It was Friday evening, and not for the first time that night, Allison Frog was getting shouted at. For some reason, her twin sister believed she had taken her favorite issue of Batman. Although Ally hadn't touched it. She didn't even like the batman comics. And her sister Emily knew that.
"I haven't touched it Em!"
"Right, because you haven't wanted to get back at me since I dropped your beret in the trash!" Emily snapped "Where is it!"
"Em, shut up already. Customer." That at least, managed to quite Emily. They couldn't risk scaring away business with the shouting matches.
The boy was blond, and badly dressed. Emily thought he had the look of a small child who wanted to dress themselves for school. And failed miserably. His shirt was multicolored, and worn underneath some sort of ridiculous fabric wrap. She almost wondered if he was blind, and wandered in by accident.
"Got a problem girls?" He asked
"Just scoping your civilian wardrobe." Emily replied, smirking. The boy pulled at his shirt collar, as if trying to look cool.
"Pretty sweet huh?"
"For a fashion victim." Ally added.
"If your looking for the diet frozen yogurt bar, it went out of business last summer."
The boy stopped "Actually, I'm looking for a batman #14."
"That's a very serious book-"
"-Only five in existence." Emily glared at her sister. She'd gotten the fact wrong.
"Four, actually" The boy corrected "I'm always looking out for the other three."
Ally cursed mentally, noting her sister's glare. She had mixed up, again.
"Look, you can't put the superman #77's with the two-hundreds. The haven't even discovered red Kryptonite yet." He picked up a book, crushing the spine in a way that made Emily cringe. "And, you uh, you can't put the #98's with the three-hundreds. Lori Lemaris hasn't even been introduced."
"Where the hell are you from," Emily asked, eyebrows raised "Krypton?"
"Phoenix, actually" The boy said "But lucky me, we moved," He looked confused for a moment "here."
"Take this," Emily carefully handed over the copy of 'Vampires everywhere' The boy glanced at it, and tried to give it back.
"I don't like horror comics."
"You'll like this one Mr. Phoenix, could save your life."
However, at that point, Greg and his band of surf nazi idiots appeared. Ally noticed them grabbing a few of the cheaper comics from the front display. She tapped her sister and ran after them. Leaving the fashion victim alone with a comic he probably wouldn't read.
"Well, that went badly." Emily muttered, tending to a scrape on the underside of her arm.
"Forget it, all they got were cheap crap."
"It's still money out of our pocket Al! Money we don't have!"
Ally sighed "I know, but we don't get enough business anymore."
"We need a client."
"Em, not this again. No-one is going to believe us, let alone hire us."
But Emily was already possessed of that manic, and slightly off-putting energy that came with this conversation. "Ally, we know there's a coven here. All we need to do is wait for someone else to notice."
"But they never do!" Ally snapped "Nobody besides us realizes that there are vampires and probably a lot of other demons surrounding them!"
Emily shook her head. She knew Ally was right, but someone had to notice. They couldn't just ignore it forever. It wasn't possible.
"We'll figure something out Al."
"Always do."
"Maybe we should've kept the frozen yogurt bar?" Emily suggested, smirking.
"Maybe you should tell that to the one who wanted it closed." Ally said.
"Oh shut up, you hated it too!"
Soon the two were laughing. Worries forgotten for the moment. Not knowing what had started.
…...
"Ally!"
Ally shot up, barely awake, but her sister's shout had been enough to startle her out of bed. She tumbled to the floor, landing crouched on her feet, still half asleep, but expecting trouble. There was a stake clutched rather loosely in her left hand.
"Em, where are you?" She asked
Something tackled her from behind, throwing her flat against the floor. She managed to roll onto her back, her attacker was smaller than it seemed. And she managed to push them off in the dark. Standing up, she rushed them, causing whoever it was to back against the wall. Only when Ally was this close did she realize who it was. She whacked her sister over the head with the stake still in her hand.
"God dammit Emily!" She shouted "What did you do that for!"
Emily frowned "Practice. We're both getting rusty, and it's unacceptable. If I had been a bloodsucker, you'd have been dead on the floor."
She just didn't understand sometimes. Emily knew her sister could fight just as well as Emily could herself. But that didn't mean they didn't need practice. She couldn't bear to think of losing her.
"Em, I get it. But can we please practice some other time than the middle of the night?" Ally asked, yawning.
Emily hesitated. It was better to do when caught off guard. But she nodded. For a few minutes there was silence, then:
"Promise me something Al?"
"Anything."
"If something ever happens...If one of us..."
Ally knew where this was going. Emily didn't like bringing it up. But sometimes it had to be. If one of the was killed, or god forbid, turned...Ally shuddered.
"I'll do what I have to. And I'll know you aren't you anymore. If you can do the same."
Emily nodded immediately. It would be the hardest thing either of them would ever have to do. Killing the other if it came to that. But it had to be done. Both would rather die than live like that.
"No coming after me."
"Only when I have to."
Ally grinned "Death to all vampires?"
"Death to all vampires." Emily agreed.
…...
So, chapter one.
Review and tell me what you think.
I think I did okay.
But that really isn't up to me.
- Jen