The light stung, and I didn’t understand why. Wasn’t ‘the light’ supposed to be warming and caring when you die? At least, that’s what I was told…
    Oh, but wait, there was a shadow…
    “What the hell were you thinking, dammit?!”
    I staggered my eyesight into view, squinting at the strong light before I was able to adjust. The voice was a lot like mine, and I focused on the shadow above me. There was long, brown, straight hair… bronze eyes… curved heart-shape face…
    “Hey, Mom, is this...

“Okay, Nikolai, make a choice; the garlic powder or the sibuyas powder.” I held up the small shakers, leveling them with his eyes.
    Nikolai smirked. “Either way, it is going to be a joke.”
    I sighed. “Dammit, Nikolai, just pick one.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Are you damning me now? You realize what I am, right? Or do I have to remind you?” He teasingly looked at my throat, and I rolled my eyes, choosing the garlic powder and placing it in the basket. Nikolai followed me as I headed over to the isle that was rowed...

I woke up with a yawn, curling my toes. I turned my head over, blinking at the sunlight peeking through the drapes, watching the specks of dust float around the area. I planted my head in, groaning before my mind went into a sleepy state again. I tried thinking about something that would get me into my sleeping mood again, but then I gave up when a massive migraine appeared into view. I rolled out of my kama and kneeled on the floor, gazing at the white plush carpet underneath me. There was still some marks of dirt from where my shoes hit last night, and I clumsily wiped them away. I staggered...

~Marissa's story (hopefully she doesn't get mad at me for telling it on here, i just thought it was really good)~

Marissa: "Me and my dad were going to Giant one day. He wanted to get Jalapeno peppers."

*We all lean in to hear the good story*

Marissa: "So we walk in, and we head into the isle where they have the Jalapeno peppers. No big deal, right? So Dad's standing in front of where the peppers are...and he..."

Clare: "Spit it out!"

Marissa: *laughing* "He starts pag-awit his own tune of Jalapeno peppers, dancing up and down the isle while shaking his butt! I was standing there and going like this:"...

“I may be a vampire, but that doesn’t mean I particularly appreciate these places.” Cress grumbled, stepping carefully over burial grounds. “Nikolai’s going to be pissed when he finds out that we’re not at the hotel.”
    “Don’t worry. We locked up tight.” I replied cheerfully, grasping a gravestone so that I didn’t fall over a puno root.
    “It has nothing to do with that…” He sighed. “You still didn’t tell me what the note said. I’m not that dumb to not know that the note has something to do with sneaking out and bringing...

The instant I woke up Tuesday to the smell of tusino and eggs, I knew the time had come.
    School.
    I trampled down the steps and almost tripped over my pajamas to get the plate of pagkain resting on the table, and I was stunned to see not Nikolai making the food, (which sa pamamagitan ng the way, he was a pro in the kitchen) but Sam. He had his backpack snug sitting on his chair, and he was shifting around the kusina like Faela had done a while back when I woke up to her cooking. He smiled when he saw me. “Bedhead.” Nikolai was sitting there however, but his attention...

It was araw Four of the rain, but the relief was that there was hope for sunshine sa pamamagitan ng Saturday. That left three madami days of depressing downpour, something I was neither regretting nor cherishing over.
    No one could concentrate today, but in the hallways there was the same fraction of chat about the weekend plans as there would be any normal day. My mind could care less about anyone other’s plans; even my own plans were stored at the back of my mind to focus madami on Meredith and how she was handling her pressure of the mountain-load of weight that she was now carrying,...

Another araw of rain passed, and it didn’t paunlarin my mood. Meredith wasn’t avoiding me, per say, but madami edging to her independence, thinking thoughtfully at all times. I wanted to ask whether she would be okay, and if there was any way that I could help, but for the time being, I had an idea that the best thing to do would be let her do this on her own. If she needed me, she would ask; I knew that already; she wouldn’t have came to me and let me be the first witness to the news if it were otherwise.
    Besides the drama of life, my schoolwork took up its’ whole...

Simon walked in, his laptop snug in his bag as he took his upuan in front of the monitors. The screens buzzed with life, and they didn’t react until he laced his fingers into a wanted code before the screens vanished from their normal blue to a display of many windows. Simon placed his bag under the desk, then wheeled himself over to the right to check on the holographic globe that floated above a small metal platform. He squinted at it for a brief second, checking the obvious locations before snapping the earpiece into his left ear. He fumbled with the small button connected to the attachment....

I stared, blinked, stared some more. His words didn’t digest until the sickening image filled my mind. He was stuck to the chair, and the scientist’s elbow his just the right place to… to…
    “You’re dead.” I whispered.
    “That wasn’t me.” Dad said, shaking his head. “This is such a disappointment…I’d thought you would have figured that out sa pamamagitan ng now. But you’re such a rebellious child of mine…can’t seem to come to the truth. Not as bad as your mom, though, huh?”
    “Shut up.” My body quaked with...

When I met Sam at the back parking lot, I was scratching at my uniform uncomfortably. Since it was a sweater and it was like the old ones that little kids complained their grannies made, it was bugging the hell out of me. The fabric was like a freaking leech against my skin.
    “Keep scratching at your neck and Nikolai will come and suck your blood.” Sam greeted happily, laughing at his joke.
    “Nice. Maybe he will change me.” I sinabi sarcastically, hefting my backpack over my shoulder as we started walking home. Even with the uniforms, we stood...

I didn’t know what Nikolai was planning, but I also didn’t have time to worry about it, either. The only guidance he had for me was to ‘dress casual’ and ‘be polite’. Did he not think I was polite? Was there something about me that seemed rude?
    Of course, getting a decent reply from Sam was pointless.
    “Well…” Sam hesitated, pulling notebooks, binders, pencils, and a new backpack from the bags on the mesa that he recently got from a lonely Walgreens. “In some ways, you are looked on as…a bit sassy, so you can seem a bit startling...

Talking with Caleb the araw before was exhausting, but knowing that I would have a conversation with Nikolai would be ten times madami dramatic and intense. He would pry about the words I was saying with Caleb, but even madami so with his theories on my attacker. I even had the insane feeling that he was wanting to know madami about me, and for him to be that nosy around my inner life…I’ve never experienced anything like that.
    But I was astounded to find that it was nothing like that at all.
    On Sunday morning, Nikolai arrived at the door just when...

Days passed, and it became a lot easier to handle all of the creatures. Nikolai conveniently found a way to get the blood that the Bampira here at the hotel would need, and I didn’t want to ask for further details on how. I accepted his help, and as soon as possible I gave the Bampira their blood. I had to leave the hotel for a bit so that I didn’t hurl at the mess they were making in the kitchen, which was nothing compared to the concoctions Sam made as a child. To take up that time, I headed out on the brisk walk to Balthory High, charting the route in my head.
    The...

If there was one thing I was freaked out sa pamamagitan ng madami than heights, I would have to say it would be phone conversations. And my uncle comes a close third.
    Tina called me while I had been doodling in my notebook for an hour, and in some sense I was relieved to find that she called to break my boredom. Sadly, I talked simpler face-to-face compared to phone conversations, so talking with Tina didn’t come out as smoothly as I thought it would. Apparently she was just as freaked out about talking over the phone as I was, which she openly admitted.
    After...

I woke up, expecting to find Nikolai in bat form, waiting for me like he had the araw before. Instead, I was greeted with something far more…nauseating.
    My room had been, basically, your average modern room, only with the slight vampire twist added; black and white, and definitely cozy, besides the fact of the black drapes. Now everything was changed, and it made me whole-heartedly want to vomit.
    The windows had been a simple, clear-cut glass that was shiny and obviously see-through, just the same as any window would look like. Now the glass was...

We were standing sa pamamagitan ng the gates, which had been flung open and barely hanging on. The hinges were loose and the bars were forced open, marks of human hands causing dents in the steel. Nikolai was skimming his fingers over the metal calmly, while I started to investigate around the yard. I had no clue what had came in---or came out---our yard, but I was certain it was not human. Nikolai must have been clear about that too when he leaned past one of the grates, curling a finger at me to follow him. I did.
    He was standing behind the left gate, holding it open so that I could...

It was a dark afternoon, and the sky was covered with gray and purple clouds. Rain was pouring down, and I made sure my hood was tucked around my head again before pausing to view the school.
    It was crawling with the same emotion that the araw was showing; gloomy, depressing, and filled with hatred. The brick was gray and formed into how a kastilyo would be shaped, and the gate was creaking even though the breeze that was coming sa pamamagitan ng wasn’t that strong. A dragon curved along the tuktok of the bars of the gate glared with nagyelo eyes, trying to intimidate me. The only thing...

My stepdad had a softball game yesterday. I forgot, so I totally didn't get changed to go to the game or anything. He wasn't upset or anything, which was kinda good, since he isn't playing anymore, just controlling the player board or whatever you call it.

ANYway, so I forgot. When my mom came home, she asked me why I forgot.

"Well, I mean, it's Monday, and Scott normally doesn't have a game on Mondays."

She looked at me in that strange way that makes me feel like I was born with some other mother or something. "What do you mean it's Monday?"

"Just what I said---it's Monday. Scott doesn't have...

The last time I was here, I was released as quickly as I entered.
    But now I knew the predicament I was in, and I didn’t appreciate where this was going. I let the guard shove me into the cell, but that was the least of my worries; it was the TV that was hanging dimly across the room, blinking with vivid lights, that caught my attention. Even the catch of the gray stone that littered underneath my feet caused me no alarm, or the chains that were clasped on my wrists. It was just my breath that mingled in with my streaming mind, echoing with strong vibrations as the electronic...