Caraphernelia

Max bolts upright in bed, skin clammy with cold sweat. She shivers, and pulls the blanket tighter around her body. The dream flashes through her head again, evoking shivers and shallow breaths. She sighs, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed to calm herself and taking the plastic bag of pills from her bare nightstand, downing three dry. The room around her is dark and empty, no memoirs or pictures of family, no cozy chairs or a television. All she has is a wall, a space filled with guns; Snipers, handguns, crossbows, nail guns, swords, daggers, dart guns, rows of wolfsbane and wine bottles spiked with Vervain.
Because when you're a vampire hunter, you can never be too safe.

FANG

He ducks into the shadows, keeping his line of sight on the tops of his feet and ignoring the stares of the people around him. The ancient looking building of Redwater High school comes into view just beyond the trees. Fangs is a senior, and he had been a senior around six times by now, mostly out of boredom. High school drama never seems to get boring to him.

He walks up the stone steps, smirking at a group of girls who giggle and look away when they see him. He finds his regular spot next to the doors and behind a planter, hiding him from the road. His first few months were always the same, he'd be mobbed with girls and guys alike, drawn in to his "mysterious charm" like moths to a flame. They'd want to be his friends, or his lover, but he could never be close to them. Human friends are too risky, but they sure are fun to play with. He watches people go past him and into the school, none of them are striking.

"There should definitely be more vampires here." He thinks to himself, everywhere else in the county he'd been, at least one in three thousand students was a vampire, but he'd been here for weeks, and not one had showed yet. Maybe it's a Montana thing.

He stands up from behind the planter, in time to see a car pull into the front of the parking lot, two girls getting out. Aston Martin, Fang notes, maybe she's a fan of James Bond. Both girls were blonde, but one was wearing a backpack and clearly younger, while the other glared as she surveyed the front of the school. The pair of them walk towards the front porch, the smaller girl seeming to hide, behind who Fang was assuming was her sister. Fang watches them approach, hoping that maybe they're the same as him. The taller girl is giving him the aura of perfection that other Vampires tend to give off, but as she grown nearer, the dull thud of their heartbeats is almost disappointing.

When the taller girl is at least an arms length away from him, she locks eyes with him, and glares. He's taken aback, this is not the normal reaction he gets from human people, especially girls. If they don't smile or turn away, they most definitely don't fix him with a chilling glare. When the front doors slam closed behind them, he stands and follows. Like a wolf following a wounded deer, he follows her pulse through the halls, around the sea of students. She's in front of the office, her little sister hunched over the receptionists desk to sign some papers. Almost like she senses his presence, she's glaring over her shoulder at him again, eyes narrowed and nostrils flared. Something about her is fiery and exciting, and his mouth waters just watching her. In his head, he pictures snapping her neck, golden waves of hair covering his hands, her mouth and eyes open is shock, the metallic taste of blood…

He doesn't realize he's spacing out until she moves, giving her smaller sister a crushing hug and pushing her into the sea of students, watching Fang out of the corner of her eye to make sure the smaller girl isn't being followed by him. She leaves through a side door, and he follows her towards the courtyard. The door slamming behind him, she's nowhere to be seen.

"Can I help you with something?" Her voice growls in his ear, twisting his left arm behind his back, his shoulder joint pulling apart. He pretends to hiss in pain, and she realizes his arm a tiny bit.

"Just wondering if you're a fan of James Bond movies." She snorts, leaning closer to his ear. His gums tingle at the close proximity to her smell, and he can feel the blood pulsing under his skin where she's holding his wrist to his back, but he can't phase, he's too weak.

"Don't fuck with me." She scolds, and he gives a small laugh before she yanks his wrist upwards, his shoulder dislocating and the ligament tearing with a sickening pop. She releases him, expecting him to teeter in pain, but he just sighs in annoyance. She backs off, watching him from the back as he grabs his dangling shoulder joint, and violently cracks it back into place. He holds it for a second, letting the torn ligament weave itself back together. He might be weak, but he can still regenerate and heal impossibly fast. He turns and holds up her fists to fight, but her eyes are wide with panic. That move should have kept him down for long enough for her to get the hell out of there, but he's just watching her with a lopsided smile, seeming to be amused that she's even trying.

"What your name?" He asks, and the air around them seems to grow colder with unease. She cracks her neck and fixes him with her glare.

"Not important." She says, not daring to move towards the door behind her. She squints, trying to get a glimpse of the color of his eyes, but they just look like pools of black from where she is, starving, hungry eyes.

"I'd like to remember it, just in case you try something stupid that get's you killed." he hangs his head for a moment, before snapping his back up. He feels regret, he wanted to kill her, but that's not what he'd been working so long towards. If he want's to feel human, he shouldn't be killing people in high school courtyards, high on bloodlust.

"It's Ride." She says, and he takes a few steps backwards, away from her, giving her a mock solute.

"Nice to meet you." He says, and she relaxes her position, crossing her arms over her chest and watching him saunter away, hands stuffed in his pockets.

"You should stop starving yourself, black eyes are never attractive on your kind." She calls after him, and he doesn't bother to turn, but he stops in his tracks, just standing there for a while.

She knows.