mOBSCENE: Chapter 1 - Part 1

This all started two years ago, when I was fourteen.
        I remember arguing with my mother about being expelled from school. She said I was throwing my life away, so I told her plenty of people get by without school. She said she didn’t want that life for me. I bit back my response. Then after a few moments of silence, she told me she was worried about me…So I told her she should’ve kept her fucking legs shut fourteen years ago, then she wouldn’t have this problem.
        I took advantage of her stunned silence and headed for the door, grabbing my purse and jacket on the way. I left behind my life with her with a satisfying slam.

        The night air was crisp and cool, the temperature close to descending into minus figures, so I slid my jacket on as I walked and zipped it up half way, then I shoved my hands into my pockets, holding onto my purse tightly as I walked past the flats that always seemed to emanate the smell of marijuana. Its tenants were usually harmless enough, but I wasn’t taking any chances. The money in this purse was all I had, and it carried my fake ID, which was something I definitely didn’t want to lose. The remnants of the other day’s snow crunched under my boots, each step booming in my ultra-sensitive ears.
        See, fourteen years ago my mom screwed a vampire.
        Actually…My mom screwed about five vampires. Not at the same time, I don’t think…Though I wouldn’t put it past her. Anyway, only two of them had my jet black hair, so either one of them could be my father. Not that it mattered, because she never heard from any of them again. And then that’s when I came along, so now I have all of this vampire shit going for me: the super hyped-up senses, super speed, super strength, fangs...and the ability to grow and develop faster than regular humans, which is why at fourteen I appeared older - quite a bit older. This was the most useful of my abilities right now.

        It was a ten minute walk into town - to the centre of the nightlife - where the clueless and the gullible were preyed on by the ultimate predators, and the stronger spent their nights in blissful ignorance. I headed towards the thumping bass and the flashing lights of the nearest nightclub. Its name, ‘Magnolia‘, was hung above the door in magenta neon lights, casting a cold glow down onto the frosted pavement.
        I pushed through the doors and quickly dodged my way through the crowd of sweaty, entangled bodies - towards the bar - and found an empty stool. The sub-bass throbbed and pulsed all the way from my toes to my head, the music flowing through every muscle and nerve in my being. I hadn’t even been here for a full minute and I already felt my tension starting to lift. I shouted my order over the music to the bartender when he gave me his attention, then slumped forward, resting my elbows on the bar and closing my eyes, allowing myself to be completely enveloped by the blaring synthesized melody - letting it vibrate through my body, sync in with my heartbeat, allow me to get completely lost in it and forget the world.
        I don’t quite know what forced me to open my eyes a few moments later…It was like the atmosphere had shifted. The club was still dark and filled with flashing multicoloured strobe lights and deafening techno, but something was definitely different.
        With a quick glance to my right, I saw it. Or, rather, who…
        The first thing I saw was the thick obsidian hair that ran in razor-cut layers down to his shoulders, then the sharp, handsome features of his profile, then the small silver rings in his lips, catching and reflecting the aurora borealis colours of the strobe lights. He was hot, in the rugged, dangerous-looking kind of way.
        But there was something else about him. Something…not quite right: like a darkness, radiating from him…It was alluring, and hypnotic…
        Just one quick glance, and I couldn’t look away from him.
        “Hello?” his voice broke me out of my trance. His deep, velvety voice…I quickly looked down, a blush rising to my cheeks that he hopefully wouldn’t see in the dark.
        “Uh…s-sorry…” I managed to stammer out, nervously picking at the faded leather of my sleeve. I’d heard once that vampires had the ability to teleport at will. God, I wanted to be able to do that so badly right now.
        The chuckle that escaped through his lips was soft and light and he turned to look at me with a crooked smile so beautiful, my blush intensified and I had the feeling that a swarm of fluttering insects was let loose in my chest.
        “A little young to be drinking, aren‘t you?” he asked casually, and I felt his eyes scan me up and down. I don’t know what it was about his gaze that made me feel naked…And when that thought dug its way into my head, it set free a flow of so many more - thoughts that turned my face hot and, I imagine, even redder. To avoid my voice betraying what was happening in my mind, I shrugged my response, and stared down as he watched me, unblinking. Finally, he asked “So, what‘s your name, jailbait?”
        The mention of the word jailbait caused me to flush even more, and if for some reason the lights were to be turned on now, my whole body would probably be the colour of fresh blood.
        “Valkyrie,” I snapped out quickly, keeping my head down. I wanted him to leave me alone so much right now, and save me all of this embarrassment…
        But did I? Really? There was something so captivating about him; so fascinating, and he was really, really hot, and kind of dangerous - at least, that’s what his vibe was. Forbidden, almost. And he was being nice to me, and the way he looked at me…No matter how reddened it turned my face, it made me feel good.
        “Valkyrie…” he repeated slowly, softly. “Valkyries…the Goddesses of battle…Is that you, Valkyrie? Are you a fighter?” he said it so casually…so gently…But I knew there was another meaning to it, and as he said it, I felt shivers run up my spine and fine hair stand up at the back of my neck.
        But I thought back to the previous week, where I had completely snapped and sucker punched a guy in my class right in the face for trying to put his hands where they didn’t belong…and I had just kept punching and punching…And the rest is just lost in a hazy red blur.
        “Yeah…”
        As soon as I looked back up at his face, something in my stomach churned and my eyes widened, and I immediately regretted my answer. The smirk on his face just looked so dark, and wrong. It completely transformed his face, and in that split second glance, I caught a glimpse of a monster.
        It’s so wrong that I was still attracted to him.
        I expected him to respond, but instead he just asked, the smirk now gone from his face:
        “So where are you staying, Valkyrie?” Now, any normal or at least somewhat intelligent person would be alarmed, and not answer, or just get up and leave. A strange, older, man walks up to you in a club, flirts with you, asks if you’re a fighter, then asks where you live. That just screams ‘Stalker Rapist’. You get up, and you run.
        “On the streets now, probably,” I said quietly.
        What…the actual fuck? It was like my brain didn’t send the message down to my lips soon enough, but the words were out now and no matter how much I wished I could now, I couldn’t suck them back in.
        “Well I can‘t in all good conscience allow that…” he said, a warm smile appearing on his face which still managed to look twisted and wrong. “Let me give you a place to stay, just for a couple of nights if that‘s what you want…” The alarm bells were definitely ringing in my head now, almost as loudly as the music pulsing through the room: the heartbeat of the beast I was now trapped in.
        “Sorry. I don‘t just run off with random strangers I don‘t even know the name of,” I answered, my mind finally controlling my mouth again as I stood up and turned back towards the masses of ‘dancers’ filling the club.
        “My name‘s Dunstan,” his voice called to me over the music and I made the mistake of taking one last glance over my shoulder at him. As soon as I saw that smile, I was caught in his trance again. “So now you know my name, you can take up my offer. It‘s not like there‘s anywhere else you can go, is there?”
        He was right. There wasn’t. Reluctantly, I slowly nodded my head.
      “Okay…fine…”
        Dunstan quickly stood up and was by my side within the blink of an eye. Oh. He was a vampire. All of this was starting to make sense now; his unbelievably good looks, the way everything about him was so hypnotic, the sinister edge…
        “Shall we away, Valkyrie?” he asked, a light grin on his face as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. My response was a swift, sharp nod, and within the next moment the club, the bar, all of the people inhibiting it and the throbbing music were all gone in a quick burst of wind.          

        So what I’d heard was true: vampires could teleport.

        It only lasted a second, but as soon as I felt my feet on solid ground again a wave of nausea came over me that forced me to close my eyes and take a few deep breaths. When I opened my eyes I couldn’t help but blink, because in front of me was a house which looked like something you only see on episodes of MTV’S ‘Cribs’: three storeys tall, with a grand double-door entrance framed with large white marble pillars on either side. It was the biggest house I’d ever seen, and once Dunstan lead me through the front doors, I saw that the view from inside was even more impressive. It was a huge open hall, with floors made of the same marble that the pillars outside were made of and two curving staircases that lead to the second floor balcony.
        With his hand resting low on my back, Dunstan steered me towards one of the many doors in the hall and into a considerably smaller kitchen/dining area - where there were two other people already there, waiting.
        The first was a girl who looked just a little older than me, with hair that appeared black at first, but there were moments where the light caught it and revealed its deep brown highlights. She wasn’t strikingly beautiful, or anything; more like…attractive. The only striking thing about her were the lilac butterflies that were tattooed on her hip that spread up her waist and disappeared behind her baby pink pyjama top - which sported an emblem of a chibi Dracula: cape and fangs and all. Cute. She was stood against one of the counters, sipping from a mug of what I assumed was coffee - despite the fact that it was nearing midnight - and studying me as carefully as I was her.
        I quickly looked away, and over at the second person in the room. I couldn’t quite decide whether it was a he or a she…If it was a he, he was a very pretty he who wore way too much eye makeup for a boy. If it was a she, the dark, baggy clothes didn’t do anything for her figure, and she needed to learn a thing or two about posture - because the way she (or he) was slumped in the chair made him/her look like a lethargic chimp…Which, now that I thought about it, is the trademark posture of a male.
        So it was decided. He was a he. And he was also staring at me like an unwanted piece of dog shit on the bottom of his huge buckled combat boots.
        “Valkyrie, this is Persephone and Harper,” Dunstan announced, nodding over to the girl, then the boy (?). Christ, this dude even had an androgynous name. I gave a small nod, quickly glancing between the two, and felt a small tinge of relief when I saw the warm smile on the girl’s face. The hermaphrodite just looked disinterested.
        I felt Dunstan remove his hand from my back and, by instinct, I glanced over my shoulder.
        “Jesus fuck!” I blurted, quickly spinning around. Dunstan was gone, but in his place was something I hadn’t noticed before. It was all white: plastery-white skin that blended into the wall, white-straw hair framing its piercing dead-white eyes which, in stark contrast, were outlined in thick black raccoon circles. I call it an it because the thing facing me now didn’t look human. It looked dead. And it was staring right at me.
        “Don‘t mind Morana. She‘s furniture,” Dunstan called to me from where he was now stood at the fridge. Thinking he meant it literally - like some sick kind of taxidermy, I reached out and touched a finger to its white shoulder, only to have it immediately gripped and bent back.
        I swear, my heart stopped dead in my chest.
        “Touch me again and I will tear that finger from your hand,” the thing - Morana, apparently - snarled at me, baring teeth.    All I could do was nod, eyes opened wide, and my finger was released.
        The silence that ensued couldn’t have been more awkward and the tension filled the room like fog…The thick kind that masked everything around you and caused accidents. Fatal ones. I looked away from Morana’s frosty, furious face and allowed my eyes to wonder the room.
        Finally, Persephone pushed herself off the counter and set her mug down. Giving me another bright smile, she said:
        “Right, well…Should I show you your room?” Grateful for a reason to get the hell out of this room, I nodded quickly and followed her out of the door.
        “What the hell‘s her problem?” I asked once we were walking across the hall, towards the stairs.
        “Honestly, I have no clue. Morana‘s just a psycho. She was that way when Dunstan brought me here,” the older girl answered, then turned her head to look at me and smiled. “But don‘t worry, she‘s harmless.”
        “When did he bring you here?” I asked as we both made our way up the stairs. In response, Persephone let out a long huff, still smiling.
        “Oh, it was three years ago, now…I was thirteen.”
        I blinked. That may have been only a year younger than I was, but something about her being thirteen - just barely out of childhood - and picked up in the same way I was just seemed sick.
        “Yeah, Dunstan likes ‘em young,” Persephone said with a soft laugh - a warm sound that almost managed to make light of what she was actually saying. I stopped walking and stared at her, my lips parting slightly in horror. She looked over her shoulder at me and laughed again. “Not in that way. He‘s not gonna try it on with you,” she clarified and a wave of relief washed over me and - what was that? Disappointment? Jesus, sometimes I scared myself.
        “So in what way did you mean?” I asked, trying to keep my mind from wondering to the thoughts of exactly why I was disappointed. Persephone’s smile faltered slightly and she quickly looked around, then at a door we were just approaching.
        “Well, this is it,” she announced, clearly avoiding my question. I frowned at her, but nodded anyway and walked towards the door. Just before I entered the room, Persephone spoke up again:
        “Hey, if you need anything, or if anyone gives you shit, just come to me or Harper. Our room‘s just a couple of doors down and across the corridor,” she said, her smile returning. I nodded.
        “Thanks…” I tried for a smile, but it felt broken and forced.
        What had I gotten myself into?
        I hastily turned and let myself into what was now my room, apparently, and stared at the sight that was now before me. Naturally, the room - in theme with the rest of the house - was huge. Thick, crimson plush carpet covered the floor, a large Persian rug in shades of brown, gold and red residing at the centre; at the far end of the room was a canopied bed, draped in the same blood-red as the floor and around the walls were a collection of deep mahogany dressers, shelves, a vanity table and - on one side of the room - a mirror that ran the entire length of the wall: floor to ceiling.
        It would’ve been the most elegant room I’d ever seen…If it didn’t remind me of a brothel. And honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was a brothel. I mean, this guy had to get the money from somewhere, right?
        With a deep sigh, I dragged my feet over to the bed and sat down on the edge. The events of the day had suddenly smacked into me and all I wanted was to close my eyes and sleep forever, so when I turned my head and saw the mountain of decorative pillows in - what a surprise - blood red, I grimaced. I was not going to waste my already diminishing energy removing them, so instead I collapsed down on top of them, not bothering with the duvet, and closed my eyes…And prayed I wouldn’t get raped or murdered in my sleep.