Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Her head was killing her and every tiny little noise sounded like a jumbo jet starting next to her. She leaned on her locker and waited for the wave of nausea to pass. Just another hour and school would be over.
She had been having symptoms for weeks now, which she desperately hid from everyone. In the last couple of days they have become worse and worse, as her father had taken away her blood pills and any other form of bottled blood as an as he called it “educational measure”. In his mind this would to motivate her to finally have her first kill.
Shelby was a Legacy vampire and as such she was born as a vampire. Legacy vampires were direct descendants of Lilith and by that more powerful than converted vampires. They were able to eat normal food (though they still needed blood to survive), have children, walk in daylight, were stronger and nearly impossible to kill. Some Legacy vampires even developed some special abilities such as shape shifting or mind compulsion.
Her childhood was not that different from a human one, she aged normally and while stronger and with better healing capabilities than human children, she had no strong urges for blood yet.This changed in her teenage years. During their teens legacy vampires develop an urge for blood and in order to evolve into a full legacy vampire they needed to drink one human to death. The first kill!
At 16 years Shelbys “First Kill” was already way overdue.
Cultural wise the First Kill also marked the moment you become a full member in the congregation. As her father was a pastor and one of the leading figures in their church he was very keen on keeping up appearances and on Shelby adhering to the social norms of their congregation,
The members of their church split away from the legacy vampire community centuries ago, condemning their heritage as children of Lilith and the matriarchate. They believe that by ridding the world of sinners, they would be forgiven by God and eventually ascend to heaven. While the core church was reserved for vampires, the church also gained a human following over times. Those humans were unaware of the true origins of the church and didn’t even know that vampires exist at all.
As for her first kill, her father had already selected “a sinner” for her. A young man named Kyle whose sin it was that he suffered from same sex attraction. In the eyes of their church a mortal sin. As Kyle turned out to be resistant to all forms of therapy that were tried, Shelby was chosen to relieve him from his suffering.
She knew that sooner or later she would have to have her first kill, as those who resisted were destined to go permanently insane with bloodlust but the mere thought of taking the life of another individual was making her sick.
The symptoms were getting worse and worse every day though.
A girl from the cheerleading squad was passing her in the hallway and she could basically hear the blood pulsing in her veins rhythmically with her heartbeat. Shelby leaned heavily against the locker as she suppressed the feeling of excruciating hunger. She took three deep breaths as she collected herself. She could do this just a little bit longer. She straightened herself put on her best pageant smile and walked to her next classroom.
“And this is the other one. What do you think” Shelby said as she twirled in her dress in front of Becca.
Her headache has only gotten worse throughout the day and she felt weak lightheaded and on the brink of starvation. Thankfully Becca came today to help he pick out her dress for the next pageant.
Becca and her had been friends since their childhood and her presence never failed to make her feel better.
Thankfully Becca was back again. She had been away a lot in the last couple of months as her parents had send her to a mental health clinic out of state. She had tried come forward to her mother and stepfather about step brother, but they did not believe her. The stress that the whole situation put on Becca cause some erratic behavior, which her parents thankfully took as excuse to dismiss Beccas accusations and send her away. More interested in keeping the whole incident under the wraps than the well-being of their daughter
Now Beccas step brother was someone Shelby wouldn’t mind to be her first kill……her mouth started watering just thinking about it….
She knew that her father would never allow it. Beccas whole family were members of her church and as such were not allowed to be killed, unless it was in some ritual sanctioned by the church.
“Oh, gorge, for sure, but also, how is it different from the last one?” Becca asked carefully
“That one was butter-yellow. And this one has a sweetheart neckline, which adds some flair, and plus, it makes "the girls" look better.” Shelby explained.
“You are a cornball. What song did you decide to go with?”
Shelby then proceeded with singing “Day by Day” and afterwards dropped dramatically next to where Becca was sitting and leaning with her against the pillow. She turned away from Becca and took a couple of deep breaths to collect herself. Her head was throbbing and her vision spinning and her stomach felt so empty it hurt.
“The song I suggested. Those judges are gonna eat it up. They're even churchier than we are…”
Becca continued to talk but Shelby couldn`t hear her anymore over the pounding in her ears. Instead she decided to focus on her and watch her talk animatedly and laughing at her own jokes.
She was so incredible vibrant and beautiful and Shelby couldn`t help herself but lean in and kiss her.
“Shelby?” Becca pulled away immediately with a questioning look in her eyes.
She bearely registered the question, all Shelby could smell was Beccas floral perfume mixed with a hint of sweat, all she could hear was Beccas heart pounding, as it pumped blood through her veins, all Shelby could see was Beccas carotid artery as it was throbbing with in takt every heartbeat. And then in less than a fraction of a second Shelby latched on her neck and drank. She drank with an urgency she nevr did before.
The relief of all her pain and ailments was immediate and replaced with a feeling of pure bliss. Becca tasted better than anything she ever tasted and Shelby coulnd`t stop herself as she continued to drink barely noticing that Beccas struggles got weaker and weaker.
“Shelby!!!” she heard some faraway say.
“SHELBY!!” this time more sharply and she felt a strong hand pulling her away from Becca.
Dazed and confused she looked up into the angry eyes of her father and then to Becca who twitched one final time and then was lying eerily still on the floor eyed open staring into nothingness.
“Becca!!!” Shelby exclaimed immediately rushed over to Becca taking her into her arms blood still trickling down her chin.
“She is dead Shelby!”, her father said disapprovingly.
Frantically Shelby checked Beccas breathing and looked for a pulse but couldn`t find one, deep down she knew that her father was right.
“Have you learned nothing? Members from our community are off the table” her father started to shout.
Shelby barely registered his words, she looked into Beccas hollow eyes and felt the bile rise in her mouth. She rushed to her bathroom and emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet. The sight of mostly Beccas blood in the toilet bowl made her shudder.
“We need to keep a low profile, we can not have any dead bodies traced back to us. The safety of our whole community is at stake”. Dave continued to rant.
Shelby looked back to Beccas slumped from lying on her bedroom floor and started to cry hysterically.
“You are grounded for a month. Go downstairs. I will handle this”. Her father shouted. “I should have known. I always gave you way too much leeway. I should have intervened way earlier. Now go, I do not want to see you anymore”.
Shelbys mother who had arrived in the meantime too her in her arms and led her slowly downstairs.
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Shelby looks at the framed photo of her and Becca on her desk. Even now nearly a year after her death the mere sight of her brings tears into Shelbys eyes.
Her father allowed her to change rooms after what he called “the unfortunate incident”.
Her new room was significantly smaller but Shelby didn`t mind. The mere thought of having to sleep in the same room that Becca died has was making her feel nauseous.
Despite his initial disappointment her father was overall happy with how things turned out. With help of some other vampire members of their church whom were strategically placed to work in hospitals and law enforcement, her father he had staged Beccas death to look as a suicide, using Beccas previous mental history as a backstory. There was no way the death would be connected to his family, or his community. In addition to that his daughter has finally ascended to become a full member of the vampire community.
This made him a little bit more complaisant towards Shelby allowing her to go back on a blood pill and bottled blood only diet.
So all's well that ends well.
Shelby clenches her fist. Becca is gone……forever…..nothing will ever be well.
She pops her vampire teeth and eyes them in the mirror.
After what happened with Becca Shelby has no interest in feeding from humans ever again however it was better to not tell her father that.
At least now that she has fully evolved into a legacy vampire she has better control over her blood lust. While there is still some underlying hunger deep within her it is controllable especially when she makes sure she eats regularly.
She looks closer at her sharp canines.
Those damn teeth. Those murder instruments.
Shelby feels the anger rise inside of her.
She grips her left tooth with her fingers and pulls with all her might until it gives way and rips out from her gum. Blood is flooding her mouth. She clenches her mouth shut and runs into the bathroom throws the tooth into the sink. She then continues to do the same with the right tooth.
She looks desolately at the two teeth lying in the sink while she uses some tissues to stop the blood flow in her mouth. Another thing she better keeps from her father.
She knows her vampire teeth will regrow in a couple of weeks as they always do, in the meantime she has to make sure not to change from human teeth to vampire teeth in front of anyone from the vampire community.
But she will ake sure, that what happened to Becca, will never happen again.