Baby of the Family

Hand-prints on the wall. Barely noticeable, but they’re there. The blood had tried within a few minutes; it had taken longer to dry on her skin. Various red and browns covered the front of her, slathering her mouth particularly in its essence. Her lips were clean and pink from how many times she’d licked them, reveling in the taste that danced across her tongue. Celine was hungry again, the ache in her belly growing as she listened to the pulses through the walls around her. She wondered if she could reach her hand into the wall and pull them out to tear into them like she did the man. He probably had a family and kids and a life, but in that moment she took it all away. This was what he meant in her new life. He didn’t kill her because he wanted to torture her; somehow he knew what would happen. More than ever she wanted to find him and.. Rip his head from his shoulders. She knew he did this to her somehow, but why the hell he did she had no clue. Her once perfect eyesight was now even more so, she compared it similar to looking out of binoculars all the damn time. Everything was clear, more clear than it even really should be. She could smell the blood in the air, hungry to follow it and hunt until her stomach was full again. The urge to feel warm and whole again was primal and telling her to feed. For some reason she felt like she couldn’t and it infuriated her. Angry was livid, sad was depressed, and hungry was overwhelmingly starving. Celine was a roller coaster of one emotion to the next, and she just wanted to lash out in the worst way. Her nails dug into the walls of the alley, gouging out grooves but not pushing through the wall. Celine looked to where her fingers lay; she’d only meant to feel along the wall. She’d expected her heart to race but it remained eerily quiet, like it was expecting these things to happen. Something was very, very wrong but she couldn’t figure out exactly what. The headache she’d had before came back full force until she was holding her head and trying not to scream. Mice scuttled around in drainage pipes, and all she could think of was that they were far too loud. Homeless people clanged empty cups for money and it was even worse.

The alleyways branched out to a park of sorts where she smelled something she couldn’t really identify. Her inky hair splayed out across her body as she finally gave in and let her legs fold, her head resting against a tree. The small creek bubbled beside her and she scooped some water into her small palm, splaying the droplets over her body in attempt to clean herself somewhat. It wouldn’t work on her clothing but it washed some blood and dirt from her skin. She felt that it would be the only bath she’d have for a while; she could never return to her dorm. Celine considered her life in her head but in the very back of it was blood. It was a delicious life nectar that she wanted to bathe in and fill herself full of. That man was not enough, would never be enough. She wanted veins against her teeth as she dug them in and drank until she’d devoured the life of another. Celine wanted to chase down prey, but the hunger in her stomach roared. It burned. Oh, it burned. She felt as if her middle was lit into flame and her gums were aching. Snapping her jaw, her tongue felt dry. There was this power coursing through her body that she knew she could not control, and yet she dug her nails into the tree and tore grass from the ground in an attempt to. She was hungry hungry hungry. Blood was blood and she wanted gallons of the stuff. A rabbit darted past her and she grabbed it mid-run, sinking her teeth in and tearing until she was sure it was ripped to shreds. She drank until she should be full but her stomach roared at her again, dissatisfied. A groan left her mouth as she curled up in pain, tearing clumps of soil from the earth repetitively.

Through the nipping cold winds and the falling of snow, Demetri's senses were not dampened. Nothing deprived him of the ability to smell blood. It did not matter how old or fresh it was, blood had a very distinct smell to it. The texture was different than anything he ever knew of. He walked through the snow, trudging through it as it clung to the ends of his slacks. His shoes were covered in the mess, but he did not care. The cold feeling never touched his skin, and even if it did, he was unaware of it. The feeling had been lost by such things. His blue eyes stared out into the evening, watching the people moving with their loved ones, holding hands or closely following after their sprinting children. On this night, Demetri had been looking for nothing in particular, just out and about with his hands stuffed deep into his pockets. His trench coat, though unnecessary, clung around his shoulders and arms. As he walked alone, he thought of many things. The main thought was the relationship quickly growing between he and Arkati, then the newborn relationship between he and Charli. On this particular evening, he was thinking about Charli. Would he be able to trust her again? Would she think of leaving him once more? He was so worried about it, that he had spent endless hours on his own just pondering on the outcomes of such a thing. Demetri was instantly pulled from his thoughts, forced to smell everything around him. There was a vampire here, young and wild it had seemed. He searched around for the signs of the female, looking to any suspecting form. When he saw her, it was obvious it was here. She seemed to be on edge, almost fidgety. When he found her, she was on the ground, tearing into it for some reason. He turned his head slightly as he watched the female from behind. What was she doing on the floor? He could not figure it out, but instead of trying to figure it out for her, he decided it would be a good thing to just ask her. Using his powers to dwell into her mind, he spoke to her mentally. Please relax, you are not in harm's way. My name is Dominus Demetri, and I am here to assist you with anything you may need. Please try and act as much like a human as possible. We do not need any directed attention towards ourselves. But I can tell you right now, there is a place not far from here where we can go for you to hunt. I can tell the thirst is strong for you. I want to help you with this. I can teach you so much.. Demetri moved closer to her, slow on the approach. He looked down to her, waiting for her to respond somehow. In order to make it less awkward, he spoke out loud. "Excuse me miss, have you lost something?"

If anything was true, every little clump of soil torn from the ground came away as a piece of her sanity. She’d reverted to passing time in her head, counting the seconds until the next hunger pang hit and she whined in agony. It was still dark and too early for anyone to be awake, but for her it was as light at day. Torn bits of rabbit littered the ground from where she’d tried to eat, tried to feed to no avail. She was beyond hungry and straight into ravenous, clenching her jaw and keeping herself rooted to the spot. ‘Hunt, feed, eat,’ her stomach roared at her as she curled over in agony. Her gums ache and pulsed repeatedly, wanting food. The footsteps that approached her sounded like sonic booms and she pul her hands to her ears. Celine swore that they would bleed, that her brain would implode and take her body with it but the implosion never came. It was then the voice slipped into her mind and she caught the man looking at her. Her eyes went wide in terror as she didn’t register what he was saying. She care to know what he was saying at all, she just knew he should not be able to do that. Celine moved away from him, whimpering, and crouched. The animal within her spoke and she bared her teeth in a hiss before speaking. “No I haven’t lost something, you psycho! What the hell are you? Get away from me!” Only hours old, she didn’t understand. It was too bright; she wanted to claw out her eyes. It was too loud; she wished her ears would stop working. Grass felt like daggers on her skin and her entire being hurt. Her face was pale in horror as she stood. Body shaking, she backed away from him and nearly tripped over the ground. If he came nearer she would growl, she could already feel it bubbling up in her ferociously. He had her backed up into her mental metaphorical triangle until the adrenaline pumped enough and her stomach finally got to her. She threw the rabbit carcasses at him, baring her teeth out of insane terror.  “Stay away from me!” Celine cried out and, without another word, she ran.

She ran past the bridge and deeper into the city landscape beyond, she ran fluidly as hunger drove her to jump dumpsters and whatnot in the alleyways. The human scent drove her wild, she was so hungry. She weaved this way and that, trying to make sure the man didn’t follow her before she stumbled out onto a street. Celine walked and passed bystander after bystander, eyeing the collection of homeless people until she dragged a woman into another alley. The woman screamed, but no one else seemed to care. Hauling her up against the wall, Celine smelled as well as heard the lovely blood rushing through the woman’s system. Young, her new homeless status causing her to age prematurely. All these thoughts collected as she watched the pulse in the woman’s throat tick away furiously, as if it were trying to escape the flesh that encased it. Celine licked her lips and was on the woman in seconds, tearing into her neck and growling her satisfaction like an animal. Her teeth tore and tore and tore; she wasn’t yet aware of the fangs extending from her jaw. Finally she found the fresh source, the artery, and drank deeply from it like a babe nursing from its mother. The woman struggled but her grip was like an iron cage. When the body went limp and blue did Celine drop it. She licked her lips and hands repeatedly, savagely, until there was nothing left to consume. Her belly full and warm once again, she huddled against a corner. Somehow she knew the man chasing her would, in fact, find her. When he did she would be sitting there, a dead body drained of blood by her side, and say, “What the hell is happening to me? Use your mouth and get out of my damn head.”

As the newborn stood before him, he tried to keep her calm. How he wished he had the ability to change her attitude, to fix the emotions she was feeling. Best thing he could do would be to paint a false reality in her mind. But being she was already afraid of him only speaking to her in her mind, he could only imagine what showing her some false reality would be like. Immediately, he flushed the idea from the back of his mind. She would need a different kind of explanation. But before he could say anything else, he had rabbit corpses thrown at his head. He dodged them all, but in the time it took to do so, she had already darted away from him. Her scent was strong, even among the ill scented humans around him. He was not hungry currently, having had a rather good meal before heading out. Around this time of the year, O positive blood had been a real treat. It seemed to be richer that any of the other blood types. He would warm it in a pot over the open stove and pour it into a wine glass. He would sit by the fire and read a book to himself. But tonight, he was out in the cold and searching for a lost newborn. It was not safe for the fresh ones to be running rampant on the human's soil. They were not only a danger to the humans, but a danger to themselves. If the humans discovered a newborn terrorizing their city streets, you better believe that they would be on the hunt. Pitchforks, torches, and even rifles would be in their hands, searching for the menace of their society. Many times, the newborns never made it past a week. Demetri moved through the crowds of people, watching their reactions as they stared to the girl barreling through the park and into the city.

Demetri turned on his heels and headed after her, not a real run, but an awkward speed walk. He only did this when he was in the eyes of the humans. He did not wish to draw attention to himself either. One can never truly know what hides in the shadows. Once he was under the lights of the alley, no other humans dared to enter here. The only unfortunate souls who littered this part of the city, were the homeless. They had no place to go, and here they sat and had their garbage all around them. It was a sad display and Demetri actually felt pity for them. They had lost so much, while he thrived so vigilantly. Of course, his success had all been his own. A shriek bounced around the walls of the alley way, and Demetri was right on her trail. When he approached them, he stared to the newborn atop the female on the ground. She had not yet began to feast, but he knew it was coming. He watched her from a distance, keeping an eye on her back and waiting to see if anyone would come to assist the screaming girl. When the smell of fresh blood hit the cool air, he took a deep breath. A negative... he thought to himself. With his hands still tucked in his pockets of the trench coat, he stared to her and soon she had finished eating. He did not make a sound, all he did was watch her. Would she need to feed again? Or would this life be enough? As the young one got off the corpse, she scurried to the corner and set herself to the floor. Such a strange thing newborn vampires were. He could only imagine the pain and turmoil she was going through, as he himself went through it. "Greetings. Do not run, do not flee. I will use my words to speak to you. I bet that really threw you through a loop. But my name is Demetri, and even though you may be frightened of me, I can and I will help you. See, I am like you. Only I have had many many years to fine tune myself and I can control the urges. If you allow me to help you, I promise you I can make this all make sense. If you do run from me, I will come after you again. What you may not know, is that the people here, the humans... They hate our kind. They could very easily kill you right now. I do not want that to happen. If you stay with me, I can promise you that no harm will come to you. I am strong enough to protect the both of us. So, will you let me help you?"

Like the creatures she had so recently devoured, Celine felt herself as but a simple cold carcass in a room of nothing. She stared at him and was tempted to takes her heart out and place it in his hands as a form of submission. As scared and confused as she was, something within her responded to the man’s commands when he spoke them. Indeed she did not move nor run, but she did so with compromise. His voice did not touch her mind but left his mouth like a normal person, but the minute she had woken up she knew normal was a far cry from her now. Maybe he could fix her and place her back into her life as she knew it. Maybe it had been all a dream, a simple adventure of her mind. But she knew the temperature outside and she knew she did not feel the cold. Dreams could not feel so real. As her fingers grazed over the concrete beneath her, she drew her hand back with a hiss. The movement was too quick for a human to do; this fact alone had her grabbing her head in a lack of understanding. Her eyes flicked to him through her hair as she heard him say the one thing that threw her off balance. “Our kind? What do you even mean by that? You’re a person, a stranger at that, and I am suddenly just a serial killer with a strange appetite. So what are you talking about our kind. I’m not a part of your cult or freakshow or whatever it is. We’re just people, there is no specific kind-“ Celine paused, her eyes growing wide as she connected the pieces. Among the trash-littered alley she drew further back against the wall, suddenly terrified of the man before her. “Oh hell no.. No way I am.. Just no.” She was hyperventilating until she realized that air was not required. Celine’s grubby fingers reached her neck where she knew her pulse would be thundering in fear, but felt nothing. In a state of panic she scrambled for a pulse. “No no no no no!” In her mind she watched her life flutter out the window like a bird taking flight. Her life as she knew it was now probably, definitely gone. Celine grasped for everything she’d built over time, but it all slipped through her fingers. She felt tears collecting in her eyes but she blinked them away, wiping at her eyes as she curled against the wall.

“Fine, help me Demetri. I know what you are, what we are, but what exactly is going on? This wasn’t my choice, obviously, so how did I get this way? Is there like a gene that kicks in or something? Cause I was definitely human before,” she drawled. Through the curtain of her inky tresses she peered at him, her nails digging into her palms so the slight pain would keep her calm. It was all gone, though there were a few things she could admittedly live without. The dick boyfriend was one, but at the end of the night he’d probably shacked up with another girl anyways. She would’ve ditched him tomorrow and then she would’ve landed herself back in his bed two hours later. She would say things an he would hit her again and then take her on the borderlines of rape. The anger that came over her was raw a pure and drove her to a very dark place. Celine felt that she could take him now and maybe throw him through a few walls while she was at it. She was exhilarated for a moment until she looked at Demetri again. “Can I go back to college?” Her voice bordered on desperate hope and full out stomping the ground in stubbornness. All she’d done relied on that one degree; losing it was not an option. The dramatics in her mind was stopped and she was ready to get into the thick of the questions, but some needed to be answered before others. In the very back of her mind Celine was screaming. She was tearing the very fabrication of everything she held dear bit by bit until it lay in a mess on the floor. Her parents wouldn’t know that her life had left the world, or even that they would never have to claim another body. She’d fought to escape the maze that never ended, to swear over and over that she wouldn’t end up like her. Celine ended up with the same degree just like Lina. She’d gone through school just like Lina. The girl had even wrote a diary just like Lina.  Now it dawned on her that she had and had not escaped her fate. But either way she was very, utterly dead. Just like Lina.

Demetri listened to her rambling, and he could tell she was trying to make sense of it all. It was far too hard for anyone to just understand. Even when he was attacked by his initial mark, he did not understand anything. Whatever was on the blade which cut him, changed everything the Vampire knew to be true. He had a crazy thirst and a will to do as he pleased, a pull to be wild. He could hear everything and nothing all at once and every other sense was heightened. He was in-tune and so distorted all at the same time. It took many years for him to be able to understand it all and even helped those he had changed. As the years went by, he became better and better at explaining things to people. Soon newborns would come to understand within two months. She would be no different, if only she would calm down. She rambled to herself and to him, trying to connect everything in her mind. If any humans had been around, they would think she needed to spend some time in a cozy white jacket which forced one to hug one's self. Along with the white walls padded with cushions so someone could not intentionally harm themselves. When she finally stopped, he took a deep breath and held a warm smile. "What I'm about to tell you, may scare you. The idea itself may seem foolish, but I can promise you, it is very true. I would never lie to you. You are not a serial killer. I am the leader of the Vampire clan here. You are like me. You are a Vampire." He gave her a moment to let that sink in. Many humans had heard horror stories of their kind, about how they snuck into your room and sucked your blood until you laid there dry and gone. Most of it had been lies. There were some Vampires known to go off the rails and cause some panic, but not all were like that. Demetri had not been like that for over six thousand years. "I may be a stranger now, but I plan to help you through this... transition. Your life is going to change, and for the better I promise you. It may seem right now that you are losing all you have worked so hard to achieve, but that is entirely false. Please try and be calm. If you arouse too much noise, people will come and we do not need their interference. It would just turn into a blood bath. Your impulses to feed are much higher than my own and it will be hard for you to control."

Finally she agreed to let him help her. This was good. It would allow the information to actually reach her, to make her think about everything. She had many questions, which was common of the newborns. He had wished that when he changed there had been someone to go to for understanding. When she stopped with her questions, he picked right back up. "There are only two ways for you to be a Vampire. The first is being born this way, which has only been done once in the nine thousand years of my existence. My own son was the only one. The second would be to drink the blood of a Vampire. Vampire blood is much thicker than a humans, as it holds all the minerals and irons from human blood when we consume it. It would taste almost like a warm metal, depending on how you had taken it. Many thousand years ago, you could get bitten by a Vampire and the effects would take hold of your body, but the humans have since created a serum which prevents our saliva, as well as Werewolf saliva to change a human. So at some point, you must have drank some blood. It's a taste you would never forget, unless of course your mortal body was intoxicated by the effects of alcohol or some form of drug. My guess would be someone slipped it into drink you had, so try and think back to a time where you might have come into contact with it. How long have you been feeling this way?" He looked to her frame, watching as her mind rolled everything together. He could see her thoughts, how dramatic everything had been for her. He stayed silent, until she asked her final question for the moment. "Can I go back to college?" Yes, it was very apparent that her old life was still very much a part of it. It must not have been too long since she changed. "At this time, no, you will not be able to return to college. But, with time, I would love to help you get back to that point. If you stick with me, and allow me to help you with your training, I want you to go to college. It is essential in life for you to have an education. Though it will not help you in our lands, it will help you blend in with the humans. Within the next few months, I can have you back out there, holding a normal job and living a normal life. For now, though, you are too dangerous to yourself and to others around you. The humans know we are around here, but they do not know exactly where we are at. I have worked hard to keep it that way. I encourage all the vampires to do such, once they are ready. Now, since you know my name, what is yours?" He took a few steps until he was closer to her and held out his hand.

“Okay.. Wow.. I, um, I’m very sorry for running. Also for the rabbits, and eating that person. How about you just include me being sorry about everything from the first minute you saw me? Just, like clean slate. Like whoosh,” she said with a sweep of her arm to demonstrate. In her panicked state she also felt guilt, fully knowing that if she breathed anymore the air would’ve left her in an instant. In no ways of the world was this normal for Celine at all, but she’d never been so shocked before in her lifetime. He was just trying to help her, but for some reason she felt like she wanted to cry and bow at his feet in her guilt. It was more than likely because everything heightened in her body like he described, but she felt like she was on a rocket that only went down. But she was also angry that she didn’t have a choice nor did she agree to this. A vampire. A thing that her parents had merely told her horror stories about in hopes to spook her into being a good girl. It had worked none the less, Celine grew up scared of what lurked in the dark. She’d hid behind her mother with her sister until they were assured there was nothing there. Maybe the other stories were true as well, but mere hours ago she doubted beasts and monsters were even possible. Now it seemed she had to become one when she did not ask to be so. How wonderful. It was a shock and she found herself utterly exhausted by it all. She had been attacked after all, but she felt no effects from that at all. Her mind had been pushed to the brink and she was just tired, her willpower to resist for the moment. “I’m not sure when I was turned.. I was at a frat party and left when I was attacked. I’m guessing somewhere in there I got the blood, passed out, and was robbed all in one process. What time is it anyways?” She turned and sifted through her coat only to remember that her phone had been stolen like before.

Even though the scent of blood was stale, she felt a familiar ache in her stomach once again. She wanted it and she wanted it bad, but she needed to know there was an alternative to killing people every amount of minutes. Surely vampires around the world knew this trademark secret, but she certainly wouldn’t learn it on her own. Celine felt like a baby amongst the masses, a toddler tripping over her own feet in an attempt to play catch-up. Maybe she’d work for the rest of her life to learn it all.. Unless they lived forever? She had so many questions but was blinded partially at the hunger clenching and growing ravenous in her gut. Her gums ached and her head went to her hands once again. She wasn’t alone this time, and she spoke to Demetri to tell him of her hunger. “My head hurts a lot.. I’m hungry and my gums ache.” Her eyes turned up to see his hand and she could only wonder if she should take it. Celine wouldn’t run again, so instead she placed her hand in his and sighed as she stood. “I’m Celine… Celine Jolicoeur. Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she said with a respectful nod of her head. Quietly she waited to be guided to her new home and to open her eyes to her new life. Maybe this one would be better than the last.