I stand in front of the mirror and stare at my familiar features. It’s time for me to select a new appearance. I’ve never altered my appearance for longer than a mission. It’s strange to think that I’ll be using a new face every time I leave the house from now on. My real face will still be there, the new face will just be like a mask of smoke.
I spin through different features like I’m creating a character in a video game until I find ones that I like. My hair is now an understated ashy blonde. It skims my shoulders in a long, fluffy bob and my long bangs are pulled to one side across my forehead and tucked behind my ear. It looks very neat and academic. My sharp grey eyes aren’t going anywhere, but I’ve changed the rest of my features. My nose is small and straight. My lips are thin, but full. My cheekbones are less angular. My face is a delicate heart shape. I definitely look like the quiet, bookworm, type of girl. It’ll be good enough to keep me from standing out, at least.
Fionn gives his approval and fills me in on the phone calls he made. For the first time in my life, I learn that Fionn’s current ‘real’ name is Evan Howell. He pretends to be a stay-at-home writer, but he actually spends all his time working for the organization. Since he’s rank II he’s a salaried member and doesn’t have to worry about getting a real job. My new identity will be that of his nonexistent brother John’s daughter, Nora Howell.
It’s been a long time since Fionn and I were close, and I won’t lie. I’ve missed him. Part of me is still angry with him, but I shouldn’t have abandoned him like I did. He was like a second father to me. I shouldn’t have doubted him. Before I leave his study, I stop and wrap my arms around him.
“Thank you for taking me in,” I mutter awkwardly. I hate being a burden on others, and I certainly don’t deserve his kindness.
“Don’t sweat it,” he replies, smiling. “It’s no problem for me. Just be ready to play your part when the authorities come knocking. You know this is one of the first places your parents will check.”
“I know,” I say, releasing the embrace and smiling back. “Don’t worry. They won’t suspect a thing.”
“That’s what I like to hear. Get some sleep! Tomorrow you can buy yourself some new belongings. Once you have some new clothes, we can get some photos taken for your new documents” he says.
“Alright. Goodnight,” I reply and head upstairs.
My room is cold. The blankets on this bed are thin. It feels weird to be sleeping in an unfamiliar room. I miss my family. This is definitely going to take some getting used to.
The next morning, I wake up and go shopping. I change into the first thing that I buy so that I can get out of yesterday’s clothes. It happens to be a black collared dress. I try to buy colors, I really do, but I always tend to gravitate back towards earth tones. After amassing a small collection of dull, conservative, clothing that I can mix and match for awhile, I head back to Fionn’s to drop off my bags. Fionn offers me lunch, but I decline since I still feel full from the cores I absorbed yesterday.
He hangs up a couple of different plain tarps and takes a few photographs of me wearing different clothing and hairstyles against them. As soon as he’s satisfied, he heads out to deliver the files to whoever is going to be spoofing my documents. I return to shopping and purchase some new bedding and other amenities for my new room.
As I’m getting ready to leave the department store, I see an obnoxiously familiar sight. Two red lights have a white light cornered. The vampires are both young males. The human is a teenage girl about my age. She’s pretty cute with curly black hair. It looks like she’s trying to find an excuse to leave. From the looks of it, they’re not recruiting her. Unless it’s a recruitment for dinner, that is.
It’s a typical damsel in distress situation and honestly, I wouldn’t normally care. People are getting picked off by vampires all the time. What’s one more? I happen to have something of a grudge against the vampires in this city right now though, so while gritting my teeth, I steel myself to make a move.
I throw on my most convincing smile and trot up behind the girl and throw my arms around her, practically knocking her to the ground with the weight of my bags.
“There you are!” I giggle convincingly. “I was wondering where you had run off to! You’re so mean, leaving me all alone like that! Oh!” I exclaim as if noticing the guys for the first time, “Are these friends of yours? Introduce me!” The girl catches on quickly, supporting my heavy frame as I cling to her in an overly-familiar manner.
“No! I just met them! I was just about to come and find you. Let’s go finish our shopping!” she replies with equally-solid acting. “Bye bye, guys!” she waves over her shoulder as we walk away.
The two vampires glare at me as if I’m the devil himself. I pretend to be oblivious to their ire as I walk away chatting familiarly with my new ‘best friend’. As soon as we get a certain distance away, I release her from my hold. She smiles weakly at me and gives a sigh of relief.
“Thank you for your help. Those guys were really clingy. Not sure what their problem was,” she says to me.
“No problem,” I reply. It’s probably better not to explain exactly what their problem was. Most humans don’t like being told that they were almost killed and eaten. “I like to annoy awful guys like that. Next time, try not to let yourself get cornered.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she says, sincerely. “My name is Isabelle, but my friends call me Izzy. Can I have your name?” For some reason her deep brown eyes are shining strangely as she says this.
“I’m Nora,” I reply. “Do you some way of getting home? I’d hate for those creeps to follow you or something.” As I say this, I see something in her mind click. Something is telling me that this girl is getting a little bit too attached to me. I want to get away quickly, but I’d hate for something to happen to her now that I’ve already gone to the effort of saving her once today.
“Oh no!” she exclaims, a worried expression flooding her face. “You’re right! They might follow me! I hate to ask, but could you escort me home? I’ll call a cab, but will you please just ride with me? I’d feel so much safer!” Her act looks convincing, but it just radiates insincerity. What is this girl’s deal? Why does she want me coming with her so badly? She’s definitely a human though, so it’s not like she’s going to eat me.
Reluctantly, I accompany the girl into a cab. Fortunately, her house isn’t too far away from the shopping center so I don’t have to spend too long with her. On the ride to her house, I manage to get out of telling her my cell phone number by saying that I don’t have one. It’s currently not a lie. I had a cell phone, but it’s been powered off with the battery removed for a day and a half now. I haven’t had time to buy a replacement.
She invites me in, but I decline politely by saying that my family was expecting me and ask the cab driver to take me home. She stares at me with big sorrowful eyes as I leave. What a strange girl. Her house looked kind of familiar though. Maybe it’s just built off of a common model or something. That’s probably it.
I make it safely back to Fionn’s place without running into any more trouble and set up my room. It’s a lot more comfortable now that I’ve personalized it a bit.
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The week passes quickly and by Saturday, we have already received confirmation of my ‘transfer’ to my new school. I’ll be attending Kangee East High School starting on Monday. My old school was Kangee West, so I guess that makes me a traitor for switching to our rivals. Not that I ever cared about school competitions.
There’s nothing left for me to do to get ready so I end up distracting myself by helping Fionn with some of his council work. Most of his tasks right now involve keeping track of populations, attitude, and recent movements of the various supernatural groups in town. It’s typical intelligence gathering. He teaches me how to draw up informational maps on the computer and I get to work translating the data that he’s gathered into something more human-readable.
At about 3 o’clock on Sunday, we hear a knock at the door. Two red energy signatures. Either the two vampires from the other day managed to follow me home, or… my parents have started looking for me.
Fionn changes back into the old man form that he uses outside of the house and answers the door. I stay seated in the study for now.
“It’s been awhile, Mr. and Mrs. Seyler. Please, come in. How may I be of service?” Fionn inquires politely as he welcomes my parents into the house.
“Thank you, Mr. Howell. To tell you the truth, Arienne hasn’t been home for a few days now. We can’t imagine why she’d run off without telling us, but we thought if she did, this would be the first place she’d go. She spent so much time here as a child. Have you seen her around?” my father asks. My mother grips his arm tightly. I can tell she’s trying to keep optimistic, but she’s choking back tears.
“Oh, dear!” Fionn exclaims. “I’m afraid I haven’t heard from Arri in quite some time. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll get you some tea. Nora,” he shouts at me, “Can you please make our guests some tea?”
“Sure! Right away,” I reply as I hurry into the kitchen. My parents seem to have noticed me for the first time.
“My granddaughter is staying here while she attends school in the city,” Fionn explains as he walks them into the living room across from the study. This is probably the first time it’s seen visitors in quite some time. The couches give a tiny puff of dust as they sit down. I should do some cleaning soon.
“So, how long has Arri been gone?” Fionn asks delicately.
“We haven’t seen her since Thursday,” my father answers. “She never came home from school and she’s not answering her cell phone. She’s always been an independent child and we’ve trusted her with her freedom, but this isn’t normal. We’re awful worried about our little girl.”
They talk a little longer about the places they’ve looked for me and I bring out the tea. Fionn motions for me to sit and join them, so I do. Eventually, my mother’s tears burst forth. Streaks of crimson fall down her face and she struggles to catch them. I bring her a napkin from the kitchen, leaving it to Fionn to acknowledge that abnormality. Normal humans might not notice their crimson irises, but something as obvious as crying tears of blood would be sure to catch somebody’s attention.
“I see you’ve made the change, then. How has that been treating you?” he asks as politely as possible.
“It was a mistake,” my mother croaks out between sobs before my father takes over explaining.
“We came home after work one day and our youngest one, Evelyn had gotten herself a boyfriend. It was a vampire noble she had fallen head over heels for. One of the Waverlies. Anyways, she had taken upon herself to make the change without consulting us. It seems like that kid was pressuring her into it pretty hard. It was a now-or-never kind of deal. Still haven’t forgiven him for taking advantage of our little girl like that.” My father pauses to sigh heavily.
“When we saw our little girl laying on the couch going through the change, we just knew immediately that we couldn’t let her be alone. We had to support her. My wife and I took one look at each other and decided right there to ask that boyfriend of Evelyn’s to change us. We didn’t think it through. When we woke up, Evelyn told us Arri hadn’t been home yet. Our hearts just sank”
Now my father’s eyes start to well up. I leave to fetch another napkin. This is the first time I’ve heard their side of things. I’m gonna rip that Marcus kid to shreds someday. How dare he pressure Evelyn like that. I swallow my rage as I head back
“What if something’s happened to her?” my father sobs, “What if our little girl is gone and we have to live forever with our foolishness?” Both of my parents collapse into each other as they bawl their eyes out. I’ve never even see them cry before. This is a lot harder than I thought it’d be.
Eventually, my parents manage to collect themselves enough to thank Mr. Howell for his time and leave to continue their search elsewhere. Fionn closes the door behind them and heaves a gentle sigh of relief.
“You did good,” he tells me before heading back to his work. I’m too exhausted from seeing my parents’ states to get much else done. I fiddle with the maps for a little bit longer before excusing myself to head to sleep.
The next morning, I get ready for school. Fionn hands me a schedule showing the classes I had been enrolled with. I thank him with a wide smile. I’m admittedly a little bit excited to see my new school. I wasn’t exactly fond of my old one. School is exactly what I need to take my mind off of yesterday’s events. I grab my mostly empty backpack and head out the front door.
When I arrive at school, I check in with a counselor at the front desk. She hands me a student manual filled with rules and policy and wishes me luck. I’ll read it later. Maybe.
I manage to navigate through the crowded hallways to my first period AP physics class. The teacher isn’t present so I just stand awkwardly at one of the sides of the classroom waiting. I examine some of the equipment at the lab stations as I wait. It looks like they’re covering thermodynamics. Fun.
Suddenly, I feel an ominous presence from behind me. My eyes widen as my muscles tense. Shit. I’m in public and it’s the first day at my new school. Whatever is barreling towards me, I’ll have to take it. I can’t afford to dodge or throw right now.
Something crashes into my back and two vice-like arms wrap around my shoulders. A lock of curly black hair enters my vision. What have I done?
“Hey there, best friend!” Izzy shouts excitedly, right in my ear. “Since when are you in my physics class?”
Ooooooh, I've made a dangerous mistake. With a friend like this, blending in is going to be easier said than done.
~~~
AN: Why are the chapters for this work so long? Why am I doing this to myself? Second chapter this week to make up for my brief absence. This one is a little bit shorter than normal, but I feel alright with it because there are a lot of things going on. No action for a chapter or two, but it'll be back before long. I promise not to dwell on boring school stuff for too long. Anyways, please let me know what you think! Any and all feedback is appreciated!