Chapter One:
So, I thought it'd be fun to find a theme song for this series...so...here it is!
Whisper…quicker…dreams fade faster…as blood drips down those thin once-innocent wrists…I hurt her…but…she wanted me to…she insisted…and so…I bit…deeper than I should have…but…the blood tasted so good…it…filled me…completed the emptiness that I had felt…
“Shaan…” The voice that pooled through his mind made the boy’s soul return for a moment and he looked into the dying eyes of a girl around his own age. “Shaan…”
“I killed her…” Shaan murmured, blood running down the corners of his lips. “I killed her…”
“Not yet…” The voice cooed, cold and serene like the feathers of doves taking flight. “Not yet…sleep, dear little brother…”
“Sleep…” Another voice joined, hers more warm than the frigid death that was held by the other. “Sleep until the dusk…”
“Sachar, help us.” The first voice commanded as Shaan drifted away. “We need to bring Shaan home with us, but we must also take this girl to a hospital before she dies…hurry…Ara, bring Shani and Sassacus.”
“Yes, Siraj.” The girl scampered out of the girl’s bathroom that they all stood within.
The tallest, whom stood at six feet, shook his short kempt gray hair into a feral style as his black eyes scrutinized the collapsed form of Shaan. The boy beside him, a perfect replica of Shaan, edged closer to the taller and eyed the fallen.
“Siraj…” The smaller, whom was five feet and six inches tall, whispered in a hollow raspy voice. “Will we live to see another…night…or day?”
“We will see, Sash…” Siraj’s body was rigid and stiff, with uncertainty trembling within him. “Come now, pull the two of them apart…it is sad to see such a young girl…”
“I agree…” Sachar’s words were spoken with an added chill as he bent down to do as he was told. His hands were tender as he pulled the girl’s limp form away from Shaan and her head lolled into his lap. With smooth motions, he let his fingers glide across her face, brushing her silky brunette hair away from her beautiful, but paling, features. “She’s so…pretty…like…death knocking at my door…”
Siraj was silent, his eyes milky like moonlight and his gaze soft as clear water. Morning light streamed in from the doorway and washed across his pale alabaster features and his long black eyelashes fluttered for a moment as the light poisoned him.
“Siraj…” Ara’s voice returned and he turned to eye the young girl that stood in the doorway, her body silhouetted by the bright light. Her blonde hair lashed about like the tendrils of a whip as an abrupt breeze overtook it. Her black eyes met Siraj’s and unspoken words filled the distance between them.
“We must hurry.” Siraj stated as he pulled his gaze from hers. “Before the students arrive, we must move…we must leave this place…and come again…”
“Yes…” Ara stepped in through the doorway and was followed by two more of Shaan’s replicas. “Sassy…Shan-shan…please, hurry.”
“Of course.” One of them spoke, his voice flooded with a sorrowful sound and an eerie touch accompanied the tone. “But Sassy is not a befitting sort of name for one of my sort, Ara…”
“Do not complain of little things when we face such as this…” Siraj hissed, his anger finally striking the air like a whip thrashing across the hide of a misbehaving beast. “Hurry while we have a chance…Sassacus and Shani…take this girl away while Ara, Sachar, and I dispose of our troublemaking brother…”
“As you desire,” Shani cooed, his red hair appearing ablaze as the sunlight lit it. “So shall it be done.”
Within minutes, the two had gathered the girl and were gone, vanished as vapors in the rising sun. Siraj scooped Shaan into his arms, his body moving more freely as if chains had fallen from his once-restricted form. Ara looked at him with expectations in her eyes as he started towards the doorway.
“Ara…” He whispered, his voice somewhere between life and death. “Go to school…Sachar…clean up this mess for our brother…he will pay for this deed another time…”
“So said, so done.” Sachar smiled, revealing long fangs.
“I will do as so wished.” Ara reassured the older.
“You are a good sister, Ara…” Siraj whispered. “Let us then part on these harsh words…”
“Let us.” Sachar bent again, his lips to the floor.
Siraj stared at his brother as Sachar lapped at the spilt blood on the floor, his tongue long and thin. Ara moved past her brother like a ghost passing a tombstone in a midnight cemetery. The moments passed briefly and then Siraj was bounding through the sky, the wind tearing across his face and pelting his features with a cold kiss. His clothes ruffled in the vibrant wind as the city blurred, with light reflecting off metal and glass becoming streaks of white lines. Shadows and light…shadows and light…
Eternally, I fly, my soul near escaping my body with each second ticking by. I can feel myself begging to be released from hell, but I dare not attempt a futile escape. I burn here and I beg to leave, but I have not the strength to attempt to escape myself…I cannot dare…I cannot win…not now…not yet…
“No…” Shaan’s voice rippled from Siraj’s chest where the boy’s head rested. “No…I did not kill her…she will seek revenge…they…them…they always do…she…she’s one of them…she’s…human…”
“She will forget.” Siraj reassured, his own voice fearful. “You fool…you fool…”
“She will not forget…” Shaan’s eyes opened into sorrowful slits as tears filled them. “I…I confessed love for her…and claimed what I was…and she begged…for me to…drink her blood…”
“Shaan…” Siraj’s feet landed softly upon the cement steps that lead to the porch of an old home. Calmly, he walked up the steps and onto the porch, his footsteps barely audible in the quiet morning. “You should know that humans can never be trusted…they that drink not blood…can never be trusted with this deeply kept secret…so foolish…she hates you…”
“I loved her…”
“Past tense…” Siraj lifted his hand and the door’s knob turned as the door opened. “We…we know not love anymore…we feel nothing…we want nothing…we’re dead…to ourselves and everyone else…”
“I don’t want to be dead and live…” Shaan whimpered as Siraj tiptoed upstairs. “I don’t want this…let us die and never live again…”
“Silence…” Siraj hissed. “Or you’ll wake our parents…and then they’ll know our dreadful secret…we must erase her memory…”
“Hers…” Shaan’s chin began to tremble. “Hers…you mean…Ciera…no…she…is…my dream…”
Siraj was quiet again as he entered Shaan’s bedroom. Gently, he laid the younger boy down on one of four beds that awaited inside the room. By the time Siraj had done so, the younger had fallen asleep, his red hair like blood dripping across his pale skin and the white pillow case that his head rested upon.
“Fool.” Siraj licked his lips. “You cannot…love…a dream…that will fade to fast to grasp…she will abandon you as Kaelin abandoned me…as we are all to be abandoned…by the ones we love…and the ones that once loved us…she…you…me…us…all of us…we fade…deeper into our lost souls…until the fire consumes us…how can you still hold onto a futile dream…”
“Ciera…” Shaan’s lips, thin and red like a trickle of blood, murmured, his face still passive in deep sleep.
Siraj turned on the toes of an angel even as his features contorted with the hate of a devil. “Fool.”
Sachar sat up, his empty eyes dazed as blood dripped from his chin and onto his black school uniform. The air felt heavy and hot as sunlight boiled across his pale skin. His hair dripped with sweat, blood, and saliva mingled together from wiping across the floor with the motion of his licking. A sound echoed across the floor and he turned his face to stare into the stunned features of a girl older than himself.
A scream lurched through the room and he perked as he realized that he was in the girl’s restroom.
“Are you all right?” The girl gasped, stepping forward and placing her hands upon his shoulders. The action startled him. “Is your mouth bleeding? Did some bullies take you in here?”
“No…” Sachar murmured, his lips buzzing with the taste of blood. “I don’t recall…anything…please…I just need to leave…”
“But…” The girl’s grip on his shoulders tightened. “You’re hurt…”
“This isn’t my blood…” Sachar stood, his body like a puppet held by strings as he moved away from her, her grasp slipping as she grew stiff with shock and fear. “Sorry…for making you…afraid…but…don’t fear for me…and don’t…fear me…”
He strode out of the restroom and felt the sun blaze across his skin, burning his eyes. Tucking his face deeper into himself, he forced himself to keep moving, his steps upon the cement heavy and stumbling. He had to keep moving…he had to get to school and forget the encounter that lay in waste behind him. He could not permit himself to remember…anything…anyone…anywhere…he had to forget that he was alive…he had to forget that he was dead…he had to…escape the future…a little longer…
Drift farther…these memories…that curse my mind…and intoxicate me…I have to push them farther away before…they drag me deep into an ocean of self-pity and helplessness…I have to…let them lose before they win…I have to win…and live…another day…another night…and view the sun…before I view the stars and moon…before I lose myself…to the past…that I try so hard to forget…
“Is that Sachar?” A girl’s voice squealed and his gaze shifted as his eyes gleamed across her features. “Oh! He looked at me! He’s so hot! I wish I could date him!”
“Are you sure that’s Sachar?” The girl beside her asked, her own face melting at the sight of him. “Maybe it’s Shani…or Sassacus…or Shaan…”
“Shaan would be with Ciera right now…” The first girl retorted. “And Sassacus is never without Shani…oh, it has to be Sachar! Sachar! Sachar! Please! Come over here!”
“No.” Sachar stated stiffly as he continued past them.
The girl let out a sad and disappointed sigh. “He’s just like them though: cold.”
“Too cold.”
Cold as the tears of a corpse…
He ignored them. He had to escape again…the encounter with them was one of chills and remembrance…he hated that he had to remember…that he could no longer love the human race as he had…once upon a time…in a dream…
“Shani!” Another girl squealed, mislabeling him for one of his other brothers.
He knew that they loved him. He knew that they wanted him…to hold them tight…to feel his arms around them…to let his breath to float down their throats as he kissed them…but they did not want his fangs to sink deep into that place…that vulnerable place there at their throat…where he could lap their blood with ease…
“You.” A male voice startled him and his gaze floated upward to meet the stern gaze of an older student. “You should acknowledge a girl when she calls you.”
“She didn’t call me.” Sachar’s eyes gleamed with malice and mischief. “She called me brother…I am Sassacus.”
“Really?” The older glared at him. “No one can tell you four apart. You should just let a girl know when she’s said the wrong name.”
“She’s called for Shani.”
“Who has called for me?” Sassacus’ voice dripped with a sly fox-like nature as he strode up beside his look-alike. “I am Shani.”
“A girl called for you.” The older boy swallowed hard. “I was just telling Sassacus here that you all look alike so you should just tell a girl when she gets a name wrong…don’t you think that is fair?”
“No.” Sassacus stated sternly. “A person should just know that the name is wrong. They should know whom they are talking to…they should know…by now…”
“Perhaps, you should learn as well…” Shani murmured, placing his arm around Sachar’s shoulders. “I am Shaan.”
The boy eyed them suspiciously. “How do I know you aren’t just pulling my leg?”
“What’s your impression?” Sassacus asked, his voice deep and dark. “Who do you think we are?”
The boy shook his head as he turned away. “I’m not getting involved in that.”
“Fine…” Shani cooed. “Run away…coward…”
The boy stopped and cast them all a firm angry look before he came back to them, his pride obviously dented. “Fine. I think, you’ve all mixed it up. Who’s who?”
“I am Shaan.” Sassacus grinned.
“I am Sassacus.” Shani added, his eyes coy.
“And I am Sachar.” Sachar did not lie.
“Then…” The boy’s brows pinched in confusion. “Then where is Shani.”
“Right here.” Shani pointed to his chest with a dramatic sweep of his arm.
“But I thought…” The boy paused as his face grew angrier. “Don’t mess with me.”
“I am Sassacus.” Sassacus finally admitted.
“And I really am Sachar.” Sachar shrugged off Shani’s arm. “That is the truth. Now, leave us alone.”
“Then is…Shaan…” The boy asked, his voice confused.
“He is sick…” Sachar stated as he moved farther away from the boy. “He is in bed…sick…as he should be for what he did…what he has done…”
“What the hell?” The boy whipped around and glared at Sachar. “That sounded evil! Don’t you think you shouldn’t wish bad things on your brother?”
“He deserved it.”
“Still…”
“Don’t meddle in our affairs.” Sachar hissed as he turned to scowl at the boy, his hair blazing back and around in the sweeping motion. His eyes were stripped of innocence as only anger and hatred filled them with a fire only a dead soul could express. In that single action, he poisoned the boy with a curse that could never truly be understood. “We are nothing. We want nothing more from you.”
The boy stepped back, shock on his face. “Huh?”
Sachar turned again and began to walk away, Shani on one side of him and Sassacus on the other. He felt as if the school belonged to him then…in a strange way…it belonged to him, the entire campus staring at him in awe as if he was their king as his brothers became his body guards that would protect him with their life. Girls gawked at his elegance, at the flaming red of his hair and the brilliance of his dying eyes. He could see their admiration as they stared upon his placid features and beauty that radiated with a fading light. He was their momentary king…
I am their king…I am their admired one. I am the loved one…for the time being…until my light has faded to nothing more than a dead star…I will be their light…their source of brilliance and temporary warmth as my own heat fades to nothing more than the chill of dead skin…
Ara stood just inside of her elementary school’s entrance, her feet planted upon the ground as if they were glued to the floor. Girls passed her by, their glances smug and hateful, but boys kept winking in her direction.
“This is an elementary school…” She whispered to herself, finally lifting her feet and moving down the hallway. “We are not supposed to love yet…not supposed to…feel yet…I want…nothing more…than to slip farther from here…yet, boys…they act like they love…when they haven’t the faintest idea…”
“You’re looking as pretty as ever.” A boy commented, his eyes sly as he stared at her. “You’re still in fifth grade, right?”
“Yes and I’m too young to date.” Ara managed to keep her voice from trembling with the hollow reverberation of death. “You’re in the sixth grade, right?”
“I am.” The boy grinned coyly. “I dated in the third grade so I don’t see why you’re too young.”
“My brother will kill you and eat you for dinner.” Ara’s voice did not waver from that serious tone and the boy stepped back in shock as she moved past him and into her classroom.
Sitting down in her seat, she gazed out the window only long enough for her eyes to hurt with the brilliance of the sun. She could not imagine lasting much longer this way. How could the sun, a light she had endured for so long, suddenly be so painful for her? She had loved it then, frolicking in the brilliance of a radiant summer day, but now all she could think about was escaping it…she loved winter now when the day’s light ended sooner and started later…and when she could imagine that her world was darker than it could ever be…
“Soon…” Her lips whispered. “Soon…my night shall come…”
“Ara!” A girl hollered, running up to her and sitting down in front of her. “Hey! Let’s hang out at lunch recess today.”
“No.” Ara looked down at her desk. “I don’t want to.”
“But…” The girl’s lips trembled. “We were good friends last year! Let’s still be friends!”
“No.” Ara shook her head. “I already said…I don’t want to. I don’t want friends.”
“Why?” The girl squealed. “Why? I want to be your friend! Did I do something bad? I did, didn’t I? I want to be your friend!”
“I don’t want any friends!” Ara yelled, drawing the attention of the teacher. “I don’t want anyone around me!”
“What’s going on, Ara?” The teacher asked, moving towards the girls, her gaze worried. “What’s wrong, Carol?”
“Ara says she doesn’t want to be my friend anymore.” Carol cried.
“That’s not a nice thing to say, Ara.” The teacher scolded, her face growing strict. “You should be nice and play with Carol.”
“I don’t want to.” Ara’s voice was harsh as she let her gaze slam into the teacher’s. “I don’t want any friends.”
“Why?” The teacher asked, trying to put on a professional front. “Did Carol do anything wrong?”
“It’s me…” Ara murmured, her voice becoming a hush. “Summer…became…a dream…and I lost to it…now…I cannot have friends…they…came…to me…this summer…a dream…they…a dream…I forgot how to have friends…because of…them…”
The teacher’s face contorted in horror. “Have you seen a therapist or anyone? Maybe, I should take you to the nurse’s office.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Siraj’s voice brought Ara’s eyes to him. He stood close to them, his presence chilling the air. “We have already made arrangements. Our family is going through some difficulties. Please, if Ara acts out strangely, know that we are working around it. There is no need to overreact. That will only cause further difficulties.”
“Who are you?” The teacher asked with worry on her features.
“I am Siraj, Ara’s older brother.” The boy responded, his gaze shifting to his sister’s for a moment. “My parents were busy and I had a bad feeling that something like this would occur so I came here…to make sure that you did not respond in an ill manner. Please, pardon my sister. I must go. Good-bye.”
With a single twist of his body, Siraj stalked away and disappeared.
“Your brother is so cute!” Carol giggled with excitement in her voice. “I call dibs!”
“My brother isn’t for sale.” Ara stated factually. “He wants to be alone too.”
The teacher stared at Ara in concern and confusion for a prolonged moment and then she placed her hands on Carol’s shoulders. “Come dear, let’s leave Ara alone for now. She seems to want it.”
“But…” Carol complained.
The bell rang and, for the time being, settled the issue of Ara’s unfriendliness, but she knew that this would not last long. Soon, Carol would cry for her attention again…
I want to be alone…so that the cold of my coming winter can envelop me without harming anyone too close to heart. My brothers…they can take it…they can handle the pain of that piercing driving snow, but she…Carol…she cannot…she can’t understand the pain…of that ice…stabbing into her…poor pathetic body…she can’t…understand…how that feels…nor can she…fight it long enough…to survive…
Siraj opened the classroom door and slipped inside, knowing that every student in that room was speculating his every move. He wanted to run from their gazes, but he had to stay and learn whatever it was that the adults of the human world wished for him to learn. He had to let them study him as he studied what they wished him to. There was no escape…not yet…
“Siraj.” A male his own age came to him and sat beside him despite the look that Siraj cast him. “Hey, long time no talk…want to hang out? Ben and I bought some really hot magazines I think you’d be interested in. We could enjoy that…and the booze he managed to get his hands on…it’s nice stuff too…”
“I don’t want to.” Siraj stated, staring at the blackboard even though class had yet to start. “I have to study.”
“Since when was school such a big deal to you?” The male gave Siraj a bitter look. “You’ve really changed over summer, you know. When did school ever matter that much to you?”
“I have plans now.” Siraj stated. “Though…they probably won’t last long…”
What are plans when the rest of the world will change before they come about? My dreams fade faster with ever second ticking by…
“You should just enjoy life a bit before the real world hits you.” The boy continued, wrinkling his nose at Siraj and the idea that Siraj had planted in his head. “Come on. A little porn and a little booze would cheer you up. You act as if your dog just died.”
“No…” Siraj sighed, his gaze finally reaching out to the boy. “I am the one who died…”