BLOODLUST

Chapter 1: A Stolen Kiss, One of Many Bad Things

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. ‘How long have I been staring at that damned clock?’ thought April as she stared blankly into the centre of the small black and white clock that hung by itself on the white and smudged grey wall. Ten past twelve. ‘Come on, April, just stay focused. It’s only ten minutes left of this lecture, then I can go and see mum’, she mumbled as she tucked a wisp of hazelnut coloured hair behind her ear. April’s hair was short but seemed long enough to tuck behind her ears. It became a habit, almost a rule that she must always have her hair tucked behind her ears. She noticed out of the corner of her almost sapphire eyes her college friend, Danny, yawning away to himself. Danny was always yawning. According to everyone else, he would sleep about twelve hours every night. Would explain why he was always late into college. April herself felt a yawn coming on. She managed to conceal it with her right hand. Her slender fingers covered her peach coloured lips as she too let out a big yawn. She then placed her hand back on her table, balancing her hand on her black leather pencil case and balanced her head on her left hand. She looked at the clock. Twelve minutes past twelve. Nearly time!

‘…and that’s why Van Gogh is such an inspiration to other artists around the world today’ droned Nigel, the boring and completely dull Interactive Media tutor, standing drab in his grey jumper and baggy jeans, holding his infamous book of death, The Van Gogh Biography. April looked round at everyone else. Everyone was starting to fidget around, packing things away. Phil and Anita, the class sweethearts, were slowly putting their pencil cases away. Jessica was slowly pulling her coat over her shoulders. Danny was yawning. No surprises there. Amesh was putting his papers in his folder and putting it into his bag. Nelly, Kelsie and Megan were all slowly zipping up their messenger bags.
‘Ok, looks like it’s time to go. Make sure you all give in your assignments next lesson. Otherwise they’ll be marked in as late and you’ll lose marks’ Nigel finally announced.

Everyone suddenly went into a huge rush. Bags opened and closed, zipped up. Coats zipped up and down. Velcro ripped and fastened again. And there April was, just sitting there, her chin resting on her hand, smiling away to herself. In her own time, she yawned again, stretched her arms above her hazelnut and blonde topped head, then stood up and dusted what seemed to be her dark coloured covered body. She dusted off her black waistcoat and black low cut vest top first. Her rather large breasts seemed to be speckled with the odd blonde hair from her head and so she picked them off of herself. She let them float gracefully toward the ground before moving onto her nearly grey jeans. April wasn’t a tall girl for the average sixteen year old, but her legs seemed to look long in these particular jeans. Maybe being mounted on deep brown cowboy boots helped her with that effect. She bent down and picked up her green and blue canvas bag and began to pack it with numerous papers and her pencil case.

‘Would you like help with that?’ whispered a calm and gentle voice, close to her left ear. Standing there was Craig. The boy in the class next door that April used to fancy. She stopped liking him since she found out he only liked her for her body. As she jumped back with a very high pitched squeal, she caught a glimpse of him. As usual, he wore his murky brown baseball cap that covered his wispy brown hair, plain grey t-shirt, black hoodie and usual indigo blue jeans. Fashion wasn’t really his thing; this was the third time this week he wore them clothes.

‘Craig, do you always have to make me jump like that?! You know I hate that!’ April recoiled, suddenly bringing her forearms up to her chest, covering her cleavage from his perverted grey-blue eyes. He walked behind her, wrapping his arms round her arms.
‘But my little vampire, I only wish to serve you. For am I not your slave?’ Ben joked as he looked at everyone else. They all knew too well that April used to like him, so they all giggled. Vampire was April’s pet-name. Her vampire-like behaviour gave her that name, after the number of times she’d come into college in the early hours, perky and cheerful. Then by lunchtime, when the sun is normally at its highest, she’d hide away and suddenly become tired and short-tempered.
‘Oh ha ha ha, guys. You’re all so funny’ April joked as she broke away from Ben’s clutches and resumed packing her bag.

‘You know we’re only kidding, right Vampire?’ Anita exclaimed from across the classroom, pulling on her coat.
‘And that’s another thing! I’m not a bloody vampire!! I’m anaemic! Low iron in the blood, ok? And so what if I hate summer-’ she said before being cut off by Amesh.
‘-And the sun in general, and bright colours, and alcohol, and drugs…blah blah blah! But I love the smell of raw meat, especially beef! It turns me on! Mmmm!’ mocked Amesh as he grabbed her bag from her hands and walked in a slightly camp way that made the rest of the class shout with laughter. April couldn’t help but laugh.
‘Thanks for that, Amesh! Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got to go. I have a life, remember?’ April announced to her friends, as she snatched her bag back from Amesh and grabbed her thick black coat.

Craig, yet again, made his move towards her as he did every time they finished class together. He quickly ran in front of her and planted a kiss on her lips. As he pulled away, April recoiled yet again; her slender fingers quickly touching her lips in shock.
‘Craig! You said you’d stop that!!’ April exclaimed as the rest of the class stood in shock. The rest of the class were normally gone by now and had not seen this behaviour coming from Craig before.
‘Just a little kiss for the weekend’ Craig said in his gentle and calm voice. He started to walk backwards, out towards the door. As he stood outside the classroom, he exclaimed ‘From a lowly slave to his vampire mistress’. His arms raised high in the air, like he’d won a contest. Eventually he was out of eye shot. April stood in shock, red as a beetroot. Her normal reaction after her after class kisses. Kelsie walked up to April to calm her down.
‘…April?’. No response. ‘Just ignore him, he’ll get the message. Trust me’ she continued. She stopped next to April. Still nothing. Then she dropped her hand from her mouth. Emotionless, she stuttered ‘Ha-have a good weekend, g-guys’ and walked out of the class.

The whole kissing thing had happened about three times before, but for some reason, April felt most violated this time round. Walking down the stairs at a very quick pace, she remained emotionless. After pacing the rather annoying three flights of stairs, she walked across the corridor of the college ground floor and headed out of the large glass doors. She continued across the car park and turned right, towards the centre of town. Normally, she would go left towards the bus stop, but she needed to go somewhere different today. The hospital. Her mother had been taken ill two months back and due to lack of facilities at State City, her hometown, she was forced to go to Lowsburg General. After a half an hour walk through the busy town centre, she arrived at the hospital. She entered through the automatic glass doors and walked up to the receptionist, a grey and rather wrinkled old woman, playing around with papers on her desk.

‘Excuse me?’ April asked, still rather emotionless. The woman looked up. She continued. ‘I’m here to see Miss Shaoers?’. April’s last name, Shaoers, was pronounced ‘showers’ and so she was often mocked at college during break or lunchtimes. The wrinkled lady looked up, scratching her grey wire-like hair with her chewed biro pen. She then placed her large and thick glasses onto her nose to look through the rota.
‘Shaoers… Shaoers…’ she mumbled to herself, scrolling through the list. She followed the names with the end of her biro and stopped. ‘Shaoers. Room two four six’ the woman said, looking up from her list.
‘How can I get to room two four six, if you don’t mind me asking?’ April asked politely, with a grin. The woman scratched her head with the biro again. This time she took her glasses off and chewed the end of them.
‘Two four six… Go up the elevator over there to the third floor,’ she said, signalling to the elevator in the corner of the room, ‘then walk down the corridor. Third room on the right, honey’ the lady continued with a grin. April thanked the woman and walked towards the elevator.

The damp smelling elevator doors opened when she pressed the half lit ‘up’ arrow. She waddled in and then looked at the buttons on the panel. Most didn’t light up, except for M for management, level three and TT for Trauma Team. She pressed the third floor button. The doors closed. She was alone in the damp smelling elevator, jigging up and down every so often. The automated voice announced ‘Level three. Cancer Unit. Doors opening’. After the doors were open to their fullest, April walked out.
‘Third on the right, she said…’ April mumbled as she looked at the door numbers. Two four four… Two four five… Two four six. Here it was. The name on the door read ‘Summer Shaoers. Breast cancer’. The door seemed to bring out the horror of the reason of why she was here. Two months previous, both April and Summer, her mother, were told about the cancer. At first, Summer denied it all, claiming it wasn’t cancer, it was just a cist. But as the weeks went by, Summer became so weak; she couldn’t lie to herself anymore. She had cancer. And she knew it too damn well. April knocked on the door gently. A quiet voice came from inside.

‘Come in, the doors open’ the voice said weakly. Normally Summer was so perky, but the treatment that she underwent about six weeks ago only tired her out. April held her breath. The thought of seeing her mother in her current condition was enough to make her cry. But she held it together. She placed her hand on the door handle and opened it slowly. She peeped her head round the corner. Summer’s room was filled with beautiful flowers; some purple, some yellow, some blue. On the side unit, there were numerous ‘Get Well Soon’ cards with teddy bears and hand drawn cards from the nursery she used to work at. She looked towards the bed in the middle of the room, next to the window. There she was. Summer. Mother. Dying.

‘Hello mum’ greeted April with a big smile, as she tossed her bag to one side and walked towards her mother. She looked at her for a brief moment. Her face, like the rest of her body, was thin and showing her bone structure. Her eyes were still the gorgeous and radiant green they had always been, but they were almost highlighted with smokey grey rings around the edge. Her hair, once so thick, healthy and a shimmering ginger, was now almost wire-like. So thin. As thin as a spider’s silk. Her facial features were so perfect before. Now, the skin on her face just sagged. Her cheekbones stood out the most. Her cheeks weren’t ‘pudgy’ or fat before, but at least there was something there to hide her bones. Her neck was scrawny. Almost turkey like. April noticed her arms that lay on the bed, lifeless. They were practically twigs. That could snap any minute. The rest of her body was covered by the hospital robe and the bed covers.

‘My April… My dear April’ Summer croaked as she lifted her lifeless arms and embraced her daughter. April could feel herself welling up. But she knew she must stay strong. For the both of them. April let go of her mother and sat on her bed.
‘How have you been? Are they treating you well here?’ April enquired with worry in her eyes. Summer grinned.
‘They’re treating me very well, dear. I told you that yesterday,’ Summer giggled. ‘I’m getting along fine-’ Summer stopped, realising she wasn’t fine at all. ‘Well… You know…’ she muttered. April’s grin slowly disappeared from her face. They both knew what was going to happen in the end.