-Present Time-

We stop dead in our tracks, the weight of my fear stops me from moving forward. Instantly my mind races back to the night of the party. The girl, The cop, her bloodshot eyes, their lifeless bodies laying in front of us. I feel a light tug on my blouse, I'm afraid of moving.

A powerful stench fills my nose. I gag at the unpleasant smell and quickly cover my nose with my shirt. Tears form in my eyes, I'm not sure if it's the stench or the sight in front of us. I won't take time figuring that one out. The alarm was slowly fading but not completely gone. What happened these past few days? Bodies are laying all over the lobby floor, I recognize the faces of my peers and the few night guards we had.

I feel this strong urge to leave, something tells me it's not safe to be here for too long.

"We have to get out of here" I whisper.

Sebastian nods, he quickly holds my hand and we tip toe quietly around the bodies. Mid way through the room, a low grunt echoes around the large area. The hair on the back of my neck stands, I've never feared for my life as much as I do right now.

"Someone's alive!" Isla gasps.

Before I can stop her, she bolts to the opposite wall. I want to scream but I'm certain it's not a very wise choice. A boy rises from the ground, A sickening feeling forms at the pit of my stomach. And I'm positive he's not just a boy, he's something more. When he turns to face Isla and the rest of us, I recognize him instantly. Pete. A boy in our English class, who was too kind for this world is staring blankly at us. No emotion, no recognition and definitely no care. I inch stealthily, I can feel Sebastian staring at me, piercing the back of my head. But I can't let Isla get hurt, I promised myself to make it out safely with my friends.

"Pete, it's Isla. Are you okay? We're going to get out of here, you can come with us". I can sense a hint of fear in her voice but she's convinced that he'll listen. I'm not so convinced, I try to think of what to do. He isn't attacking her the way the woman did to the cop. Maybe he is alive, like us. He lets another grunt out, this time it's lower. As I move in closer to them, From the corner of my eye I see Arden trying the same. But Arden has a piece of wood in his hands, does he know something I don't? I scan my surroundings, with my heart thumping in my chest I find something similar to what Arden has in his hands. It seems to be like a leg to a chair, I hadn't noticed all the broken pieces of furniture around. I pick it up, Isla backs away slowly, like she's understanding that Pete isn't really Pete.

Pete, lunges forward at Isla. He screams vigorously at her and I jump in front of her. I stab him in the chest, maybe I've seen too much Buffy the vampire slayer but this should stop him. He fumbles backwards but recover quickly, Arden appears and smacks him on the side of the head with an actual chair. So much for trying to remain discreet.

"RUN" is the only thing I hear Arden say before The alarm screeches back into our ears. I'm running, this time with fear, this time understanding that we should have left days ago. My legs ache but the pain motivates me to run even faster, I wasn't in track like Isla and Sebastian but I seem to be the only one running as fast as they should be. The siren of ambulances wail in the distance, maybe someone will help us. If only they could hear us screaming over the alarm of this school. We pass a few buildings where our classes were held, we're heading towards the track and football field. Bodies are laying on the ground everywhere, some are walking slow, instead of stopping to see if they're even human we continue to run.

I turn my head while running to see if My friends are following, they seem to be just as terrified as I am. Not knowing what's going on is driving me mad, I need to know where to go. I need to know if we'll make it or if we'll be saved. When I turn my head to face forward I smack right into something hard. I end up flying forward on top of something or someone. My eyes open to a beautiful pair of blue eyes, when my vision clears just a bit more, his eyes seem to widen. I bumped into Rafael, out of all people it just had to be him. I can feel Sebastians arms wrap around me to pick me up off of Rafael. The eyes of Camille, Stefan, Dimitri and Jackie stare back at me. Rafael picks himself up and says something. The alarm makes it impossible to hear him, and for some strange reason I'm relieved to see him and the others. I'm relieved to see more people alive and more human than ever. I want to hug them but it'd be strange because we didn't really socialize with each other in school.

Rafael points to the locker room building, the men's locker room. Instead of questioning, Sebastian grabs my hand and we run after them. Isla and Arden trail right behind us, around us are students sobbing and eating. They aren't eating food, they're eating each other. I gasp and continue to focus forward, I'm so confused as to why they're doing this. Is this some sort of Senior prank? Halloween prank? What's going on? Tears silently fall on to my cheeks, the world was so normal just a few days ago. Is this some sort of Flu? I haven't seen the news but I believe it might be too late to start. We make it outside of the locker room, Rafael opens the door for us and we file right in. The lights flicker inside, it's quiet, there seems to be no one in here. When Dimitri shuts the door and locks it, the alarm doesn't ring so loud in here. I can actually hear Jackie sobbing into her hands, Camille rolls her eyes towards her best friend. How heartless, even in the middle of such a distressing time, she can't be there for her best friend.

"Are you okay?" I ask Jackie, she stops to look up at me and shakes her head.

"What kind of question is that Rosalie? Did you not see what's going on out there?! There are people eating each other and here you are asking stupid questions. Her boyfriend was eaten right in front of us. What do you think?" Camille scoffs, Rafael comes in between us.

"At least Rosalie is considerate on asking, all you've been doing is complaining" Rafael turns away and Camille's eyes widen. She sits down next to Jackie and Isla stifles her laugh. I've never seen or heard Rafael consider me in any way, I had always assumed he disliked me.

"Do any of you know anything about what's going on out there?" Stefan, a senior asks. We all shake our heads, waiting if he knows.

"Neither do I but it's bad. Do any of you remember the night of the party?"

No one speaks, it's dead silent. Either they're too afraid to speak of it or were too drunk to remember.

"I do" I say softly. Everyone's eyes turn to stare at me, surprised that I even spoke. "I remember the night of the party, I remember how terrified I was and still am. I need an explanation on what happened and I want to know what they are becoming."

Stefan raises his brows, "Wow Rosalie Santiago, you're braver than I thought. We definitely need some answers, I agree with you but how? Any ideas?".

Again, everyone remains quietly just shifting their eyes between Stefan and I. I stand and walk closer to him, "Principal Rutheford knows something, he was the one who killed the girl and the cop. We can probably get some answers if we find him".

"Then let's find him" Stefan orders, I feel safer knowing we combined with a few more people.

YAY!!!! New chapter to Infected hearts!! I'm so sorry for taking a few months but I'm back with more <3 I hope many of you read this new chapter, I'm sorry the photo isn't the exact description to the chapter but it's the closest I could find.

How exciting is it to introduce some new characters?! I'll be putting a character inspiration chapter to introduce some photos that I envision for the new characters. I hope y'all love this chapter, many more are to come <3

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