A/N: All right, I did not need another obsession, but after watching Blade:Trinity last weekend, I found myself deeply in love with Hannibal King. So I'm taking a tentative little step out of my beloved HP-fandom to try my hand at vampires.
I don't live in USA, and English is not my first language. Please inform me of any embarrassing mistakes I might have made.
King, Zoe, Abby and Caulder doesn't belong to me. Kate and Spider does.
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The Invisible Girl
Chapter 1: Zoe
King won't look at Zoe anymore. She doesn't know why, but she knows when he stopped. When the Gnome king came and took her away. The Gnome king brought her to a room, where King was kneeling on the floor. The mean vampire lady whispered something in his ear that Zoe couldn't hear. King's eyes grew wide and scared, and that was the last time he looked at Zoe.
She misses it, because King always looked at her instead of past her. Sometimes, Zoe feels invisible. It's like people forget that she's there. It's almost like they want to forget that she's there. But King never did that. He used to lift her up and tickle her, and watch Saturday-morning cartoons with her, and teach her how to play cards, and talk to her. He's stopped doing that. He only talks to Abby now, and Kate and Caulder and Spider.
Kate, the doctor lady who walks with a crutch sometimes, is always nice to Zoe, but Zoe still gets the feeling that Kate doesn't really like her. But then again, sometimes Zoe thinks that Kate doesn't like anyone. She calls King and Abby 'children', like being a child would be the same thing as being stupid. Zoe asked Abby about it once, and Abby answered that Kate used to hunt vampires when she was young, but now she's old and can't do it anymore. Then Abby told Zoe not to tell Kate she said that.
Caulder is nice too, but he's one of those people who doesn't seem to see Zoe. She's invisible around him. Caulder and Kate argue a lot, but Zoe never understands what they argue about, because they use so difficult words. Caulder smells like cigarette smoke and chemicals, and he always forgets where he last left his glasses.
Spider's name isn't really Spider, but everyone calls him Spider, because his arms and legs are so long, and his boots has spiders' webs painted on them. Kate says he's a nuisance. Zoe likes Spider. He lets her play his videogames. They are all racing games, and Abby says that he drives real cars like he was playing a racing game. Spider has long black hair and dirt under his fingernails, and he's always fixing things and listens to noisy music.
Zoe misses the Honeycomb, but they can't live there anymore. They live in an old office building now. There are a lot of long corridors, and the lights keeps breaking so it's always dark. The walls are the same colour as old cheese, and there are damp spots on the ceilings. On the floors they don't use, everything smells like dust and mould. The only thing Zoe likes is the big flat roof, where she can stand and look down at the things happening far below.
Nothing is good since they moved from the Honeycomb. Abby cries when she thinks no one can hear. She cries at night, and in the shower. Zoe doesn't know if King cries, but she doesn't think so. King and Abby argue a lot. They're not arguing like Kate and Caulder does. Zoe knows that Kate and Caulder are friends even when they're mad at each other. She wonders if King and Abby have stopped being friends. Before mommy died, Abby would be mad at King, and King would say something that made Abby smile, and then she would not be mad anymore. King doesn't make Abby smile now. He only makes her angry. Zoe doesn't like when people are mad at each other. Then she's almost happy to be invisible.
Zoe does her best not to be in the way, and to be helpful. She runs errands for Kate, because Kate's legs hurts when she's walking in stairs and the elevator is always broken. When Caulder cooks, Zoe eats without complaining, even though he cooks weird things that look like slime. She reads the Oz-stories by herself when Abby doesn't have time to read for her, and she watches the Saturday-morning cartoons with the volume turned down low so she won't disturb Kate and Spider who likes to sleep late in the mornings. But Zoe still wishes that King would watch cartoons with her like he used to do when they lived at the Honeycomb.
She wants to be grown-up, so she could understand things better. No one bothers to explain anything to her, and she's tired of guessing. When she asked Abby why King won't speak to her anymore, Abby just sighed and told her that it wasn't Zoe's fault. But if it isn't Zoe's fault, then who's fault is it? Zoe thinks that it must be her fault; because King stopped looking at her after the Gnome king came and killed mommy and took her away. Maybe King is angry because she didn't hide better? Both Abby and Kate has told Zoe that it wasn't her fault that mommy is dead, that it was the Gnome king, the one the grown-ups call Drake, that killed mommy. Zoe doesn't know what to think. King must have a reason not to speak to her.
Right now, Abby is mad at King. She doesn't say anything, but Zoe knows that she is, because she slams the cupboard-doors in the kitchen, and her back looks angry. It's morning and Zoe is eating cereal and drinking chocolate milk that mommy wouldn't let her have, because it's bad for the teeth. Abby lets her have chocolate milk, because Abby likes chocolate too, but she always makes Zoe brush her teeth afterwards.
King is leaning against the counter. He's drinking coffee, and he has a black eye and a band-aid on his forehead. King and Abby were out hunting last night, and Zoe thinks something bad happened. She woke up when they got back. Abby was screaming at King, and Spider was saying a lot of ugly words, and Kate was mad at King too and said that he was not making her job any easier.
Zoe crept out of bed and listened at the crack of her bedroom door, so that no one would know that she was awake. She couldn't make out everything they said, but she heard one thing Abby said to King. Abby said: "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
No one is screaming this morning, they are just angry. Zoe wonders what happened last night, but she doesn't dare to ask. She is afraid that if she does, they will be angry with her too. She doesn't like when people are mad in the morning, because then they will be mad all day, and King will go out without telling them where and then he will come home and smell like beer, and Abby will go down to the shooting range in the cellar and practice with her bow until she breaks the target and Spider gets angry because he has to fix it again.
Zoe wonders if King is really trying to get killed. He seems to get hurt more now than he was before. He has always bruises and scrapes, and he picks at his scabs so they start bleeding again and again. Zoe doesn't want King to die, like mommy and Dex and Hedges did. She misses them so much, and she would miss King, even if he won't speak to her. Maybe it's her fault if King wants to die too? There is a large knot in her stomach that tightens when she thinks about that.
Zoe takes her glass and her bowl to the counter, and cleans them off, and then she leaves to go and brush her teeth. King and Abby doesn't notice. Zoe is invisible again. She really really wants King to start looking at her again, because then she would not feel so invisible anymore.
What do you think? Like it? Hate it? Worth to keep writing on? Constructive criticism is always welcome! All criticism is welcome, except flames, which will be forwarded to King, who won't give a damn.
