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Chapter One

Under the City

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A girl rushed down a corridor. Her back was stiffened and her mind frozen. She was following her friend to their destination, to their untimely doom. The world was spinning before her eyes, twisting and twirling like a delicate ballerina.

The light was dulling from her vision, fading into an eclipse of desperation. The girl could barely hear anything except her thoughts. They rang through her ears, leaving a weak sensation.

She didn't like it very much.

Her face, pale like a warped Picasso, was coiled into an expression she didn't even understand. Was that emotion she saw? Was that the most tangible form of fear clear on the brim of her lips? Or was it just a void of enthralled love?

She couldn't tell, but she didn't like it either.

"Alex," Maria called, turning her head slightly. Her bright, flaming hair flew behind her like a beacon of light. It held hope, oddly enough. "hurry it up."

Her voice ran through the empty corridors, flirting with disaster and cavorting with the bugs that masked the shadowed floors. Alex could hear the faint smile in her voice. It angered her. How could she be happy at a time like this?

Her poisoned heart hammered against her chest. It left a dull, senseless lull behind as a reminder of the past. Maria, Alex's best friend, was rushing towards the untimely meeting of them.

Alex didn't want to see them at that second. She actually didn't want anything to do with them. A voice ran through her head, pestering her mind with questions like, who are they?

They were Steve and his troupes.

Steve was a force to be reckoned with. He was someone who took what he wanted, someone who didn't care about what would happen to others, a bad guy. He thought he was horrible, he thought he had this gut-wrenching ability to strike terror in his enemies' eyes. Well, he was wrong.

Alex wasn't scared of him.

She was in love with him.

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I sabotaged my heart and, and I don't know how to change
It doesn't matter what I say or what I do, cause in the end she always wins, I always loose
I need to get her out of my life

(Kristinia Debarge, Sabotage)

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"Damn it! What's the combination?"

Maria, who was crunched over like a paper ball, concentrated on the safe. It was the one thing that held her from seeing them again. It was the only thing that stood in her way.

She slammed her hand against the metal, impatient and anxious. The impact would have hurt a regular mortal, but Maria wasn't your average human. She was a vampire.

Alex, sitting Indian style on the concrete floor, had a whimsical expression painted on her face. Her skin was like a canvas, portraying and painting whatever emotion was feeling. She was like an open book, wide and unprotected for the whole world to see.

Honestly, she was bored, but also curious. Why did Maria need to get into that room so badly?

Her stormy eyes glazed over as she brought a thin finger to her mouth. Her lips closed over it as she bit down. She was worried about her friend. She didn't know what was going on.

Instantly, Maria turned around. Her eyes, masked with a steely glare, bored into Alex's. Her lips widened, curling into a grin. She grabbed a lock of her ginger hair and twirled it around her fingers, saying, "You just so wouldn't happen to know what it is…?"

Silently, Alex padded over towards her. Her feet made light sounds, pounding ever so softly into the ground. It was in tune with her heart, creating a symphonic pain that was available for use. Her thoughts strayed for a moment when she realized vampire's hearts were dead; they weren't supposed to beat.

They were supposed to stop pumping life into you.

The thought escaped her quickly. It didn't matter at the time.

The lock, which was silver and had many numbers inscribed on it, scowled at Alex as she took it into her hand. It felt like rusted metal when she twisted it around in her palm. She flipped it over towards the back and read a company's name etched into the silver. The skin on her face scrunched together confusedly. Wrinkles darted against her cheeks like spies on a mission to save the world. How the hell was she supposed to know the combination?

Oh, that's right, she was close to Steve. Or used to be.

She grabbed a piece of her dark hair and twisted it tightly around her finger. It cut off all circulation and supplied her with a security blanket. Her skin started to tint with a blotchy red. It wasn't exactly appealing but Alex didn't care. A second passed and her eyebrows quirked up once she remembered something.

Steve practically loved himself, which might have meant that he put his name as the password.

Hesitantly, Alex grabbed the lock and twirled it around until she got to the last letter. It clicked open, unsurprisingly, and she heard Maria gasp.

Bingo.

"Awesome, now step aside."

Her voice boomed through the room, intimidating with all of its might. Alex stayed glued to her spot. She wasn't about to move until Maria swore that she could go into the room with her.

Alex could feel someone's breath on the back of her throat, stubborn and bossy. She turned her head. Their eyes met together and started a war. Neither of them looked away, the both of them too stubborn. Alex could barely handle the severity of Maria's glare, how her dark eyes twinkled in the faint light, how they looked so evil... she looked away after a minute of torture.

"Should I open it?"

Alex hadn't heard her voice in such a long while, practically ever since they had escaped under the city. It sounded odd to her, like a withered old woman's voice after breathing in coffee and drugs for many years. She ignored that and stared down at the lock.

"I will."

The thing with Maria was that she would always be headstrong. What she says goes. Alex always loved her for that, but now, she wished that Maria was just some pushover. Then she would finally be able to take the reins and do what she needed to do, instead of the other way around.

Maria gently pushed her aside and opened up the door. She peered inside, a gasp escaping from her rose colored lips. Alex's curiosity got the better of her as she looked over her friend's head.

Vampanze were blocking their view, but they still seized to make them unsurprised. They were all different sizes and shapes. They were all unusual; unique.

That was hardly ever the case.

Maria noticed Alex watching too. She made no move to make her leave. Instead she went inside and looked back at her. The brunette vampire was sure her eyes had a clear desperation in them, along with curiosity and want, but her friend ignored that.

"Alex," she started, speaking quietly. "I think it would be best if you waited out here."

On a child's impulse, she asked, "Why?"

"Now, remember, we don't want Steve to know you're here. That would be bad, very bad. He might do something drastic."

"He wouldn't do anything bad… I know—" she winced. "I mean, I knew him. He'd never hurt me or you."

A silence filled the air, tangible in its own right. Alex stared down at the ground, embarrassed and determined. She had to go in there with her. It was what she had to do.

"I know that…" Maria retorted. "But just stay out here. Please?"

Alex looked into her eyes and sighed. Her friend had turned against her and used the innocent look. She always knew that could goad the brunette into doing anything for her. Maria's face lit up as she started to dart into the room, until Alex stopped her.

"Just make sure… just whistle if anything happens, okay?"

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Ah, I was bored. I'll probably keep rewriting this until I get to a certain point, but don't worry. I'll go ahead and do the last few chapters before I do anything else, promise.