I was running. At first I couldn't understand why, all I knew was that something was trying to get me and I couldn't let that happen. Something horrible would happen to me if I got caught, even more horrible then I could ever image. I took a sharp turn into the woods, looking back every once in a while to make sure he wasn't too close behind. I ended up tripping and smashing face first into the ground. Without even a groan I got up and kept running. I couldn't stop or he'd find me. I knew I was soaked to the bone but nothing could make me stop. It was like I was on some kind of drug not feeling pain just blindly putting one food in front of the other. It was a little thrilling and exciting but I couldn't think of that now.

Finally, when my chest felt like it would explode I took a break and looked around. I was far away from anything I knew. I never came in the forest it had always terrified me but today the only scary thing about these woods was what was in it. I spotted a hole in the roots of a tree just big enough that I could fit in it if I squished. Hiding was not the best idea right now but I couldn't run anymore or I'd die. Breathing heavily I kept telling myself to calm down or he'd hear me, to just breath in and out as slowly and as quietly as possible. About a minute later a hand came out and grabbed my arm tightly and pulled me out of my hiding place. I'm so scared I can't even scream and just stare at him confused. No one should have been able to find me. He gave me a weird look almost as if he'd heard what I said. 'That's not possible," I told myself and he just smiled. "That was fun," he says before sinking his teeth into my neck.

I stood up screaming in bed. I was hyperventilating so hard I thought I'd pass out. "Honey! Honey! Are you ok?" someone yelled on the other side of my bedroom door. "Honey answer me!"



"Its ok mom I'm fine," I responded wiping the sweat off my forehead.

My mom sighed behind the door. "Ok Kitten, well it's time to get up."

"Urrrgh!" I complained while burying my face under my pillow. I really didn't want to go to school today. School had just all of a sudden got boring recently. Maybe I just didn't know what I waned to do with the rest of my life but staying here was not in my plans. This run down old town was starting to get to me and I didn't want to end up like everyone else, stuck doing the same old thing for the rest of my life. I wanted adventure. I wanted something different. Although around here I was as different as they get. Dressing a little punk rocker in this place was almost a crime but that was half the fun.

"Don't make me come up there!" yelled my father this time. He's the type of guy you need to stay away from and obey when he's pissed off. You don't want him straightening you out.

"I'm coming!" I yelled back while slowly getting out of bed. I had a rough night last night. You see I have frequent nightmares and because my dreams feel so real I wake up sometimes feeling really sore. Almost as if I'd done those things in really life. Yeah it's weird but totally normal; at least that's what I told myself. Almost like resido pain of something healed over that shouldn't hurt anymore but in a really sort of way. Getting up slowly I felt pain all over my body but mostly in my legs and neck. I groaned loudly and rubbed my legs slowly. It felt like 

I'd pulled all my muscles. I never had any hard evidence of being hurt like scratches or bruises but it always felt like I should. Like I sleepwalked and made my way around town or something but I always woke up safe and sound in my own bed and no one ever complained. I sighed and stretched out a little. I gathered up some clothes really fast, jumped in the shower and was done in about five minutes.

Before getting dressed I have this habit of looking at myself in the mirror and finding things I liked about myself. It's sort of this confidence booster for me. For the longest time I hated my body. I'd been chubby and not that I wasn't attractive but it had bothered me. I'd decided this year that I was going to make myself happy and so I started working out every day and just getting healthier. So when I looked at myself in the mirror today I liked my lips and eyes which were blue. I liked my hair because I'd let it grow into nice long straight blond hair. I was proud of my chest as well. Sure having them be size D was a little annoying because of running and so on but it let me feel like I had something special. Something I could call my own. Pathetic huh? Anyways I also liked my legs today which weren't to long and weren't to short. Being 5'0 didn't make being a 'full figured person' very easy. I laughed at myself before I started getting dressed. Inner dialog was my thing. You could find me having a complete conversation to myself about something and then randomly laugh or groan out loud, could be embarrassing sometimes.

I picked out a pair of dark wash jeans with a red tank top and black Slayer hoody, something very typical and easy that I wore to school often. Before getting yelled at again I picked up my book bag and ran downstairs to the kitchen. Two pieces of toast were neatly 

waiting for me on the table. I picked them up, spent some time at the table, yelled thanks and ran out the door. I finished the toast in two seconds before I got into my car.

My car was something very precious to me and under NO circumstances was there to be any food, beverage, or cigarette smoke in my car. Not that I smoked but some of my friends did and I never liked the smell of caked on smoke seeping into my car seats. My car was always squeaky clean, hardly any paper and/or junk like most of my friends had. I just liked things organized and clean basically. I was sort of anal about stuff like that. Having a father like mine you learn to keep things clean and orderly as well as easily accessible.

On my way to school I was very conscientious as to the speed limit. I couldn't afford another speeding ticket. See I like to drive my car fast, really fast. It was just so exhilarating seeing as we don't usually have anything interesting happen, EVER. Living in New Brunswick in the middle of nowhere doesn't help either. You had to drive miles before you could meet your neighbor's house. The privacy always seemed kin of nice for me though. No one had to know everything that happened to you although gossip was fairly common in a place like this. Especially if you family didn't attend church every Sunday. It seemed that other parts of the world were having lots of interesting things happen. I've been reading the newspaper lately, eavesdropping on other peoples more exiting lives. Yesterday I'd read something very interesting.

FLASHBACK



I was in the kitchen having breakfast with my family when I picked up the paper. I'd been doing that lately and it started to be the only thing I looked forward to in a morning, being able to 'experience' all these exciting things without actually going through them.

That day I came across a very peculiar article. It was hidden near the end where most people wouldn't bother to read. It seemed that recently the American government officially acknowledged the existence of vampires. Awesome right? Well the president seemed to be under the impression that he could assemble all vampires and use them as his own 'vampire army' and I quote, "to combat the coming threats to American citizens." First, where does he get off thinking that he can control vampires? I may not be the leading expert on vampires but something that seems to come up all the time is that they're super strong and independent. I don't think any vampire would become the president's lap dog unless they gained something from it. On the other hand this whole vampire thing always seemed too 'powerful' to me I mean come on, superpowers, being drawn to them. Please (sarcastic), that's just a load of bull. Funny thing is I was the type of person who had hundreds of vampire books and movies and so on all around the house. I was as drawn to them as anyone but thought it was just a faze nothing serious. The American government thought otherwise. They didn't really have that many rights but it seemed that they could now attain property legally as well as other such basic essentials. I thought it was a little overdone and pointless because they had already been doing that in the first place. Sure it may not have been legal or documented but I don't think they all just lived on the streets right? Oh, and it seemed that slowly the president wants to make it legal to feed on humans. Ha, he thinks that if someone is willing to die and knows what's going on then its fine for them to be 'taken'. How sick was that? Legal murder! That'll be the day. Because of this change in status in 

the U.S. many vampire were immigrating to America. They could roam around without being worried to much about anything happening.

Living in Canada gives you a different view on life I think. It seems that fighting super powered ninja vampires would not seem very appealing to me. What's even funnier is that an article right under this one denies the existence of vampire. Says the president is delusional and that maybe he should step down. As much as that would be a wise choice, seeing as President Bush is not one of my favorite people, maybe this is for the best. I mean if vampires really do exist shouldn't we know about it? That way maybe we can protect ourselves and so on. It seems logical but we don't really have any proof that they are real. I mean who's ever really seen a vampire? Sure the idea of them, the adventure and sex appeal, is very exciting but I don't think anyone has really taken it seriously. I know I haven't, I mean you can always have that naïve dream that you'll find this 500 vampire who's just looking for love and finds you but real life is never like that.

Although I'm sure lots of bored and lonely kids have picked up vampire books and have attached themselves to the dangerous and intriguing creatures. That's exactly what I'd done. I mean sure I have friends and go out to parties, had boyfriend's, had sex, and so on but things seemed to be weird for the past couple of years. I couldn't explain it but I'd come to a point in my life where something, anything needed to happen, so much so that school seemed to me pushed on the back burner while books and work replaced school.



As I read these articles my family went on about their business without really noticing me. Recently it seemed that my family was getting more and more distant and it hurt. We'd always had a close bond, well mostly me and my mother but she's been as distant as ever lately.

END OF FASHBACK

All this was going through my mind as I drove to school. Too much was going on and yet not enough. My mind was completely filled and yet I needed something more. I drove up to school and parked as close to the front doors as possible. I got out quickly so that I could make it to my first class on time. Driving like a snail didn't make it easy to make it to class on time. When I walked in the door and saw the hustle and bustle of high school life I leaned up against the wall of and second and started thinking.

Kent Taylor High (KTH) was a fairly spacious school considering how very few people there were at this school. Lots of improvements are made to it every year. It was turning out to be some sort of private school for Christians. See because of all the religious stuff going on in this town KTH was a school that liked to promote 'safe' living. I wasn't born here but in Quebec in a rough school where you made friends with everyone or you'd for sure get your ass kicked. Also I'd been in the 'challenge program' where all the smart kids hung together. What was great for me was that I was, and still am, very interested in sports such as softball and karate. Because of this I was able to relate to the 'cool people' as well as the 'jocks'. It made me tough and coming to live here I needed it. Having a thick skin is always good but some so here if you 'different'.

I'd always been a very open person. I never took to one religion but just liked to think that good people got rewarded and the bad got punished. I also liked the idea that you could come back and make up for prior lives lived. That kind of afterlife, ghost, and reincarnation thing always caught my attention. Here you had to believe in one thing and one thing only or you were thought to be some kind of freak. Let's just say my presence didn't go over to well at Kent High. I'd been here for a year, had made friends who didn't judge but it was just so sad how people thought about life around here. No one wanted to really 'have fun'. Where I used to live in Montreal, they had a great night life. If you went downtown there would be strip clubs and dance clubs, gay bars, and sports bars. Montreal had always been the party town for me and I guess that's what brought my family to ultimately move down here. I'd gotten into a little trouble which I never did but I covered for my boyfriend at the time and it brought me here. The asshole never even talked to me after that, figures.

This school was not so bad though considering I was not well thought of. Once you get the feel of where everything thing is and what pisses people off you can coexist quite nicely. I made is sound like me and them were different species but sometimes it felt like it. I sighed as I spotted my friends Chris and Stacy but I couldn't talk to them long before the bell rang and I had to head over to my first class.