Vampire Kisses (gxg)

Chapter 8

The next day, it was a true struggle for Penelope to get out of bed. When she had, she checked the time, and noticed it was 8:30. Shit. She was supposed to be at school by now.

She rushed to the bathroom to brush her teeth, slamming a door in her wake, rattling the tapestries on the walls. As she furiously brushed, she heard footsteps coming up the door and into her room.

"Penelope?" Her mom asked.

"I'm late!" Penelope exclaimed.

"You're excused from school for the next two days," Her mom said.

Penelope's shoulders sagged and she dropped the toothbrush onto the counter. "Oh. Okay."

Her mom sat on the side of her bed. "I know this is a lot to deal with. I'm sorry that your friend is going through this, and I'm praying for her safety. I hope whoever did this to her is caught, and she is found soon."

Penelope came up to her and hugged her. "Yeah. I hope they find her." Her voice was weak. She didn't believe herself.

Her mom stood up and left the room. "Tell me if you need anything. I'll bring lunch up around noon," she said.

Penelope nodded. "Okay." She collapsed onto her bed, and pulled the black, woolen comforter over half her body, and rolled into the rest of the bed.

She stayed in bed for the rest of the day, scrolling on her phone and watching shows that were comforting to her like Demon Slayer and Castlevania. She realized she was watching a show with Dracula in it halfway through. Dracula, just like the book that Heidi was reading when she...

Penelope turned off the show and slept some more. It was lunch, and her mother peeked in from the door and placed the plate onto her desk.

Penelope reluctantly dragged herself out of bed and sat down at her desk. It was something simple, picked up at Ikea. It was white, unlike the rest of her room which was dark. Her parents tried to fight her on her decoration choice once because they said it looked too cramped. But soon it became apparent that Penelope wasn't backing down, and they gave up.

On her desk was her laptop, and over it was a corkboard with a calendar which hadn't been turned over in two months. On the corkboard were photos, older ones of her and Victoria before she had left, photos of her and Chris and Heidi at festivals. Both hurt her heart to see.

She finished eating and made her way downstairs on tippy-toes. She didn't want her mom to talk to her right now. She squinted as she emerged from the stairway into bright sunlight, and crept into the kitchen. She placed the dish into the dishwasher, and then made her way upstairs, almost sliding into the stairs with her haste.

She went back up to her room, and slept some more. It was around five when she woke up again, because of a buzz on her phone.

"Penelope where r u." Sent from Chris.

"At home," she replied.

"Y aren't you at Sullivan's Rock?"

Sullivan's Rock wasn't a singular rock, but a cliffface on one side of the Umber River. It was known for being treacherous, the site of many suicides, and even a few murders, with the last one taking place in the 2010s after a few drunk teens dumped a victim of their drunk diving into the brown river to drown.

It was a place of misfortune. It was a bad sign that it was being searched.

"I didn't know one was happening," she texted. "I've been sleeping."

"There's enough people here, u should continue to rest. The cops don't think they r going to find anything," he replied.

"Ok," she texted, turning off her phone. She rolled over, and then rolled over once again and turned her phone back on. "Text me if you find anything."