Falling for my vampire enemy

Chapter 2 — The Night Everything Changed

I was eight years old when I learned that monsters were real.

That night, the rain would not stop.

It pounded against the windows of our house as thunder shook the walls. I remember sitting on the floor beside my little sister, hugging her close to me as she cried.

"Lyra, I'm scared."

I held her tightly in my arms.

"It's okay, Mom and Dad are here."

I believed it,

I believed nothing could happen to us as long as my parents were in the house.

I was wrong.

There was a loud crash coming from downstairs.

My sister jumped as my father shouted something. Then came my mother's voice.

"Run!"

I turned to her in confusion as my father came running up the stairs.

He looked different, his face was twisted in something I'd never seen before.

It was fear.

It was the first time I'd ever seen my father look so

"Girls, get under the bed."

"why?" I asked.

"Now!"

Something in his voice made me obey.

My sister and I crawled under the bed as my father turned towards the doorway.

I was about to ask why he was doing this when my mother appeared behind him.

She was crying.

That was when I knew something was terribly wrong.

Then it all happened so fast.

Three figures appeared in the doorway, their eyes glowing unnaturally bright in the darkness.

Their skin was pale.

And when one of them smiled, I saw the fangs peeking out from between his lips.

Vampires.

I didn't know what they were called, but I knew they weren't human.

My father stepped in front of the bed where my mother and I crouched.

"Take the girls and leave," he said to the vampire.

One of them laughed.

"You still think you can protect them?"

My father attacked the first vampire, throwing himself at him with all his strength. I watched from under the bed as my father fought with everything he had in him. My mother screamed my name as one of the vampires flung my father across the room, sending him crashing into the wall.

"Mom!" I cried as I crawled towards him.

My sister pulled me back.

"Lyra, don't!" she cried.

My mother looked up at us, her eyes wide with something like fear... or desperation.

"Stay there." she said.

The vampire who had been standing behind her smiled.

"Humans always beg when they're afraid."

My father tried to get up, but the vampire hit him again and he fell to the floor.

I covered my mouth with my hands to keep from screaming.

My mother ran towards him, but the vampire caught her.

"No!" I screamed, but my sister was right next to me, crying as well.

I crawled out from under the bed and looked up at my mother.

For one brief, terrible moment, our eyes met.

Her lips moved.

"Run."

Then the vampire attacked her.

I screamed.

I don't remember crawling out from under the bed.

I don't remember grabbing my sister.

All I remember is running.

We barely made it to the hallway when another vampire appeared in front of us.

I stopped dead in my tracks as my sister cried.

I pulled her behind me even though I was too scared to move.

The vampire looked at us, smiling.

But before he could come any closer, something crashed in the room below us.

The three vampires looked down the hall in surprise.

I grabbed my sister's hand.

"Run!" I screamed.

We ran through the back door and into the rain.

We didn't stop running until we reached the road.

I turned around and looked back at our house.

The lights were still on, but my parents never came out.

They were gone.

It was all over.

That night, the police told us that my parents were dead.

People whispered to each other, wondering what had happened.

Some said it was an attack.

Others said it was impossible.

But I knew the truth.

I had seen their fangs.

I had seen the eyes of monsters.

I had watched them kill my parents.

Vampires had taken my mother and father from me, and from that night forward, I vowed never to trust a vampire.

Never.

Even if one day, the whole world told me that some vampires were different.

Even if one of them saved my life.

Even if one of them looked at me like I was the only person in the room.

I would never forget that night.

I would never forget the scream of my mother.

The blood of my father.

The tears of my sister in my arms.

And I would never forget what the vampires had done to my family.