Occisor

Chapter One – What You Dont Know About Chase Hollow

Hi, everybody! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated anything. Get this. My PORTABLE HARD DRIVE crashed, so I lost everything I wrote and have ever written because I was afraid, get this, my COMPUTER might crash, so I put everything on the P. Hard Drive. Now I have to start all over with all the chapters I started, so I decided to start a new story before I did.

Guess what! I have a new cat. And guess what else! He has really long claws. And guess what ELSE! He finds it fun to scratch at my face and chew my hair while I sleep.

In this story, Chase moves to a new town called Westwick, where he meets a girl named Andie. That's all I can tell for now, but you'll find out more if you read.

Disclaimer: I don't own Step Up 2, which is good because I know nothing about dance.

A/N: I know it's weird how the Collins family's middle name is Hollow, but it popped into my head, so I worked it into the story.

Chase Hollow Collins watched with grief as his brother, Blake, pulled up in front of the first house on Dead Lake Road. It looked old. Decrepit. Could people even still live in it? The house seemed to turn from bad to worse when Chase climbed out of the house to get a better view. He inhaled, hoping the clean air would clear his mind. It didn't. The air seemed as old and rank as the decaying house, so thick he could barely suck it into his nostrils.

"Doesn't it freak anyone else out that this street is called 'Dead Lake Road'?" Chase heard his thirteen year old sister, Benny Hollow Collins say with a hint of fear as she climbed out of the car. Benny Hollow was wearing a gray sweatshirt down to her knees and thick blue jeans, but the girl still seemed to be freezing. She rubbed her arms protectively and let out a slow breath.

Blake looked absolutely miserable when he climbed out of the driver's seat of the black SUV. Chase couldn't blame him, though. He had been driving for three hours. He hadn't stopped once. Chase assumed Blake was as eager to get there as he was to leave.

"Relax, Ben, it's just a stupid name." Blake pulled a few suitcases out of the trunk. "Probably ran out of names and thought 'Dead Lake' would be cool."

"Yeah." Chase teased. "Or maybe it's named 'Dead Lake' because people died in it. Or maybe it's where murderers dump the bodies of the people they kill. Maybe—"

"Shut up." Blake warned his brother, pulling two more suitcases out of the trunk of the SUV. "Ben, why don't you go inside?"

The teenager nodded in response. "I'm gonna go call Max."

Chase made a face. He hated hearing the name of his sister's boyfriend. Max was a stuck up, pompous brat in Chase's opinion. He wore a nose ring, lip ring, eyebrow ring. As a matter of fact, his face was covered in rings to a point where if Chase had a magnet, he could pull Max's entire face off. And any part of his skin that didn't have a ring on it was covered by a tattoo. He couldn't see his sister's attraction, then he supposed she was simply at that age. But, Benny always seemed smarter than the average girl. She always seemed as if she knew what was best for her.

Well, Chase thought, Max most definitely isn't what was best for her.

Benny raced upstairs, phone in hand, dialing as she ran. Blake hollered to her that running with a phone was unsafe, and she corrected him, saying, "No, that's scissors."

Blake shook his head, exasperated, and carried the few bags in his hands into the old, dusty house.

Now alone on Dead Lake Road, Chase was starting to understand Benny's fear. For late August, the air was crisp. Nearly all the trees had lost their leaves, and Dead Lake had frozen over. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and followed his now only family into the old, creaky house.

As Chase searched the dust ridden home for a room to call his own, he wondered how he and his siblings had ended up in Westwick. He remembered saying goodbye to his parents, who had landed themselves in jail for fraud. He remembered a police officer arriving at their home in Maryland and telling them that Blake would be their legal guardian until their parents had done their time. He even remembered Blake telling them they would be getting a new house all on their parents' money. But, how had they gotten to Westwick? When did they decide to move from a safe, sheltered, comfortable, and most importantly, rich community into a little, creaky, lonely town like Westwick? And Dead Lake Road? As if they were trying to find a way to make Westwick worse, they made a street on a lake dedicated to death. What? Were they trying to scare Chase and his family away? Because if it were up to him, he'd happily make like a banana and split. But, it was Blake's decision until Chase turned eighteen. And please God let those be the shortest two years of his life.

--

"Night, night, Catnip." Andie West lovingly petted her black calico, Catnip, behind the ears as she cuddled him for sleep. The cat rolled over into Andie's arms and the brown haired girl smiled. But, when Catnip rolled again, Andie found herself moving to the edge of the bed. She lifted the cat and scoot it back toward its side. Andie hadn't had another bed companion in long time, and she wasn't about to give up all her space for a cat. "You always do this, you know. Take your side, Catnip!"

The cat 'mewed' at Andie and rolled into her stomach again. This time, it stayed put, and Andie snuggled into Catnip's soft fur.

"D! Wake up!"

Andie tried to pretend the sound of her friend's voice from behind her door was simply a dream. She pulled the blanket up to her neck.

"D! Moose's got info. Wake up now!"

"Damn it, Missy! Tell him to come back in the morning." Andie hugged Catnip closer, and the cat lapped at the tip of her nose.

Missy burst through Andie's door, then pulled the covers off the girl and tossed them onto the ground. "I said wake up! Why are you so difficult?"

Catnip jumped off of Andie's bed and scurried out of the room.

"He doesn't like you." Andie said, shielding her face from the sudden light. "That's one of the things we have in common."

"Ha ha. Very funny. Get up."

"FINE!" When Andie pushed herself off the bed, both Moose and Missy were standing in her doorway. Soon, Sophie was too, holding Andie's black cat.

"He jumped on my bed and I thought he got out the window." Sophie let the cat down on Andie's floor. As soon as her hands were free, she wrapped them around Moose and kissed him lovingly. His hands ran through her hair, pulling her head closer to his. He laughed against her lips at something she apparently did in his mouth, and then kissed her again on the neck.

"You had something to tell me?" Andie broke Moose's concentration on Sophie. He let his hands fall from her hair to her sides.

"Yeah. Found another one. The Hollow Collins kids. One of them is an occisor."

"I should care, why?" Andie tried to pull the blanket back onto her bed, but Missy yanked it before she could get a good grip on it.

"It's your turn to train. Whichever Hollow Collins it is, you have to train them and prepare them for slaying."

Andie's eyes widened in anger. Train? How unfair! Shouldn't they already know how to slay when they're born? They are born slayers, aren't they? Then again, she'd had a trainer. Ish. Moose had prepared her, but his focus was so deeply on Sophie, she barely got a bit of his attention. Not that it mattered. She didn't need help. Never did, never would. "Fine. Let me go to sleep."

Missy handed her the blanket, but climbed into Andie's bed and lay herself down.

"What are you doing?" Andie asked as Sophie and Moose trotted away, hand in hand and nose to nose.

"We're friends again! Let's have a slumber party!"

Andie groaned, but complied, and lay down next to Missy, whose mouth was going mile a minute. She wasn't really listening to her friend. She was thinking about being a trainer. Did this Hollow Collins person really need to be trained? Were they so stupid that they couldn't figure out how to slay on their own?

Catnip jumped onto Andie's lap and flashed her a look that said, "I suppose you'll find out."

--

Chase stared at the blank walls of his new room and wondered when his things would arrive. He couldn't bear to stare at the diminishing, yellowing wall paper another day. It reminded him of… death. Like everything else about Dead Lake Road and Westwick. He felt sick to his stomach thinking about what could lie under the frozen sheets of murky water. He was, of course, only kidding when he mentioned dead bodies in the lake, but something about the place made him wonder. It made him scared. Uncomfortable. He hated Westwick even more just thinking about it.

Chase couldn't look at the wall any longer. He pushed himself off of the floor of the strangely large room, and headed for the door. He didn't know Westwick well enough to wander off, but he didn't want to be trapped in the musty old house any longer. Just staring at the dead walls made him feel depressed. He trudged down the stairs and out the backdoor.

He walked long enough to make his legs hurt. He'd been lost in his thoughts, wondering what Westwick had to offer. He knew it wasn't the friendliest place, by the looks a few other teenagers had given the black SUV when they'd first arrived. He'd gotten the death stare from one girl. Pretty. Long blonde hair and green eyes. Though, as soon as they'd connected with Chase, they seemed to flash red with anger. On his first day in some dull town he'd never even heard of, he'd managed to make at least four enemies by simply existing. That blonde girl had made it pretty clear in her glare that she had not wanted Chase around.

Chase stopped when he hit a clearing. He was surprised. He hadn't even noticed he had entered the woods. Now, he looked around, hoping to find an opening in the tall, looming trees that surrounded him. He seemed to be closed in, trapped in the forest around him.

"Lost?"

Chase turned again, and came eye to eye with the pretty blonde girl who'd glared at him earlier. "Wouldn't you like to know?" Chase sounded as he felt. Scared, lost, and slightly angry to see the girl who'd made it obvious she didn't want him around, now looking at him as if they'd known each other for years.

"Yeah, it's pretty easy to get lost out here in the woods. Lot of big trees and bushes." She said the last sentence as if Chase was an infant, getting scared of such trivial things that were apparently a part of everyday life in Westwick.

"Yeah, well. I didn't even notice I'd entered a forest."

"You should watch where you're going. There are a lot of things in the forest that can hurt you."

"Yeah? Like what?"

Chase looked up at the blonde girl, who was now smiling cheekily, two of her molars extended the length of Chase's pinkies. He eyes were red again, but this time, not from rage. From pure desire, and an obvious hunger for Chase's blood. "Like a vampire."

Chase didn't respond. He was frozen. In fear and shock. Westwick was more dangerous than he'd thought. And now, because his parents had stolen money from a national bank under assumed name, and because his brother thought it was a good idea to move his siblings out into a dreary unknown town, he was going to die, a bloodless heap on cold forest ground, no one around to save him, or even catch his killer. Then again, who would believe he had wandered into the forest and was killed by a vampire? They would probably think he had run away.

The vampire made a sharp dive for him, positioning herself on his shoulders, she held him steady. She sniffed his neck, the stopped, and released him. With a loud, angry hiss, the vampire ran away, disappearing behind the many trees of the forest until she was simply a nightmarish memory to Chase.

Finished! It took like three days 'cause I kept getting distracted with homework and Thanksgiving and stuff. I'm also working on a one shot and a sequel to 'I Wish You'd Stay'. My teeth hurt 'cause my wisdom teeth are coming in. Isnt that weird? I'm only fourteen and my wisdom teeth are coming in. And they hurt like crap too.

Sorry about the weird middle names. Hollow. I was thinking about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and I decided to work that into the Collins name.

Review!

Naomi