Dance Into the Dark: A Living in the Shadows Novel

CHAPTER NINE

  Sunday I chugged holy water all day (which, by the way, tastes like dirt), and was able to sleep marginally better. I still had nightmares that woke me up several times over the course of the night, but at least I couldn't remember them when I got up in the morning.

  At lunch on Monday I didn't see Jack anywhere. I wasn't surprised, really, just a little disappointed that he wasn't able to get the mystery of the ghost party incident wrapped up over the weekend (and maybe a little disappointed that he hadn't tried to contact me at all, not even to make sure I was okay). I found Dani and Nobuko hanging out with Jennie and Nate. As I approached, Dani looked unhappy and said something to Nobuko, which made her look embarrassed. I sat with them anyway, and they were all polite to me, but it felt like Nobuko was the only one who was even feigning interest in anything I had to contribute to the conversation.

  Once lunch was over Dani took off without saying anything to anyone. I tried talking to her before the starting bell rang for history, but she pretty much ignored me. She didn't wait for me to head over to the dance studio, either, and I walked alone to the club meeting. I purposely danced in the ballet-based group that day so I could try and talk to Dani, and she hissed at me that I was distracting her.

  Now I knew I could be dense but I wasn’t THAT dense. She was upset at me and was trying to "teach me a lesson", or at least prove to me just how upset she was, so I purposely started packing up my gear before the club was officially over, just to make sure she wasn't going to be able to leave ahead of me.

  I kept stride with her as she walked quickly – almost at a run - to her car. I caught her arm once we got to the parking lot and said, "Dani. What is your deal? I want to say I'm sorry for something because you're clearly upset at me, but I can't read minds and you need to tell me what it is I did that's making you so upset."

  She set her jaw and glared at me. I did the same. She gave up first and said, "Listen, I hate phonies. I understand trying to find friends in a new city, and I was ready to accept that you had moved on from our friendship once you became all 'buddy-buddy' with Jack, but I don't like feeling like a 'backup' friend, and I don't appreciate how you tried to pick up where you had just abandoned me once your apparent soul mate didn't show up to school."

  Ouch. I could be mean, but even that final sarcastic comment felt vicious. I felt bad, though, because I could see where she was coming from. "I'm sorry, Dani. I didn't mean to abandon you. I didn't realize how much time I was spending with Jack and how little I was spending with you. Jack and I have a lot in common, and he's been helping me out with some crazy things that have been going on in my life. But he's no replacement for a good girl friend, and you've been one of my best friends since I moved here. I don't think of you as a backup friend at all, and again, I'm sorry. Can I make it up to you?"

  She shrugged. "I don't know. I'm willing to put effort into our friendship, and I have been trying, I just don't want to keep putting in effort into a relationship that you're not willing to work on, too."

  I nodded vigorously and said, "I understand completely. Do you want to come over to my house this afternoon and hang out for a bit?"

  "Thanks, but I have some things to do tonight. Maybe later." She sounded doubtful, but at least it wasn't an outright no. "See you later, Kenna."

  I biked home, starting to feel depressed. I didn't normally mind spending the afternoon by myself, but due to recent events I felt safer when others were around. The breeze was colder than it had been, and I could feel autumn approaching. How early did it start snowing in Colorado? The previous winter was pretty warm for the country as a whole, but that didn't mean we should expect another warm winter. I was going to have to find out where the bus stop was and when it stopped there so I could take it once it started snowing.

  My thoughts dully continued on like this until I reached my house, when I noticed that my dad's car was already in the driveway. I cautiously entered into the house and called out for him.

  "Kenna, is that you? I'm in the kitchen!" He replied, and I headed his direction. When I entered the kitchen it looked like he was cleaning something up off the counter. He saw the look of confusion on my face and explained, "Oh, I was cleaning a vase and accidentally dropped it. Apparently I'm pretty clumsy - this is why your mother handles all the fragile stuff while cleaning." He tried chuckling, but it sounded forced. He looked up to give me a smile, and I noticed that he had a black eye.

  "What happened to you?!"

  "Oh, I was reaching for a block of wood on a high shelf at work and it fell before I had a good handle on it. It's no big deal."

  "Is that why you're home so early?"

  "No, no, I'm fine. Actually, your mother was asked to take the place of a researcher who dropped out last minute on a trip to Germany where a bunch of medieval texts were found in a castle. I've got double parenting duty now and wanted to get a jump on cooking and cleaning so we're not eating at nine o'clock at night." I could tell he was trying to make a joke, but he looked really sad.

  "Are you all right? Do you want any help?"

  "Yes, I told you, I'm fine. Stop asking me questions. Just let me work on prepping dinner and I'll let you know when we can eat."

  I wanted to stay, but his tone was very final; I needed to leave and that was that.

  The house was uncomfortably silent for the rest of the day. I'm not sure how Dad treated Arvin and Terra when they came home, but judging from the way they didn't look up from their dinner plates I guessed that they had similar experiences to mine.

  Arvin was the first to speak. "Why didn't mom say goodbye?"

  "She had to make a flight on time or she wouldn't have been able to go."

  "Is she going to call us when she gets there?"

  "It's a very remote area. I doubt it."

  "When is she coming back?"

  "I don't know. As long as it takes."

  "Is it going to be like a couple days or a couple weeks?"

  "I. Don't. Know. She had a good opportunity come up, she had to make a quick decision, and she decided to leave. That's all." Dad was stern, and a little stressed. I started to feel a little afraid, because my parents had never acted worried in front of us, not like this. Every time they were worried about having to leave before a move, they were just quiet. They never snapped at us.

  I was pretty depressed when I went back up to my room after dinner, and got super frustrated at myself when I realized that I had been neglecting Nobuko just as much as I had been neglecting Dani. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed her number.

  "Hello?" She answered after a couple of rings.

  "Hey, Nobuko! How's it going?"

  "I'm doing fine. How are you?" She sounded super formal and pretty monotonous.

  "Fine. Hey, listen, I just wanna apologize to you. I realized today that I've been a pretty crappy friend and wanted to let you know I haven't been purposely ignoring anyone. Especially you. I mean, I know I've been spending a lot of time with Jack lately, but a lot of it is because he's been helping me out with some stuff that's been going on."

  "I see. Well, I'm glad you have someone you trust enough to help you with your problems." Her tone wasn't bitter, but the words were clear: she thought I didn't trust her enough to confide in her.

  "Oh, Nobuko. It's so not what you're thinking. It's just that there's been some stuff going on with my parents and me and he's been where I am right now. It's really hard to describe, but... well, never mind. It's no excuse for me being a crappy friend and I really am sorry."

  She sighed into the phone. "I'm glad you called. I'm not angry, but I've been spending time with Dani because she's the next closest friend I have, but I don't really like her that much. She gets angry about a lot of things that I normally don't get upset about, but she's so infectious. When you walked over to us at lunch she made a comment about you that was pretty mean. I realized that she was making me really angry
at you when I didn't really blame you for anything at all. I mean, I was upset that apparently you didn't want to spend time with me anymore, but if you found a boyfriend, then I'm happy for you."

  "What?! No! Okay, first of all, he's NOT my boyfriend. He's a really, really good friend, but we're not dating. I don't even know where he is right now. Secondly, I love spending time with you. That's partly why I wanted to apologize - I realized that we really haven't talked much outside of class or dance, and I'd actually really like to hang out again sometime."

  "I would like that very much."

  "Great. Good. How about tomorrow?"

  "Sounds great. What would you like to do?"

  "Well... I haven't really thought about that. I'll think about it tonight. You think about something, too, and we'll talk about it at lunch tomorrow?"

  "Okay. Hey, I have a question for you."

  "Yeah?"

  "Is it true you were in the hospital on Saturday?"

  Uh oh. I was hoping that no one would find out what happened to me over the weekend. "Why do you ask?"

  "I tried calling you on Saturday. Your Dad answered your phone and said you weren't available because you were asleep at the hospital. He told me that a vampire had nearly drained all your blood?"

  "MY DAD IS SUCH A KIDDER! Ha ha! Oh man. You know, this happens wherever we move. My friends call and he'll take my cell phone from me and tell them the CRAZIEST stories!"

  "He sounded pretty serious..."

  "That's part of his humor! Like I said, he's such a kidder! Don't worry, you'll get used to it!" I hoped I didn't sound as hysterical as I felt.

  "So... you weren't in the hospital?"

  Crap. If I answered no she'd think I had been avoiding her. "Oh. Um. Well, I was in the hospital. But it's not a big deal. Some furniture fell on me and I lost some blood. It's really nothing to worry about."

  "Are you okay?! Why didn't you tell me?"

  "I really don't think it's a big deal at all. Really. Just... don't tell anybody, could you? I don't really want it to get out that I was in the hospital."

  "Oh. Okay. Well, as long as you're fine."

  "I am, yeah. See you tomorrow?"

  "Yes. I'll see you in English."

  I hung up the phone and fell back on my bed. I was trying to be a good person, really. I felt like I was failing, though, like something a part of me was just unable to function the way it was supposed to. I felt the worst for Nobuko - she was a pretty passive person as it was, but I couldn't tell if she accepted my apology because of that or if she was a genuinely faithful friend. I hoped it was the latter. I didn't need any more guilt over how I had treated my friends.

  Even though I had a glass of holy water before going to bed, I had nightmares again, and these ones were really intense - even after I got up in the morning I vividly remembered dreams of being bitten all over by several vampires, and ending up covered in blood; or dreams of my family laying dead at my feet. I woke up several times during the night in a cold sweat, and desperately prayed to whoever would listen to make my dreams not true, and help me calm me down enough to fall back asleep.

  The next day I failed to see Jack again during lunch, but tried telling myself that I would have spent the lunch period with Dani and Nobuko anyway. Dani was much nicer to me than she had been the day before, though when I invited her to hang out with Nobuko and me she declined, saying she already has stuff planned, dodging our questions when we asked what she was doing. But besides that, she was friendly, and we even walked into History class together.

  While I wasn't expecting to see Jack there, I was surprised to see Mina. While she only showed up three or four days a week, I had a hard time seeing Jack letting her roam around the school without him there. She made sure to catch my eye as I found my seat, and gave me this poisonous smile and a wink.

  I was suddenly very worried about Jack.

  I went through the motions of the afternoon anyway, not wanting to give Mina the satisfaction of knowing I was worried. The worst was when she purposely passed by me very close as she left the classroom when the bell rang, so I could smell the heavy, smoky and honey-sweet smell on her - the same smell that was on the vampire that drank my blood.

  I tried not to worry - after all, Jack was good at slaying vampires, and he knew a lot about the paranormal world, so I'm sure he was just... caught up in a mission or something. Then again, almost everyone had a better understanding about the paranormal world than me, and those vampires that attacked the party did seem pretty tough.

  I was distracted during dance club and would have excused myself early if I hadn’t made plans with Nobuko.

  "Are you okay?" She as we were pulling out of the school parking lot in her car.

  "Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Why?"

  "Nobody said anything, but you were dancing in the wrong group today."

  "What do you mean? I was in the martial arts group today. You know, kicking, jumping, stuff like that. That's what I was doing, right?"

  "Well... some of the time. Most of the time you were spinning and doing plies."

  I felt my face turn red from embarrassment. "I'm so sorry. I've had a lot on my mind lately."

  "What's going on? Or is this something that you can only talk to Jack about?"

  "No, no. Um. I don't know where to start. My mom left for Germany and didn't even say goodbye to any of us."

  "She left your dad?" Nobuko looked really worried.

  "No, not like that. A really good opportunity related to her job came up and she had to leave very suddenly. It's just really weird, though, and I can tell that it's really bothering dad. Oh, and do you know Mina?" She nodded. "She's trying to torture me during class. Not, like, hurt me. But I think she knows where Jack is and I think he's in trouble, and she's trying to get me worried."

  "Are you worried?"

  "Worried? Me? No. Why would I be worried? He can take care of himself," I hastily replied.

  She giggled a little bit, and I was irritated that she apparently found me funny. "You keep saying things to make it sound like you don't like him, but I think you really do."

  I breathed an exasperated sigh. "Me liking him like that would be so complicated. I mean, really, really, really complicated. In a lot of ways he's my best friend, though, so... yeah, maybe I'm a little worried."

  "I think you're repressing some amorous feelings..." She said in a singsongy voice.

  "NO. And even if I was, I'm really, really good at repressing them." I left it at that and let my gaze wander out of the window. I had been avoiding thinking about the ghost party ever since I woke up in the hospital, mostly because I didn't want to think about the way I felt while we danced. I definitely didn't want to start analyzing the way he kissed my hand. Before I let my mind start analyzing my feelings, I changed the subject.

  "So, are you going to tell me where we're going now that we're on our way, or is it really a surprise?" I asked.

  Nobuko grinned. "Okay, I'll tell you. My parents said I can get a pet, now that we live in a house with a backyard and a basement. We're going to the exotic pet store!"

  "No way! That's awesome! What are you going to get?"

  "I thought about a ferret for a while, but I heard they were mean, so I decided on a hedgehog."

  "Nobuko, you are the coolest person I know. Now I'm going to want a hedgehog!"

  We parked at the curb side and went in to the store. It was the coolest pet store I'd been in, since it had all sorts of amazing creatures; hedgehogs, tarantulas, snakes, tropical fish, even prairie dogs. The owner assured me that the prairie dogs were really trendy, but I just didn't "get" it.

  It sounded like a lot of fun at first, but things got really bizarre once I stepped next to the cages and tanks. Nobuko would look at an animal and beckon me to come close to it to check it out, but once I got close to the cage the animal would freak out. Hedgehogs are nocturnal an
imals so they were all sleeping, but when I got close the ones that were sleeping in the corner woke up, sniffed the air, then scuttled to the enclosed cubbies, trying to force the hedgehogs that were already sleeping there out. Those hedgehogs started panicking once they were forced out, and soon all the poor little creatures were trying to force their way in to the cubbies.

  The store owner tried to tell us that they don't normally act like that, but we moved on to look at the other animals anyway. It turned out to be the same - the fish and the prairie dogs all tried to find cover, but the snakes started coiling up and hissing. One of the snakes even tried to strike out at us when we passed by, hitting its head on the glass and dizzying itself in the process.

  Nobuko was really discouraged and we left without buying anything. She was nearly in tears when she started her car and said, "I must be terrible with animals. Did you see the way they acted whenever I got near them?"

  "Don't look too much into it. I'm sure it was a bad day for them. If you come back next week they'll probably be just fine," I tried to reassure her. "You know, I actually have a school project I have to work on. Is it okay if we hang out more later?"

  She nodded and took me home. We didn't talk much on the way there, mostly because I was feeling pretty bitter and she was still upset. I wanted so badly to tell her that it was me, not her, which caused the animals to act like that. I really, really hated to admit it to myself, but the fact of the matter was that when the snake tried to attack us I got that sick, unclean and empty feeling I had been feeling off and on since leaving the hospital.

  What had that vampire done to me?