Walkers Book 2 - Revealing

Part 1-The Color of Blood- Chapter 1: Into the Woods (Part 1)

Part I- The Color of Blood

Chapter 1: Into the Woods

Day Walker Code 012- We are not monsters

Maria

As she ran through the forest, the rain touched Maria Preston's skin as if it were acid falling from the sky, each falling drop felt like specks of fire burning her body. However, the rain was merely the least of her concerns; everything surrounding her was in flames. The trees were burning to ashes, leaves were destroyed before even reaching the ground, the deep layers of snow had melted into water and smoke ravaged the air, poisoning every exhausting breath she inhaled. Quickly, at an almost unnatural speed, the entire forest was consumed in fire; the smoke had become so thick her eyes were beginning to fail her as her vision became unclear.

Where was her brother? Where was her twin? Maria immediately stopped running, and attempted to look around, but all that was in her vision was a mist of smoke and fire. She shouted his name through the oblivion and waited a few moments before shouting again, still receiving no response. She began to panic; as she heard the loud shrieking of the Dimidiums get closer.

"Aria! Hayden!" She then yelled in hopes that anyone would hear her.

Someone then grabbed her arm, and in one swift movement Maria turned around to see who it was. The thick fog made it difficult to identify the person before her, but a small gust of wind cleared the face only to reveal the piercing color of glowing yellow eyes of the predator she'd tried so hard to get away from. Horrified, Maria tried her best to pull away as the Half-Vampire let out an agonizing cry—there was no escaping it. She watched in horror as the creature plunged its fangs into her neck, and began drinking her blood as she yelled for help but no one came to save her. Slowly she succumbed to the evil darkness of fire and smoke and faded away to the beating sound of her dying heart.

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"Wake up." Maria heard a distant voice say; at first, she attempted to ignore the ruckus but the person then shook her and therefor she had no choice but to acknowledge their existence.

"Go away." She said to her disturber, repositioning herself into a confortable sleeping position.

"Wake up Preston." The voice repeated, getting angry. Very slowly, she opened her eyes and the silhouette of her least favourite Night Walker companion stood before her.

"Are you awake?" She heard Hayden Brook's harsh voice ask her. Maria closed her eyes yet again and was about to fall sleep once more when the Night kicked her right in the stomach. The Day Walker let out a small cry, and silently cussed her companion. She then opened her eyes; it took her a few seconds to adjust to the bright light that was pouring out the cabin windows.

"What Brooks?" She asked, her brain still half asleep, wait, what was she sleeping on? It was oddly enough very comfortable considering their horrible location. She gently lifted her head upwards to the left and saw the sleeping face of her twin brother under her. She hadn't recalled falling asleep next to him, even less so on top of him.

Seeing her confused facial expression, Hayden offered an explanation. "You were screaming in your sleep, we weren't able to wake you up, so he stayed with you because it calmed you down." She said, as Maria gently untangled herself from her twin and got up without disturbing his sleep, he needed it after all to recover from his injury.

Memories from her most recent dream suddenly came back to mind, the terrifying images of the Dimidiums and her death. But she reminded herself that it wasn't real, well, most of it wasn't. The reality remained that Walker High had burned to the ground; she, her twin brother Tanner, Night Walker twins Hayden and Aria had been forced to flee the school in order to have any chance of survival. They were now hundreds of miles away from the campus grounds and hiding from the Half-Breed vampires. They found refuge in a small ice fishing cabin in the woods. They have been hiding there for nearly forty-eight hours now, too weak and too tired to leave.

Staring down at her brother, for a brief moment, Maria and Hayden stood side by side, looking at the sleeping Day Walker, before a thought suddenly occurred to Maria. "Why aren't you sleeping?" She asked Hayden. "It's broad daylight outside, you should be exhausted."

"My sleeping schedule is unbalanced because Walker High. I'll be fine." The Night answered, obviously trying to keep her pride intact, because she was very obviously exhausted; they all were. "Besides, I want to show you something." She gestured Maria to follow her, and after one quick glance at her sleeping twin brother, the Day Walker followed the night vampire out the cabin door.

Outside, the sun was shining as bright as ever, melting some of the snow away. However it was still very cold, after barely being a few moments outside Maria had already begun to shiver.

"Look." Hayden said, pointing at something in the distance too small for the average human eye to see.

Far away into the depths of the woods Maria could see a man, a Mortalis man, wearing a red coat and taking an average hike through the woods with his skis and batons. The man was alone.

"You haven't eaten anything in nearly two days." Hayden said to the Day Walker. "I can last another week or so without food, and Aria can manage a couple more days, but you and Tanner really need to eat, or at the very least drink something."

Maria looked at Hayden, appalled by what she was asking her to do. "Yes; something not someone." It was completely against the Day Walker code to drink directly from a human's neck. It was even more forbidden to hunt them down like animals in the process. But, Hayden was right. She and her brother needed to eat, especially Tanner. He was gravely injured and he needed to get his strength back, and Maria would do anything to help him. Anything.

"I can see the colors of his soul from here." The Night continued staring into the distance, her eyes glowing bright green. "It's a combination of yellow and orange spiralling slowly around one another, nothing very special, and I don't see a ring on his finger. Not married, probably doesn't even have kids. No one out there to miss him, he won't be a great lost to society."

Maria looked at Hayden, and then back at the Mortalis. Was she seriously considering doing this? It was by far almost breaking every single Code there was in the Book, even if in these last few months she'd already broken a few. Staring at the Humana, the sudden thought of sinking her teeth into his neck and sucking him dry suddenly made the Day Walker's mouth water. Blood. She wanted it, she needed it.

But then she snapped out of it.

Maria shook her head and looked away. "No... I can't." She said. "I'll find some other way to get blood, a way that's less sadistic and wrong." She then looked at the Night Walker.

"Alright" Hayden said. "I won't push you to do something you don't want to do." The vampire answered, smirking. "More for me then." And she took off running, disappearing in less than a fraction of a second.

Maria cussed between her teeth and for a few seconds considered going back into the cabin and let the Mortalis defend himself on his own. But then her conscious took over and barely a few seconds later, the Day Walker was running after Hayden.

Unlike Maria, Hayden was well fed and better rested, however, the sun was making the Night Walker weaker and moments later Maria had caught up with her. They stood together behind a large tree, the Mortalis completely unaware of their presence.

"Brooks." She whispered. "This isn't funny."

"Am I laughing Preston?" The night vampire answered, attempting to take a step forward, but Maria held her in place, giving her a threatening look.

"Don't." The Day Walker warned. She and Hayden had fought savagely once before, in the school cafeteria, Maria had ended up unconscious, but now with the life of a Mortalis in danger, she wasn't going to let the other vampire win.

"Let. Me. Go." Hayden matched her menacing tone; both of them stared at each other, their hatred obvious.

"I'm not going to let you kill him. We're vampires, not monster." Maria said.

"Oh but Preston, we are." The Night Walker answered, stunning the Day and blindsiding her by pushing her out of the way and stepping into the Mortalis' sight.

"Excuse me sir! Excuse me!" Hayden Brooks shouted. The man then turned around to face her, little did he know he'd just encountered his death.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for the next update!

-NL101