Mackenzie looked down at the photograph of her, Grace and Freddie that she held in her small hands. She didn't know how she felt. Anger, denial...sadness.
She threw the framed photograph at her bedroom wall, making the glass shatter.
She walked to the long, bronze framed mirror that sat in the corner of her room and looked at the person looking back at her. She didn't recognise herself. Her skin had become pale from the lack sleep that she had gotten for the past few night. Her eyes were red from all the crying she had done and her eyes were no longer the energetic ice blue that they usually were. They were dull. Lifeless. Just like Freddie.
Every night since Freddies death, Mackenzie had woke her self and her father up by screaming from nightmares. Jason was growing more worried as the week progressed. His daughter just wasn't herself anymore.
She was like a zombie, only leaving her room to eat or get washed. He tried helping her but Mackenzie just pushed him away. "I'm fine" she would say. But she wasn't fine, she was broken.
Mackenzie rubbed at her sad eyes, and faked a smile.
"That should do the trick." She muttered to herself.
She grabbed her school bag and met her father downstairs. She sat down on the dark cream sofa that looked out towards their large living room window.
"If you're not ready to go back to school yet, you don't have to." Jason said, taking a sip from his morning coffee.
Mackenzie wasn't ready to go back to school. She didn't think she would ever be ready to go back.
"I can't just stay here and feel sorry for myself either. I need to get out of the house for a while." Mackenzie sighed.
Mackenzie hoped that by going in today, it would take her mind off everything for at least a few hours. Spending another day locked in her room would drive her crazy!
"I was on the phone with Graces mother last night...you, discussing what happened." Jason began. "You didn't by any chance see the type of animal that attacked Freddie?" Jason asked, sitting down next to his daughter as he seat his coffee on the coffee table.
Mackenzie shook her head. She continued looking out the window, unable to look into her fathers eyes. If she did, he would know that she was lying.
"Okay, well get ready to leave. We'll be going in a few minutes."
Jason had offered to drive his daughter to school this morning. He didn't want her driving, especially because she wasn't in the right frame of mind.
Mackenzie's mind wandered to thoughts of her best friend Grace. Grace was in pieces. According to her mother, Grace was still texting Freddies phone, expecting a reply.
"Could I call in to see Grace after school today?" Mackenzie asked her father as they left the house.
"I think that would be a good idea. I'll pick you up at 3 and drop you off at her house. You're not walking." Jason said, unlocking his car.
They both got in, then Jason took off towards Addington High School. This morning, Mackenzie wasn't in the mood for observing the different families leaving their homes. Instead she kept her eyes in the car, twiddling her thumbs.
When Mackenzie got to school, all eyes were on her. The girl that witnessed her friend get attacked by an animal.
Some eyes were filled with sympathy, others just stared, waiting for Mackenzie to walk past so that they could turn back to their friends to gossip about what happened. She felt like an animal at the zoo. Every step she took was being watched.
She took her seat in registration class. This time she sat alone. Mackenzie glanced around the classroom, making eye contact every so often with a classmate. She watched a brunette girl glance over at her, then cover her mouth with her hand while she whispered to her friend.
Mackenzie's eyes looked down at her table while she drew patterns with her finger. She was beginning to regret coming in. As her finger drew an invisible line on the table, she stopped, looking at the words scrawled on the wood of the table. She lowered her face, squinting her eyes so that she could see the small writing, then quickly sat up, realising what it said. "They're back" and next to the words was a doodle of fangs.
Her heart raced. She wasn't the only one that knew about Vampires, there were others!
"Hey, we're so sorry to hear about Freddie. If there's anything that you need at all, just let us know." A girl called Kerrie said as her boyfriend Toby nodded his head in agreement, startling Mackenzie.
"Freddie was a great guy. We all feel it." Toby said, giving Mackenzie a sad smile.
Mackenzie's eyes fell into the drawing once again, then she looked up at Toby and Kerrie, giving them a fake smile.
"Thanks." Mackenzie replied.
Toby was right. Freddie was a great guy. It was unfortunate that in his last moments, he just wasn't himself. The Freddie that Mackenzie knew, was loving and caring. He would have done anything for Grace and Mackenzie. He was just a lovable person. Not a monster.
Kerrie placed her hand reassuringly on Mackenzie's shoulder and smiled at her. Then Toby and Kerrie walked back to their seats.
Mackenzie prepared herself for these sort of sympathetic actions all day. Whether it was from her friends, people she didn't know or teachers. She had to remain strong, even though she just wanted to cry.
"Hi, I was told that this was my registration class?" An unfamiliar voice said in an uncertain tone.
Mackenzie's eyes looked up to the sound of the voice. The unknown boy had slightly curly, light brown hair and dark green eyes, with traces of yellow spotted within them. His cheeks were tinted a light pink and he had a chiseled jawline. He was quite tall but then again, anyone standing next to Mackenzie was tall.
He looked up to where Mackenzie was sitting and she quickly looked away, hiding her face behind a fallen strand of wavy hair.
"Ah yes, Isaac Addington isn't it?." The form teacher said, looking through the mess of papers setting on his desk.
Mackenzie scrunched her eyebrows together as she heard the boys surname. He had the same last name as the name of the small town they lived in. She didn't know whether to take it as a coincidence or just plain bizarre.
"Yes." The boy confirmed.
The teacher handed Isaac a timetable and a student planner. Then then began explaining something to Isaac but Mackenzie couldn't hear what they were saying from where she sat. Then her ears perked up at she heard her name being mentioned.
"Take a seat next to Miss Rae for today, just until we can get a permanent seat sorted out for you." He said, pointing at the empty seat next to Mackenzie.
Great, getting stuck with the new kid was all that Mackenzie needed. She let out a sigh as the boy came down to the seat next to Mackenzie.
The boy sat down next to Mackenzie as he read through the timetable Mr Irwin gave him.
Mackenzie looked at the boy from the corner of her eye, glancing over at his timetable. He was in her business Studies class.
"Hi, I'm Isaac." He said, setting his timetable on the table. Mackenzie jumped as they boy snapped her out of her out of her daydream. "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you." He chuckled.
Mackenzie shook her head and laughed. "It's okay." She laughed. "I'm Mackenzie" she said, smiling at him.
A silence fell between the two as Mackenzie looked back down at the table.
"So uh...did you just move here?" Mackenzie asked, trying to break the awkwardness.
"Yeah, I moved from Louisiana a few weeks ago." He smiled, slipping his timetable into his pocket.
"That's a big move." Mackenzie said.
The bell rung and Mackenzie swung her bag over her shoulder watching Isaac as he pulled the timetable from his pocket again.
"What's your first class?" She asked.
"Psychology." He answered, folding up the timetable.
"I have that too, you can come with me if you'd like." Mackenzie offered.
A smile fell on Isaacs lips at Mackenzie's kindness.
"I would love that." He answered.
Mackenzie lead the way through the crowd in the corridor. As Isaac walked next to Mackenzie, he couldn't help but admire how pretty she was. Every inch of her face was perfect. Not to mention she was also kind.
Isaac watched as people whispered while passing Mackenzie, making her drop her head.
"That's the girl that saw her friend get attacked." One boy whispered so quietly to his friend that Isaac had to use his vampire hearing.
He furrowed his eyesbrows as he looked back up at Mackenzie. Stress seeped from her skin, Isaac could practically smell it.
"Hey, sorry to hear about Freddie. How have you been?" A girl called Evie asked, stopping Mackenzie in the corridor.
Her head lifted to look at the brunette girl with ash blonde highlights. Her bright green eyes were full of life. Happiness radiated from her. She wore a black play suit with a denim jacket and brown sandals. She wore natural make up but Mackenzie didn't think she needed any make up. She was pretty just the way she was.
"I'm fine, thanks." Mackenzie answered, smiling at Evie.
Isaac listened to Mackenzie's heart as it skipped a beat. She was lying. She wasn't fine. The smile that played upon her lips, was merely an act. Isaac lut two and two together, realising what had happened. It was all Thomas. It had to be.
"Maybe we could hang out sometime after school and catch up. It's been a few weeks now since we've had a chance to just talk." Evie suggested, grabbing Mackenzie's hands and giving ten a tight squeeze.
"That would be nice. I'll text you later on so that we can arrange something." Mackenzie smiled.
Mackenzie and Evie had that sort of friendship that would never end. No matter how long they went without seeing each other or speaking, they could always go back to each other as if they had never stopped talking in the first place. They both understood that they had very different lives which meant that they couldn't always spend time together, but when they did, the bond between them was amazing.
As Mackenzie and Isaac left Evie and continued to walk to class, curiosity got the best of Isaac. He had to ask about Freddie. He had to know if what he was thinking was true.
"Who's Freddie?" Isaac suddenly questioned, making Mackenzie glanced up at him.
A frown fell upon her lips as she looked away from him again.
"He was my friend. He was killed by a... an animal a few days ago." Mackenzie answered as they walked into psychology together.
Isaacs heart sank. An animal? He knew that attack wasn't an animal. Just like the rest of the alleged animal attacks. The attacks had never been animals and never will be. They were all Thomas.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Isaac said, his voice cracked. He cleared his throat trying not to come off as feeling uncomfortable. "I didn't mean to bring it up-"
Mackenzie cut him off, giving him a smile, "It's okay Isaac, how were you suppose to know? It would have been brought up to you one way or another anyway." She chuckled, as she wiped the tears from her eyes before they could spill onto her rosy cheeks.
They both sat down next to each other at one of the lab benches and Isaac was handed one of the booklets that the class were working from.
"Today we are going to be learning about Milgrams experiment." Miss Harrison said.
As she set the class, their task, Isaac took the opportunity to get to know Mackenzie. He thought it was a good way to take her mind off things plus, something about her intrigued him. He wasn't sure what it was, but he just felt like he needed to get to know her better. She was mysterious.
"Tell me about yourself." He said with a smile.
Mackenzie lifted her pen from the table, tapping it against the table.
"There's nothing much to me." Mackenzie chuckled, not wanting to make conversation.
"I know for a fact that that's a lie. What do you do in your free time?" He pushed, making Mackenzie sigh.
Mackenzie desperately wished that she was in the mood to talk to Isaac but all she wanted to do was get the day over and done with so that she could go home.
"I study a lot. When I'm not studying I spend time with Grace and Fre-" Mackenzie stopped mid-sentence, realising what she was about to say. "and Evie." She corrected herself, leaving Freddie's name out of the conversation.
"Who's Grace?" He asked.
"Oh she's my bestfriend. She's still having a hard time after what happened. She and Freddie were pretty much dating." Mackenzie sighed.
Isaac felt sorry for Mackenzie. He wanted to help her overcome what happened. Mostly because he felt somewhat guilty for having brought these events onto her. After all, it was his fault that Thomas came back into town.
*
At three o'clock, Mackenzie left school as quickly as possible, she was going to see Grace. She was excited but terrified to see her. She was excited because she hadn't seen Grace since the funeral, but terrified to see what state Grace had gotten herself into.
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