Midnight Moon: The Beginning

1

I threw the last log into the fire and wiped my forehead. I examined my fingers. I had no splinters in them, luckily. I wiped my hands on my pants and made my way to the house. Momma was cooking again, I could tell. There was chicken roasting in the oven. Mashed potatoes, green beans, and corn on the cob were being fixed on the stovetop. The stove and oven were both made of black marble, fine even for this side of Satu Mare. We lived far away from Transylvania, thanks to momma. Yet she wasn’t my real momma. She was my foster mother, and I was not the only child she had to take care of. There were 13 of us in the mansion, the only mansion in fact, near the Carpathian Mountains. We were all taken here because of our special abilities. Eleven of the children, Ami, Sam, Jacob, Josh, Justin, Lexi, Rosanna, Levi, Becky, Taylor, and Mary, had the ability to read peoples minds. Amazing, isn’t it? The other girl, Kali, was the other odd ball of the group. She could foretell the future in her dreams. Her, Josh, Sam, Mary, and Taylor were my only friends in the whole house. Nobody knew who I was, or what my special ability was. I go by Bella, and nobody questions me other wise. “Momma Wilson, may I go to the pool? All my chores are done.” I asked her, and she turned away from her cooking long enough to give me one of those sweet smiles of hers. “Ok, you may Bella. But you have to be dry and dressed before three. We have visitors coming. And, Josh is already out there, so go have fun.” I smiled at her and ran upstairs to put on my swimsuit.2

I swung the door open into the dim light and had to shield my eyes. I had gotten accustomed to wearing the towel around me before I got into the water, and of course sunglasses were a necessity in this type of weather. The coolest it had ever got here in the summer was a whopping 105. We don’t have many neighbors, and the only person that would be close enough to be investigating was a quarter of a mile away. The pool itself is amazing to the people that come to “get” a child. It’s 45 feet long, but it only goes to 10 feet. Most of the kids don’t go down to the deep end anymore. It’s the way we lost one of our most beloved house members, Kevin Poindexter. We never got along very well, but we didn’t really hate each other. I guess you can’t be friends with everyone, right? There was rumors going around the house that he had a secret crush on me. But it didn’t make sense. I am almost 5 foot tall, with “half and half” eyes and black hair. The reason they call it half and half is because the upper part of my eye is blue, the lower half is tannish-brown. Not the best combination of colors, but soon they will be fully blue. But that day won’t come for quite some time, about three months to be exact. Momma Wilson was telling the truth. Josh was already there. He kept dipping in and out of the water like a dolphin. I giggled, and silently slipped into the ice-cold water behind him. 3

My teeth chattered as I got up to my shoulders in the cold water. I watched Josh swim stealthily through the water. His pale skin glistened with a hint of brown. The smell of human scent was amongst the waves that surrounded him, but I shook my head and forgot all about it. His dark brown hair was matted and wet. His eyes were gold, a unique color that could only be found in the southern part of Satu Mare. His shell necklace hung around his neck stiffly. He quickly resurfaced. Waves rippled past me, making cold chills rise up and down my spine. The wind was slightly blowing, the scent becoming stronger and making me hungrier. I shook it off with a hard shake of my head. He turned around and looked at me. He just stared for a while, until I became uncomfortable with the silence. The sun was roasting a hole through my neck, or so it made it feel. “So,” he said, nervously running his fingers through his hair, “how long have you been in here?” I shrugged and tried to act as calm as I looked. “Not very long,” I stated, and grabbed the blue pool float off the cement walk and slapping it in, “Long enough to be freezing, though.” He smiled, his monotone voice making everything come to life again. I smiled, jumped up on the float, and splashed water at him. He was so fun to be around.4

We splashed around for a while and I kept tackling him. He lifted me up and blew on my stomach. I laughed, and reached out and tickled him. He laughed and put me down. We started splashing each other again when Jacob walked out of the house. Jacob was far from human. He was a mixture of human and werewolf, two combinations that destroyed the likes of my kind. But anyway…. He was the serious one of the whole group. He was the “fun spoiler.” He walked over to the edge of the pool and glared down at us. We stopped splashing and looked up at him. I already knew he was there, for I could sense someone like him, or anyone at that fact, from a mile away. He had his arms crossed over his chest and he had a serious look in his brown eyes. “You all need to get in the house. It’s almost 2:30.” He said, and strode back to the house with his nose up in the air. Typical Jacob Harrison-Marshall. He’s always downing people with negative statements and criticism. “What a party pooper.” Josh said, and climbed out of the pool. He was wearing black swimming trunks with blue skulls that reached to his knees. “Yeah. Hey,” I said, taking advantage of the fact that he was the strongest boy probably in this side of Romania, “you want to help a girl out here?” he grabbed my arms and pulled me out. “Hey, there’s a van out front.” He said, and I stared in the direction that he was mentioning. There was a long, white limo and a black van parked in front of the house. There was fancy blue writing on the side of the van, but I couldn’t tell what it was. It was in a different language. 5

Part Two: Taken Away6

The smell of prey gushed through me as I walked outside with Justin and Kali. They were standing beside each other, holding hands as they usually do. Their hands always looked perfect together. We all formed ourselves into a line. Miss Wilson came by and pulled my sunglasses off my face. “It’s disrespectful to our visitors if they can’t see your eyes.” She said, and walked back inside the house. The sunlight glared into my eyes and burned the sensitive retinas. I covered them with my bangs, but left enough space for me to see what was going on. The chauffeur walked around to the side of the excessively clean, white limo that was nearest us, and opened the door. A tall, older looking man stepped out of the vehicle. Judging from his looks he was in his late ‘60s. He was a mortal, to be sure. He was colorful and radiant; the wrinkles in his face, on his neck, and on his hands were effortless and completely natural. He walked with an unprecedented step, his cane in his left hand seemed unneeded. His eyes weren’t dull like most, I’m not saying all, of the Undead’ were. They were bright and marvelous. Mortals were beautiful pieces of art. They make me feel two hundred years younger. I may not look old in mortal eyes. In mortal years I look like I’m 18. Yet any of the true Undead can tell you that I am exactly 218 years, 20 days, 15 minutes, and 29 seconds old. The old man was looking at everyone. He was going down the line, looking at everyone and the chauffeur would hand a certain one a rose. My friends’ faces seemed to light up when they got their flower. I had to hold back a laugh. Talk about originality. 7

He walked up to Josh and looked him in the eyes. I couldn’t help but watch. The man smiled and nodded, and the chauffeur handed him a dark red rose. The chauffeur held all the flowers in his right hand. Another breeze came by, and I could smell his scent. He was human too, and not a bad looking one at that. He was tall, with big brown eyes, and he had blonde hair. He was Scottish. He kept his left hand hidden behind his back. The old man skipped three people and stopped, purposely, in front of me. “What’s your name, lassie?” he asked me, studying the part of my face that was exposed. “Bella,” I said, noticing his Scottish accent. It wasn’t hard to tell Scots from born Romanians. He shook his head. “No, I mean your real name.” He said matter of factly, and he smiled. I stopped smiling and pushed my bangs out of my face so my whole face was exposed, so I could see him better. “BellAna Michelle Zanikuran.” So, he knew I wasn’t a mortal. The sun burned my face, so I shielded it again. The chauffeur took his hand out from behind his back. He handed me a bouquet of black and blue roses with a card stuck in the middle. They quickly moved on. I looked at the card and plucked it from its spot, and opened it. It said, in fancy letters, “Welcome Home BellAna.” My heart stopped pounding. Somebody knew my name. And it was my real one at that matter. Who knew that much about me? The only people that knew anything about me certainly wasn’t of the mortal variety. I looked up at the sound of a car door opening. The chauffeur had opened the limo door. Suddenly, two strong hands grabbed my arms, lifted me off the ground, and started carrying me towards the door. I was shocked at first, but when I saw Kali’ scared face, I started fighting back. It was no use. They were strong mortals, and even my extra ordinary strength couldn’t fight them off. They tossed me in the limo like a rag doll and slammed the door. 8

I was the only non-mortal in the limousine. The chauffeur kept his eyes on the road ahead of us. The old man and the two other men, apparently his bodyguards or something along that line, sat in the back also. The two men, both strictly mortal, sat on either side of the old man. Chills ran up and down my spine again. The old man looked at me in the face. “You know it’s not a good idea for me to be in a car like this one with a group of incoherent mortals such as yourselves.” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. I tapped my fuchsia colored nails on the armrests. The old man smiled at me. He had hideous yellow teeth. But its better than stained red ones, so I was personified to looking intently out the window at a dead mouse. “You don’t recognize who I am, do you, BellAna?” he asked. I acted like I was thinking. I tapped my forefinger against my chin. “No, not really,” I said, my conscious in my inner head annoying me about food, “and I don’t care, regardless.” He nodded seriously and the man to his left took a green, glass bottle out from the drawer underneath the seat. He also pulled out a fancy looking crystal glass and poured clear, fizzy liquid into the glass. He handed it to the old man and closed the drawer. I closed my eyes as the old man leaned back and drunk it. It had been close to 36 hours since I had last fed, and the scent that breezed through the car was making that little annoying voice in my head become louder. I could feel the men’s eyes on me. It was to much to bear. I couldn’t stop myself. My eyelids flew open and I leaped on the old man. I grabbed his shoulders, pinned him down with all my strength, and bit into his soft, baby powder smelling skin. The two men that sat at his sides jerked me away before I could drink a lot of blood. I slashed at them but they pinned me against the side of the car. The old man coughed and held his hand up to his bleeding neck. He glared at me through narrowed eyes. “You have just made a big mistake, young lady.” He said, in a half way dead tone. I smiled with razor sharp fangs and laughed.9

The castle was huge. It was made of old, maroon bricks that had come from Japan (according to the dragon symbol on every other brick.) My two escorts, Cody and Ryan were their names, led me up to the gates. The gates lifted open, like the ones in those old medieval torture movies. The cast iron resembled teeth. They scraped together making a horrifying screeching sound. I cringed, but the men just looked on like it didn’t bother them. They must be used to it. I looked up to the men that were holding my arms. The one holding my right arm, Cody, was your average mortal. He was six foot, with curly blonde hair and navy blue eyes. His nose was off center, probably broken before in a fight with that of his own kind. The one holding my left arm, Ryan, was another story. He was six foot three, with thick black hair and hazel-red eyes. There was more of a gold hint to them, though, which made it more unique. The drawbridge came down and made a loud booming sound when it hit the dirt. The men didn’t even flinch. I looked up at Ryan. He looked down at me, and smiled. His teeth were brilliant white. He would be an awesome vampire, I told myself, and reluctantly looked down as we walked over the planks of the drawbridge. I looked up as we walked into the parlor. It reminded me of one of those human optical illusions that they always played on each other. The walls were purple checkered, the ceiling was black with white wisps playing in it. The floor was black and stars were painted to make it look like you were entering another dimension. Cody walked away from us and turned down the hallway. I looked up at Ryan. He was broadening his shoulders, and he released my arm. I looked down at his hand. It was perfectly formed, not like many other males hands. You couldn’t see the blood veins, but they were there. He was not pale, and yet not dark either. He was the perfect shade.10

I heard footsteps advancing toward us, and we both looked in the direction. Cody was coming back, yet this time he was carrying a small brass key in his left hand. He handed the key to Ryan, took off his hat and bowed at me, and then turned and walked back down the hallway. Ryan led me to a room near the end of the long corridor. He opened the boxes I had brought along and started putting things in the cabinets. The bedroom was like something out of those ancient Roman paintings, minus the random polka dots. There were walls that were painted the colors of a sunrise. The carpet was a jet black. The bedspread and curtains matched the colors. The ceiling reminded me of the ceiling in the parlor. The whole room was full of mystery and magic. The only thing that was off was the piece of machinery that was mounted on the wall. I walked across the room and Ryan watched me as he finished putting up my things. I could tell because I felt his eyes burning a hole in my back. The machine was made of steel and had big green and red buttons all over it. I had never seen a piece of machinery like it before. “What ‘tis this piece o’ machinery ‘ere on this wall?” I asked, and Ryan strode up beside of me. I could hear his heart beating faster. “It is something that Father invented to keep your ‘kind’ under human control. But I quite honestly see no use for it. You seem…sweet.” He said, and his eyes looked over the buttons. I smiled. My fangs lengthened, but I retained myself by pushing one of the red buttons. Ryan turned and looked at me with horror in his eyes. The floor shifted and flipped. 11

Three metal cages full of crazy eyed wolves came to the surface. They were menacing and scary. I could hear Ryan’s teeth chattering behind me. The wolves’ eyes were blazing red or various shades of yellow. Their fur was spiky, and their claws were like teeth, scraping against the metal. One of the wolves howled, and the others stared holes through me and growled. I knew what they were thinking. They were hungry. They were thin, signifying that they had not been fed in quite some time. There was a loud beeping noise that went off in the distance, and suddenly the doors sprung open. The wolves ran towards Ryan and I like bullets. I pushed Ryan against the wall. He had fear cast in his eyes. I turned back around as the first wolf leaped on me. I grabbed its snout and threw it against the wall. It immediately sprang back up. The battle was on. 12