Nevermore, the Complete Series by K. A. Poe

male again. “Janet needs her rest. I'll have her call you back when she is feeling better.”
    He hung up. I crumbled onto the sofa, bawling my eyes out in frustration.
    “What did she say?” Salem asked tenderly as he sat beside me.
    I filled him in on the entire conversation, including the errors in her story. It must have been difficult to comprehend through my sobs.
    “Perhaps she is just hazy like she said...” he said with the faintest hint of doubt in his voice.
    “You don't believe it any more than I do, do you?” I said, sitting up and looking into his eyes.
    He looked down, strands of black falling across his face. “I believe that Mark was in no way responsible for this.”
    “I need to go to her,” I said suddenly, angrily. Was no one on my side today?
    “No, you don't. Everything will be fine, trust me.”
    “Trust you!? I don’t even know you!”
    “Alexis, you need to calm down. Relax.”
    “Calm down!? First my mom leaves me, then I find out all this unbelievable crap about Paul and vampires, and now my mom is laying in some hospital bed with some monster supposedly watching over her!”
    “Even if it were true about Mark, you wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
    “I could help her!”
    “No, you couldn’t. And besides…you are too important to risk, regardless my insistence on Mark’s goodness.”
    “Important? You barely even know me, Salem!”
    “As far as you know,” he whispered.
    “What are you even talking about?”
    “I can't explain it right now,” he sighed. “Your friends are expecting you to be bright and cheerful.”
    “What?”
    “It's your birthday, remember?” he grinned. “They're coming over to celebrate.”
    “How do you know?”
    He shrugged his shoulders. “That blonde haired girl might have mentioned it.”
    “Of course she did...” I grumbled. “Is this the real reason you wanted me to come home so badly?”
    “That might have played some part in it, yes.”

8. HAPPY BIRTHDAY
     
    Salem remained downstairs in the living room while I took a quick shower before my visitors arrived. I changed out of my blue jeans and red tank top into a flowing dark blue skirt and white, semi-frilly sleeveless shirt. I felt a little over-dressed, but it was my birthday party after all, so why not. Time passed slowly as I waited for the guests to arrive, and Salem was sitting silently on the sofa staring off into space. I wondered what was on his mind, but before I had the chance to question him someone hammered their fist against the door. Salem came out of his stupor at once and stood up.
    I peeked through the tiny peephole and groaned. There were at least ten of my classmates waiting out there. After putting on a false smile, I reluctantly twisted the door knob and let them flood into my house. They piled their presents upon the dining room table and wished me happy birthday individually. I was surprised to not see Jason or Karen among the crowd.
    “Karen told me to tell you she’d be a little late,” Brittany Crosswood said casually, as if answering my unspoken question. She was more of Karen's friend than my own. In fact most of these people were little more than acquaintances, despite being in the same room as most of them for countless hours.
    “Ah, okay,” I said quietly. Someone turned on the old, black stereo that sat on the end table beside the sofa and started blaring music. I sighed.
    Jason showed up about five minutes later, bustling in through the door without knocking and heaving a gift at me with a grin. The present was flat and badly wrapped. “Open it!”
    “Now?” I asked, rattling the present around. “Shouldn’t we wait until I open the other presents too?”
    “Nah, no one's going to care,” he insisted.
    “Okay...” I pulled at the paper and gasped in shock when I realized what it was. I gaped at the sleek, black laptop that I held in my hands, temporarily speechless. “Oh, Jace! This is too much!” I flung my arms around his