Genesis

Prompt: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Macro (2,000 Words) Contest. This is an extended version of what was submitted.

Date: October 2022


It was raining the first time I woke up as a vampire.

The cabin had a leaky roof, and rain was slipping through, creating a pounding rhythm that ricocheted through my new, more sensitive ears.

For the past twenty-four years, I'd been waking up in pain, and though today was no exception, it was different. Instead of the ache in my spine that had called for a back brace most of my life, today my body slithered out of bed, effortless and alert. There was a lingering fire in my blood and a burning in my throat, but for the first time in my life, I felt like a whole person.

I wept bright crimson tears at the realization.

Later, my hunger and newfound mobility would push me to do horrible, unspeakable acts; a rebellion, I suppose, against the limitations of my human life.

It wasn't until I met Alice that things started to change for me. There was a friend—the first I'd ever had—a confidant, a sister. Alice guided me through my vampiric adolescence and brought me back into the light, so to speak. She wasn't that much older than me, not by vampiric standards, but she was immensely more powerful. Her tutelage and guidance saved me from myself, and we'd been together ever since.

My heels snapped over the wet pavement, steady despite the slick fallen leaves choking the sidewalks. It was cold out, I suppose, but I didn't feel the temperature. The sweater I wore was carefully chosen to help me blend in—and stand out—in exactly the ways I wanted. There was a science to it; dressing provocatively while still trying to allude to some sort of humanity. A way to draw in the right prey while not standing out at all as any type of predator.

It was a look Alice and I had been perfecting for the better part of a century.

My phone buzzed in my hand, and I glanced down at it.

Alice:

The party is packed. You'll eat well.

I smiled, responding to her with a kiss emoji. Alice had opted out of eating humans back when we first met, but she never tried to talk me out of my own diet. True to form, my supportive friend used the extra gifts she possessed to find the right meals for me. The people who were going to commit atrocious crimes, the people that wouldn't be missed. Once, I ate a guy who was planning on going home and killing two girls he had locked up in his basement. Alice and I had freed the girls and scattered the drained chunks of the guy's body in the Hudson. Not a scrap of him would ever be found.

I turned the corner, three blocks away from the party now. I could hear the thrumming music, smell the lust and sweat permeating the air.

I licked my lips and stepped a little faster.

One block from the frat house, I caught an unfamiliar scent in the air. My whole body froze as I took it in. Sweet, musky, like tart apples and cognac. I spun around, my eyes scanning the dark street, but I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, even with my advanced vampiric eyesight.

I scanned once more, and when I was sure there was nothing, I turned to head back to the party.

He melted out of the shadows like ink bleeding from a pen. My heart, a hardly functioning organ anymore, squeezed in shock as I skittered to an abrupt halt. He was tall, dressed in black from head to toe. It was hard to make out much of his coloring in the dark, but there was no escaping the glowing red of his eyes.

"Now, now," he tsked, his voice lightly European. "What have we here?"

I could feel the power rolling off him. He was far older than me, which meant he'd have power I could only dream of.

It was nearly impossible to advance in Vampiric hierarchy. Our power was subject to how long we'd been a vampire. Sure, that meant we gained more as we aged, but there would always be a host who had been around millennia longer. Some vampires, like Alice, were reborn lucky, gifted with powers that aided their second life. But for most of us, we had to wait through time to grow any real strength.

The first decade of being a vampire, we're all barely more than human. I'd been a vampire for one hundred and eight years, which was nowhere near long enough.

"Looks like a lost lamb," another voice said behind me. I spun around to find a second vampire appearing behind me. Alice and I occasionally ran into other vampires, and for the most part they left us alone. We weren't rich enough to run in circles with the really old ones.

"Are you lost, lamb?" The first one asked. I turned to glare at him.

"I'm expected somewhere," I said, my voice stiff with barely applied respect. It was smartest to keep holding respect for the elders, even if they weren't much older than me. Anyone who had been a vampire even a month longer than me was faster and stronger. I was a rag doll to some of them.

"No, I don't think so," the second one said, stepping closer to me. He smelled of guava and orchid. Not an unpleasant smell, but certainly surprising in the middle of Seattle. "We have a far better party for you," he continued.

Panic was starting to kick my slowly beating heart into a firmer pace, and I spun back to the one in front of me, trying to think of how to get out of this.

"Come on, lamb," the one in front of me said. "Don't make us mar that pretty little throat."

I swallowed hard. I knew they wouldn't bite me. Vampires couldn't feed off each other, not without losing our minds. I'd heard from a vampire a few years ago that mates could bite each other during sex, but since I didn't have a mate, I'd never tried it, and I wasn't sure I would even if I was mated. Vampire blood was a quick death for us. One drop and we began to change, the humanity completely driven out of us until we were mindless, savage things. Alice and I knew those vampires as Wildlings, though I'd heard the European vampires call them another name. Whatever those beasts were, it was never something one aspired to be.

These two wouldn't bite me, but there was plenty they could do to me.

"No, I…"

My words died on my tongue as one of the vampires grabbed me. He was so much faster and stronger than me, and the moment his hand touched my arm, I could feel his malic and ill intent.

They didn't mean for me to live through the night.

Panic set in, and instinct drove me to fight, even though I knew it was a futile battle. I whipped around, slamming a hand into the chest of the one who grabbed me, but he laughed and grabbed my other wrist as his friend wrapped his hands around my waist and they both dragged me off the street and into the shadows.

I brought a knee up, and managed to get one in the groin, but the other one grabbed me, holding my limbs out so that I couldn't struggle away. I could hear the one I'd kicked swearing, and it brought me a small degree of satisfaction.

He turned to glare at me, his red eyes burning, and in that moment I knew I had a choice.

I was going to die tonight, but I'd be damned if it was on their terms.

Sending a silent thought to Alice that I knew she'd not be able to hear, I bid her goodbye as the vampire came at me again. He didn't expect me to bite him, because it was suicidal, so he left his throat exposed as he lunged at me.

My teeth sank into his throat, like stone sliding through butter.

His companion screamed in surprise, and I fell from his grip. I tumbled down, but my teeth were clamped onto his friend's neck, drinking the sweetest blood I'd ever tasted. I felt drunk on the flavor, and I gulped him down greedily, blood flowing out of my mouth and down my throat.

I felt his friend shift to run, and I spun, letting go of the throat to clamp down on the second. He screamed, falling to his knees as I sucked the life out of him, my mind wild and frantic with hunger and energy.

I'd never known power like this. It was singing through my veins, pumping strength into every cell that made up my body.

I sucked the last drop of blood from the vampire and let him fall carelessly at my feet. My body was vibrating with power, my mind reeling with new knowledge, hundreds of years of memories and stories I'd ripped from their owners. I was so much more than a vampire; I was a Wildling.

Why had I feared this?

I waited for the madness to set in. Alice and I had seen it happen once. A vampire had turned on another, and within a matter of minutes had gone through the change and died.

I wondered if I would have time to see Alice before I too, died.

The scent of tart apples and cognac wafted by me again, and my head snapped up, confused. Where was that coming from?

My body moved without actual thought, faster than I'd ever moved before. One second, I was down on the street, the next, I was high on a rooftop, overlooking the campus and downtown beyond it.

My eyes scanned the rooftops and surrounding areas, but even with my hyper-advanced senses, I couldn't see anyone.

In less than a second, I was back down on the street, my feet carrying me toward the party.

"Fuck! Great costume!" One guy shouted at me as I drew nearer. I supposed it was fortuitous it was Halloween and the gore covering my body could be written off so easily.

I slipped into the packed house, my skin on overload with the touch of every human I passed.

I found Alice in the living room, dancing with a boy who had his hands wrapped around her waist.

"Bella!" she gasped when she saw me, untangling herself immediately. She tugged me out of the house without a word and didn't stop until we were in an alley two blocks away. "What happened to you?" she demanded, her eyes raking me.

"I was attacked," I said, my voice thin. Alice frowned.

"And you decided to decorate yourself with their blood?"

I swallowed hard and shook my head. "I did it, Ali. I drank vampiric blood."

Alice hissed instinctually, her eyes going wide. "What? How long ago?"

I shook my head. "I think it'll happen any moment," I whispered, crimson tears burning my eyes. Alice stared at me.

"I didn't see any of this," she protested.

"I guess we found out there are limitations to your visions," I said, my voice hollow.

Alice glared at me. "Stop, this is no time to joke, we have to…"

But her voice died off. There was nothing to do, no way to save me.

"Will you just sit and wait with me?" I asked, my voice soft. Alice's own crimson tears were welling, and she nodded.

"Of course," she whispered.

We made our way to a rooftop, both somber and quiet as we waited for the horrific death to start.

Alice held my hand, and we sat together, silent and waiting.

In the east, dawn began to paint the sky a dark periwinkle. We'd been here for hours and somehow, I was still alive.

How was this possible?

"Bella," Alice said, as we watched the sun slip slower toward the horizon. "Are you sure you…"

I looked at her. "Yes, they were vampires. I drank them dry."

Alice shook her head.

"I don't understand," she said slowly. I didn't either. I should be alive. I should have been dust hours ago.

It was minutes before sunrise, and I was still breathing.

"Bella, we have to get inside," Alice urged quietly. I stared at the lightening sky. I hadn't seen a sunrise in one hundred years. How I longed to stay and watch this one.

"Bella," Alice urged.

I blinked, letting her pull me off the roof. If I wasn't dead yet, there was no point in lingering around and waiting for the sun to finish me off. I'd been given a gift tonight, one that it was best not to push.

I let Alice lead me off the roof and back down into the shadows where we belonged.

"I don't get it," Alice muttered, once we were safely back home. We'd managed to scrape in seconds before the sun rose. "You're sure they were vampires?"

I looked up at her as I sat on our old sofa. "Positive."

She frowned, standing over me, her gold eyes assessing my whole face.

"And you drained them both?"

I grunted, getting annoyed with the questions. We'd been over this now at least six times.

"To the last drop."

Alice sat on the sofa next to me, shaking her head. "I don't get it," she said again.

I didn't get it either, but her anxiety over it was making me feel worse. I stood up from the sofa, pretending to yawn. "I'm going to shower then go to bed," I told her. I could feel her eyes on me, but I didn't give her any space to protest or say anything else.

I slipped into the bathroom, flicking the water up as hot as I could get it. We couldn't usually feel the cold, but man did vampires love the heat. It was the thing I missed most about the sun.

I showered quickly, cleaning myself of all the spilled blood down my body. When I was done, I wrapped myself in my best towel and headed to my bedroom.

Young vampires—which Alice and I were still considered to be—still needed sleep. We didn't need a lot, about four hours or so, but we still had those functions. When I was first changed, I found that I slept nearly fourteen hours a day, if not more. It had dropped with each passing decade.

I curled up on my bed without bothering to put clothes on. My blacked out window kept my room dark, but part of me longed to reach up and open it.

I wanted sun.

It was a completely suicidal thought though, and since I'd had my quota of those for the night, I laid back on my bed and willed myself to sleep.

I was ripped out of my sleep by the smell of tart apples and cognac.

I sat up, my heart slamming in my chest as I tried to take in my room past sleep-blurred eyes.

Nothing seemed out of place until…

He melted out of the shadows like ink bleeding from a pen.

Tall, broad-shouldered, pale skin that seemed to glow in the dark, and piercing red eyes.

"W-who are you?" I hissed, scrambling up on my bed. His eyes draped over my body, and I realized I was still naked. I hissed again and yanked my blanket over myself. His gaze returned to my face, an amused smirk on his full lips.

"I saw what you did tonight," he said, his voice low and slow. He was powerful, probably more powerful than any other vampire I'd ever come across. I could feel it filling and pulsing in the room. He was a predator, and I was most definitely nothing more than prey.

"W-what?" I choked.

He moved silently, and so fast even my advanced eyes couldn't track him. He leaned down, taking my face into one hand, his red eyes boring into mine.

I didn't speak, didn't dare breathe, as he gazed at me.

Finally, he nodded. "You're the one."

I didn't know what that meant exactly, but I wanted to protest that really, I was no one.

"Get up," he instructed, releasing my chin. "And get dressed. We have to leave."

"What? Where?" I asked, unmoving. He scowled down at me. He really was very tall.

"We have to get you out of here before every wildling comes tearing through here, hunting for you."

I blinked. "But there are no wildlings. They die within minutes."

He shook his head. "Most do. Some survive to become blood-thirsty leeches. All predator, no conscious thought. And if they scent you here, they will come in droves and devour anyone and everyone in their path."

My heart lurched in my chest. "Where are you taking me?"

I climbed out of bed, forgetting once again that I was naked. He stopped to watch me, and if I could have blushed, I would have.

"You perv, would you at least turn around?" I hissed, holding feeble hands over myself. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"No actually, I don't think I will."

I huffed and hauled on a hoodie that dropped to my mid-thigh. Next, I dragged on some leggings, not even bothering with undergarments. I rarely wore them in my second life. When I was dressed, I turned back to him.

"Will you tell me your name?"

His eyes were burning through me like he could see through my clothes. I shifted uncomfortably. His gaze finally lifted to my face.

"Not yet."

"Why?"

"We have to get you somewhere safe," he said, pacing away from me.

"Why?"

He turned to me looking as annoyed as I imagined he would with my questions. "Because you are something unspeakably rare, and if anyone finds out, they will kill you."

My mouth went dry. "But I'm nothing special."

He shook his head, striding toward me. "You are. You're a Genesis. Your blood could change the world. Now come, we have to go."


For those wondering, it is my intention to extend this into a full-length fic, though when it will be coming to you in full length, I'm not sure. Join my group on Facebook, and be sure to follow me as an author to get the updates when it finally goes live!