1. Beginning

He sat in class, barely paying any attention to the professor.  He pictured walking up to him and shoving his number two test pencil into the old man’s eye.  Fang hated calculus; he never understood what was going on.  Although, he probably would’ve understood more if he actually took the time to pay attention every now and then.  He wasn’t a slow learner or anything, Fang was actually quite intelligent.  He just didn’t care about anything, and that was his problem.  The only reason why he hadn’t dropped out of high school was because he promised his now deceased mother that he would graduate. She had been killed in a drive-by shooting a few years ago. His father was now in prison and the young man lived with his corny uncle. Another reason was that was because if he dropped out he’d have absolutely no excitement in his life.  And God knows he needed it.  ‘Fang’ wasn’t his real name, though.  His real name was Lucien Hillcrest, but he wouldn’t answer anyone who called him Lucien.  He told everyone to call him ’Fang’ if they wanted his attention.  People had gotten so used to it that they seemed to forget his real name all together.  Fang led a boring existence.  He went to class every weekday from 8am to 3pm.  Then from 4pm to 10pm he worked at the local music store as a cashier.  He got home at 11pm and watched a bit of TV before passing out on his couch and waking up the next morning to do it all over again.  On the weekends he normally had tons of homework that he couldn’t just not do.  Fang wasn’t invited to parties and things like that he was the poor, disgusting scholarship kid at this private school, but those things didn’t interest him anyway.  He was more interested in the lifestyles he had always seen in movies.  Constantly getting blown up, diving through glass windows, skydiving after a parachute, those were the things he liked.  He especially liked sci-fi movies, movies taking place in futuristic worlds, space travel, alien encounters, and things that seemed far off.  Fang knew that he could always just rent the movies but they didn’t entertain him because he knew that they were just movies.  He began to daydream as the professor rambled on about nonsensical mathematics.  He was in a military jet flying over the school.  Everyone inside was a zombie and his mission was to eliminate the premises.  He pushed a few buttons and flipped some switches and a salvo of missiles were unleashed. He watched as they made their way to the building and just as they were about to strike the bell rang.  Fang swore under his breath as he gathered his things.  He was headed for the door when the professor spoke up.

                “Mr. Hillcrest, may I have a word with you?”

Fang walked over to his desk and crossed his arms impatiently.

                “Why haven’t you been paying any attention in class lately?”

                “Lately?” he thought.  “I’ve never paid any attention in this class.  Where the hell has he been?”

                “I can’t concentrate.” he lied out loud.

                “Sure you can’t.” said the professor in disbelief. “If this continues you will fail this course, and you’re too bright of a young man to-”

                “I have to go professor; I have to get to work.”

Fang walked out of the room before the professor could finish his statement.  The last thing he wanted was to listen to some boring lecture about how he was so intelligent and should be trying to make something of his life.  So many people told him the same thing over and over that it lost all meaning.  Fang was headed to the parking lot when Jason Tanners, the school quarterback, walked past him and purposely bumped into his shoulder.

                “Watch where you’re going, dickfart!” he yelled.

                “Shove it up your a*s, Tanners!” Fang called back.

Jason became upset and charged him.  Fang ducked just as Jason tried to tackle him.  The 225 pound quarterback went flying over his body and right into a tree.

                “Watch out for that tree.” Fang called as he walked over to his bicycle.

Fang sat on the bike and made sure that all his books were in his book bag before pedaling. Jason Tanners was shaking the cobwebs out of his head when he noticed that Fang was about to leave.  He ran over to where Fang was as he called out to him.

                “Hey!  I’m not through with you.” he yelled out.

Just before he got too close, Fang turned around and flicked him off.  He then took off leaving Jason to look like an idiot in the midst of some 100 people who had witnessed all that had transpired between the two of them.  As he made his way to work, Fang began to daydream yet again.  His imagination was hindered when he saw a woman dressed in a red cloak crossing the street and realized that he was about to run hit her.  Fang pulled tight on his brakes as his bike skidded to a stop.  The woman in red, who hadn’t even flinched, continued to cross the street as she made eye contact with him.  He was mystified by the sight of her, a faint light radiated off of her body making her look almost angelic.  Suddenly, Fang heard the loud honk of a semi-truck.  He turned around to see a typical fat trucker yelling for him to move.  Fang turned back around and the woman in red was gone.  He looked left, right, up and down the street but she was nowhere in sight.

                “What the- ?” he said as he rode off.

Fang reached the parking lot right in front of “Andy’s Music”, the store where he worked.  He chained up his bike and walked into the store.  He threw his book bag behind the cashier’s desk and greeted Mindy, the girl who worked the day shift, as she left for college.

                “Right on time, Fang.” she said with a smile.

                “See you tomorrow, ‘kay Mindy?”

                “Later, Fang!”

Fang sat down behind the desk and put his feet up on the counter as he retrieved his mp3 player from his backpack.  Today didn’t look too busy so he decided to take things easy and listen to rock music while he waited for the day to end.

Fang made it through three hours with nothing remotely interesting happening.  He had a few customers, maybe five or six all day.  The sun was setting and the sky was filled with that faint glow of the ending day.  Fang focused his gaze outside as he watched all the busy little people go about their meaningless lives.  That’s when he saw her, the woman dressed in red that he had seen earlier.  She stood across the street and if he didn’t know better, he could’ve sworn she was staring right at him.  Fang sat up in his chair and the second he blinked, the woman was gone.  He rubbed his eyes and muttered to himself.

                “What the hell?” he said in a low mumble.

The rest of the day went by with nothing out of the ordinary occurring.  Fang had a few more customers before he closed up shop and headed home.

Fang walked restlessly to his house.  He opened the door and locked it behind him.  He dropped his backpack next to the TV set and plopped down on the couch.  Uncle Jared, as always wasn’t home. He was a drunkard. He turned on the TV and then realized he was hungry.  He walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a pizza box out of the refrigerator.  He took out two slices of pizza and put them in the microwave.  When they were done, he put them on a plate and sat back down on the couch as he enjoyed some late-night cartoons with his meal.  After twenty minutes, Fang took a shower and went to sleep.

 

    He was walking through a wasteland.  The ruins that surrounded him had at one time been huge, glorious buildings.  Everything around him was scorched, the buildings, the ground, the remains of what used to be plants; this place was completely desolate and ruined.  He continued to walk until he came to a large area where he saw the most unbelievable scene, an army of people, men, women, children, all trying to find shelter from a giant beast.  It stood on two legs resembling those of a Minotaur, its head carried seven horns, one on the forehead and the other six pointing back, its face was demonically grotesque with rotted skin falling off of it, its body was almost the same but with hundreds of spikes sticking out of his back, chest, and arms.  The beast had six tails, each one tipped with a living snake head that seemed to have a mind of its own as it struck out at the people, but possibly the most noticeable feature on this giant demon was the six large, black wings with flames at the tips of each that burned anything in sight when the demon flapped its wings.  Fang took two steps back and was preparing to run but as soon as he did, the demonic giant turned its gaze to him and flapped its wings sending a giant burst of black flames towards Fang.  Fang began to back away as he felt the extreme heat of the cloud of fire coming his way.  He quickly turned to run but instead fell down.  He looked down at his shoes and saw that they had been melted into the ground.  Fang swore loudly as the flames enveloped him and his alarm went off.

      

     Fang opened his eyes and sat up in bed as he cursed under his breath.  He rubbed his temple with one hand as he slammed the off button on his alarm clock with the other.  He got up and went to the bathroom.  Fang stared into the mirror as he brushed his teeth.  Fang was a short silver-haired sixteen year old with blue eyes. Visions from his dream were still stuck in his head and there was no removing them.  He replayed the images over and over in his mind before realizing that he had been brushing his teeth for the past twenty minutes.  Fang finished up in the bathroom and went over to his dresser.  He pulled out a black t-shirt, a pair of black jeans, and some socks and put them on.  He grabbed his keys and his watch before heading out the door and making his way to school. The day seemed to fly by and before he knew it, he was getting on his bike again to leave for the day. He had no work on Fridays so he debated on what to do as he rode his bike in a half daze. Suddenly something hit Fang’s front tire and he went tumbling down the hill he had been riding aside. When he hit the grass on the bottom he looked up to see Jason Tanners approaching him with two friends. He looked angry and out for blood. The young man looked around, he was near the woods.

                “Damn, why did they put the school so far out of town?”

Fang took off running into the trees and sure enough Jason and his friends gave chase. He had never been this far out of town, so the young man was just hoping that he didn’t run off of a cliff or something. Panting heavily Fang eventually emerged from the thick trees into a clearing. A large old house loomed gloomily in the center. The young man debated running inside, when a pain exploded in his right shoulder causing him to fall.

                “You think you’re hot s**t, huh?” Jason asked emerging from the trees. The three jocks surrounded the young man; Jason held an old pistol in his hand.

                “Street trash like you deserve an end like this. So…you ready to be a statistic?”

Fang grit his teeth as Jason pointed the gun directly at him. He flinched as he heard the sound of gun fire; however it only took a second to realize that he was still alive and intact. Fang looked up to see Jason gripping his hand and the gun hit the ground.

                “What the hell?” He cried out. Standing a few paces off Fang could see a newcomer. A young man, older than them however. He possessed long black hair and was wearing black leather from head to toe. Including a spiked collar around his neck. His eyes were cold and white as he aimed a shiny silver revolver at Jason.

                “Hey man…you don’t want to do that.” One of Jason’s friends tried to reason. Jason inched towards his own gun a bit; however the stranger pulled the hammer back on his revolver.

                “Leave.” He said simply. Fang noticed that this stranger had a rather noticeable set of fangs himself.

                “What, you playing vigilante?” Jason teased. “You won’t shoot us, were high schoolers. Someone’s most likely seen us go this way.”

                “Yeah,” One of the friends pitched in “How would you explain us going missing near your house huh?”

The newcomer gave an evil grin that sent a chill through Fang’s spine. He then snapped his fingers. A second later two wolves appeared on either side of the young man. One black and one white. They growled menacingly at the three jocks.

                “Eaten by the wild.” The newcomer grinned.

The three exchanged a single glace before turning tail.

                “You’re a dead man!” Jason yelled back. The newcomer watched them run for a few moments before shoving the gun in his belt. He then looked down at Fang.

                “Can you walk?” He asked. Emotion was not this guy’s strong suit. Fang nodded and pushed himself to his feet. He was only able to take a step forward before the darkness claimed him.