I gazed out the window at the glowing silver moonlight of Seward. How I wished I could dream. I barely remember what it feels like, to dream.
"Andrew," Ruby called from the doorway of the living room in our modern suburban house. I didn't even bother to look. I knew what she would say. "turn, please."
I grimaced and turned my body slowly to meet her gaze. She stared at me with accusing topaz eyes. She had gone hunting. She folded her arms across her chest and said, "well."
"Well what, Ruby?" I said, glaring at her.
"You know what, Andrew," she hissed, returning my glare. "You need to go hunting if you're going to go today."
"Maybe I won't go," I hissed back, my voice acidic.
Her expression softened. "Please, Andrew," she pled, "you need to go with us. They'll get suspicious if we don't all show up." her eyes were hypnotic, but I didn't fall for it. I had seen it far too many times.
I rolled my eyes at her. "All right, all right, clam down, I'll go hunting when I'm ready." I turned away to stare at the silver glowing moonlight.
"No, Andrew. You need to go now. Its nearly dawn and me and Charles have already gone. Haven't you noticed my eyes?" She made her eyes wider to prove her point.
I folded my arms across my chest and stared at her. As usual, she looked more like a movie star than an average high school girl. She wore dark, tight, designer jeans and a deep red cashmere sweater that matched the glowing red crystal on her bare pale chest. Her snow-white skin glowed slightly in the moonlight, just like mine. She flipped back her thick, pitch black curls and raised her eyebrows. Definitely, too conspicuous. I don't think she could help it, though. She probably could have worn a cardboard box and still looked drop-dead gorgeous to human eyes.
"Actually, I have, Ruby," I said lightly. She didn't even smile. I sighed and jumped up from the sofa. "All right, fine, I'll go now."
I moved swiftly past her, not even turning to look at her. Though, I knew she didn't care as long as I left. I could just imagine her triumphant smile.
I ran out the door and into the thick mountain forests in a breeze. Letting all my thoughts drift away as I caught the scent of a pack of local deer. Never anything new. I sighed and ran after the familiar scent. It was fairly easy, catching the deer, even though they ran. Or tried to run, I should say. I sunk my teeth into one of the deer's skin and sucked. I fed more than usual due to my oh so wonderful chance to go to high school.
Ruby's idea. I didn't particularly get the point. We already knew of all the information those books contained. Lived through some of it, actually.
I sighed as I drained the blood of my last victim. I could practically feel my eyes changing color from liquid onyx to golden brown. I ran back to our house in less than two minutes. Running was one of my favorite things to do when I wanted to get away. Feeling the cool air whip around my face and everything around me being a fast blur, quickly changing colors always calmed me.
I raced through the door just as the first light of dawn was breaking. Charles was in the front room reading a book, as usual. He didn't seem startled when I flew in. "Frankenstein, again, Charles?" I asked, eying the cover of his book.
"Every time, I read it, it's like the first time all over again," he answered in wonder. "Plus, I can relate, you know, the whole monster thing." he smiled widely and jumped to his feet gracefully.
I smiled back at him. It was so much more easy to get along with Charles than with Ruby. "Perhaps, you should take up Dracula," I teased, "you would have more in common." he chuckled and tucked his book under his arm.
Charles was just so friendly and inviting. Nothing like Ruby. No, Ruby was… controlling, demanding, full of herself, vain, shallow and that's not even half of it. I should write a list someday. In yet, Charles loved her. He loved her more than anything else in the world. She was his life. And she loved him, too.
I was the one that always got left out. I had never found my other half, my soul-mate, someone I could love for all eternity. It was always Charles and Ruby Parker… and, oh yeah, Andrew. I was always the third wheel. But I still had hoped that someday, my eyes would rest on someone I could relate to, talk to, and well, cheesy as it may seem, love.
I sighed as Ruby came down the staircase, already with her book bag in hand and wearing a winter jacket her ice-cold body couldn't possibly need. Her deep topaz eyes glittered in excitement. Sometimes, when she was excited, Ruby reminded me of a little girl getting ready to go out and buy a lollipop.
"Charles?" she called in a soft voice. Not the venomous voice she nearly always used when she was talking to me.
"I'm over here, Ruby," he called in the same soft tone.
She smiled warmly as Charles walked in the room. He held out his arms toward her and she ran into them, laying her head on his shoulder. It was strange how different Ruby was when she was with Charles. She never showed any kind of affection around me.
"Are you ready?" she asked, straightening her shoulders.
"Yes, I was just preparing my bag," he answered, kissing her lightly on the lips.
She closed her eyes and smiled. "okay, do you want to take the car," she asked, keeping her eyes closed.
"Well, it would probably seem suspicious if we ran, don't you think?" he replied, teasingly.
She nodded and opened her eyes. She turned to look at me and her eyes froze instantaneously. She didn't glare, but the difference in stares was obvious. It was like comparing a deep pool of honey to hard frozen topaz.
I sighed and stood from my place at the couch. "I think I'll run," I told them, "don't worry, I'll go now so no one will see me. didn't you say that the kids here have a tradition where on the first day everyone gets there exactly ten minutes before class began?"
"yes, I think we'll get there when everyone else does," she answered only looking at Charles.
I nodded once and flew out the door. The school was fairly far since we had decided it would be safer to live just outside of town limits and closer to the mountains. Still, it took me no more than ten minutes to reach the school.
Of course, the parking lot was nearly empty except for three or four cars that were of the faculty. I sighed and took a leap at the roof of the school. It would be relaxing, watching from up here, as everyone got to the school. Comparing how different Ruby and Charles were to the actual world. Comparing the extreme difference in grace and beauty. We would be lucky if only a few dozen noticed the difference.
The school was dreary looking with pale grey bricks making up the wall and faded navy letters spelling out "Thompson High School" above the front entrance.
I made the jump to the roof on my first try. I laid my back against the far flat end of fading blue plaster and closed my eyes. Maybe if I tried hard enough, I could sleep… and dream. But, no. My subconscious did not drift away. I stayed awake. Away from beautiful, sweet dreams.
I growled to myself. My life was meaningless. I was living in a vast shallow pool of nothing. There was nothing to look forward to, nothing worth living for. Why did I have to become a vampire? Why did Ruby have to change me? That's probably part of the reason I disliked her so much. She had brought me to this world of nothing. This starless night. This sunless day.
She, herself, though, had been changed because of an unknown source. All she remembers is being in a lot of pain and then, she woke up as a vampire. At first, she didn't know what she was, but then she came across the humans. The scent drove her mad. She nearly massacred her whole village in one night. That's when two other vampires found her. Her eyes a glowing red. Her white lips dripping with blood. Her pitch black curls damp with water from the river that the villagers had thrown at her. They tamed her. Taught her the rules. They were good vampires. She, at first, didn't know what their beautiful golden brown eyes meant, but then she realized that they didn't eat the way most vampires ate. They ate animals instead of humans. She barely remembered their names were Peter and Marie.
Peter and Marie didn't know the name of this dark-haired mysterious girl, but they decided to call her Ruby after the red crystal she wore on a black velvet string around her neck. Ruby never figured out where she got the gem, but she wears it everywhere and with everything. Every now and then, she'll touch the crystal and close her eyes, imagining.
After about a year or so, Peter and Marie told Ruby that she needed to make a choice. Either she would eat animals or humans. Ruby really didn't want to be a monster, but the blood of humans was so sweet, so delicious… still she chose to eat animals. I suppose this gesture was more out of gratefulness toward Peter and Marie and wishing to please them, than actual will.
When they were sure she was tame enough, Peter and Marie let Ruby loose and let her go out and live on her own. At first she was happy with just herself, but after a while she grew lonely. She watched the villagers and their families and began to miss the family she never knew. She began to hate this life and despised whoever it is that really changed her. But she remembered Peter and Marie. They had seemed perfectly happy without a family. Ruby was puzzled. She finally realized the reason they were happy was because they had each other. She began to long for a partner.
This longing is what brought me to this life. I lived in Boston and, at the time, Ruby was pretending to be a doctor's assistant, though she made sure she was never around any surgeries for fear she might go mad for the blood. It was 1916 and I was a happy child with a caring single mother and kind older sister. I was seventeen when I fell off my bike and broke my arm. My mom rushed me to the hospital and Ruby took a look at me and gave me the X-rays.
I remember thinking she looked so young and so breathtakingly beautiful. I couldn't stop staring at her and she kept a curious eye on me as well. I never really understood the whole story, but apparently Ruby thought I was the partner she had been waiting for. She told my family I needed to stay in the hospital for a couple more days. We all thought this a little strange since I already had a cast on, but my mom was simply a kindergarten teacher and knew nothing of medical training so she let it pass.
That night, Ruby took me deep into the forest when I was asleep. I remember waking up to her pale face, now glowing in the moonlight. I could easily tell her apart from the rest of the forest. It was like a ghost in a dark room. She paced back and forth, nervous, and then turned to stare at me.
"W-what are you going to do to me," I stuttered, terrified of the mysterious girl.
"Nothing," she replied in her hypnotic voice. " this won't hurt at all."
I was about to say what when she tilted her head and sunk her teeth into my neck. I wanted to push her off me, but she was incredibly strong. Plus, I was in too much pain to react. It felt like something was burning me in the neck. I struggled a bit, but I was helpless against her.
When I finally looked into her face it was ravenous. She kept on sucking and sucking slowly making me drowsy and I realized I was drifting into unconsciousness. The pain began to go away and I felt my eyes close. But suddenly I felt her weight off me and she was pleading for me not to die. That's when the pain started. It's nearly indescribable how much pain I was in. It was like burning in a volcano, someone snapping all my bones, being hit by a train, and attacked by 1,000 wasps all at once.
It lasted for days and all the while, Ruby cried. She kept saying sorry and telling me not to die, but the whole time that was my greatest wish. To die.
Near the end she ran back to the hospital to quit and tell my family I was dead. I tried to protest, but my lungs still burned and I couldn't talk. She came back no later than an hour and soothed me once more. She said she told my family my body was at a morgue and they needed to keep the body for further analization. I had to hand it to her, she was an incredible liar. She almost nearly convinced me.
The last I remember of my human life is her saying she was sorry. Then I woke as a vampire. The feeling was strange, the constant crave for human blood. But Ruby taught me the rules and ordered me to follow as she did. I hated her bitterly at first. She took my family from me and now she expected me to live with her. I couldn't believe it. Besides I was in too much horror and shock at what I had become that it was nearly impossible to think of anything else. Ruby wasn't pushy, though. She let me adapt and gradually I realized she was the only family I had now whether I liked it or not (and I didn't ).
Ruby also realized that I could never be her partner no matter how much she desired one. We just weren't compatible. We did grow to love each other, but as family. After all there was no one else to talk to.
After a couple years of living in the forest, Ruby figured I was accustomed enough to being a vegetarian vampire and we moved to Seattle. That's where she met Charles. We were hunting one Saturday that Ruby and I had off from being a high school teacher and heard a scream. We ran to where it was coming from and found poor Charles drowning in the lake. Ruby immediately pulled him out, but discovered a toxic rash on his left leg. Ruby knew, from being a nurse, that he only had minutes left to live. She bit him without thinking while I watched in horror. I called Ruby plenty of bad words that I would never have dared said in front of a lady, much less to a lady, but I couldn't help it. To think she had ruined my life and now she was ruining some other poor soul's life and I couldn't stop it. She didn't seem to be listening, though.
So Charles became a vampire. Ruby instantly fell in love with him and as did he. When it came to his family, he had none. He was raised in an orphanage his whole life and wanted to go on an adventure. So he came to Seattle and explored the forests, but, unfortunately, he examined a leaf that was poisonous and tripped into the lake. His legs were too numb to swim back to shore so he yelled for help. That's when we found him.
Charles became part of the "family" and he was much like the brother I always wanted. I found I liked him much better than Ruby. He was a lot easier to talk to.
After several months of training Charles to live like us, we figured he was ready to live amongst humans and we moved to Sicily. Then France and Russia and Belgium and pretty much most of the eastern countries. After World War two started, we moved to South America. We spent all that period of time in South America. Mostly Brazil and Peru. We soon learned that usually we could only spend four or less years in a certain area. Humans were much more observant than we gave them credit for. They began to get suspicious on how we didn't look any older toward the third year we were there. So as soon as we heard someone talking about us suspiciously, we simply left. Our last stop had been Ecuador. After, we had officially visited every country in South America. And somehow during all this, we also discovered something about Charles. He had a gift. It's hard to describe, but basically he can see the real person inside of someone, not the cover they put forth. Both me and Ruby were astonished to learn that vampires could have special "gifts" like this. I was envious at first, but soon realized that this trait could help us greatly in the future.
We came to Seward just 1 month ago and Ruby came up with the brilliant idea that we could blend in better if we all enrolled in high school. I protested strongly, but as always it was two out of three. I sighed.
Suddenly, the roar of an engine distracted me from my thoughts. I peered down to see a small navy blue mini van drive into one of the parking spaces and shut off the engine. I thought it was faculty until I looked closer and saw the unmistakable face of a teenager.
I looked even closer through the dark windows and saw that it was a girl. She drove slowly, almost cautiously into the parking space and, to my surprise, didn't immediately get out of the vehicle. I watched her curiously as she laid her head on the steering wheel and appeared to be taking very deep, even breaths. What was this girl doing? Suddenly, though, she sat up and abruptly, almost angrily, reached into the passenger seat and grabbed what looked to be a purple bag. She slung it over her shoulder and opened the car door with a very big push that nearly sent it across the parking lot. She was about to step out, but it looked like the raging wind caught her off guard and she nearly fell headfirst into the pavement. I was already beginning to leap and catch her before she fell. Wait a minute. Why was I preparing to launch myself and risk my secret and possibly Ruby's and Charles's secret to save a girl I didn't even know?
Luckily, though, she caught the handle of the car door and steadied herself. Then, carefully this time, she took a step on to the smaller black platform below her and then one onto the pavement. She closed the door with a little less force and began walking toward the school with her shoulders squared. She seemed quite brave now as she approached the school, but then little by little, her shoulders began to slump over more and more, losing confidence. Her lips began to turn into a frown. Then, her arm flew up and touched her face, erasing the slight glisten I noticed a moment ago.
She reached the doors of the school and took two deep breaths. Then she slowly opened the main doors and walked inside.
I couldn't see her anymore, but the curiosity got the better of me; I took a leap from the roof down on to the pavement and my feet touched it lightly, making little to no noise.
The girl didn't notice me, but it's not like I expected she would. Even if she had, I would've disappeared in an instant. Probably by running or maybe jumping. It didn't really matter, though, either way, she would've thought she was seeing things. Humans were like that. They always took the logical explanation, the easy road. I can't really blame them, though. We vampires are always cautious, even when we're not "vegetarians" we're always careful to cover our tracks.
I carefully slid in through the doors after her just as she walked into the main office. Again she didn't even look back. I went in through the back doors of the main office that read "Faculty Only." The room was small, well, a hallway really, with doors on either side and a small sitting area for the faculty. I crept up to the door that led to the main room in the office, where the girl had entered and peered out through the small window. She walked up to the counter and stood there waiting for the secretary to look up.
She stood there a couple of minutes and then the secretary looked up from her work at the outdated computer. Her glasses came up to the bridge of her nose and her hair was a bright strawberry blonde. Obviously colored. She wore the same hot pink sweater she had worn the day Ruby and I came to register. I remember looking at all the fake gold name plates in the office and, since all the secretaries were there, remembered all their names. This secretary in particular, I remembered mostly because she was the one who attended us. I remember her name was Margaret Harrison
"Yes," the secretary named Margaret said, a little annoyed.
"umm…I'm new so I didn't get my schedule in the mail like everyone else," the girl replied, nervously biting her lower lip. I wondered why his girl was nervous. Probably because it was the first day of school and she was new. Humans tended to worry about little insignificant things like that. That would explain why I hadn't seen her before. Before school had started, I had gone around the small town of Seward and learned pretty much everyone's name. Except for her.
"Name," the secretary sighed, opening the cramped gray cabinet that was connected to the counter. From the back, I could see many manila folders labeled alphabetically pushed in together. I listened hard, curious to know the strange girl's name
"Ava Crane," she said, looking down. "And my middle name is Elizabeth."
Hmmm, I thought to myself, Ava Elizabeth Crane. Pretty. She smiled slightly as the secretary rummaged throught the cabinet.
"Crane with a c?" The secretary asked suddenly.
"And Ava with a v," the girl responded, a teasing smile on her lips.
"And you're from Iowa, correct?" Margaret asked, ignoring the jest.
"Yes," Ava said slowly