The Beginning
Is it so wrong to be happy right now? So wrong to love someone you were told to hate when the world fell into darkness? To find joy in seeing his face, to feeling his touch?
I have found out in these past months that the world can grant you a few moments of happiness, but once those moments are over your life is filled with tragedy and pain.
People say you see your life pass before your eyes when you're about to die. I only saw one face, standing here now facing death, and knowing I would never see it again was the worst feeling imaginable; even worse than death. If I could have one wish it would be to look at his face once more, to look into Caleb's eyes one last time.
I was 8 when the war started. It was chaos. Everyone was fighting each other and soon more and more people were dying. No one knew who were behind the brutal and horrific attacks but they weren't taking any chances so everyone just started attacking.
The U.S attacked South America, Europe and the Middle East started to fight, along with Africa. China, Japan, North and South Korea were all attacking each other. When many people died, the real culprits surfaced. They had been watching from the sidelines, watching us destroy each other and enjoying every part of it.
They were what we called vampires, but they weren't like the ones in the movies. They were worse, far worse. Before I was born, the head of all the vampires was trying to create a serum to make it possible for vampires to go out in sunlight, to make them immune to garlic, to make their skin so hard it would shatter any stake that would try to puncture the skin, to make them invincible.
The vampires couldn't find any solution to make this happen, but they soon found someone who could. We don't know where this man came from or what his name was, but he was the downfall for all of humanity. He made the enemies we did not even know about, invincible. When this happened they decided to come out from hiding, to become the masters of the world of humanity instead of cowing in fear of being found.
They started out slowly, as I said before. They attacked a few places, making it look like others had attacked each other. When enough people had died they stepped out into the sunlight, invincible and taking everyone they saw into captivity.
My parents and many others tried to fight back. They fought courageously; they stood up to the monster, to the things. They died as heroes, trying to defend their loved ones that were being taken away from them or being killed. My parents died while trying to protect me. My father was in the other room, trying to fend them off so my mother, my sisters, my brothers and I could try and get away. He was no match for them though, and my mother died in front of my eyes, trying to protect us.
Her screams still ring in my ears; they wake me from the few hours of sleep I get. The vampires decided not to kill us. Instead they did something worse than death; they took us as prisoners, as their slaves. My sisters, Emma and Gracie, were taken away from me as well as my younger brother Rick. My older brothers, Joe and Jacob, and I were kept together because we were the oldest.
The vampires did not turn many of the survivors, instead they made everyone slaves and their cattle. Towns, Cities, States, and Countries were soon rebuilt. People had their own towns, far enough away from each other to prevent uprisings, which made no sense. Who would try to fight against these monsters when we would only get annihilated? Blood-banks were set up to prevent many deaths from feeding.
They couldn't just feed off of us because too many would die and if they only drank a small amount of our blood we would turn into one of them, one of the soulless creatures. Every month they would come to a town and pick a group of the prettiest girls who would work in the houses of the parasites. Picking up after them and cleaning. This was, to me, worse than death. I don't know where my parent's killers were, but if I ever saw them again, I don't know if I could resist trying to kill the monsters. I remember their faces like it was yesterday. When they took my sisters and brothers and I, I made sure to memorize their faces, so when I saw them I would try everything in my power to kill them.
I was held in one of the larger towns, living with my brothers. Our life was bearable; we tried to make the best of it. Whenever something happened, we were always thankful to have each other. I worked in the fields, plating and digging up food for the people.
My brothers worked many different jobs. One week they would be working at the smiths or working in the barns. Wherever they were needed they were put. Everyone had a job, and everyone got the same amount of provisions. It was a hard life but everyone tried to make the best of it, tried to forget the monsters that didn't live but 10 miles away.
Some Birthday
I was running as fast as I could to the room where my family was, they were so close behind me though. When I reached it I ran in and shut the door but that wouldn't stop them. Suddenly my mother grabbed my arm and yanked me behind her. I tried to get in front of her, to defend her, but she wouldn't let me. She wanted to protect me and my siblings. The door was kicked down and the monsters grabbed my mother, dragging her out of the room by her hair. I tried to run after her but my legs felt so heavy and the other monster grabbed me. I heard my mother's screams and then I heard no more.
I shot up in my bed, covered in sweat, choking back a scream. It was the same dream every night and even though I knew the ending it still frightened me. My brothers were still asleep, and I did not want to lie back down and wait for the sleep I knew wasn't going to come. I slowly got out of bed and decided to get ready. The sun would be rising soon and maybe I could make my brothers a small breakfast before they had to go work at the stables. Yesterday Jacob almost got a black eye from one of the horses. I made some tea, cooked the measly breakfast, and waited for my brothers to get up.
When the first few rays of the sun showed I heard them make their way down. Jacob, who looked more like our mother, had short brown hair with beautiful brown eyes while Joe, who looked like our father, had dirty blonde hair that went to the bottom of his ears. When they saw me they had the biggest smiles on their faces.
I looked at them with a confused look. They grabbed me up from my chair, squeezed me into a bear hug and said "Happy 17th Birthday Christine!" I stood in shock. Today was my birthday? It couldn't be…could it? When they let me go they saw my shocked expression. "Did you really forget your own birthday?" Joe asked. I nodded my head. Who could remember their birthday during these hard times? They both laughed and suddenly Jacob brought something out of his pocket.
It had a small, solid heart that hung from a chain. When I saw it, tears came to my eyes. It looked similar to our mother's necklace that our father had given her.
"How did you…" was all that I could manage to get out of my mouth.
"We took the scrap metals we got working at the blacksmiths and put it together for you," Joe explained.
Jacob stepped forward and put it around my neck. I hugged him tight, giving him a small peck on the cheek, and then doing the same for Joe.
"Put it under the cloth so they don't see it. We don't want your first birthday present in 8 years to be taken away now do we?" Jacob asked.
I laughed, wiping away my tears. The only jewelry women were allowed to wear were wedding rings and that was only allowed to show that they belonged to someone. It was not a sign of love and commitment, but a sign of responsibility and even hate. Women did not always marry for love. They were lucky if they did love the man they were marrying but most of the time their husbands were chosen for them. The vampires did not have the time to wait for love to happen; they needed more slaves to be created. Small children living in our town were born into servitude.
When the sun was halfway above the horizon, Jacob, Joe and I set out to go to our jobs. We were walking at a slow pace, even though today was the selection day. The girls that were considered the most beautiful were either hiding somewhere or were attempting to blend in at their jobs.
I walked slowly because I did not consider myself beautiful. I had pale skin which could almost look like vampire skin, hair that almost appeared black, and eyes that on good days looked as if they were gold, but on other days they were a hazel-green. So when I saw the two vampires a little ways away I thought nothing of it until I saw them looking at me. I stopped dead in my tracks, too scared to walk any further. My brothers turned around to see why I had stopped and they looked the way I was looking.
"Run Christine! Run as fast as you can!" Joe yelled. I did what he said; I took off my boots and ran. I knew it was useless. They would be in front of me in a matter of seconds but I didn't care. I needed to try, try to get away from them, to get away from the life that was far worse than death. I didn't get very far before they caught up with me.
One of them yanked my arm from behind and threw me off to the side. My head hit something with an extreme force, sending a searing pain down my spine. The last thing I saw before unconsciousness enveloped me were the two monsters, walking towards me and smiling.