Unnamed

Chapter 1

He could usually handle the lack of satisfaction for at least a month. After that, though, the pain and insanity would begin. He had been without blood for sixty days before he killed his sister. He remembered the pain. Every muscle in his body felt like they were going to explode from the throbbing pain and he was vomiting uncontrollably for seven days. He was insane. He couldn’t think clearly. There was nothing he could have done and he had no control over what he did.

He wasn’t going insane now. Not yet. But that annoying desire was not afraid to show itself. It was like there was a huge gaping hole inside of him... The feeling that he was missing something was not easy to ignore. That uncontrollable urge to fill that hole could bother him enough to make him go insane. All of this made it easier for him to feel no emotion as he tackled his sister to the ground and sucked the life out of her.

Ah… his sister. Raivhne. Such a lost girl. It was almost like she saw it coming, her and her strange ways. She would often sit in a chair for hours, staring at a blank wall. She was doing just that when he decided to turn his desperate thoughts and plans into actions. He would never forget those blue, unseeing eyes… Perhaps he did her a favor by killing her.

Finally, he grew tired of thinking and became restless. He closed his eyes and tried to rid his mind of the anxiety, but this only reminded him of the empty hole inside of him. He gave up after a while and stood up, ready to go hunting. Maybe he would be lucky today... He walked gracefully out of his almost empty apartment.

"Hello, brother." Raivhne greeted him without looking away from the wall, her hands resting on the armrests on her wooden chair and her back facing him. He was used to what seemed like the eyes in the back of her head. He closed the door behind him, staying right in front of the only exit.

"Hello, Raivhne." he said, not being able to hide the darkness in his voice. "Do you want to go for a walk?" Raivhne nodded and closed her eyes, not that it made any difference to her sight.

"The Evrneigh Forest." she said, knowing that her brother was not the kind of brother that would go for a walk with his favorite sister. That night… that fateful night… Her family was torn apart... She wanted the support of her only living family member. She wanted to trust him, but he pushed away. He betrayed her. He didn’t trust her. He didn’t believe her. Or, if he did, the monster he created for himself refused to let him get close to anyone. The monster was his only friend.

"I see blood.” she said in her quiet voice.

"You’re blind." he replied, not especially caring if his sister knew of his plans or not. He could easily overtake her. Raivhne knew this. She knew of his addiction. Addiction was his only friend.

Impatient, he stormed towards her and grabbed her wrist with a strong grip. "You’re coming with me."

So they made their way towards the Evrneigh Forest, having no trouble getting out of the building. Even if someone had seen them, nobody would have dared come close to him… He held his sister’s wrist tightly, ignoring the occasional whimper and her shivering body. It was cold and dark outside, and the trees were getting closer…

"I'm afraid."

"You’re pathetic. You’re always in the dark and you’re afraid of it."

"No mortal would ever go in that forest."

"Isn’t that the point?"

Silence followed, and her brother was still dragging her closer to the Evrneigh. Being a mortal herself, every cell in her body screamed for her to turn around… She whimpered again.

"Shut the hell up, would you?" Silence again. She tilted her head down as she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She was seventeen years old, four years younger than him. Next year, she would've be out of the orphanage and on her own…

Then, she felt it. The air became thinner and everything felt crisp. Her throat seemed to close up, but she was still breathing. Her muscles tensed and refused to move, much to her brother’s annoyance.

"Move!" He pulled on her wrist again, causing her to fall to the ground. She stood up slowly after gathering her courage. They continued to move deeper into the forest.

Ten minutes later, her brother let go of her wrist. She turned around and faced what she thought was his general direction.

“Where are you?”

Suddenly, everything became clear. She blinked several times as splotches began to appear in her vision. The splotches were gray, green, brown, white, and black. Strange shapes appeared. When she stared hard enough, she found that the shapes were similar to how her friend had described trees.

“Trees…” she whispered, walking up to one and gently stroking the bark. She peeled some of it off and brought it up to her eyes, turning it over and over. Then she bent down and dug her fingers into the snow, bringing it up to her eyes. It looked so soft… so cold… so real… She had heard of all this, but to see it all with her own two eyes…

"Raivhne."

That’s when she realized that she was going to die. The magical of this forest and the revealing of her fate allowed her to see before she was thrown into the unknown world. Her happiness slowly died away and her body filled up with a mix of emotions. There was curiosity, anticipation, fear, excitement, nervousness, and love.

This was going to be the first time she ever saw her brother.

She picked up the snow and clenched her hands into fists. Tears began to roll down her face. She felt her brother’s impatience behind her. She reminded herself that whether she turned around or not, she was dead. She tried not to think of all the kind people that wanted to help her at the orphanage. Her friends… her sight… It would all end.

"How long has it been?" she asked, her eyes watering from not blinking her eyes. She didn’t dare to blink. She only had a few minutes left of being able to see… being able to see everything.

"Sixty two days and a half." he replied robotically. She heard his footsteps. He was coming closer. She stood up slowly.

"Please... I’m… I’m your sister. I-"

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have a choice.” he said. It was hard for her to tell if he was truly sorry or not, but before she could analyze anything, she felt his bony fingers on her shoulder, turning her around. That’s when she came face-to-face with her brother. Her eyes widened in fear.

He wasn't her brother anymore. He was a monster.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... I get it." Natalie said impatiently, grabbing the library books from the counter. She was anxious to get away from the judgmental librarian that thought herself as a psychiatrist. "Bye." She adjusted the single shoulder strap of her gray messenger bag, which matched her gray jeans. Her Led Zeppelin shirt was covered with a jeans jacket, and a black choker surrounded her neck. The messenger bag was heavy with books on ancient mythology and old folk stories. With Halloween just around the corner, her college professor had listed an unusually large amount of books for her and the rest of the class to read. Of course, she could have gotten the books later, but she wanted to get the trip over with. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder under the shoulder strap and carrying yet more books in her arms, she hurried away from the librarian and out of the building.

"Shit." she cursed, noticing that it was raining outside. She didn’t care much about the books getting wet, but she didn’t really care much for walking a mile in the cold rain either. She sighed in annoyance and began the journey to her apartment under the gray clouds.

Shivering from the cold, her brown hair soaked completely as well as her jacket, jeans, shoes, and bag, she let her mind wander to what she hoped would be her life after college. She would look for an apartment near the lake and spend the free part of her day painting or writing and then have a small job with a decent pay. That would be enough for her. She looked to her right and saw a row of small shops. She loved the rainy city.

She had no idea what the point of life was, and she knew that mankind wouldn’t last. Nothing mattered. She just wanted to spend the little time she had in this world doing what she loved to do – painting, writing, and spending time alone with herself.

Why should she donate money to charity? Why should she care that there are people starving on the streets? Without death, nothing mattered. If she tried to help, it wouldn’t matter. She was one person, a weak one as well. She couldn’t be significant. Nothing would matter in the end. Mankind would destroy himself eventually. This was a cruel, cruel world, and it would always be that way.

She must have been thinking pretty damn hard, and maybe the other person was as well, because just then she ran into a tall man right before the turn that would have lead to her apartment building. As soon as her shoulder made contact with his body, her heart turned to ice. She didn’t know what caused it… How could she have known it was fear? It didn’t even make sense. She hadn’t even seen his face, and he looked much too frail to be attacking her.

She watched as her bag and the books in her arms fell to the ground. They hit the concrete with a soft thud. She bent down to pick them up before they got too soggy from the rain. She reached for the first book, expecting another hand to be reaching as well. She gathered the two books she was holding before. She looked up at the man she had bumped into, who was still standing there doing nothing, her mouth opened in preparation for saying something along the lines of “So are you going to help or not?”. When she saw the face, though, her mouth hung open and her eyes widened in fear. Her whole body shook from the coldness and dread she felt in her heart then.

The face she saw was the most beautiful face she had ever seen. His wet, jet black hair reached his shoulders. His black T-shirt was soaked through so that you could see his form through the material, which she may have enjoyed if not for the eyes. His blue eyes stared straight into hers. They seemed to be so deep and focused, like she was the only thing that he could see in the entire world. They were staring at her with such intensity that she could not turn away. There was an expression in them that she could not read. It almost looked like he was… hungry?

His extraordinary looks were not what made her terrified, however. There was something about him that seemed dangerous. Something about him that made her want to scream. She couldn’t tell, but it was almost like a small alarm went off somewhere in her head. It told her to run as fast as she could, but she couldn’t. His stare kept her in place.

Finally, the intensity of his stare decreased and she was able to move her muscles. She used this chance wisely. She picked up her bag hurriedly and ran in the opposite direction, still feeling the stare on her back, not caring that she was getting farther from her apartment.

She got behind the wall of a tunnel, stepping on the dead grass and trying not to trip from the steep slope. She dropped her bag and sat down on the ground, leaning against the wall. She took many deep breaths, the fear only starting to fade away. She looked up at the rain clouds above. What in God’s name just happened? She couldn’t stop thinking about the eyes and the insane, longing, hungry expression in them. There was something about him that was inhuman, and she almost knew for a fact that she was in danger.

Collecting her thoughts and waiting for her heart to slow down, she grabbed a fistful of grass, reminding herself that everything in this world was tangible and visible. There were no supernatural beings or more advanced creatures. People are known for believing in foolish stories rather than the actual evidence. It was all nonsense. None of it is real. After twenty minutes or so, her heart rate returned to normal and she had almost convinced herself that the whole incident was part of her imagination. She stood up and grabbed her books. Then she walked down the small hill on the side of the deserted tunnel.

No car had gone through this particular tunnel in quite a while due to a bad storm that took place a few years ago. The storm supposedly “disturbed” the tunnel. If you drove through the tunnel, you would find that the ceiling would get lower and lower the farther you got. Next, you would notice that it was completely collapsed at the end. Then, of course, you would never find your way out because horrible, scary monsters would trample you, strangle you, and eat you. Or so it was told in the stories. Natalie smiled at how ridiculous the story was, reassuring her even more that the whole incident that she just experienced was ridiculous as well.

She finally arrived at her apartment, her clothing thoroughly soaked as well as her books. She dropped the wet bag on the floor and walked to the kitchen to grab something to eat. She opened her refrigerator door and grabbed the nearest yogurt container. Then, something caught her eye.

She began to laugh as her eyes fell on the container of powdered garlic she had bought just the other day at the grocery store. Along with the glue stick, fried chicken, and light bulb, it was part of her grand scheme to freak out an old, religious woman that lived in the room next door. Hey, why not? she thought jokingly, grabbing the small container and sticking it in her jacket pocket. Why was that in the fridge, anyway?

The creative writing and literature classes she was taking made her a bit of a nerd about this stuff, which is what she told herself over and over again after she closed the refrigerator. But she couldn’t ignore the feeling that maybe she felt a bit safer with the nasty smelling garlic in her pocket for a very good reason. A very good reason...

She didn’t know, though, that the garlic wouldn’t prevent an attack at all. He watched her retire to her sofa, the desire for blood even stronger after smelling the delicious taste of hers on the street. Unfortunately for Natalie, he was too addicted and focused on his fix to notice the smell of the toxic object hidden in her pocket.