Chapter Seven
Marlene smiled at the girl sitting next to her. The girl was getting a haircut, and she had to say that the style the girl was going for didn't exactly suit her. Then again, that style wouldn't suit anybody. Make some conversation, she reminded herself. Then comes the fun part.
"Hello," Marlene said, her voice coming out high and velvety. Much too young a voice for such an old soul. "I love the haircut you're getting. It's simply stunning! I may even get that next time I'm ready for a drastic change." She smiled to herself at the way she'd masked what was so clearly an insult. But the girl obviously wasn't too bright, because she smiled.
"I'm Helen," she said. While on the inside Marlene was thinking that this was quite a common name, she introduced herself warmly. Helen struck up plenty of conversation on her own, so Marlene didn't have to do too much work on her own. She simply agreed with everything the stupid little girl said.
When the girls were done getting their haircuts, Helen introduced Marlene to her mother. When she asked Marlene where her mother was, she simply said, "We live so close, my mother gives me money and lets me come on my own." Helen's mother obviously was not satisfied, so Marlene quickly stated that she had to go home but would see Helen again sometime. Helen told Marlene where she lived and Marlene ran out the door.
On the way out, however, she looked back and smiled menacingly at Helen's mother, showing fang. She turned and ran out onto the street, for she knew that the sensible woman would chalk this up to imagination. Marlene still enjoyed seeing the shocked look on her face.
She splashed through every puddle she saw, enjoying the fact that although she was over a thousand years old, she still got to behave as a child. There were some disadvantages, of course, but she could also go unnoticed in some places. No one suspects that a girl as small as myself would ever lure them in and drain them of blood. Obviously, however, she couldn't get into nightclubs or drink alcohol (not that she wanted to) or date. She was still twelve, and therefore it was easiest to prey on other little girls. And no one ever suspected a child of being a murderer.
Sometimes she killed men who reminded her of her uncle, or older girls who looked too much like her sister. She still remembered lying curled up on her closet floor, hearing her sister's screams echoing throughout the house. Marlene killed the men because she hated her uncle. She killed the older girls because she missed her sister. She couldn't remember her sister's name. The human brain had a way of erasing only the worst of memories.
But Marlene's brain wasn't human.
She didn't remember much about being bitten. She remembered hearing her sister screaming, those awful days hiding. Not moving. She hadn't even gotten up to go to the bathroom. She had simply laid there on the hard floor of the bedroom she shared with her sister, listening to the screams outside. The light had been left outside, and a thin sliver of light stretched directly over Marlene's face. She didn't care. All she could hear was the shrieks of her older sister, the yells of, Kill me please! Just end it! PLEASE!
That night her sister had yelled of a burning pain, a pain like fire. Marlene peeked out once on the second day, once she was sure her uncle had gone from the house. There'd been blood all over her sister, and she'd looked even smaller. (If that was even possible.) Her sister had been the same size as Marlene even though they'd been just under four years apart. There was blood all over the place, a pool streaming out of her sister's shoulder. There was dried blood all over the older girl's body, and Marlene didn't know how she could still be alive.
On the fourth day, her sister got up looking stronger than ever, an evil gleam in her red eyes. Marlene couldn't even scream. It was her sister, no doubt about that, but…she was different somehow. There was something unworldly about her. Then Marlene was hit with a realization: her sister was Undead. A Child of the Night. Vampire.
When she heard her aunt yelling that it wasn't her fault, Marlene hid. After a few hours the screams stopped and all she could hear was whimpering. Then she saw her sister walking down the hall with what Marlene had assumed was very slow for their kind. Her sister had knelt beside her and cried, the tears landing on Marlene's blood-soaked blouse. Then the older girl had bitten her on the neck and, for a few moments, she'd felt a burning pain beyond anything she'd ever felt. Marlene had shrieked. The world went dark.
When she woke up, her aunt was dead in a quickly drying pool of blood. Her older sister was gone. Marlene had fled, becoming a savage nomad the Volturi always talked about eliminating. She was never caught. No one, even other vampires, suspected a girl who looked so young to be quite so old.
She lived her life on the run, stopping in the occasional town to get food. Occasionally she would toy with her food first, just like she was toying with Helen and Mary (Helen's mother). Marlene knew how long she could go without the sweet taste of blood in her mouth, the rush coursing with her own sticky, red lifeline. She was running out of time, and she couldn't lose control. Not now, after how hard she'd fought to be on top.
So when the pale man with long, dark hair and gleaming red eyes showed up in the alleyway she was currently taking up residence in, she got a bit worried. His skin was pale and milky, almost like he'd been caught in the middle of an apparition. At first he just stood there, carefully studying her with calculating eyes. She had a sneaking suspicion about who the man was, so she wasn't at all surprised when he spoke.
"I am Aro. I'm sure you've heard of me?"
"Yes, but I don't care for introductions. Would you like to tell me why you're here? Or better yet, tell me how you knew where I'd be."
"Well, I've been keeping track of you for quite some time now, I just haven't bothered trying to keep you under control. A little girl isn't much of a threat. Plus, your jobs are clean. You obviously have been trying to avoid meeting me, up until this point." The comment that she was a "little girl" and "not much of a threat" much offended Marlene, and she narrowed her gleaming eyes.
"I may have the stature of a little girl, but keep in mind that we are the same age. I don't care what you want. I'm leaving." She turned to go, but he yelled, and the desperation in his voice shocked her into staying.
"Wait!" he said urgently. "Please at least listen to my offer." When she didn't leave, he took this as a sign that she would let him speak. His voice dropped to a loud, insistent whisper. "I know where your sister is, and I can take you to her."
Think of the devil.
