Mankind's Darkness

The world was supposed to have changed so much over the years: cures for diseases, new technology, world peace. People still died of sickness, though, and inventions failed their makers and the world still fought constantly. Now, there was more one thing to fight over. Vampires. Do we trust them? Do we exile them? They are stronger than we are! How can we fight them off? Mass hysteria, no one knew what to make of what had been hidden right beneath their noses. Some people were amazing by the vampires, finding them fascinating and wishing that they could know more, more, more. Others, however, were petrified of the demons that walked among them and wished them gone, going so far as to cover themselves in silver and crosses. Be gone, vile demons!

Azura had never met a vampire until she was sixteen years old, in the year 2009, when she had run away from her foster family for the hundredth time. It wasn't the smartest thing that she had ever done, considering that the city was going through uprisings and it was the middle of winter. She didn't even have a coat, only her sneakers and a fairly warm sweater.

She kept her long hair down, letting it fall around her neck to hide it from sight and to keep her warm as a makeshift scarf. Her hands were stuffed in the pockets of the sweater, keeping the long, bony digits as warm as she could. Her blue eyes snapped around her quickly as she walked along the lit streets, always staying with the street lights.

She hopped to get over a patch of ice, bumping shoulders with a woman that was heading in the opposite direction.

"Je suis désolé!" she said quickly as she looked to the woman, seeing her nod her head quietly in acknowledgement before she continued on her way. Azura continued to watch for a moment before turning to continue on. A harsh tug on the back of her sweater made her gasp when she stumbled back, her back collided with a solid surface as an arm wrapped across her chest. A large truck flew past before her in the place where she would have been standing.

Her heart dropped to her feet at the thought of what would have happened had she taken two more steps out on the street. Her hands had flown from her pockets and were now gripping the material of the coat that was covering the arm across her chest. Her body trembled in fear even though she was no longer in danger.

"Are you alright?" A calm male voice asked her gently, cold breath ghosting her ear. Her lips parted to answer, but no sound would pass from her vocal cords. The arm dropped from her chest and she was slowly rotated until she was no longer facing the street but instead looking into greenish blue eyes and the palest complexion that she had seen to date.

"Je…I-" she finally got out, her body still trembling. "Thank you."

He smiled faintly to her, the corners of his lips barely tilting upward.

"You should be more careful," he cautioned gently, looking at her with intense eyes. "What is someone your age doing out so late at night? Are you not cold?" he asked, looking down at her simple jeans and sweater. Her cheeks flushed in shame at the condition of her scuffed pants and handed down shirt. His coat looked new and expensive, his hair cut perfectly and his outfit meticulously matched.

"You look barely older than I, sir," she said in retaliation before she even registered that the words had formed on her tongue. He chuckled, though, a breathy laugh that sounded like the wind, and smiled more fully to her.

"I am Godric, and I am much older than I look," he assured, taking her hand to lead her away from the street corner as a group of people approached so that they were not in the way. She nearly jolted at the icy feeling of his hands, much colder than even her own. It was then that his words finally struck her as she thought back to the cold breath on her ear.

"You're a vampire," she whispered in astonishment as they stepped to the corner of the building. Godric stopped to look at her, his eyes watching her face carefully, gauging her reaction to what he was. "I've never met a vampire." He smiled faintly, catching her off guard. "What?"

"I have never heard someone pronounce Vampire in that way," he answered back, watching the blood rush into her cheeks against as she flushed.

"Do no mock my accent," she mumbled as her eyes fell away from his, her hand dropping from his. Godric felt a loss at the warmth of her hand disappearing, but didn't say anything as she pushed her hands into the pockets of her sweater.

"J'aime votre accent," he assured, causing her to look up to him again. "The people around here seem to believe that the word vampire is a cuss word. I hardly ever hear it."

"I'm so sorry," she said suddenly, causing him to look to her with slightly widened eyes, barely showing his surprise to her words. "Your kind revealed yourselves to the world and humans reacted with fear and hatred, it must make your kind wish to reverse what you've done." Godric looked at her curiously, wondering what made this girl say the things she did.

"You are kinder than many humans I have met; and I have been around for a very long time."

"What does that say about my race," she asked rhetorically, sadly, as she looked into his eyes again. "I should be getting home." Godric nodded in understanding as she looked down the street that she had come from, the people quickly disappearing in their homes as night grew later and later, the vampires coming out. "It was nice to meet you Godric; I'm glad that you're the first vampire I met."

Her lips ghosted his cheek quickly before she was gone, leaving Godric to watch her speed walk down the street. She smelt of cinnamon.

Azura made her way along the streets at a fast pace, retracing her steps to the small bottom floor apartment that her present foster family had. Had she not nearly been run over and saved by Godric, she very well would have kept on walking until she could walk no more. But there was something eating away inside of her that told her to go back, stay in the city for a while longer.

She slipped into the front room as silently as she could, only silence greeting her. She slipped her wet sneakers off her feet, leaving her in socks, and bouncing on the balls of her feet in a type of tip-toe to her tiny bedroom. She didn't want to chance waking anyone up, since they would more than likely punish her for sneaking out so late at night—coming back or not.

Dropping her shoes next to the door, she let herself fall down onto the old, single bed that her 'parents' had given to her. She suddenly felt extremely hot and shucked off the heavy sweater, nearly losing her long sleeved shirt beneath. Her blond hair fell before her eyes, but was thrown back when she fell onto the mattress with a huff.

"Gah!" she gasped out in pain suddenly as her head throbbing in abrupt agony, making her curl up on the bed on her side as her hands grasped at her hair, squeezing her eyes shut. Blurs of movement passed behind her eyes, only for her mind to see, leaving her disoriented and confused. She clenched her teeth against the pain, feeling as though someone had dumped acid into her skull and was shaking it around.

The shapes were impossible to make out, moving around behind her eyes so fast that she couldn't tell if they were people or not, where it was or when it was. It felt like hours of burning pain and agony before, finally, everyone was numb. Azura laid on her bed, her eyes looking to the wall beside her, with her chest heaving.

Her head felt like it had its own pulse, throbbing so badly. She was in pain and fear coursed through her, it always did when she was forced to watch the blurred figures as the moved about, unaware that she could see them through her mind's eye. It wasn't not before her eyes fell closed and her body went limp as she fell into sleep, having no other choice but to rest herself.

She had never had a near death experience before, and she dearly wished never to have one again. She was relieved that she had met Godric when she had, since it was because of him that she was still alive to writhe in pain on her bed, and that it was Godric who had given her her first personal opinion on vampires. Many still frightened her, with the horror stories that she had been told, but she also knew that not all were like the stories.

Vampires were a feared race, man did fear what they did not understand, and she could only hope that time changed that for the better and not for the worse. Man also had a tendency to destroy the things that they feared, even if that meant taking the lives of innocents in the process. She, sadly, could speak from experience in that area. She did not want the vampires to need to worry about their lives as she had, hiding themselves away again.

What else was out there, she wondered, in that wide, wide world? There were vampires, she knew that, and there was whatever it is that she was. Were there such things as werewolves, too? Fairies and guardian angels? The exposure of vampire kind was something that opened up the doors to hundreds more questions, all of which brought fear to the hearts of so many humans. They were normal, supernatural things frightened them.

Azura stood in the doorway to the bedroom at the house of her new foster family, looking at the neatness of it. A double bed, a six drawer dresser, a large mirror, closet space. It all seemed like a dream come true after the last place that she had lived in; in her own little closet. It couldn't be this good, there was no chance. The foster families that took her in only wanted her because she was an 'easy case' and they could get some quick money out of it. Starve her, use that money for themselves, and then hand her back when they felt that they'd gotten themselves enough for a while.

"How do you like it?" a soft female voice asked from behind her. Azura looked over her shoulder and down slightly, to the smaller woman that had taken her in. "It's usually our guest room, but we don't get many guests anymore." The woman was old, and it made Azura wonder if her lack of guests was because most of her friends had already passed on.

"It's…too much. Everything's new," Azura said in a small voice, looking back at the room again. She didn't want to walk inside, not with her dirty clothes. Her shoes had been taken off already since it was raining outside and she didn't want to ruin that carpet with mud but the hem of her jeans were wet and she wasn't wearing clothes that had been washed. None of her clothes had been washed at her previous residence. She had to sneak them into her 'mother's' laundry and take them back out before she noticed.

"Poor thing, you must go through so much," the old woman, Mrs. Cross, said in a soft and sad tone. "I can only imagine what it must be like to live in a difference home every month."

No, you can't even imagine, Azura thought sadly as she looked between the woman and the room before her.

"I'll let you get settled; don't be shy," Mrs. Cross encouraged before she made her way toward the stairs, leaving Azura to remain standing awkwardly in the doorway of the beautiful room. It really was a terrible thing, to have to move so many times, but people only made it worse by showing her their pity. She didn't want their pity, she could care less about people feeling sorry for her. If someone says 'oh, I'm so sorry to hear that' or 'you poor thing' it won't make it all better. It's just a waste of breath and a waste of Azura's time.

The second time that Azura met a vampire was far more unpleasant than the first. In the year 2010, when she was seventeen, she felt that she couldn't stand another minute inside the fancy bedroom that she had been given and quickly took off for a walk as soon as Mrs. Cross had gone to sleep. Her clothes were all new, bought by Mrs. Cross against Azura's will, and she felt far less embarrassed and ashamed to be walking down the streets that way.

She was tired, she'd admit that, and she dearly wished the she could go to sleep up she had been tossing and turning for near two hours already. She could not bear to stay inside that room a moment more or there was a chance that she'd lose her sanity. She could barely walk properly, her feet dragging on the ground, but if she tired herself out to the point of complete exhaustion then she should be able to fall asleep rather quickly.

As she stopped at a corner of the street for her moment to cross, she thought back to Godric. She thought back to him many times. Whenever she saw that Vampire woman on the news, Nan, she would be reminded of her first impression of a vampire. He'd been kinder to her than humans had been and she found herself wishing she could meet him again.

The street was clear for a moment and she quickly took that as her moment to jog across to the other side. The only downside to where Mrs. Cross lived was that it seemed to be the equivalent of Vegas for the French. People were always up and moving around, driving their cars or walking along the streets. It seemed like there was always one half of the population up. While one slept, the other partied or worked.

She did not understand her own race sometimes.

A cold hand clapped over her mouth and she was pulled to the side violently and quickly, far too quickly for the movement to be human. The night was warm, so they hands of her assailant should not have been so bitterly chilled. Her hands immediately moved to grab a hold of something to pull herself away, beginning to claw at the hand over her mouth and nose.

"Stop and I'll move my hand." The male voice was unknown to her, smooth and deep and lacking emotional tone. Azura stilled at the cold breath against her ear before she nodded her head. "See now, not so difficult."

Azura spun around to face the man as soon as he hand left her face, letting her look at him. Look up at him. At least 6'6, blond hair and blue eyes made him quite attractive. However, he also look far beyond her years, vampire or not, and she found herself unable to muster up any form of attraction for him.

"What are you doing?" she demanded after a beat, her eyes dropping into a glare. He only smirked in amusement, irritating her further.

"There was a group of vampires following after you. Not wise, stumbling around the streets looking like a drunk child," he sneered at her, causing her glare to intensify. "I recognize your scent, too. I believe we have a…mutual friend."

"Mutual friend? I've only ever met one another vampire-"

"Godric, correct? Nearly a year ago?" Her eyes widened in shock at his words, halting the angered argument that was about to break from her lips. He knew Godric? Was the boy-Vampire there, in the city?

"Yes, nearly a year ago," she confirmed softly, letting her ones defensive posture relax. Night and Day. That was the best way that she could put it when it came to the man before her and the vampire that had saved her life when she was walking one night.

"You think that you would have learned not to walk around at night, little teacup human," he teased harshly, bringing her glare back tenfold. "You never gave him your name." Azura opened her mouth to reply, but there was nothing she could say. He was right. She had walked away before she introduced herself to Godric in return.

"Perhaps if we meet again I will give him my name," she answered back, getting a dark look from the vampire. He didn't seem entirely displeased by her answer, more amused than anything, but she could also tell that he too had wanted to know her name in some way. She didn't know what relationship existed between the two vampires, but it was something personal if this man knew so much about Godric, and had seen him the same night she had met him.

"Well, if I'm not being stalked by vampires anymore, I'm going home. Thank you for saving me," she trailed off, looking to him once more as she made her way to exit the alley. He smirked in return, the darkness of the shadows making it look deadly and sadistic.

"Perhaps if we meet again, I'll tell you my name."

Azura laughed, she couldn't help herself, as he said this and found her head nodding along in agreement. "Perhaps."

By the time she had gotten back to the home she shared with Mrs. Cross, she could barely keep her feet up and fell into bed, only kicking off her shoes, fully clothed.