Eric's POV

'Candy canes are much more menacing than they may seem' was what I was thinking as I was being stabbed to death.

It's also what I'm thinking as I walk down the isle of a store, grimacing at each box of those peppermint-death-sticks.

You're probably wondering who the hell I am, and why I'm so pissed off at candy canes when I'm DEAD. I might as well start at the beginning.

*******

It was a normal Thursday morning in October, right before Halloween, and I was working at SaveALot, a crappy supermarket that only about five people knew about. I was working at the checkout isle, or rather, I was sitting behind the counter flipping through a tabloid. I wonder if people know that I don't care if these two stars had a hot affair and used a vacuum cleaner for all their sexual experiences...?

"Excuse me."

I looked up to see a young woman around my age with dark purple hair that went down to her chin, and startling crimson eyes. She smiled at me. She was wearing a black leather jacket, a tank-top, skirt and combat boots. Black sunglasses were resting on the top of her head. I wonder if those are contacts she's wearing... must be.

"Oh, uh, sorry 'bout that. We don't get alot of customers," I frowned, checking out her items on the little scanner machine.

She chuckled. "It's alright."

"May I see your license please?"

She took the card out of one of her many pockets and handed it to me. Apparently her name was Demetria O'Siri, she was originally a brunette, and that she was twenty-two.

"Thanks. Sorry again, everyone gets carted," I said apologetically, wrapping her champagne in a paper bag and handing it to her.

Demetria O'Siri looked amused, like she was enjoying a private joke with herself. "It's quite alright." She took her champagne and lindor truffles, and exited the store, humming.

I blinked as the door swung shut, then shook my head as my manager came up to scream at me for not doing something.

*

One Hour Later

I was unpacking boxes of sugar free chewing gum and idly whistling 'Kill Me Please', (which is cruel irony at its best. Or worst, in this case). I could hear two people whispering together in the next aisle. I immediately assumed it was Peggy and Ralph, the two managers who were having a 'secret' affair.

I paused, blinking in surprise when I heard two male voices, both of which were low and gruff, instead of Peggy's usual bubbly, excruciatingly cheerful shriek.

"Number 263, customer M.D.? No, sorry buddy, you aren't on my list," the first one said, and I heard the tapping of a pencil against paper.

"Listen 'buddy', I just got ten goddamn bags of 'number 263'-" the man mimicked the first in a high voice, "- last week, and I gotta get more, now."

"I'm sorry sir, but you aren't-" There was an audible click, and the first man broke off abrubtly.

"Give me the fucking bags, NOW!" Guy No. 2 yelled.

"Shut the hell up, do you want to be found?!" whispered Guy No. 1 furiously. There was a scrabbling sound, and the crinkling of plastic.

I crept closer to the shelf where the men were arguing, and peered through a long crack in it.

There was a scruffy-looking man who was holding a notebook and scrabbling around in his jacket, and producing several small bags; I guessed he was G1. In front of him was a large guy (G2) with blue eyes and a gun pressed to G1's head. Oh. Great. Now what did I do? Only the stupidest thing imaginable.

Yes, the idiot that I am, I walked into the next aisle to confront them. Needless to say, it didn't turn out well, walking into the middle of a drug deal with nothing to protect me.

When I walked into the aisle with them, the guy in the tan jacket (G1), who was facing towards me, had that 'oh shit I've just been caught' look on his face, while G2 turned on me and yelled, shooting me in the right shoulder. I don't actually know if he meant to, but I think I must have blacked out, because I remember waking up in a puddle of blood, tied up with packing tape, with the sound of cars rumbling past, as if I was on the highway...

Blackness again, then waking up, still taped, the pain in my shoulder really the only thing I registered other than that I was in somebody's apartment, with cracked, ugly walls. There were voices, urgent, one person asking somebody else what to do, and something about 'untracable', a gunshot...

Inky blackness once more, I only woke up when there was a sharp pain in my stomach. I realized it was because someone was stabbing me. With a candy cane. A SHARP candy cane.

Candy canes are much more menacing than they may seem.

*******

And then... I was dead I guess. I woke up again in a dumpster in some ally. I was faster, stronger, and a hell of a lot sparklier. Yeah. Sparkly. I briefly considered whether someone had dumped me in a tub of glitter, but my thoughts were interrupted by one of my toes catching fire. I was less upset by the fact that my toe managed to spontaneously combust, than that I was dressed in only my white shirt, which was now brown with dry blood, and boxers. Yeah, I'm prim. Or proper. Ish.

I also realized that I no longer had any wounds. I sat up and leaned forward, licking my fingers and putting my toe out. It didn't particularly hurt, it felt like a bug bite more than anything.

Then the sun went behind a cloud, and my skin was normal again, which was a relief. I climbed out of the dumpster, brushing trash off of myself and landing in the soft, sticky snow. It was an odd experience, because, rather than the snow actually feeling like snow, it wasn't cold, and didn't melt at my touch. Hmm. More like sand. It was weird.

Suddenly a young woman was sitting on the dumpster next to me, or, perched, more like it.

"AGH!" I leapt back. Unfortunately, due to my new strength, I jumped back about eight feet into the back of the ally wall, bits of brick rained down on me, as I sat down hard. It should have hurt, but it felt more like leaves tumbling down on me. I was kinda liking this super strong thing... I looked back up at the dumpster. It took me a couple seconds to realize that it was the woman from earlier, the purple-haired one. What was her name again...?

The young woman snorted, though it was laced with amusement. "I must admit, in all my years, I have never seen an ungraceful vampire before."

I shook the rubble off of my short black hair and stood up. "A vampire?" I frowned. "I guess that would explain the spontainious combustion in the sunlight."

"And the sparkling," she grinned, then threw me a pair of pants. I snatched them and quickly put them on, remembering my lack of clothing.

"Um...thanks. Where'd you get them?" I asked apprehensively.

She shrugged, hair bouncing. "From the guy up in that apartment," she pointed up the building above us.

I blanched. "Wait, you stole these?!"

She raised a delicate eyebrow, voice dry. "He didn't need them anymore."

I suddenly remembered. VAMPIRE. "Y-you...did you kill him?" I asked, appalled.

The young woman laughed. "Mm hmm," she smiled sweetly. "He tasted lovely."

"But...but...that's not right!" I took a step back quickly, the snow crunching beneath my white feet.

She stood up, hopping down from the dumpster in front of me, black combat boots thudding to the ground, fishnets stark against her white skin. "So, are you grasping the whole concept of 'vampire'? You know, drinking blood and all of that? I mean, do you feel sorry when you eat chicken?"

I took another step back, sliding in the snow, looking revolted."I'm a vegetarian, I don't eat meat."

She groaned, rubbing her temples. "Yeah. This is gonna be fun," she muttered sarcastically.

And that's how I met Demetria O'Siri. Or, well, re-met her.

But, instead of sticking around, I shot past her and ran through the street all in less than a second. I heard her mutter again and leap away. I raced up the side of a random building, not really knowing or caring where I was going. It was incredibly confusing. I took refuge in a abandoned apartment, and stayed there for three days, not eating anything, mostly because of the thought of eating somebody.

*

Again, needless to say, I had to come out sometime. I did. On the fourth day, I ventured into the rest of the apartment building, quickly taking stock of who lived there. I picked a building where I had heard a man beating up his wife, and his wife running away from. I figured it wouldn't be so bad, if it was a cruel person.

I stalled for as long as I could, until my hunger (or thirst, whatever) for blood was too much. I waited until everybody was asleep, then snuck quietly into the abuser-husband-guy's apartment. To my shock, instead of finding his asleep, and, well, ALIVE, I found his body in the kitchen, half of it seemed very pale and sunken looking, the other half seemed fine. Then I heard something coming from the living room, and I crept quietly over to the doorway, and peeked in.

Sitting in a rocking chair was Demetria, playing the ukulele and sipping dark stuff out of a champagne bottle. The dark stuff, of course, was blood. She smiled at me and asked if I wanted to sit down. I did, and she offered me a glass. I accepted, and hungrily gulped it down. She told me she lives with two other vampires, and said that she would teach me HOW to survive. I agreed.

Demetria has become my friend and vampire mentor, and the other two vampires, well, let's just say they're interesting.

So here I am. Living with three female vampires and learning the trade of Vampirism. Not a bad deal.

**********************

A/N: YAY! I've got the first chappie up, and I'm writing the second one right now. I will indeed tell you more about the characters in the next chappie. Soooo, what did you think? PLEASE REVIEW!!!

-Sophia