The Torture of Midnight

Prologue

"Fantastic job ladies, that was wonderful!" Ian clapped his hands together, and strode towards the stream of dancers flooding through the door. He grabbed my hands, and smiled.

"Tyla honey, you were amazing!" His eyes lit up with excitement, his long grey hair shaking as he danced with joy.

"I wouldn't have been able to do it without you, Ian." I smiled back.

Tonight was the annual Santa Fe ballet competition, and our performance won first place. A hard earned win for sure. We practiced for it all year, and now, we were in the reginals.

"Brittney, Cassandra, Molly, Venna, you were stars!" The older man walked over to the screaming group of women off to my right, and I let out a content sigh. I had always dreamed of becoming a ballerina, and one day competing in the big league's. And now, I had finally made it.

"Hey Tyla!"

I turned to see a curly red head twice my height come bouncing up next to me. "We're all going to celebrate at the pub. Are you gonna come?"

I was outgoing in a way, but shy for the most part. I kept to myself, and hung out with the girls every now and then, but I wasn't a big party person.

"No. You guys go on without me."

"Are you sure?" Reida gave me a doubtful look.

"Yeah. I think I might have pulled something anyway. Need to get that all worked out before reginals." I lied.

"Ok." The look on her face said she didn't believe me, but she dropped the subject, and walked away.

After grabbing all my stuff, I headed out of the huge building, and onto the sidewalk. I walked closer towards town to try and catch a cab. I sat on the side of the road for about 20 minutes with no luck before I finally gave up, and walked further in. It was extremely quite, and I was getting slightly disturbed by it. I couldn't see anyone anywhere, and it was only 6:30pm. Normally there were people out and about at this time of night. I looked around at the shops, and the lights were on, but there was no one there.

I was curious, so I walked to the closest one, which was a small bakery, and pushed open the door. There was no one inside, or behind the counter. I thought about blowing it off until I looked over at one of the tables, and saw a cup full of hot, steaming coffee.

I swallowed. "H-hello? Is anyone in here?" No answer.

I panicked, and turned, and ran out onto the sidewalk again, only to come to a screaching hault. Standing in the middle if the road, was a man. But he didn't look normal. His body was rigid, and his skin was so white, it almost looked translucent. He had long, shoulder length, black hair, with a lean build to his body. But his eyes were what caught my attention. They were wide as if in surprise, giving me full view of them. They were like giant, colorful crystals, Alexandrite would be the best description. Every single movement caused them to glint a different color.

He stood unmoving, just staring at me for the longest time. I felt trapped where I was, caught by his gaze. His eyes shifted from one color to the next, making my head spin. After an eternity of staring into his Alexandrite eyes, they did something strange. Black colored liquid seeped into the iris of his eyes, drowning the beautiful colors in Obsidian. His stature became hostile, and his eyebrows drew together into a fierce frown. He went to take a step towards me, and my body finally reacted. I took 3 steps back from him. He looked down at my feet, then back up at my face before finally taking a step in my direction. Every step he took, I took twice as many, trying to keep distance between us. His expression never changed, his eyes were still black as night.

I was so concentrated on the strange, fierce looking man advancing towards me, that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. My heel caught on the bottom of a chair, and I began to fall backwards. Right as I turned to look at the ground, an arm snaked around me under my arms, and holding me to a hard chest. I gasped, and turned back to see the black haired man staring down at me, with his arm behind my back. He was alot taller than me, and the way he held me made my back arch, and my neck crane upwards. His expression flashed for a moment to what looked like sadness, then he blinked, and it turned fierce. After looking at me for another moment, his hand reached for my face to which I recoiled from. His hand paused, and his eyes began to change again. They went back to Alexandrite, and his face softened. For some reason, it made me feel safer, and so I brought my face back up, and his finger tips brushed my cheek. He laid his hand flat, staring into my eyes.

I was in wonder of this strange man with beautiful eyes. His enticing gaze made me almost forget his hostile behavior. I stared up at him, and became aware after realizing I was looking directly up into his eyes, that he was leaning over me. He face was now very close to mine, and his breathe felt like silk spilling over my skin. Goose bumps rose on my arms, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

"What do you want from me?" I asked in a shaken voice.

His hand suddenly gripped the back of my neck, and the familiar black oose seeped into his eyes again. He leaned forward further, til his cheek touched mine. His lips brushed my ear, sending chills down my spine.

"You." He whispered back. His voice was musical, and calming.

His lips trailed down my jaw, and to my neck, where he stopped. My breathe came in short, ragged gasps. His touch made my skin tingle, and burn with a strange, pleasurable fealing.

But all that suddenly changed when his lips parted, and I felt long, sharp needles drag across my skin. I didn't have time to react before they pierced neck, sending pain through my whole body. His grip tightened to the point where I felt like I couldn't breathe. My hands pushed at his shoulders but he wouldn't budge. His jaw tightened, and I let out strangled cry. My limbs began to feel heavy, and my attempts at pealing him off me stopped. My head felt fuzzy, and I began to feel cold. At that point, it was just him holding my body up, not my legs. He craddled my limp body against him, and continued biting my flesh.

Just when I thought I was going to die, he released his jaw, and pulled away from my neck. My vision was fading, as my blinking slowed. His head rose, as his body straightened, leaving me draped over his arm. From what I could see, on his face, there was red liquid trailing from his mouth, to his chin. I looked just in time to see his canines pull back into his skull. I felt extremely fatigued, and I was barely hanging on to consciousness, but fear still came over me.

Before my mind completely faded, he said something to me that echoed through my head, and entire being, filling my brain with questions.

"I need you to live."

All rights reserved. I own this story, and all the characters in it. If any replication of this story occurs, contact author immediately.