Chosen or Cursed

The beginning

They're story started out like so many other stories, boy and girl, in love trying to do nothing more than spend time together, but that hadn’t lasted very long.

With two extremely overprotective mothers they were rarely given time to be alone together. But tonight they had managed a night to themselves. They had planned the date to be a time to get everything in their life together, as they did most things. House, marriage, College, these were the things they planned for. They weren't your average teens sneaking away into the night for simple romantic rendezvous. He had already proposed to her; they had even been to see a realtor to help them find a house, which didn't go so well because they were under age, but they had tried. The only people who didn't know their plans was their parents.

But as they made their way to their favorite spot in the not so urban city they called home, that's what they planned to get together. It was one of the few secluded places in their house infested city. It was a simple road that went past a local store and an open circle pavement. The pavement was completely encircled by trees; no street lights, or a lamp-post, just far away enough that you could barely make out the sound of traffic. Really the main road was less than a mile away but it still felt like their own little space away. With dinner in a basket and a single flower he had have picked for her, they made their picnic on top of Gabriel’s beat up old car.

“So, you told your mother we were watching that movie, right?” She had already asked him five time or so, but she couldn’t help herself. She always had to double and triple check everything.

“Prisca, yess” As much as it drove Gabriel crazy, he had learned over the years that this was something Pri was just always going to do. He had tried to fight her a few times, and not answer the second or third time she asked something, but the worry lines that formed on her face looked as though they might make themselves a permanent attachment, so he always conceded to answering.

Her real name was Priscilla but she despised her name so openly that no one, not even her mother, called her by it. She had always said it sounded like a dying fish, and she looked as though she might throw lasers from her eyes if anyone dared called her by her full name; adults included. Because of this she had lots of nicknames. Gabriel was the only one who ever called her Prisca but she also had sissy, which is what most people called her, pri, even toes; that one was given to her by her younger sister Jasmin. Pri and Jasmin were really close despite the fact that her younger sister wasn’t always that great of a person if she were angry. She legitimately tried to kill Pri a few times while they were fighting, once she had thrown a pair of scissors at her leaving a small scar on Pri’s shoulder. Another time Jasmin had put a pillow over Pri’s head while she was sleeping. That one had ended up badly for both of them. But as Gabriel and Pri sat together and planned their future by moonlight he could tell that all of that was far from her mind.

“You don’t care what the house looks like at all?” This they hadn’t talked about before, and Gabriel, who wasn’t usually one big on conversations, didn’t mind this one.

“Nope, whatever you want. I don’t care about any of that, but I do want my man cave.”

“What does that mean?” She shrieked with a huge smile on her face.

“You know, gym equipment, maybe a pool table, something that screams; man!" It didn’t really surprise her that he wanted a workout area. He was a big boy, most 19 year olds don’t lift weights for hours a day, five or six days a week, but he did. With arms almost as big as her head, he is a dark creamy brown skinned beast of a boy, with piercing almond shaped dark eyes. His eyes were so dark in fact that you couldn’t really describe them as any other color but black. To Pri, he was perfect. He had lots of scars covering his forearms and neck. Some self-inflicted from a darker time in his life. One Pri herself barely knew about, and others from working in the restaurant business. He had been a cook since he was 15 and had an undeniable passion for cooking. But burns tend to come with the occupation and he had some pretty disgusting ones to prove it. Pri didn't mind, she loved his scars, where some of her friends thought he looked broken, she saw stories etched into his skin.

“And a hammock.” He burst through her thoughts. And to that she only looked at him, one eyebrow raised in a look that said you can’t be serious, while at the same time she looked from herself to him and back again. They were not small sized people. Not incredibly overweight, but definitely what you would call thick. His broad shoulders and defined upper torso helped him to hide his weight better, but she was unquestionably curvy, and the thought of them both in a hammock at the same time did not sound terribly sturdy. But Gabriel just snorted at her look, a croocked smile still on his face, “ok, we’ll have to put up a little extra support system.”

She couldn’t help but giggle at that, and she wasn’t really the giggly little girl type either. It was just the way he made her feel. The way he always made her feel beautiful and confident even when he really wasn’t trying to. It was the just the way he looked at her. The way he was looking at her right then, in fact. And not that it would have made much of a different, but perhaps if they hadn’t been so immersed in each other’s looks they might have heard the noise sooner. They hadn’t though, not till it was louder and closer. A sound like wind circling them, intermingles with an evil snickering.

What they did see was people start pouring out of the trees, an almost inhuman looking people who moved with unbelievably quick motions, and kept baring their....maybe point...teeth. Did a pact of cannibals just walk out of the not-forest?

Gabriel, moving more quickly than Pri was even processing the situation, grabbed her arm and slid down the front hood. His feet hit the floor and he was pulling Pri down and behind him in the same, swift motion. This wasn’t the first time he had put himself between her and danger. The first time had been at a diner. Pri had been doing homework until really late into the night, and Gabriel had only gone there to ask her to go home and rest. After some persuasion she had decided he was right and they were walking to her car. Before they even got into the car at least ten vehicles came from both entrances into the diner with her car landing smack the middle of where a car on either side had skidded to a halt. People had come running out of their cars with bats, crow bars, their bare hands, anything they had intended to use as a weapon. Gabriel had pushed her in back of him that time as well, but since they were stuck between the cars and could go nowhere then he had just stood in front of her, his arms crossed, chest puffed up. he had almost looked like he was daring anyone to come near the car. No one did, we weren’t part of whatever was going on, but that didn’t stop our panic when the gun shoots had started going off. Gabriel had picked her up with one arm, not an over exaggeration, and thrown her past the driver seat they had been standing closest to, all the way into the passenger seat. She had known then that he would have done anything in his power to keep her safe then, and he looked the same way now. he stood tall wedging her body in between the car and his back.

“We don’t want any trouble,” Gabriel managed without his voice shaking even the slightest. Pri was screaming inside but if he had been feeling scared he definitely wasn’t showing. He couldn’t be seeing the same thing she was. These people, they blurred her fission as they moved, why was that happening, how could that even be possible? “You can have any money we have, it’s not-“

“We don’t want your money,” this had to be their leader, because the thugs made way for him as he moved towards Pri and Gabriel.

“What do you want then?”

“To kill you actually,” the man didn’t laugh, didn’t smirk, he wasn’t kidding, and he wanted to kill them.

“I won’t make that easy for you,” retorted Gabriel, and s**t, now was not the time to be wanting to kiss him for his bravery.

“Oh, I don’t think you have a choice, but I like your courage, so ok, I will give you a fighting chance. Big guy like you, you think you can take on my friend?” And he put his hand on a man who must have been trying to starve himself to death; on top of that he couldnt of benn taller than Pri.

“Do I have a choice where we all walk away without that?

“No.” And the leader finally showed an emotion as a smirk pulled at the corners of him mouth.

“Then bring it!”

As both men took a step forward, looking steadily at one another, the difference in the situation for each, was easily seen. The one man had a crazy wide, open mouthed grin that spread from ear to ear, excitement dancing on his features. Determination on the others, shoulders squared, fist up preparing to defend. Whoo'ps and shoots of pleasure started all around them, mixed with horrific comments like ‘rip his head off’ and “blood” everything around them almost brining Pri to tears. Gabriel stood firm, protecting his face, waiting for the little man to make the first move. When he did it was with a barely visible motion and a swing of his nails across Gabriel’s face. It left four parallel marks the length of his face, and blood trickling through each mark and stinging his eyes. He decided to make the first move this time, throwing three punches one to the left, the man moved, then the right, he twirled in a circle slapping Gabriel in the process, and a final odd move where he clasped both fist together and swung them at the back of his head in a high wild motion. The man looked genuinely surprised by that move and the smile dissolved from his face. Gabriel had hit him hard almost knocking him to the ground, but he bounced back upright before he lost control. The man looked as if he was the point of rage, eyes maddeningly red. s**t s**t. s**t. He was going to tear Gabriel apart. Pri couldn’t stand by and do nothing, so she did the only thing she thought would help, and she threw herself in front of the man she loved.

The man pushed her aside one with one hand, the power behind it sent her skidding across the cement, stopping only because she slammed into Gabriel’s car. The skin was gone almost to the bone at her elbow and blood poured from the back of her head where it had smashed a dent into the car door. Stars, and dark unconscious swirling her head. He had seriously taken her out like a fly.

Every pair of eyes stood glaring at her, looking as though they wanted to eat her. Head stll dizzy, she painfully made her way into a standing position. Or an almost standing more like hunched looking as forward as possible position just trying to look at these people. She could not keep one thought about these people from creeping threw her mind. But it couldn’t be, there had to be some other explanation. They couldn’t be what she was starting to think they were.

“Stop,” the leader yelled. Pri had been so busy looking at all the eyes on her, she hadn’t noticed that Gabriel had knocked the man to the ground, he must have gotten a few hits in because the man’s face looked awful and thick dark blood was oozing from his eye socket. “I grow tired, and who would have known you’re not just a meat head, you’re actually pretty good.” He picked Gabriel up off the ground with one arm as if he weighed nothing, and held him in the air. As he did he nodded his head towards Pri and two creature people ran toward her, each grabbing arm.

It had only been seconds but Gabriel’s face was quickly turning a shade of reddish purple. “So, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to put you down before you die, then I’m going to turn you into one of us. Not because I was going to turn you into one of us, but because your good and you’ve earned it.” Pri couldn’t believe what she was hearing, her thoughts had been right, but that’s impossible, things like this only exist in movies and books. Creatures like this don’t exist. And yet here they were, and they were being held against her will, the fact that it was happening in front of her eyes made it real, right? No, maybe I'm dreaming...“It’s an honor you know,” he continued, “because as a mortal you were able to damage one of men. Oh yes, and about that. “

Again he nodded, but this time towards the skinny man. At least four other Vampires leaped onto him, each grabbing a different part of the man’s body, the two crouched down holding the mans legs qere horrific looking. And s**t, I barely finished my thought and they were ripping him apart. Oh my god, the blood, there was so much blood. And a f*****g legggg, it was thrown towards where she was being held, and that was all she could handle, bile pushed its way up and ya, there was no way she was holding that down. Ever barfed and screamed, no shrieked, at the same time. Pri hadn't either, not till that moment anyway. Body shaking, vomit being inhaled, trying to pull her arms free, and still right on the verge of passing out, seemed like an appropriate response given this whole nightmare of a situation, and boy did yell more loudly and violently than she ever had. If it hadn’t been for the leader looking at her with a face that said he was going to tear her up next if she didn’t stop, she might have continued like that until her voice gave out. Probably longer than that.

“So, we have a position available, and you will be filling in the spot, and afterwards you’re going to eat your little, women over there.” He put Gabriel, who had begun drifting in and out of consciousness, down as he finished he sentences.

Gabriel gasped for breath for a full minute sucking in everything he could take in through in rasping gulps. With all eyes on him he managed to let out small painfully words at a time “What?” He coughed “No, I won’t do-“

He never finished his sentence. The leader came down on his neck with that same lightning speed they all moved with, Gabriel never had a chance. Pri watched in horror at what followed. She watched everything she loved about this man dissolve before her eyes. As the leader drank Gabriel’s blood his skin drained of coloring, turning the palest shade of brown, still darker than most of the creatures around him but lacking life, the life and the beautiful dark golden color that had been there seconds before. The leader let him fall to the floor his body twitching. “Help him!” Pri screamed, she wanted to run to him so struggled and tried, but her body guards held her tight, whispering ‘watch, watch ‘over and over. The psychotic enjoyment they felt plain to see.

Like them the leader was enjoying himself too, in the first slow motion she’s seen for them, he took his time as he bit into his own wrist ripping a deep gash. As Gabriel lie looking lifeless on the floor, and more gently than she imagined him capable of, the man had lifted Gabriel’s head, opening his mouth as he did. Blood fall in drops into Gabriel’s mouth. It could have only taken seconds, but time stood still as Pri watched. Gabriel started twitching and gasped, he opened his eyes wider than she ever seen and he took the leaders arm to his mouth. He drank the leaders blood straight from his wrist with a savage hunger, and as awful as that was it wasn’t even the worst part. The change in his body is what surprised her the most. His fingers always full of broken nails and bitten where he constantly chewed them grew slightly and smoothed to perfection. His scars, the stories which made him hers, faded into the same already paled brown color. Even his tattoo disappeared. Seemly as if the blood he was drinking had leeched it out. His hair grew; his arms lost the slight chubbiness they had leaving only well-defined muscles in their place. He was beautiful, a sign of perfection. Only as she looked at him she felt her heart break, she had never wanted him to be anything but what he was. This man in front of her was not hers, he was gone replaced my something dark. He threw the leaders arm to the side. His face raised towards the moon and laughed the most beautiful smile on his face but it was the most deafening, sinister roar of a laugh that you can imagine.

Without even being questioned his eyes moved to Pri, “You wanted me to eat her, right?”

“You can’t be serious Gabriel, listen to me, at least let them kill me, it can’t be you.” It can’t be you she thought again, but he wasn’t listening, he didn’t care, Gabriel was gone, and this monster using him as a shell was walking towards her. This is how she was going to die, at the hands of the man who just months early had asked her to marry him and pledged his undying love to her. He had told her he would walk through fire, if it meant she was going to say yes, when she had begun to object. She had tried to him their mothers would never approve. But even threw her protest she loved him more intensely than and anything and she always wanted to be his. But now, as he held her face in his hand, not gently, but with hunger, he was so close she could fell his body shaking with a need against her own. He didn’t say anything, didn’t stop for a moment like Pri kept thinking he might, she kept hoping he would remember that he loved her. He didn’t and she didn’t even have time for a single tear to fall before she felt the pain.

She screamed, her whole body feeling close to combustion. She had just watched Gabriel change moments ago, and this was not what had happened. She didn’t feel like she was dying she felt like an oven had been turned on inside of her. Her skin changed color as his had but instead of turning a pale here’s turned to a rich copper color. Her skin shown as flawless as Gabriel’s had. Beyond belief she could actually feel her body slimming. Her hair had turn white and somewhere Gabriel had stopped drinking her blood and stood inches from her, still holding the back of her knack. If she hadn’t been in so much pain she might have thought more about this but at that moment all should was thinking about was the pain. Her eyes were last and the agony almost pushed her to faint. Something was happening to them, to her and she wished she knew exactly what was going on. It felt as if she had looked into the sun, only it wasn’t orange and red but a bright burning white color. As suddenly as it had started, it was gone and she fell to the floor. The pain in her body dulling but definitely not gone.

At some point her captors had let her go, and stood some distance from her each holding their hands as if she had burnt them. For too long no one said a word, it was Gabriel who finally broke the silence with a confused awkward comment, “but… she didn’t drink my blood. “

“No, you didn’t,” It was the leader, “I wouldn’t have guessed I would ever live to see one of you.” Pri started at him, longing to ask him a 1,000 questions, but there was no point she knew that he would never answer. Or at least she thought he wouldn’t.

But she couldn’t help herself from asking one question, “what did you do to me?”

“You think I’m going to answer! You are our sworn enemy.” he mocked, “You are not us. But, you know what, I will tell you this.” He mocked, “If he wouldn’t have bitten you today, you would be a ruler in heaven. A chosen one and now, well, you’re more damned than I am.” For the first time since they arrived, his grin faded. He peered into the dark woods, looking for something, smelled at the air until he must have caught the scent of something and with a wave of his hand he exclaimed, “Let’s go.” And with that they were gone, just gone as quickly and as silently as they had come.

Gabriel of course left with them, but it tore at her heart that he had done so without so much as a glance to look back at her. He had just dropped his hands and left with the rest of them. Though she was pretty sure that she could have kept up with them, follow them, had thought that she might try to make them tell her what she was. Why they were enemies? They had just made her this, whatever she was; she hadn’t even fully worked through everything that meant. But what was she but really what would have been the point. She felt different, she felt alone, she had lost her love. He had bitten her tried to drain her blood, how could he. And why had their leader acted so oddly and run away? He hadn’t seemed like the type to scare easily.