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The Light of Dawn.

By
Alethea River Delmage

February 2010

Battle not with monsters,
Lest ye become a monster.
And if you gaze into the abyss,
The abyss gazes also into you.

-Frederick Nietzsche

Chapter I

Dreams

August 29th, 2006

She hid in the foul smelling closet as she held her hand over her mouth to keep from breathing.  She silently prayed to herself that if god were to keep her alive, she would not fail him again.
A whimper escaped her lips and she froze.  She thought she heard something.  The whisper of a sudden breath?  The whip of a midnight black cloak?
She pressed her hand against her mouth so hard that her plastic, pink painted nails dug into her skin and drew a minuscule droplet of rose red blood.  The blood- thirsty vampire was somewhere in the room outside her tiny closet, waiting, taking his time finding her.  He had bled dry all her sorority sisters.  She was the only one left.
She shut her eyes as a floorboard creaked.  This was it.
GOD!  She prayed fiercely, her eyes snapping open instinctively.  SAVE ME!

Her ear shattering scream pierced the musty air as the closet door burst open and the monster with death white skin, splattered with dried and caked blood stood before her.  A pure evil grin was on his chalky, bloody lips as he looked down at her.  The girl couldn't move from fright.  A droplet of blood fell off his yellow fang.
"Such irony," The vampire mused as the girl pressed herself against the back of the tiny closet.  "That in the end, it would be your own doing that led me to you."
A thin icy white finger rose to the girls face and his yellow fingernail brushed the drop of blood from her cheek.

Her screams shattered the silence of the woods surrounding the cabin and slowly died out as the vampire ferociously ripped her neck apart.

The deaths of the girls of Pi Beta Nu would forever be ruled as a mass suicide.

The legend of the Vampire remains.

She closed the book and looked up.  She stretched, her back cracking from being still so long.  She looked up at the sky and saw dark grey clouds.  She hadn't realized how late it had gotten.
She knew she should have started back home half an hour ago but she wanted to finish her book in silence.  She knew if she had taken it home she never would have been able to concentrate.  She yawned and shoved the tattered and smelly library book into her back pack.  Suddenly the wind picked up and she raised her head to the sky while closing her eyes.  She breathed deeply in as the wind whipped her hair into her face.  The finest of mists began falling onto her face and it was the most comforting thing she could remember.  After a few seconds, she sighed and looked back down.  She sat at a molding picnic table at the neighborhood park, if you could even call it that.  The five year olds played on the swings in the day and at night the fifteen-year-olds made drug deals to shadowy figures.
It was almost sunset.  The shady cars parked on the curb across the street would be arriving soon.  The tinted windows of the cars would occasionally roll down just enough for small, hand sized packages to be passed discreetly to the boys.
She knew she would get yelled at for being out so late.  She sighed again.  She didn't want to go home.

She pulled the straps of her old pack over her shoulders and she jumped off the table.  At this rate, she will be out of library books in a matter of weeks…  She ground her teeth at the thought of the ridiculous excuse for a "library" she now had to use.  Some stupid kid who was pissed about his life apparently had burned down the nice library that used to be three blocks from her house.  They finally got a replacement up and running two weeks ago but unfortunately there were probably only 300 books in the whole place.  The county didn't have enough money for anything better though.
She pulled an ipod she had "found" out of her pack and put the ear buds into her ears.  She lazily scrolled through until she found something she felt like.
She stretched once more and then set off on the dying grass toward the trail.  She was lucky to have such a nice place to run.  Her last foster family had lived in a stupid suburb neighborhood where the houses were so close you could reach your hand out and shake your neighbors hand if you were so inclined.  Her pathetic foster "sister" had ruined everything by telling their social worker that their "daddy" was sneaking into their room every night and playing "games".  Like that mattered when you have a place to sleep every night and food to eat whenever you're hungry…

She fell into her familiar pace that she didn't even have to breathe through her mouth while she ran.  She was in excellent shape.  It was the only thing she had ever had any control over her whole life through.  Maybe that was why she held onto her exercise so fiercely.
She leapt over the puddles and potholes on the trail with ease as her mind wandered freely.  The two mile trail was always so pleasant to her.  It always cleared her head.
The music kept her mind from moving toward depressing subjects.
After a little over a mile of running, she suddenly became very aware of her surroundings.  Why?
What had changed?
Her skin suddenly started crawling and she slowed to a stop.  She slowly reached up and pulled the ear buds from her ears.  The music still splashed from the tiny speakers but she was beyond noticing.  She looked around at the deserted woods surrounding the trail.  The hairs on the back of her neck rose.  Suddenly she realized what it was she was feeling.

She was being watched.

She shivered unpleasantly as that realization hit her.  It wouldn't be the first time some kid had followed her and stolen her bag or worse.  But she distinctly remembered what that feeling had felt like and this wasn't it.  Even though the January air was unusually warm she ran her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to bring warmth to her.
She spun around looking everywhere in the twilight light trying desperately to find the source to her unease.  A chilly wind suddenly whipped her short white-blond hair into her face and she shivered worse than ever.  There was something about this wind, something unusual.  Something sinister.
She took off, sprinting through the woods as the wind trailed behind her, chasing her in a way she didn't like; she wanted to escape the feeling.  Her ear buds hung, forgotten, swinging dangerously around her ankles.  She started panting as she sprinted at full speed, but not from excursion.

"Uhn!"  She exhaled suddenly as her foot caught on something and she fell face first onto the ground.  She groaned as she slowly pushed herself off the trail.  She watched as the rust coloured, dead leaves on the ground got splattered by what looked like dark red paint.  It was a few seconds before she realized it was her own blood.  She snorted and stood up.  She looked down and saw her ear buds tangled with her foot.  She untangled it and turned the ipod off.  She looked around.
The wind had stopped blowing.  The feeling had ceased.  She didn't need to be told twice.  She started running again and was at her front door in under a minute.
"No!  Nah, I never promised that!  You fucking asshole…  GO TO HELL!"
She heard a phone being slammed down.  She walked cautiously through the doorway as quietly as possible.  She held the doorknob and bit her lip as she inched the door closed.
"Aurora?"  She heard her "mother" bark at her.  She gritted her teeth.  Failure…
"Yeah?"  She tried to sound pleasant but of course she wasn't ever pleasant.  Her "mother" came around the corner and stood against the doorway, her hair a pooffy mess, wearing a hideous nightgown with a cigarette in hand.  She glared suspiciously at her.
"Where've you been?"  Her "mother" said nastily at her.  She sighed.
"Just reading at the park, Charlotte."  She internally rolled her eyes once again at the ridiculous name her foster mother had changed her name to.  But of course if she called her by her actual name (Irma) she would get a pot thrown at her.  "Why do you care?"  Aurora sighed as she walked inside and set down her bag.
"I don't.  But that bloody nose doesn't exactly back up your story."  Her "mother" walked forward while pulling the cigarette smoke into her lungs.
"Oh… forgot about that…"  Aurora said quietly, walking towards the sink and wadding a bunch of paper towels together.  She wet the wad and dabbed at her face, wiping the blood away.
"Well."  Her "mother" said impatiently.  "What happened?"  She said loudly.  Aurora sighed again.
"Tripped."  She muttered, holding the paper towel to her face.  Irma snorted.
"Yeah, right…"  Her "mother" turned and started walking back into the living room where the flat screen TV that had never in its life been turned off sat amidst what could only be described as a landfill.  Aurora threw the paper towels into the trash and ripped her bag from the table.  She walked over to the refrigerator and pulled open the door in an all too familiar way.  She played with her lips as she surveyed the contents, or rather lack of contents.
"I'm hungry!"  Irma yelled from her recliner.  "Make something…"
"There isn't anything to make."  She yelled back, annoyed because she had promised to go to the market today.
"Then go pick up some take-out!"  She screamed at her.  Aurora gritted her teeth even harder and gathered every fiber of her being so as not to go grab a baseball bat from the closet and go into the living room and beat her repeatedly with it.  She decided she couldn't risk opening her mouth so she walked silently up the stairs into her bedroom.
"God-fucking-dammit…"  She muttered to herself as she threw down her bag and fell face-first onto her bed.  "I hnage mu wife."  She said into her mattress.  It was supposed to be 'I hate my life.'…
It was a little past six and she still had to write a paper and make serious progress on two other assignments she had been putting off.  Tomorrow would be Wednesday and that meant only one thing of course…

Her "daddy" coming home.
She hated him even more so probably than any other single person in the world.  His name was Charlie.
Her foster father worked at a company that she didn't care to know anything about except the hours he worked.  He worked six days a week except Wednesdays.  He stayed home.  But what was so bad about the fact that he was home was not exactly entirely him but more of the company he kept.  He had… a lot of friends.  And these friends liked to do certain things…
He made an extra five or six hundred dollars a week renting Aurora and Charlotte out on Wednesdays…
But of course she had school until 3:30 so by the time she got home she had a lot of time to make up for…
She never got any of her homework done on Wednesdays.

She sighed into her mattress, smelling the awful cat-urine smell that was forever infused in it.  She might as well get started…  She got up and went to work.  It was eight thirty by the time she rubbed her eyes sleepily and closed her books.  She had gotten a lot done, but not enough.  Looks like yet another night without much sleep…
She yawned and stood up.  She walked over to a mirror and looked at her reflection.  She had short, chin length white-blond hair (natural) and beautifully tanned skin a nice orangey colour that didn't clash with her hair.  She had a flat stomach, skinny arms and legs, long fingers and a long graceful neck.  One hundred and sixteen on her 5'8" frame was her ideal weight.  She was strong, deceptively, thin and beautiful.  She couldn't gain weight if she tried.  She had on a faded white tank and over that a navy cotton jacket that fell off her shoulders and a trusty and comfortable, stretchy pair of jeans.  She closed her eye and turned away from the mirror.  She opened her bedroom door and leapt down the stairs unhappily.  She grabbed her purse on the way out the door.  She slung the strap over her shoulder and settled into a light jog.  There was a Chinese place that Irma liked and Aurora could stand just down the road from their house.  She ordered and paid and was walking back with food in hand within fifteen minutes of leaving the house.  She glanced at her watch.  Almost nine…  Irma would be pissed.  Oh well.  Doesn't matter…
She thought to herself as she grimaced.  It did matter…  Irma would give her most of Charlie's friends tomorrow.  Great… just great…

She tried to avoid Irma as much as possible but mealtimes were impossible to evade.  She sat in silence, watching her food as she ate and Irma watched her TV.  Charlotte had made it clear that dinner time was family time.  It was a crime against God and Jesus to not do so.  Irma said grace over every single meal Aurora had had since she had gotten here.  She found it ridiculous…  Crime against god?  Hah!  And whoring out sixteen-year-olds wasn't?  Aurora could only guess that in Irma's mind, god probably enjoyed a whore every now and again himself so therefore whoring was righteous work.  That was how Charlotte thought.
After dinner, Aurora ran upstairs to her room without a word.  She would come down later and do the dishes.  She finished with her schoolwork and was nearly passed out.  She staggered to her bed and fell onto it.  She sighed with satisfaction.  She was asleep within seconds.

It was strange.  She was in a forest, but it wasn't a forest she knew.  The leaves weren't green.  They were a colour she didn't know, didn't have a name for.  The forest looked so clean…  Like there wasn't any dirt or a bug for miles…  All the trees were smooth and silky like satin or velvet and were perfectly spaced beside each other.  There was a strange feeling from the forest.  Almost… sinister.  Beautifully sinister.  Because the place was beautiful.  But there was something wrong about it.  Very wrong…

She didn't feel the need to wander.  She just stood in the center looking wonderingly around at the strange place.  She started turning in a circle so she could see every side of the forest.  As she did so the sky turned dark grey.  There was no sound, but somehow she knew there was thunder not far off.  Suddenly she turned and someone was there.  The figure didn't startle her, but she stopped rotating.  She stared at the young man in front of her without thought.  He was beautiful.  That was the only thought that managed to make it into her mind.  He walked forward and even though his eyes shone with evil excitement, even though his lips turned up into what could only be described as a smile, she wasn't afraid.  He smiled wider.  He was close enough to touch.
"Aurora."  The figure said slowly, the evil smile still in place.  He walked closer.  "Aurora…"  He was an inch away.  His lips came very slowly onto hers.  But it was wrong.

Every thought she had now was clear.  This person, this… thing, whatever he was, was wrong.  Every fiber of her being screamed at her to pull away and run.  He was dangerous!  He was going to hurt her!  But she couldn't move.  His icy, hard as stone lips stayed perfectly still on hers.  It was a kiss, but it didn't feel like it.  In a kiss you're supposed to close your eyes right?
He stared directly into her eyes as she stared right back into his.
"Aurora…"  The figure whispered against her lips.  She blinked and he was a hundred feet away.  He smiled a parting smile and when he turned, and she inhaled suddenly, he was gone.  Not a trace.  He disappeared into thin air.
"No!"  She tried to scream but no sound came out.

She gasped as she jerked away.  The memories of the dream trickled away like the sand in an hourglass.  One second she remembered the beautiful, wrong person and the next she didn't remember who had been in her dream.  She sat up and ran her hand through her soaked hair.  She was covered in sweat.
"Ugh."  She groaned as she tried to remember.  All she could remember was that she had had a dream about someone being with her somewhere strange and that he had left her and that she was indescribably sad that he had left.  She snorted.
"Stupid…"  She muttered, letting herself fall back into her pillow.

Chapter II

Dying Changes Everything

The next morning, her alarm clock blared repeatedly with annoying screeches at her to get up.  She groaned into her pillow.  She blindly reached over and slapped her hand around until she had hit her target and the sound ceased.  She rolled over and yawned.  Yep.  Definitely not enough sleep.
She got up, did her routine, and then got dressed in the first things her hands found.  She crammed her homework into her backpack and walked downstairs.  Irma was never up at this time.  She slept until noon and then had what she called her "morning cigarette".  Aurora left the house in low spirits, not looking forward to what she had to do today.  She also had a strange feeling like she was forgetting something awful that had happened, or was coming.  She shook her head slightly.  She didn't want to think about those things.  Even though the sidewalks and streets weren't at all empty, she still somehow felt alone.  She passed within inches of people without even paying them a glance.
When she got to the first light, the crosswalk was red and she waited with a woman with a stroller and a young man with earphones.  She was going over her nights work, making sure she hadn't forgotten anything.  And then she felt it.  The eyes.

She could tell someone was watching her.  She felt the Goosebumps rise on her arms as she wheeled around, searching frantically for the culprit.  She suddenly felt utterly alone.  There was no one surrounding her.  She was alone on a dark street she didn't know.  She spun in place as dark clouds flew overhead, incasing her in a cloud of unfamiliarity.  Her breathing started to accelerate and her heart began to race.  There was no oxygen in the air.
"Are you alright, dear?"

She snapped back.
A sweet looking old woman was looking at her with kind and worried eyes.  Aurora glanced around once more and then swallowed.
"I'm fine.  Thank you."  She managed to tell the woman.  She attempted a smile at her and the woman smiled a slightly unsure one back.
The light had changed so she hurried and crossed before the light turned again.  School passed in a blur.  She really didn't have any friends at this school and she preferred it that way.  She knew everyone thought she was a weirdo but honestly there were so many kids that go to that school no one paid her any mind.  Occasionally she would get asked out but after she had turned every boy down, word spread and they eventually gave up.  The teachers liked her.  She worked hard and was naturally intelligent so most if not all of the work bored her.  She got good grades even though she almost never studied.  She just did the work they required her to.  She was also a year ahead.  Her birth date was right on the edge and she insisted on being ahead rather than behind.  They had warned her if she couldn't keep up she would be set back a grade (uh oh!) but she was the first or second student in every class she was in so no one had given her any trouble after that.
The only interesting thing that came was at lunch.  She was sitting alone on the stone wall where she always sat, eating a sandwich with one hand and reading a science book she had gotten at the library in the other.  And that was when it had came again.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she shivered unpleasantly.  She dropped her book and sandwich and stood up, determined and annoyed.  She looked all around but saw no one paying her any mind.  Although when they saw how strangely she was acting, a few people's heads rose in her direction.  The funny thing was that even though probably ten people were watching her by now, the feeling of being watched didn't increase or decrease.  She growled in irritation.
The bell rang and everyone stopped talking and eating and reading and miserably made their way back to class.  Aurora stood still looking around for god knows what.
"What the hell…"  She murmured to herself, annoyed that this was getting to her so much and irritated that it kept happening.  She was one of the last students left when she angrily stuffed her stuff into her pack and ran to her class.
"You are very almost late, Aurora…"  Her teacher said, doing her best to look threatening but Mrs. Ferris's kind face just came off tired.
"Sorry, Mrs. Ferris.  Won't happen again."  She said quietly as she rushed past to her seat.
"Good to hear.  Now, all your assignments have been graded…"  She continued and Aurora spent another forty-five minutes distracted.

School ended finally and she walked slowly out through the wide front doors.  She stared, unfocused at her feet as she walked.  That was probably why she slammed into a kid and both of their books came tumbling to the ground.  She closed her eyes briefly before she knelt down and began snatching her books up.
"Sorry…"  She muttered.
"No worries."  An unusually pleasant voice said.  She looked up.  She found a pair of beautiful hazel eyes staring at her.  Her throat closed and she gulped.  The boy chuckled.  "It was my fault.  Sorry."  He smiled at her, his almond shaped eyes crinkling.
"Sure…"  She managed to mumble as she returned to picking up her books (more like attempting to; her hands had suddenly gone numb).   Her eyes dropped to the pavement.  He handed her her last book, the book she had been reading at lunch.
"So you like Stephen Hawking?"  He asked as they both rose to their feet, glancing at the title.
"Oh, yeah…  He's a genius.  Literally."  She said stupidly.  She internally slapped herself.
"I definitely found A Briefer History of Time much more interesting than the first one."
She stared at him before smiling.
"You're new here.  Aren't you?"  She asked.
"That obvious?"  He chuckled.  She smiled wider.
"Just a teeny bit."  She raised her hand and made a small space between her thumb and forefinger.  He laughed a little again.  He was really cute.  Really, really, really cute.  Of course that had to been when she saw it.

Over Mr. Major Cutie's shoulder she saw something that made her heart stop.  She hadn't remembered it from her dream before but she remembered it now.

He was walking away.  The inhumanly beautiful… boy, man, it was hard to tell, was walking down the sidewalk away from her.   The reason she recognized him was because of the hair.  He had reddish brown hair with a bright white stripe right on the side.  There was no mistaking that white stripe.
"Any tips?"

It was a few seconds before she realized that someone was talking to her.  That someone was in front of her.  That a few seconds ago she had bumped into an incredibly cute boy her age that seemed really nice.  And read Stephen Hawking.
"Uh, what?"  She asked quietly, distracted.
"Any tips.  Like, on how to fit in."  He said, his pleasant expression fading into slightly concerned.  Or perhaps disturbed, it was hard to tell.
"Uh…"  She murmured, staring over his shoulder.  The figure from her dream turned, as if in slow motion.  She saw his face.

Even though she hadn't remembered what he had looked like, she was sure, surer than sure, that this was him.  He looked directly at her and he smirked.  Some kid walked in-between her eyesight of him and she impatiently shuffled her feet and strained her neck to see as if suddenly cut off from a drug.  But the half a second it took for the kid to move, the figure was gone.  Then someone turned the sound back on.

"Everything okay?"  Cutie asked, now looking worried.
"Um, yeah.  Look, I'm really sorry, but I have to go…"  She gave him one last glance and then took off down the sidewalk.  Her pack flew around behind her in her hurry but she didn't notice.  When she got to the first cross street she urgently looked left, then right, expecting him to be around the corner but somehow knowing he wouldn't be.  She panted a little as she stared down the empty street.  She swore under her breath.

She took the trail way home after securing her back pack.  She sprinted almost the whole way.  That was always the best way to blow off steam when she was angry.  She had almost forgotten what she had ahead of her by the time she opened the back door and flopped her pack down.
"Aurora!"  Her "daddy" yelled from the TV room in his worst voice.  She briefly let her head fall into her hand before she walked around the corner into the room.  Her "mother" stood against a doorway, a look of utter satisfaction on her face.  She was just jealous 'cause her husband was more attracted to Aurora than to her.  Aurora scowled at her before turning to look at Charlie.  His jaw clenched tightly together and his hands were in fists.  She raised her eyebrows at him.
"What the hell is this?"  He said through his teeth.  He pointed at a red, heart-shaped box sitting on a pile of unpaid bills.  Next to it was a single blood red rose.   A small note attached.  She slowly walked forward and picked up the note, ignoring Charlie.  It was thick, yellow parchment.  Inside was red, swirly and curly script.  It read:

Amare,

Dajes.

She read it over and over again.  Amare…  That meant love in latin.  And dajes…  She didn't remember what that meant.  It wasn't an ordinary word.  She finally set down the note and looked over at the heart shaped box.  She licked her lips and very slowly opened it.  She gasped and jumped back, the lid falling forgotten to the floor.  She looked up at Charlie.
"What is that?"  She said loudly at him.  He bristled with indignation.
"Are you trying to tell me you don't know?"  He shouted at her.  She stepped back as she avoided a shower of spit.
"Who's it for?"  She asked firmly back.  His lips curved up at the corners into an awful grimace that once might have been a grin.
"You, bitch."  He purred at her.  He took a step closer.  "Now tell me who it's from."  He demanded in a low and dangerous voice.  She planted her feet firmly into the ground and looked him directly in the eye.
"I don't know."  She muttered, smiling a little.  His grimace turned into a full-fledged glower and he backhanded her, hard.  She staggered slightly, a hand rising to her face.  She turned back to him, her eyes full of hatred.  He smiled with pleasure.
"Remember who now?"  He asked.
"No, I don't.  Oh yeah, and fuck you!"  She spit at him.  He growled and lunged forward just as Irma screamed profanities at her.  She tried to jump out of the way and run but he managed to grab the neck of her shirt and pull.  It ripped and she fell off balance.  He tackled her to the floor and he sat on top of her.  She struggled and tried to hit him but he just grinned.
"Bad little girls need to be taught lessons."  He said breathlessly with a new excitement she was all too familiar with.
"No!"  She screamed, not in fear but in defiance.  His hands lowered to his buckle and he quickly undid his zipper.  She tried to squirm away, scratching at the dirty wooden floor, trying to escape.  She felt his hands at her pants as he undid her own now.
"STOP!"  She screamed, her voice so loud it made her head spin and her throat sear.
"You're gonna be a good girl after this."  He panted in her ear.  Her teeth ground together so hard she thought they would crack apart.
"I.  Will.  NOT!"  She screamed between her teeth.  Her hand found something hard and she swung it around with all the strength she possessed and more.  It broke against his head with a clatter and he fell off her.  She didn't look behind her as she scrambled to her feet and ran.  She fell as his hand grabbed her ankle.
"Get off me!"  She yelled.  She kicked out and her free foot struck his hand off her.  As she tried to get to her feet again, Irma screamed and jumped onto her.  She staggered but didn't fall again.
"You fucking bitch!  You're going to die!"  She screamed into Aurora's ear.  Aurora elbowed her in the face with all her might.  Irma fell off and Aurora was able to scramble to the door and rip it open, leaving it wide behind her.  She sprinted so fast the trees and houses on either side of her looked like green and white blurs, nothing more than art in a museum.  Tears streamed down both her cheeks, mixing with the blood from Charlie's blow to make strange, swirly patterns on her face.
Her feet led her while her mind remained blank.

[Her mind was still in such a state of shock so that she hadn't yet asked herself] What now?

It was a few minutes before she realized she was in the middle of the woods, alone.  She slowed to a stop, her breathing coming in painful gasps.  She put her hands on her knees and bent over for a moment.  As her heart race slowed and her chest stopped working so hard her mind went through what had happened.  What the fuck was she supposed to do now?
"Fuck…"  She half moaned half cried.  Her face fell into her hands and she sobbed.

"Aurora…"

Her head whipped up and she frantically looked around.  She knew that voice.  She would always know that voice.  She turned and there he was.  She gasped and froze.  She didn't move.  She wouldn't move.  Could she move?

He stared at her through piercing eyes; pitiless, but intrigued.
"Don't cry, Aurora…"  He whispered to her.  His voice was like molten silk…  It flowed liked a river flowed over the rocks at the bottom of the stream.  His perfect brow furrowed with concern (but was it?) and he stepped closer.  She suddenly realized that she was frozen with fright, but that wasn't the only thing keeping her immobile.  She sucked in a shocked breath as a hand came up and ever so softly caressed her neck and jaw, comforting, but terrifying.  There was something wrong with him.  Something malevolent.
She melted at his touch.  It was the softest thing she had ever felt.  Even though it was a hard and cold as ice.  As soon as she consciously recognized that there was something holding her in place, it slowly began to fade.  Her finger twitched.
"Do you know who I am?"  He purred in the most mesmerizing voice she had ever heard.
"Yes."  She whispered because she did.  Her voice sounded rough and gravelly in comparison to his.  "You sent me the rose.  You were in my dream."
His eyes twitched with just the faintest touch of surprise.
"Dream?"  He murmured.
"Yes.  We were here, in the forest.  And you left."  She said without thinking.  That was just it.  Her mind was foggy, unclear.  Again, as soon as she realized this, her mind began to clear and thoughts of fear and uncertainty started to fill her mind.
"Humans never remember the dreams…"  He murmured, more to himself than her.  His eyes snapped back to her face.  "I've been watching you for a long time."  He said quietly.
"I know."  She said instantly.  Again, because she did know this.  Of course it had been him.  He smiled.
"I… am rather fascinated by you, Aurora."
She couldn't speak.
"Are you interested with me, Aurora?"  He murmured in his softest voice.
"Yes."  She breathed, hardly audible, looking his unreal figure up and down.  He took a tiny step closer.
"Would you like to come with me?  Into my world?"
He was so close.  His breath touched her face and made her head spin.  It was intoxicating.  It made it hard to think.
"I…"  She sputtered.  "I… I…"
He smiled.
"I can take you away."  He whispered into her ear.  His hands, feather light, rose to her arms, sliding up and down, raising Goosebumps where his hand touched her.  "Away from here.  Away from Charlie and Irma and all the other humans that never cared about you…"
"Please…"  She choked out, her eyes closing.  There was no away.  No place to escape to.  There was just forever pain and suffering at the hands of one person after another.
"I can save you.  I can make you so strong, so beautiful.  We can teach them all.  We can live together forever, never having to answer to anyone…  I can make you loved."
A tear fell off her lashes as a breathless gasp fell out her lips.
"I can make you a god."  He growled an angels growl in her ear.

"Okay."  She breathed.  He was silent.  His lips were an inch from her ear so she couldn't see his face.  "Okay…  Take me with you."  Her heart raced and blood rushed to her cheeks.  "Save me."

His icy white lips turned up.  He squeezed her tightly to him, almost like an embrace, then his icy cold arms wrapped around her like a vise and his mouth lowered to her neck as his lips pulled back over razor sharp perfectly white teeth.  It was almost like a kiss.
His teeth cut into the soft caramel skin on her delicate neck like warm butter.  She moaned, but with pain or pleasure she didn't know.  At first he was gentle, and then that gentleness turned to urgency and he bit her harder until he had swallowed almost every last drop of blood inside her.  Her heart had slowed so much that it barely beat now.  Her face was a colourless bluish white.  Her eyes were barely open as she stared out into the twilight sky.  With her last ounce of strength, she let out the tiniest whimper in his arms.  He pulled away at the sound and looked down at the almost dead human in his arms.  She stared up at him as his eyes penetrated hers.

"You will be perfect."  He assured her in a whisper as the life inside her finally died and something behind her eyes burned out forever.

Chapter III

Joy

Pain.  So much pain…

It was like liquid fire in her veins, in every nerve.  She was lost in a sea of her own horrifying pain.  She didn't have eyes to see with but she saw her own death, replayed a hundred times over again.  She didn't have ears but she heard a thousand earsplitting screams, never ending.  She tried to scream herself but she couldn't make a sound.  It… was almost like drowning.  Or falling.
The only thing she knew for sure was that it never ended.

                                

She stood in an alley, away from the rain.   She had on a dark sweatshirt that covered her face and kept the rain out of her eyes.  She kept nervously glancing out onto the wet sidewalk, waiting.
She wished he would hurry up.

After a few more minutes, she finally sighed (not that that did anything) and walked around the corner.
"… based on his statement earlier today.  In other news, authorities still have no new leads in the double homicide that took place in Cedar Park three weeks ago."
Her head slowly turned to glance at the television screen behind glass in a shop window.  The volume was down so low that, with the rain, a normal person wouldn't have been able to hear the news report.  She swallowed.
"Mr. Charlie and Mrs. Charlotte Rice were found brutally murdered in their home last month in what seemed to almost suggest an animal attack.  The local police department says it may be in connection to the string of murders now happing here in Chicago.  Mr. and Mrs. Rice were a part of the fostering  program and were currently in the process of housing sixteen year old Aurora Monroe."
She stared at the TV through wide eyes.
"The New York City born teenager is still considered "missing" and it is suggested that she may have been kidnapped by the murderer of her foster parents.  She is officially wanted for questioning in the case and citizens are urged to call this number if they have any information on her whereabouts."
Aurora's photo flashed across the screen along with a phone number at the bottom.  There was a whooshing sound down the alley and she turned toward it.  She heard a muffled cry.  She glanced around needlessly; the street was empty of traffic and humans.  She tightened her jacket around herself and walked back down the alley.  She walked up to Vesper as he struggled with a human a good seven inches taller than him.  The white streak in Vesper's hair, slick and wet, shone in the moonlight like silver.
Vesper had his hand over the mans mouth as his wide eyes stared into Aurora's with utter terror.  As he looked at her he realized slowly that she was the same as the creature that had him.  Vesper smiled as they wrestled, clearly enjoying the fear radiating off the man.  Aurora looked impatiently at Vesper.  His smile faded and he sank his teeth into the humans neck.  The mans eyes bugged out in pain and fear as his hands clawed Vesper's icy white skin.  Aurora looked behind her, making sure no humans could see them.  Not that it mattered…  With the rain and the dark, no human, not even if they walked right by, would be able to see or hear anything with their dull senses.  Vesper let the mans lifeless corpse drop to the dirty alleyway ground.  His reflective eyes flashed to Aurora's face, a trickle of blood dripping down his lip.  He grinned.  She stared back with clear eyes, her expression reserved.  Vesper walked over the dead mans body without so much as looking at it.
"We should go."  She murmured to him in her silken voice.  She could never get over the sound of her own voice.  It was like butter to her own ears.  Just like Vesper's.
Vesper walked toward her and slipped an arm tightly over her shoulders.  She blinked and she turned with him attached to her and together they started walking back down the alley.  Vesper stared at her.
"Why so serious?"  He asked playfully, sliding a finger across her cheek.  She flinched away and didn't answer.  He dropped his hand and snorted quietly.  They walked in silence for a few minutes.
"I thought you would have gotten used to this by now."  Vesper murmured in a soft voice.
"Some things you never get used to.  You just learn to live with them."  She said very quietly back, her voice holding no inflection.
Vesper laughed.
"Oh, but isn't that the same thing?"  He challenged.  He was quiet for a moment.  "Was what Charlie did to you every Wednesday, was that something you learned to live with?"  He said, watching her.
Her expression didn't change.  She knew he was baiting her, looking for a reaction and she wasn't going to give him one.
"Yes.  That was one of the things you never get used to."  She murmured.  Vesper chuckled.
"And you enjoyed it."  He whispered.  "When you killed him."
She turned to look at him, his arm falling away from her shoulder.
"You enjoy it every time you kill someone.  Whether they're good or not doesn't matter to you [whether they deserve it or not doesn't matter to you]."  She stared at him deeply in the eyes, trying to find any last shred of humanity in him and failing.  He smiled, his flushed lips dyed darker from the blood.  He had a babyish face, round and pale.  His eyes were oval, one blue, one grey, only slightly off in shade so at a glance, you couldn't tell they weren't the same colour.  His curvy baby lips opened before he responded.  He stepped forward until he was an inch away.  She knew he was dangerous and irrational.  Wild and uncontrollable.  Unpredictable.   But she stared right back through fearless eyes.  Expressionless eyes.  That she didn't have to control.
She had never been afraid of him.  From the moment she had opened her new eyes and came into his dark and ruthless world she had not been afraid of him.  He smiled wide.
"I knew you would be interesting."  He said.  "Even if you are a baby, you still have more poise than most of the centuries old vampires I've met."  He paused as he stared proudly at her.
"Yes, I enjoy it."  He murmured very quietly, finally answering her question.  He got even closer; his white lips were almost touching hers.  "And one day you will too."  He breathed, almost silent.  He smiled and was walking down the sidewalk in less than the blink of an eye.  She stayed behind, staring at him walking away for a moment, thinking.  She didn't know if she would ever enjoy killing humans like he did.  But that wasn't what scared her.
The worst part was that she didn't know if she wanted to enjoy killing humans one day or not.

She put her hands into her jacket pockets and started after him.  She didn't glance behind her at the TV that was once again flashing her smiling, human face across its screen.