Raven Eye

The moon was a round, perfect sphere. Such a moon attracted a lot of creatures, especially werewolves. This meant that Raven would not be the only one feeding tonight!

Raven looked towards the mortal village. It seemed deserted. Quiet. Not a single soul could be seen in the shadow-soaked streets. They must all be tucked away safe in their little beds, Raven thought. Lucky them, not to know the burden of being alone.

She put up her hood and crept towards the village, making sure there was no one around. Raven could no longer resist her blood cravings. She had to feast upon the blood of cattle before she lost control and turned into a savage vampire with no wish but to prey on helpless mortals.

As Raven slinked through the shadows she found a paddock full of cows, within the village. She approached, looking for the weakest amongst the lot (vampires had a wicked sense for weakness). In the distance she eyed a cow that was in a heap on the ground. She crept closer and saw that she was not alone. Over the cow’s carcass was a hooded figure.

“Hey,” Raven called carefully “What are you doing here?”

The figure turned suddenly and hissed, baring blood-dripping fangs. It was another vampire! Raven couldn’t believe it. He looked about her height and age. He saw Raven’s fangs and huffed a sigh of relief.

“Oh,” he said, clearly startled “you’re a vampire too. For a minute there I thought you were a mortal.”

“Well, you’ve got it half right.”

“What do ya mean?”

“I’m only half-vampire.”

“Half-vampire?! But…how?”

“Look,” Raven hissed “Who the hell are you? For all that I know. You could be another shape-shifter playing one of those bloody tricks. I’m not buying!”

“Wait,” the boy said simply “if I was a shape-shifter, why would I transform into a pathetic wimp like myself?”

Raven starred at him suspiciously.

“Okay.” the boy sighed. “You obviously don’t believe me, so look…” he stamped his foot hard on the dirt “…I leave footprints!”

Raven knew perfectly well that shape-shifters could not leave footprints because their feet never actually touched the ground, instead they hovered a few millimetres above the ground making it look like they were actually on the earth’s surface. Shape-shifters weren’t ‘beings’ of such, they were more like spirits that could transform into and portray anyone or anything!

“Alright, so you’re not a shape-shifter. But that does NOT mean I can trust you!”

The boy smiled wickedly in a typical vampire manner.

“How do I know if I can trust YOU? Prove to me that you’re not a shape-shifter yourself!”

After a while of proving to each other that they were both really vampires (you could never be too careful in such dark times) they introduced themselves.

“I’m Roy,” the boy announced.

“Raven,” she said shaking his hand.

Roy’s eyes popped suddenly as if he had just realised something.

“Wait a sec,” he said pulling his hand quickly from hers. “You’re not… I mean, are you Raven, as in the half vampire, half mortal girl, are you?

“Your point being…?”

“You ARE?! But you’re supposed to be dead! You can’t be, your name is scum in my colony!”

“That sounds about right…” Raven sighed.

“Oh my god, you ARE Raven! I shouldn’t be talking to you, if the others found out…!”

“Yeah,” Raven hissed, “just walk away! That’s what everyone else does!”

The boy turned but then turned back and looked at her.

“If you’re really Raven, then why haven’t you attacked me?”

“Why would I attack you?!

“You’re not what other vampire’s made you out to be…”

“What? Did they say I wasn’t going to rest until all vampires and mortals were dead or that I was a danger to our race or that I’m not really a vampire at all since my father was mortal?!”

“Well, something like that…”

“Then you can tell your colony that I’m still alive and that they’re all bloody stereo-types with nothing better to then ruin other’s LIVES!!”

“Calm down!” he whispered. “You’ll wake the mortals!”

“Oh, and what if I do? I’m sure your colony would be very happy to see a stake driven through my heart!”

“Please by quiet. The mortals…they’ll kill me too!”

Raven breathed deeply and tried to calm herself. There was all this anger bubbling inside her towards the vampires who had banished her and left her for dead. To finally meet another vampire face to face brought out the worst in her. Roy didn’t seem to pose much of a threat. He seemed timid and Raven found it rather strange that he was here alone and not with his colony.

“Why aren’t you with your colony?” Raven asked suspiciously in a low tone of voice. “It isn’t safe for young vampires to be out alone.”

“I was with my colony,” he said glumly “but I secretly separated from them, they probably don’t even know I’m gone.”

“You separated from them? Why?”

“Well…” he said slowly, pausing for a moment as he decided if Raven could be trusted. He seemed to decide that she was ok. “…I was being taken on my first mortal hunt, full moon and all. But I just couldn’t face it, the mortals, they’re so like us…in a matter of speaking.”

“Scared were you?”

“No!” Roy said (he was a terrible liar.) “Well, I don’t want them coming after me! They can be so violent!”

“And so can we. You just killed a cow, don’t tell me that didn’t involve any violence…”

“But that’s what I mean when I say they’re so like us! I don’t want to kill someone that can scream in fear and look at me with terrified eyes. I just couldn’t face it!”

They paused for a moment and looked at each other. Raven herself had never bitten a mortal, she wasn’t scared as Roy seemed to be, it was because she didn’t want to be like the other vampires with all their mortal hunts and all. In a way, Raven felt that she was better than them. It was her humanity that kept her from obsessive violent killing. Normal vampires don’t have humanity, it is a trait found only in mortals, and since she was half mortal she possessed some of this trait.

“You know,” Raven said slowly “once you’ve sunk your fangs into a mortal, there’s no going back!”

“I realise that,” Roy admitted. “I want to be a good vampire, like my father, but I can’t bring myself to…”

“You’ll get over it, just like every other vampire does. I suspect every vampire at your age has a flicker of sympathy for mortals, but it usually doesn’t last long and soon enough they’re sinking their fangs deeper and deeper into a mortals neck!”

Raven’s mortal side began to rouse a feeling of hatred towards Roy. She snarled and Roy backed away slowly. Then the feeling passed. She began to feel faint. She needed blood, quickly.

“I’m sorry,” she almost whimpered. “I haven’t had blood for so long. I need it. Can I have a bite of that cow?”

“Ah, sure.”

Roy stepped aside as Raven drained the blood through the cow’s neck. Then suddenly, candlelight began to flicker in the window of the nearest house. A man emerged from the house carrying a lantern and a gun.

“Who goes there? Better not be you Fisher kids,” the farmer called.

The light bathed the paddock. Roy hissed and shielded his eyes. Raven wasn’t so badly effected and stood her ground while Roy retreated.

“Vampires!” the farmer said in shock. “Get away you beasts before I call on the rest of the village!”

“Quickly,” Roy muttered “Morph into a bat and follow me.”

“I can’t” Raven said.

“What do you mean you can’t…?”

“My mortal side won’t allow it. I can’t morph!”

“What!”

The man left the doorway of his house and approached them carefully, raising the lantern higher.

“I s-said get away!” he yelled.

“Go, Roy! I’ll be fine, I can take care of the mortal, without out hurting him…too much.”

“But I, I can’t leave you here!”

“Go! I will be okay. I wouldn’t be alive today if I couldn’t handle a mere mortal! Now, GO!”

Roy backed away, morphed into bat form and quickly flew high into the jet, black sky.

“And what about you missy?” the farmer said coming closer. “Aren’t you going to fly away too?”

“Look, I don’t want to hurt you, old man…”

The man raised his gun.

“Like hell you don’t, you lying bitch!”

“Please, I honestly don’t want to harm you in any way!”

He looked down at the cow’s carcass.

“You killed my best cow!” he growled angrily.

“To be fair, it wasn’t me…”

“LIES!” he yelled.

In one fell swoop, the man dropped his lantern and fired his gun, right into Raven’s heart. She fell, clutching her chest, dark red blood trickling from her wound. Raven chuckled.

“You have a thing or two to learn about vampires,” she said whilst getting up. “Bullets won’t kill what’s already dead!”

The bullet flew out of her chest and fell onto the ground. Her wound slowly began to close up and even her clothes mended, leaving only blood. The man shot at her again and again, but the same thing happened each time until all the bullets from his gun lay on the ground in front of Raven.

“That’s a lot of bullets wasted, old man. You should have listened to me. Now I’m going to silence you, once and for all!”

The man dropped his gun and turned to run, but he wasn’t fast enough. Raven sunk into the ground and then rose up right in front of the running farmer. He stopped dead in his tracks and opened his mouth to scream for help. But Raven raised her hands and within seconds, the man was wrapped in a cacoon of black, telekinetic energy. The cacoon was soundproof, and though he screamed and he yelled, no one could hear.

“Don’t worry,” Raven said darkly. “The cacoon’s only temporary. There should be enough air in there to last, hmm…well, a little while longer.”

He banged his fists desperately against the walls of the cacoon. Raven waltzed over to the lantern lying on the ground and gently blew out the flame. Then she picked up the unloaded gun. Her eyes began to glow a stunning white, and using intensive mind power she smashed the gun into smithereens.

“Nice knowing you,” she said to the stunned farmer. “And thank you for the lovely cow’s blood!”

With another smirk, she dashed into the shadows and out of the village. She was a fool to enter a mortal village. What did she think would happen? It hadn’t been much use for most of the blood she in took was drained out of her by all of the bullets! Raven had to find another source of blood before the night was over or she feared that the worst would happen!