Hadis: The Origins

Chapter One

"We need to keep going," Amara hugged the little boy close to her chest. She looked up at Brent, "He's getting too cold."

Brent acknowledged the shivering child and slid his jacket over the two of them, "The village is over this way. It isn't too much further, I promise."

She stopped walking.

"What are you doing? Come on," he called back to her.

Amara held out the young child, "Take him to the village."

"Are you kidding me? I just met you."

"Exactly," she pushed the boy into Brent's arms. "You just met me, so it's okay to leave me. I should go back with my people and fight with them." Amara pulled the child's hood tight around his rosy face, "He has a future, he hasn't turned into the monsters we are. You can raise him and protect him."

Brent held the little boy tight to his chest with one arm and wrapped the other around Amara's shoulders. "We're getting to the village. You can't leave your baby brother with a stranger."

"Nixon, I swear to the Gods, if you don't smarten up I'm leaving you here and setting a hunter on your ass!" Amara's voice boomed through the old stone house.

Nixon dragged himself back inside to glare at his sister, "I won't do it."

"You have to," she snapped, searching for Brent's reassurance.

Brent was sat down on the dusty couch, looking up at the Doukas siblings with dread. He let out a deep sigh, "Nixon, your sister is just looking out for you."

"How?" Nixon cried. "Pushing me to kill people isn't something a normal sister does--"

"--Because we're not normal, Nixon!" Amara cut in. "You know this by now, you're not a child anymore."

Nixon shook his head in disbelief. He didn't want to hurt people, he wanted to make friends in the village and grow up like the other teens. He didn't want to sneak around at night with his sister and her maniac boyfriend to hunt. "You two take too much pleasure in this."

"It's our lives," Brent spoke up. "We might as well enjoy it."

"We were never meant to enjoy this," Nixon argued. "We were meant to destroy humans then die off."

Amara rolled her eyes and pushed past her brother. "You need to stop listening to those folk stories. Brent, come on, I'm feeling a little weak."

Nixon didn't bother wasting anymore of his breath and let his sister leave.

"You're hard on the kid," Brent said when they got away from the house. He looked down to see Amara shrug, her sights were set on heading to another village.

"He needs the push. I don't understand why he resists us."

Brent kept his voice low, "He's old enough to see there are other ways. He just doesn't realize that our way is the best." He put his arm around her and she gave in, leaning into him. "He'll come around soon enough, he just doesn't want to be different."

"Being different isn't that bad," she held up her right hand and watched the pale blue smoke roll into her palm and twist itself around her fingers. "We're better than them."

Brent nodded. "He will see, I promise."

"I hope you're right," Amara pushed herself off of him and skipped ahead. "We haven't been to this village in awhile, I wonder if that cute paper boy is still around."

Brent scoffed, "Now, now you don't need him."

"I know," she gave him a wide smile, "that's why I'm going to drain him."

He had to jog to keep up with her as she ran into the village covered by a dark blanket of stars. He stayed a little ways behind her, allowing himself the satisfaction of watching as she caught the young boy in her arms.

The little boy let out a shocked gasp and looked behind him. "Amara!" He began to giggle and turned around to hug her.

She knelt down and embraced the boy before her hands heated up.

"Ow, that's hot," he tried to push away from her to see what was causing the heat on his back.

"Shh, it's alright," she spoke with a soft voice and let his life drain into her. The blue smog ate away at his thin shirt, piercing his back and circulating inside of him. His small body shook and he cried with pain from the heat.

"Shh," Brent added and threw a small ball of red smoke at the little boy's mouth that caused him to scream silence.

Amara stretched as if waking up from a nap, and let the boy's roasted body fall to the ground. "Your turn," she grinned to Brent as he wrapped his arms around her.

"That was very hot," he whispered into her ear. She laughed and he kissed her cheek. "Let's go, now I'm jealous. I want some."

She took his hand and began to run deeper into the village. They came across a small gathering of three teenage girls sitting around an open fire.

"May I?" Brent raised a brow. At Amara's nodding response, he flicked up three small red balls of rolling smoke and sent them to each of the young girl's mouths. They watched as the girls kept trying to talk but when no sound came out, they began to look at each other with panic.

Brent strolled over, with Amara still under his arm. "Hello ladies, mind if we join?" He continued to play with a ball of red smog in one of his hands. The girls' eyes widened.

"Oh, look Brent! They know the stories!" Amara jumped with excitement, "Let's do ourselves justice." She broke away from Brent and sauntered up to one of the girls, grabbing a handful of wiry black hair. "Come on girls, I thought you'd be cleaner than that."

The girls began to cry and squirm away.

"Not so fast," Amara sent streams of her blue smog wrapping around the girls. "At least we don't have to touch you to feed." She held the girls in place and watched as Brent's ruby strands latched onto all three of the girls. She grinned as she noticed Brent's body sway from the waves of energy he consumed.

Three crisp bodies went limp and hit the floor.

Amara slid her arm around Brent's waist. "That looked like it tasted good," she smirked.

He bent down and began to kiss her, "Does it?"

"Mm," she grabbed the back of his neck, keeping him close to her. "There's an empty house right there, I can sense it," she flicked her fingers and a single huff of smoke wavered. "They were orphans."

Brent pushed himself closer to her, "I like the sound of an empty house."