The Nocturnals

Chapter One: Finding a Light in the Darkness

Re-published

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Eliora ran despite all her heart's contempt. She tripped and quickly recovered as she heard the footsteps behind her; subtle, but terrifying. Her quick breathing was all but quiet. She doesn't dare look back at her predator. Two more sets of footsteps join in with the other one's. Taking a glance up at the light ahead, she begins to sprint.

A snarling, masculine voice follows a hissing sound, "Fools! Look where she is leading us! Grab her before she makes her way out of the shadows!"

Hissing sounds Eliora has only ever heard in nightmares come from the creatures behind her. She pushes off objects in her way to gain speed. The light grows larger, and so does her fear. If she escapes this, what would she face out in the open? Suddenly, one of the creatures grabs her wrist with massive force. When she sees its face from the sunlight bouncing off of the pipe's grey walls, a gasp escapes from her lips. The feminine-looking creature holding her wrist only appears to be twelve, but is shockingly beautiful; its red hair bounces over its shoulders. These attributes were shocking enough until Eliora catches sight of its glowing, yellow eyes that seem almost cat-like, mischevious.

Before it could pull Eliora further into the darkness, Eliora yanks the beautiful creature two inches over the line of shadows. The creature's hand releases her as it stares at the sun and shrieks. Suddenly, its body stiffens, turning into stone. Eliora tears off a loose piece of pipe extending from the side of the large tube she stands in and hits the stone creature, shattering it to pieces. The other two stand in the shadows, hissing and gnashing their teeth. Their yellow eyes glow from beyond the shadows.

Dropping the pipe, Eliora sits down in the sunshine and takes a relieved breath. She looks up at the sun in the east where it shines happily as if to say, "Good morning!" She smiles, agreeing with the sun. The two creatures continue to hiss at her as she sits there.

"Oh shut up," she throws the pipe into the darkness where it clatters and the creatures turn away, back into their lairs.

Throwing her backpack over her shoulder and onto her lap, Eliora grabs the large, glimmering, gold stone. 'All that trouble for this? A hunk of metal? I haven't even seen this piece of crap before, and it isn't very inticing,' she thinks, making a grimace. She looks down at her wrist, where the vampire grabbed her, its fingerprints stained by red. Taking a deep breath, she inspects it with a pounding in her heart.

Please don't be bitten, oh, please don't be bitten, she bites her lip. With relief she grabs a cotton cloth, wrapping it around her non-bitten wrist. Screaming from below breaks her thoughts. She throws all her stuff inside the bag and tosses it over her shoulder all in one movement. She wraps her dirty-blonde hair into a semi-neat bun. She looks over the rim of the tube and sees a man strangling another by the throat.

"Give me all your crap!" he shouts. Damnit... Gamblers... How am I possibly going to get around this fool? Eliora thinks. Gamblers are the robbers of this age. They're a special group of bandits who gamble with the vampires. By that knowledge, everyone who doesn't do what they say, are given to the vampires as a midnight snack. Everything they take from innocent people on the roads, they gamble with the creatures. They're that group that says, "If you can't fight them, join them," even though, those creatures'll probably kill them in the end.

She grabs the small pistol from her bag; damn. Only five shots left.

Eliora cocks and aims at the Gambler as the innocent man claws weakly at the Gambler's hands. She pulls back the trigger and the Gambler falls over, leaving the man to be free. See, in this world-the morning world- people are on their own, needless to say, it is anarchy. Every man for his or her self. If you don't have the bigger guns, you're on your own. See, when this shit all happened, Eliora was thinking that all the humans would come together to protect their race, but no. The President of America left them to suffer under this tyranny of vampires, the Governor of New York left them to die, and even Eliora's family left her just to save their own asses. She knew she had bad parents, but now they've abandoned her to fend for herself.

Eliora jumps off the side of the ten foot high tube and goes over to the innocent man in shock. He stares at the wall in front of him as if he can't see anything else. The Gambler lies at his feet in a pool of crimson. Eliora walks over to him, staring into his eyes.

"Shit, his eyes," she cusses, looking at the pale man with bloodshot eyes. The Gambler must have used his neurolizer. It stimulates the brain for a temporary paralyzing effect. This is how Gamblers bring snacks to the vampires.

Eliora stares at him, pondering what to do. If she takes him, what good'll that do? If she doesn't, she wastes a bullet on a stranger. If she takes him in, she may have better protection, the man appears decently built. A yelp breaks her from her thoughts. She grabs the man, pulling him up on her shoulder and behind a large rock nearby.

"Help! PLEASE!" a little girl screams. Without peeking over the rock, Eliora takes a really good guess at what the Gambler's doing. Horrified, Eliora is forced to listen to the cries of the girl and the moaning of the Gambler. She presses herself against the rock as if she could melt into it to take away the scarring moment. Pulling her knees to her chest, Eliora sueezes her ears shut and watches the shadows of the two people, one humping a thrashing figure, only to watch out for the Gambler coming after her.

After a while, the girl's cries stop, meaning she had passed out, "Now that I've had meh fun, your pretteh lil' face'll be perfect for Xavier. He likes the youngens." Eliora tries to control her shaky breathing as she watches the shadow of the man creep out of sight, dragging the girl.

Eliora sits for a moment, cupping her mouth in shock. She squeezes her eyes shut and releases a large sigh. Pulling the man over her shoulder, she trudges on without further emotion. She comes upon the Central Park where she took over. In the main gazebo rests a large couch and some smeared blood on the wood. Eliora throws the man onto the couch, and sits on the pool lounger to the side. Vines crawl up the sides of the Gazebo and up the skyscrapers in the distance. The sun rises up overhead. The time must be seven AM. She rests her head on her hand, throwing her backpack off her shoulder as well. The man stares at the ground with the same bloodshot eyes, his black, sweeping hair only stopping at the bottom of his ear. He appears to be just above the age of Eliora, which is nineteen.

Eliora sighs, walking over to her herb garden on the side. She grabs a large piece of cilantro and puts the broken stems under the man's nose. He blinks once, the red shrinking away from his irises in his eyes, confirming the cilantro was working.

The man snaps his head up suddenly, staring and gasping at Eliora,"Are-are you a Gambler?!"

A smile forms at her lips, "Far from."