Cursed Fate

6- Friends

After eating the full meal and grumpily walking out of the Headmaster’s office, it is no wonder I start to feel sick.

The world swirls around me and I have to cling to the walls to manage to walk forward without tripping on my own feet.

It’s ridiculous and I hate it. And I hate the bastard who caused this to happen.

I have to stop in the middle of a tunnel when a sudden nausea hits me and it’s all I can do to keep the contents of my stomach inside. Not that I want it inside all that much, but if I throw it all out, I’ll have to eat another meal again. I REALLY don’t want that.

I hit the wall with my fist in frustration and immediately regret it. It hurts like hell and when I look at my clenched fist, I notice it is bleeding.

Stupid human food.

Our blood isn’t like human’s. It’s a dark color and it is much thicker.

I am about to continue my slow walk towards the dorms when a familiar voice reaches me.

“Naiya!” It’s Cyla. Owen and Olivia are right behind her.

I know they are my friends and they are obviously here to help, but right now I don’t want to see anyone.

So, I just continue my tormented walk to the dorms, ignoring them as they come closer to me.

“Naiya?” Cyla calls me again after I failed to respond the first time. But I still ignore her.

“She’s obviously ignoring you, Cyla” Olivia says, always the cheery one. “Something terrible must have happened to her”

Cyla suddenly gasps. “You’re bleeding!”

“I’m fine!” I suddenly shout. “Now, leave me alone!”

“We’re not gonna leave you alone” Owen says. “We’re your friends”

“What happened to you?” Olivia asks me.

“Nothing! I’m FINE!” I shout at them, feeling frustrated. “Go away”

I can tell they are watching me in silence as I continue dragging myself along the wall trying to reach the dorms.

Suddenly, I feel a tap on my shoulder and before I know it, Owen pulls my arm over his shoulders, supporting part of my weight. A second later, Cyla does the same with my other arm.

“What are you doing?” I ask them.

“Like I said” Owen says. “We’re your friends”

“We’re not gonna let you drown in your own misery like this” Olivia adds. “Not when we weren’t the ones who caused it”

“Vi!” Cyla exclaims.

Olivia just shrugs, but I know she doesn’t regret a word she said. She’s weird like that.

“Let’s just go to the dorms” Cyla says. “You really need to rest”

I sigh and give in to their willingness to help me in my torment. “Thanks guys…”

“You’re welcome” Cyla says with a big smile as she and Owen help me walk through the tunnels.

“What happened to you anyway? Did they make you eat human food or something?” Olivia asks again.

“That’s exactly what happened” I tell them, grumpily. “After I nearly attacked that BASTARD, whom just so happens to be my mate, the Headmaster ordered me to eat a full meal and now I have to eat human food every day to ‘control my instincts’”

It feels good to manage to vent with them. I was wrong to try to shut them out. I need them if I am ever going to get through this. They are good friends.

They seem a little surprised that I mentioned that new werewolf student is my mate, but know better than to comment any more on that.

“Ew” Olivia just states.

“What’s so wrong with human food, anyway?” Owen asks. “Cyla and I eat it every day and we’re fine”

“Human food is poisonous to vampires, you i***t!” Olivia tells him, hitting him over the head. “You should know that”

“Right, right…” Owen starts. “But what exactly does it do to you? You’re not dying, are you?”

“Sure feels like it” I comment.

“Human food makes vampires weak” Olivia explains. “Makes their supernatural abilities almost disappear, they feel sick and dizzy. In short, it makes them more… Human…”

“You’re so smart, babe” Owen says with a sheepish smile, making me and Cyla roll our eyes.

“Shut up” Olivia says. “And don’t call me babe”

She is about to hit him over the head again, but Owen dodges, turning into a ferret.

I almost fall flat on the ground when I lose his support so suddenly, but Cyla manages to hold me up.

“Owen!” Cyla shouts.

“You i***t!” I shout at him.

“Come back here and let me hit you!” Olivia shouts and runs after him with her fist in the air.

Owen just runs, still in his ferret form and the sight of Olivia trying to catch his wiggly form is just so funny that Cyla and I can’t hold our laughter.

We are still laughing when we finally reach our room in the dorms. Owen has wiggled his way out of Olivia’s grasp and has probably run over to his own room in the boys’ section of the dorms.

He shares his room with two of the werewolves of our class he’s also friends with. Well, Owen is friends with everybody. He’s just that type of guy.

I share my room with Cyla and Olivia, which is how we became such fast friends. We’ve been together for nearly 3 years. There is still a vacant bed in this room, but in all 3 years we’ve lived here no one has claimed it.

Until now, I guess.

Cyla has just finished help me lay on my bed, when the door opens slowly and in comes someone I was not expecting to see again today.

It’s my ‘twin sister’.

“What are you doing here?” I roughly ask her. Cyla and Olivia look at me in surprise at my sudden brusqueness.

They don’t yet know about what is going on. All they see is another girl who looks a whole lot like me.

“I… I was told this is my new room…” Anastacia starts. “It is where I am supposed to stay while I live in the Academy…”

“Oh hell no!” I shout and am about to get up to protest but Cyla pushes me down.

I’ll tell you, she may be only a witch but she is hella strong. Especially now that I am in this weakened state.

Cyla smiles at Anastacia. “Hi, I’m Cyla” She introduces herself. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Anastacia…” My ‘twin sister’ answers. “Maybe I should go. I could ask for another room”

“Nonsense!” Cyla starts, still pinning me down. I look at her, my eyes spilling bloody murder. “Don’t mind grumpy old Naiya here. We have a vague bed, see?”

Cyla points to the empty bed at the end of the room. “You’re more than welcome to stay!”

I am about to protest again, but Cyla uses her powers to slightly shock me.

“Ow!” I shout, but Cyla just continues smiling innocently at Anastacia.

“Are you sure?” She still acts doubtful.

“Of course!” Cyla says.

“Sure” Olivia shrugs. “We need fresh blood”

Anastacia looks at Olivia confused at what she said.

“That’s Vi, short for Olivia” Cyla says. “She’s just weird”

Olivia looks at Cyla with a threatening look.

“For a mermaid, that is” Cyla adds and that seems to appease Olivia a bit.

“Alright…” Anastacia says, obviously still unsure.

She slowly walks towards her new bed and closet with the few possessions she has, taking in everything around her. Each of us has a bed, a bedside table, a closet and a desk.

The room is simply composed by 4 sets of those, but through the years we managed to decorate it with a few things we managed to buy when we go on field trips up there. It no longer looks like a vacant room. It looks like home.

We even occupied what is now Anastacia’s desk with junk from our classes.

“Oh, right!” Cyla suddenly notices it. “This is also yours. We’ll get this stuff out now. Vi, help me out”

“Why?” Olivia asks.

“Just help me!” Cyla shouts as she starts removing the junk from the desk.

Olivia sighs and helps her empty the desk for Anastacia.

“Thank you…” Anastacia thanks them and then looks at me as if frightened at what my reaction will be.

Honestly, I am done feeling upset over this. I have long since learned that when Cyla gets something on her head there is no getting it out. If she wants Anastacia to stay, she will stay.

“So, how come you two are so alike?” Cyla suddenly asks, while still removing the junk.

“Are you clones?” Olivia adds.

“I suppose we are twin sisters…” Anastacia starts, looking at me again. “Although none of us really remembers what happened in our past”

Cyla gasps, looking at me. “You told her about your past?”

“No, you i***t” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “I’ve told you I am never telling anyone else”

I understand why Cyla got so surprised. She and Olivia are the only people who know what happened to me in the past or how I even came to be a vampire. I haven’t even told Owen.

“Why?” Anastacia inquires, curious. “Did something bad happen?”

“Let’s do it like this” I start. “I’ll tell you about my past when you tell me about yours”

That shut her up. She lets her arms fall to her side, defeated.

“I suppose you are right” She says.

“So, none of you remember what happened when you were kids…” Olivia says. “So, you can still be clones”

“They’re not clones, Vi” Cyla says.

“Well, they could be” Olivia continues.

I watch them as they continue on their rant on whether we are clones or not and sigh, feeling too sick to deal with this right now.

Absentmindedly, I look over to Anastacia and notice she is looking at me. As our eyes cross, I understand we have made a silent pact.

We may be sisters, but we have a long way to go if we want to trust each other.

So, for now, we are just acquaintances working together to try to understand why we were separated and what happened for us to lose all our childhood memories.

And maybe, with luck, we may become good friends at the end of it.

I softly smile at her and lay back down in my bed, feeling exhausted. She shyly smiles back at me and starts putting away her few things.

I fall asleep to the sound of Olivia and Cyla still arguing.

And yes, vampires sleep too, especially while on human food.