The One Who Was [ON HOLD]

An Unnatural Storm

----------------PROLOGUE--------------------

The cauldron bubbled and hissed as tongues of flame leaped up from the ground and kissed its sides. All around was a great forest, known as the Jungle of Death. It had taken him many years to find this location, and now he stood in the shadow of the trees, waiting. He was waiting for the one thing that could destroy humanity. The one thing that could make them all like him. The one thing that could make Earth a world of vampires........

He straightened up. The fumes arising from the poison had turned bright red. This was the alert that it was ready. Slowly walking over to the cauldron he prepared a cup. Then, as he reached it he dipped the goblet into the gelatinous liquid and carefully raised it to his lips. As soon as it reached his throat, the poison would cause a change. It would make it so that the next person he bit would take the power of the vampire and be able to transmit it through their fingertips. It would cause a mass transmutation. It would cause no one to be left alive.

The rim of the goblet reached his upper lip. He tilted it back and......................... it was knocked from his hand. It flew downwards in slow motion, the poison sloshing over the sides. But he only had a couple seconds to bemoan the loss of his death's dream before a herd of centaurs galloped out of the surrounding forest. One of them still had his bow up from the shot that had hit the cup. The hooded figure cursed. He had been warned about them, why hadn't he taken proper precautions?

They galloped around the clearing destroying everything and ensuring that not a drop of the poison was left. When their work was complete they cantered off, leaving him to swear revenge.

Now 500 years later, the cycle is complete once more and the victim has been marked with a scar that gave her the sight.

--------Chapter 1- The Storm--------

Mondays were always unlucky for me. But when I rolled out of bed on this one, it felt worse than normal. Foreboding. Shivering I looked outside the window. There were storm clouds gathering. That was my first clue of something amiss. It never rains in November. The clouds were so dark as to be almost black and they twisted and swirled in ways that could not have been natural. Every so often light flashed from within them. I must have been staring at them for several minutes, because I heard my mom yell from downstairs.

" Come on Clara! You're 14, you should be able to get yourself ready!"

I dragged my gaze away from the window and began to slowly get dressed. As if in a daze I pulled my I <3 Vampires t-shirt out of my dresser and put it on. I wore my usual combat boots and black pants. Again, I let my gaze drift over to the window. Telling myself to snap out of it, I flung my bedroom door open and walked downstairs. I sat down at the table, stood up and went over to the fridge. Grabbing a carton of milk and some strawberries I sat back down.

I tipped my head back and guzzled the milk. After eating the strawberries, I stood up to leave, but right then my mom walked into the room. She looked exasperated.

"Clara were you drinking milk without a cup again?"

"Yes mom. Sorry mom."

She sighed and made shooing motions at me. As I walked out the door, I heard her muttering to herself about how pigheaded I was. I grinned and rolled my eyes as I strolled down the path through our front yard. If it could be called a yard. It was huge and overgrown and there were more than a few trees. The grass-although there were more weeds than grass-nearly covered the path I was walking on. But at least it was always green. Not today though. Today the clouds cast it in a shadow so deep it could to be nightime. Usually my mom would offer to drive me on a day like this.

I pushed open the gate and turned left. The shadow extended as far as I could see. The expectation of rain gave an eerie silence to the world. There were no birds chirping, no dogs barking, not even a breath of wind disturbed the stillness. Strangely, the tall gray apartment buildings lining the street seemed to be keeping a secret from the world.

Not wanting to be left alone on this street of whispers longer than nescessary, I increased my pace to nearly a run. When I arrived at the 9th grade bus stop, my friends, Katherine and Kathleen gave me an odd look. They were identical twins, so it was funny when they had the same facial expression. Then even I couldn't tell them apart.

"Hey Clara, what's the rush?"

"Yeah Clara, you usually try to avoid school, not get there quickly!"

I replied,"I was just trying to get out of the storm."

They looked bewildered, and turned to talk among themselves. Every couple seconds I saw them cast glances at me or the sky. Finally they turned and said slowly,

"Clara there is no storm."

"Yeah, I can see the sun as plain as day."

That was when it struck me. I was the only one who could see this humongous storm behemoth above us. That was why my mom hadn't offered to drive me. She couldn't see this thing that was so obviously there. Or was it? Was I going mad? Everyone knows that the first symptoms of insanity are seeing thing that aren't there and talking to yourself. I already talked to myself so maybe I was. But somehow I had a hard time convincing myself that what I saw plain as day, didn't exist. I was sure it did, but how could I prove it?