Chapter One: The Start Of A New Begining

 

                                  

Chapter One: The Start Of A New Beginning

 

Walking through the city
Looking oh so pretty
I've just got to find my way

                                                         September 5

Dear Diary,

 

I'm glad to be awake today!

 

I don't know why I wrote that, but I know for sure I hate today. Today I'm going to be attending a council meeting with Uncle Zach. Justin on the other hand gets to stay home with Francis. Not fair! It's not my fault, the council doesn't trust me! I just can't stand looking at all their f*****g faces, it irritates me! All of it!

 

But here I am at 6:00 am, writing in this stupid journal/diary - or whatever Zach called it - because he thinks that if I write in it every time I feel upset, or angry about something it could help my case against the council. Apparently, they think I'm a danger to the community...

 

BULLSHIT!

 

Nicole Salvatore stopped writing and stared at the last line she wrote. Pen hovering over the notebook with the red velvet cover. She clenched her hands into fists before suddenly throwing the book and pen at the big bay window. This just didn't make any sense to her! This was completely ridiculous!

 

Since when had Nicole Salvatore been so upset about a stupid council meeting? She practically despised all of those who sat at the council. Except for her Uncle Zach who was �" unfortunately �" apart of it as well. But as luck would have it she was born with an Uncle who was apart of something she did not like.

 

She got up and looked at herself in the mirror; she already knew what she would see. Nicole Salvatore, cool, easy going and athletic, the leader, the independent one, the high school junior and life of the party. Right now she had a scowl on her face and immediately rolled her eyes at the sound of someone knocking at her door.

 

"Nicole! Whatever the hell you're doing hurry up and come downstairs," Uncle Zach said through the door.

 

"I'll be there just hold on!" She said annoyed that it was this early in the morning for Zach to be bothering her.

 

"Well hurry up; cause Justin's about to eat your breakfast!" He said in a sing-song voice.

 

WHAT?

 

That was all she needed to grab her jeans and tank top, put them on and speed out of the room and down to the kitchen. When she arrived she saw her adoptive brother, 14-year-old Justin with a fork in hand hovering above the perfectly cooked Italian sausage that was on her plate.

 

"Drop. The. Fork." She said like a cop with a gun pointing at a criminal with a hostage in hand. The hostage in this case was the sausage.

 

Justin dropped the fork, and sighed. She smiled and sat down at the table and they ate breakfast. As always the breakfast was loud and rowdy the two "siblings" were laughing, talking and making jokes as well as gossiping. When Zach came down from the stairs in his usual suit and tie like he was Keanuu Reeves from the matrix, all that was missing were the dark sunglasses. Zachary Salvatore would never be caught dead wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

 

He stood in front of a mirror hanging on the wall beside the kitchen entrance in the living room, he adjusted his tie.

 

"Well, well, look likes someone's outdone themselves!" She said with a whistle.

 

"What this? It's nothing." Zach said straightening his suit.

 

Of course he would always wear a suit but, today he had brought out the Gucci suit and tie. Nicole smiled as well as Justin. Zach wanted to look good for Francis.

 

"You sure it has nothing to do with Francis?" She asked.

 

"No." Zach said with a faint blush.

 

Nicole raised a brow and looked at him with a ‘don’t-screw-with-me-you-b*****d-I-already-know’ look.

 

"I mean it; go get ready cause you two need to get to school and me to the restaurant." Zach said.

 

176^th Street was, as always loud for an early September morning. School buses stopping beside sidewalks to pick up children. She loved this place, she loved the Bronx. Even though the whole world looks down upon the borough, considering it as one of the worst places in the United States�"she didn't care.

 

Because the Bronx, is more than just a poverty stricken area.

 

See the ladies flashing
All there legs and lashes
I've just got to find my way

 

A bird had rested on the top of a massive oak tree, and Damien head jerked up reflexively. When he noticed it was just a bird, he relaxed.

 

His green eyes then dropped to the white, limp form in his hands. He hadn't meant to kill the rabbit but, it was the only animal he was able to find the quickest. He was just lucky it was a rabbit he killed this time.

 

He stood beneath the ancient oak tree, sunlight flittering down onto his short black hair. In jeans and a t-shirt, Damien Richmond looked exactly like a normal high school student.

 

He wasn't.

 

Deep in the woods where no one would see him, he'd come to feed. Now he licked his gums and teeth painstakingly, to make sure there was no stain. He didn’t want to take any chances. This masquerade was already hard enough to pull of.

 

For a moment he wondered again, if he should just give it all up. Perhaps, he should go back to California to his hiding place. What made him think that he could rejoin the world of daylight?

 

But he was tired of living in the shadows. He was tired of the darkness, and of the things living in it. Most of all he was tired of being alone.

 

He wasn't sure why he had chosen to come to the Bronx. It was far from the poverty stricken dump, the world claimed it to be. Okay so the apartment buildings were old, as were the streets, as though the memories of the 1970 riots and arson epidemic were just as real as the grocery stores on every street corner.

 

Damien appreciated and respected the past; he thought he might come to like the people of the Bronx. And perhaps - just perhaps - he might find a place among them. He'd never be accepted fully, of course. He knew better than to hope for that. There would never be a place where he could fully belong, be completely himself.

 

Unless he were to chose to belong to the darkness, once again...

 

He slapped that thought away, he had renounced the darkness. He was above all those dark years, wanting to start afresh. Yet, he was tired of 'wanting to start afresh' for every year that passes he does the same thing. A boring routine day in and day out, he was surprised he hadn't killed himself from the boredom.

 

Damien realized he was still holding the rabbit, and gently placed it down on a bed of oak trees. Far away, too far for human ears to hear he recognizes the sound of a fox.

 

As he slung his backpack over his shoulder, he hurried on through the woods. Jaw set, for he didn't want to be late arriving at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School.

 

When he arrived at the school, it was fairly large and was buzzing with noises and students talking about their summer and the new school year. The school doors had yet to be opened, so he took a seat by a neighboring tree.

 

Well you see me crawling
through the bushes
with it open wide
what you seeing girl?
Can't you believe?

 

Soon the roar of a finely tuned motor caught his attention. A sleek black Ferrari Enzo, purred through the parking lot searching for a space, moving as lazily as a panther stalking its prey. When the car came to a stop, he caught a glimpse of the driver.

 

It was a woman, with cinnamon colored skin and long jet black hair. She was a bit tall, 5''5 or 5''4. She wore dark blue colored jeans, a plain white t-shirt and a leather jacket. She also wore dark sunglasses that completely covered the girl's eyes, shielding her face like a mask.

 

"Nice car, Nicole! Mind if I take it for a spin?" Asked a boy with a tan and short black hair that also held a mini mohawk.

 

"Touch the car, and I'll rip your head off!" The girl, named as Nicole said playfully.

 

"Watch yourself Ethan, she's got claws," Another girl with darker colored skin than Nicole with short light brown hair with highlights said.

 

"I've also got fangs, Thaliia; don't tell me you guys forgot." Nicole asked with a pearly white smile.

 

"How could we? You're always getting thrown into detention I swear sooner or later you were going to bite a teacher's head off." Another boy with short brown hair said.

 

"Only if they truly deserve it, Daniel." Nicole said wagging a finger.

 

“And since this is you we’re talking about, all the teachers deserve getting their heads bitten off!” Joey said combing her shoulder length blonde hair.

 

The bell suddenly rang, and everyone started into the school building. Thankfully, Damien took care of all school files during the summer. It also weird that, he didn’t have to compel the admissions secretary for the files, enrolling him into school. Maybe it was just a coincidence that the files turned up so quickly and were done really fast.

 

 

His first class was Trigonometry on the second floor; he walked down the corridor, up a flight of stairs, and into a classroom. He slid into an empty seat automatically and fixed her eyes on the teacher at the front without really seeing him. Class went by quickly, and the bell rang. Students flooded the hallways, and Damien easily merged himself within them.

That feeling
can’t you believe it
can’t you believe your eyes?
It's the real thing girl

Lunch came around during eighth period, next was ninth the last and final period of the day. Thank God! Nicole thought, dropping her backpack casually on the wooden table outside of the school.

“Was dropping your book bag like that really necessary?” Ethan asked sitting down.

“Hey, dropping them like that is the only action my books are going to get, for the rest of the year they are just going to spend most of it locked away in my locker.” Nicole said casually.

“So, when are you going to that council meeting, Nick?” Daniel asked.

“Sometime this week,” She said before quickly changing the subject. Not wanting to talk about the council meeting. “So, Thaliia, learn any new tricks over the summer?”

“Yeah, I’m just waiting for when you do something stupid, so I can light your a*s on fire!” Thaliia said seriously.

“Hey, easy now, my a*s is tender, I burn easily,” Nicole said with a slight whimper, causing laughter to erupt through the group.

“So who do you guys have for ninth period?” Daniel asked randomly.

“Mrs. Cassenetto for Trig,” Ethan said, joyfully for Mrs. Cassenetto was his favorite teacher.

“We’ve got Mr. Kerr,” Nicole and Thaliia groaned.

Mr. Kerr was the toughest and strictest History teacher in the whole school. He wanted every student in all his classes to get grades in the ninety-five percentile, which was absolutely ludicrous and unrealistic. He would yell, and there a few incidents where he would lie to students and other teachers that would ask about his students. Mr. Kerr is the epitome of the word ‘jackass’.

Damien was glad the school day was almost over. He wanted to get out of these rooms and corridors, for just a few minutes. This whole school was so strange, throughout the whole day; he kept getting this strange vibe from the place. Like it was abnormal.

So many voices. The pressure of so many different voices, surrounding him was making him dizzy. It had been years since he had been in a swarm of people like this. So far at least, he’d survived the first day of the masquerade. But he was tired, and he admitted ruefully hungry, that rabbit wasn’t enough.

He’d worry about that later. He found his last classroom and sat down. His head was reeling, as the tingling sensation, that aching feeling in his teeth became more prominent over the passing seconds. Just then Nicole and her best friend Thaliia came into the classroom, and Mr. Kerr turned his attention toward her.

“Is this an appropriate time to be entering the classroom?” He asked them sternly.

“I was in the nurse’s office,” Thaliia said handing Mr. Kerr a note.

He nodded and waved for her to take a seat; he placed the note on his desk and then looked at Nicole. “And you?”

“I was in the hallway talking,” Nicole admitted boldly.

“Do I need to call your uncle Ms. Salvatore?” Mr. Kerr asked sternly, using her last name.

“No need, he knew since this morning that I was going to get in trouble one way or the other,” She said casually.

Mr. Kerr, not liking her rudeness and sarcastic behavior, grabbed a piece of paper and issued her a detention. She took the slip and casually and walked to an empty seat that was in front of Damien’s desk. He looked up and noticed her eyes, they were brown, but had this strange seriousness that didn’t match her rude behavior that got students snickering.

She sat down and pulled her long black hair back into a ponytail, giving him access to her neck. His eyes immediately targeted the vein on the side of her neck that held her pulse. The tingling sensation was back and was even stronger as he heard her calm and steady pulse.

He tried to block out the sound, and ten minutes later when he successfully did, was when he sat the teacher pacing the front of the room like a ferret, asking questions. At first he was puzzled, for although only a few students knew the answers, the questions kept coming. Then he realized what the man’s true purpose was. To shame students that didn’t know the answers, to shame those he deemed as stupid and slow. While pressuring those that did know the answers.

Just now he found another victim, a small boy with flaming red hair and freckles. Damien watched in distaste as the teacher bombarded him with questions. He looked wretched as he turned away from him to address the entire class.

“You see what I mean? You all think you’re big shots all because you’re juniors, one year away from becoming seniors. Well, let me tell you, some of you aren’t ready to graduate kindergarten. Like this!” He gestured towards the small red head boy. “No idea about the French Revolution. Think Marie Antoinette was a silent film star.”

Students around Damien were shifting uncomfortably; he could see the resentment, the humiliation and even fear, in their eyes. They were all afraid of this large white, bald-headed man with weasel eyes. Even some of the husky boys who were just as tall as he was were afraid.

“Alright, let’s try another time period,” the teacher swung back at the same boy he was questioning.

“What made the 1970s a prominent era in our society? You do know what I’m talking about right?” When the boy nodded confusedly, he continued. “Name a few things in which were happening during that decade.”

The boy swallowed hard. With a weak smile he said, “There were hippies?”

At the ensuing laughter, the teacher’s face darkened. “Hippies?” he snapped, and the classroom quieted. “You think this is a joke? Of course there were hippies, Woodstock for crying out loud! But hippies aren’t the only thing that made the 1970s a prominent decade in American history�"”

“Excuse me.”

The quiet voice stopped the teacher in midharangue. Everyone turned to stare at Nicole, whom was sitting laid back in her chair.

“What now Salvatore?” Mr. Kerr said with a frustrated sigh, for Nicole was his least favorite student.

“With all due respect,” she began as a clear indication there was going to be no respect. “There’s no need to be yelling at everyone like we’re mindless idiots. We are not ignorant retards you can humiliate whenever you feel like!”

“Oh and to answer your question: there were not only hippies and Woodstock, but high usage of drugs known LSD and marijuana. Also, there was the Watergate scandal, the Charlie Manson and the Zodiac murders, not to mention the riots that were all over the place as well as the arson epidemic that consume the Bronx. Thus the phrase by Howard Coswell �" “The Bronx is Burning”, during the 1977 World Series game at Yankee Stadium.”

Students were grinning. Mr. Kerr’s face red with blood and he was sputtering. But, Nicole continues to hold her eyes and after a minute, it was the teacher that looked away.

The bell rang.

Got me feeling myself
and reeling around
Got me talking but feel
like walking around
Got me feeling myself

That outburst was going to get her into trouble with Zach once she got home. For Zach had always taught her to respect her elders and to never disrespect them. She didn’t care because it was about time that someone put Mr. Kerr in his place. That f*****g jackass, was making everyone feel bad, it was about time someone turned the tables on him.

Nicole said her goodbyes to her friends, in whom they all said: “We’ll pray for you.” It was a joke, because Zachary Salvatore had known Ethan, Thaliia, Daniel and Joey since they were toddlers. They were like family, and just like family he would yell and scold them for whatever reasons.

She got into her Ferrari and drove to her uncle’s restaurant called “Red Sun and Blue Moon”, it wasn’t her choice of a name but it was better than some of the suggestions he thought of when creating the restaurant. She drove into the large parking lot, and parked in wide space beside the windows. The sound of her precious car’s fine motor would alert Zachary to her arrival.

Inside she saw Zachary talking with Francis Ortiz, the co-owner of the restaurant and Zach’s crush. It was just too cute, seeing her uncle flirt with her like a shy teenager. If only she had a camera. She had an Iphone, but for a moment like this she wanted to record every second in high definition �" in perfect quality.

Getting out of the car, and walking through the restaurant’s front doors casually, she stood by the entrance and smirked at Zach’s poor attempts at ‘bagging’ Francis.

“Zach, if you’re going to say something spit it out why don’t you?” Francis asked, she was a short woman, smaller than Nicole but had a sharp tongue and was able to cut you down to size just by using words.

His face was completely red like a tomato, he sweating, extremely nervous like he was about to throw up. His niece shook her head before quickly running past them saying: “Francis would you go out with me?”

He looked at his niece with a murderous glare, while she just sat in an empty booth smirking and shrugging her shoulders. He then looked back at Francis who was smiling. “Is that a yes?” He asked.

“Maybe,” she said flirtatiously before turning her back on him and walking away.

Once she was out of sight, Zach turned sharply on his heel and towards his niece who was laughing hysterically in the empty booth she now took residence in. “Are you trying to embarrass me?”

She stopped her laughter for a moment, and spoke in a calm and easy tone. “Embarrass is such a wrong word, I prefer the word helping.”

“Helping?”

“Yes, helping because if I didn’t step in, you would’ve either fainted or thrown up. And I was seriously expecting the latter.” She said with a giggle.

Zach’s face turned red again, he balled his hands into fists and let out a frustrated sigh as he walked to the back of the restaurant. In a second later, he came back holding a plastic Hawaiian Punch bottle in one hand. And in the other was a trash bag. “If you want to help so badly, here.”

He pushed the bag to her, but she put her hands up, “Sorry, my services have exceeded their limit for today.”

Uncle wasn’t joking and gave her that quiet stare she didn’t like. She sighed muttering profane words under her breath as she took the trash bag and bottle.

At the back of the restaurant was an alley way, clean with only two dumpsters against the neighboring pharmacy’s back wall. She threw the trash into one of the dumpsters and dusted her hands. And in a split second, she felt the presence of another person behind her, as though she was in danger. In a quick blur, she pinned the stranger to the ground and she recognized who it was.

Damien looked at her in shock as he then realized his fangs were bared and he was sure his eyes were no longer green but, a whitish-blue. She tilted her head like a dog that it was almost comical yet, eerie at the same time.  She stepped away from him and uncapped the plastic bottle Zach had given her and handed it to him.

“Here, it’ll make you feel better.”

He took it confusedly; he smelled the contents of the bottle and scrunched up his nose not in disgust but in surprise. Nicole then crouched down and looked at him an eyebrow raised.

“You’re a vampire; don’t tell me you don’t like blood?”

                 

Author's Note

The song is: "Prowler" by Black Tide.

Reviews

[Wolfie]

Really good. Sometimes I was confused on whose point of view it was. Can't wait for the next chapter. =^,,..,,^=

[Caitlynxoxo]

Ooh this sounds good! I like the diary entry at the beginning, too :) Update!!

xoxo Caitlyn xoxo