Teen Ink

Lizzie

“So let me get this straight. You want me to act like you kidnapped me? Like, legit kidnapping?” I ask. I get a cold feeling of dread. Why did I have to do this? I think I can trust beck. But what good, reasonable explanation did this all have? Something like this- it can’t be good.
“ Well, yes. Technically. But, I mean, no- I don’t know. I just need you to act all scared in the beginning-“
I cut him off.
“I need a very plausible explanation for all of this. Honestly, Beck. I don’t know if this is such a good idea.”
“Please, Liz. It’s for your own safety.”
I sigh dejectedly. “Fine. But let me call my parents first.” Beck nods, and I pull out my phone. Sarah picks up.
“Hey, Liz. Where are ya?” she asks.
I reply, “I’m gonna be a little late tonight. I have to help a friend out.”
“Oh, come on, Lizzie. You’re my sister, I know you. What are you really doing?” she says accusingly.
“I really do have to help a friend out, Sarah.” I say, trying to be convincing. After all, I am telling the truth.
“If you say so. I wasn’t born yesterday, Princess.”
And ending with that, Sarah hangs up. I feel a bit puzzled. Princess? Sarah’s called me that before, but it’s not a term of endearment for her. Usually, whenever she calls me that, she quickly corrects herself. That’s so weird. Why do people keep calling me princess? And it’s not like they call me anything else. There is no ‘sweetie’, or ‘honeybunch’, or ‘angel’. Sure, Mom and Dad call me that, but nobody else does calls me anything besides ‘princess’. Come to think of it, Macy, Sophie, and Bailey have all called me that before, but when I ask them about they just say, ‘oh, I just meant to say something else.’ But, whatever. Much more important things on the thinker right now.
I put my phone in my pocket and look at Beck.
“What now?”

Beck

I carry Lizzie, her head tipped back, acting like she was knocked out, to the alley.
“Lucas?” I whisper.
He comes out of the shadows. “Ah. How nice of you. Bring her unconscious.” he says sarcastically. I shrug it off, and then I set her down gently on the cool ground, legs first, then her head, oh so delicately. “So what do we do now?”
“Now, we have to wait until she wakes up. Thanks to you, no less.” he says.
I sit across from Lizzie, my back against the slightly grimy alley wall. Just another normal mission on yet another normal day in the Order. “Then let’s wait,”
“I’ll be right back. I need to get some equipment for the process of interrogation,” Lucas says, turning and walking back into the darkness. Equipment?
“How much longer?”
Her whisper is so quiet I’m not even sure I hear it. But I answer. “When he comes back, gasp and wake up……..or, not, actually. Get up and run. Now. This was a bad idea. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ll pretend that you disabled me. Go! Now! You might get hurt. Call me when you are okay, got it?” I demand.
I help Lizzie up quickly and she runs. Hard. She almost has inhuman speed. I fall to the floor and clutch my stomach, pretending that she had just decked me after I see that she has made it around the corner. I groan to give a little more effect to my charade. I am a pretty good actor, if I do say so myself.
“Beck Mazly!” Lucas yells. I cringe a little, but still lay on the ground in mock pain.
“Yes?” I wheeze.
“Where is the Princess?” he booms, striding towards me.
“I don’t know. She suddenly just jumped up and punched me a good one in the stomach, and ran away.” I lie. He gets extremely close to me and points at me with a shaking finger at me.
“You better not lie to me right now. And I know you’re faking that you’re hurt,” he says quietly. “You do know that I can kill her anytime that I want, whether she is one of them or not?”
I blink at him. With what? How? “You’re just gonna walk up to her and commit murder? That’d be nice in the newspaper. ‘Eighteen year old boy kills innocent high schooler’. I can see it in the papers now.”
“No. Not that way.”
At the blink of an eye, Lucas is gone. I wonder if he’s is going after her. I get up from the ground quickly, and then I hear her scream. I run immediately.
“Let me go,” I hear her scream at Lucas.
“Lucas, leave her alone,” I yell around the corner.
I can see her flail wildly against Lucas’s arms. Lucas looks down at her, sharp teeth that I never noticed before bared close to her neck.
“I’ll let you go this time, Princess. But, I'm coming for you.” He throws her to the ground.
I grab her and move her away quickly, shielding her with my body.
“Are you okay?” I ask. She nods. I check her neck to make sure that she really is okay. I look up to face Lucas and his strangely sharp teeth, but he is gone, to who knows where. I’m not sure where he went, but I am sure I just saw Lucas as something I thought he dedicated his life to ridding the world of, primarily killing them.

A vampire.

Lizzie

“Okay. ‘Fessing time! WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!?” I scream at Beck.
He winces, like the words were a physical threat. “Um….a really good costume?” he offers. I give him a dark look. I know what’s happening; I just don’t want it to be true. And I have to keep up appearances, so I look like I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve lived with my secret for almost six years; why did it take them the Order this long? Wait. Is…….. Beck part of the Order?
“Okay, okay. So maybe that’s not it, but if I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he says. My blood runs cold. I remember what he said to that vampire in the alley. He……. he must be part of the Order. But why is a vamp working with the Order, anyways? And why is BECK working with the Order? Oh, God and hell, both DAMNIT! This explains everything! I can’t trust Beck. Not anymore. But I’m pretty sure he hasn’t figured out my secret yet. Why else would he have let me go? He thinks I’m human. So I have an advantage there. I feel a twinge of sadness. We were best friends! But we came from entirely different worlds. I need to harden my heart. The past is behind us. I can’t change the fact that the Order got their claws in Beck. But, tonight……… I don’t know what it was………… but despite me having to get away from Beck, and leaving him behind……. I think I’m falling back in love with the person charged with the task of killing me.