Prolouge

Nightmare Vision

~Alice~

Under the baking heat of the August sunset, the buzz of endless amounts of bugs was deafening. So dry, the breeze only made things feel even hotter. Heat can make a person do crazy things. The burning sting of the light set on your skin would send your blood pumping, your heart racing, beats of sweat cascade down your face like endless waterfalls.

Such as the case with her. Two, chocolate-brown eyes, half-covered by the lids that drooped as a sign of fatigue. Her legs wobbled, and not even the light-weight of her sundress, nor the shade of her sun hat could shield her from the mind-numbing heat.

But that wasn't the reason she staggered...

"Sunset turns the sky such a rusty color, almost like blood..." the mere thought of the word, "blood" sent her heart racing. Under her smile at the utterence of these words, the whites of her fangs glittered in the light.

Then...she spotted her target. Not too far ahead, sitting on the dock looking out over the sea, a young kitsune boy, about her age. Fur shining gold, much like the water below him. The rocks he tossed into the water splashed audibly.

The clop of her sandles made noise as she stepped onto the dock, thus gaining the attention of said kitsune. He turned to her, "Oh, hey Alice!" he greeted with a smile. She smiled back, but under the mask, was a devil in disguise.

"It's good to see you..." she said in a single exhale of her breath. Each breath of air she took in burned her lungs, the thrill of her comming attack getting her more and more excited by the second. Completely ruptured from fatigue, she collapsed into his arms.

Reacting quickly, the boy caught her, gasping, "Hey, are you okay?!"

She opened her eyes and smiled, "Miles..." and leaned in closer to his face, "I am...sorry."

Without another word, the girl bared her fangs, and sank them deep into the soft flesh of the boy's neck. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. His entire body went numb, his eyes drained of color, and once she was finished, she let him drop to the ground.

Now the sun had completely fallen behind the horizon, with the full moon high in the sky. A demon's laugh echoed throughout the forest surrounding her. The heatless light caused the color red to glow in the night. Red flowed down her lips, her dress, down to the ground. The color red was her favorite color. The color red was all she knew...

The color red...the color...of blood...

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"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Gasp, gasp!" a scream followed the nightmare, but once he found that he was back in reality, he fell back onto his pillow.

He looked over at his window. It was no longer nighttime, as it had been in his dream. The sun was now looming over the horizon. Today's light woludn't burn in the least, for morning in November is chilling.

The fox's name was Miles, but he is more commonly known by his nickname, "Tails", given to him for his second tail. He was young, as it was shown in his dream, about eight-years-old. One too many scary stories before bed had produced the nightmare which frightend him so. Strangely enough, those stories actually were about something he'd always had crawl into his mind when it began to wander.

Vampires...

"Oh, Mr. Sandman's a jerk!" he whined, disappearing in a swaddle of sheet and blanket, "Why on today...? I can't recall the last time I had a nightmare." he thought, shutting his eyes to see if he could sleep again. But the reaction from his nightmare proved to powerful, and his heart was still beating at a thousand-miles-an-hour. With a heavy sigh, he threw the blankets off of him, and sat up. He turned to the mirror on the opposite wall. His hair was highly ruffled and shaggy, much to his dismay, because his roommate would be complaining, in three...two...one.

"Tails! It's time to get up!" yelled a strangely bubbly voice. Absolutely no one could be this perky in the morning, well, maybe except for Amy.

Amy was one of Tails' roomates. A pink furred hedgehog who usually seems to be happy about something. True, that happiness would rub off on him in the morning, and he would usually face the day with a much better attitude, but today, it would just be marked as the first annoyance.

When she burst in, as happy and crazy as ever, Tails' heart jumped into his throat. Amy was apparently deaf to the sound of Tails' body hitting the floor hard. As he got back up, he noticed how Amy was angrily scanning him in nothing but his socks and underwear, scolded him accordingly, "Jeez, Tails, get dressed and brush your hair! You're a mess!" and left the room.

Tails muttered under his breath, "Crazy bi...Come on, I just got outta bed." he stopped himself abruptly, as he wasn't one to insult his friends, but was highly angry when he didn't get his sleep.

He looked to his left, out the window. The veiw of the morning sunrise stretching over the plains lightened the mood a bit. Then, he looked to his right, at the mirror.

Amy was right, he was a mess. And much to his dismay, with Amy in the house, Tails couldn't be one of those rebelious kids that always ran around the house without any clothes on. Though she wasn't much older than him, Amy was as strict as a mother, and not one you would defy either. Often quoted as "A short fuse wet with gasoline next to a grease fire", accompanied with that giant hammer of her's, she's not one you want to get on the bad side of.

Trying to cheer himself up by not complaining, Tails obeyed Amy and hopped of his bed, heading into the bathroom. Popping up on the stool in front of the sink, Tails pulled down his bottom lip to check his teeth.

"Yo Tails! You up yet?" Tails' other room-mate, a cocky, blue hedgehog with an attitude. His name was Sonic. Sonic always treated Tails more like a little brother rather than a friend, always leading him around and occasionaly bullying him. Though, as charismatic as the hedgehog was, Tails will always say that Sonic is is best friend.

"Yeah, I'm up." he shouted from the other side of the bathroom.

"Well hurry up. Amy got us up late! School starts in twenty minutes!" said a worried Sonic. Tails gasped. Without a word, he burst out of the bathroom and darted to his dresser. He didn't have time to pick out something that looked good. He picked out a red sweater that was a little too big for him and some white jeans.

As he snapped the button on his pants, Sonic emerged from the doorway and grabbed Tails' hand, "Come on! I've got to get you to school, then get myself to my school!"

Sonic then zoomed out the front door, brandishing two backpacks in his left hand, and Tails in his right. The chilling air rushed by in a sense of adrenaline. Tails absolutely loved the rush that he got when Sonic ran him to school. Though, he mainly perfered it during the warm months, as the wind blowing against him in November would be freezing.

All of his teeth chattered audibly by the time they reached his school. Sonic set him on the ground, handed him his bag, and with a wave goodbye, dashed off once again. Tails stood alone, watching papers and leaves get kicked up in the turbulance Sonic left behind.

"Maybe he should just drive you insted." a voice called out behind him. Tails turned to see one of his "closer-age" friends, Charmy Bee. Charmy is a hyperactive, scatterbrained kid. Highly unusual, with a peppy outlook on life and an incurable optimist. Even the air around him resonated with the energy he was giving off.

"C'mon, you know what a safe, non-crazy driver he is!" Tails joked, to which they both laughed hartily. Tails wiped his eye and asked, "Is Cream here today?" Charmy nodded.

"She should be inside. C'mon, class is about to start." As Charmy began to head in, Tails followed closely behind him.

But something caught his eye. In the distance, peering in through one of the classrooms, he saw what he believed to be a person. The window was quite a distance away, so it was difficult to be sure, "Huh? Who's that?"

As he got closer to the front door, the figure turned, caught sight of him, and like a frightened mouse, quickly dashed away. From what he could tell, the creature was a bat, but it was quickly swallowed up by shrubbery before he could catch any details.

"Tails! Come on!" Charmy shouted, already at the front door.

Tails snapped out of his trance, "Oh, what? Oh yeah! Coming!"

Tails ran to the door, turning back one last time. He saw the creature looking out the bushes, quickly ducking down again.

"Seriously...who is that?" The bell finally rang, and Tails charged inside...

end prolouge.