Chapter Six - Taken

As I enter the dorm, there are a lot of girls present. No sign of Monica so far. I walk up to the front desk where the attendant is. "Hi I'm Claire up on four, I had an accident yesterday, but everything's fine," I tell her." "You're the... they were looking for you, right?" She asks me. "Yeah. Just tell everybody I'm ok. I've got to get to class," I say as I rush through my things. I hurry up the steps as fast as my sore ankle will allow me.

I pass a few girls that give me some wide eyed looks, but still no sign of Monica or her crew. I hurry down to the end where my room is and start to unlock it. The knob turns to limply in my fingers. More graffiti that says, Monica wuz here. Sure enough the room is a wreck. I grab what I have left in my room that is still intact and stuffed it in my backpack. I go over to my desk and grab the picture of my mom and dad, and head out the door and hope not to bump into Monica as I head downstairs.

Halfway down the second floor I hear voices. "I swear it's her! You should see the black eye. Unbelievable. You really clocked her one," one of the girls tells Monica. "Where the hell is she? And how come nobody came to get me?" Asks Monica. "We did!" Some body protested. I went back up the steps to the third floor and went to the fire stairs and fling the door open and hurry down the stairs as fast as I could go, making sure no one can see me through the window on the door. I made it to the lobby exit. I risk a quick look out of the window to see Monica's groupie Jennifer on guard.

One thing's for certain, Jennifer would see me as soon as I opened the door. I flinch as soon as a fire door opened from a couple floors up, but there is no where to hide. there are footsteps coming down. I touch the phone in my pocket. One phone call away, it's ok. It wasn't Monica, it was Kim Valdez, a freshman like myself. She pushed back the hood of her cloak, revealing short, shiny black hair. She kneels down in front of me with a concerned look on her face. "They're looking for you," she tells me. "Yeah I know," I say with a scared voice.

"Monica do that?" She asked me as she looked at my bruised face. I nodded wordlessly. "I always knew she was a bitch. So you need to get out of here?" She asked. I nodded again and swallowed hard. "Will you help me?" I asked. "Nope," she tells me. Kim flashed me a sudden, vivid grin. "Not officially. Wouldn't be too smart," she tells me. Kim handed me a black sweater and a black cloak with a hood, and told me to put it on. I zipped up the sweater and pulled the hood down around my face. "Higher, tilt it so it covers your face. Yeah, like that," Kim advised.

"What about my bags?" I asked. "I'll wait a couple of minutes, then come out with'em. Wait outside and don't go nowhere with my sweater and cloak, and I mean it. I'll kick your ass," she warned. "I won't, I swear," I tell her. Kim opened the door for me, and I took a gasping breath and calmly walked out. I easily passed Jennifer, as she didn't notice me. As I swing the door open I heard Monica say, "That freak can't get out of here! Check the basement, maybe she went down the trash chute, like her stupid laundry."

The sunlight feels amazing. I head over to the corner where Kim had told me to meeter her so that I can give her things back to her. As I squinted against the sun I can see Eve's car parked in the distance. Gosh it's hot out here, I can only imagine how Eve feels sitting in the car, I thought. And just as I thought that, I saw a shadow fall across mine from behind, and as I went to turn around, it was too late. Someone put their hand around my mouth and yanked me off balance. I tried to scream but somebody punched me in the stomach, which took care of the screaming and most of the breathing.

Whoever has me, is dragging me down a flight of stairs. Once we stopped moving, I can hear breathing and whispers of what sounds like more than a few people. Then I'm shoved, hard, and fell off-balance onto a flight of stairs in a chilly room. The impact stuns me, and by the time I my eyes come into focus, I found there was a whole circle of girls standing around me. I take the cell phone Eve provided me, cover it with my body, and hit star 2. I hit send and shove the cell in between 2 boxes, hoping the glow of the buttons doesn't attract anyone's attention.

Monica steps out of the corner. "Well, look at what the cats dragged in. You ran away little mouse, and just when we were having fun," Monica snickers. "Oh for God's sake, get her up!" Monica orders. Gina gets me to my feet while holding my arms. Monica pulls the hood back from my bruised face and smiles, taking in the damage.

"Damn freak, you look like hell. Does it hurt?" Monica asks. "What did I ever do to you?" I ask. "You know exactly what you did. You tried to make me look stupid," she replies. "tried?" I shot back. I knew it was a dumb thing to say, but i couldn't stop the impulse. It got me hit. Right on top of the first bruise, which took my breath away in slow throbs of agony. I feel the pressure on my arms, and realize that Gina was holding me up. I put some stiffness back into my legs, open my eyes, and glare at Monica.

"How come you live in Howard?" I ask. "What?" Monica asks. "Your family's rich right? You could be living in an apartment or in a sorority house. How come you live in Howard Hall with the rest of us freaks? Unless you're a freak too. A freak who gets off on hurting somebody weaker than you. A freak your family's ashamed of. Somebody they hide here where they don't have to look at you," I snap. "Shut up. Don't be stupid! She'll kill you, don't you get it?" Gina whispered.

Of course I'm just getting started, and I had to buy some time. I called Shane's cell, so either Shane, Eve, or even Michael should show up at anytime now. Monica Wouldn't look so big then. "What's the matter? Couldn't you cut it? I'm not surprised," I start on Monica again. I see the punch coming this time, and duck as best as I can. Monica's fist smashes into my forehead, which hurt, but it must've hurt Monica a lot more, because she let out a scream and backed off, clutching her right hand.

"Careful," I gasp, nearly giggling. "Don't break a nail! I'm not worth it, remember?"  I tell Monica. "Got that right. Let that bitch go. What are you waiting for? Go on, do it! Do you think that wimp's gonna hurt me?" Monica tells Gina. Gina lets me go and steps back. "You want to know why I live in Howard Hall? Because in this town, I can live anywhere i want, anyway I want. And you, you're just a walking organ donor. So take my advice, Claire. Don't get in my face, because if you do, you won't have one for long. Are we clear?" Monica says. "We're clear," I tell Monica.

I reached in between the boxes for Eve's cell phone, as Monica looks at me with curiosity. "You're one smart little freak, now run away, smart little freak, before I change my mind and stick you in one of these old suitcases for some architect to find a hundred years from now," Monica warns. "Archaeologist," I said and headed to the door. I open the door and walk outside to where I had been abducted, and walk across the parking lot to Eve's car. Eve was still in the driver's seat, looking crown-pale scared. I put the bag in the back of Eve's car, and tell her that I'm going to class. "Thanks Eve, here's your phone," I tell her. I grab my backpack and closed the car door.

I made it to the grocery store after class, nobody jumped at me while I'm gathering the things I need to make hamburgers for dinner tonight, or while I was in line for checkout. I walked back to the Glass House, watching for vampires, but didn't see anybody except for students. The front gate was open so I closed it behind me, unlocked the door with the shiny new key that I found on my dresser this morning.

As I enter the kitchen, Shane was looking for something to drink. He just looked at me for a few seconds, then said, "Eve put your crap in your room." "Thank you," I tell him as I start to get dinner ready. "Anything I can do?" He asked. "Slice onions," I tell him. "Um, I should probably call my mom. Can I use the phone?" I ask. "You pay for long distance," He shrugs, reaches for the cordless phone, and tossed it to me. I step into the living room to call my mom, which she answered.

"yes?" As it was never hello with my mother. "Mom, it's Claire." "Claire! Baby, where have you been? I've been trying to call you for days!" "Classes. Sorry, I'm not home that much." "Are you sleeping enough? If you don't get enough rest, you'll get sick, you know how you are," she tells me. "Mom, I'm fine," I tell her. "Claire, I know it's hard. We really didn't want you to go even just the few hundred miles to TPU, honey. If you want to come back home, your dad and I would be so glad to have you back!" She tells me. "Honestly mom, I don't. I'm fine. It's ok. I've made friends here. they're looking out for me," I tell her. "You're sure?" She asks me. "yes mom."Mom I have to go. I need to eat dinner and I have a ton of studying to do," I reply. "Honey, you call us if you get worried about anything, ok? Oh call us whatever happens. We love you!" She says. "Love you too, mom. Bye," I tell her.

I put the phone down and started cooking again. "So, finished lying to the folks?" Shane asks. Eve walks into the kitchen, still flushed from the heat outside. "Oh my God, that looks like real food!" She says. "Is Michael here?" I ask. "Guess so, he's always here for dinner," Shane shrugs. The three of us got everything ready, and set the table. "Hey, this looks good," Michael says. we grabbed our plates and sat at the table to eat, and talk about each others day. After dinner, Michael and Eve clean up since I did the cooking. I head for the living room and sat on the couch thinking about what I wanted to do.

Shane was concentrating on the video game selection, without even looking he asks, "Do you wanna see something cool?" Sure," I reply. I expected him to put a game in, but he got up and went upstairs. I stood at the bottom starring up, wondering what to do. Shane appeared at the top gesturing me to follow him.

As I reach the top, Shane's halfway down the hall. Is he heading for my room? Not that I don't have a crazy hot picture in my head of me sitting on the bed with him. Shane moves aside a picture hanging on the wall between my room and Eve's, and pushes a button underneath. A hidden door opens on the other side of the wall and reveals a flight of stairs. "Cool huh? This damn house is full of crap like that. trust me, in Morganville it pays to be up on then hiding places. Shane and i climb the stairs, once on the third floor, Shane flips on a switch. "Does everybody know about this room?" I ask. "Oh yeah. Eve says it's haunted," he tells me. 

Shane wonders over to an old couch and flops down. Dust rose in a cloud, and he waved it off, coughing. "So what you think? Think Michael sleeps off his evil un-dead days in here, or what?" Shane says smiling. "I blink and ask, "What?" "Oh come on. You think he's one of them, right? Cause he doesn't show up during the day?" Shane asks. "I.... I don't think anything!" I say. "Right. You weren't sent here," he says. "Sent by who?" I ask.

"I got to thinking.... The cops were looking for you, but maybe they were looking for you to make us want to keep you here, instead of pitch you out. So which is it? Are you working for them?" Shane asks. "Them who? Shane, I don't know what you mean. I came to Morganville to go to school, and got beaten up, and I came here because I was scared. If you don't believe me then I guess I'll go. I hope you liked that hamburgers," I tell him.

I went to the door, and stopped, confused. there isn't a doorknob. Behind me Shane said quietly. "The reason I think this is a vampire's room? You can't get out of it unless you know the secret. that's real convenient, if you like to bring victims up here for a little much session," he tells me. "Let me out," I say. "In a minute. First, you tell me the truth," he says. "I have," I snap. And to my fury and humiliation, I start to cry. "Damn it! You think I'm trying to hurt you? Hurt Michal? How could I? I'm the one everybody hurts!" I tell him.

He looks at me, and I see the hardness melt away. His voice is a lot gentler when he speaks. "And if I was somebody who wanted to kill Michael, I'd put somebody like you in to do it. Be real easy for you to kill somebody, Claire. Poison some food, slip a knife in the back...... and I have to look out for Michael," he says. "I thought he looked out for you? Why do you think somebody wants to kill him?" I ask. "Always somebody wanting to kill a vampire," he says. "But he's not.... Eve said...." I started to say as Shane interrupted me. "yeah, I know he's not a vampire, but he doesn't get up during the day, he doesn't go out of the house, and I can't get him to tell me what happened, so he might as well be," he says.

I blink back the last of the brief storm of tears away. "I'm not working for anybody. And I wouldn't kill Michael even if he was a vampire," I tell him. Shane laughed. "Why not? Besides the fact the he'd snap you like a twig if he was?" He asks. "Because I like him," I reply. Shane watched me for a few, long seconds, then pressed a spot on the arm rest of the couch. The door clicks and pops open. "Good enough for me," he tells me as he's comforting me to help dry the tears. "So desert?" He asks.