Episode 4

Valerine: Episode 4 

Valerine: Episode 4 -

My mom started to panic when she took a closer look. 

"Those Rodents!" She hunched "that boy...he said he found the one he was holding around here...didn't he?! They must have breeded here! We need to get pest control! You've been bitten by an even bigger one!" 

Her theory made total sense and it frightened me. Being bitten by a small one had caused me so much sickness the day before, the idea of more possible sickness and the possibility of a serious disease caused by infection from this bigger bite was terrifying. 

I drank lots of water and insisted on having brocoli broth for lunch because I had heard they it helps build immunity. Mom booked another appointment and called pest control. She insisted that I rest and made me take  long nap in her room while she sat beside me. 

It was while trying to fall asleep was when I started to feel sick again. I felt extremely lightheaded and my neck ached a lot. My stomach was turning,  I couldn't seem to find a comfortable posture for my back. After a while, I got heavily nauseous, dizzy and had a baffling headache. I didn't say anything because I did not want to worry my mom but one look at me was all it took for her to understand my condition. She asked me if I felt any pain in my sleep the night before, but I couldn't recall any memories at that time. After ardously falling asleep for a while, I woke up feeling better, but still dizzy with a migrane.  

After what felt like forever, we were ready to visit the doctor again. It was an uncomfortable ride, but I felt even better on reaching there. Mom explained everything to the doctor and the doctors ran several tests on me. It turns out, that mom had even asked the pest control to hand over one of anything they had caught, just in case the doctors needed to examine whatever had bitten me, but nothing had been found in, or near our home.

Thankfully, all my test results came back normal. Except strangely, I was lacking a little bit of blood. I prayed that I wasn't suffering from any difficult to detect, rare, or worst case scenario: a first case to be diagnosed disease. I also hoped that any sickness which I might feel sooner or later, go away till the time my final exams rolled around.  

Before I knew it, we were home. The very next day, my mom arranged for blood. I did not get out of bed for a week and thankfully did not show any signs of disease, just fatigue. A few days later, I was back on my feet and started to study for my finals again. The mark on my shoulder, however, did not fade even slightly.

As days and weeks passed by, I became remissed about the mark, and the incident sat as a trivial one at the very back of my head.

Winter break and my final exams passed smoothly. I scored better than usual and I was satisfied with that. I believe in slow progress. 

Before I knew it, the new session of school rolled around...it was our last one before graduation. I started getting ready a bit earlier than usual with the short lived motivation of having an organised and disciplined routine for this session. Once in the car, my mom asked me if was sure that I had been feeling well, knocking up the bite's memory back into my head. I reassured her so, and we drove off. I started listening to music and zoned out. All of a sudden, my attention was caught by a waving hand. I looked up to see Lorken, waving to me from his car. I waved back and saw his car speed up ahead of us. About five minutes later, I was entering the school gates. 

The day was passing by quite typically. At lynch break, I sat beside all my friends and narrated the strange "Rodent" incident to them. They all showed concerned and then proceeded to tell me that bites and cases like mine were a medical case which was growing in huge numbers. 

"This infestation seems dangerous. What if it causes contagious infections, we wouldn't even know" remarked one friend. Her statement made me insecure enough to pull my chair a little further apart from others at which they all calmed me down by laughing it off. 

"Some people are saying it is because of Vampires roaming around recently" said another one.

We all ridiculed it with laughter. "At least Valerine will have the privivilahe of confidentially saying she saw the "vampire" biting her" 

"More like mousepire" they joked, and I laughed along.

"But no seriously, guys" one of them remarked in a serious tone, making all of our heads turn, "What has been up with our media lately? What's with all these ridiculous news only fit for kids or old people who are inacquinted with modern times will believe? First, that 'pirate ship', remember? What happened to that?" We all made heavy agreement with her.

"Then, those lost escapist who were rumoured to practice witchcraft, and now vampires?"

I laughed remarking that perhaps the crime rate has dropped stupendously low for the media to go so bad out of business. The topic then slowly shifted to how this could be a propaganda of the government to mask something, or an alibi in order to take over the media for manipulative purposes. We had a brief discussion about the recent political activities, and the bell rang shortly after. 

As we were walking across the hall to go back to our classes, I accidentally made what felt like a really long eye contact with a boy walking past. He had stopped for a moment to ask if the direction he was walking to lead principal's office. We nodded to give him the green signal he was looking for. His eyes were vibrantly blue, almost looking animated if it hadn't been for the sunlight, adjusting them with the colours of reality. His face seemed flushed pink and he looked tired. He had artificially dark looking hair, which was ridiculously handcombed back into a gelled-like back slick. Needless, to say, I thought he looked very silly. 

"Is that him?" I heard someone from our group ask. "Yes, I think". I, along with two others swung around and asked who he was, and we found out that he is the new student who is supposed to be in our class. 

We proceeded to split into our class sections and enter our respective classes. 

As the day ended, I was typically the last one to leave the classroom as I always have my stuff spread out on my desk and it takes me a lot of time to put it all back in. As I walked out of the class, I saw the same boy entering the corridor of the halls I was about to walk out of. 

As I walked past him, I couldn't help but catch a glimpse of his face. 

I could have sworn...his eyes were glowing.

To be continued...

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