Marlin was a great teacher. He taught me to watch my tracks and, if needed, to quickly evade. Stay out of sight and keep my head down. "Everyone holds a specific smell. Cigarettes hide that smell," he explained to me as he trained me years ago.
"Wouldn't the smoke dilute how we smell everything else?" I remember asking him.
"For a week or so but that's all." Marlin's medium-toned voice had the smallest hint of a French accent. I always wondered if he was originally from France. Few people noticed the accent unless they paid close attention.
"Why is it always the French making everyone smoke?" I remember joking with him.
"I'm American. My parents were French." He always corrected me.
"Why didn't they name you Michelle or something?" I asked.
"I wouldn't argue with them," he told me.
"Strict?" I asked.
"Dead," he corrected me again.
Anyway…
I walked and walked as I thought of nothing at all. Through the park meadow and past the grave yard, in a circle, and back to the park. I sat on the park bench in the middle of the meadow, just watching the sidewalks on the far side of the grass. I lit my cigarette. I started to smoke and smoked very slowly.
The night was quiet and calm. No vampires, no people. Just me and nature. Summer was leaving and autumn was closing in. Everything was beautiful, yet not cold enough to need a huge overcoat. I was thankful for that since fighting proved more difficult with a coat on. I continued to smoke slowly, enjoying the scenery.
I heard her frustrated march and smelled her perfume before I turned her way. I looked at my watch and saw it was one in the morning. I looked over my shoulder at her. Her blonde hair fell to her shoulders. I smelled her boyfriend, who reeked of other women. The girl's ripped, expensive jeans matched her expensive blouse and jacket. Nothing original or unique about this girl. She must have been a 'Britney' or a 'Jessica.' "Smoking is bad for you," the girl told me. I laughed.
"It keeps my sanity alive. That's good to me," I told her.
"This town is trying to become smoke-free," she said. One of those girls, huh?
"What's your name?" I asked her, taking another drag and throwing the butt at her feet. She stomped it out quickly.
"It's Ashley." She was frustrated with me. I pulled out another cigarette.
"Well... Ashley..." I laughed again. "There are more important things than smoking.”
"Yeah, like drugs," she was quick to answer.
"More important than drugs." I lit another cigarette.
"What's more important than drugs?" She sounded like a ditz. I wanted to slap her.
"It's the reasoning behind why people get high in the first place." I spoke with my hands, making a theoretical sphere. "The source. People who murder out of rage, and teen pregnancy from loneliness." I took a drag of my cigarette. "These problems need to be addressed at home," I explained and took another drag. Why did I have to be a chain smoker?
"This town prides itself in no teen pregnancy." Ashley tried to make herself sound smart now. Too late doll.
"Looks like you'll either be the first or be sent away like the rest." I took a long drag while staring her in the eye. I blew my smoke in her direction, hopped off the table and handed her my cigarette. "Go home before your parents find out from his parents." I patted her back. "And find a better habit than laying on your back," I told her and walked away.
*Sigh*
"Do you ever think of death?" I asked. "Why would I?" He looked me in my eyes questioningly. Marlin and I had this conversation a few years back late in the night. Both of us were in our pajamas already. I snuck him into my father's house when I was still in high school. I never slept and never knew why. I asked him questions while we smoked out the window. "Very little can kill me you know," Marlin told me.
"Do you worry for nothing?" I asked him.
"No. I have no need to worry and you shouldn't either. Without our family, we're damn near invincible. This is why we abandon our families, so we don't have worry," Marlin explained. We were mortal, and other than that, we were almost indestructible. Still able to be stabbed or shot, but within a night, we were ready for it again. In that, time is the only true 'dreaming' we know of.
"Why didn't I find out earlier about what I was?" I asked him.
"It comes as you mature," Marlin told me. He spent the entire night answering my questions. I was the best Marlin had come across, often faster and stronger than my opponents. I was always more skilled a fighter than any vampire I've fought so far. Yet even with all of my skills and the hard work I put into getting better, I still worked at The Burger Factory…
I had a plan. Though it would take weeks to perfect my plan, I was very excited. I was going to get dressed after work, get my cheap, banged up car and head over to the largest mansion in the county. I knew what I would be getting myself into.
Sole
(Chapter 3)
She kidnapped me. I would have complained and threatened to call the cops, but she would have only laughed at me. The day she took me back to her house was the same day she made me her bitch. She hated human scent so I was often scrubbed down by her personally. Yuzuki was nothing like I have ever come across before.
She told me to sleep on the floor like a dog, yet almost every night she would lay her thick, long, black waves over my chest and wrap her caramel, cinnamon arms around me. Even after throwing me around and breaking my bones all day, I looked forward to caressing her baby soft skin while smelling her floral scent, which was different every night.
Everyday held the same schedule and everyday she did what she wanted without remorse. Yuzuki would leave me to roam the house, get food, socialize, while she did something for several hours in another wing of the house.
I wasn't to enter the east wing of the house. For whatever reason I wasn't to enter, I obeyed. Yuzuki would finish her work, then come to play, feed, and groom me. One night, she broke every bone in my body and threw me in a tub of scorching hot water to see if I could drown. As anyone could imagine, I was less than pleased.
After a week of pure pain, she got bored of my screams. Or maybe she got bored of not being able to kill me. Either way, I was thankful.
"Pet." She called for me. I went to her, dragging my feet. What did she want today? "Undress," She ordered.
"What? But I- "
"Do as I say or I'll make you." Her voice was calm, but under that calm, I knew there was a storm ready to brew. Yuzuki's mood flipped at the drop of a dime, yet her voice rarely got loud and her face was never unpleasant.
The madder she was, the more silent she grew. The more sadistic she felt, the wider her smile was. I was almost used to it by now. I got naked in front of her. She stood up, looking at me up and down as she circled around me slowly. Yuzuki seemed to be taking measurements. She smiled. I didn't like when she smiled.
"As of today, as of this hour, you have officially outlived any other pet. What should I name you?" she asked, still smiling. I was confused. Why was she being nice?
"I don't really have a name," I admitted. I've been alive since before history could mark it. I've fallen and forgotten, been killed and remembered. Patches, centuries of my memories, were missing from my mind. I couldn't tell you what