FIVE MONTH EARLER
My name is Cole Gigure, and I'm twenty-three years old. I attend the same college as Sky and Luna. I'm a hybrid, half vampire and half werewolf, a fact I keep hidden from everyone. My vampire abilities are super strength. From my werewolf side, I have superspeed and night vision. Unlike full vampires, I don't need to stay up all night; I only require two or three hours of sleep. Most vampires are capable of transforming into a bat by the age of fifteen or sixteen; however, I achieved this skill at the age of twenty. Being half werewolf and half vampire complicates my ability to master this skill. Which, led to frequent bullying. At the age of eighteen, I was attempting to transform into a bat. All the other monsters in my class had already mastered this ability, except for me. Four older boys approached me, and began to push me around, and called me names. They made comments such as.
"You're eighteen years old and you can't even turn into a bat?"
"Are you sure you're not secretly a human in disguise?" They looked like hunters who wanted to watch their prey die a brutal death.
"You are a disgrace to the monster world" I couldn't fly away so I was in the middle of a circle getting pushed, kicked, and punched.
"Some monsters take longer to master these things. Please leave me alone" I pleaded, holding my ribs.
"Who's going to make us, huh?" One yelled as he walked toward me and thinking this was the end of me, a big booming voice came out of nowhere.
"Do you boys ever learn?" The voice teases. Her long, brown afro hair was tied back in a ponytail, the girl was wearing her tall, black boots. She was wearing a blue shirt and orange shorts. Her dark brown eyes, so deep, almost black, were framed by six piercings in each ear. "What are you boys doing?" She asked when they looked back to see who it was. They immediately cowered away like it was a big bull about to charge.
"N-nothing we were just going to help this k-kid turn into a bat"
"Thanks for the offer but I can handle it." They ran in terror, screaming their heads off. She bend down to offer me a hand. I was impressed by how effortlessly she had scared off the boys without even touching them. "Let me help you." She ripped off a piece of her shirt and wrapped it around my bleeding leg. I've heard that voice before, but I couldn't remember where.
"Okay you're all good."
"Thanks for your help Sky." We met a year ago, at a masked party, I saw her dancing with Luna. Sky was wearing a pretty dress, and I've known her since we were in middle school, we never really talked a lot lot, but I did find her pretty cute. So I asked her to dance and she said yes, but one thing I found awesome is that she was able to get on stage and sing in front of a crowed, she looked so natural up there.
"Thanks for helping" I said twiddling my hands.
"We should hang out sometime Cole," I smiled.
"I'd like that" I said.
A year later, my friends Ben Hoeppner and Easton Reimer walked up to me. Me, Easton and Ben, I've known them since I was little. We went to the pool where monsters and humans can go together, when we got there we saw that there were a lot of monsters and humans there. After two hours we were just floating and just talking. "Oh my god have you monsters seen that new video game. Scream and die? It's wicked" Easton asked.
"Yeah I have, it's rad,"
"Dude not even humans say rad anymore" I laughed, I missed hanging with them, after me and Sky started hanging out more, so I don't have time to hang out with them anymore. I like hanging around Sky but she was a girl, not a boy. Sometimes I need some man time with just the guys.
"I'm going to go get something," I said. Just as I was about to exit the pool, when I noticed a shadow in front of me. A monster slipped and landed directly on top of me. We plunged forcefully back into the water. It took me a few moments to open my eyes, and when I finally did, I realized that the monster who had fallen in was unconscious. I quickly swam towards the monster and discovered that it was Sky. I immediately brought her to the surface. I assisted her in getting out of the water. She was breathing heavily and coughing vigorously until she regained her breath. Ben and Easton witnessed the entire incident, they swam over, retrieved their towels, and wrapped them around her. "Sky what happened?" I asked. She turned around, I saw this monster named Vex, I started snarling, and I stood up and confronted Vex. "Why did you push her?!" I yelled.
"She seemed hot, so I wanted to cool her down," he snickered. I rolled my eyes and I helped her up her feet and helped her dry off. I wonder why Vex pushed her into the water. What was his goal for that? On the bright side, we grew closer after that.
I learned that Sky has a passion for hockey, I discover she'd been rejected by every team she tried out for, solely because she was a girl. Determined to help her. My first attempt was with my own team, the Vampires, but they also turned her down. As the leading team in Wisconsin, an undefeated streak for fifty years, they worried that adding a female player could jeopardize our record. I also reached out to the Griffins and Siren teams, but they showed no interest either.
It became clear that finding a team willing to play with her was proving difficult. My efforts finally led me to the Western Wisconsin Stars. I sent them videos showcasing her skills and emphasized what an incredible monster she is to be around, suggesting that even a loss with her would feel like a victory. It didn't take long to win them over, and I knew Sky's dream was on the verge of becoming reality.
"Have her come to practice on Monday and we will see how she does." The head coach named Alex said, I was so excited that I was able to get Sky on the team. I quickly flew to her house, I banged on her door, and a few minutes later Sky answered. I could tell that Sky wanted to punch me in the face.
"Cole! Where the fuck have you been? We've had five dates in the past three weeks and how many did you show up to? Zero!" Damn it! I forgot that we had dates, she tried calling me but I never answered, but when I tell her the news about her being able to be on a true hockey team, she will understand, I hope. She was about to shut the door when I stopped her.
"Please let me explain" I begged, I explained what I had been doing for the past few weeks, her eyes grew bigger in amazement. "You're starting on Monday" she was so happy that I did this for her. She hugged me so tight I thought I was about to lose my breath. Her eyes glowed with happiness "You're playing on the Western Wisconsin Stars!" I exclaimed. "I know you don't have your own hockey stick so I made you this one" I showed her a blue and red stripes that had a big star in the middle of it and said, Go Girls!
"You made this?" She asked she hugged me again.
"I also got this for you" I gingerly raised the delicate necklace, its pendant crafted with intricate detail a majestic harpy wing adorning one side, a charming vampire embellishing the other. As I presented it to her, "The symbolism of the intertwined figures representing our bond" I could feel my cheeks flush as I explained the essence of the necklace. Without hesitation, she clasped the necklace around her neck.
"Thank you Cole