Chapter 35

“Okay, guys… what the fuck was that?”

Chloe’s voice cut through the silence like a knife. She was fully awake now, sitting on her bed with her knees pulled up, her face still pale.  She had just woken up but she still had a slight headache, and she was still freaking out.

Vanessa, pacing across Chloe’s massive room, ran both hands through her curls. “I don’t know,” she muttered.

I was sitting cross-legged on the floor, hugging a pillow to my chest. “Vee, has that ever happened before?”

She froze for half a second before shaking her head. “No. Never.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes. “What thing are we even talking about?”

I sighed. “Vanessa… threw the thing. With some kind of force.”

Chloe blinked. “Wait—what?”

Vanessa sank onto the bed, rubbing her temples. “I don’t know how. It just happened.”

Chloe stared at us, then pointed at Vanessa. “Are you telling me you have powers now?”

“No!” Vanessa groaned. “At least… I don’t think so?”

Chloe let out an unsteady laugh. “Oh, great. That’s just great. So, what? Are you suddenly a superhero? A witch?”

I bit my lip. New Orleans had a long history of strange things. But was I really about to bring that up?

“I don’t know what it was,” I admitted. “But I do know that thing wasn’t human.”

Silence stretched between us.

Then Chloe exhaled. “Okay. So what do we do? Because I refuse to just pretend this didn’t happen.”

I hesitated. “…Maybe we tell your mom, Vee?”

Vanessa groaned again, shaking her head. “Oh my god. Liz, no.”

“She works for the mayor. She has connections,” I insisted. “If anyone could help us—”

“She’s going to think we’re crazy,” Vanessa snapped.

Chloe shrugged. “Maybe, but what’s the alternative? Pretend we didn’t almost die?”

Vanessa hesitated. Then, reluctantly, she muttered, “Fine.”

The next morning, we sat stiffly in Vanessa’s kitchen, waiting for Claire Bennet.

Claire finally walked in, looking sharp and put-together as always, sipping her morning coffee. She barely glanced at us. “Why do I feel like this is bad news?”

Vanessa crossed her arms. “Mom, we need to talk.”

Claire sighed, setting down her coffee. “Alright. Talk.”

I swallowed. “We were attacked.”

That got her attention.

She set her mug down fully, eyes sharp. “Attacked?”

Chloe nodded. “Last night. In the movie theater parking lot.”

Claire’s entire body tensed. “By who?”

We hesitated.

Claire frowned. “Girls. Who attacked you?”

Vanessa finally said, “We don’t know.”

Claire’s frown deepened. “Did you see their face?”

I swallowed. “It wasn’t exactly… a person.”

Claire’s jaw twitched. “What?”

“It was something else,” Chloe said carefully. “Its eyes—its teeth—it wasn’t human.”

Claire’s expression didn’t change, but I saw the flicker of doubt. “Girls, listen to me. I believe you were attacked,” she said. “But you were in a dark parking lot, you were scared, and your minds were under stress. It could have been—”

“Mom, no,” Vanessa interrupted, frustrated. “It wasn’t some guy in a mask! It moved too fast! It—” She broke off, rubbing her forehead. “It was real.”

Claire sighed, rubbing her temples. “I’ll report the attack. I’ll make sure  the police investigate this. But you have to understand—what you’re saying isn’t…” She trailed off, choosing her words carefully. “There’s a logical explanation for what you think you saw.”

Vanessa clenched her jaw. “You’re brushing this off.”

“I’m doing my job,” Claire said evenly. “You want me to walk into the mayor’s office or the police station and tell them a monster attacked you?”

Vanessa slammed her hands on the counter. “Oh my god, Mom, I knew you wouldn’t believe us.”

Claire’s expression softened. “Sweetheart, I believe you believe it. But I also know fear does strange things to the mind.”

Vanessa stood up abruptly. “Forget it.” She stormed out.

Claire sighed. “Try to get some sleep, girls and get ready for school. Remember, varsity is open now, and you have a long semester ahead of you.” Then she walked out, leaving me and Chloe sitting in awkward silence.

Chloe ran a hand through her hair. “Well, that went great.”

By the time we got to campus, Vanessa was still pissed.

“I told you she wouldn’t believe us,” she grumbled, slamming her car door.

“Vee, what did you expect?” Chloe asked. “Your mom works for the mayor. She deals with boring political crap, not monster hunting.”

“She could have taken us seriously,” Vanessa muttered.

Chloe stretched. “Well, whatever. Let’s just get through today. First day back, second semester. Woo-hoo.”

I sighed. “Yeah. Nothing like almost dying to really set the mood for college.”

No one else knew. No one else felt the shift in the air.

Only us.

And that scared me more than anything.

\---- --- ---- ----

I barely slept.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw it—the creature. Its glowing red eyes. The razor-sharp teeth. The way it had lunged at us, so sure we were nothing but prey.

And Vanessa…

She had done something. Something impossible. Something that had saved our lives.

But when we told her mom, Claire? She just… brushed it off.

“I believe you were attacked,” she had said, her tone measured, trying to sound reassuring. “But it was dark. You were scared. Maybe it was just a man in a mask.”

A man in a mask.

Vanessa had been furious. Chloe had looked skeptical but willing to move on. And me? I didn’t know what to think. Something told me Claire wasn’t telling us everything, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

Now, sitting in Vanessa’s kitchen the morning after, drinking coffee that wasn’t strong enough to wake me up from this nightmare, I just felt exhausted.

Claire had always treated me like family. She paid for my tuition, made sure I had everything I needed, and never once made me feel like an outsider.

But last night? She didn’t even try to dig deeper into what happened. She just accepted it, said it was dark, and moved on.

I hated the uncertainty gnawing at me. Was Claire really just trying to protect us, or was she hiding something? And why did everything feel so wrong?

“Okay,” Chloe groaned, dragging herself into the kitchen in an oversized hoodie. “I officially hate mornings.”

Vanessa followed, looking just as tired as I felt. She grabbed a banana from the counter and sat across from me, not even bothering to peel it yet.

Nobody said anything.

Finally, Chloe sighed dramatically. “Alright, look. Maybe your mom is right, Vee. Maybe it was just too dark. Maybe we imagined it.”

Vanessa shot her a glare. “You saw it.”

Chloe held up her hands. “I think I saw it. But I also banged my head pretty damn hard, so forgive me if my memory isn’t exactly crystal clear.”

I rubbed my temples, trying to will away the headache forming. “It wasn’t our imagination.”

Chloe groaned. “So what do you wanna do? Start hunting monsters? Drop out of med school and become supernatural detectives?”

Vanessa smirked. “Now there’s an idea.”

I rolled my eyes. “We still have to go to class.”

Chloe let out a pained noise. “Ugh, don’t remind me.”

“Claire’s paying for my tuition,” I reminded them, standing up to rinse out my coffee mug. “The least I can do is actually show up.”

Vanessa sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go before we all fail and have to explain to our parents that we dropped out because of vampires.”

Vampires ,I laughed, but for some reason, my heart started racing...

We grabbed our bags and headed out, the normalcy of the morning feeling completely wrong.

Campus was buzzing.

Students were everywhere, spilling out of dorms, rushing to early classes, laughing with friends. Some were still in pajama pants, clinging to their coffee cups like lifelines.

For a second, I almost felt normal.

Then, in the middle of Dr. Monroe’s lecture, I saw something.

A shadow.

Out the window, near the courtyard.

My heart stopped.

It was just… standing there. Watching.

And then—gone.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

“Liz?” Vanessa whispered."You good?"

I nodded. "Yeah,I'm okay."

I breathed out but I just kept staring out the window, hoping—praying—that it had been my imagination.

It wasn’t.

I knew what I saw.

When class ended, we barely made it into the hallway before we heard the whispers.

“They found a body.”

My blood ran cold.

Chloe grabbed some random girl’s sleeve. “Wait, what?”

The girl looked around, lowering her voice. “This morning. Outside the library. They said it was—”

She hesitated.

Vanessa’s voice was eerily calm. “They said it was what?”

The girl swallowed. “Drained of blood.”

Nobody moved.

Nobody breathed.

Then Vanessa turned to me, her expression unreadable. “Let’s go.”

The library was blocked off with police tape.

A small crowd had gathered, murmuring in hushed voices, straining to see past the security officers standing guard.

I stood frozen, my heart hammering as I took in the scene.

A body. A real body.

We pushed closer until we could see past the tape.

My stomach turned.

The corpse was drained. Its throat was ripped open, the skin gray and lifeless. Like something had fed on it.

“Holy shit,” Chloe whispered.

Vanessa was gripping my arm so tightly it hurt.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the body. But there was something else, too. Something that made my skin crawl.

The police were everywhere, but there was no sign of Claire. No sign of any city officials we recognized. Just a mix of officers, medics, and the occasional bystander who couldn’t keep their curiosity in check.

The air felt thick with tension. People were scared, whispering to each other about the gruesome details of what had happened, about how it looked like the body had been drained of blood, about how the victim had no signs of struggle. Just… dead.

A senior officer came forward "everyone back away ,this was just an Animal attack everyone get back to class ,now!"

I felt a sharp chill in the air.

“Do you think it’s connected?” I whispered.

Vanessa’s voice was low and steady. “Of course it’s connected.”

Chloe, still as nonchalant as ever, crossed her arms. “Okay, so… what now? We find some clues, investigate it like the Scooby gang?”

I glared at her. “This isn’t some joke.”

She held up her hands, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I’m just saying, we need to be careful. We don’t know who or what we’re dealing with here.”

I nodded, trying to ignore the fear creeping up my spine.

And then, in that crowd of people, I saw something—someone—who made my stomach drop.

A figure. Watching us from the shadows near the back of the library. Standing so still, it almost looked like they weren’t even real.

My heart hammered in my chest. It was like that same sense of being watched had returned, except now it was different. More threatening.

It was him. The thing from the parking lot, the creature that had attacked us. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew. I knew it was him.

Vanessa must have seen the same thing because she grabbed my arm, her grip tight and cold. Her voice was barely a whisper, just a sharp, “We need to go. Now.”

We didn’t need to be told twice. Without saying another word, we turned and rushed out of the crowd, moving quickly toward the exit, away from the figure in the shadows.