Cirque Du Freak // Daughters of Fate

Chapter 4

Savannah and I ran full pelt out to the theater. We took the long way, so that we could enjoy the run. It'd been a while since we let ourselves go.

It wasn't just the outfit and looks that made my friend cat-like. She was actually a Mai. A descendant of a bunch of cat gods from the aztecs. Savannah gained cat-like reflexes and speed when she was twelve. Her canines had become sharper and resembled a kitten's teeth and her fingernails could grow into claws two inches long. It had been a shock to her, but not as much as my discovery.

I don't really have an exact knowledge of what I am, only a theory. It took both Savannah and me researching the internet to come across the site. I'd been the one to find it while we had stopped at the school library. In short, I'm a creature called an Alp that can manipulate it's prey so that it can drink the blood of its victums.

Yes, I learned out about my true nature when I tried to suck the blood of a fellow orphan. I'd licked my own wounds before to stop the blood, but I'd never been hypnotized by someone else's. The girl had accidently cut her thumb on scissors. Mistress Parmenia often entertained the little ones by doing crafts with them. I had been in eigth grade and just happened to be passing by when it happened. The instant she cut it, I froze. I couldn't stop looking at the red that was pooling out of her thumb.

That's also when I became friends with Savannah. Before, we'd always stayed away from each other. However, she saw me from down the hall and had taken my arm and led me away. She took me to the bathroom where she shoved me in front of the mirror to look at myself. I was surprised to see that I had fangs. Apparently, my mouth had been gaping open while I had watched the blood spill. Savannah had seen this and saved me from being put in a science lab somewhere.

From then on, I had to find a way to supply myself with blood or else I'd start acting strange, as Savannah put it. Looking at people's necks too long or staring at my own veins for too long a time. It took me a while to figure out that I'd have to attack people if I wanted to make it through life without ending up on a starilized table. Savannah made it easier, going with me on my hunts to keep an eye on me. I'd discovered my ability to trance people by chance, and it had gone smoother from there.

I'd always be afraid that my victums would come back as vampires (I'd only taken a little blood from each of them, qualifying as only a bite and a possible transformation. Plus, before I came across the internet site I thought I was a vampire.). But after a while of keeping an eye on past canidates, I realized that it wasn't going to happen. That's what inspired me to research into what I was.

The internet site had solved a lot of questions for me. For one, you had to be born an Alp to be one. That had caused all worry about my victums to disappear instantly. Next, I learned about the different abilities they possessed which all matched up with what I discovered I could do.

Improved senses and physical abilites, putting ordinary people into trances, and causing my room mate nightmares (which I eventually solved and stopped doing so). Learning that I could move objects with my mind (telekinesis) and had a faster recovery time than humans (my wounds healed almost instantly. It had taken a lot of courage to test myself with a needle. No joke.) I also had abilites that said only some Alps had, like control over certain elements (A person at school made me mad in science and the room temperature dropped at least twenty degrees). The thing that I found most assuring, was that Alps are not harmed by the sun's rays other than feeling exceptionally tired (which fit me perfectly).

Savannah told me that my skin was also cooler than a normal person's and that my ears had started to become pointed after drinking enough blood. Two things I had yet to discover about my kind, was how to make my fingernails into claws. The site had said that Alps could extend their fingernails at least five to six inches. The other thing was that it said all Alps had wings, which I found rediculous because I didn't have any. However, every site I visited about Alps said the same thing. They said that Alps are the equivilent of fallen angels (angels with black wings).