Enchanted World: Elves and Vampires

2: A Terrifying Encounter

*****

It had been a week since she spotted the cars, but the elf’s dark eyes seemed to have been embedded into Nora’s memory. She could still picture them clearly, especially when her eyes were closed or in her sleep, which was surprising because it was the first time in years seeing anything other than the recurring nightmare she had been having since her parents passed away. It was somewhat weird remembering those eyes so vividly because she had seen elf eyes before from a distance and on billboards and they were just normal eyes that were not as memorable. Maybe he just had really beautiful eyes. She thought he did, even from a distance they looked like marbles that held a beautiful, calm darkness. That was odd; darkness was usually unsettling to her as it related to vampires. Whatever it was, she was glad it stopped the screaming in her mind for a little while.

Nora was making her way through the park having wanted some time alone. It was one of the lucky afternoons where they had enough food to last them a few days and did not desperately have to look for more so they could hang out or roam around aimlessly without feeling worried or guilty about it. She loved parks as they were linked to most of the few remaining memories she had of her parents. They used to take her and Zachary to the park every Saturday afternoon to play or get some air, usually both their parents played with them until Zia was born and then one of them would always be watching the baby.

This particular park was filled with dense trees that somewhat surrounded a large clearing that housed a few jungle gyms and swings. Nora made sure to stay within the clearing as she took a seat on a bench in broad daylight because dark places outside of her home terrified her, though she knew vampires could find ways around their deadly weakness to sunlight and so did not feel completely safe in the light either.

Still, even with these fears always in the back of her mind, she felt somewhat happier and lighter hearing children laugh and watching them play around as carelessly as they did. It made her nostalgic for similar carefree times.

“Hello.” Nora smiled at a man that seemed a few years older than she was as he took a seat beside her on the bench.

“Hi.” He had to be somewhere in his late twenties and her eyes automatically did the four-point check she had become accustomed to doing whenever meeting someone new. Ears, neck, wrists, fingers. He wore no jewellery. She would have lifted her guard more if spotting any, but everyone wore jewellery now and then, elves wore it always and vampires needed it to be out in the daylight – the last was why she had checked him.

Nora was pretty realistic in her perception of the world, but it did not stop her from being positive and seeing the good in everything she could. Even vampires. Though they terrified her and some of them certainly were monsters, she also knew most of them just needed food like everyone else. They needed human and elvish blood to survive and, like cows or chickens, humans happened to be a fairly easy meal. Elves had to be way too powerful for vampires to feed on without a fight.

“I’m not a vampire,” their smiles grew simultaneously when he said that before adding, “My name is Lance.”

“Nora. Are one of them yours?” She looked back at the children seeing that he held a jacket in his hands although he already wore one.

“Yeah, the one failing to make it onto the monkey bars.” Her eyes moved to a small child whose hair was identical to his father’s dirty blond hair, he was trying to climb his way up one of the steel legs to get to the top because he was too small to jump and reach the bars. The child was visibly much dirtier than the man beside her showcasing that he had been playing in the sand for a while. Lance let out a chuckle, “He’ll do it eventually. Are you here with someone?”

“No, just getting some air.”

“You shouldn’t be out alone.” Lance’s concern was accompanied by a frown as he glanced toward the trees behind them.

“I’ll be gone before it gets dark,” she replied. The park was quite busy and vampires tended to stay away from crowds when they were not attacking in a group.

Lance was right, it only took the kid a couple more tries before he managed to touch the monkey bars and hoist himself up onto it.

“Daddy, look!”

“Erik, don’t stand –” Lance’s voice cut off as the boy who was trying to stand on the bars slipped and fell into the sand with a cry, causing his father to jump up instinctively. Nora instantly noticed that he was not the only person that reacted that quickly and her eyes darted towards the movement she had caught from the corner of her eye to a man near the entrance of the park. His face and eyes held a distinct predatory stare that she already knew the meaning behind and even at the distance he was at, Nora could make out his glowing red irises as the darkening skin around them seemed to amplify the colour.

“Vampire.” the word visibly made Lance tense as he looked towards the man as well. The vampire had clearly heard her from across the park because he looked over at them and smiled balefully before beginning to back away slowly to keep from drawing attention to himself. He was alone.

Nora stood up watching the vampire turn and walk out of the park. She clenched her jaw nervously glancing at the other unsuspecting people in the area. Was he looking for children without parents nearby to feed on? She jogged after Lance to the monkey bars where he knelt down beginning to inspect the small boy for injuries, Erik had scraped his knee and it was dripping blood which was probably why the vampire had moved so suddenly.

“Erik, are you okay?” The child nodded in response, not in the least upset by his fall.

“I climbed – Did you see? I climbed up, Daddy! By myself!”

Nora smiled watching Lance try not to roll his eyes while telling his son that he had seen and tending to the bleeding knee that Erik seemed not to notice.

“We’re going to head out of here, you should too, Nora,” Lance mumbled glancing towards where they had spotted the vampire a few minutes ago as he tugged the jacket onto Erik before lifting the little boy into his arms.

“Yeah. It was nice meeting you.”

“You too. Want us to walk you home?”

“No, I’ll be fine.” It was late afternoon, but still early enough for it to be quite light outside and no one else in the park had noticed the vampire so there were still a few people around.

“Alright, be careful. Say bye, Erik.”

Nora grinned waving at the friendly little child as he gave her a franticly energetic wave before the pair began to leave. She looked back over to the trees and then the bench and decided against staying for another hour. Not wanting to risk being in the park alone when families began to clear out, she began to make her way back home.

The park was in a more occupied part of the city so the closer she got to home, the emptier streets became and the darker as the sun set. Not many buildings in that part of the city had electricity, not many even had windows that were not broken or boarded up and the streetlamps rarely worked as cables were constantly being stolen. Nora did not feel too afraid because she knew most of the homeless people that were passing by. It helped to know who lived where so no one ended up taking someone else’s spot or building because that usually ended in a fight. Most of the people that lived in or around the building she lived at knew each other, but it was still wise to guard all of one’s possessions, especially food and clothing.

The walk home felt strange though, as if being followed so occasionally Nora felt the need to glance back or around and did not see anyone, but still picked up her pace despite figuring that the feeling was coming from just being unreasonably paranoid about the vampire seen earlier. That was until she was walking by some old stores, most of which had shutters covering the windows but one that just had windows with the inside covered in newspaper which gave a reflection just well enough for her to see the silhouette of someone taller right behind her. The thing about vampires having no reflection was a myth, they just moved so fast people couldn’t see them.

She stopped walking mostly due to shock and expected them to disappear knowing it was a vampire – the vampire from earlier – because of how light they were on their feet and how fast they could disappear, but instead he stopped right behind her. Nora’s eyes darted around the street as far as they could go without having to move her head, but the couple of people she had noted around her a few seconds ago had picked up their paces and vanished into the evening, no doubt they noticed him and ran because they wanted nothing to do with a vampire. She was trying to control her breathing as her heart picked up in fear at being alone with one of them, trying not to look shaken or afraid but he could probably hear the heavy racing in her chest.

Nora let out a slight gasp as a hand suddenly landed on the left side of her waist gently, it felt cold despite the clothing layered between his skin and hers.

“I would advise that you make no sudden movements: that is how startled humans end up dead. Stay still and I will not kill you,” his voice was icy, sounding as dead as he would most likely have been by his age if he were human.

She obviously did not believe him, he was going to kill her whether she stayed completely still or not. He must have been following her for a while and knew she was alone at the park and was still alone in the now-empty street. Whether he intended to or not, he was going to kill her because he was obviously very hungry and had barely any control considering the way he had reacted to the small amount of blood from Erik’s knee injury earlier – almost launching despite being in a park full of humans.

Nora had been walking with her hands in her pockets since getting the feeling of being followed, her right hand clutching the packet she had been saving for a moment just like the present. A moment where she desperately needed to get away from a vampire.

After tensing temporarily as his cold fingers brushed against her neck lightly when he began to pull loose strands of her hair away from it, she held her breath while slowly pulling her hand from her pocket hoping he wouldn’t notice the movement, hoping he was too focused on her neck. She waited until he was close enough for her to feel his chilly breath tickle against her skin before moving quickly and swiftly tossing the contents of the little bag into his face. She did not hesitate to move as he let out a painful scream, his hands disappearing from her to cover his face while she began sprinting down the street, immediately turning into a building in case he was following although his screaming could still be heard from the street. Her running did not slow when his voice had disappeared. She kept the momentum despite her legs feeling like jelly, forcing herself to keep running and making as many turns as possible while trying to find other people just so that she was not alone, but there were none.

Finally reaching home, she desperately pounded on the door in her panicked state even after hearing it unlock before it pried open and she was greeted by a hand grabbing her arm to tug her inside.

“Where have you been?! Nora, I told you not to disappear withou –” Nora shoved away from her brother and turned back to the door to shove the bolts back into place before realising that she had begun crying and quickly covered her face to stop but the panicked tears persisted, hidden by her trembling hands. She felt herself being turned back around and Zachary’s voice was much softer as he spoke again, “Hey, calm down. Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“Nora? Did someone chase you?” She heard Kevin’s concerned voice.

“Was it a vampire?” Zia’s question seemed to make the room quiet down and Nora’s rushed, choked breathing was suddenly the loudest thing.

“s**t, Nora.” Zachary immediately pushed her hair back to check her neck before he grabbed her hands, prying them from her face to look at her wrists. She watched through blurry eyes as he let out a sigh of relief seeing no leaking wounds.

“I-I’m oka-okay.” she heaved, “I-I used the-the silver.” Nora wiped her eyes and realised everyone seemed shocked, most of them terrified too. “I’m okay.” She repeated, hoping that her calming down would make everyone else less afraid.

The packet in her pocket earlier had been a sachet of tiny silver pieces her brother had managed to scrape from the knife their father had left them with. It was a knife that must have cost their father a lot of money to get from an elf and it was bathed in a spell that made it harmful to vampires. She was not sure how much damage the tiny pieces had inflicted, but stabbing a vampire with that knife would have killed them no matter where it stabbed them.

“How? Wasn't he fast?” Natalie asked.

“He was distracted.” Nora noticed Zachary’s jaw clench and gave him a smile trying to lighten the atmosphere a bit, “I’m going to need more silver.”

“Nora, I told you – I constantly tell you not to – You need to stop going off on your own!” he didn’t return her smile as he hissed, his voice serious and angry although incredibly worried.

“I know. It won’t happen again,” she mumbled feeling bad for making Zachary and their friends worry but looked up when her brother gave a scoff. Nora knew what he was thinking and thought the same thing: if it happened again she probably would not be lucky enough to get away. Escaping that vampire was a massive stroke of luck.

“We can have dinner now!” Gianna seemed to yell out only to brighten the mood and distract everyone, she was successful and everyone immediately hurried over to get some food before they settled around the small fireplace that was a metal barrel filled with firewood and began talking about their days.

Everyone had just mostly hung out in the alleyway right beside the house and the others had taken walks together. Nora was the only one that had gone off on her own. It was not new and she knew it pissed off and worried her friends so much but she really liked being alone sometimes and that barely ever happened apart from small moments when they were stealing and had to split up in stores.

When they had finished eating, everyone kept talking and playing around until it was late. Gianna read the story and then it was time for lights-out, but the younger kids wanted the candles to stay on because of the fear of vampires in the dark. The older kids wouldn’t openly admit it, but they also wanted light for the same reason. The candle-lit room filled with soft murmuring as Nora stared at the roof until she could no longer keep her eyes open. Her last thought was about how surprising it was that she felt so calm falling asleep after that encounter with the vampire.

In the darkness, Nora found herself in the street right in front of the abandoned stores with the vampire behind her once again. It was exactly the same setting, she could feel his hand on her waist but instead of being late afternoon, it seemed to almost be midnight and none of the street lamps were on. With the moon hidden behind rain clouds, it was so dark his reflection couldn’t be seen in the windows. Feeling his breath brush her neck, Nora lifted the bag of silver swiftly but nothing came from it and she froze realising it had been used last time. There wasn’t any left! The vampire chuckled as his cold lips met her skin before his teeth pierced painfully into her neck. The pain made her try to squirm from his grip but he held her securely and suddenly familiar deafening screams filled her ears. They were not her own but they made her thrash against the vampire. She felt his teeth sink deeper into her neck, biting further into it instead of attempting to suck her blood and then he began to pull back as if trying to rip a chunk of her flesh away while she could feel it tear.

Nora jolted up in bed lifting a hand to her neck as a scream filled the room around her, but this one was not her own either and it was immediately accompanied by more shouts and screams of panic.

“Zac!” Her eyes darted around in disoriented shock as she heard Zia call out along with Mike’s panic-stricken screaming.

The door had been broken open, there was blinding light flashing into her eyes and Nora could not spot her little sister despite hearing her. There was shoving, stumbling, screaming and grunting and only when someone grabbed her arm did she realise there were other people around who were not her adopted family. She kicked out against whoever was holding onto her but it did not do much except anger them as they tugged harshly making her fall onto the floor on her knees. She stumbled to her feet as the person began to drag her along while trying to punch out of their grasp this time. Her fist clearly connected with their jaw emitting a loud smack but whoever this was seemed to just brush it off and it suddenly struck her that maybe the person was not human. Vampires? Had he followed her and brought more vampires?

No… No, they would have been feeding already. There was no time to think about that though.

She struck out again and again until their grip loosened enough for her to rip herself from the person and try to run away only to slam right into another who locked their arms around her arms and waist securely, preventing her from doing anything other than kicking and that was working as well as the punching had on the other person. This one was clearly male being taller and broader, his muscled arms thick around her. She kept fighting though, kicking and trying to wiggle out of his tight grasp as he carried her out of the room into the alleyway. It didn’t seem to have any effect.

She heard Zachary shout for her to put her head down and tried to by shoving her face into the man’s chest just in time to feel a hard slam against him. Opening her eyes, she saw blood leaking from the side of the man's head in the light provided by the street lamp nearby but he still held onto her. He was not a vampire or he would have healed before he could barely even start bleeding. His ears were long and pointed, his dark hair decorated with jewels. An elf. She heard Zachary shout out as he swung the steel pipe in his hands again, this time the elf let go as he stumbled to the side and her brother immediately tried to grab her arm but was shoved into the wall. She ran forward to slam into the elf that had him pinned with all her strength and sent them tumbling aside only to have another grab her arms from behind. How many of them were there?!

Zachary tried to grab onto her again but let out a painful shout as a glowing blue arrow shot out of nowhere and pierced into his arm going right through it to pin him to the wall. She froze staring at the light emanating from it. It was like it was on fire. A brilliant azure blue fire. Nora had never seen anything like it, it was so bright and so beautiful in the dark despite the damage it had done. She snapped out of her shock feeling herself being carried once again and began fighting and thrashing while Zachary let out a painful scream as he snapped the arrow in half to break away from the wall before he pulled it out of his arm and came after her again but the big elf from earlier stepped between them making her brother’s skinnier form completely disappear. Seeing that nothing else she was doing was working, Nora settled on kicking her heels back against the elf currently holding her, but not wearing shoes meant the kicks had pretty much no effect on them.

“This one?” She paused hearing an unfamiliar voice speak and turned her head looking towards it to see Natalie locked in another elf’s grip. Natalie appeared as utterly terrified as Nora felt when their eyes met.

“No. It’s her.” Nora’s eyes followed the new voice but she froze when they met the familiar black pair that had been vivid in her mind every day since first spotting them.

This time he stood outside the car, in full view but she could not care to study him as she felt herself being brought closer to the car he stood beside. She began to thrash again realising what was happening and kicked her legs out to keep away from the car.

“Nora!” She heard Kevin shout and shut her eyes as the elf behind her once again was hit so hard it made him stumble and yet the man still held onto her tightly.

“Let her go!” Zachary’s voice followed but no other jolt came from behind her, instead she was forcefully shoved into the car despite her renewed fighting spirit and was blocked by the familiar elf’s body as she tried to fight back out of the car.

She glanced past him hearing shouts and felt her body run cold seeing all the fighting, the blood her brother and friends were covered in, but even with the wound in his arm and the cuts and damage to his face, Zachary kept fighting, even as an elf lifted a finger and a fiery blue arrow shot out from it directly into his abdomen, piercing right through it so the sharp end came out of his back covered in blood.

“Zac!” Kevin turned his attention from the car to her brother who still insisted on fighting until a second arrow pierced into his chest. With it, he seemed to sink, a look of terror and regret in his eyes as they watched hers while the car she was in began moving until the scene disappeared behind the wall and the fighting couldn’t be seen from the street. From the dark road, it looked like nothing out-of-the-ordinary was happening at all.

Nora turned back to think about what to do but tensed realising the situation. In the car, she was seated between two elves with two more in the seats ahead of them. There was no way she could escape, but that was the least of her worries at the moment.

Those wounds were going to kill Zachary, and based on the amount of blood there had been, he wasn’t the only one in critical condition.

*****