Chapter 2 - One of two worlds.

Ellie's POV:

I rode my bicycle through the mundane hustle and bustle of the town, on my way to work… or as I like to call it, my one peaceful sanctuary that I immerse myself in to escape the boredom of my life. I pushed open the heavy wooden door that led into the town’s library. It had been one of the first places to have been built and has been around for generations with stacks and rows of books from floor to ceiling. It used to be wildly popular according to my mum, but most days I’m here, the only ones that seem to come in now are kids and teenagers that still attend school. They come to us to know more about our history, our land or poetry and for most girls…homemaking.

Apart from me and Andrea Collins, the energetic and hopeless romantic who oversaw everything within these walls, no one else seemed to have a passion for this place anymore. When I was still attending school, as soon as the bell rang for home time, this is where I’d spend most of my evenings, reading book after book and not just to learn on a certain subject, but stories of adventure, love, inspiring stories of bold, headstrong women, like Cleopatra, Joan or arc or Aphrodite the Greek goddess. So as soon as I was old enough to leave school, this was the first place I had come to find a job and while I was here, whether I was working or reading, it helped me to forget the reality of my life outside these doors… the role that was expected of me.

At the ripe old age of twenty, it was now that we had to think and go out in search of our so called ‘partner for life’. Which in my generation was a joke in itself! I knew every guy my age that lived here and every girl too. Men had it so much easier, they had more freedom to do as they pleased, but us girls… it was a role we had to play, to settle with whoever we chose to marry, have kids and look after that man in our lives. Don’t get me wrong, I knew maybe one day I wanted kids, maybe even get married, but I didn’t want to give up the freedom to work where I loved or go for a long walk or run along the foothills that ran far behind the houses in the quiet fields. I knew every guy and most of them were either immature sex pests or so set on finding a girl that would wait on him hand and foot, that he could call mama! The only nice guys my age, who were far and few between, were either already in love or just didn’t get me… we just didn’t click, the way I wanted, the way that I would fantasise when I finally decided to take that step. But every day I felt the clock ticking, the pressure to just ‘choose’ someone and make do.

Just as I was stacking the books away in their rightful place, a certain face kept popping into my mind, even interrupting my constant worries of my own future. I had barely slept a wink last night, I still couldn’t believe that, for the first time in my life, I finally met a vampire. It was the strangest and most curious moment of my life. He wasn’t anything like I had pictured them to be. I had imagined them to be terrifying to look at… blood red eyes, purple veins streaming across their white skin, I even considered them having horns on their heads!

But he was…. Surprisingly handsome! . I was so taken aback that even though I knew he was a vampire. It didn’t occur to me to run away. I always thought if I ever came across one, I’d probably die right where I stood, or wet myself from pure terror. But all I could do was look at him, he was unlike any man I had ever seen. He looked strong, manly, he even smelt incredible, like whatever fragrance he was wearing was to purposely make you want to throw your arms around him and kiss him until your lips went red raw.

Even the two scars that ran down along his right cheek didn’t scare me, I somehow didn’t feel scared or intimidated in his presence. That thought alone I couldn’t understand! How was I stood alone with a vampire and still be alive to tell the tale… not that I did tell anyone, especially my parents, they’d be furious to know I went past our boarder, let alone walking deep into the forest, just so I could sit by a lake!

The only person I know that had been in the company of a vampire and wasn’t harmed was our mayor, and that was only due to the fact that both he and the vampire lord had decided on declaring peace between them and us.

I walked over to the history part of our floor and scoped out one of the books that was filled with details on our history with what we like to call ‘the cold ones’. From the moment our ancestors came here, they were preyed upon by the vampires that lived deep within the forest, living their immortal lives in their enormous palace, as black and cold as their hearts. Over the centuries, vampires had slain many of our people, and in return, our people would retaliate and kill as many of them as they could, with silver bullets and silver speared arrows. The attacks went back and forth, with both sides losing too many of their kind. Until one day a new vampire lord came into power and both he and our mayor came together and struck a deal, and it was a pretty simple deal at that… they’d leave us alone and never set foot in the town if we stayed away from the forest. That was their domain, and this was ours. This was all just a year before I was born, so for only twenty one years had we finally lived separately in peace.

The pictures of them were, of course, dramatized by whichever artist was assigned to draw them. I remember reading these books when I was a child and now I know why I believed them to look a certain way, because everything I pictured them to be, was exactly like the drawings in the book. Oh, how wrong the artist was! The man I saw definitely didn’t have horns on his head, rotting scales on his face or extra long fingers and claws.

I put the book back and carried on with my work as a million questions frazzled my mind… How? Why? And… what was his name? Why did he bring me home safely? And how was he so incredibly handsome? And why is his face constantly flashing in my mind, even when I wasn't thinking about what happened yesterday?

When all our work for the day was done and Andrea had already gone home, I locked the main doors then fished around in my pocket for the key to my bike lock. Shit! I mumbled to myself, remembering I left it in our office on the desk. I stared at the main door, contemplating if I could be bothered to unlock it all, switch on all the lights again, unlock the office door, just for a key! Screw it, I’ll get it tomorrow! I shrugged, then made my way down the dimly lit, quiet road to go home. During the week, it was always quiet this time of the evening, with everyone already at home having their dinner or in the local tavern house. Just as I was walking past an empty car park to the closed supermarket, a sudden grasp at my arm made me jump out of my skin and I quickly turned around to see Danny standing in front of me.

“Scared Ellie?” He asked with a smarmy grin.

“Uhh well I didn’t know someone was behind me, did I?” I shot back, already irritated by him.

There was not one thing I liked about Danny, he was a typical well-thought of guy, my age and everyone kissed his arse because he was so good at sports and had this ‘I’m cool and confident’ demeanour and so many mums wanted their daughters to be picked by him. Many girls my age used to fancy the pants off of him, but as we got older, we started to see how much of a tool he was and shuddered at the thought of being stuck with him for life! But unfortunately, there were still some naïve girls that would fall at his feet because of his looks and charm, only to find themselves bedded and used by him. The amount of parties and dances we used to go to, where he would always leave with a different girl every time. She would always be smiling from ear to ear like she’d just hit the jackpot, stupidly choosing to believe she was the one for him and not just another number on his fuck It list.

“You want me to walk you home?” He asked as he attempted to put his arm around my shoulders.

I quickly moved out of the way and turned away from him. “No thanks, I’d rather walk by myself”.

“Wohh, what’s with the attitude El? Only want to make sure you get home safely”.

“Oh, is that right?” I said as I rolled my eyes. “Well, I’ll be fine, now goodnight”. I told him as I kept walking.

He stopped in his tracks and grabbed hold of my arm, his fingers digging into my skin as he pulled me away from the light of the street- lamps and into the dark, deserted parking lot. Then pushing me until my back hit against the brick wall of the building.

“What’s your fucking problem, Ellie? Huh?” He asked angrily as he leered at me, with one hand squeezing my arm and the other against the wall, so I was trapped between the two.

“Leave me alone Danny, back off!” I told him as I pushed at his chest to give me enough space to get away, but he barely moved and had me trapped again as his hand went from the wall to gripping my jaw.

“I have waited long enough for you Ellie, it’s about time you stopped playing the fucking prude and give in! You know you want me just as much as I want you. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on having you just the once El, like the rest of them, Na, I want to be fucking you every day”. He grinned as his breath and his lips started lingering on my face, trailing them from my ear to my cheek.

“What the fuck Danny? I don’t want you, and I never will, so let me fucking go!”

“What? You think you're better than me, do you, huh?” He said bitterly as his fingers began to squeeze my face even harder and I automatically groaned in pain.

“Ahh, get off Danny, you’re hurting me!”. I tried pulling his hand away, digging my nails into his skin as I gripped at his fingers. When his other hand suddenly landed on my breast as he tried to fondle it over my clothes.

“GET THE FUCK OFF!” I screeched in anger as I started thumping at him and trying to push his hand off of my breast. “GET OFF DANNY, GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF OF ME!” I kept screaming, trying to wriggle and push him away, but his whole body was pressed against me as I was squished between him and the wall.

Just as I raised my hand to slap him across the face, he suddenly flew away from me in a flash and landed with a thump on the floor. I blinked in shock at him moving so quickly, only to see him lying on his back on the floor, breathing, but his eyes closed. The same vampire from yesterday was standing over him, panting with his fangs on show.

It’s you!”. I breathed out as I took a step toward him.

“You have a knack for nearly getting yourself into trouble!”

“What? This isn’t my fault! He wouldn’t take no for an answer!”

“So, I saw”.

“You were spying on me?” I asked him inquisitively.

“I was passing, I heard you shouting”.

“Why did you help me?”

“Would you rather I didn’t?”

“Do you have to be so vague?”

“And do you have to ask so many questions?”

I huffed in annoyance. “You know you…” I stopped midsentence as we both looked at the path along the car park, when the sound of voices and footsteps started to approach.

“You need to leave, if they see you, they’ll think you wanted to attack us!” I quickly rambled as my heart began to pound even more.

“But they’ll see you with him…I think they’ll wonder how you managed to knock a guy bigger than you to the floor!!”

“I’ll run, my house is right next to the border of the forest, just go!” I urged him, but he rushed over to me, grabbed my arm and swung me onto his back, just as he had yesterday, then took off into the trees as he ran along the border. A journey that would have taken me at least twenty minutes to run took him half that. Before I knew it, I was pointing to my house. He stopped just outside the fenced gate to the rear garden, and I got down from his back, still feeling the coolness of his hard chest on my hands. I had been gulping the whole way, trying to stop my heart from thumping like a hammer.

“Thanks”. I whispered.

He just nodded, but his eyes lingered on me, and I felt my whole body melt in his gaze. He was just about to step closer to me, then hesitated and before I could even blink, he turned away and was gone, disappearing into the darkness of the forest. I quickly snuck through my garden, slid open the double glass doors that led to the living area, glad that my parents weren’t home, they’d only ask questions and I never found it easy to lie to them.

Without even having any dinner, I got dressed and into bed, just lying there, staring at the ceiling as I thought over what happened tonight… as I thought about his face, my hands holding onto his chest, while his hands held my arm and my thigh. It was as if I could still feel him on my skin… and his smell….. ohh his smell! It literally had me moaning to myself as I tried to subtly inhale it every few seconds. What are you doing? He's a VAMPIRE! A vampire! You can’t like a vampire! That’s just crazy… you’re actually attracted to a vampire! Jeez Ellie, you really need get a grip! I told myself over and over in my head, pulling my foolish thoughts out of the clouds and realising the predicament I was getting myself into. But why did he save me twice? How did he know? No Ellie, stop it! It doesn’t matter, none of it does, he’s a vampire! Now get it out of your head and go to sleep! I turned over and nestled into my pillow. Forcing my eyes shut, trying to block out any thoughts of the last two days and trying to erase the image of his face.