One

My name is Casey Jenkins, the year is 2010, and I live in the United States which has just recently been taken over by vampires. Yes, you read that right… vampires, as in blood-drinking, undead, evil creatures of the night. Though, it’s not just the United States, the entire world is now under their control as well.

Humans did try to fight, of course, but the fight that ensued was so short that it can’t even be considered a war since it only lasted a couple of months; not nearly long enough to earn the title of ‘war’. It was a pitiful one really; no amount of man-made weaponry could even come close to equaling the brute force and strength of the vampires. They were ruthless as well, and had no qualms in killing thousands of humans who tried to get in their way. This was such a scary time for those of us who had nothing do with the fight mostly because we had no idea what was going on half the time, there was no radio or TV coverage and the newspapers were also scarce.

The only time we were sure of what was going on was when the vampires took complete control and announced their victory by any means that they could. They took over the governments of every country and killed those who had been the leaders prior to the take-over.

It’s weird, but nothing changed really… at least not at first. We weren’t really kept up to date about the happenings, but it was obvious that they were planning something, something really big… something that was going to change mine and every other humans’ (the ones that were still alive at least, the fight had killed thousands) life forever.

It all started when I arrived at school on January 5, 2010… the halls were much emptier than I remembered them being just the day before. My homeroom class was missing a total of thirteen students; nearly half of the class was gone. What was even weirder was the fact that some teachers were missing as well, including my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Wilson.

When I stepped into the classroom at 7:40, five minutes before the bell rang. It was so strange because the room was usually crawling with thirty students this close to the bell. It was dead, a total of sixteen people, not including myself, were in the room that morning. That was a huge clue that something was happening… it was not a coincidence that the vampires took over only a few weeks before and all of sudden a bunch of people were missing.

I was standing there in the doorway, with my mouth gaping open when the principal, Mr. Wells, stepped in behind me, and cleared his throat rather loudly. I moved out of his way as he stepped into the room and made his way to the front of the classroom. Those of us in the room simply watched him as he made his way to the front.

“I’ve been instructed to pass copies of this out to everyone.” he explained as he began handing out sheets of paper. When he handed me one, I glanced down at it, it was a letter:

‘To everyone who is reading this, you are probably wondering where most of your classmates are… they’ve been taken under the strict orders by the Vampire King himself. But, just so you don’t all feel left out… you too, at some point, will be taken away from everything you’ve ever known to start a new life. There will be no warning; this is the only warning you will be receiving. There will be no escape from it. If you choose to fight you will not win. If you run, you will be found and the punishment will be most severe. Once again, this will be your only warning. Heed it and prepare yourself for the inevitable.

Vincent de Roulet
The High Chancellor
Head of the Vampire Council

I stared at the note with wide eyes. So, that is what they had been planning… kidnapping humans and doing God knows what with them. I found it rather odd that we were given a warning in the form of a note since half the school didn’t have that luxury. Though, I was just thankful that we were given a clue as to what was happening… it made me scared all the same… what were they kidnapping us for anyway? Why couldn’t we just go about living under their control?

So many questions and no answers… not that I was surprised; it appeared that they liked to keep us in the dark, which they were still able to do even if they had given us some idea as to what to expect. The letter didn’t explain everything that was going on.

And that’s what truly scared me.

And it was that note's fault that made it very hard for me to sleep for I was so terrified that they would be coming for me… I probably could have attempted to leave, to escape my fate, but I knew that it would do no good. That thought alone was what kept me at home, lying in bed night after night, waiting for the inevitable. Hoping and praying that it wouldn’t be that night, that I would have one more day.

God answered my prayers, at least for the first two weeks. But, my turn came the night of January 19th. I had somehow managed to go to sleep that night for once, but I woke with a start when I heard what I thought to be the front door as it was knocked down and crashed to the floor. I glanced at my alarm clock, it was only 11:15 pm, I had only been asleep for a little less than an hour.

I scrambled out of bed, rushing over to my closet and throwing on the first pieces of clothing that I saw. The light from the streetlamp outside made this job easier in the darkness of my bedroom. I managed to find an outfit that was comfortable and somewhat warm. Loose jeans, light blue turtle neck sweater and sneakers. I wasn't quite sure if I would get a chance to change or not, and I did not want to go anywhere with my flimsy nightgown… that would have been embarrassing.

I jumped as I heard a scream from the stairs, it had to be my mother, my parents bedroom was right by the stairs. So, the vampires had to pass by it to get to my room.

“Where the f**k is the child?” a male voice demanded, it was slightly muffled through the door.

My mother let out a whimper, “Please don’t hurt her!”

“I’m not going to f*****g hurt her, now tell me which f*****g room is hers or pay the consequences.”

My mother screamed again, making me wince, the door didn’t muffle it that much, so it was pretty shrill.

I made my way over to window, glancing through the curtains long enough to get a glance outside. The place wasn’t really crawling with vampires, but there were at least five just in the front yard. If there were just that many outside, I could only imagine how many were inside. Such a scary thought.

I had planned to jump out the window, but I wasn’t about to do that, I didn’t have a death wish, at least not yet.

My bedroom door suddenly flew open with such force that it flew completely off its hinges and landed with a loud crash on the floor. I had no time to hide, no time to run, not even enough time to think.

As soon as the door lay on the floor, someone was upon me, yanking me into his chest and making me let out a screech of surprise. “Gotcha.” he noted, smirking slightly. I glared at him and struggled, trying to get out of his grip, which seemed to tighten the more I struggled. He yanked on my hair with his other hand, making me gasp in pain, “Stop f*****g struggling” he ordered, still pulling on my hair, “there’s an easy and a hard way of doing this. Take your pick… though; let me tell you that the easy way is far less painful.”

I didn’t respond right away, which seemed to piss him off because he yanked on my brown hair harder and forced my face up so my light blue eyes met his angry brown ones. “Well?” he growled, squeezing me tighter against his body, and making it that much harder to breathe.

I had planned to fight and not make it too easy for them, but he was just too strong and he could probably break me like a twig if he truly wanted to. It had never occurred to me that the vampires would be that strong… there was no way to fight him and win. Though, I tried… really, I did. But it was pitiful and didn’t last long, but at least I tried.

All my struggling brought was pain because it seemed to really piss him off, “I will ask you one more time… easy or hard?” he growled right into my ear.

I gasped at the pain again, but managed a weak, “Easy.” A new idea was already forming in my head as I surrendered: I was going to play this out like a nice, sweet, good little human for the time being, but once my chance came I wasn’t going to be nice, sweet or good anymore.

“What was that? You want to do it the hard way?” he chuckled, shrugging, “Alright, fine with me. I’m always happy to oblige a lady.” He muttered darkly.

I tried to protest, to correct him, but he covered my mouth with his hand and that prevented anything coherent from leaving my mouth. He just chuckled as I tried to get out of his grip, not liking the fact that he had purposely misunderstood me.

I gasped as he carelessly pushed me to the floor; I winced as my back came in contact with my carpeted floor. Although, it wasn’t as bad as if I had hit a hardwood floor, it still hurt. He took the time I was recovering to get in a position where he was practically lying on top of me; straddling me in such a way that it was impossible for me to hit him in the groin. And believe me, I tried… multiple times. He chuckled at my attempts, “Sweetheart, I’ve done this quite a lot… I know what you human girls do when a man they don’t like is in a position like this.” He explained, grabbing hold of my hands in just one of his and pinning them above my head. The other one was still covering my mouth; his fingers digging roughly into my face.

He just chuckled before he requested some rope to tie me up with; which he was promptly given. Don’t ask me from whom, I was too busy glaring at him and struggling to pay attention to anyone else. He quickly tied my hands together with me trying to kick him the whole time.

He yanked the rope hard when I came very close to kneeing him in the groin, “Do you have a death wish?” he growled, “Stop struggling.” he ordered.

I tried to bite his hand, but he removed it from my mouth before I could. I was going to attempt to scream at him, but a piece of dirty cloth was shoved in my mouth, followed quickly by a piece of duck tape. A blindfold followed the makeshift gag, I didn’t even see it coming… one second, I could see and the next, I couldn’t. I winced as it was tied painfully behind my head, it didn’t help that the knot had trapped a handful of my hair, making it much more painful.

I continued to struggle as I was rolled onto my stomach; I felt his knee digging painfully into the center of my back. My hands were tied in front of me, making me that much more uncomfortable. I struggled uselessly underneath him, but all it did was make me tired and piss him off.

He pushed his knee harder into my back, “F*****g stay still.” he growled, shoving my head down by my neck. My face was smashed into the carpeted floor so hard that I could barely breathe.

I whimpered, or at least tried to, at the pain, but he didn’t let any weight off his knee or let go of my neck. It felt like his grip on my neck actually tightened and I felt like he was squeezing my windpipe to the point that I could barely breathe. That coupled with being so smashed into the floor really terrified me as I tried to breathe through my nose, but I only got a little air in because it was January and my nose always got stopped up during the winter. When I realized that I could only take in little bits of air at a time, I truly started to panic. I started practically hyperventilating in terror which only made breathing that much harder. I was terrified that he was going to choke me to death.

“Luke, what the hell are you doing to her?” a male voice yelled from somewhere to my right, but I was too busy breathing to pay much attention.

“I’m holding her, trying to keep her under control until you arrived.”

I barely heard the footsteps approaching, “Well, I’m here now.” he paused, “What the hell are you doing to her? And why the hell is she tied, gagged and blindfolded?” he was right above me when he said it.

“Because she wouldn’t come quietly.”

“Really?” the other man sounded skeptical, “That’s odd… from what I’ve heard she should be one of the more docile ones.”

“Well, whoever told you that was very wrong then. I gave her a choice between doing it the easy or the hard way and she chose the hard way.”

I let out a cry of frustration at that, but it only came out as moan. I was still having trouble breathing and my making noise seemed to just make it worse. It only took a few moments for me to go into complete panic mode because I really did feel like I was going to die by suffocation, because I just wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

The two vampire’s voices got softer and sounded farther away as I slowly began to lose consciousness.

“Luke, let go of her neck… now. Don’t ask questions… you’re going to kill her if you keep holding her like that. She can’t breathe very well and she’s panicking, which is just making it worse. She’s not going anywhere anyway. This entire house is full of my men, do you really think she’s stupid enough to try anything now?” his voice sounded like it was at least several feet away, and he was only standing right above me.

This was bad… if this Luke didn’t let go of my neck soon, I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.

Luke didn’t answer right away which scared me because I thought he wasn’t going to listen. But, after a few seconds, he did let go of my neck and I was able to turn my head enough to get a descent amount of oxygen in. It wasn’t a full lungful due to the gag, but it was enough. “Thank you.” I wanted to whisper, but it was very muffled and probably wasn’t even understandable through the gag.

“See? That was what was making her struggle so much. You must be careful with humans, Luke… they break easily.” I had expected him to walk away at that point, but I was surprised when he continued after a rather long pause. “Let me finish with her… you go take care of her parents.”

There was silence for several seconds, but the orders weren’t followed. “Don’t give me that look, you’ve already killed three tonight and I will not let you get away with accidentally killing the fourth. It was lucky I arrived when I did otherwise this one might already be dead. You need to be more careful, Luke, humans are not your playthings, at least not the ones that we capture. They are not for you to do whatever the hell you want with… now, go make yourself useful elsewhere.”

“But-”

“No buts! I am in charge here and what I say goes, do I make myself clear?” the words were practically growled out, he was obviously not happy.

I felt the knee that was crushing me to the floor suddenly lifted from my back before I heard retreating footsteps accompanied by low muttering about how it was unfair.

There was silence after that, I just lay there, glad that I could breathe somewhat normally again. I wasn’t sure what the other one was doing, though I had the weird feeling that he was studying me, intently. It made me uncomfortable. Finally, after what seemed like an awful long time, he ripped the duck tape off, which hurt, but I was so thankful to be able to spit that disgusting piece of cloth out that I really didn’t care. “T-thank you.” I managed to get out, only stuttered once. My mouth was dry thanks to the cloth sucking up all my saliva and my lips were also dry, not to mention stinging due to the duck tape being unceremoniously ripped off.

He ignored me, “Are you going to be good and cooperate now?”

“I was trying to before. I told him I wanted to do it the easy way, but-”

“But he pretended that you had asked for the hard way, didn’t he?”

I only nodded.

“Damnit.” I felt his presence leave mine for a second, but he was back before I could think anything of it

I jumped when I felt him untying my hands. “Leave the blindfold on for now.” he ordered, as I rubbed my wrists, trying to make the stinging pain go away. I could tell without looking that the ropes had rubbed my wrists raw.

“I’m going to be asking you quite a lot of questions and I want you to answer them as truthfully as you can. Do not lie to me, I will know… and I will be most displeased. You already have a pardon due to Luke’s mistreatment of you, but that does not exempt you from anything if it’s rightfully deserved. Do I make myself clear?”

I nodded.

I gasped when he suddenly yanked on my hair, bending my head back at an uncomfortable angle, “When I ask a question, I expect a verbal answer.” he growled low into my ear, “You will refer to me as ‘sir’ in your response.” he explained yanking hard on my hair, making me whimper in pain.

It scared me how quickly this man’s-or rather, vampire’s- mood could change in a matter of seconds. One second he was nice… and the next he wasn’t.

“Yes, sir.” I whispered.

He seemed satisfied because he let go of my hair allowing me to move my head back to a more comfortable position. I heard him, but I couldn’t tell what he was doing, until I heard the distinct sound of pencil on paper. “Full name?” he asked, “including your middle name.” he added.

I didn’t answer right away, mostly because I was just trying to figure out why he needed to know my name… I thought he already knew it.

He let out an exasperated sigh, “Now, there’s an easy and a hard way to do this. If you’re not going to cooperate, let me know now, so that I can make you cooperate and we don’t waste any more time than we already have.” he said, “Are you going to be a good girl and answer my questions in a timely manner or not?”

I gulped slightly, not wanting to see how he would make me do anything. “My full name is Casey Amanda Jenkins… sir.”

“Age?”

“Sixteen, sir.” I said softly,

“Birthday?” was the next question.

“March 5 1994.” I was surprised that he didn’t reprimand me for not referring to him as ‘sir’.

“So, that would make you seventeen in a few months?”

“Yes, sir.”

He was quiet for a few seconds and I heard him writing all of what I had said down.

The questioning went on for another twenty minutes at least. He asked me all sorts of questions, from what my blood type was to what my favorite food was. To say that it was a weird questioning would have been an understatement. I was desperate to know why he was asking all of these seemly random questions, but was too scared to ask.

“You can take the blindfold off now.”

My hands immediately went to the knot at the back of my head. I winced slightly as I pulled some of my hair in an attempt to untie the thing. I managed to get it untied; only losing a couple of strands of hair in the process. I was momentarily blinded by the ceiling light, which had apparently been turned on while I had been blindfolded.

He was sitting directly in front of me, writing something down on a clipboard, which he was holding in such a way that I couldn’t even sneak a peek without looking really obvious. I watched him as he continued to write, completely ignoring me. This gave me time to get a good look at him; mostly because I had nothing better to do. He was young, no older than twenty five at the most, though how old he really was I couldn't tell. He was pale, as most vampires were, with dark brown hair framing a face with high cheekbones, a thin nose and thin lips. He glanced up from what he was writing, and I was met with forest green eyes.

“Beautiful eyes.” he muttered, barely above a whisper before he turned back to his work and proceeded to ignore me once again.

He stood up without another word to me and turned to leave, “Please, what are you going to do to my parents?” I blurted it out before I could stop myself.

He stopped mid-step and turned slowly to stare down at me. I gulped slightly, thinking I had pissed him off with my question, but he just looked at me for one long moment before he finally answered, “I don’t think you want to know.” he turned on his heel and headed for the door. “Kale! Dominic!” two new vampires appeared in the doorway, one was big and bulky with muscles and the other tall and skinny, “watch the girl while I get this paperwork on file. Do not touch her unless she becomes hostile. And don’t frighten her; she’s already being cooperative… I don’t want you two to scare the cooperativeness right out of her like you did to the last one. Do I make myself clear?” when they nodded their understanding, he left the room.

I watched them warily as they stepped into the room. At least they left the door open; I don’t think I could have been able to trust them at all if they hadn’t.

The skinny one was the first to actually speak to me, “Well, aren’t you a cute one?” he said, an evil look appearing on his face, “I could just eat you up.” he grinned at me, giving me a nice good look at his fangs.

The bigger one yanked on his arm, “Kale…” he warned, “Jerrick said not to scare her.”

Kale scoffed, “I’m not scaring her, am I sweetheart?” he asked, flashing his fangs at me again. “Besides, I’m not going to hurt her.” he said as he stepped closer to me, bringing the other one closer as well, since he hadn’t let go of his arm yet.

“Kale…” the bigger one growled out.

“Why do we have to listen to him anyway? He is younger than us. If anything, he should be listening to us.” Kale sounded angry as he said it and for the first time, I scooted away from him, not liking the evil glint in his eyes that was directed towards me.

“You know why Kale.” Dominic sighed, “Now, stop this nonsense; you don’t want to give the girl any reason to be scared of us and piss Jerrick off, do you?”

“I don’t think she’s scared… are you, sweetheart?” he looked expectantly at me.

I looked at him for a few seconds before I nodded slowly, backing up some more, not stopping until my back came in contact with the wall.

He snorted, “Scared already?! I haven’t even done anything yet!” he noted, “Well, I guess there’s a first time for everything…” he sounded amused.

“Kale...” the big one was starting to sound like a broken record, that was the third time he had said the others' name in the past five minutes.

“Where’s the fun in scaring a human when they’re already scared of you and you haven’t even done anything yet?” Kale asked, ignoring the other one, as he watched me. “Whoever gets you is going to get bored real quick then; no one likes the docile ones. Except for a few, and they never keep them very long anyway. Poor girl, you’ll be lucky to make it through the end of March…”

“Kale, stop tormenting her and come sit over here.”

Once again, he was ignored, “Are you a mute or do you just not know how to talk?”

I looked at him for a second before deciding to actually verbally answer his question for once, “I can speak… I just don’t have anything to say.” I explained, not even looking at him as I said it.

“You’re a weird one… most of them can’t shut up. They go on and on and on about the most randomness s**t, as if talking, being nice or just plain pleading and begging is going to change their fate.” Dominic remarked.

I just looked at them, sitting in the chairs that had obviously been taken from the dining room. I had nothing to say to that. I wasn’t the type of girl to beg and plead with someone when I knew it would do nothing for me except maybe embarrass me and make me look like a big moron. I already probably looked pretty pathetic since I pretty much hadn’t fought much... and begging and pleading was probably only going to make me look even more pathetic.

I pulled my knees up, so I could rest my head on them, yawning. I fought not to go to sleep. I didn’t want to be that vulnerable with two vampires in the room. I managed to stay awake, how I managed that, I’d never know.

“What did you two do to her?” Jerrick was back, and it didn’t sound like he was very happy.

“What makes you think we did something?” Kale asked, sounding offended.

“She’s huddled against the wall. I don’t remember her being in that position when I left.”

“Kale flashed his fangs at her more than once, that’s what got her a little scared.”

It was silent for a few seconds, “We need to leave, I don’t have time to put up with you two right now, go get ready… we’re leaving in a few minutes.” I didn’t look up as they left. “As for you…” he trailed off, as I heard him come closer, I gasped as he suddenly grabbed hold of my hair and pulled me up to my feet. I found myself staring at his chest, until his hand went under my chin and he forced my blue eyes to meet his green ones, “I’m feeling generous tonight, so I’m going to give you a choice as to how you travel. You can either ride in the bed of one of our trucks in the freezing cold or you can ride in the backseat with myself and few others and be nice and warm.”

What the hell kind of choices were those?! Did he really think that I was going to choose the first one?! It was the middle of January, and below freezing outside. I was scared, not stupid.

“Inside, please. I’d freeze to death otherwise.”

Though, he failed to mention that I was going to be tied, blindfolded, gagged and lying on the floor, which is exactly what I found out not ten minutes later. And even though it I was warm, I don’t think that made up for that type of humiliation. And the fact that there were a total of four vampires in the back with me, all of them were rowdy, obnoxious and were talking about me, as if I wasn’t even there, made it that much worse.

“She’s a cute one.” one noted, nudging my side with his foot.

“Yes, she is.” another agreed, it took be moment to recognize Kale’s voice, “you think Damien will want her?”

“He better.” was all Jerrick said. “He was the one who requested her capture.”

Those were the last words I heard before I finally fell asleep, utterly terrified and completely exhausted.