Ruined: Carly's Story

Being human means making mistakes, ranging from childish to life changing. The childish ones tend to bother us when we are young. Whether it's messing up on a spelling test or breaking a plate, they make us feel guilty. These are the mistakes that we tend to stay with and never forget. These mistakes are okay; there's absolutely nothing significant about them. They're as small as a speck of dust. What we don't understand is that there are much worse mistakes to make. Much worse.

Carly's POV

I gently adjusted the bud in my ear to make the sound play more clearly. It rewarded me with a nice tune as I sat up; each note rang out sweetly in my ear. A smile escaped my mouth as I lazily sat up. A flight to California was about three hours, yet it felt as if I had slept for almost seven like a bear in hibernation. It was a good thing because I usually got around three hours of sleep. I brushed my smooth brown hair out of my face, letting it fall in waves down my back.

I shivered as the glossy strands brush my bare back. My choice of clothing probably hadn't been the wisest choice for a plane. The smooth material of my baby blue dress went down to my knees, slightly flaring out. I pulled out my phone using the camera as a mirror to make sure I was presentable for David when the plane landed.

David was my stepdad, while most people didn't like their stepparents; I loved mine almost as dearly as my first parents. He adopted me when I was ten when he found me all alone on the streets. I wasn't afraid of people, but I was as cautious as cat. I didn't trust what people told me.

Mascara was lightly smeared under my eyes from being closed. I softly rubbed my index finger against the black as I brushed them together to make the color of smoke. I absently wiped it off on my bare arm making patterns that looked intricate.

I looked back at the screen brushing my hand against my lightly tanned skin. I had been working on my tan for a while specifically for this trip so that I didn't look out of place. Looking out of place was uncomfortable for me. I had promised to teach a dance class on the day David booked a flight for us both so he changed mine to a later time. The class had gone longer than expected, so I nearly sped to the airport like a maniac. I had been lucky enough to make the flight with the time I had.

This was luckily a very small stress. I had many other responsibilities and they were hard to handle.

The one thing I didn't have to worry about was school. While most normal sixteen year olds spent half their days in school, I spent most of my time dancing and training. I graduated from high school last year. I wasn't a smart kid; I was home schooled and got school out of the way. I needed to do it so I that could pursue dance. Being a dancer had been my dream ever since I could remember. I never questioned it and I never fought it. I was lucky enough to be considered a prodigy in the art. Hard work was something that always paid off. Dance was something that also helped me to escape the constant nightmares I had at nighttime. Sometimes if I tired myself out enough, I never dreamed. It was simple: no energy equals no dreams.

I paused as I thought about the nightmares. It brought me back to the one event that traumatized me. The only reason I was afraid of sleep.

Flashback

The young child sat on the cool floor holding her new, soft pink pointe shoes. They were the one good thing that had happened to her this week. She was excited to be starting pointe; it was something new and challenging. She poked the hard shank to feel how firmly it would hold up her feet as she was rewarded with a rigid feel. She placed them back in bag then used her small thin fingers to pluck the pins out of her bun like plucking pins out of a pin cushion. Her head snapped up at the soft creak of a floor board. She gave a small smile with her rose pink lips as bright teal eyes looked back at her matching eyes.

"Daddy!" she squealed as she gave a puma jump into his big arms. She cuddled her head into his chest, "Did you see my shoes Daddy? Did you see my shoes?"

He chuckled in a deep exhausted tone, "Of course I did sweetheart. You showed me them like five times." He swung her softly smiling as a giggle burst from her mouth.

She looked straight at his eyes again as she enjoyed this one moment of peace. She cringed as a scream of completely agony flowed down the hall. Her expression became completely serious as she asked another question, "Daddy, when is Andrew going to get better? I want to play with him again." Andrew had been in this condition for the past two days, screaming and moaning nonstop.

The day it started seemed like a normal day. The girl was the only witness. She told her dad about the shadow that looked human, but he didn't believe her. He thought it was just a wild animal attack because of the bite mark that looked like a crescent moon.

"I don't know Carly," he said with a sigh, "I don't know."

She frowned then cuddled into his chest again, "I hope he gets better soon," she said in a comforting voice. Her dad nodded with a sluggish pace.

She sighed as it became silent again, but her father began to frown. His eyebrows creased with a worried expression as her mother rushed out of Andrew's room with a panicked, almost hopeless look in her blue eyes. "August, he… he stopped breathing. He… he's not breathing." She spoke with a complete mourning tone. Her voice shook in pain as she tried to hold back tears.

Her dad lightly placed her back on her feet as he reached out to grasp his wife's hand, "Carly, I want you to stay right here. Okay, honey?" he said as he bent down to his daughter's eye level. She nodded as a crystal clear tear slid down her cheek, "Mommy?" she asked softly as she looked up.

"It's going to be okay," her mother said in a gentle voice, "I promise everything will be alright." She stroked her daughter's soft head as she gave her a reassuring smile. More tears slid down Carly's face as she nodded at her mother. She knew what "not breathing" meant. Not breathing meant dead. Andrew was dead. Her lips trembled as she obediently sat down in a chair like a dog to await their return.

She began to sniffle as they disappeared out of sight. Her parents were already sad when Andrew became sick; she couldn't imagine how different they would act if Andrew was dead. She wiped the wet droplets off her cheek to stare at them in her palm. A shocked expression came on her face as the pain became reality

She froze as she heard a high pitched scream, more importantly, her mom's scream. She shot up like a bullet as she bolted to the room, "Mommy!" She yelled, "Daddy!" her expression became horrified as she heard a loud thud, "No!" she shrieked as more tears flew out of her eyes.

She reached the doorway just in time to see a dismaying image. Her brother held her mother's limp body by her neck as if she weighed nothing. He sank his teeth into it as he began to drink quickly. Carly gaped in complete horror as he dropped her drained body. Her curls flew out as her head rolled to look at her daughter. "Mommy?" she whispered in agony. The eyes were completely lifeless and glazed over, almost doll like.

Andrew turned around as he heard her pained voice. He looked at her with eyes that sent chills down her back. The bloody color was terrifying, but that wasn't what scared her. It was the hungry, animalistic look she could see. She could tell he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

She took a step back as terror began to take over her body. She moved slowly with shaky steps, wobbling as she tripped backwards. She pushed herself up and let out a scream as Andrew walked to her with a slow, relaxed pace. She held her hand like a shield in front of her as a last defense. She waited for the pain to come as she squeezed her eyes tightly.

The pain came in her hands instead. She cried out looking up as she saw flames shooting out of her hands. They licked everything in front of her cleaning them into ashes. She hit her hands on the ground in a panic as she tried to put the fire out. She gasped as she roughly rubbed the sparks until smoke was left. She placed her shaky hand in front of her face to stare at the angry red stinging marks.

The pain of that compared nothing to the other pain she had in her heart. She could hear it beat in her head as she glanced back at her parent's bodies. A choked sob burst out as she crawled over to lie down between the corpses. She curled up as complete exhaustion began to overcome her. Her mother's words echoed in her head as she fell unconscious, "It's going to be okay, I promise everything will be alright." But it wasn't, everything wasn't alright.

Carly's POV

I felt a hand on my shoulder as a flight attendant shook me back to focus, "Excuse me ma'am? Would you like a brochure?" she asked with a polite tone.

"Yes, thank you," I said as I flashed my teeth at her quickly. She smiled as she placed the brochure in my lap. "We land in five minutes," she added as she moved to the next passenger. I flipped open the smooth paper as I began to look at it. "No, Italy…that can't be right," I murmured to myself. I turned the pages quickly. "No, no," I whispered. I swallowed as I looked out the windows feeling a gentle bump as the plane pulled down to the terminal.

"Oh God, this can't be happening." I placed my head in my hands, "David's going to kill me." I quickly stood up as the plane came to a stop so I could get a signal. My phone was out within five seconds flat. I dialed David's number as I rushed ruthlessly out the airport pulling my backpack up my shoulder. I rushed down a street not paying attention.

I kept my eyes focused on the numbers as I held the phone to my ear. I wondered how I would explain this to David; this was a very insane situation. Something like this never happened. I couldn't understand it like I couldn't understand a foreign language. It was simply impossible for a brain like mine.

"Oof!" I cried out as I bumped into a woman. She turned to face me looking at me with a very lovely face, almost too lovely. I froze as I noticed her eyes; they weren't red, but they had the same hungry look I still remembered. "Hello, are you here for the tour of the Volterra castle?" she asked in a seductive voice. I shook my head as terror leaked into my eyes. "N-no thank you," I said quickly as I backed away. I bolted in the opposite direction.

"Carly?" a voice drifted from the phone on the ground. "Carly, where are you?"

Heidi's POV

I kept my eyes on the strange girl as she ran away from me. That was strange. Usually humans never said no to me, but this was a different situation—she was different. I knew it the first second I looked into her eyes. She knew. She knew about us. Humans weren't allowed to know, yet somehow she did. She had to be reported; humans like this were a danger to our kind. They were almost explosive like a bomb, she would eventually explode with the information she knew. Humans couldn't be kept quiet.

I leaned over to Caius keeping my eyes on her. "That girl over there, she knows," I said with a quick voice. "Do you want me to go capture her?"

He shook his head. "No. Stay here and try to gather more people for our meal. I'll capture her." He grinned at me quickly with a malevolent look as he headed in the girl's direction. I looked back one last time at his black cloak before I turned around as I secretly smiled at a man approaching me.

Carly's POV

I felt my feet pounding on the ground as I ran at full speed. I wasn't stopping until I was sure everything was safe. I gasped with every breath as my legs burned in protest. I began to feel alone as I realized there was nobody to be seen around my area. I finally stopped turning around in a full circle as I felt an uneasy feeling in my chest, pricking me keeping me unsettled. I knew it couldn't be over this quick. With monsters like that it never was.

My feeling was soon confirmed as a cloaked figure appeared out of nowhere. It walked to me with a slow calm pace. It was beautiful, yet terrifying, much like creatures at the bottom of the ocean. They were beautiful because of lights and glamour they used, but those things only masked the truth underneath. They were predators that attracted fish with distractions until it was too late.

It pulled off its cloak to reveal a man's face. He had very pale blond hair with almost transparent skin to match. His eyes had a slightly different look. They were red like all normal monsters, yet instead of hunger, it was a genuine evil look, there was nothing good about it. He looked at me quickly, studying my every breath.

"You're one of them," I said with a gasping breath. "A monster." I backed away only for him to match my pace.

"Actually, the correct term would be vampire, but yes, I am a monster," he said with a grin. He suddenly sped forward in impossible speed shoving me against a wall. "Tell me, who told you about us?"

"Nobody told me about you, I just found out by an unfortunate situation," I choked out as pain shot up my back. He smirked as he let me go backing away, "That is not very helpful information, but sadly I can tell you are not going to budge." He was right I was as stubborn as a splinter that refuses to come out of your skin. I would rather die than help him.

"Oh, I'm supposed to know all this stuff?" I snapped back in an annoyed tone. I held up my hands shrugging, "Sorry, I'm not some kind of genius."

He looked at me with an amused expression. "No, you are not," He paused, pacing around me. He calculated my every move waiting for me to take action like prey normally would, "Well, I see no other use for you. I guess I will have to kill you now." He began to lunge forward.

I held out my hands feeling the familiar burning sensation that came when I was in danger. The flames shot out ready to burn anything in sight. The vampire seemed to dodge them as a new expression came into his face. I cried out unable to handle the pain anymore as I rubbed my hands against the dirt to douse the flames. I held them up, gasping in pain as exhaustion began to take me over.

My legs slid out from under me as they refused to function. He stood over me. "Well, well, look who proved themselves useful," he said with a smug tone. I let out a moan as black covered my eyes.