The O'Ciardha Clan

Jesse 12

2008-01-03T23:21:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written journal:

Day: happier

Month: brighter

Season: warm

I’ve never wanted to connect with someone as badly as I wanted to connect with Janus. I mean, I’m no innocent, but I’ve never really done it for the connection. I wanted the connection with him. I love him.

The first time I tried, I don’t think I was very successful. I mean I know I wasn’t. We didn’t do anything. It took me a long while to be used to the holding and the tenderness he gave me. Again, I’m no innocent, and I’ve never loved anyone before, so feeling all the contact with the love behind it…Frankly it made me feel awkward. I’ve never felt so awkward. Not even when I was growing from a child to a young woman. But when he would kiss me, my stomach would flip inside me and my heart would feel like it was trying to beat its way from my chest. Once, when our kisses seemed to get heated, I actually felt myself get short of breath! Never have I been affected by a man like this before. Love is a crazy emotion. But back to my first attempt. I didn’t do anything physical. I wanted him to come to me, so I knew it was what he wanted. If we started physical…what guy wouldn’t just go along with it? I didn’t want there to be any regrets. No regrets that he wanted to wait, no worries that he’d pushed me or over stepped. I wanted this.

I started off slow, subtle. I wore clothes I knew he liked. Things that when I wore them, I could feel his eyes on me all the time. I did up my hair, showing my neck to him. I know it sounds stupid, but to a wolf, besides the actual bare body, the neck is a very stimulating part. It’s the part bared when submitting. One of the weakest points of the body. I figured, if a wolf likes it, why wouldn’t a vampire? Isn’t it the point on a person that they tend to feed? A place where they can draw on their life blood in a very intimate way?

He’d once told me that I had very beautiful eyes, and that he liked it when I didn’t wear so much make up. He could see my face better without it. He could see my eyes more clearly. So, I wore barely any make up. Some light liner around my eyes, just to draw the attention to them but that was it.

I spent the day close to him. If he went somewhere, I followed. We spent most of the day in the library. He moved around as if he was agitated all day. I didn’t know what to do. Maybe this was a bad idea? I was so confused. I’d never agitated a man before.

To soothe him I walked up to him, when he was sitting at his desk writing something on papers and reading through books, and offered to get him something to eat or drink. He stiffened at my touch and softly told me there was nothing he needed from the kitchen. I nodded once and went back to my seat. I sat for a while pondering what to do. Maybe we had different ideas of love? Or maybe…I didn’t know exactly how love worked? I mean, I’d read books, but the two or three sappy novels I’d gotten from my sister were hardly a portrayal of life. Maybe those who were in true love, didn’t need the physical things I wanted. Does that make me a bad person? I love him dearly, but…am I asking things of him that I shouldn’t be.

So frustrated and on the brink of tears I stood, his eyes came to me. “I’m sorry…I’ll go.” I said quickly before I literally ran from the library. I heard him call me back, and heard him get up from his seat, but I was already up the first flight of stairs, starting up the second to find a room to hide in until it grew dark. I hid in a room at the end of the corridor, farthest away from our room. I wanted to put as much distance between us. Something about me was not right with him. I couldn’t get my message through. I was asking something of him he didn’t want from me. I locked the door and sat in a corner of the room, wedged between a big wooden dresser and the small end table at the side of the bed. I heard him at the door. If he had really wanted to get in he could have. I don’t know if he didn’t because he really didn’t want to get in or because he was respecting the space I wanted.

“Jesse. Jesse, open the door, let me in please?” His voice soft, confused. I shook my head, my arms wrapped around me as I pressed myself closer to the wall.

“Janus…please. Go back to the library.” I called. I think he could hear the tears in my voice. I’d messed up badly.

“I’m sorry Jesse. Please, let me in.”

“No, Janus. Don’t apologize. Just please…go back to the library. I’ll come down I promise.” I didn’t hear anymore from him. I sat for a few more minutes, trying to calm myself. I had to control myself. I wanted to wait until dark, so I could change into pajamas and crawl into bed and forget today had happened. I moved to the door and peeked through the eyehole. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I couldn’t smell him anywhere either. Silently I unlocked the door. It was getting dark. I made my way quietly down to the ground floor and stood outside the door to the library. He was inside. I could hear him. He didn’t really have to do anything and I could hear him. Actually, not so much hear as just sense. I could sense when he was around me now. When he was near me or not. I slipped past the door and made my way into our room. I changed out of my clothes, a jean skirt that barely touched the middle of my thighs, and a tight cotton jade green long sleeve shirt, and put on pjs. I slipped into our bed and felt a wave a tears hit me. The bed smelled like him and made me want him. Not even to sleep with, just to hold me. I missed being held. He hadn’t touched me at all today. He hadn’t looked me in the eyes either. I could feel his eyes on me through out the day, but every time I tried to look at him and catch his eyes, he looked away. I missed his touch. I must have slipped into a half sleeping state, because the next thing I registered was his arms coming around me and holding me close from behind. I clung to his arms, pressing them into me, asking him without words to hold me tighter. He moved and placed a kiss to my cheek, still holding me.

“Jesse, what’s the matter?”

“I’m sorry. I am a bad person. I needed to be alone. I needed to think.” I could feel his confusion.

“Jesse…what makes you a bad person?” I shook my head.

“I want things I shouldn’t want. I ask things of you that you don’t want to give me.” I said softly.

“What could you want that I don’t want to give you?”

“You…” I whispered. I felt a hot tear leak from my eye and wiped it away on the pillow below my head.

“Oh, Jesse.” He hugged me and nuzzled my neck with his face gently. I was so confused. Why was he not pushing me away? Why wasn’t he telling me that it was alright? I didn’t know what his actions meant. “That does not make you a bad person.”

“But-“

“Shh, now Jesse. Get some sleep. I’m sure tomorrow will be better. Just relax and get some sleep.” I felt him relax around me. He was still going to sleep with me. He was still going to hold me. I smiled and shut my eyes.

I woke the next morning and he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I looked at the night stand, trying to gauge what time it was from the clock. I saw a bunch of flowers. A bunch of black roses tied together with a delicate ribbon. I sat up and picked up the bunch and sniffed them. They were fresh. That is one of the reasons I love this man. Even when I mess up, or I do something wrong, he still goes out of his way to do sweet things for me, and make me feel loved. I climbed from bed, not bothering with my hair. I simply brushed it and let it fall about my shoulders. I didn’t put any make up on. I wasn’t going to agitate him again today. I wanted him to be happy. It hurt me when he was unhappy. I dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. I made my way into the foyer, and could feel Janus in the library. I smiled and made my way inside. When he looked up and saw it was me, he got up from his desk and walked over to me, wrapping me in a big hug. I wrapped my arms around him, wondering what had given him such a good mood this morning. He led me towards the couch and then laid down, pulling me to rest on top of him. We cuddled like that for I don’t know how long, but I loved every minute of it. Having him close to me always made me happy, and I never wanted it to end. After a while he looked at me. “Do you want to go for a walk through the garden?” I nodded and we got up and walked outside. The day was so beautiful. We walked through the garden, and he showed me all the different types of plants around the grounds.

I heard water and asked him about it. There was a small stream on the grounds and he led me to the water side. A blanket was spread out and a picnic was set. I gave a happy giggle and hugged him. We sat down and spent the rest of the day talking by water side. The water was cold, but felt good when I put my feet in it. I splashed him a little and he splashed me. It was a good day.

As the sun set we made our way back inside. After the sun set, we cuddled near the fire in the library again. It was late before I started to yawn. He carried me to bed and it made me smile and giggle. He laid me on the bed and crawled in next to me, wrapping his arms around me. I smiled and whispered softly, “Shouldn’t we change into pajamas? Or am I to sleep in my jeans because you do not want to let me go?”

“No.”

With a laugh I looked at him, “No to what? The sleeping in pajamas or the wearing jeans?” He gave me a sly grin that made my breath hitch and my body grow warm.

“Both…” He whispered and kissed my lips. These were not the normal innocent kisses before we shut out the lights and went to sleep. These kisses made my body burn and ache for him. I whimpered and looked at him when his lips drew away. “Jesse, what’s the matter?”

“But…yesterday…” I didn’t understand.

“Yesterday we both missed signals from the other. I want to make it up now…I want to give you the things you want. I want to give you me.” I stared at him, sure I had misheard him. Not chancing it I stretched up and kissed him, my hands pushing softly at his shirt. I felt my body grow incredibly hot, and he curled closer. I assume to feel my warmth. Even without the hot covering of clothes I burned. It felt like a fever that spread from my inside out. I have never been with a man who loved me…and I found out the difference. He was attentive to me, paying homage to every inch of skin he bared. He was tender, even when he entered me, and I could tell his control was barely holding. I pulled him close, kissed his neck and breathed over his ear. I wanted all of him. He didn’t need to have such complete control when he was with me. I wasn’t going to break. I saw his control slip and then I watched his features as he pulled it back in. He wouldn’t let his control slip. He wanted this time to be sweet and soft.

He wanted this time to be what I’d never gotten. He wanted it to be making love.

My head swam like I’d never felt. I couldn’t control the moving and arching of my own body. It took on its own life and moved, complimenting him and making the pleasure soar within me. I could only pray that he felt even half as good as he made me feel. There was nothing I could do but lay pray to the feelings he instilled within me as he moved quickly over me. I held him close and the world flowered into color before my very eyes. White hot lightning ran through my veins and I couldn’t help his name as it tumbled from my lips. I knew what was happening. I’d expected some kind of release, but this…this was so intense. So unlike any other. It was so powerful, and in that moment I knew if he ever tired of me he would have to kill me. I couldn’t be without him. He stiffened and my name floated to my ears, which seemed to be filled with cotton. His arms let him down and he rested over me, not moving, his head resting on my shoulder. We laid there just clutching each other for a long while and the smile on my face never left me. I felt complete holding him. I felt complete being with him. I felt complete holding him. With a soft sigh he rolled to his side and pulled me rest on mine, facing him and his arms around me. I closed my eyes and started to drift to sleep. I don’t remember saying it, but I heard him reply with an “I love you too, Jesse. So much.” I didn’t dream that night, or at least, not any that I can remember, but I do remember the feeling of complete happiness as I slept in his arms.

Jesse

Jesse 11

2007-11-27T22:07:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written Journal:

Day: happy

Year: bright

Season: warmer

Continuation from the post before…

Arriving at his home, had never been so nerve wracking. I felt jittery and nervous. Aurora was there and that made it a bit better, but there were so many unknowns. Where would I sleep? Would he make me up my own room, or have me share his? Would he hold me and be tender, or simply proceed as if nothing had happened? I didn’t know what to expect.

The first day I was there I tended to Aurora. I was thankful she needed my help and that he was giving me distance. There were so many new things going through my head. I didn’t know how to cope with them all. Towards the end of the first evening, Aurora had packed and pulled me to the foyer. Janus had passed through and stopped, not knowing what was going on. Aurora was in a form that could talk and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. She told me to take care of the tiger’s coffin for her, then placed a kiss to my cheek and left. She said she would return soon, but I didn’t want her to leave. I was afraid. Afraid I’d never see her again, afraid I would not be able to cope with what was going on inside me. Tears sprang to my eyes as I closed the big heavy door. I rested my forehead against it, feeling Janus’s presence behind me. I didn’t want to cry. I was happy to be where I was…I really was.

Janus came up behind me and gently pulled me to him and held me while I cried. I don’t know if he knew exactly why I cried, I don’t even think I know exactly why I cried. We stood there for a long while, him holding me and me going through bouts of tears. I clung to him trembling. My tears dried and I rested my head where his heart should have been beating. The foyer was dimly lit and I could tell it had grown dark outside. Crying had exhausted me and my legs fought to keep me upright. He swept me up in his arms and walked into his bedroom. I stiffened when he laid me down on the bed. Gently he stroked my cheek, “Sleep now Jesse.” He smiled, and in the lack of light it seemed like a sad smile. He moved to stand and I felt lacking and cold. I was nervous about what was to come, but I wanted him to be with me. I grabbed the front of his shirt in a loose fist and he stopped. He looked at me confused.

“Stay with me. Please.” I said softly, almost inaudibly. He smiled, detached my hand from his shirt and moved to lay behind me. Just lay. I felt a breath of relief escape me. I couldn’t understand what was going on with me. I’d never been so afraid of anyone. There were so many emotions going through me, I didn’t know what to do with them. I wasn’t ready to explore them fully yet. I wanted to be with him…but I wasn’t normal yet. I needed to be comfortable with myself right? He rolled on his side and wrapped his arm around me. I felt my body stiffen and he made to draw away. I caught his wrist and forced my body to relax against his. I loved him. I wanted him to hold me. I wanted the closeness. It was all just so unfamiliar to me. I laced my fingers with his and slowly drifted to sleep. I slept well that night. Better then I had in a long, long time. I woke and realized somehow I had turned in my sleep. I was pressed against his chest, our legs tangling together, fronts pressed together and my head nestled just below his chin. My eyes fluttered open and I smiled softly. I froze. I probably looked horrid. I grimaced. I didn’t want to move, but I didn’t want him to see me looking so scary. Quietly I detached myself from him and instantly missed being held. I scampered into the bathroom and my eyes widened when I looked at myself. I had cried long and hard the night before and then went straight to sleep. I hadn’t bothered to wash off any make up. My eyes were surrounded with big black circles. I turned on the water and grabbed a dark rag, washing my face. My hair was atrocious. I pulled my fingers through it and then decided to tie it up. That took care of the messy curls I had. I dried my face and walked back into the bedroom. He wasn’t on the bed anymore. I looked around and then felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. I stiffened. “G-good morning.” I said quietly.

“Good morning.” I think he could tell that I was still getting used to affection. He released me and took my hand. “Come on, lets get you some breakfast.” He fed me and we spent the day going through his mansion, acquainting me with the layout and resident spooks. I found out his home was a hotel at one time. I thought it was a bit large to be a mansion. It fit him though. I couldn’t see him in anything else. The evening we stayed in the library for the bulk of the time. I was curled up near the fireplace and he was lounging on a couch. He sat up and looked at me as I stifled a yawn. “Ready for bed Jesse?” He stood and walked towards me. I stiffened, beginning to panic a bit inside. I think he could tell.

“I’ll be in, in a few.” I looked up at him, hoping my eyes didn’t betray me. He knelt down next to me and looked at me.

“Do you feel uncomfortable around me? Do you fear me, Jesse? I will never do anything you do not want me to do.” I looked at the fire and then back at him. How could I answer those questions? It wasn’t him I feared. It wasn’t him I felt uncomfortable with. I touched his cheek gently and smiled softly when he closed his eyes and leaned into my touch.

“I am uncomfortable with all the feelings I am experiencing. I fear messing up.” His eyes opened and my stomach flipped, “I am adjusting to everything. I have never experienced being held, just to be held. Being loved. Be patient with me, please? I just need to adjust.” He smiled a sad smile.

“Would you feel better if you had a separate room?”

“No. I want to be with you.” I turned towards him. He had to understand. “Janus…” My hand fell away from his face. “Touch me.” He frowned and looked at me. “Please.” I took his wrist in my hand and pressed his palm against my cheek. Slowly his hand held itself there and I even felt his thumb stroke my cheek. I took his other hand and pressed it over my rapidly beating heart. “Do you feel my heart racing?” I looked at him and he nodded. “It races because I am unused to feeling this. It is unfamiliar to me.” I smiled softly, “I will never be used to this if you put me away from you. And I want to be used to being touched and being held by you. I want to be used to being loved by and loving you.” His other hand came up and he held my face softly.

“Alright Jesse. Alright.” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. I stiffened but forced myself to relax. I needed to try to get used to it. I held his wrists loosely in my hands.

“I am quite tired…Janus.” My eyes looked into his innocently.

“Then let us retire and sleep for the night.” He took my hands and we went to sleep. I found myself unable to sleep. The feeling of him holding me made my heart race in a good way. Quietly I slipped from the bed and pulled out my journal and here I sit writing. I don’t think he was ever really asleep. I now am really quite tired and want to fall asleep in his arms so I am done for the night. Good night and many pleasant dreams.

-Jesse

Jesse 10

2007-11-12T02:50:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written Journal:

Day: happy

Year: bright

Season: warmer

Continuation from the post before…

After he’d said he loved me. He’d held me. God it was a wonderful feeling. It seemed to end too quickly though. We needed to get Rapier healed so my sister wouldn’t be broken. He was inside. Janus and I made our way to go see him. We’d passed Aurora’s tiger, who I thought was dead, and Janus stopped. The cat is still alive," he said softly, "Barely. But you can't tell Thousand Faces, she'll try to heal it, and it will die." I didn’t want that to happen. I nodded and together we went to Rapier. He was grotesque. I didn’t want to look, but my eyes made me. I couldn’t pull them away. The smell of blood smacked me in the face and I had to turn away. I was going to get sick if I didn’t. I covered my nose and tried to breathe through my mouth. I could just about taste the blood in the air. I watched as Janus slit his wrist and his blood trickled down to Rapier’s mouth. I remember whimpering slightly and he looked at me, “It’s only a little painful.” Rapier latched onto Janus’s wrist and Janus hissed, “Until that happens.”

I felt worried for him. I didn’t want him to hurt. I reached out for him. I wanted to comfort him and make his pain go away. I stopped before I touched him. I didn’t know if I would help or hurt the situation. My blood is poisonous and if Rapier smelled me, he could try to latch on to me and feed. I didn’t want that.

His wounds began to heal, skin filling the wounds he’d had. It was sick to watch, but I couldn’t pull myself away. To took a little while for him to stop groaning in pain and be normal again. The instant he saw me, I could feel the rage rolling off of him. I shrunk back when he screamed, "I'll kill you! Where's Thousand Faces? I'll take you both on!" I didn’t want to fight. I didn’t want him to hate me. I had so much to make up for and there was so much anger still left in him. I felt like crying. If I could have gone back in the past and stopped myself I would. I hated what I had done. I looked away so he wouldn’t see my tears.

"Rapier, I'm here, calm down, its all over. We are going to take you to Page."

Janus had handed Rapier his two swords. I felt like I was going to choke. My heart thumped in my chest. I could just imagine him jumping from the coffin and slicing me to ribbons. Its what I would have done if I had been in his position.

"A sign of goodwill." I felt much too close to him. Much, much too close to him. He was mad, and now armed and therefore dangerous. I know he didn’t mean to, but I felt like Janus was placing me on the chopping block. Would he protect me if Rapier came after me? I couldn’t do it. He was strong and I wasn’t sure if I could beat him. Now, because I didn’t have the baby, there would be no reason for him not to hurt me. To kill me. Page and I had fought and she had opened my eyes…but Rapier was different. Rapier was new. He had a completely different set of rules and feelings towards me. He and his anger frightened me.

“I’ll believe you.” He’d tried to get up and fallen forward. He grabbed me and I felt myself stiffen, waiting for the impending strike I anticipated coming. Nothing. My eyes opened slightly, having closed when I thought he was going to hit me and I looked at him. He looked weakened. I wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling an arm over my shoulders. I didn’t want him falling on his face and I couldn’t completely carry him to Page. Walking with him that close, with his sword poking me in the side…it amazed me I didn’t tremble. I didn’t want to die. I had just gotten my life back. I had more to do to make up for the trouble I had caused, but I was willing to work forever to do that.

Janus and Rapier talked. Janus helped me take some of Rapier’s weight, making it easier to move. "So she beat you?" Janus had asked.

"She was amazing Janus. She could kill you."

"She nearly did." I looked at him. He told me he knew her, but not that they had fought. I didn’t want to see them fight ever. I couldn’t.

"I'm so astounded… I lost bad too…"

“She puts her heart into everything when a loved one is injured.” I almost whispered. I was still afraid that he would change his mind about not killing me. “That Tiger…wasn’t just a tiger.”

He hadn’t known that. He felt bad for having killed him. I wanted to show him that he didn’t need to hate me. “He isn’t completely dead.” It would clear his conscious a little. Maybe…it would help? There was silence until we reached Page’s house. Janus looked at me, asking if I wanted to go in. I nodded out of reflex and then I thought about it. She’d left before I’d thought completely. She still hated me too. And seeing Rapier like this…she’d assume I did it. She had to know. She had to know my choice and hear everything I had to tell her. I nodded again, this time more firmly. There was no turning back. We got to the door and Rapier loudly called for her, none of us being able to knock. The door swung open and she stood there, looking at us.

She reached out, cradling Rapier to her, and when Janus and I both let go she stumbled back. I ran forward, helping her get his weight to the couch. She turned to Janus inviting him in and then her gaze fell on me, hard and hating. I felt cold under her stare. She studied me. I wanted to tell her I had changed. I was sorry. I wanted to tell her I wanted my family back…and I wanted to be her friend and her sister again. Her eyes seemed to soften and she smiled at me.

“Welcome back Jesse…I missed you.” My heart beat lighter at hearing that. She knew. She could feel it. My sister was accepting me back.

"She beat me bad, Page," he said softly, "She'd have killed you."

“Shh. No more now, rest.” She had said softly. I watched her tend to him, comfort him and wondered if Janus would ever let me do that. I doubted it. He would never get hurt enough to have a need for me to do that. Page rested Rapier’s head in her lap. He would let me do that. At least I hoped so.

Janus excused himself and left me alone with them. I felt awkward, treading on a precious moment shared between lovers. “Relay my thanks to the mage for not killing him. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him, again.” Page had spoken gently after Rapier had calmed. I nodded.

“I don’t know if she’ll be too happy to hear he survived, but I’ll relay your thanks none-the-less. I just wanted to make sure he got home as well, I’ll be off.” I didn’t want to impose on their time anymore. I turned to leave and heard Page begin to hum the lullaby our mother would sing to us. The words engrained in my mind. I paused at the door and looked back at them. I had been foolish to try to break them. Their love was so pure…it couldn’t be broken. They needed each other to survive.

I took Janus’s arm when I got out side. "Well, that just leaves Thousand Faces." Aurora…I didn’t know what there was I could do for her. She was so broken. How was I supposed to fix things for her? "I think you should do that alone," he said, "If you need me, say my name three times, okay?" He kissed me then and I gripped him as if the world were ending. I didn’t want him to leave me here alone. The kiss ended and he was gone. I looked around. Maybe he was only playing with me? He was somewhere around the corner and hadn’t really left? I grimaced. He was gone gone and there was nothing I could do about it.

“You are so mean…” I made my way into the house where I had left her. I found her, in the exact position I had left her, with the exact same expression. I knelt down next to her and cradled her head in my lap. I stroked her hair, maybe if she felt me there she would come back to me. I needed her still. She didn’t move. Not a muscle twitch not an eyelash flutter. “Aurora. Aurora, you need to come back. I need you to come back.” I had to be honest. Maybe if she heard my voice it would penetrate to the darkness in her mind she had hidden. She had tried to look at me and then fell limply like a ragdoll. I couldn’t help but groan. I needed her. Didn’t she understand? “Aurora, I need you. I don’t want you to leave me too.” I had cried and a tear slipped down my cheek landing on hers. “I love you Aurora, please. Wake up.” Her eyes moved and looked at me. The heartbreak was there. It tore me up to see it. I wanted to help her. I wanted to make her feel as happy as I felt. I didn’t know how. It was so hard. Like when a child tries to comfort a mother…they feel so helpless seeing Mommy cry…but they want to help. They just don’t know how.

Her hand came up and stroked my cheek. She was looking for something. “What are you looking for?” I had asked her. I wasn’t sure if she would answer me, but it was worth a try. I smiled at seeing her responding and her fingers landed on my lips. She opened her eyes wide and studied my smile. I didn’t want her to leave me again. She smiled and I felt my heart thud happily in my chest. She was coming back to me. Tears sprang to my eyes. I’d felt like I lost her…so alone. “You can’t leave me. You promised you’d never leave me.” I hugged her tightly not wanting her to leave me ever. I needed to feel her responding, even if it was just a little bit, “I don’t want you to leave me.”

She’d smiled and then the smile melted to a frown as she pointed to the room the tiger was in. What could I tell her? If I told her he was still alive she would try to heal him and he would die. If I told her he was dead and then he survived she would be angry with me for lying to her, especially about this. “I know, everything will be alright. I promise. Things will get better. Don’t despair.” She gave me a weak hug and a kiss on the cheek. I knew she was trying. I could feel it. I said a silent prayer, hoping that everything would be alright. I needed everything to be alright. I released her and gathered our things together, Janus would be around to take us home. I was nervous…I was going to his home to stay forever, not as a guest, but as his lover. He arrived and we left to go to my new home.

-Jesse

Jesse 9

2007-11-11T18:03:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written Journal:

Day: happy

Year: bright

Season: warmer

I said it today…the three words I never knew I could feel or say. It was very humbling. I was afraid. I love you.

I’d been inside when I’d heard that wretched woman, who I had found in Janus’s bed, yelling outside. I couldn’t make out what was said, but I was curious. If she was here that meant Janus was here. My heart pounded at the thought of Janus being close. My heart, for some reason, always pounds at the thought of Janus. I threw open the door in time to watch her slap him hard enough to send a tear arching into the sky to fall onto the cement. The fact that she hit him, alone, was enough to make me rage inside. I protect what I care about, and even though he may not have wanted my protection from her, I couldn’t help it.

I walked up to her and tapped her shoulder, getting her attention. The minute my eyes landed on her face, so did the back of my hand. It felt so good to do that. “Hurts, don’t it?” I remember hearing my voice say. I took a step to the side, coming closer to Janus, and making it harder to look in his face. I didn’t want to see him be angry with me until it was done and I’d done what was needed. I didn’t want to see him be heart broken of the treatment I gave her. She’d asked me what I was doing…and I’m a smart a$$ I know this. I couldn’t help the retort that sprang from my lips. She yelled and called me a stupid bitch which, when it came to Janus was true. I did a lot of stupid things around him. I couldn’t help but feel like a brainless idiot sometimes whenever I was in his presence. She also made a reference to resembling my sister and another harsh retort popped out. She’d turned to Janus and her words ring clear in my head even now.

"Janus, you are to remove me from your room, immediately. If you're going to keep company with her, you can't keep company with me."

I wanted to scream that that would be fine. He wouldn’t need her if he had me…but I didn’t even know if he wanted me. I didn’t even know if he would even care to have me. If the idea had passed through his mind. It had passed through mine, many times, I admit. He nodded and for the first time since I’d struck her I looked at him. A tear passed down his cheek and I thought I felt my heart break in my chest. I didn’t want to cause him pain. If he wanted her…I wanted him to be happy. He’d agreed, but was still crying. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to tell him I would be enough, I could be what ever he wanted me to…but I wanted him to be happy. I wanted to tell him he didn’t have to make her leave if he didn’t want her to. I wanted to tell her to grow up and not put him in such a position. But that’s what I was doing…wasn’t it? I put my heart on the line and was making him chose between mine and hers. I stayed silent. They both disappeared, and I wondered if he would come back. I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t come back. Who would want me? After everything I had done…to everyone, to myself. I was brazen to think he would even want me coming to his affairs.

He’d come back not long after, but to me it had felt like an eternity. He’d shocked me by coming back without her. I’m sure my eyes reflected the awe and wonder when I looked at him. Why would he give her up for me? Had she just refused to forgive and forget? Had he really wanted me? I had so many questions I wanted to ask him. I stayed silent. He looked different. I felt like I was looking at him for the first time again, like that night six years ago. I smiled at remembering how kind he had been, the flower popping into my mind. Briefly I wondered if he kept it. Suddenly my heart pounded and, I wanted to kick myself, I felt timid. I dropped my eyes. I couldn’t look at him anymore.

“Say something?” He’d asked me.

“What would you have me say?” There was so much I wanted to say. So much I wanted to do.

"I don't own you, you say what you need to say." The words stuck in my throat. I couldn’t. I didn’t know if he felt the same. I didn’t know if he would push me away. I didn’t know if he was even thinking about that at all.

I couldn’t say those words. They were taboo. They got you into trouble. I drew close to him and slowly, gently wrapped my arms around him. He could push me away if he wanted to. “I have no words to say…”

"Than speak in a different way." I didn’t know what that meant. Did that mean hold him, kiss him, love him physically? I was already holding him and it seemed like he really didn’t care. He laughed when I looked at him and my confusion got even worse. “Your sister is so dumb.” Why would he bring her up know? Why? I don’t understand. I felt the need to protect her…

“She can be. Other times, she can be quite smart…”

"Then say something," he was pleading with me.

“What is it you want me to say?” That didn’t seem right. That wasn’t what I meant. “No, what is it you want to hear?” I smiled. If he would just tell me he wanted me to say it…I’d say it a million times over just to make him happy.

"I would not put words in your mouth," Didn’t he know they were already there? They just needed to know it was them he wished to hear.

I took a deep breath. I wanted to say them too badly. “I…” I faltered. If grandfather had been there he would have been most angry. He waited patiently, prompting with only a simple ‘you?’ Another deep breath, “I love you.” He smiled and hugged me tighter.

“There was that so hard?” Did he not understand what I had just done? Was he not going to say it back? I felt foolish. I felt my face turning red in embarrassment and the timid nature still wouldn’t leave me. Fear gnawed away at my insides. Please…say it. I’d told him it was hard. It was a weakness…I was never supposed to admit a weakness.

"Love… Love is never a weakness. Compassion, Caring for your fellow people is a strength. Can it be used against you? Someday. Will you ever regret it, No." He’d explained softly. Something was off. I could feel it. I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d said it. He still hadn’t returned any kind of sign that he reciprocated my feelings and I was beginning to feel ill. He didn’t care for me. I’d laid everything out for him and he wasn’t going to respond. Maybe he didn’t realize that I meant them. He’d always been one to question me about the effects of my grandfather’s raising. Maybe I couldn’t really feel love?

“I’m learning to believe that…” I felt sick as I guided him down and stretched up to kiss him. I wanted to kiss him. Don’t misunderstand me. It was just that my love for him burned so brightly inside me that the thought he might try to extinguish it made my stomach turn. I wanted him to love me back. I wanted him to say it. I wanted him to hold me and teach me all the things I had yet to really experience with a heart. When the kiss ended he had a smile on his face. That made me feel better.

“Jesse,” he’d started softly, “I love you too…” My heart fluttered as did my stomach. I felt dizzy slightly. The sickness in my stomach had vanished and all I felt was happy. I wanted to hold him and kiss him and have him hold me and kiss me forever. I wanted him to be mine as much as I was his…and with those simple words he’d made everything come true. I felt all the tension in my body disappear as he held me.

”I was afraid you weren’t going to say it.” I said as I rested on him, holding him while he held me.

"Its funny how a stubborn young woman, can grow on your heart over the course of six years." He held me tightly. I never wanted to let go. There is more, but I’m tiring and will write about that in the next entry. So for tonight I bid you Adieu and many pleasant dreams.

-Jesse

Operation: Super Powered Pets

2007-10-09T10:52:00.000-04:00

(A Reposting from Next Top Hero)

When Superman said, “Super Powered Pets” I knew I was set, I commune with nature daily, and that’s the one department I can deal with… Pets!

I skipped into the room. I saw them all. There ere super powered bats, speedy dogs, giant kitties, acid tongue toads, giant monkeys… I didn’t know which one to pick…

So I randomly grabbed four of them. I had to… I didn’t know which ones I should pick. I ran from the building as giddy as a schoolgirl. I took them to my little room in the Hall of Justice.

I set them down and got a look at them… A weird song played and singing accompanied, “My Little Pony – Apocalypse Pony”

Oh no… What have I gotten myself into?

By the time I pulled Death and War off of Pestilence, and I stopped famine from eating all of the other’s food. I was tired, I blinked and Pestilence had infected War, and War was trying to get Death to attack Famine.

I couldn’t talk to them, so I had to take a different form. I knew only one person I could become that would control these beasts.

Seth Green.

“Now boys, boys!” They looked at me, and Death tried to reap me. I moved out of the way and he went headfirst into a tree, and the tree became blighted and died.

“Look, I’m stuck with you. You’re stuck with me.”

Pestilence coughed and I started sneezing. After blowing my nose, I looked at them, War was stabbing Famine again and again.

“Look. I know you guys like mischief and mayhem. Frankly, I know you want to cause the end of the world, I don’t want that, I like the world.” They all turned to me. Famine spat at me, and I felt hungry, War started stabbing my leg, Death tried touching me, and Pestilence created a disease cloud from his nostrils.

This wasn’t turning out the way I hoped, “I can turn you into, Life, Peace, Plenty and Health, So Help Me Great Spirit.” They all fell into line quickly, “Now, you didn’t let me finish. If you promise to not destroy the world, I will let you cause as much mischief and mayhem among my fellow contestants as you want.”

They got into a group, and they started whispering, Death looked over his shoulder at me, and then went back to whispering. They turned around and Death nodded his head, “So we have an accord?”

All four of them nodded, “You promise… You promise not to cause the apocalypse?”

The music played again, “My Little Pony – Apocalypse Ponies” They nodded, “Good Let’s start in Alphabetical Order… Anakin Skywalker.”

They laughed evilly; Seth Green and the Apocalypse Ponies will rule this competition!

I had Pestilence leave some hair loss in Anakin’s Dapper Dan.

Blockade Boy Got a double dose of bad when Pestilence and Famine left a really special burrito in his fridge.

I let War leave glass on Carter’s bed!

Death left a nice big pile of Destruction on Jan’s pillow. That would be nice for her hair.

I let Famine get rid of all of Noel’s cat food, Muhahahah!

Thousand Faces got it, Death and Famine destroyed two of her- Curses… I got carried away with the evil and let the Apocalypse Ponies destroy part of my room. I shaped them a blighted-bone-blood-lava ears incased in obsidian so they can only get out when I let them out.

Apocalypse Ponies ruled by Seth Green – Success?

Operation: Defend the City

2007-10-02T10:43:00.000-04:00

(Reposting from Next Top Hero)

I am a nature mage. I just needed to remind myself and whoever else was reading of that. The main problem with the challenge? Fighting spaceships. For some reason, there is just something that is off about that to me.

I mean I could summon a storm, but electrical attacks would most likely charge up whatever is in those things. Right?

Ground troops? No big. That’s more my style. Raiding a fortress? I can handle that too. But Ships… That’s really bad.

My fool-proof plan came to me after I communed with nature. I left the building and I grabbed the closest animal I could. It happened to be a bee. I held it in my hand. I focused my magic into it.

What happened first was the creature crawled out of my hand, as a lizard. The next thing it became was a komodo dragon. Then it grew reptilian like wings. It burped and a little bit of fire came from its mouth. I love DNA altering magic. You can have so much fun; especially at parties.

That’s when the ships came. Thankfully they were of relative size. About the size of a van. They were fighters, and they were firing on the city. I pumped a great deal of my magic into the creature on the ground, and it became the size I wanted. He was a dragon. I ordered him to take out the ships.

That has to be the weirdest thing anyone has ever seen… A DRAGON fighting off UFO’s. My family would never believe this in a million years.

With the fire breath, and the body that was a lot larger then the UFO’s the Dragon just would breath fire on one, slam its body into another, then bit down on another. Maybe the ships wouldn’t be as hard as I thought they would.

Then, they concentrated fire on my dragon. He dodged, but as each ship hit the ground, more and more aliens came out. I held my tomahawks ready, blew my lock of hair out of my eyes, and I went to cut into them. Then they spit acid at me.

Three more ships dropped and thirty more acid spitting, fighting aliens appeared.

Then my dragon landed on them all, and this green ooze came out from under him. He grabbed one in its mouth and bit down hard. Then he burped.

I rushed towards the citadel, my dragon following me as if I was a dog.
It was a just a large golden spaceship, and I walked onto it. I noticed this from somewhere… Somewhere sinister… Somewhere in the past. Television… I had seen this on Television.

When I saw the giant picture on the wall, I knew where I had seen it, and I knew what I had to do. I had to take on the form of a rabbit… Not just any rabbit, a bunny. For I was dealing with a Martian.

My outfit fell off, as I sprouted fur everywhere, I rose shaking a little bit. I had to find my tattoo and my deformity before I did anything. My tattoo was odd colored fur at the bottom of my foot, and the my deformity, thank the great spirit, was a large gash in one of my ears.

I formed a carrot out of mid-air and I walked forward, exploring nibbling on it. Hoppity-Hoppity-Hoppity…

Then this guy held a gun at my face.

“Awww” chomp chomp chomp “What’s up doc?”

“I am very, very busy; destroying the world is hard work you know?”

“Which world are ya destroying here?” I asked.

“Why earth of course…”

Chomp Chomp, “Whatchu gonna do it with?

“My annihilator ray,” he held up a stick of dynamite.

“Looks dangerous doc, you better let me hold it.”

“Oh-Why thank you furry earth creature.”

He handed it to me, and I started running away, he turned, saw, and said, “You’re making me very angry.”

Then he began to shoot at me. Little green rays whizzed past me, but it was easy to do because for some reason he was only firing on a single plane. I would jump and duck, I didn’t even have to weave.

I didn’t know what to do with the stick of dynamite, so I threw it. The martian guy ran and dove and grabbed it.

I grabbed a carrot from midair, and I walked over to him, “Hey doc, that thing looks pretty dangerous.”

“It is, it is,” he said.

“Why don’t I hold it while you get up?”

“Oh… That’s nice of you here…”

He handed me the little stick of dynamite, and I took off running again, he shot me again. This gag was going to get old fast. How many times can a clever rabbit outdo a legion of foes before it became boring… Apparently never.

I had no idea where I was running, but when I came out of the ship, I ran into my dragon. He saw a really big bunny. I saw a dragon’s mouth and tongue. I threw the little stick of dynamite down his stomach, and I wiggled my way out, and I was covered in slobber.

When the stick of dynamite exploded, my dragon’s stomach grew really big, and then shrunk, and he spit out smoke. The best part, was he took out his rage on the next available object. The Martian and his ship.

Stop the Earth Invasion - Complete.

All it took was a dragon, a rabbit, and a carrot.

Operation: Outfit

2007-09-25T22:01:00.000-04:00

(Reposting from Next Top Hero.)

Before the competition begins, I need to explain who I am. Some of you may have heard of me, others may have no clue who I am. My name is “Thousand Faces” I am not a hero, nor am I a true shape shifter. I am a Nature Mage, a very strong one.

As with all nature mages, I have the power to control the elements of my natural environment. From having the power to control, or spread, disease, to being in command of the weather, I influence all aspects of nature. I manipulate plant life, causing growth and decay at will. The privilege of life is in my hands as I control curative abilities. Among the most majestic of my powers is the ability to shift the form of life itself. My preferred hand to hand weapons, when I have to stoop so low is to use a pair of tomahawks.

My original form, the one that I take most often, is a Seneca Maiden. But in my original form I am mute, and since I made a deal with Coyote, no matter what I change into, I have a problem, whether it be deaf, blind, paraplegic, et cetera. The other thing that follows me is my tattoo, it always moves, but it is always there.

The name I go by normally is Aurora Dawnsfire. It was the name given to me on the birth of my shamanic powers. So, rather then call me Thousand Faces, you can call me Aurora. But remember, I am mute, so I speak entirely though sign language.

Thanks
-Aurora

- - - -

Superman, he told us our challenge, we had to get an outfit made: Not just an outfit, a superhero costume. I find that my traditional shamanic garb that I always wear suits me just fine. But: That would be a terrible way to fail the first challenge.

And it wasn’t like if it was embarrassing I just couldn’t change to look like someone else, right?

So, the girl who was working on my costume was from Texas. She was a down to earth looking girl, wearing cowboy boots and a classic cowboy hat, “Oh, Howdy… Isn’t that a nice outfit ya’ll is wearing… Ya need a costume, right? I gots the perfect idea for you…”

Somehow: I think a cowgirl working on an Indian’s outfit is going to lead to something hurtful and stereotypical. When she returned she was carrying fake leather. She had several dyed feathers, and what looked to be plastic.

She had me strip down, and from there, she began to wrap leather around me. When she got to it, she began to jam my side with needles, “Ya’ll ain’t in pain, are ya?” I shook my head no, but I don’t think she was paying attention.

“Ya’ll don’t talk very much, what is it? Custer got ya’lls tongue?” That was a cute comment. Too bad I couldn’t tell her what I was thinking.

“Now, ya’ll don’t mind dressing like an Indian do ya?” Yeah, this was going to be really bad, “I take silence as a no… Ya’ll are going to love this.” She stabbed me with another needle.

When she finished, she turned me around to the mirror.

no! No! NO! I reached out to strangle her, but she pulled out a six shooter, and poked me in the back.

“Ya’ll best be getting out there.”

I stepped out of the curtain door, and the first thing I heard was, “Would you like to beat on my tom-tom?”
“Look at that: She’s out of the casino and into our vomit.”
“Aww isn’t that warpaint cute, she can go an hold up the local preschool.”
“Watch out boys, she might use her pretty little feathers to scalp us.”

I walked with my chin up in the air, proud of nothing, but not letting them phase me. When I got to the end of my walk, I showed them a bit of sign language they all knew, the double deuce.

- - - -

When I entered my room, it was a bland, white number, and I knew I had to do something special with it. I tossed some seeds down, went outside, and got a wheelbarrow full of dirt, and dumped it on the floor.

Raising my arms in the air, I concentrated and pulled energy from the whole building focusing it into the floor, several trees shot up, along with grass, flowers, and a bed of moss.

I went outside, and found a small lightning bug. I took the lightning bug into the room, and concentrated, altering its DNA, its very being, and it grew in my hand, until it was the size of a small cat, but it was no cat.

No, this was a small dinosaur.

The coolest thing? It had a lightning bug tip on its tail. It began to run around the room, making little noises and eating some grass. I wanted my Shamanic outfit back, but this one would have to do for now.

I laid down on the moss bed, and I closed my eyes for a well deserved nap.

Get an outfit – Success?

Jesse 8

2007-07-23T15:44:00.000-04:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written journal:

Day:
Month:
Season:

I feel like a water balloon has expanded within me and
I’m going to pop. I am full with child and I have
never had such odd cravings or emotions. Poor Janus
has had to cater to my many musings and walks on
eggshells through all of my emotions. It has been
months since we have openly shown each other our
emotions and our love and I am still at odds with the
swirling emotions that I have. I don’t know if it is
simply because I am pregnant or because of the time I
spent with my emotions in repression. All those years
could not have been good.

Anyway…Janus has had to do so many things. He wakes
late in the night with me when I crave the oddest of
food combinations. Who would have thought that Butter
Pecan ice-cream tastes spectacular with Chicken
Alfredo? He runs to the kitchens and rustles up
anything I ever ask for. He is the perfect husband in
every sense of the word.

Many late nights have been spent holding heat packs to
my stomach when it felt like the baby was trying to
rip its way through me. The mood swings he has had to
put up with break my heart, but there is nothing I can
do. I grow angry for no reason, or I weep at the
simplest or things. He has stood by me and shown such
resilience. I am so happy to have him by me. I don’t
think I could do this with out him.

Boy Name: Carl Anthony O’Ciardha
Girl Name: Summer Dawn O’Ciardha

-Jesse

Summer's Journal: Forty-Fifth Entry

2007-07-10T22:27:00.000-04:00

My father has been known to tell stories of people other then himself. He prefers to never have spoken words about him, mainly because he doesn’t think he’s as great as all who love him sees him.

I have seen my father enter a rave, blend in, and convince everyone he is one of them. As have I seen my father enter a political party, and convince someone he was the Duke of some imaginary country, or leader of a huge company.

Over the time he has been alive, he has mastered many languages, thousands of idiosyncrasies, every social standing, and every chaste.

You should see the man garden.

He doesn’t.

He woke up this morning, put on overalls and a plaid shirt. He went outside and began to dig. Black Roses, Black Lotuses, Black Dahlias, and Black Morning-Glories all need to be planted in ground that is blighted, dead, sandy or hard. They do not grow in anything else. The only part of the grounds that are green are by the waterfall, and that’s just Mom and Dad’s favorite place to be.

But what woke me was his slamming the shovel into the hot, dead ground.

I got up, got dressed, and went outside, and I sat in the shade. He looked at me, and laughed, “So Summer Dawn, come to help your dad garden?” I shook my head no. “Come now, why not?”

“Remember the last time I touched one of your plants?” “Oh! That’s right… You killed it because you were frustrated… Well, at least sit out here and keep my company.” “I had planed on it.”

He was doing it the hard way. He wasn’t using his full strength. I leaned back, and I was joined by Giorgio. Giorgio is our housekeeper/groundskeeper. He knows everything. He doesn’t care. We pay him well, he doesn’t tell anyone.

“He trying to garden this place again?” Giorgio asked in his thick accent. “Yes.” He laughed, and sat down.

“I can’t let Giorgio do all the work around here can I?” Watching my father try to do the upkeep on the plants was amusing. He would get frustrated, like I had, then he would grab them, get a handful of thorn, and roar and then rip one out.

He then would tenderly re-root and replant the bush. Overall, it was a long day, but Giorgio, my father, and myself all got to talk about nonsensical stuff, its not normal for my father and I to discuss what type of bird makes a better sound. Or for Giorgio to join in on one of father and I’s religious debates. Usually Giorgio just kind of does his work, and never talks with us.

Oh well, I’m going to call Chris.

-Dawn

(Sorry about not posting in so long, AND sorry that this is it, I need to get back into the groove.)

Summer's Journal: Fourty-Fourth Entry

2007-06-25T00:27:00.000-04:00

Chris wanted to surprise me. After school, he took me by the hands and tied my black scarf around my eyes, and he walked with me. “Summer, any idea where you are going?”

“No,” I told him, “Is it completely necessary that I be blindfolded?” “Completely necessary.” He held my hand, and I followed him. Soon the sidewalk ended, and I felt the ground become soft. Gravel. Dirt.

It also felt cooler. We were no longer in the city. The life around me, was pulsating against my aura. It didn’t want me there. I felt nervous and I squeezed his hand tightly.

“Summer, what’s wrong?” “Just tell me where we are going… I don’t like this.” “Do you trust me?” “Yes.” That kept me quiet as we walked. I raised my hand to take off the blindfold and he pulled my hand down, “No!”

I was getting frustrated. If there is one thing I hate more then anything, its not knowing something. It drives me crazy. There are so many occasions where someone says after a question, “Because.”

“Chris!” I said, “Tell me where we are going!” He didn’t say anything, but he tightened his grip on my hand to show me he had heard me. So I dug my nails into his skin. He helped and whimpered some.

“Patient Summer.” I whined, pouting my lip out. He melts for that, “Sumer, please… Don’t…” I gave up, I just let him guide me. He wasn’t going to tell me. Then, we turned, and he led me onto a path that was all dirt. He wrapped his arm around my hip, and helped me down this small hill, and he made sure I didn’t fall.

One time, he caught me when I tripped over a branch. I was starting to get nervous, it seemed the further we went out the more treacherous the trail became. Finally, I felt suddenly at peace. The waves pounding at my aura stopped.

He untied the scarf, and I looked around. The sun rays were casting down through the scarcely thing tree tops, making line upon certain pieces of marble. I stared outwards, and I saw an incredibly old graveyard.

The stones were decrepit and falling apart, and the trees were growing up through the hallow spots where the graves were. I saw several spirits and my eyes shifted to see them clearer.

There were several of them; they were all looking at the gravestones trying to figure them out. Their stones had been shifted. Through time, or tree growth or maybe even somebody accidentally or purposely moving them.

Chris was staring at me in awe. I smiled at him, “What?” He walked towards me, and he hugged me tightly to him, wrapping his arm around my waist, and pulling me tightly to him, so I rested my head on his shoulder.

“Chris, what’s wrong?” He shook his head no, “I just thought you would like it here. You didn’t say anything…” “There are several spirits. They are looking for their resting place…”

He looked around and couldn’t see them, “What do you see, Summer?” It was a weird question, but I answered it in the innate detail in which I described in this entry. He looked, and walked towards the spirit, he couldn’t see it, he was just walking.

“They aren’t trying to manifest, I can’t see them, where are they?” I directed him to stand near one. The ghost paid us no mind, it was just looking for its resting place. “Summer,” Chris once again used my name, he was thinking about something, long and hard, “Summer, what do you see?” He was getting deep.

He must have been thinking very deeply today. “How does it change from what I see? How does it all change when we see things ourselves?” I smiled at him, and I had him sit with me, “Chris, my perception changes from what I’ve learned. What I know. I will not see the same tree as you, nor do these gravestones for you hold the mysticism they hold for me. What does this graveyard mean to you?”

“It means it’s a family plot, and its where people died.” “Other then it being a family plot, this is where some stories ended, where the finality of Death was solidified.” Chris smiled faintly but it faded, “What do you think its like to die?” I lifted his chin to look at me, “Surrounded by death, no-one could know. I don’t want to, Chris. That’s all I know. I’m scared to wind up like them. I don’t want that.” “Can you show me them?”

I touched his cheeks, his temples, and I channeled my own magic into him. Not enough to hurt, not enough to give up my own magic, just enough for him to see what I see all the time.

When his eyes opened, I saw my own, the ones I see in the mirror everyday. It was weird to see the icy blue eyes staring at me, instead of Chris’ own. He looked around the Graveyard, and his face lit up. He could see them.

“You see them like this everyday?” “Everyday.” He smiled brightly and leaned into kiss me. One of the spirits passed by in between us and he jumped back. I laughed lightly, and I kissed his cheek and helped him up.

“Let’s get them to their rightful places, shall we?” It took us several hours, but we moved the marble, and got the graves where they needed to be. The spirits slowly dissipated one by one, and Chris couldn’t see them. It wasn’t impressive, one minute they are there and the next minute gone.

Chris is very sweet, and it was a good idea to take me to a graveyard. It was even nicer to help out a few lost souls on our way.

-Dawn

Janus' Record: 8

2007-05-30T11:04:00.000-04:00

“Summer Dawn’s Perfume.

“That’s what I am going to be speaking about for this entry. She picks it out herself, she loves it, and she had probably fifty bottles of it. Its an interesting scent, and its only sold at the dark store in town.

“Its an Ambery, aged for hundreds of years. The basic compound of it is Belladonna, Physostigmine, Post-Samskaras Aconitum, (Summer often uses Post-Samskaras Aconitum to irritate her mother, and fight off rabid werewolves), holy-water instead of regular water, Syringa vulgaris and Jasminum polyanthum. It has a unique smell. The Aconitum has no true effect on anything, Belladonna and Aconitum are poisonous. Highly so, but the introduction of Physostigmine, and the Samskaras on the Aconitum, cause it to only have a very sweet smell from both flowers. The Holy-Water is used to water it down so it is not too strong. So the sweet smell from those things mixed with the soft aroma of the Jasminum Polyanthum and Syringa vulgaris, cause this sweet-jasmine-lilac aroma that is so unique – I’ve lived over two thousand years, and I’ve never smelled anything like it.

“As I said its not poisonous, the shopkeeper told me what was in it, I told her no. He then smiled broadly, and he took a swig of it. He was a human, and I had to say, I was shocked when he didn’t begin to sweat, and see things. I had to buy his whole supply of it. She didn’t want to ever be without it.

“The reason I was so keen on making this my discussion with the phonograph for the night was because I received a telephone call, as I often do, ‘Janus, one of our boys is having a hard time with a wraith in your territory.’ The Illuminati always seem to know what is going on everywhere, but they can never do anything about it.

“’Assist him please, and we will make it worth your while.’ I gathered the address, and I grabbed my emergency bag. I force-of-willed myself to the house, and I broke down the door. I love how in my old age, I no longer need to be invited into houses.

“I got downstairs, and saw lightning strikes on the walls, and a chalk pentagram on the floor, and I smelled a faint sweet-jasmine-lilac aroma. Summer Dawn. She always seems to be a step ahead of me when it is in concern to this county. She seems to handle most all of the threats here.

“I believe that it is because of my presence, that there are so many supernatural things occurring in such a small area. This may seem ego-centric, but I think that to be the reason.

“So, I heard a report of Zombies in a graveyard, it traveled fast through my contacts, and when I arrived, apart from dissipating rotten flesh, I smelled a sweet-jasmine-lilac aroma. Summer Dawn.

“There was another time, when I heard of a rat-demon infestation, I went there, and found corpses, and apart from the swarmyard smell, I smelled blood and traces of a sweet-jasmine-lilac aroma. Summer Dawn.

“I am very proud of my daughter. I love her, very much. When I think about her it makes me smile, and makes me want to say to everyone around me, ‘That is my Summer Dawn.’ It’s rare for a parent to have a child who excels and at times surpasses everything you do. For some parents it would cause a loathing. For me, I become very proud of her, when she reads languages that took me years to learn.

“Sometimes I wonder if she is proud to have me as a father, she wears her fangs proud. That’s the one genetic trait I was able to pass to my daughter.

“I am ending this entry early, because I smell sweet-jasmine-lilac, which means Summer has returned from her escapade with the wraith.

-Pause-

“Daddy!”

“See?”

-Click-

Summer's Journal: Forty-Third Entry

2007-05-27T17:18:00.000-04:00

Chris once again, bailed out of a date. I’ve gotten used to it. His parents are very controlling, and they do not often let him have any free time. He wanted to come. But his patriarch was hassling him. What was worse, was I was almost to his house when I got the call.

“Summer, I can’t come tonight, they won’t let me.”

I bit my lip gently. It made me very sad, but I couldn’t let him know that, “Okay, baby, we’ll reschedule?” “Yes, of course, I’m really sorry Summer.” “Its not a big deal.” I lied.

“Bye…” I sucked it in for another second, “Bye, Chris.” After the phone clicked, I hung up, and sighed heavily. I wanted to cry. I felt sad. I needed to do something to not think about it. I love spending time with Chris. He makes me smile.

I heard at school, that there was a house, to the west of town, which was supposedly haunted. A crossover or an exorcism. To get there, I had to walk three or four miles. It was a decent ways down the road.

You couldn’t miss it when you saw it. It was classic haunted house, broken windows, cobwebs, creaky fence door. There was a group of boys in the front of it, most of them my age. I had seen them before, but I couldn’t place them. When they saw me, the eldest ran for their car, and they sped off.

I love the way I affect people.

As I walked up the sidewalk, the sky darkened and the wind picked up. I sighed, again. It was more a frustrated sigh then anything else. Sometimes, when spirits get angry, or are old enough, they can affect the area around them.

I opened the front door, surprisingly unlocked, and I took in a deep breath. It smelled musky, old, it was very dusty too, and I saw footsteps in the carpet, fresh ones, tennis shoes. I looked at them closer, I had seen the print before, I don’t remember when.

The house wasn’t filled with spirits, I saw orbs. Very weak spirits, maybe even animals. That’s when I felt the pinching at my calves, I looked down. Black beetles. I held my hand towards them, and blood filled my mouth.

They quickly parted and left me a circle. I was wrong, there was a strong spirit here. Somewhere. The wind whipped through the open doors, and the dust kicked up all around me.

I reached into my side satchel and withdrew my silver cross, I held it in my hand, holding it as a talisman. I looked down, and the tennis-shoe prints were gone. The dust settled. The ghost wasn’t causing the wind, or else during the dust cloud, he would have attacked.

I needed light, I reached into my pouch and withdrew my flare. I cracked it, and lit it. The bright light filled the room, bright red, and it faded to be blue.

“Okay,” I hissed, “Where are you?” It didn’t answer. Instead there was a thunderclap inside the house, and it knocked me to the ground. This was a powerful spirit indeed. Instead of messing around, it was time to get serious.

I began to run, towards the basement, that’s where I thought the sound was coming from, when I entered the basement, there were wine-racks knocked over, and a large black mass with glowing red eyes. It wasn’t looking at me. It was focused on something else in the room.

My hand turned black, blood filled my mouth, it was time to hit him. I reached into his corpus, and he vanished, the flare was glowing red, he would be back, I didn’t have much time. I looked in the basement. Holding a bright yellow flag was my no-good boyfriend.

“Family, huh?” I asked after swallowing the blood. He looked up to me, “Let me expla-“ He was cut off, the spirit was upon us. A lightning bolt flew from Chris’ hand, and it went through the corpus, and came at me.

As it came at me, Chris screamed for me to look out. But it didn’t help, the bolt struck me, and pain filled my body. I hit the ground hard, and the ghost turned to me, his eyes focused on me.

“Summer!” Chris ran through it towards me, and stood in front of me. I tried to rise, but it was too hard. He released another bolt, and it went through him. “Cross in my satchel…” He didn’t motion for it, instead he held his hand up, and a bright light was focused around it.

“Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day, our daily-“ I yelled, “Chris that isn’t going to work!”

I forced myself to rise, and I began to recite the old latin banishing chants. The light pulsated, and there was a flash and he was gone, it was still deathly cold. Chris dropped to me, and picked me up.

“He’s going to come back Chris.” “What can I do to help you?” “You’re a healer!” I screamed. He held his hand over the charred black shirt, and I felt a coolness come over me; then warmth.

I stood shakily on the ground, and I held my silver cross out, and blood filled my mouth, as I began to channel energy into the air, so he could manifest again. When he did, he looked more human then before, but still very evil.

I spat my blood at him, and I rolled underneath him. The chalk fell from my bag, and I began to draw a pentagram around him. He was clawing at me the whole time. I felt the scratches, and the blood rolling down.

Chris began to scream at it, flinging pointless lightning bolts at it. I rolled away, from it, and I began to recite the old latin exorcism I learned from my father. The ghost melted into the circle, and I laid on the dusty ground.

“Summer,” Chris said, “Are you okay?” “No, I’m hurt,” I said shortly. He laid his hands on my wounds and I didn’t feel the burning sensation they were giving off.

“Not physically. I’ve seen that flag before… Why didn’t you tell me?” Chris spoke, “They didn’t want you involved like you were with your cousin.” I looked at him, the dull light of my dieing flare, showing him my hurt, “I want to help you.”

“Summer,” he pleaded, “I thought-“ “Not hard enough.” “They wanted me-“ “No, Chris. I’m going home.” I reached for my necklace and he grabbed my hand, and held it.

“I wanted to see you, really, but…” “But?” “I will just dig myself in a deeper hole.” “Six foot deep enough?” “Summer, I had to prove myself to them.” “I really want to go home Chris.” “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have lied to you… I won’t do it again… I promise…” “Chris, stop…” “Summer, I’m truly sorry.”

He looked at me, and I was so angry at him, but it just vanished. I kissed his hand gently, “I am the expert in this… Don’t you dare do something like this without me again, and, for your information, I would have considered this a date.”

He smiled at me. He leaned into kiss me, and who should show up, “Chris!” Brendan said, “Did- Oh… Summer… I see…”

Is he ever going to kiss me!

I am going to kill my cousin.

-Dawn

Letter to the late, Kera d’Epee January 31st, 1991

2007-05-20T22:57:00.000-04:00

Kera,

Brendan is healthy and happy. He always wants one of us with him. Is this normal? I don’t know as much as I should about pups. He’s going to be a wolf one day, or at least he is wolf blooded.

Page is so happy. I’m so happy. When he sleeps, sometimes we both watch him. He’s amazing…

I don’t sleep as much as I should. I will wake up in the middle of the night, and I will pick him up, and he’ll fuss because I woke him, then I take him in the living room, draw the curtains, and I lay him down on my chest and let him sleep.

He grabs onto my finger and he holds it tightly in his tiny little hand. He’s so strong. I often wonder late at night at such times what kind of a man will he be?

Lara, our adopted daughter, she watches over him. She at first didn’t like the idea of a baby brother or sister. But when she first looked at Brendan, she cooed, and asked to hold him.

Page growled. Lara’s eyes widened. It was so funny, I couldn’t laugh. Page didn’t mean to growl, she was just being a mother wolf. I looked at Lara, and I knelt down next to her, and reminded her about Page being a werewolf.

Its been a few months and Page is finally comfortable enough for Lara to hold him. She doesn’t often, because she’s scared to hurt him. Lara would have been a good mother.

He’s crying, Page is at work, and Lara is somewhere.

-Rapier d’Epee

Explanation: Concerning this Blog

2007-05-03T15:51:00.000-04:00

To whom it may concern,

It had occurred to me, that many of you reading may be confused with the format or the characters. It is about time that I explain to you what we are trying to accomplish with this blog.

This blog is named “The O’Ciardha Clan.” The O’Ciardha’s are a family that my writing partner and I made, and they exist only in a world that we made. We have written four full books about the family, and we are currently working on a fifth.

These books we hope to publish soon, or at least get made into movies. To do this we had to see how the public (or other bloggers) respond to it. This is an experiment. We are trying to hone our writing and we are trying to get our name known as much as possible.

For many of you, you may have thought this blog was done by only one person, as mentioned above you noticed that I said I had a partner in this. I will tell you who we write as.

I, a separate entity, who you can know simply by the main character I write as on here, Summer. Then my writing partner, whom is also a separate entity known as, Jesse, who this person has posted as most often.

I, Summer, as you have guessed write as Summer Dawn. I also write as Aurora “Thousand Faces”, Janus Delia, and also Rapier d’Epee.

Jesse, as you can once again deduce writes as Jesse O’Ciardha, Page Carey, Brendan Carey, and Chris Eastman.

Some of the events that happen in this blog, happen in the stories we have written, some of the events however we make up.

But I feel it necessary to explain some of our inspirations and other things. First of all, we cannot forsake the best and oldest of the modern gothic stories, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. As I am sure many of you have read, notice how reminiscent the blog is. Summer Dawn, much like Jonathan Harker keeps a journal, and Janus keeps his stories by Phonograph much in the same way Dr. Seward keeps his. We cannot possibly expect to have an acceptable modern gothic story without shouting out to Bram Stoker. So, Bram Stoker, wherever your soul is right now, Thank you.

For those of you who have seen Marvel’s Blade, or read the old comic, along with Terminal Reality’s BloodRayne, we cannot forget them, in help with the idea of the “Dhampir” the half vampire. The theory makes sense from all the research I have done. So Marvel and Terminal Reality, Thank you.

The series Supernatural, on the WB. It sometimes, after I watch it, I get inspired, and I've used it as a great research source, the writers of the show are amazing, so to Supernatural and its writers, Thank you.

The last source, is White Wolf Publishing’s World of Darkness, RPG series. I had often been interested in vampires, and had ATTEMPTED to write something in that genre, and though I loved it, I knew it wouldn’t go far. WoD is a Modern Gothic Genre, and it was a heavy source of inspiration for the stories and this blog. Anybody who has read this and has played WoD I’m sure can see the similarities immediately. So to White Wolf Publishing, Thank you.

Sources that have NOT inspired this blog or the stories we wrote, are Underworld, Underworld 2, An American Werewolf in Paris, Cursed, Blood and Chocolate, and The Covenant. We did not begin work on these stories before An American Werewolf in Paris, Underworld or Cursed. But, as for all of the others we had finished three of the four completed books before they were released, or even before production notes were released.

I, as an author of this blog, do not want people to think that we, use ideas without giving credit for them. I would also like to thank any readers we have, and I wanted to clarify how this blog works and why it works the way it does.

Thank you,

Author (Summer) and Author (Jesse)

Janus' Record: 7

2007-04-29T20:07:00.001-04:00

(Kept by Phonograph.)

“I don’t often like working with other vampires, I find them to be cruel, complicated and dramatic. I have a niece, her name is Lara. She was known for a very long time as ‘The Dagger’. She’s only seventy six.

“Lara is eternally trapped in a seven year old body. Some stupid vampire was being especially stupid and Lara was born from that. She is the full dramatic end of the spectrum, everyday she wakes and wishes she was older.

“She would prefer death to immortality. I often wondered, in dark moments of her life, if she thought of plunging her own daggers into her heart to end it all. I try to spend time with her. She’s so unique.

“One moment she’ll be playing with dolls, seriously, and then if you offer to play with her, or just sit down and play, she’ll begin cursing, and yelling at you how she is not a child. She’s older then you are. Well, she often does that with her so called ‘Mother’. Page is the one who took her in.

“Page will often tickle Lara or cuddle with Lara, and Lara will tell her to get away that she is old enough to be Page’s mother, and then if Page leaves her alone, then she pleads for her to come back.

“Lara is a paradox. She is both mature and immature. Brendan treats her like a little sister. She never, ever yells at him. I think that Lara when she was human, which she can’t remember, had an older brother who was like Brendan.

“She often defends Brendan from his mother and father when he does stupid things. Yelling and screaming and bring a rage and fury. She really loves him. She likes Rapier too. I love her relationship with Rapier.

“See when they are together, they double team people. They are both quick-witted and sly, and its very neat to watch them interact. I’ve been with them hunting before. I’ve seen them make a Werewolf-Brute break down in tears from their wit, and they finish each other’s sentences.

-Light laughter-

“But I love, as I said, to watch her most with Page. She looks up to Page when they are cuddling, and I can see envy and her looking up at her like she is her heroine. But she fights with Page like a teenager. Sometimes she acts younger then what she is.

“She Loves Page. I am sure if the time came she would die for Page. I don’t understand how Page inspires such dire loyalty. She doesn’t want it. Page, that is, the last thing she wants is to be is a leader. She wants to be a mother, a sister, and a wife. She wants love, and love alone.

“I have shed tears for Lara before. I can’t understand what she is going through. But I know how hard it must be. I really do like working with her. Whenever she works, she is at peace. Her soul, mind and body work as one, she doesn’t even notice how young she is. She uses it to her advantage.

“I’ve seen her rip the heart out of an old wolfie, while he was raging. I’ve seen her stake an ancient vampire surrounded by his cronies. She’s an amazing huntress. She only works for money.

“She worked for six people before settling on Page, one every ten or so years. She was a Feral, so she was handy, untraceable. She would give who she was leaving a dagger, facing them. It was a promise, if they tried to stop her, she would kill them.

“Only one greedy vampire tried to stop her, he and his subordinates all were killed. I remember hearing whispers in the clubs about a little girl who destroyed an entire coterie. Most took it as hear-say. To date, she has two hundred and fifty-six kills to her name. Two unsuccessful.

“Rapier d’Epee, she left him a wonderful crescent scar across his back. Some other vampire named Janus.

-Laughter-

“It was a futile attempt to begin with, she snuck into my mansion, figured out my puzzles, found my room, shoved the dagger into my chest, and then I burst into ash. That’s right, I burst into ash.

“She figured her job was done, and she left. I reformed, that’s one of the benefits of being two thousand years old, you know. When she found out I was alive, she tried killing me, again, and again.

“Finally, she realized I wasn’t going to die, and she left.

“I watch how Lara acts with Jesse… She hates Jesse and still, even now, is weary of her. Lara was one of the people who had to deal with Jesse when it came to Page. She almost killed Jesse. Thank God for Aurora. Thank God for Aurora.

“She is fairly indifferent towards me. I almost killed her once to get Page’s attention. Page was very stubborn, and it took hurting Lara to make her see.

“Wow, this little chat with my phonograph turned into something about Lara instead of something about our adventure together. That’s okay, our adventure wasn’t very exciting anyway.”

Summer's Journal: Forty-Second Entry

2007-04-19T01:02:00.000-04:00

Ever been to a lupine bar? Its not a nice experience. Ever. Not even my aunt appreciated being in one of them when she was younger. My mother, on the other hand, loved Lupine bars. She would often go into them and find out information.

My latest adventure led me into one. There was a rogue werewolf loose. The vessel-packs avoided him, and my Aunt was busy defending her territory in the north from a pack that was moving down.

That left my mother and I. My Uncle Rapier goes with my aunt whenever she has to do things like that, and Brendan was off at a track meet across state. My little cousin Lara was off with my father. Once again, that left Mother and I.

Now, I’ve worked with my mother before. She gets, very, very defensive of me, and she doesn’t worry about herself. I can handle myself, I am sure I have fought bigger, nastier monsters from nightmares then she has.

But, my mother, comes and wakes me earlier morning, “Baby-Doll,” because that’s what my mother calls me, “Baby-Doll we need to get up, there was a murder last night.” My eyes opened, and all I could see was a newspaper article of a mutilated older woman.

“Mom it’s…” I looked for my clock, but she spoke up before I could finish, “It’s Five in the morning.” I laid my head back down on the pillow, and then she looked in my side pouch. She withdrew my silver whistle, and though I heard her wince, she blew it, and it made me jump up.

“I’m up,” I said as I rubbed my eyes. I fumbled around and it took me awhile to get fully awake, and get ready, but we were gone by six. We started in town, and we went right to the scene. There was police tape everywhere, and my mom just casually walked into it.

She knows nothing of subtly. I would have went in the back, but she walks right in. “Excuse me mam, you’re not supposed to be here.” A police officer walks up, and my mother turns to him with tears in her eyes, “But… My mom-She…”

“Oh…” said the police officer, “But, it’s a crime scene mam.” She blinked her eyes heavily and a sob escaped her lips, “I just need to see her things, I need…I need to.” He looked downtrodden, “Stay out of the living room.”

My mother walked by, and she signaled for me to come. I walked in, and the cop looked at me, “Your grandmother? And that was your mother?” I responded coolly, “No, I’m the Outside Associate to the Corener, I specialize in freak killings.” “Aren’t you a little young?” “Thank you, no, I use the makeup to make me look younger.”

“Whatever,” he said as he signaled me through. I stepped into the house, and my mother looked at me, “Why didn’t you just walk in?” “Because, you have to be more subtle about these things.” “Nah, Subtly is for people like your father. I prefer the direct approach.”

Mother and I walked into the living room. She took a sniff, and she stepped away from the room, “You’ll need to go in there,” she said. She was rubbing at her nose as if it was burning. When I entered the room, I saw the blood splatters and the locks of hair on the floor. The old lady fought back. I knelt down to the hair, and I looked.

It was course. I looked over the room, beside the blood there was a yellow spot. I sighed and backed away, “Whoever he is, he is very proud about this kill.” She smiled, “How do you know it is a he?” I smiled back, “Only a he would be stupid enough to do that.” My mother smile at me, and hugged me close.

“Good, now, we are going to pick up his trail, and by we. I mean I am, and you are going to go to your cousins house until I find where he is.” I sighed heavily, “Mom. No. I a-“ She cut me off, “After your little escapade with the human hunters, you are not going anywhere that can put you into danger.”

She picked up the trail and I walked out of the building, “Who was that woman?” I asked the cop. “The Old Woman’s Daughter.” “Wow,” I said, “You fell for that, go look at the pictures, not a daughter in sight.” He thought for a second, and mentally kicked himself, I could tell by his expression.

He had some choice words, and I left him. I wasn’t going to Brendan’s house. I went to my contact. He was running a small store in some dark alley near the industrial section of town. I found his place, and when I entered, I noticed he was busy working on a small contraption.

“Summer is that you?” “Yeah Sans, its me.” “You hear about the murder down on Clover?” “Yeah Sans.” “Hear-tell it’s an old Werewolf. One who was around to fight in the civil war. That doesn’t mean much.” “No, My Mom’s looking for him too.” He laughed, “Then he really is screwed. You should go across town to the slums. Over there is a bar.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” “It’s a lupine bar. That would be the place to find out stuff.” I nodded, “Thanks Sans. I’ll have my dad stop by with something for you.” “Nah, don’t worry about it, I don’t mind helping you out, you’re a good kid.”

I began my trek to the slums of town. It lead me through the park, and there were a couple talking about the murder last night. I walked by them, hearsay. Most people think when something like that happens it is a large animal, maybe a freak accident, maybe even a passer-by.

When I got across the park, it wasn’t much further to the slums. Naturally, guess who was going down the same street.

“DAWN!” She yelled at me. I looked back and fourth, then pointed at myself, “Who me?” She walked over to me, “What did I tell you to do, young lady?”

I shrugged, “I can probably kill this guy on my own, Mom.” She gave me the eyes, and I sighed, “Yessum. I’ll go.” She waited for a second, and then she said, “We’ll both go, I lost the trail. We’ll get ready for the night. I’ll buy you lunch.”

After lunch, we went to Aunt Page’s and I went to her stocks of items. My mother hates my Aunt’s stock. She thinks it stupid that she keeps the Wolfsbane in the house in which she lives. I also picked up Uncle Rapier’s Mercury Squirt Gun. Its much deadlier then what it sounds.

My mother and I left my Aunt’s house and heading for the Lupine bar. When we arrived it was just opening. The Bartender was an older man, he sat behind the counter, and he cleaned cups.

“Ladies, need something?” My mother walked up to the bar, and she smiled, “I need to know about the murder on Clover.” “Why would a pretty little loner like you, want to know about something like that?”

“No reason,” she batted her eyelashes. I sighed, I walked up to the bar, “Look, we are going to put it down, we just need to know where it is.” He sighed, “I don’t know, he’s rabid, bit down on the wrong animal. He’s in the woods nearby. The old Lady was wrong place wrong time.”

My mother looked at me, “I thought you were all about being subtle. Sometimes your approach is best.” We left the bar, and went to the forest, she stood in front of me. It was darkening, and I could tell she didn’t like the situation. I knelt down to the ground.

“Mom,” I said, “There are some dead animals near here. We might need them.” I closed my eyes, and blood filled my mouth. I found a few animals, and I linked with them. So I could see what they saw. I spat my blood all over the place.

“Now it is our ambush.” My mother looked at me, I couldn’t tell if it was pride, but it changed quickly. Her face went blank, and I grabbed the wolfsbane, and I rubbed it on my hands and neck.

I waited for him. It was imperative that my mother not get cut by his claws. Which meant, I had to distract him, she couldn’t know that. I screamed as if I was being attacked, and my mother looked at me with confusion, that’s when I heard the tree fall.

I began to run, screaming the whole way. It chased after me. I spun around, and I saw him coming. He was big, and he was an older werewolf. I smiled as he came at me. I rolled to the side, and vines came up, and wrapped around him.

“Look at me!” I yelled. He turned, and growled lowly at me. That’s when a tree fell on him. My mother stood, full werewolf form, white against the dark forest. The old werewolf tossed the tree into the air, and I flung bone spears at him.

My mother picked up a tree, twice my size, and used it as a club. She knocked him back into the tree, and it splintered, sending him down to the ground, He growled, and launched himself at my mother. I rushed in front of her, and used the Mercury gun in his eyes. He howled, and scratched at his eyes as the foam dropped from his mouth.

He tried flailing around, and mom dropped another tree on him. I ran to him, and started plastering him with the mercury. He growled, and flailed. My mother jumped on the tree, and she jumped up and down.

He fell to the ground, and he changed back to be human. She jumped and jumped until there was an ungodly crack. She laid her hands on the side of his face, and snapped his head off of his body. I jumped back from the blood, and she was woundless, and she didn’t have blood on her.

She grabbed his head off the ground by the hair, with a glove, and she and I walked out of the woods. I released the bodies of my zombies, and we walked back to the bar.

It was full, and the smell was rancid, and the men all turned their attention to us, cat calls, and hey babys and even one of them pinched me. My mother threw the head in there, and she spoke, “Do your own work, puppies.”

The room grew silent, and we left. There were growls as we left, and my mother gave them the middle finger as she left.

“We kicked his butt mom.” “Yes we did. Clever plan, baby-doll.” “I usually think of something last minute.” “It works.”

I hugged her tightly, “I love you mommy.”

“I love you too Baby-Doll, now lets go home, I want some tea, and you look tired.”

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Forty-first entry

2007-04-13T22:26:00.000-04:00

Before I relate this story, I once again restate that I am not dead. I do not die. How would I write it otherwise?

It was nighttime when they came. There were three of them. A Succubi, and two minion demons. It was nice of them to gag me before they tied me up, and tossed me around. They came into my room, and they stole me, right from under my parents watchful eyes.

I struggled, of course, and the succubi turned to me, and she released a fist and it struck my temple, just with the right amount of force to knock me unconscious. When I woke, I was sitting in an iron chair, wrapped in silver rope, and surrounded by a circle of salt.

The Succubi was there, along with the two demons who captured me. In the low light of the room I was in, I could see them. The two demons were minions, chained to her. She smiled wickedly when she saw that I was awake.

“Summer Dawn O’Ciardha. You killed Devith. I don’t know how.” “I’ll tell you how,” I responded, “If you tell me who you are working for.” “No deal. I meant, what kind of a human can do that, so I’ve got you bound here for good. I figured it out, if you are a mage the circle of salt will keep you there, the silver will keep you there if you are a vampire or a werewolf, and the iron-chair will keep you there if you are a fey.”

“You’ve got your basis covered, don’t you?”

“Yes, and it’s a pity you’re not male, I’d have had you some times ago.” She looked me over, “You’re a dark little thing, aren’t you? You’re not going to make it out of here alive.”

“Death is the next great adventure.”

“For you, it is the last adventure, little girl. How would you prefer to die? That is the only question I have for you. Answer and I will make it all over, quickly and painlessly.” “Old Age,” was my response. “Cute, how about a dagger in the stomach?”

“Sure, why not? I’ve got nothing better to do.”

The succubi pointed and one of the minions moved the salt circle so she could enter, “You’ll rest in a gravestone marked Elizabeth Garret. Its already dug.” I sighed heavily, “Okay. Whatever.”

I closed my eyes, and I concentrated. I felt death all around me. In every single part of the room, beating in through the walls. I opened my eyes.

“You are going to kill me in a graveyard?” “Does that bother you?” I closed my eyes, and blood filled my mouth. There was so much death all around me, it was easy to raise them. The walls shook, the room became red.

She looked at me confused, “What are you?!” When my eyes opened, I smiled at her, as I felt the warm blood roll down the corners of my mouth. She stared at me, and her minions went closer to her, to try and protect her from what was going on around her.

She put me in a mausoleum. How stupid can someone get? The stone coffins began to open as zombies rose. They rolled out of the coffins, and she looked at me, she ran towards me with the dagger.

Two of the zombies grabbed her, and held her down trying to bite her neck. The doors to the mausoleum opened and in poured zombies from the surrounding graves, and the minion demons began to swing their massive arms around.

After two swipes, there were too many, and they grabbed and began to rip at the minions. The succubi began to flap her wings, trying to get away. She closed her eyes, and a spear appeared in her hand and she began to stab down, then the zombies grabbed the spear and pulled her down. I had to turn away as they ripped her to pieces and her large minions soon followed their mistress.

After they were done, I had two of them rip and break the chair so I could get out, while I got the others to destroy the circle of salt surrounding me.

I had an undead army. At least, when it was happening, I was prepared to go and take over the world. I told myself no, and I sent them back to their graves. Except two of them.

I searched the Succubi. I found little or nothing on her. She had no information. I took my pair of zombies, and I walked to my cousin’s house. I opened the front door, it was early morning, and I scared my Aunt Page, who was heading for work.

“Summer, what are you doing here?” “A set of human hunters thought I was a human and attempted to kill me, I killed the man last night, and I killed a succubi this morning.” “Oh, that’s nice-What? Human hunters?” “Yeah, I think I have his journal on me…”

I handed her the journal, she began to read some aloud, “A child prayed to god for him to get rid of the scary man he saw out of his window and he exorcised a demon to back to hell. A young couple outran a raging werewolf, inevitably causing its death. A teenager as a dare released a houseful of spirits, not even meaning to. A young woman killed an attacker using a self defense technique and it turned out to be ancient vampire. A man fought off a horde of zombies raised by a powerful demon, and saved his family. All of them have black X’s over the names… These humans were killed because they were just trying to live,” she said.

“Yeah. I think one day, I will write each of their stories out…” She handed it back to me, and then looked behind me, “Summer… I don’t think that’s entirely appropriate.” “He took a picture of me after I had absorbed the youth from people.” “Okay… Just this once.”

I walked by, and the zombies followed, and I opened the door, and I had them go into Brendan’s room. They stood over him, and moaned loudly, grabbing at him, and he jumped awake, and screamed like a little girl. I laughed loudly, and he ran after me. We chased each other through the house, until he finally caught me, and then he shoved me on the couch and began to tickle me.

It made me laugh. I sent the zombies away, and then I came home to write this entry. I really do want to tell their stories…

-Dawn

Aurora's Journal: Eleventh Entry

2007-04-10T14:28:00.000-04:00

She came to me crying. She leapt into my bed with me, and she kept pushing me to wake me up. I rose immediately. My eyes opened slowly, and I turned to her. I expected it to be Summer, having a terrifying dream of death and decay.

But it wasn’t Summer. It was Jesse. I was so shocked, I gasped. But I couldn’t say anything. I was myself. I couldn’t speak. I laid my hand on her cheek, and shushed her gently.

I shifted forms to Rapier’s Dead Wife. She was exactly what I needed to help Jesse.

“Jesse,” I whispered as I took her in my arms, “Are you okay, sweetie?”

"No…" She whimpered slightly. "I had a horrible dream.”

I sat next to her, and I took both her hands in mine, and I spoke in soft tones, “Do you want to tell me about it?”

She shook her head, "It was scary…I haven't had a scary dream like that since I was little."

She sounded so much like she did when she was younger. I remember when she was still with her grandfather, and she would have nightmares, and she would run to me, tiptoeing, and climb into bed just like this, then cling to me in middle of the night.

I would always wake, and hold her. Rocking her gently back and fourth in my arms. That was before everything happened. I was always, always happiest when she needed me. I felt like I was useful when she needed me. Like I had a purpose.

I was like her mother…

When I snapped back to the present, I watched her eyes, as I squeezed her hands to let her know I was there.

"It…it was so scary. Summer…" She whimpered and clutched at her hands. "She was being consumed by demons. Not just eaten…physically changed by them, mentally devastated. There was nothing I could do."

I closed my eyes, and quickly opened them seeing her daughter and my goddaughter having that done to her. I quickly wrapped my arms around her and I hugged her tightly to me. I closed my eyes again and a tear dropped down my cheek.

"I don't want to see that anymore. I felt so helpless because I couldn't help her. She kept calling for me…and I just stood there."

I rubbed her back gently, “We both know you wouldn’t just stand there, Jesse.”

"But I couldn't move." She insisted.

“It was just a nightmare. Summer is fine, and you will always be able to keep her from her inner demons.”

She sniffled and hid her eyes snuggling closer. "I'm sorry, it just scared me."

“Don’t apologize, Jesse,” I said with a smile that she couldn’t see, “I would be terrified too.” I squeezed her tightly, “Do you want to sleep in here for the rest of the night?”

She nodded from her place of snuggling. "Yes…"

“Okay,” I said softly, “I’ll sing you to sleep.”

She smiled, "I'd like that."

I began to sing, “The Little Horses” the song I sang to her when she was restless as a child was the song I chose.

Jesse's eyes closed and her breathing evened as she fell into a light sleep.

I kissed her forehead before covering her up, and laying down next to her. It was nice to still be needed. It made me feel good.

Jesse 7

2007-04-06T00:01:00.000-04:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written Journal:

Day: night

Week: I dont want to know

Season: the worst kind

Something went wrong. I messed up.

~Jesse

Summer's Journal: Fourtieth Entry

2007-04-01T22:41:00.000-04:00

It has been almost two weeks since everything that happened...And...

I killed a human today. It sounds so bad as I write that sentence. I killed a human today. There are so many things wrong with it. The first is, I am no longer considering myself human. I’m not anymore. I guess I never was. The second is, I don’t kill humans. We don’t kill humans, my family doesn’t kill humans.

I killed one today.

I would never tell my father nor my mother. Chris doesn’t even know, and he will never find out. Brendan knows. He agreed with me. He said I should have. I don’t think I should have.

Today was a normal day. Of course, by normal, I guess normal is something like this happening to me. When I went to lunch today, Chris had to do something for a school project or something. He doesn’t often get time to spend with me. But I understand how important school and track is for him.

He has told me that’s how he plans on getting away from here. I wonder if he wants to take me with him. I love him.

A dark, handsome stranger, came up to me today. He dressed in all dark clothes, and he sat to eat lunch with me.

“Hey, do you mind if I sit here?” I responded with, “It’s a free country.” I ate daintily. He smiled at me, “What’s a cutie like you doing here?” “Waiting for my boyfriend.” “Oh, sorry…” He stood and walked away. I don’t often get flirted with. My strong front scares off most everyboy, and the gothic look scares everyboy else.

After lunch, I completed the rest of my day out, and I decided to stay around after school to wait for Chris’ track to let out. I waited in the quad. The boy, from lunch was there. He walked over to me and sat down.

“Not much of a boyfriend,” he said, “Leaving a girl as beautiful as you waiting for so many hours.”

“He’s a great boyfriend,” I responded immediately. He spoke with a smile as he reached for my hand, I withdrew my hand, and I spoke to him, “I have been known to rend the flesh of people who touch me and I don’t want them to.”

He frowned and withdrew his hand. He reached into his backpack, and he withdrew a long metallic object. I stared at it, it was an iron dagger. I tried not to look afraid but my eyes had to be wide.

“What about now?” He asked in much darker tones, “I am here to kill you, Summer Dawn.” My response with as much conviction as I could muster was, “Death is the last great adventure.”

He reached for my hand, and I rolled to the side off the bench, and I began to run. I closed my eyes, I was looking for something dead, I needed something dead. The sky was darkening, and I felt comfort in that.

But there was nothing dead, and when I turned around he was right on top of me. He withdrew something from his backpack, and he threw it at me. When it struck my legs, nothing happened.

I withdrew my holy water, and I threw the bottle at him. When it broke against his forehead, nothing happened. I am sure we both looked confused. I knew I expected something to happen, and I am sure he expected something to happen.

We squared off. I walked around him, making sure he couldn’t reach me with that dagger. “She told me to expect you to be good, but I didn’t know how good.”

“Who?” I asked. “Not my business to say.” He reached into his backpack again. “Why are you trying to kill me?” I asked. “Because of how many of those supernatural creatures you have dealt with.”

When he pulled the gun out and pointed at me, I felt my heart drop. He fired. The fire came from the barrel, and that was what I remembered of what happened at that moment. I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but when the bullet hit my skin, it decayed and there was only the pain of burning where the bullet struck.

I looked down and when I saw I was still I alive, I leapt at him. I laid my hands on his neck, and I began to suck the life out of him. It was something Aurora taught me to do. It was a dark spell, one that only necromancers and life mages could access. My hands were black and I felt the life come from him.

My mouth filled with blood, and it only quickened the pace in which I was stealing his lifeforce from him.

“You’re not a human?” he asked coughing as his flesh began to age and his hair began to grey. I held him as tightly as I could, and I drained the life from him. It didn’t take long for him to age into a corpse. I released him, and my shirt began to slip down my shoulder. I grabbed it, and held it tightly so it wouldn’t fall off.

I had drained his age, and it made me younger. It had happened before, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It would wear off in a little while. Aurora told me that was because of the differences between our magic.

I went through his backpack, he had all these weapons, and charms that worked only against mortals. He had a black book, and in it were written the names of people. With normal jobs, who had a feat against the supernatural word marked next to him. A business man in Toyko remembered what his grandmother said about Kappas and was able to banish one from his place of work. A mother of two in Kansas shot and killed an ancient werewolf thinking it was going to attack her kids.

He was a Human-Hunter.

At the end of the book it read, Summer Dawn O’Ciardha, Numerous Events. There was also a letter, it read “Devith, Kill a Summer Dawn O’Ciardha at the X marked on the map I included with this letter. There must be no trace back to me. –L” I relized that I still had blood in my mouth, and I figured now would be a good time to spit it out. I spat it on him, on the letter, and on his stuff to show my displeasure.

When my blood touched the letter, it began to move around on it. The ink disappeared and written in my own blood before my very eyes.

“We will get you. We will kill you. You and you father have melded in our affairs far too much.” The letter then had a demonic symbol appear on it, and it burnt, the back burnt, and Devith, the Human Hunter burnt.

I pulled the shoulder back up on my shirt, and Brendan came over having seen the flames. I didn’t see Chris with him. I was thankful. I didn’t want Chris to see me young like this.

“Dawn?” Brendan asked me, “You’re… Oh… Dawn, what did you do?” I told him what happened. “I forgot how cute little Dawn is.” He pinched my cheek, and I snapped at him with my fangs. “Look,” He said wrapping his arm around me, “Don’t worry about it, the dude tried to shoot you. It doesn’t matter if he was human or not.”

I nodded. “Do you need to stay at our place for the night? That way your rents won’t see you as a little cute eleven year old.” I sighed and looked at him, “Brendan, I need to go home. I can wait it out in my room. You’re such a jerk.”

“Aww, wittle Darn think I’ma jerk… Ishn’t she soo cute.” I rolled my eyes at him, but I remembered what he offered and what he said, and I spoke softly,“Thanks Brendan.” He nodded, “That’s what family is for, Right?”

“Yeah. Is Chris allright?” “Yeah, Research Paper, Track, and His rents are giving him a lot to do at home. He told me to give you a hug, and tell you that he wuvs wittle Dawn.” “Thanks Brendan.”

He snapped a picture of me, then ran down the street. He knew there was no way I could catch him, and I wouldn’t even attempt. I held my necklace and then I went home. I was feeling very peppy, and I was hoping Aurora would have an answer. She didn’t. It finally wore off about an hour ago. Its time for bed.

-Dawn

Brendan 2

2007-03-19T22:25:00.001-04:00

There is so much pain. Everywhere. She's gone…she cant be gone. I hate my family. They took her from me. She loved me and they couldn't be happy…But they've got no reason to treat her badly…

I don't understand. She made me feel so connected with her, like she was a part of me that I couldn't live without. I feel so lost right now. I'm shaky and I just want her to hold me. She'll make it better. I don't want to eat. I broke everything in my room. There is no reason to have anything with out having her.

I was just so angry at them all when I got home. We had gone to dinner and the family took to Chris but they completely turned on Sarah. It wasn't fair. She hadn't done anything to them…

They pinned her with the label of Succubus. She couldn't have been one of those. She was too sweet and caring for that. She loved me. It hurts so bad without her. I don't want to eat, I don't want to do anything. I'm so tired, and confused. I'm going to lay down and try to think. Peace.

*Brendan.

Aurora's Journal: Tenth Entry

2007-03-10T17:26:00.000-05:00

The house was a hive. It was busy, and everyone was running around, it reminded me of bees. Jesse, my sweet daughter, was running to clean, and running to get food. Janus cooked. The kitchen was blur of speed and wind. Summer was running up and down trying to find the perfect outfit and makeup.

Even Old Beast, was busy trying to kill Rapier. The Tiger and I were the only ones not doing anything. I didn’t know what should be done so I went to pick the flowers for the table setting.

After I had collected the flowers I laid down to sleep. I rarely get the chance to just relax and sleep. I woke with the sleepy feeling all over me. I rose and yawned, and the tiger had been sleeping tightly to me, and it was a little warm, and I pushed him.

He rolled off the bed, hit the ground and roared at me. I silently laughed having no voice. I kissed his forehead and he purred. I walked down stairs. They were all gathering, The Old Beast was laying on a chair and broken.

I healed him. It took little or no energy. He whispered to me, “I could’ve healed myself,” he said stubbornly. It was untrue, and I put him to sleep so he wouldn’t get himself beat up to prove it.

I surveyed the crowd. I had already met Chris. But Brendan’s girlfriend… She… Its hard to describe when someone as old as me sees something that is clearly something we know.

She was pretty, but I had to think… These was something off about her eyes. I couldn’t place it, I just saw the leaking of power from her eyes.

There was some “drama” happening in the room. Between Chris and Janus. Summer waited impatiently, when he returned he handed her a black rose, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her more beautiful.

Once everyone settled in and Dinner was preparing to be served, Summer rested her head on Chris’ shoulder, and then Sarah and Brendan were about to kiss, I gasped not because of them about to kiss but because I remembered what she was.

The magic leaking from her eyes was tainted, and flowing into Brendan. Her movements were meant to be subtle, trying to look innocent but all of them be very sexual in nature. She was a Succubus.

The whole room began to fight. I tried to stay out of it. It wasn’t my place. Page and I don’t get along, and me punishing her Son would be the worst thing I could do.

After some yelling, Janus finally yelled. Everybody in the room shut-up, and quivered. I smiled gently. It was frightening, it commanded my attention, I took a deep breath and released it. He took Brendan outside, and Summer began to pound on the succubus heavily with her words. She really cares for Brendan.

When Janus returned he began to go through the purifying and banishment ceremony. The Succubus couldn’t stand this, and she began to wrap Brendan tighter in her magic. Trying to give her everything to him. Trying to snap him in two.

Inevitably, it took Summer and I holding the Succubus down with vines to keep her there. After she had been purified, she reverted to her real form, but not to poor Brendan. He saw that innocent girl that she wanted him to.

Rapier stood over the girl, his hand was faltering on killing the demon that his son loved. He couldn’t hurt his son like that. I withdrew my tomahawk. I took a step forward, then The Old Beast withdrew a silver gladius and he walked up, and removed her head. She burst into flames and she reached for Brendan saying “I love you.”

I felt for him, but the corruption she did to him of the naturally flow of magic in his body made it so I couldn’t help him. Summer knelt to him, and she held him in her arms. She tried to consol him… It didn’t work.

I wish this didn’t happen to him.

Chris

2007-03-07T21:45:00.001-05:00

I'm a nervous wreck. I have to go meet Summer's family tomorrow night. They invited me to dinner. I don't know how to act. I don't really have Summer to talk to, she'll just hold my hand and tell me that its alright and nothing will go wrong. The only thing that I am scared of going wrong, is that her family wont like me. No big deal...Yeah right.

Brendan is bringing his new girlfriend. Now, usually, I don't have a problem with the chicks he's interested in, but this one. Something is different about her. I see less and less of my friend because of her. It's silly, but he doesn't really seem like himself. I don't get it. She's got him so whipped, he'll never admit it but he is. Anyway, this girl...she gives me weird vibes. She is gorgeous, don't get me wrong. The girl couldn't get any finer, but I dont know. I get chills down my spine like something isn't quite right with her. She has this darkness around her.

I don't know. I just don't trust her, but hey, she isn't my girlfriend and nothing has happened to Brendan. So I guess things are alright for now. I'm off to go get things ready for dinner.

~out~

Chris

Summer's Journal: Thirty-Ninth Entry

2007-03-04T15:58:00.001-05:00

I’m crying as I write this entry. I know that happens a lot. But these tears are not for me. Anyone may think it odd, but I am smiling whilst I cry. I am smiling for myself. I often wonder if everyone is like me, or am I just simply odd?

The events of this long, long day unfolded like this. Last night my body was broken and bruised, and my godmother Aurora healed me, while Brendan and Chris (Chris without permission) visited me.

Apparently, both my father and mother knew they were here but tried to hide the fact from the other so the boys had a chance at surviving. But they both called Brendan in the morning to wake him, and tell him to get his family ready. Also to tell Chris to come over.

Brendan invited his new girlfriend.

I usually let something very important occupy that single sentence paragraph. But that is something important. It took me some time to prepare. It was my job to move the tables, and set them in the ball room. This didn’t take me much time at all.

I went to help my father in the kitchen in the basement but its hard to talk to someone you can’t see moving. He stopped and I felt air blow all over me, “No thank you Summer. Did you set the tables and move them?” I nodded. “Then you are done.”

I went upstairs and got dressed. I wore a black evening gown. I went light on the makeup. By light, of course, I don’t mean bright, I mean soft. I was finished so early I didn’t know what to do with myself.

It was six, and they were due to be here at ten. My father, had an old tradition that he kept, and we have to abide by. He would, in the past, have powerful vampires and werewolves to sup at his table to negotiate peace.

I wonder if he saw Chris as a threat. Not so much to his safety, but to mine. Chris isn’t a threat at all. But maybe he sees Chris as a rival, for my love. Doesn’t he know I will love him no less?

To pass the time, I laid down on my bed, set my alarm for nine fifteen, so I could wake and fix my messed up hair. I turned on my music, and I got lost in it. I engulfed myself by engulfing myself in headphones.

When my alarm went off, I didn’t hear it at first, and it took my mother entering my room, and throwing a pillow at me, to wake me completely from my self induced stupor. I looked over at my clock, he was going to be here in ten minutes.

I panicked. It took me nine minutes, and thirty seconds. I ran downstairs. I was able to calm my breathing down, and as soon as I did, they were here, using Brendan’s Necklace. I surveyed the crowd praying Chris would be there. He was and I stopped looking as I saw him. I smiled, and cast my eyes down from him. He walked over, and he gave me a light hug and he whispered, “You’re Beautiful.”

I whispered back at him, “You look very handsome.” I noticed that Grandfather Beast was here. He looked pretty beat up. It wasn’t my place to help him. If I help him I defy my uncle. Also, I hurt his pride. He tried crawling forward of his own accord, and Uncle Rapier stomped on his head. I flinched.

Chris stared mouth agape, “I take it they don’t like each other?” I responded with, “Not at all, they hate each other more then anything.” Chris looked confused, “How come?” I spoke, “He killed Uncle Rapier’s first Wife,” I whispered, “He’s my great-grandfather.”

My cousin was not paying attention to us. He was focused on Sarah. He just wanted to sit with her. I was happy for him, but she seemed creepy. Tainted. Uncle Rapier walked over Grandfather Beast. Stepping on him, stomping on him, as he walked past us, my mother screamed from behind us, “RAPIER!” She clenched her fists as she commanded the attention of the room, all eyes focused on her.

“If you weren’t married to my sister I’d kill you!” Mom screamed at him as she walked past us, and those fists that were prepared to destroy my uncle, open and take my Great Grandfather into her hands, “Are you alright?” She whispered.

“Should I help her with him?” Chris asked in scarce movements of his lips. I nodded. I wanted my mother to like him. I needed her to like him. He knelt and finally spoke after what seemed like an eternity, “Is there anything I can do to help?” My mother’s nostrils flared.

“Yes, can you help my get him into a chair?” Chris and my mother picked up the mass that was my great grandfather to a chair. Once he was safe in the chair, my mother clenched those helping hands into fists, and she screamed at him, “DAMN YOU RAPIER!” She shot daggers through her eyes.

My uncle looked at her, his face was so different then I had ever seen it. My mother nodded once. I was so lost in the exchange I didn’t realize Chris and I were in the room alone. I walked him into the room, and I walked over to my father.

I bit my lower lip, and I spoke, “Dad. This is Chris.” My father rose. I closed my eyes. My father extended his hand, “You can call me Janus.” Chris grabbed his hand and shook, “It’s nice to meet you, sir.” Was his response. Chris was so strong. I was so scared. If I didn’t have my makeup on, I’d have been crying.

He looked at me, was I his strength? I smiled at him, hoping it would be enough, “You’ve never been here before,” I knew my father knew he was there, “Want to see my garden? I would gladly show you around it.” Chris seemed hesitant, “Uhm… Sure, I would love to see your garden sir.”

Stop saying Sir, Chris. I thought to myself. I watched him leave, and I was helpless. I gave him the strongest smile I could. Once they were out of sight I ran towards my mother. “He’s a good boy,” was what she said, “Your father will see that, don’t be scared Dawn.”

She called me Dawn. This couldn’t be good. I must have looked like a scared little girl to everyone else at the table. Traipsed over her mother, clinging to her for safety and comfort.

It seemed to take forever. Time was so slow that everyone around me was moving in slow motion. I watched the door forever. He finally entered after a very a long time. Very, very, very long time.

I looked up to him. I had to be almost crying. Thoughts running through my head about what my father would do if he didn’t like him. He held a black rose in his hand, and he handed it to me, “Hey, no tears.”

I laid my head on his shoulder, and I closed my eyes. Everything was good. Everything was going to be okay. I held his hand, and I sighed. I need to say this… When I am with Chris, I try to be restrained and refined. My head on his shoulder, holding his hand, hugging him. But I also know my family doesn’t want to see me kiss him.

Sarah made that mistake. She enticed Brendan to kiss her. In front of the whole family. Some were shocked, others were mad, I was annoyed. She began to whisper things to him, and he became angrier…

Finally he blew up on us all, and she sat there, a sadistic smile on her face, as he defended her from us. I said nothing. I watched, I withdrew from Chris so he would have no reason to be angry with his best friend.

My father didn’t speak, they were all trying to calm him down, finally he spoke, he yelled, I had never heard his full voice, but as my mother’s voice commanded the room, my father’s voice caused the whole room to freeze.

The strength and power of my father’s voice caused me to whimper. I think everyone in the room did. He grabbed Brendan and swept him away. I turned to Sarah.

I walked around the large table, and I grabbed her by her hair, and I tossed her to the ground, “Who are you?!” I screamed at her.

“Sarah Mortia,” She responded cradling her head. I grabbed her and shoved on her, digging my heel into her leg, “What are you doing to my cousin?!” I screamed at her. “Loving him.”

“Liar!” I screamed, “You’re tainted, what are you?!” I yelled. She looked at me, her eyes turned yellow. My hands turned black, and I reached for her. My mother grabbed my shoulder. I spit blood on Sarah.

Aurora grabbed her. She tossed her. It wasn’t even a struggle, and Sarah landed in the foyer. I walked by Aurora, she hurt my cousin, and I was going to hurt her. She was going to pay.

“What do you want with him?!” I screamed. “Him!” She responded. Brendan entered the room. I backed off. I cast my eyes down from him. My dad began to recite scripture, and then she began to scream.

I don’t want to write about what happened. I felt it… For one split second, I looked into Brendan’s eyes, and I felt all her did. This is why my tears are his, and my smile is my own. My family likes Chris. But now Brendan can’t be happy.

I feel bad… Brendan is more then my cousin, Brendan is my best friend, he is my Yang. I would want him to be happy before I would ever wish it for myself.

But I am happy. I thank God everyday. But now Brendan is sad. I’m going to call and check on him…

-Dawn

Janus' Record: 6

2007-02-24T01:12:00.000-05:00

“Today I am doing a Journal entry at noon, my wife has went out to buy food, and my daughter is preparing herself for a big event in her life. One that I arranged.

“I caught those two boys in my house last night. I heard their heartbeats, and couple them with Summer’s and Aurora’s it was clear there were a pair more then I expected.

“I had to distract Jesse, because if she had known those boys were there she’d have killed them both. I decided that this morning I would call my nephew and warn him, and tell him to get his family, and this Christopher Eastman up here.

“I have to respect this boy who stole my daughters heart, caused her to forsake her ancient (and worthless) father, and managed to upset her and fix her many times. He had the bold faced audacity to enter my household and see my daughter in her bed without my permission!”

-Rumbling and a calming breath-

“That child had the nerve and he cared about m daughter enough to enter my house, with me sleeping just beneath him, knowing if he got caught I would rip his blood from his body, and yet he came.

“Anyone who would risk their life just to check on my daughter can date her. But I will not tell him this yet. I plan on tonight taking him out in the garden and finding out more about him then I know.

“I do not know what is going on tonight, but this morning when I woke up, and went outside to greet the sun… the sky was bright, glowing amazingly. There could only be bad things happening today… I do not know what.

“I end this for now.”

Summer's Journal: Thirty-Eighth Entry

2007-02-14T16:55:00.000-05:00

Lets start with yesterday. I woke up, and I found my bed had become decrepit. Which means during the night I had a nightmare. I don’t know what it was, but whatever it was, I cast a spell to fight it. And the spell hit my bed. Rather then deal with it, I just made the mattress into a pile of dust.

I went to the next room over, and grabbed a mattress of that bed, and I dragged it and threw it onto mine. I got a shower, and I slipped and hit my head on the back of the wall. I climbed out of the bathtub, more angry now then before.

I put on my makeup. I was out of eye shadow, so I had to wake my mother up to steal hers. I was late, and Brendan went to school without me. That hurt too. Had my mind, put everything together, I would have seen what would happen to me today.

But I didn’t. Classes were terrible. I couldn’t even pay attention. I wanted to spend lunch crying to Brendan. I could and would forgive him for the morning; I’d have left me too, if I cared about school like he does.

At Lunch I sat down at a table and I waited for Brendan, when he walked over to me, he seemed beat, he didn’t get much sleep. I could tell. I asked him what was going on, he spoke about a girl in his dreams.

I should’ve taken that as a sign too. I got shivers, and a girl came up to us. She was wearing a façade, I could tell. She was doing what I do, except with something else. She was dressed as a demure want to be librarian. She had golden brown hair, and these weird blue eyes. She wore horn rimmed glasses, and she dressed two levels above normal dress for high school.

Her name is Sarah. Brendan dreams about her late at night. She asks him to leave his family to come with her. I treated her as civily as possible for me, facing someone with a façade and wearing one of my own.

She spoke with me, and through the rough day I had, I honestly do not remember how the conversation. I know I scared her. I was glad I scared her. But the straw came with this, “Brendan, do you want to walk with me?”

“Sure,” he said, “Be back later cuz.”

I don’t know if anyone reading this can associate this feeling with themselves. But I felt my heart die a little. I needed Brendan. I needed him to listen to me cry. It seems stupid. It seems childish and self centered. I needed him to be with me.

“Brendan,” I spoke, my tone was all he needed to hear. He froze, “Actually, I promised my cousin I would sit with her, her boyfriend is off doing a project, want to join us?” Say No. She sat down.

I put on an even faker façade and made myself seem interested in her. Her last name is Mortia. It has latin roots in death. Open your eyes Brendan! She whispered into my cousin’s ear, his mood changed instantly. He pulled me aside, he cursed at me, “What the hell man? You’re making her uncomfortable, that isn’t right.”

I told him, what her last name meant, I told him I thought the shivers were focused on her. He began to yell at me for treating her badly. I did nothing to her. I did kick Brendan’s shin, only to get his attention.

I yelled at him back. He told me something, it caused me to feel bad. But I don’t know. I still felt betrayed, “I want her to like me,” he said, “I need her to like me.” Our argument turned harsh. I yelled at him, when he was at his weakest, most vulnerable. I made fun of how he could juggle fifteen girls.

He told me, I was one to talk, me who didn’t need anyone but myself. I gave up. I didn’t want him to hate me. For one of the only times in my life, I hung my head low. I turned it to the side so he could see the white flesh of my neck, “I’m Sorry.” I spoke.

He then told me it was his fault. That only made me more angry at him. He didn’t accept my apology, and then he asked for me to accept his, “Yes Brendan, I am going for a walk.”

“Hey are we alright?” He asked. No Brendan, not right now, “Yes Brendan, I have to go, I’m like my dad.”

I gathered my things, and I took off. I went storming by the bleachers. “You look extraordinarily rushed,” spoke a voice from behind me. I turned and I looked at him. He was a punk, he sat in a relaxed and cool position on the bleachers.

“What are you running away from, dhampir?” “I’m not dhampir.” “But are you not part vampire? Albeit a strong strand or else you would burn in sunlight…” “How do you know all this?” “I can tell, the way you smell… The way you move, so graceful…”
It lead to me saying, the classic, “I have a boyfriend, he’ll beat you up.” He shrugged, “You could probably beat me up, I’m fairly weak. But not as weak of those filthy mages.”

It shouldn’t have hurt me as bad as it did, but it stung, I am a mage. I always thought I was strong. Capable of defending myself. He then moved on, to feeding. He asked me if I knew what it was like. What little experience I had with it, I… I… I enjoyed. But I didn’t want him to know that, “You’re trying to trick me.” “Into what?” I found out his name was Isaac. He said something that still haunts me, as I write this now.

“Don’t you love when you feed?” he asked, “Its so amazing. The flow of energy and strength that comes…” After he said that, he continued to speak to me, I yelled at him and I left. I sat beneath my tree, and his voice kept coming back.

I stood and went to storm back to Brendan. I wanted him and I to destroy this guy. As I walked by, he said, “Back so soon?” He asked me. My response was very vulgar. His was the same in kind. I had enough of it, I ran up the bleachers, and I laid my fists into him. All of my blows landed, and had no affect on him.

“Wow, you need some blood, I am not feeling a thing.” He stood, and then he laid a hand on my shoulder, and shoved me. It was so strong, I was so weak, I fell backwards. I landed on my lower neck the first stair, the I popped my arm out of place on the second, and the third I dislocated my knee, the fourth I broke an arm, my ribs snapped on the fifth, and on the sixth, I hit my nose, blood spurted out.

The bottom was the worst, I laid there with a thick, dull, heavy thudding pain all about my body. My tear flowed freely. He walked down, “Are you okay? I barely shoved you. Look, I’m going to go-“ That was all I heard before my eyes closed, and my ears shut off.

The next thing I remember if Brendan cradling me close to him, begging and pleading me to get up, crying on my broken form. All I could say was, “I need Aurora.”

That night, last night, Brendan and Chris snuck into my house and Chris needed to see I was okay. Brendan had left my side around nine, after my dad’s medicine made the pain go away. Still, in all the pain, thinking like a normal girl overruled, and I didn’t want Chris to see me because of how broken I was.

Everyone though I had fallen. It was then I revealed I was pushed. I related to them the story. I then apologized for Chris having to see me like this. He ran down along the curve of my cheek, “You’re beautiful,” he said, “I feel better knowing you’re allright.”

I moved my cheek and pressed his hand down against my shoulder, and I rubbed my cheek against his hand. It was as tender as I could be right then. I wanted him to kiss me, and make me feel better.

The door opened and my father walked in. I closed my eyes. I couldn’t watch. I moved my arm to jump back, and pain filled my body.

That was a real cute prank played by Aurora. She healed me, and I fell asleep. And now, it’s the next day, I am repaired, and I am writing.

Apparently, tonight Brendan, his family, and Chris are coming over. Sarah too… She’s bad news… I know she is.

-Dawn

Aurora's Journal: Ninth Entry

2007-02-11T23:26:00.000-05:00

The night was warm. The tiger and I doubled back around and headed for Janus’ mansion. It didn’t take us long to get there. When we arrived, we followed the signs. They were broken down, and hidden by tall grass, but we knew they were there.

I love this road. On this road, Jesse and I spent a lot of time, and I know at the end of this road, Jesse will be there.

I miss Jesse. She’s the only person in the world I can associate with and love like I do. I love the kids, because they are part of her. I love Janus because he loves her. I still am weary of Page. Page and I don’t see eye to eye.

The road is the important thing, walked down it, and I looked for the gate. It had been so long since I had been there I was wondering if I could even find the entrance again. It was usually covered by vines, and the metal gate usually was the first thing to get covered again when it was cleaned.

It was clean, which was uncharacteristic. I looked at the walls… I preferred them to be covered with vines.

I opened the gate, and I went to the waterfall. The front door had wards, and though I was invited in the house, I didn’t want to wake someone up to open the doors for me. It was late at night, maybe two or three in the morning.

I got underneath the waterfall, and I climbed down into the trapdoor. It was like a cave, but it was manmade. I still marveled at this entrance.

The hallway wasn’t much better, and it came out behind a painting in the basement.

To get upstairs without alerting the whole house to my presence, and especially Janus and Jesse, I had to use the dumbwaiter. The dining room was empty, and I left it, and I heard voices.

“Are you alright? Do you hurt?” it was a male voice.

The conversation was hushed, but I approached its source, and at the top of the stairs and to the left was Summer’s room. There were two male voices, and one female. I created a copy of Jesse, and I morphed myself into Janus.

I opened the door, Brendan, Page’s Son, and another boy were there.

“Uh, we were just leaving…” Brendan said, as he tried to pass me.

I made the fake Jesse say, “You’re not going anywhere gentlemen.”

Brendan turned to his friend, “I’m going to kill you.”

So much love in this room. I laughed. Heavily. I pushed my fingers into my scalp and I became myself. I touched the fake Jesse and she poofed into a pile of flowers.

“You’re evil Aurora,” Brendan said.

My concern went to Summer, and this Boy. They had to be a couple. Summer was laying on her bed, she was hurt. I turned angry eyes to the boy, but then when I saw his concern for Summer, I realized he hadn’t done it.

I signed out to Summer, no-one but her understood sign so Summer spoke, “She is saying, ‘Perhaps instead of coming through the front door, you could use the trap door, underneath the waterfall.’” I signed more, “Aurora, do I have to?” I nodded, “She says, ‘If you hurt my grandbaby, I’ll kill you.’”

He released a breath, and he looked me in my eyes, staring at me, “You don’t have to worry about that,” he spoke with such confidence, I was taken back, “I won’t hurt her.”

I knelt to Summer, and I pulled energy from the room, and I filled Summer healing life. Her arms popped, and her cuts closed, and the bones snapped back into place.

Summer fell asleep, as everyone does when they are filled with that magic.

I heard Janus and Jesse moving. I made a face, and made fangs with my mouth. Brendan and Chris both began to freak, and they ran out into the hall in a panic. I don’t know how they made it out, but Janus and Jesse were not alerted to their presence.

I laid down on Summer’s floor in case she woke in the night and would need me.

When I closed my eyes, I couldn’t help but think, something bad was going to happen, and it was going to happen very soon. All I knew was if I stayed here, the ones I loved couldn’t be hurt. I wouldn’t let them be.

Jesse 6

2007-02-07T01:41:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written journal:

Day: late

Month: one of twelve

Season: fall

I have finally set my plan into motion. I will tear Page apart from the inside out. Her life is so perfect…with her loving honey and brat vampire child. I’ll just take everything from her. I’ll devastate him as well. He is of such a light temperament. Knowing he betrayed his ‘love’ will kill him inside.

My work will be easy.

So to start my plan, I needed to gauge how easily I could get to him. I’ll admit he was more resistant than I thought he would be. When I first found him, or rather when he first walked by me, he planted a silver sword in the ground with a red ribbon bow tied on it. I tried to placate him, make him feel at ease and comfortable with me. We would need to be comfortable for my plan to work.

I taunted him, drawing on sexual jokes, trying to entice thoughts of such acts with a darker being. He is a dhampir…darker entices all creatures, especially his kind. Pointing out my sister’s draw backs and her simplicity when it comes to our kinds, I messed with him. He was resistant. He was going to be a challenge. A challenge I would have fun beating.

I was confident I could get him then, and I’m still confident now. I blatantly told him what I wanted. I told him it was him that I intended to have, and that I was going to steal Page’s life from under her, just to break her. He didn’t believe me. I found his weakness. I look too much like my sister. No matter how hard I try to hide the face she stole from me in the womb, it still comes out. I guess I can use this to my advantage. If I look closer to the wolf he dominates it will be an easy switch for him to make. He will mistake me for her. I will make it happen. Anyway…I found his weakness through sheer play.

“She’s so helpless all the time, isn’t she?” I was talking about Page.

I have to say, she keeps me on my toes. But I love her. Very much.” He paused then and took a step back asking, “Do you understand that word?”

I took a step towards him, to entice still, “Help me to…” I cooed at him. It was then that I found his weakness.

He confided, “You look too much like your sister. She gives me that look, and I melt.” It was all the initiative I needed. I pounced, figuratively speaking. I touched him for the first time during the whole conversation. Granted it was only his shoulder, but it was enough.

"Then it should not be so difficult. I'm not as bad you think I am. I am my sister's twin after all. You taught her to love…teach me." That broke him. He had cried out at me then.

“Stop it! Just stop.” He turned to leave, so to placate and show him I was serious. I followed him, soothing his frayed nerves. I was getting to him and it feuled me on.

“It wouldn't be smart of me to anger the one who will teach me to love, so…" I kissed him. Adding to everything I had done. Trying to break him down even more. "I won’t antagonize anymore." He told me not take something as a weakness and then everything went black.

I woke in Janus’ library, which is where I sit right now. He wants me to read something from his collection, so not to disappoint, I think I should.

~Jesse

Summer's Journal: Thirty-Seventh Entry

2007-02-05T20:32:00.000-05:00

A Mind Mage. A telepath. He saw me as a mage, and he wanted to know more about me. When I saw him next, he had planted a memory. The only reason I know that is because I checked my journal. I am very good about writing down the events of my day. And the memory didn’t correspond correctly.

The poor kid just wanted to be my friend. His name was Mike. He’s a sweetheart. And I don’t think that was a memory he implanted either. I know he was using his magic to enhance what I thought about him.

He’s alone. Totally alone in this world, and when he saw my aura, he thought I was a bad person. He had plans to kill me, before he broke into my mind without my permission. I’m glad he did.

I spoke to Chris today. I had him augment me. Mike seems like a sweetheart, but I cannot know for sure. Chris helped me put a barrier up on my own mind. Something to protect me from being read like I was. I told him what had happened.

Unlike myself, he still was upset with Mike. I don’t understand why boys think like that. Mike did something terrible to me, but he was doing it for a good reason, and Chris just saw it as being terrible.

I tried to soothe him over, by rubbing his hand with my thumb, and running my nails gently down his back like he likes. It didn’t seem to work. He promised me he wouldn’t hurt this kid. But that he would never like him.

I agreed. I didn’t want him hurt. He was just lost. I rested my head beneath Chris’ chin. I felt whole. He held me to him. I imagine it had to be one of the weirdest things anyone would ever see.

He was a “Jock” if you like to label people. He was in high standing among the social standing pyramid. He was the top of the pyramid. He was invited to the “Cool” parties and when people would vote for people to win things for the yearbook, he was always voted for something.

I was his polar opposite. I was the bottom of the scheme. The only people beneath me were the “Anarchists” and they were only beneath me because they hated everybody and everything. I have some degree of respect for some rules, some people and some things. I’m a goth. That’s who I am.

He and I, stand in stark contrast. I wear blacks and sometimes if I feel very happy, red. But not a lot. He dresses in a rainbow of colors. His blue jeans have different shades to match his many colors of shirts. When he feels very sad, he goes with navy and darker shades of blues, greens and reds. When I feel happy, and he feels sad, we seem to almost match with each other.

But its days like today, when the sun is shinning, and his shirt is bright, and he seems to be a glowing form of an archaic god of old. And I, holding onto him, in my dark shades, absorbing the light he gives off, his dark goddess.

I think I will wear red tomorrow. A red silken over shirt. Maybe crimson red lipstick. I’m blushing right now… I want to leave my lipstick mark on his cheek or neck.

I want him to know that I belong with him, and that he belongs with me.

I want everyone else to know that too.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Thirty-Sixth Entry

2007-01-30T10:15:00.000-05:00

It was ten hours before I realized what had happened. When I did, I broke out crying, my mother and father were sitting there as I read. The book dropped form my hand, and my eyes filled with tears and I curled into a ball.

My father began to search around the area for whatever it was that had done it to me, and my mother rushed to me immediately. She held me tightly to her, but I didn’t register her touch. The only reason I am thinking so clearly now, is because my mind has shifted to revenge.

Revenge will cover up any emotions we have, and it will give us new purpose.

I feel totally violated. It wasn’t a normal human kind of violation, and I think that scared me even more. Someone got into my head, and read my thoughts. I didn’t realize that they were when they were doing it.

I didn’t have any defense, I didn’t have any time to react, and I had no idea who it was. But someone was able to get past my defenses. My defenses. I don’t even know how they did it.

The only reason I could tell it happened was because I felt them straining through my mind, ten hours later. I tried to explain it to my mother through my tears, and my rocking back and fourth. But she couldn’t understand. My father, after he made his rounds, didn’t understand either.

My mom never had to worry about it, her thoughts were primal. That was her benefit for being a werewolf. Her primal thoughts were surfaced about her others. My father’s mind is dead, he doesn’t have to worry about it.

I need Aurora. I need my godmother. She’s the only one who can understand. She’s the only one who can help me. I’m crying again… He, I use the word he because the male sex would be the only one to violate a girl’s mind for her thoughts, knows about my boyfriend. He knows about my cousin. He knows about what I do to help people. He knows that this makeup mask I wear is a façade.

He knows my age, my birthdate, my deepest darkest secrets, but yet he didn’t pry into my family, to find out about them, or where I live. He knows what I can do magically, and probably even more than I know. There are things I wish I knew about my magic.

My parents tried to make me feel better, bless them, but they couldn’t associate my problem with their own life. I hugged them, and I clung to them. I’m better now. But I may hurt or kill someone tomorrow.

I’m not sure I can go through with it.

-Dawn

Aurora's Journal: Eighth Entry

2007-01-28T19:22:00.000-05:00

I skipped past Janus’ house. The Illuminati hadn’t been hounding me like normal. I didn’t stop and say hello to them either. I felt bad about it. But I wasn’t ready to go back yet.

In my path of travel I came across a construction site. I felt the pain of the earth as they had dug into her. The scratches, the cuts. They seeped the clear blood of the earth.

Their explosions left her burnt. Hurting.

Can you not see her pain? Do you not see her hurting? The first thing I had to do was get into the site. I needed to have access to the explosives. When I walked up to the site the men pushed me back

“We don’t need your kind here,” they said, “We don’t want no tree-hugging Indian up here.”

I backed down. Not because I couldn’t take them, but because I didn’t want to hurt them. When one of them headed for a bathroom, I hit him, placed my hands on his cheek and I absorbed his DNA into mine.

I shifted my body to his, and then I burped and scratched my stomach. It was only natural. The tiger sighed and dragged away the body.

Once I had infiltrated the construction site, I went to get the dynamite they used to destroy my sweet earth. I went and found their machines of destruction. I attached the dynamite to them.

The men didn’t seem to notice, and I was being sneaky about it. I lit a small stick of dynamite and I threw it.

It exploded in the water, and sent the water flying and made a horrifying boom. Everyone scrambled out of their machines of destruction. Ran for the lake, I pulled my skin down, and I lifted up. Once I was myself, I threw fiery tomahawks at the bombs

I stood on the hill, and I looked down at them. They looked at me, after the explosions cleared, and I turned and I left.

Summer's Journal: Thirty-Fifth Entry

2007-01-25T13:01:00.000-05:00

I’ve been stalling. I’ve been thinking and I have been stalling. It was the fact that the illuminati had jostled me so badly so soon after when I was nearly killed by the werewolf.

I’ve finally figured out what it was. It was a scum illuminati prank. All reason and logic dictates that.

Brendan and I were walking home from school together. He kept turning his head and looking over his shoulder. I knew something was there, but I had no idea what it could be. I didn’t have the senses of a wolf.

Whatever it was it kept giving me a an itchy feeling.

“Summer,” Brendan said, “Calmly, we are going to the church, the catholic on fifth.”

I obeyed instantly. He led the way, and I followed keeping pace with him. He didn’t break into a dead run, I’d be the one left behind. We both knew that. And if we were together then together we could perhaps survive…

It was a dread moment, whenever I thought about surviving instead of defeating whoever or whatever it was. My life didn’t flash before my eyes, but my true perception of reality fractured.

Brendan told me afterwards I froze, like a deer caught in a headlights, and when he tugged on me, he said I followed but it wasn’t me. The last thing I remember, besides that dread feeling, was sitting in the church. Brendan had me kneel at the alter, and for the first time in my life I couldn’t cast my eyes up to the crucifix.

I felt the image of our lord and savior Jesus looking at me. It wasn’t a personification of an object it was what I felt. I felt him looking down at me, and I couldn’t look up.

“Summer,” Brendan spoke firmly, “Say your repentances.”

When I spoke, I lacked the want for him to forgive me. I don’t know what it was. I felt weak in the church. Almost as if the very place was resisting my presence. Brendan looked at me.

“Dawn,” he said.

I looked at him. His arm was pointed to the door and I remember following it all the way. There was an old man. He wore the amulet of the illuminati but it had been tarnished and partially melted. It was a disgraceful leave from the illuminati.

The old man walked forward. He was shaking as if he was approaching a movie star which he loved desperately. He sat down before us on his knees.

“Au Courants,” He said as he looked at us, “I have looked for very long for the both of you.” Brendan spoke up after the old man said that, “What did you just say? Summer what did he just say?”

“He called us The Current,” I spoke pulling that knowledge from the back of my head, “Why are you looking for us?” I was terrified, but I had my makeup on, and I felt strong with Brendan with me. But I was a quivering, scared little white faced china doll underneath it all.

The old man spoke, “You are the Au Courants. You are born to save.” I knew that with my father and Brendan’s father both saving people as long as they had strength in their body, Brendan and I inherited that.

“We know,” we replied together. His response came as a shock, “To what extent do you think you will save?” I shrugged and Brendan was getting frusterated, “Look,” he said, “Who are you?”

“I am Friar Thomas, shamed Illuminati. They called me the prophet.” I raised my eyebrow, “Impossible.” Brendan watched me. He looked right through me, like he always could. He took my hand in his. This made me feel stronger.

“You will both go through many hardships, Au Courants. Pain and misery, the likes of which you will only bring on yourself. But in the end, I promise you, Au Courants, if you try for it, you will be happy.”

I was unbelieving, he was ex-illuminati. There were very few creatures that could see the future, and one was the seventh son, of the seventh son, this man couldn’t have been, not in today’s day and age. Demons were one of them. Demonic possession was one thing that could kick the illuminati out of the order.

I cast my eyes up to him, and he flinched, “Au Courant,” he said to me directly, “You have nothing to fear from me. Trust in me.” He reached out, and Brendan pushed his hands away.

“Don’t touch her,” My cousin defended me. The old man spoke again “I dreamt of you both all my life. And I finally found you…” The old said, “I needed to tell you. I had to see you.” The old man took a few steps back.

“Be wary, Au Courants… Both of you… Don’t give into your vices… Of all the advice I can give, I ask you please, don’t give in. Don’t give in.” The old man rose. The church seemed to reject his presence. Just like it was rejecting my own. If it rejected my presence and I was laced with evil, why did it reject his so violently? He had to be possessed. It was a all a lie.

It was either hell or the illuminati trying trick us. And Once the old man left, I buried my face in my cousin’s shoulder. I didn’t sob audibly, but I was crying. He rubbed my cheek gently, and he smiled at me.

“Baby-doll,” he said calling me what my mother called me, “I know you hate them. I know. But Summer, don’t let them get to you.” I nodded gently. He continued, “Summer Dawn, come on, lets go home.”

That happened a couple of days ago. I thought abut it. Whoever it was; was crazy. I know that for a fact. Or it was a demon’s deceit. The man had a melted and slashed Illuminati necklace. That means he was possessed.

Its hard to put it out of my mind no matter what, it keeps coming up in my head. It’s the demon’s deception. I’m done for now, time to lay down.

-Dawn

JESSE 5

2007-01-23T18:10:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written Journal:

Day: night

Week: lost track

Season:

I figured it out. I know what to do to break her.

~Jesse

CHRIS

2007-01-19T16:53:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it’s been a while since I last blogged. I’m not really into this whole blogging thing. It’s usually just a place for me to dump all my thoughts…but I have Summer for that…or at least I had her.

So earlier today, I was getting yelled at by my family. We aren’t the nicest of people together. I live with my ‘father’ and his brother. His brother is pretty nice. He only gets mean when I really deserve it. It’s Joseph that’s a dick. He is constantly yelling and being so insane!

Anyway, it started out, that we were all just fighting. I can deal with that normally. But Summer called. Honestly when I picked up the phone I didn’t know who it was. I just kinda…well, I freaked. I yelled into the phone for her to stop calling on that number. I figured she’d, once I realized it was her, would call my cell later, figuring I just thought it was a wrong person. My ‘father’ started in again. Yelling about how I would never get to college and I was glad I had my life chosen. I felt my phone vibrate and cursed under my breath. I yelled back at him, switching the phone to voicemail. I’d call her back when it was all over, I figured.

We yelled for what seemed like hours. I wanted to hit something. To make something burst into flames. I didn’t. They yelled at me and I stomped off. I wouldn’t risk getting grounded by leaving. I shut and locked my door. When it seemed like it settled down I actually got to sit and think. The first thing that came to mind was Summer. I feel so horrible.

I’ve never yelled at her like that. She most definitely hates me. I’m staring at my cell phone right now, debating whether or not to call her. I need to. She is the one I vent to. She is the one I talk to when my mind is all jumbled. If I don’t I’ll sit here for hours trying to sort through my thoughts and it won’t work. I’ll still be pissed and I’ll probably do something I really regret later if I don’t talk to her. I’m scared though. You know? The girl I care about thinks I hate her. (If she’s anything like I know she is…that’s what she thinks) I don’t want to hear that in her voice. *Sigh* Well, I guess I should call her.

~Out~

Chris

Update:

So we talked. I cried, she cried. It was a relieving conversation though. I feel better. I told her that my family is crap and that she can’t ever call my home again. My cell she can call at anytime and any place, but not my home. She understood. She is the sweetest. She’d hate to know I said that…but it’s true. We hung up after a few minutes cuz my family was bellowing again. I didn’t want to go, but I didn’t want to fight with them again. It’s so draining. Anyway…they’re starting again. Peace.

~out~

Chris

Summer's Journal: Thirty-Fourth Entry

2007-01-15T10:58:00.000-05:00

I feel numb; cold. I don’t know how much longer I can hold the contents of my stomach down. I’m shaking… I don’t know how I am forming legible words except perhaps this is a output, and without it I will be holding all of these thoughts in.

Chris, He told me he wanted to break up with me. I called his house, he answered the phone, angry, and he said, “Stop calling here!” I tried his cell, wondering if he thought I was someone else, and he sent the call straight to voicemail.

I stumbled out of my room, and I went downstairs looking for my mother. She wasn’t in the library, and her room was also empty. My hands shook as I tried to use the only part of me that was steady to pull myself up the stairs.

Tears were leaking down my eyes. I wouldn’t be okay for awhile. What hadn’t I done? What had I done? It… It had to be when I kissed him and he was asleep… He had to find out about that… Or… Maybe I didn’t tell him how I learned I could use magic.

Whatever it was… It was all my fault. If he didn’t want me, then no-one would. Except some accursed werewolf… The vampiric side of this family seems to be attracted to werewolves.

Every day, for the rest of my life with my werewolf husband, we will fight for dominance in the relationship, and if I don’t give it to him, he’ll have to take it away from me. If a vampire is the one who catches my eye, and we wed… Everynight he’ll indulge himself in my blood, until I become cold and lost for emotion because he has it all.

I’ll be a shell, and my only choice would be to be submissive to him, in hopes he won’t take anymore of my blood. Maybe I should start indulging in my vampire side. Start feeding from people…

I don’t want them to hurt him… They swore if he hurt me they would hurt him. I don’t want them to hurt him… It was my fault… If they hurt anyone it should be me. It’s all my fault.

He’s calling… He wants to make it official… I can’t talk to him right now without my makeup on. I’m going to go smudge some makeup on very quickly and talk to him –

- I’m so stupid. He was crying when he answered the phone, he was apologizing to me. He didn’t even give me a chance to talk at first. He sounded like he was hiding too. He tried to explain through the apologies and tears.

“Chris, please calm down…” “I can’t,” he said, “I can’t imagine what you thought.” I spoke softly, “Horrible things, Chris… I thought you hated me.” He was trying not to cry anymore, “No” was all he could get out.

“Chris, please, don’t cry.” I searched my bed for a cloth and I wiped off my makeup. A tear dropped down my cheek, “Sweetie… Please…” Chris took a deep breath, “Summer, you don’t understand. Here at home. You can’t call my home phone again… I was angry at my family when I answered. So when I yelled I… I have no excuse. But, when I said that…” I spoke softly blinking tears from my eyes, “Chris… I understand… Please stop crying.” He sniffled and then took a deep breath, “I’m not crying.”

“I know…” I responded, “But if you are, sweetie, you can always cry with me.” He smiled I could tell in his voice, “I have to go, my family is getting impatient, they don’t know where I am.” I smiled because he was smiling, “Chris… I love you,” I said softly. He had said it before, and I felt odd being the one initiating it, “I love you too.”

He hung up the phone. I set my cell phone on me bed, and I’m writing the conclusion to what would have been a terribly atrocious entry for me. The Illuminati still make me very angry. And I’m still trying to figure out what happened to me involving them.

I guess its kind of confusing why I needed makeup to talk to him. But I am tired, and need to close this little book right now.

-Dawn

Letter to the late, Kera d’Epee October 31st, 1990

2007-01-12T17:58:00.000-05:00

Kera,

Page is sleeping comfortably, and my baby boy is doing the same. I am staring at them both, sitting in the room, unable to sleep. I’m too excited. Page’s labor was uneasy, as Teresea told us it would be.

Brendan Carey, he took his mother’s name for obvious reasons, tried to rip his way out of his mother. Page whimpered the whole labor, and she cried, and she broke my hand six times. (I didn’t laugh then of course, but I am laughing now.)

She found it very hard to keep up with the werewolf tradition of not changing during the birth. She disliked relying on me to do any of the fighting she would normally have to do. I do not understand why you werewolves do not change during the pregnancy.

Is it because you don’t want to curse your children with lycanthrope, even though that has very little to do with it. When he finally escaped his mother’s womb he smiled brightly and cooed.

Page held him close to her. She was so exhausted. She kissed him gently and fell asleep. I picked him up. I tried not to cry. I didn’t want blood flowing down my cheeks with a doctor and two nurses around.

He fell asleep in my arms. I’ve never had to be in a hospital when my baby was born, and I didn’t want to give him up. But they took him from me. Page’s sister, Jesse is having a mid-wife.

I received a call from Janus that they had a baby girl, he got to name her, he said, Summer Dawn. He had hoped that with the name Summer Dawn that she could have some hope of a normal life. I doubt it.

I’m so happy, Kera. Page has straightened my chaotic and meaningless life out. Now with baby Brendan, I’m getting everything I’ve always wanted. I want you to know, that since that time at the grave, I haven’t thought about you. It’s a good thing. Page is my heart now Kera… This is the first time I’ve even remotely thought of you.

Page is perfect, Kera. But please, for me, watch over her and Brendan. Keep them safe. I know you’re an angel Kera… Be their guardian angel.

-Rapier d’Epee

Jesse 4

2007-01-10T22:47:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written Journal:

Day: lost track

Week: not important

Season: couldn’t care less

I found her. She was the same as always. Her smell burned my nose. I got off the train and immediately knew I was in the right place. I needed to see her by myself for the first time. I wanted to assess what was to be done and how strong she would be. Aurora was hurt when I left, but I was sure she understood. It didn’t take me long to find her when I began wandering the streets. Her stench was everywhere.

I found her pushing a brat in a park. The little brat wasn’t hers; they didn’t smell the same or anywhere near the same. The kid was also Hispanic, and from what I gathered about the Sword, he was white like we were. I wanted to run and pounce on my sister. Crowd or not…

I stepped forward and saw Page stiffen. She’d caught my scent. It made me think. Which would be better? Her knowing…or never being quite sure. The suspense factor tipped the scale and I melted back into the shadows. She could smell all she wanted, she’d never find me until I wanted her to. I watched as she ushered the kid away from the park, thinking I would come after her there, and still not knowing what I was exactly. It made me laugh. She was supposed to be so strong, and yet she was running from something she couldn’t even see yet. All she could so was smell me. So strong…

She dropped the brat off at what I assumed to be her mother’s home and I followed Page back to her house. I waited until she settled in. Letting the edge wear and giving her time to talk herself out of what she had just gone through. She was going to let her mind take control and tell her it wasn’t real and it was just a fleeting moment. It got dark and I smelled the activities of life inside: dinner being made, dust from cleaning the typical smells created when people live in a house. I walked from the bushes, startling a kid on his bike, and marched up to her front door. I knocked on her door and lounged against the railing of her porch. She opened the door and stood in shock. I took the opportunity to pounce on her. I easily dominated. I could have killed her right then, but it wouldn’t have been as much fun. I held my clawed hand over her throat, slowly cutting off her air supply. I would have kept on, letting her go unconscious and then waking her back up only to repeat, but someone walked into the room. I looked up and saw a man standing with two swords drawn and ready. He was kind of cute. I’ve seen better looking, but not bad for a whore like my sister.

He held the swords at my neck as I talked with my sister, trying to get me to release her. She took my by surprise and kicked me off of her. I landed closer to the door and sat up, looking at the two of them. She still couldn’t believe it was me. He stepped between us, trying to take this fight, but I snapped at him and Page took control of the situation, begging him not to intervene.

She surprised me when I started to fight her. She was stronger then I anticipated. I struck at her and she caught my blow mid-strike. She twisted my arm around to pop it out of its socket. A sharp pain, but no irreparable damage. I simply put it back in place and prepared to fight better. Sister dear, has learned to fight. I landed a fair amount of blows for sure, but she was able to hit me as well. I will need to keep up on my training. There should have been no way for her to hit me. In the exchange we had changed positions and I glanced over my shoulder at the man my sister was whoring herself to. I walked around him, taking in every aspect of him. Up until that moment I hadn’t really paid him much mind. "You choose well Page, if I were going to be a whore, I'd choose someone like him too. He's kinda cute…" He shook like he wanted to hit me. That was fine. I could take it rough if he needed to. I grabbed her and pulled her to him, deciding I’d done what I wanted for the day. “I won’t kill you yet big sister.” I had said. “But know it is coming.” I pushed her away and to add insult to her wounds I kissed him. No where serious, just his jaw. I winked at him. I vaguely heard her growl at me as she righted herself and readied to pounce on me. I turned and left, giving no air of being afraid, because I wasn’t. It was fun to torment my sister. I am glad I choose to make me miserable before I kill her. It is a lot more fun for me.

~Jesse

Summer's Journal: Thirty-Third Entry

2007-01-06T12:33:00.000-05:00

The Illuminati; I hold such a deep seated hatred for them. One can never understand why I feel the way I do. My father often spoke of them. The Illuminati formed long before Christianity. They weren’t called the Illuminati back then. They shifted and changed to become the Illuminati.

When they first started there were four of them; a descendant of Lilith, a descendant of Cain, a descendant of the followers of Anubis, and a descendant of Adam. Otherwise known as a vampire, a werewolf, a mage, and a human. They made it their mission to slay any supernatural creature they ran into.

By the end of a five year campaign they had gained followers. Soon the original four had to sit down and make a charter. Only one left the room, the mage; he had slain the others and wrote the charter himself.

Stained with blood from the beginning he said only a mage could ever be the leader of the illuminati. By the time Christ was crucified the Illuminati had grown to be an organization that was feared among supernatural creatures. Still, they didn’t have a large enough following to keep everyone in check.

The Dark Ages was when the Illuminati claimed their name. The Lightbringers. At this time, Supernatural creatures were numerous, many were learning to adapt with the human expansion into their lands. The Illuminati decided that adaptation was not enough. They had to be slain.

During the dark ages, supernatural creatures had a ratio of one to twelve. They weren’t hiding, they were in the open, one supernatural creature, to every twelve humans. The Illuminati then held a campaign. The Great Purging of 1066.

This was a terrible year for supernatural creatures. Anything you can think of, fairies, nymphs, vampires, werewolves, mages, mermaids, dragons, phoenixes, thunderbirds, yeti, zombies, skeletons, necromancers, elves, gnomes, kelpies, dwarves, brownies, selkies, druids, bog beasts, and everything you can think of. At the beginning of the year we were at our most numerous. At the end of that year we were at our least, approximately one to one thousand, five hundred.

My father was one of the lucky ones to survive. He allied with one of his greatest enemies to do it, an ancient werewolf named Feral Fang. Together they took a stand in an old castle. When they could no longer defend against the waves and waves of illuminati, they ran, and hid deep in the mountains, deep in a cave.

My father regrets not fighting harder, but he knew what needed to be done. The Illuminati during the year 1666, took another year to purge. This one was on demons that leaked through the cracks during that particular year.

Today, the Illuminati are an organization that has people in every government and has a branch of their own in each government, lead by a mage in the Vatican. Sometimes we call them the ‘Greens’ or the ‘V.E.R.T.’ the greens obviously come from the abbreviation meaning the French word for green. V.E.R.T. means Vatican Emergency Response Team.

They have kept us. KEPT us at the population of 1 to every 33 humans. The Illuminati are Lightbringers. They have a special dislike of Necromancers. So special its that I am the only one left. The only reason I haven’t been killed is because of my father.

They are frightened of him. If they were to kill me, then he would kill all of them. He would hunt every single one down and kill them. Everyone in my family is protected by my father’s reputation.

He was hired by them once. They paid him off in lands and this gothic hotel we live in now. He had to catch a woman named Aurora Dawnsfire. Many people know her better as Thousand Faces. She’s my godmother.

He was the only one they could think of who could capture her. He had no idea who she was, or what one day she would mean to this family. He captured her, and with the help of a council of illuminati mages they were able to lock her on that island.

I know that Godmother often goes on Illuminati hunts; because of how hard they hunt her. She’s very powerful and the Illuminati hate when somebody is free, and has more power than they do.

As someone reading this journal could guess. There is something that happened today that spawned this entry of hatred, but I am not sure what it all means. I am going to ask my father and think about it, and probably write about it tomorrow night.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Thirty-Second Entry

2007-01-04T18:54:00.000-05:00

Chris and I were defeated today. Not just a normal defeated. A bloody mess defeated. If Chris couldn’t heal, I would still be bleeding. A rogue werewolf entered the school’s quad today. Chris and I were walking to History together and we heard the howl. We instantly knew it wasn’t a dog.

The rogue werewolf was a big one, and as soon as his dark fur contrasted with the snow that laid upon the ground, the normal humans ran. My mother always spoke of human’s fear of the supernatural. Most of them wouldn’t remember why they ran. They would think it was a wolf or a bear.

Chris squeezed my hand, and we knew what we had to do. Whoever this wasn’t smart because Aunt Page’s house was nearby. If the wind blew just right he would be put down. Chris held his hands ready, and I ran to flank the massive brute. It began to snow. The werewolf narrowed his eyes to slits and stared at us.

He was between Chris and I. Not that it was a brilliant idea. He turned to me. I closed my eyes. I began to search for something dead, “Chris there is nothing! Get his attention!” I heard crackles through the air and the werewolf turned. I saw scorch marks on his back.

There was nothing dead, anywhere nearby. Blood filled my mouth; a long bone spear appeared in my hand. I threw it at the Werewolf; it struck his shoulder, and stuck there. He turned to me, and leapt from where he was, and I felt a dull thud hit my chest and sharp pain of his claws. The blood leaked from my mouth and covered my face.

“SUMMER!” Chris yelled as lightning struck the werewolf. It went through me, but I didn’t feel the pain. The werewolf did a flip using my ribs as a jumping board. I groaned, “Make it a blizzard Chris!” I yelled. I fought to my legs, and Blood filled my mouth again, and I threw another spear at him, as Chris began his chant to make it snow even harder.

The snow began immediately so thick I couldn’t see three feet in front of me. I heard him crunch through the snow. He was coming towards me. I saw his muzzle through the snow, and he saw me. I spat the blood in my mouth at his muzzle, and it covered it, he sneezed, the scent of my blood being incredibly strong.

He brought his claw towards my face, and it struck. It ripped clean into my flesh. Chris threw fireballs at him. Not knowing where he was, two went whizzing by. I was starting to tire. I concentrated hard. I raised my arms upward. A wall of bones separated the wolf and I, and I ran around the small barrier, towards Chris.

He broke into it and sent bones flying all around. Chris was shocked when he saw my cheek, “Blow the wind towards Brendan’s house, now!” I gurgled through the blood. He reached for my cheek, and I shot him a look as I raised my arms, and another bone wall appeared. The werewolf leapt through the barrier and He hit Chris.

I spat the blood into his face again, “Over here!” I yelled. I began to run through the snow. He leapt in front of me, and by the time I tried to turn, I slid in the snow and hit the ground. I began to back crawl.

He stalked forward. A barrier of fire was in between it and myself. I jumped at first, and then I realized it was Chris’. The wolf leapt over me towards Chris. I screamed in Astral Speak, “SAVE HIM!” I rolled over and rushed towards where I heard the wolf. He was getting pushed backwards from some thing.

I looked closer and saw five or six ghosts shoving him back. But they were unable to manifest themselves for much longer. Chris concentrated the wind towards Brendan’s house, and both my spirits and his fire died, and the wolf grabbed us both and threw us. I didn’t know where Chris landed, but I landed across the quad. When I hit I felt the dull, dull pain spread through my whole body, and I felt the pain in my nose and my ribs.

I tried for a breath and couldn’t get one. I heard the werewolf running towards me. He leapt into the air, and as he was about to land on me, a black werewolf tackled into him and together they went crashing to the ground.

I tried for a breath and failed again. There was too much blood in my lungs. I gasped and got a little air. I coughed, and blood came out. Aunt Page picked up the werewolf and tossed him. He hit a tree, and it covered them both in snow. I coughed again and blood launched itself out of my mouth.

Aunt Page howled, and ripped into the werewolf’s chest. He reached a clawed hand into it, and pulled his heart out and tossed it away. He shifted back to a man, and Aunt Page shredded his flesh. She stood triumphantly on him and howled.

I coughed again; more blood escaping my lungs. But it felt like more was still filling my lungs. Chris found me. He ran his fingers along my cuts and it burnt. His hands started to glow yellow, and I felt cracks, pops and pain fill my body. He then drew his hands from my mouth to the back of my head, and I felt the blood in my lungs exit my mouth.

I reached for him, and that was all I remembered. I woke in Aunt Page’s house. Bandaged and bloody. I moved and I felt sore. Little Lara was sitting watch over me, and she had fallen asleep. I didn’t want to wake her.

Chris had fallen asleep on the opposite couch. He was very bloody, I figure mostly because of all the blood I have when I use my magic. I kissed his sleeping lips softly. He wasn’t awake, It was just an act of tenderness I could do for him, not my first kiss. He saved my life. I owed him that much.

I rose from where I was, and I walked down the hall to Aunt Page’s room and I snuck in and I laid next to her, “Dawn,” she said sleepily, “Are you okay?” “Yes, I just am very, very cold.” She covered me up, and pulled me close to her.

I woke in the morning alone, and Chris had left. I stumbled through the house, and found Uncle Rapier. He smiled when he saw me, “You kicked me out of the bed last night, Sweet Summer. I’m glad to see you’re feeling better.”

“I’m just a china-doll Uncle Rapier. I was manhandled…” Uncle Rapier raised an eyebrow, “From what Christopher told me of the fight, you were the one controlling the way it went. You just couldn’t keep up with a berserk werewolf.” I nodded, “I want to go home.”

“Expect your mother to be uber-mom,” he said. I spoke softly, “I always do.”

-Dawn

(It’s the clan’s 50th post. I had to do something special.)

jesse 3

2007-01-02T22:26:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written Journal:

Day: later

Month: Same

Season: Spring…still

I was completely humiliated. My soul stripped clean before his very eyes! I have never felt so ashamed in all my life. Not even being dominated by the first wolf I had met; not even reveling in his blood as it spattered on the ground when I killed him. I was ashamed of nothing. I did what I needed and nothing more. This…this was a cut so deep I can still feel the burn of the blade. Blades…plural. His blades.

He had been gone for a week! A week since I woke in his room, with no one but Aurora to help me. Aurora was not the one with the answers…he was. I was getting impatient. Not only had he set his spooks to killing me when I entered his confounded mansion…now he was no where to be found! Gone had the Dreaming Wench said. I didn’t want him to be gone…I needed him here! Why else would I have come back?

I had been waiting and finally on the night of the full moon, I was sitting near a pond in his garden. Aurora had just given me a note from Grandfather. It made me sad and happy at the same time. He had not abandoned me. This made me happy. The news brought into light, I had hated him…or at least held extreme dislike for him. This made me sad. I hate feeling such strange emotions. I have been able to shut them down for so long. I think being in Janus’ home for so long has done exactly what I didn’t want. It’s making me soft, bringing soft emotions I don’t want. But that is beside the point.

He crept from the shadows telling me…ME it was alright to cry when the letter brought tears to my eyes. I asked him where my sister was. He knew I needed to kill her and that was my goal. “I like you sister…” He had said. I wanted to hit him. “but I’ve given her the only aid she’ll get from me, now I will help you.” I did hit him. He had helped her, seen her when he knew I wanted to rip her throat out. He should have taken me and made my life easier. Who was he to stand in my way of getting closer to my sister so soon? He was no one. We had a heated discussion which ended with me covered in blood from a blood explosion. It was so painful. I will never forget it. It pulsated and burned and squeezed. He didn’t hold me in it for long, though it felt like forever. When we actually began to fight, the coward struck Aurora! He couldn’t even face me in a battle. I was so worried about her, when he did strike me I wasn’t able to defend myself. His blades cut deep into my legs.

I couldn’t focus on anything but Aurora, not even the burning pain in my legs stopped the chant that echoed through my head. She would be alright. She has to be… I repeated this in my head over and over again. He threw me across the garden. His words were so hateful. I will never be able to erase them from my mind. “You’re not even in the right league yet kid…” He had said. He had called me a puppy. It was salt on my wounds. He was older and stronger and better then me. I was not a puppy by normal terms but he threw it in my face that there was obviously no chance to gain any of the lost years between us. I don’t know why…but that thought bothered me then and it still bothers me now. He’d hit me in the face with his wings and then the next thing I remember was the sound of thousands of screeching bats and their claws all over me. It was painful and I wanted to cry out. I had to keep fighting. I would let down myself and my grandfather if I didn’t.

He wanted me to submit! Part of me screamed Yes, yes I’ll submit… but the ever present defiant part of me choose that moment to speak. I told him I’d never submit to him. He froze then and blood had come from his mouth. I was shocked, not sure what was happening. Aurora had impaled him with her tomahawks. I was angry, scared, upset, hurting and triumphant all at once. So many emotions that pulled me in so many directions; they brought tears to my eyes. I was angry…this was my fight. MY fight. Scared…she had just killed him. I’ve seen death so many times, but this…this death scared me to my soul. I was upset because she had gotten the upper hand that I had not been able to. Hurting. This one is the hardest to explain. To see him collapse. Dead before me…it had torn me to shreds inside. I didn’t want him dead, but that’s the reason why I had been fighting him. Wasn’t it? Triumphant came only because I was the one breathing and still alive. My angry side won out over all the emotions and I yelled at Aurora. I didn’t mean to, but it was the first thing that had come out. “This was my fight! My fight!" Without even thinking I had shattered Aurora.

She had shattered me. I couldn’t even understand how she had done it…I was broken inside. She started to leave and anything left intact in me snapped and fell into a thousand little pieces. I chased after her. I couldn’t loose her too. I wouldn’t be all alone again. I couldn’t. I’m…I’m afraid to be alone again. We both cried and I apologized, trying to fill the gap I had so effectively created. We sat there for a while, calming and collecting our thoughts. I didn’t want to go back in and see it, but I knew I had to in order to get my stuff. Aurora actually took the lead and it was her startled gasp that galvanized me to get up and see what had happened.

He was there. Sitting there as if nothing had happened. I was so confused. I wanted to run to him and hit him and yet at the same time I wanted to cry again but not from sadness. I didn’t understand why…I really still don’t.

To keep from embarrassing myself I locked my knees and fell to the ground. He wasn’t done with me yet. He created two blood clones and I watched in horror as one of them splashed me with burning blood. It fueled my anger and hurt me, since all I really wanted to do was run up to him and make sure it was really him. Touch his skin and see for myself he wasn’t hurt. The same clone stabbed my legs and left the swords there, the burning and pain brought tears to my eyes. He did the same with my arms and pinned me to the ground. Two more blades were held at my neck and for the first time since the accident I was afraid.

He was so mean and uncaring. He wasn’t the Janus I knew…the one I had come to trust and somewhat care about. I looked to him, searching; hoping to find the Janus I knew in there some where and call him out. My voice was not working so I needed him to be there for me to see so I could plead with him. I was so afraid when his eyes met mine. My Janus was gone.

His clone had split into two and they grabbed Aurora. Another wave a fear coursed through me. I felt sick to my stomach and I know a few tears leaked from my eyes, though I think they blended with the sweat on my head so no one had noticed. I begged him not to hurt her. “I'll do anything, I submit! Just don't kill her!" He wouldn’t do it. I needed to sacrifice. I offered myself up. I was nothing without her. My grandfather would not take me back, I could not kill my sister without Aurora there to stay by me…Janus was gone and he would turn me out to the world…leaving me alone forever. I couldn’t loose her. The words I said next, I don’t remember saying, just hearing them in my voice. "Take me! Torture me, kill me, whatever you feel the best. Just don't hurt her. She has nothing to do with this! Your fight is with me." I had sobbed. I was beaten, broken. He held my only life-line in his hand and he knew it. I had one great weakness…and it was those I care about. He was capitalizing on that and it hurt to think someone I trusted would cut me so deep, even if he was mad at me.

He released Aurora, saying I’d learned my lesson, but he didn’t want her to heal me. He kicked her, but she healed me anyway. His next words…will ring in my head and my heart forever, “Damnit Jesse, your so damned stupid.” He said more, but I was caught on that. He had never called me stupid before. He had actually thought I was highly educated when we had first met. Had I dropped so low in his eyes?

My eyes, as much as I hate to admit it, broadcast everything I feel for anyone to see. I needed to see him. To see if he was my Janus again. I knew if I looked at him he would see it all. The hurt, the vulnerability, the shattered broken remains of what was left of me inside. I didn’t care. I needed to see. “At this moment, you look like the puppy you actually are.” It shattered my heart, the only thing I had tried to keep intact. Someone, who had shown me so many emotions, had called me weak and young and frail because I had shown him mine. He didn’t care what he had done to me. "Should have trusted the undead to hold such a cold heart." I stood, feeling it better to say it and wait. If he had wanted to kill me, he would and I wouldn’t have stopped him. He did get angry and stormed over to me. The air was so charged plants started to wilt and the air crackled. Our conversation I will try to remember, it was the closest I’ve ever come to expressing anything for someone besides my family:

“Did you just call me cold hearted?! Do you have any idea what you are saying? I’ve loved more people than you’ve ever even seen. I’ve seen people die for other people because they love them. I’ve seen people spit in death’s face for love. I’d die for that woman lying on my bed, eternally asleep. I couldn’t lay a finger on my daughter even when she killed my wife because I loved her… Cold hearted? You’re one to talk Jesse. You would kill the world if it meant another day of survival. Your grandfather’s poisoned you. He saw you as clay to mold into the perfect warrior. He failed. The perfect warrior has compassion. It’s what keeps him alive! Do not tell me I am cold hearted…”

I wouldn’t look at him, he had already seen my emotions, I wouldn’t give him the pleasure of seeing them again. "Don't you ever think you understand me. You have no idea."

“When you were seven your sister tossed you overboard of a boat, and you wanted to kill her at such a young age. Aurora found you, she was the only one there for you the whole time in your entire life, she took you to your grandfather, whom you just found out actually loves you, and kicked you out to get your story started. You’ll do anything if it means survival or getting closer to killing your sister. You..” He had changed to look like me, adding more insult to injury. “I only can love those who have never abandoned me, mainly Aurora who is like my mother and my sister, and besides my grandfather the only person whom I have ever loved. I trusted you, Janus! But I lost that trust in you because of what you’ve done. What I don’t understand is the huge point you’re trying to make, I can’t grasp it, I’ve been brainwashed. I shall continue to be so…”

I stood, my anger and hurt welling inside me. I smacked ‘his’ cheek, prepared to bare what I never thought I could. "I do not love only those who have never abandoned me, my grandfather abandoned me and I felt like I died a little more inside each day. I never hated him, I was angry and upset, but I never hated him. I love him. You think I can't or don't love, you're wrong. I can love and I do. I just can't show it because I don't know how." I started to walk away, not being able to look him in the face when I said what I needed to say next, "They aren't the only ones I'd die for either…"

I had shocked him and he said that I couldn’t possibly be serious. I was. I couldn’t get more serious. Such emotions were like signing my own death certificate. Someone would use it against me and I would die, not being able to stand against someone holding him or my family hostage. I had just signed my life over in that one, sad little sentence. He asked me why and I gave him the only answer I could give, it would be the same for my grandfather and Aurora too. “You cared…”

He talked, though I was only half listening for the rest of the conversation, I got the bits and pieces that were important before he left, saying something about midnight and the ballroom. I left too, following only after I knew he wouldn’t turn around and find me. I am sitting in a small room, staring at the pressed, dried black rose he gave me on our first meeting. I kept it. It’s been pressed and sealed in a place I hold sacred. The only place my thoughts and emotions can run free and no one gets hurt…

*Passage of time*

It hasn’t been long. I’m on a bus with Aurora. We left Janus’ home. As we left I couldn’t overcome the urge to show him, how deep my words in our conversation truly ran. I left the dried and pressed black rose on a table in his home. When he finds it…if he cares. He’ll know. He’ll understand. ‘The ball is in his court’ as I’ve heard it said. Only time will see if that action results in my death. Maybe, just maybe, my path to normality is shorter then I think.

~Jesse

Janus' Record: 5

2006-12-30T14:11:00.000-05:00

(Kept by Phonograph)

“I know this will be the hardest thing I will ever have to speak in my life. When I think about it I cry. At my age, crying doesn’t shame me, I don’t care who sees, even my enemies the countless that I have.

“On the second occasion I met my wife, I did something very, very wrong. Using the rash judgment and frustration I held towards her. She wanted to kill her twin sister, and would have gone to any lengths to do this. This included killing innocents, and betraying everyone; Except Aurora.

“Aurora was Jesse’s conscience. Ever present and ever wise, when Aurora was there, Jesse calmed down, thought things out. However without Aurora in her life, she fell prey to her grandfather’s views of the world.

“Her grandfather is an old friend of mine, His name is Beast O’Ciardha. Jesse took his name like my daughter took her mother’s name. Considering that both Moonlit Sun (the title I have been given) and Delia are outdated.

-Laughter-

“Not that O’Ciardha is any better, much harder to pronounce. Forgive me whoever winds up chronicling these journals, I am just trying to prepare myself, and stall as long as I can. But her grandfather, views the world to be a place of constant warfare and no peace, that there is no greater virtue then your own survival even at the cost of everything around you.

“For Jesse, she translated that to mean, since she fell over a boat when she was younger, and thought her sister had pushed her, that her life’s goal was to destroy the person who she assumed tried to kill her when she younger.

“By the time she arrived in America and began to search for her sister, I had found her sister. She had met up with a Dhampir of my bloodline named Rapier d’Epee. Rapier’s goal in life, much like Jesse, was to kill one person, and that person was the one who trained Jesse, The Beast.

“However, Rapier found Page, granddaughter of the Beast, and he would have killed her. They fell in love, it was very beautiful, and that’s a long story, and I would love to recite it some other time. But when it comes down to it, I had much too much riding on Rapier and Page surviving as a couple, and I assisted them.

“This leads to where Jesse found my mansion, hidden away in the mountains. She hadn’t been eating well, he road to revenge left her very little time to eat, and when she did, she insisted that Aurora eat in her stead. I had to force feed her.

“I remember watching her sleep, clearly. She was so peaceful and serene when she slept. Her face mimicked that of an ivory statue of Glorious Rome, or an angel at rest. She fell asleep on the couch, and I moved her next to the woman whose name is known simply as The Dreamer.

“She stirred slightly. I don’t know if she remembers, she rolled in my arms, and she draped her arm over my shoulder, and she pulled herself up, and laid her head on my shoulder.

-Sniffle-

“I’m sorry…Give me a second.

-Pause-

“Okay, she whispered to me. ‘Janus, please don’t leave me alone.’ I didn’t know what it meant back then. I had my heart broken countless times. I had shut my heart off to the emotion she was trying to convey without knowing. I laid her down, and she tossed in her sleep, very uncomfortable.

“I tucked her in, pulling the blanket around her shoulders. At this very time, as soon as I tucked her in, Rapier and Page were in Greece, in Hades, on the other side of the River Styx. Rapier had just been decimated in combat by my sole living family member, Eglantine.

“She was the one who created Rapier, and she ripped him apart before Page’s very eyes. Page was broken, Rapier was as good as dead. I rushed to him, and let him drink of my wrist… And I’m getting sidetracked, regardless, I saved Rapier and Page from what would be their death.

“This leads me back to Jesse, in the day or two I was gone, she one night found herself in my garden. It was nighttime. I was watching her and Aurora from my wall. Aurora knew I was there. I don’t know how she knew, but she knew.

“Jesse had received an emotional letter from her grandfather, and she was crying, she hid her tears from me. I had plans to tell her where her sister was. I also told her that I helped her. Jesse went ballistic. To her, me helping her sister was a betrayal of her trust in me, and she leapt and knocked me to the ground.

“Needless to say, I laughed. It was the first time I was caught off guard for a very long time, and she got angry, and she growled. She was getting ready to change, and rip into me. Now, the conversation, which I cannot recall clearly, was around me saving Page. It ended with me letting it slip that I was told by a ‘being’ to save her, and me covering her in blood.

“My vampiric abilities, like those who share my bloodline, focus on the sacrifice of our own blood for a result, and I made the blood go into her throat I cut off her air. She challenged me. She didn’t react to the loss of her air, she shook her head. In response to something I had said.

“I released her. I took a fighting stance I used to put down young creatures, one who thought it would be easy to defeat me. One arm behind my back. Jesse knew something I didn’t, and she side stepped. Behind her, Aurora threw three bolts of lightning at me. I froze time.

“I had five seconds, and I used them to draw swords, and catch the bolts of lightning and use my body as a conductor to strike Aurora. Jesse and I spoke again. This time she was sure Page wouldn’t have killed her. I was sure Page would have, and I… I used my swords, and my wings, I struck her face with my wings, and I cut into her legs.

“She looked towards Aurora. She was so concerned for Aurora. It was a weakness I was going to exploit, and I grabbed her by her neck and I tossed her across my Garden.

-Pause-

“Sorry… I then sepearated into a thousand bats, and I screeched and I bit and I clawed at her. She screamed in pain… I reformed, and I stood in front of her. ‘Are you ready to submit?’ I asked. ‘Never.’

“I never saw it coming. Aurora embedded her tomahawks into me. Right into my heart. Jesse and Aurora fought while I was a pile of ash. They were fighting. Jesse screamed at Aurora, and that was enough to break Aurora. She cried. Jesse broke down too. I reformed.

“I remember Jesse’s look on her face, when she saw me sitting there. I remember saying, ‘Remember me telling you I can’t die? It’s true.’ I fought her with blood clones next. The fight was over in nearly two moves. The blood clones were a quarter as powerful as me, and they stomped her.

-Sobs-

“I was prepared to kill her. She looked up at me, total fear in her eyes. She had given up. But… I wasn’t done yet… I had a clone grab Aurora, and I was going to kill Aurora. ‘Don’t kill her!’ She cried, I heard it all in her voice, and she began to cry, ‘I’ll do anything, I submit, just, please, don’t kill her.’

“I still wasn’t done, I had the clone cut into Aurora’s throat, ‘Take me!’ she screamed, ‘Torture me, kill me, whatever you feel the best, just don’t hurt her…’ She was broken, her tears fell freely, and she laid there the moonlight reflecting off of her blood.

“Aurora tried to heal her, and I kicked her in her face, sending her to the ground. She leapt towards Jesse and healed her. She would have died for Jesse, and she almost did. I freaked on Jesse, I yelled and I screamed, I called her names, I cursed her.

-Heavy sobs-

“I’m terrible. She looked at me. I could see her broken heart in her eyes. I remember trying to leave, trying to get away, and then she said something about my cold heart. I don’t remember what happened next. I don’t know what I did to her… I don’t know what I said, I don’t know how I hurt her.

-Heavier sobs-

“I remember her telling me, she would die for me. I thought she was joking. I honestly did. I don’t.. I don’t remember anymore. I just remember finding a dried and pressed black rose, one I had given her so long ago, in my hotel, and I remember holding it in my hand, crying. I guess we both didn’t know we were in love.

“I had forgotten the pain of a broken heart, and when I held that rose in my hand, that’s what I was feeling.”

“Janus… Oh Janus, you’re crying.”

-Soft hushing sounds and soft kiss sounds-

“Please don’t cry, Janus… Calm down, talk to me.”

“I’m so sorry Jesse…”

“Janus please calm down.”

-Two sets of sobs.-

“Just come, Please don’t leave me alone, Janus. Come to bed… I can hold you there…”

-Click-

Summer's Journal: Thirty-First Entry

2006-12-28T23:50:00.000-05:00

Every Christmas Eve my dad disappears. Christmas Eve is a time where I cuddle up next to my mother, we share a hot tea, and enjoy a warm fire. We don’t say anything. My mom puts her arm around me, and holds me close to her, and she strokes my hair until I fall asleep.

Before one can understand anything else that goes on, one must first know how my parents grew up as far as Christmas is concerned. For the first seven years of her life, my mother grew up with Christmas being something special, a time when Santa Claus left a bunch of Presents for her. For the next fourteen she lived with my Great-Grandfather.

She had, by the time she was eleven had forgotten about Christmas. All she knew was that on December 25, she received a luxury item. One year, she received a makeup kit, the next she got a new eyebrow ring (yes my mother loves to wear eyebrow rings.)

She often wears that ring still. I find the need to mention it within my journal because my mother is a werewolf, and it was a silver eyebrow ring. To her, the pain it caused her was a form of numbing her to pain, and at the same times giving a message to other werewolves.

My father’s Christmas tradition consists of this absence on Christmas Eve. He never says where he is going and even when my mother and he were a young couple, who given the severe difference in their ages, many people didn’t think they would work out, he left her Christmas Eve for whatever he had to do.

She told me one Christmas Eve that when he left her those first few Christmas’ she felt abandoned, and she began to shut herself off, thinking he was keeping secrets from her. When she woke Christmas morning, she found him laying next to her, with his arm around her as if he wasn’t even there.

My dad was raised over fifteen-hundred-years before presents were customary. He was modern enough to understand the value of a present. So my mother received, like she did from her Grandfather something special. Not a luxery item, but something special.

I grew up knowing Santa Claus’ secret. I figured out how he accomplished his magic when I was five. Even before that time, I didn’t receive anything for Christmas. Now, that may seem cold, cruel, maybe even heartless. But in fact it wasn’t. I was raised to respect everything that had been given to me, and I didn’t get everything I wanted.

My father is a millionaire. My mother is a wealthy land-owner. Together their bank is somewhere near 96.3 Million. Their lands worth together equals double that total. If I wanted something he would give it to me.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve needed more things. One thing my parents do is buy all my clothes and my makeup. They buy my food, and they let me live in their house. My only luxury items I require are books, and my father enjoys those as much as I do. I have an internet connection only because we need one sometimes.

I don’t often ask for things. It’s not my nature, there is nothing I really ever need. But when I ask for something it is music. My father gets it for me. I never abuse that. At Christmas time, we don’t have a Christmas tree, we don’t have presents. We have three plainly wrapped gifts; one from my mother to my father, one from my father to my mother, and one from my father and mother to me.

We wake in the morning, we drink tea and we open our gifts. This year my father received a rare book, an Original Print of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. My mother received new lingerie sent. I think my dad thought he was being cute. My mother looked deeper in the box and it revealed a single earring. It was Egyptian in make, and very, very old.

I turned for a moment while my parents frenched over their presents. I then slowly opened mine. The paper revealed a MP3 player. It was a compact little thing, and I was very happy. It had a Two Gigabyte hard drive and I have enough music to fill it.

I thanked them both with a kiss. I rushed upstairs and got on the computer, and uploaded all my songs onto it. By the time I was done it was around seven o’clock in the morning. We were due at my Aunt Page’s.

Aunt Page goes crazy over Christmas. She has a Christmas tree in every room, and she decorates her house, and she buys five presents for everyone. My father gets each person of their family a present. Brendan and I have made a habit of exchanging a gag gift every year.

He gets me some form of lingerie. Usually it is very revealing, and I blush and hide it, then he makes me show everyone. I however, am more cunning, I get him a necklace. Not a normal necklace an incrediably girly one, usually costume jewelry.

Lara my Aunt Page’s adopted daughter, is very old. But she is trapped in a young body, she says she was eight, but I think she was seven. She used to be called, ‘The Dagger’ she was an amazing vampiric assassin, she gets daggers. She also doesn’t understand Santa’s Magic, even after all these years. My Uncle Rapier gets swords. Aunt Page and Brendan both get a cornucopia of gifts from clothes to cds to movies to books.

Anything to help them blend better with modern day society that they so love.

By the end of present openings there is paper everywhere and Lara dives into it and throws it around. My aunt, mother, little Lara and myself all make a meal, while Brendan, Dad and Uncle Rapier all do clean up, and get to relax.

One year, I openly protested this sexist positioning. The next year, then men cooked and we got to relax. They tried, God bless them, but they failed and we all looked at each other and decided that never again would they be allowed in a kitchen. I think my father planned the ruined meal.

After Dinner we eat and we all sit around Aunt Page’s living room, and spend it together. That’s what Christmas is about to me.

But I will admit, I would miss the gag gift with Brendan if we every stopped doing Christmas like we do it.

It’s the Thursday After Christmas, and I am just now able t sit down and write, its been a nice week to sleep in. I haven’t heard from Chris.

Not even a Merry Christmas, which I think he would be into because of how much a sweet-heart he is. I wonder if he is okay.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Thirtieth Entry

2006-12-24T00:34:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the answers we find are better left unfound.

I know what the girl is, I found out today. I was bored, and rather then thinking I caught up on my reading. I was two or three books behind because of the nights talking with Chris on the phone. I read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Then I read Ovid’s Metamorphosis.

It took me an hour or two, and I realized after reading both of them. What the girl was; at least where she came from. I took hold of the necklace that allowed me to appear at my Cousin’s house. I ran to the quad of the school. She wasn’t there. I had no idea where she could be.

I knew she would want to be somewhere where she could not be seen by a lot of people. I went to the woods nearby the Track Field and the Football Field. I walked slowly through them.

I heard her yelp and she tried to run away from me. I chased after her, my mind and body inflamed by the hatred and Jealousy I always felt around her. I leapt towards her and tripped her up, and she fell to the ground. I turned her over and brought my elbow towards her cheek.

She caught my elbow, and then I tried to strike her with the other, which she caught. She rolled me over and pinned me to the ground. I feel so ashamed of the things I called her when she had me pinned to the ground. I could see her wanting to cry.

I closed my eyes tightly, “You’re not human,” I said, “You’re not a vampire, a mage, or a werewolf. You’re no of the sylvan, angels or demons. Someone made you, out of stone or ivory.” She released my wrists.

“Ivory.” She responded, “I don’t know who made me, they brought me to life and left me to fend for myself.” I spoke softly, “Why do I hate you? Why do I want to be you?” She opened my eyes so I looked at her, there was a mask around her, when I looked past it I saw the ivory brought to life, she was beautiful, but not as pretty as whatever it was made her.

“You want to be me because of my beauty, I know I’m beautiful, but I would give up this unrealistic beauty if I could find someone to touch me, to hold me. To take me in their arms and tell me I’m their own.”

I spoke softly turning my head from her, “I don’t mean to be mean to you, I want to help you.” She responded, “I know you don’t, you’re the first person to be nice to me, ever. I don’t have a soul,” she said, “Even you vampires have a soul, I am lacking, and everyone hates me because I don’t have a soul. Maybe if I did, I could fall in love.”

“It’s Christmas tomorrow,” I said, “I can speak with spirits. Maybe?” She smiled I felt it, “I don’t understand.” I spoke softly, “If you are willing, I can talk to a spirit, one who is benign yet trapped on earth for some reason. It would give them a second chance and you some form of a soul in your body. It would almost be a possession, if you worked it out right, you both could be conscious and make decisions together.”

She hugged me tightly, I made sure not to look at her as I spoke, “I can also get you a kiss. Before I get you a soul. But you can’t be scared or upset by his reaction.” She hugged me even tighter and she squealed. I pulled away from her, knowing I couldn’t look at her without getting angry.

I picked up my cell phone and I called my cousin. I explained the situation to him. I explained everything and he ran over. Once he saw me and he saw her he immediately covered his eyes, and walked towards me, “You may not feel anything,” I said, “Do not look at her. She’s gorgeous Brendan, but you’ll get angry, okay?”

“Its cool,” he said smoothly, “I’d be more then happy to kiss anymore of your friends, even if they are made of Ivory.” I watched Brendan fumble towards her without looking. She caught him.

“Hi,” he said, “I’m Brendan.” She spoke gently shying away from him. I was making sure to look at them from behind Brendan’s head. “I-I don’t have a name,” she said, “But you can name me if you like.”

I could tell Brendan was thinking and then he spoke, “Contressa,” he said. “I like it, Brendan, I just want you to know,” she said, “This is my first kiss ever, and I know you won’t love me afterwards or anything like that, but I will always hold this special in my heart.”

Brendan spoke, “I will try and make it special then.” He met her lips. She was unsure of whether she should hug him. He wrapped his arms gently around her, and she responded in kind, and after many seconds they parted. Brendan got angry at her. I knew he would, and I rushed up and I grabbed him. I pulled him back and covered his eyes.

Contressa released a sigh of pure joy, “Please, can you give me a soul?” I nodded, and Brendan calmed down, “Summer,” he said, “What happened? I’m sorry,” he said to her. Brendan told me after it all had happened that she was cold to the touch, and that she was like a puppet, only bending to what he was doing. He said she felt like supple marble.

So I spoke into the wind, through a bloody mouth, seeking a lost soul. I waited for several moments and finally a spirit arrived. She was a young girl, probably anabaptized, who died a violent death, she was crying.

I knelt next to her, “Can you understand me?” I asked her. Brendan was trying to see the spirit but couldn’t and Contressa was on cloud nine and didn’t even notice. “Yes,” she spoke in spirit-tongue.

“What is your purpose?” Black tears streaked down her cheeks, “I want to go to heaven with mommy.” I reached out to touch her, “I know how that can happen if you are a good girl.” Her eyes brightened, she looked at me, “Do you see that pretty girl?” I asked.

The little girl nodded, “I know she is much older then you, but she needs you to be inside of her. See she doesn’t have a chance to go to heaven, but if you go into her, you have a chance to go to heaven and so does she, but you have to work together.”

“Like me and little brother did when I was still alive?” I nodded, “Sort of, sweet child, see she needs to you help her make the right decisions and help her live a good life.”

“Like Jiminy Cricket!” She exclaimed, “Yes. See if you go inside of her, you will start to grow up again. And then maybe you can have a husband and kids, with her as your partner. Then if you are good people together you can go to heaven together, you would look like her. But I’m sure your mommy would know who you are.”

The little girl smiled, “I like that idea. I will try.” I spoke, “I need to take your hand. It won’t hurt you until you get inside of her, okay?”

The little girl extended her hand to me, and I took it, and I walked over to Contressa. I grabbed one of her hands, and I pulled them together. I closed my eyes. Blood filled my mouth, and I bridged a connection, one between Contressa and the little girl. I ran my index finger over certain lines in Contressa’s body and bound the little girl’s spirit within Contressa.

I looked at Contressa, she was very beautiful still, but not as beautiful as before. She was very white, like soft ivory, I could swear I saw her blood moving in her arteries under her white skin. I smiled at her, “I don’t want to kill you.” She smiled back, “Thank you so much, how can I ever repay you?”

“Be a good human, take care of people who are weaker then you, and always listen to that voice inside your head telling you to do better things.”

Contressa nodded and she walked away. Brendan walked up beside me, “So you gave her a soul?” I smiled, “Sort of, she is barrowing one. And maybe one day they will be one.” Brendan spoke, “Everyone thinks we are damned, you’re whatever you are, I’m a werewolf, you’re dad’s a vampire, everyone thinks we are the cursed walking the earth. I think I got it figured out though Sums, I think we are only damned if we act like we are.”

“I often think the same thing, Brendan. I don’t think we are damned, I just think those who came before us were.” He looked at Contressa walking away, “Do you think there are more of her out there, without souls living in shells, trying to find something to call a soul?”

“I hope not Brendan, I hope not.”

-Dawn

(Merry Christmas, from this little Clan of Misfits to your little Clan of Misfits, may it snow there, it certainly hasn’t here.)

Summer's Journal: Twenty-Ninth Entry

2006-12-21T15:05:00.000-05:00

No-one in my family knew about this girl, no-one had ever heard of the feelings I was feeling towards her. My father mused a Siren, but the problem is, a Siren would be liked by people, not despised. Anything that is pretty enough to evoke jealousy doesn’t invoke blind hatred.

I was getting angry with myself, especially this morning. Whenever I don’t know something, I get frustrated. I obsess on it until I find the answer. Unfortunately, the one got the brunt of this anger was Chris.

He saw me this morning and he hugged me, and I pushed him away. I just didn’t want to be affectionate with anyone, I wanted to know the answer. He was hurt, I could see it in his eyes.

“Summer, what’s wrong?” I released an angered sigh, “I don’t know what she is,” was my response, and that caused him to get angry, “Why is it so important to you? You can’t know everything.” I jumped at his tone, “Because I want to know!” “Summer, that’s very, very ignorant. Knowledge isn’t everything, its worthless to know everything because then what is there to discover!” He grabbed my wrist.

Normally, him grabbing my wrist wouldn’t have bothered me. From my point of view, at that very moment, he was trying to make me submit. I know it was silly, he was actually trying to get me to stay so we could resolve this fight.

My wolf side came out, and I spun my wrist and grabbed his. I held it tightly in my grip and I stood in his face. A low growl erupted from my mouth, and He took a step down. “I don’t like you like this,” he said softly, “Maybe you should call me when you find out what you need to know.”

I felt, at that moment dominate, and I was proud, but looking back on it, I had very few moments that were that low; That disturbing. I made the one person in the world who loved me and could be my true love submit to me because of my nature.

When he tried to pry away from me, I grabbed him tighter, and pulled him closer to me, I remember feeling he was mine, and I didn’t want him to go, and he had to do what I wanted. He then called me the name my cousin calls me because it’s the affectionate name my mother gave me, “Baby-Doll.” Instead of shocking me out of it like he wanted, it made me want to make him submit even more.

The low growl in my throat erupted from my mouth again and he realized he had done wrong. He turned his cheek to me, he revealed his neck. I pulled his arm so it was behind my body, it was an awkward movement, but it produced the desired result, my chin rested firmly over his neck.

Not having the fangs of the wolf I dug my chin into his neck. I felt him groan in pain. I should reinstate here, that Chris is a mage, not a werewolf. I am a mage, not a werewolf, but my mother is a werewolf, so I have primal urges like she does. Chris’ next action surprised me, looking back on it, but at the time, I felt good when he did it.

He whimpered. He knew what he was doing, and his whimpering meant I had won. He knew I wasn’t going to let him get away. I released my grip on his wrist, and he didn’t dare move.

He whimpered again, and I felt even more pride. Finally I lifted my chin and I looked at him. He looked at me through the corner of his eyes, “Summer; please… let me go.” I cast my eyes up to him, and he turned slowly to face me.

He took a step back, and I growled. So he stood still. He then reached into his pocket, and he grunted softly. My head turned in confusion. He brought his finger out, there was blood on it. My eyes shifted. I focused on the blood and a drop hit the ground. He held it out to me. I grabbed his wrist, so hard he dropped to his knees. I knelt with him, and I placed his finger in my mouth.

I felt the blood on my tongue, the sweet blood, Chris’ blood. It is important that I specifically state it was Chris’ blood because up into that point, in my brain he didn’t register as Chris, he registered as something I owned. I pulled his finger out of my mouth quickly.

“Summer?” he asked softly. I nodded. “Who am I?” “Chris,” I said softly. He spoke, “Do you know what you did?” I shook my head no. “You made me submit to you.” A salty tear formed in my eye and dropped down my cheek, it burnt me. “Summer Dawn,” he said, “Are you, yourself?” I nodded. I looked at his neck, there was a slowly forming bruise on it.

I kissed that spot softly, leaving a black lipstick mark on it. I looked at him and cast my eyes down. I pulled back, and I left, unable to face him. I skipped History Class so I wouldn’t have to be behind him. I knew I would probably try to lick his neck to help the wound clot better. Even though the wound wasn’t open and didn’t need to clot.

I didn’t see the girl. I couldn’t find my answer.

As I sit here, bathed in moonlight, absorbing her touch, I realized why I did that today. The first reason is, it’s a full moon. By nature on a full moon anyone who has any werewolf blood in their family, anywhere, get more active, does odd things, and becomes maybe angrier then they should.

The second reason is Chris. My body has lived sixteen years without the release of hormones that having someone you care about be close to you and hold you, and even hug you. With those hormones they throw my body out of balance.

Being as bright and full of common sense as my boyfriend is, he figured out the way to wake me from my lupinish side. He tried to awaken my vampire side. Knowing that its not as bestial or uncontrollable as my werewolf side.

I called him. I cried, I broke down on the phone. I pleaded and begged for his forgiveness. He accepted, and then to ease over the tension and sadness that was there moments before, he jested, “Remind me the night before a full moon, okay?”

-Dawn

(Sorry it has been so long, around the holidays is a hectic time, expect something Christmas eve, okay?)

Summer's Journal: Twenty-Eigth Entry

2006-12-15T13:25:00.000-05:00

I saw that strange girl again today. All week I had been thinking about why I had been so mean to her. What made me do that? It wasn’t me being any part of me, was it?

When I saw her, it all came back, the Jealousy. The Hatred of how beautiful she was, and compared to her how ugly I was, I forced myself to walk up to her. When I met her I shook with hatred and I wanted to hit her.

“Please don’t hit me,” she pleaded, “I don’t know why everyone hates me…”

I turned from her, but I felt her still there, still more beautiful then I was, “I don’t know why I hate you.”

“You’re human…” I paused, I was human… Somewhere… “Why do humans hate you?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she sobbed.

I turned to her, I still wanted to hit her, I still wanted to be her, but I held back those primitive human urges, “I’m sorry.”

“You can’t help it,” she said softly, “Its not your fault… You saved me… I owe you my life, I had to come back to see you again. You’re the first person who was ever nice to me.”

I knelt down to her, and I went to touch her but I retracted scared I would hurt her. She was so like a child, something kicked inside of me, I had to protect her. But at the same time I had to hurt her, I had to be her. “Why do you invoke such feelings in me?” I asked.

A tear rolled down her cheek, “I don’t know… I don’t know what you are feeling.” I choked on my own words,“I want to be you.”

She scooted back as quickly as she could, “Don’t say that,” she growled. It was the most violent I had ever noticed her. She was always so passive, “You don’t know what its like to be me. You don’t want to be me!”

She stood, and I stood, but she had run away by the time I was able to begin my chase after her…

Maybe Chris will know something about this girl… Maybe anyone will know something about this girl. I am frustrated that I don’t.

-Summer Dawn

Summer's Journal: Twenty Seventh Entry

2006-12-11T23:50:00.000-05:00

My father has traveled the world, he has lived many lives, and ended countless more. He has experienced and seen things that some of us can only hope to dream of seeing. I remember when I was a child and I asked him to describe what the phoenix he saw so long ago looked like.

Today I encountered something, something I could scarcely even comprehend meeting. I was walking through school and I felt death. I closed my eyes and I looked for it. I found it, it was a girl.

She was being hassled by a group of kids. They had her surrounded and yelling at her, and prodding her, and calling her stupid, and ugly. I ran up to them, and she didn’t seem all that ugly to me. I pulled her out of the group. She was so cold to the touch, yet so warm.

Once I had dragged her from the group, I took her to the edge of the quad. I felt odd being around her. She was so beautiful. I… I wanted to be her. Her chin was perfectly formed, her hair was a golden halo, and her eyes were a wonderful blue. She had a perfect body, she wore clothes that accentuated the perfection of her hips.

I wanted to be her, I don’t know what came over me, but I lashed out at her. I screamed and I leapt on top of her and I grasped her hair, and I began to beat it off the ground. She looked at me, I saw tears in her eyes.

I have no idea why I was so angry at her. Was it jealousy?

I backed off from her, and I turned around but I felt her there. I felt the subtle death on her. I felt the pain of her person, but I couldn’t face her. Whatever it was, I wanted her dead.

“You…” She said accusingly, “Why did you save me to hurt me?” I couldn’t answer. “You’re not human,” I said, “You’re not vampire. What are you?” She knelt down behind me, I felt her do it, I felt this itching feeling to hurt her. She was so beautiful. I couldn’t stand it, something about her irked me.

“I don’t know,” she pleaded, “You touched me…” I looked at her, and that feeling overwhelmed me again. “I did touch you,” I said, “Why wouldn’t I, you were in trouble.” She looked at me, She was so beautiful, I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to be her.

“I’ll never bother you again,” she said, “I’m sorry I did in the first place.” I looked at her. She looked at me. She rose from the ground and stumbled away from me. I couldn’t follow her, I would hurt her if I followed her.

But she intrigued me. She wasn’t a zombie, she wasn’t a human. What was she? She rushed off and I felt so bad. I didn’t understand everything. I couldn’t understand why I wanted to hurt her. Maybe I will meet her again someday.

-Dawn

Crossover 1: Captain Picard's Christmas Party

2006-12-09T20:41:00.000-05:00

It was going to be a rough trip. The Starship Enterprise, a ship of the future sent me an invitation from the future, and somehow I received it. Time travel is a concept that is utterly ridiculous to me.

The last time I was invited to the enterprise I was getting ready for school, and I vanished, and arrived in the ‘Transporter room’ as they called it. It was an interesting party, and they returned me to the exact time in which I vanished.

School went by long and painful this time. They said they were going to transport me to the Enterprise Tomorrow Evening at six. Rather then question, I called and Invited my boyfriend, Chris.

I dressed to scare, like always, black fishnets, short black skirt, black tank top with a silken black over shirt, and I did my makeup in Egyptian style only using black and white however.

When Chris arrived he was dressed to match wearing all black, which was very unlike him; but he wore a crimson red tie. I smiled and kissed his cheek.

“Hey… This feels a little weird at first.” He looked confused. “Where are we going again?” He asked me. I responded with, “The future. It is very confusing.” He nodded, “Okay, I’ll play this game, Summer.” He said.

I grabbed my present for him. It was wrapped in black wrapping paper, and tied with a black silken bow. I held Chris’ hand tightly, “Any moment now,” I said softly to him.

That’s when a feeling welled up beneath my feet happened, and I held onto Chris’ hand tightly; When I opened my eyes we were onboard The Enterprise. Chris was in shock. I held his hand.

“It’s okay, we are here,” he was frightened. I was too the first time I was on the Enterprise. Not only were their aliens, there was so much technology I was taken back. He stared in awe.

“Summer,” he said submissively, “Summer you weren’t joking.” I spoke into his ear, “We’ve got to go see the Captain.” “Summer… This is the Enterprise. From… Star Trek. Which Captain, Picard or Krik?” I raised my eyebrow, “What are you going on about?” He shook his head, “Nothing. This is a dream.”

“Well, it’s Captain Picard. Be respectful,” I warned. He nodded, and I walked towards the door, and it opened. Inside there was a table of presents, and I set mine on it. It was a bottle of holy-water taken from Jerusalem and blessed by a priest and a shaman.

I held his hand as we walked forward, “Don’t look down to any beings on this ship. It’s a sign of disrespect on most of their planets. I learned that last time I was here. Once inside the bar area I looked around for the Captain.

Chris seemed amazed by the whole thing. So much so I was leading him, and he was keeping quiet. As we passed people he spoke their name under his breath, and when we finally arrived to Captain Picard; Chris stared.

“Hello Summer, I hope the trip through time went well,” Captain Picard said turning from a guest, “It did Captain. Thank you for inviting me.”

“And who is this handsome young man?” He spoke motioning towards Chris, “This is my boyfriend, Captain, Chris.” Chris held his hand forward and spoke, “I’m a big fan, Pat-Captain Picard.” Captain took his hand and shook it heavily.

He took my hand and kissed it, “As always, it’s a pleasure to see you.” I blushed, “Merry Christmas Captain.” “Merry Christmas you two! Enjoy the Party, if you need anything come and get me, okay?”

“Thank you, Sir,” Chris said. “I want to meet so many people!” Chris began to drag me around, talking to everyone he could see. He knew all of them by name. He kept running up like some fan boy from one of those Science Fictions shows or something.

Finally he settled down, incredibly tired from all the excitement. I sat him down on the couch, and I went to get us punch. When I returned Chris was dozing off.

“Chris… Wake up,” he nodded, “I am up. Thanks for bringing me Summer.” I handed him his punch and I drank my gently. That’s when a woman with pale skin walked up.

“I am Seven of Nine,” she spoke, “I noticed you and your life mate were alone.” I responded quickly, “He’s not my life mate; we are just dating.” “Dating?” she asked, “What is this dating?”

“It’s a courtship to find a life mate. Seven, are you borg?” I asked. “Yes,” she responded, “Locutus was sure to include us heavily this year.” That got me started, “How do you work? You are vampires right? Vampires that make other vampires through technology right? Try and explain it.”

“You’re very energetic,” she responded, “The Borg are supreme. Resistance of them is Futile. We assimilate other species and cultures into our own, take their strength and lose their weaknesses, we change assimilate through technology, and vats, which make you into a productive member of the Borg.”

“That’s interesting, is it a DNA reconfiguration or cyborg technology that make the brain a changeable hard drive?” She looked taken back, “Your intelligent for a human, it’s a little of both. The vats make you look and have the strength of those assimilated in the Borg, and the technology makes you part of the borg overmind, to be lead by a queen.”

“Are you dead or alive?” “Alive.” “Only females are made into Queens, or is their Borg Kings?” “Only women, There are Borg who act as emissaries between two peoples, such as Locutus.” “This is interesting. And how do you assimilate abilities?” “You’re a magician, are you not? That’s why I came to speak to you. You use Magic.”

“Not so much a Magician.” “See, if we were to assimilate you, we would all be able to use your magic.” These people were very interesting; scary; but interesting.

“I see, and you wanted me to become Borg?” “I could speak to the Queen to get you to become a high borg, no useless drone.” “I’m sorry Seven, I have to go home. I have school.” “If you ever wanted to…” “I will come to you. I promise.”

She stood, and walked away. Chris was very asleep. I kissed his cheek, “Chris. We have to go; You’re very tired.” He nodded and I had to guide him to the Transporter Room, “Thank Captain Picard for me. It was a wonderful party.” We arrived at home, and I made sure Chris got to Brendan’s.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Twenty-Sixth Entry

2006-12-07T11:25:00.000-05:00

I will never fully understand boys. I somehow think when they are not normal boys they get even worse. For example, my cousin and my boyfriend; as it was mentioned countless times before, my cousin is wolf-blooded. That means he is a werewolf waiting to become a werewolf. During the night of a full moon he can’t sleep right. Another thing is he gets angrier faster than normal people, and he fights more than normal people. I personally feel he fights more than normal people because of his magnetic personality to the other sex, and their magnetic personality to their boyfriends.

But him being wolf-blooded means he is stronger than normal people, faster than normal people, and under certain situations of adrenaline and such, he takes on the characteristics of his race. I have seen his finger’s gain claws, and his eyes turn feral yellow several times, despite the fact he’s not a werewolf yet.

My boyfriend is a mage. We do not often discuss his magic; he doesn’t feel comfortable talking about. I scarcely know anything about his magic at all. Any knowledge I gained was from his aura, and I’m not good at reading auras to begin with. He’s elemental, although I do not know which one, or if he is all of them. He also can heal. I often wonder how good of a healer he is.

And I will have to say, my boyfriend is against using his abilities unless he has to in everyway. Which leads me to believe he was raised by normal people, but I am unsure because he never talks about his family; I gave up on trying to find out. Likewise, both my cousin and my boyfriend are on track. I am sure Chris could use his magic to make him go faster, as Brendan could use his ingrain abilities to do the same, and I asked Chris why he doesn’t.

He became very upset with me, and said It was cheating in the highest form, and that he could never live with himself or forgive himself for doing. I felt really bad, because I use my magic to do simple everyday things. It’s a lot easier to take out the trash when you are ordering a skeleton to do it, rather then doing it yourself.

Chris and Brendan sometimes go out at intervals usually once a month for guy time. I would have been more than happy to sit at home and read a book. But my cell phone rings, and it was Brendan. Brendan typically calls me for two things, The first because he just woke and wanted to tell me he was not going to be able to walk to school with me. The second is to trick me into doing something I don’t want to do. I wasn’t going to let him trick me this time.

“Hey Cuz,” he said. “Hello Brendan,” I responded. “Hey, we are going to be watching movies, and Chris wants you down here so you can cling to him at the scary parts.” I’m sure he felt the distaste in my voice on the phone. I create the scary parts of movies, “He said that?” Brendan spoke, “Yup, he said that, I tend to agree with him, you seem to scare easily.”

I grasped my necklace, while putting my phone into my side pouch, and I used to get to Brendan’s house. My father gave the necklace to me when I was younger. He gave one to Brendan too; it was so we could both go to each other’s houses without the hassle of travel. When I appeared there, two people grabbed me. I had little or no time to react, so my first reaction was to cast a spell. Blood filled my mouth, and my hands became black, and I reached towards their stomachs, and I took ahold. I felt their energy go into me, and then Brendan spoke up, “Summer its us!”

I released immediately and the blood vanished. “Do you know how irresponsible that way?!” I yelled at him. Chris fumbled forward, and I caught him, “You too! You’re supposed to be the voice of reason. Let’s just grab the girl who can steal years of our lives if she is startled!” I grabbed Chris’ head and Brendan’s head and hit them together. They both held their hands over their new bump, and looked down from me.

“I’m going home. If it was supposed to be a funny trick, guess what its not. I feel terrible now for hurting both of you.” I sat on Aunt Page’s stoop. I looked at the two boys, who sat next to me. They both put their arms around me.

“Please come bowling with us, someone has to be their to keep score who is good with math,” Brendan said. Chris countered, “I am good with math, but not as good as you. But I also don’t cheat to enhance my score.” Brendan countered, “I’m not the one who can guide the ball by looking at it!” Chris countered, “I’m not the one who can throw the ball hard enough to knock all the pins down anyway!”

“BOYS!” I yelled, and they stopped. “I will keep score. But I want to bowl too.” They both laughed. “What?” I asked. Brendan said, “Nothing at all.” “What?!” I asked more forcefully. “Nothing,” Brendan said, “Its nothing, babydoll.”

My cheeks had to become red even through my white makeup. I turned to him, I slapped his head five or six times. “Babydoll?” Chris asked. I sat down and looked down from him, and all my rage that was in me hitting Brendan calmed down, “What’s the big deal about Babydoll?” I didn’t respond. Brendan kept telling Chris to cut it through motions, and Chris finally realized that if it sent me into a blind rage at Brendan, that I was censoring myself now.

They stood, and Uncle Rapier pulled up in Aunt Page’s car, and we all filed in. I sat next to Chris and I rested my head on his shoulder for the trip across town. When we arrived at the bowling alley, the two boys ran in kicking and fighting. Uncle Rapier turned to me.

“Summer Dawn,” he said, “Be patient, and do not,” he said, “Do not raise anything from the dead to rend their flesh.”

“I’ll try not to.” I stood and left the car. I noticed Brendan and Chris were carrying large bags, I assume with their bowling balls in them. As I walked in, they dragged me to the counter, and told me to tell the lady my show size.

“Do you have anything in black?” I asked. She shook her head no. “Am I allowed to bowl in my socks?” She nodded. Brendan and Chris sighed. I on the other hand went searching for a bowling ball. I found a black one, and it had big finger holes and weighed far too much. I found another black one, and it was just right. I dragged it over to the alley where Brendan and Chris had made their niche.

I looked at the names, Brendan, Chris, and Babydoll. I set the ball down very calmly, and I laid my fist into both of their jaws. They cradled their jaws in their hands, and didn’t dare try to explain which one of them did it.

Once we started, Brendan threw one, and I could see his feral muscles move as he threw it. It landed and went with incredible accuracy and was a strike. Chris smiled at Brendan as he came back. When Chris walked up, I felt a pull of energy, and I noticed his hands glow, as he threw his ball, it was going terribly off course, and then it miraculously went back on course, and also got him a strike.

It was my turn, and I walked up with my ball. I had to wonder, how was necromancy going to help me when I was bowling? So I threw the ball. It went into the gutter. I sighed, and I began to think, what could little old me do to enhance her bowling game? As my ball came back up through the machine, I came up with an idea. I concentrated, and my focus cleared, and my body moved to my will. I threw the ball, and it went straight and it hit the pins. When I turned around, my eyes had to be red, and I blinked and forced it away. I daintily walked by them and kissed Chris’ cheek, and winked at Brendan, and I sat down.

Suddenly I went from Summer Dawn, to Summer Dawn the bowler. I don’t understand what me getting a spare had anything to do with them treating me like a bowler. I think maybe this was their game. Maybe their once a month thing was them going out and competing using their powers.

They didn’t count on me, more of a dhampir then Brendan coming and tapping into that small amount of blood I have in me. The game went with Brendan using all the abilities he could muster. His feral eyes, his feral muscles, feral concentration, and it made me proud to know he was comfortable enough with his heritage to be able to do that. Chris used his telekinesis most of the time, one time I felt a gust of wind when his ball was badly of course, and I also noticed that one time the ball was cool to the touch when I went to grab mine. When I threw my ball the next time, the alley was slippery, and my ball veered off course. I had to call the aid of a spirit to aid me.

Most of the time, I used my dhampiric concentration. I dare not try anything else, I don’t like to drink blood, and the only way to unlock those things would be to feed. The other thing I did was use spirits to help guide my ball, and likewise, push both of their balls off course, and Brendan blamed Chris, and Chris realized it was me.

It was a lot of fun. I have to say, I wouldn’t have rather been reading. I hope they invite me next time, but I know they have to their own time together too. I just want to do it again. It was a night of practical jokes and using magical ingrain abilities.

It lets me know that Chris is comfortable with who he is, so I know now he is comfortable with who I am.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Twenty-Fifth Entry

2006-12-02T19:50:00.000-05:00

Chris asked me today when I learned to use magic. I don’t know what prompted him to, and I don’t know why he felt the need to know. I responded in kind. I didn’t want to tell him. I didn’t want to tell anyone.

He seemed upset with me for not sharing. I cast my eyes down from his. I wanted him to understand. I’m perhaps the last necromancer in the world. No-one has ever ran into them, unless they have ran into me.

Chris just couldn’t understand. He couldn’t. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to explain it to him. I was out with my father on a routine check of a magical nexus. He may not have known it was a magical nexus, but the whole place had an inky black aura.

I was so scared back then, so terrified. That I held onto my father as if he was the only thing that could save me. I wonder if I would have been better off not crossing that stream. I crossed it.

I don’t know what caused me to cross it, whether it was the fact that my father couldn’t, or the moans. The moans of those poor lost souls. I had to go see; I had to. When I crossed the stream I didn’t see much of anything. The fog had rolled in seconds before.

I walked forward having a hard time adjusting to the thickness of the fog. I hit a gate. It was metal and it caused me to the withdrawal. I followed along it, and I found a gate, and I opened it. Once inside, the fog seemed to life a little, and I could see vague figures, all of them the unmarked graves. I gently followed along, and from nowhere someone grabbed me.

I couldn’t see it, I tried to pull away. I shoved hard and it fell to the ground, I didn’t know what it was, but I ran for the large structure, and I threw open the mausoleum door, and I ran in and closed the door.

I felt a cold chilling in my spine and I turned. There was a man there, he had dark hair and he wore dark clothes. He smiled when he saw me, “I knew you would come.”

Then he disappeared. I ran to where he was and there was nothing there. I turned to run towards the door, and when I got there, the door formed skeletal hands they grabbed me. They held me down. I tried to fight but I wasn’t strong enough.

The man appeared before me again, and I began to scream, “Don’t fight,” he said, taking me by my wrists. He pulled and I was free of the skeletal hands. But now he held me. One of his hands were skeletal and he pulled me towards him. I shoved on him, and then I ran towards the door again, and I threw it open.

Whatever I had pushed down, was standing there. It grabbed me again, it was a man, not him, and he didn’t grab me in the same way as the man had. He came towards me. I saw his eyes, his face. Ragged from decay, and the smell was overpowering, but I couldn’t turn away from him.

His eyes; I still see them when I close my own, whenever I cast a spell his eyes come to me. They were vacant, dead, but they held all the answers. They spoke of everything that one needs to know about life. Death. In the end Death won out. It was hard to shake the sight of Love in those eyes. I saw it deep down in him still.

We stared at each other. I don’t know why this zombie wasn’t trying to eat me, but his eyes…

Those eyes. They told me everything. I could go on describing them but I would fail. I saw a power in death, I saw an answer in death. I saw Death. I felt blood fill my mouth. It had to be his blood, but I don’t know how it came from him into my mouth.

My mouth filled with blood, and the substance that cursed my dead, had to be my salvation because as the zombie came to bite my neck, I willed him to stop and he did. I held the blood in my mouth as it overflowed. Dripping onto the ground and causing a plant to grow.

I’m not crazy… I swear. I’m not crazy!

The plants grew up and covered my body and thorns and black roses engulfed me and pulled me down into the ground inside a coffin. I began to beat on the coffin lid and I screamed. I don’t remember what I was screaming. But then I saw the man’s face. He spoke, “I can save you…” He then grabbed my waist and pulled me towards the lid, and then I was there, and he was making me press against him.

Then he was the zombie. I willed the zombie to stop. Then a few others with those moans, those moans of understanding and knowledge, came towards me, and my mouth filled with blood again, and this time it tasted good, sweet…

I concentrated on the zombies and they all stood still. They were mine… For that sweet moment I controlled life and death. I could will them into eternal sleep, or I could keep them eternally awake.

I felt so strong, not the frail china-doll I was before, now I had control. They were mine. No-one could take them away from me. Not Death. Not God. I was a goddess in my own rights. I flung open the mausoleum door, and I entered. The man was standing there. He was watching me.

The zombies who were mine entered behind me. “Hello Summer Dawn,” he said, “I can save you.” I curled my lips in disgust, and I pointed. The zombies went towards him, and as they walked closer to him they became human again, and then he looked at me.

“Summer Dawn, kill them, and make them yours again,” He tossed me a sickle. I reached down and grabbed it. I shook my head no. “Summer,” he said as he appeared in front of me, and the skeletons pushed me to him, and he pulled me tightly against him. What was he doing to me?

I looked down, I was a skeleton and so was he. My bones rattled as I shook in fear. I still held the sickle in my hand. I brought it across where his throat was supposed to be, and his blood poured out and covered my body.

I closed my eyes as I felt the warm liquid engulf me. He grabbed onto me shoulder, and ran his skeletal hand down my entire body… He… He died, and I knelt to him, as the people became zombies again. He wheezed, and the blood bubbled on his neck.

I took the sickle and I stabbed it into his chest, and his body went limp. I closed my eyes, and I felt his blood fill my mouth, and he rose from me, and he was mine… I felt an electric feeling all about me. I had conquered him.

He was mine. I ordered him to put the others out of their misery, and he did that, and once he was done, I heard his voice inside my head, “Use me, Summer Dawn, Use me and you can rule the world.”

I reached my hand out, and I willed him to decay into nothingness and he became a pile of dust. Tears filled my eyes. I had never killed anyone before. I killed him for power… I killed him because he was trying to dominate me, and I dominated him.

I then saw what where I was, standing in middle of a small unmarked family plot, and there was no blood around me, and no zombies, no anything, just me.

I’m not crazy… I’m not… It all happened!

I just wish someone would believe me if I told them…

-Dawn

Janus' Record: 4

2006-12-01T10:16:00.000-05:00

(Kept by Phonograph)

“This is another recording about my Daughter, because I am still feeling very upset that she hasn’t told me about Chris yet. It has been another day. She can’t trust me to tell me she has a boyfriend. Does she think I will hurt him?

“Thousand Faces, Aurora Dawnsfire was the one who gave my daughter her mage gene, but a mage doesn’t acquire magic through having the mage gene. Some people who have it will never be able to use their magic. My daughter was one of the fortunate ones who was able to unlock her abilities.

“When she was thirteen, I had to do a routine check of a place of local legends in Europe. It was something I often did, checked the place where the rift between the spiritual world and this one, and a place of supernatural interest.

“This one of interest is a cemetery of unmarked tombs, and a whole lot of them. The theory is that a whole family was slain, and the killer buried their bodies in unmarked tombs separating those who were closest furthest apart.

“The other theory was that all a rogue mage created a temporus fissure and it ripped the souls from the bodies, and the unmarked graves contain actually no corpses. Some people believe that it was where an angel fell from grace, and landed on a household, and killed all the people in it.

“The theories all stand to be proven, all I know is I have to go there once a year and make sure the restless, perhaps, dangerous spirits are not traveling about and killing people. I told Jesse what I was doing, and Summer who was sitting nearby wanted to spend time with me.

“’Daddy,’ she said, ‘Can I come too?’ I looked to Jesse, and Jesse nodded, and I said, ‘Sure Summer.’ She ran to her room. I knew this was going to take longer than it should. She returned wearing blue jeans, a baby blue t-shirt, and her flaming red hair pulled back.

-Laughter-

“She had done a quick job of her make-up, it was red lipstick, rose colored cheeks, soft blue eyeshadow.

-Laughter and more Laughter-

“Oh man,

-Laughter-

“I forgot how she used to dress. She was such a little princess. She wasn’t terrible, but she always had to look pretty, and she always wanted to be aesthetically pleasing to everyone. She used to wear bright colors…

-Heavy laughter-

“And Pink!

-Even heavier laughter-

“Oh God, Pink and Summer!

-Laughter-

“I wish I had pictures!

-Laughter starting to calm-

“She ran to me, and took my hand. I concentrated and we appeared in the nearest town. The first thing we had to do was we had to speak with the locals about activity. Summer, at this point in her life, only knew a couple of languages, other than English, of course. I think she knew… French and Spanish, I think she was just getting into German.

“But, we had to ask the locals if anything weird was going on. The fifteen people I asked didn’t hear anything. Summer’s had heard of a child going deep into the moor and disappearing and anyone who went to find him never came back.

“To me, this meant either stupid people, or something was killing them as they got out there. ‘As you value your life or your reason keep away from the moor,’ Summer recited. I smiled, ‘Perhaps.’

“We began our trek to the moor. It was a long walk, and along the way Summer kept trying to keep busy by looking at the wildlife around her. As we went further down the path into the moor, it became darker and darker, and Summer began to shrink in on herself.

“I didn’t know what to say to comfort her, as that we were getting towards the cemetery where this nexus was supposed to be. She kept walking closer and closer to me until finally every sound made her jump, and she squeezed me around my stomach.

“’Summer dear,’ I said, ‘I won’t let anything happen to you.’ She nodded into me. I wasn’t sure she was convinced. Finally we arrived at the cemetery. It had changed. More people had been added, there was even a mausoleum. Summer looked around.

“The first sign of anything the least bit dangerous was a moan of a person who had lost their life before its time. Summer closed her eyes, and she held me tightly. The fog rolled in at that very moment, and covered us.

“’Daddy, make it go away!’ She pleaded. I closed my eyes, and I pushed on the fog. It didn’t retreat which meant it was supernatural. ‘I can’t,’ Summer began to shake at this time.

“I asked her if she wanted me to take her home, and she said no. I don’t know what made her want to stay here so bad, was it pressure from me? She walked forward, and she took steps on her own. Whenever I went towards her, I hit a barrier, I looked down, someone had made a stream’s path encase the graveyard and I couldn’t cross it.

“I can only tell what I remember, she came back over that stream a changed person. I don’t honestly know what she saw over there, or what happened, but I remember the trickle of blood coming from her mouth and she looked at me and said, ‘Daddy,’ I thanked God she still held the sweet tones of love she had before, ‘There was a man over there. I killed him. I had to… He was going to kill me.’ I nodded, and hugged her, and she hugged me tightly back.

“’I want to go home now, I am very tired,’ she said with a yawn. I kissed the top of her head, and I took her home. I laid her in her bed, and she fell asleep. The next morning when she woke up she wore the only black clothes she owned, and she did her makeup in the gothic look.

“I wish I could recite more, but I wasn’t there, and she had never told anyone what went on over there, not me, or not her mother, but whatever it was, it allowed her to use her magic.

“I think I am going to go see if she asleep, and if she is, watch her for a couple of moments before I lay down myself.”

Summer's Journal: Twenty-Third Entry

2006-11-27T10:14:00.000-05:00

There are two forms of getting what we want in the family. I am not well versed in either. When there is something I want, I just reach out and take it. Sometimes the direct approach isn’t the best, or that’s what I had been taught.

An IRS agent approached the house today, when he arrived at the door, I was the one who answered, “Are you Jesse Carey?” I shook my head not, “Tha-“ “Then are you Jesse O’Ciardha.” “No. Tha-“ “Is the person who I named currently here?” “Yes, but you’ll want to talk to my father…” “Your father? What’s your last name?” “O’ci-“

“Get me your father little girl.” I bit my lip, and I walked into the library, “Dad, there’s a real bas-“ “Summer, you’re mother would wash your mouth out with soap.” I was frustrated at this point, I couldn’t even finish a sentence this morning. I followed my father out to the IRS agent.

“What’s your name Sir?” My father was taken back immediately by this, “Jeffrey McDubshile.” The IRS agent rolled his eyes, “How is it spelled?” My father spelled it out for him, “This hotel’s deed lies in the name Janus McDubshile. How did you acquire the title?” My father answered, “My father Janus died, thank you for bringing up painful memories.”

The IRS agent looked to his book, “Did you know Jeffrey that the person known as Jesse O’Ciardha who is living at this house owes back taxes for seventeen years?” My father looked thoughtful, “No, no I did not. Are you sure?”

My father winked at me, and the IRS agent looked down at his book, “I was pretty sure… But…I’ll check again.” He looked down, then back up, “Yes, Yes she does owe seventeen years.” My father thought for a second, “Okay but you know she lived in Europe for a long time.”

The IRS agent seemed unphased, “No, she’s still going to have to pay up.” My father sighed, “How much is it?” The IRS agent responded, “$17,341.56.” My father’s eyes widened as did mine, “How?” “All of the land she owns surrounding this mansion, including several plots in the Dakotas and several more in the mountains north of here, and several homes in towns scattered about the United States.”

“Go get your mother.” I did as ordered. This IRS agent had a strong will to resist my dead, and my dad didn’t want to break the poor guy. My dad’s subtle persuasion didn’t even work. I went into my father and mother’s room, and found my mother getting dressed.

“There is an IRS agent here, Dad’s didn’t work. He sent me to get you,” she continued what she was doing without responding to me, and then she walked past me. I followed her, and when my mother crossed the hall, all I heard was.

“WHO ARE YOU TO COME INTO MY HOME AND TO TELL ME I OWE YOU MONEY?!” The IRS agent didn’t even have a chance to respond before my mother went on, “YOUR GOVERNMENT DOESN’T GIVE A SINGLE MOTHER ANY SUPPORT, AND THE ONLY PERSON WHO WILL HELP ME IS JEFFREY, AND HE CAN’T EVEN DO THAT PROPERLY. AND YOU COME INTO MY HOUSE TELLING ME I OWE YOU MONEY?!” He began to stutter, “but-but…” She tore into him again, “NO, NO BUTS. I CAN’T EVEN KEEP HER FED AND IN CLOTHES. LOOK AT HOW PALE SHE IS! NO, BACK UP, AND WALK AWAY!”

The IRS agent was just staring at my mother, he took a step back, “Mam,” he said firmly, “First of all calm down. Second of all, the IRS cannot just ignore $17,000. No matter how good your sob story is. So take a step back down. You own 1,000 acres in Dakato, and the land surrounding here you own 50 acres, and in the mountains nearby you own 300 acres. The land in the mountains contains a small building. In Philadelphia, Elizabethtown, Lover, and Erie Pennsylvania, and you own a house in every state on the eastern seaboard. You are well to do, mam. So pay my the money.”

She calmed down and was speechless. My father was speechless because apparently he didn’t know my mother owned so much land. I concentrated very hard, and a trickle of blood came out of my mouth. I called a banshee to aid me for a moment, and around me, I felt her coldness, and I gave her energy, she manifested, and wailed, and the IRS agent shook with fear, and then fainted.

My father and mother both turned and looked at me, “Summer Dawn,” my father said, “That wasn’t entirely helpful.” I knelt at the book, and I began to read it all. I smiled, “Write it all off.” My mother looked at me, and my father laughed, “Mom, you can write off taxes.”

My father began to write everything down, and he took care of the fraud we were committing. He then woke the IRS agent.

“Are you okay?” My mother asked, “You fainted.” He looked around, “huh?” My father spoke, “Yes, you fainted. It was a mess.” He looked at his papers, “What’s all this?” My father spoke, “I don’t know, you were the one who was writing everything down.”

He nodded, and very confused left the house. I giggled. Maybe the direct approach is still the best approach.

-Dawn

Jesse 2

2006-11-23T00:10:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written Journal:

Day: Early

Month: middle

Season: Spring

So much is new and so many records to keep. Aurora came back. I am older now…stronger.

I have left Grandfather’s house, or more, he rather kicked me out. Abandonment runs in this family, and he is no better then my mother or my sister. Love has died in me. I have severed so I needn’t feel so pained at being dejected again. I have also ceased to feel much pain due to hunger. We haven’t much money and that which we do, I don’t squander on food. I will save. It will help me start my life once the business with the evil one is done.

I have been wandering with Aurora all over the States. We have found so many girls that could have been my sister. So many cities that could have been ours. I remember what it looks like, but I don’t remember the name. I curse myself daily for not having asked my mother when I was with her.

I have come to hate every Werewolf save myself. My Grandfather has scorched me, the burning from inside to out. Every wolf I have run across has challenged me. Their deaths were quick and painless, but I have grown to hate their brash and territorial features. The men especially. Let one in close and they smell it on you forever. You become a possession to them. A female wolf is left to be dominated and claimed. Not this one. I have had too many battles solidifying my own dominance over myself, and no one else’s. It seems every town I go to, I must establish that I am looking not to be dominated, but merely to kill the wolf that calls herself my sister.

Once, in a town, I think the name was Duron, I found a wolf who matched me almost completely. Her fur, her build…even when she was human she looked close to me. Slight difference that could have been acquired with growth from the wretched seven year old I remembered. I fought her, and killed her. Her last dying words filled me with anger. It was a battle of wills and territory. She was not the b*tch I needed. Her name was Clara…and I learned that with her last gasp of air. So much anger filled me. I was so close. I thought I had it…but fate had slipped it in hands and then drew it out between my fingers. I had come back to the small abandoned building I was staying at for the duration of my stay and began to fling things across the room. The sound of snapping and splintering wood as well as the smell of crumbling and destroyed plaster helped to soothe me. I wasn’t as angry anymore. Aurora had come home quickly as well, her tiger by her side. She was in one of my favorite forms: The lame Geisha. I loved this form simply because she could talk to me. It made me happy to talk to her.

“We should go to Janus…” She had suggested. I wouldn’t admit defeat. I would find my sister soon enough. And besides, I didn’t want to admit that seeing him would elicit soft feelings I couldn’t afford.

The fourth city I was at, I drew my line. I was patient, but I couldn’t wait much longer. I wanted this done and I wanted it done now. I conceded…I needed Janus. Aurora and I made our way to the bus station, but without money…I had to use ‘other’ means to acquire tickets. Men are so typical.

The ride to Janus’ house wasn’t long. The walk to his front door took longer. I was awed when I saw his home. It was a huge gothic hotel. When I entered I didn’t know I would be chased around the entire thing by killer ghosts. I didn’t know I’d find my way into Janus’ room where he was laying with a woman on his bed. I didn’t know I would collapse due to lack of food and shock. When I entered, I didn’t know a lot of things.

It is, my deepest regret, to have walked into his bedroom. I saw him, laying there, looking so peaceful…next to her. I hated her. I don’t know why, she hasn’t wronged me at all…she hasn’t even spoken to me, but I hate her all the same. I don’t remember much after I collapsed. I do know I had woken on his couch. Janus, after I had burst into his room and collapsed almost at his feet, felt the need to scold me! Me…like I was some puppy who couldn’t care for herself.

“You are being stupid,” he said simply, “How do you even begin to expect to kill your sister, if you don’t eat?”

I was going to eat…just not at that moment. Finding him and my sister was more important then food. He had disappeared and then come back with water and something like leather. I don’t remember but I know it was some kind of meat. I didn’t want eat unless I knew Aurora was alright. He chided me again like I was some child.

"Aurora, she needs it more then me." I had said, "I'm fine…just tired. Feed her…"

“If you knew anything about mages, you’d know they never have to eat if they don’t want or need to.” From there he proceeded to force feed me food. I didn’t want to eat. I couldn’t waste time. I needed information. A bubbly sensation came over me and I was asleep…or at least I guess I was since the next waking memory is that of me talking to the woman in Janus’ bed. Maybe it was a dream. She kept telling me to wake up and I saw her sitting next to me…and yet still sleeping beside me on the bed. She didn’t really say much to me that I remember. Nothing really of importance to me.

It is odd. I have never been so overcome by dislike for a person who has done nothing to me. A simple word and I wanted to shred her then and there. She had called Janus…her Janus. I don’t know why it had driven through me like a hot pike, but it had and I didn’t like it. She also told me something about my sister and the cure, but I was only half listening, still caught on her words. ‘Her Janus…’ I didn’t understand. I sit here, still trying to figure it out. If she sleeps…how can he be hers? What kind of love is that to share?

~Jesse

Janus' Record: 3

2006-11-22T11:39:00.000-05:00

(Recorded on Phonograph)

“I always thought there was some chronological order that needed to be followed when one kept a journal. Especially one like this; one of reflection, normally I would have continued with the continued meetings of myself with my wife. The next one in the series of events always makes me cry when I think about it. I am skipping it for now.

“Instead; my daughter has been doing something that has hurt me lately and I want to get it out in the open. Or out to someone. Who knows no-one may ever hear these and it would be pointless to even say it. I’m rambling now…

“My daughter has not told me about her boyfriend. As far as her speaking to me; I don’t even know who he is or if he exists. She’s been keeping it from me. The only reason I know is because my wife told me.

“Summer Dawn used to tell me everything. She would often in her youth find something in my garden and she would run to me and ask me to explain everything to her. What it was, how it lived, how its body worked together. If it was a plant she would ask me the uses for it.

“She once found my patch of wolfsbane in the back corner. She grabbed a flower and ran it to her mother.

-Laughter-

“Who once she smelled it went feral and ran from the room whimpering and yelping. Summer thought she had hurt her mother and she ran to me crying. She kept saying she was sorry to me. I told her she had done nothing wrong. But that the flower could hurt her mommy very badly.

“She asked why. So I had to explain. She was around four. She had grown up to that point with a vampire for a father and a werewolf for a mother so her mind at that point thought that was the norm. I had to explain to her that not everyone’s families were like that. I told her that the flower was said to have been spawned from the first werewolf’s spilt blood and that originally quicksilver was the only thing that could water it.

“She looked up to me; ‘How?’ She asked. I told her that it was magic. Which was the answer. She nodded. At this point in time she shared her looks with me. Her hair was raven black. She pushed it behind her ear. I remember it clearly; there is no specific reason why. She took the flower and tossed it into the fireplace.

-Laughter-

“The smoke coming from the fire became an allergen to her mother. Jesse kept sneezing for days on end. I had to bring in Giorgio to clean the whole house. Sometimes on the fourth floor, when she enters a couple of the rooms Jesse still sneezes.

“My Daughter got her wonderful red hair from her Godmother. Summer got a lot of things from her Godmother. When Summer was small she showed nothing that would make her abnormal. She was going to be a normal girl. I would like you (The listener) to know, I was fine with this. She would be overwhelmed. Her cousin was Wolfblooded. She showed all the traits of a Dhampir with none of the benefits.

“Thousand Faces; as a sixth birthday present gave each of the children a gift. Brendan’s was to regenerate at a pace that matched my own. Summer’s was the magic gene and red hair. In the structure of each of our DNA which Thousand Faces so kindly and professionally can alter there is lines. Specific lines that determine whether a person is a vampire, werewolf, or a magic user; Summer was lacking all traces of these.

“I did not agree with Thousand Faces’ choice at first. Summer was in a family of werewolves and mages. The only other mage was Thousand Faces herself. But I yield to Thousand Face’s Judgment; her and I have been alive for such a long time we think alike on most subjects. I trust her with my own life. That’s a very small list of people who I feel that way about.

“Magic works differently for each person. No mage has exactly the same powers. I’ve heard that today; as it stands, Summer Dawn is the only Necromancer. The only True Necromancer I should say. All Demons can raise the dead. People who drink Demon blood can too. But Summer is the only true Necromancer.

“How did I get there? Back to Summer when she was younger; When she was a baby and I held her in my arms and she was fussy I would read her Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’, she would calm down. Whenever she was hurt or sad she would always grab my copy of the book and stumble over to me and have me read it to her.

“As she progressed in age she also progressed in reading. By her kindergarten year, she was reading and writing at a fourth grade level. By Fourth Grade she was reading at a ninth grade level. By ninth grade she was reading at a college freshman reading level. She’s a sophomore now and she reads well above a college grad level.

“She would always grab books for me to read to her; some of them were textbooks. Some novels. Other poetry books. But everyday I would read her part of a book. For fun; since we do not have television in the house. Mind you I love Television, but Jesse grew up without it, and she felt Summer Dawn would be better off in the same Fashion.

“Television is a bad thing. When books are the only entertainment, then it makes an enjoyment out of books one cannot have with Television. Music is a big thing for Summer. Its very funny. As music has changed throughout the ages my Musical taste changed with it. I find myself listening to the same stuff Summer does. She’ll often come to me, with her hand open, and I will have to hand her, her new Compact Disc.

“Summer also wasn’t always a Goth. She didn’t change to be a Goth until her twelfth year. She realized, then, that Emerson was right with his Self Reliance and that she needed to be different from the corruption that was society. That was also when she…

-Pause-

“Dad?”

“Yes Summer Dawn?”

“It’s the middle of the night. Who are you talking to?”

“The Phonograph, if you consider that a person.”

-Feminine Yawn-

“What are you talking to it about?”

“Life baby-doll.”

“Come and tuck me in? Will you bring Through the Looking Glass? I had a bad dream.”

“What about?”

“A friend of mine getting hurt.”

“Whom?”

“Someone you don’t know… I’ll be up there.”

-Door Closing-

“I’m going to go take care of my baby. She had a nightmare about Chris getting hurt. Whenever she speaks of ‘A friend of mine’, or ‘Someone you don’t know’, then it means Chris.”

Janus' Record: 2

2006-11-16T17:35:00.000-05:00

(Recorded on a phonograph)

“I spent the night with The Beast, he only ever spoke highly of his granddaughter. He spoke of little else for the rest of the evening. When it was morning, and I was sure the moon had set, I knew The Beast would not give her any help. Especially to get home.

“I was also sure she wouldn’t want to be naked, especially walking with me. I took off my cloak and began my trek to find her. It didn’t take long, she had left a large path of destruction and it was easy to follow her.

“When I found her, she was naked laying in the fetal position. I gently covered her with the cloak, and I took a step back. ‘Jesse,’ I said, ‘Jesse, time to wake up.’ She woke, looked around, she was very confused. It was almost cute.

“She rose, clasped the cloak, and looked at me for a moment. I remember everything we discussed, but I don’t remember exactly what was said. We spoke about life, and about her being a werewolf, and religion. She had been raised catholic for most of her life, but right now, she was so angry at her sister that she denied the existence of God.

“I’m a nosferatu. I’ve lived for nearly two thousands years, over that time I’ve seen so many miracles of God and seen so many holy people, that if there isn’t a God and I am backing the wrong pony, then it is a sacrifice I am willing to die for.

“She spoke of how angry she was of her sister. The walk took an hour, and it was a nice walk. She was such a strong willed and determined young woman. I admired her for it. I admired her very much.

“When we finally arrived at the house, she turned to say goodbye to me, and I disappeared. I left a black rose for her. The reason I disappeared was simply because I didn’t want to say goodbye to her. I was sure I was going to see her again. I knew we were going to be connected in fate somehow. I just didn’t know how.

“Nor did I know the length our fates would be connected.”

-Longful sigh-

“I am going to go to bed; I want to hold my wife.”

Jesse

2006-11-14T02:08:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from Jesse’s written Journal:

Day: Unknown

Year: Lost track

Season: Winter

There isn’t a lot to write about as of right now. I’ve been abandoned and re-found only to be abandoned and claimed again. I am seventeen and living under the roof of my grandfather, The Beast O’Ciardha. He is a stern man, who does not show affection well. His idea of affection is making sure I get to sleep with only mild exhaustion and can make it fully under the covers of my bed. He doesn’t show it well, as I’ve said, but I know he loves me. He is training me. That is love enough.

I’ll start from the beginning…or partially the beginning. I was seven when the girl who shares my face shoved me off the boat and kept mother from finding me under the water. The girl deserves no name and I shall refer to her as either ‘the girl who shares my face’ or ‘the evil one’. That is how I know her in my heart and shall forever know her. They left me to the darkness of the depths of that god-forsaken lake. I don’t remember how but I was found by my dear friend Aurora and she cared for me. She took me to my grandfather’s deep in the mountains in Europe not long after she took me in. I suppose she figured she needed help with raising a child.

My grandfather, a first sight, scared me. Me a child of seven. He had growled at me…I remember that much. So much from that time of my life is blurred but I will never forget the first time I was growled at. He had taken me in, surprised to see me for what I was. I still had no idea what I was exactly.

He trained me and claimed me as the O’Ciardha heir. He is helping me to my goal of killing the evil one. I celebrated my seventeenth birthday last week. It was an interesting experience. My gift for the day was being able to sleep in. Usually Grandfather wakes me just before the sun rises so I can meditate. Then I study from his books. We take a small break for tea and lunch and then for the rest of the day he works me in combat. I have learned a lot from him. On my birthday, he let me sleep until the time I would have finished meditating. He woke me and took me straight to my book studies. With lunch I got a few extra moments to rest myself before one of the most intense combat sessions.

We sparred long into the evening. I walked away, barely, with a bunch of bruises and very sore. I think I was let off easy. He wasn’t as tired as he usually was when we finished sparring. I soaked in a warm bath for a while, trying to rid the bruises and my muscles of the ache I knew would be coming. When I was getting ready for bed I noticed that the moon was out and I heard birds, Nightingales (or were they Mockingbirds), I believe. Feeling, still, very restless and energetic I decided I was going to go for a walk. I grabbed a light sweater and put on my shoes.

The walk outside was refreshing. I remember it vividly. It was damp, it had rained earlier, and the ground was still crunchy with the dead leaves of fall. The moon was shining through the branches of the trees, and it made me feel odd. It was almost full and the night dress I was wearing seemed to glow and float as I walked. At one point I even went so far as to feel as if I’d been transformed into some majestic but fierce animal. I remember telling myself, “Stop being so silly. You are you…you have no changed and you will not for a time.” Then I felt stupid for actually voicing concern to myself. I laughed and took off at a run. The wind was cold but it felt great. It was exhilarating. I stopped at a hill and looked down. There was a small town down at the foot of the large hill I was on. I wanted to go forward, but I didn’t. I turned around and walked back along the path I had come. I heard some twigs breaking, which usually would not have alarmed me…but theses twigs weren’t on the ground behind me…they were in the trees above me. I remember looking up and seeing someone up in the trees. He, or at least I think it was a he, had wings. I didn’t stay long enough to catch his scent. I ran. I ran as fast as I could go. Grandfather had taught me to be wary of everyone. I wasn’t sure, but men in trees with wings certainly qualified as that. I went to my room, brushing past Grandfather when he questioned me about what had happened and where I had gone. I went to sleep, staring at my window envisioning the man with his wings sitting outside my window, plotting. Plotting what I didn’t know…but freshly at seventeen…I was scared.

The week went by quickly. Last night was the most interesting night I have experienced during the span of my life so far. I woke late in the night and heard voices. One I recognized…the other I did not. I am curious…to a fault. I crept from my bed and hid by the door. I suppose I wasn’t quiet enough and I was heard. I knew Grandfather would be mad, but the other man, chided him lightly and invited me into the room. I felt as if I’d seen him before, but I had never met him. He was…breathtaking. I am very sheltered. The closest I’ve come to another person…much less a man besides Grandfather, was the hill just over the town hidden in the middle of the forest. I was intimidated and I know it irked Grandfather to see me as such. I felt like a bumbling idiot. I felt timid and scared.

The worst of it…he spoke to me. Not like I would have expected to have been spoken to. He actually spoke to me as an equal. Granted, Grandfather spoke to me like that normally, but the books I usually read, being old and out-dated, only showed women to be seen as unequal and subservient. I knew he was old. I could smell it in his scent. It was surprising to see he held more modern views of girls.

He made me feel odd, still does. My insides fluttered and shook and made me feel sick. There was no reason for this so I simply concluded that it was because I was so close to someone other then my grandfather. The conversation was quick…I wanted to leave as soon as possible. I had interrupted a conversation that I felt needed to be finished. That, and Janus, as I had learned was his name, was making me nervous by looking at me. I didn’t understand why I felt in such a way, but my musings were cut short as pain; searing and blinding pain shot through my body. That was all I remembered until I woke to the early light, laying naked out in the middle of the woods.

My mouth was full of a gross taste and my skin was chilled from the wetness beneath me. I noticed I had a cloak laid on me and Janus was peering down at me. I was mortified. My stomach was dancing within me and my limbs shook from something other then the cold. I didn’t understand it. I gathered his cloak about me and sat up, searching for where I was. "What happened? Where am I?" I had asked.

“You are outside of town.”

"And what happened to get me here?"

“You became a werewolf, as your father did, and his father before him.”

"So why am I here? Shouldn't I have just stayed back at home?"

“No, when you become a werewolf for the first time you lose control of all your actions, and you hunt. You kill. Now you are conscious again, and never have to worry about losing control again.” I knew that… I don’t know why I had asked him such a stupid question. I blame the cold and my disorientation from just waking. He lead me home, asking me questions. Something in me said to impress. To flaunt the knowledge I had. He asked and I answered.

When he left I felt sad. So many emotions that were so foreign to me. I don’t like it. He left with a flourish of his cape and a single black rose. I have to rose next to me, sitting on my nightstand as I write this. I will press it and keep it with me. I can’t ask why, but something pulls in me to keep it and press it. Well, it is late and even as I write this my eyes begin to close so I bid you good night and until tomorrow.

~Jesse

Janus’ Record: 1

2006-11-12T19:05:00.000-05:00

(Kept by Phonograph)

“Everyone around me is keeping journals, except me. When I write I don’t seem to think as clearly, it comes out as an elaborate story where only half of it is true, and the rest is made up in my mind, or jumbled, respectively. Dr. Seward kept one. I should too.

“I am using this rather than a response and release from the events of the day, I will begin to take a chronicle of my life. I know for a fact I do not have enough room to keep all of the records. So I will pick the most important events of my life and record them.

“My wife’s name is Jesse; she’s been a wonderful wife, and she and I have a wonderful daughter named Summer Dawn. But she wasn’t always my wife, as the case would be, and knowing that she may one day hear this recording I will be sure to speak the truth, as I am sure she did about me in her old tattered journal.

“Hmmm… That was such a short time ago, but it is not resurfacing as I had hoped it would. My later memories with her are overwhelming when she and I met. I remember where… and… There. I’ve got it now. Forgive me Jesse, you know how my mind works sometimes, and likewise how it doesn’t work at all.

“When I first met Jesse Carey, because her given name was Carey at that time, she was with her Grandfather, being trained to become the perfect warrior.”

-Laughter-

“I think he did it a little too well; back then love was something foreign and forgotten to her. She had been hurt very badly by those she loved. I was sitting in her Grandfather’s library. He was smoking one of his pipes, and he and I were drinking tea.”

-Laughter-

“The Beast O’Ciardha drinking tea, that’s still something, I will never forget seeing; a man who I had seen uncomfortable at a formal dinner because there were too many articles of silverware, and for someone who ate directly from the source hands and teeth only. He held the cup daintily. That had to sound like me rambling.

“But I was sitting with The Beast, and we were discussing Jesse. He kept swearing to me, over and over again she was going to change the world. That as soon as she left she would change the world; I had to say I was skeptical. I had seen many people who had claimed the same thing.

“When she first entered the room, the smell of a soon to be changed werewolf filled my nostrils, and I raised my eyebrow to inspect her. I watched her movement, she moved like water. She was golden, fair, Aryan by every definition. She was so young.

“I don’t remember the conversation exactly. It happened to long ago. I do remember the basic just of the whole thing. I was talking to her, she was still young enough to remember what it was like to know what we didn’t know.

“I asked her about why she was with The Beast. The conversation came to her sister, Page. From what I gathered, Page had shoved Jesse over the edge of the boat. Though the story is still confusing to me; I know for a fact now that is not true. But at the time, neither her nor I knew this.

“I do remember one thing that was said perfectly however, whenever Jesse had first entered the room she felt uncomfortable with me. Which I understood, my wings were out, and my wings are terrifying, ‘This is Janus, he’s not harmless, but he’ll cause you no harm.’

“Jesse was so dead set and determined to kill her sister; I had to admire her. I had never had that much conviction in much of anything. I always lived to continue to live, but she lived to kill her sister.

“’Don’t kill my sister,’ she said firmly, but her eyes pleaded with me as if it was my goal too, ‘That’s my job.’ I couldn’t help but honor that wish. I knew from that moment on, until Jesse found Page to kill her, that I would need to keep Page alive. I had to.

“She left the room, her change was coming so quickly, and she had no idea it was. When I told him, he responded with ‘at seventeen?’ I remember saying, ‘At seventeen.’ We both heard a growl erupt from her, and her scream and then howl in pain. Her window broke, and she ran outside.”

“Janus?”

“Yes lover?”

“Who are you talking to?”

“No-one.”

“Come to bed. Its cold without out.”

“Yes dear… To be continued.”

-End recording-

Aurora's Journal: Seventh Entry

2006-11-11T19:36:00.000-05:00

“Can you do anything?” I clicked twice, “I think I can get you out of those bindings.” She whispered. She scooted towards me, and began to twist and rip at the vines, and finally I was released. I stretched outwards and I smiled.

“Can you get me out of this silver?” Silver? They were never smart enough to use silver before. I reached to her neck, and I felt the silver necklace. It was tired with hemp rope. But Page still couldn’t touch it or untie it. It was attached to something silver.

I began to untie it in the darkness, it was a complex knot, not because it was tied that way, but because it wasn’t tied that way. It was a series of knots that all made no sense to be together.

When it came off her neck, she hugged me tightly, “We can get the hell out of here now, but what are those things?” I closed my eyes, did I have enough magic to change forms? If I did there was a form I had to take.

I reached into my scalp, and my hands melted in, and I pulled my skin down. My body became Rapier’s dead wife. I pulled up on the skin and I had clothes. She sighed. “Was that the form you had to take?” “Yes,” I responded in a whisper.

“What are those things?” “Bunyips.” “Elaborate.” “Bunyips are little vermin, they are as strong as werewolves, as smart as humans and feed like vampires, except they can eat anything. Their sole weakness is they are instinct driven.” “Thanks Professor, can I take them?”

“Yes. We can take them. They aren’t acting like normal tough, they scarcely used their intelligence before. Now they seem driven.” “Do they live in swamps?” “Yes, mostly.” “That’s why I smelled swamp. These things were taking humans away from my city, and I had to retort, I tracked them and they caught me.”

A feral growl erupted in her lower chest. Her muscles began to shift, there was popping noises as her bones shifted, she crotched down with both hands, and fur began to sprout from her body. The room filled with heat, and howl filled the air. That was a little much.

I had to change quickly, and my body did the same thing to change, we stood, two large werewolves against three bunyips. They screeched and as they did they ran into the room, leaping at me. Knowing I was their natural predator.

She ripped into one, tossing it against the wall. She bit down hard on its head, and ripped its bone and flesh from it spurting blood everywhere. The two that were on me however were trying to penetrate my thick hide.

I grabbed one with my claw and threw it at Page, who caught it in her mouth, held it on the ground, and put both paws on it, and ripped it into three. The last one was far too big for us to do that.

I shoved on it, and she leapt to it. I grabbed one end, and she grabbed the other, our claws pushed into its soft flesh, and we pulled against each other, each of us biting down on the part closest to us, and we shredded.

His cry echoed through the cave, and with that we knew we were done. We didn’t change though, we weren’t going to change until we were safely outside. When we got into the main cave, both us had to shake. I know I did. Those three were the males. The females, there were about thirty of them, and each of them had a couple of kids, and they had us surrounded.

I howled, and she howled. The bunyips screamed. It had to be funny to anyone looking in. I didn’t think it was funny at all. Several of them leapt at her, and several at me. And the massacre that ensued from her and I was terrible. The Bunyip Pups, the Bunyip woman fell one by one, one after another.

I don’t know who saved these, and I don’t how they avoided the death I was giving to them, but all I knew was that I hoped after today, I would never ever have to deal with another bunyip again.

We stayed cautious and full wolf form until we exited the cave. Finally when we saw the moonlight we both released out wolf forms, and collapsed into each other. We were laughing, or crying, or both. Finally after some of our energy returned, we stared at each other for a long time.

Her and I aren’t the closest people in the world. I almost destroyed her entire world a long time ago, and I understand her spite.

“I just wanted you to know, that the gift you gave us was more than I could have ever asked for.” “I wanted to make amends, just like your sister needed to.” “I love my son, and it was amazing to go through it. Thank you for making Rapier human for that time.” “I hope it was everything you wished for.”

“Look, Thousand Faces, the family is probably worried sick, why don’t you come home with me?” “No… I think I need to make my own path.” “Okay…” she said as she walked away from me slowly, “Thanks… For saving me.”

“I could say the same, Page.”

Aurora's Journal: Sixth Entry

2006-11-10T10:40:00.000-05:00

After the incident with the illuminati I decided to take the long way around. Or more, my tiger did. He had it in his head to go north before going east and east was the way to Janus’. We finally stopped up north, near Pymatuming Lake.

My tiger, for some reason, wanted to go through the swamps of Northern Pennsylvania instead of going right through the temperate forest of the southern part of the state. It was towards nightfall when he finally wanted to rest.

I laid down on a bed of moss, it was getting colder out, so we had to lay together. Not that much mattered to either of us. I closed my eyes and slept. How sweet it is to sleep, without worry.

No. Life doesn’t work like that. The night held sounds, sounds I haven’t heard for a long, long time. Back when I was still very, very young. I started my life after meeting Coyote.

They were cries. They pierced the night sky, and when I heard them I jumped awake, and my tiger jumped up and got ready to fight. I withdrew both of my tomahawks. The cries came closer.

I didn’t think any were still around, I thought I had killed them all. They should all be dead! I focused in the night, and I saw the first one…

I tried to scream; I tried to tell him to get away, that he wasn’t ready for them… I don’t know if he got the message before they were on top of me. I tried to fight, but these ones were smarter, the one who was up front was the decoy as the other two came from behind. One bit on my wrist, and started feeding from my magic, and the other, used a vine to wrap around me.

I tried to fight out of it, but it was too late. They had me bound, magic drained, and they all began to carry me.

Bunyips. I thought I had killed the last of those. When I started off in the world, these creatures of the night began to spread. I had to kill several of them in America. Then Europe, and finally I found the source, Australia.

I used to slay these things, not only could they feed from anything, mages, wolfies, vamps and humans, they needed to feed twice a day.

They were speaking, it had been so long, and I thought I had killed them all, so I forgot their language. I was going to be a meal, unless I figured out how to get out of this mess.

They carried me towards a cave, and we went through the pond in front of it, they swam well, even with my weight. But that was how they got across oceans.

The cave was dark, and without my magic I couldn’t see too well, so all I had was the light coming in from the outside, which was just moonlight, and it scarcely gave me anything to work with.

They tossed me into a prison? I felt someone else in it. I sat there for a long while, letting my eyes adjust. Whoever it was, was very scared of me. Could they see me?

“Who is there?” a voice whispered. I wasn’t in a form that could speak, so I hushed whoever it was softly, and I clicked my tongue.

“Can you talk?’ I clicked twice. “Can you see me?” I clicked twice. “Maybe together we can get out of here,” she said, “my family is probably looking for me.”

I scooted towards the voice, and the closer I got the more I realized I knew this person. It was my ‘daughter’s’ twin sister. She gasped when she saw me.

“Aurora.” I clicked once. “We have to get out of here, and I am sure together we can do it, but what the hell were those things?” I sighed. “We need to come up with something…”

Summer's Journal: Twenty-Second Entry

2006-11-09T22:29:00.000-05:00

Brendan didn’t take it well yesterday to say the least, and as I write this my aunt is still missing, and every hour since I found out, I’ve become more and more upset. To write this now, is taking a great amount of control, but I need to record my thoughts and concern since it will tear me up if I do not do something about them.

Uncle Rapier is the most broken, he is blaming himself totally, and hasn’t stopped looking for her since we found out. We can’t even find him, and when we call him, he answers, and says, “I haven’t found her yet.”

Brendan and Lara are in little better condition; Brendan is following every single scent trail. Lara is shaking down people, trying to find her. Mother has turned full wolf, and has been looking on the outskirts of town, and finding nothing.

It is looking hopeless. The only two people in my family who are not freaking out completely are dad and I, and I am close to breaking.

I am so ashamed of myself… Today when I was walking through town instead of searching with my eyes and my voice, I started looking for a corpse. I dare not tell anyone in my family, but I searched and I searched all over town, and I found no-one who matched my aunt. I was so thankful for that.

Then my father called. He asked me to come to him, he was in the far end of town. I ran there, and was dead tired by the time I arrived. “Smell,” he said. I did as ordered, I didn’t smell anything.

“Smell further down that way, I smell decaying flesh.” My heart dropped. I walked down the alley, morbidly. I smelled, and I recoiled. I ran to my dad, and I hugged him and I began to cry on his chest. I hit him. Not because it was his fault, but because I was so angry, and frustrated.

My knees gave out beneath me, “Please tell me you’re lying… Please tell me its not her.” He spoke softly, “I cannot find the source…” I closed my eyes, and I reached out, looking for a corpse, and I didn’t find it, but with a smell so strong it had to be there somewhere.

I sighed happily, “Nothing is there…” Dad stumbled backwards, He began to cry as well. I knelt next to him. I was scared, truly scared now, and he knew it. He was the strength of the family. He was the one who supported the weight of the family and he broke.

What was in store for the family if the strongest member just broke? I hugged him. Then I went down to the end of the alleyway. I smelled strongly, I had a human nose; everyone else in my family has an advanced sense of smell. So I smelled, and tried to pinpoint, when I found it, it was a shirt. Nothing in it, and it didn’t smell like decaying flesh, decaying flesh smells far different, this was vegetable matter, it smelled of the swamp.

“Dad, its just a smelly old shirt,” I said, “I am going to keep looking.” Brendan and I passed each other silently. It was hard to see him looking like that, and I knew if I tried to stop him it would be futile.

His eyes were dead and tired. But he walked by me. I was the least helpful of everyone. But I had to keep searching. Finally, it became nightfall, and my father told me to find Brendan, knock him unconscious and wake him in the morning to look again. He told me he needed sleep.

The vampires kept looking. With little or no need for sleep, they didn’t have to stop.

When I found Brendan, I tried to stop him, and he pushed by me. I took out my silver hammer, and I hit him in the back of the head. He slumped onto the ground. I knelt to him, held him, and used my necklace to take him back to my house.

I dragged him to my bed, and I laid him in it. I put a cool rag on his head, and I covered him with a blanket. I kissed his cheek.

“She would not go gently into that good night,” I spoke to him. I then began to write what is written here now. I am still, so worried, and I want to see Aunt Page again, I want her to be safe.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Twenty-First Entry

2006-11-08T16:33:00.000-05:00

I looked at Chris… Our eyes stared into one another’s. Deeply, I looked down into him, his feelings, and his thoughts. I rubbed the back of his hands with my thumbs. I kissed his fingers, one by one, gently, softly.

He smiled softly at me, and I smiled at him while I kissed the next finger over. I kissed his last pinky. I held both of his hands in mine, and I smiled again at him, my lips gently turning up.

His eyes, his deep eyes; those deep wonderful eyes made me forget all of my problems. Everything in the back of my head that constantly hounds at my consciousness, everything that tries to break free, all wicked thoughts and all thoughts of anything negative vanish.

All that there is, is him and I. I can never see anything but those eyes, and I calm down. I rubbed my thumbs over the back of his hand, harder this time, letting him know what I was feeling. I wanted to kiss him.

We hadn’t gotten to kiss yet. I’ve wanted to, and so has he, and it was clear we were both trying to kiss each other. So I leaned forward, my head pushing away from my shoulders, my neck extended and my eyes closed.

I felt his warmth come closer to me, and his lips near mine, and I pushed forward, but suddenly we both heard, “Get a room!”

I pulled back from him, and I sighed heavily as I turned, “Seriously, she’s like, not even your type… Just look at her.” I looked at who it was; it was one of Ashley’s minions. Chris looked at her, “What do you honestly know about her?” “She’s some freak witch.” I said, “You’re right, I am a witch, and if you’re not careful I will cast a spell on you. I’ll give you acne, make you an alcoholic and make sure you’re cursed to be pregnant before you’re twenty.”

She took a step back, I began to speak in Latin, and I spouted the first thing I thought of, “Usurpo id rosa et vado ab amor. Usurpo id rosa et vado ab amor. Usurpo id rosa et vado ab amor.” She looked fearful, as I waved my hands back and fourth. She ran off.

I sat down and looked at Chris, who smiled and laughed softly. “What?” I asked. “Your phrase, that’s all.” I giggled, “I was trying to think as fast as I could.” He took my hands in his, and squeezed them tightly, I felt warm inside.

“Take this rose and go in love,” he said, “I would have run to your arms.” “Sweetie,” I said, “You’d need a rose to do that…” He thought for a second, “I’ll be sure to get one. The weekend is coming up. Let’s you and I go for a walk in the park Saturday.” I said, “That sounds wonderful.” He hugged me and walked away.

Finally, a date with my boyfriend, nothing supernatural to interfere, my cell phone began ringing, it was my mother, “Hello Mom,” I said with a smile. “Summer,” her tone was bad, really bad. “Mom, what’s wrong?” She took a long tear filled pause. “Mom… What’s wrong?” She took another long pause, and finally spoke, “You’re Aunt Page is missing. No-one knows where she is, and your father and uncle can’t pick up the trail.”

I sat down, “Does Brendan know?” There was a pause, and then she spoke again, “No… We are hoping to find her before he has to know.” I began shaking, “Mom… I’m on my way home…” I grabbed my necklace.

Somehow, I knew today was too peaceful. I am writing this until school is over, and I have to go tell Brendan. Its going to be terrible. Why is she making me tell him?!

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Twentieth Entry

2006-11-06T10:28:00.000-05:00

Chris held me, which was all I really wanted. I wanted him to hold me. I separated myself from Brendan. Was it his fault? It wasn’t even clear anymore. I can re-read again, and again, the thoughts that went on in my head in appropriate order, in whole exactness. No words to sweeten them, nothing.

Chronicling my life in a journal, like my mother did before me, because its hard to keep straight the thoughts that occurred first, and what I was thinking whilst I look back on it. Because I am writing this, knowing exactly what Chris and I talked about after he held me, but my thoughts melded, and I know it was my fault.

It was my fault, I was to blame, read this world, and I take the blame.

Chris noticed immediately something was wrong. The first thing was, I didn’t come to school with Brendan, which I do every morning. The second thing that gave it away was my makeup, the mask of my moods. Instead of being fined and exact it was random, and chaotic. My eyebrow penciling was wild, and the tribal tattoos reflected black blades dipped in blood.

He seemed afraid of me at first. I watched his eyes as they scanned my face, and he noticed how dark my makeup was. He reacted in kind, he quietly followed me. I didn’t want him to follow and be quiet, I wanted him to speak, I wanted him to tell me everything would be okay, and that it wasn’t my fault.

So he held me, I had yet to speak a word, and so did he. Were we communicating on a different level? “So,” he said after a long while, “What happened on All Souls day?” I was shocked, how did he know it was that specific day? “How much blood did you drink?” I pulled away from him.

“It was my own,” I said shortly and with temper towards him, “How the hell do you…” “Summer,” he said assuredly, “I can’t pretend to know what its like. But what happened?”

I told him. It would make little sense to repeat the whole of the day’s events here. “So what really happened?” I looked in shock at him, “How dare you?” He blinked heavily, “Summer, your uncle didn’t come to you with red in his eyes, and hit you without reason. Brendan wouldn’t feel the need to hold you down, without reason? What are you not telling me?” I hung my head low, “I…” “Summer,” he said knowingly. I re-explained it to him, using an almost exact same story of my previous Journal entry.

He didn’t understand, I could see it in his eyes, and my mood was upsetting him, so I tried to smile and joke about it, “It can’t be that bad to have a girlfriend who likes to be in control of the situation, is it?” He didn’t laugh. I frowned, “Chris, please… say something.”

“Summer, I…” I looked at him, “You?” “I think you were wrong. I’m sorry. But look at it from their point of view. You were letting your powers take control of you. You were prepared to kill innocents for more zombies. You were using magic just so you could drink blood. Summer, I’m sorry.”

I was angry. He was supposed to agree with me. I stood, and stormed off. It was halfway between the building and where Chris was, that I realized, I was wrong, and they were right.

I ran back to him, he was crying. Why was he crying? I leapt onto him, tackling him to the ground. I laid next to him and kissed his neck, like my Aunt Page does to my Uncle Rapier when she is wrong. I kissed it again and again, “I’m sorry Chris… I’m so sorry…”

He began to laugh. Tears filled my eyes and threatened to fall, he was laughing at me, “I was about to come after you, and tell you the same thing,” he said, “It’s funny,” I smiled a little.

“Chris, thank you, for listening to me, and telling me I was wrong… I was very angry at my family.” “That’s what I’m here for,” he responded. I smiled and leaned up to Kiss him.

“Hey Babydoll,” Brendan said to me, I huffed and I looked at Brendan, “Yes?” “You feeling better?” “Yes, I’m sorry?” “Hey,” Brendan said, “Its not your fault dead people get you all excited.”

I shoved on him, “Brendan!” I screamed, I stormed away from him. Chris was laughing lightly. I turned around and stormed back to Brendan, and shoved him, “And don’t call me babydoll!” Chris laughed at Brendan. It wasn’t funny…

Okay… Maybe a little, but that’s not something you tell someone! And it’s not my fault! I’m half damned vampire, and a full necromancer. Gawd!

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Nintenth Entry

2006-11-04T16:46:00.000-05:00

I am slacking off, not only have I been too tired for the past week; I haven’t even begun to keep up a journal. I have very good reason, I became very busy. All Saints day was terrible, not only did I have to help defend my house from hunters; I had to keep them from wrecking my things.

Hunters have no sense of possession, to them we are mindless killing machines that try and kill everyone, and we aren’t that at all! We have souls! We have feelings! We care about life! We… Want to be human… Or at least I do… I’m not ashamed of what I am. I am scared. What happens if I fall asleep with my arm over Chris, and I accidentally cast a spell?

What if I drain his life-force? What if I make him into a skeleton? I shouldn’t think such things.

The day after, All Souls’ Day, we change the tides. Humans feel lack luster, forlorned, sad, especially those who knew we exist. So we, instead, raid them. It was interesting, to change the tides on them for the first time (for me). They had wrecked my music collection, and I was going to wreck stuff of theirs.

The closest hunter’s guild was west, in West Virginia, but still within striking distance. I was to go with my cousin, and Uncle Rapier, to hit a Wolf-Snare Outpost. That was to the North West on top of the closest mountain. It was a cabin, and an underground complex.

The Wolf-Snares are pretty bad for Werewolves, which is why my uncle and I are flanking Brendan, who is still only a wolf-blood. These guys are trained since birth to hunt wolves, and they seek to make them extinct.

They were asleep, when we arrived, tired from the raid yesterday. When we opened the cabin door, Uncle Rapier disabled the alarm system the way he knew how. He cut it. I smiled, and both Uncle Rapier and Brendan stood away from me. The room was filled with fetishes of dead wolves.

Bone sculptures, all of them terrifying to scare people away. My mouth filled with blood. I heard rattling as my eyes closed, and I concentrated. The blood was sweet today, I swallowed it, and licked my lips.

I think I made Brendan uncomfortable, he squeezed my hand, and wiped my lips off with a cloth strip, “Dawn, calm down.” I didn’t think I was excited. But I could tell I was since my hand shook with joy, as I laid my eyes upon the skeletons. I smiled brightly.

“Dawn,” he said again, “Summer Dawn, calm down.” I looked at him, and I shook the excitement from me, “I am calm Brendan.” My uncle stood in a defensive position in front of the werewolf skeletons.

“Obey me,” I said to them, and they stood at command. My uncle found the door downwards. He opened it, and we crawled down, there were six of them, all asleep, wearing the furs of previous kills, their beards were grown out, and I smelled testosterone and filth.

My uncle slit the first one’s throat, and he grumbled, as the others all jumped awake, my three fetishes all leapt on one, and Brendan, stood defending me, as a silver blade came towards him, he ducked and I took a step back, as my uncle, blocked the blade, and shoved his into the man’s chest, the blood gushed from it, pouring on the ground. I could have swore I saw his heartbeat.

“Mine!” I yelled as, the blood filled my mouth again. I tasted the crimson liquid again, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head. A moan bubbled in the blood in my mouth. I grabbed the hunter that was slit, and I sent his corpse towards the one who my Uncle had cut open, and I grabbed him.

Two zombies now stood between Brendan and I, and the other hunters. The fetishes finished, and I grabbed the next hunter, and the blood heated and bubbled in my mouth, as the next zombie rose, to move against the other three, my uncle killed another through impalement. I grabbed it too, the next fellows stood their ground back to back, and their grunting and growling seemed more feral then we were acting.

The zombies walked through their blades, and they ripped one apart, and the fetishes leapt on the other. I grabbed him too. My breathing began to quicken, I swallowed the blood, my body heated.

I wanted more of them, I wanted more zombies. Brendan pushed me against the wall. “Summer! Stop!” The zombies and fetishes all began to head towards Brendan. “They’re mine Brendan!” He pushed me back again, “No! Release them so their souls can go too!” “They’re mine!” Uncle Rapier removed the zombie’s heads, and kicked the skeletons.

“No!” I screamed, they were killing my soldiers, “No! They’re mine! Stop it!” Uncle Rapier kicked the last one again, and I screamed, “They are mine! Mine!” My tears streaked down like fire. I kept searching for something dead.

“Summer, I’m sorry,” Uncle Rapier said, “Hold her still Brendan.” Brendan pushed me hard, and I tried to fight against him. I spat at him, my bloody spit ran down his face, as Uncle Rapier did something to make me black out.

I woke in my room, and I had a terrible headache. I had been out eighteen hours, it was 11 in the morning on Friday. I rubbed my eyes, and I looked around, trying to determine what had happened.

What was wrong with me in the head? Something is wrong. I need Chris, I also won’t get to see him until Monday.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Eightenth Entry

2006-11-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

I love and hate Halloween. I hate Halloween because everyone dresses up in costume and pretends to be witches, wizards, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and even cartoon characters. People make a mockery of what I am.

I am a witch, I am part vampire, I am part werewolf. It is a terrible day. In general, of course, I have to get dressed up, and I do every year. My mother wakes me in the morning, and together we put together an outfit.

My father assists us in getting materials. This year, I decided to send a message to everyone at school. I put on a blonde wig, and had my mother do my makeup. It took my father a while to find the feature of the costume, a pregnant belly.

In the end I smiled when I looked in the mirror. It was a perfect representation of what our culture has become. I was a pregnant cheerleader, I held an empty unlabeled bottle in my hand, and I had a pack of candy cigarettes in my bra.

I smudged the make up some. I looked at my mother. She looked at me. We laughed together, “Remember its special you come home tonight. Spend your time with Chris, and be home by five.”

“Yes mam.” I grabbed my book bag and I activated my necklace, making me appear at Brendan’s house. I looked at my cousin, he was dressed as a, that’s right, a werewolf.

“Nice Summer, how many fights do you want to get into today?” I raised my eyebrow, “Interesting choice.” He responded with, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, then why laugh.” I tapped my fingers impatiently. Chris walked down the street, and he met with us, “By the way, Happy Birthday Brendan.” Brendan immediately shifted. I knew he didn’t like the fact he was born on Halloween.

Chris was wearing a Gomez Adam’s outfit. I tapped my finger impatiently, which he responded with, “I thought you hated Halloween, why would you dress up for it? I did it because I figured you could be my Morticia… But I like your costume… It’s going to tick off a lot of people.”

I smiled, together we walked to school. Brendan pulled Chris back, and Chris immediately ran up, “Summer!” Chris said. I stopped, “Happy Birthday.” I kissed his cheek and hugged him, “Thanks dear, but it’s really not that big of a deal.”

“It is to me, Happy Birthday.” I held his hand, and together we walked into school. I separated from him, I didn’t want him to get hassled for my actions, and he realized that. The first person to come up to me was the head cheerleader. She was dressed in the skimpiest thing she could find.

A really short skirt, a revealing tube top, and nothing else to cover herself; she stared at me intently. That’s another frustrating thing about Halloween, every girl feels the need to dress like a slut. Then if they called up on it, they can deny it.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” She asked. “Making a statement,” I responded, “Perhaps its one you could learn from.” “You think that’s what’s going to happen to me?” “No, Its just a statement, you can back off.” “You think you are cool?” “I am when I wear this outfit. I represent your darker side, what you deny doing yourself.”

She shoved on my shoulder, I hit the locker and I laughed, “Perhaps next year, I should make black bruises all over me.” I walked by her. That wasn’t the first encounter, but all of them ended and began in the same way.

The day crawled by, and I pretty much went through the motions. At the end however, Chris was waiting for me. His hands were behind his back, and he smiled at me. He pulled a dozen long stem roses from behind his back.

I took a step back, not out of fear but because I didn’t know how to react. I think I cried, I know I wanted to kiss him, and I ran to him, and as we were about to meet lips, and Brendan ran up to me, “Summer. Its almost five.”

I slapped Brendan, I smiled at Chris. I kissed his cheek again, and hugged him tightly to me. It was so sweet of him. I kissed his cheek another time. I took his hand in mine. He handed me the roses. I cradled them in my arm like a child. Another tear streaked down my cheek.

I would love to go into great depth and describe my happiness in his action towards me. I wanted to kiss him, so badly, but with Brendan there, I could never do it. I’ve never been kissed before on the lips. If Brendan was there it would ruin my first kiss.

Needless to say, I was rushed away from Chris. Our family has a tradition. On our birthday, we get together as a family, and we sit, eat a meal, do cake and presents, and swap stories. On November 1st, we all stay in my house, as does my aunt’s pack, and anyone they care about.

November 1st is a bad day for us all to be out. All Saints day we all lose everything that makes us special. My dad is weakned to being a human, my mom and aunt can’t change. I can’t cast magic.

November 1st is also when we need it the most. The hunters and the Illuminati seem to pick All Saints Day to hunt us, and I can’t blame them. We can’t defend ourselves. But on November 2nd All Souls day, the tables turn. The hunters become weaker, and we become stronger.

But that’s for tomorrow and the next day’s entry (maybe). But as far as the ‘party’ is concerned, nothing happened different. To me a birthday is just another day and nothing else. The presents I got, did make me smile however, a whole stack of hunting gear, I would be stocked for a long time. I also got more makeup and clothing. My dad spoiled me on my birthday. And this birthday, to make up for saying he was disappointed in me, he got me, extra presents.

Uncle Rapier spoiled Brendan in the same way. And together we had a pile of loot anyone could be jealous of. I appreciated all of my gifts. But the one I found myself longing to hold and look at were Chris’ roses.

I guess I kind of love Halloween.

I guess.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Sevententh Entry

2006-10-29T15:31:00.000-05:00

My father scolded me when I first woke up this morning. There was no good morning such as yesterday, and he was upset. “That was very stupid Dawn.” I rubbed my eyes, and looked at him, “What did I do?” My mother looked at me from behind him, disappointment in their eyes, “You not only touched a mage-bane etched door, you activated traps meant to deter both vampires and werewolves. You almost died. I’m very disappointed in you, Dawn.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. His tone, his mannerisms, he was very disappointed in me. Was he ashamed of me too? He never, ever said he was disappointed with me before, and my mother didn’t even respond. “I’ll pack my things to go home.”

I began to pack my things. They got dressed, and went outside the room, probably to take care of the demon. I grabbed my pouch, and went outside, following the back hall way down. My parents could smell me, when I got to the woods, but I was going to get there faster than they would.

I ran through the woods, jumping over logs, and ducking under branches, weaving amongst the brush. I had grown up in the woods. This woods was no different than any other woods. When it became twisted by dark magic, that’s when it became a little more difficult. But it was still easy.

As I burst through the brush, I landed in the graveyard. I rushed to the door. I looked at it closely. I grabbed a piece of wood leaning against the church wall, and threw it through the stain glassed window. Shattering it. My dad was sure to have heard it.

I jumped in the window, and I saw her. She was beautiful. It was hard to take my eyes off of her. She was demonic, her body covered in demon flesh, red from head to toe. She had slender wings, and clawed feet and hands. In the middle of her forehead was a closed eye. Her eyes were bright blue, and swirling with undertones of green.

When she saw me, we stared at each other for several moments. She then hissed, and she started to run from me. I raised my arms, and roots grabbed her legs, she kept trying to claw, to get away from me. I ran towards her with the salt container, and tried to encircle her in it.

She broke free from the roots, and ran towards the stairwell, instead of heading up, she was heading downwards. I followed her, and she stood in front of a door, and she was ready to fight.

That’s when her third eye opened, where the other ones were blue and amazing, it was red, and yellow. I stared at it for a second, than its compelling ended. I was still wearing the Cats Eye Shell. She whimpered. She clawed out at me, and I threw a vial of holy water at her.

She hissed, and took a step towards me. I grabbed another vial and threw it at her. She began to sob and cry as she lunged at me. I threw salt and another vial of holy water at her. Finally she curled into a ball, and began to melt. I walked a circle of salt around her, and I started sprinkling holy water on her. She flapped her wings, and blew the salt around, and then stood in front of the door, and all the remained of her was a skeleton.

I looked at the door; there was nothing special about it. I looked again, I had to shove her skeleton out of the way, still nothing. But when I opened the door, that’s when I saw it, in the room, it was a nest. There were twenty of them. Which made sense. Especially since they all looked like eyeballs.

I walked up to one, and touched the outside of it. Whatever was inside, it moved towards my hand and tried to touch me. I looked at all of them. Giant eyeball eggs, it was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. It was also something I never had heard of before.

No demon could reproduce except succubae and incubi, and still, I’ve never heard of one using eyes to host a brood. I closed my eyes. I decided to just to be safe, in case my first attempt failed, that they would all be locked in, I made a circle of salt around each egg save one, and that one I made a semi-circle around. I kicked it in, and the embryo that was moving moments before, laid lifeless on the ground. I began to do the same thing with all the other eggs.

I began to splash holy water on it, and throw salt about the room. I triple checked the room made sure no eggs were left. My father and mother entered the church, very confused about the broken window, and the skeleton, but when they saw me, it was clear what went on. I walked by both of them.

“I’m a disappointment just let me go lie still until I finally die,” I went back to the hotel room, storming the whole time, and finally laying down on the bed, writing in this journal, tears rolling down my cheek the whole time. Both my father and mother finally arrived back here, and they tried to talk to me. I kept looking away from them, and I ignored them.

When they took me home, I made sure to leave them right away, and I came to my room, and I finished this entry. It was going to be a miserable week. At least Chris still loves me.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Sixtenth Entry

2006-10-28T22:42:00.000-04:00

I woke in the afternoon. It was early, and my mother and father were sitting there, holding on to one another, watching me sleep. I opened my eyes, and they both smiled. I was very confused.

I rubbed my eyes, and my makeup smeared all over them. I groaned, and I looked at them. Together they both pointed at the bathroom door, and I grabbed my bag, and I went and took care of everything that needed to be done.

Once I was clean and masked again, I walked out of the room, and looked at them. They both pointed at the window, I groaned. It was raining. I love the rain, more than any other weather, but not when I just applied my makeup.

I looked at both of them. They shrugged. I grabbed my small pouch, and a small umbrella, and I walked out into the rain, with intent to go to the church. They followed walking, holding hands in the rain.

As the forest passed by us, and the droplets from the trees hit the umbrella making loud beats. I walked slowly, the mud squishing underneath my feet. A fairy flew by. She seemed scared.

My eyes shifted. I felt pain in my stomach, I took a step back… My father and mother looked at each other. My father held me up, “Summer what’s wrong?” I groaned, “Something is demonic nearby…” There was silence for a moment. Even the rain seemed to stop.

I clutched my stomach with my free hand, and grit my teeth, and I walked forward. The further we walked down the path, the darker the wood became. It was twisted. I could tell, just by looking at, there was dark magic at work.

That’s when I heard the moans. Moans that were all too familiar to me; moans of pain and death unsettled. My tense body seemed to relax at the familiar sounds of undeath that I so cherished to hear.

I didn’t run forward, but I quickened my paces. I saw the church, it was close by, and I also saw figures stumbling about. Contained in death. I smiled. I walked forward, my eyes taking a wicked curve. My smile becoming even more wicked.

They were eyeless, but that didn’t matter to me. They would be mine. Whatever had control of them, would lose it to me. My heartbeat rose the closer I got to them. I could smell the rot.

There was a rush of blood. It filled my mouth. They would be mine. No matter what, The blood danced back and fourth on my tongue. It was my own, it was the sacrifice I had to pay. But it was worth it. They were mine.

I reached out with my necromantic hand and they shifted and stood stiff immediately. They would obey my commands. They would be my slaves. I walked closer still, blood in my mouth getting warmer with each step I took.

There was someone else playing against me. Someone else trying to control them. I pushed harder, and the blood in my mouth began to heat even further. I pushed back, they were mine! I earned them.

I pushed forward, the blood filled even further, and it began to run down my cheek, to fall onto my chest. There was another push, and I pushed back, the blood in my mouth was getting scalding. With another push, and my return push, the blood became unbearable, and I spat the boiling blood out of my mouth.

The zombies began to move. They were no longer mine. I took a step back, now I was upset. Tears filled my eyes… I wanted them. I concentrated again, and there seemed to be a bubble around them. Whoever it was, had to see them… But I wanted them first. They should be mine. I am the queen…

I concentrated again and my blood once again filled my mouth, but the bubble was too strong. My eyes narrowed, and I realized I couldn’t get them, but if I couldn’t have them, no-one could. I grabbed one after another with my necromantic hand. Their decay happened almost instantaneously, dropping into a pile of dust and goo. I looked for the source, whoever it was, was now going to die.

In the window I saw her. She was demonic, her skin red, and she had an eye in middle of her forhead, and horns, she ran from the window, her ebony hair flowing behind her. I ran for the door, and when I touched it, I blacked out.

When I woke, I wrote down what happened. Looking back now, I see that maybe it was a little greedy of me to want them like I did… But… I can’t explain it, they had to be mine…

My mom and dad are both sound asleep, maybe I should get some sleep too, and tell them what I saw.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Fiftenth Entry

2006-10-27T23:30:00.000-04:00

The moment I walked in the door from school today, my father was standing there, “We are going to France; it may be a couple of days.” I inquired, “Something need to die?” He nodded. I went up to my room and I began to pack my bag. My father opened the door to my room and threw me a necklace. It was a cat eye shell.

My eyes widened, “Dad, this doesn’t allow me much room to believe it is killable. You’ve never handed me something like this.” He blinked once, and left the room. That’s when I heard yelling. It was my mother.

“Why does she have to come, we don’t even know what this thing is!” I shrunk down onto my bed. My mother never yells. Just once, and it was a long time ago. “Where’s your mother?!” My father responded. “I don’t know! But she’s still a child, and this thing could be even out of your league.” That’s not very good. “That’s why she needs to come! What if this thing is a necro? Do you want to get ripped apart by an undead army?!” “She’s my daughter! She’ll stay here where it is safe!” “She’s a young woman; I think it’s her choice.” My mother stayed quiet, “She’s my little girl.” My father responded with, “She’s my little girl too, but she has to grow up!”

“You know Janus, if we ask her, do you know what that will put her though?! She could never choose! You’re being irresponsible.” My father was the one who was quiet this time, “I trust her abilities.” My mother screamed at him again, “Are you saying I don’t trust her!? Are you saying I can’t trust in my daughter’s abilities?” My father didn’t respond. My mother growled and screamed at him, “Nothing to say then Janus? Come on, you were always so quick witted when we weren’t wed, let’s hear your response!” My father didn’t say anything again.

I sat down on my bed, the tears flowed from my eyes, and I felt sick to my stomach, I don’t like when my parents fight. That’s when I heard my mother’s sob echoed throughout the house, “I’m so sorry… Janus… Please… I love you… I didn’t mean it.” My father didn’t respond. I peeked out of my door, and I saw my mother resting her head against his chest.

I didn’t understand. My father stroked her cheek, “I love you too.” She began to speak softer, and I couldn’t make out what she was saying. I withdrew my three day bag. Then I took my pouch off my side, and I emptied its contents onto my black sheets.

I had restocked on wolfs bane, but I don’t think I’d need it. I had four vials of holy water. I had a salt shaker, and a salt carton. A silver cross and a silver pentagram, I laid them gently upon my bed. I withdrew my special box, I grabbed a vial of sand from the holy land, blessed by a saint. I withdrew my salamander wand.

I shoved all of my objects back in the side pouch, and I grabbed my three day bag, and I took a step outside my door. My mother and father were gone. I walked down to the library; she was laying on him, sobbing softly still.

Once I took a step inside, she rose from him, and kissed his cheek softly. He spoke softly into her ear, and she nodded, “We are almost ready to go Summer. You do not have to go if you don’t want to. I would understand.”

I looked at my mother. She looked away from me as soon as she knew I was going to look at her. I looked to my father, who looked away, “I am your child,” I responded, “If it is both of your wishes, I will go with you.”

My mother nodded and my father nodded. Why had she given up so easily? She was so strong, and so sure, what had he done that made her give up? Had I not seen it? He wasn’t right, was he?

My father and mother went into their room and grabbed a bag each, and my father took both of our hands, and we appeared in a dark alleyway in France. My mother took both my father and my bags and went to fetch us a hotel room. He took me; we were going to do research.

In text, there was nothing. No clues. No hints. Not even a direction. Finally after an hour of searching through text and text of French newspaper, he said, “This is getting us nowhere.” I responded, “Mais oui, mon pere… I mean, Yeah, this is pretty pointless.”

We split up. Town was safe, and we began to ask around. If I wasn’t as fluent as French as I was, it would have been difficult. This was what I found out.

Ten people went missing. Only one returned, and the one that did had their eyes ripped out. He didn’t last through the night, and died from loss of blood. He was mumbling about a run down castle and a word I knew very well. Zombie. But my question was, why was he not ripped apart? Someone was controlling them. Also, his eyes had been pulled out, not ripped or clawed out.

At the local doctor’s office, I saw my father so I backed off, while he worked his magic. I went back to the library and looked at the maps of the area; there was a small run down castle about two miles into the forest. It was once a church, and a graveyard.

That means it can’t be a demon, demons can’t go on hallowed ground. It could be a necro, but only my salamander wand could tell that. I went to the hotel room. I knocked and my mom opened the door.

“I found some stuff out, but I’ll wait for dad. Mom, why did you give up?” She looked at me, “Because I was wrong, dear. I was wrong.” I looked at her, confused, “But you were right.” “No, don’t worry about it, yes mam.”

When my father returned, we exchanged information. We both found out the same things. We would go out tomorrow, and start searching our greatest lead, the abandoned church.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Fourtenth Entry

2006-10-26T21:07:00.000-04:00

I am not my father; I am not my father. Today I almost died. I almost killed myself. It wasn’t my fault though. Not my fault at all. It couldn’t be my fault.

It was my father’s fault. It was at school. Chris and I were sitting together at lunch. He was working on a paper and I was helping him. Then he became incredibly quiet. Almost like her was trying to keep a secret from me. His movements all hinted that he had something to hide.

I reached out to him, “Chris what’s wrong?” “Nothing Summer, I just want to keep working on the report. What is a good word for good?” “Superior. But you knew that, what are you hiding?”

He looked at me, and I looked at him, giving him the evil eye. He revealed his finger. It had blood running down it. It had been cut by a piece of paper. My eyes shifted. I looked up to him.

“Why wouldn’t you show me this?” I asked. He looked down and pleaded, “Summer.” I hushed my voice, but I screamed in whispers, “What is that supposed to mean!? Are you trying to say I can’t resist the urge to bite your finger just because I am part vampire?”

I grabbed his finger and held it near my nose. The blood scent filled my nostrils and I whimpered as I pulled it towards my mouth. I don’t know what his reaction must have been, but he had to be scared. When my lips touched his finger, and I felt his pulse…

My lips quivered a drop of blood touched my lips and my tongue left my mouth, seeking his finger. I wanted the crimson substance, I wanted it. I felt heat fill my body, I felt my eyes seek heat. My mouth wanted to bite the finger, my tongue to taste the blood.

I kissed his finger, the blood smeared my lips.

“-mer. Summer…” It shocked me awake. I realized what I was doing. I quickly retracted and wiped my lips clean of his blood. I quickly covered his finger with the napkin. I put water in my mouth and swished and spat, the light coppery color splashed on the ground.

A tear dropped from my eye. He wiped it away. He kissed my cheek softly. “Summer,” he said softly, his words spoke for him. He wanted me to know it was okay, that everything would be okay.

-Dawn

Summer's Journal: Thirtenth Entry

2006-10-25T09:54:00.000-04:00

Un-rest. It’s a word that may not seem to make much sense, but it makes perfect sense to me. It’s sort of like Undead, except I had nothing to do with it. Un-rest is a word I just made up for the specific reason to describe what happened to me last night.

Let’s start with blaming my friend Jeremy. Yesterday he was talking about zombies (he’s a fellow goth and is very human). Now to me zombies are something to be controlled, something that whether it is virus or necromancy I will never, ever have to worry about. To him they are an army he must prepare for and deal with.

The second source of blame will have to be my cousin, and his would be girlfriend Michelle. I had seen them together yesterday. It was only brief, but they were speaking, Brendan seemed distracted, and usually Michelle was his center of attention. I also blame Melville’s Moby Dick.

The third source I blame myself, because sometimes my thoughts don’t work in unison as well as they could. So I the thoughts I blame specifically, are the little shop in middle of the mall, the picture I once saw of a geisha, and my body makeup for wanting candy.

Back to un-rest. Un-rest is when you go to sleep at night and your body sleeps but your mind does not. The best way I can describe it is, your eyes are closed, your bodily functions slow down as if you were sleeping, your brain goes into a deep sleep, but you are still conscious.

The first dream I had to live through was a dream where Jeremy and I somehow were held up in a mall of some sort and there were zombies trying to get in, and there were zombies in the mall we had to eliminate. Our resources; A crane, a bunch of heavy metal boxes, him, I, several other people, a bow, a shotgun, a rapier. What I lacked? Magic. So suddenly, I was a human, with a rapier, trying to battle fifty zombies at once. It was like a video game. The first time we were outside trying to get into the mall. I died.

The second time we were in the mall and trying to defend it. I died. The third time I was operating the crane. I failed with its controls, and I died. The fourth time, I was able to kill several before I died. The last time for that dream, I killed several, and Jeremy killed several, we locked the place down, and somehow, I died. I don’t know what it was, but I wasn’t very good. I need magic. I am a frail little china doll.

The second dream, took place on a boat, or more a floating island. There was a graveyard, and I was in a radio booth. So was Brendan and Michelle. There were three mics and it was 4 in the morning. We were taking turns telling scary stories. (I was human again.) Michelle went first, hers involved the graveyard on the island, and guess what? Zombies. The main character was a girl, and plop, instantly I was in the graveyard. Trying to escape her dead family; cue Mom, Dad, Aunt Page, and Uncle Rapier. Who were zombies, and began to walk at me. She spoke and actions happened, I was running from them I tripped, and got mauled by zombies. That’s right, I hope I’m not the only one keeping track, That’s six deaths. Then I was back in the radio booth, and my cousin began. I was back in the graveyard, but this time, I was being chased by a werewolf (usually I had an answer for werewolves, but Brendan couldn’t allow that) and it involved a chase through the woods, and then finally getting ripped apart. That’s seven.

My narration of my scariest story put me still in the story, I was fishing, and somehow was dragged into the water, made it onto a boat, and I was conversing with people, and then a giant white whale broke the boat, and I slowly drowned Self induced number 8.

I then shifted into the next dream, where it was in the mall, and a sweet older asian man was trying to sell candy, and a rich girl walked up, and bought two thousand dollars worth. He was ecstatic. His wife leapt up and down for joy. Then the woman, who was a geisha, began eating it. It made her really happy, strickening her with a euphoria. She fainted. And for some reason I picked her up and I set her on a chair. Her ear caught my attention because the makeup was so interestingly done. It was different shades of purple hightlighting and giving her ears some color and shape.

Then I went and bought candy. The old asian man began to beep like an alarm. I woke up, dead to the world. Full of un-rest. Sometimes I wonder why I bother sleeping. I can save money on makeup by using the black circles under my eyes as a skull design.

Whatever. I have to go to school.

-Dawn

Brendan 1

2006-10-23T01:41:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I really think keeping a journal is gay, but my aunt said I should. Something about it helps keep the mind clean…or clear…or something like that anyway. So here I sit, with a blank screen and no idea what to write.

I guess I should start with the facts. I’m sixteen years old, and I’m on the school’s track team. Oh, I’m also a lupine, if anyone wanted to know. School is pretty boring, but I like going only cause I get to see my friends and I get to run for track. My cousin, Summer, hates going to school, it’s just cause she’s been reading since before the womb.

Nothing really happens in school. Classes are pretty easy so far. Last week, maybe it was the week before…or was it last month? Anyway, sometime back when school was just starting, I think we’d been in school for a few weeks, maybe not. I don’t know. Well some football jackass decided to get me mad and I got into a fight. That’s pretty regular. I can’t remember the first time I got into a fight. I think I won…maybe? It’s not really important. Actually, I think the first fight I got in was back in

So, back to what I was talking about. I was at school and I was waiting for my cousin, maybe it was Chris…what ever. Maybe I wasn’t waiting…So I was at lunch and I saw this girl walking around the quad. I’d never seen her before. She was blonde and beautiful. Curvy, but still thin. She wore glasses, almost like she was hiding behind them. She didn’t want people to see how beautiful she was. And behind the glasses…she had the most electric blue eyes. Every time I looked at her, her eyes felt like they were pulling on me. It was when I first laid eyes on her I decided I needed to know her. Me, being the nice guy I am, I decided to go up and introduce myself. Funny thing, I can remember the conversation almost perfectly…

She’d tripped, or dropped her binder or something, so I helped her pick up some of her papers. I asked her if she was alright and when she answered…Her voice was so perfect. I don’t know. It seems like such a pansy thought, but it sounded kinda lyrical.

"Yes, I'm not usually this clumsy… Honestly… Its my first day at a new school.” She had hesitated, or paused… "I'm Sarah… Who are you?"

So I told her my name and then, being so suave, I offered to show her around the campus. I grabbed my bag and started the Campus tour. I’ve practiced and mastered this action. It’s almost a sure thing to get a girl to like me. It actually startled me. I’d just met this girl and already I wanted her to be my girlfriend. Ten minutes ago the only girl I could think about was Michelle, but hey, must be some kind of magnetism or something. I started pointing at random buildings and told her which ones they were. Every time I looked at her, her eyes were screaming at me…or maybe it was just me…but it seemed like she wanted me to kiss her. Yeah, I think that was just me.

After I finished telling her where all the classes were, we ended up in an empty hallway. I tried so hard to be good, but I couldn’t any more. I leaned in to kiss her and…the bell rang. I’d never hated hearing that bell so much as I did right then. Kids, including some of my friends, started coming into the hallway so I offered a quick goodbye and decided to take off before I made a fool of myself in front of everyone. She said something as I was leaving and it took all my control to not turn around and do what I had told myself not to.

"Hopefully Sooner, than later,"

Something about her…she just seems so different. So much more special then the other girls at school. Is it so wrong of me to want to date her? No. It is not…I’m 16 years old, I’m allowed to want who ever I want. Right? Right…

*Brendan

Summer's Journal: Twelth Entry

2006-10-22T18:22:00.000-04:00

Last night I received a voice mail. It was from my cousin and it seemed panicked. My cousin scarcely ever calls me because we see each other so much, and more then anything he never, ever loses his cool. “Summer… I… I took the wrong dare and now I’m stuck with it. Please, please, please come here and help me out. 827 Main Street.’

827 Main Street. I don’t remember much of anything about the building. No stories of it being haunted, and I would know. I am the one who everyone walks up to and says, “Hey, creepy goth girl. You hear about that haunted house down on fifth?” or “Last night I saw this light in my closet, it swept through my door and laid over me like a mist, what was it?”

I made my way to my Aunt’s house. When I arrived, Aunt Page was there to greet me, “He called me… Told me not to come, what’s going on Summer?” I shrugged, and I reached into my side satchel. I was missing wolfsbane and salt. I calmly went to Aunt Page’s cupboard and grabbed out a carton of salt, “Wolfsbane?” I asked.

She tapped her foot impatiently, “I’m sorry. I was just asking. I’m a frail little girl remember?” She responded with, “Your mother lets you carry around poison?” I looked around the cupboard again. “Where is it?” I asked impatiently.

“He keeps it downstairs; you have to tell me if my son is okay.” I hugged her tightly, “He’s fine. Just scared. You have to remember, Brendan can’t be hurt physically. Which is why I am hurrying over. He’s not going to leave, and if you go over, you’ll break him.”

I went downstairs and grabbed two vials of holy water. Aunt Page looked at me in tears in her eyes. “Aunt Page, calm down,” I responded, “I think it’s just a spirit. So calm down. If it is, it’s an easy in out. I’m not going to keep him waiting any longer.”

October evenings were always cold, and this one seem colder. With my hurried pace and quickened puff of air escaping my lips, it was surreal as I went softly into that good night.

I arrived at Main Street and I began to descend in numbers, 859. A couple blocks passed by. At the end of the third one, I saw what would be 827. It was a building surrounded by black grate fence. Standing in front there were three boys laughing, pointing at the building. I ducked into the alley, and went behind the building. There was a break in the grate, and I entered the grounds.

The window that was broken was boarded up with a piece of particle board. I shoved forward. Pushing harder and harder and it gave out. I landed with a thud on the other side avoiding the nails with some degree of luck. I rose.

This place was dusty, dank, and there were black beetles. I hate when there are black beetles. I reached into my pouch, grabbed out my flashlight and began to search around. My batteries died. I quickly grabbed my cell, and I dialed Brendan’s number. Then my phone shut off.

“Help me…” A voice said in my ear, when I turned I saw the edge of a white dress. I live with ghosts. Over fifty, to be exact, only four are intelligent. The rest are full body repeaters. The one is simply called Stomper. He lives a floor above me, and once in awhile he’ll stomp down the halls at night. There are two others, the twins, I call them. They leave toys on the stairs. I’ve had a few bloody noses because I forgot to look and they tripped me up on a car or anything. The last is Ol’Drunky, and he’s in the basement. He throws bottles at people who drink.

So some white lady ghost isn’t going to freak me out, and I don’t know why Brendan was having such a hard time with it. I had no choice but to go up the stairs. The next floor was far more decrepit then the first. I began to walk down the hall, and behind me I heard echoes of my footsteps.

I turned and standing there was a shade. He was mostly skeletal, and he had shining red eyes, he growled at me. I reached into my bag, and went for the salt. Then he vanished and I felt a blade against my skin. It pushed in on my arm pain went through it. The black beetles began to crawl up my legs. I leapt backwards and went into a full run to the stairwell at the other end of hall. I felt the footsteps following me.

When I got to the end I grabbed the salt and made a line. I ran up the stairs. Not frantic, but because this shade but because this shade could cut me. He began to beat at the line, and when I arrived at the top of that staircase, I saw Bredan. He was sitting curled into a ball.

“Brendan?” When he looked up I saw rotten flesh, and decay. It wasn’t Brendan. The spirit went back to sulking. I called his name louder, “Brendan!” I felt a tap and there was a loud “Boo!”

I slapped his arm, five or six times.

“Brendan! What’s wrong?!”

“I’ve got to go up two other floors, and the next floor up there is a flag.”

“A flag?” I asked impatiently.

“Yes. Look, Summer, I know you can’t understand this, but they dared me to, I can’t not do it.”

“Why did you call me?”

“Because you thought that shade the next floor down was bad, wait until you see the next floor up.”

“What is it Brendan?”

“The Psych ward.”

“Brendan. This was a hospital?”

“Yes…”

I walked down the hall slowly, and he was following me. I began to walk up the stairs. Step by step. Inch by Inch. That’s when I saw them. The whole floor was hopping with activity. The walls were covered in blood. Dripping from the ceiling.

“Nice place Brendan.”

He responded with, “You’re a necromancer, get the ghosts to listen to you.”

“Go in against a spirit who may be a lot older and smarter than me and suffer a possession. Good plan Brendan. You know how to run, right?”

“I’m on track.”

“Brendan, what is it really?

He sucked in a deep breath, “I’m just really freaked out Summer, I don’t deal with these things as well as you do, okay?”

I took his hand in mine and began to walk. The floor began to move up and down like a wave, and I kept walking. It passed through my legs, as things began to be thrown at me. I gritted my teeth as an object smashed into the side of my face. As I walked, I began to see what was causing it. There was a little girl at the end of the hallway. I grabbed out the vial of holy water… But now it was a grenade and the pin had been pulled.

I took a deep breath. Brendan began to try and get away from me. I began to shake the grenade at her, and acid splashed out of it, and struck not only her, but Brendan and I. I watched my skin melt and felt the pain, but kept splashing it towards her.

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”

All this time the whole world seemed to rise up against me, the floor, the rugs, everything became some twisted form of reality and seemed to want to end my existence. The most violent was a blanket that became a pile of goo and covered my whole body. I found it hard to breath even though I knew it was just an illusion.

Once I had finished the prayer, and anointed the spirit with holy water, it vanished with a scream. I tugged on Brendan, but he didn’t move. I slapped him, and pulled him as hard as I could. I had to drag him. Once I arrived at the stairs it was clear the ghost had gotten to him more than me. I may be able to deal with psychotic attacks and mental stranglings, but my cousin could not.

“Brendan,” I asked, “Brendan are you there?”

His breaths became deep and he tried to get away from me, “Its Summer. Your cousin.”

His voice came out deep seated and hateful, “I’m fine!” He opened his eyes and they were red.

I reached into my bag and I grabbed my silver cross, “Here hold onto this for a moment.”

When I put it in his hand he began to yell, scream and roar. I ran up the stairs, and grabbed his damn flag. He had better appreciate that. I grabbed the cross from his hand. I laid him down on the floor, and I made a circle of salt around us.

“Take a nap,” I said as I pushed a piece of holy-wafer into his forehead.

I opened his mouth and I spoke, “What is your name?” I pushed on his chest, and what escaped was a roar of sorts, but it was clearly words, “Jacob Ericson.” This wasn’t going to be as bad as I thought it would. Thankfully it wasn’t a demon.

I straddled my cousin’s waist… I knew it was going to be disgusting before I even did it. I opened his mouth, and naturally his breath stunk, I put my open mouth near his and I slammed my hands on his chest screaming, “Enter me!” When it struck the back of my mouth I fell backwards on the ground, and physically that was all I remembered. Mentally however, this was far from over.

In the black realm of my mind, a man stood, he was much bigger than I was, and we were staring at each other. He swung his fist and connected with my jaw, and I went spinning and falling to the vivid fog that was my mind, and I felt tired.

I looked at him. I shoved on him and it scarcely moved him. Somehow I knew it was going to be terrible. When he shoved me to the ground and began to kick me, I figured it was over. The things I do for my cousin. I concentrated on the strongest person I could think of. My father. What would he do.

He’d hit the spirit. A sword appeared in my hand, and the spirit took a step back. This was my mind after all. I brought the sword around and removed his head. From the body exploded light.

“Be gone!” I yelled. I had vocalized it. I was lying on the couch at my aunt’s house. Brendan had a damp rag on my forehead.

“Summer is that you?”

“Who else would it be?”

“I thought he had gotten you.”

“He did Brendan, but apparently, my will was stronger.”

-Dawn