Sun Burst

Law 10
No vampire shall harm a human. If a vampire harms a human, immediate action shall be taken to subdue and exterminate the vampire.

Law 11
No vampire shall drink the blood of an unwilling human. If a vampire forcibly takes blood from a human, immediate action shall be taken to subdue and exterminate the vampire.

Law 12
No vampire shall have physical, sexual or emotional relationships with a human. If a vampire does so, immediate action shall be taken to subdue and exterminate the vampire.

Law 13
No vampire shall change a human. If a vampire creates another of its kind, immediate action shall be taken to subdue and exterminate the vampire and its progeny.

-From the Vampire Code of Existence

The Vampire Code of Existence is made up of nearly 200 laws that tell a vampire what he or she can and can not do. It has been in effect since it was signed into law in the early years of known common vampire and human interaction. The Code is undisputed, unchallenged, and all powerful when it comes to vampires. The undead live by the Code, and if they choose not to, the consequence is destruction.

Every year, a representative from the Human and Vampire Interactions Office travels to the high schools around the country to make sure that the hormone driven youths (also known as teenagers) understand the laws. They try to convince the teens that vampires are beings not completely different from humans, but that they must be kept under control. No one ever questions what these representatives say. Most of the students were raised in anti-vampire homes, where they learned at a young age to hate the bloodsucking menace.

I can still remember my parents telling me about vampires, about how the demons rose up in the night and about how they could easily kill any human. The silent subject of the teenage world was no longer sex, but vampires. It's easy to understand why parents and governments would start teaching people young: vampires were a growing menace, one that was stronger than any human and the worlds best predator.

Being a good girl, I never questioned what anyone told me. It wasn't my place. My place was in school or in the middle of a good book. I made straight As, had the second best GPA in my school, and made the highest test scores in the school district. My dad was proud of me, he boasted about me to anyone who would listen and because he knew that I was never bad, he gave me my "freedom."

I can't say that I was unhappy with the way things were. In fact, the old me was content to live out her days as the perfect daughter whose only excuse for anonymity was the fact that she was scarred of anything and everything. But believe it or not, being perfect isn't all it's cracked up to be. At some point in my life, I came to this realization. Most people say it was the point when I finally cracked, but I can say for a fact, that my sanity is as well as it has ever been.

The story of my life, my real life, begins with a simple day: my friend's birthday. She was turning eighteen and for the millionth time in her life, she had a crazy birthday idea and decided to drag me along with her. Lizabeth wasn't a bad girl, she was just a tad strange and misunderstood. We met on the first day of school, Lizabeth was the only one who didn't cry when her mother left, while I had been a blubbering mess. She gave me a chocolate chip cookie, partially out of kindness and partially to try to shut me up. Our crazy friendship was sealed from there.

It was in Modern History that she approached me about her plans. Our teacher, Mrs. Luca, had put on a movie about psychology (for whatever reason, I shall never know) and promptly gone to her desk for a nap. Don't think too badly of her, she was older than any other teacher in the school system (82) and teaching high school seniors all day would tire anybody out. Lizabeth had taken the opportunity to come sit by me and talk, as did all 10 of the other students.

At the time, Lizabeth had decided that short purple hair would look good with her tawny skin tone. In a way, it did. She was confident with whatever she did, giving her an edge that always made her seem beautiful. When she took the desk to my right, I had been deeply enthralled by a horror story that had been recommended to me by my Interface Screen. I was getting to the part where the killer was about to dramatically reveal himself when Lizabeth laid a pointy nailed hand on my shoulder, thoroughly scarring me and bringing me out of my book.

Lizabeth had natural brown eyes, but she liked to get them enhanced, which meant pigment treatments and slow fade designs. She had gotten her irises tinged with the same shade of purple as her hair. Her eyes had been trained on me with an intensity that could only mean she was planning something devious. "Can you keep a secret?" She whispered in a strange, almost seductive voice.

I eyed her carefully, afraid of what was going to happen to me. Gulping I said "Of course. Who would I tell? My mom's orchids?"

Lizabeth snorted. She knew that my social life was not the most intriguing. At that point, she looked around at the room of bored students as if trying to find a spy and then she leaned in closer to me. "My birthday is next week."

I relaxed then, which was a mistake. I had thought that Lizabeth was just being silly, but I was wrong. "Some secret." I said to her. I was about to pick my screen up again, but Lizabeth had calmly smacked my hand.

"Shut up. I mean, my birthday is next week and I'm planning something extra special." The way she said 'extra special' had sent my skin crawling. Extra special always meant extremely crazy and/or dangerous in Lizabeth's vocabulary.

I glared at her. She had been known for doing all kinds of bad (crazy) things and trying to get me involved. "I don't want anything to do with it." I whispered to her. Lizabeth had then gone to pouting, which was extremely cute and always made me give in to her. I sighed. "What did you have in mind this time?"

Her face instantly perked up. I internally groaned. "I want to go to a club. At night." She whispered the last part.

At the time, Night Clubs were dangerous places for anyone who was human. There were Day Clubs for people who didn't want to get involved with vampires, but those were usually boring internet cafes. Anyone daring enough, or stupid enough, would challenge themselves and their friends to a night of partying with the undead. Since the legal drinking age had been lowered to 18 years and years ago, it seemed alright to go out for a drink. Most people came back fine, some came back with hangovers, and a few came back with new 'tattoos' on their necks.

I starred at Lizabeth blankly. "You want to go to a Night Club? At night? In the dark? With blood suckers? At night?" My questions were sane enough. Almost every human student had been imbedded with a deep fear of the shadows from a young age, not excluding myself.

"Well, that's kind of the point." She grinned. The grin had made me sick to my stomach.

Gulping, I asked "And you want me to go with you?" My voice had up several octaves. Fear always made me squeak.

"Well, duh. Why not? You're already 18, I'll be turning 18. It'll be great." She said cheerfully. Lizabeth had always been happy to be insane.

"It will most certainly not be great." I said. "You want us to go clubbing with vamps. At night. My parents would kill me, if I didn't die partying." Of course, dying in a club was usually due to drug overdose or alcohol poisoning, at the time, there had been no known human murders caused by vampires,

"Oh yes it will. Nothing will happen to us sweetie. You get so paranoid. And I already have it planned out. You, me and Travis will be having a fake sleep over. My mom'll be gone, so we can get all dressed up and we'll take Travis' car. Easy." She smiled, satisfied with her obviously flawed plan.

I had been afraid. Well, terrified really. My life had been one of comfort and protection. In my early teenage years, doing daring things like Lizabeth would have been appealing, but I had grown up. I had begun to fear the outside world. Turning 18 hadn't changed that fact, it had only strengthened my paranoia. But somehow, something in the very back of my mind was telling me to do it. It was telling me to take a chance. I don't know why I listened.

Turning to Lizabeth, I looked at her with an expression that teetered between fierce and afraid. "Alright, I'm game. But if we're going to do this, you're buying the first round." I said.

Lizabeth had nearly jumped out of her seat. Her squeal of joy was loud enough to wake old Mrs. Luca and stop all the other conversations in their tracks. People looked at Lizabeth like she had lost her head and a few glances came my making me blush and hid my face. Lizabeth had no problem though, she was to busy celebrating her victory over my weak will.



The day before Lizabeth's birthday, I had gone over to her house and stayed the night. The next morning, I woke up in the guest bedroom of her house with Travis curled up next to me, wearing his bright red pajamas. Travis had wanted to sleep on a bed and the only options had been on the queen size guest bed with me or the twin bed with Lizabeth. Travis had ultimately chosen me as his bed mate.

The thing was, Travis was gay, so he was one of the only guys I was comfortable being around. It wasn't easy for him, being homosexual. His parents had disowned him when they found out. Students at school often made fun of him because of his preference. The fact that he was one of the strongest, handsomest, and most muscular student in school only added to the fire. Lizabeth and I had befriended him in our freshman year, and he had been one of the most loyal friends I had ever known.

When I got up it was around noon, I found Lizabeth in the kitchen making a cake. Somehow, we ended up having a food fight, which spread flower and cake batter everywhere. When Travis got up, the first thing he saw was the two of us standing over him with a whisk. Anyone else would have been freaked out, but Travis only smirked and took the whisk. After he commanded us to take showers, he went in and rescued the mess of a home-made cake. By the time we had showered, the cake was ready. It was 2 tiered, with purple and teal icing and covered in roses. I still don't know how Travis managed to get all that done in thirty minutes.

After gorging ourselves on cake, Lizabeth declared that it was time to get ready. At that point, my stomach dropped down to my feet. The fear and anxiety of what we were doing crashed down on me in one heavy torrent. As much as I loved Lizabeth, my mind was telling me for the millionth time that something would go horribly wrong if I went. But that little part, that mischievous part, came back, and it whispered little words in the back of my mind. I should have ignored the whispers.