Chapter 65 - You Have A New Message

[I know where you live, Diana. Don't think that Jean-Jacques will protect you forever. You are just a thief, a rat who can only run and hide and wouldn't last a single moment without him. Soon enough he will grow bored with you, and then there will be nothing standing between me and you. Remember that when you lie in bed at night. I want your blood to be sweet with fear when I get to you.]

My hands shook so hard that had to hold my phone with both hands to not drop it. Adrenaline pumped through my blood, urging me to run, to hide, but there was no outlet for these desires. There was nowhere to run. Christina found me, and it took her less than a day to do so.

How long will it take for her to pull me out of my bed and tear me apart with her dagger-like claws? Is it only JJ's presence that stops her?

My fingers hovered over the virtual keyboard. Some logic kicked in and I opened the profile page of the person who wrote to me. It was almost empty, obviously a fake. The name didn't tell me anything either.

A sudden wave of defiance rose in me. Christina wanted me to fear, and I was doing just that. But that didn't mean that she had to know it. I opened our dialogue and typed a response.

[Dream on, Christina. That 'rat' kicked you pretty hard yesterday, and will gladly do it again.]

I hit the 'send' button and another thought immediately made me type a second message to follow the first one.

[And even a rat is better than a rabid dog. Don't underestimate rats. They are smart and tenacious, while you can only froth from your mouth. Putting you down would be a kindness you don't deserve. I should just seal you in a coffin instead and let you rot.]

With that, I blocked Christina's fake page, making a nice finisher to the conversation. I knew she could just respond from another fake page, but for now, I was in the clear. I let out a sigh of relief. As pointless as barking back was—I probably just made her even crazier and angrier than she was before—it felt good to stand my ground to Christina. The bitch deserved nothing less.

It took me a few more minutes of standing in the hallway to calm down before I continued towards the office.

I worked on the computer for a while. I checked the ledgers to find the files edited this morning, which meant that JJ was there when I lied in bed with a book… was he still looking as awful as he was? I never asked him about how quickly vampires healed.

The idea of him working while he should've been resting and me resting while I should've been working made me feel angry at myself and then angry at JJ for making me feel angry at myself.

I went to search the web for business opportunities and think about improvements to my shop. I needed an advertisement of some sort, but a typical poster ad wouldn't reach my target audience. This required heavier thinking that I found myself able to at the moment, despite all my efforts. In the end, I put the thought on my 'to do' list and moved on with the day, feeling only slightly less useless.

I was making lunch when I got another message. For one terrible second, I thought it was Christina's reply, but to my relief, it had been Rita, asking how I felt about going out.

The relief lasted exactly long enough for me to type "Yes, of course", but before I could send it, I remembered our last meeting. It felt like it happened forever ago, though it was only yesterday. My mortification because of Rita, but even more because of JJ.

[I'm still angry at you!] I sent instead of what I typed in originally.

Her response was immediate.

[I'm sorry, girlfriend, I really am! :((]

[I had punished my tongue for this mishap, and now it wants to apologise to you too.]

[How about tomorrow, then?]

I sighed. I couldn't stay cross with Rita for long. Too cross, at least.

[Ask me again tomorrow.]

She responded with a flurry of happy and heart emojis. I shook my head exasperatedly. What was up with people spamming emojis? It looked stupid. I'd think Rita was stupid looking at all these emojis, if I didn't know better.

The flaws we close our eyes at when they belong to our friends…

⠀⠀ ⠀

I hoped that with Rita and Christina people wishing to message me will end, but no. It was a 'pester Diana' day, judging by all the people writing me about something JJ-related. I wouldn't have been so annoyed if it wasn't JJ-related. It made me impossible to forget about him, not that it was easy when I kept stumbling upon traces of his presence.

It was like living with a ghost. Noiseless and invisible, but moving things around, taking showers and leaving a light in rooms.

That was nothing compared to another message I got. This one was from someone I had almost forgotten about during today, my only tiny success in forgetting. Alexandra. She sent a link to a video of evening news in the Orion coven chat group. Under the video, she wrote:

[This incident has too many things unexplainable without magic. This all looks too much like a fight between vampires. I urge you all to stay away from the area in case any of them return.]

I watched the news clip. The police decided that the attack was some weird act of terrorism. I was also happy to find out that none of the patrons or restaurant staff were hurt. According to the reportage, the last thing they remembered was a person with a grenade in his hand telling them to run away. This wasn't what happened, but I had to give Christina some credit for coming up with a believable lie for them to believe.

It explained Sergei, at least.

The Orion Coven members buzzed with gossip and speculations at Alexandra's news. Reading all that, while knowing all too well what had happened there, was too much for me.. I turned off my notifications entirely and went to spend the rest of the evening escaping into an imaginary reality of yet another book.