The Price of Blood

Prologue

The street is full of dark shapes, like smoke rising out of a fiery pit and rain patters softly along the pavement.  A flickering light in the corner goes on and off, buzzing with an irritating hum that would cause anyone to want to bury their head in a pillow.  In the distance, you can hear the honks of car horns and the screeching of brakes, the shouts of the drunks and the smash of broken glass.  The wind rustles the leaves like chiffon.  It is deserted.

A sharp cry tears at the silence.  A girl's voice, high pitched and desperate, cuts through the air like a knife and sends shivers of terror up the trunks of trees.  It comes from along the narrow alleyway, leading out to the busy high street.  The paving slabs hold their breath, waiting for the running feet of shoes along the pavement and the billowing dress that comes with the screaming. 

They do not have to wait long.  A small fragile shape comes hurtling out from the narrow alleyway. The girl has a look of sheer terror on her face, and is wearing a red dress, large silver shoes and her hair clasped in place by a silver clip.  She is breathing deeply and her body is shimmering in the eerie light with sweat.  Tears are running down her cheeks as she keeps looking back at the alleyway, her eyes fearful.

The girl is rooted to the spot.  She cannot run, she cannot hide.  It is as if someone had put an huge invisible piece of sticky tack on  her shoes and stuck her to the floor.  In the distance, she hears the triumphant cries of her hunters.  They know where she is. 

Strange and silly things began to flash through the girls mind.  Thoughts of Sunday mornings, the French bay windows in the drawing room, the fresh smell of bacon as it wafts through the house, the milkman's daily whistling and her mother's hugs.  Silly, stupid things.  Fresh flowers in a vase, her bookshelves lined with stories of far off places and magical kingdoms where princes and princesses roamed and frolicked in huge castles.

The girl began to cry soft silent tears.  Would her parents care if she died?  Would their faces be stony when the policemen came the next morning to tell them their daughter is dead?  Would they recover? Would her brothers, though they teased and tormented her throughout her life, cry with them and lament her death? These ideas all swirled around in her head, a Ferris wheel of emotions.

A sharp yell took her out of her stupor.  It was now or never.  Desperately, she began to run again, but soon after the stitch in her side began to burn that she could no longer move.  She looked around her.  There was no-one there.  No-one but herself and a chocolate wrapper being whipped about by the wind.  The girl shivered. She hadn't noticed how cold it had got.  Her insides felt like they were being frozen and her body ached.

"There!" The girl heard the cry of the hunters and tried to  compose herself  to run again.  She knew the city like the back of her hand, yet these people seemed to know it better than her.  She just had to get back home, she thought. Suddenly, a burning flame thawed her insides and filled her with rage.  She would get home.  She would!  She took off her shoes and threw them into a nearby bush and then, ignoring the pain in her legs and arms, sprinted toward the main road. 

"Where the hell do you think you're going!" shouted someone from behind her.  The pack seemed to be closing in on her as the voice was much closer than before.  Her heart felt like it was going to explode out of her chest, her body was filled with a kind of bizarre strength yet she felt so weak.  If she wasn't being pursued by bloodthirsty hunters, she might want to have a lie down.  Slowly, but surely, she began to get tired and slowed to a halt, before collapsing on the pavement.  

The running of feet signaled the packs arrival.  Though she was zoned out, she could still hear their jeering words that seemed to stab her in the chest.  "What a loser!", "honestly, I've seen elephants run faster", "what do we do with you now, eh?", "you ain't got no idea who you've met tonight girl!".

Eventually, the girl opened her eyes.  There were seven of them, all in a circle around her.  4 boys, 3 girls.  One of them was extremely attractive.  He tilted his head to the side, as if wondering what pattern to carve on her face, as if she was a piece of wood he was trying to turn into a masterpiece.  She looked at him in fear and he smiled back.

"Hello.  Why are you running away from us?  We're no danger to you."  the boy's voice was silky smooth, like caramel.  The girl shook her head.  The boy's grin widened.  He signaled to the two people next to him, a girl and a boy, and they advanced on the girl.  She began to crawl backwards, terror amounting in her chest.  But, with sheer power and strength, they grabbed her arms and she screamed in pain. Both of them were broken.

"P-p-p-please.  What have I done?" the girl pleaded, looking fearfully at the boy, who just smiled.            "Get on with it Jake!" shouted another boy, "We haven't got all day."                                                                    Jake shot the other boy an angry look but then turned his full attention to the whimpering girl.  She looked at him, her eyes fearful and full of tears.                                                                                                                  "Bad luck." he whispered.

And he pounced.