I'm Half Doomed & You're Semi-Sweet

I defiantly wasn't looking forward to this. No way. I had explained to them, what I had wanted, but I know that wouldn't have listened to one word. I'd probably have more response from a brick wall.

"Are your eyes closed?" I heard Gabe say to me.

"Yes" I grumbled.

I felt Gabe's strong hand grasp my arm and drag me down a long hall and into a room which I presumed was my apartment. I could hear hushed whispers, little giggles and the sound of balloons rubbing together.

I suddenly felt mentally ill. This was defiantly not a small get-together.

"SURPRISE" I heard dozens of people shout.

My eyes automatically flung open and I registered to the tragic scene of my home.

Birthday balloons hung from the wall in mixed bunches, streamers hung from the lights, banners and colorful party lights hung from across the room. Tables covered in colored cloths sprinkled with confetti, catering food, china and presents stacked on top. All these people stared back at me with excited expressions, wearing party hats and holding poppers and blowers. I just stared in tramatic shock.
I didn't really know what emotion to feel or what to say at least. I remembered telling my friend that I wanted only close friends and absolutely no party, but I guess they wanted this to be party of the year and me to be happy.

"Come on Patrick, this is for you" Gabe said, flinging an arm around my shoulder and leading me over to one of the tables.

Gabe put on some sun glasses and put his hood over his hat and winked at a few girls we passed. Life of the party guy. Really, today I wasn't in my right mind to celebrate, being a year older and my social stratus wasn't something anyone cared about. It didn't feel any different.
I looked at the table with no interest and my eyes spied the square chocolate and choc chip cake saying Happy 21st Patrick (Trickster) in a light brown icing. 21 blue, yellow, white and green candles burned calmly on it. Everyone crowded around, preparing for the birthday boy's wish. I had nothing to wish for right now. One wish would never come true. I let out a sigh and took a deep breath.

"Just don't spit on the cake" I heard Victoria's voice say from somewhere in the crowd.

I blew as hard as I could, watching the flames disappear and that nice smell of smoke, drift into the air like withering souls. The wax sliding down the candles hardened and I stood there, listening to the sound of cheers, poppers going off and the steamers falling on my hat. Party blowers being blowed and everyone singing happy birthday. What was the big deal with blowing out candles anyway?

The music was turned on announcing the start of a party.

"Dude, how does it feel?" Gabe said, leaning down to give me a hug.

I looked up at him, feeling even more short. I plucked a blue streamer off my hat which was danging in front of me.

"What? to be another year closer to death" I said, watching people swarm over the appetizers.

"Stumpy, enjoy this day, okay?" Gabe said, patting me on the head "Don't let anything ruin this".

I gulped deeply. It was hard to hide my true feelings of anger and misery, but I knew I had to.

"Who are half these people?" I asked, picking out handfuls of unfamiliar faces.

Gabe looked around, looking slightly guilty. The guy couldn't help it if he was a party animal.

"I spread the word" he said, fiddling with the dog tags around his neck.

I nodded "Ever think some of these people really don't care it's my birthday. To them it's a 21st party. They only care about the booze. The boys only care about the chicks and vice versa".

I looked over with Gabe to a group of boys already looking intoxicated and chatting up some girls. This made me feel physically ill. Possibly one night stands.

"I'm not cleaning up any vomit puddles and my bedroom is off limits" I said, frowning.

Gabe stared at me and nodded quickly. Guess he was gonna be the janitor. I hoped I didn't sound too nasty.

"Now you go and have fun" I said, giving a smile while patting his shoulder and pointing to a group of people dancing "Before the neighbors call sound control".

Gabe patted my cheek and ran off into the crowd and began to break out in his dance moves.

For quite a while I wondered around, spotting already drunken people. I hopelessly snacked on a few chips and was pushed into groups, where the people surrounding me made me feel extremely out of place. Perfect party goers. I did manage to maneuver out of the crowds and smiled when Victoria ran across the room in my direction, straight black hair, bouncing on her shoulders. She gave me a hug and a peak on the cheek.

"Happy birthday" she said, playing with the pink headband in her hair till it was just right.

"Thanks".

Victoria and me were like brother and sister. I could see the way she was looking at me, that she was picking up on my mood.

"You don't look so happy" she said, giving a frown of confusion.

"I'm not" I said, letting my eyes wonder around "Shock like I have does not go away quickly".

Victoria nodded sympathetically. She was the only soul who knew my secret about how my father had really died. Thinking about it made my stomach churn and my blood boil. The secret I'd only found out this morning from my mother.

I slowly began to walk off towards the bathroom. I heard Victoria yell "Don't let it ruin your fun" but it already had.

I locked the door behind me and stared at the bathroom mirror. My reflection stared gloomily back at me, a miserable smile portrayed on my lips. My eyes were now a mossy green. My straight strawberry blonde hair was a tad over shoulder length. I now had glasses that didn't look so geeky as before. My sideburns were now noticeable. I still had my baby face and right now my skin looked pale, even my lips a pale pink. I looked like I had no life in me to survive this party.

My mind faltered back to my secret. I hardly remembered him. All I know is he died when I was very young. I'd always wanted to unravel the past and now I had. My mum had said we had all been walking home after twilight when a strange person had jumped out in front of us. Mum had said he'd looked perfectly creepy in pure black. Mum had been carrying me and as soon as her and dad had been stopped by this man they ran the other way. The person had chased us and grabbed mum. She said I began screaming, I cant remember that, though in some of my dreams something black would grab me. Dad had jumped at the person and had fought till he released her. Then the person had turned on my dad. Mum said that the attack was so brutal and violent that nightmares of dad being ravaged still clouded her dreams. Now I knew that what had killed my father was the thing I was determined to rid of. A creature of the night, a creature of death and revenge. A vampire.

I frowned at my reflection as I heard a banging on the door. I stormed out and crashed into the boy who was standing in the doorway. I cringed to the side. He looked completely stoned. It was quite disgusting. Not much by his bloodshot eyes, but by the strong smokey smell. I coughed and almost felt suffocated. I walked out onto the balcony. I leant on the rail and stared out at the dark city, brightened with lights of all sorts. Glittering light like shattered fragments of glass. It seemed peaceful enough as the warm breeze blew against my skin, from that of the music blearing inside my apartment and the claustrophobic beings having fun.

Sadly I wasn't alone. I blushed in embarrassment and kept my eyes on the road, streaked with moving lights as I saw on the corner of my eye a couple all over each other. I shuttered. Drunk love. It was bound to happen. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and Andy appeared beside me holding two bottles of beer.

"Everyone's been wondering where the birthday kid is" Andy said, shoving a bottle into my hand "Thought we might need a search party aswell".

"I just needed some time alone" I whispered, truthfully, letting my fingers numb around the bottle "I'm not in a partying mood" or that I'd ever been.

Andy sighed and looked out to the city. He'd been trying to cheer me up since this morning, I felt like telling him he was trying to win a lost battle.

I sipped hastily at the bottle in my grasp. That weird taste, burnt against my throat. I didn't really drink alcohol, but I was in a mood where I couldn't care less. Maybe it was the sudden look down or the alcohol that made my mind spin slightly, but it made me feel sick and more depressed.

"Give a smile, huh?" Andy said, giving an encouraging smile "You seem so depressed, what's up?"

I didn't want to say, but he was one of my good mates. Should I keep a secret that Victoria had found out?

"Um I..." but just as I spoke my Blackberry rang.

We gave each other wide eyed looks and I answered it curiously. I did not know this number. That was slightly a bad thing.

"Hello" I said, curiously through dry lips.

The words I feared filled my head from the desperate cries of the person on the other end and Andy knew by my look that the call was to do with our jobs.

For we were the Vampire Hunters.

Me, Andy, Gabe and Victoria were the only hunters around here which was good for the fact we had no conflict with other hunting groups. We were putting our lives in danger to protect the city from further slaughter. Luckily we had weapons strong enough to hold any fight we faced.

"Get the others and wait by my car" I said, feeling adrenaline rushing through my veins.

Andy nodded and sprinted inside. I ran beside him, weaving through the people and taking a detour to my my bedroom. I was praying it was empty and untouched. My bedroom was dark and quiet. I rushed inside straight to my bed and fell onto my knees. I groped around under my bed until my hand came in contact with a leather case. I dragged it out. It was black with brass latches. One of my biggest loves was in this case. I quickly looked at my clothes, no time to change into my hunting clothes. I threw my green cap off and put on my black hat on. Our hunting logo was designed on the front, a heart with bat wings.

I flipped the latches open and flung the lid off. I smiled greatly as I pulled out my heavy and large vampire gun. It's polished black paint shone like cobalt from the light, shining in the hallway. I quickly put my black coat on and grabbed a pack of large bullets, tranquilizers and a little bottle of Holy Water deep from in my drawers and stuffed them in my coats pockets. All the research of vampires was coming in handy. Thank God for Wikipedia and Google. I pushed the bridge of my hat over my eyes and grabbed my gun. I power-walked down the hall and into the lounge. I clutched my gun close to my chest and weaved through the crowds, accidently hitting people. I got a few curious looks, but nobody really took any notice of the pure black figure, holding a gun and creeping through the room like a shadow. Yep, this lot was dumb. Their minds hadn't fully developed to register danger yet. My poor home was gonna be trashed come tomorrow.

I took off at a sprint down the long hall towards the elevator before it closed. I hit the basement button with my palm and frowned as elevator music began playing. When the doors flung open I jumped out into the cold air.

The carpark was quiet, apart from the distance sound of rubber tires, sliding on smooth concrete. I jogged over to my jet-black V8 Mustang. Another one of my loves. Gabe, Victoria and Andy were standing around it, looking in full force.

We all had weapons and our logo shown somewhere on our clothes. Gabe had his logo on a black wrist band he wore and his weapon being a quite dangerous and complicated looking crossbow. To make the arrows more dangerous and to inflect more damage on a vampire, each arrow head was bathed in Holy Water. A pack of spare arrows was in a long mossy green sword bag which was slung over his shoulder. His Protection if all else failed, garlic filled pockets. And yes he did reek at times.

Andy had his sword in his long rusty colored sword pouch on his back. His logo was on the leg of his pants. His sword had been made and cooled in Holy Water, meaning it was forever strong and could do real damage. His Protection, a wooden steak he hid in a little bag connected to his belt.
Then there was Victoria. Her logo was on her knee high dark peach suede boots. Her weapon was a gun a lot like mine, but with different functions all together. When mine shot out sharp tranquilizers and special bullets, her's shot out highly voluted nets that electrocuted whoever they caught. Her Protection a silver crucifix necklace around her neck.

All these weapons were my creations. I'd spent months of planning them, on designing them, on finding the materials. Then months on creating them and making sure they were safe to use. Anger towards vampires made me more determined to complete them.

We all jumped in the car with a thud. I threw the keys into Andy's hand, letting him drive this time. He knew a mental map of the entire city. Like a major portable GPS. I gave him the directions and soon the carpark was filled with rubber, burning on smooth concrete around every corner. Risks of course had to be taken. The lights rebounded off the concrete walls, blurring my vision. As we hit the road with a jolt the night grew before us. Apartment lights glowed against the dark and black sky. Buildings hid frightened people and shops lay dead for the night. Me and Victoria raised eyebrows at each other as cars speed past. Well that wasn't normal, by far. Nobody was seen walking the streets, no living soul risked it. That was apart for us. We knew how dangerous it was, we could be killed, though we risked everything to protect the innocent as so to speak.

We drove through red lights and give way signs. We didn't care for road rules at night, when we had a job to do.

"Next intersection" Andy warned us without a glance.

Me and Victoria loaded our guns, making sure everything was fill and that nothing was wrong while Gabe loaded his crossbow. The car was filled with clicks and clunks and I knew exactly what they were doing to their weapons. Then we stopped half-pie on the sidewalk. We quickly got out of my car and Andy threw the keys to me over the roof. We curiously surveyed the scene. At first it seemed as if this had been all a prank call. We did get them a lot, we kept track of those numbers. Some calls were made by vampires themselves, trying to trick us.

Then a scream from nearby caused us all to jump and face the same direction, weapons at the ready. Andy took his sword out with a swoosh, it glistened in the moonlight. We followed the direction the cry had come from, taking curious steps. The two main things of being a hunter were to be completely alert of your task and to be ready for anything. We crept around the corner and froze as our eyes drifted ahead.

A girl was frozen like a statue in the middle of the road. Her face was in a terrified pain while her creamy knee high silky dress was ripped around the bottom. Her shrill scream ran into the night. Only metes away from where she stood was a body of a boy, lying still on the road extremely still with a figure leaning over him. From here I could see blood slowly dripping from the figures lips like tear drops. I flicked a lever on the side of my gun with my thumb, switching it from tranquilizers to bullets. Everyone readied their weapons as they heard the click.

The girl on the road turned to look at us, relief flooding into her pale face. The figures eyes shot towards us, eyes streaked with anger and thirst.

"Vampire scum" Gabe spat to the figure from my side.

Of course the vampire heard and hissed at us, baring white teeth. Three more came from the shadows, in perfect stride and order.

"Get the girl" I whispered to Gabe.

Then we all split up at a run. The vampires copied our every move, furiously wild and tormenting. Me and Victoria's guns let out deafening booms, echoing into the air with a cloud of smoke. The sound of a vampire's screech as a net wrapped around it, pierced my ears. It's body begun to spasm on the ground as dangerous large amounts of volts ran through it. I felt no pain or sympathy for these beings, I'd learnt that.

Gabe was now beside the girl. She cowered behind his tall frame as he pulled down a handle, sending arrows shooting through the air. One luckily missed Andy's head just by inches and pierced into one other of the vampires thick skin and into it's chest. An agonizing hiss and scream echoed into the air.

I glared at the last vampire with unconditional rage. Every time I fought, revenge surged through me. My eyes wanted to only see this distasteful thing fully dead, it's body giving one last twitch of life.
But just as I rose my gun to destroy this thing, a black streak landed squarely on top of the vampire. This new figure was defiantly a vampire no doubt about that. His skin glowed when it came in contact with the moonlight. He threw fast and hard punches and kicks. Half his face was covered with a black hood, but sharp fangs were gleaming past his ruby red lips. A crunch of bone from a skull, caused me to jump back sharply.

It was weird to see vampires fight like this unless fresh food was around. I swallowed a mouthful of saliva at the thought. Guess I was the fresh morsel.

The new vampire threw the body of his victim across the road and looked at me. I'd seen this look so many times, but something about this one turned my blood cold as ice. His handsome face was portrayed with fury and bloodlust. Those cold cobalt eyes were amazingly wild. His perfect white teeth and fangs were bared at me till I saw his pink gums. A violent snarl flowing through his clentched teeth.
At this time everything seemed to go wrong as if he was the demon of bad luck. A few more vampires arrived, keeping my friends occupied and their minds off me. Was this all a plan? As if my bad luck couldn't get worse, right at that minute my gun jammed with a click. This could really not be happening to me. The trigger wouldn't budge.

"Oh shit" I whispered in anger, frantically pushing the trigger.

Sweat ran down my forehead as I looked at this vampire. He was smirking, harassing me, knowing he'd got me all right. I was the prey, he was going to slay me. My mind came to a blank as he jumped at me. I smashed hard against the wall, his force against mine. I was luckily the knock to my head didn't make me unconscious. His cold hands had my wrists pined wide against the wall above my head. I dangled against the wall, not being able to reach the ground. My kicks in his shins were pointless and were doing more pain to my feet than him. His touch was rough and violent. His mind driven to madness by bloodlust. He could probably hear my blood pulsing through every vein like a rushing river of hot water, so warm and moist. My heart was pounding against my ribs, wanting to break free and escape. I didn't realize I was breathing roughly.

He twitched his nose and let out a throatily growl, tightening his grip causing me to grit my teeth. Why did the angels of death or immortality have to be so perfect? Was it so a victim had an amazing image in their mind while they died horribly? I'd seen enough videos about them to know the next things. His sharp teeth were centimeters away from my neck, cold breath flowing over my skin. He kept sniffing, lapping up my luscious scent.

"Just kill me" I mumbled, my mouth dry, my lips trembling.

Then I felt him freeze, his whole body rigid. My mind couldn't contemplate what he was doing. It was even more alarming. This hold up must have been uncomfortable and painful for him which made me happy inside. He pulled his face with strain away from my neck. His eyes not so dark now. It looked like their natural colour was chocolate brown, lined with dark black eyeliner, trying to hide the shadows beneath. His eyes weren't wild no more. They dug into my eyes like knives.

"PATRICK" I heard Victoria scream in fear.

The vampire's eyes enlarged in panic. His bloodstone lips parted slightly in a gasp. He looked horrified at me as if he couldn't believe something. I'm sure I had seen that face before as a child. Then I suddenly felt physically ill. My mind was finally kicking in, calculating the years and the difference. He knew who I was and now I knew. My emotions were mixing together like chemicals. It was becoming to much for me. That face just bewildered, those eyes glowing wide against his pale tan skin.

"Pete" I whispered through dry, frozen lips of disbelief.

He automatically let me go and stepped back. I fell onto the ground with a thud, like a ragdoll falling off a shelf. I couldn't find the strengh to stand up or to speak. Pete was slowly creeping back, trembling. He looked frightened and unsure. He looked at himself then back at me, those eyes beginning to get wet. I went to speak, but he shot off into the night like a bullet.

Victoria and Gabe rushed towards me, panic striken. My hands trembled against my legs as I looked up at them, feeling my skin go cold and pale.

"Dude, are you okay?" Gabe asked, helping me to my feet.

My legs trembled with effort like a newborn foal as I stood up right. My balanced failed and I fell against Gabe. He kept me up off the ground. Victoria grabbed my gun and stared at me with fear. Poor girl.

"Patrick..." she whispered, her trembling voice speechless.

"I-I'm fin..." My voice was shaking and sentences weren't completeing.

Why was I like this? So shaken up. I'd had close calls before, but this one set me into a tramtic state. Maybe because a friend had just tired to suck my blood out.

"Are you hurt" Victoria said, worriedly ending in a squeak.

I shook my head, not trusting my voice or the will to speak. Gabe helped me walk towards the car, it made me feel weak. We passed by Andy who was setting the vampires bodies a light with a few matches. I saw his eyes widen with worry and unsurness at me. I guess everyone had seen what had happened. The only sound now were the flames lapping up the dead and the girl's heart wrentching screams as her friend lay in her arms, never to wake again.

I now was difantly not in the mood to face my apartment and what loomed inside. Victoria had insisted and forced apon that I stay at her place tonight. I went with the flow easyily. Sometimes after fights, Victoria would demand we stay with her. Sometimes I think it was cause she got frightened or lonely, but we didn't complain. She is an exellent cook though, well at least for us. When her and Andy cooked together it was hard to refuse a dish and it was better not to argue with them. After we dropped Gabe and Andy off at their homes. Victoria had already taken the wheel, before I could protest, like she'd listen. An awkward silence fell between us, you could probably cut the air with a knife. I had nothing to discus with her and she was hiding her fear inside her.

At her house she kept asking me if I was certain I was okay. I was fine and I defiantly wasn't delusional with the hit to my head. It was only cause I was quite and seemed lost. She was just like a record with a scratch, a repetition of her words going over and over. I battled her repeating game by saying I was fine in my best collected voice I could master. The words all lost meaning after the forth time.

I exhaustedly lay on the long soft couch in the dark living room. The house was so quiet and still. The street lights escaped through the blinds, creating images on the wall. I couldn't fall asleep. My mind was working over time, forcing my body to stay awake and think whether it liked it or not. My mind wondered back to my friends and how we had formed this group. Andy and I had met in college, since we shared most our classes. We were pretty much sick of the increase of vampires and decided we wanted to fight back and end the torture. After a while we befriended Gabe, a school newbie. He automatically joined our hunting group mainly like me for revenge. His young sister and mother had both been killed. He'd been old enough to remember. He saw them being attacked and heard their agonizing screams while he hid, crying hysterically behind a tree. Victoria on the other hand had been a victim. Carelessly walking the streets at night they had gotten ambushed. Two of her friends were killed right in front of her and she would have died if we hadn't gotten there. She was a mess, not as much as her friends though. She repaid us by joining our group. I kept rolling back and forth, forcing sleep to come, but it fought me.

My hatred was so strong towards vampires, but now I felt a little hole in the hate. Just a little hole, but enough to interfere with my thoughts. Was it confusion, pain or fear? I was stupid not to have seen the signs. From the secret I'd been pushed way from for so long, everything was weaving together. What kid would stay outside at night? What kid would my mum hate so much without knowing? I'd been so blind, slightly literally. And the uniqueness? Part of me was angry he'd kept this a secret from me, but another half was sad he'd found out what I was like he had. I'd actually scared a vampire, a...friend. Oh how hard it was to treat a thing as a friend. My mind tried to reject the idea, but it was true no matter how wrong.