RESPONSES
ssp--Thank you very much! Double identity crisises--or whatever--can really suck sometimes. We're glad you reviewed, and we hope you enjoy this chapter!
dontmesswithYami--Thank you so much! Muchas gracias and all that. Don't forget to review on your way out this time, okay?
Toli: Welcome back! Here's Chapter 2 of the scary story! (curls fingers like claws) Mwaaahaaa!
Mena: Um, I'm going to go get some coffee...
Toli: Yu-Gi-Oh is not mine! And no creature of the dark can change that.
TWO: Runaway
Tea watched as the dust that had once been a vampire scattered across the street. "That would make twenty," she said with satisfaction. "Two more and I'll have a new record." She leaped to the top of an abandoned building's roof to check out the area. To her right she could sense another vampire. She went that way.
In the park, a young couple staying out late was being attacked by a vampire. Tea arrived just as the bloodsucker was cornering them. She destroyed it in less than five seconds. The couple ran away.
"Some people are so stupid," Tea said. Suddenly the sense of a vampire being near flared up and then oddly died down. She whirled and saw a small figure behind her, leaning against a tree. She held out her gun and approached it slowly. Her senses were mixed. It radiated like a vampire, but for some reason, not like a full-fledged vampire.
"Get out here where I can see you," Tea ordered. She wasn't taking any chances, no matter how confusing this vampire seemed.
Very, slowly, the figure stood up straight and slowly left the shadow of the tree, coming into the slowly brightening light. It was a boy. He had blond bangs and black hair lined in red, and huge dark-colored eyes. He was wearing a dark shirt underneath a black jacket two sizes too big for him and dark pants. He looked utterly terrified, but his skin was solid white. Tea noticed that he had very small fangs hanging over his lower lip. That meant he was a vampire. She cocked her gun.
"Please don't kill me," the boy said in a trembling voice.
"Sorry," Tea said, "but you're too dangerous."
"I haven't killed anybody," the boy said.
"At least not yet," Tea replied. Why am I arguing with this little vampire? I need to just kill him and get it over with. But she wasn't sure why she was hesitating.
"Listen, I swear," the boy said, "I haven't killed anyone and I'm not going to. I don't even want to be a vampire."
That was new. Tea stared at him, and her finger loosened around the trigger. "Why should I believe you?" she asked.
"I'll stand right here until the sun comes up," the boy said.
"And what would that prove?" Tea demanded.
"If you'll wait, you'll see," the boy said.
Tea took a quick glance over her shoulder and saw that the sun had almost come up all the way. The sky was lightening. She kept her eye on the suspicious boy, prepared to shoot him if he tried anything.
The sun finally rose up all the way, and, amazingly, the boy's skin darkened slightly and his fangs disappeared. He sighed and leaned against the tree again, seemingly exhausted.
"What are you?" Tea asked, amazed.
"I'm a runaway," the boy said. "My older brother is a vampire, and he's looking for me."
"That doesn't explain your turning into a human," Tea said.
The boy sighed yet again. "Well, you see, my father was a vampire, but my mother was a human. As a result, I'm both. I'm a vampire during the night, and a human during the day. I never wanted to be a vampire. My older brother was born before my father met my mother, so he's a full-fledged vampire and he can't look for me during the day. When it's night time I always have to hide. It hurts when the sun goes down. I don't eat blood, and as a result, I'm starved. That's why I'm so weak. But I'm determined not to kill anybody, even if it kills me. I just don't want that on my conscience."
Satisfied that the kid was harmless, and kind of blown over by his lengthy reply, Tea returned her gun to its holster. "I've never heard of any vampire that was half-human," she said.
"There's a reason for that," the boy said. "Anyone like me is not tolerated among vampires, so they either change you into a full-fledged vampire, or they kill you. Since they were so angry at my father for having a relationship with a human, they killed him and my mother. My brother didn't want me dead as well, so he would defend me and he took care of me. Now he wants me to let them change me into a complete vampire. But I don't want that, so I ran away. He's searching for me now."
"They can turn half-vampires into whole vampires?" Tea asked in disbelief.
The boy nodded. "There's a lot of things about vampires that no one knows. I only know about that."
"So, lemme ask this. If you're running away, where do you think you can go? I mean, being half-vampire, you could really frighten a lot of people," Tea said.
The boy nodded. "I know. What I'm hoping--and what probably won't happen while I'm alive--is that all of the vampires will be killed, because if they are, I can become a full-fledged human. I want that more than anything."
"Now how does that work?" Tea asked.
The boy looked ready to respond, but instead let out a moan and wrapped his arms around his stomach. "I'm really hungry. I need to eat." At Tea's look, he added, "Human food, I mean. I don't need blood when I'm in my human form."
Tea sighed loudly. "You obviously need help," she said. After a moment's deliberation, she said, "Tell you what. Why don't you come home with me. I can get you some food--human food--and watch your back for you until all the vampires are dead, or at least for a little while. But if I do this for you, you have to tell me everything you know about vampires and that secret hidey-hole realm of theirs."
The boy nodded. "I can do that."
Tea walked up to him and extended her hand. "Come on. I'll give you a piggyback ride back to my house." She helped the boy climb onto her back, and she leaped up onto the nearest roof, headed in the general direction of her aunt's apartment.
"Where is he?" he wondered aloud, looking down at the empty street below him. He had tracked his brother down and cornered him as being somewhere in this city, but he couldn't get any closer than that. It was very aggravating. With a sigh, he looked up and noticed that the sun was coming up.
He hissed. "Oh, damn," he growled. He would have to end his search now. "I'd better get back before I turn into a pile of nothing." He turned and exited in his normal way as the sun rose to light the human world and save the many survivors of vampires from destruction.
For now, anyway.
END CHAPTER
Toli: Ah! Another completed chapter! It may not surprise you who the mystery half-vampire is.
Mena: What? Your cutie idol?
Toli: Yes! (sighs happily) I had to put him in soon. Oh I love him!
Mena: Will you just hurry up and scarify this story already?
Toli: We'll be doing that next time! See you then, okay?
