Seasoned Simile Axiom

My new mantle

2010-06-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

The mantle of my new apartment...complete with my own personal paintings. YAY. I knew they would be good for something eventually. I hope to complete more and hang them on the walls. Eventually.

I'm editing my Angel story today.

For THE Krissy

2008-12-29T02:18:00.000-08:00

Sammy's Drawing

2008-12-28T13:33:00.000-08:00

Just Another Krissy Shipper Manip

2008-12-28T12:38:00.000-08:00

A Different For Krissy <3

2008-12-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

for krissy

2008-12-24T02:22:00.000-08:00

Castiel 2.0

2008-12-23T22:06:00.000-08:00

Castiel - NOT color coordinated

2008-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Just A Picture of A Rose I Painted

2008-12-12T23:17:00.000-08:00

DRABBLE LENGTH

2008-12-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

Not So Keen
Summary: SPN Drabble. 100 words.

He shook his head, a soft keen rasping up dry throat tissue and out between chapped lips. It had been a long summer made even longer it seemed by the endless days stuck at home while his father and older brother were out Hunting evil.

He ran a hand over the smooth skin replacing his long, dark locks. It felt alien, discomforting. He sighed and let his shoulders droop.

Dad was going to be pissed. When school started next week life would be hell. The prank war had reached an ultimate low in the hazel eyes of the Sam Winchester.

Secret Lies The Way Of Difference

2008-11-26T18:15:00.000-08:00

Secret Lies The Way of Difference
By Tina c.

Trevor smiled at Jade over his breakfast tray. He could still feel the glow from their previous day. She nodded to him, but did not return the smile. She had been distant all morning and Trevor needed to know why. His eyes skimmed the surface of the paper as he tried to focus on what could have turned his fellow vampire off. It could not have been the blood or the love-making, she had made that crystal clear the night before as he was leaving to go to his quarters.

The feeling of being full and happy was such a welcomed one. Trevor did not want the source of that to fade. He looked over at Jade again. Her expression was one of downcast resolve. To the young man it looked like rejection and he swallowed bitterly. To finally find happiness and then lose it was the worst and he did not want to experience that again.

Tamlina Gray had gone, he was glad to note. Although she had never been one to join in on the communal breakfast Seth had informed him that morning she had taken her leave. At least now he knew it was safe inside the sanctuary, although he still held doubts for the endless faith he had felt in Seth. Perhaps it was misplaced, perhaps not, but Trevor felt his most pressing concern was finding out what was wrong with Jade.

“You haven’t said anything yet this morning.” Trevor spoke up first. He gave her a challenging stare tempered with fondness. “Is it something I did?”

She shook head. “No.”

“Well, that’s good.” He let out a low, awkward chuckle.

“I don’t normally….do that.” The tone said what ‘that’ was, the day before.

Trevor ducked his head to hide the disappointment. “That’s alright, I understand.” He managed to choke out.

Jade sent him a sympathetic look. “I’m really sorry, Trevor. It’s not you, it’s me.”

“I cannot believe I’m having the ‘I’m dumping you for your own good’ speech being handed to me less than twenty four hours after we started.” Trevor announced with hurt. He ran a hand over his face. “This is just great.”

“I’m sorry, Trevor.” Jade said softly, honestly, her eyes finding his across the table. “I never wanted this.”

“Then why?” Trevor’s voice broke at the same moment a piece of his heart imploded. “Why would you do that with me if you…if it didn’t mean anything to you?”

“To be honest. I don’t know.” She blinked. “I was very conflicted - am still conflicted.”

“I’m willing to work through that. I don’t want to let this go…what we had yesterday.”

“It was a one time thing. We both need to accept that. What we had…past tense. It’s going to stay that way, Trevor. I’m sorry.” She whispered softly.

Trevor pushed his tray of food away and fell back to collapse against the back of his chair. He thought a moment, avoided her gaze and then stood abruptly to his feet.

“I’ll see you later.” He said without looking at Jade.

****
Trevor ran across the warehouse rooftop. He reached the edge and without hesitating flung his body out into the air, arms spread out beside him. The roof of a neighboring building rushed up to meet his speeding body and he tucked into a perfectly executed roll to soften the blow of the landing. Without pause he came to his feet and went on with his run.

He felt winded, but there was no way he would stop now. There were too many emotions to work through for him to stop now. He needed to figure out what was wrong with him and Jade. Why did she seem so convinced that they could not work out. In Trevor’s eyes, the day before had been the most beautiful, natural experience ever.

He licked his lips, tasting the blood running over her lips. Brows coming together, he pushed his body to run harder across the tin tiles, the sound reverberating through the empty docks. He reached the end of another roof and flew for a second through space, leaving his worries rooted to the tin. He wanted to escape the loneliness and the need for survival. He felt so different now though he was still the same Trevor Snow.

As a young adult, Trevor had seen many things that had both startled and surprised him, but what he and Jade had done the day before trumped it all. They had made love in a pool of hot, living blood. He felt his stomach rumble as his mind told it to eat. He had been running for hours - ever since that meeting at breakfast. He could still not understand why Jade had felt they should not remain together.

A cold calculation had filled his thought as they locked down under the weight of uncertainty. It was not a human reaction and he knew that. There was still so much to learn about his new body and what blessings and curses it would bring to him in the future.

He leapt from roof-top to roof-top without tiring. Hunger grew inside of him, but his muscles seemed unable to feel the stress that they were being put under. He wondered how far out into the bay he would be able to swim before needing to rest. He momentarily thought about leaping out past the docks to see, but he quickly dismissed this thought. He did not have time to waste.

He had to figure out how to fix this thing between himself and Jade. He loved her and he did not want to lose what they had found. Somehow he just had to convince her that she needed the love that they had found together. He could still feel her hurt gaze locked on his own. He squeezed his eyes shut and listened to the air whistle past him as he ran full-tilt.

It felt good to have so much control. He relished the thought of sharing this lifestyle with someone as strong and independent as Jade Suon. He needed her to need him. It would make everything better. If he could not change what he had become, he needed to find a way to come to terms with it. Jade had done that for him yesterday, pushing him past his boundaries and opening up a whole new world to him. A world he did not know could be explored so fully.

He flew through the air and landed with cat-like reflexes. A burning started behind his eyes and he rubbed them a few seconds later the pain disappeared and he shoved the experience to the back of his mind so that he could focus on fixing his relationship.

****

Jade Suon looked down at her hands clasped between her knees. She felt horrible for what must have seemed a very cool rejection. That morning when she had told Trevor what the day before had truly meant to her it had seemed to crush his spirit and that was the last thing that she wanted for him. A small part of her begged to just give in to the primal, vampire feelings and go with him. They could live together and happy in each other, but she knew better. A soft sigh blew between her cracking, pink lips. She could feel a weight settle on her heart and she knew that it was because of her earlier actions.

Trevor was young and impressionable and she had take advantage of him during a time when neither of them were thinking clearly or even acting on pure intentions. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had made love to the young man out of pure, unbridled lust. At the time it had felt natural and right, but now in the light of day she felt ashamed of herself.

Her thoughts went to Seth and she found herself blushing and blinking away tears in a strange, uncomfortable mixture of embarrassment at her own actions and regret at what she had lost. An opportunity to express to the werewolf just how good she felt about the situation.

She sat in one of the many, small studies hidden in corners throughout the building. She wondered what it would be like to life in that place for hundreds of years. She knew that Seth had done this. He knew the property better than the fur on his paw, she had seen the way he could navigate easily without sight. It left her in awe. Her only home had been an apartment after moving out of her parents house thirteen years before. She wondered what her parents were doing.

So many thoughts and fillings filled her up, but she did not have time for that. After eating and taking care of other needs the day before the woman felt that she was long overdue for a chat with Seth’s children. She needed to contribute something to this sanctuary that had harbored her safely these past months. When eating had been abhorrent she had been too weak to help them much other than the occasional meal she would cook.

Jade stood to her feet and ran a hand over her shirt to straighten out the wrinkles caused by sitting for a long period. She was ready to do her part - to really start living again.

The smell of chicken blood still lingered in her nostrils, reminding her of Trevor and what they could have shared. As much as she wanted to understand the thing she had become, Jade wanted to do it on her own terms and not out of necessity.

****

Seth looked down at the picture of his dead wife, the black and white photo faded to a dull yellow, with the edges worn completely away from many years of being folded and unfolded. A creases went through his wife’s clasped hands. She stood in front of the monastery a calm, motherly smile gracing her features. She held two children in her arms while the others sat around her feet. Seth smiled softly.

It had been a good day and it was still a fond memory for him to look back on and remember what life had been like before. He remembered and he mourned. Julietta had been so important to him, a part of his soul that kept him alive and happy. Now he was alone with the children, trying to give them the love of two, but sometimes he felt that he fell short. As a man it was easy to overlook the need that they had for encouragement and love. He loved them, but expressing that emotion to his children was never easy.

****

Trevor came to a stop on the ground. He had given up running across the buildings, exchanging that for the exploration of the warehouses themselves. He still remembered finding this place all those weeks ago. Scared, hungry and alone. He had been terrified of himself and the acts that he had committed against the innocent people on the streets. He had been half-naked and soaked through the skin with the blood of his human victims.

His hands formed clenched fists, the knuckles going white with the intensity of the grip. He hated that about himself. No wonder Jade did not want him. He was a killer - a murderer. He was a bad vampire.

Jade was pure, she had yet to take a life, which completely explained her hesitancy to attach herself to anything or anyone as monstrous as Trevor Snow. He bowed his head in shame. A small part of him felt numb and dead when he made the decision that she must have been right. He could not force himself on her no matter how much he wanted to do just that. She deserved better and he would show her that he could be a better man.

****

A cell phone rang. It buzzed and then rang again. Then again.

The shower in the other room turned off and splashy footsteps could be heard padding down the hallway to the living room. The phone buzzed.

A wet hand reached down and picked it up, flipping it open. A deep voice answered in annoyance.

“Yeah, what do you want?”

There was a slight pause, almost shorter than a breath.

“Really. Well, that’s unfortunate, my heart goes out to you.” There was sarcasm coating every word. “I don’t care, idiot. Fix the problem and don’t call me back until it’s done or else it will be your head on a platter. You got it?”

Another pause, a longer one. The legs shifted weight, towel slipping a little on the bony hips.

“Right and I’m really going to trust you with it again. Hurry up and -.” Another pause, hands flicked impatiently sending droplets of water onto the wood floor. “If you need help call Daniel Harris. Yeah ask his handler where to find him. How the hell should I know? Okay. Soon, fix it soon. Okay. Bye.”

A thumb pushed the red ‘end’ button on the phone to sever the connection. Wet hair was plastered to a prominent forehead, sending rivulets of warm water down the chiseled face until they dropped off the defined chin. A man’s cough rumbled through the muscled chest. He was getting a cold.

“Great.”

****

Seth sat and watched his children interact with the other creatures of his sanctuary. It always brought joy to his heart and his favorite time of the day was after evening meals when all of the creatures came together. Those that chose to be together. The rest were hidden away in their rooms or other secluded parts of the large, mansion like building.

Seth sighed heavily, his good mood dampened only by the absance of Jade Suon. She had not come down to dinner though he had been sure to send up more chickens blood. He had not heard any more noises coming from her room, but then he had been studiously avoiding any sections that might lend him access to such knowledge. He regretted intruding on their personal activities the night before, but the past could not be changed.

He thought Jade must be up in her room with Trevor. Schooling him and supporting him through the transition period. It frayed on Seth’s nerves and he forced himself not to think of it

Jade was a grown woman and she had the right to do whatever she felt necessary. She was even too young if for him if he gave it any real thought he would feel that. A soft sigh broke through his defenses. His shoulders drooped, his eyelids falling half-way as he drifted into a meditative state.

****

Jade Suon looked over at the overflowing pitchers of chickens blood. It was hot and she would give it a few more minutes before braving the liquid. She did not want to burn her delicate throat. It seemed that vampires had ultra sensitive mouths and throats. It made sense that it would be one of their weakest points. She figured that was why vampires could only be stopped by garlic in the mouth only that way could it’s inherent magical properties soak through the vampire defenses and hinder the souls escape.

Silver. Jade’s brow furrowed. She still did not understand the significance of silver neither could she truly explain how it worked. She would have to ask Seth. At the thought she frowned. Or read some books in the library she added to herself.

She felt a brush of cold air on the back of her neck. She smiled. It had been a very long day and thankfully her Grandmother had not shown up at any time the night before - or the day before for that matter - she turned to face the apparition.

Her Grandmother smiled cheekily. “I see you’ve … come to terms?” she asked with an insinuating giggle.

“Yeah.”

“I see.” Her smile widened, eyes twinkling behind the transparent glasses.

Jade did not appreciate the humor, but at the same time she knew that it was Violets way. The woman smiled. Then frowned. Then smiled again.

Her Grandmother took a step forward, her levity forgotten in the face of her Grandaughter’s confused, guilt-ridden expression. A feather soft hand brushed a strand of hair from Jade’s face or at least tried to. The bang did not move very far before flopping back into place. Ghosts only had a very limited affect on the corporeal world.

“Do you want to tell me about it, dear?” Violet Suon asked quietly. “Did he do something to you? I can talk with Seth if he -.”

Jade shook her head. “No!” She explained in horror. “You’ve got it all wrong, I didn’t do anything with Seth. It was Trevor - Trevor Snow.”

“Oh. Goodness.” Grandmother Suon sat down heavily on a chair, her body floating casual an inch into the wood. “Well, that is a problem.”

Jade felt tears prick at her eyes, she brushed a hand over her face to stall their progress. She did not want anyone to see her in this state and it would not be long before someone came to check on her - they liked to know if she had eaten or not. Her eyes drifted back over to the cooling blood. She licked her lips then glanced back at her Grandmother.

“Do you mind?” She asked, nodding towards the pitchers. “I can explain, but I haven’t eaten yet.”

Her Grandmother’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Well, well, a lot has changed in a short amount of time. Go right ahead, dear. I’ll have to get used to it sometime.” She added honestly. “Not that I don’t find it utterly repulsive, mind you, but I accept that it is now a part of how you are. I love you so I will be fine with you eating chickens blood.”

Jade stood. She felt reassured by that little speech. She gripped the pitchers, one in each hand, and returned sit at the table.

“Well, that’s good, because I have every intention of embracing what I have become. Seth convinced me, he said…” She trailed off into silence for a long moment, starring at the table unseeing. “I think he knows about me and Trevor.”

“With that incredible hearing of his, I have no doubt.” Her Grandmother spoke up.

“Well, that certainly doesn’t make me feel any better about what I’ve done.” Jade sighed, swirling a finger in the closest pitcher. She watched the darker color of the surface blend into the lighter shade as she stirred, transfixed by the smell.

“Are you going to eat it or just sit there and look at it.” Violet asked after a very long silence. She looked uncomfortable, studiously ignoring the large containers dripping blood on the table.

“I thought you were going to be more accepting.’

“Give me time, dear. I’m not the one who thinks blood is palatable, much less appetizing.” She kept her gaze averted.

Jade laughed. “At least it’s only chickens blood.”

“It is good to see that your mood has gotten better and to see you accepting this new side of yourself. I’m proud of you.” Violet said with pride. “You are my Granddaughter. I always knew you would inherit my thirst for life - never in a million years thought it would be literal.”

“Very funny, Grandmother.” Jade laughed around the blood covered finger she had just popped into her mouth. She closed her eyes and savored the feeling of it sliding down her throat. She moaned without realizing it.

“Goodness, dear!” Violet exclaimed in embarrassed surprise. “I can come back if you and the blood need to be alone.”

Jade shook her head and then gripped the edge of the pitcher, tipping it up so that she could drink out of it. The blood spilled down her throat in a red cataract of pure emotion and feeling. She moaned louder and longer. The first pitcher was empty in seconds, the leftover liquid sloshing at the very bottom. Jade sucked in a lungful of air and put a hand over her heart, feeling it beat beneath the paling skin.

“That was delicious.”

“That was horrible, but strangely hypnotizing.” Her Grandmother corrected with a finger in the air.

They sat in companionable silence for a while longer until, sated, Jade went to retire on her bed. Her Grandmother stayed in the room long after the younger woman had fallen asleep. The ghost watched over the only kin she had ever felt a connection with. It wasn’t just the fact that she could be seen by her gifted Granddaughter, but also the fact that she was always accepted by her Jade. Questioned at times, argued with certainly, but ultimately accepted for just what she was and if it was the last thing that she did, Violet would see Jade through the terrors of species transformation. It was the least that she could do.

The night fell slowly and painfully. A full moon lending light to the graveyards and the shadows.

Spears of light escaped through slits in the clouds and illuminated a threat to the paranormal community. If only someone had been around to see it and report.

The future would soon be changed drastically. None would see it coming.

THE END.

Thrill Of the Hunt6 - Icongruous

2008-11-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

Thrill Of The Hunt
By Tina c.

Heart pounding, rain pouring off the room edge in a cascade of mirrored moonlight, Trevor Snow ran for his life.

The warehouse was just three blocks away. Three blocks to safety and he felt like his heart would explode long before then. Not even super-human speed could get him there fast enough or so it seemed to him at the time.

****

Tamlina crouched low next to the ground. She could sense eyes on her, but she could not locate their source. She frowned. Trusting the werewolf had been the stupidest thing she’d ever done. Paranormals couldn’t be trusted, obviously.

“Come out and face me.” She screamed into the twilight gray outside her new home. Her nerves were frayed and she did not feel like waiting. With a huff, she stood tall and stalked angrily out of her hiding place. “Come out, you coward!”

There were muffled footsteps off to her left.

****

Seth looked out over the graveyard behind the monastery. His red eyes glowed in the low light and a sigh froze, a light fog, in the air. He sat down heavily on a stone bench and waited. He was a Teacher and he needed to report to the others, his superiors. It had been many, many long years since he had taught the younger generation, but still the Teachers came to him on occasion with “special cases”. Trevor had been one such case and now he was required to give reports on the vampires progress. If it was not within the parameters of the Teacher’s satisfaction then the young vampire would have to be put to sleep.

Seth did not want that to happen. He felt that real progress had been made, but ultimately it was not up to him and he knew that. The day was closing softly and he reveled in the rare moment of peace and quiet. His red eyes slipped closed, covered by dark lids. A sigh escaped between black lips as he relaxed.

“You really should learn to be more aware.”

There was something hard being suddenly pressed against the back of the werewolf’s head. Seth groaned.

“Bad form sneaking up on me, Jethro.” Seth admonished his brother gently. “You could have warned me.”

The cane handle was removed from where it had been set in mock intent against the werewolf’s head. “Sue me.” The man replied flippantly. “So, how have things been here.” Looking around he took a seat on the stone bench. “Looks peaceful enough.”

“It was.” Seth agreed with a toothy grin, insinuation in his voice

“I never was blessed with good timing.” Jethro admitted casually. “You have the report?”

“Of course.”

Seth pulled a thick scroll of parchment from an inner pocket of his robe and handed it over to his human brother. It is an ancient custom that he prefers over the modernized CD compiled reports or even the oral reports many give recorded on tapes. Seth always loved the old fashioned sense of “right” that came with writing things down on parchment paper. He blamed it on the monastery, living around that much history was bound to rub off on anyone. He sighed into the cold, damp air.

“It is complete, but I fear that the Teachers will not see it that way.”

“You know how they can be.” Jethro supplied.

“Exactly what I fear, brother.” Seth acknowledged. “I believe strongly that Trevor Snow will never kill again and that those he has killed were not intentional. I believe that he can be a strong ally. Every vampire we can recruit on our side is one less the enemy will be able to control.”

“We’ll wait and see what the Teachers decide, hm?” Jethro said standing. “It was good to see you, brother.” He bowed low. “Until next week.”

Seth watched the human man walk away at a leisurely pace. A smile turned up the edges of his fierce mouth. If anyone could sway the Teachers it would be Jethro. Seth closed his eyes and let the peace of the graveyard filter back into his conscious mind. A few more minutes and then he would return to his duties inside.

****

Jade Suon glared at the ghost of her long-dead Grandmother, Violet Suon.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said with perfect certainty.

“Oh, I may be dead, but I’m not blind.” The older woman responded with a low chuckle. “You like Seth and it is apparent to me.”

“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.”

Her grandmother raised a finger, pointing it knowingly at the ceiling. “Ah, but you are the one who was calling out his name in your sleep.” The older woman ducked her head and plucked at invisible threads on her apron. “I know because I heard you.”

Jade blushed all the way to her hair roots her hands shaking a bit as she turned to the stovetop. The water for tea was beginning to boil, a whistling sound alerting her to the fact. She took a china cup down from a cupboard over the stove.

“Don’t dismiss this, sweetheart. It could be important.” Violet pushed. “If he makes you happy then there is no reason for you not to tell him how you feel.”

“Why?” Jade asked defensively. “So that he can laugh at me? Besides, he’s much too old for me.”

Her Grandmother made a slight ‘tsking’ sound in her throat. “Now, now, Jade. You are immortal. There must be some hope for you both. Isn’t he immortal too?”

“Well, not exactly.” Jade answered. “Werewolves and vampires aren’t the same when it comes to aging. Werewolves do age whereas vampires don’t. The aging process has only been significantly retarded by the werewolf genes.”

“Oh. I didn’t know.”

“Well, I do. I researched it, remember, back when the Teachers still thought I could be there little human pet.” She bit out the sentence angrily, pouring the steaming water into her cup and tossing in a tea packet with a flick of her wrist. “I know plenty.”

“Now, now, dear. I wasn’t trying to get you all upset.” The older woman shook her head. “I guess I’ve ruined enough of your evening…I’ll just go out for a little while, how’s that sound.” She tried to smile.

Jade smiled back. “Sounds good to me.” She said coldly.

They usually got along very well. Violet’s experience gave her an advantage in knowing when a comment crosses the lines that Jade Suon had constructed to separate her from the world. Everyone once in a while though the ghost would stick her foot in her mouth and the results would be a very broody Jade. With a sigh, Violet faded into the wall and disappeared.

Jade sipped her tea and tried not to think about what her Grandmother had suggested, but like the elephant in the room it refused to leave her alone. She swept a long bang out of her face and behind one ear. Her slanted eyes stared at the opposite wall unseeing. This was the trouble with falling in love with a werewolf.

Seth not only had a very long history that Jade knew nothing about, but there was also the many hints that he had once been happily married. The last thing the Asian werewolf wanted to do was give him the wrong idea or lead him on. She did not want to hurt him, because he had saved her life when she had been most vulnerable he had been there for her and the most she could do to make it up to him would be to leave him to his peaceful life. As far as Jade could tell he never dated and tried not to leave the monastery for long periods at a time. She understood that he feared for his charges and his children.

The children did not like her, Jade felt certain of it ever since their first introductions. They had gawked at her like a display at the carnival. Something to be studied and feared. Werewolf children with human traits were rare, but not unheard of, but for Seth to be luckily enough for all three of his children to be born blessed without the traitorous fur and paws was a miracle. Jade knew that he did not want anything to happen to them. He loved them more than life and if she guessed correctly, it was for his children that Seth had opened the monastery.

A safe haven for those with no one and no where else to lean on. The children of Seth were curious about most things and learned in a variety of different subjects. They all appeared younger than twenty, but that was their werewolf DNA lying to the world - all of them with the exception of Dory Anne - were over forty years old. They had been learning and growing all of those years in every sense but the literal. Jade swallowed a hot sip of tea, it burned her throat as it went down and she winced, blowing across the surface of the liquid still held in the china cup.

Maybe her Grandmother was right, Jade thought. She could tell Seth how she really felt, but then would it even change anything. She wrestled with herself. It would be easier to pretend she didn’t fall into his charm every time they met in the hall. She breathed deep, smelling the spices and herbs from the tea and letting it calm her nerves.

She would decide later. For now, Jade knew that she had to talk with Trevor again. She had promised the boy that they would have regular talks about eating habits. She glanced towards the tiny fridge in the corner of her kitchen and grimaced. She hated thinking about the abominable amount of blood inside. It made her insides crawl. She swallowed hard, this time to keep down the urge to vomit. She closed her eyes and set the tea cup down with a sharp clatter. Jade hated her knew taste for blood, she despised it with every fiber of her being.

Together she would work with Trevor. Maybe they could help each other through this time of transition.

****

Seth walked through the quiet halls in the maze of the monastery. He could feel the weight of Jethro’s words on his shoulders. The Teachers would probably not be satisfied until Trevor gave a blood oath never to kill again. A heavy sigh shook the werewolf’s wide shoulders.

There were three ways to kill a vampire’s soul. This mattered because there were only two people on the planet that knew all three and sometimes that was how many it took for the death to be permanent. Vampires were notoriously resilient. Not by desire, but by design.

The three ways were discovered by a vampire who made a studious career out of suicide. Unfulfilled by the twist his life had taken when he had gotten bitten, Jared Stetson had worked for decades on a way to die. He had craved death so badly it had taken over his every waking hour. Drinking blood had taken a back seat and because of that the Teachers and others like them had learned about chicken’s blood. No one knew why, but it was the only other blood that vampires could drink and remain healthy. Other bloods would keep them alive, but sap the energy. A few weeks on a diet of bad blood and a vampire could fall into a coma.

He had to send out Darian out later that evening to check on Tamlina. Seth knew that the girl Hunter was going through a very difficult time and he recognized that what choices she made now would forever affect her life. The man just wanted to make sure that she made the right choices - ones that she could live with later. He had known her family and their loss hit him hard. He felt responsible for Tamlina Gray.

A low light lit the hallway and Seth almost missed seeing the drops of blood splattered across the corner of the floor, but his nose would make no such mistake. He crouched down and touched his hand to the cool, flaking spots. Bringing it up to his dark snout, Seth sniffed. It was chickens blood.

A smile cracked the brooding expression on his face. This meant that one or both of the vampires had gotten over their phobia.

****

Blood red covered the entire surface of Jade Suon’s apartment. She looked about herself with satisfaction, her eyes wide with desire. Blood tasted good.

“Well, that went pretty good.” The vampire said licking her lips,.

Trevor Snow glanced at her over the rim of his cup and grinned widely. A red film covered his white teeth and a small rivulet of blood spilled out the corner of his mouth. Jade reached over and wiped it away, licking her hand and savoring the taste of life.

“Who knew that chickens could feel so much.” Trevor noted casually.

“So very much.” Jade agreed with a faraway look in her eyes.

She could feel his heart beat, heat racing through her body with the new blood. She had no idea feeding could be this pleasurable. She chuckled. It felt good and light and right. She turned to the boy.

“Lets have some fun?”

His return expression was blank. The inference lost on his age. She ran a finger over his chin and chuckled again. This would be fun. For a brief moment she wondered what he would taste like to feed on. Her eyes went to his neck and the vein pumping chicken’s blood through his pale body.

The pale body that held so much attractiveness. She felt her breathing coming faster and her body shivered. Jade turned away from him, momentarily regaining control of her mind. She had never felt this rush before and as good as it felt, she knew that there was something inherently non-human about it. She desired life and lust was an insatiable part of that life. She wanted to have sex with this young man. He was technically about twenty one, but she still felt that it would be improper.

Hands were on her back, kisses raining down on her neck. He was coming onto her from behind, brushing his body up against hers. Jade turned around and with both hands, pulled his face to hers and kissed him long and deep. His hands roamed over her shirt, his tongue pushing past her lips. This felt so right, but it was not what she wanted - not who she wanted. Jade’s kiss deepened still further and with a rush of blood in her ears, she let go of herself.

****

Seth’s keen hearing picked up on the lovemaking long before noon and he felt a small smile hang sadly across his face, but the smile stopped there. His soul felt clouded and overcast with regret. Jade had reminded him so strongly of his dead wife. He had hoped that there would have been a chance for him to say something.

With a regretful sigh, the werewolf returned to his work trying his best not to hear the sounds coming from down the hallway.

****

Tamlina had found no one. She had felt their presence, challenged them openly and searched high and low for whoever had invaded her new sanctuary. Now she just felt betrayed. It had to of been Seth or one of his children. The meddling werewolf clan just could not leave well-enough alone. She frowned and thrust her knife back into it’s sheath. She would deal with them later, but for now she needed to finish moving in.

Turning her back to the courtyard, she remained certain that eyes were watching her every move. A vampire would have been stealthier in it’s surveillance so at least she could knock that off the list of possibilites. Still, it concerned her that so soon she had been compromised.

Tomorrow she would find several new haunts. Options were life savers.

****

Trevor Snow shuddered as he rode out the last wave of pleasure from another round of frantic love-making. They were trying things that were new and yet seemingly familiar. He wondered if being bitten passed on genetic memories. A cup of blood by the bedside had become both a lubricant and a sauce. He poured some more over her torso and then started lapping it up as she writhed beneath his young body.

****

“This has got to stop, father.” Dorian complained that evening.

It was past three in the evening and still the affair between Trevor Snow and Jade Suon was far from over. Seth rubbed his forehead with a weary paw. He did not want to interrupt them. It was obvious that this was just a step towards accepting who and what they had become. He knew from years being a Teacher that vampires, sex and blood were a triangle that never broke. The feelings aroused during love were almost the same as those aroused during blood feeding.

It was why vampires needed to feed. The blood kept their bodies going, for sure, but all Teachers worth their salt knew that really it was the feelings and characteristics being absorbed that a vampire’s body needed. Go too long without it and the creature would turn into flat, gray emotion. Nothing but the husk of a body. Still. Seth had hoped he could share these things with Jade. Instead, the woman had found out about them on her own. He sighed again.

“Why don’t you go out and see how your brother is doing with Tamlina.” He suggested. “Bring back more chickens blood, please. I have a feeling we will need it.”

Dorian bowed his blond head and stood to his feet. All of Seth’s children were tall, but Dorian, his middle child, was tallest of all. He towered his seated father and hesitated a moment.

“Was there something else, son.” Seth asked, thick eyebrow raised.

“I was in town the other day and I heard rumor of someone waking vampires. The abnormal community is getting very upset - they think it could be one of us because there has been no new faces.”

“A human no doubt.” Seth spoke softly from long experience. “It usually is. I will report this to the Teachers tomorrow.” His brow furrowed, long ears perked. “Until then, keep your eye out. Go by the usual hiding places and see if we have any homeless abnormal creatures.”

Dorian nodded and walked out of the room. Seth felt worry fall onto his shoulders, an unwelcome and heavy feeling. He had felt for years now that things were beginning to spin out of control. The golden age that his kind had known filled with peace and most importantly anonymity. Well, it appeared to be fading into the past and he did not look forward to a future without it.

Humans and abnormal creatures were never meant to coexist. He knew this from the many, many histories he had read while working with the Teachers. Biographies and Autobiographies going back thousands of years. Werewolves, shape shifters and vampires all telling their tale. The very first - the oldest few - were the ones that still held his interest. They spoke of a time in the past when humans had experimented with the laws of science and nature. All paranormal creations were the work of humans. Not many knew or cared about this fact, but it was important to Seth.

****

Trevor lay in exhausted sleep, Jade in his arms.

They were both sated and content. Blood filled stomachs and tingling bodies left them healthier than either had been in their entire new lives. The stigma broken, both had done far more than enjoyed the last few hours. It had been life changing. They knew now that this new side of themselves was not a curse or a gift. Simply an evolution from how they used to be. Trevor mumbled in his sleep, eyebrows drawing together in distress.

In her sleep, Jade responded by stroking her hand down his neck, this had the effect of calming the young man. Together in sleep they let their bodies take over and the result was peace. A peace and a solace that neither had thought possible that very morning.

Vampires in body and in mind now. Their story was just beginning to be written.

**Erm, Yeah. Uhmmm….*Scratches Head* Not sure where this came from. :P. Sorry, for the sucky writing - I’ve got a deadline. Will fix and repost later. ;).

Crossroads5 - Incongruous

2008-11-23T10:28:00.000-08:00

Crossroads
By Tina c.

Trevor ran a hand over his bare arm. It was the same spot where Tamlina’s spit had landed on his shirt. He felt ashamed of himself, he felt regret over what he had done and most of all he felt like there was no way out. No hope for someone like him. He had killed. It had not been his choice, but he had still been the one to drain those bodies of blood. He could still feel his victims inside of him, their feelings pumping through his veins. Ghosts of past sins.

He shook his head and pulled on a clean shirt.

Seth had broken up the fight and sent the murderous Tamlina Gray back to her room, but that hardly made Trevor feel more at ease. He looked down at the floor, not seeing the shady carpet, only the denial of who he really was…all he could see was the past.

****

Daniel H. Harris threw down a handful of change onto the countertop and waited impatiently for the waitress to pour him a coffee.

“Black.” He repeated loud enough for her to hear over the music.

She sent him a small smile laced with annoyance. “Yes, sir.”

She brought him a steaming cup, the smell making his empty stomach rumble. The red haired waitress raised an eyebrow.

“Did you want something to eat?” She asked doubtfully, eyeing the small pile of mixed change on the counter top.

Daniel took a sip of the hot liquid and relaxed. “No, this is fine.” He replied curtly.

****

Trevor sat on the edge of his bed, arms straight at his sides. This was a disaster, coming to the monastery. He shook his head and wondered what he could have possibly been thinking the night he agreed to let the werewolf protect him. This was not protection. He was being imprisoned on the same acre as a foaming-at-the-mouth vampire hunter. The young man rolled his eyes, forcing his betrayal beneath the surface. He could deal with it later, once he’d found a way to escape the hunter.

It would only be a matter of time before she tried to kill him again. He had read the insanity in her eyes. The human girl was more of a monster than Trevor would ever become. She had no soul, no remorse, no guilt. He felt certain of this and it frightened him.

His hands clenched around the light blue bedspread beneath him, twisting the fabric. He had wanted so badly for this sanctuary to be real, for the promises to be kept. He shook his head. No one ever kept their word.

Trevor looked out the window to the sky that no longer cried.

****

A blond haired woman entered the restaurant. She wore a scarf over her head, it was tied neatly beneath her chin and matched her purple dress. She had a string of pearls around her neck and large, black sunglasses covering most of her face. She had on high heels, purple gloves and a small purse. She looked monstrously out of place in that shady little diner. Her nose wrinkled at the smell of frying bacon as she made her way over to Daniel. He barely spared the woman a glance dwelling instead on the dark liquid inside his coffee cup. She took the seat next to his and waved away the waitress with an impatient flick of her wrist.

“You’re late.” The woman spoke first.

Daniel took another drink of his coffee. “So what. I made it didn’t I?”

“The others want a full report.”

“Marisa O’Connell. Did you really think I would Welch on this mission?” There was real humor in Daniel’s words.

The woman flinched at the use of her name and checked discreetly to be sure it had not been overheard. Her expression iced over.

“You should be more careful, Daniel Harris.” She replied coldly. “You never know who might be listening.”

He smirked and took another drink. “No, you don’t. And that’s H. Harris, thank you very much.”

“Report. I don’t have all day to listen to this.” She urged him.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Why the hurry? The leaders don’t meet until sundown.”

Marisa pushed back a bit in her seat eyes widening in shock. “You truly don’t understand the value of being discreet do you?”

“No. Now, as for the report.” Daniel reached into his jacket pocket, could not locate what he was searching for and moved to his pants pockets.

“Lose something?” Marisa asked snidely.

“The report…is right here.” Daniel finished in relief as he located the mini-tape that he had used to record his oral report. He handed it to the woman under the shield of the counter. She took it, readjusted her glasses and stood.

“Until next week.” Without having once looked at him, Marissa O’Connell walked back out the restaurant door.

Daniel watched her go with a self-righteous grin. He knew that she was not a real Reformer. She was in it for the money and nothing else. Daniel abhorred the woman and all the other Reformers like her, they were not true to the cause. Not like him.

****

Tamlina paced across the length of her quarters. This was ridiculous! Seth, her friend and ally, was harboring murderous vampires in the monastery. She gritted her teeth in anger and tried to think of some way she might have misunderstood. There had to be an explanation, but Seth had not given any and she could not see any on her own. That boy was a vampire. He had killed, he had admitted as much to her and now Seth expected them to live together in peace.

Tamlina Gray shook her head, long blond locks swaying at the movement. This was not right.

****

“I would appreciate it if you would talk to the boy.” Seth said to Jade Suon.

The Asian vampire ran a hand over her eyebrows. “This will not be easy.” She admitted softly.

“Just do your best, dear.” Her grandmother’s ghost spoke up from a corner of the room. “I’ll be there with you.”

“I’ll try.” Jade promised them both with a grim smile. “Where’s his room?”

****

Trevor heard a knock on the door, he bowed his head.

“Trevor? My name is Jade Suon.” A woman’s voice called through the door.

Trevor Snow ignored the woman. The last thing he wanted was visitors. What could they say that could possibly change what was happening to him - what had happened to him. He closed his eyes against the guilt that assailed him at every mental turn. Those people he had killed would never leave him.

“I know what it’s like.” The woman spoke softly, confessing. “I’m a vampire too, Trevor.”

He looked up then, his eyes focused desperately on the door. He had thought he was alone, but maybe Seth did know what he was doing after all. Trevor stood to his feet and took a step towards the door before hesitating.

****

Jade Suon heard his footsteps, felt the tension in the room beyond and promptly frowned. This was not acceptable. For a young man to be forced into isolation by the very injury that had victimized him sent shivers down her spine. She wanted so badly to have never been turned. To understand so completely what this boy was going through left her hungry. She had noticed a connection between heightened emotional states and her cravings for blood. What it meant, she was unsure, but if Trevor Snow was feeling half of the things she did, Jade feared for his innocence. Broken though it may have been - stained by the blood of humans.

“This is not your fault, Trevor.” Jade said. “You could not have understood what was happening when you killed those people. You had no way of knowing - there’s no reason to feel guilty.”

While this was not true it did get the boy moving again. She heard him approach the door and then it opened, swinging inward. He stared at her, hope sparkling dimly in his dark eyes.

“Can you help me?” He asked openly.

She smiled. “I will do everything that I can for you. May I come in?”

He nodded and stood a bit to the side to afford her entrance. She looked around the bare room with a quick glance. This had not been what she expected. Seth had put him in a room devoid of any furniture, save a bed and dresser. Jade’s smile turned to a frown. If the werewolf was making some kind of statement then Jade wanted to know why. This boy had done nothing beyond his nature, twisted though it may seem to most.

Trevor watched her scan the room. “What is it?”

She turned to him. “How long have you been here?”

She felt a vague suspicion that she would not enjoy the answer. Seth had not told her about the boy before that morning. Why had he hidden the existence of another fresh vampire in the monastery. Jade knew that she and Seth would have a long talk that afternoon and she would get answers.

“I think that you might feel more comfortable in my quarters.” She said in reply. “They’re just down the hall and more…spacious. There’s coffee.” She added unnesarily as an enticement.

The boy looked out the open doorway fearfully and then back at Jade. “Is that girl still out there? Tamlina Gray?”

Jade’s heart went out to the boy at his obvious fear. She could smell true terror in the room. A dark shadow fell over her soul. This was wrong. Trevor should not be forced to live in a cell, isolated and terrified by the threat of execution. She walked over to the boy and put an arm over his shoulders.

“I will keep you safe, come with me.”

With that, Trevor allowed himself to be lead out of the room and down the hall, across the small flight of stairs and through the doorway that lead to the large, four room quarters she had been given.

“Home sweet home.” Grandma Gray’s translucent visage spoke up as the two vampires entered the room.

****

Trevor took a sip of his coffee. He stared at the white apparition seemingly sitting across from him. He took another, longer sip of his coffee.

“Is she real?” He asked finally, disconcerted by the old woman’s stare.

Jade chuckled, pouring herself a cup of the hot liquid. “Of course she’s real. You act like you’ve never seen a ghost before.”

Trevor shook his head. “I haven’t. Well, not that I know of, anyway.”

Jade took a seat next to her Grandmother’s dead spirit and gave Trevor a quick smile. “She’s harmless. A little bossy sometimes.” The coffee cup jumped in Jade’s hands, but she was quick and was able to keep it balanced without spilling so much as a drop. “And mischievous when she has a mind.”

Trevor felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He still felt unnerved by the old woman’s presence. He rubbed his arm for the second time, that same spot where Tamlina had spit, showing all of her hatred and anger. He took another sip of the hot drink.

“Does she always have to be around?” He asked, pointing at the Grandmother.

“I’m sitting right here, you know, young man.” Gray muttered, crossing her arms in an offended fashion. “No respect these days, not even for the dead like me.”

“Calm down, Grandmother.” Jade interrupted before a monologue could be born. “Trevor has a point, why are you here? You don’t need to be and I’d much rather talk to him alone if you don’t mind.”

“If that’s what you want then that’s what you want.” Violet muttered with a hurt wince. “I’ll leave you to it then. Boy.” She nodded in his direction and promptly disappeared.

Trevor glanced about just to be sure that she was really gone and once satisfied that this was the case, he relaxed marginally. She had freaked him out more than somewhat. Trevor held the warm coffee mug in both hands trying to wish the warmth back into his body. It seemed like ages since he had been properly warm.

“Is there a reason for us?” He asked suddenly, softly.

Jade’s brow furrowed. “I don’t understand your question.”

“Vampires. Is there a reason for us? Do you know where we came from - what started this?” He asked.

“Ah. The origins of the vampire legend are up for debate, but many think that it began in the story of human.”

“A human?” Trevor asked confused.

Jade smiled over at him and took a drink. “Well, now that I am more attuned to the subtleties of our reality, I doubt very much that this man was a human. Perhaps he had been bitten like us.”

“So it’s true?” Trevor leaned forward in his seat, gaze intensifying. “The stories that I had heard about vampires who were born and not bitten.”

“Yes.” Jade nodded. “It’s true. Some are born with this and no one, not even occultist historians and supernatural experts, are certain of the ‘why’. It is not genetic, that much we’ve been able to prove.”

“You sound like an expert.” Trevor noted. “When you were human did you -.”

“No.” She cut him off abruptly. Her focus wavered momentarily as she tried not to picture the apartment she had so loved and ultimately lost. It still hurt to picture those heavy drapes, the cozy kitchenette and the cold rug. She missed her old life so badly sometimes.

“Are you alright, Mrs. Suon?”

Jade pulled herself out of the daydream and realized that she was gripping her coffee cup almost too tightly. Fractures were starting around the rim. She relaxed her hands and shot the boy a reassuring nod. It took her a few moments longer to find her voice.

“I’m fine. There’s just.” She paused. If anyone could understand and empathize with her plight, it would be the young man across the table. She decided to be frank. “I miss things. Places. People even. I miss it all so much that it hurts.”

Trevor felt his throat close up painfully, choked by emotions that he wanted so badly not to feel. She knew what if felt like to be going through what he experienced each day. To wake up every morning and know that there would be no family, no friends, no home and no hope. He reached across the table, his outstretched hands stopping just shy of her splayed palm.

“I know what you mean.” The nineteen year old said. “I feel it all the time. It’s good to know that I’m not alone.”

Jade erased the distance separating them and took his hand in her own, grasping it firmly. She looked him in the eye.

“We will make it through this, Trevor. The curse will not break our spirits and it will not choose our destiny.”

He smiled softly. “Strong words.” The smile faltered. “We’ll see.”

****

Seth knocked on the door to Tamlina Gray’s room. He could hear her rustling around inside and he felt concern for her and for his other charges well up inside. He needed to know that the girl would not endanger the others. There was already so much inherent danger with the idea of the monastery. He did not desire more conflict.

“It is Seth.”

“Go away.”

He sighed heavily and leaned his tall, furred frame against the wooden door. He would not leave until satisfied that her grudge would not turn homicidal.

“I need to speak with you. May I come in, please.”

“No. Go away!”

Something hard hit the door with a resounding thud and Seth stepped back a foot. There was a dent in the wood and he could only imagine how bad it looked on the other side.

“Damaging your door is not going to make me go away.” He informed her sternly. “I need to speak with you about Trevor Snow, the vampire that you attacked earlier today.”

There was a suspicious absence of noise from inside the room and then the door was being flung open. Tamlina Gray stood just inside the doorway, chest heaving, eyes glaring. She pointed an accusing finger at Seth.

“You knew that thing was here and you didn’t warn me. It could have killed me and I had no way of defending myself.”

“Come now, Tamlina, you know that’s not true.” Seth argued.

“Perhaps.” She consented without giving an inch of her disgust. “I am not going to stay in a place that I don’t feel welcomed or appreciated or safe!”

With that she slammed the door so hard dust fell from the hallway ceiling and peppered Seth’s red facial fur. He shook his head, sparking a cloud of gray. This would be more difficult than he had first assumed. If she persisted with this destructive behavior he might be forced to exorcise her from the monastery. That was a last option, in his view.

“You are both safe and welcomed here.” Seth did not add the ‘for now’ that lurked on the tip of his tongue. “Please, I would only like to speak about what happened earlier between you and Trevor.”

*****

Tamlina froze, her blood going cold. That man, that werewolf, that thing wanted her to sit down and calmly discuss the fact that she had been betrayed by a friend. She shook her head. This was not going to happen. She had a job to do - the Teachers had trained her well. The vampire needed to die.

“Fine.” Her concession was anything but fueled by good intentions. “Come in and talk.” She spit out the last word bitterly.

The werewolf entered cautiously, his gaze flashing between her and the weapons spread out on the bed. It was her own personal stash that she had snuck in under the cover of night those first few hours. She stood protectively between Seth and the bed. If he so much as tried to take them away from her there would be a fight. Perhaps sensing this, Seth calmly took a seat in the corner of the room. Tamlina stayed standing, watching him.

“So talk.” She demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

Seth sighed heavily and rubbed a claw across his forehead. “I would first like to apologize for the way that I have treated this situation so far. You have lost your family and I understand how you might feel that I let you down in some way by harboring vampires here.”

“Vampires?” Tamlina asked in shock. “There is more than one?”

Seth nodded. “Yes, but that is not your concern. They are not a danger to anyone and I will see that it stays that way. They are only trying to survive.”

Tamlina ran her tongue over dry lips as she tried to wrap her head around the information she had just learned. “You’ve been shielding murderers, Seth? Here of all places?”

“It’s not what you think, Tamlina.” He defended himself. “I do not allow just anyone here…only those that I truly believe can be helped. Not all vampires are murderers.”

“Trevor said-.”

“Trevor Snow is an exception.” Seth interrupted. “He had no control over his actions.”

Tamlina snorted. “Yeah, I’ll accept that excuse when pigs fly!”

“It is true. He was awakened from the grave years after being staked to his body. He had no knowledge of what he had become and his starving body took over. It was a rare situation.”

Tamlina studied the werewolf critically. “Someone woke him up?” She asked.

“Yes.” Seth sighed again, his shoulders falling. “There is a new group, growing stronger by the month. They are called the Reformers and they have been freeing vampires.”

Tamlina’s first thought was for her family. She tensed.

“Your family is safe for now, I have been keeping watch.” Seth assured her, sensing her distress. “They will remain asleep in their graves for as long as I can help to keep them there. It is safe here, just as I promised, Tamlina. I have kept this a sanctuary for over a hundred years and this is not our first dealings with the Reformers. We have safety measures.”

“I don’t care. I want my family and I out of here and somewhere hidden today.” Tamlina demanded. “I need to know that I’m not going to get bitten in the middle of the night by a rabid vampire running loose on the grounds.”

“You won’t. You have my word that it won’t happen.” Seth said, holding a paw over his heart.

“That’s not good enough. I’m leaving.” Tamlina began stuffing the weapons in her coat pockets. She was determined to find someplace safe - she knew of several haunts that vampires would not dare to tread. She also knew that werewolves could not find them. Human access alone allowed her the safety she would need. Once all the weapons were concealed she walked to the door.

“Don’t try to follow me, Seth.” She warned in a low tone and then she walked away without a backward glance or hesitation.

Seth watched her go a concerned frown wrinkling his face. He twirled the ends of his red hair with a paw. This was not good.

THE END

She Wolf4 - Incongruous

2008-11-21T08:19:00.001-08:00

Julietta Lightbarer
By Tina c.

A raindrop splattered wetness on the tip of her freckled nose. Minutes before, the gray skies had been dry of heaven’s tears. A brisk current of air blew through cracks in the plaster wall, lifting up the red fur on her feet. She shivered and hugged her knees closer.

Julietta Lightbarer sat huddled on the mold-invested floor of her apartment room. The thirty year old felt real fear claw at her inside as she whimpered away the dark hole in her heart.

It had been years since she had last felt safe.

A lady centuries before, loved and adored, now only a barely perceivable remnant of that glorious past. Human change was kind to none, her least of all. Julietta took a shuddering breath of icy air. Tomorrow seemed so far away. Too late in coming.

A light at the end of an eternity of tunnel travel, she felt its presence. Unhelpful and useless as the metaphorical light was truly, it gave her hope.

Julietta Lightbarer felt the end would never come for her, she was destined to live a life made horrible and filled a despair that she dreaded. Royalty meant nothing in this new age of computers and accountants, teen punks and television. Her wide eyes stared unseeing at a world that gave way to chaos.

****

Seth ran a paw through his thick, red facial hair. He twirled his finger around the ends. He remembered the morning Julietta Lightbarer had met him on that lonely street corner. Violet and Pine. Twenty long years and three states later he could still remember the intersection where she had stolen his heart. His nose wrinkled at the phantom smell of sewage and old fruit. A grin softened his often grim expression.

Julietta had been a lovely creature. A human with the ability to perceive the paranormal bitten at a young age and changed into something majestic. The werewolf sighed heavily. Perhaps it was this reason alone that compelled him to harbor the vampire, Jade Suon. She had been human not so long ago and a highly empathic human at that. Seth could see so much of Julietta in the quiet, non-assuming Jade Suon. Her Asian eyes sparkling with the same vigor for life and beauty and acceptance.

A knock on the door stirred the werewolf from his musings. He placed the sweet memories back in their little spot at the back of his mind where he could always reach them to mull over when the mood to do so assailed him. He smiled a bittersweet smile.

****

Jade Suon stood on the other side of Seth’s door, her palm resting flat across the dark, aged wood. She listened with the ears that so recently had been made super-human. Paranormal abilities were only the beginning of the change that had taken over her body and soul.

“Come in.” Seth’s voice invited, there was a melancholy air to the tone. “It is open.”

Jade turned the brass knob, it’s shiny countenance out of sync with the old buildings rusty interior. She had puzzled over the new plumbing as well, but left the questions unasked. A simple shrug was enough to pass over these trite details.

She stepped into the small quarters and spied the werewolf sitting on the edge of his bed. A blush made it’s way up her neck, she twisted his sleeves in her hands, suddenly nervous.

“If I am interrupting your prayers I can come back.”

Seth chuckled, a bright smile lighting up his red eyes. True humor entered his voice. “Nonsense, child. I was merely thinking. You are always welcomed.” He motioned towards the chair opposite him, where it had been placed next to the wall of fading red paper. “Now, tell me what has been bothering you.”

Jade took the offered seat, she ran her sweaty, shaking palms across her jeans trying to calm her speeding heart. This would be more difficult than she had first though, but, of course, she could count on Seth not to judge her. Seth never judged.

“I’ve been thinking about blood lately. . .A lot and it is starting to really scare me.” Her wide eyes locked with his knowing gaze. “I’m worried.”

A sad frown met her concerned one. “I would be upset if that did not worry you. The fact that you are aware of what you are feeling and are still able to curb these impulses leads me to believe that you are not going to play out your worst fears.”

“But what if I can’t stop myself? I’ve heard the stories of vampires unable to control their urges. Especially if they are already hungry.”

This grabbed Seth’s attention. He studied her intently with his glowing red eyes.

“Have you not been feeding? Is the chicken’s blood not enough.”

She shook her head. “It isn’t that. I just. The whole thing disgusts me. I’ve been having a really hard time keeping it down.”

“Ah. I am sorry to hear that.”

“I’ve tried.” Desperation leaked into her confession. “I’ve tried telling myself that it is just incredibly gross warm milk. I’ve tried thinking of it as tomato juice…Nothing has worked so far. I’m starting to feel….hungry.”

“That is regrettable.”

****

Trevor Snow looked out the small, barred window of his room. It felt like a cozy cell. There was everything that he needed - or wanted - to survive, but he was still a prisoner. The outside world inaccessible while he stayed in the protective custody of the monastery.

Seth had introduced him to a few of the others that lived in this new world. An underground brotherhood of the unusual. Paranormal, supernatural and just plain strange were all patrons of this religious sanctuary. Trevor felt both blessed to have been found by the monk and distressed that he was forced into the life of a freak.

His parents were out there somewhere, no doubt devastated by his death. Trevor would give anything for a chance to see them one more time. To hug them close and tell them that he would be alright, that everything would be alright. It tore him up inside that he could not even give them that little bit of closure. Tears pricked his eyes painfully and he ran a hand over his face. He had spent a lot of time thinking about where his life was headed and the answer had still not presented itself to his internal debates.

Whether he was now meant to go on in this world as a strange creature of the dark, feared and shunned or not was still for him to determine. Seth had been a great help. The large werewolf had been there to talk to and he had given sound advice to Trevor, for that the boy would forever be grateful. Whatever he decided, his new life would be thanks to that kind werewolf. A bit of a contradiction, but a reassuring one as Trevor knew that someday in the near future he would also be a contradiction. It was his hope, his redemption and all he had left to do was figure out how to make it real.

Trevor stared up into the blue open sky and tried harder to close the gap between what he wanted to become and what he had become. A gray area that he knew Seth would help him through.

****

Tamlina Gray sat on the floor of her room, her eyes stared unseeing at the uncarpeted, cold cement. She could hear her little brother’s screams and she could see the terror in her mother’s eyes. It was a bad nightmare that played over and over and refused to let up for even an hour.

Dark circled colored her eyes and she ran a hand through her knotted hair. It had been days since she had thought of eating. Pale skin pulled taunt over her muscles. She had never been capable of keeping on a few extra pounds, something her mother had always been on her case about. A tiny sob escaped and she hugged her knees to her chest, her brow furrowing in deep distress. Another sob shook her shoulders.

This was just too much to take. Knowing that her family’s bodies were located just blocks away under six feet of clay and dirt. Tears sprinkled her bare arms as she tried to hold back the scream of anguish that was building up inside of her heart. It all hurt so badly.

She may have killed the vampire who had murdered her entire family, but Tamlina was far from finished with her thirst for revenge. Angry eyes stared unseeing as pain forced it’s way through her body and mind.

****

Seth watched Jade closely. The last thing that he wanted to do was introduce a danger to his children or those fragile creatures under his protection. He had safety rooms where he could put Jade until the hunger passed or until she could come to realize that drinking animal blood was a way of life for her now. It was not a disgusting thing, it was a life giving ritual and until he could convince the woman of this he would have to make sure that she did not endanger herself or those that called the monastery home.

“Jade.” He started softly, imploringly. “You know that I want to help you, but I need you to want this to happen. You have to accept that what has happened to you is not just a bad thing. Vampires have been painted with a bloody brush of misunderstandings and ignorance. I think that there is much more individuality to vampires than the legends would imply. Are you willing to put the stereotype to the test?”

Jade smiled through pooling tears. “I’ve already put it to the test.” She wiped at her eyes delicately. “I understand what you are saying and the answer is ‘yes’. I am not going to let this thing beat me.”

“It is more than that, Jade. You have to accept that this is not going to go away and it is who you are now. I’m sorry that this has happened to you, but it has so you have to deal with it. Not as we wish it were, but as it is.”

“What does that even mean?” Jade asked, her voice raising.

“You have to be willing to let yourself change into something…it will be up to you what that something is.”

“English!”

Seth sighed heavily. “Like it or not, you are no longer human and you need to start treating your body that way. You need to change the way that you think. It will be difficult, I won’t lie to you, but I know that it is possible to guide your new powers and senses. I am living proof of that. You do not need to be a monster, Jade, but you are not human anymore and you have got to accept that.”

“I can accept that. I’ve had to!” Jade argued, her voice growing angered.

“On an intellectual level perhaps, but this goes so much deeper than that. Your heart has to accept the fact that you are a vampire.”

Jade flinched at the name. A single, salty tear smeared her dark mascara sending a dark trail down her cheek. Seth felt badly for the woman and for the things that he was being forced to say to her, but he also knew that tough love was sometimes the only option available. He reached across the distance separating them and laid a hand on her knee.

“I will be here to help you through this. You will get through this.” He promised solemnly.

“I’m not so sure. This hunger. It’s so strong sometimes and I cannot control it.”

“You can, you have. How do you think you have made it through the common rooms up to my quarters without anyone losing their lives. I know that you passed the infirmary. I know that you smelled the blood. I also know that you are sitting before me scared and every bit as innocent as you were the day your grandmother sent you to me.”

The shaking grew and soon Jade was engulfed in a hug of self-loathing. She felt her body spasm and after a moment realized that she was trying ineffectually to cry tears of regret. One moment. It had taken one moment for her to lose her life and gain a new curse.

“I never wanted this.” She admitted to the world, losing site of the fact that she was not alone. Her eyes grew distant and clouded. “I never wanted this at all. I saved that woman from the vampire…I thought it was the right thing - the only thing that I could have done, but I’m not so sure now. I just don’t know. What if I could have avoided all of this?” She questioned.

“Whether your choice was right or wrong. It was made. Now we need to deal with what is facing us, not what could have been.” Seth replied softly. “I am so sorry for your loss, Jade, but we need you to move forward.”

****

Trevor itched for a chance to go outside and experience the life of a young adult he had been deprived of at the whim of a dark creature. He took a deep breath and made his way to the door of his room, his cell, reaching down he turned the knob.

The hallway outside was dark, cobwebs clinging to the corners of the ceiling, the wallpaper peeling. He wondered who had chosen what must have once been a very cheery, floral pattern. Somehow he could not see Seth choosing such a decorative wallpaper. With a shrug, Trevor dismissed the detail and continued on his trek through the mansion. He had not been given a very liberal tour and now thought that his time could best be spent discovering exactly where it was he had agreed to live. A smile of curiosity stole over his features.

He was reminded of the summer his freshman year when he and a group of five friends had decided to break into the local ‘haunted’ house on Halloween. He frowned suddenly at the thought that maybe their fun-filled quest to find a ‘ghost’ might have ended in true disaster that night. A shudder ran up his spine.

****

Julietta sniffled a bit, her dark nose twitching at the phantom sneeze that wanted to manifest. She fought the urge, tired of all the allergies she had built up over the year of living in that broken down place she called home. The rent was cheap so she was able to keep it otherwise she would be forced to take to the street. Others life her were luckier, they could get jobs in the defense industry, but she refused to hurt anymore than she already had and so she had tried her hand…her paws at other careers, but it was hard for a furry, tall, obviously non-human to find employment through regular channels. She knew a few kind people who took in charity supernatural cases and they had graciously agreed to pay rent for the building. Another sniffle broke the chilled silence of the room. Julietta hugged herself closer, her long floral print dress scratching against her long, red fur.

A growl of disgust rumbled through her chest. She was sick of living through the same day of nothing.

****

Daniel H. Harris looked the building over cautiously. He would have written it off as an abandoned monastery if he had not seen the werewolf and vampire enter it. Days before he had been checking up on the vampire Trevor Snow and he had arrived just in time to see the young creature escorted to the building of worship by an old, fierce-looking werewolf. The thirty year old man ran a hand through his spiked red hair, the gel sticking to his fingertips.

He would need to tell the others and see what the leaders wanted him to do, until they replied he would keep away so as not to raise any suspicions. This could mean great new allies for the cause or a possible fracture in their plan to Reform the way the world dealt with abnormal beings. Daniel reached into his pocket, felt around for a moment and frowned. He had left the device at home. A sigh escaped from between his lips and with an eye roll at his own lack of foresight, he turned on his heel and began the long trudge homeward.

****

All those long years ago Julietta had looked out her window, eyes shadowed with a deep sadness, and she had seen a form walking down the street, it’s back to her view. She had pushed her shuddering body to a standing position. She had ran for the door, sprinting down the single flight of stairs that lead to the ground level. The young woman had been out the door and down the rain drenched sidewalk in moments, her strangled voice yelling after the form.

“Wait!”

Seth had turned to face her, his red eyes glowing with curiosity and alarm.

“Wait!”

The woman had met up with him at the intersection, at the edge of the broken sidewalk. She had looked at him with a mixture of awe and hope. Twenty years later she would still look at him with that strange mixture that had turned her world upside down in the course of one wary glance into the world.

****

Seth let Jade leave his quarters. He knew that she would need as much support as he and the others could offer her, but he also knew that ultimately the choice to change and become something different rested entirely on her shoulders. If she did not want to take up the strange path that had lead her to this new life then nothing he said could change that. She would have to make up her own mind. Until then he would be there to help show her the way. A light in the darkness of uncertainty.

Once alone again, he looked over at the dresser set against the far wall. He could see Julietta’s picture there, her glowing smile warming him as he felt her hands on his arm. Even though she was dead he could still feel the presence of her soul. It’s kindness and forgiveness and caring saturated everything in the monastery. His eyes closed and he let his hands fall open, an invitation to her lingering form.

“I love you, Julietta Lightbarer.” He spoke softly, his voice a deep purr. “Then, now and forever.”

****

Trevor saw a half-open door just off the hall he had been following for some time. His curiosity aroused, the young vampire walked towards it. Peeking inside he saw nothing at first and then a small keen drew his attention to the form pressed against the wall, shivering.

He pushed the door open a little more. There was a young woman sobbing on the floor, he took a small step into the room.

“Excuse me, are you alright?” He asked hesitantly.

She glanced up, wiping at her eyes in embarrassment. “No. I’m fine.”

Trevor smiled uncertainly. “You don’t look fine. I can get Seth if you need -.”

“No!” She said more forcefully. “I’m fine. Just…I just.” Her tears began anew, cascading down her face in a river of pain and despair. “I just lost my family.”

Trevor felt a pang of empathy. He took another step forward, his voice lowering. “I know how you feel.” He told her honestly. “I lost my family too.”

“I’m sorry.” She said through a sniffle. “How did they die.”

Trevor wanted to lean down and wipe her tears away, his heart breaking at the sight of her grief.

“They didn’t die.” He explained. “I did.”

Her gasp of surprised had been expected but when she drew away, her eyes going wide with rage, Trevor felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. She meant to murder him, he could see it in her eyes. He turned and ran, his footsteps echoing loudly off the walls of the hallway.

“Seth!”

“Seth!”

He heard her scream seconds after his own cry for help, but she sounded like a warrior calling for backup. Trevor used all the super-human powers at his control to remain mere steps in front of the young woman. She was much faster than she looked. Panting, Trevor ran for his life.

****

Seth met the two youngsters at an intersection of the hallway. He grabbed them each by the arm, holding them still with an iron grip. Both tried to pull away, Trevor out of fear and Tamlina out of pure hatred. Seth felt sympathy for them both. This was not going to be an easy introduction. He would have liked to have kept them separated during their stay.

“You should have asked for a guided tour if you wished to check out the premises.” Seth told Trevor with a small shake of his head. “I would have referred you and she not to have met under such conditions.”

“So, you knew he was here! Him! A vampire!” Tamlina’s face turned a light shade of red, she glared angrily at the werewolf. “I thought you were looking out for me.”

“I am, young one.” Seth replied softly. He sighed. “Trevor is not your typical vampire.”

“So, he doesn’t drink blood? He doesn’t kill innocent people!” She directed the last at Trevor with venom in her voice.

“No. Not anymore.” Seth said.

“Anymore? What, is this some kind of joke?” Tamlina mocked.

“No.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Trevor spoke up for the first time, defending himself. “I never wanted to hurt anyone.”

Tamlina ground her teeth together to control herself. “Yeah? Says you!”

“I’m sorry. Okay. I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”

Tamlina refused to hear the contrition and self-loathing on those honest words. All she allowed herself to hear was the lies of a hostile vampire.

“I can’t stay here. Not with that.” She spat on Trevor’s sleeve.

****

Seth knew that it would take a lot of work to get those two understanding each other, but he also knew that in order for them to survive the coming months in the isolated company of the monastery, they would need to learn to work together and fast. They had to at least be able to tolerate the each other in order to survive in the isolated monastery lifestyle.

STORY

2008-11-19T22:29:00.000-08:00

HUMAN MONSTER: SUPERNATURAL FANFICTION
Human Monster
By Ebbtide

Summary: Dean helps a woman in need. Not all monsters are of the supernatural variety.

Yells sound from the other side of the hotel wall. There is a sound of a fight, something gets smashed. Dean rolls over in his sleep, bone-weary from the last week of Hunting. He buries his head under the pillow and tries to get his tired muscles relaxed so he can sleep. It has been days since his last hotel room and he does not want to waste the money. It is getting harder to come by these days.

A sharp scream is cut off almost as soon as it starts. There is a louder crash on the other side of the thick barrier. Muffled voices raise in anger and pain. Dean Winchester looks over at his young brother Sam and is not surprised to find that the dark haired man is still asleep. It has been a very hard few days for Sam Winchester especially. With a sigh, Dean pushes himself up.

There would be no more sleep for him. Not for a while.

He hears the door to the room next to theirs open and then slam closed. Dean feels relieved that whatever the occupants had been fighting over - the fight was, in fact, over. He sighs again and runs a hand through his short blond hair. Why can life never be simple. Even the act of sleeping has become too complicated to achieve.

He eyes the door with discontent and longing. The night air in southern California is a balm to his ravaged skin, but he feels too tired to move. With a low, weary groan the Hunter pushes to his feet and slips a jacket over his bare shoulders. Outside he feels the warmth soak into his body and a smile forms across his face. To stay there and never leave is impossible, but so fondly dreamed of. Dean let his head fall forward, eyes closed in tired distress.

He knows that the woman has been watching him ever since he exited his room. It was for this very meeting that he has forced his exhausted body to walk into the cement parking lot. He hears her sniffle for a moment and knows that tears are likely hidden by the shadowy veil of night.

“You should leave him.” Dean says softly, his voice carrying in the stillness.

The woman freezes in fear and surprise. He hears her breathing come in quick gasps. She scared of him, this attention that he has given her, and rightfully so if the earlier argument is any kind of meter for him to judge her life by. Men could be such monsters, Dean thinks with sadness.

“I promise, I won’t hurt you.” He adds without looking up or opening his eyes. He is content to stay unmoving - his aching back and ribs begs for just such inaction. It is his mind that will not let him go back to rest. It is his beating heart that refuses to leave this woman without options or encouragement.

A warm breeze washes over him and for a brief moment he forgets about everything. The woman, his brother and the life that he never chose. All of his worries fades for a single moment in the wake of feeling so peaceful. He feels the urge to cry when the moment ends.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The woman begins to deny, but Dean has heard this story many times and he quickly cuts her off with a firm, but calm statement.

“He hurts you. We both know it and now is a chance for you to do something about it.”

“I fell.” She begins with a motion that he hears, but does not see. He assumes that she is covering up whatever new injury her man has given her as a threat for the future. Dean has seen this all so many times in the past.

Women used and abused by human monsters. Not all evil crawls in the night on the words of a devil tongue. Dean turns to face the woman for the first time, his hazel eyes boring into her frightened blue gaze. He sees the fear in them, the servitude she has forced upon herself. He knows better than to take that step in her direction that comfort begs to walk. He remains unmoving and just looks into her battered soul.

“You’re stronger than he is - you’re stronger than you think.” He assures softly.

The woman wipes at her eyes, smearing a line of mascara down her cheek. Dean wants to wipe those tears away, erase her pain so stark in the open night air. He practically feels her anxiety pouring off in waves of emotion. It is then that he sees her hands are shaking. She hides it well. Practice is hope’s enemy.

“I don’t know what you mean.” She says in a choked voice that wavers dangerously even as she tries to exude a poise she does not own. “I’m fine. He‘s just had a bad day. It‘s nothing, don‘t bother yourself over it.” She laughs a little, dead laugh.

Dean shakes his head. “We both know better than that. He owns you.”

It is a truth that is read so easily on her open face. She is not the closed book that she likes to imagine. Dean has seen this so many times before. Every one of them is his mother. Broken inside, wanting something more. Needing to believe in something better and right. He sees Mary Winchester’s green eyes begging for a new life.

Dean blinks. His tired mind has blurred together his mother’s features with those of this stranger. He turns away again and looks out at the horizon of city lights. The woman is not his responsibility, but still he feels for her in a way that is so very personal.

“I can help you get out of town.” He offers with an invisible sigh. “He won’t find you, I promise.”

She wants so badly to take him up on that offer, but there are so many doubts holding her back. She bites her lip, tears spilling down her chin.

“How can you be sure?”

He glances at her sideways, his eyes hold firm resolve. “You aren’t the first one I’ve helped. Trust me and I will get you somewhere safe.”

She takes a small step forward, hugs herself tight and then steps backward. “I-I don’t know.”

“You can trust me….”

“Mary.”

The blinks come more rapidly as he tries to keep his tired mind in line. It hurts him to see her pain so real. She has his mother’s name.

“Mary Wilson.” She supplies weakly. “If you are sure…then.” Her eyebrows draw together. “All of my stuff is in the room.”

“I have money. We can get you new stuff.” Dean supplies quickly. He knows the first few minutes are the hardest, but if he can get her to see the possibility of life without her slavery to an abusive man then she will make it. “Come one. We can leave right now.”

His eyes are bloodshot from lack of sleep, but the night hides this fact from the woman. To her, Dean Winchester is a knight riding in with an impossible gift: freedom.

“Yes.” She whispers.

Dean smiles a little. “Good. I need to pack quickly and then we’ll be gone.”

As he passes her on his way back into his hotel room, Dean pauses and gently puts a hand on her shoulder. The expected flinch does not make him back away. He is now close enough for her to see the sincerity in his expression.

“Don’t worry, Mary Wilson, you’re safe now.”

****

Mary sits in the back seat of the Impala surrounded by the earthly possessions of the Winchester boys. She figures them for a couple on vacation, but something about this theory does not quite fit. She knows theirs is a story she will never hear.

A second man, Sam, sleeps in the passenger seat - soft snores confess his tiredness. She feels guilt over the fact that she has caused these men so much trouble, but as the miles fall behind them she also feels hope-renewed spring up inside the well of her soul. She looks out the side window with new eyes. No drunken boyfriend to hold her back or force the dreams from her spirit. She is a free woman.

“Thank you.” She says aloud for the tenth time in as many minutes. The gratitude will never be expressed fully in words. “You saved me.”

She sees Dean glance back at her in the rearview mirror. He smiles a tiny, half-smile that speaks of a weariness no one should have to shoulder. “It was your choice to leave. You saved you - I‘m just a glorified exit-driver.”

He winks in jest and she laughs softly, freely. With no boundaries to constrict her any longer, Mary Wilson looks ahead to a new life and a new purpose.

THE END.

Another Kind Of Mercy3 - Incongruous

2008-11-19T14:32:00.000-08:00

ANOTHER KIND OF MERCY

A light drizzle rained feeling on the pale, dead skin of a young vampire. A pile of freshly dug earth mixed to mud and dripped steadily over the still body. The boy’s human name had been Trevor Snow and he had been nineteen the night he had been bitten nearly two years before. Unlike normal humans, the body of one bitten by a vampire did not rot and decay at a quick rate. Sometimes it would take decades for the first signs to manifest.

Warm hands pried open the stiff mouth of the corpse, pink fingers pulling out a clove of garlic. The hands threw the garlic well beyond the confines of the small cemetery, then they reached down. A thin silver knife nailed the soul into the body that had housed it faithfully for so long. It was carefully extracted and tossed to the side.

Daniel H. Harris pulled himself out of the grave. In five minutes the vampire would re-awaken, hungry and alive. The thirty-year-old man wiped his hands on his faded blue jeans, adjusted his coat and walked calmly away.

Daniel let his troubled blue eyes focus on the grassy plots of the graveyard and then the indifferent gray of the sidewalk. In five minutes time he would be on a bus and halfway across the city. He had saved a soul from eternal captivity and in several hours time he would find another graveyard and another vampire to free. Daniel Harris was a Reformer.

The Reformers had started off as a group of three humans against cruelty to paranormal creatures. Their protests had started small, slowly building momentum as the number of their followers increased over the years. Now they were several thousand strong, although they worked hard to remain under the radar.

Finally, the time had come for them to exert their power over change. Freeing the vampires was just one step that would lead to peace among the different creatures of the planet earth. Not all of them were valued or accepted, yet, but the Reformers would soon change that reality. Fifty major cities, a hundred Reformers in all, simultaneously finding and rescuing as many vampires as possible. The clan of the undead would soon be reunited. Daniel felt confident that his choice had been the right one.

All living beings deserved a life - vampires were no exception in David’s mind. He reached the bus station just in time to step onto the waiting transportation. He claimed an empty seat in the far back, he let his gaze drift out the window towards the cemetery where his latest charity case would be gasping fresh air, hungering for life blood.

There was no guilt over the fact that an innocent might die that night. Daniel was a firm believer in Fate. If it was meant to happen then nothing would be able to prevent it. Everything happened for a reason, the man was certain of this ultimate truth.

He let his eyes close, leaning his head back against the seat. He could feel eyes on him, the other passengers curiosity drawing them to the man with the spiked red hair, black leather coat and ragged, fingerless gloves. In stark contrast of this grunge, punk look were the softened expression on his angelic face. No piercing or tattoos marred the delicate, almost feminine features that had garnered him hundreds of stares over the long years of his life.

The drizzle outside turned into a downpour as Daniel relaxed even further, slumping down in the seat, his coat hugged tight around his body. His pale pink mouth fell into a thin line as he tried to remember the address of his next target. He had made the mistake of forgetting his little black book that morning. A soft sigh escaped from between his lips. He would need to buy another shovel.

****

Trevor Snow choked on his own dry tongue. He tried to swallow, tried desperately to breath air into his lungs, but something was very wrong. Scared brown eyes widened at the feeling of vertigo that swept over him, blurring his vision into a twisted image of a claustrophobic grave. He screamed in fear and jerked upright in the coffin.

“Help!” He yelled, his lungs finally filling with crisp air.

No one responded to his cry and he did not wait to find out why. Fear pumped through his body, his heart speeding up to match the adrenaline flowing through his veins. He stood up, unsteady on legs that felt like they had never been used. He felt his stomach rebel and then he gagged, unable to expel contents that no longer existed.

The taste of garlic in his mouth made him heave again and again. Cold, stiff fingers clawed into the dirt sides of the grave as Trevor pulled himself painfully out of the pit. He lay panting on the ground above, unwilling to look around himself for several long minutes.

A downpour of rain left him choking again, this time on cold water from the heavens. The young man’s jaw worked automatically as he swallowed the liquid. His body craved liquid. His eyebrows drew together in confusion. Not water though. Something else, something thick and heavy and full of life. His gasps came in shorter bursts.

****

Natalia Drummer walked as quickly as she dared in four inch heels over rainy cement. She held an umbrella covered in cartoon cats and dogs over her head. Long, wavy red hair fell over her shivering shoulders. It had been a long day at work and the dancer wanted nothing more than to get out of the weather. Her jacket had been stolen during break and she was left with barely anything to cover her pristine form. A tight, golden leather dress hugged her body, pushing her breasts upwards and affording no heat. She hunched her shoulders, keeping her head down.

The cemetery off to her right gave her even more of an incentive to walk the three blocks to her apartment as fast as possible. She glanced over her shoulder towards the main gates of the graveyard and relaxed a fraction to see that they were still safely padlocked from the outside. She had a fear of ghosts that had been instilled over years of watching Stephen King movies with her late boyfriend. He had been into the “Goth” scene and she had humored his strange idiosyncrasies. At least, until he had brought out the leather binding straps. She saw enough freaks at her work.

A dancer was the formal title she used to introduce herself to new acquaintances, but stripper was the street term.

Natalia felt someone watching her which was not unusual considering her get-up, but it made her hurry a little faster all the same. She was practically jogging in heels meant for nothing beyond a brisk walk. Her eyes grew wide with fear and she forced herself to remain calm. She gripped her house keys in one hand, ready to fight if it came to that. She took a deep, steadying breath and tried to resist the urge to glance over her shoulder again.

Footsteps sounded behind her, she tensed.

****

Daniel H. Harris had found his next subject.

A folding shovel had cost an extra fifteen dollars, but it was money well spent. He went to work digging up the grave - a time consuming and exhausting effort that would reap a giant reward. Another vampire would be freed onto a world that should have never shunned or forgotten the majestic creatures. Once human they had been turned into something beautiful and immortal. David felt sweat soak through his shirt, muscles aching after his previous job.

One more grave and then he would call it a night and go home to his fish and plants. Not a relationship man, David had been waiting for love to come to him. So far it had been a lonely life. He had no one beyond a distant cousin whom he never spoke to and the Reformers. They had been like a second family to him and now he did their work religiously.

He had six feet and two minutes to go. Then it was back home to his plants and fish.

****

Trevor shadowed the woman, his thirst and hunger growing by the second. He wanted to taste her blood. It felt so strange and yet so right. He shook his head, ran a hand through his brown hair and at last gave into the compulsion.

He was surprised at how good it felt, how easy it had been to kill. The initial spring that had felled her left him wondering at his own super-human abilities, but Trevor gave it little thought after his first bite had allowed him access to the crimson life that flowed inside her veins. The woman had tasted so beautiful and kind. He could sense her character through her lifeblood. It gave him goose bumps.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he questioned his actions. A law of human nature still ingrained in his conscious. It would fade with time, as it always did in the minds of vampires. They slowly but steadily grew out of their old natures. Trevor had no idea what had happened to him or what would happen later all he had a clear grasp on was the present and the insatiable hunger for more. More blood and more life.

A tongue snaked out between blood covered lips to gratefully lap up what was left of the meal he had enjoyed thoroughly. The last few spilled drops coming off the dead woman’s warm neck easily. He stood to his feet.

The sounds of the city played around him in a tune of oblivious self-absorption. The teenage body was clothed by the same suit he had been buried in so long before, but the clothing had grown old and tattered by the ravages of time. He looked down at his bloody shirt front and unceremoniously ripped it off with the same impossible strength he had used to murder.

Thick, dark eyebrows fell in a confused glower, his brow furrowing as he thought threw the last few days of his memories. They were shady and broken, splintered around an attack of some kind. Waking in a graveyard did little to dissuade his growing doubt. Fear clawed to get out, but Trevor took a steadying breath, letting the cold air on his exposed chest draw him back to the present. He needed clothes and the rest of his questions he could answer later. When he had more to drink.

He wiped at the red blood on his face, it smeared across the back of his hand.

****

Seth looked over his shoulder, wary of the shadows moving just outside the scope of his vision. He sniffed the air with his long, dark snout at the suspicious behavior. He hated going outside the monastery. Holy ground kept his family and he safe, but on the rare occasion he had no choice in the matter.

There had been talk of a new vampire, a young one, in the neighborhood and he wished to offer an alternative to the fledgling. Seth was the overseer for an underground safe house for those of supernatural tendencies that wished to change their lives. He was more than that, Seth was a werewolf. He understood the pressures and the fears.

The early evening’s soft drizzle had finally abated, but his breath still came out in sharp clouds of condensation. The creature looked through glowing red eyes at the silent world. It was well past midnight and he had the next three blocks to himself. A dim moon hung low in the sky, veiled by the smog and smoke from an active city. Seth shrugged his cloak closer about him and moved quickly through the distance separating him from his target. Rumors had put the young vampire in an abandoned warehouse near the waterfront district.

Seth hurried faster, his pawed feet pattering softly along the damp cement. He had thirty minutes before his children had been instructed to send help. Vampires were dangerous creatures and he did not want to get bitten.

****

Daniel H. Harris took a bite of his yogurt, sighing as he leaned back in the kitchen chair. It had been a good day, a long day. Three vampires had been released from their forced captivity. He would report the numbers to the Reformers in the morning. For now, he was ready to just have a cold beer and get some sleep.

Ten minutes later he watered his plants, fed his fish and then flicked off the lights. Through the semi-darkness illuminated only by the streetlights outside he made his way to the bed.

Tomorrow would come soon enough. The clock read past midnight.

****

Seth glanced cautiously around the front of the building before attempting to access a side door. The warehouse was large and smelled strongly of rats. The werewolf ran a pawed hand over his thickly furred face. He hated rats.

Scratching and the soft patter of tiny feet greeted him when the door was pushed silently open. Inside was dark, but his red eyes could easily distinguish the forms within. Boxes and barrels stacked and then deserted were trailing dust and cobwebs. The floor was covered in boot prints. All the same size, all small. Either a woman or a young man.

Seth sniffed the air - he felt no presence, but vampires were always difficult to sense. He walked further into the warehouse, passing a tall stack of boxes on his left. He cocked his head to one side, his advanced hearing had distinguished a sound that did not fit. He knew that if the vampire was present, it had already become aware of him, there was no reason to keep hiding.

“My name is Seth…I have come…to help.” The werewolf spoke loudly, pulling down the hood to reveal his own creaturely features. “You have nothing to fear from me.”

“What are you.”

Seth’s keen hearing could not pinpoint the origin of the voice. He stepped further into an open space towards the middle of the warehouse. He looked around, his peripheral vision picking up movement on the far left corner of the ceiling. He stood very still.

“Why don’t you come out so that we can talk about it.” Seth invited calmly. “I’m not going to hurt you, vampire.”

There was a gasp from the ceiling. Seth could make out a dark shape moving down the wall. He opened his hands, ready to defend himself with four inch long claws, their dark color blending with his brown robe. He watched the shape reach the floor and flit from cover to cover until the glowing red eyes could just make out a young man. Pale, scared and half-naked. The vampire approached hesitantly, distrust emanating from him in waves. The werewolf could smell the young creature’s fear.

“I am not going to hurt you.” He repeated the reassurance. “Unless I have to.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?” The young creature asked, his words laced with sarcasm.

“I guess my answer to your question hinges on you answering mine…honestly.” Seth replied. “Have you killed anyone?”

The young non-human flinched away, taking a step back towards the shadows. “I didn’t mean to! You have to believe me, I didn’t understand what I was…what I was doing…what I had become.” He took a shuddering breath. “None of it made sense then. Until I learned the truth.”

This grabbed Seth’s attention. “Who told you ‘the truth’, boy?”

“My name is Trevor - Trevor Snow.”

Seth grunted in acknowledgement, his red gaze focused intently on the boy. “And? What was this entities name?”

Trevor took a small step in the direction of the werewolf, once it seemed evident to him that Seth was not going to try anything. The young creature hugged himself with cold arms trying to bring back a heat that would never again fill his being. He still could not truly fanthom the idea that he was a walking dead.

“He said his name was Daniel H. Harris.”

“H. Harris?” Seth raised a furry eyebrow.

The boy shrugged. “He was kind of weird about it too, making sure that I remembered his full name like that. He said that history was being made - that freedom was coming.”

Seth frowned. That sounded like the talk of a Reformer. He had met a few in his day and they made his skin crawl.

“Did this Harris mention anything about Reformers?”

The young vampire shook his head, brown eyes wide. “No. He just told me his name, said that thing about freedom and then he took off. I tried to follow him, but he lost me on a bus route. That’s when I stumbled across this place.”

Seth hated asking the question, but it was necessary. He took a deep breath, trying to find the right way to phrase the words. Delicate situations were often times so easily turned volatile. He would have to handle this young vampire with care.

“How many souls have you drank?” He asked quietly, no condemnation in his voice.

Trevor’s eyes widened further and his self-hug tightened. “A few.”

“I was afraid of that.” Defeat bled into Seth’s voice. “Did you turn any of them?”

The boy vehemently shook his head. “No.”

“You’re sure.”

“I’m positive. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want any of this.” His voice choked with emotion Trevor bowed his head. “It’s all a nightmare.”

****

Daniel H. Harris tapped his fingers in a staccato rhythm on the table-top in his apartment. He sat staring at the half-eaten bowl of rice sitting in front of him, steam and delicious scent distracting him further. The Reformer knew that he had forgotten to do something the day before, but what that something happened to be, he could not remember. His brow furrowed deeply as he thought over all of his actions the day before trying to pinpoint the exact moment he had noticed something missing.

He remembered the three vampires before dinner. The shovel! He had forgotten his shovel at the last gravesite. Daniel clenched his jaw in agitation. Losing to shovels in one night made him more than irritated at himself. He pushed the bowl of rice away, no longer hungry.

A frown turned down the corners of the Reformers mouth.

****

Seth lead Trevor Snow into the front door of the monestary. The youngster hesitated a few steps inside, his dark gaze flitting nervously over the religious room.

“Are you sure that the crosses won’t hurt me or something?” He asked with concern. “I’ve seen a lot of movies. I know that vampires aren’t suppose to go on sacred ground.”

Seth chuckled dryly. “Movies are not considered real for a reason. You will be fine. There are other vampires staying with me, but all have taken an oath to abstain from drinking human blood.” His tone turned low and serious. “You are only allowed inside my home as long as you hold to this oath.”

Trevor nodded in acceptance. “I understand.” He gulped before adding softly. “I never wanted anyone to die. If I could take back those few murders…I wouldn’t hesitate. It was pure instinct driving me and I hope it never happens again.”

Seth patted the boys cold shoulder reassuringly. “We will see to that, do not worry.”

Family Matters2 - Incongruous

2008-11-18T11:22:00.000-08:00

Family Matters

She steps carefully over the pile of fresh, dark earth. It is no secret why she is there, in the middle of the night, surrounded by darkness and moonlight. Family and friends have chosen to ignore these little trips into the graveyard. They look past the nightmare actions that she makes each night.

The young woman, seventeen and looking every year of it, has long dark hair that falls straight against pale skin. Her almond colored eyes are forever squinted into a hard expression of stoicism. Her name is Tamlina Gray and she is a vampire slayer. A thankless job that has brought her more pain than praise.

This night, she stares down into the freshly dug grave. Any moment now the full moon will rise and the ghost of the vampire victim laying in the coffin below will be released into the world.

Tamlina knows how to stop this terrible event from happening. She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a pair of silver scissors.

Removing her gloves, so as not to get dirt stains on them, she crawls carefully into the grave, one foot on either side of the coffin, she prepares herself for the sight within. It never gets easier, but she squares her shoulders and pulls back the lid. Inside the remains of a nineteen year old man are composed into a picture of endless slumber. She swallows hard, flinching at the thought of what she has to do next.

The scissors glint in the low light, twin blades of justice and revenge. She brandishes them with a familiarity of a lover, her hands tightening their grip as she swings her arm at a downward angle. The sickening sound of flesh being stabbed makes her feel revulsion at the deed overshadowed by the knowledge that it had been the right move. An hour later and the vampire would have risen from its new grave. Tamlina Gray would not stand for another vampire to be allowed life. They all deserved to be killed before they chose to take the lives of innocents.

She knew from personal experience just how devastating a vampire attack could be - stealing the life of a loved one without a single thought of regret or remorse. Tamlina let the scissors stay inside the dead body, the handles poking out at odd angles, then she reached under her shirt and fingered the necklace of garlic cloves hanging against her skin. They would need to be placed inside the dead body’s mouth. She hated this part.

A droll drizzle starts at that second and she shivers inside her thin coat. Winter was through and cold weather was suppose to be gone. With a heavy sigh, Tamlina blew a bang out of her blue eyes and, with a quick flick of her wrist, dislodged a clove of garlic from the necklace. Reaching down into the coffin she pried open the dead man’s jaw and thrust the clove inside. The garlic would keep the soul from manifesting outside the body, the silver would keep the body dead. As long as neither were disturbed, the vampire would never be allowed to live. She closed the coffin lid.

She crawled out of the grave and stood, looking down at the lavish wooden box. Tamlina patted the dust off her hands, her job was done. Any moment the graveyard attendant she had bribed would return to fill in the gravesite. Adjusting her coat, hugging her warmth to herself, the teenage girl walks towards the graveyard exit. It was almost sunset and she needed to get home before curfew.

Tamlina Gray had not been a vampire hunter for more than five years, but they had been very intense years filled with weapons training, research and hunts. The dark haired girl had become very adept at spotting and killing the creatures. It was a personal crusade that brought her family together. Five years before, they had lost Timothy Gray to a vampire - her older brother and confidant - to the violent whims of a bloodthirsty hell raiser. Now, she spent her nights hunting down those wicked animals. Human husks without a soul.

Just out of her site a dark shape flitted between shadows.

*****

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, carefree 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.

****

Screams. Someone was screaming. Her brothers were screaming.

Tamlina jerked awake, her body instantly alert. Her hand closed around the throwing star in a hidden pocket within the pillowcase. She tucked it into her palm and jumped to her feet in one quick, graceful moment.

The young woman opened her door and peeked out into the hallway. She could see no one between herself and the stairway. There was a loud noise downstairs followed by another bloodcurdling scream.

“Janice!”

Tamlina flinched at her father’s desperate cry. Something awful was happening downstairs and she had to stop it. She reached behind her dresser, beside the door to her room, and pulled out a hidden throwing knife set. There were six slim blades holstered together in a compact leather case. Tamlina took a calming breath before stealthily exiting her room and walking to the head of the stairs. There she waited, carefully glancing over the railing into the open living room area below. What she saw made her stomach knot in fear.

“Daddy!”

“Mom!”

The twins were seated back-to-back on the floor, bound by a thick rope. Tamlina felt all the blood rush from her face. There was blood soaking through the collars of their matching sweatshirts. She had to swallow the urge to vomit when she saw both of her parents, similar bloody wounds on their necks, tied to the two living room lounge chairs. A stranger stood in the middle of the room, wearing a long black cloak with a hood. Tamlina could not see the face of the stranger, but she knew what it was - a vampire had just killed her entire family.
She wanted to scream, run, cry and kill something. Her almond eyes squinted into slivers of pure rage. Jaw clenched she vaulted over the railing towards the killer. Her body slammed heavily into the tall creature, knocking them both to the ground.

“I’ll kill you! You killed my family, I’ll kill you!” Tamlina heard herself yelling harshly.

The creature rolled out from under her and tried to stand, she grabbed it’s ankle and stabbed with the silver throwing star. An otherworldly sound of pain erupts from the hooded vampire. Tamlina goes to her knees, dislodges the weapon and then lunges to her feet, doing a back flip to give herself some fighting room. The last thing she wants is to become another of the monster’s helpless victims. Gripping the star she judges the wounded vampire. The silver has poisoned it, but not lethally. She could take care of that real quick.

With an expert flick of her wrist she sends the star whistling through the air until it comes to a stop, imbedded in the heart of her family’s killer. The vampire dropped with a shriek. She sneered down at the writhing form.

“I told you I’d kill you.” The girl’s voice shook.

“Tam?”

A broken voice whispered from behind her, she turned. Jared’s brown eyes were wide and staring.

“What is that?” The boy asked softly. “What happened? Where’s Dad and Mom?”

She felt tears prickle against her eyelashes. Her chin shivered as emotions took over now that the crisis was over. Her family - her dead family - was waiting for her to rescue them. A part of her soul died at that realization. Tamlina bit her lip. Tears slipped down her face.

“I’m so sorry, Jared.” She knelt down in front of him, her eyes drawn to the blood-soaked sweater. The thick liquid had pooled around him on the floor, in a flood of red life-essence. She looked away, brushing at the tears.

“What is it, Tam?” Jared’s voice grew panicked. “Are you hurt? Why are you crying?”

He did not know that he had been killed. Tamlina felt her breath freeze in her lungs, she could not move. This could not be real. The teenager collapsed to her hands and knees, broken under the innocent gaze of her younger brother.

“Tamlina.” Janice Gray spoke from the chair.

Tamlina looked up, her eyes meeting those of her mother. She found her father’s unmoving, slumped form on the other side of the room and swallowed hard. Everything was happening to fast, this could not be real. She repeated that in her mind as her body starved for air.

“Tamlina, you know what to do.” Her mother said softly, voice breaking at the end.

“I-I can’t.”

The older woman nodded slowly, painfully. “You have to, honey.”

“I won’t.” Tamlina choked out. “How can I?”

“Mommy? What’s happening?” Jared asked, his voice raising in alarm.

Tamlina sniffed, tears cascading down her cheeks. “Please, don’t ask me to do this.” She begged.

Janice Gray closed her eyes, resting her head back on the chair. “You don’t have a choice, honey. You know what will happen to all of us if you don’t do it. I am sorry.”

Tamlina could not even respond, her throat closing up painfully. She held the silver throwing knives loosely in one hand. There was garlic in the kitchen. She’d have to bury the bodies, alone. If the police found them, they would remove the knives and garlic, thus releasing the vampire soul. Tamlina could not even contemplate ever doing such a repulsive thing. Killing strangers was one thing, killing her entire family another entirely. She hesitated, unwilling to give in to what she knew needed to be done.

“Call Seth.”

Tamlina blinked up at her mother, she should have thought of the man. Seth would help them, he was a werewolf they had known for years. His family and he lived in an old, broken-down monastery several blocks away. He would help her do this horrible thing. He would understand.

“What?” Jared asked again, frustrated now that no one was answering his questions.

Tamlina ran a hand through his short, dark hair and kissed the dead boy’s forehead before standing to her feet. She would have to be fast, the neighbors would be getting suspicious soon, especially if they had heard the screaming. She would have to run.

***

“Seth.” A breathless Tamlina fell to her knees, heart pounding against her chest. She motioned over her shoulder in the general direction of her home. “They’re dead. My family, they’re all dead. I need your help.”

The furred, lank creature bent down to extend a helping hand, she took it and the werewolf carefully pulled her up. His eyes glowed red, but concerned wrinkles around them overshadowed any fearsome quality. Tamlina’s hands shivered uncontrollably inside his own. The werewolf hugged her for a brief moment. He smelled of damp fur, not quite unlike a dog.

“We have to hurry, they’ll change - the police - and then digging the graves.” Tamlina’s said. Her thoughts refused to order themselves and she found herself babbling incoherently to the furry family friend.

“Shhh, child.” Seth soothed her with his calming tone. “Let us go take care of this unpleasantness.”

***

Tamlina stood in the pouring rain, letting the damp soak through her skin to cool the aching loneliness lodged in her heart. She had done what needed to be done and the betrayed, haunting eyes of Jared would forever end her sleep-filled nights. A horrible thing to ask of anyone, she had been forced to kill her family before they could do the same to others. While it was possible to sate the bloodthirsty cravings a vampire was born with, very few actually managed it long-term.

It would have been a perfect hell for her parents and brothers to live through that. Now they did not have to, she had seen to it. With Seth’s help.

The werewolf had move the bodies, without a moment to spare as the police sirens had echoed off the walls of the house. They had escaped to the cemetery behind the monastery. The ritual took no time at all and Tamlina had focused on the job that she could do in her sleep - vampire killing. The fact that it was her family, she forced into the back of her mind. There would be plenty of time to mourn their loss in the empty years to come.

The darkness was silent except for the occasional sound of a car passing outside the walls of the cemetery.

Tears mingled with cold raindrops, both a reflection of the gaping hole in her heart. Pain magnified each time her eyes strayed to those freshly dug graves. The earth soaking up the water pouring from heaven as if thirsty for life. Tamlina watched through a blurred vision as her world slowly turned from night into sunrise. Pink flecks on the horizon mixing with gray clouds to guide the sun into the sky. She would never smile at that sight again.

A weariness embraced her soul then, an exhaustion that seemed to go beyond the physical. She would never be able to get past that night, at least, that was how she felt. Her soul had died with her family.

What Have I Done 1 - Incongruous

2008-11-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

What Have I Done

Cold blood pounds through my veins, adrenaline causing my thoughts to blur as I force myself to stand on the swaying earth. There was never a chance to make a different choice and now I will have to live with the consequences forever.

Compelled into a decision I would have killed not to make, I look down at the dead body at my feet. My name is Jade Suon and I have just died. The body, laying so pale and alone in the darkness of an empty city park, is my own. Shadows obscure the familiar features, long dark hair curled around bloody shoulders. I have shed one form of living for another.

A pink edge to the horizon warns of the coming dawn and with tears in my eyes I step over the unmoving form and walk away, following a concrete path to the edge of the park where I hail a taxi cab. The driver in the yellow vehicle does not notice anything odd about me. How could he? I have not changed in any outer sense, my appearance still the same. I look like the Jade Suon that had so naively wandered into the danger of the park.

Cold raindrops begin to fall against the window as I look out at the lights, buildings and people that pass by in a slow flash of life.

My name is Jade Suon and I have just died.

My name is Jade Suon and I will now start living a new life.

***

Twenty minutes later I stumbled over the welcome mat inside my small, two room apartment. My first instinct is to call Terra Wright, my best friend, and tell her everything that had just transpired. I immediately dismiss the idea as I reach down to untie my blue sneakers. My fingers are shaking as they pull out the rough bow and loosen the laces.

Adrenaline is still keeping my heartbeat elevated as I enter the room, shedding my thick winter coat and shoulder bag. I want the nervousness to end, the anxiety to stop, but it does not. Outside my living room window the sky has turned a strawberry red, the clouds swirling in the pattern of sunrise. I see the edges of the sun poking over the buildings on the horizon and I shudder. I know what my new life means. No more sunshine on my bare skin.

I walk quickly across the room and pull the dark, thick drapes over the window to shield me from the haunting view. It is a painful reminder of a life that will never again be mine again. For once, I am glad for the unusual thickness of the material. When I bought them online and had them shipped to my apartment it had been a disappointment, now I count it as a miracle.

I enter my bedroom, the window blinds already closed from the night before, I collapse heavily on the end of the bed. I sit there, taking in the silence of my home, my body shaking from shock.

Outside I hear sirens down the street. Maybe they have finally found my body. A morbid fascination with that thought makes me wonder if I should claim it. Should I bury it? What will the police tell my family? How will I explain this mystery away? I shake my head and sigh.

The carpet is warm under my thin ankle socks and I pull them up onto the bed beside me, wrapping my arms around my knees I sit there and think about what I have done.

The choice had not been easy, but at the time I had been dying and the feeling of my life-force draining from my body still haunt my veins. I shivered and hug myself tighter. Yesterday my most pressing concern was getting to work on time. I would never go to work again.

Jade Suon had died in that park, under that bright, full moon. I am a shadow of my former self. A body and a mind with the absence of a soul. I feel a tear spill over my blackened, beautified lashes and I let it fall. The knowledge that I had been forever changed left me with a hole in my heart and a numb haze in my mind. This was a nightmare, but at least I was alive to endure it.

My family. My eyes search out the phone station on the table at the right side of my bed. I could never call them again. As far as they know, I am dead. I will always be dead. Now that I have made my choice.

My mother never knew the truth and my father refused to believe me when I told him. I had always known, from as far back as I can remember, that there was more to the world. Supernatural and paranormal experiences are not restricted to words on the pages of books. No, there were real mysteries and now I was one of them. The living ghost of a dead woman.

What would this new life be like for me. What strange path had I chosen, so desperately, to traverse. I wondered these questions as I let my tears speak of a pain I was still too numb to feel.

The phone rang.

I let it ring. My shoulders shook as a sob escaped and the thought hit me like a load of bricks that my mother could be on the other end. The lights were still off in my apartment and with all of the windows covered, only a small sliver of light could be seen below each frame, a bright line in an otherwise dismally gray home. Another realization came to the forefront of my mind at that moment. I could never call this place home again. After today there would be police and family members and I would have to leave it behind. Start over again somewhere else as someone else. My blue eyes widened.

I would be truly alone. I sniffed, wiping at the dampness on my cheeks with my shirtsleeve. I felt the rough material slide across my skin and for a moment I refused to believe that any of it was real.

***

A vampire had bitten me. The curse of their disease both killing and changing and saving me all at one time. A supernatural triad of actions that only a vampire could revel in. Days before my death I had felt the presence following me. I knew then that it must be something powerful, but had I known it was a vampire I would have tried harder to evade it.

Being a human in a world saturated by mythical, mysterious creatures I always made it my business to keep an eye out for any local additions to my neighborhood of a non-human nature. Polite and obscure as most of them were, they could be easily shadowed by those vicious few who held tight to their savage heritage. I knew that vampires were blood thirsty and immoral, but most of them had died off centuries ago. Very few lived - or haunted - the free land of America.

Not only were vampires extremely rare, they were also very adept at hiding their presence. Mainly due to their experience with humans. They had lived so long among their co-species that it was second nature for them to adopt an easily over-looked disguise. I had known this and as a result my attempts to guard my friends, family and myself had heightened over the years.

I had always know about the existence of strange supernatural creatures, but it was not until my eleventh birthday that I truly came to understand the impact they would have on my life.

On the night of my eleventh birthday I had been visited by the ghost of my Grandmother. She had explained to me that certain women in my family line were gifted with a sixth sense. The ability to perceive paranormal phenomenon in their true forms. Unlike most humans, who saw only what was meant to be seen instead of what was actually there, I was born with my eyes open to the strangeness most could never dream existed. It was a gift that I used to keep myself safe.

I never intentionally interacted with these other-worldly beings, it was not my place, but on occasion I was put into a position where I found myself needing to reveal my secret to help others. It was not something that I was particularly glad to do, no matter what the circumstance, but I could not let anyone else get hurt for my own safety.

My death had been the perfect example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If it had been any other human that had walked through the park that night all that they would have seen was a man and young woman making out on a park bench, lit by a lone lamp. That is not what I saw under that naked light. My trained eyes saw a vampire feeding off a fellow human. I knew what it was from the pictures that my Grandmother had shown me during one of her ghostly visitations.

The woman being attacked had fled as soon as I gave her the chance. How I did that was simple enough. I screamed at the top of my lungs. Then I had called the vampire by his ancestral title. It had been over three minutes later. The woman saved, my dead body growing cold on the ground and the vampire on the loose in a city full of possible victims. A lot of good I had done anyone. Now I was a danger to them.

My heart had finally slowed its harsh beat and I lay back on the soft, queen-sized bed and relax. The phone rang three more times that hour, but I refused to move as my gaze remained glued to the colorless ceiling above me. I knew there was no way I would ever take another human life, but I also knew that I had been transformed by a single bite.

Blood was the key.

I would need to find a place to rebuild my life, to shape into a new form, but I would need to do it in a place where I could access non-human blood. I could not afford to take any chances. I refuse to be responsible for the death of an innocent.

My career background was very specific and I doubted it would be a handy starting point for any new job. I wrote columns for a local paper - at least, that is where I had been employed yesterday, but now Jade Suon no longer existed.

A change of name would be the first on my list of goals for the day. I had always wanted to change my name to Angelina Fontaine. I smiled softly, no wonder vampires chose such ridiculously florid, flamboyant names. When faced with the ability to call oneself anything it left the door wide open for possibilities. I decided to go with Angelina Fontaine and so now all I had to do was figure everything else out.

I would still need money. Society did not have a place for those whose species has changed overnight. No, I would have to forage until a job and a place to stay became available to me.

Twenty minutes later I pulled my traveling case out from under the bed, its white and blue flower print invisible to me in the darkness. Whatever special sight vampires must possess to see clearly in the shadows, I had not yet evolved it. Fumbling through my dresser and closet I packed from memory all of the things that I knew I would need to have with me.

“You should have known better.” A condescending, slightly shaken voice spoke from the corner of the room.

I glanced that way and saw the familiar, transparent form of my long-dead Grandmother, Violet Graham. I nodded a greeting and continued to dig through my sock drawer for the five hundred in cash I kept hidden in there. After a few moments my fingers closed around the thick, paper bundle.

“Being bitten by a vampire is a step backward, indeed.” The old woman’s voice continued accusingly. “Now look what you’ll have to endure. Years on the run until you are able to adjust to this life.”

“I don’t plan on running from anything.” I respond harshly.

“Well, you can’t very well stay here, now can you?” She asked knowingly.

“I mean from my new self, not from the physical geography. I thought you were being metaphorical.” I say in apology.

I hear her sigh, the sound almost hidden by the abrupt zipping noise as I close my luggage. I grab a coat from off of a closet hanger and shrug it over my shoulders, not bothering to put on the arms. Taking the suitcase under one arm, I hurry to the next room and slip into my shoes.

“Where will you go?” Violet voices my own concerned question.

I hesitate at the door, my hand on the brass handle. All that I know and all that I have grown to love is facing my back. When I open that door I will be walking away from it, never to return.

The daylight outside will be problematic, I suddenly think with relief. That means I must wait until nightfall at least before I leave.

The phone rings.

I cannot wait though, police will have to come to my apartment sometime. I feel sweat begin to bead on my forehead. Unsure of what action to pursue, I release the door handle and retreat to my tiny kitchen table.

I hear phantom footsteps follow me into the room and I look up at my Grandmother. She is wearing a too-large sweater of some non-descript gray color and because of its size the sweater hangs well below her waist, covering the awful striped pants worn below. She comes to a stop in front of the table, content to stand there and stare at me condescendingly. I hate it when she gets in one of her moods - usually after I have done something she personally disapproves.

“What?” I ask, my voice tight. “I should have left the girl to die?”

“Yes.”

I gawk at her in disbelief. My Grandmother, Violet, has always been a kind woman in my experience. The harsh, monosyllabic response stuns me. She frowns and shakes her head.

“Don’t look so surprised, dear. Of course I would rather you saved yourself. Is that so wrong?”

“N-No.” I stutter out as I move past my shock. “I guess not.”

“I guess not.” She repeats my words with a nod of finality. “You are alive and safe from most harms, but new challenges will face you now.”

“Hm.” I mumble in agreement.

“I know you didn’t plan this, dear, but you do have to deal with the consequences and it isn’t going to get easier.”

I smile up at her. “Why do you always have to be so smart?”

She shrugged, her eyes twinkling behind transparent bi-focal lenses. I laugh softly. At least she will remain consistent in my suddenly changed world.

“Thanks, for not leaving me.” I tell her, meaning every word with all of my heart. “At least this way I am not truly alone.”

Her hand touches my hair, light as a feather. “I would never leave you, dear. You need me.”

“True.” I agree.

“You’ll see, we will get you through this.” She encourages me. “As much as I would rather have seen you save yourself and run, I admire what you did. That young woman will have a life now because of you.”

I know what she says should make me feel better, but it does not. I picture that young woman’s face in my mind trying to burn it into my memory. Because of that nameless someone, I am no longer human and no longer truly alive, yet un-dead. My life has taken a strange, unpredictable twist and I do not know how I will recover from it.

Still, I have Grandmother to help me. Together, we stay unmoving in the kitchen as the hours tick down to darkness. If the police come before then, I will just have to deal with it.

***

It is nightfall outside my apartment. The artificial lights seem to have no affect on me, but still I huddle deep in my coat, the collar turned up for maximum coverage. I do not want to get recognized by anyone I might have known in my past life.

The short walk to the corner goes smoothly and I enter a taxi, quickly rattling off the directions my Grandmother had supplied. When alive she had made many contacts in the supernatural underground. A necessity in the large city.

She is gone now, but she will be back. To help support and guide me.

The ride is long and silent as I refuse to enter into any kind of discourse with the driver. I just want to get on with my new life and forget all of the things that I used to know. A new world has been opened up to me and I plan to make the most of it.

“Here you are, miss.” The driver interrupts my thoughts hours later. Startled, I jump a little, my arms tightening around the suitcase I have carried on my lap. “Worrisome place by the looks of it.”

I look out the window at the man’s ominous words, expecting to see the worst. Instead, I find myself staring at the battered, weather beaten side of an old monastery. I blink. This cannot be the right address. Grandmother sent me to a house, a home for the supernaturally uneducated and unprotected. A fortress of sorts, at least, that was how she had described it in my apartment. I felt my hopes fade.

“Wait here, please.” I tell the driver as I open the door to the yellow cab. My hand tightens around the handle of the suitcase as I walk towards the decrepit building. Stones have crumbled, the walkway fractured and overgrown with weeds. I feel the splatter of tiny raindrops on my nose and look up into the drizzling sky. Adjusting my coat tighter around my body I make my way carefully to the large, double front door.

I can hear the car running behind me, the sound of a country radio station muffled by the foggy night air. I take a deep breath and push one side of the plain, wooden door open. It did not make the expected creak, it made no sound at all.

I looked inside to the darkness and almost immediately my eyes adjusted. It seemed my vampire gifts were exerting themselves. I take a step inside, set the suitcase down next to the door, and walk towards the nearest row of empty pews. The doors had taken me directly into a religious sanctuary.

My footsteps echo dully off the old, bare walls. I look up, the ceiling is high and dark, but I can clearly make out the painting there. My body is truly changed.

“Who are you?”

I freeze at the deep, unwelcoming bass. I scan the room and spot a robed form next to a small doorway at a far corner, by the broken podium stage.

“My name is … Angelina Fontaine.” I try my new name and like how it rolls easily off my tongue.

The robed figure walks slowly, methodically towards me. As the man leaves the shadows of the small doorway, I can see other faces peeking out. Three young, curious faces. I cannot tell if they are young women or men, but at this point that does not matter. They are wearing the same drab robes, but their hoods are pulled down. Unlike the man approaching me.

“Who are you, Angelina Fontaine?” The man asks in a monotone.

I frown. “I’m someone looking for help.”

“So, you are human?”

Suddenly it strikes me what exactly he has been asking. I swallow hard. “No. I’m a vampire.”

The hood is pulled back in one quick, graceful movement and the man’s features are revealed. I tense. He is no human. Red, glowing eyes are set into a fur covered face. Pointed ears poke out with tufts of long, dark hair attached. He is a werewolf. I have only met two of his kind before, but both times the creatures had been unbelievably kind and accommodating. I relax. My Grandmother had given me accurate information after all.

“A vampire, in this holy place?” The werewolf asked in a low, curios growl. “There are no easy meals here.”

I chuckle darkly.

“I am in search of safety and help.” I clarify.

He nods. “We are here to help those who need it, but if I find you are being less than truthful, I will act swiftly.”

I clench my jaw at the threat. A thrill of fear and relief mixing in my veins. He will help me.

“I was bitten last night. I died.”

“Your attacker did not claim you?” He asks me with stark shock.

I shake my head, rubbing my arms at the memory of those intrusive teeth biting through the soft skin of my neck. My hand reaches up involuntarily.

“I saved a young girl, he was going to turn her and I interrupted. The bite was defensive - to incapacitate me - and then he took off.”

“I see.”

He studies me with those glowing red eyes that I find impossible to read. After a long moment he nods his head once and steps closer to me, holding out his hand in invitation. I reach out hesitantly and shake it.

“My name is Seth.” He introduces himself.

“Seth.” I repeat back to him. “A pleasure.”

I hear a chattering from the far doorway and turn to stare at the slowly emerging group of youngsters. They seem encouraged by the handshake and I see three walk out cautiously. They are humans, blonde and if I had to guess, siblings.

Seth looked over his shoulder. “It is safe, children.” He turned back to face me and smiled, showing a row of sharp white teeth. “These are my children, Darien, Dorian and Dory-Ann.”

I smile at the children. “Hello.”

This is not the first inter-species family I have met, but no doubt it is the most unusual. I remember the taxi driver waiting for me outside.

“Can you help me?” I ask bluntly.

Seth bows his fur-covered head. “Yes. You may stay here with us and the others like you…Until we are able to find you a new life and identity.”

“The new identity is covered.” I reply with a wink. “Angelina Fontaine is all set for the new life.”

“Very well.”

“I have a cab waiting outside. Let me just send it away.”

He motions towards the door. “By all means, Ms. Fontaine.”

***

The harsh sounds of a city at night are all the more evident after those long minutes in the quiet of the church. I hurry across the empty street, pulling out the fare as I walk. The driver rolls down his window, his breath making a cloud of fog in the air outside the window.

“I’m going to be staying.” I inform him, handing over the cash.

He gives the monastery a critical glance before shrugging. “Take care, sweetheart.”

Then the car is pulling away and I am left standing alone on the lamp-lit street. Things will be different from now on, but I am confident that I will be alright. Everything will work out whether I want it to or not. I cannot die now. I am forced to deal with the consequences of my actions. With a heavy sigh I turn on my heel and return to the church.

“You made the right choice, no matter what I might have said.” My Grandmother is suddenly following me as I take the broken path up towards the large, open door that lead to my new home.

I smile. “I know.”

My name is Angelina Fontaine and last night I died.

My name is Angelina Fontaine and tonight I begin to live my new life.

As the cold air fold me in its arms, I am followed from one life to another, in a strange transition, by the only family left to me. The gray shadow of my Grandmother trailing behind as I enter the church. I look forward to what this new life can bring me, I am confident that I will allow only good to come out of this change.

CROSSROADS By Tina c.

2008-11-16T13:47:00.001-08:00

STORY

2008-11-15T11:56:00.001-08:00

ON UNDERSTANDING LESLIE KANE
By Ebbtide Cheque

Fingers ran down the smooth skin of her neck. Sam Winchester let a half-smile drape lazily across his face. He stared down into the woman’s stormy gray eyes and noticed for the first time flecks of dark blue in their depths. She grinned hesitantly up at him.

“What are you thinking?” She asked curiously.

“Leslie, I think we should go out tonight.” Sam suggested, running his fingers up her neck.

Leslie let her head fall forward, letting it rest against the strong, broad shoulders of the Hunter. She relaxed against the strength that he both embodied and projected. She had wanted this kind of contact, theses feelings, for so long now it was almost impossible to believe that it was really happening. Her grin widened.

“Sounds good.”

Sam stroked the dark, wavy hair that spilled over Leslie Kane’s shoulders. He felt like a missing piece of his heart had been found and put back. He had never known it was missing, not since Jessica. Years of being alone had left the man jaded and convinced there would never be anyone for him. No one who could possibly understand his life would want to stick around. At least, that had been his thoughts before Leslie. He felt her warm breath against his shoulder, he felt butterflies stir inside his stomach.

“Or we could stay in.” He muttered, voice husky.

She giggled and kissed the blue, plaid shirt covering his rock hard biceps. She could feel his heartbeat through her skin, it made her own skip a beat. She closed her eyes to the low light of the hotel room.

“Dean will be back soon.” She said softly, circling one of his shirt buttons with her fingertip. “If we’re going to…do something, we should hurry.”

Sam wrapped his arms around her body, gently drawing her close. He breathed in deep and relaxed at the smell of apricots. He remembered their hot shower that morning, his hazel eyes twinkled at how little metaphorical meaning had went into that thought. He placed a kiss on top of her head, squeezing her a little tighter. How had he ever survived without this woman? She completed him in a way he would have never imagined possible.

Leslie Kane felt tears spill over her eyelashes and she hiccoughed. In all her life, she had never once thought true love could find her, not a love this perfect anyway. Sam Winchester was everything she had ever wanted and all she would ever need. He understood what it was like to be a normal person stuck inside the body of a monster. To be different and yet feel like everyone else on the inside. Sam Winchester knew what it was like to be Leslie Kane.

She let her hands snake across his skin and behind his back, she hugged him, their bodies meshing perfectly. Puzzle pieces of fate finding each other in a corner section of love.

They sighed simultaneously.

*****

Sam felt her body shake in his arms.

Leslie pulled away from the hug, turning away with her face hidden from view by a veil of dark wavy hair. She had a hand over her eyes shielding her further. Sam felt uncertainty bleed into his calm. What had he done? The woman’s shoulders were shaking and it was obvious something had upset her greatly. Sam put a hand on her shoulder.

“What is it?”

Leslie felt a hot blush turn her ear tips red. This was not how she imagined the day going. The last thing she wanted was for Sam to think she was some kind of emotional - She broke off the thought and whirled to face Sam. She kissed him passionately on the lips. Sam leaned down towards her with a squeak of muffled surprise. His worries and doubts fell away as he reacted to her insistent touches. He could feel her hunger as if it was his own.

A love they craved, a love they had found within each other. Soul mates by any other name…Sam pulled back from the kiss to breath, he let the fractured Shakespeare marinate his thoughts. A soul mate by any other name would not be as sweet. He snickered and leaned down, planting a feather light kiss on her nose.

“Are you alright?” He asked.

Leslie’s tears had dried in the face of their shared love. Her blue-gray eyes were sparkling. She stroked his sideburn with one hand and lay the other over his heart.

“I just find it hard to believe that any of this is real.” She confessed in a low whisper.

“You mean us?”

“Yes. I mean us - what we’ve found together.”

She kissed his chin and then moved to kiss a trail down his neck. He closed his eyes at the feel of her soft lips against his skin, a moan broke through the sexually charged silence. With a grunt Sam abruptly lifted her into his arms and walked towards the bed. He stood over the bed, the woman he had come to love more than life in his arms. She was smiling confidently up at him.

“The thought of living my life without you - of having never found…us. I can’t imagine the universe where we don’t - where this never.” Sam kissed her deeply and sat down on the edge of the bed. “We were meant to be together. Everything in our lives was leading us…to this.”

THE END

Stories from Moments

2008-11-14T10:01:00.000-08:00

Corners Of Hell
By Ebbtide Cheque
Summary: While Dean was in hell. Sam was stuck dealing with his death the only ways he knew how.

Dean closed his eyes, prayed for home and screamed Sam’s name for the thousandth time. He had been in hell for an eternity, or so it felt to him. His body had wasted away under the duress, his mind in shambles that he dutifully swept up and reordered. For Sam he would not let these demons break him, for Sam he would hold out until a miracle could save him.

“Sam!” His scream of anguish and pain was drown out by the sounds of hell.
****

“You wanna hear about the corners of hell I’ve seen, Sam?” Ruby asked sarcastically.

****
Sam gulped a shot of whiskey, stared at the wall for a moment, poured himself another shot of whiskey and repeated. He could sense the demon’s eyes on his back. Ruby sat on a chair in the far corner of the room and silently watched as the man drank himself into a stupor.

Sam could image Dean calling out his name for help. Screaming.

THE END

LD

2008-11-13T18:13:00.000-08:00

The teddy bear groaned and turned on it’s side. The TV had been smashed to pieces, the news to awful to contemplate any further. He had his dark paws laid out over his twinkling, crimson eyes.

He wanted to express his grief in some substantial way, but there was nothing. No tears for the teddy bear. Even his girl had left him. Audrey had been shuffled down the stairs and out the front door by a couple of doctors who hadn’t helped at all. Teddy sniffled a little, trying to imagine what it must be like to have a runny nose. Tears were easy to imagine. He had already dabbed water under both of his eyes, the dampness making him smell vaguely of wet dog.

“Nothing makes sense.” He moaned aloud though no one could hear his tragic cry. “Nothing at all. It’s meaningless.”

He had heard the doctors talking earlier. They had told his girl that he had contracted a disease, a very common and contagious disease. He knew that this was why he was alone now. The last thing the teddy bear wanted was to add to the world’s chaos. Little did he know that he had been borne of it.

Lollipop disease. Teddy thought long and hard about everything he had learned since he had woken up. He knew what a lollipop was - Audrey had tried to feed him one during their first fiasco of a tea party, the sticky candy had taken ages to get out of his fur. Disease killed, he had heard that on the news that morning. Thousands dying each and every year from different diseases. Now, there was a disease of sticky candy that killed large bears. Teddy sniffled again.
His time as a living bear kept getting worse and worse. The alcohol soaking through his stuffing couldn’t burn away the pain of it. He just wanted it all to end.

He spied a bit of chalk on the floor of his girl’s playroom. He reached down and carefully grasped it in large, soft paws. He looked around for something to write on. A chalk board, perfect. His maroon jeweled eyes lit up with hope. Maybe there was a way to end his disease before he could harm anyone else. The last thing he wanted was to cause even more distress in an obviously precarious world.

LIFE IS MEANINGLESS. SINGED, TEDDY

He cocked his head to one side. It looked right. Now the girl would understand why he would do such an awful thing. Picking up the hunting rifle he had stolen for protection against the scary world, Teddy put the muzzle to his chin and pulled the trigger.

There was a rush of air through him and a loud bang that made him flinch. He wanted to cry more than ever. Shaking his fists at the sky, Teddy cried out.

“Why?”

There would be no answer for the teddy bear. No miraculous escape from reality. He turned his gaze to the floor and rocked back and forth.

Lollipop disease would end him eventually, at least he had that tiny consolation.

THE END.

She Wolf by Tina c.

2008-11-12T16:20:00.000-08:00

2008

A raindrop splattered wetness on the tip of her freckled nose. Minutes before, the gray skies had been dry of heaven’s tears. A brisk current of air blew through cracks in the plaster wall, lifting up the red fur on her feet. She shivered and hugged her knees closer.

Julietta Lightbarer sat huddled on the mold-invested floor of her apartment room. The thirty year old felt real fear claw at her inside das she whimpered away the dark hole in her heart.
It had been years since she had last felt safe.

A lady centuries before, loved and adored, now only a barely perceivable remnant of that glorious past. Human change was kind to none, her least of all. Julietta took a shuddering breath of icy air. Tomorrow seemed so far away. Too late in coming.

A light at the end of an eternity of tunnel travel, she felt its presence. Unhelpful and useless as the metaphorical light was truly, it gave her hope.

Julietta Lightbarer felt the end would never come for her, she was destined to live a life made horrible and filled a despair that she dreaded. Royalty meant nothing in this new age of computers and accountants, teen punks and television.

****

Seth ran a paw through his thick, red facial hair. He twirled his finger around the ends. He remembered the morning Julietta had met him on that lonely street corner. Violet and Pine. Twenty long years and three states later he could still remember the intersection where she had stolen his heart. His nose wrinkled at the phantom smell of sewage and old fruit. A grin softened his often grim expression.

Julietta had been a lovely creature. A human with the ability to perceive that paranormal. The werewolf sighed heavily. Perhaps it was this reason alone that compelled him to harbor the vampire, Jade Suon. She had been human not so long ago and a highly empathic human at that. Seth could see so much of Julietta in the quiet, non-assuming Jade Suon. Her asian eyes sparkling with the same vigor for life and beauty and acceptance.

A knock on the door stirred the werewolf from his musings. He placed the sweet memories back in their little spot at the back of his mind where he could always mull over them when the mood took over.

****

Jade Suon stood on the other side of Seth’s door, her palm resting flat across the dark, aged wood. She listened with the ears that so recently had been made super-human. Paranormal abilities were only the beginning of the change that had taken over her body and soul.

“Come in.” Seth’s voice invited, there was a melancholy air to the tone. “It is open.”

Jade turned the brass knob, it’s shiny countenance out of sync with the old buildings rusty interior. She had puzzled over the new plumbing as well, but left the questions unasked. A simple shrug was enough to pass over these trite details.

She stepped into the small quarters and spied the werewolf sitting on the edge of his bed. A blush made it’s way up her neck, she twisted his sleeves in her hands, suddenly nervous.

“If I am interrupting your prayers I can come back.”

Seth chuckled, a bright smile lighting up his red eyes. True humor entered his voice.

“Nonsense, child. I was merely thinking. You are always welcomed.” He motioned towards the chair opposite him, where it had been placed next to the wall of fading red paper. “Now, tell me what has been bothering you.”

Jade took the offered seat, she ran her sweaty, shaking palms across her jeans trying to calm her speeding heart. This would be more difficult than she had first though, but, of course, she could count on Seth not to judge her. Seth never judged.

“I’ve been thinking about blood lately. . .A lot and it is starting to really scare me.” Her wide eyes locked with his knowing gaze. “I’m worried.”

A sad frown met her concerned one. “I would be upset if that did not worry you. The fact that you are aware of what you are feeling and are still able to curb these impulses leads me to believe that you are not going to play out your worst fears.”

“But what if I can’t stop myself? I’ve heard the stories of vampires unable to control their urges.
Especially if they are already hungry.”

This grabbed Seth’s attention. He studied her intently with his glowing red eyes.

“Have you not been feeding? Is the chicken’s blood not enough.”

She shook her head. “It isn’t that. I just. The whole thing disgusts me. I’ve been having a really hard time keeping it down.”

“Ah. I am sorry to hear that.”

“I’ve tried.” Desperation leaked into her confession. “I’ve tried telling myself that it is just incredibly gross warm milk. I’ve tried thinking of it as tomato juice…Nothing has worked so far. I’m starting to feel….hungry.”

“That is regrettable.”

****

Trevor Snow looked out the small, barred window of his room. It felt like a cozy cell. There was everything that he needed - or wanted - to survive, but he was still a prisoner. The outside world inaccessible while he stayed in the protective custody of the monastery.

Seth had introduced him to a few of the others that lived in this new world. An underground brotherhood of the unusual. Paranormal, supernatural and just plain strange were all patrons of this religious sanctuary. Trevor felt both blessed to have been found by the monk and distressed that he was forced into the life of a freak.

His parents were out there somewhere, no doubt devastated by his death. Trevor would give anything for a chance to see them one more time. To hug them close and tell them that he would be alright, that everything would be alright. It tore him up inside that he could not even give them that little bit of closure. Tears pricked his eyes painfully and he ran a hand over his face. He had spent a lot of time thinking about where his life was headed and the answer had still not presented itself to his internal debates.

Whether he was now meant to go on in this world as a strange creature of the dark, feared and shunned or not was still for him to determine. Seth had been a great help. The large werewolf had been there to talk to and he had given sound advice to Trevor, for that the boy would forever be grateful. Whatever he decided, his new life would be thanks to that kind werewolf. A bit of a contradiction, but a reassuring one as Trevor knew that someday in the near future he would also be a contradiction. It was his hope, his redemption and all he had left to do was figure out how to make it real.

Trevor stared up into the blue open sky and tried harder to close the gap between what he wanted to become and what he had become. A gray area that he knew Seth would help him through.

****

Tamlina Gray sat on the floor of her room, her eyes stared unseeing at the uncarpeted, cold cement. She could hear her little brother’s screams and she could see the terror in her mother’s eyes. It was a bad nightmare that played over and over and refused to let up for even an hour.
Dark circled colored her eyes and she ran a hand through her knotted hair. It had been days since she had thought of eating. Pale skin pulled taunt over her muscles. She had never been capable of keeping on a few extra pounds, something her mother had always been on her case about. A tiny sob escaped and she hugged her knees to her chest, her brow furrowing in deep distress. Another sob shook her shoulders.

This was just too much to take. Knowing that her family’s bodies were located just blocks away under six feet of clay and dirt. Tears sprinkled her bare arms as she tried to hold back the scream of anguish that was building up inside of her heart. It all hurt so badly.

****

Seth watched Jade closely. The last thing that he wanted to do was introduce a danger to his children or those fragile creatures under his protection. He had safety rooms where he could put Jade until the hunger passed or until she could come to realize that drinking animal blood was a way of life for her now. It was not a disgusting thing, it was a life giving ritual and until he could convince the woman of this he would have to make sure that she did not endanger herself or those that called the monastery home.

“Jade.” He started softly, imploringly. “You know that I want to help you, but I need you to want this to happen. You have to accept that what has happened to you is not just a bad thing.
Vampires have been painted with a bloody brush of misunderstandings and ignorance. I think that there is much more individuality to vampires than the legends would imply. Are you willing to put the stereotype to the test?”

Jade smiled through pooling tears. “I’ve already put it to the test.” She wiped at her eyes delicately. “I understand what you are saying and the answer is ‘yes’. I am not going to let this thing beat me.”

“It is more than that, Jade. You have to accept that this is not going to go away and it is who you are now. I’m sorry that this has happened to you, but it has so you have to deal with it. Not as we wish it were, but as it is.”

“What does that even mean?” Jade asked, her voice raising.

“You have to be willing to let yourself change into something…it will be up to you what that something is.”

“English!”

Seth sighed heavily. “Like it or not, you are no longer human and you need to start treating your body that way. You need to change the way that you think. It will be difficult, I won’t lie to you, but I know that it is possible to guide your new powers and senses. I am living proof of that. You do not need to be a monster, Jade, but you are not human anymore and you have got to accept that.”

“I can accept that. I’ve had to!” Jade argued, her voice growing angered.

“On an intellectual level perhaps, but this goes so much deeper than that. Your heart has to accept the fact that you are a vampire.”

Jade flinched at the name. A tear smeared her dark mascara sending a dark trail down her cheek. Seth felt badly for the woman and for the things that he was being forced to say to her, but he also knew that tough love was sometimes the only option available. He reached across the distance separating them and laid a hand on her knee.

“I will be here to help you through this. You will get through this.” He promised solemnly.

“I’m not so sure. This hunger. It’s so strong sometimes and I cannot control it.”

“You can, you have. How do you think you have made it through the common rooms up to my quarters without anyone losing their lives. I know that you passed the infirmary. I know that you smelled the blood. I also know that you are sitting before me scared and every bit as innocent as you were the day your grandmother sent you to me.”

The shaking grew and soon Jade was engulfed in a hug of self-loathing. She felt her body spasm and after a moment realized that she was trying ineffectually to cry tears of regret. One moment. It had taken one moment for her to lose her life and gain a new curse.

“I never wanted this.” She admitted to the world, losing site of the fact that she was not alone.
Her eyes grew distant and clouded. “I never wanted this at all. I saved that woman from the vampire…I thought it was the right thing - the only thing that I could have done, but I’m not so sure now. I just don’t know. What if I could have avoided all of this?” She questioned.

“Whether your choice was right or wrong. It was made. Now we need to deal with what is facing us, not what could have been.” Seth replied softly. “I am so sorry for your loss, Jade, but we need you to move forward.”

****

Trevor itched for a chance to go outside and experience the life of a young adult he had been deprived of at the whim of a dark creature. He took a deep breath and made his way to the door of his room, his cell, reaching down he turned the knob.

The hallway outside was dark, cobwebs clinging to the corners of the ceiling, the wallpaper
peeling. He wondered who had chosen what must have once been a very cheery, floral pattern. Somehow he could not see Seth choosing such a decorative wallpaper. With a shrug, Trevor dismissed the detail and continued on his trek through the mansion. He had not been given a very liberal tour and now thought that his time could best be spent discovering exactly where it was he had agreed to live. A smile of curiosity stole over his features.

He was reminded of the summer his freshman year when he and a group of five friends had decided to break into the local ‘haunted’ house on Halloween. He frowned suddenly at the thought that maybe their fun-filled quest to find a ‘ghost’ might have ended in true disaster that night. A shudder ran up his spine.

****

Julietta sniffled a bit, her dark nose twitching at the phantom sneeze that wanted to manifest. She fought the urge, tired of all the allergies she had built up over the year of living in that broken down place she called home. The rent was cheap so she was able to keep it otherwise she would be forced to take to the street. Others life her were luckier, they could get jobs in the defense industry, but she refused to hurt anymore than she already had and so she had tried her hand…her paws at other careers, but it was hard for a furry, tall, obviously non-human to find employment through regular channels. She knew a few kind people who took in charity supernatural cases and they had graciously agreed to pay rent for the building. Another sniffle broke the chilled silence of the room. Julietta hugged herself closer, her long floral print dress scratching against her long, red fur.

A growl of disgust rumbled through her chest. She was sick of living through the same day of nothing.

****

Knocking On Death's Door by Ebbtide

2008-11-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

***TO BE CONTINUED****

Summary: Dean lost everything in his life but Sam. Now he’s lost everything in death. The life of a hunter is so difficult, but now the Winchester boy has to look out for himself and his brother…they can’t live a life. They can’t die. They can’t continue on like this. Is there a solution???

A blue halo lights the inner green of hazel eyes staring down into Sam’s soul, searching for an answer. Dean blinks, looks away from his younger brother and coughs to hide his interest.

“Drink up, Sammy, we’ve got a long way to go.” Dean tries to sound like things are all good.

His heart is lost in a battlefield. Memories assail him at every turn. His fingers rub the beer stain on the table in an attempt to distract himself. Sam Winchester gives his older brother a strange look, he knows that something is off. Things are not right in the world of the Hunters.

“Dean, you okay, dude?” Sam asks quietly, his own eyes intent. “You want to talk…about anything?”

Dean gives a half-shrug. “Nah.”

****

Bright, illuminating light sheds a high beam out to scatter the darkness. The Impala purrs obediently under the guiding hand of her master. Dean Winchester mulls as he looks out the front windshield into the rainy night.

“Well, this is some crap scenery.” He jokes weakly just to fill the air.

Sam nods in distracted agreement. “Uh-huh.”

Dean shoots him a sideways glance to reassure himself that the younger man is alright. Sam has his penlight out and is nose-first in a book on medieval myths and legends. Sam feels the gaze, but does not look up. He does not shift his expression.

“Ouch. Don‘t strain your brain over there.”

Sam smirked at the lame attempt at humor. “Don’t worry, Dean. My brain don’t strain.”

“Regular poet.” Dean smiles softly.

Sam chuckles. “Yeah, whatever.”

****

The shower water runs lightly against his skin and brings a refreshing feeling to his tired body. Hunting really takes it out of a man, Dean decides as he lathers the shampoo dripping from his short blond hair.

Angels And Demons No More

2008-11-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

BY EBBTIDE

A tear winds its slow and lonely way down my face. It reflects in the harsh light of the room, showing a clear trail that I would hide if I could feel its presence. Too many other thoughts and feelings intrude on my mind and so this weakness it not removed.

Sam Winchester is watching me, his dark eyes gauging my own, assessing the damage done by the past year of separation. I try to smile, I try to let my eyes speak for me, but there are no more smiles. I’ll never feel my lips curl upwards again, they are leaden and heavy with memories. They are overburdened and weighty. No. That is my heart, not my numb lips. Everything is numb. I do not feel the second tear that snakes its way to my shirt collar.

I’m the older brother here, I should be the one to break the silence that has engulfed us these past few minutes. The first time in twelve months we meet in the middle of a hotel room. The “old days” come back in a rush of sepia-laced memories. I breath in sharply, bittersweet feelings pumping through my veins. I know what he represents, what he became all those months ago and he knows the true me.

If I could go back in time and warn myself about what would happen, even I would never have believed it. Not in a million years.

Sam had let himself turn into a demon. That sweet, caring man I had called ’Sammy’ and looked out for all my life. He had turned evil. Pure, unadulterated evil. I had seen him in all his darkness, the bloody violence so hard to watch. I knew what he had become. The eyes may no longer be yellow or red or even black, but behind their hazel guise I read the truth in them. Their iron core daring me to speak aloud my reservations at being in the same room with this killer. The monster Sammy.

He opens his mouth and I visibly flinch. For some reason that even I cannot comprehend, I had expected him to burst into a Latin saturated exorcism that would banish my soul. Sam could extinguish angels now too and I was an angel.

Castiel had shown me the metaphorical ropes. I gulp down the urge to whisper his name for help. This meeting I need to handle on my own. Two brothers, two different sides to a war that started so many eons ago. I wish it would all go back to the way that it was, but logic dictates that can never be allowed. We are not truly the same two men that we were before.

The physical, the mental, the ideological sides of our characters have changed so very much since my twenty-sixth birthday. I stare at my brother.

“You should leave, Dean.” Sam says calmly, as if I had not just seen him massacre an entire family.

My feet stay rooted to the floor, I could not move if I had wanted to, because there is something about the way his mouth curves to easily at the corners. He is grinning at me. The same smile I used to treasure, to coax out of him, now gives me chills. I feel the hairs on my arms stand up. Everything is so wrong.

“Leave.”

I do not need to be told twice. Tearing my body out of its stunned freeze, I turn my back to him and to that genuine smile. I walk away. My brother is dead.

THE END

2008-11-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

Seth looked over his shoulder, wary of the shadows moving just outside the scope of his vision. He sniffed the air with his long, dark snout at the suspicious behavior. He hated going outside the monastery. Holy ground kept his family and he safe, but on the rare occasion he had no choice in the matter.

There had been talk of a new vampire, a young one, in the neighborhood and he wished to offer an alternative to the fledgling. Seth was the overseer for an underground safe house for those of supernatural tendencies that wished to change their lives. He was more than that, Seth was a werewolf. He understood the pressures and the fears.

The early evening’s soft drizzle had finally abated, but his breath still came out in sharp clouds of condensation. The creature looked through glowing red eyes at the silent world. It was well past midnight and he had the next three blocks to himself. A dim moon hung low in the sky, veiled by the smog and smoke from an active city. Seth shrugged his cloak closer about him and moved quickly through the distance separating him from his target. Rumors had put the young vampire in an abandoned warehouse near the waterfront district.

Seth hurried faster, his pawed feet pattering softly along the damp cement. He had thirty minutes before his children had been instructed to send help. Vampires were dangerous creatures and he did not want to get bitten.

****

Daniel H. Harris took a bite of his yogurt, sighing as he leaned back in the kitchen chair. It had been a good day, a long day. Three vampires had been released from their forced captivity. He would report the numbers to the Reformers in the morning. For now, he was ready to just have a cold beer and get some sleep.

Ten minutes later he watered his plants, fed his fish and then flicked off the lights. Through the semi-darkness illuminated only by the streetlights outside he made his way to the bed.

Tomorrow would come soon enough. The clock read past midnight.

****

Seth glanced cautiously around the front of the building before attempting to access a side door. The warehouse was large and smelled strongly of rats. The werewolf ran a pawed hand over his thickly furred face. He hated rats.

Scratching and the soft patter of tiny feet greeted him when the door was pushed silently open. Inside was dark, but his red eyes could easily distinguish the forms within. Boxes and barrels stacked and then deserted were trailing dust and cobwebs. The floor was covered in boot prints. All the same size, all small. Either a woman or a young man.

Seth sniffed the air - he felt no presence, but vampires were always difficult to sense. He walked further into the warehouse, passing a tall stack of boxes on his left. He cocked his head to one side, his advanced hearing had distinguished a sound that did not fit. He knew that if the vampire was present, it had already become aware of him, there was no reason to keep hiding.

“My name is Seth…I have come…to help.” The werewolf spoke loudly, pulling down the hood to reveal his own creaturely features. “You have nothing to fear from me.”

“What are you.”

Seth’s keen hearing could not pinpoint the origin of the voice. He stepped further into an open space towards the middle of the warehouse. He looked around, his peripheral vision picking up movement on the far left corner of the ceiling. He stood very still.

“Why don’t you come out so that we can talk about it.” Seth invited calmly.

For Mel Made By Me....

2008-11-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

A phrase.

2008-11-03T12:35:00.000-08:00

The fall light was felled by the coming of night.

(cont.)

2008-11-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Trevor shadowed the woman, his thirst and hunger growing by the second. He wanted to taste her blood. It felt so strange and yet so right. He shook his head, ran a hand through his brown hair and at last gave into the compulsion.

He was surprised at how good it felt, how easy it had been to kill. The initial spring that had felled her left him wondering at his own super-human abilities, but Trevor gave it little thought after his first bite had allowed him access to the crimson life that flowed inside her veins. The woman had tasted so beautiful and kind. He could sense her character through her lifeblood. It gave him goose bumps.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he questioned his actions. A law of human nature still ingrained in his conscious. It would fade with time, as it always did in the minds of vampires.

They slowly but steadily grew out of their old natures. Trevor had no idea what had happened to him or what would happen later all he had a clear grasp on was the present and the insatiable hunger for more. More blood and more life.

A tongue snaked out between blood covered lips to gratefully lap up what was left of the meal he had enjoyed thoroughly. The last few spilled drops coming off the dead woman’s warm neck easily. He stood to his feet.

The sounds of the city played around him in a tune of oblivious self-absorption. The teenage body was clothed by the same suit he had been buried in so long before, but the clothing had grown old and tattered by the ravages of time. He looked down at his bloody shirt front and unceremoniously ripped it off with the same impossible strength he had used to murder.

****

Seth looked over his shoulder, wary of the shadows moving just outside the scope of his vision. He sniffed the air with his long, dark snout at the suspicious behavior. He hated going outside the monastery. Holy ground kept his family and he safe, but on the rare occasion he had no choice in the matter.

There had been talk of a new vampire, a young one, in the neighborhood and he wished to offer an alternative to the fledgling. Seth was the overseer for an underground safe house for those of supernatural tendencies that wished to change their lives. He was more than that, Seth was a werewolf. He understood the pressures and the fears.

The early evening’s soft drizzle had finally abated, but his breath still came out in sharp clouds of condensation. The creature looked through glowing red eyes at the silent world. It was well past midnight and he had the next three blocks to himself.

IMAGE FOR AGES

2008-11-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

IMAGES

2008-11-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

"Ransom? She called towards the brooding shadow on the far side of the tents. "Ransom? Ordinary! There's someone out there!" She whispered fiercly.

His shadow moved fluidly into the darkness. Although Terra tried to follow his progress, the dark skinned man blended into the night easily and she lost sight of him. Only a slight rustle in the brush alerted her to his location. He had not made it to where she had seen the disturbance.

"To the left." She said, knowing that he would pick up the soft call.

To her left the bundle of blankets that were covering Taylor moved like a mountain under seige, layers sliding off to reveal a mussed mop of dark hair and tired blue eyes.

"Mmmphf...W'as g'ing on?"

Terra raised an eyebrow at the barely intelligable query. "I heard a noise in the forest and Ransom is checking it out."

"Mmph."

A soft snore followed the conceeding grunt a second later. Terra rolled her eyes. She could not believe his nonchalant attitude towards their poetentially dangerous situation. What if someone had discovered their camp? What if it was an enemy agent that would try to murder them in their sleep? She shuddered and wrapped her blanket closer to her body.

The darkness descended into silence and the cold became all the more evident. Terra burried her head in the blanket around her shoulders and breathed deep. The icy cold air had been an assault on her throat, but the blanket's material warmed each breath.

As time wore on without sight or sound of Ransom, Terra found the night even more ominous. Each sound presenting dangers. If it had not been for Taylor's snores she would have felt completely alone in the world. Her gaze wandered to the sword handle protruding from the discarded animal packs. She swallowed hard. Would she have the courage to take it up.

A shriek suddenly sounded through the woods and multiplied as it echoed off the surrounding hills. Terra felt her blood freeze and she imagined what monster could have made such a noise. A deep yell, she recognized it as Ransom's, followed.

Terra unfolded her legs and stood up, the blanket gripped tight in cold hands. The forest had once again grown silent. A blond bang fell over her eyes and she brushed it back behind one ear. The young woman listened for more noise. She heard something that drew her away from the circle of light.

"Where are you going, Terra?" Tyler's sleepy voice spoke up clearly.

"I think there's someone else out there." She replied in a quiet tone.

A cynical laugh made Terra start in surprise and she swung to face the sound. There was no one there only flickering shadows to meet her wide blue eyes. Terra swallowed hard.

"Taylor." She stepped backwards towards the groggy soldier. "Did you hear that just now?"

Taylor moaned and sat up. "No. What? Yes - you mean the weird laugh? Yes."

"Well, you might want to grab a weapon because I haven't heard from Ransom in over five minutes."

That had Taylor springing up, adrenaline pumping, and lunged for his sword. If Ordinary was in trouble then they all were.

"You are innocent little things, aren't you." A strange woman's voice spoke up from the darkness outside the circle of orange fire light. "Tisk, tisk. This is no place for innocence. Don't you know that this forest is haunted?" Footsteps shuffled in the underbrush on the left side of the camp. "I don't know what foolish quest you have been sent on...Perhaps you aren't even sure yourself what will be the outcome of your journey, but there are true monsters in this forest."

"Taylor!" Terra cried. He came up to her side, sword at the ready.

"Show yourself!" Taylor shouted. "Whoever you are! Come out."

"Alright." The voice said.

A shadow detached itself from the darkness and entered the camp illuminating the short, thin form of a woman. Her eyes were almond shaped and dark, her hair short, ragged and white with a yellow tint thrown from the fire. The woman wore a purple patterned robe over leather pants and a white cotton shirt.

"Who are you?" Taylor demanded.

A grin twisted up the corners of her full, pink lips. She looked the boy over and chuckled darkly. "Ah, a soldier youngling."

Terra's brow furrowed. "Who are you? And where is our friend?"

The woman took a slow step forward, every movement of her body graceful and full of purpose. Her jaw clenched lightly at the harsh questions. “Your friend is fine, but…preoccupied at the moment.” Her dark almond eyes flashed in the flickering light. “As for who I am. My name is Saffiri Lueng.”

Taylor shared a look with Terra. “Excuse me?” The boy asked in confusion.

“Soldier and stupid, I should have known. Those two go together so very often in this world.” Her fist clenched. “I just introduced myself, you might do the same.” She spat.

Terra straightened, feeling a bit embarrassed at her earlier fear. This woman had not tried to harm them so far, although Ransom’s location was still a mystery and Terra could only hope he was unharmed. Still, it made her feel useless to stand behind Taylor waiting for the other shoe to drop so she pushed past him.

“I am Terra Wright and this soldier is Taylor.” It was only at that moment that Terra realized she had never learned his full name. She blinked, surprised at the fact, and then continued. “We don’t want any trouble.”

Saffiri smirked. “Whether you want it or not, I sure found you easy enough.”

“Where is our friend?”

“Your friend is fine. A bit tied up, but alive.”

“Where?”

Taylor moved forward, keeping his sword pointed in Saffiri’s direction. He walked until he stood over the satchel the Text was hidden inside. He reached down and picked it up, slipping it over his head and shoulders. Terra watched with barely masked concern.

“Not so innocent after all?” Saffiri murmured knowingly. “There wouldn’t happen to be some very valuable object in that bag, would there?” She asked.

Terra swallowed hard. They could not let anyone get the Text. If they lost it the Queen would probably kill them.

“Nothing! There’s nothing in there.” She denied hastily.

Taylor nodded in agreement.

“You might as well lower the sword, youngling.” Saffiri said wearily. “I’m not going to hurt you and there’s no way that you could hurt me so it is rather pointless.”

Taylor frowned at this, but lowered his sword a fraction.

Saffiri held her hands out away from her body, palms forward and fingers spread. “If I had meant you, the girl or your large, slow friend harm I would have executed it already. I don’t play with my prey.”

“Where is Ransom?” Terra stressed every strained word. “Take us to him.”

Saffiri stared at her long and hard for a short moment before bowing her head. “Alright. Follow me, children.”

Taylor growled at the snub and Terra clenched her jaw, teeth grinding. The woman turned on her heel and walked confidently back into the darkness forcing Taylor and Terra to follow. She lead them out the left side of the camp and into some high underbrush. They skirted a prickly, red bush and on the far side and in the dim light from the camp they could just make out the hulking shadow of Ransom Ordinary. He wasn’t moving and they could see thick rope snaked around his ankles and wrists.

“Untie him, Saffiri Lueng.” Taylor ordered the woman, pointing his sword threateningly in her direction.

She cursed him under her breath, making sure that they could clearly hear the words, but knelt down next to the warrior and made quick work of untying him. There was a moan from the dark man and then he was sitting up, his thick hands around Saffiri’s neck in a strangle hold.

“Ransom!” Terra shrieked. “What are you doing? Stop it, she hasn’t hurt any of us.” The girl tried to reason with him.

Ransom stood, pulling the woman off her feet so that she dangled in the air.

“She attacked me.” Ransom’s deep voice rumbled in anger.

“Yes, but she’s also the one that untied you.” Taylor pointed out unnecessarily. “I think we should at least give her a chance to explain why she stalked us…and attacked you.”

Ransom shook Safirri roughly. “This pixie chose to attack the wrong man.”

The white haired woman grabbed at Ransom’s hands, clawing them in desperation. Gurgling, choking sounds escaped from her throat. Terra winced at the sounds and ran forward, throwing herself at Ransom. She hit his chest with closed fists receiving nothing but a glare in return.

“She’s not a pixie and you’re going to kill her if you don‘t put her down now!” She shrieked.

“Wait.” Taylor said, pulling Terra off the man. “Just wait. How do we know that she is who she says she is? I trust Ransom. If he says she’s a good-for-nothing fairy then I believe him.”

“Pix..ie.” Saffiri gasped out between shallow breaths.

Ransom bared his teeth at the woman. “If you so much as twitch.” He warned.

She nodded frantically indicating that she understood his threat. With a sound of disgust he threw her to the ground where she lay gasping for breath in a heap of purple cloth. Ragged white hair covered her face, but the trio could see her shoulders shaking.

“Pixie it is then.” Taylor conceded. “Where are you from, why are you here and what do you want with us?” He fingered the satchel strap nervously.

“My name is Saffiri Lueng, one of the seven Lueng pixies of this forest and I was not stalking you - I only defended myself. I thought you could be an enemy.”

“You live here?” Terra asked incredulously. “In the forest?”

The pixie nodded, dragging a shaky hand across her sweat-soaked forehead. Her early self-confidence had vanished in the wake of Ransom’s threatening actions. She pushed herself up on unsteady arms until she knelt in the soft dirt. A gray glow was beginning to form and Terra realized that sunrise would be within the hour. She focused her attention on the fallen woman.

“Yes, I live here. Several thousand yards from your camp. I thought that you were one of those vile guards that the Queen sends out here. They have tried to kill me before and I planned to get the drop on them. If you do not work for the Queen then who are you?”

“How can we trust you? And who we work for has nothing to do with you.” Terra asked in confusion. As far as she knew the Queen had never sent anyone out the forest and as the Queen’s personal servant she would have heard something. “Why does she send guards into thi forest.”

“I once heard one of them talk of a scroll. Other than that I don’t know.” The pixie said.

Taylor’s grip on the satchel tightened.

Ransom stood over the woman, looking down at her with undisguised scorn. “I think you’re a liar.”

“This is ridiculous.” Saffiri spoke passionately, her eyes flashing. “I may have come into your camp unannounced and I may have caught you unawares, but I did not truly harm any of you.”

“We should tie her up and drop her off at the nearest town.” Ransom suggested.

Saffiri felt the ground digging into her knees and she winced in pain. This talking was getting her nowhere and at the very least she had learned that these people were sent by the Queen. Their reactions were enough to tell her that, and the fact that they were in possession of something valuable. The pixie did not care about earthly trinkets, her kind had power to create far better treasures, but their secrecy and the strangeness of their group called to her curious side.

“I’ll help you navigate out of the forest if you help me.”

“And how can we help you?” Terra asked suspiciously.

Saffiri stood to her feet and wiped the dirt off her print robe. A semblance of control had returned to the pixie and she worked quickly through her options. Just how much could she trust these people with, but she had little choice.

“I need to get to the Queen’s palace.”

“The same Queen you’ve already branded an enemy?” Ransom asked. “You would have us escort you there, and why? So that you can kill her in cold blood and thus end your personal problem.”

“No.” Saffiri denied. “I need to get to the palace and the reason is my own. I don’t trust you and you need not trust me. I see no reason why this should not work for both of our benefits. You will get a free guide through the most haunted forest in the kingdom and I will get a guaranteed entrance into the palace.”

“Only if we have your word that you mean no harm to the Queen.” Taylor hastily bargained.

Terra glared at him. “We will do no such thing. For all we know she is an enemy soldier.”

“Pixies don’t join sides.” Saffiri said with an arch of her eyebrow. “We are natural born fighters with no interest in human affairs. We have enough to worry about with feuding between family members. Now just agree to this and I promise to be no further problem to you.”

“Promises from a stranger, that does not make me feel any better.”

“Enough talk.” Ransom decided aloud. “You.” He pointed to Saffiri. “Come with us quietly and I might not tie you up, as for the two of you.” His gaze turned to the teenagers. “Begin a light breakfast. We’ll break camp in an hour or two, we still have a long ways to go.”

“Then you’ll let me stay with your party.”

“I’m hardly going to allow you to leave if you are indeed working with our enemies.” Ransom reasoned in a hard tone.

Saffiri knew that it was a long shot, but if she could just make it back to the palace then all of the things that she had been working so hard for the past couple of years could be finally realized. She willingly gave her wrists over to be tightly bound by the dark skinned warrior. As their conversation had progressed the daylight had begun to light the forest in pale shades of gray and brown. Leading the way back around the bushes and into their camp, Taylor sheathed his sword and re-packed it for traveling then with Terra’s help he began to cook a quick stew made of dried meat.

Ransom sat Saffiri down on a thick log set on one side of the fire while he took a low rock several feet further. He watched her closely as the hour passed by not letting any of her movements go unchecked.

“You know, this could be more trouble than it’s worth.” Taylor said quietly to Ransom while Terra was busy packing up their gear. The boy motioned in the pixie’s direction. “We could just leave her here tied up good.”

Ransom studied him for a long moment. “If she truly is headed for the palace then there would be a chance that we would meet her again down the road and at least this way we can keep her under control. I do not want to repeat our earlier meeting.”

Taylor winced. “Neither would I.” He agreed. “Alright, we’ll do things your way, but I’m not going to trust her.”

“Good.”

---MEETING THE GENERAL FOR THE FIRST TIME AT THE ENEMY’S CAMPSITE---

Terra dropped the armload of wood she carried where it landed on the gravel path with a definite, hollow thunk. She wiped her dirty hands on road weathered pants and started down the path. She told herself that she wouldn’t go down it very far and if there was nothing to see after the first few minutes of walking then she would just turn around and go back to camp. The sound of Taylor’s taunts seemed to fuel her on and every time that she figured it was time to start heading back she would see his gloating face in her minds eye and instead she would push onward. It was almost twenty minutes later before she finally came to her senses, but that was only because she almost ran into a company of armed, enemy soldiers.

The rhythmic sound of marching feet alerted her to their presence mere moments before the small band of soldiers came around a sharp bend in the path. She looked frantically around for some place to hide and then without hesitating jumped off the path hit the ground hard and rolled under a dead bush in a slight depression. She took a deep breath, held it and waited. The footsteps grew closer.

She felt like her heart would jump out of her chest, it was pounding so hard. If they looked over, she was dead. The enemy wouldn’t give her a chance to explain and even if they did what would she have to say? Terra huddled down and tried not to move.

The marchers passed by without so much as a pause and then their footsteps faded away. Terra waited for several seconds before letting her breath out in a big whoosh. She stood up and looked down the path after the soldiers, the last of them were just disappearing around a curve in the gravel road. She walked out and continued down in the way that they had come from in the hopes of finding the enemy camp.

Taylor had made her feel like she was useless. Gathering fire wood every day and always being talked down to during their training sessions. His comments on her inability to correctly access the Link had been the proverbial last straw. She was determined to do something that would make him see that she was just as strong and smart and resourceful as any boy.

“I’ll show him.” She said under her breath.

It took another half-an-hour of walking before she reached the edge of the forest. The path ended abruptly several feet before and she hid behind a clump of close-growing young trees. The young woman looked out and into the camp and felt all of the blood drain from her face. Her eyes widened at the sight of twenty thousand armed men.

The camp was sprawled out over two miles of open plain. Men, horses, tents and fires filled the air with smoke and noise. Terra swallowed hard. The enemy flag hung proudly in the center of the camp, next to a large, red tent that undoubtedly housed the commanding General. Terra felt a new fear now. If Ransom suspected what she and Taylor were planning then they would never reach the General and then there would be no defeating the Queen. Terra’s fears must have been sent through the Link because the next second she felt a strong calling from Taylor. She felt his concern for her safety.

With one last look at the flag, she fled back to Taylor.

--THE SCENE WITH THE TEXT IN THE FOREST---

“The Queen will be very unhappy if she finds out.” Terra said nervously.

Taylor shot her a grin. “Then let us hope that she doesn’t find out, shall we.” He said.

The young man was sitting on a grassy patch of ground with the scroll in his hands. He turned it over in his hands, looking at it. The scroll parchment was made of thick rawhide that had been scraped clean and then made waterproof.

“I’m going to open it.”

“No don’t!” Terra moved to stop him.

“Why?” Taylor asked, holding the scroll out of her reach. “The Queen never said that we shouldn’t read it and after all we were the ones that risked our necks getting it.”

Terra crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the boy. “I’m the one who found it so if anyone’s going to read it, it should be me.”

“I thought you didn’t want us to read it.”

Terra shrugged. She had to admit that curiosity had been tugging at her thoughts over the past day. Wondering over and over what could possibly be so important to the Queen - how the scroll could save their kingdom from ruin. She had dreamed the night before of opening it and reading it and of saving her family. She rolled her eyes and sat down on the ground next to him with a groan.

“Alright, lets see what it is.”

She held out her hand.

“But I still want to be the one to open it.”

Taylor smiled and handed it over. “Ladies first.”

---THE REVEAL---

Twenty minutes later Terra closed the scroll in a numb haze. She blinked, trying to make sense of what they had just read.

“Is that all true? Can it be?” Taylor asked in a low voice.

Terra shook her head, shock leaving her unable to speak.

“This changes everything.”

She nodded slowly.

They were some ways from their next camping site, with another five miles left to the day and so without another word they set out. The only sound was their soft footsteps, muffled by the soft, pine-covered deer trail. A strong wind picked up and they were forced to stop and unpack heavier clothing.

“The Queen must know what the text says.” Terra reasoned sadly. If she was right then the loving, kind, caring Queen she had served for 13 years would have betrayed everything their kingdom stood for - everything Terra stood for. Only a very evil person could use the information used in the text for personal gain. “We should destroy it.”

“No.”

Terra glanced over at Taylor. “What do you mean, no? It can only be used for evil.”

“In the hands of one person, yes.” He pulled his leather jerkin over his shirt and tied the front tightly. “But if we could make copies and send it out to others. This could mean freedom and understanding for any Chosen like us.” His eyes searched hers. “We could help others like us to understand the Link.”

“We don’t even understand it.”

“Not yet, but we will soon. If we use the information in the text to learn more.”

“Together.” Terra warned. “We must learn together.”

Taylor nodded in complete agreement. “Never alone. This could be dangerous if used alone so we must always be together when we read it.”

Terra swung her pack back over her shoulder and continued down the path with Taylor close by her side. They had a lot of planning to do before sundown. If Ransom were to come into camp that night and hear them talking about the Sacred Text Terra was unsure of what he would do. It was obvious that his allegiance was to the Queen - after all that she had done for him and his family it was understandable - but they could not trust him with the information that they had learned.

“Do you think he knows?” Terra asked, meaning Ransom.

Taylor studied the ground thoughtfully. “I don’t know, but he seems honest enough.”

“So did the Queen.” Terra said, her words layered in anger at being so completely deceived. “She had me convinced that the Text would save us all. My family and friends.” Terra’s fists clenched. “And all the time she was planning to use something like this.”

“There was no way for you to have known.”

“I should have suspected something after the King’s mysterious illness. There were rumors, but I never thought the Queen capable…” Her words trailed off into silence.

Taylor shifted the pack on his back. He looked sideways at her feeling sympathy for the betrayal that he could feel slipping from her through the Link. He reached over and touched her shoulder lightly.

“You did the best that you could. What you thought was the right thing.”

Tears welled in her eyes and she wiped at them in disgust at her weakness. “If the Queen gets the Text then the kingdom will fall. It will have been all my fault.”

Taylor took a deep breath. “Then we won’t let that happen.”

She looked over at him. “How can we stop it, Taylor? Ransom will make sure that we bring the Text back to the castle.”

“This forest is right on the edge of the enemy territories, is it not?” Taylor suggested.

“So? What does that matter?”

“Which would be the better - to let the Queen destroy our kingdom without mercy or to help our enemies to capture it without thousands dying. With our help and the help of the Text they can capture the palace and defeat the Queen without killing any of the serfs. They have no desire to kill our people only to win the war. Once the war is over the killing will stop.”

“You are suggesting that we become traitors against our own people?”

“No, against our Queen.”

Terra scrubbed her face with her hands. “This is so wrong.”

Taylor snorted. “I thought that with this quest for the crown I would find glory for myself and my family name and now I will probably be branded a traitor…but it is the right thing to do and you know it.”

Terra felt the scroll weighing heavily in her bag. She could not believe where they had come to after all of the traveling and all of the danger this was where they stood. She decide to give it a few minutes thought and so turned her eyes to the sky and the beautiful forest scenery. This was a hard choice to make. If she followed Taylor’s advice then there was no telling what would happen. The enemy could kill them without letting them explain, the Queen could prevail in the end or Ransom could jeopardize everything.

“What will we do about Ransom.” She asked finally.

Taylor kicked a stone off the path. “I don’t think it wise to entrust this information with him. If he truly is the Queen’s man then there will be no reasoning with him and he is stronger than either of us can handle. We will have to keep what we have found out a secret.”

“I agree with your plan. Not happily, I might add.” She said with a frown. “But I see no other way.”

“We need to figure out a way to contact the enemy. A message or signal. Something.” Taylor said. “Once Ransom comes back we cannot talk of this openly.”

“I understand.” Terra nodded.

They walked for another five miles through the quiet forest each deep in thought. The Text had changed everything dramatically. They had to assume that what it said was the truth and if that was indeed the case then they should try and learn as much of the abilities as possible.

---TEXT INGREDIENTS---

Terra ducked cautiously into the cave and was surprised a faint light glow visible in the far end. She walked towards it and found a small opening leading through to a low corridor between the stones. Light trickled down from fissures in the ceiling. Terra started forward slowly, wishing that she had brought some kind of weapon with her - even the wooden practice sword would have been a comfort. Every sharp corner in the rock left her fearful of some monster just beyond. She took slow steps.

A sound clinked some ways ahead of her and the sound echoed strangely off the rocks. Terra shrunk back at the sound and paused, waiting for more. Nothing happened for several long seconds and so she went forward again listening carefully for anything else to indicate that she was not alone in the cave.

Ransom had spoke of a monster and she did not look forward to meeting it alone and unarmed. Taylor would not be back to camp for another hour - it always took him a long time to find and retrieve water so Terra knew that it would be at least that long before she was missed.

Another sound brought her to a complete stop and this time she reached down to pick up a large, loose stone from the floor. She held it above her head ready to throw it at anything that showed itself. An rumbling echo startled her, she flung herself into the cave wall. Silence descended again. Her breathing was harsh and coming fast as the fear pumped blood through her veins. She took a small step forward.

“Is someone there?” She whispered into the gray light of the cave hall.

The only response was another low growl. She looked back the way she had come and wondered if returning for Taylor would be the best thing to do instead of going forward to face alone whatever horror was out there waiting. Deciding to go three more steps forward, just far enough to see past the next turn in the cave, she shuffled towards it.

The sight that met her eyes was a large, empty room with sand instead of solid rock on the floor. A large hole in the ceiling lit the center of the room, but left the corners in deeper shadow.

“Who are you?”

Terra felt every bone in her body freeze as the air whooshed out of her body. As if under it’s own control, her head turned and she looked up. A troll stood directly behind her, his calloused head scraping the low ceiling. She ran her tongue over dry lips and tried to speak, but at first the words came out only as a dry, raspy gargle. She cleared her throat and lowered the rock, knowing that it would do her no good against the thick skinned animal.

“My name is Terra Wright.” She answered it’s query in a shaky voice.

“Why are you here?” It asked slowly.

“I’m looking for something.” She answered cautiously. “A special scroll.”

The troll moved forward a tiny, lumbering step and looked her in the eye. “You are trespassing. This cave is mine and all of the things in it are mine.”

Terra swallowed hard. “Okay.” She squeaked.

Chapter Next
---TAYLOR FINDS TEXT AND TERRA WITH TROLL ETC. -----

Taylor walked into the camp and collapsed next to the smoldering remains of their fire. He tiredly kicked off his boots and lay back on the soft grass.

“Terra, everything go okay while I was gone?” He called towards her tent.

He waited several seconds and when there was no reply he turned over, resting his head on his arm.

“Terra? You in there?”

The silence drew out and a spark of worry grew within the young soldier. He sat up, his weight resting on his palms. He could not see any sign of her on the outskirts of the camp and there was no sounds coming from the tents.

“Terra?”

His brow furrowed in concern. She had promised not to go off alone, but he knew that she had a hard time following through with her promises. The boy sighed and pushed himself off the ground. He slipped his boots back on quickly and snatched up his sword. If she was just out looking for more berries or mushrooms he would kill her, but a knot of worry grew in him. She may be reckless, but she was still just a girl.

It did not take long for him to search the forest around their camp. All he found was a set of Terra-sized footprints heading towards a rock face. He swore under his breath and picked up the pace. Who knew what kinds of dangers lurked in the caves that were just visible in distance mountain. It took twenty minutes of running to finally reach the edge of the hill leading up to the cave entrances. There were five of them, all varying in size. He paused in a brief moment of indecision before finally entering the nearest one.

Terra heard a rustling at the far end of the cave, towards the entrance and closed her eyes. This could not be happening! There were more trolls. She opened her eyes again and took a calming breath. She would take this one problem at a time.

“What if I traded something for it?” She asked the troll, her gaze fixed on the cavern hall where she could hear steady footsteps. “If I have something that you want…will you be willing to trade for what I want?”

“I don’t know.” The troll rubbed it’s chin thoughtfully.

The footsteps slowed just around a bend in the corridor and then they stopped. Terra felt her breaths come quicker as her heartbeat sped up. If there was another troll then she might not get out of there alive. She took a slow step backwards into the large cavern room, her eyes searching frantically for another exit or someplace to hide. There was nothing.

“I guess I could trade. What do you have.”

Taylor heard the question echo off the ceiling and he stopped, his sword heavy in his hands.

“I have food.”

He heard Terra’s frightened voice and his fist clenched around the sword handle. He wanted to storm forward and rescue his friend, but he decide to wait and get a better view of the situation first. Inching forward, pressed against the hard, stone wall, he glimpsed around the corner.

Terra stood under the heavy gaze of a large, green troll. Taylor felt the blood rush from his face. He needed to signal to her that she was not alone. Kneeling down he picked up a loose stone and tossed it forward. At the impact, she turned in his direction. He waved at her and she nodded to inform him that she had seen.

Terra felt relief flood through her and she relaxed a fraction. Her gaze remained fixed on the troll looming ominously above where she stood just inside the cavern. The creature seemed to be thinking very hard over her offer of food and she could only hope that he wouldn’t mind berries and mushrooms as that was the only food that they had left. It had never occurred to her that they might have to give something up in order to acquire the Sacred Texts. She had still seen no sign of them although she was convinced they were hidden in the back, shadowed portion of the great room.

The troll took a cautious step forward, being sure not to step on the girl. “I don’t need food, but I would like….” It hesitated.

Terra raised an eyebrow. “Yes? What is it that you want?”

“A friend.”

Terra’s mouth opened and closed a few times as she tried to come up with a response for that demand. How could she find this creature a friend? The only living things in the forest that she had seen besides birds and chipmunks had been her traveling companions.

“What kind of friend?” She ventured cautiously.

“A good friend. One that is nice to me.” The troll replied with a longing glint in it’s yellow eyes. “I’ve never had a friend before, but my Mom said they were good. I always wanted a friend.”

Taylor, who had been inching his way forward, listened to the exchange. If Terra could continue to distract the monster then maybe he could sneak up behind and stab it. The young soldier stepped carefully forward, making sure not to make a sound in the soft dirt floor. As he got further into the room sand replaced the dirt and he had to be even more careful not to make a sound. Terra saw his progress and tried to keep the troll’s attention focused on her.

“What about a plant?” She suggested nervously. “They’re easy to take care of and they’re always nice. You can talk to them and everything.”

The troll shook his head. “There are lots of plants outside and none of them are nice.”

“Well, how about a dog then?”

“Yum, dog.” The troll licked it’s lips.

Terra coughed to hide a groan. “Definitely not a dog then.” She muttered to herself and then said louder. “What about a horse?”

“Horse? Is a horse fun and nice?” The troll asked curiously.

Terra nodded vigorously.

“Oh, yes. Horses are very nice and they’re especially nice to trolls. You see, horses really like trolls and they are ever so much fun to play with.”

Taylor was now less than three yards from the troll. Terra held her breath and tried not to keep glancing behind the troll so that she would not give away Taylor’s position. The girl cleared her throat and kept talking.

“But I can’t promise to trade anything with you unless I know that you have what I’m looking for.”

“What are you looking for?” The troll asked slowly.

“A scroll. It’s got lettering on it and it is very, very old. Do you know of anything like that?” She asked.

The troll reached into it’s dirty, ragged shirt and pulled out a pouch made out of faded gold velvet. “Scroll.” The troll said, holding the bag up in the air.

Terra’s eyes widened. She could clearly make out the shape of a large scroll inside of the bag. This was it, what they had set out to find for the Queen. This was the answer to her Grampa’s prayers. She gazed at it hungrily.

“Yes, that’s the one.” She said, reaching forward.

“Horse first.” The troll said stubbornly.

Terra nodded, her wide eyes starring at the velvet bag in awe. “Of course, of course. Just let me outside and I’ll bring the horse to you.” She promised. “Then you can give me the scroll.”

The troll nodded and stepped to the side so that she could pass, in doing so it caught sight of Taylor who dove for cover behind a large rock on the floor. He pushed himself into a small recess under the rock and waited.

“The horse is this way!” Terra said loudly, trying to draw back the troll’s attention. “Follow me.” And then she lead the way out of the cave.

The troll hesitated, it’s head turning this way and that as it tried to spot Taylor, but after a moment it shook it’s head and followed the girl outside into the bright evening light. The sun was getting closer to the horizon and Terra knew that it would not be a good idea to get caught in the forbidden forest at night, alone, with a troll on the loose so running away wasn’t an option. Besides, now she knew where the scroll was and she just had to find a way to get it. From a two thousand pound mountain troll. The odds were not on her side and she knew it, after all, there was no way that she could give up one of the horses. That would leave either Taylor or her walking. The palace was a very long ways to walk. She sigh and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.

“This way.” She told the troll, leading it down the steep trail towards the forest a few hundred yards away.

Taylor watched them go and then unfolded himself from the cramped space. He gripped his sword, just incase there was another troll hiding in the vicinity. He started towards the cave entrance slowly, not wanting to catch up too quickly. He needed them in the forest before he could try and outpace them. If he made it to the camp first maybe he could devise some kind of ambush for the troll.

Terra walked as slowly as she dared, leading a zigzag path through the forest. She knew that eventually she would need to lead the troll to their campsite, but she wanted to give Taylor enough time to come up with a plan. Terra could only pray that it was a good plan.

“I will give you the scroll when you give me the horse.” The troll stated.

The ground shook with every step the large creature took. Leaves rained down on them from the tree limbs as it brushed through the lower branches.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you a horse. A big, pretty, nice horse.” Terra promised and then added under her breath. “With golden wings and silver giggles.”

Birds sung in the trees. A blue robin flitted down low enough to fly between the troll’s legs. Terra glimpsed the sun through a break in the trees and knew she had to be getting to the camp. If Taylor hadn’t come up with some sort of plan by then he never would. She motioned forward with one arm

“We’re almost there!” She said loud enough for the troll to hear, as his head was lost somewhere up in the boughs of the trees.

Taylor sat in waiting on the upper branches of a short evergreen tree. His sword was safely hidden away in one of the saddle bags by the horses. He had tied them some ways off so that they wouldn’t be frightened of the troll. The teenage boy hoped that his plan worked, he was confident that the troll would be taken out, but he needed to be sure that nothing happen to the Sacred Text that they had risked so much to find.

The fact that it was so close by made his heart race. Everything that his country needed to be free from the oppressive enemy was hidden inside the pages of that Text. A low rumble and the rhythmic thump he could feel coming up through the tree let him know that the troll was getting closer. He looked down and checked to make sure that his trap was truly ready. Satisfied he leaned back into the trunk and waited.

Terra entered the camp cautiously, her gaze sweeping the site for any sign of her friend. He was nowhere to be seen and neither were any of the horses. She swallowed hard. This could get tricky fast. The troll entered the camp a few seconds behind her, it came to a stop in the very center of the circled tents. It looked around, blinking it’s golden eyes frequently because of the bright light that shone into the open space. It was only then that Terra remembered learning that trolls could not see very well in the sunlight. She could remember the stories that her Gampa used to tell her on his knee beside the fireplace. A vein of homesickness shot through her and for a moment she wished she had never agreed to take the mission.

Taylor felt her homesickness like it was his own, the strong emotion coming clearly through the Link. He felt sadness for her well up inside of him, but he stopped it before it could be transported into her consciousness.

“Where is horse?” The troll asked in confusion. It continued to look around itself as if the horse would spring from thin air.

Terra scrambled for an excuse. “We-ell, you see. . .”

“Duck!” Taylor’s shout drove her to the ground in a second.

There was a rush of air above her and a whistle noise followed by a loud thud. She turned her head just in time to see the troll fall backward, a small tree impaled through it‘s shoulder. The entire camp shook at the impact of the large body when the troll landed in a green heap. Terra pushed herself to her knees and looked around for Taylor.

“Up here!” Taylor waved from his position in the tree.

Terra glared at him. “You could have given me some kind of warning.”

“I did.” He said with a smirk. “Besides, I didn’t want to alert the troll now did I?”

Terra muttered under her breath about stupid boys, but did not argue the point. She heard Taylor climb down the tree behind her as she came up to the troll’s right hand, where it still clutched the golden velvet bag. It took some work to get it out of the unconscious grip of the monster, but finally she was able to pull it free. Taylor watched over her shoulder as she reached inside the bag and slid a rolled up schroll into view.

The Text was not much larger than normal scrolls, but it was the pages that set it apart. They were made out of rough rawhide. Terra ran a finger lightly over the outside, awe spilling from her to the Link. Taylor tried to take it, but she kept it out of his reach. Holding it out from him she frowned over at the boy.

“What do you think that you’re doing?” She asked.

“Reading it, of course.” He replied snidely.

‘We aren’t going to read it. The Queen never said that we were to read it.” Terra said decidedly. “We’re not going to and that is that.”

“Uh-huh.” Taylor murmured.

“I’m serious.”

“Yeah. I can see that, Terra.” The teenage boy waved a hand in the direction of the scroll. “But why shouldn’t we? We’re the ones who risked our lives to find it…shouldn’t we get a chance to see what was so important.” His eyes shone with curiosity. “This is what will save the kingdom. I for one am not giving it back without some idea of what it will do.”

Terra chewed her bottom lip. He did have a good point, she thought uncertainly. They did have a right, but not in the eyes of the Queen - of that she was certain. Having lived with the woman for over five years she knew that this would be a gross breach of trust between them and the royal throne. Still, what the Queen did not know could not hurt anyone. She nodded hesitantly.

“Alright. I guess you’re right.”

Taylor grinned. “Sure I am.”

Terra rolled her eyes in disgust at the egotistical response. “Men!” She complained, holding the scroll out to him. “We read this together.”

*******

“So, what are we going to do with this troll anyway?” Terra asked as she skirted around the prone figure.

Taylor shrugged. “What can we do? It’s too heavy for us to move.”

“Did you really have to kill it? I don’t think he would have hurt us.”

“Unless it didn’t get that ‘nice horse’ you promised.” Taylor stated dryly.

Terra had to agree. “Well, I still think there could have been a better way.”

“Hmm. You’re welcome. I’m so glad that I saved your life.” Taylor mocked from his position by the camp fire where he was still poring over the scroll.

The night had fallen upon them quickly. A few minutes earlier they had enjoyed a monotonous meal of fresh mushrooms and sun-dried berries. Terra missed the smoked meat her Gampa used to send with her on the trips to the palace. She licked her lips at the memory, unknowingly sending her feelings through the Link.

“You’re making me hungry.” Taylor told her with a chuckle. “Maybe if we followed these instructions it would help us to control this Link thing. Then we wouldn’t always be sharing our emotions. At least then I could get some peace and quite in here.” He tapped the side of his head. “Besides, if the Queen is a Chosen then we don’t want her to know what we’ve found out.”

“True. We should look at it again tonight.”

“Finally, we’ve got a plan.” Taylor commented with a smile.

2008-11-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

LightSwitch
By Tina Anton

A professed light side to your darkness
An inherent lie to what you confess
I hear your words and I choose
To believe in broken darkness.
Only then I know what you said
Meant you told the truth and lied
Both cannot be simply believed
Unless you are honestly, purely blessed.

THE END

(Cont.)

2008-11-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

Finally, the time had come for them to exert their power over change. Freeing the vampires was just one step that would lead to peace among the different creatures of the planet earth. Not all of them were valued or accepted, yet, but the Reformers would soon change that reality. Fifty major cities, a hundred Reformers in all, simultaneously finding and rescuing as many vampires as possible. The clan of the undead would soon be reunited. Daniel felt confident that his choice had been the right one.

All living beings deserved a life - vampires were no exception in David’s mind. He reached the bus station just in time to step onto the waiting transportation. He claimed an empty seat in the far back, he let his gaze drift out the window towards the cemetery where his latest charity case would be gasping fresh air, hungering for life blood.

There was no guilt over the fact that an innocent might die that night. Daniel was firm believer in Fate. If it was meant to happen then nothing would be able to prevent it. Everything happened for a reason, the man was certain of this ultimate truth.

He let his eyes close, leaning his head back against the seat. He could feel eyes on him, the other passengers curiosity drawing them to the man with the spiked red hair, black leather coat and ragged, fingerless gloves. In stark contrast of this grunge, punk look were the softened expression on his angelic face. No piercing or tattoos marred the delicate, almost feminine features that had garnered him hundreds of stares over the long years of his life.

The drizzle outside turned into a downpour as Daniel relaxed even further, slumping down in the seat, his coat hugged tight around his body. His pale pink mouth fell into a thin line as he tried to remember the address of his next target. He had made the mistake of forgetting his little black book that morning. A soft sigh escaped from between his lips. He would need to buy another shovel.

****

Trevor Snow choked on his own dry tongue. He tried to swallow, tried desperately to breath air into his lungs, but something was very wrong. Scared brown eyes widened at the feeling of vertigo that swept over him, blurring his vision into a twisted image of a claustrophobic grave. He screamed in fear and jerked upright in the coffin.

“Help!” He yelled, his lungs finally filling with crisp air.

No one responded to his cry and he did not wait to find out why. Fear pumped through his body, his heart speeding up to match the adrenaline flowing through his veins. He stood up, unsteady on legs that felt like they had never been used. He felt his stomach rebel and then he gagged, unable to expel contents that no longer existed.

The taste of garlic in his mouth made him heave again and again. Cold, stiff fingers clawed into the dirt sides of the grave as Trevor pulled himself painfully out of the pit. He lay panting on the ground above, unwilling to look around himself for several long minutes.

A downpour of rain left him choking again, this time on cold water from the heavens. The young man’s jaw worked automatically as he swallowed the liquid. His body craved liquid. His eyebrows drew together in confusion. Not water though. Something else, something thick and heavy and full of life. His gasps came in shorter bursts.

****

Natalia Drummer walked as quickly as she dared in four inch heels over rainy cement. She held an umbrella covered in cartoon cats and dogs over her head. Long, wavy red hair fell over her shivering shoulders. It had been a long day at work and the dancer wanted nothing more than to get out of the weather. Her jacket had been stolen during break and she was left with barely anything to cover her pristine form. A tight, golden leather dress hugged her body, pushing her breasts upwards and affording no heat. She hunched her shoulders, keeping her head down.

The cemetery off to her right gave her even more of an incentive to walk the three blocks to her apartment as fast as possible. She glanced over her shoulder towards the main gates of the graveyard and relaxed a fraction to see that they were still safely padlocked from the outside. She had a fear of ghosts that had been instilled over years of watching Stephen King movies with her late boyfriend. He had been into the “Goth” scene and she had humored his strange idiosyncrasies. At least, until he had brought out the leather binding straps. She saw enough freaks at her work.

A dancer was the formal title she used to introduce herself to new acquaintances, but stripper was the street term.

Natalia felt someone watching her which was not unusual considering her get-up, but it made her hurry a little faster all the same. She was practically jogging in heels meant for nothing beyond a brisk walk. Her eyes grew wide with fear and she forced herself to remain calm. She gripped her house keys in one hand, ready to fight if it came to that. She took a deep, steadying breath and tried to resist the urge to glance over her shoulder again.

Footsteps sounded behind her, she tensed.

****

Daniel H. Harris had found his next subject.

A folding shovel had cost an extra fifteen dollars, but it was money well spent. He went to work digging up the grave - a time consuming and exhausting effort that would reap a giant reward. Another vampire would be freed onto a world that should have never shunned or forgotten the majestic creatures. Once human they had been turned into something beautiful and immortal. David sweated, muscles aching after his previous job.

One more grave and then he would call it a night and go home to his fish and plants. Not a relationship man, David had been waiting for love to come to him. So far it had been a lonely life. He had no one beyond a distant cousin whom he never spoke to and the Reformers. They had been like a second family to him and now he did their work religiously.

He had six feet and two minutes to go.

****

Trevor shadowed the woman, his thirst and hunger growing by the second. He wanted to taste her blood. It felt so strange and yet so right. He shook his head, ran a hand through his brown hair and at last gave into the compulsion.

He was surprised at how good it felt, how easy it had been to kill. The initial spring that had felled her left him wondering at his own super-human abilities, but Trevor gave it little thought after his first bite had allowed him access to the crimson life that flowed inside her veins. The woman had tasted so beautiful and kind. He could sense her character through her lifeblood. It gave him goose bumps.

A Different (Another) Kind Of Mercy by Tina c. 2008

2008-10-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

CHAPTER ONE

A light drizzle rained feeling on the pale, dead skin of a young vampire. A pile of freshly dug earth mixed to mud and dripped steadily over the still body. The boy’s human name had been Trevor Snow and he had been nineteen the night he had been bitten nearly two years before. Unlike normal humans, the body of one bitten by a vampire did not rot and decay at a quick rate. Sometimes it would take decades for the first signs to manifest.

Warm hands pried open the stiff mouth of the corpse, pink fingers pulling out a clove of garlic. The hands threw the garlic well beyond the confines of the small cemetery, then they reached down. A thin silver knife nailed the soul into the body that had housed it faithfully for so long was carefully extracted and tossed to the side.

Daniel H. Harris pulled himself out of the grave. In five minutes the vampire would re-awaken, hungry and alive. The thirty-year-old man wiped his hands on his faded blue jeans, adjusted his coat and walked calmly away.

Daniel let his troubled blue eyes focus on the grassy plots of the graveyard and then the indifferent gray of the sidewalk. In five minutes time he would be on a bus and halfway across the city. He had saved a soul from eternal captivity and in several hours time he would find another graveyard and another vampire to free. Daniel Harris was a Reformer.

The Reformers had started off as a group of three humans against cruelty to paranormal creatures. Their protests had started small, slowly building momentum as the number of their followers increased over there years. Now they were several thousand strong, although they worked hard to remain under the radar.

Angels AND Love by Ebbtide

2008-10-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

SUMMARY: Dastiel. Castiel interrupts Dean "getting some" from a barfly. Rated M. AU. SPOILERS SEASON FOUR!!! You've been warned. ;). :D. Enjoy!!

She had smiled at him. Sure there had been a nod here, a smirk there and maybe an inferring hand movement somewhere in between. Dean Winchester gestured towards the girl at the bar.

“I’ve got some extra circular stuff to take care of, Sammy. I’ll see you at the hotel in a few.” He stood, running a hand over his rumbled blue button up shirt. “Don’t wait up for me.”

Sam Winchester chuckled dryly. “Play hard to get, little buddy.”

“Little buddy?”

Sam stood to his feet, stretching to make himself appear to tower even further over his shorter brother. “Yep.” The dark haired man smiled.

Sam sent one last cautionary glance around the bar before he left. He did not sense anything out of the ordinary and none of his well-honed survival instincts were blaring alarms. Dean would be fine by himself for a few hours. Besides, it had been a long week and Sam really wanted to get some sleep.

Dean walked over to the bar, nudging up next to the hot woman who had been giving him eyes all night long. She smiled coyly up at him through thick, dark lashes.

“Hey.” He greeted her in a husky tone.

Her grin widened, showing off perfect teeth. “Hey.”

The noise of the bar faded into the background as Dean felt himself fill with lust for the woman looking up at him with those sparkling blue eyes. He swallowed hard, he would have to do some quick talking because the backseat of his car was more than calling his name - it was freakin’ yelling!

“So…”

****

Sam closed the door to his hotel room a weary sigh breaking through the fog in his mind as he stumbled towards the bed. He was so very tired it took almost too much effort to kick off his shoes and unbutton his shirt. As for the rest of his clothes, he would worry about undressing in the morning. His eyes were closed before he hit the mattress.

****

Dean would have given the Impala’s left front tire for a hotel room. He would have asked Sam to give him a few hours, but he had known just how exhausted his younger brother had been that night. The last thing Dean wanted to do was ‘defile’ the backseat of the car with some random chick, but every man had needs.

The windows were sufficiently fogged, even though that barely mattered since he had driven them to a very secluded area off a dirt road near the bar. The woman was shrugging out of her heavy sweater top, Dean’s eyes bugged a little at the sight of a skin tight spaghetti strap underneath covering large breasts. He grinned like a kid in a candy store. He was ready to have some fun and relax.

“My name’s Dean.” He wanted to get the necessary stuff out of the way. He started to unbutton his shirt but the woman closed her hand over his.

“Let me do that…Dean.” Her voice was breathy, Dean had to force his body not react to it. “My name is Sandy.”

“S-Sandy, that’s ni-ice.” He stuttered as her hands roamed under his shirt and down his chest.

He let his eyes close, reveling in the first sexual contact since Hell. It was all he could do not to take her right there and then, but he wanted the experience to go on for as long as possible. Life seemed determined not to give him a happy ending and he would fight tooth and nail to feel at least some release from the stress of his job.

****

“This is stupid.” Uriel announced in irritation. “Playing watch guard while a human gets off with another human. I may be sick.”

Castiel rolled his bright blue eyes, his host breathing out visible clouds of breath into the cold night air. He watched the Impala parked a few yards away, it was beginning to sway and primal noises could be easily heard. He shifted his shoulders under the thick, brown coat. Uriel was right, this was stupid….but necessary.

“We don’t know when Lilith might attack, we just know that she will.” He said aloud.

“Huh.” Uriel muttered in discontent. “I still say we end this love making before it progresses any further. The safest place Dean Winchester can be is at the hotel. Letting him indulge in these lustful acts will only put him in further jeopardy. You know that I’m right.”

Castiel exchanged a glance with the dark brown eyes of Uriel’s host.

“Fine, but I will be the one to break this up.” Castiel’s tone left no room for argument.

He knew how insensitive Uriel’s social skills were - rusty would be the perfect term. The last thing Dean Winchester, or the angels, needed was a frightened human woman on their hands. He would just have to handle this delicately. Footsteps crunching on the damp gravel, Castiel walked over to the car, a blush rising on his cheeks as the sounds grew louder and more pronounced. He reached the Impala and lightly tapped on the window.

“God! Dean!”

He tapped harder on the window. The rocking stopped. There was a long pause, the whisper of voices and then a squeaking noise as the window was wiped clear with a sweaty palm. Dean stared out at the angel in incomprehension.

“No way.” The hunter mumbled in disbelief.

****

Dean felt more than a little angry, confused and frightened. Why was Castiel there of all places? Had something happened to Sam? Had the angel sensed a demon? Were they in danger? Before Dean had a chance to voice any of these questions the door opened and Castiel addressed the naked woman.

“I think you should go now.”

Sandy dressed quickly and refused the ride Dean offered, preferring to walk away with as much dignity as she could muster. Dean watched the woman fade into the darkness in the direction of the bar. He ran a hand over his face, unable to believe that his love making had just been interrupted by an angel.

“This is ridiculous.”

“You need to get back to the hotel, Dean. It isn’t safe here.” Castiel said.

Dean stared mournfully out the front windshield. “What’s the point of being brought back to life if every time I’m about to get some…… anti-cupid interrupts?” He glared up at the angel. “I got needs, you know.”

“They will have to wait.”

“Until what?” Dean’s voice grew slightly desperate. “Until the world ends because we’ve failed and then it’s too late!? Is that what it’s going to take?”

“You’re being overly dramatic.”

“And just what the hell do you call what you just did? Anti-climatic?” Dean winced and zipped up his jeans. “’Cause that’s sure the way it feels.”

Castiel frowned. “Go back to the hotel.”

“Fine.” Dean ground out. “But don’t come looking to me when YOU need help getting laid.” He paused a moment. “Angels do…do it, don’t they?”

Castiel’s expression remained neutral. “THE HOTEL.” He enunciated each word carefully.

Dean threw a harsh glare at the angel, his irritation reaching new heights, and he slammed the door closed. He started the car and put it into drive.

“Fine.” He muttered to himself. “ I’ll go to the stupid hotel with the stupid TV and watch some stupid PORN!” He yelled the last towards where the angel stood watching. With a shake of his head, Dean turned the car around and drove back to their hotel.

****

THE END. Lol. :P.

Get Out Of The Pit Card

2008-10-29T00:30:00.000-07:00

Get Out of Hell Card

BY EBBTIDE CHEQUE

2008-10-28T12:45:00.001-07:00

In Remembrance of Me
By Ebbtide

Cold, green eyes were locked in an eternal stare of fear and panic. Forever destined to portray the last emotions of their host. The green was infused with a softening gold, tingeing the soul’s windows with equal parts sadness and regret. Dean Winchester was dead and buried. His eyes forever frozen beneath bloodless lids.

Perhaps forever was too strong a word.

****

Six Months Later…

“Come on, Dean.” Sam taunted his older brother with a giant grin. “You know that you want to.”

“Give it back!” Dean gritted out between clenched teeth. “I’m not joking around, give it back and lets get the hell out of this place!” His voice had risen an octave by the end.

A nearby group of children exchanged frightened whispers before hurrying away at a quick pace. Dean grimaced and ran a hand through his short blond hair.

“Look at what you’ve done!” The elder brother motioned in the direction of the retreating children. “That’s just peachy. Now I’m the Grinch.”

Long, dark bangs fell over wide, hazel eyes. “I’m sorry. Here, Dean.” Sam extended his hand and opened it to reveal Dean’s cell phone. “You going to call her?”

“No.” Dean snatched the cell phone. “Now drop it.”

Sam raised his hands in defeat. “Fine, but you’re going to regret it.”

“Drop it.”

Sam sighed heavily and looked away, shaking his head. “Alright. I’ll drop it. I’m going to go wait in the car.”

“You do that.” Dean balled his hands into fists, trying to find an outlet for the tension that had been building up inside of him. How could Sam not understand that things had changed. Forever.

He watched his brother walk out of the front door of the building. A sadness engulfed him, threatening to drown him in it’s darkness and despair. With months of hell to sort through, his emotions were all screwed up.

It was not Sam’s fault, he knew that, but at the same time he wished that there was a way to make his brother understand the pain he felt inside. He had died in hell. Pieces of his soul being torn apart, swept off in a whirl of savage attacks. Demons loved to torture and there had been so many demons in hell. Their sulfur smiles bleeding the hope out of him slowly.

It had been hell.

A knot formed in his throat and Dean looked around for some place to escape to before the he lost what little composure he had left. He spied a bathroom off in the corner and made a b-line through the crowds of talking people.

Once inside, he closed and locked the door, leaning his head against it. His shoulders slumped, a deep hurt beginning in his stomach and clawing it’s way up his throat before escaping in a sob. Shoulders shaking, Dean let his body slide down the door until he sat, curled on the floor silently acknowledging the loss. A loss he would now and forever mourn. Loss of an innocence he only appreciated after it had been taken.

“Sammy.” His hoarse whisper spoke of all the regrets, doubts, fears and brotherly love he could never voice while in the presence of the younger man.

Dean would die again and go back to that place of endless despair if it would save Sam from a dark ending. Tears streaked down his cheeks in rivers of growing anger. Life had thrown down a perfect hand of cards and Dean was left paying a dept he could not afford. To gamble with his own life was a risk of the job, but to gamble with Sam’s life. Dean covered his face with his hands in shame.

Sam had gotten a chance, one chance, to make a normal life away from all the heartache of the Hunter lifestyle. Dean had literally dragged him back into the supernatural world, shooting down the only normality his brother had ever experienced. Dean could kill himself. A numb grayness edged his vision and he stared blankly down at the dirty bathroom floor.

A feather light brush of air, the approach of footsteps. Dean found himself wishing for it to be a demon, someone to end this torment once and for all. Maybe he should have gave into their dark influences tainting everything in hell, but Dean had held out - for Sammy he had remained human. It had been so hard to gather those broken pieces of soul and hold them tight against his chest, fighting to keep at bay the hands that had tried so passionately to tear them away.

Four months in hell was like forty years. Dean could still feel the heat burning flesh off his bones.

A cool hand touched his cheek. He looked up with fear glazed eyes and found himself staring into the face of an angel. Castiel, god’s warrior from heaven, stood over him with a sad smile shinning down at the hunter.

***

Castiel smiled at the human warrior shivering at his feet, a sadness gripping his heart. Dean Winchester was crying, his pain almost physically present as Castiel reached deep inside himself and extracted a wave of calm and peace. He reached down and touched a cool hand to the man’s cheek, closing his eyes he let the soothing emotions he had mined travel through himself and into Dean Winchester.

The man sighed, his tired green eyes closing in relief.

“Thank you.” Dean’s voice was harsh, but his words rang sincere. “I don’t know what you just did, but thank you.”

Castiel straightened, taking a few steps away. He kept his blue gaze fastened on the Winchester, he wanted to do more than dull the pain, but god had a very specific plan.

“You are welcome.” Castiel prepared to leap into another place and time, he had another mission to complete, an urgent one calling to him, but still he hesitated a moment. Dean needed reassurance. “You are not alone, Dean. Pray and god will hear you.”

“I doubt I’ll catch him at home.” Dean joked weakly, almost too emotionally spent to give the bravado a go. “But I guess a heavenly memo will have to do.”

“I will be back, Dean.” Castiel promised before slipping into thin air.

***
Dean felt his heartbeat, slowly thumping against his chest in a reassuring rhythm of promise and hope. He had no clue what that angel had done to him, but all of his fears and doubts had receded with that one simple touch.

Maybe forever was not so long after all.

THE END

Camp Mivoden 2008 Women's Retreat.

2008-10-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

QUESTION MARK by EBBTIDE

2008-10-24T22:38:00.000-07:00

Question Mark
By Ebbtide

A hand, burned hot-red into his skin, had left behind traces - a new question mark in his world built of ignorance and mysteries. He found a beautiful symmetry in the new life, this second chance. Saved from the bowels of hell by an angel of god. A sinner reborn by grace.

Poetry had nothing on Dean Winchester.

A low rumble shook the hunter’s chest, a cough working it’s way through his body. Sam was out of the hotel buying cough-drops and other essentials they were running low on. The blonde man groped blindly at the beside table, his eyes closed to the room’s low light, in search of a half-full glass he had placed there earlier. Wrapping his hand around the cool glass, he brought it to his dry lips and took a small sip.

Dean hated being sick. He hated to admit that on occasion he needed help surviving the normal parts of life. It made him feel like a wuss, times like these. He couldn’t even keep down a slice of heavenly pie. He frowned.

There was a slight rustling noise to his left accompanied by a whiff of frigid air.

“How are you?”

“What do you care?” Dean peeked up at the angelic visitor through a hooded green eye. “Can you snap your fingers and heal me? Don’t answer that!” He added quickly.

Dean felt his head begin to throb in congestion fueled discomfort. He clumsily grabbed a Kleenex from the box on his bed and blew his nose. Loudly. Maybe the angel would get a clue and leave. Dean kept his eyes closed, breathing in deeply once his nasal passages were clear.

“You still there, buddy?” He asked after a few moments of dead silence.

“How are you feeling?”

Under closed lids, Dean rolled his eyes. “Peachy.” The man grumbled. “I’m the freaking belle of the ball.”

There was the soft approach of footsteps and Dean tensed as he sensed the presence of Castiel lean over the bed.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Dean.” Castiel’s soft, strong tone made Dean relax involuntarily.

“Yeah?” Dean let his voice harden. “How can I be so sure?”

“You’ll just have to have faith.”

Dean coughed.

“This is most unfortunate. I need you ready to fight. The battle field draws closer and closer each day.” Frustration entered the angel’s voice for the very first time. “But I am not authorized to heal you. There are rules.”

Dean smirked through another harsh cough.

“Hands tied, big guy? Well, that’s too bad. Sorry to mess up your party plans.”

“You will be better soon, Dean. I do not sense a lasting illness in your body.”

Dean adjusted the pillow under his head, moving to a more comfortable position on his side.

“Whatever you say, sparky.” He mumbled.

***

Castiel looked down at the human. He felt a curiosity burn through his thoughts, begging the cool relief of an honest answer. He was hesitant to speak aloud the subject that was stuck in his mind.
Over two thousand years of watching - not directly interfering with - the human world had left him feeling curious, torn, disappointed and disgusted. He prayed for guidance before opening his hosts mouth, humans were so hard to read sometimes. He would need more practice if he was to connect with Dean Winchester.

“How can you mock the Lord?” There, he had said it. The question that had haunted him throughout his tine on Earth.

Dean chuckled dryly. “Is this the fire and brimstone episode, preacher-man?” He asked.

Castiel took a step backwards at the flippant response to his earnest query. His mouth turned down in a frown. His brilliant blue eyes clouded. He would try one more time.

“Please, I would like to know…to understand.” The human world was still such a mystery.

“Nah, you don’t want that.”

“I think I do.”

***

Dean stiffened, his eyes widening a margin in fear at the irritation that bled into Castiel’s words. The hunter had learned the hard way to trust no one. Especially powerful figures claiming a story too good to be true. He knew the angel had the ability to do almost anything imaginable - he could bend time! - but that was no reason for Dean to make it easy. He did not trust the angel and he was not in the mood to be liberal with his feelings.

“Why do you want to know so bad?”

“Call me curious.” Castiel replied, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

Dean grinned, a genuine humor infusing itself with his next statement. “Oh, I can call you lots of things, but since you asked nicely…” He let his words trail off into a dry chuckle.

“I see that you will not be answering my question.” Castiel paused for a brief moment. “Fine, I will leave you. Do not be afraid, Dean, you will be made well soon.”

“Because god’s watching over me?” Dean asked bitterly.

“Yes.”

“Protecting his investment?”

“Yes.”

Dean coughed, long and hard.

“Bang up job he’s doing so far.”

“I’ll be seeing you around, Dean.” The angel turned away.

Dean looked up then, his green eyes studying the angel in masked surprise. During all of their interactions, the heavenly creature had never once said anything resembling a greeting or a goodbye. He would just appear and disappear in his own time. The Winchester boy felt a little guilty for being such a smart alec. He had been essentially nipping at the hand that had freely fed him a new chance at life.

Dean cleared his throat loudly. “Wait!”

Castiel glanced over his shoulder at the man lying on the bed. One dark eyebrow rose in question. Dean took a deep breath and then spoke honestly.

“It’s easy. To mock the Lord.” Dean began, trying to find the right words to explain. He looked up, meeting Castiel’s intense gaze. “I was raised to believe in the tangible, the…” He grinned softly. “The corporeal. I was taught to only believe in those things which can be seen, experienced and proven. To me god does not exist. How can you offend what doesn’t exist?”

Castiel clenched his jaw. His brothers and he had watched the Winchester family from afar, their importance never underestimated. Over the years Castiel had seen John Winchester teach his boys many immoral ways. The truth of just how much their father was inside each of their characters, attitudes and actions surprised the angel. He had thought humans much more independent than that.

“What, no response?” Dean asked with a cocky half-grin.

Castiel bowed his head. “Thank you. I must go now.”

Dean waved a hand towards the door, coughing again.

“Hey, don’t let me keep you.” He blew his nose again and then continued. “After all, I’m sure that you have so many lost souls to save and …”

Castiel was gone.

Dean groaned and closed his eyes tightly, rolling over in the bed. “Angels!” He muttered in exasperation.

THE END.

Peace, Out!

2008-10-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

2008-10-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

How YBGTF?

2008-10-18T21:19:00.001-07:00

“How’s your brother going to feel when he knows you’re going to hell. How’d you feel when your dad went for you?”

Dean Winchester jerked awake, tremors running through his sweat-soaked body. A nightmare. It had only been a nightmare. He swallowed hard and ran a hand over his face.

A quick glance to his left showed that his younger brother was still asleep.

He pulled the covers back and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Bobby Singer’s haunting words echoed through his mind, sending all possibility of sleep into the future. He sighed softly and scratched his head unsure of what exactly had brought on this new and unwelcome nightmare.

Sam had been having a moody day. Dean had noticed, decided it was not worth the effort of mentioning and then promptly fell into a cycle of worry and concern that always followed on the heels of Sam’s brooding moments. Rain began to fall softly against the hotel room window and Dean remembered leaving the driver’s side window of his car down a few inches. The Impala came before sleep - and anyway, he needed a distraction. He got to his feet.

Throwing on a jacket over his T-shirt and briefs, the lean man quietly let himself out of the room. He sighed, a little louder and longer, once outside in the warm night air. The raindrops were tiny pricks of respite from the sweltering heat and he hoped that it would continue into the next day. Hunting in hundred degree weather was anything but fun, especially when the car being driven in had leather seats. He had a sunburn that would be tan by the next afternoon. At least the discomfort had reaped a reward.

Rolling up the car window Dean decided to take a quick stroll around the building to ease his tired, sore muscles. The fact that he was not even wearing pants did not bother the young man. He knew that no one was around and all of the nearby lights had either burnt out or had been broken. This alerted him to the possibility of danger, but he needed the walk.

Tired, weary legs propelled him slowly down the cement sidewalk that skirted around all four sides of the hotel building. He stuck to the shadows, moving stealthily enough not to get noticed by any standard passerby should any be encountered. He thought of Sam.

“How’s your brother going to feel when he knows you’re going to hell. How’d you feel when your dad went for you?”

Those words had not haunted him before tonight and he needed to know why they suddenly would not be silenced. His brow furrowed, Dean Winchester thought back to the night he had talked - so disheartened - to the cold corpse of his younger brother. A mouthful of vomit pushed its way up his throat and he swallowed hard to ward off the nausea.

He could still see that unmoving form, his gaze grew distant and he lost track of time. Dean let his body take over and in an automatic haze of putting one foot in front of the other his mind wandered. Sam had deserved to live, he would never regret what he had needed to do a year before.

Sure, his last few days were weighing heavily on his mind. He had less than two weeks to live, that would weigh heavy on anyone, he figured dryly. For Sam, he would endure anything hell could send his way. Those evil bastards were not going to get the pleasure of watching him live in agony without his brother - no, he had made the right choice selling his soul.

Confident in his decision once again, Dean squared his shoulders and lifted his chin. No nightmare was going to cheat him out of what could possibly be the last nights sleep he ever got. An irony tinged grin stretched across his face. What was causing the nightmare no longer mattered - the nightmare itself no longer mattered. All Dean Winchester needed was a good nights sleep and then some quality time with his brother. That was what being a big brother was all about. Letting go of ones own problems in order to focus on creating peace and happiness in a younger siblings life. As much as was possible, anyway. For Sam, Dean was unsure of just how much good he could do before his death. However, he was determined to try.

****

Sam woke up the next morning to find his brother sipping coffee and reading a newspaper, illuminated by a bright beam of sunlight snaking through the partially closed curtains.

“You going to let me sleep all day?” Sam asked in surprised and consternation when he looked at the bedside clock. It read seven o’clock a.m. and he knew for a fact that he had set the alarm for five. “Did you turn the alarm off?”

Dean looked up, taking another sip of coffee. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Sam gave his older brother a suspicious once over. “Uh, huh. Sure you don’t.”

Dean just shrugged and returned to his paper.

****

Dean knew he should not have let Sam sleep in. The younger Winchester was practically neurotic when it came to getting out on the road in the early hours. It always bugged Dean that Sam used the excuse of it being a less traffic congested time of the day when it was not even Sam who drove the car. For one day, Dean decided that he would let his brother sleep later and maybe he could even get them into a restaurant. He was tired of eating food on the road.

“Breakfast in five.” He announced.

Sam raised a surprised eyebrow. “You bought breakfast?”

Dean folded the newspaper and put it down, draining his cup of coffee in one swig. “Nope!” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “We’re going down the road. I saw a restaurant.”

Sam smirked. “You are joking, right? We have a hunt…three towns over. We don’t have time for this.” His eyes clouded. “People’s lives depend on us, Dean.”

The older man felt his hopes for the day sink below the incoming tide of his brothers guilt trip. All he had wanted to do was make today a good day for his little brother. Was that so much to ask? Was that too hard a dying wish for the fates to muster? He shook his head firmly.

“They can wait. We’re doing this, come on.” He stood, throwing his coat over one shoulder.

“Alright. Just let me get dressed.” Sam consented once he realized that Dean was serious. “Give me a minute.”

“I’ll be waiting in the car, Princess.”

“Bite me.”

“Watch it.”

Sam shook his head and watched his brother leave the room. Once the door had closed, Sam frowned. He felt anger growing inside of him, clawing to be let out into his conscious slate of emotions, but he repressed the feeling. Dean was only being Dean after all, nothing to get upset over. With a heavy sigh the dark haired man began to dress.

It would be a long day if Dean’s current attitude was any meter to judge by.

****

Dean sat in the booth, waiting for his order and staring in wonder at his younger brother. He could still be amazed, after all these years and all his eyes had seen. A grin cracked the gloomy expression that covered his brother’s face. Sam laughed nervously.

“What are you looking at, Dean? Dean?” When there was no reply Sam leaned forward. “What is it?”

The younger man did not like the strange, unidentifiable look on his brother’s face. Dean was still staring at the dark haired man in wonder. A revelation had been bourn by his heart and then born seconds before as they had sat chatting about the weather.

Sam was not a hunter.

In all the years that they had grown up together it had never, not once, occurred to Dean that maybe the lifestyle was not something his brother could handle. Now, he knew for sure that this was the case. He had saved his brother’s life. That life was not what his brother desired. Yet, over the past year Sam had done everything in his power to help Dean reverse the deal. He had fought so hard.

“Dude, what?”

Dean shook his head, finally breaking out of the spell that had been cast over him. A deep sadness replaced the feeling of awe. His brother deserved to be saved from this life even more than the next. He knew there was not enough time for him to do that - not again. He tried to smile nonchalantly, but instead it ended up as a grimace.

“Nothing, man.” Dean replied finally, his voice tight. “Just.” He cleared his throat. “Just thinking, that’s all.”

****

Sam shifted uncomfortably. He had no idea what his brother had been ‘just thinking’ minutes before but it made him feel very uneasy. He was relieved when their order was brought to the table and placed before them.

“Looks good.”

“Sure does and this beats eating in the car any day.” Dean smiled wide, his eyes lighting up. “Dig in, Sammy.”

After a meal overseen by awkward small talk and silence they left the restaurant.

“Thank you.” Sam said as they walked out the front door. Dean’s only response was a bittersweet smile.

****

“What you did was selfish.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It was selfish, but you know, I’m okay with that.”

Sam Winchester opened his eyes and was surprised to find tears spilling over his lashes like water through a broken dam. He reached up to wipe the dampness away in the wake of his latest nightmare. He glanced over to the bed on his right and let out a tiny breath of relief when he saw that Dean was still fast asleep, drooling onto his pillow and mumbling about pie.

A soft smile was overturned by the continuation of his tears. Crying was not something that he indulged in on a regular basis, but sometimes there was no helping it. Sam decided that he could use some fresh air and with one last glance at Dean’s sleeping form he quietly let himself out of the hotel room.

The night air was cool and refreshing. Sam breathed in deep and then exhaled slowly, letting his nightmare shrink back into the recesses of his mind where it belonged. That fight with Dean had been a mile marker in the long year since the deal had been made. A year filled with darkness and pain. A year about to end.

One week to go. Their latest hunt had been an overwhelming success and on the eve of their next battle Dean had rented them a couple of hookers for the night. Sam chuckled sadly at his own horrified reaction. Not that he did not want a girl every now and then it had just been a little too cold and impersonal. The four of them had ended up chowing on pizza, beer and chips. A rocking radio station had also lent the option of dancing to the boys. Overall it had been an unexpectedly fun and relaxing night.

The hookers had went their way three hours before. Sam still was not sure what had brought on the nightmare, but it did not really matter. Dean and he had worked through that little spat months ago. Now Sam was focused entirely on saving his brother - and as many other people - as he possibly could. It was a new mission, a new lifestyle. Saving people.

“After everything I’ve done for this family, I think I’m entitled.”
“I’m tired, Sam.”

Sam ran a hand over his face, wiping at his eyes with his shirtsleeve. Dean had given so much over the years and sometimes Sam forgot that. A lot of times, to be honest with himself. He would forget that while he was a young, rebellious tween who only wanted answers, Dean had been faced with the challenge of raising him in an unstable environment, unable or unwilling to give the answers that would later be the ruination of Sam. It was a twisted life they had lead, but Dean had seen to it that Sam had the option of becoming something better, something more.

Law school would have been impossible if not for all of the long nights during high school, the two brothers alone in their hotel room worrying about their father, when Dean had spent hours helping him with homework. It never really hit Sam before just how much of a father Dean had been for him. The elder Winchester brother had been a parent, a best friend and a model older brother. Now, he was a hunting partner. Sam let sobs shake his body as anguish spilled over the confines of his heart and tainted his soul. He was the reason his brother would die.

“You save me over and over. You give up everything for me, don’t you think that I would do that same for you?”
“What?”

Sam could still see the shock, the incomprehension on his older brother’s face on that cold night a year before when he had learned about the deal. Had Dean really not understood just how much he was worth in the younger Winchester’s eyes? Could it really be that after everything he had done, Dean still felt like he had failed somehow? Sam shook his head, pain shaking his body until he could barely suck in enough breath to fill his lungs. He hugged himself in the darkness, wishing it all away.

It had torn both of their lives apart. It had forced them into this life. It would not let them go in peace. It was Fate.

A warm night breeze fingered through the long dark bangs dampened by the falling tears. Sam brushed them away with a sniffle and turned his back to the hotel. He needed to be someplace safe and alone. The Impala.

****

Dean awoke the next morning and instantly fell into a state of panic. Sam’s bed was rumpled and empty. He checked the bathroom and it to was deserted. Fear made him check that the floor was, indeed, still supporting him. It felt like he was falling in a deep, dark pit.

“Sam!”

He pulled on some clothes and ran to the door, radiant rays of sunshine blinding him for a moment when he opened it. His eyes adjusted to the morning light and he started scanning the surroundings for any sign of his brother. No tall, lank form. No dark mop of long hair. No boyish grin, no brooding frown. He could not see his brother anywhere.

Dean felt his heart race as his breath came in shorter and shorter bursts.

“Sam!”

Fumbling in his pocket for the Impala’s keys, Dean raced for the car ready to start an all-out manhunt for his little brother. He jerked open the door and froze, stunned to find Sam Winchester asleep, lying across the front seat of the car.

Dean stumbled over to the curb and sank to the ground. His legs were shaking from the adrenaline and after a moment he giggled in disbelief at his own reaction. It was not unusual for Sam to be out getting breakfast in the mornings. The fact that he had freaked out so spectacularly left him wondering at his own sanity.

He had left the car door wide open and the cooler air woke Sam. He groaned and sat up in the seat, his eyes drawn to the sight of his older brother losing it on the sidewalk a few feet away. Sam lost no time scooting out of the car, he shut the door.

“Dean, you alright?” He squatted down in front of the older man until he was eyelevel. “You with me, buddy?”

Dean looked up at him.

“I’m fine, Sam. Just thought I’d lost something.” He turned his head. “It’s not important.”

Sam’s brow furrowed in confusion and then he grimaced. His neck had gotten a nasty crick in it from the night of sleeping in the car. Sam could not remember falling asleep, but at least he felt more rested than he had in a long time. No more nightmares had kept him awake - maybe he should sleep in the car more often, Sam thought.

“What did you lose?” He asked his obviously distraught older brother.

Dean laughed, a self-deprecating sound. “Nothing. Everything’s alright now, Sammy.” He patted his brother’s shoulder reassuring. “It’s all good.”

Sam was not convinced, but he decided to let it slide.

****

They were driving down an anonymous road on the way to the next hunt, the next meaningful moment in their lives. A heavy silence filled the cab as both boys drifted off into thoughts of their own problems.

Dean figured he would hit the next burger joint they came across. He wanted as many American cheeseburgers as possible before Hell took even that little bit of goodness away.

Sam tried to figure out how to broach the subject that had sent him into such a depressed state the night before. He needed Dean to know that he understood now, that he appreciated everything the older Winchester had done for him over the years.

“Sam?”
“Dean?”

Both began at the same moment in the same somber tone. Sam blinked. Dean had sounded so serious. What if his brother knew what he had been thinking. Sam waved a hand.

“You first.” Sam said, hoping that his brother would broach the muddled subject of feelings.

Dean cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, his hands opening and closing around the steering wheel.

“I was just wondering what you wanted to eat, I’m stopping at the next burger place. You hungry?”

Sam blinked rapidly again, this time in unexpected surprise. Out of all the questions his brother could have uttered, that was the least expected although the most likely to be spoken. Sam chuckled lightly at his own squeamishness when it came to conversations involving apologies and regrets.

“Nothing, man, I’m good.” His smile remained as the younger man treaded into unknown territory. “By the way, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate you. As a big brother and as a friend. Everything you do for me, well, it’s just - thank you. You do so much for me, always have and over the years I guess that I‘ve just come to take it for granted. All those years where you were raising me more than dad was…well, I never really thought of those times as a blessing or anything. Quite the opposite, actually. I thought that you were trying to control me or make me into some hunter. I never stopped to think that you were doing so much more than you ever needed to - I really appreciate all of the time you sacrificed to take care of me and guide me. And thank you for teaching me math.”

Okay, that could have gone a lot better, Sam though with an inward grimace. He had just sort of blurted out all the things he was feeling in an incoherent rush of words. Dean gave him a long, thoughtful glance before turning his attention to the road.

“That’s nice, man.” Dean said finally.

Sam waited. Surely his brother would have more to say than that after such a heartfelt, long-awaited revelation. Nothing. He felt a blush creeping up his neck. What had he been thinking? ‘And thank you for teaching me math’. Sam felt like kicking himself, where had THAT come from.

“I never knew you felt that way.” Dean said so softly that Sam almost did not pick up the words. “I never knew you understood.”

Sam wanted to tell his brother that he had not understood, not really, until the night before. Somewhere in his throat the words refused to form. He looked sideways at the profile of his brother. That man who had been there for him through everything. When he had lost his first tooth, lost his first girlfriend and lost his life. This man who over the years had grown into a hardened, stoic ghost of his former self - hidden safely behind years of painful experiences. Sam reached over and gripped his brother’s shoulder in place of the hug he wanted to desperately to give.

“I didn’t understand, Dean.” He whispered back in a low, thick voice. “But I do now.”

****
THE END

2008-10-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

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.

MY STORIES

2008-10-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE: EBBTIDE'S STORIES

Still Working On It...Post the "After" Later...

2008-10-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Just A Doodle-In-My-Notebook A-Doodly-Doo!

2008-10-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

Family Matters

2008-10-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

She steps carefully over the pile of fresh, dark earth. It is no secret why she is there, in the middle of the night, surrounded by darkness and moonlight. Family and friends have chosen to ignore these little trips into the graveyard. They look past the nightmare actions that she makes each night.
A family affair, some would call it. A family secret, as it is known by those involved.
The young woman, seventeen and looking every year of it, has long dark hair that falls straight against pale skin. Her almond colored eyes are forever squinted into a hard expression of stoicism. Her name is Tamlina Gray and she is a vampire slayer. A thankless job that has brought her more pain than praise.
This night, she stares down into the freshly dug grave. Any moment now the full moon will rise and the ghost of the vampire victim laying in the coffin below will be released into the world. Tamlina knows how to stop this terrible event from happening. She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a pair of silver scissors.
Removing her gloves, so as not to get dirt stains on them, she crawls carefully into the grave, one foot on either side of the coffin, she prepares herself for the sight within. It never gets easier, but she squares her shoulders and pulls back the lid. Inside the remains of a nineteen year old man are composed into a picture of endless slumber. She swallows hard, flinching at the thought of what she has to do next.
The scissors glint in the low light, twin blades of justice and revenge. She brandishes them with a familiarity of a lover, her hands tightening their grip as she swung her arm at a downward angle. The sickening sound of flesh being stabbed made her swallow hard, revulsion at the deed overshadowed by the knowledge that it had been the right move. An hour later and the vampire would have risen from its new grave. Tamlina Gray would not stand for another vampire to be allowed life. They all deserved to be killed before they chose to take the lives of innocents.
She knew from personal experience just how devastating a vampire attack could be - stealing the life of a loved one without a single thought of regret or remorse. Tamlina let the scissors stay inside the dead body, the handles poking out at odd angles, then she reached under her shirt and fingered the necklace of garlic cloves hanging against her skin. They would need to be placed inside the dead body’s mouth. She hated this part.
A droll drizzle started at that second and she shivered inside her thin coat. Winter was over and the cold weather was suppose to be over for another month at least. With a heavy sigh, Tamlina blew a bang out of her blue eyes and, with a quick flick of her wrist, dislodged a clove of garlic from the necklace. Reaching down into the coffin she pried open the dead man’s jaw and thrust the clove inside. That would keep the soul from manifesting outside the body, the silver would keep the body dead. As long as neither were disturbed, the vampire would never be allowed to live. She closed the coffin lid.
She crawled out of the grave and stood, looking down at the lavish wooden box. Tamlina patted the dust off her hands, her job was done. Any moment the graveyard attendant she had bribed would return to fill in the gravesite. Adjusting her coat, hugging her warmth to herself, the teenage girl walked towards the graveyard exit. It was almost sunset and she needed to get home before curfew.
Tamlina Gray had not been a vampire hunter for more than five years, but they had been very intense years filled with weapons training, research and hunts. The dark haired girl had become very adept at spotting and killing the creatures. It was a personal crusade that brought her family together. Five years before, they had lost Timothy Gray to a vampire - her older brother and confidant - to the violent whims of a bloodthirsty hell raiser. Now, she spent her nights hunting down those wicked animals. Human husks without a soul.

Angel Statue

2008-10-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

2008-10-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

PROLOGUE

2008-10-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

Cold blood pounds through my veins, adrenaline forcing my thoughts to blur as I force myself to stand on the swaying earth. There was never a chance to make a different choice and now I will have to live with the consequences.

Forced into a decision I would have killed not to make, I look down at the dead body at my feet. My name is Jade Suon and I have just died. The body, laying so pale and alone in the darkness of an empty city park, is mine. Shadows obscure the familiar features, long dark hair curled around bloody shoulders. I have shed one form of living for another.

A pink edge to the horizon warns of the coming dawn and with tears in my eyes I step over the unmoving form and walk away. Following a concrete path to the edge of the park where I hail a taxi cab. The driver in the yellow vehicle does not notice anything odd about me. How can he? I haven’t changed in any outer sense. I still look like the Jade Suon that had, so naively, wandered into the danger of the park.

Cold raindrops begin to fall against the window as I look out at the lights, buildings and people that pass by in a slow flash of life.

My name is Jade Suon and I have just died.

My name is Jade Suon and I will now start living

The Matt-Man...Eerm, Matt-hew-ster...lol. Whatever. It's Matthew

2008-10-08T12:36:00.000-07:00

My Grammie!! :D.

2008-10-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

2008-10-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

COLORED by me

2008-10-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

2008-10-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

2008-10-05T01:38:00.001-07:00

I Heard You Sammy
By Tina c.

I see your troubled eyes
So brooding and veiled
You think you hide it well
But I could always tell
You hurt more than others
When things get all screwed

I lay a hand on your shoulder
It’s the best I can do here
Now that I’m under scrutiny
Of an internal pre-mutiny
I want to jump ship, get out
But you need me, so I kept
Up the fight to keep you safe
Without you there’d be no life.

Not life or death this time, still
I know that you need to heal
Things have been hard on you
I know that, I can see the affect
This job has had on your heart.

You try to hide a grin, it’s sad
I groaned inside, shrugged, grimaced
I never was good at this stuff
Sharing thoughts, feelings, truth
I spot a close diner and get us a booth.

Safe ground, civilians to interrupt
I know you need more, but this is it
All I can give to you right now.
I’ll do better after this, tomorrow.
We sit and eat, you try to talk here.

I listened to what you said, shocked?
I can see it in those eyes so wide.
You wonder at my sudden interest
I know I always came across all snappy
Not wading into emotions labeled “sappy”.
But I cared all along.

….I heard you Sammy.

THE END.

2008-10-05T01:37:00.000-07:00

Wish For A Family
By Tina c.

There used to be a family in my life.

I used to think the past was enough.
To help me through here and now.
And problems that weigh me down.
I wish for a family to help me deal
Then maybe my heart would heal.
A father’s advice, a mother’s care
Shoulders to lean on, love to share
All I could ever ask is for a family
To take part in my life and misery
Maybe then my misery would turn
The opposite of this lonesome urn
My life in ashes, atop a mantle shelf
With no way to continue on myself.

I’d give anything for the fulfillment
As I beg, plead, pray for a moment
Just one moment of contented peace
When we can be like other families.
During that time I am part of a family.
In safety and numbers, a little eerie
To think what it would really be like.
I shrug away these thoughts, all fake
A figment of my wishful imagination.
If in them I find solace I feel concern.
I tell myself to leave these thoughts
Hidden away from my minds eyes.
Where they cannot spy on my longing.
For a family and safety and belonging.

There used to be a family in my life
In another time, before violent strife.
Threatened to break what is now gone
Never to be seen again as life goes on.

(As ashes, I float on the wind of time
And scatter through the endlessness.
To forget my troubles, dead now. )

THE END.

My Batman Image..Yeppers.

2008-10-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

2008-10-03T01:49:00.001-07:00

The Miracle
By Tina c.

To go back in time and change it all
The moments that lead me to today
I would give my life, my everything
To see if there was any way, any hope.

Then, miraculous, I am given the chance
To see how these events took place then
I know what I need to do and just maybe
If I were to work quickly, time could change.

The moments pass by so fast as I blink
I barely make sense of this place and time
Everything I ever wanted to make different
Is here and now and then it’s gone away again.

To go back in time and change it all
The moments that lead to where I am today
I would give my life in a heartbeat for hope
That all of this could be changed somehow.

Still, after this second chance, I look back
Nothing has changed. Like time has a script
To follow regardless of the actors on stage
Regardless of the fluid way time can move.

I blink and the miracle is over. Again I feel
Like there was no real hope at all.

To go back in time once more. Maybe just then
I could make a difference, change the scripts.

I went back, I lived through moments, I lost it all.
Now I wish I had never gone, but I needed it,
To know that there had been nothing for me to do.
It would have played out the same with or without.

My help was not needed. My miracle worthless in light
Of the fact that fate does not give up it’s grip easily.
They are dead, I am still alive, I lived through their death
Watched as they were torn apart and still I survived.

It was meant to be. . .I blink and the miracle is my curse.

THE END.

2008-09-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

2008-09-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

Jared Padalecki

2008-09-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

2008-09-28T13:43:00.000-07:00