Shukaka_san: Wahooo! Back with another chappy!
Ariana: Ok, maybe not one day, but that's only 'cause the computer was being screwy. It was still ready in one day, so I was technically right. Ha.
Shukaka_san: Oh, STFU, MEANIE-HEAD!!
Ariana: Mood-swing much?
Shukaka_san: Wheeeee, hyper-ness!! Is that right? Oh well, I'm gonna go scuba-diving!
-pretends to dive in water and looks around at all the 'fishies' a.k.a stuffed animals that I threw on the floor-
Ariana: -sweatdrop- I stand corrected. THAT was one helluva mood-swing. Are you on your period?
Shukaka_san: Nope, but I bet I will be in about a week! DAMN IT!! I HATE MY PERIOD! -dives back under the 'water' a.k.a behind the couch-
Ariana: Oooookeeee, well, looks like it's my job to start the first chapter, then! -ignores strange girl with too many mood swings-
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In the last chapter....“ I'm right here, sweetheart.” and suddenly He was there, no more than two feet from me, coming closer, with His fangs bared. Closer with each second, He wrenched my katana from me. All I could do was scream. His teeth barely inches from my neck now, my voice was giving out, His fangs were closing...pain shot through my body as the venom spread, and then.....
Chapter One, My Family
.....I woke up screaming.
“Ayame, wake up! It's a bad dream, wake up, dammit!!!” The rough voice finally cut through my dream and yanked me back to the world of the living. Groggily, I opened my eyes to find Thorn, my kinda-sorta brother, leaning over me.
“Finally! I've been trying to wake you up for five freakin' minutes! Did you pass out or something?!” I sat up, rubbing my eyes. Ok, I wasn't wearing a kimono, my katana were still by my door, as usual, and there was no Vampire who was trying to kill me in the immediate vicinity. Good, I was still with my 'family', in the mountains. Pretty strange family, but, hey, I'd take them over a blood-thirsty Vampire who was bent on drinking my blood any day. I'll tell you more about them later.
“Ugh, sorry, I was dreaming about THAT NIGHT again. What time is it?” I grinned sheepishly.
“It's dawn, and at least you're up. Now you might want to let the others know before Tyler decides to get his friends to convince you to get your butt outta bed.” Thorn said, shaking his head.
“OK I'M UP!! TYLER, DON'T YOU DARE SEND ANY OF THOSE DAMN PLANTS IN HERE!! I MEAN IT!!” I shouted, throwing off the covers. A spiky haired kid appeared in my doorway.
“Aww, man! I was going to see if I could get a corn stalk to shoot corn at you!” he said, grinning from ear to ear. Yeah, Tyler can control plants. With his mind. Kinda creepy, huh? Oh well, you'll find out why soon enough.
“If you even THINK about it, I swear I'll kill you by any means necessary.” That would be harder than it seems, actually. None of us need to breathe, so I can't strangle him. Electrocution has no effect either. In fact there's only one known way to kill one of us, and even then it's not really killing. More like sealing. And it's very painful, for the first century. But after that it's incredibly boring. Oh well, I will explain later, like all the other stuff.
“It's not like you'd know if I thought about it. You can't read minds like Thorn!” Tyler said triumphantly, a smirk gracing his pale features. I gave a very sadistic grin.
“Thorn, is he thinking about it?” I asked. He smirked evilly.
“Should I tell her?”
“No!!” Tyler turned and ran, sprinting down the halls as fast as he could go. Which was pretty damn fast. Somewhere around a cheetah's speed. Luckily, I was just as fast. I raced after him, gaining slowly but surely.
“You were thinking about it! You are so dead!” I shouted after him, dodging the others in my 'family', and what little furniture we had. If it could be called furniture, anyway. I was getting closer, and I quickly pounced, pinning Tyler down.
“Give?” I asked, waiting for the plants he was sure to call.
“Hell no!” he shouted and I quickly dodged a giant evergreen tree that was trying to grab me, only to be captured by an over sized petunia. A freakin' petunia. I swear that boy gets stranger every day. Thrashing wildly, I shouted
“Let me go, you little cheater! You always use your plants against me! But I guess you're to weak to fight without them, huh?!” I was teasing him, but if you didn't know me, you wouldn't be able to tell. This was practically our daily routine. I wake up, Tyler and I try to kill each other, we don't eat breakfast, and so on. Suddenly I noticed that the other three members of our family had joined us, and were watching from the doorway.
“Uh, hi?” I said, giving a little wave. Thorn and my other, and only biological, brother, Haku just rolled their eyes.
“You've been up three minutes and already you and Tyler are trying to kill each other. That's a new record.” Thorn said dryly.
“Yeah, 'cause you just had to tell her, didn't you?!” Tyler demanded.
“Yup, I did, It's so entertaining when you two are fighting. Makes life so much more interesting.” he answered, giving his trademark, holier-than-thou smirk.
“Guuur, I'm gonna kick your a**, dumbfu-”
“Tyler! Could you please at least try not to drop the F-bomb?! You're a freakin' eleven year old!!” I butted in. Tyler had recently started using that word a little too much. Note to self: Talk to Tyler about using better language.
“Nu-uh! I'm ninety-three! I just look eleven!” Tyler shot at me.
“Maybe you're that age technically, but you know we don't age, so you're still eleven!” I yelled back.
“Ok, anyway, I think I'll be the one who's kicking your a**, Tyler. Just like last time.” Thorn interrupted, probably knowing that if he let us continue it would grow into a full-fledged shouting match, with the possibility of violence. Fun. Just like he meant to do, Thorn immediately distracted Tyler.
“Oh yeah?! We'll see about that!” He ran outside, with Thorn close on his heels. Another daily ritual, Thorn and Tyler cuss each other out, then spar. Except they had forgotten one thing.
“Tyler! Let me down! Your damn gigantic petunia still has a death grip on me!” Before I had even finished my sentence, the petunia had let go and shrunk. Now that I was free, I turned to the others, Jasmine, my kinda-sorta sister, and Haku.
“So, what'll it be? Pancakes? Waffles?” I asked cheerfully. They just stared at me.
“Ok, yeah, doesn't appeal to me either. Let's go watch them fight. Again.” We all went outside, and sat on the wet, uncomfortable, itchy, and did I mention, wet grass. Thorn and Tyler were already killing each other, so we settled down for the show. Impatiently, Thorn brushed his long, dark brown hair out of his blood red eyes. Hmm, I really need to convince him to cut it. Damn, he was still wearing that armband. Black, with a bloody sword on it, and hadn't been washed in a year. Yuck.
Suddenly, Tyler appeared out of nowhere, aiming a skull-shattering kick at Thorn's head. Unlike the other boy, he had no hair problems. He had spiky hair, you know, the type that practically defies gravity. Originally blonde, he had streaked his hair with black and lime green. Talk about weird. His eyes, which were as green as his hair, shining with excitement, Tyler proceeded to attack Thorn with a series of bone-crushing punches. Hope he doesn't hurt him too badly.
I looked to the side of me, where Haku was stretched out on the ground, He wore a blue yukata that was almost as bright as his cerulean eyes. His hair was long, like Thorn's, but much, much longer. It was black and hung all the way down his back, even in a pony-tail. He was Japanese, like me, and my only true sibling in our 'family'.
On my other side sat Jasmine, my best friend and sort-of sister. She was from Africa, and had curly, chocolate brown hair that hung down to her shoulders. Her silver eyes sparkled in the morning light, and as she watched the fight a small smile grew on her face.
Hmm, you've probably experienced something like this. A nice day out with the family, right? Oh, but wait, I'm forgetting something. You're usually within walking distance of another house, full of people. There wasn't any people for miles around, much less a home. This is the explaining part I was talking about, like why Tyler controls plants, why Thorn reads minds, why we run as fast, if not faster, than a cheetah. There's a reason, a really big reason. We're VAMPIRES. You know, BLOODSUCKERS?! Remember that kick Tyler aimed at Thorn's head? It hit. With little to no damage. The same would have happened if it hit any one of us. Tyler and Thorn have special abilities because of what they're strongest traits were in life, and because the Vampires who Changed them had special abilities as well. The dream I had? Actually happened. That was the night I was Changed.
Oh, and don't think of me as that shitty Count Dracula version. I find skulls disgusting, I don't sleep in a coffin, and I can obviously go out in daylight, night just gives more cover for hunting. Live in a castle? More like a series of caves carved into a mountainside. Drink human blood? Didn't you notice me just say there were no humans for miles around? We drink animal blood, and we don't kill the animal, it's much more humane. And I don't turn into a bat. I can fly, but no bats. I HATE bats. Oh yeah, and remember how Tyler said he was ninety-three? He is. We're all way older than we look. I was changed in Edo-Period-Japan. I'm over a century old, but I look eighteen. And the only way for me to die isn't even true death. It's that sealing thing I talked about earlier. I don't know the specifics, but it's supposedly painful. So now, none of us can even die, yet we are not alive. We are cursed to walk the earth forever, knowing not the peace of heaven nor the fury of hell. So now we have to make the best of our predicament, and that's harder than you might think. See, although much of the human population does not believe in us, the governments seem to know all about us. Give them the best bounty hunters, trackers, and any mages that are still in existence (there's actually quite a few, and they're the only ones who can perform the sealing thing) and we're dead meat. We've moved about fifty times in the last twenty years, and I came very close to being sealed once. Thank god Thorn saved me or I would be in unbearable agony right about now. All the governments are dead set on wiping all of us Vampires off the face of the planet. It's the one thing they all agree on, unluckily for us. There's one bounty hunter in particular, a woman whom we call The a*****e. We don't know her real name, or anything about her, just that she hates Hates HATES Vampires. She has come after us countless times, and each time she's gotten closer to catching us. There is one thing I know, and I am scared to death that this will happen soon. We can't keep running from her forever, she will eventually catch us. The obvious solution would be to kill her right? We've tried. She's been killed and come back at least three times now. It makes me wonder....will she ever die?
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Shukaka_san: Whew! I'm done!!!
Ariana: It's not that long!
Shukaka_san: Four pages isn't long!?!?!?! What's wrong with you?!
Ariana: Many things!
Shukaka_san:...Stupid question, I knew that. Oh well, I'm gonna go get some ice-cream!! Wheee, ice-cream!!
Ariana: Hey, gimme some!!
-both run off to get wonderful double-chocolate ice cream-
Shukaka_san: Byes!!
Ariana: See ya next time!!
Everything Is Reachable; You’ve Just Got To Find Something Worth Reaching For.
