I kept driving from my small town in Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma. My hands were shaking, making it even harder to drive than it already was with the sun, but still, I felt exhilarated. I was finally free from him. I had kept thinking about what had happened. Something had stopped my father from attacking me. Nyx? She had already saved me once by Marking me, maybe it was her who stopped him from beating me one last time. I shook my head and kept driving.
Hours had passed and the sun and finally set. I turned on to a street and finally passed a sign saying 'Welcome to Tulsa". I sighed in relief but then another wet coughing fit racked my body, forcing me to pull off to the side of the road. Once the fit ended, I pulled arm from my mouth and saw blood. "No," I whispered before another coughing fit hit. I felt the blood hit my arm. I looked around me and tried to figure out where I was. I was still about 10 minuets before I reached House of Night. "I'm not going to make it," I sobbed as another coughing fit hit. I coughed and cried into my arm.
My head jerked up when I heard a knock on my window. A guy with long black hair pulled back into a bun and pale green eyes looking at me worried. He motioned for me to open the window and I obliged. "You're going to House of Night, right?" I touched the crescent on my forehead and nodded slightly. He wiped his hand across his forehead, revealing his own tattoo. "Help," I whispered before blacking out.

I woke up much later in a room that looked like a clinic. I slowly sat up in the bed I was in, surprised to actually feel fine. "I see you're awake. How do you feel?" a lady asked, walking around the curtain to my little spot in the room. She had olive skin and long dark hair and big brown eyes to match. She was obviously a vampyre from her filled in and expanded Mark. "Uh, better, t-thank you," I said. "Thats what I was hoping to hear. I'm Zoey Redbird, the High Priestess here," she said, smiling at me, "I got to the House of Night in a very similar way to you," she said, sitting on the edge of the cot I was on.
"A random guy took you car and drove you?"
"No," she laughed, "the first time I came here, I woke up in this very room about three years ago. I had fallen and hit my head and my grandmother rushed me here once she saw the Mark. When I woke up, my mark had been filled in, very similar to yours."
"W-what do you mean?" Zoey pulled a compact out and handed it to me. I held it in my hands, afraid to look. With a deep breath, I opened the compact and gasped at my reflection. My crescent tattoo had been filled in with five small dots on the inner side of the crescent. "How?" I whispered, gently touching the sapphire tattoo. "Nyx has chosen you, same as she did me and many others," Zoey said.
"Well, welcome to House of Night, Margaret. Few things I want to mention right away, since you are now a fledgling, you are starting a new life, which means, if you want, you can choose a new name." "Yes, please," I said quickly. Zoey laughed, "Alright, just let me know soon what you want your new name to be and I'll get everything situated. A few other things, here at House of Night, we match fledglings up with one of our vampyre professors, I'm going to be your mentor seeing how were both starting school here the same way," she smiled at me. "With me being your mentor, that means you can come to me with anything and I'll be here to help. If you're feeling up to it, I'll walk you to your dorm." "Alright," I said and slowly stood up off the cot and handed back the compact.

We walked across the campus as Zoey told me more about the school. "So I can get a cat?" I asked, excitedly. "If one chooses you, you may," she said, smiling. "Hey Z!" a guy yelled from behind us. We both turned and watched the sandy blonde guy with scarlet face tattoos that looked like arrows. He smiled at Zoey as he came up to us. "Hey Stark," she said, giving him a quick hug before turning to me, "This is Stark, he's my warrior and guardian, Stark this is-" "Shiloh Night," I said nervously. Both of them laughed. "Sorry Shiloh, it's just funny you chose the same last name as the Tacker that Marked you," Zoey said quickly, noticing my face. "So Superman has a name," I whispered. "Hey Z,you're not the only one who thinks Erik looks like Clark Kent," Stark laughed. She hit his chest and laughed. "Stark, I'll see you later, I need to make sure Shiloh gets settled in." "Alright Z, see you later," he said before walking away.
"You two are cute," I found my self saying. "Thank you," Zoey laughed nervously. We continued our walk towards the girls dorm. We got there pretty quickly and walked up the stairs to my new home. We walked in and many of the girls in the common area began to greet Zoey and I and stopped when they saw my forehead. My stomach instantly dropped. "Spirit, come to me," I head Zoey breathe under her breath, "Help Shiloh with her nerves." I instantly felt the rush of spirit wash over me, making me feel confident. "Thank you," I whispered before stepping into the room and smiling at everyone. "Hi everyone," I said confidently. "Hi, I'm Raven!" a tall, pale girl with insanely long black hair said. "Hi, I'm Shiloh." "Actually, Shiloh, Raven is your roommate, shes a fourth former, aka, sophmore, she can show you up to your room," Zoey said, smiling at us, "I have some work I need to do but I'll check back with you soon." She turned and walked out of the dorm, and just before the door closed, I could hear her say, "Thank you Spirit," and the rush I felt before leave.
"Well, let me show you around," Raven said, walking towards the large room with a ton of TVs, couches, and bean bags. "This is the common room. As you can see, it's fairly full since it's Saturday, typically, its a bit more sparse," she said before turning and walking towards the kitchen. I looked around the large room. There were multiple fridges, dishwashers and microwaves. "This is the kitchen, it's full stocked with quite a bit of food, most of it healthy, but from what I've heard from some of the sixth and fifth formers, there's still quite a bit more junk food in here now that Zoey is High Priestess, but we still are suppose to make healthy choices. Getting fat is one of the signs of rejecting the Change," she said, walking over to one of the fridges and opening it up, "Want something to drink?" "Uh, sure, I'll take a ," I said, awkwardly. Now without the help of my mentor, I felt so awkward and shy.
We grabbed our drinks and Raven showed upstairs to our room. "Welcome to your new home," Raven said, opening the door. It was a small room with two beds, two desk, and two dressers. The room was decorated with string lights and band posters. "It's beautiful in here," I said, looking around the room. Her side of the room was so full of life, while mine was...well, empty. All except my small backpack that had almost nothing in it. "Um, Raven, where can I get a pillow and blanket?" I asked, looking down at my feet. "You didn't bring anything?"
"I ran almost as soon as I was Marked, that's all I was able to grab."
"Well, well go see Zoey and see if she can help out. And Shiloh, if you ever want to talk, I'm here. I know we just met, but, you can talk to me."
"Thank you, Raven," I said smiling nervously.
"Welp, let's go ahead and head to lunch. You'll need to change first, just so you have your class sign on it," she said, walking over to the dressers, and opening up some drawers on the one on the right. "Just as I thought, there's plenty of tops with the third former sign." I walked over and looked in the drawer. Most of the tops were black with bits of purple and blue as well as a silver spiral over the left breast. I picked out a simple V-neck sweater and walked into our bathroom. I changed into it quickly and looked at my self in the mirror. Everything looked the same, except for the lack of bruises on my neck and the filled in tattoo on my forehead. Even the gash above my eye was gone. My eyes had life again. I smiled at my reflection. "I'm finally free."