Giving {H.S Vampire Fanfiction}

Light in the Darkness

Summer's dress is in the sidebar.

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I literally felt like I was walking in the valley of death.

I shouldn't have been afraid, not of pathetic social climbers who obsessed over manicured fingers and smiled at you with painted lips. From the outside, that's what I could have assumed. However, as I saw the dark glint in their eyes, I knew those manicured nails could rip me to shreds and pointed teeth were hidden behind the lips.

But then I had to worry about what I was wearing and the attention it brought. The red fabric of my dress floated out around me in scarlet tendrils, flickering at the slightest movement. The sleeves that ran only over my upper arms made me feel only slightly secure in the loose garment, in the simple cloth.

I was as red as the blood that ran through my veins.

My grip was vice-like on Valerie's freckled arm, my head bowed slightly as hungry eyes followed every move we made. Valerie was calm, almost at ease as we maneuvered through the crowd of obsidian gathered in front of the throne room. She didn't blink twice at the privying eyes, the ones that seemed to rake right across my skin and tear me to pieces.

I didn't bother apologizing to anyone I bumped into, and I didn't think they would expect me to. After all, I was still the girl who recently lost her sister, the damaged Giver. They saw me as someone who could only be related to death, and another meal for the night.

I didn't know where we were going as Valerie steered me around. Hell, I didn't even know what I was doing there. I couldn't dance and nor did I ever want to learn. The heels that pinched at my toes raised me up a good four inches and I could hardly walk, let alone manage to waltz.

But my whole outfit hadn't been my idea, nor did I have the smallest voice in it. Valerie had come in three hours before the ball, raided my closet while I could only sit by and watch. I felt like a doll as she dressed me up, guiding me into my shoes and curling my hair, picking out the gown and painting my lips to match. I felt lucky to have a friend willing to help me, but again I felt like a toy.

She'd told me that the red dress suited me and that it might add a splash of color to the ball. I'd trusted Val at the time, but now I could feel all my insecurities of being different wash over me in a wave yet again.

"I could have sworn that you said there was no dress code," I hissed in Valerie's ear as I gazed at the mass of midnight clothed vampires surrounding me.

"There isn't," she replied nonchalantly, still guiding me closer to the oak French doors. "These guys just like dressing in black. They say it adds a touch of class to the event, but I personally feel like they're just drawn to death and the color. It's a bit dull, don't you think? Like seriously, they're all stunning and can rock any color, yet they always go for black. Vampire logic, I suppose."

She rambled on and seemed completely at ease with how she stuck out, but I hated the spotlight. Attention was something I avoided like the plague for it always seemed to bring trouble. Living in the shadows has kept me alive all this time and it was new to step into the light.

"I feel like they're staring though," I said under my breath as I took a side glance at a vampire checking us out. He ran a tongue over his lower lip and gazed up and down my body shamelessly like I was just another meal. Yep.

"Of course they're staring. We look fabulous and they're taking notes."

A small chuckle escaped my lips as I mulled over the thought. I could see why they would be looking at Valerie for she was a stunner in her pale gold dress. The neckline seemed to flaunt everything that she had and the rest of the cloth flowed around her feet in waves. With her hair dolled up into an elegant updo and her elvish features hardly touched with make up, she looked like a queen who was only missing her tiara.