CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
JULIANA THE DEMON HUNTRESS
Whitlock Abrahams. I thought you were dead.
WHITLOCK AbrAHAMS
You did?
JULIANA THE DEMON HUNTRESS
Accept my apologies. What I meant to say was, I hoped you were dead.
Vampire Falls. Season two, episode four – “Return and Renew”
You know in those fantasy films where there’s an explosion in the middle of a battle, and the main character goes kind of unconscious then wakes up with that whistling noise in his ear, then tunes back into the actual audio of the carnage going on around them?
Yeah, that’s me right now.
I’m seated but with one arm waving around above my head, Roxy clutching my wrist. Whilst I’m apparently still processing what’s just happened, she is standing on her chair shouting obscenities, euphorically, which is not something I’ve ever witnessed before.
Felix repeats my name, inviting me up to the stage.
I blink up at the sea of eyes looking at me, then oblige as Roxy pulls me up onto my jelly legs.
She steers me to the end of our row, and I feel like I float towards the stage and up the steps where the steward meets me, hands me a big envelope, and shows me to the chair next to Rashawn.
Rashawn grins at me, holding up his hand which I manage to high-five.
“Can you believe this?” he says.
I shake my head. I mean, I knew it was going to happen, but I definitely feel like I’m hovering above my body right now. I’m no mathematician but I have a one in three chance of taking Roxy to Comic Con. Like, those odds are doable. I think?
“On to our third and final contestant. If I could have some quiet, please.”
I take a deep breath, concentrating on the air filling my lungs, then feel it slowly leave my body as a I look out at the audience.
I didn’t realise how comfortable I’d be with a sea of eyes glaring back at me, but I’m totally fine with it.
I’ve put the viewing hours in to be sat up here, I’ve spent a fortune on the merch (my mum still puts my Vampire Falls duvet cover on when I’m surfing the crimson wave), and I’ve trawled forums just to find out when Cox the Observer is making another appearance in the show.
Roxy is sitting straight up in her chair, nodding and clapping her hands together every time I look at her, like I’ve just done a trombone solo in the school talent show.
Love that girl. I sweep the rest of the crowd and spot Fake McKinley, whose ears bob up and down as he nods at me.
I jump back in my seat a little when I make eye contact with Dorothy, who’s holding up two knitting needles in her gnarled little fists like, quite frankly, weapons.
Maybe she’s the only person who wanted this more than I did.
“The third and final person to participate in the Fall Games, is . . .”
I lean back and cross my ankles together, smiling back at Roxy. I wonder what it is that—
“Vivian Erikksen!”
“WHAT THE INTERROBANGING FUCK?!”
Yeah. That was me.
Rashawn looks at me, shuffling as far to the other side of his chair as possible then sort of folds his whole body up.
I swallow, then try a coy was that me giggle but even I know it comes out more deranged serial killer than cute pixie.
I look out at Roxy for support and she’s standing up, watching the third contestant sashay to the stage, high-fiving people like a pro wrestler.
My fingers dig into my seat as my heart races faster than a Lunar Dragon during a blood moon.
Roxy catches my eye and shrugs. She knows that as deliriously happy as I am to be in with a chance of getting us to Comic Con, losing to Vivian Erriksen would be the worst thing on this particular plain of existence, therefore making life for those around me basically intolerable.
Vivian waves at the audience as she makes her way to the third and final seat, one hand on her hip and the other on the back of the chair.
“Thanks, bitches,” she says to Felix and Dimitri.
“You are welcome,” says Dimitri, looking at Vivian like she’s a quarter pounder with cheese.
Vivian waves at the audience again, twirling her chair round then straddling it backwards.
I gape at her then look out at the audience. Roxy mimes turning a dial down, her signal for me to not lose my shit.
It’s a little late for that.