the chosen daughter // colby brock

chapter one

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought vampires would be real. Yet, here we are: 2019. The year of the blood sucker. Everywhere you turn, vampires were to be seen.

I relaxed back against my couch, watching the news while I ate breakfast.

A news anchor appeared on screen, a graphic next to them reading 'Vamp News'. "Today's top story involves another vampire killing. Last night, outside of the popular club Bloody, two vampires murdered a young female. Police have not released the name of the victim. Eyewitnesses say that the two vampires in question had been harassing the girl during the night. Police ask that if you know these two vampires, to please call in at the number on your screen and if you see them in public, call the authorities immediately."

Two blurry images from a surveillance camera came on screen, showing the vampires in question.

"How the fuck is anybody gonna know who those two are?" I mumbled out loud, taking another bite of cereal.

I sighed, changing the channel. I hated hearing vampire killings first thing in the morning.

My whole life, as of recent, revolved around vampires. And I guess, a lot of other peoples did too now.

I stood up and walked to my kitchen, dropping my bowl into the sink. I glanced around my apartment.

Empty... very empty.

I've always enjoyed being alone. I've been alone my whole life. I was born into foster care, my parents dying right after my birth. The only thing I had left to remind me of them was a crystal necklace that I never took off. After bouncing around from family to family, I never got to settle down. When I turned eighteen, I was able to get away and move to Los Angeles. Now I live here in my own little apartment, working at a vampire bar called Vampiro.

Growing up, I was interested in the supernatural. I always liked the idea of vampires existing.

'Be careful what you wish for' was a bit of an understatement for me.

When I was in eighth grade, vampires came out to the public. It was... weird to say the least. At first, people didn't believe they existed – chalking it up to some strange, elaborate prank. But it became apparent very soon that vampires were real. There was a lot of violence, but it calmed down after a while. A good number of 'powerful' vampires (celebrities, politicians... you get the gist) came out with a PSA letting everyone know that vamps were harmless, only wanting to be treated just like humans.

They were tired of hiding and wanted to be out and proud.

It took until now for things to feel normal, almost as if vampires always did exist in our culture. However, there was still animosity towards vamps. Some states, especially in the more 'religious' areas, hated vampires. They believed they were demons, dressed in the bodies of humans. But that wasn't the case. But nonetheless, these states didn't want them, so they banned almost all vampires. Because of this, other states took this as an opportunity to be the sanctuary for these tossed out vamps.

Enter stage left... California. In particular, Los Angeles.

LA was the hub for all things vampy. It was almost the vampire capital of the world. We had sections, stores, bars just dedicated to vampires and the tourism it brought here.

The bar I worked at, Vampiro, was a non-exclusionary vampire bar. Vampires and humans could mingle as they pleased, and no one minded. However, we weren't the most popular out of all the clubs and bars. Because of this, our human-to-vampire ratio was a bit slacking.