[OUTDATED] The Senza Mortangel Chronicles Arc 1

Pilot: The Current Situation

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"And how long have you been seventeen?"

"A very long while, I'll tell ya!" I suddenly interrupted and burst out laughing, loud enough for my other two companions not to hear the dialogue from the movie we're currently watching.

"Hey, shht! Quiet down, Gus, we're near the good part already," the dark-haired woman on my right whispered snappishly.

"Sorry, Raffy, shutting up," I whispered back apologetically while the movie continued playing.

"I know what you are."

"Say it. Out loud... Say it!"

Suddenly, the large bearded man on my right hit pause on the remote and growled, "Pokémon Trainer."

All three of us burst out laughing at that instant as the man on my right hit play again and totally ignored several seconds of the movie.

"Oh god, Red! That never fails to crack me up!" I wheezed as I tried and failed to stop laughing. "Hey, do that again, but this time with feelings."

Red hit pause again and took a deep breath before imitating the girl in the movie, "Yer a wizard, Harry."

I spit out my Mountain Dew because of his sudden change in lines. "What the f – what's with the line from Harry Potter!?"

Raffy can't stop laughing herself. As she hiccupped herself from laughter, she sang, "'Cause it's the start of something new! It feels so right to be here with you!"

Okay, so this movie night suddenly turned into karaoke night. I might as well join in. "And now looking in your eyes, I feel in my –"

We suddenly stopped singing when we heard the sound of ripping fabric. When Raffy and I looked at where Red is, the large bearded man was gone, to be replaced by a larger brown-furred humanoid wolf.

"Darn it, Red, is it the full moon tonight?" I ask exasperatingly.

"Apparently," Red replied with a growl. "I checked the weather forecast before dinner and the weather reporter said the full moon will be tomorrow night."

Raffy sighed, "Red, weather forecasts have three out of four chances of being wrong. Stop relying on them too much."

"Thank you for reminding me for the umpteenth time, Raff," Red replied. "And how many times do I have to tell you to call me Dad?"

"I... I'm still getting used to it, you know," Raffy blushed.

"Sheesh! It's been around two hundred years! But then again, it's not like you don't have all the time in the world to get used to calling him that," I said. "Hey, stop hogging the popcorn will you?"

"What? I'm hungry!" she snapped as she raised the bowl of popcorn out of my reach.

"Girl, you're a vampire! Vampires don't crave over popcorn! Besides, you're not hungry, you're bored!" I snarled.

"Okaaaaay, here you go, Grandpa," Raffy crooned and placed the bowl on my lap.

I suddenly turn my head towards her and said, "Don't call me Grandpa! It's Gus! I'm still eighteen!"

"And how long have you been eighteen?" asked Red, slightly snickering.

I sat up straight and cleared my throat to imitate the man in the movie, "A while."

Both of them snorted as they waited for my punchline. I finally say it, "Around two thousand years, to be exact."

All of us roared in laughter for a long time, forgetting the movie we have been watching since after dinner. When the laughter finally subsided, we just sort of stared at the television with the movie paused.