Hawk Point *ON HOLD*

Chapter One: When The Darkness Comes

The room is huge and is almost completely empty of furniture. Floor to ceiling windows are smeared with thick layers of grime and dust, blocking out all light: natural and man-made. Doors are torn off their hinges and are laid across chairs to make makeshift tables to lay bottles of gin on. A slender, blue-skinned woman hands out harshly coloured glasses of alcoholic liquid tinted blood red, sapphire blue, poison green and hot pink.

A handsome boy with damp emerald-black hair meets Cif's eyes, pulls his lips back and grins. Cif can't help but stare; his teeth are sharp and serrated, like a sharks. Beside the boy is a delicate looking girl with sparkling blue eyes and dark auburn hair weaved with flowers. The skin upon her bare arms and shoulders glimmer and the faint traces of reptilian scales can be seen. On the opposite side of the room is a group of people so pale that their faces are splotches of white in the dimness of the room. They sip from tall crystalline glasses filled to the brim with a thick red liquid that stains their lips.

"Enjoying the party?" A pallid young man joins Cif's side, slinging an arm over her shoulder as if they were good friends instead of complete strangers. Cif sags under the added weight before shrugging off the man's arm. He juts his lower lip forward with displeasure, the corners of his mouth tugging downward. "So a maybe then?" He asks inquisitively. Cif glares at him in annoyance that soon dissolves into curiosity. He is normal-looking enough with coppery gold hair and unblotched skin. What strikes her as odd are his eyes: yellow orbs, luminous and glowing like a cat's. One pale lady flounces past the two, tearing Cif's attention away from the man. She watches as the lady  flashes a wide smile, the tips of her incisors cutting into her bottom lip. They don't look at all the way Cif imagined vampire fangs: these are as thin and sharp as nails. Shudders attack Cif's body. 

"Aw c'mon, it can't be that bad." The man is now lounging against the stone wall, arms crossed over his thin chest, eyes glittering mischievously. "I'd say this party is more of a...wild get together; a reunion of friends!"  Somewhere in the back of the room, there is a crash followed by a chorus of shouts and then a sickening snapping of bones.

"Some friends..." Cif mutters and the man chuckles darkly.

"And so she speaks!" He says, mild amusement tinting his voice, "And may I get the pleasure of knowing your name? Mine's Klinsey. Joe Klinsey."

"Cif Diaz." Cif replies warily. Something about this man---Joe---doesn't feel right...Joe smiles; less of a flash of amusement then the gleam of a blade.

"Well Cif," He says, "Welcome to the end of the world."

When Cif wakes up, she is in an unfamiliar room. Panic surges though her veins and she scrambles out of bed, her feet slapping against the cold wooden floor. It is when she sees her twelve-year-old brother, Luke, curled up in a nest of blankets and the pile of bags and boxes shoved in a corner that she remembers that she is no longer in California with her parents but in Hawk Point, Alberta with family friend Christopher Hansen. This is the very first summer she and her brother would be away from home and even though she may not show it, Cif is brimming with excitement. But it's too early for that. With a long exhalation of air, Cif plops back down onto her bed, her fingers tracing the swirling patterns embroidered onto the ratty blanket. She begins to dig through her mind for details of the strange dream she is aware of having but cannot remember: something about yellow eyes and a really big party...already, all the major details have dissipated like smoke in the wind; once it is gone, there is no guarantee that she will get it back. The only remnants from the dream is the churning of her stomach and the rapid thudding of her heart against her rib cage.

Then there is the calm whispering in the wind outside the windows, its cold seeping through the thin glass:

Welcome to the end of the world...