Chapter 25: Waking Up A Nightmare

The irritating tap on her right shoulder grew stronger, harder. Kiara could feel the thick fingernail running against her skin again and again. Time to wake up, her angel side whispered in her mind. No, continue to rest. You have already skipped many days of school, the devil hissed. But all Kiara could see was a pitch black area. There were no angels or devils speaking to her after all. Just her mind playing tricks on her, but where is she? Kiara couldn't move, or feel. Sleep was the first thing she thought she was in. Then, death came into the picture. I can't die yet; Kiara spoke in her mind again and relaxed until she heard another voice.

Of course you can't die yet. You're still breathing. Open your eyes, you bitchy cheerleader.

Kiara did as she was told and had no trouble in doing so. Light scorched her vision before the real colours came into view, and the first person she saw was...

"Who are you?" Kiara managed to croak her words carefully as she laid eyes on an unknown person to her. "Where am I? And who are you?"

"My name's Austin," the mysterious boy named Austin smiled, "I found you a week ago along the corridor of the second floor of the boys' dormitory. You're in the infirmary now."

"A week?!" Kiara jolted up from her comfortable lying down position and almost banged into Austin, "Wha... What happened to me? What time is it? Where are David, Tiadora, Jason and Cornelia?"

"Whoa. Too many questions at one go," Austin pushed her back to the white pillow of the infirmary, brushing off the dirt of her shoulders, "Now it's four o'clock in the afternoon. Your friends are all attending to their usual activities that they'll be having on a Wednesday."

"You still haven't answered my first question."

"I was walking to my room which was at the third floor when I saw you lying down at the very end of the corner of the second level. You seemed to be unconscious and there was blood dripping from where you were bitten," Austin stroked on the left side of her neck. Realising what he was doing, Kiara beat his hand off and held onto the spot that he had caressed. To her dismay, Kiara felt on her neck two small holes. It wasn’t bleeding or anything and it felt rather disturbing and so real. Kiara looked back at her so-called hero, “How did I get this?”

“You think I know? I just found you there with that. I had nothing to do with it. I swear!” Austin held his hands up in defence and assured her, “The nurse couldn’t explain but I think this could be the work of a vampire!!!”

“That’s silly!” Kiara hated the thought of being someone’s meal, “There’re no vampires in the world.”

“Then how would you explain that?” Austin pointed at her neck, “You couldn’t have been stabbed by a fork. Plus, nothing's impossible."

"Shut up!" Kiara got up from the bed and looked around the infirmary to see that the nurse wasn't there, "How was my friends' reaction when they heard about me?"

"Didn't you tell me to shut up?"

"Cut the crap."

"The usual. They were terrified and scared for you. The new girl kept on insisting to have some alone time with you when you were still unconscious," Austin recalled the days, "They came here almost everyday. Though the Goth dude never really came into the infirmary whenever the others visited you. Whereas I also always stop by everyday, to see if my good deed was worth it."

"Good deed? Isn't a life worth it?"

"It depends if the girl's worth it. And surprisingly, you're my type."

"Hey hey wait. You mean, David didn't come in here to see if I was alright? He just stayed outside and waited till Jason and the others give him the newspaper report?! Wh... Why?"

"You're asking me?" Austin did that huh-look which made Kiara turn away from his face. Her world felt shaky again and she plonked back into her pillow. She pulled the blanket over her head to shield herself from Austin's praying eyes and closed hers so that the darkness may take over, but Kiara could still feel his presence there and that made it uncomfortable for her to sleep. Austin eventually got up from his position and headed for the door. Kiara felt a pang of guilt and called for him to stop. "Hey you," she pushed the blanket off her face and took a look at him, "Thank you. Very much."

A wave of appreciation could be seen from Austin's facial features as he winked before leaving Kiara with the infirmary all to herself. David didn't come here? Kiara buried her face into the pillow. The last thing I remembered was walking into school with David after school. How did I end up in the boys' dormitory? Kiara wondered in deep thought, punching her fist into the pillow trying to figure out of a reason. After a while, Kiara had realised, the nurse had came in and was very pleased with Kiara's recovery. The nurse gave Kiara the overview of her incident, which Kiara wasn't too happy about.

"You've suffered a big amount of blood loss, which will take about some time for you to get back your usual energy," the nurse read from her files, "There may be a chance of some memory loss. And that mark on your neck is healing, all right. But when that student, Austin, found you, blood was spilling so profusely all the way from the boys' dorm to into the infirmary. Do you remember what you were doing there that resulted in this?"

"No, I do not," Kiara said it in a whisper as she looked out at the window. A week is very long. She must have missed a lot. The thought of being left out crept into her mind. She wondered why no one was still here yet. It was six o'clock. That Austin guy had been lying about the time from just now. Shouldn’t at least Tiadora be here? Kiara asked herself, trying to think of why Tiadora wouldn’t be by her side when Tiadora doesn’t have any extra activities. “I have sent one of the CLs to inform your friends about your miracle awakening,” the nurse came over and took Kiara’s temperature, “Good. No fever.”

“Nurse,” Kiara’s voice became hoarse and rough as she tried to call for the nurse.

“Shh. I think it’s best for you to just go to sleep,” the friendly nurse suggested, “I’m sure your friends will understand.”

And then again, Kiara fell asleep.

☆

“And here comes the chu-chu train of Pasta!” Jason made a charging sound as he fed Kiara with a big spoonful of delicious Pasta, “Oh no! The train is going to crash! Mayday! Mayday! The cargo load needs to be stored in the bat cave. Bat cave open says me.”

Kiara laughed at Jason’s attempt to cheer her up and opened her mouth wide for the Pasta, her favourite dish. It was another three days since she last opened her eyes. Her afternoon was greeted with the cheers and warm hugs from Tiadora, Jason and Cornelia, who had decorated the infirmary with many colourful balloons and flowers just for her. Kiara was even more pleased when Jason had bought for her, her all-time favourite meal, Pasta. Jason had volunteered to feed her instead, and had turned himself into a full-time train conductor. “Oh dear. The bat cave is destroying the entire cargo load! Hey wait that’s not the bat cave, that’s Mr. Cookie Monster’s lair of cookies! Oh no! Mr. Cookie Monster won’t be pleased to see his cookies fill with extra spicy sauce,” Jason teased Kiara again.

“My mouth isn’t Cookie Monster’s house!” Kiara assured him in between her unstoppable laughs. That was good, Jason smiled at her happiness. It had been different when they entered the infirmary at noon. Kiara had a gloom expression on her face and she had a hard time smiling at them when they reached, especially to the fact that David wasn’t by their side. She kept on hammering questions about him with this sad, disappointed look on her face, almost on the verge of tears. “Is he outside now? Why is he so afraid to come in? Have I done anything wrong towards him? Where’s David?” Kiara had asked when there were only three who had come just now.

“David said that he had to see the principal,” Cornelia sat beside her and stroked Kiara’s hair, “again.”

And she didn't speak for the next half hour. Jason didn't mind waiting. He knew that David's absence would leave her emotional, but he was glad that he'd finally managed to at least make her laugh and fill her empty tummy with Kiara's fav. Ever since then, she had never asked for David anymore and continued just enjoying everyone's company. "So anything interesting happen when I was unconscious??" Kiara asked, this time sounded more lively and more Kiara-like.

"Snow White rehearsals."

"Volleyball semi-finals."

"Ian getting stuck in the boys' locker bathroom."

"What? Ian got stuck in the bathroom?" Kiara was shocked to hear.

"Yeah. Bobby, Kyle and Seth unscrew the handle of his cubicle. So Mdm. Marinda had a hard time trying to get him out with the other CLs. And the worst part was when he had finally come out with his towel, all of his clothes were gone!" Jason described it with the vibrant movements from his hands, "Luckily the CLs were able to get some clothes. Along with his blanky!!"

"Ian has a blanky?"

"Well, he kept on telling that it was just a big handkerchief," Jason recalled as Kiara started laughing all over again with the rest of them.

"Oh. And we've..." Cornelia looked to Jason to see if this will pull her laughs down, "found another mystical creature from Tiadora's time."

"Who's sacred animal?" Kiara sounded eager to hear.

"It's not a sacred animal," Tiadora, who had been on Kiara's right, explained, "It's a flower from my time. And unlike the 21st Century flowers, this one can grant three wishes."

"Like a genie?"

“Sort of,” Cornelia replied, “I found the flower in a tree.”

“This kind of flowers only lasts till three wishes. Once it has given its master the three wishes, it’ll wither like any other flower. Fortunately for her, no one has claimed her yet,” Tiadora continued with the explanation, “Until the day of the Veex is over, the flower is not safe here. Due to your incidentr, Kiara, there’s a vampire on the loose. It couldn’t have been a pure-blood who had bitten you because you didn’t turn into a human vampire. This means that the pure-bloods, Azric or Cyrus, must have gone on a killing spree and somehow had one of these unfortunate victims into the school boundaries or one of the students here have turned into a human vampire. This is why the flower isn’t safe here. With the information that Cornelia had heard from Marabonta and your vampire-accident, there may be a chance that the villains may already be lurking around the academy’s corridors under our noses with the applied Glamra and we won’t realize it.

“The flowers vibrate a certain type of aura that is different from a normal human, so if a disguised villain were to sense its presence in the school, which I doubt won’t be that long, he or she can wish whatever he desires. This will obviously result in a bad ending,” Tiadora discussed.

“So you think that a human vampire bit me?” Kiara felt very uncomfortable now.

“Yes,” Tiadora had to agree, “The prove is in the bite mark. But you are very lucky to have been only bitten by a human vampire and even luckier and grateful that that vampire had decided to stop its thirst before it could drain you dry. Normally a human vampire won’t have that much strength to resist. Imagine being in the shoes of one,” Tiadora explained again, “Imagine being turned into a human vampire. Not only will you suffer pains to resist your thirst in front of your loved ones, not thinking of them of McDonald’s food, but the venom that has been injected into the body will actually poison every single organ you have. In the end you will turn into a Level E.”

“A Level E?” Cornelia became puzzled, “Elaborate.”

“Sadly for the affected vampires, all human vampires will turn into a Level E. It’s a turning point for which a human vampire loses all control for its thirst. The vampires will turn into a killing frenzy, devouring every single living being that stands in there way. It would be impossible for the human vampire to stop. It’s like having a crazy mental patient around hurting people and eventually we’ll have to take it down before it continues its raging rampage. And when I say take it down, I mean kill, even though the poor soul had no fault in this situation,” Tiadora recalled from her studies on vampires from her kingdom.

“Imagine of one of us were to turn into one,” Jason thought of the worst case scenario, “Do we have to kill him or her if one of us turns into one? I mean, aren’t we the guardians?”

“Let’s not go that far. Because we are guardians, we have far more better protection than any other average human being. All the more reason for us not to turn into one, right?”

“Are the eyes of the vampire, red in colour?” Kiara managed to asked Tiadora in her frail voice.

“Like the colour of blood.”

♫

“Mokona wants the heart biscuits too! Don’t take all of them!” Mokona tried to reach for David’s desk with its tiny paws as it saw the little flower girl continuing to have no trouble reaching for another one from the biscuit tin. “Don’t steal Mokona’s stuff!”

“But these are good.”

“Exactly why I don’t want to share it!”

“Mokona,” David called out to his sacred animal as he closed the book that he was reading on the bed, “Share your food. The one paying for it isn’t you. So share.”

“But you bought it for ME!” Mokona pouted and gave up on its attempt to prevent the flower from getting its food and jumped onto David’s bed, cuddling itself beside the guardian of Earth. This time David didn’t mind. He knew that Mokona wouldn’t snore anymore. He had politely asked for it not to do so anymore again, so David had no trouble having a good night sleep.

The flower, David recalled, was entrusted under his care, or more specifically, Mokona’s care. It was surprisingly a little girl. The flower from Tiadora’s kingdom was a little girl. She looked about seven year’s old, long curly orange hair that almost touched the ground and pale serene face. The girl had been very quiet during the time she was in his room. She kept on staring at David, he’d noticed, with those pure white eyes which made him feel very uncomfortable most of the times.

“It seems that the blood of the innocent has been drained,” the flower girl uttered under her breath again. “And yet nothing’s happening.”

“Very observant,” David shivered to the fear that she knew his secret. “Is it that obvious?”

“No,” the girl sat a good five-foot away on his desk chair. “But it will be soon.”

“How soon?” David was curious to know.

“I’m a flower, not a fortune-teller. If you want me to do what you desire, you must say ‘wish’. However, as a flower, I have the ability to sense the different species of people very easily whether or not that person is a guardian, flower, vampire, mage or magician. And I too can see through Glamra.”

“You mean if a villain were to be wearing Glamra, you could see its real identity?”

“Yes,” she nodded in response as she took a small bite from the delicious heart-shaped biscuit. “Though I don’t feel comfortable being around Jason even though he’s the guardian of Fire.”

“Jason is a good guy,” David scoffed at her response, “Why are you and Mokona so against Jason? He’s not who I am, a Goth.”

“It’s not his fault. It’s his destiny that we mystical creatures can sense. It’s a bad one indeed.”

“I don’t see why it should be. Whose fault is it that’s making you all avoid Jason?”

“His ancestor,” the little girl spoke softly again, “Like father, like son. Like ancestor, like descendant.”

♥

“Ladies and gentlemen, students of all years, it is in my honour to present to you the annual play of Kadic Academy’s Dramatizations!” Ms Serena announced through the microphone as the auditorium lights dimmed to have the main spotlight on her, “This year, these students from 9-A, will be dramatizing to you a play which many of you will see fit to understand. And no, it is not the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet, but the loving adorable play of Snow White!”

And the drums rolled out as the play finally began. It was a Sunday, the very next day when Kiara finally woke up. Ms Serena had decided to spare her the role of Grumpy because of her condition and replaced her with one of the new students, Chloe Ames. In the auditorium, Kiara and the rest had good seats. The third row from the front is always the ‘good seats’ if anyone would want to enjoy the show. And because Jason was there, the whole soccer squad had decided to crowd around that area as well. It was slightly crammed but Kiara didn’t quite mind.

Beside her, on her right, Jason was digging his fingers into the big box of popcorn whereas on her left, Cornelia was texting someone on her phone. Cornelia seemed so into the message that she was typing that Kiara was curious to know why. “A guy?” Kiara quickly snatched Cornelia’s phone from her hands and read what was on the message, “Who’s Ulrich?”

“A friend.”

“Oh! That new Princeton kid, right?” Kiara finally realized, “He’s cute. But shouldn’t get hitched on Ian instead? You know that poor kid’s into you.”

“But too bad. I’m not into him,” Cornelia slipped her phone out of Kiara hands, “Ulrich’s a more decent guy anyway.”

“Ooo. Do I smell a love brewing?

“No!” Cornelia decided to keep her phone in her shorts, “I’m just saying that he’s a decent friend, you know. He bought me dinner that day.”

“A date already? Wow, amazing!”

“It’s NOT a date,” Cornelia beat Kiara on her shoulder, “Concentrate on the play please. We came here for David and Tiadora, not to chit chat.”

“Yes, Madam.”

On cue, the red curtains shifted aside. Sally, dressed in a beautiful blue and yellow gown stormed the hallway when her head high up. It was very obvious to differentiate Tiadora and Sally. One has pink and the other has brown hair. Sally/Snow White started to lip sing one of the songs that were supposed to attract the animals in the castle/stage. The song, however, attracted the young and handsome Prince/David of the castle instead. Sally/Snow White became very shocked and ran into the woods/stage hiding her from the world.

Backstage, Tiadora patted David on the back when his scene was over as he slouched back in his chair, “My next scene is when I find Sally dead!”

Tiadora giggled at the ironic words, “Mine is after the hunter-scene.”

“Well, good luck with worshipping Sally.”

“It’s showtime!”