Sukidayo's Babble: This is a remake of Unknown Blood. This is the prologue and first chapter of the story. Please let me know what you think at the end.

Prologue

Tuesday, October 31, 2006.

That’s the day my life changed, the day I went from being a regular seventeen year old girl to what I am now. I never asked for this to happen to me, I never asked to be snatched away from my family, my mother, my brother, my best friends, my life. Sure, I was a plain girl, someone who was under the popular radar but higher than the dweebs. Yes, I had a life outside of my room. I liked to shop, I liked to swim, I liked the sun shining on my face in the springtime. I loved the autumn days with the golden sun and the brightly colored leaves.

Funny how that can all change in the fraction of a minute. We grow up with horror stories of Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania. We’ve heard the stories of werewolves changing to the light of the full moon. Some people pass it on as myth and go on their merry ways without so much as a backwards glance. That’s how I grew up, but my will and my understanding changed dramatically on Halloween.

Chapter 1

-Sunday, October 29, 2006-

It was Sunday; the last Sunday of October here in my residence of 1654 Lynden Place in the upper class neighborhood of my town of Clarden, Michigan (which is right smack between Lansing and Grand Rapids). I wasn’t getting dressed for shit on a Sunday, much less go outside where it was brisk and damp from a light rain we had the night before. I just wanted to delve into my new book called Demon in My View by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I’d read her first book, In the Forests of the Night and craved more of her work. It was something I did regularly on a Sunday such as this when I knew my friend Justin was working and my friend Jennifer (commonly known as Jiffy) was off trying to find an open salon somewhere to get her hair done.

I was content in my room. The noise from my brother’s video game downstairs was muffled by my door and the somewhat loud Josh Groban CD playing from my stereo on top of my dresser. My blinds were partially open, letting in the sunlight as it reached the peak of the sky as it neared noon. This was all I could ask for on a day like this. Peace to myself and my book and my favorite adorable male singer.

But then Vinny had to ruin it by barging in on me and handing me the phone.

“Get your ass out of your room and into some clothes. I’m taking you to Hot Topic so we can find you something to wear to the party on Tuesday.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes at the ceiling as I listened to my friend’s babbling.

Jiffy had a tradition about throwing a Halloween party at her house whenever her parents go up to Canada to visit some of their distant relatives. Jiffy is their only daughter and so they trust her with the house keys. When they leave, she turns the table and throws a wild Halloween party complete with food, drinks, music and sex in any one of the five bedrooms in the house, excluding her parent’s room which she keeps locked. She’s the weirdest person ever to walk the planet and she always gets away with it.

“Jiff, I’m not going to the party,” I said. “I never go to parties, you know this.”

“I don’t care,” she said. “I want you to get laid before the end of the year.”

I was in the process of rolling over when she said that and instead of staying on my bed like I intended, I rolled off the side and onto the floor with a loud thud.

“Will you stop saying that!” I chided, more than a little embarrassed. “How many times do I have to tell you that no guy will look at me like that. I mean, face it, Jiff; I’m plain. Simple and plain and that’s the way I’ll always be. And I don’t want a boyfriend. January exams are coming up soon and I have to study for them. Besides, why do you care so much about me? Worry about yourself.”

“Because I have the pick of the litter,” she said. “Girls from all over the state want me and there’s only so much I can give. You, on the other hand, are getting absolutely nothing and I can’t stand being around you. You’re beautiful, Ren! If I were a dude, I’d definitely want you in more ways than one. Hell, I already do, but that’s beside the point…”

Yeah… I should have noted that my best friend is a lesbian. She’s been one for about as long as I can remember. She was about ten when she first let it off to her parents. Now, why on earth a ten-year-old would want to be a lesbian is beyond my comprehension, but that’s how it happened. I was with her when she said it, too, so you can only imagine how awkward that was for me… and I didn’t even know what a lesbian was at that age.

“JIFFY! Will you save me the mental scarring and shut the hell up? No, just hang up, because I’m done talking anyway.”

“Fuck no. I’m in front of your house. Get your perfect ass down here right now.”

I answered her my hanging up and unplugging my phone. I was so sick and tired of her dragging me to her stupid Halloween parties every damn year. It’s never done anything and it never will. Besides, I didn’t want to hear any more about my perfect ass. I knew it was perfect. It was mine. Besides, give it a few minutes and she’ll be pulling me out of my room by my hair down to her bubblegum-pink Camero anyway. But this time I was prepared.

I reached under my bed as I heard her stiletto heels clicking on the hard wood floor of the hallway towards my room. Just as she opened the door I sat up and threw a bright pink and fluffy hand purse from Baby Phat in hopes of distracting her. He only caught it on a brightly colored finger and popped her gum while looking at me.

“Thanks for the purse,” she said. “now get your ass up. So much shopping and not enough time to do it.”

I threw her my best puppy eyes I could and cuddled into the corner of my bed with my Harry Potter comforter over me. “I dun wanna go…” I whined. She only answered my plea to stay by stalking up to me and grabbing my ear like my grandmother used to do when I was being a bad little girl.

“Ow…ow…ow…ow…ow…” I followed her easily as she tugged on my sensitive lobes and she ushered me into my warm boots, a jacket and out the front door with a “You better be good or I’ll spread my lesbianism all over you” to my brother.

“Vinny!” I said. “If you want my DVD collection you’ll prove your love to me by calling the cops and telling them that I’m being teenage-napped by a blonde lesbian wearing too much pink!”

Jiff tossed me into the backseat and strutted over to the driver’s side door and got in. She blasted Avril Lavigne from the front and back speakers and I climbed up to the front seat right as she started speeding down the street towards Riverview Mall. Making there and living was definitely a first for me, especially since Jiffy knew I hated Avril Lavigne’s music. I have nothing against her, mind you, but her music sucks in my opinion. I’d rather bury myself in my closet and shrivel into nothing than listen to it.

Once she beat an old lady to a parking space close enough to the mall entrance, she grabbed me and she strutted down the parking lot in a way that still amazes me. I mean, I watch her as she walks, and she’s like a runway priss, swinging her hips back and forth the way she does. I’m surprised she didn’t throw out a hip. I just meandered next to her, or as close as could get. She’s like a track racer in those things. I can’t even keep up with her, and I’m the fastest in gym.

“Jiiiiiiifyyyyyyy…” I moaned when she didn’t slow down. “You’re going to bust a tendon in those damn shoes. Slow down woman!”

“No,” she said simply. “The sooner we get to Hot Topic, the sooner we get our things from Dr. Goth and the sooner we can get onto shopping for make-up.”

Dr. Goth is my more suitable best friend Justin. He’s only called that by Jiffy because he wears black, purple and lime green items and had bleach-blonde hair with black spikes. His green eyes are done heavily in black eyeliner and he’ll occasionally wear the black lipstick. He’s perfectly suited for Hot Topic and lucky him, he gets an employee discount. From what I could almost hear Jiffy say on the way here, he bought everything to save money because HT is outrageously expensive.

Upon getting there, Justin was leaning on the counter near the register with a gothic version of Playboy and looking intently at a pasty white and dangerously thin model on a gothic bed with a skeleton over her in a suggestive position. My eye twitched and Jiffy slapped the magazine out of his hands like it was a poisonous viper waiting to strike.

“You sick bastard,” she said. “Sick, sick, sick.”

Justin replied by picking up the magazine and putting it under the counter. He pulled out a black plastic bag and put it on the counter. He completely ignored Jiffy and talked to me.

“I don’t know what she’s threatening you with this time, but I tried my best to pick something less noticeable to the partying Goths. You have your black silk tank with glittering spider web sleeves that go past your fingers; a pair of crushed velvet pants and your basic black make-up. Oh!” he dived under the counter again and came up with a black wrapped package with glittery orange Halloween cats on it. “Happy almost Halloween, Aaren.”

I took the package from him and smiled as I opened it to reveal the only AFI album I didn’t have. I screamed and tackled him over the counter, knocking him to the floor in the biggest hug I could give him. Jiffy ran around to see if I was okay, but poor Justin, I accidentially kneed him in the groin.

“I love it!” I screamed. “Thank you!” I gave him another hug and helped him up. He held onto his groin and smiled at me with a nod of the head. He pointed to his watch and out the door, which was the universal sign for “it’s my lunch time, get the hell out you psycho.”

I gave him a more gentler hug around the neck and grabbed the bag of stuff before walking out with Jiffy mumbling something about wishing I would have stopped his ability to reproduce, or something along that line. After dragging me to five more stores and making me wait while she got her nails done, we got back into her car and headed back to my house.

When we got there, Vinny invited one of his friends over to play his video games. I headed upstairs to my room and closed the door. I just tossed the bag to the side and climbed into my bed and started up the AFI CD from Justin and started reading another Atwater-Rhodes book.

By the time I finished the thin reading, I was content with my need for a supernatural story. I looked outside and noted the low sun and then I glanced over at my stereo’s digital clock. It was almost five and almost dinnertime. I turned my head to my door when it opened slowly and my fifteen year old brother walked in and slid into the bed next to me. I rolled my eyes at the little puppy and smiled.

“Hungry, aren’t you?” I asked. My stomach grumbled in time with his and we both laughed. “Is Mom home yet?”

“She called about two hours ago,” he answered, picking up the book I’d just finished. “She’s pulling an all-nighter to be ready for her trial tomorrow morning. She said you’d make dinner.”

“She did, huh? Well, if you let me up I’ll make you some fried chicken and onions. How’s that?”

“Works for me.” Vinny got up and put my book on the bookshelf next to my door as I followed him down the stairs and into the kitchen. While I hit the fridge to get the package of chicken, he went into the dry pantry and brought out two large onions and started peeling and slicing them up for me as I worked on slicing the breasts.

Vinny and I were good team members. We hardly ever fought with each other, like many other siblings do, and we respect each other’s privacy. When he has friends over I leave him alone unless he invites me to come and challenge him to Sonic Racers or something like that. And the same goes for when I have friends. But he usually stays away from Jiff because he just doesn’t like her one bit. When Justin comes over (though he does it about once in a blue moon) Vinny tries to be good and leave us. Vinny always liked Justin and he’d beg to hang with us, and I usually let him.

Dinner was done quickly and we were eating at the small kitchen table. We don’t normally talk when we eat, so nothing was really said or discussed. The odd thing that did happen was that the phone rang. Mom made it clear to everyone that dinner was for eating and not talking so no one called us from the five to six period. We both let the machine pick up the call. When the sutomated message was finished and the machine started recording, Justin’s voice rang through the medium sized kitchen.

“Hey, Aaren, I’m sorry for calling during dinner, I know your mom doesn’t like that, but you or Vinny needs to pick up the phone right now. It’s important… I’m serious guys, pick up-“

I grabbed the phone and motioned for Vinny to keep eating. I swallowed the chicken that was in my mouth and cleared my throat. “What’s up?”

“Turn on the news.” I rolled my eyes and walked into the living room and turned on the news like he said. The anchor woman on was talking about something concerning the stock market.

“No change in stocks,” I said. “What am I looking for?”

“Just wait. It’s coming. Vinny should see this too.” I called Vinny into the room and he came in with his plate and knelt at the coffee table and continued eating. When she finiahed with the stocks, the view changed to her co-anchor and he touched upon something that hadn’t been done in almost ten years.

“About two hours ago, police officials received a call from a Maria Winter down on Fourth and Nubrug street. Upon investigation of an alleged disturbance of the peace, five teenaged bodies were found in the basement of 3467 Nubrug. Identification of the five teenagers were confirmed by their families and it was also confirmed that all five are not residents of Clarden. No drugs were found on the scene but all of them had two puncture marks on their necks and defensive wounds on their arms and faces. Foul play is suspected as well as murder. While Homicide investigates further, they ask all residents of Clarden to lock their doors and windows and not to be out past dark in the event that the murderer is still within the city…”

Vinny turned off the TV after the guy started going into sports news. I sat on the arm of the couch, my eyes still locked on the black screen.

“Damn,” I said. “That’s… unfortunate.”

“You sound like you’re about ready to jump for joy.” His voice was bitter. He took these things seriously.

“In light of the horrible news,” I said, “I am. Jiffy’s parents won’t leave now because of the news and Jiffy won’t be able to throw that party, meaning that I’m free for this year… at least until New Years.”

“Yeah… that is a plus point. Then you can keep the stuff as a congratulations gift.

“You need me to come over?”

I shook my head and realized I was talking to him on the phone. “No, it’s okay. I have my brave little brother to protect me.”

“Like hell you do,” Vinny said. “Who’s gonna protect me?”

I laughed. “We’ll be fine. We still have our bats from Little League. We know how to swing ‘em.”

We finished talking and hung up. As soon as I did, the phone rang again and I answered it. It was Jiffy.

“This doesn’t change a god damned thing,” she said. “My parents are still going, I’m still throwing the party and you’re going to get laid even if I have to rape you. You will lose your virginity before the year is up.”

Not wanting to hear it again from her, I hung up the phone and told Vinny to ignore the phone for the rest of the night.

A/N: Well, there you go! How is it? Should I continue? Anything to say? PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO DROP ME A REVIEW. Even if it's anon, I want to hear what you have to say.