Blood Dripping Fingertips - Meghan Escott (acx book reading .txt) 📗

on the board. You have to concentrate on it for an hour and think about it and what it means to you. It didn’t mean anything to me so I mentally wondered and once I had started I couldn’t concentrate on the picture. That’s how many times I didn’t concentrate on the picture.” Pointing up and down my arm then up to ‘NO’. “I kind of probed into the Professors head and that’s what she did to stop me.” I looked down at my hands. “I have really bad thought control and she’s going to do the same until there is no where left to cut. Then what will she do?”
Josh pulled me into him and I rested my head on his shoulder while he muttered words of comfort to me. When he pulled away from me, I felt a lot better and was smiling. I didn’t know what Josh had said to make me feel happy but he just makes me feel happy.
I went into my bag and got out the bottle of blood. I had some left and drunk it. In that little time, Josh had moved from the sofa to my bed and he was sat on it with his legs crossed. I came and sat opposite him with my legs crossed. He started asking questions about my parents and I answered them. We sat there all night long.
Combat class went as normal the next day. I made some more notes about Era’s and sat with Josh while he helped me with it. Performing arts went as normal. We had switched to music and it was a lot more fun than dance or drama. I had loads of fun and had an hour without dreading the Thought Control class I knew was coming.
I did a bit of magic in Spells and Witchcraft after attending Magic Control the day before. A couple of times I got over my head and tried some really hard spells but Josh always came over and helped me relax out of the temptation. Survival was painful because of my cuts. I didn’t dare try to heal them with magic because I knew they were there to teach me and Professor Alcove would be mighty displeased with me if she saw that the cuts were gone.
Magic control was fun. Daksha asked me to help him after I had finished all of my classes the next day and I accepted. He gave me his room number and said that Abbas would be there as well. I nodded and went to my next lesson which was Blood lust control. The lesson was just about the same and I had to be careful not to pick up the blood filled bottle instead of the normal water filled bottle I had also put into my bag that morning.
As I walked into Thought control, Professor Alcove was already placed behind my desk. She told me to take off my cardigan and remove my bandages so she could check that I hadn’t healed the cuts. When she saw Sam’s extra cuts she didn’t seem surprised. That day I had worn dress that zipped up at the back and as I sat down, Professor Alcove unzipped the dress so she had access to me back and whenever I got distracted from the new drawing on the board, she would cut my back in long and thin lines. I winced every time she did this but she carried on.
She caught me just as many times as the lesson before, maybe even more. I didn’t dare probe into her mind but I accidentally probed into the persons next to me and for that, I got a thick and long cut from my neck right down to the small of my back – even going under my bra strap. That really hurt because it went through cuts she had previously made.
After the lesson, she called Sam in who told me to hold still while he bandaged by back. I winced at the pain but Sam didn’t stop and I was nearly in tears by the time he had finished. I re-bandaged my arms on the way to Drawing and Art class and was relieved to be able to sit down and just draw.
As the bell went, I rose from my seat and left the room. Sam took me up to my room where, once again, Josh was waiting. As he got up to hug me I held up a finger, indicating one minute. I went into my bed room and got out a camisole and some trousers. I slid them on after removing my dress and then entered the living room where Sam was talking to Josh.
Evidently, he had told Josh what was up so when Josh came over to hug me, he had to wrap his arms around my back real careful and he felt kind of awkward about it and was wishing he could just heal the cuts for me. He kissed me on the cheek and then on my neck down to my shoulder. Sam coughed behind us and Josh winced. He let go of me and turned to face Sam who had moved from the sofa to the dining table, ready to do my Mental Activity lesson.
I went over and assumed my normal position next to him with my arm held out. He moved it out the way and concentrated. We were doing the same thing as the day before but this time he gave me stronger doses of anger, hatred and frustration. He increased the amount each time he did it and each time I flinched or winced or gave into the emotion, he cut my cheek. The cheek with the mark on it. Josh winced every time Sam cut me and came over and held my hand under the table.
When the half hour was over, I had cuts all over my mark; so many, my mark wasn’t even visible. When Sam left Josh kissed my cheek and moved me over to the sofa and got me a bottle of blood. I had been drinking blood every two hours but the cuts were finally taking their toll. He checked over my arms and my back, gasping at the cuts on my back.
When he had finished inspecting my injuries he kissed me long and hard. I responded and he lay back so I was on top of him. He seemed engrossed in the moment and forgot about my back. He lowered his hands from my shoulders down to the small of my back and started moving his fingers in a circling motion. I gasped in the pain of it and he stopped kissing me. Realisation hit him and leaned forward, bringing me with him. He was apologising with his head down.
I asked him to look at my back again to check if they were bleeding and most of them were bleeding steadily into the bandages. He changed them and carried me over to my bed where he laid me and watched me until the pain subsided and I fell into a sleep.
Somehow, people had found out about my cuts on my arms and back and check by the next day and were avoiding me. They thought I was weak and an idiot for taking Thought Control if I couldn’t handle it. What most people didn’t know that I hadn’t been given the option? I concentrated through all my lessons and not talking to anyone but Josh and the Professors. I nearly cancelled the studying with Daksha and Abbas but then I would feel guilty about cancelling on them.
When Thought Control came along, I undid my bandages on my arms to expose my cuts for Professor Alcove to see. She also undid my bandages on my back to inspect the cuts. After she had looked at my cuts, I concentrated on the picture on the board with all my might. Today it was of something that interested me. It was a drawing of a person like a prince and another person looking like a princess. They were vampires because they were sucking each other’s blood at the neck. They both had minimal clothing and it looked like tattoos were appearing on their bodies. I was so interested in it that I leant forward in my seat and probably ripped the cuts on my back open but I didn’t care and I didn’t even wince when they broke open.
In my head I was going over theories of what the drawing could mean and what the characters could be and who they could be. When the bell went I asked Professor Alcove whether she could draw another copy of it for me and she was happy to abide since I hadn’t got cut once that lesson. Sam was pleasantly surprised when I came out of the lesson with not a cut more than the day before and was real happy when he took me to Drawing and Art class.
I studied the picture during the lesson and tried out drawing scenes like it. I succeeded in most of them. I ended up with a couple dancing in the moonlight, a couple sitting on a bench in the rain, a lone vampire crying as another walked away from her and a women sat on the kitchen table while a man was pulling on her sleeveless dress. Each was done on a separate piece of paper and I had an odd feeling that I would put up each one on my bedroom wall.
When I got up to my room, the first thing I noticed was a packed of pins lying on my kitchen table. I smiled at the sight and then hugged Josh. He still seemed awkward hugging me but I leant into him and rested my head on his shoulder. He acknowledged that I didn’t have any extra bandages and hugged me tighter.
I handed him my pictures and went over to the dining table to have my Mental Activity lesson with Sam. He did the same things over and over again trying to get me to have a reaction but nothing worked. I didn’t wince or react once to what Sam was doing and therefore, didn’t get a single cut from Sam.
He was smiling and Josh was clapping. I turned around and smiled at Josh who came over to me. I stood up and he hugged me and picked me up and spun me around in the air. When he put me down, Sam had gone. I untangled myself from Josh and grabbed my bag. I put two bottles of blood in it and my Spells and Witchcraft textbook and my Magic Control textbook in it and turned to face Josh. I went over to him, grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door, shutting it behind him.
Josh lived next to Daksha so he took me there. I knocked on the door and Daksha opened it. I kissed Josh goodbye and told him I would some and see him afterwards, then entered Daksha’s room. There was a kitchen to my right and a living room to my left. Abbas was perched on the pitch black couch in the living room sipping a bottle of blood. Daksha lead me over to couch and motioned me to sit down.
I stayed with them for an hour and helped them master some more complicated spells that they couldn’t do well. By the end of the hour, they knew more spells to practice, they had gotten through a bottle of blood each and I had gotten through both my bottles. Magic was a draining skill. I said my goodbyes to Daksha and Abbas and left them to recuperate.
I knocked on Josh’s door and it was opened seconds later by him. He took hold of my hand and pulled me into