Part 6

When I woke up, all I knew was that I was in a bed. But when I opened my eyes, I was greeted by a familiar room. It was Nikolai's room. But when I looked around, I couldn't find him.
When I sat up I could feel the blood rush to my head. I wanted to find Nikolai. I swung my feet to the side of the bed, but was confronted by a wave of dizziness, forcing me to lay back down. I closed my yes and tried to hold back my tears, but the pressure was too intense.
Enthralled in my own world, I didn't hear Nikolai enter the room.
"I owe you an explanation, don't I? I never should've told you about all of this," said Nikolai, with a look of sorrow in his eyes.
"I don't need an explanation. I've figured it out. Anyone could've. You owe me an apology more than anything," I muttered through my pillow.
"I'm the son of the king. Yes, a prince. Prince of all vampires. But now, my brother is king. Sebastian killed my mother just before the incident in the Grand Hall, which you witnessed. So now, you can imagine the total chaos going on right outside these walls. A war is going on out there. My world is not safe right now, yet it never really was. Which is why, you will not be receiving an apology. I didn't tell you certain parts because I didn't want you involved. I told you what you needed to know."
He looked drawn back and almost out of place. He was still greiving. And I didn't know what to say.
"Why don't you sleep for now, Sarah? When you wake I promise I'll have a plan, or, at the very least, the beginning of one. Good night, my princess."

Part 5

I woke up with a terrible pain in my lungs. The longer I waited, the more the pain came. Not just in my lungs, but in my throat, head, and ribs. I still couldn't see, but this time I was only blinded by darkness and not a bag. All I could do was listen.
I didn't hear any voices. And I wasn't moving. But I knew I wasn't alone. I could hear people breathing.
Just then, light flooded the room. The room was small, a closet maybe. And the people around me were tied up, just like me, except none of them seemed to be conscious. Two figures were standing in the doorway. I closed my eyes and layed as still as I could.
"What'd you drag me down here for?" One of the figures asked.
"I swear I heard someone moving around in here," stated the other figure.
"Why doesn't the blond have a blindfold on?"
"I swear I--"
As he walked over to me and bent down to see if I was breathing, I swung my arms from above my head and hit him in the back of the head, smashing his face into my ribcage, sending a shock of pain through my body.
He grabbed my arms automatically and put his foot on my ribcage, leaning and putting almost all of his weight on me. The other figure ran over and grabbed my legs.
They had me floating in the air when the man holding my arms said, "wait. Put her down, Sebastian, someone's coming."
They dropped me and I landed on top of someone. The door shut and I was left alone with my own thoughts again.
It wasn't long before I was hit with the bright light again. This time, the man shut the door so I could see his face, rather than his silhouette. This man was different than the other two. This man was very tall, with a thin, serious face and short black hair. He was wearing dress pants, dress shoes, and a button up shirt. He looked like your average business man.
He leaned down near me and untied my arms and legs.
"Hello, Sarah. Do you know who I am?"
I wanted to run away. This wasn't the life that a regular 17 year old girl was supposed to live. This life was dangerous, and different. I couldn't tell whether or not this man was a threat, but I knew I needed to get out before Sebastian and that other man came back.
"Sarah. You don't need to be afraid of me. Given the circumstances, I can understand why you would think that, though. But I promise you, you will not be harmed while you're in this castle, despite your blood status."
"Castle? And how exactly can you promise me that? Two men just tried to kill me! One was named Sebastian. Do you know them?"
"Yes, we're in a castle. Yes, I know them. And Sarah, I am King Kravchecko, I can promise you anything. Now let's get you out of the pantry, I'm sure this experience has been frightening enough for you. We can finish our conversation elsewhere."
He stood up and grabbed my arm, helping me up. We walked out the same door that had blinded me not too long ago. We walked into a room with a black marble floor. Everything else was white. We turned the corner and entered a room that help a big golden cross. Along the left wall. All along the left wall was rows and rows of books. It was like nothing I'd ever dreamed of. When I turned around, I saw a giant throne. It was gold with black, velvet fabric. There were big golden doors with beautiful patterns on it.
Before I could say anything, there was a hand over my mouth and the doors on the other side of the room burst open. It was Nikolai, he was coming to save me.
"Sarah?!"
"Good night, little princess," the voice from behind me muttered.
I felt pressure against my neck, but that was the least of my problems. Nikolai wasn't looking at me anymore, he was looking at the king. When I looked to see what he was looking at, the king was on the floor, with a silver stake sticking out of his chest. Sebastian was hovering over him, a deviant look upon his face.
"No! Dad! Sebastian, how could you? Do you realize what you've done?"
It was Nikolai. He wasn't focused on me. He was focused on the dead king and his assassin.
"I realize exactly what I've done, little brother. It's improper to question your king."
Then the pain hit me, and the lights went out again, for the 2nd time today.

Part 4

For the next month I was living in Nikolai's apartment. I had told Faith that I'd decided to drop out of high school and spend a month or two in Italy. Nikolai had said it would be safer that way. Although Nikolai and I had been living together for a few weeks, he still felt like a stranger to me. I refused to sleep in the same bed as him, even though he's constantly pointing out that we're soul mates. But, I will admit, I had been getting more comfortable around him. We'd been staying up late watching out favorite movies. I'd been telling him about my childhood and he'd been teaching me about vampires and their customs. I never knew that vampires could be so interesting. My whole life vampires had never even crossed my mind, but now they never left it.

It was going on five in the morning as I walked down the familiar, dim hallway of the apartment building. I stepped outside into the fresh air, only to see the sun rising through the clouds that were hovering just above the water. It was against Nikolai's rules to leave the apartment, but he was out doing whatever he does at night, so he wouldn't know, and I needed the fresh air.

I started walking down the boardwalk. The cold rain felt like thousands of tiny razorblades against my skin. It was calming, until I felt a presence. I turned and looked around, but found no one. Assuming it was Nikolai just trying to prank me, I laughed it off and turned around to take in the view one more time before heading home. Just then, everything went black and I couldn't breath. Someone had put something over my head and they were carrying me somewhere.

Part 3

I woke up when I heard a rustling noise in my room. I got up and turned on the light. There was nothing there, of course, I was just still adjusting to the new house. My window was open earlier than it had been earlier though. I closed the window and looked out one more time. My mystery man was no longer there.

I curled up under my covers again and closed my eyes. But then I heard another noise. This one was a thump followed by various things falling out of my closet. I shot up and stared across the room towards my closet. My eyes couldn't see a thing through the blanket of darkness, but I could sense the presence of something, or somebody. I walked across the room, my eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness, with my arms reached out in front of me, as I fumbled to find the light switch. I turned on my closet light, no one was there, despite what my gut and the adrenaline rushing through my body were telling me.

But as I turned my light off, I saw something move near the window. It was a hand. There was a hand coming in from outside, closing my window. The thing that got me most was that my room was on the 6th floor of the building.

Nearly in tears from fear and shock, I ran over to the window and looked down, only to find a man with light brown hair and a leather jacket climbing down the building. My mystery man had returned.
I opened the window, which caught his attention, causing him to stop and look at me with piercing green eyes.

"I suppose I have to come up there now and explain myself or you're going to become extremely paranoid and drive yourself mentally insane, right?"

As he said it, he was chuckling, as if he thought that the whole situation was funny, when I was about half a second away from calling the police. But I couldn't help but notice how gorgeous he looked in the moonlight. Completely unsure of what was going on, I nodded my head and the second I did, he started climbing. I stepped back, giving him room to step in the room, like he had done it 100 times before.

"Before introduce myself, we have to get one thing straight, okay? I didn't steal anything and I didn't plan on hurting you, understand? I actually planned on waking you up and talking with you about something, but I chickened out."

All I could do was nod. I was in complete shock. There was a stranger in my room, that snuck into my window, and he wasn't here to hurt me or steal anything.

"My name is Nikolai. Sit down for this next part. You're looking a little pale already. I don't want you to pass out. You're in danger, nothing I can't protect you from, but still in danger. I just thought you had a right to know. Please stop crying. I've never really thought of myself as a sensitive guy so I really don't know how to comfort you."

"How am I in danger? Why do you even care? Does this have something to do with the accident and my family?" I really trusted this man. I don't even know why. I just felt like he had the answers to all of my questions.

"Whoa. Um, I don't know anything about your family or any accident. I don't really know anything about you. I don't really know how to tell you about the danger you're in or why I care without telling you too much, so I guess I'm going to have to. If I tell you, do you promise not to scream and/or tell anyone?"

"Yes. Well, I think so. I don't really have anyone that I would tell. And why would I want to tell anyone if I know that it's going to make you angry and you're the only person that I know of that can protect me from this 'danger'?"

"Good point. Well, and this is the part you can't scream for, I'm a vampire. Don't scream. Don't cry. Listen. That's all that I'm asking you, Sarah. Do you understand?"

My heart was beating so fast and I was having trouble controlling my tears. A vampire? They'd always just been fairytales. But something about him made me trust him anyway. "Yes, but how do you know my name?"

"I'm getting there. We can play 20 questions when I'm done explaining everything to you, okay? Okay. Which would you like me to explain first, the danger or how I know your name and why I care that you're in danger? Actually, I'm just going to explain the name part first."

"All vampires are born with a soul mate, someone to spend the rest of their lives with. Now, my father always told me that I would feel something the first time I saw my soul mate, but I always imagined it would be nice, like love at first sight. Then, from then on, I would always feel her emotions. I didn't know he meant literally. The first day I saw you, I felt an aching pain in my chest. It felt like someone had just stabbed me and tears were starting to well up in my eyes. I think I felt what you were feeling, but I can't imagine why anyone would feel like that."

"Well, after you find your soul mate, you're supposed to go to the king. Our king, King Kravchenko, supposedly talks to God, although I'm not sure I believe it, so he knows the names of your soul mate. You have to go confirm that you've found her though."

"So, I went to him to tell him that I thought I'd found my soul mate. He told me that I was correct and how strange it is that my soul mate is a human, especially a desirable one, which I'll explain in a minute. So he told me your name so that I could find you again. Do you understand so far?"

"I think so. So I'm your soul mate? And that's why you care that I'm in danger?"

"Yes and yes. Sarah, imagine this. You're 264 years old and you finally find your soul mate after being alone for over 200 years, then finding out her life is in serious danger. Imagine what would've happened if I didn't find you when I did. You would've died and I would've been alone forever."

"But getting to the danger part. I looked up your address in the school paperwork and when I was on my way over to see where it was and everything, I ended up somewhere that I shouldn't have been and found out something that I shouldn't have."

"In our vampire society, we feed off of 3 different kinds of people. There are some vamps that just feed off of regular humans. Some, feed off of other vampires. Then, there are les desirables. Les desirables are only meant for the king. Their blood is supposed to be the very best and their scent is supposed to be unimaginably sweet. Feeding off of one if you're not in the royal family is punishable by death. I've never a desirable one, until today. There are only about 20 of them in the city."

"Anyway, while I was on my way over to your house, my brother called me. He invited me to a meeting. He said that about 20 or 30 vamps were going to be there and that Xander had a great idea. Xander is the scum of our society. If there's any vampire that you absolutely want to stay away from, it's him. A few years ago, he drank his wife's blood until she died. He's a cold and heartless person."

"I keep getting sidetracked. So, I decided to go to the meeting for a little while because if I didn't I never would've heard the end of it from Sebastian. At the meeting there were about 60 vampires. Xander stood up on a table and started preaching about how it's not fair that the royal family is getting all of the good blood. He proposed that they kill all of the desirables so that the king will starve and Xander can take power."

"I've been outside your house sitting on that bench across the street ever since."

Part 2

My first impression was that the apartment smelled like tea, tea and flowers. The apartment was very tidy, but there were plants everywhere, making the place seem cluttered.

Then, a woman walked out from the kitchen, or at least it looked like the kitchen from the glance I got before the swinging door swung shut.

She was tall, definitely taller than me, which doesn't really say much because I'm exactly 5 feet and I haven't grown an inch since 7th grade. She had red hair that was pulled into a bun, which she tried to cover with a bandana. She was thin too, very thin. It was one of her best features and she wore a tight black shirt to show it off.

She reached out and grabbed my hand very firmly, which I hadn't expected because, frankly, she looked fragile. "My name is Joanne, but you can call me Faith, everyone does."

Not only was she beautiful, but when she spoke it sounded like she was singing. Not really singing, but her voice just flowed, making me forget that I was alone in a room with a stranger. "You must be Sarah, obviously. Here, let me show you your room. I've been putting it together since Mrs. Hopchkiss called me yesterday. Sorry to be in such a hurry. When I get a minute I would love to sit down with you and learn every single detail about your life. I just wasn't expecting you yet and my book club is here."

As she was talking, she led me down a hallway that was painted the same lavender color that had been in almost all of the rooms at my grandmother's house.

My room was at the end of the hallway. It was painted a pale blue color. The whole room looked like it had been designed by a little girl, but I could manage.

I dropped my bag on my bed and reached into my coat pocket for my cell phone. I had turned it off when we left Connecticut. I turned it on and dropped it on my bed, waiting for the calls to start streaming in.

I plopped down next to it on the bed and layed back, rolling over to look out the floor-to-ceiling window to the left of my bed. I got up, ignoring the screaming coming from my cell phone, and cracked the window open. The room was stuffy and it didn't help that Grissettown was hot and humid, even in the middle of March. I grabbed Roosevelt from my bag and sat next to the window, hugging Roosevelt close.

I had the perfect view from my window. It looked down on a main road that's directly next to a beach. There were little beach shops and arcades all along the road and hundreds of people coming in and out of them. I'd never lived this close to water before, or this close to people, and definitely not so many of them.

I sat there and just watched people for about two hours. Faith had come in and asked if I wanted to join her for dinner several times, but each time I politely turned her down. After a while, I noticed a man. He'd been sitting on the bench right across the street from my window. He was reading a book, a very think book, like it had the answer to the universe. He was holding it about an inch from his face and he had incredible creases on his forehead. He had light brown hair and a beard, well, a beard in training. He looked like he could be about twenty. He also looked like your Average Joe, but the thing that struck me the most about him was that he was wearing a leather jacket and black jeans and it didn't look like he was sweating at all.

Part 1

I could feel my stomach growling and my heart flopping around like a fish out of water. Prom isn't normal, not for me at least. I've always been a tomboy, well, not a tomboy, but not really a girl. I'm the girl that sits in the back of the classroom that wears jeans and an over-sized hoodie every day. The one with worn down tennis shoes and no sense of style.

Since my family moved to this sleepy Connecticut town 4 years ago, I've only made two friends, Katrina and Ben. Katrina was born in Georgia and you really can tell. She is more than obsessed with Kenny Chesney and she wears her favorite cowboy boots every day. Not that I'm saying that everyone in the south listens to country music and dresses like a cowboy, because I've been down there and the majority of them don't. Ben is a totally different story. Ben has lived here his whole life. He was loved by everyone (friends, family, teachers, etc...) until he realized he was gay. Then he joined me and Katrina and we became the "Misfit Trio." Nobody paid attention to us or talked to us.

That was all before Corey came along. Corey is rich and popular. Girls flock around him. It's pathetic, but it adds to his "look" and it boosts his self-confidence. But to their dismay, Corey picked me, baggy-sweatshirted, mopey, misfit me. And just last month, I had agreed to go to prom with him, stupid me (did I mention stupid before?).

So now, I'm standing here, purse in hand, waiting for Corey. He's been so excited about prom. I really expect him to go completely overboard with it.

Then, a wave of screaming came from my handbag. My phone was ringing. Ben had changed my ringtone to a metal song as a joke. He had no idea that I would be listening to non-stop metal months later.

"Sarah?! Thank God you're alive! I saw the crash on TV and thought that maybe you were hurt." It was my aunt, my terribly drunk aunt.

"A detective called me. She's on her way over to the house right now. She was looking for you, but I told her I had no idea where you were. She said you weren't in the car, but I had no idea what to think! I guess a woman from child services is which her, Mrs. H--something. I told her that you could live with me, but she said my record is bad and everyone is still a suspect. Oh God, you probably have no idea what I'm rambling about. Turn on channel 4, sweetie. And don't forget that I love you."

The doorbell ring interrupted all of the disturbing thoughts I had going through my head. I ran to the door and opened it, it was Corey. Without any kind of greeting, I turned and ran towards the living room. I was almost in a full sprint, which was unfortunate for my beautiful new dress that I just bought the other day with Ben, who was going through what Katrina and I liked to call "a fashion diva phase", so I figured he would be the perfect shopping buddy. The dress ripped, big time, making it look like one of those dresses that girls always used to wear to their middle school dances, short and slutty.

The second I clicked on the TV my heart stopped beating, it felt like it at least. Corey came around the corner, obviously confused by my sudden disappearance. The words blaring out from the TV were a complete shock. It said, "Miller family killed in car collision, guns may have been involved, no suspects at this time."

My parents and brother had left about 20 minutes ago to celebrate my brother's college acceptance letter. He got into Yale on a basketball scholarship on the same night as my junior prom. My parents were so proud of both of me and Matthew tonight. My mother still had tears in her eyes as they were walking out the door.

Now I would never see them again. My heart sank into my stomach. Corey reached over and put his hand on my shoulder, pulling me back onto the couch with him. He pulled me close for a giant hug, the kind that makes it nearly impossible to breathe. The doorbell rang again. Corey let go and got up to answer it. I could hear him shout, "who is it," even though it was beyond obvious who it was from the flashing lights on the walls.

He let them in, I knew because I could hear high heels clicking down the hallway. A woman came into the room with long red hair, she looked so beautiful, yet smart at the same time.

"Hello, Sarah. My name is Detective Armstrong. You can call me Olivia. This is Officer Williams." She said, while pointing to a very young and handsome police officer that had just walked in behind Corey. He was young, maybe just a few years older than me, but he looked aged.

I didn't want to talk to anyone, especially not them. I quickly became paranoid and although I had answered all of their questions, I'd regretted it. It all went by fairly quickly and before I knew it, Olivia was explaining my new life to me.

I'm going to live in Grissettown, North Carolina with a woman named Faith. Apparently, Williamsburg is a city that's right on the water. Mrs. Hopchkiss, the woman from child services was sitting outside in her car, waiting for me. Olivia told me to go upstairs and pack a bag.

I packed all of my clothes, some pictures, and my stuffed bear that Corey had named Roosevelt, as in Teddy Roosevelt. It was cheesy, but adorable.

I opened my door as quietly as possible and bolted down the stairs, opening the front door as quickly as possible. It wasn't necessary, but it helped. I didn't want to say goodbye to Corey. I didn't want to hear him say he would call me every day and love me forever, because chances are he would stop calling in a month or two, and stop caring in about a week.

I walked towards the only car in the driveway that wasn't a police car. I put my bags in the trunk that was already popped and climbed into the front seat. Mrs. Hopchkiss didn't say anything when I got in. She didn't need to, her eyes said everything that everyone had been trying to say before, she was sorry.

I sat back, relaxed, and closed my eyes. Only 50,000 miles until I reach my destination, might as well sit back and take a nap. I really needed to calm down and put all of this beside me before I reached Williamsburg. All I need right now is a new beginning.

Hey guys!

So I'm going to posting pieces of the story that I'm writing on here bit by bit. Send me messages or emails or whatever with your feedback, please! Bear with me, part one is kind of long and boring, but the story has to start somewhere. (: