Chain Reaction
Chapter 1: Inspiration
I dropped my pencil and stared out the window. A white sheet of snow covered the silent earth. It was December 23, and I was working on yet another twilight novel. I had argued with my manager about this, I was simply out of ideas but the amount of money on the line made it inevitable. I licked my perfect icy lips and let out a perfect icy sigh. I needed something, anything to kick start my creativity. I needed inspiration. Maybe some fresh air, or a walk. Yes a walk sounded nice. I lithely leapt up from my desk and was out the door and into the night in less than a second. I sucked in a deep breath of cool damp air and filled my lungs with its sweetness. The cold air would have been too much for a fragile human but I was easily comfortable in nothing but my sheer red satin holiday dress. I started out with an even jog, my bare feet barely making a print in the snow. Soon I was flying past the trees at an unimaginable speed. The bitter wind whipped my
perfect face. Before I knew it I reached civilization. It was too late for any human to be out and about, do I wandered aimlessly into the central park. Clusters if simple humans meandered aimlessly down the pathways, laughing huddling close together as snow began to fall lightly. I tried fruitlessly to remember my human days but there was no point. I'd been a vampire for so long that I didn't even remember who changed me. It doesn't matter u told myself. This is your life now. It's all you know.
I slipped through the shadows waiting and watching. I was thirsty and I was ready to make my move. My throat burned like someone had rubbed sandpaper against the inside. Reminiscing about my human years made me feel slightly sensitive for the first time in a while so instead of killing anyone who crossed my path I decided to scope out someone who deserved to die or particularly irritated me. Whichever came first.
It wasn't long before I heard muffled voices coming from up the path I was watching and I froze. A small family rounded the bend and came into view. They smelled so sweet. The mom was tall with blond wavy hair and an annoying face. The dad was about the same height but he didn't bother me so much he looked like he really didn't want to be there which amused me, I would spare him. Their child was quite interesting he was rather plump with most of his weight distributed to his head and butt giving him an odd silliuette.
The mom spoke. "isn't it nice to have the family together at the Christmas season!" she whined in her annoying voice.
Isn't it nice that your voice is as irritating as your face?, I thought.
"whatever mom I wanna go home. I'm missing the latest episode of john and Kate plus eight," the child grumbled.
"whatever peter" the mom sighed. I felt bad for her all she wanted was a happy family holiday and her big headed offspring was giving her a hard time. I would spare her too, which left the peter-kid.
" I gotta take a dump before we go home. I'm going to find a bathroom." stated the peter-kid.
This was my chance. I glided stealthily through the trees watching the peter-kid's every move as he bumbled through the trees and undergrowth on his final quest to the porter johns.
I watched intently as he broke through the trees and into an open area of the park. It was circular and paved with street lights casting just enough light to see by. There was no one else around.
He turned around slowly and sighed " no bathroom stupid park builders never think about peoples needs."
He started to waddle back. My muscles coiled and tensed and I sprang to life. I lunged through the air and knocked him forward and he landed right on his face. I pinned both of his arms back and used my foot to snap his spine and finish him. He never saw it coming.
I knelt down and drank his blood. The fire In my throat was soothed more and more every second. I was so absorbed in my first meal in months that I didn't realize that I had company untill several blinding headlights shone directly at me. I looked up and found myself surrounded by five cop cars. Apparently a patrol dude spotted me and alerted all his little friends.
The cop in the first car got out and his jaw dropped and half chewed doughnut fell out.
What a threatening enemy I thought.
I could have easily taken all of them down but I felt bad, I would be terminating five peoples husbands fathers or friends the day before Christmas eve. I may be a vampire, but I still have a heart, a cold silent one but a heart none the less. So instead of leaving five people very unpleasant Christmas surprises, I fled the scene leaving the half drained Peter-kid behind not knowing the amount of damage my choice was about to make.
Chapter 2: All I Want for Christmas is an Undead Stalker
Charlotte Brennan's Point of View
It was the day of Christmas eve and I was kicking my little brother's butt at Dont Wake Up Daddy when the phone rang.
"Hey Alissa get the phone!" I called.
"No because when I wanted you to get the phone when I was doing something you didn't and I missed a very important call about my friend's beanie baby collection and-"
"Never mind just shut up!" I shouted!
I'd rather answer the phone than listen to my sister bring up something I did ten years ago anyday.
I ran up from the basement and grabbed the phone off the receiver just as it blared out it's final ring.
"hello?"
"Hi this is St John's parish is Charlotte there?" the woman's voice asked.
"This is her" I replied.
What could she want with me? It's not my turn to altar serve, I was scheduled for the next mass.
"Hi Charlotte, one of our altar servers for tonight's Christmas Eve mass has failed to return our calls therefore were not sure if they're coming tonight. Is it possible for you to take his place tonight? The mass starts at 5."
" Um, hold on." I said.
I dashed to the front door and popped my head out. My mom was outside cleaning the garage.
"hey mom! Can I altar serve tonight? The parish just called and they need me!"
I called.
"I guess so. What time?" she asked from behind a pile of basketballs and softballs.
"5" I called back
" Alright, but you'll have to walk back because I'll be cooking like crazy for all the relatives coming tonight! "
" Kay!"
I raced back to the kitchen and picked up the phone.
"Hi I can make it" I said into the phone.
" Oh thank you Charlotteyour such a great help see you at five." and then the line went dead.
Alright, I thought, my Christmas Eve wasn't ruined, just slightly soiled by altar serving and walking home after.
"Charlotte!", my little brother Stefan whined.
I had forgotten that I was in the middle of a very intense board game. I really didn't feel like continuing. I thought about all the time I had to kill until 5 and it scared me. What would I do with myself! It's only 9 am! I heard my cell phone up in my room. My ringtone, Taylor Swift's "Our Song", was just loud enough to hear from downstairs. I ran up and answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey Charlotte it's Mitzi!"
Mitzi was one of my best friends. She was tall with brown curly hair and we'd been through everything together. There were some moments when she made me feel like bitch slapping her across the face (and I actually had a few times), but you'd let it slide too if you knew how awesome she was otherwise.
"Hey Mitz." I said.
"Um... Charlotte can I come over your house today?" she said in a voice that sounded really worried.
"I guess so, I have to ask my mom though because- "
"Oh well funny story" she interrupted, "but I'm already in front of your house as we speak so that would be futile."
"Wait what? How did that happen? Hello? Hello!?." I shouted into my cell phone, but the line was already dead.
The doorbell rang downstairs. I ran down to answer it and there was my friend, holding up her phone with an apologetic smile on her face. and a pleading look in her eyes.
"Uh, hi." she stammered.
"What the? Mitzi Prime what are you doing at my house the day of Christmas Eve?" I asked.
"Well you see, my mom was going to take my sisters and me into the city today to go to the Met because she says they have this really awesome Christmas tree and stuff, but we've gone so many times that I don't think I can take it anymore so I tried to come up with an excuse, but couldn't think of anything so I just said that you'd invited me over and I'd already said yes and she wasn't happy with that, but she drove me here anyway and she'll be back at like four-ish to pick me up so you don't have to tell your mom and if she doesn't want me here I can hide somewhere, maybe in the bathroom where I lost my retainer that time and-"
"Mitzi!" I shouted
"Oh sorry. I just... um.."
"Well you're here now so you might as well com inside." I said.
"Thank you!" she huffed and tumbled through the door.
My sister Alissa had heard all the commotion and come downstairs in to the kitchen.
"Hey Mitzi!" she said.
Before Mitzi could say anything I gave Alissa a look that said 'get out of here and don't tell mom or I'll tell her about that time you pushed Stefan down the steps and I covered for you and said he slipped on a dirty sock or something.' Well I don't know if my one look conveyed all that, but at least it got her out of the kitchen.
"Wanna go outside?" Mitzi asked.
"Sure" I replied and followed her out the sliding glass doors to my swing set in my backyard. I sat down on one of the swings and rocked slowly back and forth. The sky was clouded over and white, but it didn't look like it was going to rain yet. Mitzi picked up my huge green workout ball and pitched it at me. I swung and kicked it. sending it flying over her head.
"Okay I'm not getting that." she stated and walked over and sat on the swing next to me. I told her about the altar serving and she told me about her mom's obsession with art and the Metropolitan Museum of it. I expressed my sympathy. We talked for a really long time about graduation, how we would stay in touch after middle school at St. Don's, how we would grow really old and be nursing home buddies together, how this kid in a band we saw looked a lot like her cousin Cassandra. The usual stuff. That's one of the things I like about Mitzi, she can be crazy funny, but she can also be a really good listener when I need to talk. We talked for hours, went inside, ordered Chinese takeout, read our fortune cookies, ate our fortune cookies and resumed talking until her mom pulled up in her big black Escalade.
"I better go." Mitzi said.
"Alright." I said and helped her gather her stuff together.
I walked her to the door and waved as she drove off. I casually glanced at the time on my cell phone: 4:45.
"Crap." I said under my breath. I raced up to my room checked myself in the mirror, and called my mom to get in the car. I ran outside and met my mom in the van.
"Hey" I gasped. I was out of breath from running around like a maniac.
My mom started the car and backed out of our driveway."Why didn't you tell me that Mitzi was here?" she said without looking at me.
"Um..." I gulped, "you knew?"
"Of course I knew. I just didn't want to say anything while she was here. What was I supposed to do? Kick her out onto the street?" she asked.
"I'm sorry mom it's just that it was really last minute and it was sort of an emergency." I mumbled.
"Oh really?" my mom said as she raised her eyebrow. "Well I guess it's over now and there's no use beating a dead horse." she sighed.
I felt really bad, I hate disappointing my mom. We sat in awkward silence for the rest of the ride until we pulled up in front of St. Don's church
"I'll see you later honey!" My mom called as I slipped out of the car and trekked up to the St. Don's parish center.
"Bye mom!"I called over my shoulder.
I hurried up the path and yanked open the doors which were embellished by eerie looking frosted-glass saints. The church was fairly modern. I ran past the front desk while the shriveled old lady behind it gave me a nasty look. I ran through another set of doors into the crowded church. The church was huge with three wings protruding in three directions. One in front of the altar and two to the left and right. I kept running while a few churchgoers stared. I was concentrating so hard on getting my robe on in time that I crashed right into Mark Tolce. he was another of the altar servers who was my age. We went to school together so we were pretty close. He had shaggy blondish brown hair and he was about my height. One feature that really stood out were his eyes. He had these puppy dog eyes that made you want to do basically anything for him.
"Ow creep!" Mark said. I had knocked him into a pile of white altar server robes which we were now buried in.
Mark picked robes and ties off himself until he was free and stood up.
"Oh. It's you. Hey Charlotte!" he said.
I was still sitting pathetically in a pile of robes.
"Hey Mark. sorry about that. I was running late and I didn't really see you so...yeah." I said from my throne of robes.
"Hey it's alright." he said. "I thought you were some crazy priest or something. I'll take you over a crazy priest any day." He offered me his hand to help me up.
"Um thanks, I think." I said as I began to stand up and pick a robe from the pile to wear.
As I was tying my robe together and listening to Mark babble about trying to blow something up with Coke and a Mento, the shriveled front desk lady came over.
"You two have to get out there now. Stop fooling around." she said. She picked up a robe from the messy pile and frowned.
"You'll have to deal with this later." she said and stormed off to do whatever it is that front desk ladies do.
Mark grabbed the Holy cross-on-a -stick and we scampered through the crowd and out the doors so we could lead in the processional. The loud heavy organ music started up and we led the priest and company through the doors and up to the altar.
"Welcome brothers and sisters." the ancient priest droned. Mark looked like he was about to fall asleep. His head was tilted to one side and his mouth hung slightly open. I reached over and pinched him in the arm flub and he snapped up, suddenly remembering where he was and what he was doing.
While Mark was holding the priest lectionary book up at the altar, I took a moment to look around. I saw the familiar faces of the congregation. My friend Mitzi was there sitting in one of the back rows next to some guy. After a second look, I realized I knew that guy. He was Peter, a kid who used to go to my school and then transfered out. Had he been working out? He looked pale and tired, but a lot better than the last time I'd seen him. He was taller and really buff and he had thinned out a lot. The only reason I recognized him was his trademark big head. At least that was still there. His eyes looked really intense and his face was twisted like he smelt something really bad. He was alone too, which was odd. Whenever I'd seen him before he had always been with his parents. He looked up from the groud he was staring at and for a second he met my gaze. The look he gave me was so frightening, I looked away immediately. When I looked up, he was still staring at me.
Other than that little scenario, the mass went pretty normally. There was one incident during Communion when the chriveled front desk lady walked by and gave us a nasty look. Mark said he wanted to tell her what she could do with her Communion, but I restrained him.
When the time came, we picked up the cross-on-a-stick and led the priests back out the doors to the tune of "The First Noel". Mark and I returned back to the church's storage room and began picking up our mess from before the mass. After about two minutes, Mark flopped down on some robes with a tremendous "Oof",and sighed.
"Mark, what are you doing?" I asked.
"Resting." he replied simply, and closed his eyes.
"Get up you big oaf." I said and chucked a robe onto his face.
"Whatever." He grumbled, and we resumed picking up robes until they were all off the floor and back on the rack where they came from.
Then I remembered I was walking home.
"Oh poop." I said sadly.
"What's wrong?" Mark asked.
"I have to walk home, all the way back to my house." I sighed.
"Alone?" he asked.
"Yup."
"Well that stinks. I've got wheels so I'm good." he sid with a smug expression on his face.
"You mean your bikle?" I said with my eyebrow raised.
"Yes.." Mark said with a defeated expression.
"Well I better get going." I said and began walking toward the front doors of the church. I said goodbye to Mark and he looked like he wanted to say something else, but he didn't.
I opened the church doors and stepped outside. It was cold and dark, not exactly ideal conditions for walking home. I began my trek, walking through the church parking lot and down the street. There weren't many people on the road. I turned left and started walking up the hill that led to the road my house was on. There was no one on this road and I have to admit, I was freaking out. I'd seen a few horror movies and I knew what happened to people when they walked alone on cold winter nights. I hurried my pace. I heard something rustle in the trees and I almost screamed. It's okay, I told myself, just a stupid squirrel or something, calm down. I couldn't shake the feeling that something or someone was watching me. I heard the trees rustle again and a branch snapped loudly breaking the silence with a loud, THWACK! I started running faster than I ever ran before. I was scared. It was dark and cold and I was alone and something was following me. As I ran my heart beat throbbed in my ears. I glanced behind me on the sidewalk, and there was no one there. I was about to slow my pace when, SLAM!, I rammed into something hard as stone and fell back onto the sidewalk. I tried to scream but a cold hard hand covered my mouth. I kicked and flailed my arms around, but nothing happened. Whoever this person was, they were really strong. The person pushed me againts a tree and took both of my wrists in one of his hands and pinned them above my head. His hands where like iron handcuffs. No matter how hard I tried, I had nothing on him. I looked up into my captor's face and almost had a heart attack.
"PETER?!?!?" I screamed into his hand, so it came out like "Pfffterrg?"
I remembered all the time's we'd made fun of him in school and suddenly I felt very sorry.
He started to talk in a cold and evil velvet voice. "Hi there little Charlotte." he said. His voice was sickeningly sweet.
"Don't try to fight me girl." He said." I'm just going to kill you quick and easy and get it over with so don't struggle because you don't stand a chance."
He looked at me straight in the eyes and removed his hand from my mouth.
"What in the name of God could you possibly want from me?" I said. My voice sounded a lot stronger than I felt.
"Your blood." he sighed and leaned his face in under my chin. "You smell so delicious, and I have you all for myself." he said, sounding quite pleased with himself.
"What?" I said. I couldn't beleieve Peter thought he was a vampire.
"Don't play dumb with me Charlotte." He said into my neck. His cold icy breath sent a shiver down my spine. "Feel my skin, hear my voice, look into my eyes and tell me what you see.
His eyes were red like fire, his voive velvet and laced with evil and his skin was as cold as ice.
"You're really creeping me out Peter." I said. My voice still sounded brave even though I was not.
"Well my apologies Charlotte, love." He said and opened his mouth to go in for the kill.
"Wait!" I almost screamed.
"What now?" he said, looking really impatient. He lifted his head so it was even with mine.
"You don't have to kill me Peter!" I cried.
"Why not?" he said as his icy finger traced my neck.
I racked my brain for an excuse. Then I remembered he had a crush on me in 6th grade before he left. If I had any luck in the world, maybe he still liked me.
"Because your so strong and brave...and handsome." I squeaked. Ew. I felt my Communion coming back up. "You could make me a vampire too. I could keep you company. You don't have to be alone." I said, trying to make my voice sound flirty.
He raised an eyebrow. "I could." he said. "Why should a handsome beautiful vampire like myself be alone anyway. You'd be quite a lovely companion." He said, looking directly into my eyes. His eyes burned like fire.
"See?" I said. I didn't really know where this was going, I was waiting for an opportunity to make a run for it or something.
"Hey!" a raspy voice called from a few yards away.
We both turned and there was Mark on his bike holding the holy cross-on-a-stick like a sword, pointing it at Peter.
"Get your fatty sausage hands off her!" he yelled.
Peter looked ready to explode. He turned and looked at him with a menacing expression. Mark flinched, but didn't run away.
"The power of Christ compells you!" he shouted triumphantly, and launched the cross at Peter. He had great aim because it hit Peter right in the stomach. It made a noise like metal clanging against rock.
"What the?" Mark mumbled.
"Run Mark!" I screamed.
Peter looked from me to Mark deciding what he wanted more. I needed to distract Peter so Mark could get away. What I did next I am not proud of, but it was very effective. I brought my knee up with as much force as I could and hit Peter where the daylights don't shine, if you know what I mean. It hurt like crazy. The last thing I saw was an outraged look on Peter's face. The last thing I felt was Ice cold razors cuttiong into the soft skin on my neck and the last thing I heard was Mike's peddaling as fast as his bike could take him.