The Zoey Chronicles: The Awakening (Vol. 1) (4 page)

BOOK: The Zoey Chronicles: The Awakening (Vol. 1)
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I stumbled onto
the street. The sun burnt down horribly and my skin felt like it was on fire, and yet I felt more alive than I’d ever felt. The scent was thick in my mouth. I followed it eagerly.

 

People looked at me strangely as I passed. I didn’t blame them. I was still wearing my hospital gown and was snarling like a hungry animal. I wasn’t myself. All I could think about was how amazing my own blood had tasted, and how someone else’s blood would probably be even better.

 

I didn’t know whose scent I had and I didn’t care. All that mattered to me was the blood. My mind had been replaced with two things. Follow the blood. Drink the blood. Those thoughts were the only constants as I staggered through the street. Follow the blood. Drink the blood.

 

A man put his arm on me and I was dimly aware of him asking me if I was okay. I lashed out without thinking. He fell back against a wall and screamed out in pain. People shouted at me, asking me what my problem was. I snarled at them, bearing my pointy, blood-covered teeth. They backed off, muttering apologies.

 

Yes, I thought, feeling powerful. You should be sorry.

 

Zoey Brook was gone. All her insecurities, all her weaknesses, all her self-hatred had disappeared. I was powerful. I felt like a god. Each movement I took was infused with energy. Despite the sun’s burning hotness, my skin tingled with pleasure. My eyes were keen and I felt like I could run a marathon without tiring. I’d been moving for a while and yet my heartbeat hadn’t increased. It was just a steady thump.

 

Thump. Thump. Thump.

 

Occasionally a voice would drift into my head, a weak voice that wasn’t my own. What are you doing? It would say. Where are you going? You can’t kill a human and drink their blood. I ignored it. Why couldn’t I?

 

I didn’t know what I’d transformed into or why I’d transformed into it, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was the blood. The scent was strong now. It wrapped itself around me like a blanket until I couldn’t tell which direction to go in. I breathed in deeply, savouring it.

 

In a few seconds I knew where I was and where to go. The midday sun tinged my skin as I walked through the school gates. It was break-time, and the children were out playing. Looking at them now, with my newfound power coursing through me, I found it hard to believe that I’d ever been scared of them. They were puny insects, ones that I could easily crush.

 

I walked through them. They stopped and stared at me. “What a weirdo,” a girl said.

 

I turned on her. She trembled under my gaze. She was only small, around four years my junior by my guessing, but I walked up to her nonetheless. I leaned down and took a long whiff of her hair. No, it wasn’t her blood I wanted. She sneered at me. “You’re a freak,” she said, and her friends laughed.

 

I didn’t get angry. I calmly lifted my arm and swung it into her face. She fell back and two older boys stepped forward. “Hey,” one said. “Leave her alone.”

 

“Leave her alone?” I said, focusing my attention on him.

 

He squirmed under my gaze, like an ant under a magnifying glass. His friend stepped up, but his trembling hands betrayed his confidence. I laughed, loud and long, and then jumped at them. My arms moved faster than I would have believed, and I moaned in pleasure when I heard the sound of their bones breaking.

 

I lashed out blindly and wildly, not caring what I hit. I felt like I’d taken a drug. Every movement gave me pleasure. Every time I hit one of the boys my fist tingled warmly.

The group of watchers started to disband as the beating went on, seeing that it was no normal schoolyard quarrel.

 

When I
’d finished, both lay on the floor in a pool of their own blood. One’s face was smashed to pieces, so much so that I couldn’t even see his eyes for the swelling. The other looked crippled from the waist down, his legs bent at unnatural angles.

 

There was a part of me that was screaming out. Stop, it said. Stop this now. But I ignored it. Who was it to tell me to stop? I was stronger and better than them, and for that I deserved to do with them as I wished.

 

I knelt down next to them and lapped their blood like a cat lapping milk. It was glorious and it swam around my mouth like dark chocolate. I swished it around, in between my teeth and behind my tongue, and closed my eyes and savoured the taste.

 

The scent was still thick in my nostrils, however, so I knew that this wasn’t the blood I was meant to drink. I didn’t know why, but it seemed important to me to follow the scent, to drink the right blood. I stood up and licked my lips, shaking with pleasure as the last drops of blood slid down my throat.

 

The boys moaned and stared up at me. They were alive. I thought about killing them, just to show that I could, but then the voice in my head spoke. No, it said. Don’t kill them, please, you’re better than that. I snorted but let the curs live.

 

My heartbeat still hadn’t got any quicker, and I wasn’t shaking, save for the small quivers I experienced every time a spare drop of blood went down my throat. I was calm. I’d just beaten two boys half to death and I was calm. I knew, somewhere deep down I knew that that should have scared me, but I felt only joy. I was powerful! No one would ever bully me again!

 

Follow the blood. Drink the blood. Follow the blood. Drink the blood. Follow the blood. Drink the blood. I rounded a corner. I kept following the scent until eventually it led me to the back of the science classrooms where I’d been attacked by a weak human only a few days ago.

 

The human stood there now. She was fat and her stomach was covered in markings. Her face was that of a pig’s, a snout-nose flat against her pink skin. Someone else stood next to her. Ben! The voice in my head shouted. It’s Ben, help him!

 

I didn’t know who Ben was. All I knew was blood and the pursuit of it. But I sniffed the air and I knew that one of these humans was the one I was meant to drink from. The fat girl was beating up the skinny boy, throwing him to the ground and kicking him over and over again in the stomach.

 

I stepped forward and growled. The girl turned around. When she saw me she let out a laugh. “Hell,” she said. “And I thought I was having a bad day. You like terrible. Go away, or you’ll be next.”

 

I growled louder and took another step forward, and clenched my fists tightly at my sides. “Leave him be,” I said. My voice sounded odd, deeper and more akin to an animal’s snarl than a human’s voice.

 

The fat girl looked at me. She was still smiling, but now it looked like a nervous smile, not the one a bully wears. “Okay,” she said, backing away from him. “Okay.” She stepped over Ben’s body and made to walk away, but when I saw her big pink neck I couldn’t help myself.

 

I jumped at her. She barely had time to let out a squeal before I had my hands on her. I grabbed her head and yanked it to one side with ease. I stretched her neck out. The sun shone down, still burning into my skin, but I ignored it and focussed on the neck. It looked amazing.

 

I bared my teeth. No, the voice in my head said. No, leave her be.

 

I ignored it.             

 

Her blood was thick with fat and it took several gulps to get the first mouthful down my throat. After that the flow became easier to handle. She moaned and hit at me feebly as I fed on her, but she was too weak, and I held her firmly.

 

It took a few minutes to drain her completely. When I was done, I chucked her to the ground. What have you done? the voice in my head said. You’ve killed her! You’ve killed a person! I smiled. “So what?” I said aloud.

 

I drove the voice down so that it couldn’t bother me. The scent was still thick, and I realised that it wasn’t the girl’s blood that I was meant to drink. It was the boy’s. He looked up at me with wide eyes. “Zoey?” he said.

 

“I don’t know a Zoey,” I said, grabbing him by the collar and hauling him to his feet. I took a long sniff of him. Yes, I thought. This is definitely him. I stroked his hair. It was soft, and instead of wincing away, he seemed to enjoy my touch.

 

I laughed. “You like it when I stroke you?” I said. He blushed and looked down. “Can I eat you?”

 

His eyes were bright blue, but when I said that some of the light seemed to drain from them. “Zoey, what is going on?”

 

“Your scent is the one I followed. I need your blood. I need your blood, now. I’m going to drink your blood and make you a part of me. I want you.” I didn’t know where the word had come from, but I knew as soon as I said them that they were true. I needed his blood. I didn’t know why, but the urge was too strong.

 

I grabbed his head like I’d grabbed the girl’s, and bared his neck. I opened my mouth. The sun was still burning down, getting hotter and hotter with each passing second, but the sight of his neck was enough to drive it away. My body tingled all over, a mix of pleasure and pain and anticipation. No, the voice said. You leave him alone.

 

I smiled. He was trembling. He tried to turn his head to look at me, but I twisted it away. I was an inch away from his neck now, and the scent was delicious. I knew his blood would be even more delicious. I pressed my teeth against his skin, softly, pinpricking it. Two spots of blood immediately appeared and slid down his neck. I pulled back, staring at it and licking my lips, and then I bit forward, my heartbeat quickening. The monotone Thump Thump Thump had turned into a hammer THUMP THUMP THUMP.

 

But then someone pulled me away and I dropped the boy. He fell to the ground. Whoever had hold of me whispered in my ear. “Draegbane vuúlish macaárb dú!” he said, and I fell to the ground.

 

My mind emptied completely and for a few seconds I was a zombie, and then the voice, the one I’d been ignoring, the real me, emerged and reclaimed its body. The lust for blood, the feeling of invincibility, the burning sun on my skin—all of it disappeared.

 

I didn’t turn to see who’d grabbed me. I just ran over to Ben. “Are you okay?” I said, wrapping my arms around him.

 

He pushed me away and wiped at his neck. I tried to hug him again, but again he pushed me away. “Ben, it’s me,” I said. “It really is.”

 

He stared at me for a long minute and then said, “It’s really you?”

 

“Yes.”

 

He jumped forward and hugged me, holding me close. We held each other for a long time. I’d never been more thankful for his embrace. My mind was a whirl. I daren’t look down and see Jessica’s lifeless body. It was too much. Slowly, I turned to face the person who’d grabbed me—Galahad.

 

He smiled and bowed. “My lady,” he said. “It is an honour to finally meet you. I’m afraid I must insist that we depart immediately.”

 

“What?” I said, too confused to say anything else.

 

“We must leave now,” he said.

 

“Why?”

 

“Just come with me,” he said. “I will explain everything when I can.”

 

I looked at Galahad and then at Ben, and then at Galahad again, and then at Ben again.

 

“Stay,” Ben said.

 

“Come with me,” Galahad said. “We don’t have much time.”

 

What should I do? I thought. Who should I go with? In the end the decision was made for me. The sound of sirens rung out from the school gates, and I knew that they were here for me. I’d killed someone, and the thought made me sick. I was a monster. I couldn’t stay. If I did, I’d go to prison. I probably deserved to go to prison, I reflected, but I was too cowardly to do the right thing. “Okay,” I said to Galahad. “I’ll come with you.”

 

He smiled and grabbed me by the arm. I looked back at Ben. “I’m sorry,” I said.

 

He just looked down at the ground. Galahad pulled me away.

We sat in the forest together.
I sat on a rock, holding my father’s medal. Galahad had gone into the hospital and got it for me, along with my clothes. I’d been crying for around an hour, crying for the two boys I’d beaten and for Jessica. She was a bully but hadn’t deserved death. Galahad had explained it to me.

 

“You were undergoing the transformation, becoming a vampire. When one first becomes a vampire, they go into a fury, a rage. Many describe it as someone taking over their body.”

 

I’d been so numb that I didn’t even express shock at the fact that I was a vampire. What was the point? I’d killed someone. I was a murderer. I’d nearly killed my only friend.

 

When I’d asked Galahad why I’d wanted to drink Ben’s blood so badly, his answer had shocked me. “When we turn we acquire the scent of the person we are most attracted to. We experience an uncontrollable urge to drink their blood and make them part of us. You were just lucky there was somewhere there to stop you. Not everybody is.” He’d sounded sad.

 

Most attracted to? I pushed the notion aside as absurd, but it wouldn’t go away completely. Perhaps I was attracted to Ben and just wouldn’t admit it to myself. It didn’t matter now anyway. I may never see Ben again, I thought. I only have Galahad.

 

I looked up from my father’s medal at him now. His golden beard glowed in the setting sun. He was topless, chopping firewood for the night. His muscles rippled and glistened as sweat poured down his body. His face was determined, strong, as he cut the wood. Despite everything, I felt a fluttering in my heart. “Why did I change now?” I said.

 

He set down the axe and put a loose-fitting t-shirt on, and sat down opposite me.

 

“Vampires aren’t born vampires. We are born human and then our bodies have to be shocked into mutating into vampires. I suppose your shoulder injury was the shock that you needed.”

 

I nodded and rubbed my sharp teeth with my tongue, being careful not to cut myself. They were much, much sharper than they were before, and I felt stronger and faster, and even after everything I’d been through, I didn’t feel tired. “What now?” I said.

 

He smiled. “Well, there are many problems that need your attention, but before that I need to train you and take you fully through the transformation.”

 

“Problems? Why would your problems need my attention?”

 

“When you changed, did you have any visions or dreams?”

 

“I saw you in a dream,” I blurted out, before I realised how childish it sounded.

 

He only smiled. “And you saw your parents.”

 

“My parents?”

 

“Yes,” he said. “The woman in the dream was your mother and the man was your father, my master.”

 

My mind went back to the hospital. What had my mother said to me? “Trust Galahad,” she’d said.

 

“You took me to my mother when I collapsed,” I said, confirming what I already knew. He nodded. “So my mother was the woman in my dream, the one so in love with the man?”

             

“Your father, yes.”

             

I stifled a smile. My mother, the cold, hateful woman was once a passionate lover. The notion was hilarious, and a little unsettling. Questions arose in my mind, and before I could stop myself I’d spoken them aloud. “Why does my mother hate me? What is the Order of the Undead”

             

Galahad furrowed his brow and was silent for a minute. “I suppose because your father had to stay and fight to make sure that you survived,” he said. “If your mother wasn’t pregnant, your father may have fled with her.”

             

So I was right, I thought. It wasn’t anything I’d ever done. It was something that had had happened before I was born. Fresh anger swelled within me at that knowledge, but pity too. She’d had to give up the man she loved. “And the Order of the Undead?”

             

“The Order of the Undead is a group of vampires who make sure that vampires don’t kill too many humans and stay relatively hidden. Of course there will always be rumours and such, but we do our best. Your father was a key member in it, when he was alive. He was the one who stopped Mordrain from taking over and killing humanity. He was a good man.”

             

“Mordrain was the big man?”

             

Galahad nodded. “Yes.”

             

I sighed heavily. It was all a lot to take in. I decided to change the subject. “So what now?”

             

“Now,” Galahad said, rising and stretching his arms. I couldn’t help but look at them, big and well-defined through his t-shirt. “We sleep, and tomorrow we start your new life as a vampire. You have a lot to learn, and we don’t have much time, but if we work hard, everything should be alright . . . I hope.”

             

He said the words
I hope
in a whisper as he prepared the fire, and I don’t think I was meant to hear them. I lay my head down on my makeshift bedroll and closed my eyes. I tried not to think about anything that had had happened over the past few days.

             

Most of all I tried to block Ben out. I didn’t want to think of him. I’d nearly killed him and I’d abandoned him. Knowing Ben, the second had probably been the most painful. Who would be his friend now?

             

Something came back to me and I turned to Galahad. “What’s the key?” I said.

             

He was facing me but at the question he turned over. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

             

I was a little offended by his blunt answer, but I pushed the thoughts away and closed my eyes tighter. I clutched my father’s war-medal to my chest. I needed to ask Galahad what he’d won it for. Tomorrow, I decided, rubbing my tongue over my teeth.

 

I’d ask him tomorrow.

 

The End...for now

             

             

             

             

             

 

 

             

BOOK: The Zoey Chronicles: The Awakening (Vol. 1)
8.95Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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