Dust and Shades of Grey

Rhianne's Point of View

The window of the bus got more and more foggy as the temperature dropped. There was now a full on blizzard outside and as I sat on the bus out of town, I watched little water droplets condense on the glass and drop like tears. On the other side of the glass slushy grey snowflakes were sliding down the window to form a soggy frozen mush in the corner of the frame.

I had no idea where I was going, I was just going to stay on this bus until the driver threw me off, which wouldn't be soon. The bus was moving at a painfully slow pace to avoid losing control in the extreme weather. All along the side of the road cars were lying abandoned.

I wondered about wiL and whether he was coping in the freezing weather. Actually, I wondered whether he could feel cold at all. I suppose I'd ask him when I met up with him in a fortnight. I was trying to keep my thoughts as optimistic as possible, I didn't want to burst into tears on a public bus, that would just draw attention to myself that would no doubt get back to Deryk.

I watched as a car tried to overtake my bus, lost control and veered off to the side of the road to join the countless other abandoned cars. The owner of the car got out and started shouting at the bus, but I couldn't hear what he was saying. I smiled slightly. Serves him right. He moved out of the way as a snow plough inched towards him. We could do with one of those on this side of the road...
An old woman tutted somewhere to my right. I looked and saw she was staring out of my window.
'That's not going to do much good in this weather,' she said. I looked at the newly ploughed road and saw that a thick slushy blanket was already covering it again. She seemed to be waiting for a response - she must be bored - so I nodded. I didn't really feel like talking much.

WiL's Point of View

Seattle was home to some scum, I thought as I stared down at an unconscious drunk sprawled out on the floor. I kicked him to make sure he was alive and he grunted and rolled onto his back. Pathetic. But then I laughed as I reminded myself I used to be like that, the scum of the city.
The drunk opened his out-of-focus eyes and looked somewhere in my direction.
"D'ou jusht kick me?" He said in his low, stupid voice.
I answered politely, "yeah, you wanna get up from there - you'll freeze to death."
He got up clumsily and walked away. No thanks or anything, not even a nod. I stared after him for a while, then carried on with my journey. I had walked no more than three steps when I heard a crash. The drunk must have fallen over again. Then I heard a man scream, then more shouting. What the Hell was going on? I tried to resist the urge to find out, but I couldn't - even superior beings like myself succumbed to curiosity.

Before I'd even rounded the corner I could smell it; blood. I wasn't shocked at the sight that welcomed me; the drunk man I had being speaking to moments earlier was lying in an odd position on the floor, crimson staining the neck of his dirty grey sweater. Standing over him was a blonde boy about the same height as me.
"Hey wiL," he said cheerfully.
"Hi Al," I replied, "they got you too, huh?" I pointed to my neck.
"Oh yeah," Alasdair said offhandedly, "to be honest I've never felt better. The hunger pains are a bit of a nightmare though," he laughed childishly, "want to share?" He nudged the corpse with his foot.
"No thanks." I gave the body a disgusted look that Alasdair didn't see.
"I don't know how you can not," he went on, he always did like the sound of his own voice, "as soon as I smell blood I go crazy!"
"I still feel sick at the thought of drinking blood," I admitted. Alasdair stared as if I'd just spontaneously kicked him in the face.
"Have you actually eaten at all since...you know?"
I shook my head and he stared again, dumbstruck. His attention wasn't on me for long, his eyes were drawn to a brown four legged animal padding towards us. Nana. Well, at least she would help me find Deryk, or Deryk find me.

"Hey Nana," Al said casually. It was my turn to stare.
"How do you know Nana?" My voice was now a little shaky. Was Deryk recruiting people?
"She belongs to some guy. She's meant to be helping us find some ginger girl. Apparently she's pissed a lot of people off. She's not meant to know about us vampires, but she does and could be a threat." Al's lazy voice annoyed me. How could he talk about Rhianne like that?
"Nana does not belong to Deryk," I hissed, trembling slightly with anger. "She belongs to that 'ginger girl'. And do you know who that is. Alasdair? It's Rhianne. She's not a threat, they're killing her because of me!" My rage seemed to have confused Al. He took a few long minutes to reply, probably for fear that I would lose control.

After what seemed like forever, he spoke. I was half expecting him to laugh, or kill me.
"Rhianne MacMillan, from school?"
I nodded.
"But, I don't get it. Why -"
"Remember, Rhianne and I were best friends, but I wanted it to be more than that..?" I was becoming impatient.
Realisation slowly trickled down Alasdair's face. "But what have you done to upset Deryk?"
"A lot of things," I sighed and leant against a wall, scratching Nana's head as I did, "but in the beginning I didn't agree with what he was doing - taking low lives off the streets and turning them into...well, monsters. He promised them a better life, he promised me a better life, but he was lying. I confronted him and I...well, I could have gone about it in a less violent way. And then I found out he'd got Rhianne's parents and I heard what they were saying about her, their own daughter! I couldn't stand it, I had to get back. So here I am, on the run." I finished with a final shrug and looked at Al for an answer. He seemed to be struggling with something in his mind. I couldn't understand why, I'd explained it as simply as I could, and there wasn't a lot to understand - Deryk hated my guts and wanted Rhianne and I dead.

After another long silence, Al opened his mouth, then closed it again. Nana seemed to sense something that I didn't as she whimpered loudly. Finally Alasdair spoke. "If..." he began, looking nervous, "if I help you, will Deryk do the same to me?" I knew where this was going.
"If I die, yes."
"Then I have no choice, do I?" Alasdair's aggressive voice made an appearance. I shook my head and showed him that I wasn't going to fight. He beckoned both me and the dog and we walked, all the time with Nana right by my side. Her rescue dog instincts must be kicking in.
"Oh, and Al?" I said, jogging to his side. Nana followed like a shadow.
"Hm?"
"If I die, burn my stuff? It's just, I've been sleeping in an abandoned garage near Rhianne's and I don't want the owner coming back and finding everything. Plus, you don't want the cops to hear about Deryk's little organisation."
"Yeah, 'course I will. WiL?"
"Hm?"
"Can I have your music collection?" A childish smile appeared on the blonde boy's face.
I laughed, glad that my last moments with my friend weren't awkward. "Sure."