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Description
Nicole's cloak drifted, slightly open in the wind. She was standing just outside the fence surrounding this town's oldest property, a castle owned by an unknown character. Well, not unknown to a family whose daughter had mysteriously died ten years ago in a car accident with this character, but unknown to just about everyone else. She brushed some greyish-black hair away from her steely brown eyes before reaching down to touch something just above the neckline of her shirt- a silver cross.
At thirty-four Nicole Erin was in her prime. She was in almost-top physical condition (in exception of having a lazy eye, which hardly hurt anything), had a good traveling job, and a loving husband and child. Right now she was supposed to be on a week- long business trip. In the middle of the day in October she probably should have been in a café getting lunch or something instead of looking thoughtfully at some old castle. But things other than lunch or the white lies she told her family were on her mind at the moment. She pulled her dark mauve cloak closer around her, shivering slightly in the wind, and glanced at the tear on the corner of it. She really needed to fix that.
Now that her mind was wandering the woman considered that she probably did need to eat. She brushed a loose ebony hair back again, thoughtlessly brushing it back over her high cheekbone instead of securely behind her ear, she trudged away.
~~~~
"Thomaaaaas!" The high-pitched, whiny voice of a little girl tricked out of her playtime called down the castle's hall. Sarah stormed out of her bedroom holding a hairbrush like it was a deadly weapon. Her dark red hair was in a mess, fluffed around her head like a lion's mane. "You promised to play hair dresser with me!"
Thomas Fredrick Hide, in bat form and hanging out of his younger sister's sight on the ceiling, chuckled to himself nastily. He had indeed promised the little vampire that he would play hair dresser, but as always grew tired of it quickly. Dress-up and children's games like that was more his dad's style. Yeah he could tolerate it for a short while but now that Sarah was at the equivalent of a six-year-old human child, it was just irritating. And he loved to mess with her.
Finally after growing tired of listening to her whine and then pout he dropped from the ceiling and landed his normal five-foot ten human self again, in front of her. "Fine, fine, you caught me." He rolled his eyes. "I vas just playing some hide and seek."
The girl scowled, her hazel eyes darkening. "You always play hide-and-seek when I want you to fix my hair!" She grabbed his hand and tried to drag her prisoner away into her room.
The older vampire looked back in annoyance, muttering slightly but not yet frowning. "My problem is ven you vant to fix my hair…"
~~~~
Vlad chuckled, having heard his kid's conversation. No matter how much they denied it the two got along very well. He would agree that Thomas had probably liked Sarah better as a baby. But she did have to grow up, even if she did so much slower than any human or even other species of monster. Born vampires took maybe one hundred years to reach the physical equivalent of a 25 year old human, and then stopped aging altogether. But Vlad would cherish all the time he got with his daughter.
Mina was packing up with Igor for tonight's card game. It was at the Fish Man's home in the swamp. They had all agreed to go 'just this once' because he was upset that that they didn't want to come because off the stench and mud he so adored. Igor usually had to babysit Sarah while they played because Mina loved joining in. She wasn't very good, but they didn't say anything. Thomas ended up collecting the prize money when the Fish Man didn't any way.
There had obviously been some questions about why Mina, who everyone had thought was a werewolf all these years, was suddenly a Vampire. The family had had to spend days thinking of an idea before Vlad finally had spat up an idea that made enough sense- Mina had been cursed by a witch she had offended and became human. Who the witch was? They didn't know. What Mina had done? Accidentally destroyed her flower garden. It made perfect sense.
"Ready to go everyone?" The Female vampire called up the staircase to her daughter and stepson.
****
Thomas gave a long sigh of relief. Free! If only for a few minutes. He stood up from the tiny plastic chair Sarah had trapped him in. He began to fight with his hair to get out the hair bows she had ingeniously inserted where they would be most painful to remove. "Hey Thomas!" The little girl frowned. "I'm not done yet!"
"Mommy Dearest want's us." He said, taking her hand and forcing himself to smile. He started down the stairs.
"Oh." She smiled slightly. The two went down and met their parents in the living room.
"Ready to go?" Mina asked again. She smiled just a little.
Her daughter pouted. "But Momma I hate it when Igor baby sits me." She huffed.
Vlad sighed slightly. He kneeled to her and smiled. "Sarah you've never had a problem before."
"It's boring!" She whined.
Thomas decided to solve this before his parent's gave up their night to take care of Sarah. "I'll stay home and watch her." He volunteered.
The oldest vampire of the four grinned. His fangs were growing, pointing out he was thirsty and, under that smile, impatient to go. "Thank you Thomas." He smiled. "We'll be back in a few hours. Have fun you too!" He waved as the couple walked out the door.
After the door shut Thomas looked down at his younger sister. "Ah… Vat now?" He asked, hoping she was no longer thinking of trying to be a hairstylist or-worse- a makeup artist.
****
Mina and Vlad walked out the door and transformed into bats, flying away together. They didn't even bother to look and see if someone was trying to get into the castle. Oh well, fatal mistakes are made by everyone.
Nicole was around the back end of the castle, climbing her way up the wall. She had two metal picks that sank easily into the stone wall's mortar. The woman's attire and expression had hardly changed from this morning, but now two gunslinger's belts lined with garlic oil and holy water flasks, wooden stakes, and a gun full of blessed silver bullets.
She was a monster hunter, having no relation to Abraham Van Hellsing that had chosen this path because her father had taught it to her. His mother had been taken by a werewolf one night and brutally torn apart years ago, so they were hated more than others, but all monsters were fair game to the father-daughter pair. She was here with the entire family as a target.
Count Thomas Hide was at the top of her list. He had taken the lives of hundreds of innocent girls over hundreds of years and was heavily recorded as one of the worst vampire murderers in history. Vlad Hide was next on that list, far less known for killing but had committed a fair share of murders.
Sarah was next. With any born vampire a trail of blood followed, no matter how well they were raised. They had a specific primeval bloodlust in their personalities that most turned vampires did not, because they were not taught that humans were friends as well as food. Mina was less of a concern because she had only killed a few times, on accident, but was still a monster and therefore dangerous.
****
Thomas had sent Igor out to go shopping so the too vampires were left alone. The older of the two had escaped downstairs, getting a set of pans to make her a pretend drum set with. At least she didn't want to play with his hair any more. He was gathering a few pots, flicking them with his claws to test the sound they made (all very irritating) and then tucking them under his shoulder. He froze and dropped them all when he heard Sarah- "Hi there!"
Was someone else here? Or was she just talking with an imaginary friend? He needed to see. A vampire child put them at great risk for kidnappers or murderers. Cautiously he walked up the steps to Sarah's room again. "Sarah who were you talking too?" He started to ask before choking on the scent of garlic. It clouded up the air and made it impossible to smell anything else. His eyes watered at the poison's intensity.
Sarah was curled up under a blanket in her coffin, okay but trying to avoid the awful smell. "Some lady came in through the window." She pointed in the general direction of the window. "And I said 'hi' but she tossed some weird stink bomb at me!" She frowned in frustration but choked, more susceptible to the poison than her brother because she was so young. Apparently she hadn't seen where the hunter had gone.
He picked her up and started to leave the room, growling under his breath. The scent continued to clog his senses. Right now his goal was to keep his younger sister safe at all costs. He could fight a hunter. He had many times and made it out with very little injury, usually gaining a meal. In his hurry to get down the hall and out of the cloud the handsome blonde vampire, even with his guard raised, never saw his end rise up behind him.
Nicole's face had grown savage. She had a small plastic strap like that of a swimmer's over the bridge of her nose to shut out the smell of garlic. She had a pair of green-tinted goggles pulled over her brown eyes to keep it from burning holes in her vision by bringing tears. They also made do as a sort of hypnotism block. Her lazy eye was glowing with half-emotion and was almost straight with the other. Even her poor depth perception seemed to be cured in the wave of adrenaline from the hunt.
She stepped out of the dark of a closet, shrouded by her cloak, and drew a stake from her belt. The woman stepped forward, as silently as she could, and raised the weapon over her head. With one last great push of will she drove the stake down and into her victim's back.
Thomas shrieked in pain as they pointed piece of wood was forced through the flesh of his back. His body tried to heal itself over the wood but couldn't because of the obstruction. He fell sideways against the doorframe and hunched over, wretching. Sarah screamed when he spat a clot of blood out onto the floor.
Nicole instantly began to feel a growing regret for what she was doing, as always. But it was only the fact that he was suffering. She hadn't driven the stake in far enough, apparently. She hadn't pierced his heart. The woman may have hated monsters but didn't like to see anything suffer. He balled her fists together in a makeshift hammer and slammer it down on the stake, driving it in further.
Thomas felt the human behind him slam her fists into the stake. His vision blurred and the vampire screamed again. He collapsed on top of Sarah and only laid there. A large bloodstain spread across the back of the grey vest he had been wearing. It began to run down his sleeves, turning them crimson. He slowly managed to force himself off the screaming younger vampire. "S-sorry." He groaned but managed a tiny little smile. "S-s-Sarah."
She kept on shrieking and the vampire couldn't help but think- 'God she's irritating.' Before the stupid human woman hit the stake with her fists again, trying to force it into his heart. This time she succeeded. Moats of light began to float in front of his eyes and he shut them sickly. So this is what it felt like to die, after seven hundred years.
"Thomas?" The little girl held onto the front of his vest, now more confused than scared. He had suddenly stopped moving. The older vampire's palms slipped on the blood that had run over them and he collapsed on top of her again. "Thomas?!" She tried to shove him off of her now. Not that he had ever been breathing or had a heart beat before, but now her ears picked up that it was far too quiet within him. She tried not to cry in fear as the girl picked up that her brother had died trying to protect her. She hugged close to him, eyes watering. Soon his vest and her sleeves were wet with the tears.
Nicole sighed as the vampire finally stopped moving. She kneeled to grab the child out from under him but froze. The door downstairs had just slammed.
****
Vlad had forgotten his set of poker chips and had been putting off coming back to get them until now. Mina had been scolding him for the hour since they left to go back and only now he had broken and agreed to come back. The momently the couple walked in the door it was obvious something was wrong. The smell of infected blood filled the air.
He jogged up the stairs in a panic and Mina followed. Now they both could hear crying. "Sarah!" Mina stepped up into the hall and looked for her daughter, the one most likely to be hurt. Vlad sniffed at the air like a bloodhound and his eyes narrowed. He ran further down the hall and nearly tripped right over the corpse of his brutally murdered son.
Nicole stood and started to draw another stake. Vlad grabbed her wrist and twisted it. She screamed in pain as it cracked and she dropped the weapon. The vampire hissed and the woman winced away, cursing herself for her carelessness. Mina realized what was going on and stepped back almost in fear. Instead of watching what happened next she ran over to Sarah and attended to her stepson and daughter, trying to pull the little girl away from her brother.
Nicole couldn't help but watch the female go into panic and somehow looked away from the vampire that was threatening her right now. By the time she looked back that last thing the woman could think of her own son and family, and the young man she had just taken from this family. Then she winced away again as fangs sheared her throat open and painted the wall with blood. This was her payment for the sorrow she had brought to so many monsters that were really so much like her.

Description
Nicole's cloak drifted, slightly open in the wind. She was standing just outside the fence surrounding this town's oldest property, a castle owned by an unknown character. Well, not unknown to a family whose daughter had mysteriously died ten years ago in a car accident with this character, but unknown to just about everyone else. She brushed some greyish-black hair away from her steely brown eyes before reaching down to touch something just above the neckline of her shirt- a silver cross.
At thirty-four Nicole Erin was in her prime. She was in almost-top physical condition (in exception of having a lazy eye, which hardly hurt anything), had a good traveling job, and a loving husband and child. Right now she was supposed to be on a week- long business trip. In the middle of the day in October she probably should have been in a café getting lunch or something instead of looking thoughtfully at some old castle. But things other than lunch or the white lies she told her family were on her mind at the moment. She pulled her dark mauve cloak closer around her, shivering slightly in the wind, and glanced at the tear on the corner of it. She really needed to fix that.
Now that her mind was wandering the woman considered that she probably did need to eat. She brushed a loose ebony hair back again, thoughtlessly brushing it back over her high cheekbone instead of securely behind her ear, she trudged away.
~~~~
"Thomaaaaas!" The high-pitched, whiny voice of a little girl tricked out of her playtime called down the castle's hall. Sarah stormed out of her bedroom holding a hairbrush like it was a deadly weapon. Her dark red hair was in a mess, fluffed around her head like a lion's mane. "You promised to play hair dresser with me!"
Thomas Fredrick Hide, in bat form and hanging out of his younger sister's sight on the ceiling, chuckled to himself nastily. He had indeed promised the little vampire that he would play hair dresser, but as always grew tired of it quickly. Dress-up and children's games like that was more his dad's style. Yeah he could tolerate it for a short while but now that Sarah was at the equivalent of a six-year-old human child, it was just irritating. And he loved to mess with her.
Finally after growing tired of listening to her whine and then pout he dropped from the ceiling and landed his normal five-foot ten human self again, in front of her. "Fine, fine, you caught me." He rolled his eyes. "I vas just playing some hide and seek."
The girl scowled, her hazel eyes darkening. "You always play hide-and-seek when I want you to fix my hair!" She grabbed his hand and tried to drag her prisoner away into her room.
The older vampire looked back in annoyance, muttering slightly but not yet frowning. "My problem is ven you vant to fix my hair…"
~~~~
Vlad chuckled, having heard his kid's conversation. No matter how much they denied it the two got along very well. He would agree that Thomas had probably liked Sarah better as a baby. But she did have to grow up, even if she did so much slower than any human or even other species of monster. Born vampires took maybe one hundred years to reach the physical equivalent of a 25 year old human, and then stopped aging altogether. But Vlad would cherish all the time he got with his daughter.
Mina was packing up with Igor for tonight's card game. It was at the Fish Man's home in the swamp. They had all agreed to go 'just this once' because he was upset that that they didn't want to come because off the stench and mud he so adored. Igor usually had to babysit Sarah while they played because Mina loved joining in. She wasn't very good, but they didn't say anything. Thomas ended up collecting the prize money when the Fish Man didn't any way.
There had obviously been some questions about why Mina, who everyone had thought was a werewolf all these years, was suddenly a Vampire. The family had had to spend days thinking of an idea before Vlad finally had spat up an idea that made enough sense- Mina had been cursed by a witch she had offended and became human. Who the witch was? They didn't know. What Mina had done? Accidentally destroyed her flower garden. It made perfect sense.
"Ready to go everyone?" The Female vampire called up the staircase to her daughter and stepson.
****
Thomas gave a long sigh of relief. Free! If only for a few minutes. He stood up from the tiny plastic chair Sarah had trapped him in. He began to fight with his hair to get out the hair bows she had ingeniously inserted where they would be most painful to remove. "Hey Thomas!" The little girl frowned. "I'm not done yet!"
"Mommy Dearest want's us." He said, taking her hand and forcing himself to smile. He started down the stairs.
"Oh." She smiled slightly. The two went down and met their parents in the living room.
"Ready to go?" Mina asked again. She smiled just a little.
Her daughter pouted. "But Momma I hate it when Igor baby sits me." She huffed.
Vlad sighed slightly. He kneeled to her and smiled. "Sarah you've never had a problem before."
"It's boring!" She whined.
Thomas decided to solve this before his parent's gave up their night to take care of Sarah. "I'll stay home and watch her." He volunteered.
The oldest vampire of the four grinned. His fangs were growing, pointing out he was thirsty and, under that smile, impatient to go. "Thank you Thomas." He smiled. "We'll be back in a few hours. Have fun you too!" He waved as the couple walked out the door.
After the door shut Thomas looked down at his younger sister. "Ah… Vat now?" He asked, hoping she was no longer thinking of trying to be a hairstylist or-worse- a makeup artist.
****
Mina and Vlad walked out the door and transformed into bats, flying away together. They didn't even bother to look and see if someone was trying to get into the castle. Oh well, fatal mistakes are made by everyone.
Nicole was around the back end of the castle, climbing her way up the wall. She had two metal picks that sank easily into the stone wall's mortar. The woman's attire and expression had hardly changed from this morning, but now two gunslinger's belts lined with garlic oil and holy water flasks, wooden stakes, and a gun full of blessed silver bullets.
She was a monster hunter, having no relation to Abraham Van Hellsing that had chosen this path because her father had taught it to her. His mother had been taken by a werewolf one night and brutally torn apart years ago, so they were hated more than others, but all monsters were fair game to the father-daughter pair. She was here with the entire family as a target.
Count Thomas Hide was at the top of her list. He had taken the lives of hundreds of innocent girls over hundreds of years and was heavily recorded as one of the worst vampire murderers in history. Vlad Hide was next on that list, far less known for killing but had committed a fair share of murders.
Sarah was next. With any born vampire a trail of blood followed, no matter how well they were raised. They had a specific primeval bloodlust in their personalities that most turned vampires did not, because they were not taught that humans were friends as well as food. Mina was less of a concern because she had only killed a few times, on accident, but was still a monster and therefore dangerous.
****
Thomas had sent Igor out to go shopping so the too vampires were left alone. The older of the two had escaped downstairs, getting a set of pans to make her a pretend drum set with. At least she didn't want to play with his hair any more. He was gathering a few pots, flicking them with his claws to test the sound they made (all very irritating) and then tucking them under his shoulder. He froze and dropped them all when he heard Sarah- "Hi there!"
Was someone else here? Or was she just talking with an imaginary friend? He needed to see. A vampire child put them at great risk for kidnappers or murderers. Cautiously he walked up the steps to Sarah's room again. "Sarah who were you talking too?" He started to ask before choking on the scent of garlic. It clouded up the air and made it impossible to smell anything else. His eyes watered at the poison's intensity.
Sarah was curled up under a blanket in her coffin, okay but trying to avoid the awful smell. "Some lady came in through the window." She pointed in the general direction of the window. "And I said 'hi' but she tossed some weird stink bomb at me!" She frowned in frustration but choked, more susceptible to the poison than her brother because she was so young. Apparently she hadn't seen where the hunter had gone.
He picked her up and started to leave the room, growling under his breath. The scent continued to clog his senses. Right now his goal was to keep his younger sister safe at all costs. He could fight a hunter. He had many times and made it out with very little injury, usually gaining a meal. In his hurry to get down the hall and out of the cloud the handsome blonde vampire, even with his guard raised, never saw his end rise up behind him.
Nicole's face had grown savage. She had a small plastic strap like that of a swimmer's over the bridge of her nose to shut out the smell of garlic. She had a pair of green-tinted goggles pulled over her brown eyes to keep it from burning holes in her vision by bringing tears. They also made do as a sort of hypnotism block. Her lazy eye was glowing with half-emotion and was almost straight with the other. Even her poor depth perception seemed to be cured in the wave of adrenaline from the hunt.
She stepped out of the dark of a closet, shrouded by her cloak, and drew a stake from her belt. The woman stepped forward, as silently as she could, and raised the weapon over her head. With one last great push of will she drove the stake down and into her victim's back.
Thomas shrieked in pain as they pointed piece of wood was forced through the flesh of his back. His body tried to heal itself over the wood but couldn't because of the obstruction. He fell sideways against the doorframe and hunched over, wretching. Sarah screamed when he spat a clot of blood out onto the floor.
Nicole instantly began to feel a growing regret for what she was doing, as always. But it was only the fact that he was suffering. She hadn't driven the stake in far enough, apparently. She hadn't pierced his heart. The woman may have hated monsters but didn't like to see anything suffer. He balled her fists together in a makeshift hammer and slammer it down on the stake, driving it in further.
Thomas felt the human behind him slam her fists into the stake. His vision blurred and the vampire screamed again. He collapsed on top of Sarah and only laid there. A large bloodstain spread across the back of the grey vest he had been wearing. It began to run down his sleeves, turning them crimson. He slowly managed to force himself off the screaming younger vampire. "S-sorry." He groaned but managed a tiny little smile. "S-s-Sarah."
She kept on shrieking and the vampire couldn't help but think- 'God she's irritating.' Before the stupid human woman hit the stake with her fists again, trying to force it into his heart. This time she succeeded. Moats of light began to float in front of his eyes and he shut them sickly. So this is what it felt like to die, after seven hundred years.
"Thomas?" The little girl held onto the front of his vest, now more confused than scared. He had suddenly stopped moving. The older vampire's palms slipped on the blood that had run over them and he collapsed on top of her again. "Thomas?!" She tried to shove him off of her now. Not that he had ever been breathing or had a heart beat before, but now her ears picked up that it was far too quiet within him. She tried not to cry in fear as the girl picked up that her brother had died trying to protect her. She hugged close to him, eyes watering. Soon his vest and her sleeves were wet with the tears.
Nicole sighed as the vampire finally stopped moving. She kneeled to grab the child out from under him but froze. The door downstairs had just slammed.
****
Vlad had forgotten his set of poker chips and had been putting off coming back to get them until now. Mina had been scolding him for the hour since they left to go back and only now he had broken and agreed to come back. The momently the couple walked in the door it was obvious something was wrong. The smell of infected blood filled the air.
He jogged up the stairs in a panic and Mina followed. Now they both could hear crying. "Sarah!" Mina stepped up into the hall and looked for her daughter, the one most likely to be hurt. Vlad sniffed at the air like a bloodhound and his eyes narrowed. He ran further down the hall and nearly tripped right over the corpse of his brutally murdered son.
Nicole stood and started to draw another stake. Vlad grabbed her wrist and twisted it. She screamed in pain as it cracked and she dropped the weapon. The vampire hissed and the woman winced away, cursing herself for her carelessness. Mina realized what was going on and stepped back almost in fear. Instead of watching what happened next she ran over to Sarah and attended to her stepson and daughter, trying to pull the little girl away from her brother.
Nicole couldn't help but watch the female go into panic and somehow looked away from the vampire that was threatening her right now. By the time she looked back that last thing the woman could think of her own son and family, and the young man she had just taken from this family. Then she winced away again as fangs sheared her throat open and painted the wall with blood. This was her payment for the sorrow she had brought to so many monsters that were really so much like her.