Rage {Chapter 1: Hateful}

The next morning went as usual. This time I had no idea where Rage was and I didnt really care. I happily got breakfast and danced around my living room to my favorite songs. I had it playing extremely loud, but not loud enough to blast out my eardrums. I stopped dancing as I spilled my cereal and it went all over the floor. So much for my first happy dancy morning in this house.

After I cleaned up the Fruit Loopy mess. I twirled my way upstairs and put on a black tank and jeans. Aw, I thought, this is the outfit I was wearing when Rage almost killed me! Yeah. So touching. Whatever. I was in a very 'Whatever, OOOOH look SPARKLY!' kinda mood today.

After I was dressed and ready I continued to spin around my room, seeing how dizzy I could make myself without puking. I heard the doorbell ring and TRIED to run downstairs. Not a good idea. I caught myself before my forehead made contact with the banister and slowly walked the rest of the way down. I threw the door open and saw no one. I looked up and down the street, but there was no one there. Stupid kids. Back home I had made an enemy of myself with the teens that pranked everyone on our block. We would keep water balloons by the door. One time we got them, and then they started to get a little extreme with the pranks. They threw cherry bombs at our windows, poured pink paint all over our stairs, and once even mummified my truck. So we threw Upgraded water balloons at them with red, staining, paint at them and pushed them in a creek. They didnt come back. Ha.

For some reason, I was also feeling very daring today. I ran out the door and tried to navigate my way back to where me and Rage had fought those two people. I found it very easily and skipped my way down it to the secluded circle in the middle. There was no one there. The sun was shining straight down on the circle, and it was hard to believe something so horrible had even happened here.

I left the circle through one of the other small alleys and continued to skip down the street. There were lots of people out today. They gave me lots of weird looks, but oh well. They could all GO DIE, I thought with a smile. Tee hee.

I turned down another big alleyway and started skipping along it. I stopped skipping as I noticed a really REALLY weird looking store. Or at least I think it was a store. I took a step closer and suddenly a boy with a pure white face and deep black hair and clothes popped out the door. I skipped the hell away from there as fast I could.

I passed a ton of buildings, newer ones with cool black glass in the windows. I glanced through an open doorway and saw a party. I was so tempted to go crash it, but dying wasnt on my list of things to do today.

I tried to locate another small alley as more and more cars started to clutter the street I was on. I found one and rushed across the street to get out of the sun for a couple minutes. I passed two girls, both of them wore deep colored clothes that hid almost all of their skin, except for their faces and one of the girls hands. Her hand was cluthing a necklace she was wearing. They looked scared and I felt bad for them as they passed by me, completely silent. Then I heard him.

I could hear Rage's voice echoing through the empty street. Even though I had decided that for today I wasnt too fond of him, I wanted to find him just to annoy him. I heard his voice getting louder and stopped as I heard him say a name. I stepped back into a doorway and I could tell he was right around the corner.

"...Ariana thought you wouldve got my message from out last little chat."

I almost growled as I heard the annoying giggle of the girl I had seen with Rage on that first day I met him.

"But, I thought you would have forgiven me by now? Or don't you love me that much any more?"

"I dont love you."

"Oh? And I'm sure you'll just forget alllll about me too?"

"It's easy to forget someone thats dead."

Ariana's voice dropped lower.

"You know you won't forget me. I was everything to you, I gave you a reason to be alive, you're not about to forget that. You were so in love with me you almost forgot that other girls were even real."

I heard a shuffling noise, and my guess was that Rage pushed her. Rage's voice dropped now:

"You blinded me in a lot of ways Ariana. You think I'm going to forget that? I would've killed myself in a second if you asked me too until I figured out why."

Then she laughed, and it sounded so heartless it made me angry.

"You know you would still kill yourself if I asked you to. You knowing who I really am doesnt make you immune to me. Can't you just...forget this and come back to me?"

"Why would I? You thought you gave me a life but you know what? Without you to bring me down I know what it's really like to have a life, and have feelings! You're just another heartless monster!"

Ariana giggled.

"Hmmm...doesnt that ring a bell? I know about that stupid little girl you've been wasting your time with. She thinks your the monster. If you think anyone else could ever love you more than me, you really are more of a moron than I thought."

I was mad. I didnt know who this Ariana was, or what she was to Rage, but listening to her was starting to make me sick. I wanted to know what was going on. I was about to step out of the doorway and go home when Rage stalked around the corner and walked right by me. By the time I stepped out of the doorway he was gone.

I felt that someone was behind me and I turned to see Ariana. At first I was shocked at how pretty she was. Half of her pure black hair was up, and the rest of it spiraled down and curled loosely around her shoulders. She had deep green eyes a fair skin. She was smiling and staring off into the distance. She shook her head and then looked at me. At first I was afraid. Those deep green eyes seemed like a poison apple, but I was going to be brave and try to figure out who she was. She beat me to it.

"Hi. My name is Ariana. Who are you?" She stuck out her hand and bent down like I was a little kid, smiling fakely and talking in an almost sarcastically sweet voice.

"I-um..."

"Oh, hehe, thats fine, you dont have to tell me. I understand." She stared at me again with those fierce green eyes and I took a step back to walk away. Before I could move she stepped forward and put her cold hand on my shoulder.

"Wait, sweetie, where are you going? Don't you have anyone with you? You shouldnt be walking around alone."

"I live alone and I dont have any relatives or anything nearby. I can handle walking home by myself."

"Well, do you want to go grab a bite to eat? You look hungry." And of course, right on cue, my stomach growled. She smiled and put her arm over my shoulders to lead me down the alley.

"You can relax, I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Ariana Akakuri, I work at the Santa Barbara hospital as a pediatric nurse."

I still didnt want to trust her completely. My plan was simple, but steadfast. GET FOOD, RUN. I could handle that.

I noticed that the sun was already started to drop lower in the sky as she turned me down a small sidewalk. She stopped and pushed me down another teensy alley.

"This way. Here, you go first. These alleys are so teeny!" she said with a laugh. I walked down it. I got to the end and she pushed my further out into the circle with her hand. We were back in the circle of buildings, except this time, there were other people.

They were sitting on the steps outside of the apartments, standing and leaning against the brick walls. They all suddenly looked up when we walked in. I started to panic and readied myself to run.

"I have to go." I shrugged her hand off and headed for the closets alley. Before I could reach it, someone jumped at me and knocked me to the ground. I looked up to see a boy that couldnt be older than sixteen, with bright blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes. He smiled trimphantly and stood back up. Ariana had walked over to us. She looked pissed.

"I thought you were going to stay with me to get something to eat? If you run like that you could get hurt." As she said it I heard low laughter from the surrounding people. That's it. I needed to get away from here. Before I could move, Ariana grabbed my arm and dragged me to the middle of the circle. The hum of conversation around us grew louder.

"Quiet!" I jumped at Ariana's sudden outburst.

"Where is Alec?" She said it and most of the people around us moaned.

"Shut up, all of you. Where is he?"

She turned around suddenly as if someone called her name and jerked me with her. At first she looked shocked, but then she smiled widely. She was smiling at a man with shaggy brown hair with eyes almost the same shade as hers. He nodded and she dragged me along with her as me and 'Alec' stepped into a building.

As soon as we were inside, she pushed me towards him. He glared at me.

"Who is she? This is the best you could do?"

"Don't question me, or you can go get food yourself. She's the girl that Rage was with."

"Oh. Well, that changes things." He bowed and took my hand. He kissed it and then flipped my hand over. I screamed as I felt a pain in my wrist. I jerked my hand away and started to panic again as I saw the crimson liquid creeping down my arm.

"What did you do? W-wh" He just put his finger over my lips and pushed my hair away from my face. Then it hit me. A vampire.

"NO!" I screamed and he just blinked at me like he was used to that. I backed up all the way to the other end of the room. I realized that Ariana was gone he was blocking the door.

"You're just another one they'll never find..." he bent down toward my throat and I punched him as hard as possible. His head snapped back and I took the chance. I ran towards the door. I fumbled with the lock and he caught up with me. I felt a sharp, sickening pain in my neck, and that was all I remembered.

I woke up minutes later, and I was grateful I still remembered where I was. I saw no one. I pushed the door the rest of the way open and bolted out of the circle onto the street. I couldnt believe there was no one there. Where was everyone? I finallly reached my house and rushed inside. I ran to the bathroom in my room and grabbed a towel. I started to wipe the blood off of my neck and wrist. I tried to stop myself from fainting again as I inspected my neck in the mirror. There were two, small cuts, but that was all. There was no way that could be. Those two tiny little marks couldnt have been the result of all that pain. It was the same on my wrist. I wiped them off and covered them with heavy bandages. I didnt know what I should do. The police wouldnt believe me, there was no one that would, except for Rage. But there was no way I could find him, and there was no way I was going to try. I thought that if I kept moving I was going to puke from the pain in my neck, so I curled up in my bed and immediatly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.