Knowledge

Learn about the world Vivian has been thrust into...

 

The door finally opened. The person who stood behind it was a woman. She was just an inch taller than me and had a lithe figure. She had short bleached hair with multi-colored streaks jelled into perfect spikes. Both ears were covered in small silver hoops and she had black hoop in her lip. She was standing in front of use in black pajama bottoms and a black tank top with headphones around her neck. I could hear soft notes of music flitting out of the buds. She had black eyes that seemed to look right through me. She looked at us with wide eyes and her lips were curved into a small smile as she waited for one of us to speak.

Caleb turned to me, “This is my sister, Ash. You will be staying with her while you live here.” He then turned to his sister, “This is Vivian, it’s Mum orders that she stays here so be nice.” Ash smiled and said in a light voice, “I’m always nice.” Caleb just rolled his eyes. We all stood in the doorway for a couple seconds in an awkward silence. Ash cleared her throat and looked at Caleb with an eyebrow raised. Caleb put looked back at me and ignored his sister, “Good luck and she doesn’t bite…much so you should be safe with her. Umm see you tomorrow.” He lightly touched my shoulder and Ash raised her eyebrow even more a small smile playing on the edges of her lips. Before he turned to leave I said, “Thank you. For everything and I’m sorry about the … trouble earlier.” He removed his hand, gave us a curt nod and walked across the hall. Opened the door and disappeared. Before he shut the door I saw Nate and Locke inside sitting on a bed. Ash stepped aside and let me into her room.   

I entered the room and looked around. The walls were a dark purple and everything else was black; the beds, the ceiling, the carpet, and the other furniture. The only thing that wasn’t black was a bamboo beaded curtain that lead into another room, probably the bathroom. The floor was littered with millions of CDs. There were famous bands, less known bands, bands that I’ve never heard of, and her own mixed ones with a list of the songs written in hand writing on one side. Ash was sitting on the bed across the room writing on yet another CD and she glanced up at me. I smiled at her, “You should get an I-Pod.” Her face split into a smile, much like her brothers. “So what’s Nate and Anna’s story? They seem to really… I don’t know.” I went to sit on the vacant bed against the other wall. Ash spoke, “Well Nate was brought here when he was twelve, one of the youngest ever brought to an Orphanage. His family; a mother, a father, and two brothers, were killed in front of him by a rogue. The vamp kept Nate to play with. Nate was thrown into a wood chair that broke when he fell on it. Nate took a leg and drove it through his heart. So he was a natural at this sort of stuff there aren’t many like him. Anyways Mum found him wondering the streets a week later.”

“Heavy. And Anna?”

“Anna came to us from Russia and has stayed with us for about a year now. Her boyfriend was turned into a vamp. She killed him with a silver pie cutter. Then she started to follow the vamp that turned him, then the one that turned her, and so on all the way to America. Me, Caleb, and Nate ran into Anna when we cornered the vamp she was tracking. We let her kill him with a silver whip she picked up in Romania when she was tracking him. Which I’m sure you’ve seen, not many choose that as a weapon of choice, but whatever. Anyways, Nate has been obsessed with her ever since, but she feels like she would be betraying her boyfriend if they dated. Apparently he proposed before he turned.  So she refuses Nate’s many offers to go out with him for dinner or something like that. But sooner or later she’ll realize that it’s stupid to be holding back and she’ll go out with him. I think they are perfect for each other.” She sounded hopeful.

“I thought silver only worked on werewolves.”

“I thought Mum would have explained this to you. Figures,” she mumbled. “Vampires are one of the original other species, non-humans. Them and shape shifters, particularly werewolves, are the oldest creatures and have been competing for thousands of years for top spot. The other species like witches, demons, fairies, and so on came later on from evolution or experiments gone wrong… “

I looked at Ash, “But how do you kill the vampires?”

“You can kill a vampire with anything through the heart; just like you can kill almost everything with something through its heart, but silver just hurts more. Decapitation works on all vampires as long as you stake the heart afterwards. Don’t ask me how they come back without a head, trust me they find a way. Sunlight works wonders on a vampire if it’s young enough. If it touches them it hurts like hell, but if they are fully exposed they turn to ash. Which is perfect because then you don’t have to worry about the police finding dead bodies all over the place. Older vampires can go out in sunlight fully, but only for a short period of time. Their endurance comes with age. I’m sure you’ve seen the guns some of us carry around. The bullets we put in them are called Sunnys. The cases are silver and Poppy can place sunlight in them. So a shot or two to the head can take them out pretty quickly, but only depending on their age. That’s why most of us carry around alternate weapons; I use Sunnys on the tip of my arrows or just plain arrows. Anna likes here sliver whip and Sunny stakes. Caleb likes his crossbow, but instead of arrows he likes just plain old stakes. His favorite is a Sunny gun. Nate likes a gun too. But prefers the sword, he once told me he liked the blood. You couldn’t expect him to be perfectly normal after what he’s seen.” She shrugged, “Anyways his sword is from Romania; pure silver and he got some witch there to enchant it, that’s the language you see on the side, like Anna’s whip.”

They should have a class, Killing Vamps 101. It makes since though, where all the stories and myths come from. “What about garlic or crosses or coffins and dirt from their homeland thing? Do the vampires have any powers like flying or mind control?”

“Garlic is a myth. There was one vampire in their entire history that had an allergy to garlic because he wasn’t fully turned, but it still went down as a way to kill them. Some of the older vamps are affected by crosses and stuff, but only because when they were turned they were strong believers in that religion. If you had a Muslim vamp that had a lot of faith when turned, the Quran could hurt him. It’s like a whole mind over matter thing. So it’s good for us if a vamp was really faithful to a certain religion. As for the coffin and homeland dirt thing, that is a major myth. I’m not sure how that became known, but it doesn’t matter. Most vampires can’t fly, only the really, really old ones can, but even then it’s really rare power. As for mind control that one is true for all vamps, although it is known as compulsion. Vamps can convince someone to come into a dark alley, or come home with them as long as they make eye contact. Some vamps use it to make the bite feel sexual instead of painful. Many use it to make their victims forget them. But some people out there are really lucky and compulsion doesn’t work at all on them. Usually if a person knowsa bout compulsion and vampires they aren’t as easily fooled to make eye contact. It really depends on the person, their knowledge and past.”

“Yeah, that makes since, I think.”

“Mum really didn’t go over this for you?” She asked disbelievingly?

I sighed, “Nope I wish she had.” I saw her face make a sort of grimace, “Not that I don’t like talking to you. You’ve been extremely helpful.” I gave her a quick smile, “I hope my questions aren’t bothering you. It’s just this is the only time I’ve had a chance to ask questions and get them answered.”

 “No it’s fine I like having the company. Plus my brother likes you so you can’t be that bad a person. He doesn’t like many people.” I could feel heat rush to my cheeks when she said this and quickly looked down at the hands in my lap. Glad that her room was so dark. “You can ask one more question if you answer mine. Then we need to get some sleep. I’m sure it’s been a big day for you and tomorrow is going to be just as busy, I’m sure.”

“Yeah that’s fine. Ask away.”

“Why didn’t Mum explain this to you? What was she talking about to you instead of this stuff.” I was surprised she didn’t already know-I figured everyone would know about me and how I’m supposed to save the world. “Well she said that I…” And I told her everything. About the orphanage, being bitten, waking up here, she smiled at that part, and I told her about the prophecy. Her eyes widened at some things I said, but she didn’t do anything else except ask the occasional question or two.

“Jesus.” Was all she said when I was done. I smiled, “Yeah.”She just sat there for a little while thinking it over, then she said, “You can ask your last question now if you want. I’m sure you want to get to sleep.”

“Since we talked about the rest of the team I was wondering if you would tell me about you and Caleb and how you came to be here?” There was silence, I looked up at Ash. She was studying me and I gave her a slight smile. She started speaking softly, “Okay. You told me about yourself it’s only fair.”Then she mumbled to herself something I don’t think she meant to say out loud, “I haven’t talked this long in ages and now she wants to know about dad.” She let out a sigh and her eyes got real distant as she started her story.

“My mom, Katherine, was a good woman, just really weak and my dad was a cop. Every day he would come home and ‘chase the demons’ away with alcohol. He would abuse my mom, like I said she was weak. She never left him; she believed that he could change. HA. She lived with him for three years before she accidently got pregnant with Caleb and me. My dad didn’t hurt her when she was pregnant. Those were the best times of her marriage she told me once. Caleb was born twenty minutes before me. People say we sorta look alike, but not really. The day mom came home dad started again. Caleb and I would sit in the closet with the lights out. Caleb was the strong one, always telling me it would be alright and to keep talking to him. Never stop talking. We could hear our mother’s screams and the sound of my dad’s fist against her jaw. When Caleb turned eleven moms’ screams were replaced with his; mom and I sat in the dark of the closet. Soon there were no more sounds from Caleb just the thud of Caleb getting hit and falling. He told me once that he wouldn’t give dad the satisfaction of seeing his pain. When we were sixteen Caleb fought back, beat the crap out of him too. The next day dad handcuffed him to the furnace in the room and gave the daily beating to mom and me. Caleb’s eyes were horrible; I remember seeing the pain in his eyes of watching us getting hit and the flames of hatred for our father. He tried to never show emotion that day he let it slip. After that day I’ve never seen Caleb’s eyes again except for a few flashes every now and then, he keeps them hidden from view. It’s like he’s afraid to let it happen again, like it’s a weakness.” Ash paused. I doubt she even remembered I was in the same room.

She started up again after a minute of thought, “Caleb never fought back after that day. I got into drugs. I tried to kill myself once through the blade. I wanted to leave the demons behind, kinda like dad. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I suppose. Only I promised I wouldn’t hurt anyone when I did,” Her grip tightened on her wrist. “I didn’t succeed.” She let out a dry laugh, “I mean, come on, how a person could not succeed at suicide is beyond me. When I came home from the hospital, Caleb pulled me aside and told me that if I left him, he would crack. That dad would finally win and that Caleb would be left all alone this was one of the few times I saw a flash emotion in his eyes before he hid it from view, so I knew he meant it. I realized that when I tried to kill myself I ended up hurting Caleb and I promised never to do it again. He was the last person I wanted to hurt and he’s done so much for me already. I didn’t try again, but I couldn’t give up the drugs. Caleb always cleaned up after me and dragged me home. He was…is a great brother. About a year after my suicide attempt, we were almost seventeen, Caleb was dragging me home after finding me passed out in a backroom of some warehouse and he opened the door to a monster. Well more of a monster than usual. Dad was leaning over our mom, her throat was ripped out and there was a small puddle of blood around her body. Dad was drinking her blood. He was just sitting there and drinking. There were small streams of blood running down his cheeks mixed with spit. It was disgusting. When he looked at us at the door with black eyes, literally vamp’s eyes are totally black when they feed, anyways he growled. I mean actually snarled; something you see on Animal Planet when two animals fight over food, you know? Caleb dropped me in the hall and went into the room, closing the door behind him. I heard more snarling and then they started to fight. After a little I heard gun shots, but the fight didn’t stop. I heard a crash and then Caleb ran out of the room. He turned around and slammed the door shut. He turned the key and then there was a loud thump against the door. Caleb picked me up and ran. The elevator doors were closing as we saw dad smash through the metal door of our apartment. Strips of skin peeled off on the metal fringes of the door, but he didn’t even stop I doubt he even felt it.”

“We were on the streets for about a month when Nate brought us here to see Mum. We had a talk with her that she should have given you. Poppy gave me this little green pill, filled with herbs and sealed with magic, that made me clean and I haven’t touched drugs since.” I thought of the green pill Poppy gave me. “We found out what our dad had turned into and we hunted him down. He was turned by a vampire w***e and we hunted her down too. Now Caleb, Nate, Anna, and I hunt down rogues and finish the hunts of those who died trying to get their revenge. Caleb and I have been here for about three years. We are the ones who don’t have much left in life, so we make sure others do.” When she finished she turned her eyes to me they were glossy, but not with tears, just memories. “Okay let’s get some sleep.” She said this in a calm even voice before I could say anything. “I’m sorry. So sorry.” I whispered when she laid down and turned toward the wall.

 Later in the night I saw her shoulders shiver in tears and grief, but she didn’t make a sound. I leaned against the wall and concentrated only on my breathing. For most of the night I just thought about the information I absorbed today. Everything from realizing that humans were not alone, to knowing that I could either save the world or destroy it. I felt the tips of my lips curve into a smile, no pressure.

Author's Note

Hope it was good!