15 Persecution

Aisha.

A week, a whole week and Everette still hasn't shown up.

He can't just leave me in this world....

Or can he?

No, no, no, no, the mark assures me that he is still connected to me, I know he feels as desperate as I do, or at least I hope so.

All this week I've managed to coexist with the humans who usually have contact with me.

It turns out that the perverted stalker was my brother, his name is Brent and boy is he annoying, the woman they say is my mother, Blair, is quite nice, she always makes sure we are all okay.

Apparently her husband left her as she was devoting too much attention to her children and neglecting him.

Which seems very silly to me, a man should be happy that his wife takes care of his family.

It's a stupid assumption but it was made by a human, I can't expect much. At first I was too afraid to eat food here, but I didn't really manage to disguise my abstinence from it, because one of these mornings the human Blair insisted that if I didn't finish breakfast she wouldn't leave the room.

Actually she makes me so uncomfortable that I ended up giving in, my body felt a little strange at first but I guess it's because it's been too long since I've had a bite, in Hell Everette just made sure I drank a bright pink liquid, it strengthened my essence.

"What are you thinking about, Camille?" Brent gives me a little nudge of the forehead with his finger as I blink in

astonishment.

"I told you, I don't allow you to touch me." I snap irritably.

He rolls his eyes and snorts.

The truth is I still don't know why they call me Camille, I'm still not used to it.

"We have to go to school." he reminds me.

I curse under my breath and go upstairs.

"I won't go." I inform him.

"Why is that?"

"It's not my duty to go." I shrug.

"Oh my, what a good point, in that case you are absolutely right, don't go." he says in a sarcastic tone. "Don't be ridiculous and hurry up."

"It's not my obligation." I repeat annoyed.

Just when I'm about to step on the last step, this guy puts me on his shoulder and walks towards the exit.

"I really don't understand what's going on with you lately, but if you're absent mom will kill you."

"She's not my mother!" I scream kicking to get him to release me.

"It's not my damn problem if you're adopted or not, just get in the car and let's go to school." he throws me in the seat and slams the door shut.

I fold my arms resignedly and wait for him to get in the driver's side so we can go.

I've had to take care of all the human responsibilities of this Camille, it turns out that attending meetings with other humans is completely necessary otherwise my social life is over.

Who the hell cares?

I just want to lock myself in a room and wait for Everette to find me. The pain in my chest gets worse as the days go by, I just don't understand what's going on.

The girl called Ava is quite unique, unlike the other humans, it is not at all easy to intuit what she feels. She seems to be quite open with others, however she doesn't belong to a specific group, she often laughs alone which confuses me.

After several minutes the guy parks in front of the building and gets out quickly. I roll my eyes and walk down the same way to start my way to that horrible place.

There is also the matter of the institute, too many humans attend it, all young and still totally inexperienced in various labors that they strive to improve, for some reason they are all obsessed with something called, college.

If it's another place similar to this, I'll never go.

"Camille." I stop dead in my tracks and clench my fists for patience.

I had hoped Ava would understand that my name is not Camille, yet every time I explain it to her she denies and laughs, as if what I'm telling her is total nonsense.

I try to pretend I didn't hear her, but she jumps in front of me with a big smile.

I sigh loudly and try to imitate her gesture, she laughs and denies, it's obvious I didn't convince her.

"Hello." I grimace, there is no reason to pretend to be in a good mood anymore.

"Oh, come on!" she taps my shoulder with a friendly gesture, or so she assures me. "You are very good in all classes, I don't understand why it bothers you to come."

"Good!?" I exclaim incredulously. "I don't understand half the things they tell me in there, it's a total nightmare, and when I finally understand what they say, it turns out to be some pathetic attempt at flirting."

"Boys are like that." She shrugs. "What do you say we go to a party today? It's Friday." she hints excitedly.

"I'll pass."

Sometimes I think Everette's bad attitude rubbed off on me, but when you're constantly dealing with people who are simply infuriating by nature, it's completely understandable to act like this.

"Please!" she begs, hurrying her pace until she reaches me. "There's going to be an amazing party at a discotheque and we have to go."

"No, we don't." I assure her.

"Of course we do." she declares.

"You know how much it bothers me to be around large groups of humans."

"Can you stop referring to others like that? They're going to think you have an alien complex."

"I don't care what they think about me."

She snorts and pulls my arm to stop me so I can stare at her.

"If we go, maybe you can find the guy from last time, the one with the strange name."

I blink astonished at her comment, actually if I stay locked up it will be a bit more complicated for Everette to find me, if

I'm in plain sight he can even feel my presence and I'll finally be with him.

"Okay..." I murmur in surrender.

She jumps up excitedly and gives me a tight hug, which I reciprocate with some discomfort.

(...)

After we went to the pathetic high school, Ava headed straight home, where she dragged me to the room I occupy and

jumped on the dresser to find something I can wear tonight.

"This is perfect." she lays a blue dress out on the bed. "It will bring out your eyes."

I take it without saying a word and go to the bathroom so I can try it on, when I have it. I come out and look at myself in the mirror.

"Don't you think it's a bit revealing?" I renew uncomfortably.

"Not at all, the girls in those places wear much more revealing things." she assures me. "I'll borrow one of your dresses."

I nod as she begins to search through the many garments for something to wear.

After an hour, she proceeds to put my hair in a half-tail and do my make-up, which takes too long.

"Is it ready?" I ask impatiently.

"Almost done..." she bites her lip in concentration and smiles. "Ready!"

"Thank you." I mimic her gesture half-heartedly.

Although I really don't remember much of the things here, sometimes I appreciate that Ava is around t guide me, even though she has no idea she is doing it.

"You should smile more often." she advises. "Go take look at yourself in the mirror while I finish my make-up."

Smile more often? That sounds quite improbable considering I have a constant pain spreading all over my body, every minute is much worse and I just feel that this ridiculous dependence on Everette because of the mark is going to end me.

When night finally falls we find ourselves ready to go to the place Ava indicated.

It's a big building, its walls resonate because of the sound and I can feel the vibration of it on the floor, many people enter and some make a line that seems to be endless, Ava takes my hand and manages to sneak us next to the people who are not in line, inside I see a sea of humans.

Too many people are dancing or just chatting in the corners, the lights stun me slightly, but after a few minutes I get used to them, the place is huge, I can't really see where the crowd ends.

Ava drags me to a rather long table where people are ordering their drinks.

"I'm not having any!" I assure her, raising my voice over the deafening music.

She rolls her eyes.

"Let's dance!"

I deny desperately.

"Go! I'll wait for you here!"

She shrugs but nods and I watch as she gets lost among the other humans.

I slowly look around the place, scanning through the thousands of faces that are there, a pang of pain comes and I grimace.

Everette is not here.

Maybe he's not even in the same city, maybe he's still in Hell, nothing assures me completely that he will come for me. I've never made an effort to make our relationship better, always blaming the mark that our closeness is an illusion, really if I'm with him again I'll remember how painful it is to be away from his side.

"Hello beautiful." I turn around startled and I see a human smiling at me strangely. "Why so lonely?"

I don't even stop to analyze his appearance, I just look away.

"Stay away." I order.

He laughs, I know I can hear him because he is unnecessarily close to me.

"Don't be like that, I can be very good company." he purrs.

I sit up and give him a disgusted look.

"Please, stay away." I say once more firmly.

He raises his hands in the air with a gesture of innocence, gives me one last look and gets lost in the crowd. I let out a calmer breath and just take a seat in the same place.

I see the humans jumping from one side to the other, while some of them shout the songs instead of singing, I wonder if at some point I was like that, if at some point I was also part of a group of friends, if at some point I also got excited because a guy asked me out.

But the truth is that I don't want to be like that, there is nothing wrong with humans living that life, they have every right to experience those emotions since their life is very short, they deserve to be free, but I am no longer human, I no longer belong to this lifestyle.

I have no business here.

I get up from my seat and walk through the crowd looking for a way out.

A strong body holds me from behind, frightened I look at the human who recently approached me, I struggle to free myself.

But I can't. The pain in my body is now burning, making me weak.

A few days ago I could break metal bars in my hands, but now I can't free myself from this guy.

He starts caressing my legs and kissing my neck, I am filled with panic and disgust and I move from side to side trying to free myself from his grip, there are so many people here, no one notices the situation.

He pulls me closer to him and I hit him with my head on his lips, he releases me suddenly and I start running, I dodge people and go out through a metal door which takes me to the back of the building.

I gasp and hear the door open behind me, the guy has a macabre look on his face and runs his tongue over his lips when he spots me.

"Come here." he orders.

"Stay away." I murmur in panic.

"I know you want it too." his voice sends a shiver through my body.

I run quickly with the intention of getting as far away from him as possible, I hear his footsteps chasing me so I turn into another alley which is much darker.

The moonlight is so dim that I can barely see where I'm going, but I just don't stop, he shouts over and over again for me to stop, I try to hide and move in the shadows so I can escape.

I turn in several alleys hoping to be putting more and more distance between me and him.

My heart freezes when I see that I have finally reached a dead end.

My breathing is ragged and my chest burns like a thousand fathoms, I have my eyes fixed on the wall when I hear footsteps behind me.

"I found you."