Blood Stains

We ran. We ran as fast as we could... My lungs were on fire, Mackenzie's were probably about to explode. Mother was up ahead of us, already abandoning us. I could hear the screams from a few of the people that came with us on the hunt behind us. "Run Mackenzie! Don't give up!" I shout as we round a corner of a destroyed home. Mother screams out, and dashes behind us. I stop dead in my tracks but Mackenzie doesn't notice and keeps running. She runs right into a dhampire.

"Mackenzie!" I scream as I run towards her. But I already know that I'm took late. The dhampire pins her to the ground and sinks it's ugly teeth into her neck. Her blood swells up and spills out onto the ground. Her screams become quieter, and quieter as her life is drained from her. Bam! The dhampire falls off of her, dead. A bullet, lunged deep into it's skull. I run over to her and fall onto my knees. "No! Don't leave me! You have to stay with me Mack!" I shake her shoulders violently.

"I... I... I love... you..." She chokes out as more blood seeps out of her. Her eyes slowly close. I know she's gone... "No!" I scream as I shake her. "Get up Savan!" My Mother shouts as she is running down the road again. I pick up Mackenzie's lifeless body and run down the road after my Mother. "Keep going girls!" I hear someone shout after us, probably whoever shot the dhampire. I hear the screams start to fade behind us, the farther we get from the ruined town. But I know that they'll follow us. Now that they have our scent, they won't leave us alone. Not until we are motionless, bloody corpses like Mackenzie and the others.

I wake up shaking. The nightmare of Mackenzie's death still fresh in my mind. I sit up and rub my eyes. I'm drenched in sweat. My eyes slowly adjust to the dim lighting in the cave, and I search for Mother. But she is nowhere to be found. "Mother?" I call out as I stand up. "Mom? Where are you?" I say as I start to worry. If a dhampire has found her, she'll be long gone. And that won't be good. My stomach starts to twist with worry. It's not so much that I'm worried about her, or that I'm worried that she's dead. I'm more worried about that the dhampire would have informed the others that it had found humans.

And that would not be good. "Mother! Come here, we need to start moving!" I shout as I jog towards the opening of the cave. "Mom!" I shout again as I walk out into the sunlight. "Where the hell did she go..." I mutter under my breath. I bring my hand up to my forehead, to shield my eyes from the imposing light. I can't see anything out there other than barren land, rocks, and the occasional hawk above. "Shit... She left me. Always knew she would once Mackenzie was gone..." I say as I walk back into the cave and grab my rag of a sweater.

Looks like I'm on my own. I walk out of the cave into the light and search the land one more time before I decide to move on. As I'm walking I think about the stories that my Grandfather used to tell me, back when Mom actually cared about us, and Father was still alive. He told me about a world where vampires were only myths. Where children would dress up like them and other monsters, on one night of the year, and go around to everyone's house and say "Trick Or Treat,". He told me about a place where everyone was equal.

Where people went to a thing called 'School' and worked for their food. I remember asking them if it was like how feeders worked for the vampires by supplying them with blood, and in return they got life. He only had laughed at me. He said that it was nothing like that, he said people did it not to survive, although they wouldn't have a house if they didn't. But that they did it because they wanted to, that they wanted their familys to have a good life. He told me how they had things called 'Partys', and that they were things that you went to to dance, listen to music, play games and have fun with friends.

I remember wishing as a child that my world would someday be like that, but I know now that that will never happen. My hope of a happy life vanished a long time ago. Now it's only about survival. No happiness, no sorrow... Just survival. I walked for what felt like centuries. I guess I never realised how company effects how you feel. Now that I'm all alone... I'm bored. Like really bored. It probably seems silly, considering that I probably have never known what it felt like to be amused, or to be having fun. But, this... This was the ultimate boredom.

As I was walking I kicked a little rock that was by my foot. It went skipping across the dirt, bouncing off of other rocks. It kept going until it ended up in a little puddle. Plunk! I watched it slowly sink to the bottom of the puddle. I just stared at it for awhile until I heard something behind me. What was that... Was it... The sound of shuffling feet? I turned around slowly. The sun was now setting in the distance, and a light fog was now settling all around me. I squinted into the mist, trying to figure out what had made that noise. If it was a dhampire, I was in trouble. If it was an animal, I might've just found myself my dinner. I hope its the later...

I take a small step forward. I heard a sound coming from behind me, so I quickly turned around. The next thing I knew, I was tumbling towards the ground as someone jumped on my back. I let out a samll "Oof" as I hit the ground. "Get off of me!" I grunted. "Savan?" An all to familiar voice asked. "Yes! Now get off of me Thorn!" I shouted. He got off of me quickly, and I stood up and dusted myself off. Thorn has raven black hair, and electric blue eyes. He was shirtless and was wearing ripped jeans. The usual for us wilds.

"Savan! What are you doing sneaking around here, you know you don't need to," He told me as if he was scolding me. "In this world, if you want to survive, all you do is sneak. And I'm sorry, but I didn't recognise where I was," I muttered as I turned to face him.

"Whatever... Where are the others?" He asked as confusion crossed his face. "I... I'm the only one left Thorn..." I said as I looked down at my feet. There were a few minutes of silence, and finally he spoke. "What..." He said as he ran a hand through his hair. "How... How did they die," He asked as he turned and started to walk away. "Where are you going?" I asked, ignoring his question. I didn't really feel like replaying the memory of their deaths, and having the anger, and hurt pop up again at the thought of my Mother abandoning me.

"To the base, obviously. I'm not just going to stand out here in the open," He said as if I was stupid. "Oh... Right," I said as I caught up with him. We were silent for the rest of the walk. Finally the familiar forest started to come into view. This was one of the last on earth. The vampires burnt almost all of them down when they were getting rid of the humans. Many of them hid in trees and bushes and such, so they decided they'd save themselves the work and they just burnt them down. We walked until we were in the heart of it and we stopped in front of a giant bush. Thorn pushed his way into it, and I followed.

There was a little hole in the middle of it. We jumped down it and walked down the small corridor. The little hall opened up into a giant cavern, and inside there were many people. Probably at least eight hundred. There were handmade blankets with little pillows in the corners of the room, and in the center there were a few fire pits, some tables and couches and chairs. There were little toys all over the place, as result of the many little children that ran all over the place. There were a whole bunch of random objects, the leftovers of the homes that people once had. I haven't been here in years. Our hunting group probably left about five years ago. It looked so different... Yet the same.

I still remember the day we left very well. We hugged and kissed and said farewell to everyone. It was heart wrenching, knowing that you probably were never going to see them again. But it wasn't like we chose it, no. The people choose who should go. The reason we were picked was because Father had died, and at the time Mother and Mackenzie were struck with a mysterious illness. The people wanted us gone because they didn't want to catch it and die. Cowards.

I remember hearing stories about hunting groups when I was a child. Some made people very famous among us. They made them known as heroes. Others were complete failures, making the people who went on them either seem brave or weak. I hope people see mine as brave, because they were. A hunting group is sent out about every ten years. They leave and go out into the world looking for more survivors and they kill as many of those dhampires as they can. They're kind of like our warriors I guess. Warriors that don't want to go and fight, but they do anyway.

"Our hunting group has returned!" Announced Thorn from beside me. His intensity caught me by surprise and made me jump. Clapping and cheers erupted from the cave. I felt a little sliver of a smile tug at my lips. Mackenzie would have loved this. All the attention on her. Mackenzie. I felt my heart break all over again... Slowly the cheering calmed down, and I saw the confusion set in. "Where are the others?" I heard a voice shout from somewhere beside me. There was a lot of "Yeah"'s and "Are they dead" and I could already hear a few people crying, as the realisation of where they were set in. I gave a side glance at Thorn, who was now looking at the ground.

I slowly walked to the center of the cave. "They... They passed away, fighting for a good cause," I bellowed, but in a cave this size it was barely audible. I looked around me, recognising a few faces, but most were newcomers, or have changed so much I can't tell who is who. "Some were picked off at different times, from random dhampire attacks... But yesterday, we were attacked by a pack of those monsters," I feel my eyes start to tear at the thought of those who were lost.

"Everyone was killed... Except for me and my Mother," A woman with greying hair, and three little boys attached to her hip spoke up. "Damara? Where is she now? Is she still outside?" A few heads turned towards the entrance, as if expecting my Mother to magically appear. "No... No she... Left me, I woke up this morning, and she had left sometime in the night. I searched the area near the cave we stayed in for any sign of her. I found nothing... I know she was not killed by a dhampire, they always leave a mess," I informed everyone. I felt a pang in my chest. I never had been close to my mother, and I expected her to leave us, but it still surprised me how she could just leave like that.

"She.. Left you," The lady asked. She seemed familiar, but I couldn't place a name. Suddenly the lady was pushing the boys off of her and she came staggering towards me. The closer she got the more I could see how aged she looked. She had wrinkles under her eyes, and near her mouth. Her forehead was very defined. She looked like she once was a very happy lady, now woren down by her children. She wrapped her arms around my neck and brought me gently towards her. I bristled under her touch. I haven't been hugged by anyone other than Mackenzie in years... Not since our Father died.

"You poor thing! Damara must have been out of her mind to leave you like that!" She cooed in my ear. My arms were awkwardly at my side, but slowly I found myself wrapping them around her. She let me go after a few minutes and she gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze before she walked back toward her sons.

Before I knew it, everyone was coming up and hugging me, and saying how sorry they were, and how they would help in any way they could. With every hug, I was being filled with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Human socialization... It was foreign to me. I laughed, I cried, I smiled, I frowned, it was... Amazing. It surprised me how much this was all that I wanted. Just to be wanted, to know that people cared about me.

The last person to come to me was Thorn. He stuck out his hand awkwardly. "Um, good job... Or something," He muttered. A small smile was on my face. "Thank you, or something," I said as I shook his hand. Thorn and I were childhood friends, I've known him since day one. We used to do everything together. But that changed in the blink of an eye. As did everything else in my life. Our chieftain Jark, raised my hand. "Our hunting group!" And cheers and clapping began again. I could hear whistles and people shouting. I think my hunting group are known as heroes... A smile was plastered on my face. I clapped along with everyone.

Okay, so I'm home, I survived... Now what?