I was having a pretty good day, I mean, it wasn’t perfect or anything, but it was alright. That was, until I spotted him. He was standing next to my locker, watching me. It was really creepy. But that wasn’t the creepiest thing. On his forehead, was a tattoo of a Sapphire-blue crescent moon, and additional tattooing of entwining knots framed his eyes.
“Freaky face paint, but kinda cute,” my best friend Stacie whispered to me, staring at him. “Urgh” I sighed, and then coughed. She never could say no to a cute guy. “Are you sick?” she looked at me, worry showing on her face. “I don’t think so,” I tried to reassure her, but ended up coughing in the process. “Nuh uh, you better get home,” she looked at me sternly, using her ‘you better listen to me’ voice. “Yes mother,” I laughed, and she laughed with me.
Then he cut over our laugher, his voice reminding me of ice, sending chills down my spine. “Rhiannon Stevens! Night has chosen thee; thy death will be thy birth. Night calls to thee; hearken to Her sweet voice. Your destiny awaits you at the house of night!” He lifted his finger, and pointed to me. My forehead exploded in pain, and Stacie screamed, reaching out to me as I fell.
When I opened my eyes again, I realised I was in Stacie’s arms. “Who are you?! What the hell did you just do to her?!” she practically screamed, hatred in her voice. I realised she was yelling at him, and tried to sit up. Unfortunately, my forehead was still burning, and I when I tried to move, it felt like it was splitting open. So I just laid there, listening to what he had to say.
“I am a tracker. I was sent here to mark Rhiannon, and escort her to the Tulsa House of Night,” the tracker answered Stacie. “Tulsa? As in, America?” she looked at him in disbelief. He just nodded. “And what do you mean by mark?” she questioned him, and then turned to look at me. Shock and disbelief crossed her face as she lifted her hand to cover her mouth. I met her look with a questioning one. What the?
“Your… your forehead,” she answered shakily as she reached into her purse. She pulled out a small mirror, and handed it to me, her hands shaking. I managed to sit up and take the mirror from her. As I looked at my reflection, I didn’t recognise myself. The girl in the mirror had my clear blue eyes, and my messy brown hair, but she looked older. And on her forehead, was the outline of a sapphire-blue crescent moon.
“Who are you?” I managed to croak, turning to the tracker. What had he done to me? “I am a child of the night, or vampyre if you prefer,” he answered nonchalantly. A… vampyre? He’s kidding right? Vampyres don’t exist. As if reading my thoughts, Stacie confronted him. “A vampyre? Give me a “break! We’re not kids anymore. Do you really think that we’d buy that shit?” she exploded.
“Stace, calm down.” She looked at me as if I’d gone mad. “Calm down? Calm DOWN?! You’ve got to be kidding me! How do you expect me to calm down? First he does some freaky thing to your forehead, then he expects us to believe he’s a frickin’ vampyre? And you want me to calm down?!” she was panicking, I could tell. “Please,” I looked at her, my eyes pleading. She took a deep breath. “Fine,” she sighed. “Thanks,” I tried to smile. God, I probably looked like a frickin’ idiot.
“You must come quickly, you won’t survive for very long if we don’t get you around other vampires soon,” the tracker cut into our conversation. “She won’t survive for very long?” Stacie started to panic again. “What do you mean?” she asked him before I could get a chance to. Hello, I can talk too damnit! “Rhiannon is now a vampyre fledgling,” he started. “Wait, so I’m not a vampire?” I butted in. “Not yet,” he smiled at me. My eyes widened. He’s actually pretty cute. “So she’s turning into a vampyre. What does that have to do with her moving to America?” Stacie talked over me again. “Ow!” she jumped up as I pinched her.
“For Rhiannon to make the change into a vampyre, she must be surrounded by other vampyres. And must learn about what happens after making the change,” the tracker explained. Other vampyres… “And what if I chose not to come with you to the House of Night?” I asked. Would I just stay human? “You would die,” the trackers face was grim.
~Note: Rhiannon and Stacie live in Australia. Since there's never been anyone marked in Australia, there's no house of night there. So Rhiannon has to move to america.
