Risen (Book #6 of the Vampire Legends) (5 page)

The two let out a laugh and then
went over to Rachel.

“I’ve never felt like this
before. It’s like the world is spinning and I’m just a small soul floating
around.” Rachel said.

“What do you mean?” the girls let
out a laugh.

“I feel like I’m on a
rollercoaster,” Rachel replied. She reached out and tried to grab her drink,
almost tipping it over.

“You’re drunk aren’t you?” Kelly
said, staring at her.

“Um, I don’t think so?” Rachel
answered. “Why would you say that?”

“YOU’VE BEEN SPIKED!” Trista
said, laughing.

“HUH?” Rachel asked.

“YOU’VE BEEN SPIKED!” Kelly said
again, holding up her cup of orange juice and pointing inside.

The two girls laughed and Rachel
knew immediately what had happened.

Rob walked in through the
automatic sliding doors of the hospital. The sterile smell of the hospital
burned his nose and he inhaled deeply, trying to catch his breath from his
quick walk over. The bright fluorescent lights made him squint as he continued
walking towards the reception desk. He felt like everyone was looking at him
funny as he entered. He didn’t know if he was just feeling anxious, or if there
was something wrong with him. He felt increasingly uncomfortable as person
after person keep craning their necks around to look at him. Then, he smelled
it. Burning skin. He couldn’t understand what was happening.

“Quick! Help this man!” one of
the nurses said, pointing towards Rob.

“No! I’m fine!” Rob said,
shouting back at the nurse. “Don’t touch me!”

The nurse created a stir in the
waiting room, that no everyone was crowded around looking at Rob, sitting there
on the floor, blowing at his skin.

He didn’t know what to do next.
He knew what was happening, but he couldn’t understand how to make it stop. He
looked up at the lights again, and then he felt his skin searing off. He
quickly reached into his backpack and took out his sunglasses and his jacket.
He covered up his skin and then put his sunglasses on, and everything stopped.
His skin miraculously healed and his body was back to normal.

“What’s going on here?” the nurse
said. “Was that a trick? Are you a magician?”

Rob let out a laugh, hoping not
to draw any more attention to himself.

“Um, yes! I am a magician!” Rob
said, hoping to make everyone laugh at his misfortune.

The crowd let out a laugh of
confusion and then started walking back to their seats.

“We don’t have time for fakers,”
the nurse said.

“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have
pulled this trick on you,” Rob said, sounding apologetic.

“You are taking time away from
patients that really need our help, Sir. I’m afraid you will have to leave now,”
the nurse replied.

“I’m here to do magic for the
sick patients,” Rob said, realizing that was a great way to get him into the
hospital.

“See her!” the nurse said,
pointing to the receptionist. “She will take you back.”

“Sir, what is your name?” the
receptionist said, looking at her appointment book.

“Magic Rob!” Rob said, spitting
off his name.

“Hmm..Magic Rob?” the
receptionist said, looking through the pages of her book over and over,
mumbling his name.

“You might have me under another
name?” Rob said, hoping she would get distracted and let him through.

“What might that be?” she said,
running her pointer down the page.

“Um..” Rob couldn’t come up with
another name.

“Wait, is this you? Robert
Mettiker?” she asked.

“YES!” Rob said, praying the real
Robert Mettiker wasn’t close by.

“I wonder why they didn’t put you
under Magic Rob?” she asked. “Well, either way, you’re here so let me make you
a name badge. You will have to wear this throughout the hospital so everyone
knows who you are.”

“Ok, I will do that,” Rob
answered.

“You’ve been here before right?”
she asked.

“Yes! Many times!” Rob said,
hoping she wouldn’t catch on to his lie.

“So you know where to go?” she
asked, looking at him with serious eyes.

“Yes, absolutely!” Rob said
confidently.

“Then, off you go! Make the
people smile!” she said. “Don’t scare them like you did the nurse though. That
wouldn’t be good!”

Rob let out a little laugh and
said, “I promise!” and then walked away, towards the inpatient wing.

He didn’t know exactly where
Rachel’s mother would be, but he figured he was heading in the right direction.

He kept his sunglasses on as he
walked under the bright lights in the hallways. He didn’t want to take a change
with singing his skin again and causing another commotion. He couldn’t believe
that he covered it up the first time, but thankfully, he got himself out of
that mess.

He passed room after room, but
did not see Rachel’s mom’s name anywhere. He felt like he was walking around in
circles with no end in sight. His skin felt hot under his coat and he knew he
didn’t have much time before he had to get out of the hospital. He knew he wasn’t
safe here and it was only a matter of moments before security would pick up the
fact that he was an intruder.

He quickened his step and

The horn beeped loudly outside of
Trista’s house causing Rachel to jump. She dreaded this moment. She didn’t want
anything else to happen to her tonight and she already felt woozy having had
her drink spiked. She closed her eyes for a minute and imagined she were home,
at her house in Pennsylvania, in her bedroom alone about to go to sleep. This
thought relaxed her despite the fact that her head was starting to spin. Am I
drunk? She thought to herself. She couldn’t make out the feelings that were
going through her body.

BEEP BEEP.

“Grab your stuff, Rachel! We can’t
keep them waiting!” Trista yelled.

“C’mon, Kelly, you can finish
your make up in the car. You look fine anyway,” Trista added.

“AH!” Kelly yelled. “I’m so not
ready yet. I thought you said they were coming at ten?”

“I don’t know. Does it really matter
now? They’re here. We have to go!” Trista hollered.

Rachel grabbed her bags and
started down the steps. She could barely see straight, but knew she had to keep
going. She clutched the railing as she headed down the steps.

“AHHH!!!” Rachel yelled as she
tripped down the steps.

“OMG! Are you ok?” Kelly yelled.

“AH!” Trista screeched, as she
came running down to the bottom of the steps.

Rachel lay there, staring up at
the ceiling with a blank stare on her face.

“I think she’s hurt?” Kelly said,
looking at Trista. “I knew it was a bad idea to spike her drink.”

“Oh c’mon. She’ll be fine. It was
only a little fall,” Trista said.

“A little fall, that was a huge
spill!” Kelly said.

A moment later, Rachel jumped up
and started hysterically laughing.

She saw both the girls looking at
her in disbelief.

“What was that all about?” Kelly
asked.

“Are you ok?” Trista asked.

“OK? ME? ARE YOU KIDDING! I’M
GREAT!” Rachel shouted, grabbing all her bags again.

“Um, what is that?” Kelly said,
pointing to an oozing blue liquid coming out of Rachel’s knee.

Rachel looked down and couldn’t
believe her eyes. What was happening to her?

“AH! Hurry, get a towel,” Trista
said, “Clean that up!”

Rachel quickly ran to the
bathroom and started washing her knee under the faucet. She didn’t know why her
blood was blue or what she was going to say to the girls.

Then, in her drunken stupor, she
remembered a distant memory. She couldn’t quite make it out but remembered
someone telling her once that she would never be the same again. She remembered
being told to be careful of injury because your first could be your last. If
you bleed a lot, you could die.

A panic set in, and suddenly
Rachel felt sober. She had completely snapped out of her drunken state and now
felt like nothing had happened. She had to stop this bleeding, but nothing was
happening. She didn’t want to die, she couldn’t let one slip end her life.

“Can I have a band aid?” Rachel
yelled out of the bathroom.

“Sure!” Trista said, running
towards her with the box.

Rachel grabbed the box of Band-Aids
and opened each one, making a cast out of them around her leg. The tightness
seemed to be helping with the bleeding, and she knew she’d be in the clear now.
She just had to keep an eye on it.

Rachel walked out of the bathroom
as if nothing had happened, hoping the girls wouldn’t ask her about the blue
ooze.

“What was that about?” Kelly
asked.

“Oh, yeah, must have been the
ointment I put on my knee earlier. Makes everything blue!” Rachel said, hoping
they’d believe her story.

“How weird! Trista said, looking
at Kelly.

“Yeah! Weirdo!” Kelly chimed in.

“I know, super weird!” Rachel
said, letting out a laugh.

BEEP BEEP

The horn beeped again at the
perfect time and distracted the girls from asking her anything else about the
blue incident. Thankfully, now, the guys were here to pick them up.

“INFINITY! INFINITY! INFINITY!”
the guys were chanting from the car.

Rachel got a pit in her stomach
thinking about going to the club and desperately wanted to go home.
 
A wave of home sickness hit her like a brick,
but she knew she couldn’t leave now. She had to stick this out so she could
eventually get to her grandmother’s house to get to the bottom of everything.

“LET’S PARTAYYYY!” Kelly and
Trista started yelling back.

Rachel followed them into the old
pickup truck and hopped into the flat bed behind them. She knew this wasn’t
safe, but what was she going to do now? She couldn’t turn back. She sat
squished on the hard metal, dirty flatbed with her bags on top of her. The guy
driving screeched out of the driveway causing her to fall to the side and hit
her head on the side of the flatbed. She was ok, but definitely a little shaken
by the whole thing.

A few minutes later they pull up
to the center of town. She was surprised how bustling it was, and never expected
a sleepy southern town to be like this. It reminded her of scenes of MTV’s The
Real World, A show her older sister would watch all the time.

The car comes to a halt and
everyone jumps out in front of the club.

“You got the ID right?” Trista
asked.

“Yes,” Rachel answered, holding
it up in front of her.

“OK good,” Trista said. “Don’t
forget to give it to me before we leave, ok?”

“Sure,” Rachel said, wishing that
she could just give it back to her now and go back home.

She looked around at all the kids
standing in front of the club in a long line behind red velvet ropes. She
couldn’t understand why they would want to wait on this line waiting to be
picked by some loser overweight bouncer. What was so special about this place,
she thought to herself? A big sign that read INFINITY spanned the front of the
building and was lit up in white strobe lights that made her squint while
looking at it.

“WOOP WOOP WOOP!” A loud voice
shouted from outside the club.

“SOLDIER!” Kelly shouted back. “WASSUP?”

“HOW ARE YOU GIRL?” he said,
running out to give her a hug and a high five.

“I’m good!” Kelly said, smiling
back. “Brought my crew tonight!”

“I see that!” Soldier replied. “Come
right in!”

Soldier ushered Kelly, Rachel,
Trista and all the guys inside the club and to the back room with a dance floor
and private tables. Rachel couldn’t believe that after all the talk of the fake
ID she didn’t even need it after all. She felt relieved because she knew how
awkward it would have been if she was the only one who didn’t get into the
club.

“You guys buying a table?” he
asked Kelly.

“Yeah!” Kelly said, turning to
her friends for approval.

“You guys in for a table?” Kelly
asked.

Everyone shook their heads.
Rachel didn’t know exactly what was going on but followed suit anyway shaking
her head yes.

They all sat down on the sleek
black alligator leather sofas surrounding the table and put their bags down.

“What can we get you guys?” a
waitress asked wearing a skimpy leotard, fishnets and tall platform shoes.

“Tequila and Vodka?” Kelly asked,
looking around at everyone.

“YEAH BABY!” one of the guys
shouted.

“Someone’s looking for a crazy
night!” another chimed in.

“So T and V?” the waitress said,
writing the order down on her notepad.

Rachel sat there, looking around
at the throngs of drunk people dancing on the dance floor. She’d never been to
a nightclub before and had never ordered a bottle of tequila or vodka before
either. She’d never been more out of her element than she was at this moment.

Feeling unsure of the situation,
Rachel got up from the leather couch and walked away towards the bar to get a
glass of water. She still had a bit of a fuzzy feeling inside her from the
alcohol and she wanted to rid herself of it. She sat down on a high bar stool
with her heeled feet dangling down its sides.

“What can I get you pretty lady?”
the bartender asked in a smooth voice.

“Oh, me?” Rachel asked, looking
surprised. Nobody had ever called her that before.

“Who else would I be speaking to?”
the bartender winked. “So, what will it be?”

“Just a water for me,” Rachel
answered.

“Water?” the bartender looked in
horror.

“Yup!” Rachel said, trying not to
feel embarrassed. It was clear that nobody else at Infinity would ever dare
order a glass of water.

The bartender walked away with an
annoyed look on his face and came back and slammed a small glass of water down
on the bar, and in doing so, some of it splashed out of the glass and hit her
on the face.

Trying to play it cool, she
picked up the glass of water and started sipping it. She didn’t let on that she
was splashed in the face.

“Thanks,” she said to the
bartender, who had already turned around to help the next
pretty girl.

She felt a tap on her shoulder
and then a hand touching hers.

“Well, hello,” a guy said.

She turned to see a tall,
handsome guy with short brown hair standing next to her smiling at her. He was
wearing a blue and white striped button down shirt open at the top by a few
buttons and he wore a silver necklace with a cross on it. She couldn’t help but
think how handsome thing guy was as she looked up at him into his light blue
eyes.

“Hi,” Rachel replied back loudly,
trying to speak over the loud music that was blaring in the background.

“What’s your name? I haven’t seen
you around here before,” he asked.

“I’m Rachel,” she said, gazing
into his eyes. “I’m just visiting.”

“I know you’re not from around
here. I would have definitely seen you before,” the guy said. “So, what’s your
name?”

“I’m Rachel,” she said, batting
her eyelashes.

She couldn’t believe how
attracted she was to this stranger that she’d just met. The sight of him sent
shivers down her spine.

“I’m Ken,” he said, still gazing
into her eyes as if they’d been soul mates in a previous lifetime.

“So what brings you down this
way?” Ken asked. “And can I buy you a drink?”

“I’m actually visiting family
down here,” she answered. “I’m ok with..”

“Make it two,” Ken said to the
bartender before she could finish her sentence.

“Sure,” she said, changing her
tune. “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

“Well that’s good, because I just
ordered you one. It’s a sex on the beach!” Ken added.

“Ok,” Rachel said, unsure about
what exactly that was.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll
love it!” Ken said, trying to reassure her.

A minute later the bartender put
the drinks down on the bar and walked away.

“Cheers!” Ken said, holding his
drink up in the air.

Rachel grabbed her glass and held
it up cautiously, not wanting it to drip down the sides.

“Cheers,” she said, clinking her
glass to his.

She took a small sip of the drink
and braced herself for the worst but was pleasantly surprised that it tasted
like sour pineapple. She actually liked it. She took a bigger sip and before
she knew it the drink was empty.

“Looks like that was a hit!” Ken
said, pointing to her empty glass.

Rachel let out a laugh and said, “Yup!”

“So want to dance?” Ken asked.

“Sure,” Rachel said, awkwardly
knowing that she’d surely make a complete fool out of herself.

As the two headed onto the dance
floor the music grew louder and louder. She could hardly hear herself think
over the thumping of the base. She could see Ken saying something to her but
she had no idea what it was. Then, her world started to move in slow motion.
The flash of the strobe lights were shining on the faces of the people dancing
near her. She took another look at Ken and suddenly, he looked completely
different. It was as if she’d been talking to someone she’d known her whole
life and now, she didn’t know who he was. She took a step back and looked at
him inquisitively, but she still couldn’t understand what was happening. She
looked towards her friends but couldn’t find them, her palms began to feel
sweaty as she started to have flashbacks. She couldn’t quite make out what she
was seeing, but she knew something was happening. Then, she saw the silhouette
of a person she’d seen before. It was a man, with long hair dirty blonde hair,
and unshaven face and the brightest blue eyes she’d ever seen. She smiled
longingly at him and his pearly white teeth sparkling as he smiled back. She
was amazed at how beautiful this person was and she couldn’t help herself but
to reach out and touch him. As she extended her arm towards his pale skin, he
disappeared into thin air.