Bloody Beginnings
Chapter 1-1
Persephone's POV
The night had fallen on Manchester, as darkness wrapped across its streets like an inky blanket, a light rain began to fall removing the pressure the balmy summer day prior had left in its wake. This far from the city centre the buildings began to shift into residential estates knitted together by secluded paths and alleyways, unreached by the numerous street lights, or the passing public. The settled silence in the area was quickly disturbed by my heavy footfall. Sprinting down the street it was all I could do to keep finger hair out of my face as I painted for breath. Turning onto a new residential street at the end I see my goal, the gates of Heston park, picking up my pace slightly to avoid being caught I practically dive across the street dodging a passing taxi and coming to stop just beyond the gates, my clunky boots digging into the gravel past as I tried to pant harder. I scanned the park for movement and looked beyond the gate to see if I had lost my pursuer, I felt her start stalking me just outside of the old general pub and nothing I did could shake her.
Being out this late, even on a summer's day, carried risks for any human. Since the Reveal lifted the veil and exposed the existence of numerous supernatural creatures, certain activities and ventures suddenly became far more dangerous. The most noticeable was being caught alone at night. Of all the creatures that had been revealed, one of the most unsettling were the undead. Beings who had found a place on earth beyond the mortal coil, and while some were seemingly harmless, most fueled their undeath by the theft of human life, the Vampire being the most prominent and deadly of them all.
I'd locked eyes with the woman when I left the pub, and as our eyes met, one of us became prey. With no crowd to hide amongst, and with people being more wary of strangers on their doorstep since the Reveal, I had no choice but to make a beeline for the park, hoping to hide at the hall, where any vampire would need an invite to enter. I hoped it would work. As I made my way along the path to the hall I felt the heel of my boots scuffing the dirt path in my wake, I kept my eyes peeled, watching for any movement, for anyone who could be watching or ready to help.
The world had mostly adjusted following the reveal, humanity rioted at first but settled once their governments had been given suitable motivation to step in, and after this life adjusted. At first capitalism swept in to help the new members of society fit in, suddenly super markets carried all manner of items for the supernatural, it became common place to find aisles in supermarkets dedicated to them, grooming products for animals made larger for weres, materials and herbs, humans believed magical based on popular media for the witches, a selection of fine raw meats for the undead amongst other things. The item that caused the biggest stir when it hit the market was however blood. Bagged and bottled animal, and soon after human blood began to line fridge shelves. The company that had started this trend came out of London and within the year had products lining shelves across the UK. This however brought speculation of how the product was obtained and the morality of selling human blood in a supermarket to be ingested.
After the financial crash people began to look for anyone and everyone to blame and this spawned the first political extremists targeting supernatural groups for their own profit. As their rhetoric spread, so did ignorance and hatred borne of fear. Sadly politicians reacted in kind. While the West had begun as a relative bastian for the supernatural who wished to exist in the open, the tide quickly changed as new rules and laws followed years of constant debate.
For once though, none of this concerned me. As I made my way to the end of the path, the dirt turning to stone as it stretched out before the large hall, I hoped that the owners were as scared of sunset as most humans. Taking one last glance around and seeing nothing obvious, I pulled my black leather jacket tight around her body and made for the door. Hoping up the stairs I braced myself as my hunter made her presence known and in an instant she was on me. In a frantic struggle, we both fought for dominance, she had the clear advantage based on the strength of her grip and catching me from behind made my escape all but impossible. Soon I found myself pressed against the door, ginger hair cascading in front of my face and each of my limbs entrapped by the body pressed behind me. Everytike I fidgeted she pushed harder against me until I had no room left to move. I had been caught by the stalker, feeling her lean closer behind me, I almost flinched as her cool breath snaked along the skin of my neck, a voice broke the silence that left me bewitched, as it usually did whispering into my pointed ear.
"Tut tut tut, I'll admit you almost got away from me back near Holyrood, taking the back gardens to avoid me. Almost seems a waste though, no one would have seen you in there would they?" She whispered in a mocking tone. One that almost made me scoff.
I held my retort and remembered my role in this, pushing back against her I let out a ragged scream. "HELP, PLEASE HELP." The sound had barely left my mouth before I felt myself be spun around in her grasp, a pale hand covering my mouth as a smirk grew on hers. Still pinned to the hall I was forced to look up into her face. The vampire stood taller than me, having to look down to maintain eye contact, her long chocolate brown hair joined with my own windswept locks creating a private shroud stealing us from view of the world. Her eyes shone with a familiar crimson light and ivory fangs caught a slight glean in the low light of the hall's exterior.
She smiled down, mischief and malice present in one expression. "Now that wasn't really necessary, we both know they're already here, darling."
As she finished talking, the sound of two sets of footsteps became noticeable, one falling heavier than the other. Both of us turned to my right and saw one of the pair of men charging from the side of the building stake in hand and seemingly coming to my protection. His heavy jacket was very out of place for the heat still present as the night began, thick combat boots, and a black bandana wrapped around his lower face, completed his get up.
A typical look for the reactionary "supernatural defence force", a far right militia that had been founded in 2015 as a reaction to all supernaturals being encoded as a protected class in the UK. The group was founded to "protect" the human natives of England, but mostly seemed to just harass the supernatural ones.
Behind the man charging towards the pair, stood another member stuck around in similar garb, though his was slightly more ill fitting. He held a crossbow aimed at my hunter, and quickly loosened a bolt, narrowly missing the man still in his pursuit towards them. The bolt would have struck the vampire centre mass, had she not caught the quarrel snapping it in two. As the man with the steak began to lunge forward into her vampire's chest, she suddenly shifted, disappearing from his view and me in an instance. The man had little time to react as I got up from the wall, finally able to stop pretending to be the prey and reached out and caught his arm in a steel grip. His breath hitched and his heart skipped a beat as I spun him around his arm bending at an unnatural angle as I forced it against his back. The stake dropped from his hand as he was restrained and I made sure he could see the man who had formerly been holding the crossbow in a similar situation, being walked closer to him. Neither could escape their vampiric captors.
As the brunette vampire came to a stop holding the larger of the two men a cruel smile sat on her face as she talked over the two thrashing men. "That was far easier than you had been making out, dear. I was expecting some challenge."
Before I could respond, the man I was holding continued to struggle in my grasp, even through the pain in his arm as I continued to bend it back further and further.
"GET THE FUCK OFF ME YOU DEAD WHORES, I swear I-"
The rough and loud voice was quickly cut off. I rolled my eyes, before snapping the arm I was holding, making it jolt from the socket as the man let loose a bloodcurdling scream.
"Isa, you mind gettin this one to be nice?" I nodded my head towards the man screaming in my arms.
Isabella just continued to smile. "Of course my love." Her gaze moved down to the man struggling between sobs in the red haired woman's arms, once their gaze caught fear overtook his face as she began to speak. " Stop moving, only speak when spoken to, understood?"
The man in my arms suddenly went slack, the pain radiating through his shoulder forgotten, he quickly nodded, saying nothing further. The larger man in the brunette's hold began to breathe quicker and shallower breaths, fear seeping from his pores.
"No, no, no. Please, I swear I didn't wanna hurt no one, I just thought, I thought I could spend more time with my friends, yeah? Please I'll stop, I'll never do this again, I promise."
We both just maintained eye contact disregarding the man who continued to babble nonsense pleas of innocence.
Shaking my head, I let go of the man in my grasp. "Sit on the stairs of the hall. Don't move otherwise."
Under Isabella's compulsion the man obeyed my words like gospel and sat down as ordered, unaware of the arm flopping loose at his side.
"Persephone, mind repaying the favour?" Isa stood, her grasp on the man having to tighten as he continued to struggle. " I'd really rather let go of him soon, he's growing damp."
