System
Chapter 1
By: Nicole
"Shiva...?" my raspy voice was barely audiable, but to those whom it concerned it was like a deafening scream. I shifted uncomforably in the tall tree, perching myself on a thick branch. The beams of moonlight peircing through the leaves were breifly interupted by the figure passing under them. Cold hands snaked around my body, one grasping my waist and the other covering my mouth
"Boo.." A thick raspy voice echoed through my ear. The figure kissed my neck right below my left ear, no breath, no racing pulse, just dealy cold lips agianst cold skin.
I pryed the hand from my mouth and manuerved on the thick branch to face the figure. " Davi..I mean.. Zekial.."
He gave me a mischevious grin. "Leina.."
An unearthly scream. Both of our heads snapped in the direction of the sound. None of the people in the small park noticed, other than us that is. Zekial grabbed my hand and we jumped out of the tree, landing gracefully on our feet on the pavement below, and stardaling a couple huddled together on a bench.
Voices whispering incoherient words. We dashed towards them. Another scream. A murmured word.. Forgiveness. We made a sharp change of direction, and came to a stumbling halt infront of a run down building, our club. The faint beat of music seeped out from behind the thick iron door. Zekial tightened his grip on my hand and pulled me towards the door. He raised his hand, curled into a fist..One knock followed by four rapid kocks. No response. He attempts it agian. No response. Slightly annoyed, he lowered his hand to the lock and pryed it off, the door creaking open slowly.
Bodys covered the room, hanging over chairs, tables, the bar in the corner, and the stage at the back, and covered the mass of the floor. Zekial pulled me through the wasteland of courpses, kicking them out of his way. He stopped, his eyes hovering over one inparticular. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words emerged. He tried agian, his voice delivering only one word. "Luke.."
My vision blurred. Tears? Impossiable. I pulled my hand from Zekial's and turned in a small circle. The stage. I pushed my way through the remains of the creatures I had once come to call my own, my family. I kneeled beside a female, draped carelessly over the edge of the stage, a microphone laying in her lifeless hand. Brushing the blonde and pink hair from infront of her face, I felt tears stinging at the corners of my eyes. My hand lingered on her cheek before trailing down to the necklace adorning her pale neck. A pentagram with her name on it,written in our language...Shiva. I unclasped the necklace and reclasped it around my own pale neck, tucking it under my shirt with my own matching necklace. It was the one symbol of who we were..What we were..Where we belonged.
"Leina!" Zekials voice was full of worry and panic. "We need to go..Incase they come back.."
I nodded, kissed Shiva's forehead, and followed him out of the club. It was colder outside, but I guess you can't notice when you're like us. "I guess we're gonna need to find a new gathering place..And a new clan.."
Zek nodded and draped his arm over my sholder, pulling me colser to him. Cold agiant cold, death agianst death. Our long walk back to our apartment was quiet, we were keeping our guard up for anything suspicious. Thats when our ememy appeared..Keeping a distance from us, head low in his leather trench coat, and hat drowning his eyes in it's shallow shadow. He had followed us four blocks before we started to get suspicious.
Thats when we jumped in the line infront of a small club, paid our money, and hurried into the club, staying to the back of the room. The people there were a comfort to us, sporting various hair colors and styles, peircings, and tattoos. Almost like at our club. Except it was overflowing with life. The sweet smell of the blood rushing through their veins was like a nautral high to us. The artifical mutli-colored lights dimmed and a group of five guys walked onto the stage at the front of the club.
One guy walked up to the microphone. "Hey everybody! We're Good Charlotte! We'd like to thank everybody for comming out tonight. Alright we're gonna start off with Bloody Valentine."
I leaned closer to Zek. "I'll be back, I wanna get a closer look." He nodded.
I pushed my way through the crowd of screaming girls, working through the mosh pits, and eventually reaching the barrier. They were already through the first verse of the song, and I was completely engulfed in it. Blood..Yumm.. My gaze drifted over each person on stage.. The blonde.. The guy with the pink hair.. The drummer..The lead singer..And then the guy on the far right, singing along to the song and moving around the stage. And thats when his gaze caught mine, Blue eyes meeting emerald green eyes, death agianst life. He flashed a smile in my direction, eyes breaking to see what he was doing and then returning to me. A repeated process for the entire show.. They finally exited the stage.
I dashed back to Zek, who hadn't moved from his spot, pushing people out of my way. "Ready to go?"
He nodded and we exited the club. "I saw you watching him.."
I was about to reply when I caught a glimpse of that guy out of the corner of my eye. I stopped, turned my head in his direction and smiled. A smile..something I hadn't done in quite a long time..
Zek had stopped by now, leaning agianst a while, watching me with curiousity devouring him.
The guy glanced around briefly and walked towards me. He practically towered over me, him being so tall. "Hey, my names Billy.." He stook out his hand for me to shake.
I hesitantly took his hand before dropping it quickly. "Leina.."
He rubbed his hands together. I knew he noticed how cold my hand was. He stuffed his hands in his pockets."Did you like the show?"
I nodded slowly, casting my eyes to the ground. "Yes, it was nice."
"Leina, we need to go.." Zek was hinting to the fact sunrise was in five hours and we still had a long ways home.
I glanced at Zek, and turned my attention back to Billy. "It was nice meeting you..Maybe I'll come to another show."
Billy smiled. "We're gonna be in San Francisco day after tomarrow."
"Alright then, thats not too far from here..I'll be there." Stupid stupid stupid! Agreeing to plans with mortals! Zek'll kill me!
"Leina." Zek called, frustration filling his voice.
"Seeya." Billy kicked at a rock on the ground.
"Bye" I turned on my heels and walked back to Zek, leaving Billy there infront of the club.
The rest of our walk home was silent. We were both suffering from the loss of the majority of our clan. I'm sure by now you've figured out we're vampires. Shocked? Well Luke was Zek's brother, both bitten in the early 1880's, 1802 to be exact, Zek at the age of 24 and Luke at the age of 28. Unlike myself and my sister Shiva, whom were bitten in the later 1920's, 1926 to be exact, me when I was 21 and Shiva when she was 15.
That night was the first night in 73 years that I honestly felt alone.. Alone in a life of never ending death. A life of pain and suffering, hiding and lieing.. A life no one should want to live, unless they were eternal lovers, never wanting to take the chance of parting in death..
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Two days later, San Francisco...
Zek had gone out tonight to find something to 'eat'. I'm guessing he didn't want to go with me to the concert. I pulled the hood to my hoodie over my head and handed the guy at the door my money. I swiftly moved into the large room, quite different from the small club I last saw them at. Zek said I was going to get myself killed, falling for a mortal. But, I told him we had just met and I enjoyed the high I experienced around all the mortals.We don't love. It's an emotion. We have no emotions..
I was once agian engulfed by the high from the smell of blood surrounding me. It took everything I posessed to keep from tackling one of them to the ground and having myself a nice meal. Lights dimmed, and the five guys once agian filed onto the stage.
Having the cat-like vision I have, I could see Billy scanning the crowd for someone. I pushed my way through the crowd, just like the previous time. Propping my elbows on the barrier. I glued my eyes to him until he caught my gaze. And just as the last time, he played the entire show trapped in my gaze.
After the concert I exited the building, leaning agianst the wall closest to their tour bus. Five minutes later, five guys exited the building through the back door. My head snapped in their direction, instantly catching their attention. One of the perks of being a vampire, when you look at someone they always look back at you.
Billy stopped and grinned. "Leina."
I pushed myself off the wall and walked over to him, nodding in aknowledgement. "Billy."
His bandmates had joined Billy by now. "Leina, This is Joel, Benji, Paul, and Chris." He pointed to each person as he said their name.
I nodded shyly. "Hello.."
"Soo Billy here says you came all the way from Los Angeles to see our show." Benji put a big emphesis on 'our show'.
I shrugged. "I was gonna be in town to take care of some..business, so I thought it'd be nice to see a concert."
Joel raise a brow. "Business?"
I cast my eyes to the ground. "Family business.."
Paul cleared his throat. "Um guys, if you wanna go to that club we need to go..now."
They all nodded and filed onto the bus, except Billy. " You wanna come with us? I'd really like to get to know you."
I was getting hungry..Maybe Billy would 'provide' me a nice meal? "Yeah sure."
He led me onto the tour bus, where I took a seat with them in the back lounge. The drive was short, roughly 15 minutes. We all filed off the bus and into the busy streets. the cold air was an enemy to me, while it preyed on their warm breath, turning it into a little cloud, it had no effect on me. I kept my face buried in my jacket, claiming I was cold, so to not give away to fact I didn't breathe.
"Are you okay?" Billy gave me a concerned look. "You look cold.."
I nodded and pretended to shiver. "How long until we get in?" I was starting to feel like I was being watched.
"Benj is trying to get us in.." As soon as he said it, the bodyguard at the entrance stepped aside and we all hurried into the club.
My senses were thrown for a loop. Blood. It was all I could smell. Blood, rushing through the veins of the adrineline driven clubbers surrounding me. I felt dizzy. Tired. I reached my hand out for something to steady myself with, finding only Billy's sholder.
He turned around to see who's hand it was. "Leina? Whats wrong?"
His words rushed through my head and I didn't understand any of it. "I need to go outside.. A park or something..just away from all these people.." I reached my other hand out, feeling unsteady agian. I felt scared. Vaunerable. Weak..
He snaked his arm around my waist, sensing my insecurity and lack of trust in my own body. "Okay."
He pushed his way through the crowd, gently guiding me with him. We finally made it out of the packed club, down the street and to a small, deserted park. He guided me to a bench and we both sat down. "Are you clastrophobic or something?"
I shook my head, my senses slowly returning to normal, and let out a quiet laugh. "Something like that."
He tilted his head to the side. "I'm confused.."
"Don't worry about it..it'll just get you in trouble.." I leaned back, suddenly feeling 'hungry' agian. "I need to find something to eat.." I whispered, forgetting Billy was a mortal.
"There's a McDonalds down the street.." He pulled his jacket tighter around himself.
"No thats okay.." I stared at the ground, suddenly wishing Zek was here..
"Okay..Your confusing me.. you said you're hungry, but you don't wanna go get something to eat?" He watched me, searching for any answers.
"Billy..how old are you?" I tried to start any kind of conversation.
"I'm 21..How old are you?" He seemed intrested.
" I'm 21 too.." Well it wasn't exactly a lie.
"Cool, whats your favorite band?" His eyes made contact with mine.
"Um..Toss up between Disturbed and Silverchair." I grinned at his sudden intrest in the little facts.
"Way cool, mine's Silverchair." His eyes were all the while searching for any sign of emotion, anything, in mine. I knew he wouldn't find anything..People who are dead on the inside don't HAVE emotion in their eyes.. "Can I ask you a question Leina?"
I nodded. "Yeah..Sure.."
"Why are you so emotionless? And why are you so cold all the time?" Bam! He got right to the point.
I tried to think of an excuse. Anything! Anything but the truth. 'Well um.. I can't really tell you that.. it might scare you.."
He raise a brow, curiousty taking over him. "No it won't."
Would it hurt anything? He might think I'm either a psycho or a psycho. What if he's one of 'them'.. Would he run away? "Promise?"
He nodded. If I had a heart, it would be pounding out of my chest right now. "Well you see.. I'm not really..Normal.. I'm.." A vampire! the words were screaming in my head. they were unwilling to flow from my mouth.
"Your what..?" His voice was so gentle..
I cast my eyes to the ground. "I'm..a vampire..But please Billy, don't run away."