Running. Why was I running? I passed dozens of large storage crates, informing me that I was in a loading dock. I stopped behind one of the many storage crates in the lot to catch my breath. Why was I here? "Emily, where are you?" A voice echoed throughout the area. Vincent. I was running from fucking Vincent. "I don't like this game of hide and seek we're playing." He said, his voice drawing near. I ran from my spot, cutting through a few more crates.
I found myself hiding behind a crate trying to catch my breath. My heart was thumping violently against my chest as I quickly patted my body down to feel for a stake. I slumped against the cool iron crate wall behind me when I discovered not one was on me. "Shit." I swore under my breath. I looked around the area in front of me, feeling around for something that would be useful for me to kill the bastard.
"I did my research on you after our little encounter yesterday. You are an interesting person. Grew up in foster care with your two siblings, stayed in a lot of trouble. causing the three of you to bounce around a lot. Not sure how you got into the hunting business, though. Thought they were exclusive." He says, his voice echoing throughout the dock.
"I see a lot of myself in you. Both of us have been alone for a long time," Vincent continued in the same calm voice he's been speaking in the entire time. "and we're both completely okay with that. We never needed anyone." He says. I peek around the corner to see where he was, only to spot him walking into the light a few yards down from me.
He turned his head to look in my direction, causing me to quickly duck back into the shadows. I covered my mouth so that he couldn't hear my breathing. "Just like me, you question everything you've ever known and constantly search for meaning to your existence." I begin to move down the crate trying to be as quiet as possible when his voice began to draw near. "You might not have felt it back in that alleyway, but we shared a connection. You see, Emily, I've roamed this Earth for—" I begin to move backward still before turning to run. "And where are you going?" Vincent said abruptly.
Suddenly, I was pinned against one of the giant storage crates. I yelped out in pain when my head hit the back of it. "I wasn't done talking." Vincent said, caging me in with his arms.
The blonde vampire lifted a single bony finger to trail along my face. "Gotcha." He whispers while studying my face. "What am I going to do with you, little bird?" He whispers to himself and sighs. "As of right now-" My knee jolted forward and connected with his groin. He yelled out in pain and tossed me to the side. I landed on my shoulder and heard a 'pop'. My arm suddenly goes limp and I feel pain. I yelp in pain as I push myself away from him, looking around at my surroundings as I did so. Slowly, he began to approach me as I moved backward.
"Stay back!" I exclaim.
Vincent lifts his hand and pauses for a bit before moving his hand back and forth to point between us. "I thought we were having a moment there for a second, Emily." He said in a hurt voice. My back touches a wall. I hold my hand up in front of me.
"Please! Stay back!" I beg. "Stay away!" I exclaim. "No!"
"Emily, wake up!"
"Emily!" I jolt awake in my bed. I grab my chest and then my arm. It wasn't broke. "The hell happened?" Beth asked. I looked at her with wide eyes. It was just a dream. It felt so real. "Jesus Christ, your arm." I looked down at the large purple bruise that was on my shoulder. The shoulder I landed on in my dream...
I looked ahead. "He was in my dream," I say, looking at Beth. "He can project himself into dreams." I said while pushing my hand through my hair.
"Who?" Beth asked.
"Fucking Vampire I ran into last night. He's an old ass vampire that the Council keeps trying to kill off." I explained. I sigh softly and furrowed my brows, still a little confused by the events that took place. Silence swept over the room as I attempted to gather myself before speaking again. It was then that I realized that Beth was inside my house. "How did you get into my house?" I ask. A look of worry appeared on the witch's face before she began to chew gently at her lip, a clear sign that she was nervous. A clear sign she used her magic. My eyes widen. "You didn't."
"I did it right this time!" She confessed. Beth came from a line of powerful witches. She was still learning how to control her powers, but she was improving with the help of her cousin. I pulled my covers back and climbed out of bed. I hastily walked out of my bedroom and into the living room. Upon entering the living room, I turn to look at the door. "See?" She says, pointing at the door. There were no cracks or huge chunks of wood missing. It was perfectly fine.
I glanced in her direction without a word and turned on the backs of my feet. My stomach rumbled gently as if I hadn't eaten in days on cue as I entered the kitchen. I open the refrigerator door, the pure white light that emptied out slightly blinded me. There was nothing in there really. Well, nothing I wanted. I'll probably get something when Beth leaves. "So, what brings you here?" I ask as I closed the door to the fridge and reentered the living room.
Beth who was sitting on the arm of the couch slid down the side of it and plopped onto the cushion of it. "Nothing, I haven't seen you in a while. I was concerned so I wanted to see how you were doing." She confesses.
I sit down across from her, folding my legs beneath me. "I'm fine." I say softly. I break eye contact with my best friend. Beth and I have been friends since middle school. My siblings and I stayed with her family when my mom was killed until Child Protective Services inevitably placed us in foster care.
"Are you?" She asks, not believing a word I said. I nod my head slightly, sighing softly at her words. She asked constantly when she came around. It hasn't been often lately because I've been wrapping myself in my work. What can I say? I'm a dedicated person.
I pause for a second more to give her the impression I was thinking about it. "Yep." She did this a lot in hopes that I would tell her I wasn't okay. It wasn't going to come. Not that I didn't want to confide in her—because she was my best friend, but because there was truly nothing wrong. I was absolutely okay.
Beth eyes me a little longer, causing me to stare back. "So," She says loudly, looking away towards the television. "care to get out of the house?" She asks, glancing over at me one last time.
"Sounds nice, but I have to stay home and research this vampire. Gotta know what I'm up against." I inform her with a shrug. The light on my laptop comes on as I opened the computer that was still placed on the coffee table.
"What does he look like?" Asks Beth. She stands to her feet and makes her way around the coffee table to my side. I move my finger across the mousepad on the computer and tap on his file. His image comes up right where I had left it last night. "Oh wow," she says, leaning in. "He's hot. Why are we trying to kill him again?"
I shrugged my shoulders, unable to answer the true reason why The Council was trying to kill him. It wasn't listed. He just needed to die. Which isn't like the council to just say without a reason. Vincent hadn't committed any known crimes against us or humans. He was just here. Which is odd. Where the fuck did he come from? "I'm still trying to figure that out."
"I don't sense anything bad about him. He doesn't seem like a bad guy—at least not anymore." Beth says, reaching down to tap on the full image. She stares for a while longer before looking down at me. "Wish he'd invade my dreams."
"Alright, that's enough of that." I say, halfway closing the laptop.
"What happened in that anyways—your dream?" she asks. I close my eyes, seeing images of the dream flash in my memories. For some reason, I could remember every single bit of it. I could hear his soothing voice echo in my head.
"He did a lot of talking about our similarities before tossing me to the side." I say, absentmindedly scrolling through his file.
"And then?"
"And then I woke up." I say, pausing my hand. I look up at the witch sitting next to me on the couch. "Thanks, by the way. I probably would've been dead if you wouldn't have come in."
"Vampires don't have special abilities." Beth says randomly, looking over at me.
I furrow my brows. "What?"
"Vampires don't have special abilities. He was able to get in your dreams. Magick has to be involved." She further explains. To anyone's knowledge, vampires didn't have any supernatural talents outside the otherworldly strength and speed. Yes, they could compel, but no, they can't read minds. They can't teleport, they can't shapeshift, they shouldn't be able to invade dreams.
I open the computer once more, my tongue dragging across the inside of my lip as I stared. Even from the screen, he made me feel small beneath his stare. How old are you, Vincent?
A knock at my front door disrupted my thoughts once more. I wasn't expecting anyone today. "I'll get it." Beth says, jumping up from her seat. I watched as she walked to the door, with a twirl of her wrist, she opened it. There on the other side was Abby, my little sister. Beth's hand shot down to the doorknob to make it look as if she opened it. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Abigail." She says as my sister Abby and her boyfriend Lukas moved past her.
"Lovely to see you as well, Bethany." Abby says, her voice laced with annoyance. A look of disgust overcame Beth at the sound of her full name but quickly vanished when my sister looked back at her once again. It was hard to not get these double-sided greetings mixed up with ill feelings. They did actually like each other...just not enough to actually hang out. I guess you can say they're lifelong acquaintances.
Abby was younger than me, by two years, but seemed to have her whole life figured out. Some days I felt I should be moving at the same pace as her, if not a few paces ahead of her, but life doesn't work out like that all the time. I was proud of her nonetheless. I stood to my feet, an insecure smile coming to my lips as we embraced each other. "How are you, Abs?" I say softly into her ear. We held onto each other a little longer than a normal hug should last. Probably because we don't see each other often.
"I'm good." She says, pulling away slightly to look at me. Suddenly her soft hands ran gently over my cheeks as she locked eyes with me. "How are you? You look exhausted." She asks with a soft smile of her own.
She was so beautiful. People would argue I looked like mom every day, but to me, seeing Abby grow up before my eyes and now, she resembled mom most. Her grey eyes held so much honesty. It made it so easy for you to believe her when she spoke. "Never better." I respond, taking hold of her wrists. I gave them both reassuring squeezes before allowing her to let go of me. She moved over to her spot next to Lukas and sat down. "So," I start, sitting back down in my spot. "what brings you here?" I ask. I reach down and close my laptop. Work can wait.
Abby and Lukas exchanged glances, flashing their radiant smiles at each other. A small squeal escapes her lips as her right hand came flying out. My eyes landed on a large twinkling rock on her finger and my heart dropped. "I'm getting married!" She exclaimed.
My eyes moved back up to hers and I flashed her a smile. "Congratulations!" I exclaim. Don't get me wrong, I was happy for her, really happy, it's just...weird accepting that my little sister isn't so little anymore—that she is indeed a woman. A beautiful twenty-four-year-old woman with a life to live. "Have you told Josh?" I ask, studying the ring once more. Josh was our little brother. Like me, he was always on the run, being a cop and whatnot, but he wasn't a closed-off person like I was.
"Yeah! I told him first." She says.
"He gave me some words of encouragement while waving his gun." Lukas says with a rub of the back of his head. I laugh softly at his story. Yep, that sounded like Josh. He was always so protective of us even when he didn't need to be. He, just like Abby and I, had to grow up before it was his time.
"You should let me host the bachelorette party," Beth said suddenly with a smirk on her face. "I can see it now!" She exclaims, holding her hands up in front of her while she stares into nothingness. "Three Ds. Drinks, drugs, and di—" I clear my throat suddenly, making her stop talking. "Congratulations." She says in a hushed tone. If she had an invitation to a wedding party, it was definitely gone now.
I lean into the couch again, grabbing the blanket that I had left on it last night and wrapping it around my shoulders. "We're celebrating tonight, Emmy. Come. Josh'll be there. It'll be fun. We miss you." I grimace at her pleading.
"Already tried getting her out the house. Not happening." Beth says dryly.
"I wish I could, but—"
"Work can wait for one night. Your family needs you." Abby says. Her face showed desperation as she waited for me to change my mind. Her eyebrows lifted slightly and then pushed themselves together for a moment. "Please?" She begged one last time.
"Okay, I'll go." I give in.
Abby jumped to her feet and pulled Lukas up with her. "Great, seven o'clock at Rodizio's. The attire is formal." She says as she moves towards the door. Lastly, she turns towards me and mouths an 'I love you' as she vanishes out the door.
"That is the most uppity bitch I've ever seen if I've ever seen one." Beth says suddenly, earning a glare from me. "What? It's true!" She exclaims.
"Be happy for my sister, not jealous." I say, standing to my feet once more. Guess I gotta go dress shopping. I didn't have anything formal in my closet. I had pants and t-shirts for days, but nothing dressy. I made my way to the closet in my bedroom, putting my hair up in a ponytail as I did so.
A soft scoff could be heard from Beth in the other room before she could be seen. "I'm not jealous of her, I promise. Even if Lukas is quite the snack." She mutters the last part beneath her breath but I was still able to catch it. My eyes roll at her response as I pull out a varsity sweater and some black jeans.
"Wanna go downtown with me?" I ask, looking over my shoulder at the witch behind me.
She looks up at the ceilings and mutters to herself words I could not hear before shrugging her shoulders. "Sure, maybe a nice man in a suit will come to swoop me off my feet and make me his old lady." Beth reaches over and grabs my keys off the nightstand. "I'll be in the car!" She exclaims as she exits the room.
"You're not driving!" I exclaim as I hurriedly put on my clothes.