What Should Have Been
Ketti: -looks around shifty eyed- I exist, I swear. Though the next chapter is the last of my pre-fixed chapters... so I hav e two weeks to battle my mini writers block before I fsck up my update schedule. Everyone yell at JuJu to make me write. In the form of nice reviews to her stories. -shifty eyes-
Seras Victoria drowsily thought she heard a 'clickity clack' sort of sound, and her bed seemed to vibrate in time with the noise. The word 'déjà vu' came to mind and her features scrunched up in distaste. Again? Lifting her arm up to cover her face with her hand, she groaned and peeked through the cracks between her fingers to examine the room. It was… empty.
Frowning, she levered herself up on her elbow to look more carefully. But her initial thought was correct; she was alone in the cabin, and definitely on a train. Where was her Master?
Unable to return to sleep, and quickly growing bored of waiting for his return she rolled herself off the cushioned bench-bed and spotted a pair of ankle boots in her size near the door. She put them on, having no desire to get her white socks dirty, and peered out the door down both ends of the hallway. Nothing.
Shrugging, she decided to explore and see if she could find the wayward man. She chose to treat it as a game; in each new car she would guess how many people were there and if she would find her Sire among them or not.
She was wrong more often than she was right, especially about her Master's position, when she reached the rear of the train she frowned, puzzled, but turned and backtracked to make it all the way to the front. She knew he was there… somewhere, she could feel it. Tugging a strand of hair in thought, she wandered back to the room, unaware of the curious stares she received as she passed through the dining car in her daze. She noticed then that the window in her cabin was open. Brows arching into her hair with disbelief, she leaned out the window, careful not to overbalance and fall, and looked up.
The moon was beautiful tonight. Looming huge in the sky, glowing softly and illuminating the countryside as they passed in a rumble of churning wheels. Something was telling her she was right in her theory, so she carefully scooted out the window to find a fairly easy hand hold next to her to clamber her way up the side and onto the corrugated roof. The texture allowed her boots to stick easier despite the winds attempting to fling her into space like a ragdoll. There, near the front of the train, stood her Master gazing up at the moon with his hair flying longer than she'd ever remembered seeing it and his coat tails flapping.
Cautiously she worked her way closer to her Sire. While it was true she really didn't know what to feel for the monster that took away her humanity, he was the closest thing to family she had left in this moonlit world of shadows and blood, so while he frightened her at times, she still had the urge to stay close to him. To be at his side. She wondered if that was her talking, or the inhuman reflection of herself lurking in the back of her mind… waiting to leap out of the looking glass and take her place in the driver's seat at a moment's notice.
After what seemed like an hour, though it surely couldn't have been more than five minutes, she made it to his side; her slight frame acting as a feeble buffer from the untamed winds as they tore at clothing and hair like greedy urchins looking for a spare penny. A shiver worked its way down her spine and through her limbs, for though she was a creature of the night and less vulnerable to temperatures than humans, she was still a young and relatively weak fledgling for not drinking her blood. Something warm and soft curled around her shoulders and she blinked, canting her head to the side curiously as she realized what shielded her from the chill was her Master's hair. How odd.
"Vampires, Police Girl, are quite unlike any other creature known to this world; most of the stories surrounding our weaknesses are false, of course." He smirked down at her with a flash of moonlight on his fangs, smugness glowing in his eyes, even veiled as they were by his amber lenses. "Just as not all the myths of our powers are true. Blood is a key factor, fledgling; the more powerful the Sire the more resilient the Childe, but that does not mean that one cannot surpass their bloodline." He continued in a firm scholarly tone, "You'd be surprised, Police Girl, where determination will get you when you walk the path of shadows willingly. Just as humans evolve, so too do vampires as the lines spread and separate. Dilution leads to interesting side effects." He hummed the last part with a strange look on his face as she gazed up at his profile silhouetted by the moon, "Not all vampires can create ghouls, the majority cannot stand even the hint of sunlight, the garlic is a fool's tale, but the strong odor can be a repellent to the sensitive. There are so many varieties in nosferatu, now that the old bloods are a disappearing breed." He sounded truly disheartened by that last bit of news, and she inched closer to him as though to comfort him.
"Enough of this talk, I told you before a war is coming, and as you are, you won't survive the first battle. You must learn to unlock your new senses without relying on your instincts and losing yourself. Your first test will be speed." His hand clamped around her shoulder and she felt goosebumps rippling down her arms in trepidation. "Experience is the best teacher, Police Girl. If you cannot catch up within the hour I will be unhappy." He bared his teeth in a macabre smile and hefted her in the air to fling her over the side of the train. She shrieked and instinctively curled herself in a ball as she felt gravity take hold and drag her to the ground at a sickening speed.
CRUNCH!
Ow. Breaking a tree in half with the impact of her landing really fucking hurt. "Damnit, Master!" She cursed as she realized the train was already far out of reach. "Experience is the best teacher." She mocked and huffed, pushing her disheveled bangs from her face and leaning against an unbroken tree to regain her bearings.
'Tick tock, Police Girl.'
"Yeah yeah…"
Grimacing at the mental reminder, she pushed off from the sturdy trunk and began jogging. How am I supposed to catch up with a train of all things? Picking up speed as she realized there was no stitch in her side to slow her down – she was never really the best runner – she made it to the train tracks and squinted into the distance. There, she saw it still, just barely. "Great, just bloody marvelous."
So she started running, and running, and running. She found after about twenty minutes that she wasn't getting tired, and her breath came easily as though she were merely walking. But she still wasn't fast enough.
Just then she heard a horn blasting behind her and she glanced over her shoulder in shock to see a new train barreling up behind her at high speeds. Eyes widening, she glanced to her sides frantically and realized she was on a bridge with no room to get out of the way. God damnit! Faster, she needed to go faster!
The horn sounded again and she could feel it in her bones as the track began to vibrate. Oh god, oh god, oh god… The screeching brakes told her the conductor saw her, but she knew that unless she found the speed her Master told her she possessed, she'd be hit and either crushed or thrown off the bridge into the fast moving river below. Vampires and flowing water did not mix very well.
"MASTER!" She screamed as her feet pounded the wooden boards, and the horn blared so loud she felt deafened by it. Oh god, oh god, oh god..!
And then, something just… clicked and she was at the other side of the bridge and sprinting desperately ahead, her surroundings a blur as she hot footed it back to the passenger train and her Sire. She could feel his smugness through their connection, and cursed him blackly even as she reveled in her new speed. It took her mere minutes to catch up, and run alongside the train as easily as if she were skipping. She stared at the windows carefully, looking for signs of their shared cabin and found it after a moment as she gazed into the uncovered eyes of the dark haired man she was bound to. Leaping up to grab the sill she squeaked as the world suddenly reasserted itself and the wind nearly flung her back into space, but warm and firm hands grasped her wrists and hauled her inside where she was treated to a round of condescending laughter at her expense.
"It's not funny!" She growled and crossed her arms over her chest in a huff. Her Master was such an ass.
"Of course it is," he teased as he sat opposite her and stretched out his long legs in an indolent sprawl. "Do you know how you did it, Police Girl, or do I have to toss you back out the window?"
In answer she seemed to blur, hardly move at all, but then quite suddenly she had his favored red fedora atop her head and a smug look on her flushed face.
He favored her with one of his shark grins and crossed his feet at the ankles as he settled himself back into the padded bench with hands clasped over his waist. "Very good, Seras."
The use of her name sent a thrill through her, and she beamed at the praise.
"It is but the first step of many, fledgling, but you did well."
"Thank you, Master." She murmured, then recalled his teaching method and scrunched her face in disgust, "But never do that again."
"No promises." He laughed and crooked his finger in a come hither gesture that floated the hat back atop his head. The brim tilted low over his face and for all intents and purposes he appeared to be asleep. Huffing a bit, Seras flopped over gracelessly across the bench to stare at the ceiling until her eyelids felt heavy and she yawned.
'Maybe being a vampire won't be so bad…' She thought drowsily, if she chose her prey carefully and allowed herself to grow more powerful, maybe… A yawn cracked her jaw and she settled more deeply into the padding, maybe she could be like her Master, be a monster to protect England from the other monsters, only she'd do it of her free will. Maybe…