Ayen
White Mage
Chapter One
The Razor Edge
The Razor Edge
Beautiful, intelligent, athletic and creative; all of these things were how people described a girl named Tori Jacobs. A sixteen year old high school sophomore with long dark red hair that stopped at her lower back, eyes as green as emeralds and standing well above the average height for a woman, five feet and seven inches tall, with a body that many girls both younger and older would kill for. Unlike some of the other more popular girls in her class, who were also seen as beautiful, Tori didn't flaunt her beauty or act like she was the best thing since sliced bread. Then again she wasn't a shallow cheerleader, but that's a story for another day.
Tori isn't hard to find at her school, just look for the smoking hot redhead with a bald headed male, a brunet who been known to get around (if you catch my drift), a woman with raven black hair usually always seen with a smile on her face and a male who has feminine features, black hair which is equally as long as Tori's but with the reputation of getting into fights and serving detentions with the bald headed one. Tori could hear the whispers by others and how people question why anybody would be seen with two trouble makers, a woman they called a whore and an insufferable Christian who nobody liked to hang around with.
But Tori knew these people since childhood, she knew the person behind the reputation and saw something good inside. The male that looked like a lady from afar and the bald headed one only fought to protect people they cared about from bullies, albeit they do take it a tad bit far in Tori's opinion. The former one mentioned is named Shinta and the latter, while named Alan, goes by an alias he invented online, Nex. The brunet was called Lily, held a reputation for being a party animal, rebel and a slut. But deep down was a caring and loyal woman who would do anything for her friends, that was the Lily she knew, and the main reason they were still friends to this day despite Tori's disapproval of her lifestyle. And finally there was the Christian, Mary, the one that felt so distant with everybody, the odd girl out and it was due to her religious beliefs.
But Tori mind was open enough to where she could understand her beliefs just fine, all she asked for in return was for Mary to not force those beliefs down her throat. As always the gang was sitting together at their own table in the school's cafeteria. The boys on the left side of the table and the girls on the right side. Tori sat right inbetween both Lily and Mary, biting into the sandwich her mom made her for lunch so she wouldn't have to eat nasty cafeteria food. Her friends weren't so lucky however, Nex in particular as he starred into the eyes of a horrible looking porridge known as Gruel, which in Nex's opinion was an awful meal with the consistency of mashed potatoes and the flavor of old toys.
“You know,” Nex began while playing around with his spoon in the Gruel, “prisoners get better meals than us.”
“Bullshit,” said Lily bluntly.
“Please don't say that word,” said Mary.
“Oh sorry I keep forgetting how religious you are,” replied Lily.
“Don't have to be religious to frown upon swearing,” Mary muttered.
And this is why Tori sits inbetween them. They were always bumping heads about something, no matter how small. Tori looked over to Shinta and Nex, seeing how amused they were on their faces during Lily's and Mary's latest back and forth. Out of the corner of her eyes Tori could see Nex slowly pushing his plate over to her while she continued to eat her sandwich.
“Hey Tori, I'll trade you my Gruel for your sandwich.”
“No thanks, I like my sandwich too much to part with it. Sandwich! Nom, nom, nom!”
The others laughed while Nex looked around for somebody to pass his food to. He looked towards Shinta who merely shook his head, then to Lily who made it clear with her expression that the answer would be no before he could even ask, and then he looked to Mary who had already finished her meal giving her nothing to trade with. Nex looked back down to his lunch, coming to the realization that he must face this great evil!
However he would be saved by the bell as it rung across the halls loudly. Tori and the rest of the students hastily left the benches by their tables to get out into the halls of the school, walking along the white floors of the halls, blue lockers on both side of the walls as she traveled over to her own locker with her friends still close by her side. Moon Valley High, named after Moon Valley, Kansas and been opening its doors to children since the 1970s, had a fairly large campus, the hallways, now crowded with students, nearly six feet wide; all of the classes were large, filled with natural light from the full-width windows and blackboards almost as wide as the classroom itself. Tori pulled out her history books from her locker which was personalized with a blue donkey symbolizing the Democrat symbol on the inside part of the door and a picture of a rainbow underneath the blue donkey.
Mary locker was right next to hers and was personalized with a cross and the Republican symbol on her door. Their lockers were like polar opposites to each other.
“I know this is a long shot,” Mary began, “but would you be interested in joining me and my family to church this Sunday?”
Tori could tell by the look in Mary's eyes that she already knew her response before giving it, but there was a hint of hope in Mary's eyes; Tori could tell how much Mary wanted her to accept the offer but church just wasn't her thing. This would have been flat out awkward with anybody else but thankfully Mary was understanding and respectful of others, hardly the extremist who made her whole religion look bad, Tori was thankful for that.
“I'm sorry but there's a Football game on I don't want to miss.”
“It's all right. I Just thought I'd ask. I'm looking forward to the free chilli lunch they're hosting after church.”
“Did someone say chilli?” asked Nex, who came up behind the two girls after grabbing his books.
Tori allowed a smile to grace her lips while looking towards the excited expression now planted on Nex's face at the sound of chilli. Lily wasn't far behind Nex, and Shinta had headed off ahead of the others for History class.
“You have to listen to a boring sermon about God,” said Lily now standing with the three.
Tori began walking down the hall with her history books stacked on top of each other in her hands, not before she saw the irritable expression on Mary's face however directed at Lily, the other three began walking close behind Tori.
“That's a small price to pay for chilli,” came Nex's reply, “I'm in!”
Excitement appeared in Mary's eyes the second Nex said he would go to church with her, even though it was mainly due to the chilli Mary saw this as a great opportunity to get the word of God into Nex's heart.
“That's great! And you know sermons aren't always boring, they can get pretty exciting at times.”
“Wouldn't your parents disapprove?” Tori asked while they struggled to walk up so many steps while carrying their books.
Nex released a displeasing groan when he thought of his parents, both being Muslims and close-
minded Muslims at that. Both of them would go ballistic at the very idea of him going to a 'Christian' church even if it was just for the food.
“Right, Muslim parents, sorry Mary I can't make it.”
Mary frowned at the disappointing news that Nex would not be able to come with her after all as the four passed by some football pennants for the Moon Valley Wolves before making their way into the History classroom that was located on the third floor of the school. Pictures of past presidents throughout history such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln hung on the wall opposite of the window. Tori looked at the desk with an old piece of parchment with a quill next to it on the center; the teacher went all out at times with history in Tori's opinion. She smiled at the sight of Shinta sitting near the back row, taking a seat next to the desk he managed to save for her on his left. The teacher came in moments later and told them to turn to chapter eight of their textbooks. Tori could tell that it was going to be a long day.
After the hardship of school was over Tori willingly lost herself to one of her greatest passions. She felt her heart rate beating faster, sweat pouring down her face, moving back and forth as quickly as her strong athletic legs would take her while doing what she loved: Basketball.
To Tori there is nothing else like the zone you get into when on that court, the degree of teamwork needed to keep going and the competition with other players all while minding your surroundings to make sure nobody steals the ball from you and to shoot it into the basket before time runs out. Tori was on the court with nine other girls, dressed in a black jersey with the number 'twenty-six' on it and matching shorts with blue lines on the side of it. Lily was on the team with her too as number 'twenty-eight'.
The team were brushing up on their passing, shooting and stealing before Tori felt one of the players on the opposing side, dressed in the home version of their uniform which was white with the blue lines still on the side of the shorts, pushed her to the ground while trying to get the ball from her. She heard the loud whistle from the coach blow loudly across the court as the other players instantly stopped dead in their track.
Tori was just registering what happened as a dark headed girl with brown eyes, narrowing down on her, met the emerald green orbs of Tori's
“Sorry about that,” said the girl.
But it was clear to Tori by both the girl's expression and her voice that she was far from sorry. Tori could already see the anger in the coach's eyes as she started yelling at the player who knocked Tori to the ground. Lily helped Tori up to her feet, and Tori saw a look of disgust Lily had on her features towards the other play before she asked, “Want me to beat her up for you later?”
Tori could only sigh, both at the situation and Lily's question, watching as the coach made the player do laps around the court as punishment.
'Some people prefer to let jealousy get in the way of teamwork,' thought Tori.
“The rest of you hit the showers!” said the coach.
Jealousy, that was another thing Tori had to deal with from the other girls in school. Either because
of her beauty or her talents on the court. Tori despised that green-eyed monster that made other girls hate her just because they thought she was perfect, and had other boys checking her out when they think she isn't looking. Tori figured a nice hot shower would help get her mind off what just happened with the jealous teammate, as she passed the rows of lockers and proceeded back to where the showers were.
Tori slipped out of her basketball uniform and felt the warm water pouring down from the shower-head onto her body. Lily was using the shower on Tori's right, scrubbing her hair with soap while turning her head over to say, “Are you doing anything tonight?”
“Not really,” Tori replied, “why?”
“Me and a couple of the girls were going clubbing. Want to join?”
“Sure. It sounds like fun.”
It was soon time to go home the moment basketball practice was over. Waving goodbye to Lily and the other teammates, that didn't knock her over, she walked over to an old looking 68 black Firebird. Regardless of how old it looked Tori loved it. Once upon a time it was her mother's car but after buying a brand new one Tori's mother gave her the Firebird for her sixteenth birthday after learning how to drive. Tori used to ride around in this car with her mother all the time as a child and now she was finally able to get behind the wheel. It was nostalgia for her every single time she got inside it.
Tori passed the dead end sign which leads all the way down to her part of the neighborhood; driving down a hill to the dead end where the many different houses formed an oval like shape of sorts from up above.
After turning right near the bottom of the hill, over on the left was the house belonging to Shinta's family. Tori could see a short girl with brown hair that stopped at her neck and hazel eyes in the front yard while turning. Her name was June, Shinta's younger sister by about two years. The house was painted a crimson color and old glory waved up high on a pole attached to the front of the house. Soon after making that turn Tori passed both Mary's and Nex's house which were straight across from each other. Mary's house was teal in color while Nex's was purple. At the end of the road was her own house, dark green in color as a silver pick-up truck and a red 2005 Dodge Neon was parked in the driveway side by side. Tori parked behind the Dodge Neon and made her way inside her house.
“Mom, dad, I'm home!”
There was no response as Tori looked to the empty chair across from the television set which was right next to the door. Closing the door behind her, passing the custom made shelves that hung on the wall, for the motorcycle models made by her father, and the couch proceeded through the doorway that led to the kitchen. Above the doorway to the kitchen was the American flag and next to it was the symbol of the Democrats. The kitchen floors were bare, and silver while the living room had dark blue carpeting covering the floors. A round brown table was on the right of the kitchen while the refrigerator, stove and dish washer were all on the left.
At the end of the kitchen was the sink and a window that looked out to the backyard of the home. At the end of the table on the right was a wooden door which led to the garage which led to the basement. By the sound coming from down below Tori could tell that her parents were working on something down in the basement. Tori opened up the refrigerator's door to pour herself a glass of Kool-Aid before reentering the living room to pass the doorway that led into a hallway. To the left of the hallway was her parents' room, near the middle was the restroom and on the right was of course her room. The first thing you saw upon entry was the computer desk which held a black computer, a nineteen inch wide-screen monitor and a printer. Inside the desk was a phone and a couple of computer games.
There was over a two-feet gap between her desk and the bed. The moment you turned to the left upon entry you would pass two closet doors, another desk where she had books, sunglasses and CDs placed on the top of it. Tori had a television on the other side of her bed on a table, underneath it was a SEGA and a PLASTATI- ON. Next to the TV was a DVD player. Tori placed the bag, which held her basketball uniform, on her bed and the glass on the desk with the CDs. Tori heard the door in the kitchen opening and closing while hanging up her uniform in her closet. A woman, who appeared to be some- what of an older version of Tori, who looked to be in her forties, came into the doorway; dress- ed in a short sleeve white shirt and a pair of blue jeans.
“Hey how was school?” she asked.
“It was fine, mom.”
“How are your classes going?”
“They're going good,” Tori replied while looking through her closet for something good to wear.
“And how was basketball practice?”
“Fine.”
Tori felt no need to tell her about the incident with the jealous girl who knocked her over. It wasn't a big deal or anything and it's not like the girl seriously harmed her. Tori picked out a green sleeveless dress that fastened in the front complete with a matching skirt and laid it out on her bed.
“Planning on going out tonight?” the mother asked.
“Yeah. I'm meeting with Lily and a couple of her friends at The Razor Edge.”
“Are some of these friends going to be boys?”
Tori detected how her mother lingered on the word boys and knew right then and there where the direction this conversation was heading in.
“No they're girls, but I'll be lying if I say I didn't want to run into any boys there.”
“Any boy in particular tickle your fancy?”
Tori did not have to say anything, her face said it all. The moment her mother asked the quest- ion Tori mind thought about the boy that tickled her fancy, as her mom put it, and a small smile appeared on Tori's face; she felt her heart begin to beat a little faster and butterflies in her stomach at the mere thought of that particular male as she grabbed her drink and made her way over to her computer chair. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her mom smiling too before she sat down on Tori's bed.
“Who's the lucky man?”
“Mom!” Tori said looking embarrassed.
“What I can't take an interest? I was a sixteen year-old girl once too you know.”
“It's Shinta,” Tori muttered.
“Who?”
“Shinta,” Tori said more clearly, “Shinta is the boy I like.”
“Your best friend?” her mother asked. “And how does he feel about you?”
As her computer finished booting up and she took another sip out of her drink, Tori thought about all the reasons why Shinta would never return her feelings. The friendship deal was one issue, but the main issue was his sexuality. What many people did not know about Shinta, excluding his closest friends, was the fact he was gay; so there was no way Shinta could return those feelings as he didn't even find any woman attractive. He could admire their beauty, and as Tori just happened to noticed at times he can be a terrible flirt and tease with women, but other than that nothing. Tori noticed she had gone silent at the question and quickly broke it with, “I think he sees me more like a sister than anything else,” and her mother was quick to pat Tori on the shoulder as a means of comforting her daughter.
“I'm sorry to hear that, hon. But you know there are plenty of fish in the sea, and I'm sure there are a lot of boys in that school who would go out with you. You're beautiful.”
“Thanks mom, but I'm perfectly all right. I don' t need the motivation speech.”
“Okay,” mom began while standing up, “if you say so – also don't forget to take your cellphone with you when you go out so we can contact you.”
“I won't.”
“And be home by ten it's a school night.”
“I know,” Tori replied while looking through her Email.
“You want this door open or close?”
“Closed, please.”
It wouldn't be too long after her mother closed the door that Tori would need to leave her room; as drinking and browsing the world-wide-web would turn out to be a very bad idea, especially on a message board she goes to often where one post by a funny member caused Tori to spit her drink all over the computer monitor from laughter. Tori quickly rushed out of the room and into the kitchen where her father, who typically towered over both his daughter and wife by being six feet and ten inches, now resided. Tori got a towel from the kitchen and was ready to rush back into her room until the booming voice of her father caused her to come to a screeching halt.
“What are you in such a hurry for?” he asked. “No time to say hello to your old man?”
Tori turned around to smile brightly at her father. He was dressed in a black shirt and matching black jeans, black boots and wore a navy blue bandana on his head covering his black hair. Unlike Tori who had green eyes her father had dark brown eyes and when he was angry the combination of his height, eyes and the fact he looks like he was a member of a biker's gang made him the scariest man alive when he wanted to be. Tori gave him a hug and then showed him the towel indicating she had something to clean real quick.
“Don't tell me you spat Kool-Aid on that monitor again.”
“All right I won't.”
“You mess that computer of yours up and we aren't getting another one, understand?”
“I understand.”
“When you're done with that collect all the trash in the house and put it in the can outside, will you?”
“Okay, daddy.”
Tori hurried back to clean off her monitor and then put her drink away so it couldn't harm another- er innocent computer! After that she got a big white trash bag and started collecting all the garbage in the house, starting with her room and then going into the bathroom. It had red carpeting and only looked like it could fit two or three people. The sink was the first thing you saw on your right, up ahead was the tub which had a shower-head inside and next to the tub was the toilet.
The small trash can was next to the toilet which she quickly emptied into the trash bag. The final room was her parents room; a black dresser was on the left as you entered and the bed was on the right. A shotgun rested on both sides of the bed, one belonging to her father and the other belonging to her mother. Many people would scold her parents for having a weapon out and about like that instead of in a case and locked away. But her parents logic was simple, this way if somebody broke into their house they could quickly get their shotgun and blow them to kingdom come. A locked case would just take more time to get into. They had both been smart enough to teach both Tori and her older brother about weapons at an early age, and to not play with them so there were never any accidents involving guns in this house.
Tori's mother has even offered to teach her how to use her shotgun but Tori declined. She didn't like guns, she didn't like the sound of them and she didn't like why they were made. Avoiding her mom's shotgun Tori emptied the trash can that was right next to it and then proceeded outside to put the bag in the silver garbage and putting it near the end of the driveway for the garbage men to pick up. Tori would see the younger sister of Shinta heading in her direction and greeted her with a wave as she quickly approached with a smile on her face. June was wearing a short sleeve pink shirt, blue jeans and white shoes, both her hands in her pockets as she looked from the garbage can and back to Tori.
“Hi Tori.”
“Hi June.”
“You're in charge of taking out the garbage today I see.”
“Yes that is me. Garbage Girl; sworn to keep her home clean of garbage.”
June let out a small laugh at the joke before replying, “Do you have room for a side-kick?”
“No June, I could never forgive myself if I put you in harm's way while fighting off the toxic waste that attempts to poisons our good planet. It's too dangerous!”
“You're silly,” June replied through laughter.
“That's my cover; Silly Girl. Nobody would ever suspect a thing.”
June needed a moment to stop laughing before she could continue the conversation, “So um, are you doing anything later? Because me and a couple of friends were going to go down to Sopranos Pizza. Want to tag along?”
“Sopranos Pizza?”
“Sopranos Pizza; You don't like the order? We let you swim with the fishes. That place.”
“Oh, Sopranos Pizza! You know I more than anybody love to chow down on some good quality pizza, but I already made plans with Lily tonight. Sorry.”
“It's all right,” June replied. “Some other time then.”
“Tomorrow,” came Tori's instant response.
“Huh?”
“I'll hang out with you tomorrow. We haven't hung out in a while so I feel it's long over-due.”
Tori could already see the big smile beginning to form on June's face before she asked, “Just the two of us?”
“Sure.”
June looked to be very happy at the idea of just the two of them spending time together. It was then Tori saw another pick-up truck coming up to the driveway with her older brother behind the wheel. Just as Tori looked like a younger version of their mother, her brother looked like a younger version of their father only with a beard. As he stepped out of the truck you could see his full height being seven feet tall. Next to the likes of Tori and June, who was only five feet two inches tall herself, made both Tori and June look and feel like midgets when around him.
“I still can't believe how tall the men in your family are,” said June.
“Yeah I have a little giant blood in me,” Tori joked.
“Well I need to get going. See you later.”
“Bye!”
After saying goodbye to June Tori made her way back inside the house. She returned to her room, squeezed past her computer chair to get to the dresser that's straight across from the door- way and set the alarm clock on top of it; setting it to one hour from now before laying down on her bed, sideways, next to her dress that was still laid out. One hour, that's all she felt she need- ed before going out to The Razor Edge with Lily and her friends. Her eyelids closed and she soon drifted off to sleep.
Smoke traveled across the air, bright red flames burning down houses while people ran and screamed loudly through the streets. The screams were soon drowned out by the sound of gun- fire as bullets bounced off a tall dark figure that stood in the center of the chaos; surrounded by smoke, fire and stepping in a pool of blood mixed from a pile of corpses on the ground. The dark creature was covered in armor as black as coal, with unidentified glowing red symbols on the chest plate, arms and legs of the armor. The demonic looking knight held up a long sword, the silver blade stained with human blood as it moved forward across the bodies on the ground. Tori stood in the middle of a massacre, paralyzed in fear as the armored figure red eyes starred down towards her before glowing as brightly as headlights. Tori shielded her eyes from the beams with her arm until it faded down. When she lowered her arm she saw the figure now towering over her, its sword held up in the air as the blade then came down with great force by the knight causing Tori to scream at the top of her lungs.
Tori found herself sitting up on her bed, her heart beating faster than normal and her face cover- ed in a cold sweat while her mom came running into the room. The alarm clock has already gone off, set to play a on Rock n Roll station it was already on the moment it was set to go off.
“Tori are you all right?”
“I'm fine, mom. It was only a bad dream.”
At least that what she kept telling herself; it was only a bad dream. Tori just kept repeating that to herself while putting on her dress and putting a black leather jacket over the dress before heading out to her car. She was sure that once she got to the club she would forget all about the dream that felt so real, as real as reality itself even. That fact was what increased the horror of the dream as Tori is used to dreams being a bit more blurry in her mind, and she tends to forget them by the time she wakes up. Not this time, the dream was still at the front of her mind and repeating itself in her head. Tori turned on the radio to distract herself with music while driving out onto the streets.
Tori pulled up into the parking lot positioned behind the club building. The place by the looks of it was jammed pack and there were only a few parking places left available. After finding a spot to park Tori walked around the club building which had gray walls and a black roof. At the front of the building right above the entrance was a flashing red neon sign that said The Razor Edge. Upon entry is a short corridor that leads out to the club. To the left is a counter where you can order food and drinks, no alcohol of course being for teens and all, and on her right was a coat hanger which she hung her jacket on before proceeding.
Not too far from the counter was a set of tables where some kids were sitting and further on down was the large dance floor in front of a stage where local bands played. On the right was a staircase that led up to the dark balcony which tended to be used as a make-out place for couples. Near the back of the club were the restrooms for both genders. Tori walked across the black floors while looking for any signs of Lily, not noticing the heads she was turning by the boys in their seats, not finding Lily she instead saw Shinta, Nex and Mary in a table up ahead. Tori saw Shinta and Nex chatting it up while Mary looked bored and uninterested the whole time.
“Hey guys,” Tori said upon approaching, “What's up?”
“Hey Tori,” Nex replied. “Whoa looking fine, Tori!”
Tori couldn't help but smile at the compliment. She looked over to Shinta who was taking a drink out of his soda. He was looking amazing in a white shirt, black jeans and a black leather jacket of his own. Tori didn't want to get caught staring at Shinta too long so she quickly look- ed back to Nex and replied, “Thank you. Have any of you seen Lily around?”
“No,” Shinta replied.
“Feel free to join us,” said Nex while pulling out an empty chair for Tori.
Tori smiled while sitting down next to Shinta, nudging him a little to get his attention.
“How do I look?” Tori asked.
“You look fine,” he replied.
“It's a new dress.”
“It's nice.”
Tori turned away from Shinta and began scolding herself mentally. You would think that after all this time she would know better, and yet here she was trying to get the attention of a gay man. A futile effort if you ever saw one.
“So what were we talking about?” Tori asked.
“Wrestling,” Mary replied with a yawn.
Well that explained the bored expression on Mary's face. Wrestling always were more of a topic for the boys in the group, and Lily, who was sorta like one of the boys.
“You should have seen it Tori,” Nex began, “last Monday night was sick! The referee got knocked down and then the Heavyweight Champion got powerbombed right through a table and there was a new champion!”
Mary's forehead hit the table, amusing Tori slightly before she turned her head and spotted Lily with two other girls coming into the club.
“There she is,” Tori said nodding her head over to Lily. “Catch you guys later.”
Tori sat up from her seat and went over to Lily. She saw on Lily's left-hand side a woman with long blond hair, brown eyes and wearing a blue dress with white high heels. The woman on her right-hand side had short curly black hair, blue eyes and had on a purple dress with black heels Lily stuck out in a more tomboyish style of attire with a black tank top, blue jeans and a navy blue jacket which she took off and hung on the nearby coat hanger. Tori knew the blond as Sherry and the other girl as Meryl. Lily let out a low whistle once she got a better look at Tori.
“Wow Tori you look amazing,” Lily said.
“Thank you.”
“I definitely like it,” said Meryl.
“It's nice,” said Sherry.
If Tori had to make a guess judging by their responses she would say Meryl may have a thing for girls, while Sherry preferred boys like she did. They were both closer to Lily than they were to Tori so she couldn't be sure. After they all decided what they wanted to get at the counter Meryl went up to put in their order. Tori felt Lily placed an arm around her shoulder while leading her and Sherry over to a vacant table.
“So Tori who's attention are you trying to get?” Lily asked. “Because you sure got mine.”
“Take a guess,” replied Tori.
Lily looked over to Shinta as they sat down at their table then looked back to Tori.
“Shinta?”
“Shinta.”
“He's kinda cute,” said Sherry.
“He's also kinda gay,” said Lily.
“He's gay?” Sherry asked.
Tori and Lily both nodded.
“Well that's... gay.”
Tori had a sudden powerful urge to face-palm, that thing where a person put their palm in their face when somebody says or does something so incredibly stupid they don't know what else to do except face-palm. Lily just shook her head.
“You know how much I want to make dumb blond jokes when you say things like that?” Lily asked before looking over to Tori, “also Meryl been asking me a lot about you.”
“Oh? So she's---?”
“A lesbian like me?” Lily interrupted, “yes. I told her you was straight, but she's confident if you let her lead you up to the balcony she could persuade you to root for the other team.”
“I'm tempted but I think I'll pass.”
Lily could tell by the sound of Tori's voice she wasn't really tempted, just being nice. Tori could tell how amused Lily looked as Meryl came back with their drinks.
“Root beer, Root beer, Root beer for me and a Pepsi for the pretty lady.”
Tori was flattered, very flattered by the idea that Meryl found her attractive by the sound of it. Tori had barely taken a sip from her drink before Meryl spoke up again --- “I heard what happened at basketball practice. Are you okay?”
“I'm fine,” Tori replied.
“I still say you should have let me beat her up for you,” said Lily.
Tori let out a sigh, Meryl let out a quiet laugh and Sherry merely rolled her eyes. Tori wanted to talk about anything else than the incident at basketball practice. It wasn't that big of a deal in her opinion so there was no point in bringing it up again. She wouldn't have to wait long for a change when she began to hear Rock n Roll music playing and people heading to the dance floor.
“Let's dance!” said Tori.
She didn't have to say that twice as the other girls quickly followed her out to the dance floor. The four of them began dancing in the center of the dance floor with each other. Tori allowed herself to lose control on the dance floor, shaking her body along with the flow of the music as all her thoughts and worries drifted away in the heat of the moment.
It wouldn't take long for the four of them to attract boys to their part of the dance floor. Sherry began to dance with a random boy she found attractive. Lily and Meryl decided to enjoy the attention being given to them by the boys flocking around them, even though they were far from interested in them as anything more than fun dance partners. Tori found herself inbetween two men, dancing along with them as her eyes wandered over to the rest of the dance floor. She could see Mary and Nex dancing with each other but Tori didn't see Shinta anywhere. As the music slowed down and people began to pair up to slow dance Tori noticed Shinta was still sitting down alone at his table and abandoned the men she was dancing with to go to him.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey.”
“I couldn't help but noticed you're sitting here all alone.”
“Didn't see anybody worth dancing with,” said Shinta
“Not even little old me?”
“You asking me to dance?”
Tori could feel her heart beating faster again and those annoying butterflies flying around in her stomach returned before she could respond with the simple one-word reply, “Yes,” which Shinta responded by standing up; he took Tori by the hand, her heart beating faster and she seemed to be out of breath now as Shinta led her back out to the dance floor. He wrapped his arms gently around her waist, still leaving a bit of space between them while
Tori wrapped her arms around his neck. As corny as it's going to sound Tori felt like she was in a fairytale and just found her prince; she looked deeply into his eyes in the midst of the dance while Shinta appeared to be oblivious to the way Tori was acting around him.
“Are you all right? Shinta asked.
“I've never felt better,” Tori replied.
Emerald green eyes remained locked into Shinta's brown ones, it felt like the rest of the room vanished in thin air while the two continued to dance with each other. Nothing else mattered and this felt like the perfect night and nothing could ruin it.
Meanwhile the entrance to the club slowly creaked open and a man, who skin appeared to be gray, with the life absent from his eyes and his clothes soaked in blood slowly walked through the corridor and into The Razor Edge. Blood dripped from his fingertips as the man behind the counter noticed him and quickly rushed over to his aid.
“Oh my god what happened to you!?” the worker asked.
The other man didn't say anything as he simply grabbed the man, slammed him onto the counter and bit off a piece of his neck. The man's scream caused the music to come to a stop and the dancers to stop along with it.
Tori came out of her dream world to see the horrible sight of a man attacking and biting off a piece of another man's flesh as the people around them began to panic. Shinta put himself in front of Tori as the dead looking male slowly approached the dance floor. Nex grabbed Mary by the hand and led her to the back exit, Lily did the same with Meryl and Sherry expecting Shinta would lead Tori out no problem. The dead looking man headed straight for Shinta and Tori; Shinta came to the very quick conclusion that this man wouldn't listen to any attempt of reason, or warning, so Shinta did the first thing that came to mind and performed a roundhouse kick straight into the face of the dead looking man, which caused him to drop to the floor.
“Come on!” said Shinta.
But before Shinta could grab Tori by the hand the dead looking man quickly jumped back up to his feet, grabbed Shinta from behind and with a loud growl threw Shinta halfway across the room and into the wall. Tori let out a scream both in concern for her friend and in horror at the situation as she was now face-to-face with the insane looking man. He didn't waste any time grabbing Tori and biting into her neck. This moment provided the greatest amount of pain in Tori's entire life. A pain like no other as she screamed loudly but before this beast could do much damage Nex, who came in when he felt it was taking Tori and Shinta too long to come out, pulled the man off her and punched him as hard as he could in the face!
Tori fell hard to the ground, looking up at the ceiling of the club while the man didn't even stagger at the punch by Nex. Nex went for another punch but it was blocked and the mad-man grabbed Nex by the throat, picked him up and slammed him hard into the ground! Tori could hear the sound of gun- shots echoing across the air as the man was shot repeatedly in the chest.
Tori couldn't see who it was from where she was laying, but she knew it was too soon for police to get here, and a teen shouldn't be wielding a semi automatic with them anyway. Though in this case Tori would be glad somebody had a gun. As the mad-man was distracted by the gunshots, although he didn't seem to show any response to pain, Shinta ran over to Tori side. His worried expression was the last thing Tori would see before everything went black.
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