Marked: Chapter 25

[zelda_queen]

ZeldaQueen: Oh look, four more chapters to go! How exciting! I feel like taking a nap

Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 25

ZeldaQueen: We start off with Zoey telling us how "The next day started with what I looked back on later as suspicious normalcy", which is fine and dandy except for the fact that  - and I feel I cannot stress this enough - she has been there for FOUR DAYS!!! What the fuck is "normalcy"? We haven't been given the slightest clue as to what a normal routine is for her! We're also beat over the head with how Aphrodite and her cronies aren't around and how Vamp Sociology is just so interesting that Zoey has completely forgotten about the ritual with them that she has. You know, this timeline is so cramped that I'm feeling claustrophobic.

We're also told how Zoey has chosen a monologue from The Taming of the Shrew for her Drama class. I'm...really, really hoping that that's not supposed to be another "romantic" Shakespeare reference, because after Othello and Romeo and Juliet, this is just getting rather squicky. Zoey mentions that she has loved The Taming of the Shrew since she saw the movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, which explains a bit if we're supposed to see it as romantic (Burton did make the movie with the idea that Kate and Petruchio really did love each other).

There's a totally random mention of Neferet asking if Zoey had read any of her Advanced Vamp Sociology textbook and how she is very disappointed to learn that Zoey had not. You know, the textbook she got yesterday. Are the Cast ladies aware of how screwy this timeline is? Anyway, Zoey meets Stevie Rae and Damien her her Lit class, and that's when the "normalcy" is ruined. You see, they're all sitting and listening to the teacher reading from A Night to Remember, when Elliot (remember him?) starts to cough. Zoey's immediate response is to be annoyed and wonder why he doesn't get a glass of water. She then realizes that his coughing is wet and she's smelling something sweet and finally notices that there's blood splattered all over Elliot's desk.

Elliot is clearly freaked out by this and the teacher shouts for someone to get Neferet as she scrambles for a towel. She gets the towel under his mouth and by now, he has blood coming out of his nose, ears, and eyes. He is clearly upset and shouts how he doesn't want to die. The teacher strokes his hair and tries to calm him down, and Zoey has the audacity to refer to his voice as "whiny".

By this point, Neferet comes in, along with the Dragon and two other male vampires. They have with them a stretcher and some milky liquid, which is given to him to numb the pain. Elliot asks if they'll stay with him as he dies and if they'll contact his parents. Neferet agrees to both, and they load him onto the stretcher and carry him away.

I've really got to say that this entire bit? This has got to be the best writing I've seen in the book. It really was easy to feel sorry for Elliot, I could feel how scared everyone was, and actually had emotion in it.

Everything temporarily comes to a screeching halt as Neferet delivers a long speech to the class about how she won't lie to them and any of them could drop over dead at any point in time and that they'd best live like each day could be their last because it damned well could be. After she leaves, the Lit teacher mops up the blood and then goes back to reading the chapter she was on, like nothing happened. Zoey is left rather shell-shocked and trying to recover from it all.  Like I said, this was written very well and I'm scratching my head and wondering why this wasn't the main source of conflict.

We get a time jump to lunch, where we're told how it's unusual for fledglings to die so close together and that everyone is all sad and quiet. Stevie Rae and Zoey leave for their dorms early, and talk about it. And any and all credit for good writing goes down the tubes as they do nothing but talk about how absolutely no one liked Elliot which makes it so much harder, because with the likable Elizabeth, at least one could honestly feel sorry for the death. I guess Elliot was just one of those universally-hated guys. Zoey outright admits that she's more upset that she saw the death than the fact that some poor kid just died in his teens. These people are very unpleasant. Zoey also spends more time angsting about the fact that Elliot's puked-up blood smelled tasty and whether or not her friends would accept her with her bloodlust.

They bring up the Samhain ritual that evening and Zoey wonders if it will be canceled without the "refrigerator". Incidentally, Zoey puts together that Elliot was probably starting to reject the change at the last ritual, and she still thinks the kid was stupid and gross. Anyway, Stevie Rae says that they don't care who they get, so they'll just grab whoever. She then says that Zoey probably shouldn't go to the ritual because Aphrodite will do all in her power to make Zoey feel unwelcome. Keep that in mind for later, ladies and gentlemen. For now, Zoey just says that she's going no matter what.

Stevie Rae's next suggestion is that Zoey bring her (Stevie Rae) along as a guest, since members of the Dark Daughters can invite people along. Zoey says no, that's not a good idea. Anyway, Erik's there to watch her back. Stevie Rae says that he might not be able to stand up to Aphrodite, as they used to go out. Geez, they just aren't letting him live that down, are they? Incidentally, all of these claims that Erik could have trouble standing up to his ex-girlfriend? They might carry more weight if we actually had some scenes with him having trouble standing up to his ex-girlfriend!

The conversation is interrupted as Zoey realizes that her cell phone is buzzing. Apparently she has a shitload of messages and texts and never noticed at all. They are all from Heath, and are in this vein

"Zo call me I stl luv u
Zo call me plz
Got 2 see u
U & Me
Will u call?
I wnt 2 talk 2 u Zo!
Call me bak"

ZeldaQueen: Good lord, even when he's texting, he comes across as drunk!

Zoey sighs and says that this obsession is why she dumped him. Normally this wouldn't warrant much notice from me, except for two things.

First of all, she didn't seem that bothered when she was pitching a fit over the thought of Kayla dating him. I guess that weird, stalkery obsession just doesn't bother her if it looks like someone else might want him.

Second of all, I know for a fact that she still considers him a boyfriend of sorts to her in later books. So all of this talk about how she's dumped him because he's creepy and obsessive is rather meaningless.

Zoey says that she's got to see Neferet about this. She pointedly avoids mentioning the fact that she's worried he imprinted on her, because she doesn't want Stevie Rae to know. Stevie Rae comes to the rather reasonable explanation that Zoey is bothered by what is clearly unhealthily obsessive behavior and comments "It'd be bad if he ran into Erik". And there we end

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Onward to: Chapter 26

Back to: Chapter 24

Back to: Table of Contents

Comments

Elliot's Story - 2/?

[emmram.livejournal.com]

He thought he could stay here forever, just like that, his mother's arms around his shoulders, her warm breath on his neck, his father's hand on his head, his sister clutching his arm. But it wasn't to be: when his mother finally let go and he turned to the beautiful vampyre lady - she'd called herself Neferet - he knew forever was going to have a completely different meaning, and it didn't involve his family.

Neferet looked at his parents with a sort of measured indifference. "I assure you," she said, "you can leave him here with no worry. His destiny has called him here, and it is here he will meet his full potential."

His parents paid her no attention; his mother kissed him on the forehead with one last, "I love you" while his father ruffled his hair and his sister clutched his arm harder, pressing herself to his side.

And when they left, when Elliot watched their retreating backs even as the world blurred and shifted, all he wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry himself to sleep. He felt Neferet place a hand on his shoulder and he flinched, but she didn't let go.

"You will learn to forget them, Elliot," she said, and when he turned to look at her, she was smiling. "They are but normal humans. You're special, Elliot, special enough that you are here with an eternity of success and glory stretched out before you." Her smile widened until it seemed to stretch from one end of his contracting world to the other, and Elliot could only shudder.

-

He quickly discovered that the vampyre school was nothing like he'd imagined.

They learnt things that Elliot couldn't imagine learning in his old school - fencing, horse-riding, sociology, drama classes where they pretentiously strutted about, delivering speeches about a higher culture and a life of endless refinement. He struggled through his classes, never quite understanding the obsession with highfalutin posturing, but going along with it anyway, because it didn't really seem like he had any other choice.

The other kids - fledglings, that's what they called them, and if Elliot wasn't already feeling like a test animal in a weird experiment, he sure was now - were mostly bewildered at first, but seemed to take to the lessons and the routine with more and more enthusiasm. They continued to learn more about the long history of vampyres, about their beliefs and goddesses and rituals, about how much human society owed them, about how much of a privilege it was to be sitting there, about to live a life of immortal glory, but all Elliot craved for was his family, and nothing they gave him seemed to compare to being able to come home to safe, nondescript, human life, where he was accepted and loved for who he was, and not what he was meant to be.

Clearly, a concept that the vampyres entirely disapproved of.

He'd tried phoning his parents the first night at school, and discovered his cellphone didn't work. He'd tried to find a telephone elsewhere in the school that would let him connect, but couldn't find any. The older students had laughed at him, told him there was no use or reason to connect to his old life; the teachers had insisted he forget his "human trappings" - after all, wasn't it more healthy in the long run, when he'd far outlive them?

Elliot had cried himself to sleep that night, shaking and utterly terrified.

The other kids seemed to adjust to this alarmingly well; they couldn't understand why he remained terrified and angry, and he couldn't understand how they could forget so easily and vowed to himself that he would never forget. He wouldn't.

He ploughed through his classes, determined and friendless, until the day that he met Rick Stanley.

-

Elliot's Story - 3/?

[emmram.livejournal.com]

He wasn't sure how he'd never noticed Rick before; after all, the tall, dark-haired boy with a nose-ring and a giant tattoo of what looked like a dragon-horse hybrid plastered over his forearm was kind of tough to ignore. But Elliot had pretty much given up on connecting with his classmates, and they him, so when Rick unceremoniously dumped his books on the desk where he was sitting, Elliot was more than a little surprised.

"Hey," Rick said, grinning, and stuck out one beefy hand. "Name's Rick. Don't think we've met before."

Elliot cautiously returned the handshake. "Elliot," he said.

"Oh, oh yeah, I know your name, don't worry," Rick said with a rueful smile. "You're, uh, kind of well known around here."

Elliot glared mutinously and looked away. "Well, yeah, if you're here to just rub it in, you can get lost."

Rick put up his hands. "Hey, I didn't say I agreed with them, did I?" Elliot looked at him again through the corner of his eye, and Rick's face looked so open, so honest, that he couldn't help but believe. A little. "This is just - it's a crazy place, y'know? Kind of hard to hold on to a sense of perspective when everybody around you is behaving like they've got into some herd-mind thing. I have to admit, it could be refreshing to know someone who doesn't think this whole shindig is the greatest thing ever, yeah?"

Elliot allowed himself a smile. "Yeah. It could be."

-

He quickly discovered that Rick was nothing like the others; he couldn't care less if he didn't excel in his classes, and unlike Elliot, made sure that people knew that he didn't care. He would lounge in the back bench of the classroom and take gleeful delight in telling the increasingly-annoyed professors that he had no idea about what they were asking him, and that he didn't give a shit that he did.

More than anything, Rick was utterly unawed by the adult vampyres or the things that they claimed they did, leave alone the Dark Daughters and the other student cliques.

Elliot asked him about it one night, as they hovered around the dinner buffet table. "You do realise they're brainwashing us, don't you?" Rick said, raising his eyebrows. "All this stuff about Nyx, and these rituals, and the constant emphasis on how great vampyres are - it's all just propaganda, man. They're trying to convince themselves of being something they're not - like they're god's greatest gift to the world, except they're just, like, two steps above being blood-drinking child-snatching monsters."

"But --" Elliot frowned. "You - we... are going to end up like - like them, one day, aren't we?"

Rick stopped shovelling potato salad onto his plate, his smile abruptly fading. "I know," he said. "I guess - we just, we'll have to make the most of what we have right now, yeah?"

-

They were in Sociology class, playing rummy under the table when it happened.

Elliot didn't ever remember being happier since reaching the House of Night; he still wanted his family and his old life back, and the craving was like a physical ache in his chest, but being with Rick was so much fun, he was beginning to think he might be finally able to adjust to this life. He and Rick were becoming notorious for their carefree attitude to the dictates of vampyre life - there were quite a few mutters of how could Nyx allow this - and sometimes, when fooling around with Rick, Elliot could allow himself to think: maybe I can do this. Maybe I can be different. Maybe -- maybe I can get something good out of this.

Then, it happened.

It started off innocently enough, with Rick sniffing and coughing into his sleeve, Elliot telling him off for getting snot and germs all over the cards. Then the coughing began to get more intense; as Elliot watched, horrified, Rick dropped the cards, hugging himself, leaning forward as he heaved for a breath. The teacher was by them instantly, pushing Elliot away and bringing Rick to his feet even as he gave an almighty shudder and began coughing up blood.

The teacher waved off a very curious class and Elliot's increasingly desperate entreaties as a stretcher was brought in, and Rick was wheeled away.

Later that night, Elliot learnt that Rick had died not long after.

He'd never felt quite as alone as he did that moment.

-

Elliot's Story - 4/?

[emmram.livejournal.com]

You could die.

There was nothing else on Elliot's mind as he stumbled to class the next morning. He could die, anybody could die, just drop to the floor coughing their insides out like Rick did the previous day, and there was no telling who it would be, when it would be --

It could be you, next, some of the older students had told him with a sort of malicious glee. Y'see, we think Nyx is just taking out the sort of people who will be useless as vampyres. People who're nothin' special. First it was that loud-mouthed friend of yours, so, yeah, I'd be careful if I were you.

When he finally reached class, Neferet was already there. She looked at him with a weird expression on her face, caught somewhere between pity and disgust. He couldn't blame her; he must've a looked a mess, with his uncombed hair and snotty nose and red eyes and oh god why am i even worrying about this now oh god oh god--

She gestured for him to get inside quickly, and then delivered a speech to the class about how the goddess had taken one of them and how Rick's memory'd stay in their hearts forever. She then requested a moment of silence while they presumably prayed to the goddess to ensure that Rick had a safe passage to the afterlife, while Elliot stood and trembled. They don't really give a damn, he could hear Rick saying, almost as if he was standing right next to him. This sort of thing happens all the time. We're like cockroaches, that way.

Life went on, and Elliot's fear grew with everyday that passed.

He didn't know what eventually happened to Rick's body; they told him it'd been given to his parents for cremation, and Elliot had toyed briefly with the idea of requesting to meet them - any human contact, any at all - but had decided against it, figuring that there was nothing he could say to them. Could he be sorry that he was the only friend that their son had ever had, and still all he did was sit back and watch him die?

Everybody else was remarkably unfettered by the incident. Par for the course. Run of the mill. Nyx just picking the wheat from the chaff. And Elliot was sure exactly which category he'd end up in.

(i don't want to die oh god i don't want to die i don't)

A week after Rick's death, he met Aphrodite.

-

"What do you expect me to do?"

She stood before him, beautiful and resplendent and High-Priestess-to-be, and all that consumed Elliot's thoughts was desperation and anger. "I need - I need to know if, if there's way. For, uh. Nyx to forgive me."

Aphrodite tossed her hair and smiled at him. "It isn't so easy to ask favours from the goddess, you know. Once Nyx has something in mind..."

"But we can at least try!"

She raised a delicate eyebrow. "We?" She laughed. "Oh, that's cute. You expect me to ask the goddess to change her mind, for you?"

Elliot could swear he wasn't far away from getting on his knees and begging at that moment. He just - he needed to - he needed to get out of here, see his family and friends again, before he died alone and unmourned, surrounded by strangers who didn't really give a damn. "Please," he said. "Please."

Aphrodite stared at him for a long while with narrowed eyes before a slow smile curved her lips. "Well," she said. "I suppose there's one thing we could try."

-

Re: Elliot's Story - 4/?

[mogseltof.livejournal.com]

:D That is amazing.

Re: Elliot's Story - 4/?

[emmram.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

There's more to come, because this story's kind of taken a life of its own. I'm writing furiously in between study sessions.

Re: Elliot's Story - 4/?

[greenerygripes.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, I think I'm gonna cry. <:')

Re: Elliot's Story - 4/?

[emmram.livejournal.com]

:( I'm finding this a sad story to tell, too.

The next part is up!

Elliot's Story - 5/?

[emmram.livejournal.com]

They made him sit at the centre of the elaborate ritual, pulling a loose black cloak around his shoulders. There were more symbols on the cloak, he noted, woven in silver threads at the hem and around the collar, twisting and dancing in the flickering candle-light. Aphrodite came to him, pushed a goblet under his nose. "Drink," she said.

Clear, sweet-smelling fluid swished inside the cup. He blinked up at her. "Why? What is this?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Oh, now you're starting to ask questions?" When he continued to stare at her, she let out an exasperated sigh. "This will make what we're going to do easier - on you, on me, on everybody. Now, go on. Drink." She pushed the goblet forward again.

He hesitated for a second more, a billion what ifs fluttering around inside his head, before deciding that he had nothing left to lose, so he might as well go for it. He took the goblet and drained its contents in one gulp. It tasted just as sweet as it smelled, and there was already a strange warmth spreading through his chest, a pleasant buzzing in his head, as he handed the goblet back.

"Wonderful," she said, smiling widely. "Enyo!" she called. "If you'd do the honours."

Already Elliot was beginning to feel numb and light-headed; when another girl approached him, the light glinting off the blade of the long knife in her hand, he could do nothing more than blink blearily at her. The ever-present smoke in the room was making things hard as well, muddling his thoughts and messing with his vision even more.

The new girl - Enyo, Enyo, he's got to remember these things - grinned at him and grabbed his arm, stretching it out. She positioned the knife over his wrist and brought it down and across in a single, quick movement. Elliot flinched involuntarily, waiting for the pain, but he felt nothing more than a swift pressure and a burning sensation before the blood started to well and dribble. Enyo gave a delighted little laugh, plucked another goblet out of nowhere, and stuck it under his bleeding wrist. "This is going to be so good, Elliot. Just you wait."

He didn't hear anything else she said as the words began to blend into each other, and the world dissolved into a moving, organic mass of colours and confused patterns. The only time he was ever brought into a brief bout of coherency was when they cut his other wrist, but he remained suspended in that weird limbo until somebody was pushing his head back, forcing his jaw open, trying to get him to drink something.

"-- c'mon, just swallow already --"

"-- maybe we took too much for a first time --"

"-- nsense. He'll be fi--"

He sputtered and gasped, forcing his eyes open. Aphrodite it was, trying to get him to drink the contents of yet another cup. She smiled tightly at him. "You did great, Elliot," she said, tipping the cup against his lips. "But you need to drink this."

He wasn't really in the mood - or the condition - to be resisting, so he opened his mouth and drank. This time, the drink was bitter, burning his throat as it went down. He coughed and hacked, but Aphrodite was able to coax more of the liquid down until he'd finished it all.

He was able to focus better, most of the feeling of having cotton balls stuffed in his head gone, but this also meant he was no longer immune to pain. He curled around his heavily-bandaged wrists, hissing and squirming as the pain hit him with all the gentleness of a two-ton sledgehammer to the face.

"Elliot." Suddenly Aphrodite was crouched beside his face, her fingers running gently down his jawline, brushing away the tears he didn't remember shedding. "Hey, listen. We made good progress today, okay? I think the goddess is accepting your penance. But it's not over. She's asking for more."

Elliot trembled and moaned. "How -- how much more?" he forced out through clenched teeth.

"We don't know yet," she said. "I'll help you find out, but Elliot? You can't tell anybody we're doing this. It'll ruin everything."

Elliot closed his eyes, felt more tears seep out. "Okay," he whispered.

-

Re: Elliot&#39;s Story - 5/?

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

That was beautiful!

Re: Elliot&#39;s Story - 5/?

[emmram.livejournal.com]

Thanks muchly! :D

Re: Elliot's Story - 5/?

[charlie2cute.livejournal.com]

This was a great, very dystopian take on the House of Night, series, I really liked it. It doesn't really fit with the canon perfectly, but whatever, still - amazing. It reminded me of Uglies. I think you should read that trilogy, I think you'd like it.

Re: Elliot's Story - 5/?

[agithas-castle.livejournal.com]

That was so freaking emotional wow! That was really good and much better than what we've send so far in the actual published book!^^