He cocked his head and blinked twice. “Who cares. Scarlett—”
She bounced her leg and bit her lip. “Look, this is too much, okay? I have too many things to worry about right now.” She said, “Kinda makes me wanna smoke again.” She half-joked. She did long for a substance to take away all the bad thoughts. But she’d already been down that hole and climbed out. Now, firing guns and throwing blades and fighting gave her that feeling of release. She looked at him. “I mean not smoke, smoke, but you know.” She leaned her head against the back wall and stared up at the ceiling. Why did this Vampire make her feel things? He was supposed to be her friend, not her lover. She needed a friendship out of Silas. Not a new relationship.
The burgundy-haired boy slumped his shoulders. “Don’t say that.” There was sympathy in his voice. “Alright, I’ll drop it.” He was the only one there for her last year when she overdosed on Unicorn dust at one of Julessa’s parties. He knew how serious Scarlett was whenever she mentioned that drug. Sometimes she’d get small urges to use it again, but she usually could maintain it. She didn’t want to ever go back.
She could tell Silas anything, and she didn’t really want to befriend anyone else at her conservatory. Silas cared about her. She knew people at Shylack, sure. But, she connected with Silas. It was different for Scarlett. Nearly last year she’d been surrounded in a sea full of fake friends, and Silas happened to be the only one who was genuine. She didn’t want to break that because of her stupid schoolgirl feelings. Scarlett then gazed over at his notebook. There were scribbles of different things. Of landscapes, portraits, fonts. She then studied the small, minimal tattoos that littered his fingers. Scarlett sometimes would scold him whenever he’d show up with a new one. He happened to want to be a tattoo artist, and she never understood why. He seemed obsessed with the idea of it.
“By the way, I think Liveria’s mad at you. On her pixiechat story there were about five quotes about lies and fake people.” He spoke, as he chewed his sandwich with his mouth full.
She erupted in laughter. “Did she really?” Her smile faded. She touched her throat, as she shook her head with a shrug.“She’s just mad that she got caught sneaking around with Coreveticus, and I wasn’t there to get in trouble with her this time. Also, I didn’t want to tell her about the fire, and Saytrix.”
He drank the red drink, “Well, kinda sucks.” Silas crossed his arms, “They had amazing bloodshakes there.”
“Hey!” She exclaimed, as she then rolled her eyes and hit his shoulder with a grin. “Don’t remind me.” Her arms were crossed as she shoved her oracle in her pocket, and moved a strand of white hair behind her ear. The joyous expression then melted into something new, as her voice went soft. She shook her head.“I can’t believe that Saytrix Arlenhallow approached me. He was the guy we saved from the fire last night, a prince. He had this golden locket that looked like my silver one. You know, the one I’ve had since I was little?”
Silas nodded, drinking in her every word. She then touched her neck and began playing with the locket. “Yeah well it had the same designs, same structure. Everything. It was insane. And both the pictures inside our lockets had matched like a puzzle, or something.”
“Scar?”
“Yes?”
His dark eyes peered into her light ones, and leaned forward. “I know you started the fire. And I know that I joke about it.” He spoke, and held a slight smile. But suddenly, it disappeared as worry plagued his expression. “But how did you do that?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, Silas.” Her brain scanned and re-analyzed the night over and over again. “It all happened so fast. And then I touched his shoulder.” Maybe she didn’t start the fire, she thought. She wanted to convince herself that she didn’t, but she felt it inside of her. Unlike anything she’d ever felt before.
“What do you think it means?”
Undetermined. That very word struck fear into her unmoving heart and radiated through her soul. In the country of Impala, having more power meant that you wanted to overthrow the power that already existed, and ultimately, that was a threat to the government.
She remembered reading about the history between the Undetermined and Impala in a historic studies class that she’d taken last year. Almost nineteen years ago, Mortdecai Mendeleev was said to have been the first ever Undetermined creature to be born.
His father was a Wizard who had fallen in love with a Fey creature. She then died in the process of childbirth, not to mention the fact that their relationship had soon reached the public.
Scarlett could still visualize sitting in that class, and imagining how powerful Mortdecai must have felt to be in control of so many things and such abilities.
When his father soon was exiled, it was said that Mortdecai grew resentment towards the government of Impala, quickly stirring rebellion between the other Undetermined beings that he’d ventured out and found, and the Impalan military. The war led to the bloodshed of over seven hundred undetermined creatures, including Mortdecai.
Nineteen years later, and it had been illegal to mate with any other race that was not of your own. Scarlett intuitively knew that the government didn’t want that type of power trying to rise and take control again. She liked to think that there were still Undetermined beings alive. She shook over the
