All of her life, Maria Alvarez has been sure of three things.
1.) The Lord God will protect and guide her thought all of the trials of life.
2.) Vampires are soulless husks of their former selves, little more than animated bodies feedi...
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When Maria had been briefed on her mission, she hasn't been given any way to contact anyone from the church. She had simply been told that someone would contact her when the time was right. It had been two weeks now, and she hasn't heard a word. She had never really had any friends at the compound, because she never really felt that she fit in, but she was still worried over the fact she didn't even feel homesick.
In fact, she felt happier than she had in a long time. Maybe happier than she ever had. Within her second week she had gotten so used to metallic smell of breakfast and dinner, that she could talk right to someone drinking blood and not even falter. She tried to push away the doubts that raised in her mind, reminding herself how proud everyone would be when she came back. How respected, and accepted she would be.
It was even harder to remember that when she got her first paycheck. Three hundred and fifty dollars in all. And it was hers. Every bit of it. She'd never had money of her own before. It made her even more proud of the work she did every day. Mrs. Weber seemed proud of her too, though she didn't vocalize it much. Maria could see it in her eyes, though, and that was more than enough for her.
"Hey." Carmen interrupted her thoughts. She had been sitting alone at the dining room table for a half hour, just thinking, staring at the calendar tacked to the wall.
"Oh, hey." Maria said, blinking up at her.
"I want to show you something." Carmen said. Today was Sunday, the one day, or well, night, almost everyone had off of work.
"Uh, Okay." Maria said. She followed Carmen out of the back door, onto the small porch at the back of the house. It was pitch black, and even in the bright moonlight Maria couldn't make anything out.
"Oh, sorry." Carmen said. She stepped back inside and turned on the porch light. "I forgot you can't see in the dark very well."
"Ah, fuck!"
Maria recognized the voice as switchblade, somewhere on the ground. He said 'fuck' like it was the only word he knew, but Maria couldn't even bring herself to think it.
"Sorry. Maria couldn't see." Carmen said.
"What exactly am I seeing?" Maria asked.
"You have to go out into the yard!" Carmen said, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the steps. For some reason, the feeling of her hand made Maria nervous, and flushed. She tried to hide it, not knowing if it was a normal reaction or not.
On the side of the house, she could see Switchblade squatting on the ground, next to large flower garden. It was hard to see in the dim light from the porch, but it looked pretty impressive, much like the flowers at her grandmother's house she loved to look at before she was sent to the compound.
"Why'd you bring her out here?" Switchblade groaned, wiping his dirty hands in his jeans.
Carmen sauntered over to him and ruffled the small bit of blue hair on his head. "She's not going to make fun of you, you big baby."
