The Blood Brotherhood
A new generation
Chapter 1
My world and life has always been a bit out of the ordinary. I was born in the heart of England: London. After my freshmen year in high school the cost of living in the city began to be a little much for my family, until my dad was offered a job in Toronto Ontario, Canada. We moved out to Toronto about half way through my sophomore year, which took a big toll on me. Leaving my friends behind and moving to the other side of the world seemed both exciting and nerve racking.
While my parents and some movers rushed in and out of new two story house, I began to walk around the neighborhood at an attempt to gain my bearings and possibly meet some of the neighbors. While walking around with my hands in my pockets I started to think of how I might actually like it here. The air felt cleaner with a comfortable cool breeze rustling the nearby leaves on trees making the left over snow that hadn't melted yet fall to the ground in a splatter of white. The further I walked more and more people were outside doing all sorts of things from playing soccer, basketball, baseball, and tons of other activities. Some little kids probably no more than ten years old looked over at me with a confused look on their faces, but I just smiled back at them.
"Hey! Who are you?" one boy ran up to me followed by his fellow players.
"I'm Jason, Jason Castore. I moved in down the street just today." they all had the same look on their faces, there's a new kid.
"So you're the new kid here huh? Where you from?"
"London, England. Can any of you hear my accent?" a few nodded at this.
"So whats there to do here-" I was cut of from a blonde girl shouting and running down the nearby lawn to my right.
"Timmy what are you doing? What would mom think if she saw you or any of you talking to a stranger?" she ran up to the boy I had been talking to, grabbed his arm in such force he made a squinting look. She then pushed herself between me and the boy named Timmy and staring at me with some accusing look like I was some kind of serial killer.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" I could smell the aroma of strawberry as she spoke, yet she was not chewing gun or sucking on a mint.
"I'm Jason Castore, I just moved in down the street today. I'm sorry if I might have scared you but I wanted to walk around and maybe to talk to some neighbors and get to know what goes on around here." I tried to sound as innocent as I ever could. This blonde girl was very pretty and I didn't want to get off on the wrong foot on my first day here.
"Jason eh? Well welcome to Toronto, or the outskirts more like," she pushed Timmy away and pushed on my shoulder making me move in the opposite direction of the little boys. "I'm guessing you'll want a tour of the place then huh?"
We walked around the neighborhood for a good two hours while she explained things here and there, telling me who lives where, who to look out for and more. By the time seven o'clock rolled around the sun was beginning to set into an orange horizon making our surroundings flash with an orange glow that seemed to set in as if the color of the sun was melting into the air.
As we came up to the driveway where the boys had been playing soccer earlier, Timmy came through the garage followed by his parents. The father looked kind of like the Pillsbury dough boy with a tan, and the mother was skinny but had the look of a mother eagle whose babies are being threatened.
"Katie! Who is this?" the mother came down the driveway at a quick pace and stood between Katie and I as if I was going to stab her or something.
"I'm Jason Castore. I just moved in down the street today, your daughter was just showing me around the neighborhood." once again I tried to sound as innocent as possible, not wanting to offend anyone on my first day here, although it seems everyone thinks I'm some kind murderer.
"Oh, so you're the Castore family we've been hearing about. Well, welcome to Toronto and make sure to tell your parents if you need help at all anyone here will be more then happy to help. Also make sure you're inside your home before dark hits, we've had some unexplained attacks around here and Toronto. Well good night Jason, you and Katie will be able to hang out more tomorrow." with that she took Katie's arm and they all walked back into the house leaving me staring around at the neutral grayness turning darker by the second. But it wasn't the darkness that scared me it was the claustrophobic feeling that started taking over, along with the feeling of being watched.
"Hey! Mum, dad, I'm back!" I called into a dark living room full of boxes the second I stepped in the front door. It was so quiet, too quiet. I was astonished as I made my way through the maze of boxes in the living room and into the kitchen, "Hello?" I called again, this time with an eerie feeling and the hair on my neck standing up.
No answer, just silence. Who know silence could be so deafening?
I tiptoed through the rest of the kitchen, seeing by the flood of moonlight from the kitchen window. Still nothing or no one, "Where the hell are you guys?" I said to myself suppressing a shiver of fear. I came to a dark looking door hidden in the darkness that I guessed to either be the pantry or the basement entrance. Out of complete involuntary movement I pulled on the handle, creaking as it opened and blasting me with an ocean of cold air making me shiver to the bone.
"Jason! Is that you?" it sounded like my dad calling from within the cold darkness.
"Dad?" my voice cracked as I called.
"Oh thank goodness! We've been stuck down here for about an hour, the door wouldn't budge." I felt a wave of relief pass over when the footsteps of my parents called up to me, "So where have you been all this time?" he asked embracing me in an ice cold hug.
"I've been walking around the neighborhood with Katie. She gave me a tour of the neighborhood and told me a little about how school's like here." I said trying to push my dad away, as my mum appeared in the doorway, "Oh, and her parents told me to warn you guys about not going out at night for some reason, I didn't bother asking why though."
"That's ok. Once we get the power on here tomorrow morning we're going to have a barbeque, a kind of meet the new neighbors thing. Plus you can talk more with this Katie girl while we meet her parents."
For the next hour we searched aimlessly through boxes looking for some kind of blanket, sleeping bag or pillow so we could somewhat sleep tonight. Luckily I found a small pillow and a soccer ball patterned fleece blanket, while my dad just has a comforter and a sweater and my mom: one of my other fleece blankets and a flattened box.
I woke the next morning with a burst of sunlight blinding me and the aroma of sausage, eggs, and buttered toast arousing my nostrils. I pushed the blanket off of me feeling around for something to grip on to, to pull me up. There were no boxes. I opened my eyes for a split second before slamming them shut, but I noticed in the split second that they were positioned against the walls and under the window.
"Well look who's finally awake! We got power on before any of us were awake, " my mom said taking the blanket off and folding it. "Breakfast is ready for you."
"Ugh.. Ok.." I moaned, half forcing myself up. Apparently my brain hasn't even turned on yet.
Making my way into the white walled kitchen I noticed opened boxes on the counters and my dad organizing things from them. Near the end of the kitchen, opposite the basement door, lay 3 paper plates: one with eggs, one with sausage, and the last with buttered toast and ketchup next to the toast.
"I see you're not completely awake, moving around like a zombie and all." my dad laughs, putting some jars in a top cupboard.
"Can you blame me after last nights sleep? I'll be happy to get my room made up at least this morning." I took a paper plate and covered it with the works, covering my eggs with ketchup.
"Well have fun with that," he pulled a knife holder out and put the holder in a top cupboard, "Say you going to be upstairs all day or you going to come down to our barbeque for a bit?"
"It won't take me all day to make up my room, dad. I'm not that slow." I said pulling a stool up to the bar sort of thing we had going at the end of the kitchen. To my left was the backdoor leading to the backyard, to my right a short hall to the living room and stairs, to my back is another door leading to god knows what. Whoever designed the house to where part of the basement was under the backyard didn't seem very smart to me, but hey I probably would have done the same thing.
"Well knowing you, you'll be up there until midnight trying to make everything perfect!" he laughed.
"Shut up…" I couldn't think of a comeback because the truth was: I do want to make my bedroom perfect. So I let him have the satisfaction. "Ok, you got me there." then I dug into my breakfast.
Hours later I had almost all my things in my room, my bed had be placed there since last night all that needed to be done was put the sheets and things on it. Why they didn't say I had the mattress and all that last night I couldn't figure out, so I gave up on thinking of a reason and set my mind to making my room perfect.
My wooden floored room seemed really big when I walked into it empty, but now, with posters, tables, TV, computer, and other things scattered around it seemed smaller. I had two windows on the back wall of my room. When I walk into my room my bed is in the opposite corner from the door, next to one of the windows. My 32" HD TV, playstation 3, my stereo and a flood of wirers 5 feet from the door sitting on a huge black unit that I guessed was also moved in here last night. Opposite my bed lay my oak brown wooden computer desk, filled with everything any computer geek could want, although I hardly use anything special but the pc. Next to the computer desk was my very awesome walk in closet, which now held all my clothes and still only half full.
Now that I had put everything I wanted to in its place I decided to slide down the railing of the stairs, "Hey, anyone home?" I called as I jumped off the banister.
There was no answer, but there were voices coming from the back and the front door lay wide open. "The barbeque, I totally forgot!" I turned the corner and made for the backyard where it seemed every neighbor we had stood conversing amongst themselves.
"Jason! Over here!" Katie came running and gave me a leaping hug as I stepped through the back door into the blazing sun above.
"Hey, how long have you been here? Looks like everyone's here." I stared around while she collected herself from the sudden leap onto me.
"Only like twenty minutes or less. Your parents said you were upstairs decorating your room and offered I could come and surprise you but I decided not to disturb you. Hey let me introduce you to some of the other kids that live around here." she said grabbing my arm and pulling around the yard, introducing me to every teenager she knew that went to the school I'll be starting on Monday.
After about an hour of green grass crunching under our feet from running around meeting every person I was most likely to meet in some class I started to think I'd like it here. Despite the long time, it wasn't actually meeting him or her, it was oh hey this is John, or this is Mary, and then 5, 10 minutes of Katie talking.
I met John, a brown haired brown eyed, sixteen year old muscular hockey and soccer player who loves to party. Mary, a seventeen year old red head, who is on the lacrosse team and apparently just broke up with John (Katie nudged my arm when Mary announced this making my face go hot). Next there was James and Carly, who were twins age sixteen and both were on the soccer teams. James was a blonde haired blue eyed skinny kid, whereas Carly was a dark brunette with blue eyes and had a body of swimmer instead of soccer player.
"There are a few more that live here I know, but if I know them right they're at home playing some war game online or something." we walked back into the house to shelter from the crowd outside. "So, what do you think of the people you met just now?" she looked at me with such curious eyes trying to probe my thoughts out of my head before the words came out my mouth.
"I don't know them well enough, I mean we're just meeting each other. But John seems cool, Mary's really pretty and easy to talk to it seems, James and Carly seem nice and easy going for soccer players." I stopped immediately as Mary had walked into the kitchen trying look like she was looking for something but I knew she wanted to zoom in on me before anyone else could.
"Hey, Mary. Jason thinks you're really pretty." Katie said as Mary cautiously made her way into the kitchen as if she'll step on a wrong piece of wood and it'll explode. I began to turn red and I knew they both could see because I could feel my faces temperature rising rapidly.
"Does he really?" she looked at Katie then at me, "You think I'm pretty do you?" she said, her warm breath spilling over my neck making my hair stand up and my face turn bright red.
"He does. He told me when we were coming in here and I asked him what he thought about everyone he'd met." Katie said, which didn't really help me in my predicament. I haven't even started school here and I already have a crush on someone.
"Well maybe we should hang out more! Say Katie you didn't answer me Friday about coming to the church yard Thursday night, you in?" Mary said with such an excited look on here face.
"Yeah, I'll come." Katie answered then looked at me, "Oh, do you want to join in on our little get together Thursday night?" she asked, I guessed she saw the curiosity in my eyes. "We're going to all meet at this abandoned house somewhere in Toronto, light about 20 candles and each of us is going to tell a scary story. When each story is told then that person blows out their candle, when every candle is blown out it's supposed to open a portal to the spirit world." she had such an excited look on her face and her eyes shone with anticipation.
"Seems like a spooky night!" I said trying to keep my voice from shaking out of the sudden excitement that just washed over me.
"Not scared are you?" Mary popped her head next to my right cheek, her dark red hair flowing over her right shoulder.
"Me? No, I just hope my parents will let me go since I'm new here they might not want me out after dark or something, I don't know." I wanted to jump out of my chair to run and ask my parents to let me go.
"Mary, time to go get your brother!" her mother, an almost albino looking skinny women, called to us.
"Ok then, that's settled. We have our twentieth person now, hopefully everyone else will accept you." Mary said then turned on her heel, red hair flowing in every direction, chase after her mother, who I noticed wasn't followed by a father figure.
"Does she not have a dad?" I whispered to Katie as they walked through the open front door into the burning sun once again.
"No, well yeah, it's confusing. She has a dad, yes, but he lives in Europe with some other women. She's only seem him about three times her whole life."
"Wow, that must be hard…" I felt bad for Mary now.
"She seems to get by without him. Her and her mom are very close, if she's not shopping with friends she's with her mom. So it's not all bad I guess."
A few minutes later it seemed that more people were leaving some for some kind of family affair which made me think; either they were telling the truth or they didn't like us just yet. Maybe there was some kind of neighborly order that has to accept you or something before everyone likes us.
"Say, you ready for school Monday?" Katie asked getting up from her seat and striding over to the hallway.
"Oh god no, I don't even have any supplies. Well I have a few things from back in London, but I don't know what I need here…" now a feeling shock crashed down on me like a wave on a surfer.
"Don't worry about that, that's the best part of being a new kid. You get to come the first few days without knowing anything that happens or having anything ready, you just get to know everything until you settle into the grove of things." she looked toward to front door and stepped toward it then looked back at me, "Well I have to go, my parents are waiting in the front. I'll see you tomorrow? Since we still have one more day until school starts!" and she was gone out the front door before I even stepped into the hallway.
Later that night I was making some changes to my room, which seemed like a total mess. It was as if a tornado has come through here sometime during the day. I moved posters around, moved my bed in a different position, along with my TV set, and a few other bits here and there. I decided I wanted to paint my room either dark red; like blood, or black. My favorite color by far would have to be black.
"Changing up your room again?" my dad asked stepping in cautiously as if a snake was going to bite him.
"Yeah, when I came up it seemed like mess from when I first did it this morning," I said turning to face him. His face was wrought with splotches of red and darker red from sunburn.
"Well you have fun with that. How do you think the barbeque went today?" he came and sat on my bed, which creaked under his weight.
"I don't know. You guys were the ones down there. I only came out and met all the teens around here, or most of them I think. They all seem pretty cool and nice, especially that Mary girl." I felt kind of hot under my cheek, I couldn't believe I just told me dad I had a thing for some girl I just met a few hours ago.
"Is she the one with a widow mother? The red head one right?" he wrinkled up his forehead trying to remember. I just nodded thinking I didn't need to explain anymore to him, "She seems like a nice girl, her mother is very nice. She also offered us over for dinner Friday night."
"Well that should be fun, just don't embarrass me dad." I looked at him with my best puppy-eye impression, he always fell for it.
"Don't worry Jason, if you like her I won't do anything to embarrass you." then the bed creaked as he got up and walked out, "Night JC"
"Night, dad"
Despite lying in bed until about midnight with my eyes heavy as stone, I still wouldn't fall asleep. I wanted to so bad, I was tired, and my head was kind of throbbing. But it was as if some unearthly power kept me awake as if by probing my mind.
I decided to get up and move around. Maybe stretching my legs and getting some blood flow throughout my body will help give me that last bit of energy out. I moved around my room making an extra effort to stretch everything from my toes to my neck, then laid back down. Even still I couldn't sleep. Now I knew it was hopeless, so I turned to face my window so I could stare out at the stars and maybe I'll fall asleep counting among the many thousands of stars. But when I turned to my window it wasn't bright white glows of stars I was counting but instead I was counting little red orbs not much bigger than a marble. There were 6 of the little red orbs.
"What the…" the 6 orbs moved closer and I began to see some white among all the red, faces. "Holy shit!" I fell off my bed in fear of what kind of creatures were sitting, standing or whatever they were doing outside my window.
I lifted my head from the floor to see if they were still there. They were. Although, they just seemed to float there silently, those red orbs which I guess were their eyes, seemed to be controlling me in some way, because I soon found myself standing up and moving around my bed to the window! The closer I came I noticed their skin shine in the moonlight and long canine teeth protrude from their upper gums when they opened their mouths in the way a lion would before devouring its prey.
NO, STOP! STOP MOVING JASON! DO NOT OPEN THE WINDOW! A voice in rang deep in my head, bringing me back to reality with my hand lying on the window handle.
The next moment happened so fast I couldn't completely take it all in until after it happened. Those red eyes turned coal black instantly, their mouths opened to make the most unbearably screech no teenage was ever meant to hear. The glass of the window shattered easily into a thousand pieces and flew at me like tiny daggers, making me fall to the ground. I stared at the window in disbelief wondering why they haven't come in yet even with the glass broken littering my floor.
My head dropped to the cold wooden floor and I lost consciousness before I could see them evaporate into the cold darkness of the night.