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Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The haunting, fog enriched night circled around Tamlina a cold hurricane of colors and sounds as the young woman skirted her way around the front of her parent’s home, her eyes scouting the darkness for any signs of danger. It had become a life-saving habit.

Outside the scope of her trained senses, a form lurked in the dark.

She could already smell the home-made dinner waiting for her inside the house and with one last glance about the neighbor hood Tamlina sprinted up the steps and into the house. Inside the warm, cozy atmosphere helped her to shake off the somber attitude that always followed a slaying. She had extinguished a life - an undead life, but a life all the same. The young woman was acutely aware of just what she was doing, what she was ending, each and every time she chose to stab a silver blade into the cold flesh of a some poor victim of nature’s cruel ways.

Through the night, piercing eyes spied her every movement. A soft growl emitted a fog of breath into the cold air.

She shrugged out of her jacket and threw it on a living room chair as she made her way through to the dining area. Her two younger brothers, the twins Jared and Jensen, were already chatting loudly as they served their own plates of cold turkey sandwiches and gravy-covered mashed potatoes. Mr. and Mrs. Gray were seated at either end of the table and they both followed Tamlina with solemn eyes as she sat in her accustomed seat.

“How did it go?” Mr. Gray asked, his honest blue eyes filled with unspoken concern.

Tamlina avoided his gaze. “Fine, Dad. It went fine.”

“Are you alright, honey?” Tamlina’s mother asked, her golden eyes wide.

Tamlina squirmed under their attentive gazes, a cloud of irritation falling over her expression. She hated the overprotective qualities so apparent in her parents.

“I’m fine. Everything is fine.” She reassured them both with a forced smile. “Can we just eat, please.”

“Of course, honey.” Mrs. Gray said, passing a bowl of steaming rolls to her daughter.

Tamlina filled her plate with the delicious food. She avoided meeting her parents gaze and instead turned her attention to Jared and Jensen. The two young twins were always getting into some kind of trouble and she tried to stay abreast of their latest schemes. The last thing she wanted was for either of them to get hurt and both her parents and she worked hard to keep them safe.

“What have you two been up to?” Tamlina asked.

Jared and Jensen exchanged smiles. Their matching green eyes lit up with mischievous delight.

“We are going to -.”
“Compete in the science fair!”


Tamlina laughed softly at their enthusiasm. “Is that so?”

“Yep”
“Uh, huh!”


“What project are you planning?” Mrs. Gray asked.

“We’re making -”
“A volcano!”


“Really?” Mr. Gray’s eyebrows rose at the excited announcement. “I don’t know boys.” He continued. “Doesn’t that sound a little too…destructive?”

Mrs. Gray shot her husband a bemused grin. “Don’t you mean messy, dear?”

He chuckled. “Yes. I guess that I do.”

Tamlina frowned. She hated it when her parents adopted this light, atmosphere around her brothers. They needed reassurance, sure, but they also needed to b aware that at any moment the world could go very wrong. They could not be cajoled into complacency. She stared down at her cooling food, suddenly no longer hungry.

“I think I’ll go up to my room.”

“Is everything okay, Tam?”
“Are you okay, Tam?”

The young woman gave each of the twins a wan smile. “Of course.”

Her parents knew where she stood on the subject so she did not feel compelled to state her annoyance. Instead, she politely excused herself and walked upstairs to her bedroom. Once inside she closed the door, only then relaxing a fraction. Tamlina knew better than to ever let her guard down, even inside her own home, but in her room she felt secure enough to sleep. That was saying a lot.

Pentagrams, holy symbols, holy artifacts, knives of a multitude of varieties as well as a myriad other protection measures had been stored in carefully concealed places around her room. To an outsider, all that her bedroom housed was an over abundance of pink, fluffy pillows and stuffed animals, but for her family and herself, Tamlina had created a battle trench. Capable of warding off the enemy indefinitely.

Collapsing on her soft, pink bedspread Tamlina thought about the days events. She had done good. Three vampire spawn killed before dinner. A genuine smile pulled up the corners of her lips. Thomas would be proud of her, she could almost picture him smiling down at her from heaven. She had done all of this for him. For her older brother.

The very first time she had seen a vampire it had literally knocked the breath out of her, she had lain in shocked stillness as the savage beast bit into the neck of her only older brother, Thomas Gray. The paranormal creature had sucked his life-essence out through the conduit of blood and killed the boy. Tamlina had watched her father run out from the house, screaming in incoherent rage at the site he witnessed. At the time, Tamlina had not been aware of her father’s extracurricular jaunts into the world of hunting vampires, but after that night twelve years ago she became acutely aware. It would consume her every waking moment.

Her mother, Janice Gray, had also been a hunter by trade until she had finally settled down into the family lifestyle. Now Janice could barely go toe-to-toe with a ghost and live. Years of chauffeuring children to soccer games and gymnastic tryouts had loosened her shield of experience. Now it was falling heavily on Tamlina’s shoulders to protect her family. She was the family secret that they tried to hard to hide from the rest of the world.

Tamlina Gray was a hunter first, daughter and sister second. She liked it that way, it gave her a sense of justice that she had always felt robbed of after her helpless viewing of Thomas’ attack. She had watched as he died, that night her father had showed her the garlic and silver ritual. He had performed it on Thomas’ gray corpse. She had cried through the entire experience, too young to truly understand what a good thing her father had been doing.

The young woman rolled onto her side, fluffing a pillow under her head. She felt the reassuring fabric under her hands and relaxed even further. Tamlina felt certain that even though there were dangers in the outside world, she would be safe in her bedroom. She felt a wave of exhaustion flood over her, closing her eyes she let sleep take her away from the chaotic world she lived in.

Outside her window, on the lawn below, a dark-shrouded form watched and waited.

2 comments:

TLC's said...

Although this is not my type of story it is very good and I really enjoyed reading it! Keep up the Good work!
Luv U! ~ MOM ~

Ebbtide said...

Yeah! :D Thank you. ;). I know there are some grammatical errors in there somewhere, but I'm really enjoying writing this one so I wanted to share! Glad you liked it. :). You WOULDN'T like the next section though...I just finished writing it. She ends up killing her entire family. Very grisly. ;). It's all good though, because (Just for you) I'm not going to post that little bit on here. :D. Have a great day!!