Violet lifted her feet off the white coffee table and stood up, quickly, knocking over the cup of coffee that was sitting on the table next to her feet.

“I think our work is done here then,” Violet said, as she flipped her dark black hair and turned to exit the house. “If I think of anything else, I’ll be back,” Violet said.

“Thanks for the chat,” she said as she patted both Betsy and John on their heads before she walked out of the house with her six subjects following in line behind her.

As she walked out of the driveway she ripped the hood ornament off the busted up station wagon and put it in her breast pocket. She thought it would be a great souvenir of her tormenting trip to Rachel’s house. Now, the next souvenir she was after was Rachel’s head. She knew she’d get it sooner or later.

Chapter Twelve

As Rachel got home that afternoon, she was relieved to have gotten through her first day back. In her mind, she had thought it would have been a much harder day with way more interrogation, but as it turned out, she was able to avoid many of the questions her friends and peers asked of her. She was also happily surprised that she was back in time for the big Halloween Ball and that Rob had been so nice to her. She couldn’t believe how things were shaping up for her since she’d been back, but she didn’t want to overthink it or jinx it. As she walked into her house, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Hi Mom, I’m home!” she yelled into the kitchen and waited for a response.

“Mom? You home?” she yelled again, looking around the house.

She then walked into the living room and saw both of her parents, sitting down on the couch with their jaws hung open as if they had just seen a ghost.

“What’s wrong guys? Are you ok?” Rachel asked.

“You have a lot of explaining to do young lady,” her dad said sternly.

“What did I do now?” Rachel asked, annoyed.

Rachel looked around at the room, which looked like it had been torn to shreds. She picked up the broken cell phone and looked at it in her hand.

“What happened in here?” Rachel asked. “It’s a mess!”

“Oh, you think so, do you?” her mom asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Rachel said.

“We just had visit from a friend of yours,” her dad said.

“A friend of mine?” Rachel asked, trying to think of who it could’ve been. “Who?”

“Funny you should ask. It was a charming girl, she wore all black and had six others with her, also in all black with a bloody deer embroidered on their shirts. Is this ringing a bell?”

Rachel’s eyes opened wide as she sat down in the chair across from them, stepping on the paint chips that were crunching underneath her shoes as she sat.

“You’re joking?” Rachel asked. “What was her name?”

“I don’t think we got her name, but she had pail skin and dark black hair, she was pretty evil looking,” her dad said.

“Violet?” Rachel asked. “Please tell me it wasn’t Violet?”

“It might have been,” her mom said angrily. “These drugged out friends of yours totally ripped up our house.”

“Drugged out friends of MINE?” Rachel yelled. “They are NOT my friends!”

“Listen Rachel, this is totally unacceptable. We can’t have these misfits barging into our house using spells on us and destroying the place. This is completely dangerous and we can’t let them risk our lives like this,” her dad said.

“What do you mean?” Rachel asked.

“You have to leave!” her mom said.

“Yes! You need to leave now. You’re a liability for the family and putting us all in harm’s way,” her dad agreed.

“What do you mean leave?” Rachel asked firmly.

“We mean, leave, as in get out!” her dad yelled.

“Get out? But this is my house!” Rachel yelled back.

“This WAS your house,” her mom retorted. “It’s not safe for us if you stay here anymore. We don’t trust you or the people you’ve been associating yourself with. You’ll be a bad influence on your siblings if you stay.”

“But, where do you want me to go? I’ll be homeless.”

“She mentioned something about a Vladiccus friend of yours. Why don’t you go stay with them?”

“Vladiccus? How do you know about that?” Rachel asked confused.

“We find out everything, eventually,” her mom said.

“I can’t go back there, I wont!” Rachel said. “I want to stay here, with you and Sarah and Mark. Please, I promise, I won’t do anything wrong, I swear!” she begged.

“This is not open for discussion,” her dad said. “We have made up our minds.”

“No!” Rachel yelled.

“Yes! Go upstairs and pack your things. You must leave now,” her dad yelled.

“We don’t want any more of these friends of yours stopping by the house, you hear?” her mom said angrily. “These are not the types of people we want around us or our other children. You have paved your way, and there’s nothing we can do about it now. You have to go out on your own now. We can no longer be your parents, it’s just too hard on us,” her dad said.

“But, but, what do you mean you can no longer be my parents? You can’t just say that. You’re crazy!” Rachel said, almost in tears. “Are you giving me up for adoption? Putting me in a foster home? I don’t get it! I’m not even 18 yet! This is illegal.”

“We won’t discuss this one more minute. Go get your things and be gone. We can’t bear to look at you for one more second,” her dad said as he pointed towards the direction of the stairs. “Go!”

Rachel stormed out of the living room and ran upstairs crying and slammed the door shut behind her. She had no idea what was going on, but knew she couldn’t make sense of it now. Something bad must have happened and now she knew she was in major trouble. Not only did she have to leave home, but also she knew they were after her and it would only be a matter of time before they found her.

She quickly packed a duffle bag of all her favorite and most important things, left a short note for her sister to call her and then stormed out of the house, not knowing where she’d end up that night.

Chapter Thirteen

As Violet and her evil subjects flew overhead, she peered down at all the buildings, trying to figure out which one was Rachel’s school. She’d never been to this town, yet it eerily reminder her of the town she’d grown up in many years ago. She hated her town, and couldn’t think of anything worse than returning to her town after all these years—yet she found herself in a shockingly identical suburban town. She couldn’t believe how anyone would ever want to live in the suburbs and she absolutely couldn’t understand why any kid would want to grow up in one. She couldn’t help but snap back to her days in high school: the teachers were controlling, the principal was the biggest authoritative jerk she’d ever met, the hall monitors were on some crazy power trip that she couldn’t understand, although chalked it up to the fact that they were probably losers in high school and they were getting back at people now. She also remembered the kids and how she hated every single one of them, especially the jocks. She hated jock types and prissy little girls and had a sinking feeling this suburb was going to be no different.

She loathed this suburb and all her thoughts were blocking out the cheers and screams of the kids on the school sports team she could hear from miles away. She cleared her mind and opened her ears to listen to the hustle and bustle of the end of the day at AHS high school.

“C’mon! This way!” Violet shouted to her subjects, who didn’t hear what she did because they didn’t have supersonic hearing.

The seven of them flew quickly over the center of town and on towards the high school, hoping to find Rachel still there.

“Here we are!” Violet said.

“Where? Where is it?” asked one of the subjects.

“There you idiot! Don’t you see that hideous pile of bricks?” Violet retorted.

“Yes, I apologize. I do see it, Violet. Thank you for pointing it out to me so wisely,” the subject responded in shame.

“Shut up!” Violet said, not wanting to listen to her cower anymore.

The seven vampires dropped out of the sky like large black raindrops onto the flat roof of the two-story school building. Violet knew their thud probably startled the poor little humans inside, but she could care less—in fact, she was happy about that. She hoped that the people inside were shaking in their boots.

She jumped down off the roof in front of the main entrance to the school and pranced in, with her subjects quietly following, not giving it a second of thought. As she opened the door a strong breeze picked and the fallen leaves blew in behind her, crunching loudly under their feet as they walked in.

“May I help you?” the secretary called out.

Violet had already passed the front office without stopping to check in with the secretary, who acted like the security guard of the school.

“EXCUSE ME!” the secretary called louder. “COME BACK HERE!”

Violet turned her head and decided she’d go back and play with this woman a little bit.

“Oh me?” Violet said, pretending not to realize what had happened.

“Yes! You forgot to sign in!” the secretary added.

Violet walked over with her pack of subjects right behind her, as if connected by magnets. Violet saw a small silver bell on the top of the counter in front of the secretary and went over and started tapping it loudly with her finger. The sounds grew louder and louder as she stood there ringing it in the secretary’s face.

“That’s enough!” the secretary said, trying not to get angry.

Violet stopped ringing the bell, and stood there waiting for her to say something. She glared at her as though she could see the inside of her brain, which she could tell the secretary didn’t like much. So she continued to do it.