Prologue
I should have died that night; there was no doubt about that.
It's only because of sheer luck that I survived. If you call a vampaneze - blood cousins of the vampires - being near-by, close enough to get to you so he can change you before you die, luck, anyway. But I still have a feeling Destiny played a part in everything, too, no matter how small it was. After all, it's not every day that you meet a blood-sucker that doesn't turn out to be a monster disguised as a miracle.
I'd rather have died with my mom and little sister. They died on impact. I'd have died a few minutes later—a few seconds even—if he hadn't been there. Sometimes I hate that he found me, became my unlikely 'hero'. I wanted to die with them. Sometimes I still do.
But he saved me. Changed me into a half-vampaneze freak. Made me into what and who I am now. I don't hate him, really, I don't. It's just that sometimes… well, I wish he would have just left me on the oil slicked blacktop to bleed out. He could have, but he didn't want to for some reason unknown to even him. At least that's what he always tells me.
My name is Ice Keller and this is my story.
Chapter 1
Rain. That's all there was. Rain, rain, and more rain. Sure, the small rivulets running down the windows of the car were pretty at first, artistic even, but they became boring and monotonous quickly. Snow seemed fascinated by it all, though, so I feigned interest if only to keep her quiet for a while longer.
Me, my little sister Snow, and my mom were in the car, going out for dinner. My mother, Rain, hated the fat drops of water obscuring her vision of the road every once in a while. It was kind of ironic that Rain would hate rain, but I didn't want to say anything while she was in such bittersweet mood. She could be really mean when driving and it was just smarter not to push it with her. I continued starting out my window at the blackness of the night.
We were driving a few miles under the speed limit with the high-beams ablaze, the windshield wipers working furiously, and my mom's face nearly pressed to the windshield in concentration. The rain pounded against our little car even harder and my mom swore under her breath in what sounded like Russian as the road became even more blurred.
The rain began to come impossibly faster, and I was tempted to swear in the few bits of Russian my grandmother had taught me. But I knew my mom would probably pull off the road and 'beat the snot out of me' if I said anything of the kind, so I kept my mouth shut and eyes wide open.
The rain finally decided to play a dirty trick on us. It came swift enough for us to barely see the headlights of another car coming towards us, its own headlights glaring into the night.
But it wasn't in its own lane anymore. It was in ours.
I'd barely blinked before I heard my mom yelling at us to get down in the floor. Both my sister and I were too shocked to move, and I saw the raw panic and fear in my mother's gaze in the rearview mirror. It was as if she already knew what would happen to us. To me.
The reality of the situation had barely set in before my mom and sister were screaming. My mother was babbling away in Russian again, but this time I was able to pick out a few words I knew. She was pleading to God. Snow was screaming unintelligibly, clinging to my arm as if she was trying to amputate it with her bare hands. I just stared for what felt like eternity, begging within my head to whoever and whatever would listen. Please don't let that be a car… don't let it hurt us… don't—
The front of the car was destroyed, pressed back into us. The airbag deployed into my mom, whipping her neck back with its force, and I heard a crack. My mom, who had always been thin and fragile, who bruised and broke bones easy, didn't say anything past that point. I had heard her choked off cry, and then my sister screamed, "Mom!"
The car slid on the slick road, spinning, before going off the road and down the hill. We rolled the whole way down, the top of the car crunching in on us. Glass broke, and I felt the sting of the cuts but nothing else. I kept my eyes closed tight, my face turned into the back of the seat for more cover. I couldn't even hear my sister anymore, though something in my head told me that she had stopped screaming.
I should have protected her, or at least checked to make sure she would be okay. But I had been too busy working to keep myself alive. Self-preservation instincts suck.
A few more rolls, then the car halted to a stop, hitting something else. We were completely still, and the only sounds were my heavy breathing and the roar of a flooding river beside us. I thanked God that the car landed upright, though it was totaled, and finally opened my eyes, feeling numb. I prayed, prayed hard that we wouldn't move anymore and go into the river, and that the river wouldn't flood so far as to reach the car and submerge the whole thing.
What a horrible way to die, drowning. I shivered lightly, wincing as the small movement made my arm feeling as if it was on fire and deep-freezing at the same time. A scream felt like it wanted to rip its way out of my throat, but I couldn't seem to find my voice. The car creaked again, moving slightly. I braced myself in case it went completely off the edge and into the river now far below. But it didn't; it only moved a few inches at the most. Thank God my sister and I were safe.
I glanced over slowly at Snow, forcing a smile onto my face before she could see me. I wanted her to think everything was going to be okay. She wasn't moving. There was blood dripping from a cut on her forehead, her arm was bent at an unnatural angle, and her head was tilted back awkwardly. Her mouth was slightly open, and more blood was streaming from the corner. Those pale blue eyes I always envied her for were open and vacant, staring not quite at me or anything else. Just staring. It didn't seem like she was breathing… I couldn't see her chest moving. A half-choked sob escaped my throat.
I then moved my head further, trying to get a look at my mom.
Her usually milky white skin was stained with blood. Various cuts marred her beautiful arms and face. Her neck was twisted at an odd angle, too, and it didn't seem like she was breathing. Again, the same vacant stare, but this time angled as if she was looking out the window. Bruises were beginning to show, too, becoming an angry violet under the paling white of her flesh. I was happy that her mouth wasn't open, though I could see blood oozing through.
When I finally looked at myself, constantly ignoring the searing pains that came from every movement I made, I gagged. There was no way I was going to live much longer than my family… at least that's what I had thought at the time. And why couldn't I feel any of it. With a grimace at the burning sensation in my arm, I moved a single finger to touch my obviously injured leg. Nothing. It made me wonder if I was already dead. But wouldn't this have been Hell?
I hadn't been panicking before, but now, now I was. I now had no mother to take care of me, my sister was dead. I didn't have a father to care— he had left when I was just a small child.
Ok, first thing I had to do—take a deep breath! Then, I had to get out of this car. I was already soaked, a mixture of blood and of the rain that came in through the broken windows. The rain was letting up slightly, as if apologizing for being so nasty to my family. And then, I had to hope that I could find my cell phone - or a cell phone, mine, my mom's, my sister's – and that it wasn't dead or destroyed.
Gritting my teeth against the slowly growing pains blooming all over my body, I slowly turned my head to the side of the car where my sister was, trying not to look at her. Instead, I looked out the window, trying to see what had stopped us from going in the river. From the angle, it might have been a tree.
Then, slowly, I raised my right arm, nearly screaming from pain, and hoping to God that it would open, tried to open my car door. After a minute of shoving at it— and wincing every few seconds— it came open, creaking loudly in protest.
The rain had let up only slightly more.
I dragged myself out of the car and stopped. The rain water stung in my many cuts, causing me to sob louder.
Slowly, painfully, I crawled through the grass that probably hadn't been cut in years, to near the road somewhat. Hopefully, someone would find me and take me to the hospital. I had learned years ago that not everyone was keen on helping people they found on the side of the road, but I was hoping for a Good Samaritan of my own.
Less than halfway to the road, the pain was too much.
I looked up to the sky, now drowning in the pain wracking my whole body, and tried to scream. Nothing came from me. My eyes strayed to the flattened grass behind me; copious amounts of blood marked my path easier than the oddly flattened grass. It looked black, blacker than the night around me, blacker than the rain hitting me.
With a resigned sigh, I closed my eyes and tried to pull myself a bit farther. Nothing moved and I began to cry harder than ever, more from frustration and pain now than true sorrow. When I opened my eyes, gritting my teeth to the point that I was afraid I would crack them, too, I saw a dark figure looming ahead of me. It wasn't more than ten feet away, standing much taller than the rain-laden grass.
And it looked like a human being.
"Help… please…" I murmured, more than sure whoever it was couldn't hear me through the rain and river. Without waiting for an answer from the person, I closed my eyes and embraced the cold of the wet grass, letting everything go black.
Hi people. So, this is my first fanfic on here! I'd really love it if someone would reveiw!
I'd like to thank Romanticized Missile Fire for reading and editing this!
