Ginger's Heart 01: Body Heat [1st draft]

Chapter 02

Chapter 02:

She paused in front of the stone steps that lead to the front entrance of the school, scuffing her torn sneaker against the concrete once more. She was delaying the inevitable by telling herself that the action would make her appear innocent and vulnerable if anyone saw her. In reality, bile was rising in her throat, her heart was thumping wildly, and her palms were clammy from nervousness.

Sinking her teeth into her bottom lip hard enough to jolt her foreword she slowly ascended the stairs, hoping she didn't trip. It was still high school after all, even if she was there to kill half the population. Being a sixteen-year-old murderer didn't make the hiccups in the awkward stages of teendom any better. And she was after all a murderer.

That word seemed to tear into her gut, but it was the truth. Ginger didn't really enjoy the killing. For that she had to flip off the caring switch or CS as she called it, but for those hours of prodding, slicing, and breaking open she was fine as long as it was off. The knowledge she gained was intoxicating...the perk. It was why she continued to strive to be a part of this field. Afterwards though, after all the blood, the muscle tissue, the broken bones, when the cleaning was done and that switch automatically flipped back on, well that was when she couldn't leave her apartment, or eat, or do any type of normal happenings for awhile. If anything being an ugly teenage psychopath had caused more problems for her.

Who wanted to be holed up in bed all day wracked with guilt? Not her.

It didn't help that she had no family or friends since she'd been hiding from the system. Having to work for her room and board provided by a crotchety old bastard that ogled her ass, post-sixteenth transformation wasn't a walk in the park. Bubba, the potential Chester, never touched her, luckily, and he took the work, cleaning with other odd jobs, under the counter. Since she couldn't legally get a job without someone finding out about her, it worked well.

There was also no way she would do foster homes again after the second family burned. She'd been twelve years old, but could still remember the horrible screams and the black smoke she'd almost suffocated in. That had also been when her obsession with H.A.S.P, her desire for Lucca, their leader and her savior from that fire had started.

Ginger bowed her head. Her hand cradled around the curve of the fancy Venetian bronze door handle as her auburn hair fell, covering her face.

Lucca had been a twenty-year-old God to her after he'd rescued her from the fire. The memory of being cradled in his arms that feeling of a home that she could have had still haunted her. She'd been hurt when he didn't take her with him and instead dropped her off at a grocery store that had been on his way to a hot date's house telling her to call the cops. She'd never been angry at him for that though since it was where she'd run into the fortyish something Bubba. It hadn't been too hard convincing him to let her live in his apartment building however it had been a challenge keeping it from the other inhabitants.

After a few months she'd gotten into a routine of grocery shopping, cleaning, and other errands she'd run for Bubba. She'd been shopping for spaghetti ingredients per Bubba when she saw Lucca again buying gum of all things. He hadn't recognized her and she'd been too timid to go up to him, so she followed him to what turned out to be another 'hot date'. It actually ended up being Lucca ripping into a female vampire with serrated silver tipped knife, designed to slice smoothly into the thoracic cavity, through the pericardium where, upon entrance, it would cause a reaction in the blade, and slivers of wooden chips would explode into the heart.

When he was done and gone Ginger had stayed for hours looking at the slowly decaying body, the younger the vamp the slower the decay upon a real death. By the time she'd finally been able to move what was left of the vampire female had absorbed into the grass, or at least that's what seemed to have happened. It was then she threw up until nothing came out but gagging noises. So even in the beginning she wasn't a hardened killer and still now she had her moments of nausea.