eZine by Sag Harbor Teens
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MOSS: We Don’t Gather Any
MOSS celebrates the art, music and writing of the participants in the Jeanette Sarkisian Wagner Teen Writing Workshops. It also honors Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, who donated the John Jermain Memorial Library to the people of Sag Harbor in 1910. We stole her initials for the title of our magazine.
Jeanette Wagner and her husband Paul are long-time advocates of literacy programs, and generous supporters of youth programs at John Jermain. For her 80th birthday Jeanette requested that donations be made to support teen programs at the library.
The Teen Writing Workshops have been entirely underwritten by these gifts. Sag Harbor students meet throughout the school year to talk about writing, with a particular emphasis on finding “voice,” the revision process, and writing from the heart.
Their work, collected here, is varied, quirky, authentic, funny, and sad. On the Thursday nights when they meet, sharing pizza in our community room, I linger at the doorway and wish I could join them.
They have explored diverse genres and multiple forms of expression from villanelles to haikus, and plays to short stories. Perhaps more important than these stylistic explorations are the discoveries they have made about self and family, neighborhood and distant worlds. They’re too busy writing–flinging words around and finding ways to make them shimmer on the page–to gather any moss.
One recent participant wrote that hope can set us free. She’s right. I know. For every time I see the library filled with teens spinning words into stories I feel hope. Hope about the future of the world. And hope that there will be new stories, and libraries to hold and share them.
Catherine Creedon, Director
Whitefang, chapter two
March 29, 2012
by Jessica McMahon
Chapter Two:
The flight was during the midday, and they had one layover that would allow the second leg of their journey to be completely at night. But getting Kayden on the first flight posed a challenge.
Luckily, Selene was creative enough to have a good solution. Getting Kayden to agree to the plan was another story.
In order to make it through the airport and onto the plane, they had to block sunlight from hitting Kayden. Selene’s idea fit the bill perfectly. Using impermeable cloth, cover his head and shoulders with a piece, and then make sure the rest of his body was covered in clothing.
“No! There’s no way you’re covering me in cloth like a creep!” Kayden objected when he heard the plan.
“C’mon, it’s only for a little while, only for the first half of the flight. Then we don’t have to worry.”
“No! Your plan is ridiculous!” He snapped his suitcase shut violently.
“And you have a better idea?” She said.
“Yes, get two nighttime flights!”
“That’ll waste too much time!” Selene’s cheeks were bright red with anger.
“Both of you! Stop acting like children and pack up! The car comes in two hours!” Marco bellowed from downstairs. They shot poisonous glares at the door, then at each other.
“This is dumb. But I didn’t expect much from you.” Kayden hissed as he sat in the chair. “You’re a Neanderthal with an gun and a Smartphone.”
“Better then wasting time. Besides, weird things like this are part of the job description.” She wore a vicious smirk when she threw the thick cloth over his head. “So quit being a big baby and deal with it.”
Marco and Alexander stood by the door when they left. Marco looked almost proud while Alexander wore an unreadable expression. It was understandable, he was leaving the life of his beloved son in the hands of a hot headed and irresponsible hunter and a vampire.
“Nice idea Selene.” He smiled warmly at her. “We have someone carrying your luggage onto the plane for you, just worry about getting on the airplane in one piece.”
She looked up at her father and sighed. “Don’t go back on your promise, I want to see my papers done by the time I get back.” She was referring to her registration papers for being an official hunter.
“Consider them done.”
She shook Alexander’s hand and assured him that she would get his son back. “He’ll be back home before you know it.”
They took one of her family’s limos to the airport, they didn’t speak to each other the entire way. The tension could have been cut with Kayden’s blade. It was obvious that now that there was no diplomacy forced down their throats that working together was nearly impossible. Kayden would not trust Selene, or the other way around. The only things motivating them were greed, pride and the honor of their families.
“Miss Selene, we’re here.” The driver called. Selene had fallen into a tense sleep, her left arm was numb and her neck was incredibly stiff.
“Ok. Thanks.” She uncurled her limbs from their awkward position and stretched, kicking Kayden’s leg.
“Watch it!” He yelled at her.
“Yeah, yeah” she yawned, “Deal with it, we gotta go.”
She unfolded the wheelchair from the trunk of the limo and stuck it by the door. “Your chariot, princess.” She had a malevolent smile on her face.
“Shut up. This was your idea in the first place.”
“I’ll have the luggage delivered to the check in for you, are you going to take your backpack and carryon?” The driver asked Selene.
“Yeah. I’ll take both.” She slipped her beat up canvas backpack onto her shoulders and grabbed her red carryon and slipped it onto a hook on the back of the wheelchair.
The airport was eerily barren. It was close to summer vacation, so it was at least in the mid nineties every day in Arizona; and not many tourists liked being roasted.
The afternoon shone through every skylight, making every glass surface shimmer. The tile floor shone cleanly and had been recently mopped. The quiet murmur of a slow travel day resonated in the entrance and unnerved Selene.
One intern at a check-in desk was half asleep, a puddle of drool gathering on the desk and on his chin.
She looked away from the sleeping intern and focused on getting through security.
“Can he get up?” The security guard asked when they got to the checkpoint.
Selene hid a look of shock. “Err, of course! He might lose his balance…”
“We’ll just take the cloth off his head.” The security guard said.
“No!” Selene yelled, “I mean, he doesn’t like people looking at him. He’ll freak out if you take it off.”
“Ok… Well, I’ll help him ma’am, just put your stuff on the conveyor and take off your shoes. He will have to switch wheelchairs.”
“Right! That’s fine!” She ran over to the x ray machine.
Kayden got up shakily; his pants barely covered his ankles. He was dangerously close to getting burned. Taking his first wobbling step, his pant leg covered his ankle as the guard guided him through the metal detector. He took another step and his other leg was safe. Internally sighing with relief, he took quicker steps, but when he took his last step to sit on the bench, his pant leg lifted and the sun singed his ankle.
Biting back a yell of agony, his fangs scraped the inside of his cheek painfully.
I’m going to kill her! He thought as she ran back over. The security guard had wheeled over a wheelchair and Selene helped him sit down.
“I’m going to kill you.” He hissed at her.
“What happened?” She looked at him, brows furrowed in confusion.
“If we took two nighttime flights, we wouldn’t have this problem…” She could hear the rage in his voice. “Some sun hit my leg.”
“Oh, well too bad. Let’s get going.” Without hesitation, she swung his wheelchair around and let out a mirthful laugh, “Karma baby…”
“You call that karma?”
“Well, it was your choice. I guess the universe is paying you back for selling your soul to the devil,” she said wryly, “I just wish it paid with interest.”
“What are you implying?” He replied, “Are you trying to make me regret the choice I made? It’s not gonna happen. Like you said, it was my choice, and I’ll always stay behind it.”
“Gee, moody much?”
“You were the one that brought it up.” He brought his arms in a non-accusatory stance.
“Whatever. Let’s move it, the flight starts boarding in ten minutes.”
Once on the plane, Selene slipped off her shoes and sat cross-legged on her chair. She was all right with flying on planes, but it was not her favorite means of travel by any stretch of the imagination. The stewardess looked at her oddly at first, but then gave her service never expected in coach.
Are people really that superficial? Throw a cloth over his head and suddenly we have the pity of a funeral precession. Selene thought disgustedly, then leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes.
She must have dozed off; when she gazed out the window, all she saw was a cloak of black, sprinkled with stars. She stretched her arms and legs and then she ripped the cloth off of Kayden’s head.
“Finally, it’s stuffy in there.” He rubbed his face and ran his fingers through his shaggy hair. “How long until we land?”
Selene looked away angrily.
“Are you still angry about that? Quit being immature,” he sighed.
“Just be glad that I took the cloth off your head.” Kayden could see her reflection in the window; she was scowling and breathing harshly out of her nose.
“Are you always this moody?” Inwardly, he declared that his new hobby was pushing her buttons.
“I am not moody!” Selene’s head whipped around to glare at him. “Are you always this annoying?”
“I beg to differ. And I’m not annoying,” he replied to her with a grin, “Might I remind you that this started with me asking when we were gonna land?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she huffed, “you stupid leech.”
The nickname struck a nerve in Kayden. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” she sneered, her eyes deftly challenging him. “Leech.”
“At least I’m not a trigger-happy midget.” He smirked.
“I’m not a midget!” she yelled.
People from rows in all around them looked at her; she put the black cloth over her own head embarrassedly. Behind the cloth, her cheeks were illuminated pink.
“You idiot!” He hissed at her.
“Oh shut up!”
The flight lasted another thirty silent minutes before they landed.
“The next flight is in an hour or so. I rented us a hotel room near the airport so we can chill.” Selene used the black cloth as a bandanna while they waited for the people in front of them to get off the plane.
“So you can do things right…” Kayden murmured in mock wonder.
“But because the layover was basically created by me, we have to grab the luggage.”
“I could always be mistaken.” He grinned at her wickedly.
“You’re pushing it, mosquito.”
“Would you stop with the blood-drinking puns?”
“No,” she looked up at him like a rebellious child, “I don’t think I will.”
“I guess being a bug is better than being a microbe,” he retorted.
Selene grabbed his tie and pulled his head to her eye level. “You are so goddamn lucky I don’t have my gun,” she whispered through clenched teeth, “because if you call me small one more time and I do have one, you can bet a million bucks that you’ll have bullets in your head.”
“Oh please, you couldn’t even get a clean shot of my arm, what makes you think you’ll get a decent aim at my head?” Kayden revealed a fanged sneer.
“Would you like to test that theory?”
“It would be my pleasure.” He made to stand up, his limp hair shading his eyes. He knew in the back of his head that he would rather not test that theory.
“Wait! Aren’t you to gonna kiss?” Both Kayden and Selene’s heads snapped to the voice. A young boy was peeking over their seats.
“Are you kidding me? Scram, shorty!” Selene shouted at the boy.
“That was a bit harsh,” Kayden said upon exit of the aircraft, “don’t you think?”
“It was appropriate punishment.” Selene crossed her arms.
“Agreed.”
Thanks to Kayden, Selene retrieved her luggage in record time, before catching a shuttle to the sleazy hotel across the highway and retiring to their puny hotel room.
“I take back my comment about you being able to do things right.” Kayden muttered.
The hotel room was about the size of a walk in closet. A tiny bed was shoved in the corner, a mildew laden wooden desk sat adjacent from the bed and the bathroom contained a filthy toilet and shower. He strode over to the bed and sighed, “Oh well, I guess it’ll do. If you need me, I’ll be taking a nap.”
“Oh no you don’t!” Selene yelled at him, “Get off the bed! If you want to sleep, it can be on the floor. I get the bed.”
“Sorry, finders keepers,” he yawned at her.
“Whatever happened to ladies first?”
“Trust me small fry, you’re no lady,” he chuckled, lacing his fingers behind his head.
“I am so a lady!” She yelled at him again.
“Real ladies don’t use foul language and pack heat everywhere,” he said.
“Whatever. Go and take your stupid nap. I’m ordering room service.”
“Enjoy yourself,” he sang, before falling asleep. Selene was tired too, if not more than Kayden; but didn’t dare fall asleep with a vampire in the room.
She grabbed the old phone from the desk and the room service menu. Just like her room, the menu was scrawny and unappealing. She settled for some soup and seltzer water; who knew what was in their tuna salad?
“Hello? Yeah, I’d like to order room service. Yeah, charge it to the room. Just the tomato soup and some seltzer.”
“Sure thing. It’ll take about ten minutes.” The receptionist said.
After she slurped her soup, and despite her inhibitions, she fell asleep at the desk for a few minutes before waking up to the sound of a text from her father. She ignored it briefly and berated herself harshly instead.
Selene glanced at Kayden. He looked honest to god dead. He didn’t move or breathe, every so often he would make noise, but for the most part he remained stone still.
How could I fall asleep with this monster in the room? Selene reprimanded herself, what would have happened if he woke up? Her heart pounded. You’re just a human; he’s a vampire. He’s stronger, faster and probably has years of experience on me. If he wanted to get rid of me in my sleep, that would be no problem. Her hands clenched and unclenched in her lap and her body shook in fear of what he would do to her. She wanted to be in control of her self all the time; every choice should be hers and only hers. She never wanted to be the slave of another, as a ghoul or a new vampire. It was uncontrollable; even if he was asleep, her fear overwhelmed her brain. She walked over to her suitcase and pulled her gun out of its case, holding it in her left hand and holding a magazine of bullets in the other. I can do this by myself. He just died when we got in a fight with SNARE, with no one the wiser…
To her, her gun was her security blanket. When she had a gun in her hand or in her holster, she felt safe. No one could harm her, no one could even get close; she could turn them to swiss cheese. But she didn’t make a move to shoot him; she was paralyzed by an inner battle.
Being forced to work with him went against everything she made herself into as a hunter. She couldn’t stand him purely on principal. On the same side of the coin, she was purely devoted to her work and becoming a hunter. Nothing else had ever crossed her mind before as what she wanted to be when she grew up. This was the only thing she wanted in life.
The two parts of her mind agreed and disagreed. Would she listen to her father’s orders and not kill him? Or would she sleep with ease tonight?
Her fear shot up her spine and whirled in her brain. She beat herself up over her fear almost every day. She hunted vampires every day to try and prove to herself that she wasn’t scared anymore, but every time she saw one, her heart still pounded with the familiar fear. When she looked at herself, she was often ashamed. She was so weak, she had to hunt the monsters, not cower from them!
Dad isn’t that stupid…
He would catch me…
I’d never become a hunter then.
At the same time, if he killed me, I wouldn’t become a hunter.
Selene looked at the magazine again, and it stared back at her. It bored into her heart as if telling her she was weak.
Forget it; I’d rather die a martyr.
Selene lobbed the magazine at the wall by the suitcase and Kayden woke with a start.
“Selene, what are you doing?” He asked sleepily. He got up and strode towards her, grabbing her wrist and twisting it to make her drop her gun. Selene’s eyes went wide and she swung her other fist at him, but he caught it. She tried to escape, but his grip held firm.
“Let go of me!” Selene yelled, Kayden’s hands moved to her shoulders.
“What were you thinking?” He shook her shoulders in a desperate attempt to make her stop.
She still didn’t answer him; she just raised her left hand to slap him. But when her hand came down, he bit her hand between her thumb and forefinger. “Get a hold of yourself!” He yelled at her again, spitting the blood out of his mouth despite the taste.
She saw the blood drip down her palm and wrist slowly and she screamed. She kicked and flailed against him violently and he let go.
“I knew it. I was right the whole time!” She babbled helplessly in the corner. When Kayden got up, she tried to push herself closer to the corner, and grabbed her other pistol. “Don’t come any closer, leech.”
“Selene, relax. There’s no reason to shoot me,” he spoke quietly, “What has you so worked up?
“Don’t get any closer! I’ll shoot!”
“What are you so paranoid about,” he murmured, “what did I do?”
“You bit me!” Selene shoot violently as she spoke, blood still pouring from her hand.
“You had a gun pointed at my head,” he said, “listen, we can’t do this if we can’t trust each other. I can’t go to sleep every time fearing that you’re gonna shoot me.”
“What about me? It’ll only take one blow for you to kill me,” she replied, “I can’t trust your kind, you’d never respect a promise!”
For Kayden, it finally clicked in his head. She didn’t really hate him just because he was a vampire; it was because she was scared. Selene thought that he would kill her in her sleep!
“Selene, are you scared of me?” Kayden asked, astonished, “As much as I honestly despise you, I won’t hurt you. There’s too much at stake.”
“Like I can believe you,” she scoffed.
“I’ll make a deal with you then,” he said, “because you don’t believe me.”
She looked at him skeptically, but she had stopped shaking.
“If one of us tries to attack or kill the other,” he explained, “the other can kill them. So if I try to kill you or anything, you can feel free to shoot my brains out, ok?”
“What if you try while I’m asleep?” She quirked an eyebrow and scowled.
“I don’t think you’d sleep through me getting up.”
“True.” Selene shrugged and stood up. “I want to see you swear, leech.”
“I swear that I won’t attack you,” he swore, crossing his hand over his unbeating heart, “unless you attack me; may the goddess strike me dead if I lie.”
“Good,” she said, “And I, Selene Whitefang, swear on my family’s honor that I will not harm you as long as you do not harm me.”
“Cool. Now that we have that settled, maybe you should patch your hand up…”
“That would be a good idea.” Selene agreed.
Selene always kept a small first aid kit with her, just for injuries. Also contained within it were several doses of antibiotics. Vampire saliva contained deadly bacteria that could easily kill a human in a week if not treated with antibiotics. Luckily, it was susceptible almost any antibiotic and Selene had more than enough doses for herself. After bandaging up her hand, she swallowed two pills of the antibiotic quickly, and then packed all of her things back up.
Selene grabbed her stuff and bolted out the door with Kayden right behind her. A bellhop threw all their luggage into the back of the shuttle.
They made it onto the plane with less than a minute to spare; the stewardess closed the airplane doors right behind them.
“Hello, this is your captain speaking; today we will be flying to LaGuardia airport and we should arrive at nine thirty eight, making our flight time today two hours and ten minutes. We have a nice tailwind though so we might be early. Please enjoy your flight.”
After the captain spoke, the stewardess ushered them to their seats and hurriedly started to buckle up the equipment and drink cart for takeoff.
Selene shuffled into the window seat and Kayden slid in next to her silently. The stewardess started the safety messages and Selene mocked her silently making faces at her.
“The bag might not inflate but oxygen is still flowing…” The woman continued the instructions and Selene mouthed her words rudely. Kayden rolled his eyes at her and tried to take a nap.
There was turbulence during takeoff but once they hit cruising speed the ride was smooth.
Using the internet on the plane, Selene logged into her gmail account and started typing.
Hey Dad,
It’s Selene. I just got on the plane to NYC, we’ll be there in an hour or two. So far, the trip has been pretty terrible; the room we had was crappy, Kayden and I tried to kill each other and we nearly missed our flight. We’ve made a deal not to kill each other now though. I think I have an idea where to start looking for SNARE; do you remember Charlie from New York? She might know something; she sent me an email a week ago about being waist deep in an organized crime problem with vampires. I’m gonna get in touch with her after I finish this email.
Stay safe and keep an eye on my sector while I’m gone.
Love Selene.
She sent the email before looking for her friend’s email.
Her friend was a pen pal introduced to her by her sister Emma. Her name was Charlene Davis, but it was Charlie for short. Charlie worked with Emma for several missions in New York City while Selene and Emma visited. Charlene’s street smarts and wry jokes made her fast friends with Selene, and after she left, they kept in touch through email. Charlie was born in London and her mother had disappeared when she was three. Charlie moved to New York when she was fifteen to investigate her mother’s disappearance. She had gotten her own hunting license when she was thirteen; Charlie was a prodigy.
She started a new email and entered Charlie’s address.
Yo, Charlie! I’m heading out to NYC; there’s been a huge fiasco with some group of vampires called SNARE. Know anything about it? I know you’re busy, but if you could meet me somewhere so we could catch up, that would be sweet.
Besides the usual business talk, how have you been? I haven’t heard from you in forever! I’ve been stuck on a stupid mission to catch SNARE, with a vampire for god’s sake! Ugh, it’s the worst!
Anyways, I’ll be landing around 9:30-ish, I hope we can catch up!
See you soon, Selene.
It only took ten minutes for Charlie to respond; she was notorious for stalking her emails and sites to talk with people.
Selene! Man, it has been a while. I’ve been doing pretty good, I might have a lead to finding my mum and I’m still swimming in work, but I work for an employer now and it’s working out well now. I’m earning lots of cash and I have a sweet apartment. As for that organization you ran into, I’m actually trying to find them too. They’ve been kidnapping people all over the place, mostly prostitutes. I’ll pick you up from the airport and we’ll go back to my place, see if we can get a lead between the two of us.
And you got paired up with a vampire? Man, that sucks! What is the world coming to? SNARE might be more that we bargained for. We’ll talk when I see you.
I can’t wait to see you!
XOXO- Charlie D.
She smiled when she read Charlie’s email, only she could be there on such short notice. She emailed her a quick response and leaned her seat back. Not a bad end at all. Things were getting back on track, although she knew it wouldn’t be for long.
Heart in Heart
March 22, 2012
by Alex LaPierre
She sits.
Her face long and formal.
The lights of the subway reflecting off her face.
She is tall with a dark button down coat.
Her eyelids, closed but not quite,
the red lipstick as dark as you can imagine.
To anyone walking by she may just look like a normal, young,happy woman.
But to me, she looks sad.
I can’t explain it.
She just looks sad.
But from her smooth soft skin and her perfect brushed hair
I knew I wouldn’t look back.
I fell in love the moment I saw her.
I don’t know how or why.
I just wouldn’t look back.
I look at her.
She doesn’t notice, too involved in her own mind.
She has a mind of her own, I learned.
Me, the man sitting next to her, my hair wild with curls.
My hands in my lap fidgeting to touch her,
To get her out of her thought, but I can’t.
I can’t see if she notices me staring, so I look at her hands.
The subway lights flicker, she doesn’t move.
You can hear her breath, calm and light.
I hear the subway coming. I can’t get up.
It’s arrived.
I get up as slowly as I can.
Grab my bag, take her hand in mine and get on the train.
The train sails away with both of us.
Hand in hand.
Heart in heart.
ELA 7
March 22, 2012
by Luca Vermeer
I don’t know why I did it. Maybe it was because of all my pent up anger towards my brother, maybe it was the shock of my parents sending me away,or maybe I just wanted to get back at my parents for choosing him over me. But at that moment when my feet left the ridge of my window, I believe that was the first time that I was truly at peace. my thoughts … only that it was to bad it didn’t last.
WHIRL… I blink and open my eyes to stare at… grassy field after field of open space, forests and trees completely untouched by pollution .The new scene shocks me into a silence beyond even that of the dead. dead.i should be dead I jumped from a 3rd story window.how can I still be alive, and where am I. another country? I scan my eyes over a beautiful scene of meadows and hills, of blue sky and clouds that look so soft that even the fluffy silhouette of the sheep on the next hill over are hard by compare. Sheep. Usually were there are sheep there are people to herd them. could there be a town somewhere around here? I look at the ground around me to see if there might be a trail nearby and, notice for the first time that I am wearing clothes. well no duh i’m wearing clothes, but these are just plain weird like they might be taken from the set of the movie robin hood. i mean really who wears a loose tan tunic and brown leggings anymore.i reach for the branch of a nearby with my right, hand? My hands are a pale color as if I hadn’t walked in the sun for years. And there covered in…Fur? At that moment a gentle wind blows through the trees causing the, um, Fur on my arm to sway and ripple. humming a quiet and slightly eerie melody. I twitch feeling a strange sensation that seems to pull the air from my lips and a song slipped out, a copy of the breezes that hummed not a moment before. At the end of the tune I pause already having memorized the words I sing it again, louder this time and to my surprise a nearby puddle freezes even though the weather is clear and warm. surprised and wondering I walk over to another puddle and sing the song again, and again it freezes over.
“this is defiantly not the hospital”
you know those times when you say something that is completely obvious and everyone looks at you like no duh. well now was one of those times except the person around to hear it was me.I stumble over to a small boulder and sit down on top…YELP…i leap up holding my… tail? this just keeps getting weirder and weirder. first i have fur then i can turn puddles to ice and now i have a tail! What if thats not all. i walk over to one of the frozen over puddles, lean over to see my reflection and…
WHIRL… i blink and instead of staring into my own eyes in a frozen over puddle i am staring at a puddle of light in a dark alley. i lift my hands. no fur. i let out a relieved sigh. i look around expecting to see a hospital room or the alley way behind my house but i have no clue where i am. i walk out of the alley and into a nearby street. i look around a busy intersection. wait a second is that my brother. “brother, brother over here” i call out as i hurry towards him. i reach for his shoulder “brother its m” i stop. my hand just went straight through his shoulder. i watch as he walks slowly away from me as if he is trying his best to get to where he is going as slowly as possible. somehow seeing him like this brings back all my anger and jealousy towards my brother and i charge after him. i watch him walk 1 block then 2 blocks then 4 blocks, just waiting for him to do something i can criticize. he turns into a flower store. tech probably trying to hook another girl. he smiles at the women at the cash register and asks for his usual. “his usual” of course are dark crimson roses. they probably mean something like “please love me”. he walks out of the shop and back down the street in the direction we came from. i follow him down the street until i start to recognize things. i used to hang out at that restaurant with my friends, thats the arcade where i lost fifty times at one game,etc. i am so caught up remembering that i barely notice my brother turn into a hospital and have to run after him to make it into the elevator. breathing heavy but wondering what business he would have in a hospital i sit on the ground and wait until we reach the right floor which actually takes quite a long time. when the doors finally open from what seems like an eternity of waiting and annoying music. we walk through a strangely familiar hallway filled with nurses and old people in wheel chairs. he turns into a room and i follow not really looking at the patient. “so how have you been shorty. i brought new flowers” my brother says while taking old flowers out of a vase. what my brother says shocks me into stillness for a moment thinking that he is talking to me. but then i realize that he was facing the bed when he said it. slowly and unwillingly i turn to the bed… its me. “knowing you right now you would probably stare at me and tell me that i brought the wrong kind of flowers” he grabbed a stool to sit on then continued “you know i am really sorry that i couldn’t come to that play that you were so proud of being in, and the school festival were you planned a whole event on your own. just more stuff to add to the list of things that i’ve missed in your life. and even though you’re going to scold me for this later i am so so so sorry that i let you be like this” his eyes started to water and he had to wipe them with his sleeve.”well see you tomorrow” he said getting up. “its okay” came a soft whisper from the bed stopping my brother in his tracks. he spun not to fast but not leisurely. ” my vision seems to zoom out ill i can stare at both myself and my brother at the same time…silence…i stare at my body expectingly for what seems like an hour before i realize that it was me who spoke. it was me who had in some way forgiven my brother, but just to be sure i opened my mouth and…”its okay” the words resonated from the mouth of my body and seemed to make a rippling hole in the wall of the room. i squinted at the moving wall realizing that through i could see that other world with hills, mountains, and valleys untouched by humans. i take 1 step closer, than another until i reach out my hand to touch it and…
BBBBBBBBBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
Whitefang, chapter one
March 22, 2012
by Jessica McMahon
Prologue
The first time I saw Twilight in a theatre, I nearly peed my pants.
From the viewpoint of an educated human being, this book was crap. It was so terribly assembled it was an insult to human intelligence. The main character was so bland it was dizzying, Edward Sparklepants was idolized way too much, and he was a freaking vampire. That sparkled. Please note that the thing I say next may be repeated several times:
Vampires do not sparkle.
Under no circumstances (besides maybe pouring glitter over their heads) will a vampire sparkle.
Should I say it in a different language? Vampiros no pueden brillar.
Anyway, I don’t even know why I let my friend drag me into the movie. For the most part, I hate romances of any kind, not just vampire romance. But my best friend Kalli has to be the biggest romantic you’ve ever seen, so I go to plenty of romance movies now.
Besides being an abomination of literature and film, Twilight hit upon another hated topic of mine: vampires. I hate vampires almost as much as I hate my neighbor’s kid. (I nicknamed him Mini-Hitler) So to watch a bland girl fawn over a vampire for two hours was just plain torture.
Vampires must be the most depraved creatures on the planet. They drain the life force of humans for their own survival, only to make more of these ugly creatures, or vile slaves as Ghouls. They have no respect for human rights or law, they don’t accept treaties or alliances and they’re only out for themselves. And somehow, although no vampire would think twice about a human, they have become a huge part of pop culture. Seriously, if you met a vampire on any given night, they’d probably kill you or drink your blood until you die. What the hell?
So from the standpoint of a romance-loathing vampire-hater, the Twilight was a terror.
But for me, pure terror wasn’t even scratching the surface my feelings of hatred and shock. The plot was so far from the truth it was hilarious. A disco ball seemed more fearsome than these carnivorous fairies! I was laughing so hard I was asked to leave the theatre. Although I hate vampires, I know all about them, I’ve studied them for years. In fact, I’ve studied almost every type of monster on the planet.
Because I, Selene Whitefang, am a vampire hunter.
When I told my first grade class that my daddy was a monster hunter, you can guess the teacher’s response. I go to private school now.
But that’s beside the point…
Chapter one:
In Arizona, rain is rare, but when it comes it often pours in sheets. Close to some of the only forests in the state, it permeates the ground, breathing life into the arid climate for a few hours. It pounds the pavement and makes songs on all the rooftops. Some people naturally resonated with that song, like Selene.
Sixteen-year-old Selene grew up without many modern toys, because simple pleasures always appealed to her the most. She could spend hours reading a long book, but couldn’t stand using a kindle. The only pieces of technology she could stand using were her laptop and smartphone.
She sat in the back row of her class, eyes closed, head nodding the beat she heard in the rain. From far away it looked like she was listening to music, but all she was listening to was the hard pounding of rain against the classroom’s lofted roof. She was enveloped in her own little world, so much so that she started tapping the beat on her desk loudly, like drums.
It was the last period of the day, and her attention span was dwindling. She would have loved to drift asleep to the song of the rain.
“Miss White, are you paying attention?”
Her beat continued undaunted.
“Miss White, pay attention!”
No response.
“Selene! Stop listening to music and pay attention!” The teacher screamed. The old woman was shaking with fury.
“Err, ma’am, I’m not listening to music,” Selene said, “I just like the sound of the rain.”
“Well, stop it! Pay attention to the lesson!”
Selene let out a puff of air and leaned forward to listen. Her friend Kalli laughed at her.
“Oh shut up!” Selene’s nose crinkled in annoyance.
When the lesson got out, she wandered out of the classroom lazily. Dragging her heels, she wandered around the school gardens, glancing at the life that awoke suddenly with the rain. She barely felt the rain soaking her clothes and hair. She hummed a tune and made her way towards the school buildings once more, and realized she forgot her backpack.
She snaked her way through the clusters of students, leaving a sopping trail behind her. Twisting her locker open she pried her oversized backpack out of her locker and slid it onto her back. As she slammed her locker closed her bubbly redheaded best friend ran up to her.
“Hey Selene! You ready to go?” Kalli asked. Freckles dusted her pale cheeks and danced down her neck, onto her arms. Her hazel eyes expressed all her emotions.
Today, they had plans to see a movie after school. Kalli was a hopeless romantic who dragged Selene to every romance movie shown in the theatres, so they journeyed to the movie theatre often.
“Sure thing, Kalli.” Selene shrugged. Her best friend was often overexcited, and so she grew to take her energy with a grain of salt.
Together they escaped the school building and entered back into the rain, but Kalli snatched a umbrella out of her shoulder bag and opened it over both of them.
“You know what I don’t understand?” Kalli chirped as they walked.
Selene looked up, but made no sound. She was never one for talking when half asleep.
“How in the world does your hair stay wavy in this weather?” She pulled Selene’s wavy black hair in her ponytail. The hairs slowly recurled after the tug.
“I dunno, ask my genetics.” Selene twisted the water out of her ponytail. “I’d like to know if unicorns exist. Does that mean I’ll ever find out? Probably not.”
The rest of their walk to Kalli’s house was silent.
Kalli was almost foot taller than Selene, who was only five feet tall. They were both extremes in almost every way. Kalli was a bright, bubbly girl who made friends with almost everyone she met. Selene was an inattentive athlete who didn’t make an effort to be social. Due to her focus on hunting monsters, she often didn’t show up for practice and when she did, it took a great deal of effort to get her to participate. Despite her shortcomings in practice, Selene’s pure skill in sport kept her on the soccer team. Kalli forgave others easily and almost never got angry. Selene on the other hand held grudges easily, had a short fuse and explosive anger management problems. Kalli wanted everybody to do his or her best in sports, Selene was competitive and was obsessed with beating the other team. Kalli had sparkling hazel eyes and red hair while Selene had dark hair and eyes. Selene was curvy and muscular with wide hips and shoulders. She had tan skin, Kalli was tall, lanky and pale. Kalli lived in a small house with just her mother and dog; Selene lived in a mansion with her mother father and six siblings.
Kalli and Selene had been friends since Selene got transferred into private school. Selene was scared and shy of other children, but Kalli was persistent. She would try to talk to Selene every day, and when words didn’t work, Kalli stayed by Selene’s side, sitting next to her in classes, sitting on the swings with her, and doing anything and everything Selene did during free time. Eventually, Selene opened up to Kalli, and they stuck together ever since. Kalli knew almost everything about Selene, except for her life as a vampire hunter. The same went for Selene; there were no secrets between her and Kalli.
Kalli’s house was a small two-bedroom cottage with the tiniest fireplace ever created. Often on cold days, her huge, shaggy dog Jim would sleep in front of it all day long.
When they got inside, Kalli’s mother was in the kitchen, making dinner.
“Hey Kalli, how was school today?” Kalli’s mother asked.
“Hey mom, school was good.” Kalli kicked her shoes off. “How was your day?”
“It was fine. Go sit down, I’ll make you something to warm you up.”
Kalli’s mother made them frothy cappuccinos. Selene pulled her hair out of its ponytail to let it dry. Selene grabbed her spare clothes out of her backpack and ran to the bathroom to change.
She slipped off her shirt and it revealed a purple bruise that wrapped from her bellybutton around to her back. A similar bruise contrasted with the tan skin of her upper arm.
Note to self: get dad to take me off missions with werewolves. She thought, as she looked at her self in the mirror. She was normally assigned vampires to hunt, because she was faster than her siblings, but two nights ago she was instead sent on a mission to kill a variety of monsters, including werewolves. Jeez, that’s ugly.
She slipped a baby-blue long sleeved shirt on. The Whitefang family crest was silkscreened across the back: A snake in a circle around a picture of a snowcapped mountain. Whitefang was written in capital letters across the bottom. She had gotten the shirt at the last family reunion, where other branches of her family from around the world (predominantly Spain) met up and had some friendly competition. She won first place that year in the sharpshooting competition. It barely covered the bruise on her stomach, so she tugged on it harshly in an attempt to stretch it.
She squirmed out of her uniform’s skirt and put on brown cargo pants, then put a belt on with a gun holster on her right hip. Her silver colt commander pistol sat inside its holster, loaded with silver bullets. Her gun was made out of silver so if she ever ran out of bullets, she’d still be able to fight.
Kalli had seen this same gun on her hip before. Selene’s father told both Kalli and her mother that Selene carried it for safety, because he ran a big corporation and there were people who wanted revenge.
She gathered her damp uniform in one arm and opened the door with the other. Then she made her way back to the living room.
Kalli’s mother was a simple decorator, but she was skilled. Everything in her house looked like it belonged there, from every painting of the wall to the coffee table. Kalli was sitting cross-legged on the couch, staring into her mug.
“You gonna change out of your uniform?” Selene called to the redhead.
“Oh, right! I’ll go do that now.” She put her mug on the coffee table and ran off to her room.
Selene grabbed her own mug and gulped down several mouthfuls of the coffee, the caffeine was much needed. Fighting the werewolf had drained all of her energy.
Although hunting monsters in her spare time was a grueling task, she grew up learning about monsters in order to one day fight them, so in her mind, it was all very normal. She had always heard the stories, when her siblings came home; they made no attempt to hide it from her. Training started when she was six years old, with monster studies. When she turned eight, they added battle training and strategy into her schedule. By the time she turned ten, she had mastered all of the different weapons that hunters used, like silver blades, guns, quarterstaffs and crossbows. She would continue to train with her favorite weapons and hone her skills. When she turned eleven, she became a hunter in training, and picked her weapon to use, in her case, a silver pistol. She was assigned small missions and was given an area of the park to patrol. As she got older, the missions became more challenging. On her upcoming seventeenth birthday, she would be able to become a full-fledged hunter and create her own missions and even leave the compound to go on her own. Selene would finally earn her hunting license, a document that any hunter in the world has; like a driving license for destroying the undead.
Her family was considered a progressive hunting family, instead of a conservative one. In honesty, her family was more of a mix, but that was considered progressive in the eyes of the extreme conservatives, which made up the majority of monster hunters in the world. A progressive family was a family that abandoned old hunting traditions in favor of modern improvements. They often used new technology like guns and computers, but forgot the importance of some of the older traditions. Conservative families are steeped in history, but shun modern advancements like computers and advanced firearms. Often conservative hunters are significantly more skilled than progressives, because their lifestyle includes bigger challenges and their weapons are harder to use. Because of all the differences, deadly rivalries developed between clans, like the one between the Whitefang clan and the powerful conservative Van Helsing family.
Selene’s father was conservative, but her mother slowly showed him how tradition mixed with technology could grow together to make something even more powerful.
Most of her daydreams consisted of past fights or future fights, and she often wondered what it would be like if the world knew about her life and the lives of her family. Any other daydreams consisted of travel to places far away from Arizona, places where it rained often or it snowed. Places where water shimmered in the moonlight like thousands of diamonds in a bowl. Places far away from her family compound where she could waste her entire day sleeping to the sounds of rain.
It was her goal to become a hunter so she could see all these places and more.
“Alright! Let’s blow this popsicle stand!” Kalli yelled.
Selene stood up and grabbed her backpack. “Make like a banana and split?”
“Yep!”
Kalli didn’t tell her that they were about to see another part of the Twilight saga.
“No.” Selene’s voice dripped with fury and her face bore the snarl of a wet cat. Her hands were curled into fists at her sides and she looked up stiffly at her best friend. “This is where I draw the line.”
“C’mon Selene, it’ll be fine.” Kalli had seen this side of Selene before, so her argument was weak and cautious. Selene had been known to go off like a powder keg at the slightest disturbance, like a bad choice of words. “Listen, I’m sorry, I forgot.”
“It’s fine,” she said, catching herself. She tried to keep her temper down, but often couldn’t manage it. “Just go see it by yourself, I’ll see you tomorrow, alright?”
“Ok.” Kalli stood there awkwardly as Selene walked away. In her head, she had always hoped that there would be no hard feelings between the two of them, but the next morning Selene would be right as rain.
The old park was massive; a sprawling wildlife reserve bordering on six acres, each member of her family who was at least a hunter in training was given a different piece of the park to patrol. Selene had a part of thick forest close to the playground. Often she would sit on the swings during her spare time and keep watch over her area. The old chain creaked loudly when she dragged her feet across the sand.
The rain had slowed to a mist through the trees, creating a hiss in the air instead of the pounding from earlier. Selene fell asleep on the swing, listening to the melodic sound.
“So you’re from the famous Whitefang clan? I’ve seen you here before.” A cold voice jolted her awake. She leapt from her seat and grabbed her gun. It was dark out now; the moon shone through trees, illuminating everything in a green glow.
“Who are you?” She asked, startled.
The voice’s owner stepped out of the woods and into the open park. “Not anyone of consequence.” He looked like he was only as old as Selene, sixteen, but glinting fangs and red eyes told her otherwise. He was a vampire. Shaggy blonde hair shone limply in the moonlight, half covering his eyes. He wore an elegant black suit with a red button down shirt underneath. His tie was made of black satin.
Without another thought, Selene released several bullets from her gun.
Only one nicked his arm, he had swiftly dodged the shots. “Now now, was that really necessary? “
“Yes, it was. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a vampire hunter. That means I get to kill you.” She sighed, and then pivoted on her feet and shot again.
“Jeez, you’re testy. But for now, I must bid you adieu. I hope I can see you again, princess.” He sneered. He had ran back into the thicket of trees, but she could hear his voice ringing in her ears. “I’ll give you a parting gift.”
“Christ. Another one got away.” She proposed sulking for a while, but a ghoul ran out of the forest, followed by two more. “Can’t they just give me a break?”
The ghoul stumbled forward towards her. Its eyes were blank and its jaws were slack, and pieces of grey rotting flesh occasionally fell to the ground. They were surely the ugliest monsters. But in comparison to monsters with working brains, fighting them was a piece of cake. Selene didn’t have to worry about them dodging her shots or using complex moves, she just had to aim and shoot. After they were shot, they turned to dust that blew away in the wind, similar to vampires.
After fighting the ghouls, she walked home. She took a busier route down a wide street, instead of going through the woods. The clouds had parted, and now the moon and stars shone brightly, they illuminated her paths where the streetlamps didn’t.
“No! Get away from me you creep!” A young woman screamed. She stood in skimpy clothing across the road from Selene.
“I don’t think that I will. No one will hear you out here.” The man laughed. He wore a loose grey sweatshirt and baggy pants. A knit beanie pressed greasy brown hair against his skull.
Just for the sake of proving him wrong, Selene ran across the street and tapped the muzzle of her gun against his cheek, reaching him on the balls of her feet. “What were you saying about no one could hear her?” She asked.
The man looked at her with wide fearful eyes, her gun had seared a hole in his cheek and his irises were glowing red coals.
“Oh wow, seeing two of you in one night, that’s rare. I feel special.” Selene smiled sadistically at him. He turned to run away. “But I won’t let you get away!” She shot straight through his shoulder, but hit no fatal arteries or nerves. He fell to the ground with a loud thud.
“ I wouldn’t attack if I were you, I’m protected.” He said with a thick accent. Selene could hear the cocky smirk on his face.
“The hell does that mean?” Selene asked.
“I’m in SNARE. Unless you want my friends coming after you, I’d let me live.”
“I’ll take my chances.” She took aim, but he rushed her and threw a blow into her stomach. The hooker let out a blood-curdling scream, but she stood back up quickly. “At least aim for my face please, there’s a bruise on my stomach already.” Selene sighed.
He ran at her again, but this time Selene shifted her weight to trip him. He flipped onto his back and roared with anger. The hooker ran off as fast as her high-heeled feet would take her.
“Send this message back to your little club,” she said, “If they really want trouble, they’re invited to mess with me. I dare them to.” She pulled the trigger twice, and he dissolved into dust.
Selene started walking back on her path. “What a night… I need a bath.” She muttered as she shook some ghoul dust off her pants.
She ignored her maid and family when she got home. She had come home incredibly late; she missed her training and lessons. But seeing as she was covered in ghoul dust, it was understood.
She got into her bathroom and turned on the showerhead as hot it would go. She rinsed off all the dust and washed her hair hastily. The hot water loosened her tense muscles and soothed her bruises.
When she got out, she put bruise balm on her stomach and arm, and then put on her pajamas.
Her father Marco was a tall, gruff man, with a long black beard and a black braid down his back. He looked like a warrior from the past. Her mother on the other hand, was a beauty; her black hair was similar to Selene’s, wavy and shimmering; it framed her face in smooth layers and stopped at her mid back. Her eyes were green, like most of the family. She had high arched eyebrows and a delicate nose. She was not as short as Selene either. She was a powerful matriarch for the Whitefang family. Selene’s siblings were mostly boys; she only had one sister out the seven of them.
Selene was small and stocky, unlike the rest of her family. Her jaw was stern and square and her thin eyebrows often rose quizzically over her silver eyes. Her hair sat on her shoulders and her bangs hid her forehead.
Selene was the youngest out of all of them. She had rivalries with most of her siblings, especially her next-oldest brother, Adrian. They teased and annoyed each other every chance they got. Her oldest brother, Lexington was the most supportive of all her siblings. He acted like a leader towards all of them. She got along best with her brother Alphonse, who was two years older than her. They often trained together, but Selene was close to him for another reason. He had saved her life.
When she was three, she went to a fair with all of her family. When she got into a fight with Adrian, she ran off into the woods to get away from everybody. She hid up in a tree, but she fell down. When she got up, there was a vampire standing in front of her. He had tried to turn her into a vampire, but Alphonse had stolen his mother’s gun and saved her.
Ever since then, Selene had loathed and feared vampires. Her anger and violence towards them was only motivated by pure terror.
Her other two brothers were Max and Sebastian. They were twins. She got along with them okay, but they were constantly competing over everything from skills to who could eat the most ice cream on vacation.
Emma, her older sister, looked like her mother. She used to hunt vampires like Selene, but she now went away to other countries to look for demons and other more dangerous creatures.
Her brothers lived in the compound; most of them hunted werewolves and vampires in the cities nearby or in the park.
Currently, her father sat at the head of the table and her mother sat at the other end. Several of her siblings were also sitting at the table already eating dinner.
The dining room was large, a ballroom with a vaulted ceiling and a huge crystal chandelier in the middle. The floor was white marble. Floor to ceiling windows revealed the barren desert outside their home. A grand mahogany table stood in the middle of the room, without a tablecloth.
Selene made her way over to a chair next to her mother and pressed her cheek against the cool wood of the table.
“Selene, you’ve been gone all day, what happened to you?” Her mother, Helen asked.
“Let’s see; Kalli tried to take me to a crappy movie, I left, fell asleep at the park, got attacked by a vampire and several ghouls and then stopped another vampire from biting a woman. The woman was probably a hooker.” Selene yawned. She left out the part about the organization he was in until she could do more research. “I just want to sleep.”
“Eat something before you go to bed honey.” Helen rubbed Selene’s back.
“Do I have to? Isn’t reporting in enough for a day?” She groaned.
“You did well, but you need to eat! You scare the living daylights out of the maids when you look for food at night!”
“Ugh…” Selene pressed her other cheek to the table.
“Awww, is wittle Sewene tired?” An evil smile worked its way onto Adrian’s face.
“What about that time you were crying about that stupid movie?” Selene retorted.
“You said you wouldn’t tell anyone!”
“And unless you want that video of you to go viral, you’ll shut up!” Selene sang. She left the dining room; if she tried to eat now, her face would end up in the food.
The next morning, she slept straight through her alarm, and woke up when the maid came in to clean her room.
“What time is it?” She yawned.
“Probably eight thirty…” Her maid replied.
“What?” Her head snapped up. “I’m late!” She leapt out of bed and put on a new uniform in record time. She put her gun in her backpack and slung it over one shoulder.
She ran down the marble steps and tripped over her cat, landing face first on the floor. “Stupid cat…” She dusted herself off and grabbed her shoes from the cubby by the door.
She’d missed half of the lecture on Shakespeare when she got to class and ran to her seat in the back. She dropped her backpack on her foot as she sat down and turned to grin at Kalli, who sat in the seat next to her, but when she turned, Kalli wasn’t in her seat. Kalli wasn’t one to miss class. Had she gotten sick?
The rest of the class went by slowly, with no one to joke with. She breathed a sigh of relief when the bell rang for their ten-minute break, she ventured to her locker to put her backpack away.
Her locker was at the end of the hall to the arts wing, where paint and other art supplies covered the walls and lockers. Lockers there were crusted with paint or plaster and often hard to open. This time, her locker was slightly open; the lock had been smashed with some sort of tool. No one in school would have done this; she wasn’t hated or bullied, Kalli made sure of that. Besides, no one in school would have the means to do so.
She swung her locker open quickly, and a note fluttered on the back of the door. The note had been typed neatly in a large font: We decided to take you up on that offer you made us. We have your friend with us. We hope you said goodbye to her properly, because you will not see her again. You will not win; so do not search for her. – SNARE
Her heart stopped beating.
SNARE.
She tried calling Kalli’s cell, but instead of Kalli answering, a man with a European accent answered.
“We expected you to call soon, Miss Whitefang. You have read the note?”
“Who the hell is this?” Her lips curled into a snarl.
“We are SNARE. Don’t search for your friend, you won’t find her.” He hung up.
The name came up again; was it really true? Was there an organization out to get her? And why take Kalli? It didn’t matter; she now had a score to settle. She grabbed the note and ran home.
When she got home, there was a maid mopping the foyer.
“Hello Selene, I didn’t expect you to come home so early. Your father said to go to the conference room. Something important has come up.” She said while mopping.
“Ok, sure.” She slipped off her shoes and made her way to the conference room, her mind wandering along the way. Was he sending her another mission? She hoped not, she needed to find Kalli. Maybe he knew about SNARE. How? She hadn’t told him about it.
She burst into the conference room with a million questions on her mind, stress making her body tense.
She didn’t expect to see the vampire from yesterday sitting at the table, bold as brass. Yet again, without thinking, she reached for her gun before remembering that she left it in her backpack. Instead, she grabbed a sword from a suit of armor display and hurled it at him as best as she could.
“Are you trying to kill me?” He yelled at her. “Must you be such a ruffian?”
Ruffian? “Were you born in the middle ages?” She stopped attacking a moment to ask her question.
“What? No! Besides, it would have been the renaissance, we have no records of what people spoke like during the middle ages.” He replied angrily.
“Then why the hell would you use a word like ruffian?”
“It’s the proper word to describe an aggressive woman like you. The first thing you do whenever you see me is try to kill me.” He said. “Actions like that are reserved for ruffians and hooligans!”
“Are you serious?” She gritted her teeth. Was this boy an idiot?
“Yes! Every time I encounter you, you try to kill me!” He crossed his arms. He looked like a small child throwing a tantrum, although Selene wasn’t much better.
“Are you stupid?” she yelled. “I’m a vampire hunter! It’s my job to kill you, dumbass!”
“Alright, that’s enough.” Her father entered the room. There were two men with him, one had blonde hair and blue eyes, and the other had smooth brown hair and the burning red irises of a vampire. “Selene, you know better than to harass a guest.”
“A guest? He’s a vampire!” She protested.
“He’s still a guest. Now sit down, we have much to talk about.” She sat in the chair across from the vampire boy and glared daggers at him. The other men sat down too.
“Selene, this is Kayden Lansbury. Kayden, this is Selene, my youngest daughter. I hope you can excuse her actions earlier.” Her father said politely. “The man to my left,” He indicated to the vampire with brown hair, “Is Harlow Lansbury; Kayden’s father. The man on my right is Alexander Van Helsing.”
“Whoa, Van Helsing? What’s going on?” Hunter clans never speak to each other unless a major problem comes up, especially with the bigger clans like Van Helsing and even Whitefang. Clans dealt with their problems on their own, and rivalries develop. The strongest vampire hunters fight over bounties and prizes, going as far as killing others to gain the fame and fortune.
“I have a feeling you encountered someone that belonged to an organization called SNARE?” Kayden answered.
“No one asked you, bloodsucker,” she hissed.
“Selene! Mind your tongue!” Selene looked away from her father guiltily.
“Anyways, what does SNARE have to do with Van Helsing?”
“They took my son. They kidnapped him one day whilst he was hunting.” Alexander was distraught. “They have killed several members of my family already.”
“I understand that. I guess they have a thing for kidnapping.” She sighed, and fished the note out of her jacket pocket. “My locker had been opened by force, and I found this inside. Kalli wasn’t at school today.”
“So there has been more than one. It’s more serious than I thought. They’re planning something outside of the boundary of hunters and monsters. They have gotten a normal human involved.” Harlow said, “Whatever they’re doing is something like we’ve never seen before. We all must be prepared.”
“I have to ask two questions.” Selene said to Harlow.
“Sure, ask away.”
“One, why are you here? I had thought this to a problem for hunters only.” Selene asked.
“We have many sacred laws as vampires, laws like humans do. And when someone breaks the law, they are prosecuted, like you do. This organization has broken many laws that bind us as civil creatures.”
Civil? She thought. What a joke. “I understand. Now one more thing. You do realize your son attacked me last night using three ghouls?”
“Excuse me?” He looked at Kayden, “Did you attack her?”
“I was only playing with her, and see, she came out fine. Besides, she shot at me!” he griped.
“What was I supposed to do? A random vampire shows out of nowhere and wakes me up! Was I supposed to sit there and do nothing?” Selene yelled at him.
“You’re just a barbarian! There was no need to aim for my head!” He slammed his hands down on the dining table so hard he shook the chandelier.
“Do we have to go through this again? It’s my job to kill vampires like you! Of course I was gonna aim for your head!”
“Both of you, quiet down!” Her father sighed. “I need both of you to at least tolerate each other. As you have noticed, we have a common goal.”
“So?” Selene huffed, “Get to the point!”
“I need you to team up with Kayden to get back Alexander’s son and Kalli.”
“No.” They replied in unison.
“There’s no way I’d work with someone like her! She’s a brutal lout!” Kayden expressed to his father.
“I’d rather eat my own foot than team up with a vampire!” Selene wailed, “And you expect me to partner up with this parasite?”
“Selene, you must understand, I can’t leave the state and neither can your mother. You are the most skilled out of all your siblings. It is your duty as a hunter in training to fight the monsters you are assigned. You have been assigned this mission. You will go and fight SNARE with Kayden whether you like it or not.” He said. To keep control of the clan and make sure enemies don’t invade, the leaders of a clan may not leave the lands of the clan, in this case, the state of Arizona. They also had a special monster in their basement that needed someone to control it…
“The same words apply to you Kayden. You are obligated to hunt those who break our law. Don’t fail your task.” Harlow bored into his son’s eyes, although his eyes avoided looking at Harlow.
“Besides that, if this mission is successful, I’ll make you a hunter.” Her father added an incentive she couldn’t resist. “You’ll never have to go on another mission with a vampire again, unless you choose to.”
“Like I would choose to.” She scoffed. “But fine. I’ll do it.”
“I’ll open up the weapon store for you, to pick up some new weapons, but for now, let’s talk about our strategy.” Marco grabbed a small remote from the pocket of his trousers and clicked the red button in the middle. The lights dimmed, and a projector lit images onto a wall of the conference room. Alexander was properly baffled, never having seen a projector or anything of the like before.
“We’ve been able to track them this far, into New York City,” He said, pointing at the projection, “Even into Manhattan. But from there, we can’t get any closer.”
“So the plan is to fly us over there?” Selene asked.
“Yes, then you start searching. Start with any vampires you find, until you get some answers.” Her father instructed.
“Isn’t that a little ridiculous? Shouldn’t we come up with a more efficient plan? Learn more about the enemy first?” Alexander glared at Marco.
Her father grimaced; he was trying to construct a respectful response. “We don’t have enough time. We need to take action. I trust my daughter.”
“But what if Selene can’t get any leads? If we put more thought into it, we won’t have to worry.” Alexander’s voice rose in volume.
When conservatives went on rants or entered arguments, they could last for hours. Selene was not eager to hear this man argue with her father. Their argument would waste more time than either plan. She made a decisive move and plucked her phone out of her pocket. Opening up the Internet, she hunted down a flight from the nearest airport.
“Listen, if you’re really a hunter, you’d know the moment one thing goes wrong, the plans will go to the wayside. Things are basically guaranteed to go wrong, so there’s no need to waste the extra effort. The stress of plans would make this mission near impossible anyways. Also, I’ve already purchased a flight for both of us.” She waved her phone in his face. It was obvious that Alexander was insulted, but he was also stunned at her logic. She thought and acted quickly and efficiently, as if it was nothing.
“I’m gonna pack a bag, the flight leaves in a few hours.” She got up and strode out of the room.
She had stuffed almost everything she needed into a small carryon, excluding toiletries. She decided to buy those when she got to New York.
She threw herself on the bed miserably. She pressed her face into her blue comforter and inhaled the scent of her fabric softener. Stress coursed through her body and made her tense. She tried to shake off the dread and fear pooling in her stomach, but it stuck like glue.
Why did it have to be me? She thought, Lex could have done it, so could Emma… No! I can’t think that! Kalli’s in danger, and it’s my job to save her. She rolled off her bed and stood up. It’s time to put some effort into saving your friend.
This organization had gone so far for simple revenge… Why? The question floated around in her head as she finished packing.
She slid her laptop into her backpack, along with a notebook and a magazine to read. As she grabbed some pencils to put into her bag, there was a knock on her door. “It’s open, come in.”
“It’s me.” Kayden said, “Your father said that he opened up the vault, and it’s time to pick weapons.”
“I’ll be right down.” She put the pencils in the front pouch of her backpack.
The weapons vault was in the basement of the main house. The room was large, but cramped with every imaginable weapon lining the walls. Along the wall next to the door, a collection of silver swords sat on racks. At the bottom was the tiny sword she had trained with when she was young. She smiled when she glanced at it.
“Impressive.” Kayden murmured when he entered the vault.
“Pretty cool, right?” She asked.
“Totally.” He replied. “It’s a sweet collection. Even we don’t have this much.”
“What happened to the flowery old English?”
“I only use it around my dad. He’s nuts about keeping things the same, similar to a conservative hunter family.” He explained, “Anything without a silver handle?”
“Sure, plenty, I’d stick with firearms for now, they’ll be easy to put into a suitcase without getting in trouble. Swords are tough to get through security. We’d probably be able to get a quarterstaff into a suitcase, but most of those are silver…” She strode around the room looking for a weapon. “What do you usually use?”
“I’ve been trained in sword fighting. Similar the Helsing man, my dad rejects modern advancements like guns. But a quarterstaff would also work.”
“You may have to wear gloves, but I could get you both. I’m picking out an extra gun for myself.” She grabbed a thin sword and an extendable quarterstaff. “You don’t have any gloves right now, so just make your sleeves cover your hands so you can hold them.” She first handed him the blade.
“I like this one, the sword is really balanced.” He brandished the weapon, “It’s a bit long for my liking. Got anything shorter?”
“Plenty, try the quarterstaff while I find you another.”
Eyeing the rack up and down, Selene snatched a bigger version of her childhood training sword. The hilt was decorated with rubies and intricate carvings and the blade had something inscribed onto it in Latin. Inside the handle was a compartment for poison, although it currently contained holy water.
“This quarterstaff is great!” He exclaimed. “It’s so much lighter than the ones I’ve trained with, but it’s still very strong!”
“We use a special alloy, then plate it with silver.” She grabbed the quarterstaff from him, “We’ll take this one with us. Try this sword.”
Yet again brandishing the blade, he grinned. “I love it. Take this one too.”
“Give them to my maid, I’ll be back up in a second.”
Although she loved the gun she used, the variety of firearms within the vault was remarkable. From hunting rifles to machineguns, the vault had almost every type of gun, and plenty of ammunition. The space where her gun lived had been filled with another Colt Commander. She preferred handguns to rifles, but she could use both easily. Out of all the different brands of guns she preferred the Colt guns and Smith and Wesson.
A hard cased suitcase was already prepared in her room for her guns when she got upstairs. Kayden was also in there, packing his own bag with the sword and quarterstaff. “I hate hearing Helsing talk as much as you do, but maybe next time you should think through buying plane tickets randomly. How are we gonna get me on and off the plane? If any sunlight hits me, I’m screwed.” His brows were furrowed, “Good going genius.”
“Don’t underestimate me because I can die of old age, bloodsucker.” She said, “I have a great plan.”
The Routine of Self Hatred
March 22, 2012
by Emma Brannen
It was every morning now; she focused on washing her face. She would take one look in the mirror, and run the water, how could she be so dirty, she never remembered having felt so disgusting. She would scrub her face with such force that she’d turn pink and sore. It struck a nerve in her, a feeling that wouldn’t, no… couldn’t go away.
Scrub, rinse, dry, repeat, it had become routine.
It was every morning now; after she was done in the bathroom, she would be in the car, in the passenger’s seat beside her mother. Her creamy skin, and hair that announced it’s perfection when blown about in the wind, not a bend or bump in sight. The girl would press herself against the window careful not to look at her reflection.
It was every morning now; once out of the car and in the schoolroom, she would look about, sitting by the back of the room. Observation suited her; it had become a hobby of her’s, to look at every fair face and soft flaxen hair. The uniform she couldn’t afford. She wouldn’t play, or talk, or act out as children sometimes do; she was an observer.
It was every afternoon now; she would ask, barely audible, for a pass to the bathroom. And once inside, she would step up on the stool near the sinks, and place her small dark hands on the counter. She recoiled at the sight of the dirt. She looked at herself in the mirror, pulling at the olive skin on her cheek, knotting her fingers in her dark curls. Once she had finished condemning herself, she would walk as slowly as she could back to the classroom, her absence unnoticed.
It was every night now; she would lie in the bathtub questioning herself. Submerged underneath a pure, clear, rippling wall of water. She enjoyed her time under the water, under the wall. She was away, on a ride towards her inner self, right in the middle. Between her love and her hate. She thought of her fair skinned mother, absent father, and uniformly fair classmates. And then she thought of her self, and how different she was.
How she could never get the dirt off.
Ungiven
March 21, 2012
by Nick Knab
Golden Tears run with the speed of a horse as
Life beats throughout the gifts ungiven, and when taken,
Joy befalls not only those who accept it,
But especially those who have given.
With the sound of vibrating quicksilver in the air,
Thanks is always necessary. But gifts given?
Never.
Tradition, pt. One, a very short story
March 20, 2012
by G. Chance Sevigny
“If you die on this world, you live in the afterworld. You will work your way up back to this plain, letting go of any impurities that may have caused you to fail and die in the trial. Then you will attempt it again, in the new life. So, no pressure.”
The pressure was not alleviated, mainly because the speaker looked bored, in a word.
Kuni rolled salt water through this mouth, pausing and pausing until his pauser was sore. His eyes dashed from the landing platform, to the chalky cliff, to the whales, impatient and screaming, flowing in twisted figure eights above open sea. Five minutes ago, they were vague ghosts in whale-shape. Soon, they would be too defined for comfort. Kuni regretted blindly accepting his role as coming-of–age savior- who wouldn’t? But, like most things, it was far less pleasant than it sounded.
The whales would reck a few yurts and be on their merry way if he refused. It wasn’t like the world was at stake. But if Kuni bailed, he would have everyone else to face. Their glowering faces were something of an eyesore.
The young one sighed. “Well, where do I start?”
The supervisor was now roughly 50% disinterest, 200% frustration.
“Get the fucking rope. And don’t ask me anything,” He shot kuni down, “Any self-respecting Shaamuic Merman knows where to find it. If you get, or some such shit, do the math. Self respect you do not have, and I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to leech any off me.”
Words sputtered in Kuni’s mouth like a car trying to start. He’d never been good with wors. Many had said, to his face mind you, that his lips were too small, his face too hairless, his cheeks too fat. Today, his hair was hacked at meticulously in an attempt to offset the offending features. Go ahead, guess how little it helped.
Night before Christmas, Remix
December 22, 2011 — 1 Comment
by Chance Sevigny
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
It was ’86 when I was seven years young,
But in my head, no dancing sugarplums sung,
For it was my mission to stake Santa out.
My parents had rolled their eyes- I sensed their doubt.
They snored, quite pathetically droll in their bed.
My stamina they underestimated.
At twelve on the dot, a clatter occurred.
I sat bolt upright, fearful, yet reserved.
Saint nick stood majestic in my living room,
His eyes had been weaved in a starry night-loom.
But something was wrong- he didn’t move once.
He didn’t see me- what was going on? Dunce.
I swallowed my fear and spoke- he turned his eyes.
“Excuse me sir. Are you Santa? Please don’t lie”
He gave a laugh of peace and goodwill,
And said: “Yes and no.” What gives? What the hell?
I wasn’t much for abstractions at that age,
So I didn’t say anything- was his silent page. (more…)
Training Lungs
November 28, 2011
by Chance Sevigny
They had discovered the planet roughly fifty years ago, giving it the inelegant name of RTS334. It passed unheard in the media, in favor of celebrity tabloid, or new and exciting lifestyle issues to worry about. The fact that life was definitely a possibility would have shocked the public a few centuries earlier, but by then people didn’t expect anything more than bacteria, and the planet that would change our culture for all time still orbited around a Main Sequence star, unnoticed by all but the most fervent scientists. I wasn’t born then, but my father has told me all this. To my generation, the day the RTS334 poked its nose into our affairs was the most important event history would record. To my Dads’, it was the start of the school week.
I thought of the irony when I died there, so far from home, from family.
I think now of when I first heard of it, on the radio, a few months before my kids arrived. I was unemployed, and it helped me put things into focus. You might think your life has gone to hell when it takes knowledge of a world bigger than yours to comfort you, but knowing that the rest of society stumbled on without me actually gave me the kick in the face that was needed. I enlisted a few weeks later.
I was in basic training when I heard the news, about my wife- passed away in childbirth. I was expecting it, or at least I told myself. You can’t really know if you’re feeling something, I don’t think. We assign such limiting words to blunt interpretations of infinitely mysterious emotions.
Anyway, the kids were looked after by an aunt, an old spinster, if people still think that’s a big deal. I was shipped right out to a dispute off world. This was some (more…)
On the bus, February 21, 1918
November 6, 2011
by Matt Schiavoni
My dad is a jackass and the reason for my complete confusion. I don’t remember him ever being nice to me. Whenever I got hurt he’d call me a pansy, gay, or tell me to be a man. My mom always sides with him, its so annoying. The only one that’s nice to me is my little brother Michael, but that’s probably because he’s too young to realize that I’m not at all like a big brother’s supposed to be. No one at school really pays attention to me either. I figured I had nothing to lose so I applied to military school. I feel like it’s the first non-pansy thing I’ve done in my father’s eyes.
The thing is when I told my dad the news he didn’t care; he wasn’t proud, or pissed. Sometimes I feel like his goal in life is to make mine a living hell. My mom was a little teary and Michael started sobbing, not surprising for a five year old. They decided to give me a goodbye gift, so the next thing I knew I had my family’s journal. “This journal was used by me, my father, his father before him and so on. Do not lose it or else by god, Robert William Taldson, I will lose my mind!” my dad yelled, “Dad I wont lose it you can trust me.” I said defensively.
The next week went by in silence, no conversations at the dinner table, or playtime with Michael. Then the day came when I had to leave for military school and the big camouflage bus came to pick me up. It was in that last moment I thought, “should I stay?” That thought left my brain real quick. Looking back on it I feel I could’ve avoided so many problems, it will always be my biggest “what if?” I stepped on the bus.
(more…)