Well, here is my very first Fanfiction on this site and I am really excited. I hope that you will enjoy reading my story as much as I enjoy writing it.
I do not own One Piece and I make no money writing this.
Warnings: 1. This is a story about Vampires, Werebeasts and the supernatural in general. The societies in this story live in fear of the supernatural. You can expect it to go to dark places.
2. There will be swearing. I will try my best to keep it to a minimum and only use it during highly emotional times but it will be there. If you have a problem with that you should not read this story.
3. I believe a characters actions to be the result of all of their experiences and the society they live in. So please note that the characters in this story behave in accordance to what they have experienced in their live so far and how they were raised. - I have not been very nice to them on that front.
Please note that english is not my mother tounge so please know that should you find any errors I would be happy to correct them. On we go.
Chapter 1 - A new Dawn
The sun was still down when she woke up again but the moon wasn't to be seen either. The night's grey slowly turning lighter taking on a more reddish colour. Her neck hurt, actually her entire body hurt but her neck was the worst. Slowly she lifted her right hand up – when had it gotten so heavy? – and felt along her neck.
First the right side of her neck, up and down slowly. Nothing. The back – nothing. The front – nothing. Finally the left side of her neck – noth... her fingertips felt two large, almost hole-like puncture wounds.
Panic seeped into her belly and she shut her eyes tight. No! No! No! No! No! She had always been careful! Never wandering around in the forest at night, going so far as to never leaving the town after dusk. She used special soap – all girls her age did – to make her scent unattractive for vampires. Yes she reeked but it kept the damned bloodsuckers away! Usually. Normally.
She wore clothes made from hemp – vampires hated that. She avoided wearing jewellery and make-up. Made herself look plain and unattractive. Vampires liked pretty things. She did too, but she wanted to live.
Tears welled up behind her still closed eyes. This was bad. She had been bitten and used as a fucking meal. The fact that she couldn't remember anything after going out to pick up some milk, while it was still bright out and sunny, scared her. It scared her more than her teacher's tales of demons and werewolves ever did.
The first tear rolled down her cheek. It felt hot, way too hot. She tried to take deep breaths. In and out. In and out. She had to be rational about this: yes she had been bitten and used as a meal but here she was awake and breathing, she even felt her heart thundering against her ribcage. It couldn't be all that bad then now, could it? It meant that some old experienced vampire had gotten to her, it just had to. The older ones knew how to take what they needed from a human without either killing or turning them.
It was the younger ones that killed, usually on accident. They were the reason Nami and her friends, every single girl and woman under forty actually, reeked of a mixture of garlic, hemp and musk. There were artificial pheromones in the soaps and lotions they used that served to turn away even zombies and those stupid things were anything but picky!
They were the reason Nami and her friends dressed in ugly, itchy clothes that did nothing for their figures and cut their hair short in order to look like boys.
More hot tears rolled down her cheeks. Old experienced vampires avoided human females and human children like the plague because an attack on their children or womenfolk was usually the one thing humans would actually start a vampire hunt about.
Nami pressed her shaking hand against her mouth, hoping to muffle the sobs that started to wreck her body. She needed to be silent in case the vampire was still around; it was still dark enough for them to be out after all. And she feared that he would return to finish her off should he hear her.
The story of Mary Battony came unbidden to her mind and her body started shaking. Mary had been her friend and Mary was dead. She had had enough of the bad smell that followed her, of the colourless dresses and pants she had to wear. She wanted to be like the girls in the big cities – the vampire free cities. Cocoyashi Village wasn't one of the big cities. It was as far away from one of the big cities as it could get. And somewhere in the woods was a vampire nest.
About six years ago, on the evening of her eighteenth birthday Mary had partied hard, had worn a bright red dress and diamond earrings and a necklace that had sparkled like the stars. The make-up had made her look prettier than Nami had ever seen her before and she had worn a perfume she had stolen from her grandmother. She had laughed and been loud and not heeded the warnings the elders had given her. The warnings her grandmother had given her. Had ignored her parents' frightened words.
Nami had left her friend's party way after dusk, clutching Genzo's arm tightly, afraid until the front door of her home shut tightly behind her. It was the last time she had seen Mary alive.
They had found her around midday the day after her party. Pale as snow. No colour to her aside from her smeared make-up. Genzo had told her that they had found the initial bite-wounds, large and ugly, which had already started to heal before her death. The vampire hadn't killed her friend immediately, no, he had apparently returned at a later point in time and torn into her like a mad animal. Torn her stomach open and ripped her throat out.
Thinking about Mary made her sick to this day.
A young dumb one had gotten to her then, probably had a fucking cold! How else would he have been able to stand her stench! The tears were flowing steadily now and her muffled sobs were way too loud. She pressed her other hand over her mouth as well and tried her hardest to stay still.
That was when the morning choir started. Considering the time of year, that meant that the vampire had about half an hour to get his ugly ass to his fucking nest. Good. He wouldn't be around then if he liked his version of living.
Tentatively Nami opened her eyes, everything was blurred, quite probably due to the still falling tears. The sky was getting brighter; sun-break wasn't far away. This discovery helped to calm her down slightly. She gingerly lifted her hands away from her mouth and wiped at her eyes trying to remove the tears. She sniffled, she had to stop crying. She had to get home and tell the elders, had to tell her sister and her mother.
When her hands came away from her face she froze. Red. Her hands were covered in a red substance. This couldn't be. Please no. Please...
Nami wiped her shaking hands off on her grey shirt and then brought them back to her face only to furiously rub at the tears. Her breathing quickened, her heart slammed against her ribs. When she pulled her hands back to look at them she started to shake violently.
Blood-tears. When one was turned into a vampire a person would cry blood-tears for the next few years of their existence.
It meant that she hadn't gotten away with her life. It meant that she was dead on some level and would spend the rest of her miserable existence as the very thing that she feared and loathed the most: a vampire.
Nami was full on sobbing now, no longer caring if her attacker was still around and potentially coming back to finish her off. Truthfully she would have preferred it. To be fully dead was way better than to be a vampire. She wouldn't even be able to kill herself: vampire instincts were survival oriented. Perhaps she could ask the elders for a mercy kill...
Rustling in the bushes to her right made her flinch and stiffen. A feeling of dread rose in her stomach replacing her desperation and heightening her fear. She heard her blood rushing in her ears and could feel the red-hot tears rolling down her cheeks again.
"Oh, hello my beautiful Goddess. Are you awake again?" a young, blond man stepped out of the thicket. He was good-looking. Extremely good-looking.
"Oh, my love, why are you crying? It pains me to see tears on your beautiful face. Trust me my dear there is no need to cry, my beautiful swan. I will make you my Queen of the Night and give you anything you desire. Nothing but the best for my breathtaking Goddess." He gave her a sweeping bow and then looked deep into her eyes.
Nami was no longer shaking; fear and dread had paralysed her. She simply stared at the blond, blue-eyed man. She didn't know why but something didn't sit right with her, something inside her was screaming at her. 'Get away!' it said, 'Get away from that man!'
His eyes seemed to draw her in, seemed to try and make her forget her fear. The something inside her hissed 'He will be the end of you! Make your move! Scratch at his eyes and run! There is no other way!'
"My beautiful Goddess it would seem that I do not know your name. Why please give it to me. I would like to call my Queen by her name." The man then gave her his most charming smile.
That was when she saw it. He was a vampire. His fangs were gleaming in the early morning light. Her breath hitched, the fear returned full force. What was the vampire doing here at this time of the day? He should have already sought out his sleeping place!
Her inner something was screeching now 'Don't tell him! He turned you! You can never go back! Scratch his eyes and run! It's your only chance!'
The rushing in her ears got louder, her heartbeat thundering as an unearthly snarl wrenched itself from her throat. Nami gave in to the voice warning her of this man. 'Good girl.'
All that would remain in her memory of this confrontation were her own animalistic snarls and screeches, the surprised look on the blue-eyed vampires face and the feeling of her own claws – yes claws, she had no idea how that had happened either – tearing across said face and more specifically the vampire's eyes.
Later when she came to her senses again she was somewhere she had never been to before. As she tried to catch her breath, Nami knew that she must have been running for a considerable amount of time. She remembered that inner voice telling her to do so.
In the end all that really mattered was that she got away from that vampire.
I hope you liked it so far and that you will stay with me on this journey :)
A small note on my update schedule: There is currently none but I do have about one day on the weekend for writing. So depending on my productivity you should get one chapter every one to two weeks until I get myself properly organized.
BlueNightOwl out.