1. New Beginnings

"Did you do the notes for Anderson's class"

"Yeah they're in my locker. You need them?"

"Yeah, thanks,"

"Yeah," I muttered as I twirled my cap on the table and looked around the noisy cafeteria for nothing in particular. An unfamiliar figure caught my attention. Though I was almost positive that I knew everybody at the school since I was the student-elected president to fairly small school in a fairly small town, there was a face that I couldn't put a name to. I studied the unfamiliar woman’s facial features, scanning my mind of anybody that could even resemble her. I found nothing. She was tall, lean, and young. She looked just barely old enough to be a teacher, but too old to still be a high school student.

Of course, I noticed that she was drop-dead gorgeous. She wasn't school-girl cute, but beautiful and mature. She had shining blue eyes that willed me to look at her. Her skin glowed, even in the terrible fluorescent lighting of the packed room.

As I meandered through my thoughts as to who she could possibly be, I noticed that she had a strange mark on her neck. I couldn't really make out what it was from where I was sitting.

I was wondering so intently as to who she was that, until after a couple minutes, I didn't notice that she was looking right at me. She was staring at me with a hard, thoughtful expression. Not once did she lose eye contact and it was obvious that she knew I was looking at her. As compelled as I felt to, neither did I.     

"Oh, s**t! I'm so sorry!" Jared was moving frantically next to me. I automatically shook out of my semi-trance and looked down to see what he was doing. Suddenly I noticed that the back of my shirt was completely soaked.

"What happened?" I asked mindlessly

"You didn't notice?" he replied obviously confused, "I tripped and my soda kind of…slipped."

"Oh…it was an accident," I reached my hand to the back of my neck. It was all sticky, "Ugh. Do you have any napkins?"

"Umm, no I'll go get some."

"Okay I’m not got going anywhere," I looked back in the direction of the woman and, to my surprise she had disappeared. I scanned the cafeteria, only to find that she had left without a trace.

...

Later, after school was over and my back was completely soda-free, Jared and I started walking to my house.

"Is there a new teacher?" I asked

"Not that I've heard of. Why?" he replied

"There was a woman in the cafeteria today. I didn't recognize her." I looked at my feet as I walked, thinking about the woman.

"Oh."

Curiosity nagged at the back of my mind and I wished that I could just have the chance to know who she was. After a while of going over every detail of her face I concluded that she was just some new kid’s mom or sister.

But why was she there at lunch? Why was she staring at me? Who is she?

Let it go, Luke. She’s just another person. There are millions of people in the world and there’s nothing special about her except for her weird tattoo, I reminded myself hoping it would settle my occupied curiosity and keep it from freaking me out.

Soon after coming to my conclusion, I heard a gasp. I peered up at Jared who was frozen in shock, staring straight ahead. I followed his gaze only to find the woman who I was constantly wondering about at the end of it.

Again, she was looking straight at me, but instead of thoughtfulness, her expression showed ferociousness and sophistication, maybe even anger. I froze. I tried to move, to get away, but my legs wouldn't listen. I felt as if I was hypnotized but completely mentally conscious.

My mind was cooperating fine, but I opened my mouth to speak and nothing came out. I noticed that I wasn't breathing. My eyes were locked on the woman's and I couldn't look away, as hard as I tried.

She muttered something in a foreign language and suddenly, her face was just inches from mine. She held my face at my jaw line, from my chin to my ears, her hands fitted to my face almost perfectly.

I saw softness in her face, but her eyes were still in a determined stare straight at mine. The only thing I could feel was fear, but the stranger part was that as my fear danced around my head and mingled with anxiety, it was laced in excitement.

While I was frozen with fear, she spoke elegantly yet still holding the power in her voice. She spoke the words that would stay, eternally written, in my mind.

"Lucas Jacob Johnson, you have been chosen by the Leaders of Night to become a Creature of the Night. From this moment forward you will be known as addressed as Damien Seth Kallett. You will now start your New Beginning. I have been sent to transform you. You will live as long as night continues to fall at the end of every day, and as long as Earth continues to turn."

Then she moved my limp neck, bending it, carefully, to the side. I felt a sharp pain, and then nothing. She blew on my neck, then my face. The scent was so sweetly intoxicating that, once she let go of my face, I fell to the ground, unconscious.

           

All I could feel was pain. Claws dragged along my stomach. It felt as though I was being beaten to death. One brutal strike after another crippled me. Then there was fire all around burning flesh, tearing at muscle. My jaw was being pulled, my teeth felt as though a monkey was yanking them out with pliers. I was in pain. Then there was a dim light that got brighter and brighter. My eyes fluttered to the sun and my burns healed themselves. My wounds left no trace. I’m fine.

 

"Luke! Luke! Come on, man! Wake up!" Jared was shaking me. His voice sounded distant and scared.

"My name is no longer Lucas, please address me as Damien," I didn't will myself to say this. The voice wasn't even my own. My eyelids fluttered open and I gave myself a short moment to adjust. The light burned my eyes, but I flashed Jared a smile to show him I was okay.

His reaction surprised me. Instead of relief I saw absolute fear. He fell back as if I had shoved him away.

"What's wrong? I-" I started to get up.

"No! Stop. Just…don't," I was confused at his reaction. He acted as though I was a complete stranger, a criminal. I froze.

"What did I do?"

"Sorry, here I'll help." He cautiously reached his arm toward me.

"I'm not going to bite."

"That's not what it looks like," he muttered.

"What are you talking about?" And then I saw my reflection in a nearby car's door. From what I could see, my canine teeth had about doubled in length; I bit down on my bottom lip, and sharpness.

"Holy s**t! What did she do?" I asked rhetorically.

"I don't know, but it was nothing less than one hundred percent weird," he replied, oblivious to my tone of voice and pulling out his cell phone, "We'd better hurry. You were out cold for twenty minutes," We grabbed our stuff and started, more than slightly shaken, to my house.

            

When we arrived I unlocked the door and dropped my things beside it, "Well I'm confused, tired, and hungry."

"Me, too. Well, the hungry part, at least. What you have?"

"Pop tarts, peanut butter, and granola bars. But I can't find the peanut butter and granola bars, so we have pop tarts."

"I think I'll have…a pop tart." He said. I tossed him one and grabbed another for myself, "Thanks. We might as well get our homework done now."

"Yeah. Suddenly, my mind was filled with about a million questions.

What am I going to do about school? I can't go to school with fangs. What am I supposed to tell my parents? Do they already know about this? What do I do now that I'm 'Chosen'?

"What's on your neck?" Jared pointed at me after about an hour of studying.

I didn't say anything; I just got up and walked to the bathroom. I flipped the light switch and adjusted my eyes to the boy in the mirror.

There was a large mark forming on the side of my neck-- a crescent moon-- that looked like it was pulsing and glowing a sickening shade of blood-red.

My grey-blue eyes were tinted with a subtle shade of red and they looked like I had lightly lined them with black smudges. I tried to rub it off but sadly my attempt was useless. Perfect, I thought sarcastically, just what I need.

I walked back to the kitchen, “I now have permanent eyeliner, red eyes, fangs, and a weird mark.”

“Cool.”

“You can say that because none of this is happening to you.”

“Oh. Un-cool, then.”

“Thanks for the enthusiasm.”

Reviews

[ebur™]

This reminds me of the House of Night series :) but I guess I shouldn't compare, because this was quite different in it's own way, and I also love the description that got me to know the characters quite well already, and I found some humorous scenes. Great job with the introduction. I'll keep reading on :)