We Are the Shadows in the Mist

When Love Meets Destruction

Chapter 1 - When Love Meets Destruction

Arianna sat quietly, nervous as a lamb among wolves…which, coincidentally…was a rather apt metaphor for her situation right now. She’d known about the supernatural world all her life. She was gifted. She both loved…and hated that fact. But there it was. Only recently had her friends, the Osborne’s, had imparted the knowledge that they were vampires…and that they felt she was entitled to see their world.

Arianna frowned at her hands, occasionally glancing up at certain people around her and Kelly. None of them were vampires in the regular way people thought vampires would be. You could be born vampire…or changed into one by another, but that wasn’t the odd part. They could age and then, when it suited them, they could revert back to the age they were turned. Arianna smirked, it was an odd way to live forever…just like that jellyfish that aged forwards and backwards. Apparently that particular evolutionary development had only been afforded vampires…not humans…and maybe that was a good thing.

She looked sideways as Kelly Osborne came and sat next to her. The only reason she hadn’t been drained upon entering this place was the stasis spray Kelly had used on her. It made Arianna seem like a newborn vampire to any other vampire nearby.

“How you holding up, Newbie?” Kelly murmured softly as she looked around casually.

“Uncomfortable.” Arianna replied timidly. “This is a lot to take in in one hit, Kelly…”

“I know…but you’ll get used to it.” Kelly shrugged.

Arianna rolled her eyes and glanced around, reverting to projecting her thoughts into Kelly’s mind and reading Kelly’s responses in her mind.

‘Why are the majority of the people here…rock stars?’ Arianna asked as she looked out over the sea of people…well, vampires.

‘We like to be high in the status quo…it’s just how we are.’  Kelly shrugged.

‘Coz you’re all so damned perfect.’  Arianna rolled her eyes again.

Kelly snickered. ‘Now you’re getting it.’ She paused. ‘I wonder if you can detect other telepaths or gifted individuals…’

‘Maybe…I don’t know, I never really tried that…’ Arianna frowned.

‘Well, let’s give it a go.’ Kelly smiled a little. ‘Concentrate on a voice you know and then let everything else fall away…like there’s nothing left in the world to worry about…that feeling of weightlessness you get…that’s what you need to feel when you’re searching.’

‘Okay…I’ll try…’ Arianna frowned, thinking of a voice she’d heard tonight that she thought she recognised from the human world. Everything fell away, and then she felt it. It was a tug. Another mind unconsciously tugging at hers…as if all telepaths wanted to be connected somehow. There were a couple of others in the room…but the one she’d latched onto was the strongest.

She let her mind drift towards the feeling. That when she felt it. The gentle tug turned into a dragging pull. Arianna’s mind spun and her eyes snapped open, her gaze locked with a pair of deep, chocolate brown eyes. Arianna breathed in sharply. Her eyes had fallen upon…Marilyn Manson.

***

Arianna tried to listen to Kelly’s attempts to calm her…but it was less than helpful right now. That was, she was trying to calm her down, until she said this: “Don’t panic…but the guys from Motionless in White are staring at you…” Arianna watched Kelly fumble around in her head for the right adjective. “…lustfully…I think that’s the right word…” she turned her gaze back to Arianna’s. “Anyway…it’d make most people swoon, whatever you want to call the look they’re giving you.”