TUNES

OUTBURST

Everywhere suddenly became quiet, as if the music was fading. I forcefully broke free from the anonymous strong grip and turned to see who it was. Surprisingly, it was Jesse, and he had the same weird black eyes as the other guy.

"Jesse?" I asked almost in a whisper, slowly moving backwards. His eyes gradually returned to normal.

"What the heck are you doing up here?" he asked, alarmed, peering through the walls to see if the scary guy had stepped out.

Consumed with fear, I asked with a trembling voice,

"What the f**k are you, and who was that?"

"The guy you saw is Nemus," he replied. "He's a vampire."

Stunned, I looked at him, unable to process what I had just heard. I asked,

"A vam... pire?"

I stared at him with wide eyes, slowly moving backwards, could he be the same thing he claimed the other guy was? So I asked,

"Are you?"

Then he spotted Nemus coming out from the room with a small black towel, wiping the blood from his mouth and he turned to me saying

"You need to get out of here, now!"

Without much thought, I ran down the stairs to the dance floor pushing my way out because it was crowded, then I bumped into Pink who seemed happy to see me

"Had a change of heart?" She asked cheerfully, but before I could think of what to say, she dragged me to the centre saying "Come on, dance with me"

"I'm not in the mood Pink," I said and let go of my hands from hers "I'll see you at the hostel"

"Leaving already?" Clary asked as she danced by with Eska.

"Yeah," I said immediately, looking for a route to ditch them

"Why?" Eska asked, looking at me suspiciously. Then I looked up at the gallery and saw Nemus looking down at the dance floor, probably searching for his runaway spy.

Already scared, I said with a shaking voice

"Something just came up; it's an emergency" With that, I found my way out of Clary's house but couldn't help but notice Eska suspiciously staring at me.

The next day at school, I tried to act normal when I saw Nemus, so I had to practice before heading out.

On my way to class, I was dragged to the janitor's closet, which freaked me out because I thought it was Nemus and he had found me. I was relieved to see that it was only Eska.

She pushed me against the wall of the small room and said a bit demanding

"Okay, freak, talk!"

Surprised, I asked, not knowing what she was implying

"Talk? About what?"

"What emergency you had that you had to leave that way?" She sneered

"It's personal" I quickly added hoping she'd respect my privacy and back off

"I smell lies" she said "I want the truth"

"Well, what's there to say? You'll think I'm crazy" I said trying to discourage the topic but it only got her interested as she leaned backwards, folding her hands and insisted

"Try me"

I signed; she wasn't going to believe me anyway, so I just decided to tell her the truth.

I explained my experience of last night to her and it didn't seem to surprise her at all, she just smiled and said

"So Nemus is back, some dudes just don't know when to give up"

Surprised, I asked looking at her weirdly,

"You know Nemus?"

"Yeah, our arch nemesis, he's supposed to be dead, I wonder how he survived the attack" she replied

"Wait a sec, if you know Nemus, that means, you know what he is"

"Yeah, he's a vampire, same as Jesse and Zack", she said, and my eyes widened "Ever wondered why this place is called Caveroop? It's the home to all creatures, vampires, werewolves, witches, you name it"

"And you are?" I asked already moving backwards in case she happened to be one of them

"A vampire" She replied with pride, showing me her teeth as the two teeth on either end grew into long, sharp, pointy fangs.

Her eyes became blood red with red veins across her face; I stood, pressing my body against the wall as I watched her change back to normal.

She smiled at me and signalled that she wasn't going to hurt me.

"You're different aren't you?" I asked noticing her odd transformation

"Nemus and Jesse had black eyes and veins" I pointed out

"Well, it's because I'm black blood," she said

"Black blood?" I asked already confused

"There are three types of vampire clans, the red, black and blue blood vampires" she explained "The red blood vampires are known as the full vampire, they alone can turn anyone into our kind, the blue blood vampires are called the true vampires, they only come out at night to hunt, a ray of light can burn their skin, yes we vampires are light sensitive, but only unlike the blue blood, our skin is only sensitive to the sunrise. While the red blood, my people, we're a hybrid of vampires and humans, we can't turn but we can kill"

I stared at her in amazement; you got to be kidding me, like what the actual f**k?

"You okay?" She asked when we got out of the closet I nodded my motionless head and she laughed

"Hey, you'll get over it, just give it time."

And we head to class.

Later that day, we headed to the basketball court to watch the team practice; the cheerleaders were at one spot practising their moves; turns out Pink was the leader of the cheer squad and had Clary as her assistant.

I sat down on the bleacher, thinking about what Eska had said earlier, as I watched Jesse move with the ball and make a shot.

He was cool, so handsome, and had nice abs that were visible through the singlet he wore. Men, I can't believe he's a vampire for real.

"Hey, DT", Zack called and came to sit beside me.

Knowing he was an actual vampire, I slowly adjusted without him noticing.

"You like my brother?" He asked, he must have caught me staring at him. "He's always the centre of attention to all girls, you can tell by his cute nature."

"Well, I'm not into him,", I said quickly. "I think he's rude, and he's not even my type."

"Then I guess I stand a chance,", he said, and I smiled; he doesn't look like a bloodsucking demon to me.

After practice, the players retire to their locker room. I was forced by Pink to follow them to visit Jesse.

In the locker room, I stood at one end while the rest went in to talk to Jesse when they were done, we were about to leave before Jesse called and said

"Can I have a minute of your time Terra"

We all paused; we were shocked. I am more than them; I can sense a wave of jealousy that flickers around Pink.

"Erm... I got work to do," I said without turning to face him and was about to leave the room before Pink held me back.

Trying to hide the fact that she was jealous, she said

"Come on girl, just hear what he has to say," she said intending to catch him under her charm then Clary leaned over to me and said in a whisper

"I think he's into you"

Then I smirked

"I doubt that"

"Come on Terra, nice guys like this don't come often" she whispered in such a way that only I could hear

"I wasn't looking for a prince", I whispered back, and then she pushed me towards Jesse as they all exited the room.

When they were gone, I moved back slowly saying

"Please don't suck my blood, I promise not to tell anyone about you"

He only smirked and said

"Why the f**k would I suck you? you're already bitter by your appearance"

I was a bit offended but chose to remain calm, then I asked

"Why then did you call for me? You want to turn me over to Nemus?"

"You know, you should never put your head where you're not needed." He said rudely "You're lucky I saved your ass back then."

"Wow, thanks for the pep talk" I sneered "Took you long enough"

"Get going, your presence alone is annoying me"

Then he headed for the shower

"Is that what you wanted to tell me!" I asked but he was gone then I muttered to myself,

"Jerk!"

...

In the dead of night, at an old garage, there were three hefty men, all dressed in black hoods, chanting Nemus's name. He was seated on an old red car, half damaged and by his side was a woman, fairly beautiful; she wore a red slivery dress.

He ordered the men to stop with the chants, then turned to the woman and said looking so worried

"I don't know who it was but I could sense its presence"

"So you mean to tell me that the one we've searched for years is in cave room high?" She asked with a flick of excitement

"I suppose" he replied and the woman played a mischievous smile on her face saying

"Then I think the time has come, let's not miss this opportunity destiny has given us" With that, she left, still wearing the strange smile on her face.