Chapter 1 The Thirst Thingy

First and foremost I think it best if I introduce myself. My name is Danni Jills. Mostly I'm just your average 17-year old girl. I like hanging out with my girls, go to the mall, catch a movie. But there's another side about, a bit of a brain-hammered side, even a bit dark maybe/ No one really knows about actually.

When I was younger my dad was into horror movies. He still is, but my interest faded a bit. Anyway, not one night would pass, without us watching a horror. It was great, always just the two of us. My mom left us when I was very little. At least, that's what my father told me. But I always knew there was more to it.

I don't know, maybe it was just the movies that made me so obsessed, with my mother's sudden disappearance. I had several theories;

One: Aliens kidnapped my mother and they forgot to return her. I know, it sounds a bit sci-fi-ish. It's just the fault of a overactive imagination.

Two: My mother was a serial killer, who had to escape to keep herself and us safe from the law. That would be horrible and not at all noble. So, it's not exactly likely, but it's possible.

And for my third theory, I actually had proof. My mother was a vampire. When I was nine I was just wandering on our attic. I found a letter, it looked quite old, it even smelled old.

It said;

Dear Larana,

I'm most delighted to hear you are joining us. It has been too long and it would be an honour to have you back.

Even with all that has occurred, we've decided to forgive you.

We will no longer forbid you on our ground.

Also we think you should no longer satisfy your thirst with the unknown creatures of the forest.

Sincerely,

Lucius Draconus

Now, I'm not an expert at this, but I'm pretty sure that 'Draconus' is descended from Dracula.. And what's up with the 'the thirst thingy'?

Anyway, as I said, I'm just your average 17-year old girl. With just a bit of a dark hobby.

"Danni!" Ms. Yang yelled across the classroom. Wow, that's my queue. I opened my eyes, slowly. I can't believe I fell a sleep during History, my most favourite class.

"Can you please enlighten us with you dreamtheory's" Ms Yang sarcastically pulled up one eyebrow. I yawned, I couldn't even help it.

"I'm so, so sorry Ms. Yang. I had a bit of a late night. My dad..." I tried, but Ms. Yang wouldn't let me finish.

"Go see Mr. Gordon" The principal, whoop-die-doo! Boy, am I in trouble now.

My dad almost begged me to watch Van Helsing with him last night. It had been forever since we watched a movie together. And I liked that movie, a lot. So, it got late, I didn't sleep until 2.30. While I was muttering to myself about movies and begging dads, I made my way to the principal's office.

I hesitated, but then I knocked on the big, heavy-looking door. "Come in!" I heard Mr. Gordon yell from behind the door. Here goes nothing! "Uhm, Mr. Gordon. I'm here because..." Lie, I told myself, just lie. "I fell a sleep during Ms. Yang's class. She send me here, to see you" Damn! I'm such a bad liar.

"Hmm... 4 hours of detention." He waved his hand, a sign that I could leave now. He didn't even look up from his paper. Bastard!

Man, 4 hours of detention, with Ms. Broflowski. She smells like rotten tomatoes. Or so I was told.

I was walking head down, looking at the floor, so at first I didn't see who had made me fall on the floor.

"Hé, could you watch it..." I looked up and stared angrily, in the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen.

Words were forming in my head, but they didn't come out, the way I wanted them to.

"Err... I... Uhm... You should really watch your step!" I nearly shouted at the stunning boy.

"I need to watch my step?" He asked, anger rising in his voice. A voice so beautiful, it caused an electric shock in my brain.

I stood up and shook off some dust. Then he suddenly back 5 steps away from me. His entire body went rigid and his jaw tightened.

"Look, I'm sorry" I said, but that only seemed to make it worse. His hands balled into fists and he turned around, nearly running away. That boy clearly had anger-management problems. Who was he, anyway? I've never seen him around in the three years I went to school here. Ugh, weirdo. The bell rang, lunchtime. It wasn't until I heard the bell, I found my stomach was rumbling and my mouth was dry with thirst. Ha, thirst. My thought automatically went to my mother. I shook the thought and I made my way to the cafeteria.

As I walked into the cafeteria, my eyes fell Noah. His silky-black hair moved with him while he was waving at me enthusiastically. I sighed. Noah was very sweet, I've known him almost my whole life, but the whole 'in-love-with-me-thing' was getting pretty old. Why couldn't he just accept the fact we were nothing more than friends, nothing more.

"Hi guys" I said to everyone as I sat down, next to Noah. I felt his green-eyed-gaze on my face; I gave him an irritated look. "Stop, staring, at, me!" I whispered angrily.

"Danni, where were you last night? I thought we were going to watch a movie together?" Rachel asked me. I swear if looks could kill, I'd be dead now. Shoot, I forgot about the movie. Argh, my dad and his stupid horror movies.

"Yeah... Uhm... Sorry about that." I said, hoping an apology would be enough.

"It's ok, Dan. Don't worry about it" Emma winked at me. Emma was my best friend since kindergarten. We haven't been apart since. When we're done with high school, our plan is to travel the world

"No, no, it's definitely not ok, Emma! Why weren't you there, Danni?" Rachel asked, furious. Apparently an apology wasn't enough. My relationship with Rachel, on the other hand, was completely different. The first year we met, I kicked her butt. She stole my backpack and threw it in a, very disgusting, dumpster. Eventually we, sort of, became friends. A hate-love relationship, I like to say. Right now, it was hate. I hid my face behind my books "My dad. He wanted to watch a movie with me. Sorry, I just, don't know how to say no to my dad." I mumbled behind the books. I pictured Rachel's face in my head, red with steam almost coming out of her ears. I didn't look up from behind my books, afraid that what I was picturing actually was the truth. If it was, I knew I couldn't stop laughing.

Rachel sighed "its fine, whatever. We'll just plan something new." Oh, she was forgiving today. Maybe now was a good time to tell her that I washed her favourite white shirt, with a red sock. Hm, probably not.

"He, Dan? Do you know that guy?" I looked up and watched were Ryan, Emma's older surfer-look-alike boyfriend, was pointing at. It was the boy, who had knocked me down in the hallway. He was sitting there with a girl; his sister I assumed they kind off looked the same. Both had a porcelain-alike face, chocolate-brown hair and both the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. They looked like an ocean, bright light-blue with just a hint of green in them. Suddenly I was out of air. I forced myself to answer Ryan, so I took a gulp of air.

"No, not really. He knocked me down in the hallway, but he was really rude." I felt I was staring at the boy with the ocean-eyes, so I turned back to Ryan "why?" Ryan smiled. "Because he was staring at you, the entire time during lunch." I turned to look once more, at the beautiful boy and his equally beautiful presumed-to-be-sister, but they were gone. From the corner of my eye I saw Noah's jealous look. The bell rang, making us stand up and take our trays away. It's was time for class.

When I got home, it was already dark. The rest of the school-day had gone by in a blur. After school the girls and I went to Pierre's for dinner, it was fun. The dinner was part of my apology to Rachel, for missing the movie last night. I parked my car in the driveway and noticed my dad's car wasn't here. He probably had to work late. Or got stuck in traffic. He was an accountant manager en he worked in the city. It was a long drive, especially when you got stuck in traffic.

Just as I stuck my key in the lock, I heard something. "Are you sure about that?" a voice whispered, so soft I almost couldn't hear it. The wind blew dramatically through the trees next to my house. I was probably just imagining this. I turned the lock and opened the door. It was dark inside and I was desperately searching for the switch. I found it and clicked the light on. The dark remained. Why wasn't there any light? Are you kidding me, I'm hearing things, I'm alone, it's dark and now the lights don't work.

A cold chill crawled up my spine and made me shiver. In the corner of my eye I saw something white flash by. A ghost?

"Hey kiddo!" I jumped up and screamed so loud my ears rang. My dad was standing in the door opening.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" He said and then burst out in laughter "Aw man, you should've seen you're face. Like you'd seen a ghost or something." My dad walked past me and went straight for the kitchen. I'm sure my heart jumped out for a second and jumped back. I was out of breath; I needed to catch my breath. I searched my bag for my inhaler. Stupid asthma.

I followed my dad into the kitchen and sat down on a kitchen chair. I laid my head on the kitchen table and tightened my arms around my chest. So I was sure my heart wouldn't jump out again. It was pounding so hard. My dad was talking, but I didn't know if he was talking to me or to himself. I listened to my heartbeat and heard it slow down. Why did I just jump half a meter into air? I was feeling afraid and that was a first.

"Are you listening to anything I am saying to you?" My dad waved his across my eyes. I blinked.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" My dad laughed again; probably because he still thought it was funny he'd scared me.

"I was talking about the new family who just moved here. The Griffons." He cracked open an egg and put in the pan.

"Well family, there are just two actually. They're just kids, rather weird actually. Brother and sister, they've lost their parents and now they moved here." My dad had my full attention now, two people, just kids. They've got to be the boy and girl in my school. The boy who knocked me down in the hallway and stared at me during lunch. I grinded my teeth at the memory.

"What? Just the two of them. That is weird. They have no other family?" I asked my dad. "Nope, guess not. Kelly said something about, mass murder, the entire family killed." Kelly was the town's gossip queen. She knew everything about everyone.

"Sounds awful." I said. It could explain why the boy was so rude to me. I felt sorry for him. I mean, I still hate the fact I don't know my mother, but I manage without her. But to lose your entire family, that's… awful, just awful. Suddenly my cheeks and ears were red-hot and my eyelids felt like they were a million pounds. I shook my face and forced myself to be awake, I had no time to sleep.

"Dad, I'm going upstairs. I've got loads of homework to do." I stretched and yawned. I stood up from the kitchen chair and kissed my father on the cheek.

"That's alright honey. I'm going to wish goodnight, you look like you're going to pass out any minute now." He ran his hand through my hair. "Can't pass out, homework to do." I said robotically and started to walk up the stairs. "Goodnight honey!" Dad yelled. "Goodnight Dad" I closed the door and fell down on my bed. My dad was right; I am going to pass out. I kicked off my shoes. I threw my clothes in a corner of my room and I took my blankets. Got… To… Keep... Eyes… Open, I thought. It was too late, I was too tired.

I was running so hard it felled as if these weren't my legs that were moving. Branches and leaves decorated my hair. My knees were bleeding and also several cuts on my face coloured my cheeks and shirt red. Do to falling down, a lot. I was out of breath, it felled as if I couldn't go any further, but my legs kept moving.

Suddenly I came to an abrupt stop, a hand was crushing down so hard on my neck, and I thought my head was separated from my body. I was choking. I wanted to scream but words wouldn't leave my mouth. Who was choking me? I turned my eyes to see who the one, responsible for ending my life was.

I woke up, bathing in sweat, gasping for air. I was having an asthma attack, a big one. Where was my inhaler? I stumbled, almost falling, out of bed. Where was it? I couldn't breath!

I think I left it downstairs. I stumbled down the stairs. I was so dizzy, I still couldn't breath. Were my legs really this heavy? "Danni?" I heard my father yell, miles away. I could feel myself falling down the stairs, but I didn't feel any pain. Was this the end?