Cynthia bit her pencil eraser. Sitting at her desk she stared at the history book and began underlining passages:
The 1700s were a puritanical era. The Church played an important role in the everyday life of most colonial families and mass was attended regularly, if only to stop people from thinking that one was a witch, which would immediately lead to burning on the stake or hanging.
"Wow, great time, sorry I missed it," Cynthia said sarcastically as she slammed the textbook closed and flung it to the floor. She leaned down to the floor and pressed the power button on her ancient computer. The screen flickered and the Windows logo came up.
Waiting for the AOL to sign on, her eyes flickered to the clock near her bed. It read 9:00 pm.
"Fantastic, 9 o'clock on Saturday night and I'm checking my e-mail; what a social life, I'm going to call Lisa"
Cynthia picked up the telephone and began dialing Lisa, her best friend.
"Yo, Lisa, it's me"
"Hi me, sup?"
"Not much, have any ideas, I am so bored and am not looking forward to another Saturday night date with my AP American History textbook."
"Another Saturday night date with the textbook, wow, you're sad."
"Yeah, I love you too, seriously, got any ideas?"
"Actually, now that you mention it, yes, my brother's friend Zach told me about this club in New York, 10 min. away, Amber or something, in Soho."
"Meet you at your apartment in 10 min., lemme put on something more appropriate"
"Ciao"
"Adios"
~*~
Cynthia pushed the buzzer at Lisa's building just as the elevator opened and Lisa stepped out.
"Hey, I like your outfit," Cynthia said as she saw her friend's skin tight jeans and gold glittery top. She herself was wearing black leather pants and a black top with a broad stripe of silver across the front, contrasting with her pale skin from having staying inside working at an office all summer so far."Should we get a cab or walk?" Lisa asked as she checked her purse for money."Umm, cab, I can't walk that far in these shoes," Cynthia said, pointed to her platform shoes.
"Okay, split the fare 50/50?"
"As always, unless, of course, you want to pay"
"Haha, NO," Lisa said, giving Cynthia a playful slap and walking into the street to hail a cab.
~*~
Amber was a small club with loud music blaring out into the street. The front window had been painted over with orange and yellow spray paint onto which had been written "AMBER: 18 and over". Cynthia and Lisa walked up the bouncer, a solidly built college student with a tight black shirt standing near the door glaring at the multitudes of kids trying to get in with fake ID's. They handed him their ID's; he looked at the cards, looked at Cynthia and Lisa and waved them into the club.
Walking into the club, the were immediately assaulted by the music, ten times louder inside than outside. Blaring from the huge speakers set into the ceiling were various techno songs, not discernable from each other.
"All right," Cynthia said as she moved into the crowd on the dance floor, tugging Lisa by her wrist.
"What, I can't hear you, what did you say?" Lisa shouted.
That basically summed up the entire night, except the trip home.
~*~
At about 1 o'clock in the morning Lisa and Cynthia were heading home, both of them overtired and hungry. They were walking down the block when they spotted a Dwane Reade. Ducking inside they each got some water and chips to snack on in the cab home. Walking out into the street they tried to hail a cab, but as anyone who has ever tried to hail a cab at 1 in the morning in NYC, it is next to impossible. Anyway, Lisa and Cynthia were standing in the middle of the street when a empty cab drove by. Cynthia ran into the street waving her arms to get the drivers attention, but the driver just drove into Cynthia hitting her leg. Cynthia fell down, holding her leg which was bleeding.
"OWWWW, LISA, HELP ME !!!" Cynthia shouted, clutching her leg and rolling in the street.
Lisa ran over to her friend and pulled her to the sidewalk. Pouring the water she had just bought over her friend's leg she tried to calm Cynthia down, who, by this time, was crying hysterically. Lisa was panicked; she had not first aid experience except CPR and Cynthia wasn't unconcious. Looking around, Lisa spotted a small club at the end of the street. Ambrosia, proclaimed the small sign in the corner of the window. The lights in the club were nearly all off, except for a small flickering light in the corner of the window.
"Better than nothing," Lisa mumbled under her breath as she picked up Cynthia and carried her into the club.
~*~
The day began as any other, little did I know it would end as none other had so far in my long life. I am a vampire, born into my line unwillingly many years ago at the hands, or should I say, teeth, of Ather, my blood mother who named me Risika. I have not forgiven my blood mother, Ather, for killing me, but in my heart I am grateful for her changing me. I awoke at sunset and brought myself to Ambrosia, a small vampire club in the heart of NYC. I stay there most of the night, waiting until the witching hours to hunt and eat. I watch the vampires in the club, carefully noting who is gaining power and who is weak.
Jessica, hmmm, I need to keep my eye on that girl, Aubrey protects her but he is nothing.
Fala, weak, still smarting from the last defeat at the hands of a human, pitiful
Jager, ignore him, not a threat, powerful but doesn't like fighting; I laugh at that idea, a vampire not liking fighting, if he wasn't obviously so powerful I might think him afraid
My thoughts followed these lines for most of the night until two humans burst into through the door, obviously hysterical, obviously clueless about what they just walking into. One girl was nearly unconcious, her leg bleeding profusely.
How stupid of her, walking into a vampire club bleeding
Already a few vampires had began moving towards the bleeding girl, Cynthia her name is; the other girl gave her up willingly, thinking that the vampires were trying to help her. I hung back, I do not eat wounded prey, I am above that. The other girl, Lisa, looked frightened, some of the vampires, having lost out on the chance to feed on Cynthia were approaching her with obvious malicious intentions. I expected
Lisa to dart out the door and run, rather she reached into her purse and pulls out a small canister
Pepper spray, a joke, that will do nothing
However, I was intrigued, not many humans stand their ground when being attacked by a vampire, let alone many vampires. I walked over to the crowd.
"Leave this girl to me, I will deal with her," I shouted to the approaching group. They continued moving. I lashed out with my mind, striking one down. The rest fled, they were hungry but in no mood for a fight. I turned to the girl, expecting terror on her face; I saw curiosity instead.
"How did, what are, where am I, don't hurt…" Lisa babbles incoherently.
"Hush child, breathe deeply, it will be your last chance," I murmured soothingly and with that I pulled her head back and bit her throat. I intended to kill her, not change her, but she struggled, as all in our line do, and something told me to change her, told me that she will be strong. I followed my intuition.
~*~
I felt myself die, though I didn't realize it at the time. It felt like I was being thrown into a depthless chasm of blackness, a never-ending pit of evil. Strangely enough, I didn't feel myself resisting. It felt welcoming, as welcoming as an evil pit can feel. I realized I was damned now and my life was about to take a change I could never have imagined. What I didn't realize was that my life was over, it was my death that was about to change.
I felt warm liquid being forced down my throat, a voice murmured soothingly somewhere in the distance. The liquid taste strange, like no drink I have ever had before. I felt drunk after drinking it, yet it didn't feel like alcohol and no alcohol (that I know of) could have taken effect that quickly. I finish drinking and the cup is removed from my lips. I try to stand up but a hand pushes my back and the world goes black.
I feel myself lift from the evil chasm, but instead of floating to the light I see above, I merely hang. I float on the blackness, surrounded by it, unable to move up or down, not that there is much more down to go. I feel a voice in my ear, telling me to open my eyes. I comply.
Opening my eyes I see a white face in my view. Not white as in Caucasian, but white as in the color of snow. Only later do I realize that irony present, us creatures of darkness with our pale skin. The black eyes in my view blink and a voice, the same one that I heard while drinking says my name.
"Liseli"
It is no name I have ever heard before, but I can tell that it is mine. I stand up and immediately feel dizzy. I reach out for something to steady myself on and come in contact with a hand. I grab the proffered hand tightly, letting my fingers wrap around the wrist.
I rest for a few moments before I realized that something is very, horribly, drastically wrong. First, the wrist I am holding has no pulse, I feel with two fingers as I was taught in health, yet I feel nothing. Also, I realize I am not breathing.
I open my eyes and find myself staring into the same face I saw while asleep, or unconscious, I am not sure which.
"Thank you," I say gratefully as I take in my surroundings. The room I am in is nearly empty, save for a small cot in the corner; it is also very dark as there are no windows.
"Thank you, why are you thanking me?" the woman holding my hand responds.
"Umm, you saved my life. I was unconscious, you revived me, I could have died otherwise," I say, releasing the woman's wrist and reaching for my handbook, "how can I thank you? Money? I haven't much else to offer."
The woman grins, "I wouldn't be so quick in your thanks, Liseli, I didn't save your life, I killed you"
I simply stared at her.
"You are one of my kind, the youngest in the Silver line of vampires. You are officially dead, you notice you are not breathing, there is no need, you cannot suffocate as you are already dead. You have been reborn as a new being, a more powerful being, a hunter," the woman leads me out of the room into a larger room with a curtained bed and a vanity table, "look into that mirror and tell me what you see."
I looked carefully into the mirror and saw no one I recognized. A very faint, misty image was on the left of a more solid image. Me. I realized that I was looking at my reflection, but it was quite different than the one I had seen that morning.
My eyes were black, no color, and my skin looked deathly pale. Well, I thought to myself, I am dead, according to this woman. At that thought, the woman next to me began to speak.
"My name is Risika, I am your blood mother, I am a very powerful vampire, one of the most powerful there is. You should have this power too, if my intuition is correct, which it always is."
She said this all with no trace of modesty.
"Come now, child, you must feed or you shall waste away," Risika motioned with her hand and I followed her outside the small house.
"Follow me," she instructed; and with that we brought ourselves to a shadowed corner of NYC to feed.
A/N: This is a re-post of the same story with a few formatting changes. I hope it is easier to read now. Thanks to all my reviewers; you make this all worthwhile. Feel free to review or e-mail me (SmallSarah@aol.com). If you ask a question in your review I will respond as long as you also leave an e-mail address. -Serafina