Bitten

Chapter 1:

My body was beginning to wear down. I knew that all I could do was continue to run and hope for the best. The person chasing me was giving me no mercy and seemed to show up every place I went. Every turn I took, he was there, staring down at me with that wicked smirk set upon his face.

I slid to a halt in front of an apartment complex. I looked around, trying to see any movement in the night.

The wind blew lightly, rustling some leaves. I clenched my eyes shut and put my hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath. My lungs were burning and my body was starting to become heavier and heavier.

I opened my eyes slightly and took another deep breath before straightening my back out. He wasn’t around here; from what I could see. I wasn’t naive enough to believe that he wasn’t watching me. But I couldn’t see him. And that brought me some comfort.

“Kaori…you’re making this easier on us.”

He kept saying us…I didn’t completely understand it. He could be schizophrenic, for all I know.

I licked my lips and looked around slowly, “I’m tired…”

He was in front of me in an instant, towering over me. His golden eyes glowed bright in the darkness.

A hand slammed down onto my shoulder, causing me to lose my balance and fall to the ground. I looked up and widened my eyes.

There were two of them.

They looked exactly the same. One of them had their blonde hair parted differently; but that is the only way that anyone could tell any difference between the two of them. I mean, unless someone really knew these two. Then they could tell by just looking at them.

I scooted away.

“You’re tired,” the one on the left laughed.

I narrowed my eyes slightly and pushed myself to my feet.

The one on the right rose an eyebrow, “That’s interesting. You know…we’ve never caught you before.”

And you won’t now, I thought to myself. They’ve only chased me two times before this, and I always ended up getting home before they could get to me. But today was different. I haven’t slept in two days and I just ate. So, my body was worn down and my stomach was cramping up. It was hard to run when I didn’t feel good.

I coughed and put my hand over my heart, “You still haven’t.”

The one on the left smiled slightly, and the one on the right followed suit.

“Really,” they spoke simultaneously as they took step in my direction.

I took a step back and continued to retreat backwards as they continued to walk towards me.

A part of me didn’t want to run. I believed that maybe they just wanted to chase me around. Maybe they didn’t want to hurt me in any way whatsoever. But, another part of me knew that they wanted to hurt me. They didn’t seem to be the kind to just chase people around to say hello. But I wanted to believe that. I wanted to believe that they were really nice guys who didn’t want to hurt me.

I stood in the middle of the road and squinted.

They stopped and tilted their heads slightly the same way.

They’re actually a lot scarier when they’re together.

“What do you want with me,” I asked, trying to mask my fear.

The one on the left laughed quietly, “Why don’t you tell her, Prince?”

The one he called Prince licked his lips, “Why don’t you, King?”

Prince and King? Really?

King smiled wide and looked at his twin, “That would be a waste of my breath. Why can’t we just…show her?”

My body became cold.

They both looked over at me.

I spun on my heel and began to sprint. There were only a few more blocks until I reached my house. That was the only way to get away from them.

My stomach churned as I forced myself forward. I could see my house. I just had to get there.

One of the twins grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him. His hand cupped around my mouth and my body slammed against his. I grunted.

My house was so close. My mom or dad could just look out the window and help me. But that didn’t happen.

The other twin stepped in front of me, “That was rude.”

My eye twitched in aggravation.

The one holding me slid his hand down the front of my shirt and stopped at the top of my jeans. His hand around my mouth tightened slightly.

I shivered.

The one in front of me scanned my body, “Well, don’t you want to know what we want with you? Or do you just want to continue to run from us like some sort of chicken?”

I elbowed the one holding me in the stomach, making him back up a step. Once he finally regained his posture, he had me back in his arms, gripping my skin hard. He raised my head up and the one in front of me leaned in and ran his tongue over my neck.

My eyes widened slightly.

What is he doing?

I felt his warm breath against my neck as he drew himself closer to me, teasing me. I forced my head down slightly, which made him look up into my eyes. A slight smirk crossed his face before he bit into my neck.

I was becoming weaker and weaker with each gulp that he took of my blood. My mind was reeling. I had no idea what was happening.

Vampires don’t exist. This isn’t happening. I’ll wake up in my bed and this will all just be a horrible dream. But the pain was so real. The feeling of their hands on me felt so lifelike. This couldn’t be dream. But I knew that vampires didn’t exist.

I had to force my eyes to stay open. My world was spinning and I was beginning to become sick to my stomach. This guy – whoever it was – was draining me of my blood.

The twin holding me let me go and allowed me to fall onto the concrete. I stared up at the bloodied face of his twin. He licked his lips and ran his hand over his mouth. He knelt down and smirked.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I was too weak to get the words out.

My vision blurred and slowly became black.

When I woke up, I was on my bed, curled up in my pink sheets. I sat up and rubbed my throbbing head before slamming my hand down on the snooze button on my alarm. I lifted my fingers to my neck and felt the intricate holes on the side.

I let my hand fall. It wasn’t a dream, after all. But I guess that wasn’t a big surprise. No dream felt that real.

I sighed and forced myself to my feet. I grabbed a bandage from my nightstand and put it over top of the wound so no questions could arise. My parents would wonder about the bandage…but I could lie.

Wait.

Why was I lying for vampires? All they wanted was to drink my blood. Why was I trying to protect them?

I shook my head and walked out of my room and down the stairs. When I finally reached the kitchen, my little sister’s eyes were already on my bandage. She tilted her head slowly.

I forced a small smile, “Good morning, Kana. How are you?”

“Fine,” she said, running her fingers through her dark brown hair, “What happened to your neck?”

“My friend accidentally scraped a fork across my skin,” I laughed, “It was a crazy night.”

No kidding. Last night…I don’t even know what happened last night. I remember being chased. And then, all of a sudden, some twins decided it would be a good idea to sink their fangs into my neck and suck out three fourths of my blood supply.

Kana shook her head with a smile, “You are so reckless.”

I sat down next to her and looked up at the ceiling. I had thirty minutes to get ready for school. I still felt a little queasy, but I had to go. I had calculus class today and I couldn’t miss it. We were only three weeks into the first quarter and the teachers were shoving tons of homework and tests our way. But, honestly…I couldn’t miss calculus because, if I missed one class, I would get so far behind. And we had a test in the next week, so I had to be there to learn the things being taught or else my test grade would be as bad as the last one.

Kana waved her hand in front of my face, bringing me back to reality. I looked at her and cleared my throat before standing back up to begin getting ready. I took a sausage off of the skillet and threw it into my mouth before going upstairs.

My uniform consisted of a white knee-length skirt and a white and red sailor top. It was the same as what you would see in an anime show when the girls go to school. It had the red bow that wrapped around the fold of the shirt, too. The guys had to wear white pants and a white collared shirt with a red tie. I found it ridiculous that we had to wear these uniforms to school, but I also thought it was pretty cool. I’ve always been into Japanese culture. So it just made me feel like I was living it, even if I was only located in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I pulled on my thigh-high socks and slipped on my black shoes before running my fingers through my hair.

I walked downstairs and took my book bag off of a chair before saying goodbye to my sister. She took one last look at the bandage located on my neck before waving goodbye to me.

I sat down in my car and put the key in the ignition. My mind went to the guy I liked, Axel. He had no idea that I even existed, even though I sat behind him in our first bell class. I guess that’s normal, though. I wasn’t very…noticeable. I kept quiet most of the time and I tried to avoid eye contact with about anyone who crosses my path. But Axel just gave off that vibe that I liked. He was a rebel who tried to pull off the dress code in many different ways. The teachers all liked him, so he always got away with it. Heck, he came into school one time with a blue stripe through his platinum blonde hair and no one said anything.

When I got to school, I walked inside. My friend was standing at the doorway, smiling her normal arrogant grin, “Hiding a hicky?”

“Nah,” I said as she linked her arm with mine, “Fork scraped against it.”

Her eyebrows furrowed, “You get into some weird accidents, don’t you?”

I laughed, “Guess so.”

She continued to drag me down the hallway towards our lockers, “Guess what?”

I looked at her.

“We have new students coming into school today,” she said, smiling, “I heard they’re cute.”

I raised an eyebrow, “I’m hoping that they’re boys, Nami.”

She chuckled, “They are. Actually, I heard they’re twins.”

I clenched my jaw. Twins? When someone said twins, my first instinct is to think of those…monsters. But it couldn’t be them. What are the chances that it will actually be those two twins? Out of every twin in this world, the chances of the new students are the twins from last night is extremely slim. And that thought comforted me.

I laughed sarcastically, “Twins, huh? Sounds great.”

She stopped walking and opened her locker. She threw me my books and took hers out before continuing to drag me to calculus class. I took my seat behind Axel and sighed.

He didn’t even look up at me.

I looked down at my folder and began to doodle.

The bell rang and my teacher walked in, saying her apologies for being late. She cleared her throat, making me raise my eyes.

“We have two new students today,” she said, looking over at the door, “You two can come in.”

Right when I saw their blonde hair, my eyes widened. Their eyes flickered over to me simultaneously as a smirk slowly began to form on their lips.

No. Please, no…

My teacher smiled, “Their names are Prince and King. Please make them feel welcome. You two can take the empty seats in the back.”

They thanked her before walking towards the back. When they walked past me, they ran their tongue over their teeth and smirked.

“No,” I whispered, inaudible to anyone but me.

The teacher then began the lesson. I couldn’t hear what she said. All I could hear was the sound of my blood rushing out of my body and into the mouth of those two twins.