors from mine. He hadn’t seen me. Just as the clock hit nine o’clock, I reached my classroom door and funneled inside. In a haze of exhaustion and wind-blown hair, I found my usual seat next to Mikayla. She wasn’t someone I had considered a friend because we never hung out outside of class. I’d tried to invite her for coffee a few times, but it never amounted to anything. She always bailed at the last minute. But she was nice and praised me on my class presentations, plus small talk was her specialty.
“You look like you’ve had a rough day.” A pointed smile played on her lips.
I ignored her, my eyes glued to the door. Every muscle in my body was on high alert, waiting to sprint out the door. I thought about saying something, but what would I say? He didn’t look the same as he had in the forest. His cheeks were rosy, and his eyes bright and full of life. Could I have been hallucinating again? Was I absolutely sure that it was the same guy? I wasn’t even one hundred percent sure there was a guy.
“Are you . . . okay?” Mikayla watched me with a crooked, thick brow.
I loved her Lily Collin-esque brows and constantly gave her tips on how to enhance them.
“What gave it away?” I forced a smile, still short of breath. Blood pumped in my ears, and my hands shook. I willed my feet to walk to my chair and take a seat.
Our classroom was one of the least memorable on the campus. While some had stadium seating, wooden arched ceilings, and thick-framed paintings, this one must have been a broom closet at one time. It was smaller than my other classrooms, and the desks were old. Mikayla smiled. “Definitely the hair.”
I chuckled. “T-Thanks. I . . . woke up late this morning.”
“Oh, I’ve been there. There’s no shame in that. It’s just unlike you. You’re usually so polished,” she said, reaching for her binder from her purple school bag hanging on her chair.
Mikayla eyed my university sweatshirt in her peripheral. She wasn’t wrong. I loved dressing up for class and feeling confident. My confidence was miles away, floating down the river in the nature reserve.
Forcing my brain to focus on the present, I mirrored her movements. My fingers pulled the binder from my backpack andplopped my pencil bag on our table, the sound inaudible under the noise of the classroom.
Our professor had yet to arrive. I scanned the door. My forearms ached with tension, and I used my palms to try to get them to loosen.
“So, howwasyour weekend?” Mikayla said.
“My weekend?” My heart jumped into my throat.
“Geez, too much coffee this morning?” Her voice was perky, but her eyes held no emotion as she flicked through each page in her binder. She stopped to point at the white board.
In thick, bold black letters, the board read, “Write a single page front and back explaining what you did this weekend.”
I choked on the irony, covering my mouth for a cough.
“Didn’t you say you were going camping or something?” She pulled her mechanical pencil out, clicking it a few times to move up the lead. “How did that go?”
“Oh, yeah. It was...great. Pretty uneventful. I read a lot. So, that was good.”
My stomach twisted. At least it wasn’t a complete lie. I pulled a piece of paper from my book bag, eyes still trained on the door, my only escape route.
“Well, that’s way easier to write about than mine. I spent the entire weekend helping my boyfriend move into his new place. He was too cheap to pay for a moving truck, so we made, like, fifty thousand trips in my Fiat. Apparently, his brother stole his car, and his landlord wouldn’t let him have an extension on the move-out date. It wassoannoying.” Mikayla groaned, resting her head on her hand. I was thankful for her long, detailed stories and lack of attention.
“Wow, that sucks. At least you guys can enjoy your weekend this week, right?” I gripped my pencil and concentrated on writing my name and the date in the left-hand corner.
She sighed, her brows pinching. “Maybe. I told him I wanted to go on an actual date. No more bars. He gets way too drunk, and I have to drive him home.”
Our professor walked through the door and unloaded her materials from her rolling briefcase. “Good morning, class!”
“Good morning,” we both grumbled under our breath, along with just a few others in class.
I dug my pencil into the lines of my paper, leaving a little pile of lead. I could just jot down a quick lie for my warm-up, but my eyes kept floating to the door.
Out of all the places, the guy went tomyschool. What kind of hideous trick of fate was that? It was possible he wasn’t a vampire at all. If it weren’t a hallucination, he could be some kind of lunatic. For all I knew, there could be a cannibal cult running around, drinking blood. Somehow, that was the more likely scenario.
