Bloody Royalty

Chapter 1

It's early in the morning as I sit in the middle of my bed. I don't lie in it. I just sit. Because if I lie down, it will just give me thoughts. Thoughts about how I can't sleep.

I guess I was never able to sleep as peacefully as my uncle or my sister. I can never sleep at

all, it seems like.

I just don't understand it.

Do I have insomnia?

Or a dysfunction in my brain?

Or some mental disease that just prohibits you from sleeping?

I don't know.

Maybe I'm just abnormal. Or some sort of freak of nature. Maybe I am like what everyone at my old school said I am. That I am different.

They used to say, "Kids like you don't have friends. Kids like you can't get friends. Kids like you don't fit in. Kids like you can't fit in. Kids like you stay solo. Kids like you should be homeschooled. Kids like you don't belong." And that's what I've been telling myself. I don't belong here. Or anywhere for that matter. I would like to belong somewhere though. But where would that magical place be? Where is such a great place that I would actually belong?

I look at the clock with great anxiety chilling up my every nerve. Yep, it is now 7:30. That means in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

"Karmin!!!!!!!" Yep, right on schedule.

"It's time to get up now! You gotta get ready for school!" That's my uncle. He always explodes into my room at the same time every morning to "wake me" for school. I am never asleep though, however, he always thinks he catch me "off-guard" resting my eyes.

"Aww damn! You up again?!"

"Yep."

"Well, Imma get you one of these days."

"Yeah, you say that every morning."

"Well, I will get you. Even if I have to come in here a little bit earlier. I will catch you slipping and you will be knocked." My uncle is kinda infamous for "catching people slipping". Taking pics of everyone in the family sleeping. And not just sleeping. But sleeping wildly. One time, he took a pic of my sister and she looked like her neck was about to break in half. Another time, he caught my aunt sleeping in a fetal position with her thumb in her mouth. He even caught my grandmother half off the bed with her mouth wide open. A bunch of my cousins made jokes that she'd been waiting for that good good. At the time, I was young so I didn't know what "that good good" was. Later, I found out it was nothing really good good about it. Nothing my grandmother would proud of if she was alive today and knew what that good good was.

I looked out the window of my vast and spacious room. I never know what good can go into a room. Just a bed, a closet, maybe a clock. I don't know. A computer desk with a chair. But what else goes into a room? I have so much space in here but I don't do anything with the space. My sister, all the time, argues that we should switch rooms because her room is too small for all her stuff and that I don't even "take advantage" of the space that I have. But how am I supposed to know what goes into a room? What exactly are rooms supposed to be filled with?

"You know, you ask yourself that same questions every time you look out this stupid window in the morning." A voice pops into my head.

"Oh. Hey Remy." I call out to the voice. I have had Remy as a close companion since I was a little kid. She has altered her voice since then, I think. I dunno man. But I know she sounds sweeter today.

"How are your fangs feeling today?" Remy asks.

"They're fine, I guess." I rub my tongue across them. Remy is my best friend who at times gives me "little lessons" and cool new things from her past superiority. But she has gotten me in trouble sometimes with those "little lessons". One time, she was teaching me how to "use my mind" when I was twelve and I ended up breaking my grandmother's favorite vase. She was furious and had me stand in a corner with books on my head when I tried to explain that Remy was teaching me a new trick. She would just say, "Remy is just an imaginary friend. She can't teach you tricks, Karmin." She also said if one book drops, she'd slap a belt across my backside.