The Color Of a Blackbird- Ch 2

Chapter 2



         Morning came cold, icy and wet. I climbed out from a mess of stained covers and pillows that had long lost their softness. Half way out, I shook the sheets coiled around my leg free while grabbing at a bra and the least dirty article of clothing I could find. Sherry was passed out on the couch for the fourth time this week. She’d come home late and drunk and apparently hadn‘t made it to bed.

         I stole two cigarettes from her purse and left for school. I had run out of my own a few days ago and needed to get a hold of another pack. Oddly, I wasn’t addicted to them. I’d tried to check by quitting for a few weeks, but all that did was make me more aware of my headaches and stress. Since Vampires can’t get cancer, there was no reason to quit anyway. Weed was better, but it was also more expensive.

         As I walked, I lit up and smoked one of the cigarettes. The tobacco and smoke cleared my head and gave me some room to think about what I had seen last night. I remembered everything in the vision in detail. That wasn‘t unusual, as I remembered everything. My high IQ was more a curse than a gift. Story of my life.

         It was a she, considering the body I’d been in had boobs, and whoever she was seemed to not be thinking hard about what they were there for. Perhaps she was so confident that whatever it was she was planning to do would succeed and she didn’t need to think about it or fear getting caught. I, or rather she, seemed to be waiting for something though. She was anticipating something, but I couldn’t tell what.

         I took a long drag from my cigarette. The houses slowly faded from paint chipped walls and over grown weeds to bay windows and shiny electric sports cars. Under the rain laid the musk of grassy flowers. Somewhere nearby, I smelled fur, slightly damp, no threat.

         When I arrived at school the bottom of my jeans were soaked. My feet made a sloshing sound as I walked, telling me my socks hadn’t made the trip dry. I made my way though the expanse of both cold and warm bodies and headed toward the usual place where I met with my friends. Normally a kid from the Red Light or the Industrial Districts was shunned by the Blood Clan kids, but I’d been best friends with Corall since the first day of lower school. They let me hang around, but their dirty looks when Corall wasn’t around told me I was far from welcome. I usually stayed away until Corall showed up anyway.

         Blood Clan was like an exclusive, universe-wide club for the Emperior races. Only the strongest, richest and most powerful people were allowed. There were Blood Clan headquarters all over Emperior and even on Earth with the exception of South America.

         Within Emperior, Blood Clan acted like a kind of police or visual ante. There weren’t many rules in Emperior, so there wasn’t really any need for a set police force, but the rules that did exist were big. Blood Clan was there to make sure no one broke them.

         Outside of Emperior was a completely different story. The adults would often go to Earth on missions to help people who had turned or were in trouble there. The VLH, as they were often called with acid on the tongue, made the human world a dangerous place for a vampire or lycanthrope. Humans had a world wide ban on vampires, lycanthropes and any other shape shifter. If one was caught, they were arrested and taken to a holding prison where they either sat for the rest of their lives, or were eventually killed.  There were also rumors that some of those prisoners were taken to testing labs where they researched new weapons.

         The VLH were just what their title said they were, hunters. They got paid big money to run or drive around big cities searching for any “dog or mosquito” they could find. They had a license to kill any non-human being if it showed any signs of posing a threat to precious humankind. They murdered as many as they could and kept our races from feeling safe.

         The Blood Clan kids pretty much ruled the school. Most of that came from them being born into higher class neighborhoods, the rest came from terrorizing the rest of the student body. They weren’t exactly bullies, but they looked tough and a good ninety percent of them could rip limbs off of people without batting an eye. That was enough to keep everyone away.

         At the same time, a lot of people would do anything to just get a taste of Blood Clan life. The title came with a lot of benefits. Teachers sucked up to you, people sucked up to you. It was like being famous.

         Corall was of course the leader of the group. Her power and strength set her permanently on the highest pedestal. She was going to be Queen of Emperior one day. Ruler of the entire world we lived in. The position also meant that she was runner up to head of Blood Clan. Basically, if her step father, King Dracule died, she took his place, no exceptions. That was the law. Corall had the ring to prove it.

         I had the urge to tell Corall about my vision the moment I saw her. The information bubbled up inside me ready to explode, but, as my luck goes, there were too many people around to tell Corall my vision then, so I waited until after school when Corall once again, begged me to let her give me a ride home.

         Raven joined us in the back and as soon as we pulled away from the school I told them about my vision. Neither of them could figure it out either.

         “That’s odd. Why would you have a vision where you’re in someone else’s body?” Corall asked.

         I shrugged. “I don’t know, but it was scary. As soon as I realized that I wasn’t me I came out of it,”

         “Maybe it doesn’t mean anything,” Raven suggested. Corall and I both looked at her. “Ok, you’re right, stupid suggestion. I’m just thinking that Enger has had some pretty meaningless visions before.”

         “Like what?” I asked.

         “Well, you had a vision like a month ago that predicted Raymond falling in the obstacle course in combat class and breaking his arm. What use did that give you? We’d been running obstacle courses for a week before and even then the vision didn’t come true until a few days after.”

         “So sorry my curse isn’t as practical as we all wish it was Raven,” I growled.

         “Hey, guys, stop it. Enger, being psychic is not a curse, it’s a gift,” Corall cut in.

         “You don’t have to live with it,” I mumbled.

         Corall ignored me. “And Raven, Enger has a point. Enger can’t decide what she sees.”

         “I’m not trying to be insulting,” Raven said. She looked at me as she said that part. “I was only trying to make a point. I just think we’re blowing this a little out of proportion. We’re acting like it’s some big important thing when we don’t even know that for sure.”

         “It’s just so hard to tell. I’ve had some really bad visions. I don’t want this one to be bad and for us to not even see it coming,” I said.

         We were outside my house now. I grabbed my pack and opened the door.

         “Just try not to stress yourself out Enger. Maybe answers will come,” Corall said.

         “I’m not counting on it,” I said. “Bye guys.”

         The driver barely gave me time to close the door before he started to drive off. Who could blame him? This was a shady area of town and he was transporting precious cargo.

         To my surprise, Sherry’s beat up car was still in the driveway when I walked up to the house. The poor little thing looked like it had suffered a hard life. There were various dents in it where it’s previous owner and Sherry had ran it into things--like other cars-- driving drunk. I was amazed it was still actually working. The front door of my house opened and Sherry stepped out looking like the cover of Slut Weekly.

         She was wearing a hot pink bikini top and a way too short silver mini skirt. Black fishnet stockings clung to her skinny legs supported by five inch heels. Her curly dark brown hair up in a high pony tail and slicked back smooth with enough hair gel to fill the trailer’s small bathtub. Her makeup, had it been food, could have fed a family of four for a week. She held a cigarette on her deep red lips and sucked in smoke as she walked.

         If it had been the first time seeing her dressed like this, I’d have dropped my jaw and covered my eyes. Unfortunately, this was her usual choice of clothing when she went to work so I was uncomfortably used to it.

         Sherry walked down the steps of the trailer and through the gravel with the grace of only someone who pretty much lived in high heels. She didn’t say a word to me as the car’s auto-lock system clicked and she opened the door, so I just walked to the front door of the trailer and went inside.

         I heard the car rumble to a start as I closed the door. Standing in the doorway, I waited until I couldn’t hear it any more before I got settled on the couch with a new cigarette from my pack. I lit it up and took a deep inhale of the toxic smoke. It felt good in my lungs. Sherry had carelessly left the TV on so the news was blaring rudely through the house. There was nothing better to do, so I smoked and watched the news until my cigarette was gone and I was asleep.

         I woke up a few hours later. I knew this because a quick glace at the window told me the sun had set and night had fallen over Chobok. I’d dreamt as usual. It seemed like every time I closed my eyes pictures flooded my mind. I was lucky if those dreams weren’t violent too as they often were. I was so used to gore and violence that I wondered if I saw anything that tragic in person if I’d just shrug it off or actually freak out about it.

         Something felt odd as soon as I stood up. I had a headache again, but that was normal for me. I couldn’t recall the reason why I’d woken up in the first place. The dream I was having hadn’t been bad enough to wake me up.

         I just about pissed my pants when someone banged on my door urgently. I strode to the door, cussing, and flung the door open, angry at myself more than whoever it was who’d woken me up.

         It was a man. He looked about twenty one, but if he was a vampire that didn’t mean anything. He could be twenty one, he could also be three fucking thousand. He would likely still look the same.

         His brown hair was greasy and tangled, his face unshaven, bags under his wide eyes. A grey t-shirt with a stain on it and some stylish ripped jeans was all I knew about this guy.

         He was shaking slightly, but he didn’t look cold. I’d seen enough people on drugs to know that this guy, this strange male, possibly vampire, was not sober.

         What do you want? I wanted to say as rudely as possible. If he hadn’t been tripping out so much, I would’ve probably said it too, but he probably had some sort of weapon and I wasn’t feeling up to an argument with a gun held to my scalp. Although with the pain in my head, a silver bullet to the brain sounded better than a shot of vodka.

         “Who the fuck are you?” I asked. That was as polite as it got when I was pissed off.

         “Is Tiff here?” Tiff was Sherry’s stage name.

         “No,” I said angrily, hoping he’d leave. He did the exact opposite, and shoved me out of the door way. Now there was a high, strange male, possibly vampire, in the house with me, an angry, young, girl home alone. Great. Just fucking great.

         Now that he was an intruder, I could be as rude as I wanted. “I said she’s not here, so what the shit do you want?”

         “Do you…thinkIcouldcrash…here?” The man said. He slurred his words together and swayed as he talked. I couldn’t tell if he was just high or drunk or both, I just knew he was completely gone.

         “No, you can’t ‘crash’ here. Go crash in the Red Light like every one else.”

         “Can’t… Bad news…. I’m not safe there right now,” he said softly as if he were telling me a secret.

         “Why not?”

         “Some chick. She said she… wanted me to go… kill some bitch. I said ‘No way. No way...’ Well, she got pissed… Told me to beat it…. Said if she saw me again… she’d bury me alive. So I went to a bar… had a couple drinks… had me some crack… then came here.”

         “Why come here?”

         “Tiff is one hot chick. I’ve beentryingto fuck her for weeksbutshe keeps resisting,” He said smiling. He winked at me and almost fell over. “Can I pee here?”

         “One sec. What was this girl’s name? The one who wanted you to kill someone?” I asked.

         “Oh, I don’t know… She never said her name. Look, sweeties, I really need to piss… Where’s your toilet?”

         I pointed to the bathroom and watched him stumble off. He managed to forget to close the door. I was glad I hadn’t followed him. He came back and looked at me blankly, then his eyes popped as if he’d gotten an idea.

         “She had brown eyes…and she was tan… Maybe you know her? If you do, I want her number,” he said.

         Yeah, I‘d just start questioning every brown-eyed tan girl off the Red Light if she‘s put a hit on someone recently. Right.

         “Sorry, no clue. Did she happen to say who it was she wanted dead?”

         “Noooope… Just said to say yes and she’d give me the details… But I sprang before she could.” He did a little jump motion with his hand.

         “Alright, well, you can’t stay here while Tiff isn’t around. She’s at work. You could go there if you want to see her. But you sure as hell can’t stay here right now,” I said.

         He reached toward my face but I baked up. His hand landed on my shoulder instead.

         “You’ve been so nice to me… Thank you sweeties.”

         “Whatever. Just get the fuck out,” I said and pushed him out through the door. It warmed my heart to see him fall face first in the gravel.

         He stood up repeating, “My bad, my bad!”



         I couldn’t sleep after he’d left. Instead, I spent the night smoking and watching whatever played on the TV.

         Sherry slammed through the door at about day break. She glanced toward me, then padded toward her room where she passed out half way through getting changed. I almost wished I’d had a camera. Half nude pics of a stripper would sell for enough to buy some good cigarettes.

         I left the house in the early morning. The Emperior sun blared softly across the front steps and I lifted my hand to my face to shade the green of my eyes. My plan was to get to Raven’s house and far away from mine. It was a long walk but I didn’t mind.

         As I made my way to the entrance of the trailer park, I noticed one of our neighbors, Madame Riskier. She was a short vampire with messy red-brown hair and dark freckles. Her cloths were obnoxiously bright and shiny and didn’t match at all. She stared at me as I passed. I could see it on her face. She was watching the freak. Hoping that IT didn’t read her thoughts. Wishing that IT lived somewhere else. Fuck off, My thoughts hissed. I glared back at her just for kicks. She didn’t even look away.

         

         It took twenty minutes to walk to Raven’s house even with short cuts. The neighborhood she lived in was filled with the stench of toxic fumes. The only reason the Royalty and Council let the air get this bad was because vampires and shape shifters didn’t get the harmful side effects humans got when living around factories. And the plants seemed to do fine with the chemicals in the air so environmentally, everything was fine.

         I knocked firmly on the front door and waited. There was a shuffling from inside then the door perked open. Standing there was a short older woman with long, uncombed silver-white hair. Her wrinkled grey eyes were curious at first then, upon seeing me, they lightened and she opened the door wider.

         “Auberta,” I said. “Is your granddaughter home?”

         Auberta nodded and smiled. “She’s in her room.” She stepped back out of the door frame and allowed me to walk inside. I nodded slightly in thanks and headed toward one end of the house.

         Raven’s home was as simple as a home gets. Two rooms, one on either side of the house with a small kitchen/living room in the middle as well as a small bathroom. The house was virtually empty with a single wood table and cheap chairs in the kitchen, a sink and small refrigerator. In Raven’s room, just a mattress on a box spring and a small desk lamp on the floor as well as a metal rack where she hung her cloths. Her grandmother’s room was a lot similar to this I imagined, but I never went inside. There was no need for me to go inside.

         The only door in the house besides the front door was the bathroom door. Both rooms just had an empty space were the door should be and brass, rusted hinges hanging by the frames.

         I knocked softly on the wall beside the frame to Raven’s room before entering. She knew I was there before I’d even gotten there, but it felt a lot more polite to knock. I respected Raven and her grandmother. For how poor they were, they were some of the kindest, most thoughtful people I knew.

         “Come on in, Enger,” Raven said. I steeped into the room. Raven was lounging on her bed with a textbook. “What’s up?”

         “You wanna go throw stones or something into Lesser Lake?” I asked.

         “Sure. I’m off today anyway,” Raven said. She stood up and pulled on her old, torn boots.

         “I’m going out to Lesser Lake with Enger, Gram,” She called into the house as we walked through the front door.

         “Have fun,” I heard Auberta say before Raven closed the door. She smiled at me and I felt the side of my lip twitch up slightly.



         “You think one day we’ll both be rich and live in fancy houses like Shantell’s?” Raven asked me.

         I picked up a flattish stone and chucked it towards the water. It landed with a plop and didn’t even bounce across the water as I had intended it to.

         “You’re talking to a pessimistic, trailer trash, freak, Raven. Are you sure you want to ask these kinds of hopeful questions?” I said.

         Raven laughed. “I guess not. But it doesn’t hurt to dream does it?”

         “No, as long as you’re careful not to let your dreaming become your reality.”

         “That’s true,” Raven sighed. “How’s everything at home?”

         “Same as always. How’s your grandmother?”

         “She’s doing well. Still working at the toddler school.”

         “Good,” I said. “Want a cigarette?”

         “Seriously? I’d love one!” Raven said. I handed her one and gave one to myself then lit hers and then mine.

         We sat on one of the many boulders surrounding the lake. It was one of the flattest and shadiest boulders there and one of our favorite spots. It was a fabulous breezy day and you could smell the lake when large gusts blew at our faces. Squeaker Ducks swam around the lake happily chirping. They sounded like little floating chew toys. It was their offspring season and behind many of the adult ducks, little baby squeakers followed them chirping loudly.

         A TatterFish jumped out from the water and grabbed flying insect that had been hovering above the water’s surface.

         Everything was serene and perfect.

         “Ugh, yet another prefect spot ruined by a couple of misfits.” Both me and Raven swung around towards the voice. I already knew who it was.

         Cayden Thane had long brown curly hair, her bangs swept to one side of her face and all her hair swung over on one shoulder. She was a skinny pale vampire and possibly one of the people in my life that I hated the most. She wore an eggplant purple corset top and cut off shorts with expensively rare dragon boots. She was flanked by her two usual flunkies on either side of her slim hips, Misty and Rosemary. The two were about as intimidating as their names. I could bet that bugs they swatted at lived.

         “Fuck off Cayden,” I growled.

         “Why don’t you fuck off, freak?” Cayden said.

         I glared at her, pissed. I didn’t want her around, I couldn’t fight her, but I didn’t want to back down either. I lowered my eyes the way a vampire or Lycan did when they caught eyes. Whoever could hold the stare long enough was more dominate, and if it lasted long enough, it usually turned into a fight. It was all I could do. Let her win the stare contest. Maybe she would leave us alone.

         “Where’s your oh-so-royal body guard, Corall, Freak?” Cayden asked dramatically looking around. She said it like it was a command.

         “Don’t call me that,” I demanded.

         “Whatever. Tell me where Corall is,” she snapped. I was getting suspicious. Was she trying to pick a fight with Corall? She’d done it before. During combat class, during lunch, after school, before school, in between classes. It seemed like every time her and Corall crossed paths, they ended up in some sort of verbal of physical combat. Corall had so far won all of their physical fights, but not all of the verbal ones. It was a constant war against each other.

         “How should I know? I’m not her keeper,” I said.

         “I know. Isn’t she yours?” Cayden teased. Her flunkies laughed.

         “Shut the hell up. Why don’t you just get out of here? Corall’s obviously not here,” I said. Raven was very still and quiet beside me.

         Cayden sighed dramatically. “What a shame,” She said shaking her head. “ Next time you see her, tell her I’ve got a surprise for her.”

         “What is it?” I asked. I knew she wouldn’t tell me, but it never hurts to ask.

         Cayden laughed, but it wasn’t a humorous one. “You’ll all find out soon enough.”

         My eyes narrowed and she smiled/smirked at me. Then she turned abruptly and left, Misty and Rosemary following closely behind.

         “What do you think that was all about?” Raven asked.

         “I don’t know. I hope it’s not something we should be concerned about though,” I answered.

         I could’ve read Cayden’s mind. I could’ve found out what she was up to. But I didn’t believe in reading the minds of people for personal gain. It was an invasion of privacy and I just felt like I was abusing my powers by just reading minds as I wished.

         I wanted desperately for people to trust me then. I hated being called a freak. It was a name branded on my forehead because people were so scared that I would jump into their deepest thoughts and secrets just because I could. Giving people the privacy of their own thoughts was my way of keeping myself in check. It was a healthy process.

         “Maybe we should leave. What if they come back?” Raven said. I nodded and stood up.

         “I’ll walk you home.” I said.