I sat there, the stars lighting up the sky, bringing hope to the dark. The grass around me was thick and cold. In my mind, I ran over the reason I had snuck out in the dead of night, what my dad had told me just hours before.
That I was going to be King in a few months.
That I would have to marry in a few months.
I lay down and sighed. Time was moving too fast. My life was flashing before my eyes.
My friends at the human school I used to attend to would never understand the pressure and pain I was subjected to. They would never understand how different my life was to there own.
Aged only 18, I was already under training to become the monarch.
At my age, a normal boy would worry about their University grades and their part time job. How much they had to pay for their accommodation or getting along with their flatmates.
If I had my way, I would have chosen that life. Those worries, those struggles seemed so inferior to my own.
There was no way I would be able to take over from my father so soon.
There was no way I would be able to be King.
That was it. I wasn't going to lay here and sulk about what my father demanded. I was going into the city I lived on the edge of. The others at my school were forbidden to leave the school without being escorted by an elder, but I didn't care what my father could do.
My feet skimmed the ground as I sprinted through the forest surrounding the mansion, then through the outer suburbs of the city. I came to halt under a light post outside a closed coffee shop. I could smell every human that had been there, trace their scent, their every move. I knew where they had walked, stood and sat. I could have followed the trail tracing back to where they were now. But, I couldn't. My fist tightened. I'd gone eighteen years without it, but I wouldn't, couldn't be associated with those monsters I lived with.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I sighed before answering. I knew at once who it was. Who else would call me at this hour. My father and I were the only two of our kind doomed to walk existence with no sleep. The only two descendants left of the Crinamorte line.
"Yes, father?"
I halfheartedly listened to him ramble on and walked further down the street, coming to stop at a bus stop a little down the way. I lent back on a glass wall in the shelter as my father lectured me on my supposedly unacceptable behaviour. How dare I behave in such a scandalous manner?
I was suddenly aware of a burning in my throat. "There must be someone near," I thought.
Scanning the nearby area, I realised that there was a girl a few meters away from me. She too was on here phone. She had light, long hair and vivid blue eyes, and seemed about my age.
I took a deep breath. Since leaving the human Secondary School I attended until I was sixteen, I hadn't been in close proximity to a human. The sweet smell of her scent drove my thirst to insanity. I felt her gaze on me; I knew what she was thinking, wondering, worrying.
Why is his skin so pale? Why are his eyes so white? I chuckled to myself; if only she knew.
Her heart beat faster and faster, circulating more and more blood around her body. I stared back at her; why the sudden increase? Her eyes were filled with confusion and, what was that I could sense? Oh...fear. She gasped and took a step away. What was she thinking? What did she know?
"MONSTER!" she screamed.
She knew.
The blood drained from her face and she went deadly pale. I saw her try to escape, and I blocked her exit, trapping her against the bus shelter wall. I looked at her. She was so fragile, so innocent, so scared. She knew exactly what I was, and what I was capable of.
"Please, let me go! Don't hurt me! I won't tell anybody!" she pleaded with me.
I sighed, and picked her up. Her eyes filled with horror and she started to cry. Oh, great.
"Listen," I told her, "Don't cry. I'm not going to touch you."
"W-where are you t-taking me?" she choked between tears.
"I can't tell you that. But listen, I won't let anybody touch you. Understand?"
She nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes.
I ran with her back the way I came, through the streets, fields and forest. The wind blew her hair towards me, and her scent caused my fangs to appear. This caused another round of sobbing and hyperventilating on her behalf. This poor, poor girl. One momentary slip on my behalf led to her finding out about me. She must have been utterly terrified. As I got closer to the mansion, she started to drift off to sleep. She sighed in her sleep and snuggled closer into my cold, hard chest. Her warmth filled me with a joy I had never felt before, and never knew existed. She warmed my frozen heart. I slowed down when we reached the doors, but didn't stop completely until I reached my fathers study. He spent most of his time there, especially at night. I knocked before entering.
"Spencer, where have you-"
The doors closing behind me sent a blast of fresh air that carried the scent of the girl to him. His nostrils flared, and I could see him struggling to contain himself, like I had at the bus stop, like I was now. He appeared at my side and looked at the unconscious, fragile body I held in my arms.
"Why have you brought her here, Spencer?" my father turned his gaze to me.
I sighed and lowered the girl to the floor, before turning to face my father.
"She found out about us."
"She- what?!"
"I think she may have found out about us."
"Are you certain?"
"She seemed like she knew enough when she started screaming."
"Spencer..."
"What, father?"
He closed his eyes and raised his hand to his forehead.
"You have to kill her or turn her."
"WHAT?!" It was my turn to shout.
"If she truly has found out about us, then she must be turned or killed. I can sense it about her. She cannot he compelled like the other humans. We can't trust her to not tell others about our kind."
"I'm not killing her. And there's two reasons why I don't do what you and the others do.
One, I don't want to be a monster," I shot my father a death stare who pretended not to notice, "and two, I'm worried that I won't be able to stop."
"Son, I will help make sure you don't take any more than necessary."
"But, father, with all due respect to you, I'm stronger and have more developed powers than you. And if you try and stop me, well, I'm worried that I'll hurt you."
"Son, believe in yourself. You are absolutely amazing. Not a single other of our kind has the self-control to do what you do. I trust that you won't kill this girl."
"When am I doing it? Now?"
"Yes, Spencer. I will be right here to guide you through the steps. Right, first roll her over to face you."
I crouched down and shifted her slightly.
"Now, open the flow of blood."
My fangs sank into her neck and I suddenly understood why the rest of my kind depended on this source of nutrition.
It was indescribable. Like nothing I had ever tasted before and nothing I would ever taste again.
The girl jolted awake, with a look of horror in her eyes. She tried to pull her frail body away from me but I held her in place.
My monstrous instincts kicked in. This second personality felt no sympathy for anyone and no regret. My senses took over me; I forgot everything I knew and I couldn't control myself. In other words, I felt like a wild animal.
"Spencer, stop."
Who even was this man and why was he trying to stop me?
I couldn't stop, wouldn't stop for anything.
The girls skin got paler and paler. Her eyelids fluttered and her mouth fell open.
"Spencer, you've taken enough. Stop."
I suddenly realised what I was doing. I shot away from the girl and hid in a corner.
My hand shook as it gripped the bookshelf next to me. What had I done? What had I become?
"Spencer," my father's hand rested on my shoulder and I turned to face him, tears in my eyes,
"Spencer, it's okay. The girl is still alive."
As if on que, the girl started to scream.
"But I wasn't going to stop. I couldn't stop. And the bad thing is," I paused as my eyes welled up even more, "I didn't want to stop."
"But you did, son, and that is what matters. Now come. You still need to introduce the venom into her system."
I wearily nodded and shot aback across the room to where the girl was lying. She seemed to scream even more when she caught sight of me.
I bit my arm so that my venom would come to the surface.
"Hold your wrist against her neck."
The acidic feel burned her throat as it made its way into her system.
She screamed even louder and tried to escape again, but I effortlessly held her down. She must have blacked out then, I think, because I couldn't detect any movement from then onward.
"What now?"
"Take her to one of the spare rooms; that one closest to your own would be ideal. You are to wait with her until she wakes up. Explain what you did, what you are and what she has become. She will will have limited memory of this night, and may remember things differently
to what actually happened. Understand that she will be upset; make sure you comfort her. A tour around the place would be beneficial on her behalf, I am sure."
As I turned to leave, my father spoke once more.
"Oh, and Spencer, please don't sneak out again. At the end of the day, I am your father, and despite other things, I worry about you."
"I'm sorry for letting you down."
"You could never let me down, Spencer, I love you too much."
I pushed open the door to leave.
"Good luck, Spencer."
