Chapter 1

Human

Everyone is essentially human; our bodies change as we grow, some different than the rest.

I was strangely pale, but I fit in. I had a normal childhood. My parents fought, my brothers and my single sister picked on me for being the youngest. I played outside as well as inside. My eyes hurt when I looked at the sun. I hurt when I fell. I got scrapes and scratches from my childhood play. It was all normal to me and to those around me.

Like I said, a normal life.

At the age of nine, it changed. One normal day at school, an accident happened. One of my classmates fell down a hill turning recess. Only at the bottom of the hill was a broken bottle. A piece of glass was lodged into his head. At first, he felt nothing. Just his head hurt a bit from landing on it. He cried. He always cried in school. So it was nothing to everyone else… However, it was something strangely fascinating to me. I had a strange feeling in my nose and in my throat. Something smelt insanely good and I was suddenly thirsty. Shortly after this happened, the boy moved his hand off his head and looked at it. It was drenched in blood. He screamed, scared from seeing so much blood. I've seen blood time and time before. Why is it so different this time? Without realizing, I was at his side, staring at him. He half-hung onto me for support. The teacher told me to help him to the nurse's office. So I did. It was a short walk. I was still staring at his head, then his hand, both covered in blood. I didn't say a word, I brought him to the nurse's office and she rushed to us and took him from me. I twitched when she started pulling him away. The scent was almost too pleasing to have taken away like that. He stumbled a bit as she pulled him. His blood covered hand grabbed my arm for support. He regained composure and the nurse told me to hurry and wash the blood off my arm in the bathroom. I simply nodded and left to the bathroom. Once I was there, I found myself staring at my arm. The strange substance that seemed to have my complete focus was staring back at me. I closed my eyes and looked up into the mirror. My eyes were lighter. I had dark brown eyes my entire life. Now, they were a very light grey, almost silver. I was terrified at the sight I saw. It was me, why was I so scared at seeing myself? Then my nostrils flared. I was once again staring at my arm. Slowly, I brought it up to my face. The scent tickling my nose and sending my mind into a whirl. My mouth opened slightly, my arm slowly inching towards my lips. I felt my tongue sliding out of my mouth and touching the red liquid covering my arm. In an instant, my mind went from a whirl… to a cyclone of what seemed to be ecstasy. I couldn't stop lapsing at the blood. I felt a strange sort of high as I lapsed more. Soon, it was all gone. All of it was cleaned off of my arm. I was frozen in terror after I realized what I just did. I drank blood. I looked back into the mirror. I don't remember why I did, I just did. My eyes, they were their normal dark brown. I stared for a long moment, the water in the sink still running from when I first turned it on. I splashed some water onto my face and hands. I washed my arm and ran back outside to the teacher to tell her how my classmate was doing. He was later brought to the hospital and got some stitches and the day went on.

Little did I understand why I did what I did that day. I was up all night, thinking about it. I told no one what happened. How could I? For years I randomly thought about it. It either woke me up in a dream or I just saw someone with a cut from a fair distance away. The thought just kept coming back to me time and time again. Until, I had another incident. I was thirteen. A woman was hit by a car in New York City. I was on a visit to my friend Luke. I was waiting for him to pick me up when suddenly, a car screeched and spun into the woman. She was killed instantly. Everyone was in a panic, but I was so close to her… I was literally a foot away from her corpse. Blood splattered on the sidewalk, on the car and some on my clothes. I stared at her body. It was mangled and bloody from this sudden freak accident. I was then staring at her blood. I felt my tongue lick my lips. The smell was driving me insane. I felt the same as I did four years ago. Like I was all alone and no one was there to see what I was doing. I saw the other people around me, but it was like none of them were actually there. The only thing that stood out was the body. I tried looking away, but no such luck. My eyes were glued to the deceased. My throat was burning with thirst. I forced my eyes from the body and turned around.

This is where my normal life ended, and I was reborn.

Before me was a woman. A beautiful woman with long black hair what seemed to look like silk. Her eyes were a piercing blue. Her cloths weren't an eye sore either. She wore a black pair of slacks, business-like, a red button down and she had a black Coach purse slung onto her wrist. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties. My eyes were now locked on her, the smell of the blood was gone to me. To my surprise, she was staring back at me. Then she spoke in a low voice, I could barely make it out, but I heard her.

"It can't be…"

Before I could react, her hand was on my wrist and she was pulling me from the scene. I didn't know what to do. I was a thirteen year old boy being dragged away by a woman who seemed to have hopped right out of a model magazine. Before long, I was pulling at my arm, trying to escape her grasp. It was no use, her hands were rather cold to me and locked onto my wrist as she pulled me with ease through the crowd of people rushing to the scene. After about thirty seconds of walking, she pulled me into an alley. I opened my mouth to speak before her slender and cold finger was pushed to my lips, silencing me. Her eyes were now a light grey. Almost silver. My mind flashed to four years before. I her eyes were the same color as mine was all those years ago. Her light red lips parted to speak as her words were like music to my ears.

"Tell me my young lad, are you fascinated with the dead? Or was it the blood?"

Her voice had a thick Scottish accent, but it fit her perfectly it took me a few moments to regain my composure and trying to get my head on straight. She removed her finger from my lips as she lowered her hand let me speak. Bad mistake.

"Who the hell are you?! What the fuck are you doing? Why did you pull me into this alley as if you were going to rape me! I don't know who…"

Her hand clamped over my mouth, shutting me up rather quickly. Her eyes were now glaring into mine, making me frozen, and no longer speaking in fear for my life. She opened her mouth to speak once again and her eyes seemed to settle.

"Rowdy youngling aren't you? What's your name laddie?"

She lowered her hand again, this time slowly in case I freaked out again. I calmed down as I answered her.

"Michael Blanchard…"

I was so lost in thought. What was going on…? Was I dreaming? The woman cut my train of thought off with her musical accented voice.

"Michael?

She spoke like she was insulted. She then muttered something to herself, nothing I could hear. Then I spoke again.

"Who are you…?"

"Elaine. The rest of my name is unimportant for now."

She released me, but her eyes were keeping me frozen in place. I was terrified. I don't know why, but I was. Her eyes were like shackles on my body, making me completely incapable to defend myself. I parted my lips to speak.

"What exactly do you want with a kid like me?"

Her next action frightened me further. She was laughing uncontrollably.

"My my lad… I don't want anything in particular. I just want to know if you want to know what actually saw in the accident, the body or the blood pouring from it."

Her words made my eyes widen a bit and made my body involuntarily jump. She spoke once again.

"You wanted it didn't you laddie? You wanted to taste the blood."

Her words echoed through my head. I spoke without hesitation.

"Yes… but why do I want to?"

My voice was light and childish. I was too confused and scared to understand what was going on. I felt only a cold hand lift my head up and release me as I now saw the woman named Elaine backing away from me and turning on her heel to leave the alley.

"You are too young to understand it fully laddie. Keep living your normal life."

I was still confused, but my head turned to her and I asked.

"Wait, you are leaving? You haven't told me a thing. What about…"

Her head snapped towards me as her eyes were silvery again, glaring at me.

"Like I said laddie, you are too young. Keep living your life."

Her eyes settled and she turned as I asked one more question.

"Will I see you again? I don't even know you… but you have a lot to tell me about. I need to know someday."

Her head turned away from me partially away from me and smiled.

"I'll be around when your life becomes too hard to handle on your own. Don't worry, I'll know when that is."

"Huh…? What is she talking about…?" I questioned myself in my head.

She then turned away and something dropped from her hand to the ground as she left the alley. I hurried to pick it up. When I looked back up, she was gone.

"What the fuck!?" That was my only thought.

I then looked at the object she dropped. It was a small metal cross with silver lining and colored black in the center. There seemed to be small chewing marks on the bottom part of it. Lost in thought I was brought back to reality by a hand smacking me upside the head. Being already completely freaked out of my mind I reacted by jumping up and throwing my fist at random. Instead of connecting to something, I felt my wrist being grabbed. A moment later, I found myself with my arm behind my back being twisted as I was stuck in a submission hold. Then I heard a familiar voice.

"Why the fuck are you swinging at me for, boy?"

My head turns to its right to see my friend Luke holding my arm. He let me go and gave me his well known 'What are you doing' face.

"Luke? Oh crap… Thank God it's you…"

His left eyebrow raised as his head tilted a bit. I looked down to see my bag in his other hand. He lifted it to my face. I took it from him and we walked out of the alley way and back onto the street.

"Mind telling me why you left your bag out on the sidewalk by a car accident?"

I thought a moment, I didn't know where to begin with that Elaine woman… then again, probably not a good idea to tell him about it.

"Uh… I saw the woman in the accident get hit by the car, so I ran to the alley thinking I was gunna hurl. I must've dropped my bag in shock."

He shook his head as we headed towards his car on the side of the street. I followed close behind him. Luke had a rebuilt 1972 Ford Mustang. I don't know much about cars, but he had it completely upgraded, so it was really nice. He popped the truck open and I tossed in my bag. I headed up to the passenger seat and opened the door and got in. Luke got in as well and buckled himself in and turned on the car. I was freaked by the sudden noise. I just shook my head and buckled myself in. Luke then turned to his head to me briefly before back to the road.

"You okay kiddo? You look all shook up."

I nodded and replied to him.

"Yeah, just haven't seen a dead body that close in a long time. Freaked me out man…"

He sighed and ruffled my hair, well, what hair I had.

"Sorry kiddo, must've brought memories back. Huh?"

I shook my head and spoke again.

"No, just shook me up. C'mon, let's get to your house."

He nodded as he pressed the gas and we were on our way. I looked out the window to the accident as we drove by it. We drove down the road before we hit a stop light. I kept my eyes out the window. Then, a person at the end of the sidewalk caught my attention.

Elaine stood there with a kind smile and waved at me. I didn't wave back. I tried to pretend that I never met her and that she didn't exist. For the time the light was red, all I could think about was what she said to me. A few moments later, the light turned green and Luke hit the gas again. I shook my head and leaned my head back onto the head rest and closed my eyes. Before long, I dozed off to sleep.