“I thought Detective Howard said it didn’t exist.”
I couldn’t believe it. What was even creepier was the fact that it was open. My blood boiled as I read lines from the page displayed in front of my eyes. It was a page I had read before, the one that detailed my mum’s death.
“Mum!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, dashing out of my room as fast as my legs could carry me.
“Please, no… please!” I begged whatever higher power was out there to make this like one of the other times when I was just being paranoid.
The blood stain in front of her white door only served to make my hope bleak and destroy my ability to breathe properly. I barged into her room, flinging the door open with all my might.
It was too late.
My biggest fear and my greatest horror was playing out right there in front of my eyes. The monster had his back to me, holding my mum’s limp body in his arms. He lifted his head which was buried in her neck, and turned to me, revealing his sharp teeth which were colored red from her blood.
I let out a blood curdling scream as my body shuddered from horror and tears exploded out of my eyes. It made the monster smile. It was a menacing smile, one that served to show his satisfaction with his actions. He dropped her body to the ground with a thud and sped past me with unnatural speed.
He was gone before I could blink and I hated the feeling of uselessness that washed over me at his departure.
I ran to the front door in a crazed chase, hoping to see something… anything that could help me identify the monster.
It was useless.
The only thing I met in front of the open door was a note which sent terror rippling through my entire being. I picked it up with shaky hands and read it. It was something I had seen before, only this time I knew for a fact that it was not a prank.
“Halloween’s the day you die!” The note read.
I dropped the piece of paper like a plague and ran into the kitchen. I almost yanked the phone off the wall as I tried to pick the receiver up. My eyes burned with hot tears as my fingers punched the numbers 9-1-1.
A Shade of Halloween 2: Shadows
Chapter One
Selena’s POV
A cold sweat broke out all over my skin as my body shuddered from terror and grief. The entire experience was overwhelmingly unreal. I felt weak in the knees, ready to pass out any minute but I knew I had to hold on. The phone’s receiver was still glued to my ear, as I waited for the call to connect. Every second that passed felt like a year. The sickening image of my mum’s bloody body lying limp in her room upstairs played itself on repeat in my mind’s eye. I couldn’t shake it off, neither could I accept it. I was stuck somewhere between being insane and being numb. My mind was crumbling, I could tell.
“How could I have let this happen?”
I wanted to tell myself I did the best I could to warn her. But did I really? Wasn’t there anything else that I could have done? Maybe I could have saved her if I had insisted on staying in the same room with her. The guilt I felt was growing by the second, threatening to clutch my heart until it exploded into a thousand little pieces.
“9-1-1. What’s the emergency?” The operator finally spoke from the other side.
My words collided at the back of my throat as I tried to choke them out. My free flowing tears and never ending grief served to make sure what came out of my lips remained incoherent.
“I... is... dead... mum...”
“Excuse me?” The operator said from the other side. “Ma’am, please calm down and speak slowly.”
I took in a deep breath and tried to steady my shaking body. I wasn’t completely successful but I managed to get my crying to quieter sobs.
“My... mum...”
I was in the middle of my sentence when he sped into the kitchen with the same unnatural speed the monster had used only moments earlier. The receiver fell out of my hand and dangled off the phone as I let out a blood curdling scream. A vampire was in my home. I was surely going to die. He stopped right in front of me and pulled me into his arms. I fought with all my might, kicking, screaming and slapping every part of his body my legs and arms could make contact with.
“Please calm down, my Selena.” He said, hugging me tight.
“Hello...”
“Is anyone there?”
“Hello... Miss?”
I could hear the operator’s voice coming from the other end of the line but I was trapped in the embrace of this vampire - a monster whose kind had caused all the misery in my life.
“He called me his love. Why did he do that?”
“Let me go!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
“We’re tracking your location right...” The operator was still speaking when the vampire yanked the phone off the wall, disconnecting it in the process.
I felt dizzy from the speed with which he moved me to yank the phone off the wall. The vampire held me still, like he didn’t feel any of the hits I landed on his body.
“Help!”
“Somebody, help me!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
He placed one hand on my waist and moved his other hand to cover my mouth. My eyes widened in desperation as I continued to scream out muffled words nobody heard. The vampire looked straight into my eyes and held my gaze. I tried to blink but realized I couldn’t. It felt like he was controlling my eyes - and he kept them fixed on his gaze.
“Forget whatever is terrifying you.” He said.
I immediately stopped screaming and looked up at his face. He wore a sad expression that I couldn’t quite place.
“Thank goodness I got to you in time.” He said, pulling me into another hug.
I had no idea what he was talking about.
“You got to me in time for what?” I asked, completely confused.
“I need to get you out of here first. I’ll explain everything later.” He replied.
“Okay.” I shrugged.
“Where’s your room?” He asked, looking straight into my eyes in a weird way.
I led him to the bedroom downstairs, where I had been staying since I got back from the hospital. He packed a few things into a box he found in the closet and the next thing I felt was the dizzying feeling of moving too fast.
Chapter Two
Selena’s POV
I opened my eyes and found myself in an exquisitely furnished bedroom. I was lying on a bed with clean white sheets, numerous pillows and a white duvet designed with paw prints - probably puppy prints because they were small and cute. I loved the prints. They made me to smile. I looked around at my surroundings and spotted a coffee table at one end, a dresser right opposite the bed I was on, a soft leather sofa on the far right, and a flat screen TV facing the sofa. It was a beautiful room, but I had no idea how I got there. I got off the bed and looked around for a few extra seconds, trying to figure out how I might have ended up there.
“Did I go home with a mysterious stranger last night?”
The thought made me chuckle but then the realization of what that meant struck me like a strong wave. If I came back home drunk with a stranger last night, did we have sex? I rushed into the side door that looked like the bathroom and rested my frame behind the door while looking around. I was happy to see it was really the bathroom and I proceeded to check my personals for any sign of entry. There was none, and I heaved a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness I didn’t lose my virginity to some stranger on a drunken night.”
I walked back into the room and went to the closet. I recognized the box I found in there, and some of the clothes on the hanger. I flipped through the other hangers, trying to see if I would recognize anything else but I didn’t. I saw black T-Shirts, grey slacks, a few leather jackets and one pair of boots. From the size and design of the items, I could tell they belonged to a guy. But who? I tried to remember anything from before I woke up. My mind was drawing a blank. It was like I didn’t exist before that morning. I knew a couple of basic things like who
I was for instance. My name was Selena Ryder and I knew I was supposed to be a virgin and in college – pathetic, I know but I always wanted my first time to be special and with someone I truly loved. Apart from the basic information about myself, I couldn’t remember anything else.
I walked to the exit door and found it unlocked. At least that meant I hadn’t been kidnapped. I opened the door and peered outside. There was a hallway with other doors that had numbers on them. I was clearly in a hotel room and I had no idea why. I didn’t want to leave and I had no idea why either. I found myself wanting to go back into the room and sit on the bed. I felt like I had a very good reason for wanting to stay back in the room but I had no idea what it was. It was a really weird feeling but I couldn’t do anything about it. After about five minutes, I was beginning to get bored. I found a book on the coffee table and decided to go take a look.
“It’ll help me pass time.”
From my visual inspection of the brown covered book, I could tell it had a good number of pages.
“It could be a novel or an encyclopedia.”
I didn’t care what it was. I just wanted to read it to pass time. Before I could walk to the coffee table holding the book, I heard the door click behind me and turned around to see it opening slowly. A guy walked into the room. Scratch that, a smoking hot guy walked into the room. He was the kind of guy that made girls have naughty erotic fantasies because everything about him screamed sexy. His sleek black hair was cut short, so that it hovered just above his head. The rich strands seemed to band together and flow as one, just like tousled hair. What melted my heart into jelly were his dark green eyes. They were deep, mysterious and daring. The kind that made you want to do bad things... very bad things.
“You’re awake.” He smiled.
That was when I realized I was gawking at him.
“Um... yeah.” I replied, pushing an invisible strand of my hair behind my ear.
I just wanted to do something to play off the fact that I was gawking at him. I still didn’t know who he was but if he was some guy I met last night and came back to his hotel room with, I could sure as hell see why.
“Damn, he’s smoking hot!”
He closed the door and walked in, dropping the gray grocery bag he was holding on the coffee table beside the brown book I hadn’t gotten a chance to read yet. Then he walked up to me and pulled me into a hug.
“You have no idea how great it feels to have you in my arms again.” He said, hugging me tighter.
“Um... okay. I know I might sound crazy right now, but I don’t exactly remember who you are.” I said, pulling out of his hug and covering my face with both palms.
He laughed... a deep, sexy laughter.
I didn’t know what it was about this guy that made him so irresistible. Maybe it was everything. He was cute, charming, cool and sexy. I didn’t know how I ended up in his hotel room when he could have been with any blonde Barbie he as much as smiled at.
“You don’t sound crazy. You don’t remember because I compelled you to forget.” He said.
I dropped my hands from my face immediately and looked at him like he was the crazy one. Then, I realized what it was - a joke. I burst into a fit of laughter. He stood there and watched me laugh and when I realized I was the only one laughing, I slowly pulled my facial muscles back to their normal expression... or so I tried to do. I ended up with a very silly smirk plastered across my face and it was his turn to laugh.
“You’re so cute when you act like that.” He said, forcing me to blush.
I didn’t want him to see my face turning red, so I turned around and walked towards the bed. I silently took several deep breaths to calm myself down before turning around to face him and sitting on the edge of the bed. He walked towards me and got on one knee right in front of me. His position made him look like he was going to propose and I held my breath.
“When I found you yesterday, you were distraught. I had to calm you down and save you from the danger you were in. I couldn’t exactly do that in your frame of mind, so I had to compel you to forget.” He said, with a serious expression on his face.
“Wait a minute... When you say ‘compel me’ do you mean vampire compulsion?” I asked.
It was probably a stupid question but it was the only thing I could think of. I didn’t know any other way of compelling someone to forget everything about themselves.
“Yes.” He replied, completely surprising me.
“Is that even real?” I asked, still surprised.
“There are several things you don’t know that are real, Selena. I’ll try my best to explain but...” He stopped mid-sentence.
“But what?” I asked, still wondering if he had any idea what he was talking about.
He looked straight into my eyes in a weird way that stopped them from blinking, before replying.
“You have to trust me.”
Chapter Three
Selena’s POV
“I trust you.” I said, still looking into his green eyes.
“Believe me when I say I hate compelling you, my love. Right now, I have no choice. I wish I can keep you in this bubble forever and not worry about Ros, but I can’t. I can’t let him hurt you again.” He had a sad smile on his face and I wondered why.
“For starters, I don’t know who Ros is. I don’t even know your name. I...”
“Shh...” He placed a finger on my lips to stop me from talking and I obediently kept mute.
My attention was focused on the skin of his finger that was touching me and I was struggling between being too self-aware and maintaining my composure.
“My name is Ryan Soille, and as much as I hate to admit it, Ros is my brother.” He said.
I caught a flash of anger in his eyes when he mentioned his brother. I could tell that whatever sibling rivalry was going on there, it was best to stay far away from it.
“Ryan’s a nice name...” I started, but he stared deep into my eyes again and asked me to remember everything.
All the painful memories came rushing back to me, forcing my heart back into grief.
“My mum!”
I instantly got off the bed and raced towards the exit door, leaving him kneeling there. By the time I got to the door, he was standing in front of it, preventing me from going outside. I instinctively looked back to the spot where he was kneeling before, and couldn’t believe what I saw. He was kneeling right there. I turned back to the door and screamed from shock. He was there again, standing right in front of me.
“How did you...” I started, pointing back to the direction of the bed.
I was sure he could see the shock and confusion on my face.
“I’m a vampire.” He shrugged. “Speed is one of my many abilities.”
He pulled me into his arms to stop me from moving and smirked. It was a bit of an evil smirk, but it quickly disappeared from his face.
“We can do this forever, darling or you can just listen to me.” He said. “I thought I asked you to trust me.”
“I trust you, but my mum...”
“...is already dead.” He cut me off. “Listen, I’m sorry to hear that, but if you don’t stop and listen, you’ll be dead too.”
I knew he was right. The note said I was going to die on Halloween’s day which was literally one day away. The least I could do was put up a fight and if Ryan knew how, it was in my best interest to listen to him.
“I can’t have you going out in the open right now. I can tell you why, but I think it’ll be better to show you.” He said, picking me up into his arms and carrying me to the sofa in the room.
He put me down and straightened back up, before turning in the direction of the coffee table.
“Oh, I almost forgot. I got you something to eat. You should be starving by now.” He said.
He was right. I hadn’t eaten anything since the party yesterday and my stomach was beginning to growl. Unfortunately, I knew I was probably going to die the next day if I didn’t figure out a way to
stop it. As such, hunger was the least of my worries.
“I think you should tell me why first.” I replied, staring at his back.
He ignored me and pulled a paper wrap out of the grocery bag he had dropped on the coffee table earlier. As soon as he started unwrapping the Burrito roll, its delicious smell flooded my nostrils and I immediately changed my mind about what I said before.
“Um... on second thought, I’m going to eat now.” I said, causing him to smile.
He passed me the Burrito which I hungrily ate. I don’t know if it was the hunger I felt that made it taste so delicious, or the fact that I knew I might not be here much longer to get a chance to eat. When I was half way through the roll, Ryan walked back to the sofa and sat beside me. He had a red apple in his hand, from which he took a bite. I looked at him in surprise.
“I thought vampires only drank blood.”
Ryan laughed and raised one of his eyebrows. It was supposed to be a skeptical look but it was very cute.
“...and where did you hear that?” He asked.
“You know, vampire books and movies.” I replied, causing him to laugh again.
“Well, let’s say they aren’t exactly correct. We can eat pretty much anything we could eat before we were turned. The difference however, is that the food no longer nourishes our bodies like it used to. Blood is where we get our nutrition from, makes us strong... yadi, yadi, yada. I’m sure you know the rest.”
“So, why do you eat normal food then? If it does nothing, you might as well skip it.” I shrugged. “Just saying.”
“Well, you’re going to have to eat it if you really want to blend in. How do you think vampires exist among humans and they don’t get singled out? They go to parties and bars to have fun just like everyone else. If they really can’t eat anything else, it’ll only be a matter of time before people notice. It’s not like you can walk around with blood in a coffee cup.”