Chapter 1: Sushi

From on top of the library, the city looked peaceful. Night cast a black haze over the buildings. Car sounds drifted up from the streets and echoed through the steel and glass corridors. The stars were all but invisible to the naked eye, and lights from the streets cast an eerie glow over the city. Up here, the wind was powerful, trying to pull me off the ledge. I held firm against the current of air that blew my hair and clothes wildly. I knew that somewhere below, my former family, creatures of the night, prowled restlessly, searching for me and others like me. And to think it all started with sushi.

A few months earlier.

One night, we were at Sushi Town, a popular hangout for some of my friends. I was sitting with my friends Bryce and Alec. They were pressuring me to try sushi, which I was deathly afraid of doing.

“Come on, just a bite! It’s really not that bad. Tastes like chicken. Kinda,” Bryce pleaded, gesturing to the California roll in front of us.

I grimaced and shook my head in disgust. “I’m not going to eat raw fish. It’s disgusting.” Alec picked up a piece of sushi with his chopsticks and stuck it in his mouth.

“It’s really yummy!” Alec said, chewing with his mouth open. I shook my head at his bad manners and scratched my neck. I had some weird rash or bug bite and it was driving me insane. Bryce picked up another piece of sushi and waved it in my face.

“Just one piece!” he begged. I pushed away the sushi-laden chopsticks and shook my head.

“Never. It’s really gross and I don’t like raw-“ I was cut short when Bryce shoved the sushi in my open mouth, which he covered with his hand. I closed my mouth and almost gagged. The sushi was nasty! Cooked fish grossed me out, and raw fish was even worse.

“Chew. I’m not moving my hand until you chew and swallow that,” Bryce commanded. I did as I was told and chewed the best I could. It took me several tries to swallow because my throat was bent on rejecting the raw fish, but I finally got it down. Bryce removed his hand. “See! It’s great!”

“Blech! It was disgusting and I’m never letting you do that again.” Taking a gulp of my iced green tea, I continued, “Never again. I think I’m going to turn vegetarian now, all thanks to you.”

“Come on, it wasn’t that bad,” chimed in Alec. “Try another. It could be better!”

“Oh no! I’m leaving before you force me to eat one of those octopi!” I said, pointing to a live octopus that someone was trying to swallow whole. Before they could protest, I had gotten up and left. The wind was blowing pretty strongly, so I put up my bright red hair up in a ponytail. Bryce and Alec followed me out, afraid of me leaving them completely. They sidled up to me, already a few shops away from the Sushi Town.

“Don’t leave! We’re your fri-“ Bryce stopped short. I stared at him, urging him to finish his sentence. “What happened to your neck?”

I shrugged. “Bug bite or something. No big deal.” He shook his head vigorously.

“It is a big deal. It’s a very big deal.” I rolled my eyes and scratched the bite. It itched horribly. “It itches? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?!” he roared.

“Chill. It’s no big deal,” I repeated. He started pacing furiously, muttering to himself.

“No big deal, she says. No big deal? Is she kidding? Is it a joke? Oh my God, she better be kidding!” To me, he said, “That’s fake, right? You got it at a costume store? Please please please say yes!” His eyes were wild and he was pulling at his tufty chestnut hair. I shook my head.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just woke up with it this morning.”

“Come on, man. Chill. It’s just a spider bite,” Alec assured him.

“Alec, could you leave?” Bryce asked.

I glared at him. “That was rude.”

“I don’t care if it was rude or not! He really needs to leave,” Bryce muttered.

Alec shrugged. “It’s okay, I’ll leave. He’s obviously having some sort of mental breakdown or something,” He said, and turned around heading for his car.

I groaned. “That was smooth, Bryce. He’s the one who drove us here, you idiot!”

“Can’t you see? That doesn’t matter now! That’s not just a bug bite, Lilith!” he hissed fiercely.

“If it’s not a bug bite, what else could it be?” I hissed back with the same animosity.

“Have you seen it in a mirror?” I nodded. “Did you notice the spacing? It’s two bites and they’re too far apart to be any sort of spider, and they’re not mosquito bites. I’ve seen this before, okay? It’s not a bug. Think bigger.”

“A dog, maybe? But why would a dog bite my neck and only leave two holes? They have a lot more teeth.”

“Now you’re thinking,” he said. “If it’s not a dog, what else is big enough?” I shrugged.

“I have no idea! Why are you saying this?”

“Because you need to believe me. Umm… have you ever read Twilight?”

“That vampire book? What about-“ I suddenly realized what he was saying, and laughed. “That’s hilarious! Okay, you really need to stop reading girl books. It’s messed with your mind.”

“Lilith, I’m serious! This isn’t something to laugh about!”

“Why do you believe in that junk? It’s lame.”

“There’s a difference between believing and knowing.”

“Knowing? What, do you expect me to believe you know a vampire?”

“I do know a vampire. Would you believe me if I told you I was one?”

“Of course I don’t believe you! You’re insane! You can’t be a vampire! They don’t exist.”

“I beg to differ,” he said, and grinned, showing some very long canines.

“They’re fake!”

“You wouldn’t believe in a vampire even if it bit you! Oh, wait! ALREADY BEEN DONE!” He had a funny lisp with the teeth, but I tried not to laugh.

“So, hypothetically, if you were a vampire, how old are you?”

“Aren’t you more worried about who bit you?” I shook my head. “Whatever. I’m only twenty-one. But since I’ve been a vampire for three years, in vampire years I’m only three.”

“Vampire years? That sounds nerdy. But, I guess no one would make fun of the undead.” A strange thought struck me. “Wait. So I was bitten. Will I become a vampire?”

“It itches?” I nodded vigorously. “Yes.” I gaped. Vampirism probably wasn’t such a good thing.

“What about school? And the sun? And…blood?”

“The sun isn’t actually a problem, for the most part. I just wear sunscreen all the time. You can go to school, still. I do. Blood? Well, that’s the bad part. We need blood every night.”

“But you’re sure that I’m a vampire? Like, there’s no possible chance that I’m not?”

“Nope. You could be human. But, it’s likely that you’re a vampire. We could test it, though.”

“How?”

“Like this.” He took out a small pocketknife. “Now, human blood would work best, but this’ll do.” He cut a large gash in his hand before I could object. I stared at the crimson blood oozing out of the wound, expecting some sort of reaction. “Anything?”

“Nope. Nothing.”

He sighed happily. “Really? I was sure. Well, that’s good, then. Really good.”

“Yeah. It is.” There was a really awkward silence. “Well, I should be getting home.”

“Yeah. I guess I’ll walk you.”

We set off for my house, which was about twenty minutes away. It felt like much longer. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I kept thinking the shadows were following us, or something. Bryce was pretty edgy, but, then again, he had just told me he was a vampire. I still wasn’t sure whether or not I believed him. The whole vampirism thing is cool in books and movies, but in real life, it makes you question your sanity and the sanity of others.

“Well, here we are,” he said when we reached my house. It was a little white-shingled thing. It was actually much bigger on the inside. Cozy, though.

“Yeah. See you tomorrow.” I hugged him goodbye and he headed off down the street. I unlocked the door and walked inside. My foster parents were probably asleep. They woke up at four every morning, so they went to bed pretty early. It was only nine o’clock.

In my room, I crashed on my bed. I wanted to go to sleep, but I wasn’t actually tired, so I paced in my room. I was restless. My head was spinning in crazy circles and I couldn’t make it stop. My veins were buzzing with energy or some kind of adrenaline.

Tired of being confined, I went outside. The night was cool, but the wind had died down. There was something in the air that night, something that begged me to do something. Giving up, I just started running. Running past houses with their TV’s on and visible though the windows and silent cars sitting idly in the street and in driveways. My shoes should have been making more noise on the pavement, but I think the night silenced my footsteps. I was running fairly fast, but with all my energy I could barely even tell it was my own legs propelling me down the sidewalk. I just moved and felt the night on my skin.

Pretty soon I was out of my neighborhood, on unfamiliar streets. I probably should have turned around, but something was stopping me. Maybe it was temporary insanity, but I kept running. Just running past houses until the houses stopped and I was running past storage centers and shipping centers and empty lots. I knew it wasn’t exactly the best part of town, but I really didn’t care. There was something hypnotic in the steady rhythm of running. I should have been worried about how I would be getting home, but it slipped my mind, which was in a very strange state. I was pretty out of it, but I was picking up all sorts of details. That’s how I noticed that I was being followed. The car had its headlights off and was pretty quiet, but I could still hear the steady hum of the engine about twenty yards behind me. Without really thinking I stopped and walked into the middle of the street. The car pulled up and four men got out. I really wasn’t sure what they thought they were doing when two of them grabbed my arms, but definitely wasn’t very friendly. The two clutching my arms tried to drag me to the car, but I stomped hard on the arch of the one on the right’s foot. It made a cracking sound and he let go to clutch his foot. The other one grabbed my other arm and pushed me from behind towards the car. I slammed the back of my head into his nose, breaking it easily. The other two came at me in a flash. I kicked one in the stomach hard, throwing him on his back, gasping for breath. The other one swung a punch to the right side of my face, but I caught his fist.

“Didn’t anyone ever teach you not hit girls?” I sneered, bringing my fist down hard on his collarbone. He screamed in pain as I hit him in the face with my forehead. He collapsed, unconscious. I heard a click about ten feet behind me and spun around. One of them was pointing a gun at me. Blood flowing freely from his nose glinted in the moonlight. He laughed wetly and time slowed as he pulled the trigger. I dropped to the ground as fast as possible, the bullet whizzing over my head. In surprise, he paused for a minute. In that time, I somersaulted through the space between us and came up, catching him in the stomach with my shoulder. He fell over backwards, taking me with him. I rolled away and looked around. The one who had been lying on the ground after I kicked him was getting up, pulling a gun from his belt. The one with a broken foot seemed to have the same idea, and was holding a gun on me. I stood up slowly.

“Don’t move, just get in the car,” said the one with the broken foot.

“I can’t get in the car without moving,” I pointed out.

“Oh shut up!” yelled the other one, now also holding a gun on me. The guy next to me was slowly making his way to his feet, gasping for air like a fish out of water. His gun was three feet to my left, on the other side of him. He grabbed it quickly.

“Okay, I’ll get into the car,” I said, holding up my hands. I walked slowly behind the head of the one getting up, who was on all fours with his back to the other two. In a speed I hadn’t thought I was capable of, I stepped hard on his forearm, snapping it like a twig. He howled and got to his knees, creating a shield for me. I grabbed the gun he had dropped and fired twice in the general direction of my attackers, then ducked behind the guy in front of me. Their screams pierced the night air, and their guns clattered to the ground. I stood up. One of them was on the ground, clutching his thigh. With any luck I had shattered his femur. The other one I had hit in the shoulder. There was a lot of blood, visible only as shiny black splotches. I could feel drying blood on my forehead, in my hair, and some random splotches from when I tackled the one with the broken nose. All four men were on the ground, occupied by the various amounts of pain they were in. Without hesitating, I ran back home as fast as possible, not even slowing to see if I was being followed.

The first thing I did when I got home was step into the shower. I let the hot water rinse away the blood, turning the water pink. I cleaned up the best I could, rubbing as much of the blood out of my hair as possible. It wasn’t until I had gone to bed that I realized that I had just beat up four fully-grown men with guns. It was empowering and a little unnerving. And it had to be a dream of some sort. It just couldn’t happen.