Cestil

DID NOT HAND IN

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vanessa Lancaster

Here I am, Cat Sith, the most powerful being in all of existence, and I can not do a thing. I just let eight of my precious corpse lilies go, and for what, five new bodies to fertilize my lawn? That still leaves three flowers who have not been avenged, yet. Oh, but trust me they will be avenged. More blood will spill.

After a quick scan of the field, I deduce that no one is left. Not a single bird or bug even dares to remain here. Wisely, after collecting all the corpse lilies, every one ran. They wouldn't want to face an angry cat with razors for claws, now would they?

Even though I am home, with no intruders, something doesn't feel right. Something is just off, and I need to put it right. Quickly, I survey the field again, but this time I spot a girl with crimson hair like the blood that supplies my lilies. The vampire. She was the one who reasoned with me, but made no attempt to harm me. While she did not harm me, she made me know that she could kill me with a flick of her wrist. Of course she could not actually kill me, but it was amusing to play with that thought. In fact, she offered to only take the tiniest of my flowers- and she actually followed through. I saw her stoop down and pick up a little crumpled flower that even I did not know was there, and I am the owner of these flowers!

I only saw two vampires today, a raven-haired caped woman and the crimson-coated diplomatic girl, but she is the only one who stuck around in my mind. In fact, she is the only one out of all the annoying fairies, demons, and all the other random creatures who came to steal from me who is imprinted into my mind. All the rest are long forgotten by now.

This feeling I have for the vampire girl is something strong, like love or hate. While I would not call it hate, I definitely would not call it love either, no that feeling is much too strong. Just a... vast curiosity, perhaps.

Whether is be love, hate or curiosity, I follow this girl. I decide to follow this vampire to wherever she is going. Why? Well, I am not entirely sure. Maybe the same reason I let her live- I want to see what she does next. I guess she really wants to get out of demon territory because she begins to run at top speed, so naturally, I follow suit and turn invisible. We run out of demon territory and into the hostility of the human regions.

After we cross the border from uncivilized demons' territory into the humans', her pace slows to a walk and she visibly relaxes. A deep sigh fills her lungs and she walks at a normal human pace.

Once she has composed herself, she begins to trudge towards the nearest home, and knocks on the door. No one answers for a good couple minutes, when finally the door creaks open to reveal a plump old lady wearing an apron.

From my place a couple feet away, I can just barely hear the conversation taking place at the door, "I am extremely tired and need rest and nourishment after my long travels. May I request to stay here?" The crimson vampire asks an old lady at the door.

Deep in thought, the lady responds," Of course, dearie. I need to add more stew to the pot and get a room ready. Do come in." I take this as an invitation for me to come in as well. I race inside, just barely missing the slam of the door.

"Here is where your room will be. Dinner will be served in just a bit. What is your name, dearie?"The vampire pauses. The pause is so short that any human wouldn't have caught it, but I am not a human. The pause showed that she isn't sure whether or not to use her own name, which is a very intelligent decision.

"My name is Victoria Lacasar," the vampire finally responds. I'm not sure if that is her real name, but I now have something to go on. Victoria Lacasar. Interesting.

"You know, Victoria, your name is almost the same name as an infamous vampire from the north. Her name is Vanessa Lancaster," the lady points out, and she is soon on her way to finishing dinner, leaving Victoria deep in thought.

I'm guessing that Victoria's real name is Vanessa. Hmm. She is clever. Making her alias close enough to her real name that it wouldn't ever be guessed. Vanessa Lancaster. Even more interesting.

After sitting through a long and boring dinner, I decide to prowl around the house and find out who else is living here. Coming across a dainty bedroom, I peek my invisible head in to find a girl painting a lovely picture of a lily. Not a corpse lily, just a regular stupid lily. I watch her for a long time; the strokes of the paintbrush are mesmerizing and delicate. Only when I hear footsteps and a gruff manly voice do I leave the room.

Once again I find myself in the hallway, only this time I am facing Vanessa talking with an old man- presumably the lady's husband.

Vanessa then walks into her own room and lays down to rest for the night. The rest of the night is even more boring than dinner, but I can't help but just watch her sleep. Her sleep is peaceful. No crazy nightmares that result in screaming. No talking or sleepwalking. She does mumble the word 'David' once, though. After seeing absolutely nothing, I decide to sleep as well.

The next dawn comes early and Vanessa is on her way- to where, I don't know. I only know that she is going farther and farther away from my home. I can't follow her out much further or someone might steal all my lilies. I let her go, and look back at the house. There were three people inside. I have three unavenged lilied. A dark smile creeps up and plasters itself upon my face.

I race back into the house and grab the three unassuming victims and I am on my way home before anyone knows what is happening. The victims are screaming, crying, and wailing at the top of their lungs- music to my ears. Their blood is precious and will water the grounds. Their blood will be my drink. Their blood will replace what the others have stolen, but just because I have avenged the flowers does not mean that I won't stop at killing everyone who stole a flower later. Their time will come. But, for now, my lilies are avenged, and I am happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Willow Coast

"Okay, I'll be sure to remember that." I laugh into the phone. I step out from my house and on to the hard concrete and I feel the little drops of rain coming down on my cheek. Looking up above my head, I see entire sky filled with the tears from above and gray patches every where. Not even a patch of blue lies up there.

"You better, or I'm going to have to break-up with you" my boyfriend, Killian, says to me through the phone. It was an ongoing we had between us and it never seems to get old.

"I gotta go. I love you."

"I love you too, Emma. Be careful when you're outside. I hear a huge storm is coming" The dial tone fills my ear and I close my phone. I continue to walk along the path on the way to work when I see an alley way that I've never noticed before.

"You double-crossed me you dirty, lying scumbag." I hear an angry voice say from the corner of the street

"Please. I really didn't mean to. I was going to replace them before you even noticed they were gone. I swear I was. I just got a little side-tracked. I'm so sorry" says a scrawny voice of a little girl, fending for her life. By this time I look over to see what's happening.

"Sorry doesn't return my lily corpses now does it? Now, where are they?" she screams at the other girl. What's a corpse lily? I've never heard of the thing. I'd have to look it up when I get home.

The girl,who was looking for her corpse lilies, screams and pulls out one of her knives. I turn away as quickly as I can, squeamish at what I think may potentially happen. With my back on the nearest wall, I can hear a muffled scream and After my heart rate has slowed, I look back over to the pair to see what exactly had happened. The very pale and seemingly very beautiful girl, who I've presumed is the more dominant one, is crouching over the one on the ground and in her hand she's holding something that looks like four bleach white bones arranged in a circular shape. It didn't seem right. Why would someone kill another in the middle of the street and in broad daylight. How could someone have the willpower to do such a thing?

I back up, trying to get away from the mess when I stumble upon something big and round. I fall flat on my back and a sickening crack rises from the ground. The girl shoots her eyes over my way and gives me a deathly glare that makes me want to shrink into the fetal position and rock myself back and forth.

She swings something that looks like a cape from her back all the way to her front and thrusts the flimsy piece of cloth at me. It does nothing but hit my face and leaves the other girls face shocked.

"Why didn't that work? That's supposed to work against all of good and evil. What are you? You can't be an angel because I would have seen you and you can't be an archon because I just killed the last one. What kind of creation are you?"

"I'm a human, as you should be to." I reply

"I'm no human you stupid simpleton. Is it really not that obvious? Can you really not tell?"

"Can I tell what?" I ask her"I am so offended. Willow the vampire at your service." She says with a bow " And now, I'm going to have to kill you." She pushes me to the ground and takes out one of her knives and thrusts it into my face, but something stops her.

" What. What happened" she says as she tries to thrust her knife at me again.

" You can't kill me." I say with a but load of excitement. I get up off the ground and run as fast as I can out of the alley way and back on to the street I was on to get to my job. Lucky for me my job as a barista at Starbucks is just a block away from my house so it doesn't take me to long to get there. When I get to the door, I swing it open and it hits the brick wall with a big thud. Everyone in the coffee house turns their heads and stares at me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" my manager, Sierra, asks me as she walks up to me, "Are you trying to get fired?"

"What do you... mean?" I say in between deep breaths

"You're thirty minutes late and on top of that, you broke the window in the door." I check behind my back to see glass shattered all over the ground and a big crack in the door.

"I'm sorry. You can dock my pay for however you see fit, but... I just..."Sierra gives me a demeaning glare and asks "You just what?"

I question if I should even tell her the truth on how I saw someone murdered or not, but then I think if I don't tell the truth, I'll look like a suspect. "I... just..."

"You're down to $3 and hour Emma."

"But, but that's half my pay."

"You're down to two."

"I've just witnessed a murder!" I blurt out. For a split second the entire room goes silent and cold. Then, as if I was a comedian who just told the funniest joke in the world, the whole place is filled with laughs and hoots.

"It's true." I walk all over the room to find someone who might believe me, "I swear it is."

"Yeah. And I'm the ambassador to Russia." Sierra says not even trying to contain her disbelief. After the laughter has died a bit, she starts to speak again, "If what you're saying is true, could you direct us to..." she starts to laugh a bit more, "The crime scene?"

"Yes I could. It's just across the street from here."

"Fine." she says as she turns to the people behind the bar, "Mary, David, you guys come with us in case we need back up." There snickering as the come out from behind the bar says it all : no one believes me.

We walk over to the alley way where the crime happened but it's like a janitor has cleaned a school after hours because the place is spotless. The blood stains on the wall, that I was sure would stay forever, are cleaned to perfection.

Sierra looks around the alley and says,"I don't see anything at all except a clean alley and pile pile fill of your white lies"

"I'm telling you the truth. I saw it happen just right here." I say as I point to the spot the vampire was standing. " And this is where she attacked me."

"Enough. I'm done with you and your silly jokes Emma. You're fired"