Hello! This might take a while, but I do plan on carrying this out in honor of this year's Halloween! I hope some you readers out there who first read this will come back to read it again with the changes, as well as the update I will eventually give!

The Little Halloween Girl

By Ryoken

Halloween. The one night of the year when children can dress up as themselves; as witches, heroes, ghosts, and, of course, vampires. But there was one trick-or-treater who decided to be different. This trick-or-treater dressed up with glass wings, separated into columns which were kept together with pieces of tan masking tape. She wore a light blue leotard with a transparent, also light blue, dress and around her forehead was a light blue headband with a diamond shape in the middle.
All the people who passed her and handed out treats complimented her on her creative costume, though they had no idea as to what she was and guessed that she was a fairy of some sort.
There was one house on her street that no one dared go up to. It was an old creepy house, one that looks like it jumped out of a horror movie. But the little girl wasn't afraid of it. She even believed that someone lived there and that they were sad that no one was coming to their house to get candy. So she gathered up her courage and went up to the door. She knocked only once and the door swung slowly open. She cautiously entered and quietly said "Trick-or-treat", when the door slammed behind her, making her yelp. She tried to open it in a panic, but it was locked. So with no other real choice, she started to walk down the dark hallway. When she reached the first door, she opened it and was amazed at what she saw.
Through this door was a land unlike any she had seen before in her few years of life, even in her dreams. It had the feeling of loneliness and death, and there were only the dull colors of gray and brown. Entranced by this world-in-a-door, she stepped through.

In front of her was a church-like building, colored a dull gray with six different colored flags hanging high above her from the outside scaffolding. She gazed in wonder at what she saw before her.
Suddenly, she felt a tugging on her wings and turned to see a tall gothic-looking man examining them. She gave a frightened squeal and backed swiftly away. The man bent down to her eye level, a curious look in his eye.
"Who are you, little girl?" He asked her.
"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," she replied. He smiled mischievously and held out his hand. It had three claws for fingers. She was quite reluctant to take it, but she did and followed him into the huge church.
This "church" was not what she had thought it would be. As they walked through the halls with their columns and fancy red carpets, there were no rooms with pews or alters. No representations of Christ or even a hint that this WAS a church. Puzzled and more curious about this place than ever, she grew quite comfortable with this man, like she was safe. She did her best to remember to be cautious while being in awe of the place, and spoke to him.
"I-um...I like your costume," she said as she tried to force a smile at him. The man merely blinked in confusion and then chuckled a few times. "What is this place?"
"It is the Sanctuary of the Clans, little one. The heart of Nosgoth. I would think even a little girl such as yourself would know this."
"Nozgawth? Where's that?"
"That's Nosgoth. Why do you ask such silly questions? You aren't from here, are you?"
"No."
"That's what I thought," and the man picked up his pace, making the girl run to keep up with him. Soon they reached a large circular room with a tall throne and broken pillars that once reached for the sky, surrounding it. The six flags were there as well, hanging from the columns that circled the room. On the throne sat a man taller than the one that had found her and around the room were six other tall men, who wore similar clothing and had similar black hair, except for the man on the throne and one other. His hair was white, and the other had no hair at all. She looked curiously at them all as they stared in wonder at her.
"Motenus, who is this child?" Asked the man sitting on the throne, who stood up as he spoke and walked towards them. The girl hid herself behind Motenus, trying to block herself from their view.
"I know not, my lord. She would not give me her name," he said as he looked back at her, placing one clawed hand on her head. By this time, the man had reached them.
"Child, what is your name?"
"I'm Sara. Who-Who are you?" He grinned.
"I am Lord Kain, master of the vampires and all of Nosgoth. What are you?" Thinking that he meant what she was dressed up as, she responded with "I'm a vampire too!" she said as she spread out her glass wings with her hands. Unintentionally, light had shown in from the doors and created two rainbows from the wings. The other men gazed in awe at the sight. So was Lord Kain.
"Interesting...How did you do that?" He asked.
"I dunno..." She was fascinated by what she had done as well.
"You are unlike any vampire I have ever seen, little Sara." Kain was about to say something else when Sara interrupted.
"So are you! All of the vampires I've seen look really stupid compared to you and Motenus," she tried to say. "I guess these other people are vampires too cause they look kinda like you do." Kain chuckled and nodded. Then Kain glanced at Sara's bag that she held at her side.
"And what might be in that?" He asked. By this time the others were coming to look at her more closely as well, though she didn't notice.
"Candy, what else?" He smiled at her. It was more evil than kind.
"Now what would a vampire be doing with candy?" Said one of the men that had come up beside her.
"So I can eat it!" She giggled. All of them laughed heartily.
"Perhaps she is a sugar vampire?!" One of laughed. He had a green cloth draped over his left shoulder. When the laughter had subsided, Kain spoke.
"You are quite an amusing child, Sara. Come and stay a while, we could use some entertainment." She agreed, thinking they were having a Halloween party.
Sara only spoke to the "vampires" when spoken to, though she asked questions here and there. She learned that her new friends' names were Rahab, Raziel, Dumah, Turel, Zephon, and Melchiah. Some things that they said and laughed at didn't make sense to her, but she laughed along with them anyway.
Soon, she grew tired, yawning and shutting her eyes every now and then, but always keeping a smile on her face. Kain, with his hawk-like eyesight, saw Sara's weariness and whispered something to Rahab.
"Come," Rahab whispered to her and led her out of the room, unnoticed. He led her out of the Sanctuary. Sara grew to be even more sleepy with this walking and started to whine a little.
"Where are we going, Rahab? I'm really tired," she complained.
"We're almost there, Sara. Just keep going," He responded gently. And indeed they were there. It was too dark outside to see where they were. Inside, it was dark, damp, and hard to see. Gently pushing her back, Rahab led her to a bed where she could sleep. She took her headband off and put it in her bag before she fell asleep.

Sara awoke to a muffled voice. It was still dark, but she could just barely make out the outline of a person wriggling and leaning on a wall. The person's muffled voice seemed to be trying to say something, but it was impossible to tell what it was he was saying. She walked up to the man and saw that he clearly had an expression of terror on his face. "Who are you?" She asked. He only gave a muffled answer. Then he leaned down as best he could to her and motioned for her to come closer. She didn't take another step towards him. That's when he lost his balance and his head fell on her. Sara screamed and pushed herself away from the tied up man with her feet and hands. While she backed up, her hand landed on something. She turned to see a clawed foot and looked up to see Rahab looking down at her. He merely smiled and picked her up, placing her back on the edge of the bed and turning to face the man. "Who is he, Rahab?" She asked as the man's eyes grew wider with shock at the fact that she wasn't dead yet.
"He is dinner," he grinned. Sara laughed, thinking he was joking, but then saw Rahab dig his teeth into the man's neck, the blood running hastily from the puncture. Sara was horrified at the sight and screamed as she began to shiver with fear. Now she knew that when they had said they were vampires, they weren't lying. She backed herself against the wall and brought her knees up to her chin, then covering her face with her legs, crying softly with scared tears. Startled, Rahab wiped the blood from his chin and turned to the frightened little ball of a girl, shaking with fear. He began thinking that perhaps feeding in front of her wasn't such a great idea after all. Trying to comfort her, he said "don't cry, I'm not going to hurt you," but it did no good to stifle her crying. Thinking that there must be a way to stop her sobbing, he tried to think of something. After a bit of looking around, an idea popped into his head. He gathered up three books that were lying near a desk and started to clumsily juggle them. Sara looked up at the noise he was making and got up to watch him. His attention was drawn away from the books to the curious face and with that, the books fell on his head one by one, making Sara laugh and Rahab smile at his accomplishment.
Now, there were a few Rahabim outside of the door, listening in, who had heard the little girl scream, but when they heard the thumps and her laughter, they thought something was wrong and barged in. Not taking notice of their master's face, they seized the little girl by the neck before she could scream. Without thinking, Rahab punched and kicked the living daylights out of his kin until they cowered before him. Sara lay half unconscious on the floor, the vampires' strength taking the wind out her.
"IF ANYONE LAYS ANOTHER CLAW ON THIS GIRL, I WILL PERSONALLY SEE TO IT THAT YOU NEVER SEE THE DARKNESS OF NIGHT AGAIN!!!!! NOW GET OUT!!!!!!!" Rahab screamed. The vampires of his clan had never seen him so angry before, nor had any of his brothers, or even Kain. He was always a peacemaker, not a vampire who tried to start fights. With fear in their so-called faces, they scurried out of his presence. Rahab then turned his attention towards Sara, who sat up, looking dazed.
The first thing he immediately asked was "Are you alright?" Sara affirmed with a nod and a quiet "uh huh." "You must forgive them, they only thought me threatened. I'll make sure they pay for their insolence." She seemed to only be able to half listen to him as her breath came back to her. She put her hands behind her on the floor, supporting her weight, and then immediately pulled back with a short yelp and looked at her hand with a terrified look. Rahab came up to her and looked at her hand. She had a piece of glass stuck in her palm and when he looked behind her, a part of her right wing was broken. Turning his attention back to her hand, he recalled something out of a book he once read. Carefully using his fingers as tweezers, he pulled the shard out from her hand. Rahab tried to think of some cloth that he could use to wrap up her bleeding cut and tore a piece of his banner off. Once it was tied, Sara looked at Rahab and hugged him. He was taken aback with surprise and shock. Shaking his head to snap out of his trance, he pulled her away from him. "I'm afraid I am unable to fix your wing though. It must be painful."
"No it's not. It took a long time to make these, though." She said disappointedly.
"Make?? What do you mean make?!?! You made these wings?!" He asked, both surprised and mad. His grip on her hadn't ceased.
"Well, no. My daddy made them," she said she as began to remove the knot that tied strings together to hold them to her back. Then she held them up to Rahab with a smile. "See?" He took the fragile wings in his hands, shaking his head back and forth.
"This is bad. Very bad," he said. Sara tilted her head in curiosity.
"What's bad?" She asked.
"We knew you were odd because of your wings, but you're just a normal human...a damned normal human!!!!" He yelled as he hit the wall nearest him with his fist. Sara, scared at this anger, backed away from him as far as she could. Then Rahab raised his head and turned to look at her. "Put those wings back on. I've got to get you out of here before anyone knows you're not a vampire." She didn't move. "It's alright, Sara, just do it." She obeyed.

Getting out of his own domain was the easy part, his kin only shivered in fear as they bowed to him when he passed. Figuring out where to send her was the hard part. She obviously couldn't stay with the vampires, they would surely find out that she was human sooner or later. And he couldn't turn her into one of his own, it would only cause suspicion when she was able to swim in water and grew webbed feet and claws. It left only one other option: get her home, wherever that was. Once they reached the end of this territory, he asked her plainly, "Where do you live?"
"In California." Rahab had a confounded look on his face. Then he tried a different approach.
"How did you get here?"
"Through a door in a really creepy house."
"Show me where you first came here." She was very confused. "Show me where this door was." Understanding what he meant, she led him outside to the front of the Sanctuary. When they got there, she pointed at a spot, the same spot where the entrance had been. Rahab looked around the spot for some sign of opening the door, but to no avail. "Are you sure this is the right place?"
"Yup, I 'member looking up at the flags," she answered as she gazed up the flags flapping in the slight wind.
"Trying walking through where it was." She did so as if she was walking on a tightrope. Nothing. Suddenly, Rahab heard a noise and then saw the small outline of someone approaching in the distance. He could just barely make out the bodies of three of his brothers, Melchiah, Raziel, and Turel. They were obviously making fun of Melchiah. "Hide, Sara. My brothers are approaching. Behind that rock, over there," he nodded at. When she had hid, he casually leaned against the Sanctuary, trying to think of something to say when his brothers saw him.
"Rahab, brother! What are you doing here, I would have thought you to be entertaining our guest?" Raziel yelled when he saw him.
"I, uh, Kain wanted to see her." By now the three brothers had reached him.
"Any ideas as to why?" Turel asked.
"None, his only orders were to wait outside here until he gave me word to return."
"Ahh, well in that case we shall wait here with you. You look positively bored without one of your books!" Raziel teased.
"Uh, thank you for your graciousness, Raziel, but I believe I would rather wait alone,"
"Oh come now, Rahab! Stop being so stubborn all the time, or you'll end up like Zephon!"
"No, really, I would like to be left alone to think, if you please."
"Why, do you not have enough time cooped up in your lair to think?"
"Well, I do, but I was in the middle of an important, uh, test and I can't think with people speaking to me."
"Test eh? Well, you can do that later, you know. For now, why don't you just have some fun??" Turel suggested.
"I, er, do believe I hear Kain calling me. Now if you'll excuse me, brothers," Rahab said as he tried to think of some way to get back to Sara and what he was doing. Making sure no one was looking at him, he quickly hid behind a corner and looked out at his brothers. They were still standing there, speaking to one another, though what they were saying he didn't know. He only hoped Sara had enough sense to stay hidden.

"I wonder what Kain would want with that little girl now?" Melchiah pondered.
"Oh I'm sure it's nothing big, little brother," Turel reassured him. Melchiah frowned.
"Melchiah, if you're so worried about her, just go and eavesdrop!" Raziel exclaimed.
"I can't do that! What if I get caught?"
"What if you don't?! Come on, I'm sick of just standing around," said Turel as he hurriedly ran off into the Sanctuary with Raziel and Melchiah right behind him.
With them gone, Sara slowly emerged from her hiding place behind the rocks and resumed her search for the door. Rahab joined her search shortly after accidentally scaring her from behind. There was no sign that there had ever been a door. So they sat on the nearby stones to think.
Rahab knew what the only other option would be: find her a home in the human citadel. He looked over at the little girl. She had her chin on the palms of her hands, looking down at her feet. He could only guess at what her reaction would be at having to give up the search. He knew Kain could probably summon up the door or send her home, but thought against it. He would want her stay, that is until he found out she was human. No, the only way was to break the news to her and get her as far from the Sanctuary of the Clans as possible.