Chapter 7
I wake up panting on the floor.
I have a dagger in my boob. What? Shit. Okay just have to pull it out. Pull it out of my body.
My hands slowly grip around the hilt of the knife, the blade is in deep. Okay I just gotta pull this out of my chest.
3.
2.
1.
Fuck that hurts. It’s not even out yet. Okay. I pull it out of my body. That hurts.
It’s fine though. Legacies heal really fast, this is not something that will kill me.
I look down at the deep cut on my chest, there’s a lot of blood.
After A bit I look up. I gotta get on my feet again.
James is nowhere to be found, shit. I lost my chance.
I can hear the police. Thank fuck they didn’t find me, my fangs are still out so I would be fucked.
“How the hell did these kids get this much alcohol?” I hear an officer ask.
“Same way they got all the pot, I guess”
Fuck.
Okay, I have to get out of here.
I sneak out of Evans house and run away.
Once I’m home I sneak inside trying not to make a sound. I make it up the stairs when I hear mothers voice.
“Regina Arturia Black.” Shit “do you have any idea what time it is?” She sees something on my face.
“Orion?” She calls out for father and cups my chin.
“Mother” I say in a protest.
“Regina.” Mother just says and tightens her grip on me
“What?” Father asked.
“She got her first kill” shit.
“Regina, is that true?” He asked me.
“Is what true?” Bella joins us, I look back at her. “You didn’t”
“I, uhm, it....it happened so fast” Wtf do I do?
“I knew your instinct would take over.” Mother says coldly “we will handle everything. Orion will dispose of the body”
“Who was it?” Bella asks, her voice sharp.
“Shut up Bellatrix, what matters is that it’s done.” Mother says firmly “and now we can finally have your cousins consecration ceremony next Sunday”
“I can’t do Sunday. Barty is picking me up and we have to-” I look at mother, her eyes are cruel, okay, I shouldn’t push it.
“Regina. Sunday. The full moon after the first kill. It was the same for Bellatrix and 2.000 legacies before her. You’re probably tired. Bed. Now”
“Yes mother”
There’s no bigger day for a legacy than their consecration ceremony, but I didn’t kill him.
The ceremony is a ball that every legacy attends if possible.
I’m not about to go to sleep, I close my door and listen to mother and father talk.
“The Cabbes will probably fly in from England and…I have to call my mother”
“Walburga it’s the middle of the night”
“Mhm, our baby girl has finally grown up. Who cares what time it is”
I hear footsteps, I wait for a bit and then I walk into my bathroom and get the dagger out.
I just stand there for a bit, looking at it, I think about when James stabbed me with it. The dagger drops out of my hand.
I can see the wound slowly healing.
I bend down to pick the dagger up and hide it in a cabinet.
I can’t stop thinking about James.
Next day at school I’m walking to my locker. Barty walks up to me.
“Reggie, Reggie, Reggie. Let’s recap. Party, blackout, lights up, mortally-wounded girl discovered at my feet. I don’t want to use the word hero-” Ben says.
“Wait, backup, someone died?” I interrupt “who”
“Dorcas Meadowes”
My stomach drops “wait, what? ‘Cas is dead?”
“How do you not know that?” Barty asks, I just pull him aside.
“Have you ever taken credit for something you didn’t do, because it was such a big deal to everyone and you don’t want to disappoint?”
“Reggie, someone died and you were nowhere to be found. I sent 4 e-mails, 13 texts and called twice. Explain. Were you still in the closet with the new guy?” I think of James and what happened that night. “Of course you were. Did you guys kiss? Did limbs entwine? Your lives change forever?”
“Uhm…” technically yes lives did change forever “Yes, absolutely forever”
“Awww” God he’s such a lovesick idiot “don’t be shy now, come on. I’ve bared my fucking soul to you since I was five”
“Wait, can you just tell me what happened to Dorcas?”
“They say she fell and hit her head, I don’t know. I was there. So much blood” Barty looks traumatised. Must’ve been a monster, two at one party tho? That’s not common at all.
“There’s a vigil tonight, you’re going right?”
“What? Yeah, of course, you?”
“I was basically her hospice nurse of course I’m going” Barty says and walks away.
I quickly open my locker, another migraine, I snatch my case for the pills.
I look out in the hallway and see James, then slam my locker shut.
When I get home I go straight to my room.
I just lay in my bed for a while until Orion barges in.
“Regina. Be more careful about what you leave near your bodies, do better next time. You forgot your phone you brat. If you keep doing that you might be killed.” Orion says in a harsh tone holding my phone up “I will be keeping this for a bit so you can learn. Understood?”
“Yes, Orion”
Orion leaves my room. Later that night I got a dress out, not a fancy one, for Dorcas vigil.
It felt wrong, ‘cas being dead and also taking credit for another person's kill.
I’m standing with a couple friends, Barty, Pandora and Evan. Barty is talking about Dorcas, when we discovered her body.
“And the lights came on and I saw her. I knew our beloved Dorcas Meadowes, Beer Pong Champion, was gone. She slipped away in my arms”
“I thought she died at the hospital” Pandora then says.
“I saw the light leave her eyes okay?”
Mr. and Mrs. Meadowes then walk to the front, by a huge picture of Dorcas and start making a speech.
“Thank you, principal Dumbledore, for organising this so quickly. We can thank you all enough for being here tonight to say your goodbyes to Dorcas. Dorcas had so many friends. She was always busy going to people's places and hanging out. Seems like everywhere she went she made friends” I look at Dorcas face, fighting the tears. Dorcas' parents' speech slowly fell into the background. I look around, most of the school is here.
A tear left my eye and when I went to take it with my hand I realised I am crying blood.
Shit. Fuck.
I quickly ran into the school.
Running down the empty halls I can’t help but cry more and more.
I eventually slowed down. I’m walking around the hallways when I hear my name.
“Regulus” I ignore it and keep going “hey, Regulus” I turn around this time. It’s James.
Fuck, not right now. I can’t take it “leave me alone” I simply say.
“I just wanna talk” he then says, yeah right.
“Like in the closet?”
“That was instinct”
“I could say the same” we just stand there looking at each other after that.
I slowly start walking backwards. After about 5 slow steps I turn around and start walking again.
When I look back James started following me, why is he so annoying?
“I said leave me alone”
“And I said I just wanna talk”
I start running again. I run as fast as I can through a door.
I’m in the engine room. Did I miss the signs saying “no student allowed”? Probably. I keep running anyway through another door. I’m on the roof now.
Fuck. I didn’t mean to do that.
Eventually James caught up to me.
“Nowhere to run” he then says.
I turn around, I have to talk to him now, don’t I? “Why’d you stab me?”
“Why’d you bite me?”
“Because I-” what do I say? “I wasn’t myself”
“You were yourself, let's be real” that hurt “the reason my family was sent to Savannah, and why are your tears red?”
“I’m not a monster” in my world James is the monster, he thinks he’s all that, that he’s a hero. He tried to kill me.
“Back off”
I’m not fully in control of my fangs yet so they come out. James tries to kick me in the head, it turns into a fight.
“You guys have been training too, huh?” James says, almost shocked.
“I was born like this. We don’t have to do this”
“Of course we do '' James says and throws a punch, to my face, uppercut, kick, I almost back off the roof and James hits me really hard so I can feel my teeth digging into my sheeck and blood flies out of my mouth, some of it landing on James. Shit. He tries to punch me again but falls over due to my blood on his hand.
“Why can’t I feel my hand Black? What did you do to me?” James says, his voice shaking.
“It’s not me, my blood paralyses.
At first James just stares at me with this scared but loving? look in his eyes but then he screams “GET AWAY FROM ME!”
“It’ll wear off” I say, my voice shaking as I run away.
I’m in Principal Dumbledore's office with James.
“The roof, really? A million no trespassing signs weren’t enough?”
We’re sat in silence for a couple minutes when James say “Reg was really upset so he ran off and I was really worried so I followed her to make sure she was okay” hearing James misgender me really hurts.
“I was really upset so I just ran needing somewhere quiet so we went to the roof, I needed to process, I wasn’t really able to before and everything hit me at once”
“Black, Potter, someone on the roof could mean active shooter, possible jumper” Dumbledor says right before mother walks in and sits beside me “sorry about the circumstance but it’s always a pleasure to see you, thank you for coming”
“Hey Albus, thanks for calling” mother sits next to me.
Another woman walks in, I’m guessing it's James' mother.
“Hello, Euphemia Potter” the woman shakes Dumbledors hand and sits down next to James “I’m so glad you called, Principal Dumbledore”
“You’re just in time to hear your daughter explain herself Mrs. Black. Young lady we’re waiting” Dumbledore says.
“Well?” Mother says.
“Uh, it’s like I said, I didn’t mean to go onto the roof, I just kind of started walking and wanted to go somewhere private, to think about Dorcas”
“This all seems like a big misunderstanding, doesn’t it Principal Dumbledore? Kids their age, they’re under so much stress, school, grades, the loss of a classmate and on top of it all Regina's debutante ball is this weekend, family coming for everywhere, her proper presentation to society. I admit that I may have added to her stress.”
“Yeah, and it hasn't been easy for James, either. You know, being new and arriving late into the semester and then trying to make friends” Mrs. Potter says.
“Why don’t we let the kids go back to class?” mother then suggests.
“Alright ms. Black, mr. Potter I expect you to be on your best behavior"
Once we are out of the school building James opens his mouth.
“You know you’re a really bad liar, I thought your kind are supposed to be good at lying, like everyone has a tell but you are terrible”
“I guess I’m not very good at being a monster…was everything you said a lie?” I reply
“I certainly didn’t jump up on that rooftop to make you feel better, but you were the first person to welcome me here, you made me feel…” James pauses “that was before I realised what you were”
“How did you know?”
“Like I said, everyone has tells if you look hard enough…and I couldn’t keep my eyes off you”
What? Wait what? What does ‘and I couldn’t keep my eyes off you’ mean?
James turns around to walk away, I stop him with a hand on his shoulder.
“I know you were planning on killing me at Evans' party. When I followed you into that closet…all I wanted to do was kiss you…I’ve been thinking about it since you walked into my english class for the first time. I didn’t mean to bite you”
“But you did” James sounds hurt?
“Would you have stabbed me if I hadn't?” I’m trying hard to keep my voice calm. James thinks about my question for a bit.
“Yeah I still would’ve staked you” as he says this his heartbeat raises, his tell. I’m fighting a smile now “what?” he asks.
“I can hear your heartbeat, it raises when you lie”