Fanfiction: Origin - Part Two
A short while later, the friends reached the park after a rather uneventful walk. It had begun to snow a little, and the sky was gradually getting darker and darker, aided not only by the approaching storm, but also by the setting sun. Faith couldn’t get rid of a nagging feeling of guilt in the back of her mind, a feeling like she was doing something completely wrong by coming to the park alone. However, Kelly had already started to build snowballs, and unless Faith wanted to get absolutely annihilated in the fight, she had better get started on hers, too. As she settled down near the rusty, snow-covered jungle gym, the snowflakes falling from above began to come more frequently, coating the city in a new layer of powdery white. There were lots of positive things about the snow, but especially important from Faith’s perspective was the fact that heavy snowfall tended to keep the gangs off the streets, for which she was thankful. The last thing she needed right now was to be hassled by gang members when she was without Jesse’s protection.
As she continued to make her snowballs and think things over, Kelly finished with her pile, grabbed a large one, and threw it in Faith’s direction. Faith glanced up from her thoughts just as the snowball hit her square in the head, sending powdery snow flying in every direction.
“Woo!” Kelly called from her side of the park, over near the swing set. “Gotcha!”
“You are so dead!” Faith shouted back, brushing the snow from her beanie. Her hands were freezing again due to the lack of gloves, but now she only had one goal: revenge. She dodged another projectile from Kelly and picked up one of her own, hurling it across the park. Kelly tried to twist out of the way, but it collided squarely with her chest, exploding on impact. Faith laughed, grabbing another snowball. “Yeah, what now?” she teased.
The fights were always fairly well-balanced, with neither girl able to get a significant advantage over the other. Faith had a slightly stronger arm despite being a tad younger, but she tended to throw with reckless abandon, managing to hit Kelly only through the sheer number of snowballs she launched. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kelly tried to use strategy and precise aiming to counter Faith’s massive attacks, often scoring the highly desirable head shot, which was always funny to watch. Faith would be so busy slinging her snowballs that she often wouldn’t see the one flying straight for her face until it was too late, and then she’d fall down amidst a cold white eruption. But it was hard to keep Faith down for long. Even a direct shot to the face only kept her out of the fight for a few seconds, long enough for Kelly to yell a playful insult before she had to go back on defense. Because they were so well matched, the fights never hurt the feelings of either girl, but throwing snowballs was just one of those rare occasions in south Boston where they could let go of all their worries and only concentrate on having fun.
“You suck!” Kelly yelled, ducking one of Faith’s snowballs. “I bet you—”
She got cut off when Faith’s backup projectile nailed her in the stomach.
“I’m Queen of the Park!” Faith retorted. “You can’t escape!” Her eyes widened as Kelly took careful aim and launched her return offensive in a perfect arc towards Faith’s jungle gym base. Unable to dodge in time, Faith twisted around and covered her head, allowing the snowball to impact on the back of her jacket. No head shot for Kelly that time! “Is that all you’ve got?” Faith began taunting, turning back around, but she was interrupted when a snowball sailed right into her face.
“Ha!” Kelly cried, smirking.
As the fight continued onward, a few dim lights flickered into existence around the park, providing some meager illumination for the battle. After a few more minutes, the participants eventually realized that it was almost completely dark outside, which was not a good thing. The fact that two fourth grade girls were alone in the park at night was bad enough, but they were both going to be in serious trouble if their parents found out.
“Um, I think we better leave,” Faith said, dropping her snowballs and calling truce. “We are going to get so busted for this.”
“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” Kelly agreed, coming over from the swing set. She momentarily took off her beanie to shake some snow out of her hair. “I guess we got a little carried away, huh?”
Faith only nodded, already starting off through the snow back towards the apartment. Kelly quickly followed along, not wanting to be left behind by Faith’s fast steps. The city had suddenly become a white nightmare, a macabre wonderland of deathly silent snow-covered alleyways and flickering streetlights. The girls stayed side by side, their heads turning back and forth constantly for the shadows that could easily turn to reality by stepping into the weak light on the sidewalk. They had made it perhaps half way back before Faith suddenly stopped, forcing Kelly to stop, too. For a moment, they just stood there together, breath coming in anxious gasps, two frightened girls alone on a snowy south Boston sidewalk at night. Snowflakes continued to drift down from above, driven by nothing but gravity in the utter absence of wind.
“What is it?” Kelly whispered, eyes probing the darkness on the other side of the street. She wasn’t aware that her voice had dropped down so low; silence was simply a natural response to fear. “What’s wrong?”
“I thought I saw something up there.” Faith pointed upward at the roof of a three-story apartment complex. Far off in the distance, she heard a siren blare to life and suddenly go dead. “Watch, maybe it’ll happen again.”
Nothing moved for a few seconds as the friends silently watched the rooftop. Just as Kelly was about to peel her eyes away from the building, however, she caught a tiny flash of movement, two yellow orbs inching nearer to the edge of the roof. Even more unnerving was that they did not disappear again, but rather stayed, seeming to stare right down into the street.
“D-do you see that?” Kelly asked, unconsciously stepping behind Faith for protection. The roof was so high up that no light from the street could possibly hope to reach it, but the small yellow circles were reflecting—or producing—some sort of unnatural light. “We need to leave, Faith. Now.”
“Okay, follow me,” Faith said, showing a surprising lack of outright terror. She began inching backward on the sidewalk, intending for her and Kelly to disappear into the dark alley behind them. From there, she could plot a new course home. Three blocks to the apartment; the longest three blocks in the entire world at this moment. “Just go slowly.”
Right before the darkness of the alley enveloped them, whatever was perched on the rooftop suddenly reared up to its full height, defying the sky with its glowing eyes. As the girls watched fearfully from the imaginary safety of the snow-lined alley, the figure leapt straight off the rooftop and fell three stories straight to the ground, where it landed in a crouch. Not a second later, it was on its feet, yellow eyes glaring angrily across the street. It was clad completely in black and did not produce clouds of breath in the chilly air. For an instant, the girls just stared in horror at the thing that had just jumped off a building and was now standing across the street, but then Faith made a decision.
“Run,” she said, grabbing Kelly’s hand and yanking her down the alley.
Unwavering yellow eyes tracked the girls, and the figure they belonged to began walking towards the alleyway without a sound. It trudged through the snow without a beanie and without gloves, completely unaware of the temperature, only intent on its new, tiny prey. The darkness was not a deterrent.
“Come on, Kelly, run!” Faith repeated, almost dragging Kelly along. She glanced back at her friend, who had a look of stricken fear on her face. Farther behind, now at the mouth of the alley, the fiery eyes continued their relentless pursuit.
“What is it?!” Kelly said, running as fast as her legs could carry her.
“I don’t know!” Faith responded, still clasping Kelly’s hand in her own. “We’re almost to the next street, hurry!”
Sensing that its quarry was about to escape into the open once more, the black shape began to pick up speed, leaping over garbage cans and propelling itself forward with inhuman speed. Its dark clothing masked it from sight as it traveled through the alley, but the yellow eyes continued to glow as fiercely as ever, giving away its location. Closer, closer it came, reaching out its arms towards the little girls who were running for their lives.
Barely ahead of the figure, Faith and Kelly came out the other side of the alley and onto another lonely street, and Faith immediately darted to the left, back towards home. Kelly almost slipped, but quickly recovered and followed closely behind, nearly out of energy. Skidding out of the alley mere feet away, the figure could almost taste the prize, and it leaped forward, coming within inches of grabbing Kelly.
“Faith!” Kelly screamed at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t run anymore, not in the snow. Her legs would barely move. “Help me!”
Turning around automatically, unwilling to leave her friend behind, Faith saw the figure with the yellow eyes tackle Kelly the ground. Kelly shouted for help again and again as loud as she possibly could, kicking, punching, biting, doing anything and everything in her power to escape. With all the energy she had left, Faith ran straight for the attacker and kicked him as hard as she possibly could right in the face, but he barely even moved. Before she knew what was happening, the figure had tossed Faith into the street like a rag doll, and she landed heavily on her back. The snow cushioned the fall somewhat, but the street was still icy hard. She could still hear Kelly’s screams, and somehow managed to get herself on her feet again, ready to attempt another rescue.
As the snow fell down around the dark scene, a gunshot rang out, spinning the yellow-eyed figure off of Kelly, who immediately crawled towards Faith’s position in the street. From her location, Faith could see everything happening in slow motion. Unbelievably, it looked like a gang member had come to rescue the girls. He was running down the sidewalk, gun held straight out in front of him, ready to fire again. The black-clad figure amazingly stood up despite having just been shot, and it snarled loudly. Faith couldn’t be sure, but it looked like its face was deformed somehow.
“You like beating on little kids, motherfucker?” the gang member shouted, firing another round into the attacker’s chest, causing the figure to stumble a few steps backward, hissing in pain. “Get out of here!” he told Faith and Kelly, motioning with his free hand.
Not waiting around for the outcome of the fight, the girls turned and fled. They heard more gunshots and shouting, but soon there was only silence. Both figured that the gang member had finally gotten the best of the yellow-eyed, inhuman figure and relaxed their guards, coming within site of Faith’s apartment structure.
Back in the street some blocks away, crimson blood was cooling on the snow. A smoking gun lay forgotten in the gutter. A dead body was crumpled on the sidewalk. A vampire turned its yellow eyes toward the starless sky and smiled.