• Chapter 1:
    Welcome Home


    It was my mothers good night kiss that woke me that night. The moon was high, and she was leaving until morning, like every day. I could feel my lips curl into a smile, putting a slight crease in my porcelain colored skin at the corners. My mother returned the gesture, I knew this without even opening my eyes. She brushed aside my bangs carefully and the feel of her thumb caressing my forehead caused my eyes to open

    “Evening, Mother” I said, my voice sleepy, and my eyes portraying just how weak my body felt from all the rest I had gotten. Everyday I waited for night fall so I could finally wake and move about the house to color, play house, watch the television . . .anything that would occupy my time until Mother returned.

    “Evening, my little angel” Just the sound of her voice would make a grown man stop in his tracks and cause goose bumps to race across his skin. It was like the heavens opened up and bestowed all their grace upon earth. Truly euphoria, for most, that’s why it was so easy for her to catch her prey. “I’ll be back when the sun rises, be a good little girl for mommy”.

    I closed my eyes when she said this and once more felt her baby soft lips press softly against my cheek. When I reopened my eyes she was gone and at that moment I slipped from under my covers and cautiously hung my feet over the bed, felt for the floor, then hopped down. My bare feet thumped lightly across the hardwood floor as I made my way to my wardrobe; I opened it and took out a dress to wear. Even though I never left the house, it was always custom not to walk around in my sleep wear all night.

    I smoothed out the few wrinkles in my dress and headed into the hallway. Most of the house was dark, dark wood flooring, dark mahogany banister, dark wood paneling on every wall. Just a lot of very dark, stained wood. Ever since I laid eyes on its beauty, I knew I’d never want to leave, even when I was as old as mother. If I ever got to that age that is. This time, my steps were not quite as loud as they were now being muffled by the old Persian step rug that lined our stair case. I did however, make quite a loud thump when I jumped from the second to the last step, to the floor.

    After making it to the first level, I headed for the kitchen, hearing my stomach grumble. Before making it to the fridge though, I caught a glimpse of myself in one of the many big, bigger than me, mirrors that accented our homes interior. I stopped and turned to look at myself, my tightly curled hair, which is up in pigtails and tied with ribbons tonight, bouncing as I did so. Not caring much about my appearance except for one particular feature, I did not bother with dawdling mindlessly in front of the mirror, instead I curled my lips into the biggest grin I could manage, bearing teeth and all. Hoping.

    I felt my heart sink low into my stomach as I poked and prodded at two certain front teeth. Nothing yet. My smiled faded and turned instead into a pout as I now stomped off to the refrigerator. The sudden light from the bulb inside the cold contraption took me off guard for a moment, like it seems to do every time I open the damned thing, but my eyes soon adjusted and I grabbed a small glass bottle from the top shelf. I eyed the red liquid that resided in it and licked my lips slowly, running off into the living room with it.

    Once I was in the living room I grabbed the remote from a round coffee table that sat in the middle of the room, flipped on the television and sat it back down, along side it I place my corked glass. The T.V. was already on my favorite channel, this was normal considering I was the only one who ever watched it. With the pleasant sound of Beethoven now ringing in my ears I went and grabbed my coloring book and crayons from the love seat on the opposite side of the room.

    When I returned to the coffee table I placed all my things atop it and took a seat on the ground. The bone chillingly cold floor having no effect on me. My skin gave the North Pole a run for its money. Although my voice was not as heavenly as my mothers, I started humming along to ‘Moonlight Sonata’, my favorite of Beethoven, and picked up a crayon to color the kitten that was playing with a mouse in my coloring book. It was obvious this book was for younger children then myself, only a baby would think predator and prey could ever get along. An unconscious smile played across my lips and I shook my head.

    Time passed by rather quickly when you had a whole coloring book full of options just waiting to be brought to life with the use of just a small, dyed mass of wax. By the time I made it to the last page my vial was empty, only blood red droplets remained, and I could sense my mothers presence. She was near, and had food. In an instant I dropped my crayon and ran upstairs, almost tripping a few times but grabbing onto the banister just in time. Not bothering to catch my breath, like I really needed to, I rounded the corner, following the dark wooden snake that curled its way up the stairs and acted as a balcony on the second story landing. I held in my giggles as I got on the floor and lied flat on my stomach, my tiny hands curled around the pegs of the banister as I peeked down to the front door, waiting.

    As she neared her scent grew stronger, I could tell her hand was on the knob, she was only moments away from being home again. Right before she opened the door though, I noticed something was wrong. My eyes grew wide and without thinking I pushed myself up from the ground and ran for the stairs, staggering a little on my way from the rush of it all.

    “Mom?!!” It came out as more of a shriek then just a worried yell as I ran for the towering doors that led to the outside world. I reached my hand out towards the knob but it had twisted before I got to it and the doors were thrown open in a panic. Without having to see it for myself, I knew my mothers scent was so much stronger for a reason, that reason being most of her blood was covering . . .the exterior of her body. For a moment I couldn’t stand to look at her, my stomach curdled and it felt as if it were going to come up to my throat. The thought of what had happened to her sickened me.

    Within seconds though I got myself under control, turning this nauseating feeling into hate, anger at the people who did this. With new determination I stormed towards her, catching her just as she collapsed to the floor, I could feel her blood smearing across my skin as she tried to cling to me.

    “Hide . . .” No longer was it the voice angels themselves would kill for that I heard, but a raspy, broken whisper that passed through her lips. My cheeks, white as they usually were, suddenly became flushed. The look in her eyes; was she pleading to me? My mother never pleaded. I felt the sting of hot tears welling up in my eyes and I blinked them away as she gathered her last bit of strength and stood, using everything she had to push me away from her and into the living room.

    For a moment I hesitated, staring back at her as she stared out the front door, her eyes were glazed over with fear . . .as if she were waiting for something. A tear escaped and slid down my cheek, it’s searing touch made me realize I had to listen, and so I ran into the connecting room, hiding just behind the front wall.

    When a minute or two passed and nothing seemed to be happening I swallowed the fear, the thought that my mother lay there dead, closed my eyes and let a few more tears leave there marks down my flushed face before cautiously peeking around the wall. Relief flooded through me when my mother was still standing there, she managed to back away from the door a bit, but the look on her face still hadn’t changed. Just then I realized why.

    From the subtle light that shone its way into our house through the front entrance, walked a man, no wait, five men. Three of them were holding crowbars, baseball bats and other metal objects of the sort, one had an array of hand guns fastened to his belt, and the one in the center, apparently the leader, had a shot gun. They must have been the ones to hurt mother. I couldn’t help but curl my lips over my teeth and let a snarl rip out of my throat, my threat however went unnoticed as all of the men screamed and the two holding guns pulled their triggers, cocked, and pulled again. Just a regular old bullet wouldn’t do much harm to my mother, but multiple, in quick succession, many of them penetrating her skull . . .were irreversibly fatal.

    At that moment I lost all control of my conscious, my body started acting on its own accord and stepped out from behind the wall, finally exposing myself to the murderers that still stood in my home. I crossed the threshold from the living room to the entrance hall and continued on, in quite a slow manner, towards my mother. I did not look but I could tell the expressions on the men’s faces were a mix of shock, awe, regret, and anger. One of them growled, the leader, and gripped his shot gun tighter

    “She has to be the demon seed of that thing . . .bloody cockroaches are everywhere aren’t they?” He said.

    I ignored his comments and knelt down beside my mother, the blood she had wiped on me previously was now dried and joined by another, fresh, layer as I placed my hand on her cheek, caressing it softly. Before I even had the chance to say a silent prayer I heard the c**k of his gun and the previous shell hitting the hard wood floor.

    The light tink, tink noise the bullet shell made seemed to rip through my ear drums and shatter them. I slapped my hands over my ears as the pain coursed through me and shut my eyes tight as I let out a just as ear shattering, scream. My body shuddered, twitched, and it felt like each nerve was being individually torn from my body form head to toe. For the short moment that my mouth was wide open, emitting a cry of anguish, I felt the quick and subtle elongation of those two certain teeth.

    At that moment the sound stopped reverberating about in my ears and the pain dispersed. My eyes shot open, different in a way now, the pupils were more dilated, and the color was no longer light azure but a deeper, more fierce, shade of blue. As if I had been holding it in for the entire day I let out a big, exasperated breath.

    After raising his gun to eye level, this leader person, stopped. His eyes had grown wide, as did those of the rest of his men, and they all seemed to stare in fright. Some of them gripped their weapons tighter, but only as an act of desperation, others dropped their weapons and quivered silently in fear. How could they be so afraid of a little girl? They did just kill a full grown and powerful Vampire . . .why stop now?

    “M-maybe we should let her go, s-s-she’s only a little girl a-after all” This voice came from one of the men in the back, his voice quavering after what he had just witnessed.

    I peeked over at that moment, examining the faces of the men who just committed a murder and witnessed a Vampire coming of age. Not so tough now are we? I’m stronger, faster, smarter now then my mother was, my fangs are brand new and need to be tested, my blood is boiling, the fire heating it composed of revenge, anger, . . .curiosity. Who to choose first?

    Before I could contemplate long enough, one of the men in the back started taking a few steps backwards, trying to sneak away and run for it. Thanks for volunteering. I could feel my lips forming into a smirk, my face now being adorned with quite a malicious feature, not to mention the fangs to accent it.

    For a second I could heard gasps coming from the group of men, the sound of surprise escaping past their lips as, according to what they could see, I disappeared. I enjoyed the blood curdling scream that was emitting from my victims lips much more though. He only managed to get one foot out the door before, with precision and speed, I snuck up behind him and tripped him. Too bad he was one of the ones who dropped his weapon, the axe he had so maliciously attacked my mother with was now lodged tight into his back.

    The sun was fully up now and I walked back to the living room, humming Beethoven to myself, and picked up my teddy bear. It was the first thing my mother ever gave me, I’ve had it ever since I was born . . .even though she was gone, I wasn’t going to forget her. Still humming, I clutched the bear to my chest and stopped just before I passed my mothers beaten and bloodied body. This time, no tears stung at my eyes, and no pain stabbed at my heart

    “I forgot to tell you; Welcome home, Mom” I knelt down once more and pressed my lips to her hot, sticky cheek.

    When I stood, I smoothed out the wrinkles in my dress and walked out the front door, gracefully stepping over five dead bodies that littered the entry way without slipping on any of the filthy blood that I had spilled.

    As I walked into the nearby town I could feel the sun beating down on my sensitive skin, even though it was newly risen and the morning air was just barely heated, I felt weaker already. My newly transformed muscles were sore and my energy was draining with each step I took under the suns gaze, not far off, houses came into view.

    The streets were deserted, mainly because it was only six in the morning, on a Saturday, mother told me how humans like to sleep in on those days. Mother told me a lot of things about the outside world . . .I shook the thought of her out of my head and started walking down a cobble stoned road lined with houses. My teddy was still clutched tight to my chest and I felt my knees begin to weaken. They soon buckled beneath my weight and I fell to the hard concrete. I clenched my teeth together and sucked in a breath between them, making a sort of hissing sound. By that moment I knew I couldn’t continue on any further, with my last bit of strength I pulled myself up and walked the short trip from the road to the shaded doorway of a house with a neat little doormat sitting in front of it. I didn’t know this person, didn’t even know where I was or what I was going to do, all I wanted to do was rest.

    Once again my body gave way to weakness as I collapsed on this random persons door step, closed my eyes, and fell into unconsciousness. My dress was wrinkled, my hair strewn, and my skin colored blood red. Aside from a few mishaps, today was the day that I finally ascended; I finally became a Beast of Blood.