-1When we got into the town, it was very late. The streets were empty. We stopped running and started walking at a normal pace.
"What are we doing here?" I whispered.
"Feeding." He replied, grimly.
"But…no one is here."
He was quiet for a minute. "You just have to know where to look." Then, with a smile, he pulled me down an ally. "Don't make a sound."
I held my breath, and, to my surprise, realized that I didn't have to breathe. We stayed in the dark shadows of the ally, waiting for something that only he knew was coming.
I listened closely, and heard what he must have been hearing. Two men laughing obnoxiously. Drunk, I presumed. Listening harder, I heard the frantic breathing of a third person, a girl, probably no older than myself. Her footsteps her quickening as the men's footsteps got closer.
"On the count of three." He whispered as she passed the opening of the ally, nearly running. "One…two…three."
Just as the two men passed the opening, still laughing, we attacked them. The feeling was amazing. For the first time in my life, I truly felt free. The man that I took down was at least twice my size, but I overpowered him easily, covering his mouth and pulling him back into the darkness of the ally.
Holding him down, I looked to my Savior for advice on what to do next. He nodded and brought his mouth down to his victim's throat. I saw as the man slowly stopped moving until he was dead. My meal thrashed against my hold, but he could not break free.
I followed his example and bit the man on the ground in front of me. The rush was indescribable. The warm liquid filled my mouth, it was sickeningly sweet. I was shocked with realization that the smell no longer made me dizzy. I pulled back before his heart stopped beating. Hoping that I could still save his life. I felt bad about killing a man, even if his intentions were not pure.
"You have to finish him."
"But he's still alive."
"And if you leave him that way, he will become one of us. We don't want that, now do we?"
"No, I suppose that would be bad." I replied as I brought my lips back to the wriggling man.
Once his heart stopped beating, I stepped back. Appalled at myself, I stared at the man I had just killed. I didn't know who he was, or whether he had a family. "W-what have I done?" I sobbed.
He took me into his arms and held me close to his stone body. As more time went on, he seemed to feel less cold. "Don't worry, my love. All will be well."
We walked into the night, and under a street lamp, I could see that his face looked slightly flushed. His eyes were bright crimson, it frightened me a little.
We walked to a convenient store and he led me to the back restrooms. "Go in there and see who you are now." He smiled.
I walked into the brightly lit women's room and let out a little scream as I looked into the mirror. It had been a while since I got a good look at myself. A year and a half, to be exact. They wouldn't give us mirrors in isolation for fear that we would shatter them and use them as weapons.
The first thing that I noticed was that my eyes were no longer pale blue. They were an odd shade of purple, like my natural eye color had mixed with my Saviors crimson. My cheeks were pale, translucent, almost. I couldn't tell if that was because of a lack of natural light or because of what I had become. My lips were pink and smooth.
My hair was shocking too. It was still jet black, just as it always had been, but it was short. Too short. I cried out again as I ran my fingers through what used to be knee length hair. I hadn't had my hair cut in five years, and though I hadn't seen it in years, I knew that it was growing to be beautifully long. Now it was short, pixie-like.
I turned on the water in the sink and splashed my face with ice cold water, except that it didn't feel ice cold. I ran some water through my hair and styled it into little spikes.
When I walked back out, he was leaning against a shelf, looking beautiful and immaculate. How could this man be a killer? I wondered. He grinned as he took my hand and led me back into the street. I noticed, before leaving the store, that the woman behind the counter was staring, wide-eyed after us.
He led me to a park and sat down on a bench. I sat down next to him and he put his arm around me. This was the first time that I had seen him, and I felt as though I had known him my whole life.
"Let me explain a few things." He started. When I didn't respond, he continued. "You are a vampire, Alice. You are a youngling, and very powerful. Let's start with your questions. I know you must have several questions."
"Uh…" I thought for a moment. "Do I have to drink blood?"
"Yes. You can eat human food, but you won't really like it and it will hold no nutritional value for you. But if you pay attention, you can hunt for the greater good."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You can hunt people who have bad intentions. Like those two men tonight. They were going to hurt that girl."
"How do you know?"
"I can read their thoughts. I have a special gift, like you."
"A gift? What kind of gift?"
"You can see the future, can't you, Alice?"
"How did you know?"
"I can read thoughts, remember? Your abilities are based on what you were like as a human. The reason you were put in isolation." I remembered all too clearly the things I had seen. My parents couldn't handle it when I told them about the accident that would take my best friend from me forever. I had been so scared about what I saw that I told them before it had even happened. They laughed about it, until two weeks later, she was hit by a car and died instantly on the street. It was then that they sent me away. I spent a year at the asylum, holding back my visions. None of them were bad enough to cause alarm, so I didn't say anything, until I saw a girl commit suicide in her room.
I made the mistake of telling a guard about it, and after stopping the young woman from killing herself, he had me locked up in isolation. It was there that I had escaped tonight.
Freedom. Could I really be free?
"Any other questions?"
"Why me?" He looked confused by my question. "What I mean is, why did you pick me? Why not someone else? Someone who wasn't classified as 'insane'?"
"Because, as I told you before, I can read thoughts. I know who is pretending, for the sake of attention. I know whose mind is truly unstable. And, I know the minds of those who cannot help but to be who they are. Those like you. You are pulled into this, unwillingly. An innocent bystander caught up in a storm. You are unique, Alice. Never forget that. Your power will become stronger and you will be able to control it better. Then, you will be unstoppable!" He was nearly screaming. I looked in his eyes and saw something else, something he was trying to hide from me.
I wanted to know what it was, but I couldn't think of a way to word the question so that I would be sure to get an answer.
"It's nothing you need to worry about." He answered my thoughts.