fragile time

~chapter 1~

Chapter 1: "A Violent Start"

~✶~

How am I supposed to tell a well-structured story when my life is a complete mess? My friends have always told me the best way to start this is at the beginning... Okay, here we go.

Chatter filled the hallways. I ran to the library of the boarding school, where Emily was probably growing impatient. We have been best friends ever since we were born. She was the daughter of a general in the Vampire Empire's army. We naturally grew close, as I am the prince of the Vampire Empire. We pretty much lived together, and she helped me take care of my siblings. I'm the oldest of seven, and it's hard.

A lot of people see Emily as tough and stand-offish, but I'm one of the few people to see her soft side. However, that's pretty rare for me, too, even though she's one of my best friends. We're basically partners in crime. When we aren't pranking someone, we love to explore or train. She taught me everything I know about sword fighting. As far as I knew, Emily could handle weapons before she could talk. "Everything is a test," she always says, "Keep your guard up all the time." Now, I could handle any surprise attack she threw at me. Though, she was still a bit better than I was.

That was her power. Most vampires have a gift... a power, talent, special ability— call it what you will. It just so happened that her gift was being able to handle any weapon within minutes of her first grasp. Some vampires had more than one gift, and usually the number you got was in your genetics. For example, my mother had one gift and my father had two. I inherited two... unique gifts, which I'll talk about later.

I stopped in my tracks in front of the library door. The librarian's famous saying, "Don't doubt, four sounds and you're out" ran through my mind. Mrs. Zapp, the librarian, would electrocute whoever made more than three sounds. Then, they would be dragged out of the library and magically locked out until the next day. Scary, right? It shocks me what this boarding school allows. Wasn't it supposed to be the most prestigious in the country?

I've never been locked out of the library. As a continuous rule-breaker, most are surprised when they hear this fact. The only reason I haven't been locked out before is because I would never want to give Mrs. Zapp the satisfaction. I can tell it drives her mad. Every time I go in, I overhear her agitated thoughts, thanks to one of my two powers, mind reading.

Reading minds is something I can control— usually. Whenever I look at someone, I hear a slight mutter of their thoughts. However, when I'm focusing on my power and trying to reach it, I can read anyone's mind within quite a few yards.

I silently opened the left door, as the right one squeaked. The tall, white and gold walls went straight up, bookcases slightly shorter than the walls still towering over me. When I walked into this room, I felt rather small. The off-white wooden floor boards sometimes made noises, so I planned out where I was going to step before I moved.

I caught Mrs. Zapp glaring at me. I nodded politely and slowly closed the door behind me. Mrs. Zapp was an elf, so she was shorter than me- about to my elbows. On the other hand, what she didn't have in height, she made up for in being rude. She was the strictest teacher around.

She sat at her desk on a chair, which's legs were longer than average, making her look like she's a normal size. She continued to type away on her computer, keeping a close eye on me.

I silently walked around a bookshelf which blocked her view of me. A sigh of relief couldn't help but to escape from me before I crept down the back hall.

The back hallway was, of course, at the back of the library. It was the farthest away from Mrs. Zapp you could get, so you don't have to be as quiet. For some reason, my friends and I were the only ones smart enough to figure that out. This section of the library held all the old, useless books. It was practically abandoned, so I regularly found myself there.