Blood, Fangs, and Psychopaths

Chapter 2

"Aj! Wait!" Harlow yells after me as I rush down the stairs in front of her. "Please don't leave the house, it's not safe out there!" Her voice is panicked and I can hear the immense fear in it. She grabs my arm roughly before I make it to the front door and spins me until I'm facing her, her chest rises and falls roughly with her breathing.

"It's me isn't it?" I stare at her, my eyes burning with tears that I cannot understand. "The girl you mentioned. The one that started all of this." I shake her hand off roughly and rub the spot where her nails dug into my arm.

"You didn't start anything. This is in no way your fault, it's mine." She sighs deeply and I can see her shoulders visibly drop under the weight of what she knows. "You were so young when our parents died Aj. I couldn't possibly tell you what had actually happened to them that night." Her eyes slowly fill with tears, I haven't seen Harlow cry since my parents' funeral, I knew something was desperately wrong.

"What do you mean how they actually died? They died in a freak house fire, the gas tank for the heater caught fire and exploded!" I shake my head roughly. What is she trying to do here? Make me forget reality?

"That's not what happened Adeline, and deep down inside you know it." The sound of my name makes my cringe slowly. My mother used to call me that, and ever since the accident, I went by Aj. "You were with them that night. You were only five years old, so far from understanding our world, yet he had seen you and decided you were to be his." She tugs me into the living room, questions racing through my head making me numb to the world and to her words.

"What do you mean he saw me and decided? Who are you even talking about?" I stare at her and she stares at her hands, clenched into fists from pure frustration.

"His name is William Ravena, and he has been hunting you for the past fifteen years. He is the reason I became a cop, he's the reason we move every twelve months. He has gotten smarter and faster. This time he caught up with us almost as soon as we moved here." She sighs slowly and the missing person reports slowly start filtering through my mind. Pictures of husbands and wives, sons and daughter, fill my head with despair. "He is a monster, I am almost certain he is behind the disappearances of all the people in this town. Where William goes death and despair follow closely." Her words slowly sink into my head but I can't help but stare at her in utter disbelief.

"How can a man be the one hunting me for fifteen years? He would be old and frail by now, in no shape to keep up with us. He would especially be bad at making people disappear." I sigh softly and look back up at her and she rubs her hands over her face roughly, leaving her skin red and splotchy.

"He's not human Adeline, he's a monster in every sense of the word. Mom and Dad never wanted to tell you the truth, but I knew they would have to eventually. All those horror stories you heard as a kid when we would be sitting around a campfire? The stories about ghosts and ghouls, vampires and werewolves? They were all true, no one made them up. People lived them and decided to tell a story they knew everyone would take for granted." I stare at her in disbelief, she must have had too much to drink, either that or the stress of her job has finally caught up with her.

"I think you need to go to bed Harlow, you're not making any sense. Like none at all." I sigh softly and shake my head at her. I can see frustration flash in her eyes as she lashes out and grabs my arm roughly. An odd sensation runs up my arm, it feels exactly like it felt the time I sort of electrocuted myself helping Harlow with a renovation.

"Harlow. Enough." A deep, rugged voice I recognize vaguely echoes from behind us and she quickly lets go of my arm. We both slowly turn to see Ronan towering over the back of the couch watching Harlow with a disapproving look on his face. "You wouldn't want to fry your sister to a crisp." He smirks slowly and I blink in utter confusion.