OK here's chapter 12, The heartbreaker, (Or I'm just a soft sap,...I'm probably just a soft sap)
I would suggest a depressing song if you're brave enough, With tissues at the ready read on, see you at the bottom.
Very Unhappy Birthday
11th March 2008
Location - unknown location North or Arcadia Bay
Max jolted awake to the sound of raised voices, banging and breaking glass. Her room in darkness, she glanced over at her digital alarm clock 11:50 pm. She had barely been asleep for two hours. With the continued noise coming from downstairs, the young brunette shuffled herself out from under her duvet and groggily made her way over to her bedroom door to investigate.
"RYAN!" Max heard her mother's screaming plea erupt from downstairs.
Without thinking, she flung open the door and bolted downstairs, along the hallway and entering the dining room. Suddenly, she screeched to a halt, frozen by the horror that lay before her. Her father slumped against the far wall, his eyes cold and glassy as blood poured from his neck, his sword laying at his side, its blade clean and unused.
Rushing to her father's side, Max fell to her knees shaking her father's motionless body. "Papa," she choked, tears already streaming down her face, "papa, please," she pleaded gripping his bloodstained shirt.
Her brain refused to accept what her eyes showed her. A few hours ago, her father had been chatting and laughing away over dinner as he always did. Alive as could be. Now… She swallowed hard, feeling tears well up in her eyes. Maybe this was all a dream. Yes, it had to be. She would wake up any second now and things would be fine. No amount of wishing changed her situation.
Hearing the sound of broken glass underfoot, she looked over to the patio door. What she saw made her blood run cold. A tall, masked figure, dressed in black with deep purple eyes and fresh red blood running from their mouth down their chin. Off to the side, standing in the archway was her mother Vanessa. She was stood shaking, her eyes fixed on Ryan's body as tears rolled down her cheeks. Her fists balled at her sides trembling in anger. What happened next left Max without words.
A low deep growl filled the room as Vanessa spun on her heel. Two jet black tails appeared behind her, a large black orb materializing on one of them. With a flick of her tail, she sent the orb zipping across the dining room almost too fast to see, towards the intruder.
Leaping out of the way, making it look almost too easy, the intruder let out an amused taunting laugh as the black orb smashed through the doorway like a wrecking ball. The impact left a rugged circle framed by bare brick and mortar, the door nothing but white splinters littering the dining room floor like confetti. As the dust cleared the black sphere raced back to Vanessa as though on a spring, coming to rest gracefully on one of her black tails.
Max wiped at the tears in her eyes as though that would somehow change what she was seeing. The young brunette stared wide-eyed, a mix of terror and wonder, at her mother, or rather the person that now stood where her mother was moments ago. She looked exactly the same, say for two black tails and two black pointed ears poking up through her long brown untied hair. Her brown eyes had an almost vibrant emerald green band encircling the irises. A large electric blue orb about the size of a football rested gracefully on one of her tails, her stance guarded.
"Mom," Max whimpered almost in a whisper. Vanessa passed a quick glance at her daughter, instantly returning her gaze to the intruder.
"Max, stay there," Vanessa said slowly, her voice low and full of warning. She was deadly serious about this command. With a quick flick of her tail, she sent her orb hurtling towards the intruder. It turned a solid black, inches from the trespasser as, once again, they effortlessly dived out of the way. As the orb zipped back to Vanessa, she deflected it in Max's direction, smashing through the nearby wall in a cloud of dust and debris. "Outside NOW," Vanessa's commanding shout rang through the air as she dived out of the reach of her attacker, slamming him into dresser against the wall with her orb. The ball of intense energy had, once again, shifted to a solid black, sending pieces of the dresser and broken china in every direction.
The noise of the impact brought Max out of her stunned trance. Not needing to be told twice, she clambered out of the large hole, stumbling over a few of the broken bricks that lay on the grass into the darkness of their backyard. She was quickly followed by Vanessa, her pursuer hot on her heels. Taking up a guarding position in front of her daughter, Vanessa kept her eyes fixed squarely on her attacker. Max's gaze, however, fell on that of her father slumped against the wall motionless, her heart pounding at an impossible rate. He couldn't be gone. This wasn't real. It couldn't be.
Max's attention was torn from her father as a tight burning sensation began building painfully inside her chest, causing her to double over as it began working its way through her body. The sensation caused her to let out an uncomfortable groan.
"It's ok, Max. Don't fight..." Vanessa's words were cut short as her attacker slammed into her, sending her flying across the garden. Her momentum was only stopped when she slammed into the garden fence with a stunned gasp.
"MOM!" Max shouted in horror. In that moment, she forgot the discomfort she was in as she saw the figure approaching her, arm outstretched. Instinctively, Max backed off searching wildly for an escape route. Stepping backward again, she felt the hard, wooden fence press against her back. Realizing she had nowhere to run, she stood trembling as the masked figure approached her.
Seeing the mask figure's outstretched hand getting closer, Max cowered. Out the corner of her eye, she spotted a purple sphere about the size of a coin zip past her in a blur, striking the intruder's arm just above the elbow. The orb disappeared only to reappear a split second later as it exited the other side, causing the attacker to scream out in pain. Quickly retracting his arm to avoid the orb's return trajectory, he turned to see Vanessa getting to her feet.
"You will NOT touch her!" Vanessa spat with a growl as she limped towards him, already sending the now solid black orb back towards him at an alarming speed.
This time, however, he didn't have time to react. The orb slammed into him with enough force that Max felt the shockwave of the air hitting her. The momentum of the orb carried the attacker backward, the extra mass doing nothing to slow down its velocity, as both were sent through the trunk of a large tree and the garden fence. Both were obliterated in a plume of dust and matchstick sized wood chippings, the tree lazily falling into the gap now in the fence with a loud crash.
Still trembling, Max turned to her mother, who smiled at her weakly as her orb returned to her shifting back to its electric blue state as it came to rest on her tail. Max was about to speak, but instead let out a scream of agony as the burning sensation flared up again. This time it quickly engulfed the young girl's senses, causing her to drop to her knees clutching at her sides as she doubled over. It felt like her blood was boiling, her clothes felt far too tight and restricting so much so that she was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe. So overwhelming were the different sensations coursing through her body, she could barely hear her mother's words.
"Max... it's going to be ok," Vanessa words were drowned out as the young girl let out a high-pitched drawn-out scream of agony that slowly turned into loud whimper echoing into the night sky.
Like a switch had been flipped, all the pain and discomfort abruptly disappeared at the sound of tearing fabric. Breathing heavily as she opened her eyes glancing around wildly, looking for the source of the whimper only to be momentarily stunned by her surroundings. They were exactly the same as they were moments ago, but now everything seemed so sharp and clear. Even in the dead of night, it was as though it was early morning. Every blade of grass, tree, and leaf was in high definition. It wasn't just what she could see, but her hearing too. She could hear crickets chirruping several gardens over, two... no three cats, having a tussle some twenty or so feet behind her… as well as her mother's heavy labored breathing.
Turning her head towards her mother, Max noticed how much bigger everything looked. She really had to look up to see her mother's face. Crawling towards her mother, the young girl felt an odd sensation, like things weren't working the same but at the same time, it felt natural. Definitely an odd sensation. Feeling something under her hand, she looked down to see what it was and her eyes went wide in shock.
Where her hand should be was a long fur covered black paw. Max snapped her head around in panic to get a better look at herself. Each of her limbs were covered in thick black fur. Behind her she caught sight of a... no, two black tails. All around her littering the grass was shredded fabric, parts of it she recognized. Those bits of fabric were her pajamas, or what was left of them. What the hell was happening to her?
"Max... Max, it's ok. You're ok," Vanessa's voice came over in a calming tone. Max turned to look at her mother, whose reassuring smile temporarily calmed the young girl's nerves. "Happy fourteenth darling," she cooed.
"What…?" Was what Max was meant to say, but instead it came out as a low confused whimper, shocking the young girl. She couldn't speak. How was this ok? Birthday? It wasn't her birthday for another six months.
Her thoughts were interrupted by an angry roar that erupted from over by the toppled tree. The said tree flew across the lawn, slamming into the side of the house before it fell to the floor. The masked figure walked through the recently made hole in the fence, inspecting the coin-sized hole in his arm before returning his gaze to Vanessa.
"What the hell did you hit me with, YOU BITCH!?" he roared as he launched himself across the garden, eyes burning with murderous intent.
"Max, RUN!" Vanessa yelled as she sent her orb sailing towards their attacker, turning a solid black mid-flight only to have it punched out of the way by the attacker. "GO!" Vanessa commanded as she grabbed something at her neck, throwing it to the ground as her attacker closed in on her.
Max stood frozen as she watched her mother explode out of her clothes. Her pale skin replaced with thick black fur. Her arms and legs took on an animalistic appearance as her face was almost instantly replaced with that of a wolf's head as the attacker collided with her. Both Vanessa and her attacker clawed and bit at each other, the solid black orb repeatedly striking her opponent, who seemed unphased by the impacts.
The night air filled with angry grunts and vicious growls. As the struggle escalated, the intruder getting himself around behind Vanessa, who let out a high pitched yelp accompanied by several ear-splitting cracks as her assailant crushed her in his arms and sunk his fangs into her neck, eliciting a much weaker yelp.
Max watched in horror as the attacker began draining her mother's life in front of her. Vanessa's orb falling to the ground, returning to its electric blue color and slowly fading away. Her eyes pleaded with Max as they slowly glazed over, begging her daughter to run and never look back.
Max couldn't believe what she was seeing. Not only had her father been killed, but she had just watched her mother, a woman she had known all her life, become something else entirely. Then, turn into a large black wolf and being killed right in front of her. Her whole world in the space of a few days had been destroyed, she felt numb, a low whimper escaped her and her body refused to obey as she watched the light fade from her mother eyes.
The attacker stopped for a moment and stared at Max his purple eyes filled with hunger. A shiver of dread ran down her spine bringing her to her senses, taking a step backward and passing a final longing glance at her mother's dead body. Max let out a drawn-out whimper as she turned and bolted through the hole in the fence, running blindly into the night, sobbing internally. After running for what seemed like hours, Max found herself wandering through unfamiliar woods in a daze. Her mind was still racing at everything that just happened. What was she? What was her mother? Why wasn't she told? And… why did that vampire attack and kill her mother and father?
Exhausted, both mentally and physically, Max wandered aimlessly through the dense woods stumbling upon an old hunter's lodge. It looked abandoned, like it hadn't been lived in years with broken windows and missing roof tiles. The front door hung ajar off one of its hinges. Tentatively, Max made her way inside finding the place much like the outside. Like it had been abandoned for years, thick dust and old cobwebs adorned all the remaining furniture. To the left was a simple open plan kitchen. An old wood burning stove sat next to a cracked, broken china sink. To the right, a small broken wooden table with an old radio on the floor that had clearly slid off the table when it gave in to age and rot. A musty old sofa and tattered brown curtains hung at the windows, looking like they were going to fall at the slightest breeze.
Making her way over to the sofa, she climbed up on it and curled herself into a ball in the corner, wrapping her new tails around herself, burying her head under them in an attempt to shut the world out. Allowing her body to relax a little, Max let her mind wander over the events earlier that night. Her mother's dying eyes were the last thing she saw as she slipped into a troubled, restless sleep.
Maybe I shoulda opened the story with this chapter...hindsight is 20/20.
So were the feels in the right place, lemme know, I can't get better without feedback.
Either way, I hope your enjoying it
see you Wednesday
peace out