Chapter 3 – Dawn
Dawn doesn’t know who that girl outside her window was but she was in a way glad she came. She needed someone to talk to that wasn’t her mom of friends.
But she didn’t have much time to think before she started accumulating the need that would certainly frighten her the most. She thirsted for blood. She didn’t think she would so quickly but she needed to do something before she felt the need to hunt down her own father!
So she grabbed a blood bag from her mom’s pile that a nurse was supplying her with. Then she left home to see if there was somewhere private she could consume the blood. Her mother had always told her that vampires didn’t need much blood but they needed it often enough that it had become a feature of them.
Dawn found an old abandoned alleyway. She poked a plastic straw into the blood bag with precision. She could feel her eyes turn yellow and her fangs appear inside her mouth.
For now she didn’t mind but she would regret thinking as if her actions were inconsequential.
Let’s take a quick detour from our story. Thank you to everyone who stopped to help me put the pieces of this next scene together! Oh? You actually want me to stop talking to you and tell you what happened? Well okay! If you insist!
But to continue the story I must take you back to when Dawn abandoned Hazel and Anna. Because Hazel, being the nosy friend, decided to follow Dawn. But by the time Hazel had nearly caught up to her she was met with a fork in the road. She got confused and went the wrong way and by the time Hazel got to her house and opened the door Dawn’s mom had to tell her that Dawn had already left.
So Hazel came walking down the street looking for Dawn and that’s who she found. Dawn quickly noticed Hazel standing there but it was too late. Hazel was horrified and confused by Dawn’s blood bag and her yellow eyes.
“D-Dawn” Hazel mumbles. Dawn in an instant throws down her blood bag and runs to Hazel just as she turns around to leave. “What are you?!” Hazel asks in a whisper.
“I-I’m a-” she pauses, not wanting to say the word that had tormented her for 14 years. But something made her feel stronger. Something made her believe. “I’m a vampire.” she finishes barely believing she worked up enough courage to say it.
“What?!” Hazel asks in disbelief.
“I’m a vampire” Dawn repeats steadily.
“How?” she asks.
“It’s a long story. My mom is vampire royalty. She wanted to turn me and now she did.” Dawn explains nervously. Hazel simply stares at her in silence. Dawn adds, “I promise I won’t hurt you”. Hazel nods in response. “Now leave for good”.
“What why?!” Hazel questions.
“It’s the only way I can keep my promise” Dawn answers, starting to walk away. Hazel turns to face her but she’s already far out of sight. Feeling defeated Hazel starts to head home.
As Dawn returns home she’s greeted once again by Lily. Dawn tries to ignore her as she sits down on her bed with her laptop. Luckily, Lily (like us) has discovered the last pieces of the puzzle. But she’s not here to comfort Dawn this time.
“How could you do something so reckless?!” Lily yells.
“You’d do the same.” Dawn retorts.
“You don’t know that.” Lily claims, “You don’t know me.”
Dawn puts down her laptop and walks over to Lily, “I think I do” she takes off and gives her a locket that she was wearing. Lily looks at it for a moment.
“H-How do you h-have this?!” Lily stutters, her hand shaking so violently she can barely hold the necklace. A single tear falls down her face. She knows what’s coming next. The thing she’s been trying to prevent for years is going to become a reality.
“My mother is royalty from the opposing side of fairies. You thought we hadn’t yet learned how to harness the cause of your destruction, force?” Dawn explains sinisterly.
“Why did you give this to me?”
“Because I don’t want the war to happen”.
“But it will anyway!” Dawn sighs in response. She knew it wouldn’t be easy to stop the war. But she still wanted to try. She wanted to prevent human Masters from being turned into Guardians. She knew Lily might be her only way to do that.
“So you’re just going to let it happen?!” Dawn mumbles.
“Not exactly.” Lily defends. “I’m going to sacrifice myself. My species, forces, shouldn’t win. So I’m not going to turn anyone else.”
“But you do know how many people will be turned into Guardians?!”
“Yes I do but you were turned into a vampire and you’re fine.”
“You know that’s not the same! They’ll be forced to control immense power and flee to the Guardian Realm.” Dawn points out. She then points to the locket, “Take me there. Show me the horrors you will force upon so many young Masters!”
Lily nods. She throws up the locket and stops it with her powers. She expands the gap between her hands to enlarge the locket. Then she lets it fall.
Now the locket is the size of a door and laying flat on the floor. Lily opens it revealing a green-ish swirling portal underneath. Without warning Dawn jumps in and Lily follows after her.
I personally feel like Dawn’s mom is going to find the portal in Dawn’s room and jump through it discovering Lily in the process. But don’t tell anyone I told you that. In case I’m right it could spoil the fun. Anyone to the portal. Ugh, I shouldn’t have eaten moonrock for breakfast!
Dawn and Lily appear at a school. One that reads “Iallsie Academy” from a plaque outside. Dawn and Lily exchange an expression of confusion. They walk into the school hoping it will have the answers they’re looking for.
Little does Dawn know that this place would be a dream come true for all different types of magical species. This school holds many species that used to be at war. It is a school for magic users where they can finally live in harmony without war or without having to hide their true selves.
But it also reveals a nightmare about Lily’s future. A inescapable fate to doom her closest relatives. Nearly causing the extinction of their species. Something Lily had avoided thinking about for years.
Once inside they see teens talking amongst themselves. Some are Shifters, Witches, Sorcerer(esse)s, werewolves, vampires. Even forces go to school here with the vampires. They don’t continue to hate one another.
“This is good right?” Dawn asks.
“No. They are forces that means I’ll have to turn people. That means there will be a war.” Lily yells.
“We don’t know that for sure.” Dawn tries to comfort Lily.
“Do you see any fairies?” Lily asks, “Do you see them thriving or even living here.”
“Maybe they don’t go to this type of school. You never know. It is the future after all.” Dawn resolves.
“Exactly! They’re gone. I made sure of that. There’s no stopping their demise.”
Lily sits against one of the lockers beginning to sob. Dawn looks over to her. It’s probably a good time to leave. Dawn turns around but can’t move. She, instead, sits next to Lily and puts her arm around her shoulder. Lily tries to speak but Dawn shushes her.
Lily’s tears begin to fade and she gets up. They walk toward the exit and find where they can leave the locket. They leave together and appear back in Dawn’s room.
“Lily I-” Dawn begins, cutting herself off.
“Yes? Dawn?” Lily asks, confused.
“Run,” Dawn says, “I hear my mom coming, she’ll find you so just run.”
Lily’s eyes widen as the footsteps grow louder. Lily floats down to the ground from the window. But before she does she leaves a strange note. Dawn hides the note in her pocket, unable to read the note.
Dawn’s mom enters the room with an odd look on her face. Dawn turns from the window to face her mother.
“I thought I heard people talking in this room.” Dawn’s mom tells her.
“Oh, I was watching something on TV that might have been it. And it’s nice outside.” Dawn explains carelessly, trying to distract her mom.
“Dawn it’s cloudy. It’s about to rain.” her mom says doubtfully.
“Really it looks nice outside.” with that it starts to rain, and Dawn’s mom closes the window with a frown on her face.
“What good weather!” Dawn’s mom jokes leaving the room.
Dawn sighs and sees Lily wave goodbye. She waves back and Lily leaves.
If Lily can continue living an average life after the shock, she had today then can’t Dawn too? Can’t she continue going to school and trying her best to be normal? Can’t she be more like Lily?
The next day Dawn wakes up and decides to try going back to school. She gets ready and opens the window. She looks around to see if anyone is nearby. There’s nobody. She looks behind her then jumps out the window, landing perfectly. She walks to school nonchalantly.
Her new vampire abilities allow her to be immune to almost anything. Long falls are nothing to her and she can go days without drinking blood.
Dawn rushes to her locker and avoids her friends. She switches seats with a girl in Homeroom. This does not go unnoticed by the other students but there’s not much they can do about it.
Dawn hears Hazel and Anna whispering. She guesses Hazel must have told Anna her secret. She tries to ignore it but is nervous about who else will find out. Lily is a stranger who knows, Hazel was never supposed to know, and now Anna will find out. This was not what Dawn wanted or what she’d planned.
“Mr. Miller?” Anna asks.
“Yes?” Mr. Miller says, turning to face her.
“Hazel, Dawn and I are working on a project together. Can we go to the library?”
Dawn freezes. She’ll definitely be getting exposed if the teacher allows them to leave. It seems like months, years, decades until Mr. Miller answers.
“I don’t see why you can’t go to the library this period. Go right ahead.” Hazel and Anna get up and walk over to Dawn.
“We need to talk.” Hazel announces.
Dawn nods and walks to the library with them. The walk is long, awkward, and silent. Dawn opens the library door but Hazel and Anna keep walking.
“Where are you going?” Dawn asks.
“Outside” Anna replies.
“We need to talk somewhere private.” Hazel elaborates.
They walk outside and Dawn hesitantly follows. They lead her to the exact same spot they had been in the day before when Dawn ran away. She was hoping she wouldn’t have to run again because now she could run even faster.
To Dawn’s surprise Hazel whispers, “Anna doesn’t know.”
Anna walks in front of both of them and says, “I know you too are keeping something from me. Neither of you will tell me what it is and I think I should be in the loop.”
“I thought you weren’t coming back to school.” Hazel accuses, “I thought you said that you’d never see us again.”
“She said that?” Anna asks, sounding hurt.
“I said I wanted to keep you safe.” Dawn argues.
“Safe from what?” Anna yells, sounding more confident and courageous than she’s ever been before.
Dawn ignores the question and says, “Anna this isn’t like you. It’s going to be ok. You just need to forget it.”
“She just wants to know.” Hazel explains.
“You were never supposed to know!” Dawn admits in a moment of weakness.
Hazel and Anna look at each other with a hurt expression. Their eyes say more to Dawn in seconds then their words could tell her in hours. She knows they want to help. and she knows that they can’t even if they wanted to.
They can’t help Dawn or Lily no matter what they do. Unless… no it’s far too dangerous. It’s not worth it for them to risk their human lives to help their friend. They’ll find new friends and none of this will matter. That has to be the solution.
It seems Dawn shares my same idea. She knows that she and Lily can help them. They can give them something no one else can. They can give them power. Power that Dawn never wanted but needs now more than ever.
Will they be able to pull it off? Will Dawn’s plan backfire? Will she ever be able to help Lily? Will her friends ever be able to help her?
Virtual School Paper: Media for kids, by kids 