Disclaimer! I am not nor have I ever been Daren Shan. The characters and the books belong to him. Characters you do not recognize belong to me.
Summary: What if Darren had been lied to his whole life? What if Annie wasn't his only sister? What if she wasn't his sister at all? What if his parents weren't really his parents? What if the gods had gifted two vampires the ability to conceive once? What if they conceived twins? What if all these things happened at once?
May 6th, 1987
A cloaked figure crept up the stairs of the old orphanage. The shadow took care in not being seen, not being heard. There were two bundles tucked inside the fabric of the cloak. One blue, one pink. Both with nearly identical letters carefully folded into the blankets. The only difference being the names of the sleeping children. The figure placed the two bundles on the step with care, placing a light kiss on the top of each child's head, and vanished into the night, leaving their children in the care of someone else.
Twelve Years Later…
Darren woke with a start. He had been having the same dream for as long as he could remember. Always the same figure, a woman he assumed, and always the same two infants. The orphanage was familiar to him. It was just up the hill and was the home of one of his best friends, Elena Crepsley.Somehow Elena always came to his mind whenever he had that dream. She had been left at the orphanage when she was only a newborn along with her twin brother who had been adopted not too long after. Darren could never help wondering if he was dreaming of Elena, and her real family.
He was torn from his thoughts when his own sister Annie jumped on top of him to wake him up for school. "Come on Darren, you're gonna be late for school! Then dad's gonna ground you and you won't be able to play football for a month!"
"Dad's not going to ground me from playing football Annie, he loves it remember?"
"Well you won't be allowed to bring your spiders in the house ever again." Annie replied with a smirk. She then had to launch out of the way as Darren ripped himself from his bed. See, Darren had this thing about spiders. He loved the things. His parents had once bought him a pet tarantula but he may have accidently mangled it in the vacuum. In his defense, he saw it in a cartoon and then, the spider turned out fine. It just served as proof that cartoons aren't like real life. Now, he kept regular old garden spiders, most of them escaped. Some stuck around though. They made webs in the corner of his room and lived there, and Darren would watch them from time to time.
There was no time for watching them now. He knew if he didn't get to school on time. He wouldn't have spiders to watch. Grabbing a piece of buttered toast with one hand, swinging his bag over his shoulder in the other, Darren kissed his mother on the cheek, and ran out the door.
The walk to school was a short one. As Darren approached the school he heard a voice calling his name. He turned around with a smile on his face. The voice belonged to Darren's other best friend. Steve Leonard. More fondly known as Steve Leopard. Steve swung n arm around Darren's shoulder. "What's up?"
"Nothing as usual. Where's Elena? She's usually here by now."
Steve shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know. I'm sure she'll be here soon though." He glanced over his shoulder. "Yep, she's coming now."
Sure enough she was running toward them, her fiery hair blowing behind her and a fresh bruise forming on her cheek. "Hey guys." She wheezed out of breath.
"What happened?" Darren asked. Gesturing to her face.
"Oh." Elena said. "I woke up late and you know what Ms. Beck is like." She was really casual about it. Darren knew what went on at the orphanage. Elena regularly showed up with bruises.
"You know talking to you seems I have it easy." Steve said. His dad left when he was younger and he and his mom weren't on the best of terms. "Let's go in before Mr. Dalton gives us all detention."
"You mean before he gives Darren and me detention," Elena joked, "You get away with everything."
"I'm just a very likable individual." Steve replied.
"Yeah right." Darren shot back. Laughing Steve put his other arm around Elena, and the three friends walked to the school shoulder to shoulder unaware of the piece of paper that would changer all three of their lives forever.
