The Immortal Design (5 page)

  “Kelly had started making out...” I stopped short of finishing my sentence. I was sure that Pete wouldn’t want me telling his mother about his love life or lack of one.  Likewise, Mrs. Baker looked highly uncomfortable with the direction the story about last night was going. She promptly excused herself saying something about needing some coffee.

  I waited for her to leave the room and then counted to ten making sure she was well out of earshot before I continued. “Kelly thought if she made out with Pete it would make me jealous.”

   “Did it? Did it make you jealous?”

   “Hardly. I hate her, but Pete has been head over heels for her since kindergarten. I would never go for a girl my best friend loved or even remotely liked for that matter sir. If anything the act pissed me off, I knew what she was doing and I knew it would end up breaking Pete to find out that she was just using him. I had started to go over and break the scene up, but Kelly beat me to it. She tossed Pete aside like a nasty piece of garbage and ran right into my arms, declaring she knew her plan to make me jealous would work. It didn’t work though, I told her off in front of the entire senior class. I told her not in this life time or any other would I ever have anything to do with her, then I left to look for Pete. Willa had said that Pete had headed off towards town”

   “Willa? The new girl?”

  “Yes sir. She had been there and she witnessed the whole thing go down, I met her in the parking lot as I was leaving.”

   “And that’s all you know? You never saw Pete on the way back from the rock quarry?”

   “No sir. I drove slow looking for him. It was pretty dark out, but if he was on the road I would have seen him. I figured he had hiked down the mountain instead sticking to the road.”

   “That would explain why he was attacked by wolves. Well thank you for the information John. I’ll be in touch if I need anything else. You don’t know by chance how to get a hold of this Willa girl do you?”

  “She’s staying with the Eckles sir.”

  With that the sheriff left me with Pete. I turned and took his unbandage hand in mine. I prayed that he would be alright and he would be out of here soon. Pete mumbled in his sleep. I couldn’t make out what he was saying. I stayed with Pete as long as I could before Mrs. Baker came in and told me that I should leave to let Pete rest in private. “I’ll come back tomorrow after school is that ok?”

   Mrs. Baker hugged me tightly and said that it would be fine for me to return tomorrow and she would keep me informed if anything else happened.  I left the room and this time walked slowly toward the elevator. I pushed the button to go down and waited patiently. The young man that had rode up with me was standing next to me again apparently he had been visiting someone on the second floor as well. I really didn’t think anything of it. The elevator doors opened and I got on, he followed me into the elevator. I pushed the button for the main level and looked over at him to see if he was going the same way. He nodded, but never said anything. He still had on those dark sunglasses, and overcoat. Who wears dark sunglasses in doors?

   Before I could take in anything else about the guy the elevator bell rang notifying us that we had arrived on the main level. The doors opened and I was the first to get off, I felt a cold breeze run down my spine and turned to see where it had come from. The guy from the elevator was gone. I thought it was strange. He had been just behind me as I was walking out of the elevator and he had literally vanished.

   I didn’t think too long on the stranger, because my cellphone had started vibrating in my pocket. I took it out and checked the number. I didn’t recognize it right off.

  “Hello?”

   “Hello Johnathan Stokes. This is Willa. Did you find your friend Pete?”

   “Ya, he’s here at the hospital, like you said. By the way how did you know he was here?” It must have been the interview with the sheriff that suddenly got me thinking about how Willa had information about my best friend that I didn’t already have.

   “Did you not hear it today at school? All the kids were talking of it.”

   I thought about it for a minute before I responded. The truth was that I hadn’t heard the rumor of Pete being in the hospital. I had been too busy worrying about him and whether he was mad at me or worrying about how I was going to make a good impression on Willa after the nightmare that I had been tossed into for the past twenty four hours. “Come to think about, honestly no I hadn’t. I had been worrying about other things. I guess you could say my mind was too preoccupied to listen to rumors, especially after last night.”

   “I suppose I would have been worried as well after what happened last night and how Pete had stormed off. How is he by the way?” Willa sounded truly worried. Another thought occurred to me, the sheriff would be going to talk to Willa about the accident Pete had been in last night.

  “Hey Willa, while I was up here visiting Pete the sheriff was here. He asked me a lot of questions, and I mentioned to him that you had seen Pete leave the party last night. He will probably come to talk to you about it. I’m sorry, I wasn’t really thinking”

   Willa was quiet as I told her about what I had done. “That is no problem John. I have nothing to hide from anyone. I simply saw him leave as I was leaving.”

   “You’re not mad that I brought you into this are you?”

   “No. As I said I have nothing to hide.” Willa was remarkably calm for being just told that on her second day in America that the cops were coming to speak to her. I didn’t know too many girls or guys our age who wouldn’t be freaking out right about now.

“Good. I would hate to ruin the start of our friendship. I mean I hope we can become good friends, that is, if it’s OK with you” There I go again, I was sounding desperate. I just couldn’t help myself. Willa Alucard had this effect on me I suppose you could chalk it up to nerves, seeing as though I have not really ever liked a girl like this before.

   Willa laughed “Of course that is Ok with me John. I would not have taken your phone number if I had not intended to make friends with you.” I smiled and laughed with her. Damn it, I was being goofy again. I was glad Pete wasn’t around to give me crap about the way I was acting. I would never hear the end of it from him. He has every right though, I had been dishing it out to him for years about how he acted around Kelly.

   “Willa, I was um curious, would you like to maybe possibly hang out with me sometime?” I silently prayed she would say yes.

   “I would, yes. I am a bit busy with the rest of the week with appointments, and getting to know my hosting family, but I will call you when I have some free time to spend with you.”

   Yes! “Great! I’ll wait for your call then” Willa hung up and I put the phone back in my pocket. OK, so maybe my first day of my senior year wasn’t going so bad after all.

7.

   The week went by agonizingly slow, Pete was still in the hospital and hadn’t improved much. I only saw Willa briefly during the day at school, turns out we only had the one class together and had separate lunch breaks too. It wasn’t enough time to do anything but have small quick chats on our way to our next classes. I found myself growing more and more attached to Willa, her laugh was infectious, her beauty was incomparable, and her attitude was like no other teenage girl I had ever met. She walked through life with ease and always had an upbeat presence. She refused to let the little things in life get her down. To her life was about living and not dwelling on the little things that would send a typical teenager into a downward spiral in a self-pity party.

   As Friday rolled around I was looking forward to the weekend. Kelly was still on the war path after both Willa and I had dissed her. Although I hadn’t actually seen Kelly since the first day of school, which to me was the best part of the week. It didn’t stop her from getting her minions to start spreading rumors in her absence.

   Kelly of course in true Kelly fashion, had started rumors involving Willa. The best one I had heard was that she was a vampire from Transylvania and she worshipped the Devil himself. I might have laughed at it, but it had been the one that finally struck a nerve with Willa. She was good at taking the rumors in stride and not letting them bother her at all, but the vampire theory really seemed to get under skin. Kelly targeted her light skin tone and the fact she was always covered while in the sun and the fact that she was from Romania, along with Willa’s wardrobe selection, typically a long flowing skirt (gypsy style with the large trinket adorned belt, and a long sleeve tight fitting shirt accented with knee high leather boots). Willa was never seen without her large cross that lay perfectly nuzzled just above her assets.

   One day in particular I was watching her walk down the hall as I found myself doing often, when she overheard some underclassmen whisper the word vampire as she walked past them. Willa stopped and approached the two kids. Neither kid seemed to know what to think of Willa, as she moved in close and whispered something to them. The next thing I knew both the kids had taken off running away from her.

   “You have a way of scaring people.” I said as I walked up behind her. She turned on me abruptly and I soon realized why the kids looked so scared of her. Willa had a look in her eye. In general she had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen, the deepest of blue grey, like the sea just as a storm was about to hit, but just now I could see the storm in them burning. Her eyes were now a very light blue that when the light hit them they seemed to glow softly. “Hey, I was only joking Willa.” Willa blinked several times and her eyes returned to the normal deep blue grey, the storm had passed.

   “John. I had not noticed you here. They are just kids and are easily scared with words.” I laughed as she dismissed the kids talking trash.

   “What did you say to scare them like that?”

   “That I really am a vampire and if they were not careful I would be coming for them tonight and no one would be missing them anytime soon and that no one would be able to find their mangled bodies because I would feed them to the hounds of hell.” She smirked as she contemplated the thought of what she had just said to the kids.

  “Wow, remind me not to get on your bad side.”

   Willa laughed with me this time. We started to walk out of the school when she suddenly turned to me “I am free to meet with you later tonight at eight p.m. if you still wish to meet with me.” I stopped and looked at her in surprise.

   “Sure, um, yes. I mean yes that sounds great. Would you like me to pick you up?”

   Willa smiled and said “Yes, do you know the Eckles? They are my host family. I could give you direction if you need it.”

   “I know exactly where it is. So I will see you at eight then.” Willa smiled that million dollar smile and turned to leave the school. I followed after her. Once outside in the bright sunlight, she stopped to put on her dark sunglasses, and the light jacket. “You must get hot having to wear that jacket in the summer.” I said. It was more of a thought to myself than an actual discussion point.

   “No. Not at all. Here feel my hands.” She held her slender white hands out for me to hold. She was cool to the touch. I looked at her questioning why, luckily Willa picked up on my hesitation to ask why she felt cool to the touch while wearing a long sleeve shirt and a jacket. After all it was still the summer months.

   “I have a medical condition” she said simply.

   “You said that before, but how are you cold?”

   Willa stopped and hesitated briefly before she continued “I did say that. I have another one that is much more dangerous for me I am afraid.” This time instead of her confident smile she frowned. I hated it. I hated that she was ill, with possibly a lifelong disease that kept her from having fun like other kids our age.  I couldn’t even imagine not being able to be out in the hot summer day enjoying all the things that other kids got to do during their summer vacation.

   “How about you tell me about it tonight? I need to go to the hospital and check in on Pete before I head home.” We had made it to the parking lot where her hearse had been parked. I opened the door for her as she gracefully entered and took her seat behind the wheel.

   “It’s a deal John. I look forward to seeing you this evening.” With that Willa left leaving me alone in the parking lot.

   I walked to my car not paying too much attention to who was walking behind me. I knew there was someone behind me because I could hear the footsteps crunch through the loose gravel. I was surprised by the attack as it happened. Someone, hit me in the back of the head with something very heavy. I was knocked sideways and nearly fell to the ground. I looked up and there stood Kelly. They say Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well “They” were right.

   Kelly stood over me with her backpack swinging it crazily in the air. She looked like a wild woman on the verge of a major mental break.

   I stood up and confronted her. “What the hell is your problem Kelly? God damn that hurt!” I was holding the back of my head in pain. Stars had faintly popped in my vision.