Midnight rose





Chapter 1






Raven black hair shimmering in the moonlight, I started to run. Not knowing were I was going and not caring either. All I knew was that I had to get away. Away from every thing. All of the sudden, something started to creep over my foot, and grabbed hold. Sweeping me off my feet, I stupidly fell for a sinister trap. Hanging upside down, vines, twigs and foliage of all kind started to encase my being. The vines suppressed my horrified screams, and then there was nothing.







I awoke in a cold sweat. I could feel the wrath of vine harshly caressing my waist and as soon as the feeling arrived, it left. I shoved off the sheets which I had tangled around my body by tossing through the wretched dream and realizing the reality of the situation. I was in no black walnut forest but in my oak-furnished bedroom on the third floor of the apartment on maple street. Shaking my head, I took my ivory comb that my mother had to pry out of my great grandmothers dead hands and started to brush. Taking the steps two at a time, I descended to the cellar and gave Hercules ( my dog ) Some of his Pup Chow@ brand dog food. He whimpered when moth balls fell from the bag ( I figured dogs aren’t meant to eat EVERY day, so he could skip at least one breakfast.) Back up the stairs and I saw a furious flash of disoriented colors. I took a step forward and my younger brother, Forest, careened off my foot and went sprawling down the cellar stairs.

I shrieked at the picture of the 9 year old. His foot was horribly twisted and his back, in no position for a living human.

All of the sudden, the creature who was most definitely dead, started to stretch, and contort into human form... Wait, CONTORTED? That reminded me. My brother, the human rubber band was a CONTORTIONIST. He took his usual shape as the annoying twerp and started his daily ritual. That being his unearthly giggles of enjoyment.























Chapter 2

Jerk! And away I flew. I went to the kitchen and helped myself to the last piece of cold chicago style pizza. That was one of the huge benefits of living in chicago. My cell phone went off as I headed to the bus stop. The text read: HI! DONT 4GET UR BUS PASS! That was right, I had forgotten my bus pass on my bureau top, and that could only mean one thing.

“ Faith! Come out from behind my dads bushes or you better believe he’ll murder you.”

I could hear suppressed chortling behind my dads first prize winning bushes. The next thing I saw was blonde hair bobbing between my dads ‘swans in love’ shrub.

“ You, my friend suck. How'd you know I was here?” Laughed Faith.
“It was easy! Any one could see YOU'RE hair; It’s so blonde Its almost white!”

After a few playful shoves, we headed to school.





















Chapter 3

The bus was always late. So we always went to the bus stop late. Today however, was right on time, which was unusual. Our bus driver was known to all of the kids on his bus as a drug addict
(His nickname being, ‘Phil with a pill’ ). At least that's how it seemed. He drove like a maniac.


“Well this is odd, you’re on time today Phil!” I said with so much sarcasm piled on, it seemed impossible for a 3-year-old to take me seriously.


“ I KNOW right?” He replied, ignoring the sarcasm. “I got up early, put on ‘Ode to Lumberjacks’ cologne and felt so amazingly great, that instead of watching my 2 hours of early “What not to wear”, I jumped in the ol’ bus and just... drove.” He said with a dreamy look in his harshly green eyes.

“ Well, at least we didn’t have to wait half an hour for pill boy to show up.” Faith murmured to me.

“ Well, move it!” said Phil. “I still need to get Will!”

Will. The single most gorgeous 13 year old in the world.
( Sure, not the world, but the seventh grade, no competition. ) Will, had always been nice to me and my friends. He has beautiful, shiny chestnut hair, with creamy brown eyes to match. He was sporty, with immensely tan skin. ( Probably from playing soccer all day long. ) He wasn’t thin, he wasn’t fat, he was, simply put, perfect.

“Nikki. Niiiiikkii. NIKKI!!” Yelled Faith. “ Move already!!
Sometimes, I wonder what goes on in your head!”

“S-s-sorry.” I stuttered. “ Just off in thought.”
Faith muttered something under her breath and sat down in an empty seat. Following her, I plopped down with a dreamy sigh.

“ Here we go! Hold on kiddies!” Yelled Phil.

The bus jolted to life and screamed down the road. Thick black streaks of rubber followed the vehicle.
“ Rounding the corner!” He laughed maniacally.

We all groped for the seats and held on for dear life. I, being too busy thinking about Will, forgot to hang on and was thrown into the next seat over.

“ Aaaaaaaaand....BRAKE!” Screamed Phil. I hadn’t recollected yet, and slammed into the seat in front of me.

“ Owww... I moaned.” I think my back is broken.”
All of the sudden, the doors hissed open and The god walked in.

“ Hey, Philip.” Will said with a smile like shiny pearls. “ You seem well. Although you could do well to slow down a tad.”

“ Hey hey hey, don’t call me, “Philip”. I’m good with Phil. YOU could do well to sit down, and not comment on my driving, Mr. Big fat heartthrob. He he he.. I’m just pulling your leg. Now sit down. He he he....” Rambling as usual, Phil slammed on the gas as soon as Will approached my seat.

“ Woah! “ Exclaimed Will, and he slammed into my seat. “ Aw, geez! I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

I slammed my head into the seat, window and into my crush. I wasn’t sure what to say.

“ I’m fine. “ Was all I could manage.

“ Hey, I know you! Um.. Nikki, right? Yeah! Man, I saw that paper you wrote, and let me tell you, you have a serious gift. “
His teeth shined when he smiled. I love it when that happens.

“ Thanks... I saw your math grade, on that test? 105. Wow, that was cool.. ”

“ You know it!” And he turned away, not planning to speak again.



















Chapter 4


The rest of the day was uneventful. Besides the fact I failed my math homework and I met a strange group of kids. I was at my locker and they just strolled up to me.

“ My names Jared. We are new and we were hoping you would help us around school”


I agreed, and I got to know their names. There was 5 in total. Jared, he was like the leader. Then there was Roy and Evan. They were like Jared's little henchmen, just following him around, grunting occasionally. Lastly, there was Ebonie and Aliza. They were there mostly because of Jared, or so they said.

“We like hanging out with Jared because he’s nice to us. He’s very quite ...” Said Ebonie

“And mysterious!” Giggled Aliza.













Chapter 5
I left them to their admiration and dodged them for the rest of the day. As soon as I got home however, nothing seemed normal.

“ Were going out! Be back at whenever!” That was my mom and dad. I didn’t even get to say goodbye before they were gone.

Well, all the better, I told myself. Total freedom for however many hours.
I immediately turned on MTV and gorged myself on leftover pizza and Orange soda.
I decided to call Faith. While yammering on to faith about my good luck, the door bell rang.

“ Just a sec- the door bell rang. I’M COMING!”
I fantasized about Will, coming to my door, on a white chariot, to carry me away.
But oddly enough, It was Jared. Suddenly, the lights flickered and blew out all together. A flurry of colors flashed towards me. Then I heard Jared whisper something in my ear.

“ I’m sorry.”














Chapter 6


The last thing I remember, is that I was on the ground, breathing heavily and I had a throbbing pain in my neck. I vaguely remember Jared in my house, But then, all is blank.

“ Oh, My head...” I moaned. I reached around and rubbed my neck- and quickly pulled it back.

“ Blood... Did I get hit with something? No, wait.” I felt it again. More blood, I shuddered.

“ Did something puncture me? Did something go into my neck?” That’s all that was said, because after that, I passed out.







* * * * * * * * * *


“ Nicole... Nikki.... Wake up, Nikki!”

“Huh...? My, bed. My room...”

“ Yes, your room. Wake up or you’ll be late for school!” Exclaimed my mom in a rather tired-sounding tone.



“ Mom? B-b-b-but, my neck!” I sat up strait in my bed. “ Last night! You, a-a-a-and dad, were gone! And Then, Jared!..... J-j-jared?” I could tell that I was making no sense to my mom.

“ You don’t feel warm... Maybe you should stay home today. get some rest. Then you can explain what happened last night.” She stood up with a sigh and left my room with a worried look etched all across her face.

As soon as she was gone, I laid down and tried to relax. My eyes grew wide, and I quickly felt my neck, groping to feel any sort of dent. I gasped, because there it was.

“ S-s-so, it wasn’t a dream after all, I’m not going crazy!” I smiled with relief. But it quickly disappeared. Even though a great weight was lifted off my shoulders knowing I’m not crazy, I now knew that something wasn’t right And I didn’t get this mark on my neck because I fell. I didn’t have the answers I needed, but I knew that If I was persistent, I could squeezed them out of a certain somebody.















Chapter 7

The next day, I had my mom drive me to school, because I wouldn’t be able to stomach the bus. When I got to school, I got my things out of my locker, and waited. I knew if I waited, Jared would show up.

“ Well well well, Jared.... “ I smirked as he and his posse showed up. “ You know? I was feeling rather... Strange this morning. Do you know why? “


“ I-I-I don’t know what you are talking about.” He stuttered nervously.

Sure, play the innocent card, I thought to myself. You stuttered, I know you know something.

“ Really? Well, isn’t that strange? Because, I felt strange after you came to my house, and my light bulbs burnt out. All. At. Once. Strange huh?” I had to be suspicious. It was my only hope to get the answers I needed.

“ Look, now isn’t the time. Give me more time!” His eyes seemed to plead mercy. They overpowered me.

“ Fine. Later then.” And I walked away.












Chapter 8


So I waited. And waited. And Waited so much, that I thought nothing would ever happen. When WAS the time? Is it going to happen? I when home straight after school and started my algebra.


“ Let’s see... y times x plus v divided by 2 if x equals 7, and what alien mutant brain would know this?” I started to get frustrated, so I set it aside to listen to my Ipod. As soon as I sat down however, I had a sudden hunger. I tossed aside my Ipod and jumped down the stairs. I looked into my fridge, but nothing appealed to me. Except for... I grabbed the meat drawer, and tenderly picked up the pound of lean hamburger meat. I slowly ripped open the packaging, and hardly believing what I was about to do, I plunged my hand into the bloody meat. I Grabbed a hunk of it and shoved it into my mouth. Blood dripped down my chin, but I didn’t care. This was the best thing I had eaten in ages. I kept eating and I couldn’t stop. It was as if something had possessed me. I clutched the meat as though some unseen force would take it away from me before I could finish. As I started to scrape another chunk, the window flew open, and there stood jared.

“ Good. If you hadn’t found something to eat, you would have starved.” He said, looking at the blood dripping down my neck.

I stood staring at him, swallowed, wiped my face and spoke.

“ You did this to me didn’t you?”

“ Yes. It is my fault that you are like this. But I can explain everything. “ He replied.

“ You. You turned me into this, this monster!” I screamed and threw the rest of the hamburger to his feet.

“ Unfortunately. Yes, I did, as I already said.” He said as he reached for the meat. “ You don’t realize, that I, However mean, or cruel, I might seem now, I am on your side.”

“ Oh, yeah right!” I retorted. “ You say that, yet somehow, you turned me into this freakish, mutant, VAMPIRE!”

He stared into my eyes for a long time. After what seemed like forever, he spoke.
“ Yes. That’s precisely what you are now. Were you chosen especially? No. Would it have mattered if you didn’t turn into a vampire? No. Is there a reason you are a vampire? Yes.”

“So, wait, It wouldn’t have mattered if I wasn’t turned into a vampire? Then why did you change me? Did you think I might like being a blood sucking monster?” My tone grew quieter, but I was quickly filling with untamable rage.



“ No, but you will become use to it. By my honor, you will.”

“ Your HONOR?” I snorted. “ How’d you GET your honor? By ruining 13 year olds life's? THAT is some pretty crummy honor.”

“ I’m Sorry. there is nothing more I can do. You must grasp your fate with the best disposition.”

I slowly sank to the kitchen floor, and started to cry. Large, unhappy tears, and I sat here until I heard a whoosh, and Jared, was gone, into the night.






















Chapter 9

Over the next few months, I accepted my unfair fate. I knew It wasn’t given by greatness or bravery, but I took it as it was. I was forever more, a vampire.