Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Vampire Kiss ❯ First Sight ( Chapter 1 )

Vampire Kiss

By Sapphirefly

 

Chapter One

First Sight

 

“Do you believe in vampires?” Hitomi asked suddenly.

 

Her next door neighbour Yukari was sitting on the other end of the bed painting her fingernails. She shook her head like she was bored and answered drolly, “You have got to be kidding me. Who actually believes in something like that?”

 

Hitomi hadn't been expecting Yukari to be very enthusiastic, but her tone was so much less than that. “I guess nobody does,” she said, getting up and heading for the door.

 

“Wait!” Yukari shouted after her. “Why are you asking?”

 

Hitomi stopped at the door and thought for a second. Something interesting had happened late that afternoon, but Hitomi didn't know if she was prepared to spill her guts. For Hitomi, it was like a one-in-a-lifetime chance and if she told Yukari, who might not understand the uniqueness of it - maybe it would lose some of its sparkle. It wasn't like they knew each other very well. This was their first year in university and Yukari's room was right next door. It was nice that they got along enough to watch each other's backs through the hectic month of September - especially living in dorms - but now that they had settled into their respective grooves, Hitomi wasn't sure if they were very compatible after all. Yukari was a member of the track team, while Hitomi was trying to find a different kind of group to join.

 

“Come on,” Yukari urged. “Did something happen?”

 

Hitomi frowned. She didn't exactly want to tell Yukari, but she had to tell someone, because she couldn't get his eyes out of her mind. She sat back down on the bed. “Well, I went down to the Student Group's office after classes to see if there was an interesting group I could join.”

 

“Huh,” Yukari said, perking up a little bit. “Did you find anything?”

 

“Sort of,” Hitomi said, biting her lip. “There are a lot more student groups here than I thought there were. So, I was sitting in the Student Group's office perusing the list of groups on campus.”

 

“And?” Yukari asked impatiently. “What does this have to do with vampires?”

 

“And this guy came in.”

 

Yukari screwed the lid back on her nail polish. “Now I see where this is going. There's always a guy.”

 

“Fine. Yes, there is always a guy,” Hitomi said, sorry that she had even begun to confide in Yukari. She had been absolutely right - the fun of the meeting was lost now and she hadn't even got to the good part. “Yep, that's right,” Hitomi continued, getting up and heading back towards the door. “I saw a guy in the Student Group's office that was so bleeding hot that I was totally reminded of Louis from `Interview with the Vampire. End of story. Thanks for listening.”

 

“Hey!” Yukari called after Hitomi as she closed the door behind her.

 

Once safely back in her own room, Hitomi bolted the door and sat down at her desk. Sometimes no one understood her - no one except her precious lappy.

 

She pulled her laptop out of her school bag and set it up on her desk. Luckily, the dorm was equipped with a wireless internet connection, so the only thing she had to do was plug the power cable into the wall to recharge her pathetic battery's juice. When that was done, she opened her email and went straight to her blog.

 

Hitomi loved her blog. It was called `Moon Light Reflections' and it was a wonderful place where she could talk about her life without fear of misunderstanding. Her screen name was 01Pearl_Moon. Sometimes an online life was just more satisfying than having to explain something precious with real words to real people - who wouldn't let her finish her sentence without butting in. The black screen loaded in and showed her beauteous banner which was a picture of the moon and the stark white text on the pitch black background.

 

Her last post had been about her fascination with Tarot cards. She scrolled to the bottom to see if anyone had commented. She still got comments from her high school friends, but they didn't visit often since apparently, they all had hectic lives outside of their machines. They hardly ever logged on to text anymore. However, Hitomi wasn't bothered too much by their inconsistency. Recently she'd begun getting comments from someone new - someone interesting.

 

She didn't know their real name and she wasn't sure if they were a girl or a boy - not that it mattered to her. They called themselves ReadyEyes808 and while none of her friends visited - this person had. Their comment was short, but encouraging.

 

“I have never had my fortune told, but to hear you tell it - it sounds like I'm missing out. I made a blog. Come visit me sometime.” Then the address was keyed in below.

 

Hitomi had every intention to go visit them, but first she had to write down her experience with the vampire she'd met that afternoon. She clicked to enter her account and pulled up the window. But, before she wrote anything, she had to find an appropriate graphic. Naturally, she found a pic of Louis and then she started her blog:

 

“Today I saw a vampire. Don't get me wrong, he didn't introduce himself to me as a vamp, but you should have seen the absolute beauty of this man. I was just sitting on the couch in the Student Groups' office trying to find an occult group to join at my school when this guy came in. His hair was perfectly black and straight. It was just long enough to fall into his eyes, which were also perfect by the way. Everything about his face was fascinating; the way his nose tilted up, the way the muscle in his jaw bone flexed (he was chewing gum), the way he looked around until he found what he was looking for. Now, I know I didn't say what about him made him look like a vampire, but his skin was so pale it looked like he had been powdered - even his lips were white. If only his eyes were green like Louis', but instead they were milk chocolate brown. This man's eyelashes were like fans against his cheeks.

 

“I wanted to go talk to him, but I couldn't even pull myself together enough to close my gaping mouth. So, there I was staring at him with my tongue hanging out when he turns and looks at me. My mouth snaps shut. I wanted to look away, but he was looking at me so strangely - almost like he knew what I was thinking (that I was seeing a real vampire for the first time) and it amused him. I think that might have been a smile. Then he finished talking to the director of Student Groups and headed out, but you will not believe what did before he left. He winked at me!

 

“Do you think he thought I was crazy?”

 

Hitomi stopped typing and read over her post. Yeah, that had at least done justice to her feelings. Not like talking to Yukari - bah.

 

She posted her blog and went to go check out ReadyEyes808's new blog. When the page came up, it was not black like hers, but the layout for the screen was white and all the text displayed was a deep blood red. The banner was a pair of red anime-like eyes. The design of it was simple, and possibly one that Hitomi could have chosen for herself. But somehow that red struck her as a little darker than her black. She shook her head. It was just a colour.

 

Before she read the first post, she looked at the `About Me' section. It read: “It fills my blood and caresses my body. It kills my spirit and makes me move … so I move … And it makes me prove what I am and where I lie each time I die under the vampire moon.” To say that Hitomi was fascinated was an understatement. Soon she was scrolling madly, searching for more information about this person. With a few clicks, she found the bio information he had listed. It said that he was a man in his early twenties.

 

“Thank goodness,” Hitomi exhaled as she moved back to the first page to read his blog.

 

“Today I saw an angel. I was at work - bored as usual. I guess she was hanging out at the university after hours for some reason. My guess is that she was probably waiting for her loser boyfriend. Who would keep her waiting? Personally, I would never keep a woman like that waiting. But maybe `woman' is a little too strong a word for her, since she barely looked eighteen, so probably still more like a kid - but very pretty. She smelled like apple blossom perfume with the faintest brush of cinnamon. It was really bewitching. I'm trying to think of other words to describe her, but I can't think of any except pink: like a fluffy cloud at sunset, or like coral from the sea. I'm probably dreaming, but I can't get her out of my mind.

 

“If I introduced myself to her, do you think she'd be interested in me? Nah, I didn't think so either. I could practically see the wings sprouting out of her back and the halo glistening over her head. Even if she really is single, I'm a little too devilish for a girl like that.”

 

Hitomi smiled and scrolled to the bottom. She was going to comment, but when she got there she was surprised at how many people had already commented. There were comments from at least seven girls - all gushing at the sweetness of this guy.

Hitomi wasn't sure if she wanted to comment after all, but he was one of the few people who consistently visited her blog, so she opened the window to send her comment. “You met an angel today? Well, I met a vampire. Watch, those two will hook up and you and I will stay single. LOL! Thanks for visiting my blog.”

 

 

Over the next couple of days, Hitomi went back to the Student Group's office several times. She asked the director if he remembered who he was talking to the first time she came in. Unfortunately, he had no idea.

 

“I talk to a lot of people, so sorry, I can't remember,” he explained.

 

Hitomi decided not to bother going back there. Oh well, at least she thought she found a student group she was interested in joining. It was called The Occult's Addict and they met every Friday night at midnight - always at a different location. They had an office and Hitomi went there after her classes one afternoon to find out where their next meeting would be.

 

The door to the club was decorated in black paper with papier-mâché skulls attached to the front of it. Luckily for Hitomi, the door was wide open and inside there were a couple people talking.

 

She knocked on the door and said, “Hi. Is this The Occult's Addict club room?”

 

There was a young man and a young woman in the room. Both the boy and girl had silver hair that struck Hitomi as most unnatural, but at the same time - she couldn't spot anything on their heads that indicated it was dyed. The silver went right to their roots. The girl had blue eyes surrounded by white lashes and the boy had red eyes also surrounded by white lashes. MaybFe their hair colour was natural after all. It was the boy who stood up to greet her.

 

“Hello. How can I help you?” he asked lightly.

 

“I was interested in learning about this club,” Hitomi explained, even though she felt like it was obvious.

 

“Well, come on in and we'll tell you about ourselves,” he said, making room for her to enter. “Have a seat,” he indicated a bucket chair covered in an orange and black tiger print. “I'm Dilandau and this is my sister, Celena. She's the treasurer and I'm the secretary.”

 

“Who's the president?” Hitomi asked.

 

“Another set of twins. Well, one is the president and the other one is the vice president. Their names are Naria and Eriya. You don't have a twin, do you?”

 

“That's not a prerequisite, is it?”

 

“No,” Celena said, “But it is more fun that way. You see, interesting backgrounds make for interesting research.”

 

“What kind of research?” Hitomi asked.

 

“Well, what sort of things are you interested in, or rather, what activities would you be interested in participating in?” Celena continued.

 

“Tarot cards,” Hitomi said.

 

Dilandau laughed, “Tarot cards and horoscopes, eh? You're a first year, aren't you? Please tell me you don't have a teen girl magazine in your bag.”

 

“I don't!” Hitomi hotly defended. “I'm interested in other things, too.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“Vampires, crop circles, demons, psychics … you know. Those sorts of things,” she stuttered.

 

Dilandau rolled his eyes, “Vampires, eh?” He seemed to be looking at something on the back of the club room door. Hitomi couldn't see it from where she was sitting. “Yeah, we've got a few people we're investigating on campus, who we think could be vamps.”

 

“Yeah, I saw a guy yesterday that I thought might be one.”

 

“Is this him?” Dilandau asked as he turned his back on the door and kicked it shut.

 

As the door clicked, the poster on the back flattened out. It was a black and white picture of the guy she had seen in the Student Group's office. He wasn't looking at the camera. It was a shot that accentuated his jaw and the vein that ran down his neck. There in plain sight were three perfect sets of bite marks.

 

“Has this photo been meddled with?” Hitomi asked, getting up and touching the photograph with her fingertips.

 

“No,” Celena said.

 

“Is he part of this club?” Hitomi continued - very excited.

 

“No. This club houses freaks, but not his kind.”

 

“You wouldn't want a vampire to join you?” Hitomi asked. She didn't understand.

 

“If he wanted to join, we'd be thrilled to have him, but,” Dilandau paused. “He wouldn't want to. None of the people we've tried to recruit have ever wanted to join. They like their secrets and more than anything else - they like to pretend like there is nothing wrong with them.”

 

“Anyway,” Celena interrupted. “We're having our next meeting tomorrow night at midnight at the observatory. It'll be a full moon and we're going to memorize of the different names of the craters and learn what the different phases mean when predicting the future. Do you want to come?”

 

Hitomi's eyes almost bugged out of her head. “Of course I want to come,” she blurted.

“Great,” Celena said, pulling out a membership application form. “Have this filled out when you come and don't forget the registration fee. We have to pay to rent some of the venues that we have our meetings at, as well this club room, so your fifty dollar fee is very important to our survival as a club. Please don't forget it.”

 

“Thanks,” Hitomi said as she took the paper.

 

“We'll look forward to seeing you,” Dilandau said, opening the door for Hitomi.

 

“Wait!” she exclaimed. “Aren't you going to tell me who this guy is?”

 

Celena bit her lip. “He's one of our pet projects. We really wouldn't appreciate you running to him and telling him that we've been watching him. He probably wouldn't like it and if he reported us we would get in trouble with the University for stalking him.”

 

“I wasn't going to tell him, or the University. If you're investigating paranormal activities, doesn't that involve studying people most of the time?”

 

Dilandau smiled. “You've got it exactly right, Hitomi. Do show up tomorrow and we'll make you an official member. Besides, you're interested in fortune telling, right? Tomorrow should be right up your alley.”

 

“Are you sure you can't at least tell me his name?” she begged. “I've been completely obsessed with him since I first saw him.”

 

Celena frowned and shook her hair. “His name is Van Fanel.”

 

Hitomi grabbed the door and turned it so that she could see his picture again. “Van, huh?” she said out loud, thinking of how completely captivating he looked. “Hey, can I write on this poster?” she suddenly asked. Her time spent in art class made her want to write and draw on anything that sparked her imagination.

 

“Go nuts,” Dilandau said as he threw her a set of markers. “He's probably just an ordinary guy who has a girl friend with a vampire fetish.”

 

“I hate how you always assume that everything is common place and boring,” Celena remarked.

 

Hitomi couldn't take her eyes off the picture of Van. She opened the set of markers with unseeing eyes and fumbled clumsily around until she finally had to spare a glance at the package to find what she wanted - the red. She uncapped the felt pen with her teeth and began colouring on the paper.

 

“Think she's in love with him?” Dilandau whispered behind Hitomi's back.

 

“If she's not - then it probably won't be long,” Celena murmered.

 

Hitomi didn't care what they were saying. She finished up and stepped away from her handy work. She hadn't done much. She'd only coloured his iris red, but to her eyes it was a vast improvement.

 

Celena walked up behind Hitomi and put her arm on Hitomi's shoulder. “It looks better that way. I think Naria and Eriya are going to love it.”

 

Hitomi put the lid back on the marker and said quietly. “If you ever decide that you don't want this picture anymore - I'll buy it.” She turned over the bottom corner and wrote her email address with the black marker.

 

“How much?” Celena asked.

 

Hitomi looked at it. She wanted it in her dorm room so badly her mouth was watering. “A hundred,” Hitomi said.

 

“S-O-L-D!” Dilandau and Celena said together putting their arms around Hitomi's shoulder.

 

She should have tried to bargain more before she said that grandiose amount. Since they took the picture, they could obviously make another copy if they wanted to.

 

“I'll even gift wrap it for you, so bring the money and you can pick it up tomorrow night,” Celena said, smiling.

 

“Now, you had better show up tomorrow!”

 

Hitomi said good bye to the two of them and headed out of the clubroom and towards the elevators. She pressed the button and ruffled her hair. Life had just gotten unexpectedly interesting.