Returning home

"A worthless piece of trash like you can not inherit my company! Get out of my sight! Better yet, get out of my house!"

He yelled and for the first time ever he actually kicked her out. Her younger brother stared at her smugly from the window of his room in the mansion. At least she assumed he was looking smug. The mansion was huge and the window was high.

Their aging dad had shown her no mercy this time.

"You'd think a workaholic like him would appreciate the amount of work I put into my extreme party lifestyle, but no," she muttered as she took a swing from some wine. Her favorite brand. "That old geezer looks like a prune. What was he, sixty six? He needs to relax."

She too felt the need to relax and slid down the side of a building she passed by, her feet no longer holding her up. Her knees hit the wet street beneath her feet and she rested for a time while the rain slid down her brown coat which was too big for her.

She wasn't an idiot, she'd stashed away some money in a secret bank account. She couldn't really buy an apartment less than a week after she'd been kicked out. The old man would get pissed.

So she was couch hopping to her next destination.

She fancied the look though. Always wanted to try that homeless aesthetic. With her scissors and needle her friend, Sally, had turned a fine coat into rags and she loved it.

"Erica Salse, if I could turn back time and never have you, I would. You have done nothing but waste my money." her father's voice yet again boomed in her head.

Her body shook. Most people ignored her which was fun, but the other homeless people unfortunately wanted to look out for her.

A man in rags which actually looked worn and filthy, unlike hers, approached.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"Yeah." she said, smiling at the kindness.

Erica held out her hand and the man reached down to take it.

She bashed his concerned face with the wine bottle, breaking it and the man's face, and spraying blood and wine everywhere.

Some passerbies in the night stared at her with horror. Catching a woman's eyes Erica tilted her head to the side.

"What, first time seeing a bum get murdered, don't go out at night much do you?"

The woman trembled, but she was too stunned to otherwise move. Her two companions stared vacantly.

Erica looked at the straw which was poking out of the woman's can of beer.

"Gimme that." she roughly took the object away, blowing air through it and shooting whatever beer was left in it into the woman's face. This didn't even make her twitch.

"Man that chump spilled my wine. Well I haven't caught a new sexual disease in days. Gonna slurp me some of that impure cocktail, get the blood flowing," she turned to one of the woman's pals who seemed to have wet her pants. "Get it?"

Erica smiled at the woman and she was horrified.

The homeless lady shrugged her shoulders and stuck the straw in the now cold neck. After a few gulps she stopped to ponder.

"Wait since when did I start getting the urge to suck off hobos. Man I'm never gonna hear the end of this when I tell Lora." she pondered on this, shot a look at the stunned trio who were finally starting to make attempts to move.

Then they froze again. Erica closed her eyes in response to a sudden bright light. With one eye closed she stared up at the light. It came from the moon which was shooting some weird beam of light at her.

"Cool," she smiled as she stood up, spitting some leftover blood mixed with spit at the third person's face. He screamed. "Does this mean I'm a superhero or something. I really should do more of these, they're awesome, should tell Teddy, she'll go whack."

She took some pills from her pocket and tossed them in her mouth.

"Cool, the light turned into a rainbow." she turned to her two new friends. Erica held out pills with her less bloody hand. "Want some."

They held out their hands and took them all, washing them down with their beers with such vigor that most of the liquid dripped down their chins.

"Cool, there's a secon rainbow. Let's all follow it!" she exclaimed and headed out. Her new lackeys started to follow in a line.

Then something came to her and she stopped.

"Wait!" she yelled, not turning to her new amigos.

"What?" they asked in unison each poking out from her sides, like extra heads.

"You," she pointed behind her. "The girl with the not pissed pants, the one I took the straw from."

"Yeah." the woman said as she stared up at the rainbows.

"Cut off the homeless dude's face and wear it as a mask."

"Yeah." she said absentmindedly and then snapped into attention."What!"

"It'll be so cool, you'll be my numero uno sidekick: Homeless Face! It'll be so awesome."

"It really would be really awesome Charlie." the other girl said in monotone.

"Oh alright, but only if you rate how cute I am after!"

***

"Eighteen long years son I cursed the antics of your older twin." a man held a golden cup before the left side of his abdomen.

"But no more!" he roared to the room full of spectators from his podium. "I will not have my name, our name, the name of Salse, run through the mud."

"Today my son shall drink from the blood of his father and finally become a true demon, a true inheritor to our name. He will receive my wisdom, my experience and my life force, a tradition that has been done for decades since our first predecessor was banished from hell and sentenced to life on this accursed Earth.

"Forced to hide our presence, never being too strong, too wealthy, too affluent, less the other demons from hell resurface to put us down a peg yet again." The father sighed. He looked forward at his son who stood before him on the platform, illuminated by the beam of light from the full moon, this being his first since his eighteenth birthday.

"Son do you accept the tittle of Clan Head, to lead us down a path of moderation, with control, reservation and most of all survival as your primal goals."

"Yes father, I accept." he said solemnly, looking down, knowing what must be done.

"Then kill me son and drink my blood so that it may strengthen yours." he hesitated. And immediately regretted it.

"Don't mind if I do, daddy." a familiar voice sounded as a hand pierced his father's chest. Blood shot out, filling the cup. As the strength escaped the elderly man a hand without source reached out and took it. The cup was raised and tipped over as something drank.

"Can't see me, can you bro. It's cause I drank hobo blood apparently, it's used to staying hidden. Dammit, I was getting sober, just listening to daddy, but that blood of his is really giving me a power trip. Imagine what all the others will do to me!"

And then he looked down from the podium and saw it - chaos. His family all being murdered by three people, three ordinary teens, though one had a face so grotesque he vomited.

On his knees bile dripping down his chin, blood pooling beneath the podium he wept.

"Oh come on bro, didn't mean to make you cry, just wanted to make you pay for looking at me all smug like. Here have a lollipop." she said as she held one up. Then she leaned in and whispered "It's actually dipped in hallucinogens."

She winked saucily and nodded at him with a smile.

And somehow he found himself smiling back. It was the only thing he had left. His annoying bratty sister.