A New Hunt

This is an excerpt of the first chapter of my book 'Leverages.' I remodeled it to make it more of a short story. Hope it's okay.

1

 

It was the first day Chris came over to my house since Jenna died. Jenna had dirty blonde hair that flowed down to the ends of her back until it reached her butt. She was tall like me. As I look back, I laugh at how foolish she had been but how agile she was in everything else. I had auburn hair. It was in a buzz cut that I hated so but the guy Matthew before me loved. I hated to keep up with his reputation. He was so horrible in all his likes and dislikes. The only good about him was his perfect, beautiful face. I hated how I couldn't go off in a normal world. Vampires had such pitiful lives. I only had the underworld as such a safe haven.

To the bare eye, humans felt my face was beautiful and perfectly symmetric. Every color of every article of clothing complimented me. Girls fell to their knees to praise my good looks. The buzz cut was a tragic decision Matthew made though.

In real life, I was a demonious, evil vampire. I had a blood red body and a strong thirst for flesh. I couldn't get that anywhere else but Earth. But Earth is so worriful and suspicious. I can hardly get a friend, much more than a meal. I have devilish horns and a strong body that never could be penetrated, even by the worst of the underworldly creatures. I couldn't get a drop of harm out of the demon world. They're too strong. So, we decide to get our use off of Earthly beings.

Now, as I stated before, I can't just go off and become a part of the Earthly world. I look too different. Too evil. I need to create trust and make my move at an appropriate time. So one day, I found Matthew.

He already had trust...friends I could get near to so easily. He already had looks and an attitude I digusted so to that loved everyone. I could get so close to new people as well as the old he already had. He was perfect. That's why, now his body is mine and I am free to move around in it as much as I choose. I hate every bit of it. The planing. The waiting. The unusual urges. Matthew is wrong and horrible in all ways but one. The hunt.

 

 

2

 

I reached for the door before Chris even rang the bell. She was dressed nice today. Her fur boots were loosely fited around her dark denim skinny jeans. Her coat draped down to her knees--a hammy-down of course, -and she had a black cap wore around her short black hair. I looked down at her. She was so short; I could hardly stand it. She smiled a smile that was so innocent I almost puked. Innocence does not exist in the human world, so why do people keep acting like they have so much of it?

 

As she walked in I saw her search the room high and low for any leftover Christmas decorations. There were none. I had stripe the area of anything joyous as soon as it was possible. Chris seemed disappointed that there was no holiday sprit left in me, but made her way to the small couch to the left of her standings.

 

Chris stared at me with a look that said, "Well, sit down already." Before I did, I stretched back to show-off the muscles underneath this itchy turtleneck sweater that Matthew loved so much. Chris seemed to smile at this act. I knew she always enjoyed knowing she was near a "strong man."

 

Christine Nichols had a best friend. This best friend happened to be a girl named Jenna McCarthy. Now, I never loved Jenna, but she somehow fell in love with me. After persuading her to believing that I could love to, we hit it off. Well, kinda. After a while, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to feed. But I had grown a fond to the gullible, naive girl that was Jenna. So I told her my secret. Then tried killed her. But she didn't care for my secret. She didn't care about anything. She just cared about love. So, we carried on with the relationship, against my own will. But when I said there was no innocence, I may have been lying a bit. Because everytime Jenna flashed her eyes at me, I had to say yes out of the innocence in the glance.

 

After a while, I could not take the hunger anymore. Jenna was dead within a week's time of knowing my dirty little secret. But that left behind the aching load of Chris who had always secretly loved me from the start. She would stare at me in the halls, but never talk to me anymore. She would constantly ride by my house on her bike. But she would never come in anymore. But this was the day it all changed.

 

I sat down across from Chris on a love seat, then crossed my legs. A temptation that came with this body. Nothing was mine anymore.

 

Look down on this scene, a boy and a girl--both striving for innocence. So what is the perfect way to manipulate the climax?

 

"Chris....I....I"

 

I acted like I had stuttered. I had been here too long not to know what these humans wanted. Too long to let this chance go.

 

"What? Matthew? Say it."

 

"No.....I can't." I turned my head away. There I sneaked a smile that unconventionally led to a snicker. I secretly hoped she didn't hear. It seemed she did, but she could not make of the moment. She led the sound to be a whimper in pain and agony. Chris somehow that she was some type of 'nurse' or something, because she immediately laid her hand on my back and gave me the cheesiest pep talk I had ever had to sit through.

 

"You can do it! You can do it! Blah, Blah, Blah!"

 

This was going to have to be a much shorter plan if I have to live through that the whole time.

 

I gathered myself together and stood my back up straight. This immediately shut Chris up. I was pleased, but forced back the smile. The breath of air I didn't need was cold as I gathered it all into my lungs. My chest was even bigger than before, but it didn't last long. I played the cowardly boy that had to admit his love as I dropped the feeling of the big chest by letting out all the access air. Then I sat there, my hands to my now uncrossed legs and started panting. I felt the worry of Chris in the air. Joyous.

 

In less time than before, Chris's hand was back on my back. I felt like I was going to puke, but I had to live through this. To get my prey.

 

As I slowly tilted my head back up to reach Chris's eyes, I saw her for the first good look of her.

 

Today, her makeup was messy and sloppy as if she had just cried. She had flecks of mascara on her chin and lipstick on her forehead. Her smile, a petithetic attempt for beauty. Well, that was kinda a lie. She was beautiful. She just wasn't mature beautiful. She was so childish. Some guys--like Matthew--like that now-a-days, but not me. It digusted me--as I said before.

 

"Chris," I said in a pathetic tone. "You look....beautiful......today." I stuttered to get the word "beautiful" out. It sickened me that after I did say it, she believed me.

 

"Thank you."

 

The tears she had obviously been crying since earlier that day had come back into view. I reached in and kissed her crackly lips. I was so upset that I hadn't thought through this before. The lipstick was smothered around everywhere on her lips. It had much moister. Too much I could handle. I struggled to keep the bond between us in tacked. She was the one that broke it off. Gladly. I would've stayed longer if I had must, but I could hardly stand this at all.

 

"I love you Chris!" I leaned in for a other kiss, but she turned away. There was something wrong with the setting. This story. She was supposed to fall madly in love with her prince charming, With me. But she was fleeing? I was supposed to raise her up. Then cut her down. Maybe I would make her feel so made she wanted death. She wanted to commit suicide. Then I would do the pleasure of giving that death to her. Slowly and painfully. Or maybe I would just kill her right then and there. Once she loved me.

 

"What? What's wrong?"

 

"My God, Matt! What is the matter with you?" I saw the pain in her eyes. She wanted to love me, but she thought I was lying. It made sense now.

 

"I love you Chris!" I felt like getting down on my knees, but Chris would take that in the wrong way.

 

"No! You love Jenna!" I laughed inside.

 

"Loved. I loved Jenna. But now I love you." Lying came so natural I almost believed this. Then I thought of the taste of Jenna's blood and I smiled inside knowing love was not in my vocabulary.

 

"You need to think." And those were the last words Chris said before scurrying out the door.

 

As she walked on, I yelled to her car, but I don't think she heard me as she drove away. "But I have been thinking! For three years! Ever since Jenna died!" I laughed and balked myself from chasing after her. She had a lot to learn about life. She shouldn’t just run from her troubles.

 

Expesccailly if I'm involved.

 

3

 

I rolled by Chris's house around three in the afternoon--seven hours past the time she sped away my driveway. There were flower pots with all types of flowers as usual on her front porch. One of them I "accidentally" crushed when I "acidentally" walked over it. The anger of joy overwhlemed me. I managed to pull together the last strands I had of restraint, so I could ring the doorbell.

 

The tune of the doorbelll reminded me nothing of when Chris almost rang mine. This bottled more then hate inside me. But I painted on a stupid, crooked frown then laughed so hard inside that it turned into a smile.

 

Chris's mother, Helena, answered the door. She was an old Chinese women--for Chris was adopted. Her once pure black hair had faded into a dark gray. She was about sixty or so years old.

 

"Hello," she grumbled in her worn-out voice. This was the one member of Wilmette, Illinois I did not depise the mind of. She believed in dicipline. She agreed with nothing that I didn't. Innocence was a flaw of nature. And beauty was just a simplier way to show the predator the target pray.

 

I answered in a fake, kind voice. "Why, hello, Mrs. Nichols."

 

"Yeah, uh huh. Chris is in her room." And she stumbled off back to a rocking chair in the den. It creaked to muhc for my liking, but she enjoyed its company.

 

I sighed and walked up to Chris's room. It was the third one on the left after you climbed the stairs. She was sitting on the side of her bed, her eyes staring down at her heels.

 

"Chris?" I asked.

 

As she looked up up could tell she was not mad. She never had been. She just didn't know what to believe.

 

"Matthew!" She exclaimed. This was differnet from the surprised, questionable, maddened voice that I thought she would have. I stared out the window--not into her eyes like she had wanted me to. It had started to snow, but Chris passed on.

 

"Matthew! I'm sorry! Wil you forgive me Matt? Oh, I was worng. I was hoping you'd come. And you did come! You do truly love me! You do! You do!" She had gotten up and managed to get around my arms that where tightly folded across my chest. She was squeezing my stomach and swaying back in forth. As all this was happening, I was thinking, How could I ever love someone so small? I realize that this thought is almost totally off subject, but I will asure you, it was definitely called for.

 

"And I do!" Yippee... I wanted to die telling her that. I had ot think, I'm not that good of an actor, am I? But then again, Chris was very gullible. 

 

"Yes, Matthew. And we will be together forever..."

 

"What? Are you five?"

 

"What did you say?" She was still fantasizing. She didn't release her grip. She didn't want to. I could feel it. She convinced herself she didn't hear me. She might not have, but I didn't care enough to notice.

 

"What? No. Nothing," I lied. "Nothing." A brillinat idea struck my head and I flung my arms around her like she had done to me. I stroked her hair and kissed her on the head. "Yeah. Nothing."

 

4

 

We were back in my house. In my room. I had my hands gripped around a stupid human magazine. She had her hands gripped ot her heart. I didn't dare correct her. She would be dead in a minute anyway. But when i looked up, her hands had drifted over to a small phone. I listened in.

 

"Yeah, Matt Landry! You know. Jenna's boyfriend? Jenna's hot, hot boyfriend? Yeah...but....Madeline! You're ruining it! Jenna's dead! He's mine!" Chris slammed the phone down with rage, and without even recognizing that I was there, opened it back up to call her next friend. "Hello? Yeah, Jackie? Hey! This is Chris! You'll never guess what happened to me."  I rolled my eyes at the stupid excitment she had. No one should be excited to talk to me, much less be in a relationship with me. But if this was what it took for her to step onto the trap, it was what I wold put up with for my prey. 

 

"Baby?" Chris asked, turning to me. When had we suddenly got pet names? "You do care about me, right?" 

 

"Yeah, yeah. Sure."

 

"Thanks! See Kailyn? Ya' see? You heard him say it!" Another slam of the phone and another creak as it opened. I slipped out of conscienceness for a minute. There I dreamed of a spot away from phones and broken-down conversations, but of Chris alone a vulnerable. My prey. 

 

5

 

She stood at the end of the long hallway. Her breathe was heavy and only made me want her blood more. She didn't move. She just stared on. I turned in circles around her, but she still didn't move her body, her breath, her stare. This was the moment I wished would happened forever. No one else, but me and my meal. And my meal wasn't running she just stayed. This was perfect. 

 

I leaned in and began. I sunk my teeth into her skin. I sucked, and she stayed as a statue. It tasted so good. And she was cooperating. 

 

I finished my job and she fell to the ground. I kicked the meal and moved on to a new hunt. The next pray.

 

6

 

I awoke and Chris was still on her phone. Talking away with her friends that wouldn't believe her. She didn't notice me. 

 

I got up--still thinking about the dream--and finished the job. A new hunt awaits. 

 

Author's Note

Mind spelling and all that stuff. I know this is long, but is it okay?

Reviews

[Kelsey Desmond]

I know this isn't my best, but I hope it's at least kinda good. This story has gone through a lot of rewriting and editing and I kinda miss the old version--so this one sounds a little crappy. I don't know if that's just me or you guys too. So is it at least a bit okay?

[Mintwhiskers]

this is AWESOME
The characters are really well formed
the whole thing is really well formed