Chapter 51

One Year and six months ago

Britney woke up to the sound of soft rock from her radio. She slowly opened her eyes to the new rays of the day. Her eyes fell on her cat shaped wall clock and she blew a strand of her hair off her face. A useless attempt because it continued to brush against her forehead.

Britney threw her duvet off and set her feet on the floor. She yawned all the way out of the room and straight into Whitney's. Britney knocked twice and peeped in. The bed was empty but the shower was on.

"Oh, she's up so she must be okay." she nodded.

Britney closed the door and went to have a shower of her own. Hers was quick and soon she was all dressed up. Only problem was that she couldn't find the right shoes for her dress.

A thought hit Britney and she smirked to her reflection in the mirror. Britney tippy toed back to Whitney's room. She smiled to herself when she heard the shower. Britney rushed into Whitney's walk in closet and snatched a pair of boots.

She stretched her neck at the sudden silence. Britney rushed back out and wore the boots. She then made her way to the bed and sat down with her legs crossed. The moment she locked eyes with Whitney, she smiled at her.

"I see you have taken a liking to my new boots." Whitney commented and opened her closet.

Her words were met with a giggle. "You mean my boots." Britney smugly replied.

Whitney rolled her eyes playfully at her. "What happened to the ones I got for you?"

Britney waved her hand dismissively at Whitney. "Oh, those don't go with this dress."

"Britney, you are too much. Go away now, I want to get changed in peace. As you know, today is a big day for me. I just hope my head stops pounding soon. I'm all out of aspirin."

Britney lowered her chin concerned. "I actually came to check on you because of that. You were so weak last night." she remarked with a furrow.

"I'll go to see a doctor after work. I just hope it's nothing serious." Whitney sighed only to giggle after. "Now out you go."

Britney snatched a scarf off Whitney's headboard and ran out laughing before closing the door. She went back into her room and packed books into her bag. On her dressing table laid her golden bracelet. She smiled at it and picked it up.

"And to think that I almost forgot about you." She said to it as if it was alive.

Britney made her way into the kitchen. She fixed herself a bowl of cereal and observed Whitney for something. Whitney squinted her eyes at the trash bin and Britney stretched her neck to see.

"You dropped them last night after nearly crushing into the garage." Britney explained. "I couldn't find them at the time." she added with a shrug.

"That was weird." Whitney commented and rubbed her throbbing forehead. "Come on, let's go." she added after picking up the keys.

"No thanks, I don't want to get into a car with you in that state. I'll take the school bus." Britney teased and picked up her bag.

She made her way out and stood alone at the sidewalk as she waited for the bus. Whitney hurried to her car and waved goodbye to Britney. Britney waved back at her and watched her drive off.

She started to whistle to herself when she heard a vehicle. Britney turned and saw a red pick up truck coming her way. The truck stopped by her and in it was Alex Weber, her classmate. He looked warmly at her through his spectacles.

"Hi Britney, are you waiting for the school bus?" Alex asked her.

"Yes I am unfortunately." Britney gave him a captivating smile that made her brown eyes twinkle in the morning sun.

"Would you like me to give you a ride?" Alex cheerfully offered.

"Please." Britney accepted and got in. "You are such a life saver, Alex." She flattered him after sitting down.

Britney whistled along to the soft country music that was playing on the radio. Alex took a look at her, smiled and joined her whistling. They whistled to the end of the song and burst out laughing.

"I didn't know that you are into country music, Britney." Alex commented, clearly amused.

"My father played country music a lot when I was little." Britney cheerfully remarked.

"That's great. He has good taste in music."

"He had." Britney's tone became low. She tucked her hair behind her ear. Her discomfort was palpable. "He died many years ago with my mother in a car crash."

Alex furrowed with his eyes still on the road. He cleared his throat as the tension consumed him. "I am sorry about that."

"You don't have to be. It's okay, I have my older sister. She takes great care of me." Britney softly punched Alex's shoulder with a chuckle.

Alex pulled over into the highschool campus. "We're here." He stated.

"Thanks for the ride Alex." Britney got out of the truck. "I guess I'll see you later in class." She said to him through the window and went to her friends by the school entrance.

Alex watched different students join Britney and her friends. Most of them were her basketball team mates. Britney was very popular in the school. She was the school's star basketball player, three time prom queen and an A student to boot. Everyone wanted to be her friend and every guy in school wanted to date her.

Alex parked his pickup truck and walked to class all by himself. He was an introvert in nature. He had no family and hardly ever had any friends because he spent most of his time alone.

Alex joined everyone in the class and sat at his usual seat -- the back seat. He stared at Britney who was chuckling and chatting with her friends. He was smitten by her beauty. He was mesmerized by the way she twirled around her cute fingers as she spoke.

Alex especially loved the way she tucked her hair behind her ear. Britney sensed him staring and she looked right at him. Alex smiled at her and dropped his gaze feeling very embarrassed at been caught staring.

She is my mate. I still don't understand how I am worthy of her. Would she ever accept to be with me after knowing what I am? Alex pressed his lips in thought.

He sighed and looked up again but this time, someone else caught his attention -- Sheila Cooper. Sheila was close to Britney and Maria Lawrence. The three of them spent so much time together at school. There was no doubt that Sheila was Britney's biggest competition in basketball and popularity. The two of them however took their rivalry in a sportsman way.

Sheila looked back at Alex. Her eyes glowed yellow and she rolled her eyes at him before turning away disgusted. Alex knew why Sheila didn't like him. He actually didn't like her either so her hatred did not bother him. After all, it was normal for natural enemies to hate each other.

I can't believe that to this day, she hasn't fed on any of the students. Alex shook his head and opened his book.

The English teacher, Mrs Griffin, got into class with a stern look on her face. The class immediately went silent at her deathly presence. She ordered them to turn their books to page fifteen and the lesson commenced. Halfway into the lesson, the principal's voice sounded through the speakers.

'Britney Stewart, please report to the principal's office.'

Britney was dumbfounded as she got up to leave her desk. Her friends whispered to her and she just shrugged her shoulders. Without wasting anymore time, Britney made her way to the principal's office. She found him alone and at his desk.

"Take a seat Miss Stewart." The principal said to her through his moustache.

Britney felt awkward and quietly sat down. I hope nothing has happened to Whitney. Could she have crushed her car? Britney swallowed hard as she thought. "Is there anything wrong sir?" She asked.

"Well, I don't know Miss Stewart. Is there anything wrong?" The principal asked her back in a harsh tone.

He opened his drawer and pulled out a bag of marijuana. He slammed it onto his desk and glared at Britney. Britney was stunned by his actions and looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you implying that that weed is mine?" Britney asked him.

"I am not implying anything. We found this in your locker." The principal folded his hands and tapped his foot.

"That isn't mine." Britney refused.

"I have two witnesses that say otherwise." The principal insisted.

"Okay, this has to be a joke. I mean you can't be serious."

"Oh but I am."

The principal got up and buttoned his jacket. He went to his door and opened it. To Britney's surprise, Sheila and Maria walked in. Sheila looked confident and bold whereas Maria appeared timid and anxious. This forced Britney off her chair.

"Are you ready to admit your offence now?" The principal asked her.

"Sheila. Maria. What is going on?" Britney asked them.

"That's hers sir." Maria shakily said to the principal. "We tried to warn her against selling weed to the students but she wouldn't listen to us." she broke down crying.

"Maria!" Britney gasped. "Why are you lying?"

"Oh shut up, Britney. The only one lying here is you." Sheila vehemently said to Britney. All her eyes depicted was sheer hatred.

Britney glared at Sheila and clenched her jaw at the bubbling anger threatening to erupt. "You fucking bitch. I should have known."

"I will not have that language in my office." The principal rebuked.

Sheila scoffed and crossed her arms. "You knew that what you were doing was wrong. The least you can do is act remorseful."

Britney turned to Maria stabbed her chest with her finger, "She put you up to this didn't she?"

Maria cowered away and took refuge behind Sheila. She hugged herself and kept her gaze low.

"You're pathetic Maria!" Britney blurted out.

"Silence!" The principal ordered. He handed a piece of paper to Britney. "You are hereby suspended Miss Stewart. We have already emailed your guardian. We expect you to be here next week Tuesday with your sister so as to discuss your punishment. If I were you, I'd start thinking of enrolling at another school because I can assure you that you are getting expelled. You are even lucky that we aren't calling the cops."

"This is bullshit." Britney angrily cramped up the paper.

"I said I will not have that kind of language in my office, young lady!"

Britney sprayed daggers at everyone. "This isn't over. My sister is a lawyer. I will not be unfairly expelled." She boldly said to them and stormed out of the office.

Britney went to her locker hastily wiping her tears of anger. She took out all her books and left the school premises. She took a bus back home feeling so miserable. When she finally got home, she went straight to her room. Britney turned on her radio and threw herself, face down, on her bed. The melodic songs on the radio relaxed her a little and before she knew it, she was fast asleep.

Five hours had gone by when Britney was awoken by the sound of the doorbell. She lazily got out of bed and went to open the door. She was completely stunned to see Maria. Maria nervously rubbed her hand and bit her lip. Britney looked around for Sheila and there was no sign of her. Maria's timid eyes infuriated Britney so much that she slammed the door in her face.

Maria frantically knocked on the door. "Britney, please you have to listen to me. Give me a chance to explain myself."

Britney looked down at her from her bedroom window. "Why should I listen to you?"

"Please, I am begging you." Maria started to cry and Britney groaned in frustration.

"Pipe down will you? I don't need you catching the attention of my neighbors. Get in the door isn't locked. "

Within a minute, Maria was in Britney's room. She gave herself a seat on Britney's bed. She didn't have the courage to look Britney in the eye so she just faced down.

"Well, I don't have all day." Britney remarked after an awkward moment of silence. "Oh wait, I do have all day because you and Sheila got me suspended."

"I am sorry Britney. Sheila made me do it." Maria remorsefully said. "I tried to stop her but she wouldn't have it." Maria faced Britney, her soft eyes swollen from crying. "You must be careful. Sheila isn't..." She paused. "normal." She ended with a whisper.

"Oh, I am so scared." Britney rolled her eyes and waved her hands. "Just forget it. Maybe I should just transfer to another school. That's if Whitney doesn't kill me."

"Have you told her?" Maria asked

Britney sadly shook her head. "I'll tell her when she gets back. Today is an important day for her and I don't want to ruin it."

"It must be nice to have a sister." Maria smiled faintly.

"Yeah, you can say that." Britney toyed with her bracelet.

"She has a beautiful taste in jewelry." Maria complimented. "May I take a closer look at it?"

"Sure." Britney took it off. "You can even try it on if you want." She said to Maria's delight.

The door bell rang and Britney excused herself. She opened the door only to face Sheila. Britney scowled at her and crossed her arms.

"Are you here to pull out the knife you left behind my back?"

Sheila grinned."Why don't you let me in Britney?"

"Fuck off." Britney swung the door closed but Sheila blocked it with her hand. "Are you out of your mind?" Britney angrily asked her.

Sheila said nothing and forced the door open. The impact was so great that it threw Britney stumbling to the wooden floor. Britney covered her bleeding nose as she stared at Sheila in shock. Sheila stepped into the house and opened her mouth wide to Britney. Britney was astonished at her fangs. Her bright yellow eyes pierced through her soul.

Maria ran down the stairs and gasped when she saw them. "Don't do this Sheila. You promised that you wouldn't hurt her if I helped you lie to the principal."

"Shut up you idiot. Don't you know that people don't keep promises anymore? What are you doing here anyway? You're supposed to be at the orphanage!"

Britney tried to get up but Sheila gave her a swift kick in the face. At that point, Maria ran to Britney and shielded from Sheila with her arms apart. Sheila growled at Maria in anger.

"You will have to go through me first." Maria uttered for the first time without a hint of fear in her voice.

"Don't think that I won't hesitate to kill you just because we grew up in the same orphanage." Sheila warned Maria. "Get out of my way!"

"Never!" Maria screamed.

Sheila roared and grabbed Maria by her hair. She proceeded to sink her fangs into Maria's neck. Britney screamed in horror as life left Maria's eyes. She couldn't believe how Sheila tossed Maria's lifeless body aside like it was garbage.

"She loved you. How could you do this?!" Britney cried.

"I don't form bonds with humans." Sheila smirked evilly. "You will be joining her soon."

Sheila's flat shoes made clack sounds on the floor as she slowly approached Britney. Britney crawled away from her backwards screaming. She got up and turned to run when Sheila pulled her hair and slammed her face into the glass dinning table. She held Britney's head up. Britney's blood poured down her face. She felt herself blacking out. The disgusting feeling of Sheila licking the blood off the side of her face made her skin crawl.

Sheila roughly threw Britney to the ground. Britney tried to crawl away but she was kicked hard in her ribs. The second kick knocked the breath out of her lungs and she fell to her side. The iron taste of her blood repulsed her. She helplessly felt Sheila pull her leg and slam her hard against the wall. Britney laid still on the ground feeling excruciating pain from her head and broken ribs.

"That's enough." A different voice suddenly sounded.

"Great One! You are here!" Sheila gasped.

"Of course I am dear. I had to see how you would execute your first order."

Britney weakly turned to see who was talking to Sheila. She saw a blurry image of a woman and three men. The Great One noticed her staring and she approached her. She knelt down beside Britney and grinned at her. Britney was astonished to see that they looked exactly alike.

"Hello. It has been a while, sister." The Great One cheerfully stated.

"Who are you?" Britney asked, and spat out blood.

"You mean you don't remember me? I used to visit you a lot when you were little." The Great One laughed. She turned to the men. "Packet brothers, don't you find it odd that she doesn't remember me?" She asked them.

"We most certainly do Great One." Danny answered with a tilt of his hat.

The Great One pouted. "I think it's because my hair used to cover my face at the time."

Britney was astonished at her words. "You are the little girl who always tried to hurt me."

The Great One chuckled. "In deed I am. My name is Escabitha and I am your sister."

"You are not my sister." Britney refused.

"Oh but I am. Didn't mother ever talk about me?" Escabitha asked but Britney remained silent. "Typical of her and that useless husband of hers. Believe me when I tell you that we are sisters Britney."

Escabitha pulled a chair from the dinning set and sat down.

"Let me tell you a little story Britney. A long time ago, mother was raped by a vampire on her way home from school. The whole ordeal left her and your father, who was her fiance at the time, traumatized.

When they discovered that she was pregnant, they were horrified. Story short, after several failed abortions, mother gave birth to me and dumped me in a trash bin. She and her husband left me for the street dogs. An elderly woman saved me and took care of me. She unfortunately was absorbed by a darkas god when I was ten."

"That was terrible Great One." Billy remarked.

"Broken hearted, I decided to use my powers to track down my biological mother. After a few months of searching, I finally found her. I remember looking through a window one night and behold, there she was. The most beautiful woman I ever saw. I felt so proud to have a mother so stunning. I rang her door bell with an excited heart. What happened next still haunts me to this day."

There was a moment of silence in the room as everyone waited for the Great One to continue. She harbored a hurt look on her face. With a sigh, she continued.

"Mother screamed the moment she set her eyes on me. I admit that I was dirty and unkempt but who could blame me? I spent the first ten years of my life in the streets. Anyway her husband fired a shot gun at me. It took me the whole night to recover from that wound."

"Great One, this story is very sad." Sheila sympathized.

"It only gets worse Sheila." Escabitha lovingly looked at Sheila. "Despite the harsh treatment..." she continued. "I still went looking for her again. This time around when I found her, she was holding a baby. Thereafter, I spent years watching her show love and affection to you and Whitney. This made me angrier and angrier."

Escabitha got up and kicked the chair across the room. "How could she show me so much hatred but love you and Whitney? We all came from her womb! It's not my fault that I was born a monster! I didn't even know that I was a monster! I was just a little girl craving love from her mother!"

Another chair went crushing into the wall. Escabitha stood away from Britney, hyperventilating to herself. All Britney could do was stare at her back with a swollen and bruised eyes. Escabitha whipped her hair back and scowled at Britney.

"One night I decided to take your place. Because I aged slowly, I looked more like you despite being over fourteen years old. You were four at the time. I thought of killing you but I failed each time. I eventually gave up and my anger towards mother worsened."

"It was you who caused their car crash, wasn't it?" Britney asked Escabitha.

Escabitha cracked up laughing hysterically. "You catch on fast little sister. Well, I distracted you that afternoon and took your place in the car. Mother and your ratchet father were supposed to take you to your ballet class. Whilst in the car, I asked mother why she didn't love me. It was at that moment when she realized that it wasn't you but me in the car."

"What happened next?" Billy asked her.

"I punched a hole through the driver's seat instantly killing that useless man. The car spiraled out of control and hit a pole. I got out unharmed and went to mother's shattered window. She was barely alive and gasping for air."

"You watched her die?" Britney dropped her tears.

Escabitha shook her head. "I asked her again why she didn't love me. Do you know what she told me?" Escabitha grinned coyly. "She told me that she regretted not stabbing me the moment she gave birth to me. I lost all my sanity at that moment and ripped half of her neck off. Her death gave me inner peace. I wanted all the peace in the world so I thought of killing you and Whitney too. I, unfortunately, didn't find you at the house because child services took you in. I didn't see you two again until a few months ago. Now, here we are."

"You will burn in hell for this." Britney cried.

"Not really, I'm a vampire. There's no afterlife for me but you, oh, you will end up in hell." Escabitha joyfully remarked.

Sheila went over and stomped Britney's legs. Britney screamed with each painful and bone breaking stomp. By the time Sheila was done, Britney couldn't move her legs. She just helplessly cried in pain.

"You have all done a great job today. Tell me what you desire and I shall give it to you." Escabitha offered.

"I want a place in the Day Walkers." Sheila started.

"You have earned your place." Escabitha assured Sheila and her heart leaped with joy. She turned to the Packet brothers. "What about you three?"

Danny stepped up. "We just want to execute the remaining part of the mission with our brother Robert. Please take his form."

Escabitha chuckled. "What an odd request but very well then."

Britney watched her shape shift into Steve. "Torch this bitch." She coldly ordered the Packets.

Britney helplessly looked at Escabitha and Sheila leave the house. The Packet brothers poured petrol all over the house and set it ablaze.

The fire caught the attention of the neighbors. Some called the fire brigade while others watched in shock. Amongst them was Alex. He had decided to check on Britney.

He stormed into the house leaving horrified people murmuring amongst themselves. Alex turned into a giant wolf and sniffed for Britney. He dodged the flames and falling ceiling as he made his way into the house. He found Maria's badly burnt body and dropped his ears.

"There's nothing I can do for her." He looked ahead. "I must find Britney!"

It wasn't long until Alex saw Britney. Alex sniffed her and his tail wagged. Luckily none of the flames got to her yet. Alex picked her up and burst out from the house through the back door.