Prologue

Have you ever gotten up and your vision suddenly went black? It’s HER. She’s temporarily blinding you…making sure you don’t see her, she’s stealing a memory…she feeds off them and devours them. You poor thing, won’t even know what you lost and you won’t even see her coming.

   1.
    Just a dream

I wake with a start, chocolate brown eyes going wide and heart beating loud in my chest like a drumbeat. 
   It’s just a dream…just a dream Katya…remember deep breaths…

Sitting up and raking a hand through my brown locks, I turn so my legs now dangle over the edge of my bed.

For a second my vision blinks in and out of existence almost like I was fading in and out of existence, I screw my eyes shut, hands clutching at my sides – tangling into the bed sheets as I take another deep breath and when I open my eyes again that hazy feeling is gone.

After I’m dressed and out of bed, I head downstairs, a pair of black ripped jeans and a gray tank top cling to my body. As I’m nearing the kitchen I hear voices so I assume my family’s up. Before I make it down there I stop by one of the mirrors in the stairway, catching my reflection’s eyes as my gaze is briefly drawn to a small bump growing on my neck under my hairline I hadn’t noticed before…odd I shake off the feeling before I enter the kitchen where it seems as though that is where everyone is gathered.

“Hey Enia” I smirk as I twist myself around my younger sister, using her nickname as a point to irritate her.

“You know my name is Ksenia so say it right” She frowns at me

“Now, now girls” It’s my father, Alistair that interjects our conversation, my mother Celine (or CeCe as we call her) just smiling to herself as she watches her family squabble – just a usual day.

“What?” I grin, popping a piece of toast in my mouth

“Aren’t you going to be late for school Kat?” My mother asks, a knowing smirk on her lips.

“I’ve still got time-” I answer with a little smirk to mirror hers.

“Anyways, Ember and Soren are gonna be here soon and then I’ll be off” I finish with a little shrug, another usual thing for us. My best friends and I always walk to school.

Almost as soon as I say that the doorbell rings and I grab my bag, walking to answer it. It’ll be Ember and Soren without a doubt here to walk me to school. It had to be. Yet when I open the door it’s some old guy, he looks at me, a grin splitting his features and making him seem vile as he puts a hand on my shoulder, gripping it tight – too tight I realize with a gasp.

“Don’t…trust…the moon, or her defender” He rasps out, uncomfortably close to me, so close I can smell his putrid breath

“Get off me!”

My shouting must have been heard because immediately my parents are there, my dad pushes the old man off of me, and my mother moves – swift and elegant in front of me so I cant see what’s going on with them but it’s not like I want to.

“Kat, text your friends. You aren’t walking, not if he’s out there. I will drive you, after we drop off your sister first”

I want to argue but I know better, no part of me wants to walk if he’s still out there and other people just as crazy as he was or at least seemed to be, so rather than answer I simply nod my head.

“Are you alright darling?” She pulls me in for a hug, and I just stay there, feeling safe in her welcoming arms.

“Come on, Enia”

I push past them, with my bag still on my shoulder I stalk out to the car, anxious to get out of here.

   2.
    A haunting nightmare like a melody

“Kat, Kat, Kat!” My little sister repeats, nudging the back of my seat repeatedly until I whirl around, my auburn hair whipping around with me.

“What!?”

“What’d you dream about?” She leans forward in her seat a bit and out of the corner of my eye I could have sworn that I saw my mother sit up a bit, which I didn’t think twice of at the time.

“Kat-!“
Her broken voice rang in my ears, an echo to haunt for all eternity

I shake my head, the vision disappearing

“Nothing” I answer bluntly, Ksenia frowns, opening her mouth like she’s going to say more but luckily before she can my mom pulls into her school. I smirk and look back at her.

“Have a good at school, Enia” I say, that smirk still on my lips

“Yea, yea. Love you mom, bye Kat-Kat” She retaliates with the nickname she knows I hate

As she leaves, walking to her class my mom drives off, I lean back in my seat, simply thinking.

“Are you alright dearie?”

“ ‘M fine mom” I mumble

“If it makes any difference don’t think about that man, he’s just some old loon, you know the town is full of them”

I nod, though something in my brain screams at me to not listen.

For a while I’m left to my own thoughts, my daydreams as I watch the scenery pass me by outside, before long however we’re at school.
The letters ‘Fortuna high’ flash past as we drive by the sign outside school.

“Have a nice day sweetheart”
My mother says with a smile, almost too big a smile for someone like her – painted smile more like it.

“Yea, yea” I murmur, getting out of the car as I walk inside, immediately brown hues finding Ember’s gray ones and Soren’s baby blue ones, I sprint to catch up with them, my shoes making little soft thumps as I move.

“Hey, Kat, why didn’t you meet us? We were going to wait for you, silly kitty, where were you?” Ember inquires, using the childish nickname she used when we were kids.

“Just some trouble…I’m fine thanks for asking, sorry. Here now though” I paint a smile onto my lips – hopefully a convincing one I think to myself

I stop talking when Ember starts to talk again, Soren staying to the side quiet but listening as always but I’m not listening, not anymore. My eyes land on Ember’s neck, there’s a small bump there that almost reminds me of the one I saw earlier today and I frown.

The whole school day seems to pass me by like a blur, faces and words and sayings fading in and out, the end of the day cant come soon enough.

   3.
    Never trust a friend

When it’s the end of the day and boy am I glad when it’s actually the end of the day I walk to my locker, eyes on the floor as I walk, my mood for talking with people suddenly zapped from me; all I wanted to do was go home and curl up in bed maybe with a good book or just nap.

When I’m at my locker though, gathering my things into my bag Ember and Soren walk up – almost choreographed I can’t help but think to myself.

“Where’re you going silly kitty?” Em asks with that same unnaturally cheerful smile that gave me Goosebumps and I noticed that the bump I’d noticed earlier on her neck was also on Soren’s.

“Home…?”

“Course you’re not going home, we’ve got some fun things planned, don’t we Soren?” Considering he doesn’t talk too much he only gives a small not in answer to ember.

“Like what?”

“You’ll see” The way she speaks, the way she sounds when saying that does nothing to help my anxiety at this whole situation.

She links her arm with mine, I sling my book bag over my shoulder, quickly texting my mom

Going to walk home with the buds.
Be home soon
-kitty kat

I pressed the off button, however not before noticing the name I had for my mother on my phone, thinking of the old man’s at the time seemingly bonkers rantings but quickly I slip it into my pocket as I walked with both Soren and Ember to god knows where.

“Where’re we going anyway, Em? I think I get to know that at least, don’t you think?” I ask after quite too long a time in my opinion of radio silence on everyone’s part.

“Some place fun” She answers, I couldn’t help but notice how…focused she looked and for what, I didn’t know – although soon I’d find out.

   4.
    My spinning surroundings

As we neared the destination the sound of rhythmic beating reaches my ears, and I know where it is we’re going. We’re going to Euphoria one of the most famous nightclubs near our school though we are all too young to get it, you have to be at the very least 21, yet here are a bunch of 17 year olds all walking up to the bouncer, two of the three confident and the third (me) awkwardly shuffling behind.

“ID?” The bouncer asks, surprisingly not eying both ember and Soren but yet he’s eying me.

I’m about to open my mouth to say ‘I’m not of age, neither of them are either…can I go now?’ but before I even have the chance Ember speaks for me – big surprise there

She leans closer to the bouncer, having to stand on her tip-toes in order to whisper something into the man’s ear that I don’t catch but whatever it is she said seemed to work because he steps back, allowing us – mainly me, entrance into the club.

As I follow them in I cant help but notice that this guy too…he’s got one of those bumps…what the hell were those? Why did so many people seem to have them? Did it have anything to do with that crazy man?

Inside, the music is loud, the strobe lighting is giving me a headache and as I turn, the world – the room seems to turn with me, everything seems out of proportion or way too vibrant or loud or something of the sort.

There’s Ember again, she’s pulling me toward the bar, placing a drink into my hand and giving me a look, urging me to drink it.

“Em…” I pause, something about this…about everything was getting to me and I’d only been in here, what, all of five seconds? 

What the hell was happening?

“Em…what is that? What is this place...?”

Instead of answering any of those questions she simply thrusts the drink into my hand and continues to urge me to drink it.

Succumbing to all the other people drinking and having fun, I down my drink, giving the now empty glass to Ember. Almost as soon as I drink it, the whole room – the whole situation seems to go in slow motion, when I turn, everything goes in slow motion (or at least to me it seems it does), my feet seem clunky and too big and I almost trip from just standing still alone but then there’s Ember’s hands on her arm to steady me but she’s grinning.

“You’ll get the hang of it, just give it time” I hear her saying, although to me it sounds distant…almost far away

The rest of the night passes in a blur, a blur of faces, feelings…hands and too many emotions and things to remember, all of them blurring in and out of focus. Oh god who am I anymore?

By the time I get home it’s late, the moon is high in the sky setting an almost eerie glow as I open the back door as quietly as I can although I cant do anything as it creaks loudly and I pause, holding my breath. Not hearing anything I continue to creep up to my room.

I crawl into bed and soon sleep takes control of me, a black dark embrace that hugs me close as everything goes black. 

5.
    The end is here

I woke up to hear knocking on glass. At first, I thought it was the window and maybe Ember coming back for whatever reason at least I thought that until I heard it again…that’s when I realized it was coming from the mirror and not the window.

I walk to the long mirror in my room, heart racing, footsteps both seem so far away…so faint.
I stare at my reflection for awhile until it moves…it turns whereas I’m standing still – frozen

It frowns, crossing it’s arms and frowning at me.

“You poor child…”
“W-what?”
My voice sounds hoarse, like it’s not my voice

Suddenly my reflection blurs, blinking in and out of existence and suddenly it’s my mom’s reflection in the mirror – except her mouth is full of sharp shark teeth and her eyes are red.

“M-Mom-?”

The reflection walks out, stroking my check and lightly brushing against a spot on my neck that’s up by my hairline – the spot I keep seeing on all the other people! I realize with a start but it causes me to gasp, pain shooting up the area where it was touched as I sit up in my bed somehow in my Pjs, body covered in a sheen layer of sweat and as I reach up to brush my hair back which had started to clot and hang over my eyes when my fingers accidently brush a spot on my neck – that was getting…bigger?

How the hell was that possible?

Immediately there are people in the door and someone rushes over to me, it’s my mom.

She brushes my hair back and for a second I swear I see a look of longing…either that or hunger flash across her expression and I scoot back on my bed, curled up and terrified.

“Y-You get back-!” I pause as my dad enters the room, breathing heavily but yet seeming to look menacing at the same time and I scoot even further back

“Y-you too!” I shout scuttling off the bed.

“Kat, darling what is going on with you?”

I frown at my mom, my gaze still disoriented, having to blink a lot of times to get their faces alone to swim into focus, somehow they don’t seem that surprised at how…drunk I seem.

“You tell me! You blood sucking bastards! Explain why almost everyone even Enia and my friends at school have the bumps under their neck even I do for hell’s sake!” I shout, brushing my hair back dramatically to show the bump, which I catch a glimpse of in the mirror and somehow…I don’t know how…but it’s bigger now.

“How the hell – what the hell are you guys? What’s going on? Why are you the only ones I’ve seen that don’t have the marks!? Even the bouncer who I’ve never met before had the freaking bump but you don’t, why!?”

I didn’t even mention how my mind was screaming more and more questions at them but it wont seem to form into words
Did the unease have anything to do with them? With all of this? Did the fact that my vision was all screwed up play with this or was it thanks to our little ‘fun time’ with my friends?

“Oh honey this wasn’t how we wanted you to find out…” It’s my dad this time who speaks.

His voice seems even further away, shaking my head and screwing my eyes shut the next time I open them, I see both my parents except they aren’t them…I mean they are, but both have a mouth full of shark teeth and red eyes

Like in my dream
I think to myself with a sinking feeling in my gut.

“Get the hell away from me!”
I reach over, grabbing the first thing that was on my night-table which happened to be one of my many, many books and I throw it at them, making a dash for the door, claws…freaking claws of all things grab me, scratching my arm and I scream and kick back at whichever of them are holding me back – literally.

Whichever of them it was they fall back with a screech and I run down the hall to my sister’s room, shutting the door and locking it as I catch my breath only to come face to face with Ksenia who’s staring at me with wide terrified gunmetal blue hues.

“K-Kat what the hell is going on!? Where are mom and dad? What’s going on? Whe-“ I cut her off, forgetting about the door for a second as I speedily close the distance between us, putting a hand on her arm and that’s when she sees my scratch that’s deeper than I originally thought, it was dripping crimson leaving a trail from the door to her bed.

“KAT! What did that to you!?”

I feel woozy, too much blood loss I guess but she seems to know what to do even if she’s only twelve, immediately rushing into action – whereas I collapse onto her bed she goes rifling under her bed that she always jokes about there being monsters under there, coming out with some gauze which she promptly wraps around the injured arm

“Keep that there, it should help at least a little until we get somewhere safe…will you answer any of my questions? Please?”

I open my mouth, prepared to tell her what I think. What I saw – but there’s knocking on the door, no. Not knocking but pounding, banging on the door and my father’s attempt at a sweet voice, which ultimately fails

“Kat…Enia…do come out please, we have a treat for you”

I grab Enia’s hand with my good arm, looking around the room and seeing no possible means for escape except for of course her window I rush over, propping it over and calling her over

“Enia, hurry. Crawl out, promise I’ll be right behind you” I whisper hurriedly to her and she does exactly that, I prop her out the window and I soon follow, we sprint to the school, I don’t know why but it was the only place I could think of. Yet somehow when I get there, Ember’s here…and Soren too…I clutch my younger sister’s hand closer, keeping her safe.

“About time darlings” She grins, which only makes that sinking feeling in  my gut get worse but I ignore it for now.
For the first time in what seems like forever Soren actually speaks

“Come inside those things are out there, we know” His voice is raspy…something which isn’t what I imagined, it didn’t seem to fit him but oh well.

“H-How-?” I start to inquire but Ember actually places a finger on my lips, giving me a look and starts to pull us inside and I have no choice but to follow, Enia follows me slowly.  Just like you’d think, the school is even creepier during the nighttime when it’s almost empty…except for the odd light coming from the gym…

“What’s that?” I ask, gesturing with my head.

“The survivors”

I open my mouth to ask what Soren meant by that but then of all times my phone, which I’d forgotten, was still shoved in my Pj pocket buzzed, I take it out and turn it on seeing a text from my dad.

come home darling
or we’ll come find you
  -her defender

How had I never noticed that? The names they’d put in my phone for their names.

Then I remembered my previous question for Soren.

“What do you mean, the survivors?”

I look up from my phone now to see that my friends were no longer themselves…just like my parents they were now grinning at me with a mouth full of shark teeth and red eyes.

“ENIA RUN!” I scream, pushing her toward the gym and we immediately jump to action, suddenly the sound of feet thumping and hearts racing extremely loud in my ears as I continue to grip my sister’s hand as we run, the darkness of the school at night seeming to reach out and grip us and make this situation even worse but yet nothing jumps out.

When we reach the gym, I push open the doors, light flooding us and I cant help but let go of Ksenia’s hand to shield my eyes and out of the corner of my eye I see her do the same. Looking around, the world, the situation seeming to happen in slow motion I see that the gym was full of students, some dead, entrails, blood and guts staining the floor scarlet and some of the other students sucking on their necks

In the same spot as the bumps!

I realize with a gasp as my hand goes to my neck, the bump still there and as I grab for my sister I hear a piercing shriek! And nothing, I whirl around in time to see the doors open and Em and Soren feeding over the unblinking, unstaring eyes of my little sister.

I cant get air…what is air? I cant breathe, everything is far away…it doesn’t matter now…it doesn’t – she’s gone. I start to cry, hyperventilating as tears stream down my face and suddenly my mom and dad walk through the same doors, the scene of my little sister being drained…I realize fades to background as I watch my parents, still looking terrifying

“What are you..?”

It’s my mom who answers me, elegant still as usual I notice.

“We are the Vaym my little Kat, we feed on your memories, we did it to you since you could dream, for you and your sister both. It’s something in our venom that was doing that to you, we didn’t know you’d go and get yourself drunk at some bar with Em here, she was good at her role wasn’t she?” My mother sneers at me, a deadly look.

They all seem to close in, I feel trapped

As I’m probably meant to
I think to myself

“That man, that man who was at our door ranting about the moon and her defender that was you two all along wasn’t it?” I ask slowly almost dreading the answer I’d figured it out a long time ago, Celine my mother was the moon and Alistair, my father was her defender.

“A problem we took care of” my father answers with an equally deadly sneer

One of them jumps, lunges more like it before I have a chance to answer and I cant keep track of which of them is which anymore and I let it attack me, tired of fighting as my vision fades to black, the last thing my chocolate hues see before my vision is taken over by the inky blackness is the cold unblinking, unmoving stare of my sister’s gunmetal blue eyes, a hand outstretched as if she were reaching for me, a single trail of blood from her forehead.

  I’m sorry

The blackness wins and soon that’s all I know.