Unfold

Chapter 1: Bedazzled

‘WAAAAHHHH, YOU TOOK MY JELLY!’ The little girl exclaimed loudly, her eyes immediately turned to her brother who swiftly pulled his hand away from his lips. Not before the girl noticed it, though. She puffed her cheeks while glaring at him. ‘YOU-’

‘No proof, no talk.’ He winked at her, a smile on his face.

This, of course, further triggered her emotions as she then stomped off from the dining table, and into her room. ‘How could he?’ She grabbed a nearby pillow and hugged it tightly, in response to her anger. She rolled from left to right and from the right back to the left, until she finally gave in and stuffed her face into the pillow and screamed her heart out. Her voice, despite getting muffled by the fluffy pillow, dominated over the silence in the room as the morning sun seemingly rose with her voice. Only two sounds could be heard in there, the creaking sound of the fan above her and also, her scream.

It wasn’t until minutes later when she has finally calmed down a little and decided to come out of hiding in the room. ‘Stupid Dane. Not even an apology…’ With every step towards the living room, her expectation of seeing her brother’s face grinning at her grew stronger. And so, she took off her shoe and held it in her hand, ready to have it launched at the right time. TICK! TOCK! TICK! TOCK! The clock hands ticking sound has somehow became clearer in these few seconds.

Slowly, she poked her head out from a corner of the wall and scanned the living room. Dane wasn’t there. She quietly stepped out from hiding and tiptoed around the room, then the kitchen, followed by the other rooms. Nothing. Absolutely no one. There was no denying it. That, the house, was strangely empty.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Someone was at the door. The girl recalled her mother's words to never open the door to a stranger. ‘But, does that advice apply to the present situation?’ she thought. Over the seconds, the knocking became fiercer and louder and she, could only laid back on the sofa and tightly shut herself up from the sound she wished would go away soon, with her pair of hands. The situation did not get any better with the voice of someone shouting at the door. Someone who sounded like a person you wouldn’t want to mess with and be told, ‘f**k off!’

As the time stretched on, whoever who was at the door must had finally given up, she thought, with the cease of the knocking. She opened her eyes and pulled her hands off her ears, steadily rising to her feet when suddenly, the door flew open and crashed into the wall behind it. One stood at the door with his leg still hanging in the air while the other two men watched on with a smile. Well, they were the ones smiling, but her, she was too shocked to move away from the spot. However shocked or unstable her mind was, she could not help but notice the odd clothes the men were wearing. The plain tunic they fitted in, along with the broad trousers and the strangest of all, she thought, was the string they used to tie around their waist. Did they not know about belts?

Anyway, there she stood quietly, frozen down to her toes. She stared blankly at them which they at first ignored but soon, turned to her. Their eyes met.

‘Tell me, little girl.’ He stepped into the room. ‘Why didn't you open the door?’

‘Uhh... M-mother said n-never to open the door to strangers.’

‘You know what,’ he walked forward and leaned towards her, a grin curved over his lips. ‘Your mama's wrong. Because, now, you are in deep shit.’ Ending his line, he brought up a fist and swung it at her.

At that precise moment, she saw an image in her head: A pair of eyes looking into hers. As the fist landed on her cheek, she zoomed out of the image and the punch sent her flying across the room and hit the wall on her back. ‘ARGH! ‘

‘Up for the second beating?’ There were no merciful looks on their faces. Those laughs and giggles, they were no humans.

Which is why, you are going to have to be one too.

‘Hey, what's that?!’ The man at the front asked.

The other responded,'Are my eyes getting blurred or is the girl's hair turning green...’.

‘Well,' a drop of sweat trickled down his neck. ‘We will soon find out.’

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The slick blackness of her hair slowly dissolved into a glittering green. She brought herself up and with the eyelids swung open, the two black spots in her eyeballs shrunk into slit-shaped pupils, caged within a sea of red space. The nails grew longer and sharper, and so did her two front teeth when she bared them before the men. Standing and glaring at them now was no longer the same girl they knew, despite her still being little at size. In her stead, now stood a human beast.

A vampire.

‘A-a monster!’ One of them exclaimed. The rest stayed still, their eyes and widely gaped mouth remained still. Everything was silent, except for the small hushing sound they made as they breathed in and out loudly. For the first few minutes, no one dared to move. No one but the girl, now with a new appearance, as she shifted about in her positions. Her eyes fixed on them.

‘Hey, hey! Why are you guys being afraid of?’

Everyone turned to look at the straw-hair man in brown tunic as he stepped out and towered over the tiny vampire. A dagger hanging at his waist, he grinned mildly. His expression was no answer to discomfort she was feeling.

They are not worthy of your compassion.

There was a momentary pause in the voice.

Kill them.

Her eyes flashed in green then gradually, darkened into the color of blood. In a time, shorter than the fraction of a second, those fingers of hers found their way through the man’s chest. ‘Y-You, asshole…’ Immediately, he unsheathed his dagger and swung it down at her. The blade hissed past her and dropped to the floor, followed by the man’s fall. She then turned to the others, who were no longer bound by their fear and stayed still. They lunged out at her with their fists. That alone sufficed to alert the little vampire of the danger she was about to face.

Or the danger they were about to face. Death.

Unlike before, the adults seemed to have the advantage in number. Their punches, however, were carelessly thrown without coordination. Some of their punches even interlocked with one another; Sometimes, they even hit each other. Seeing their messy fighting patterns has revealed openings for her to enter into the appropriate range. And, kill.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Her house vanished without a trace, including the ones who tried to assault her earlier. She stood there, staring at the people walking about the marketplace. The streets were filled with stalls selling grocery items of every kind, and of every origin, flooded with townspeople and villagers of different backgrounds. This wasn’t the world she lived in. At that moment, unknown to her, a pair of eyes were watching her. In the midst of the waves of people, a cloaked girl was there on the ground, the cloth’s wrapping around her covered in dirt and footprints. The cloaked girl’s green hair dropped smoothly to her shoulders as she stood up.

Her eyeballs stopped shifting around for a second, and they were fixated on the girl. Tears started to well up in both their eyes.

At last, we meet.

‘Arlin.’