. Title: Seeing Red
. Author: Alex Gregg (aka: ChickRockGuitar)
. Date Written: June 2004 - (words written: 1424)
. Fiction Group: Buffy/Angel (concepts only)
. Story Rating: UK: 12 / USA: PG-13 (violence and blood)
. Summary Of Story: When Seventeen year old Sylan Mathews comes home to find her parents slaughtered she must face life with out them, looking after her sister and excepting the fact that vampires are very real.
. Disclaimer: Joss 's vampire concepts, credit to Joss & Co. This storyline and its original Characters credit to me.
NOTE: THIS FICTION HAS NO BUFFY/ANGEL CHARACTERS IN IT:
ITS JOSS AND CO'S CONCEPTS ONLY. THANK YOU.
I'm Sylan. Sylan Mathews. I'm seventeen years old and I live in New York. Up until a year ago, you could say I was a normal, happy, well adjusted kid. I had a great family, great friends, I was doing well in school, you know, life was, well, great. Then in just a matter of hours... my entire world fell apart... and my life changed forever.
I wasn't there when it happened. I was out with my best friend Robyn. It was late, eleven o'clock, and way past curfew. As I walked up the path, I remember thinking, 'Shit, dad's gonna kill me'. I got to the front door and I just knew, something wasn't right. I reached up, put the key into the lock and turned it. I swung open the door, and no kid could ever be prepared to see what I saw. Blood. It was everywhere. On the carpet, on the walls. I edged forward into the house, terrified of what I was going to see next. My heart thumping, I made my way into the living room. I knew whatever I was going to find, wasn't going to be good, but... what I saw next... I'll never forget. It'll stay with me for rest of my life, it plagues my dreams, turns them into nightmares. There was so much blood, and the room stank of death. I wanted to look away, anywhere but at her, but I couldn't, I just couldn't... It was like I was fixed to one spot and could do nothing but stare ahead. She just laid there, a bloody crumpled heap on the floor. Her wide, dead eyes staring up at me. I wanted to scream, I wanted to vomit, I wanted to be anywhere else but looking at her. She was my mom.
After a few seconds, (which seemed more like a life time) some part of me told me to go over to her to see if she was okay, but at the same time the other part of me - the more sensible part, knew she was dead. Apart from the impossible and unnatural position of where she lay, she was covered in blood. It was impossible to tell wound apart from wound. But my first thought seemed to override my second, so I let my bag fall from my shoulder, made my way over to her and dropped to my knees. It was then I caught sight of two puncture wounds in her neck. My first thought was 'vampire?', I'd seen such marks in movies. But seconds after I told myself: 'Idiot, vampires aren't real'. Of course, now I know different. My hand shaking, I slowly reached out and touched her shoulder. (she was wearing a flowery pale blue sleeveless top, so her skin was bared). She was still warm. And some how, even to this day, I think that's worse than if she'd been cold. Because, to me it means, if I'd have came home just ten minutes earlier then maybe I could have done something... But what's the point of 'what if's', right? I mean, the past has gone, its done, and you can't change it. I drew my hand back, I didn't want to touch her anymore. "Mom?" I whispered, but there was no answer, I didn't expect there to be. She was gone, I knew that now. It was just… Somehow, being up close made it seem much more final...
I turned my head away form her towards the kitchen, and that's when I saw him. My Dad. Unlike my Mom who was laying on her back, he was laying on his stomach, his head on one side facing me. His eyes where closed. I scrambled over to him and when I got closer I saw the two similar marks on his neck. And like my Mom, he was covered in blood. I knew he was dead too. I knew that I didn't need to touch him, he'd be warm also. It was at that moment, the realization hit me. My Parents were dead. Gone forever. They'd been murdered. I remember fighting the urge to throw up everywhere, I remember thinking, maybe, just maybe this was a nightmare, and I'd be waking up any moment now. But I didn't. This wasn't a dream. It was real.
Sitting next to my dad, I suddenly remembered Summer, my twelve year old sister. Well, I say 'remembered', it wasn't like I'd forgotten she existed. It's just when you see a person, a person you love, dead right in front of you, you don't tend to think about anything or anyone else but them. Was she in the house? Yeah, she had to be, it was gone eleven after all. Was she still alive? 'Keep dreaming' I remember telling myself. I thought about getting up to looking for her, but my limbs wouldn't work, I couldn't move. Besides, did I really want to see another dead body of someone I loved? No. I didn't think I'd be able to take it. Then I heard a loud shrieking scream coming from upstairs. I knew it was Summer. After all, who else could it have been? My little sister was still alive. She was all I had left. And I had to get to her. At that moment, something inside of me clicked, my limbs began to work and I could move again. I remember sprinting up the stairs and as I reached the top, I heard her scream again.
I bolted into Summer's room and saw two massive six foot something guys advancing on her. They both stopped and turned to look at me as I entered. Now they where facing me I could see their faces and well, they weren't human. They looked like something out of a horror movie. I just stared at them for a few moments, and they stared back. I remember taking in those yellow-ish eyes, that ridging on the nose and those kind of enlarged mounds on their brow. (Now what we refer to as their "game-face"). Oh and the sharp and jagged teeth when they snarled at me, yeah snarled, like a dog. Suddenly one of them said, "Its the other one". To this day I never quite got that, 'the other one'? It sounded like they knew about our family when they attacked, which has made me think, was it not just some random blood-fest that night. Did they come to slaughter us all for a particular reason? I guess I'll never find out the answer to that. Unless I sit a vampire down and have a nice long talk - Fat chance of that ever happening, right? Suddenly Summer spoke. "Syl, help!". Hearing her voice I came out of my stare, I had to get us out, or we were dead.
The next few moments to this day are still a blur. I sure as hell don't know how we got out of there alive. I remember moving into the fighting-stance position. Did I mention I have a 1st Dan Black belt in Tae Kwon Do? I've been studying it for the past nine years. I remember facing them and after what they did to my parents I just wanted to beat the crap out of them, screw what I'd been taught by Master Choi. 'Attack only when provoked'. Hell, what was this! They murdered my parents! I remember using every move I could think of. At that point dealing out a great deal of pain was all that was on my mind. I just 'Let Rip', as Summer told me later. Once they where both down, I grabbed Summer's arm and we ran as fast as we could, not looking back. I don't know how we did it, how we escaped. Okay, so I gave them a fare beating, yet, they weren't human, they had all that supernatural spend and strength…
So, it's a year later now and things are very different. I have my own gang, my "Crew", and hunting Vampires is our job description. Its mostly kids like me and Summer, who've lost their parents to the creatures of the night, vampires, or kids that just want to make a difference. And we do. Okay, so we're fighting a war that will technically never end. They'll never stop coming. A vampire will be sired, then another, then another, and then another. That kinda sucks. But you know what? We'll never stop either. As long as they keep coming, so will we.
That's It. Hope you enjoyed the story.