first encounter (2)

   “I’m guessing it’s early morning, maybe around 5 or 6. It’s rather cold, hence my guess of earliness. I should only hope we’re half way there. We’ve been walking forever in the middle of no where,” said a deep, smooth voice from behind me.

   I didn’t think anyone was around, well more so hoping no one was. I walked away as quiet as I possibly could, I didn’t even hear footsteps!

   “Not that I’m creeped out or scared, but who’s there?” 

There was a soft chuckle, I could see the glowing of his perfect white and straight teeth, or was that the moon light glistening off of them?

   Either way, he had an amazing smile for a possible pedophile, and a beautiful voice by the sound of it.  There was no answer, just a breeze of cold air. Now standing close enough I could feel his chilled breath on my face. The voice answered, “My name is Emery Strister, and your name would be?” 

   I felt as if my soul was being sucked out, I could feel my knees shaking weakly, just like a Japanese school girl would be if she saw her favorite artist, minus the passing out.

   Barely coughing up an answer, I managed to spit out my name. “My name is Kioko.” As I listened to my name eco off my own lips, I thought of how I looked. Average size, jet black, silky hair cropped short. Tanned skin and darkish brown eyes that sparkled. Emery never answered. 

“Silence the chatter I thought to myself, it’s too distracting,” but of course in a sarcastic tone. I felt an odd sigh of relief since Emery hadn’t responded. Yet still, I felt someone watching me. 

   Had he really left, was he observing me? Ten seconds had gone by since the last word in my head passed, and he spoke with such a soft breath, so quiet and subtle. He said, “What a pretty name you’ve got there, doesn’t it mean ‘happy child’ or of the sort..?” I took a deep breath and was stunned that he could know such a thing. He didn’t look as if he was very cultured from what lighting I had, or as if he didn’t get out much, he was pale, with jet black hair, beaming ice blue eyes with a black rim. “I didn’t mean to scare you Kioko, but I am not as which you think, I read constantly of 'your kind’.

  I am not a typical person you’d expect to meet in the middle of the forest at 6:30 in the morning. In that meaning I am not a cold, blooded killer.” (Besides the fact that it’s abnormal to meet someone you don’t know in the middle of the woods, but that’s not the point.) And oddly enough as soon as he said those very words, I dropped to my knees. I didn’t know what happened, but it felt like my body went into cardiac arrest. All I saw was black, and I could have sworn I opened my eyes to see where I was, but nothing was there, just blackness. The light under the door turned on, I saw the glow with footsteps near it.

   There wasn’t just one person anymore, who had he brought, was I imagining things? I mean, I know I’m partially insane, and I practically never make sense, but this was real, I know it was! Where could I possibly be? It was just about 5 minutes in counting when the light in the room turned on, my body went tense, you’d never tell I was an active 15 year old girl by the way I reacted to the ultra-violet light. Unleashed, or at least the pressure was released. I could breath, but at the same time it didn’t feel like I needed to.  I could see, kind of, I was still blinded, but I could see. I could breath, though I didn’t have to. Now what was left to figure out?

 

   I hear a loud noise. I jumped at the sound, my heart was pounding, I could see, there weren’t any bright lights, and I was breathing and needing to. I woke up to my alarm ringing; it was 7:00 AM. That meant it was my last day of school…well at least till I moved to California to my dad’s. This was the time of day when I wished I were able to sleep for just a little bit longer. To with my awakening meant I need to get ready for my last day at Lunatic High school. Or I do believe jail, hell, purgatory was the right word. If there were any better way to serve my sins this was it.

   Now I thought to myself about my amazingly real feeling dream, was it really a dream? Oh how I wish it wasn’t despite the fact that it really was a dream, with the perfect guy ever. How I dreaded this day for months, it’s the middle of the year and my parent is shipping me to a different state.  Isn’t life just perfect that way? It’s the middle of your life and you have to pack it up in boxes and move. Just to think maybe I could have never woken up from that amazing dream! I could have sat there happily.

   What a dream. I got up to realize someone in my room, on my bed with me. "You're still having those dreams?" asked the dark-haired girl who sat cross-legged on the bed, who happened to be my sister Alicea. Being mad at her because, she being the lucky dog that she is doesn’t have to move. She gets to stay at home with dear mum. SO I ignored her questions as usual. I thought about what I needed for school, I packed it. I was done, now off I went. The car ride with my mother was silent, till my sister mentioned my dreams. My mother seemed startled, and worried. She dropped me off at the corner like any other day, and that was it.

  I walked into the gates of my school, my sanctuary.  Well, technically anything but home was. Just 8 hours and I’m out of here, I’d be moving hours away, into the valley in some suburbia called Woodland Hills.  My stomach was killing me, felt like I was being stabbed a thousand times in the same spot. I went home early on my last day. Go figure, so I went home packed the rest of my belongings then left to the airport. I thought to myself what would it be like, I haven’t seen my dad in months, and I mean months, last I knew he was getting re-married to some dumb ex-whore…okay maybe not whore, but she’s stupid enough. I fell asleep, having the same dream as before, just wishing it were real like in the book I was reading the other day, “Inkheart.”

 

    When I woke up I was here in Burbank airport, getting off the plane onto a bus and then sitting on the bench outside waiting for my dad to show up, I knew Charlie was always late so I told him my bus got in earlier. He found me lying across the bench staring up at the sky as I did when I was younger. I stood up with no excitement, like I truly had no pulse. He picked me up and squeezed me tight. He chattered away and I pretended to care and pay attention. We went to his house, he didn’t stay quiet the whole ride home. I never knew a man could talk so much without his jaw falling off.

 

   It was 8:00 PM when we walked in the door, and guess who was there to greet us…his wife to be. Her name was Janice, blonde, light green eyes with blue rims, pink lips and white teeth. She almost looks like a Malibu Barbie. I was as nice as could be to this woman I’d never met, after about 5 minutes of hearing her obnoxious voice I blocked her out and left to my room. I decided to make this place familiar so I took my stuff and settled in, and then went for my nightly jog. The air was cold and breezy; it was getting hard to breath out of my mouth. My nose was cold along with my ears. Running down the street I wasn’t familiar with. The lights were starting to turn on, all at once flickering then permanently on.

 

  My pulse. My heartbeat. My breathing. They all stopped. I saw him, the boy in my dream, I saw him, and he was sitting right there, on the curb.

Sitting on the curb! Playing with a flower between his fingers. It looked to be a dead rose, dark blood red, with rips in it. I was about half a block away from my new home. He looked up, saw me and dropped his jaw. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, and he was gone. I didn’t take a breath yet and he was gone. The night and shining armor that tried to kill me in my dreams was gone. What happened? How can he have been in my dreams and yet live in a complete different state?

 

  The next morning I woke up and no one was home, so I went walking again in search of Emery. I wanted to see him again, see if he actually knows who I am, find out how he disappeared so fast! Stare into his ice blue eyes, and get lost. Though he was my kidnapper in my dream I want to fall for him. He had such a mesmerizing look to him. Never have I heard such a beautiful voice from a complete stranger in the middle of the woods. I walked to the park to find not a person there, not even a bird. I walked into the gated box of sand, and sat on the swings, listening to the air push by with a struggle. The swing creaked as I swung back and forth in the dark space. The sky was becoming crowded with dark clouds and cold air.

 

   Within a moment I looked up and I saw him. Emery, with his short black hair, his ice blue eyes, and pale skin and lips, his perfect white teeth. His teeth, something very odd about his teeth, when he grinned it were as if to seem that his canine teeth were pointed, and sharp. Almost like…vampire teeth were said to be. He walked slowly to the swing next to me, sat down and smiled, then started swinging. He opened his mouth and made a noise, as he did it looked like he intended to show me his tooth. He said in a soft voice, “You wish to know why is it that I look so familiar, from your dream at that. Am I correct?” I nodded and tried to speak, but not a word came out of my try mouth.

 

   He laughed in that amazingly cute chuckle. He looked at me with those piercing eyes and I was lost. I felt weak again and dropped off the swing on to the sand, I could feel it in my ears, rubbing again my scalp like someone was stroking my hair back. I opened my eyes and it was dark again like in my dream, but this time, there was no outside light, but only a lamp on the desk I presume that was next to me. I could see the glow from underneath my eyelids, and sense the heat from the lamp. I could hear someone’s footsteps next to me, almost like the person was pacing. I could hear the whispers. It sounded like a girl, or a boy who hasn’t hit puberty just yet.

  

   I felt the bands be untied from my wrist or just loosened maybe. I felt his breath again my neck, I could feel the air from his lips press against me. The pressure from him forming words puckering off and into my ear. He whispered to me the words to “Hush Little Baby Don’t You Cry” in a coarse husky voice, one I’ve yet to hear till now. It was scary, rough, mean, and harsh in the sense, I never imagined hearing a mean voice by him, him of all people. He left me in a room, in the dark, where I didn’t know if I’d live to see tomorrow. He came back maybe about ten minutes after. Walked up to me and said in a frustrated tone, “I can’t explain how I meet you in your dream, and then you move to a different state and become my neighbor. But I know that I can find you no matter what, and since I was looking for you. I found you in a dream, which I wasn’t, suppose to show up in. But you are here now, I don’t know how, but you are, and…I’m just babbling at this point so I’ll just stop.”

 

   I felt a smile grow over my face and I whispered in a strong quiet voice, “What are you?” Taken off guard, he still replied, “I am not what you would expect but I am what I am, and I am no different than any human.” In a sudden state of curiosity, my reply was short. “SO you expect me to think that you’re not human? That you’re a type of scientific species?” He nodded. I closed my eyes and opened the again, stared at him and said “Prove it then.” He smirked and said “Though we’ve only been together in dyer circumstances, I love you already.” I giggled in a flirtatious way, closed my eyes and he bit me. I could feel the warmth of my blood turn cold, and I felt gone.

   I was light, heartless and without a pulse. I had died without realizing what I had wished for. I recovered and awoken to bright lights that made my skin feel like it was burning off. Peeling layer by layer. I jumped up after a good few seconds of my skin sizzling. I was outside my house, my neck with two puncture marks, burnt hands and my face peeling. I was safe in my house, running to hide in my new room. No one called for me, no one looked for me, and it was as if they forgot I existed, I went to his house every day, I stayed with him all night, and I lived my life with him. I was his maiden vampire, his new lover and yet we didn’t need a school, a friend or an internet dating site, only a dream. 

© K