Blood Secrets: Chapter 1
Hermione awoke to darkness. A ravenous hunger gnawing at the pit of her stomach unlike anything she had ever known. Sore muscles ached and her vision blurred into focus.
Looking around her, it took the young witch a moment to realize where she was. To her left a cluttered stack of boxes stood piled against a dusty wall. On her right, stacked chairs and fold out tables that were used when her building had their annual picnic. She seemed to be lying in the downstairs basement of the apartment building but as to why Hermione was still a little confused.
She groaned loudly as she picked herself up from the mold encrusted wall, and looked around while rubbing a particularly antagonizing spot on her neck just below her ear. That's when it all rushed back to her.
The man, the kiss … the vampire. It had happened, all of it. Now Hermione's mind was reeling so quickly, her stomach clenched and she found herself doubled over dry heaving. Her whole body shook with uncontrollable tremors of shock.
How could this have happened? What was to become of her? Who could she turn to?
Scenes of the vampire attacking her flooded her memory and for the first time in her entire life, Hermione knew true fear.
What had he done to her? But even as she asked herself, she knew she already had the answer to that question and realized the more important question was, what kind of monster had she become?
Three stories above her head, the sound of Laura moving around in the kitchen, humming with the radio filtered down towards Hermione, and the impact of her question hit her straight on. Who could hear the sound of someone humming through three stories.
Straining to make out more, Hermione could hear the sound of their landlady's black and white screen TV straining to pick up a local news channel, and then on the top floor where the new couple had just moved in, Hermione blushed a deep crimson. The creak of a mattress and the sound of deep throaty moans filled her ears as the man thrust inside his wife over and over.
Hermione quickly focused again on her sister, deciding it was better to stay away from the upstairs at least for a little while. The sound of footsteps echoed down her hallway, a heavier step than that of her sister, and a picture of the very place she had been thinking of slammed into her mind. The narrow space of her hallway, the feel of carpet on her toes, and the deep hunter green of the walls formed a perfect image in her mind as she were actually there herself. Then two voices crept down to her. One obviously her sister, the other sounding oddly like her own.
"Morning Mione." Laura said in that chipper voice that always irked her in the early morning. "You got all bags packed for school?"
"Yes, they're all packed." She heard herself say and shuffle towards the coffee pot. It was her typical early morning routine.
"Good thing, the cab will be here in an hour or two to pick you up…You know I'm really going to miss you while you're at school this year." Laura stated.
"No you won't," she answered replacing the coffee pot," You're just upset you have to put up with old Mrs. Callaway until Mum and Dad come home from their trip."
Laura laughed and she walked out of the kitchen towards her room with her mug of coffee in hand.
The image of the kitchen blurred away dissolving back into the basement and the loud shatter of glass echoed down to Hermione, but she was to far out of it to notice. Her eyelids had become extremely heavy and quite quickly Hermione was thrown into a deep sleep.
The kitchen rushed back into view just as fast as it had disappeared and the young witch found herself in a large puddle of steaming coffee. A puddle she awkwardly enough could not feel.
"Are you ok in there?" her sister called from her room with worry in her voice.
"Yes fine, just dropped my mug is all." She called back and bent forward to pick up the pieces, throwing them in the sink.
"What is going on here?" Hermione mumbled under her breath as she cleaned up the mess, not feeling anything at all. It was as if her entire body had numbed. Was she in the basement and if so then how was she in the kitchen?
Moments later, Hermione stumbled into the bathroom to take a good look at herself in the mirror. Nothing seemed out of order. No bites on her neck, no blood on her clothes. She looked as if she had just rolled out of bed. With that thought in mind, she brushed her hair into a ponytail then cleaned her teeth, happy to notice a lack of fangs, all the while thinking of what was happening to her.
Was she dreaming now, or was the basement a dream? Although it all felt to real to be that. Was she going insane? Had she totally lost it? God she hoped not. And why couldn't she feel anything? What in the hell was going on?
Her mind raced as she tried to come up with answers, and in the midst of it all she had an epiphany.
"Hey Laura, I'll be right back ok." She yelled from the bathroom.
"Ok."
Within seconds Hermione was outside the door and racing down the four floors of stairs leading herself directly to the basement door. Once in front of it however, she had to stop and compose herself. Taking a deep breath she stilled herself and opened the door.
Inside, directly in front of her, were the chairs and fold out tables, but everything else was shrouded in darkness. Another deep breath and she took two steps inside the room, closed the door behind herself, and flicked on the light switch next to her.
There against the wall, she saw exactly what she had been dreading. Herself.
Well a version of herself anyways. Her skin was paler, much paler, but not sickly so. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn't moving. Not even to breath she noticed. Her hair which had always been a rat's nest of frizzy curls was now a shimmering waterfall of honey brown tendrils, softly curling into perfection, and her new shirt was covered in dark brown blood stains.
With slow, hesitating steps, she edged her way to the body in front of her, crouching on shaky knees to get a closer look. It was all a bad dream, a nightmare come true. Hermione reached out stopping millimeters from her face, not really sure she wanted to touch it. Then grasping for some of the legendary Gryffindor courage, she pushed herself the rest of the way.
Hermione had to admit that it was the most awkward thing to experience. Her fingers felt nothing, but where they met the skin of her face she felt touch. It was a gentle brushing across her cheek and lips. Her skin tingling where her fingers met her face.
Finally after a few moments, curiosity got the better of her and she pulled up the flesh of her upper lip, and just as she had expected she saw fangs. Two long canines were peeking out from her gums just as she had seen in old horror movies.
It was this if anything that snapped the young witch into an over dramatic panic. Her mind raced and she couldn't seem to think properly. Her mind repeated a "What do I do, What do I do?" mantra over and over, her chest heaved and she tried to suck in air, but only managed to fall backwards, skidding across the floor.
Her body began to shake again, her eyes glued themselves to the…the…corpse in front of her.
In the corner of her eye she saw the movement of someone outside the door and panicked, "Who is it?"
"Hermione, what are you doing in there? Your ride was here ten minutes ago, come on." Laura's voice called from the other side of the door.
"Ok, I'll be up in a minute. Tell them my things are on the bed, just put them in the car."
Laura didn't say anything for a moment, then she obviously decided to ignore her older sister's odd behavior. "Ok." Then the younger girl tromped back up the stairs.
With a sigh of relief, Hermione turned back towards the problem at hand and decided she had to do something.
First she tried lifting the body, but found it to be quite a bit heavier than it seemed. Then she thought about shrinking it, but wasn't all that sure that was very safe, especially since she wasn't all that sure what was going on just yet.
In the end she had to quickly drag it to a corner of the basement no one ever went to, a little dusty water closet that hadn't been working for years, and there she hoped no one would think to look. Namely a very curious younger sister who no doubt wanted to know what she had been up to.
Then checking to make sure everything looked in order, she switched off the light and went back upstairs to catch her ride.