Disclaimer: DN Angel goes to Sugisaki, Twilight goes to Stephenie Meyer.
Author natterings: Okay, so this is an answer to IcedOverFire's challenge, though I have a feeling that it will develop into something bigger. There are more chapters to come, so more of the challenge guidelines will be fulfilled. If you've read Twilight, it's pretty easy to guess whose roles I've chosen to fill with Riku and Dark. For those who haven't read Twilight, I've gone over what a Meyer vampire is like, so you won't be lost (I'm hoping). So, without further ado...
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DUSK TO DAWN
In... out. In... out. Slowly, I drew breath into my lungs, then let it out again.
I was lying in something. Something that smelt terribly of... garbage. Something... wet.
I leapt up, nearly shrieking with the realization that I was sitting in someone else's waste. That was seriously sick. I had to find a shower. And now.
The muscles in my legs bunched as I leapt from the river of sewage up and onto the ladder twenty feet away. The action felt odd, as if I had never performed it before, and I nearly fell from the rungs. But my hands flicked out quickly, and I caught myself. Apparently, I had good reflexes.
I climbed. Up, up, up and pushed aside the heavy metal grate that blocked entry onto the street. Then I looked for the nearest place with a shower.
Lights shone from windows into the dark streets. Houses. Those would have showers, right? I just had to find an empty one, commandeer the shower in the family's absence, then slip out after. Easy peesy.
Fifteen minutes later, I was smelling fresh as a rose and looking a little nicer too, having discarded my old rags and swiped a fresh change of clothes. The girl wouldn't be missing them, she had easily over fifty shirts and pants. Still, I felt a little bad as I took them from her closet.
Now, to nail down some more important things.
One. My name was Riku. Two. I was... 19.
I thought a little harder.
Oh, come on, I had to have more info somewhere in this head of mine! A family? A home I grew up in?
I caught a glimpse of a woman and man walking arm in arm.
A boyfriend! Did I have a boyfriend?
I grasped, my memory at its limit. Odd. Odd that I should not know enough about myself to answer this very easy question.
Suddenly, my vision tilted and I stumbled onto the cobblestone, my palms hitting the ground with the sound two rocks make when hit together. I would have stood up, but something played across my senses...
A vision. A pale, handsome man. A beautiful woman at his side. A boy, girl, another boy, all equally beautiful, all standing together. Their eyes were gold. They stood in a forest, and it grew thick and dark behind them. The shoulders of their shirts were soaked, something I noticed right away. And the strangest thing of all - I felt drawn to them, a visceral connection, a shift.
And then they were gone, my vision melted away.
"Hello? Excuse me, miss?"
I looked up. I was still seated on the ground.
"Are you alright?" asked the man I had seen before. His girlfriend clamped his elbow, shielded behind him.
"I'm fine," I answered. I stood up, feeling a bit lightheaded at the speed at which I got up. When I snapped to attention, the pair of them had just blinked away surprise.
"Alright, then," said the man. "You have a good night, miss."
"You, too," I smiled in thanks.
Again, they both physically stuttered. Was something in my teeth? But before I could ask, they scurried away.
No matter. I had something to do now. I knew of no home I could return to, and no one I could stay with.
My mind had made itself up - I'd find them. That stunning group of people. Maybe they'd have some answers.
-
Three. I was a vampire.
Waking in the sewer was my very first real memory. But my body - my muscle memory - remembered a little better than my brain. First, there was the ladder. My body was not used to that, but I had paid little mind, brushing it off. Second, my palms didn't scrape a bit from my fall. Third, the fluid in my ears wasn't up to how fast I moved, even if the pace seemed regular.
I had been a human. Slower, softer, weaker. This was a disconcerting conclusion to come to, seeing as how I assumed I was a human. But I had no memories to attach me to my human life, so it seemed like not too much to give up.
The man and woman from that night had been surprised at my speed, at my beauty. I knew immediately that these gifts were to be utilized by the average vampire to hunt humans. But I wouldn't be using these gifts. Not for these means, anyway. The vulgarity to which I would have to stoop... the thought made my mind churn with disgust. I may not have known much about myself, but I still had my principles, my basic emotions. Everytime I felt hunger, I pictured that man and that woman, hand in hand. I couldn't take one away from the other. I couldn't live with myself if I were to cause anyone a pain as deep as the loss of a loved one. Even if I had no attachment to any living being, it just made me feel even sadder to imagine another being living this way. I would not shed the blood of a human if I could help it.
The visions came regularly now. In one, I saw a solution.
It was the group - of vampires, I now realized - hunting. But they weren't chasing humans, terrorizing them or the like. They were hunting animals. Deer, cougars, bears. So I did the same.
I had fed a little less than an hour ago, still heading northwest as I'd decided. After a few minutes, I concluded that the wet shoulders of the family had to be because of rain. So I ruled out the south, left Mississippi, and headed west, passing through every library across the country. I read up on topography and climate in every state. I filled my life with information, because I had so little of it to start with.
I read everything. Legends, myths, fables. Adventure, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, non-fiction, realistic fiction. I steered clear of romance. A bad run-in with a trashy paperback scared me off of that genre. But I continued my pursuit of knowledge. I read up on Canada, Brazil, India, Zimbabwe, China.
For a reason I didn't know, I had visions, a second sight, you could say. (They no longer made me fall over from dizziness, as they had that first night.) They weren't always of something important - I mostly foresaw the weather, for example. But sometimes, I got something amazing or helpful or both. I foresaw a lunar eclipse, due tonight. I foresaw a little boy slipping on a patch of ice, and so, got there just in time to catch him midfall. I saw the stock market doing abominably in the 1930's, and so held off on any investments.
Which came to the matter of money. I knew that as a vampire I could effectively ignore the human world, live ferally, a ghost in their lives. But I found it terribly lonely. After a dry spell of human company, the smallest greeting, the smallest flicker of acknowledgement, lifted my spirits. My decision was practically made for me. Live among them.
It was hard. I had to feed frequently - every other night - to not feel thirsty. Otherwise, the slightest whiff of blood would drive me near to insanity. The strength of my thirst in times like these honestly scared me, that something so base and carnal could control me. But I was determined. And if anything could beat out my thirst, it was my conviction.
So I worked alongside humans. Mostly night shifts, as I discovered that my skin shone fiercely when struck by sunlight, a very noticeable difference between me and regular humans. I worked mostly in taverns or dance clubs as a waitress, where my beauty bagged me the job before I knew it. I touched down for no more than two months, but in every place I felt the nighttime culture enfold me. It was the 1920's, and America was an economic powerhouse. Everyone was out looking for a good time, and the places I worked earned hundreds by the end of the night.
I opened a bank account, under the name of Alice Greene, and easily obtained I.D. to match. Whatever I couldn't find, I forged. It wasn't hard. With my book knowledge, I knew security details that most didn't. All this, I did in the case that I should need to flee. Living my life this way, it was safer for others that they didn't know my real name. Still, I longed for a companion.
Life as a nomad suited me. Being by myself felt natural, and I supposed that I had been independent in my life as a human. Still, every human needs social stimulation of some kind, and I felt the same. My work as a waitress provided that. For sure.
"Hey, pretty thang, care fer a shot?"
I turned, an armful of trays and glasses in my arms. A drunk patron.
"No, thank you, sir. Can't be tipsy on the job, sir." He hardly deserved the title, but I figured it best to be polite.
"Heh, can't be dropping those glasses, eh? Well, ya lemme know if ya change yer mind."
"Yes, sir," I said, then turned and headed into the kitchen. He was, I knew, staring at my behind.
"Alice!" exclaimed Bette, my coworker. She was in her early 30's, plump and blonde, a striking contrast to me, dark-haired and thin. "Dear girl, give me some of those! You'll right drop 'em, you little thing."
I didn't tell her that I could carry thirty times the load and not feel anything. Being a vampire required some restraint. "Oh, Bette, you're sweet."
Bette unloaded the bulk of my dishes into the sink, then turned back to me. "Not as sweet as you, my dear. Seems a lot of gentlemen ask after you 'round here." She winked.
I just scowled. She laughed.
"Really though, have you considered any of 'em? You're young and beautiful. Right age to be marryin'."
"Bette, you bring this up every night," I laughed. "I'm just earning money for school. No time for a boy." While a lie for now, this could very well become the truth down the road. I wanted to go to university.
A devious sparkle lit in her eyes. "Maybe not a boy. But do you have the time for a man? I think so!" And her laughed filled the room. She was such a good spirit, I laughed along.
-
The night was a success, and the owner, a good man named Kosuke, gave all of us our tips plus a bonus. "For your good work!" he smiled. "See you tomorrow night."
So that was that. I was heading home with a healthy amount of money, which I would deposit into my bank account tomorrow morning, and let it collect interest.
My heels clacked on the sidewalk. My walking home at night always worried the better of my coworkers, but I knew there was no need for fear. I could incapicitate any attacker. It wasn't until I had hunted that I realized how strong I truly was. A slight squeeze of my fist and I could collapse the vertebrae of a bear's neck. Perversely, I sometimes wished for an attacker just so I could know it wasn't only me out here, all alone.
I looked up at the sky. Lately, the loneliness had begun to nag. Instead of a fleeting thought, it sat contantly in the pit of my stomach, the first thing I thought about when I had a free moment. It had been two years since I had awoke in the sewer, and I felt no closer to finding the family in my visions. The past two years wasn't a complete waste, of course. I had been learning so much, reading around the clock (vampires, I discovered, don't need sleep). My self-control over my thirst was a thousand-fold better than when I started. I was earning money, should I ever need it. Still, I felt a bit unbalanced, like something was missing.
Through the fog of my thoughts, my eyes registered the eclipse occuring. I had never seen one before, or at least I didn't remember having seen one before. I stopped walking and watched the moon slowly fall behind the earth's shadow.
It came when the moon had fallen into the dark completely.
A vision. A man, quite tall, delivering a fierce kick to another man, presumedly an opponent. Around them, three more fights of similar nature. The fighting was fierce, more frightening than usual. It looked almost to be a war. Yet, there were no weapons.
My attention caught on the man again. He was standing still now, concentrating hard on something I couldn't see. In my mind's eye, something distinct was niggling at me. Something about him. But when I saw his face, I knew. In an instant.
He was a vampire.