Chapter 5

I'm hunting in a familiar forest. I want to be happy, but for some reason, I'm not. As I walk through the forest, a sick feels creeps up my spine. I begin walking faster. Things begin to grab at me. I start running desperate to get out of the forest. I see an exit and Sprint for it. I see my mother in the clearing. She's kneeling over something. As I get closer, I realize that I recognize the boy. It's Kyoya. What is she doing with him. I slowly approach them and suddenly she attacks him, ripping out his jugular.

She slowly looks up at me with a wicked grin. There's a pit in my stomach as I realize that it isn't my mother. It was me. I open my mouth to scream, but nothing comes out. I turn and run away but she's right behind me. I desperately try to get away with no avail. I stop in my tracks as I see what is ahead of me. The bodies of the people I killed stand there, staring, though they have no eyes. I fall to my knees as they begin marching towards me. I hold myself down as the bodies consume me.

I shoot up in bed drenched in a cold sweat. I look at the clock. 4 am. I rip the covers off of me and jump up. This was the third nightmare I had. I desperately tired, but I'm done sleeping. Quickly get dressed, then I quietly exit the room and tip toe down the hall. I reach the door, grab my bag, and exit the house into the brisk morning air.

Once I get a few hundred feet away, I begin to run towards the forest at the edge of town to my blood flowing. This was becoming something of a morning ritual. I'd been doing this everyday for 3 weeks now. I'd have a nightmare, run outside, hunt for animals to capture and release or just take pictures of, then sneak back in before Chamomile wakes up.

I get to the forest and slip off my bag. I reach in and pull out the first thing my hand tpuches. It's my camera. I carefully place my bag at the edge of the forest so that I won't lose it, and hang my camera around my neck. Seems like today is a picture day.

I prefer choosing what I'm going to do in the forest at random rather than plan it. It's much more fun this way. I slowly enter the pitch black forest and my eyes immediately adjust. It would normally take around 30 seconds for a Vamp my age to see with no light, but my mother would train me by hiding in pitch black and attacking me. So, my eyes can detect extremely low waves of light even without using my Hunter's vision. Since I'm not hunting anyways, I choose not to let it out.

I lighten my foot steps so that to most animals can't hear them. This was a challenge when I first learned to hunt because my mother honed my hearing first. My hearing is so fine tuned that I can hear the blood flowing through an individual and who is a few feet underground. This isn't an exaggeration. My mother once tied a string around an ant and tasked me to find it. It took me a week to track it. The punishment would intensify the longer I went without finding the ant. I eventually found it because I heard one of ants dragging something behind it and it seemed to be struggling.

I staked it out until it came out of the tunnel. I had to do this many more times, until my hearing was so good that I could immediately pinpoint it. In fact I could hear her doing it. I could hear the ant complaining so she stated doing it whole I was in school. Even still I could immediately pinpoint the ant. With this she was satisfied and moved on.

I crept through the forest looking for animals. Although it's dark, and the camera won't show anything to normal people, I can still see them. Chamomile found my drawer full of photos and wondered why I had a bunch of black pictures. Though hunting is an important part of Vamp culture, Chamomile isn't much of a fan, so her Hunter instinct isn't great.

Amy, on the other hand loved my photos. She recommended an extremely high powered camera that can focus for up to a hundred feet. I traded it for a few of my pictures. Is the camera I'm using now. There's a fox about 20 feet in front of my. Faster than its eyes can detect movement, I lift the camera to my eyes. It's also hunting and has it's nose in the air. I snap a few shots, then wait for it to move on before I leave.

After a while of snapping photos, my internal clock tells me the sun is coming up. I sit on the forest floor. I'm still pretty stressed. Today is the prayer and devotion portion of the Ceremony. I'm not allowed to leave the house, I'm to spend the day cleansing, praying, fasting and otherwise devoting all my time to the Goddess.

I'm not looking forward to it. I stare into the seemingly never-ending forest, wishing I could live freely here. I remain still for a few moments, then I finally get up and leave. I slip into the house just as Chamomile is starting to wake up. I strip the clothes I wore to the forest and put on the pre-Ceremonial slip that Chamomile have me the evening before. We spend the rest of test of the day preparing for my Ceremony. I am not allow to eat or sleep until the Ceremony ends.

When it is finally time for the ceremony to begin, I am exhausted. I'd been up for 30 hours. I was changed into my ceremonial dress, was blindfolded, and taken to the Temple. I am to remain blindfolded until in is time to bury me. Being blindfolded puts me on edge and I feel my power stir within me. I'm not too thrilled with being buried either, but at least I'll be able to see it happen. The entire point of the Ceremony is to say goodbye to our pre vampire lives and to welcome the path before us. So, we 'bury' our innocence and fragility. I am guided on to my pedestal, where

I sit with my hands in my la, facing up, and my feet crossed at my ankles. I ty not to use my Hunter's instinct to see what's around me, but being unaware of my surroundings causes me to feel anxious, which makes my magic build, so I allow a little through. There are 7 people in with me. One directly behind me, 2 to my left, 2 so my ticket, one in the balcony, who I assume is the High Priestess, and one at the doorway.

I exhale as low humming starts, signaling the beginning of the ceremony. The people in the room other than the High Priestess kneel, facing east. I also look east. The High Priestess beings the prayers. They are in a Vampric language that I don't know, but I still feel as though I understand. The High Priestess then steps up to the ledge of the balcony and balances there for a moment while she prays. She then steps off and levitates in the air. She then walks towards me, as if there were any invisible stairway between her and myself.

When she reaches me, she kneels in the air so that she is my height, and places her hands on mine. We stand, rotating our hands are upright, our palms together. She says a prayer, and I repeat it. We hold our hands out, palms to the sky. Another prayer is spoken and repeated. Once this is finished, she reverts to our spoken language.

"Dear Mother, we offer you another soul. We ask that you accept her into your bosom, and guide her along the path of your choosing. We ask that you reveal this path so that she may begin to walk it, and better herself, better You, better us, better them, and better all", she prays.

The 'me, you, us, them, and all is something said at the end of all prayers. It refers to self, the Mother (Goddess or You), Us (Vamps), Them (the beings around us), and all being the universe. I repeat the prayer. I then kneel and place my forehead on my lap, and my hands flat on the ground, palms down. The High Priestess pulls out a blade. This is where most Vamps take their first blood"

"I offer my blood to this child in hopes that she will accept you, though me". She slices her wrist and offers it to me. It takes a bit of restraint to stop myself from lunging at her. I slowly get up and take her hand. I hold my breath. I slowly bring her hand to my lips, my own hand trembling. I look at her, and she nods. I stare for a moment at the beautiful blood pouring from her wrist, then drink.

I intended to only drink a little, but once I gulped, I found I couldn't stop. I struggled to let go with no avail. People began to stir as I continued to drink. The High Priestess didn't move as I continued to drain her of blood. Finally, the blood lost flavor, and I let go, being sure to cut my own tongue and heal her wound. We stared at each other momentarily, then we both fainted.

I woke up and found myself in a cloudy area. There were hints of pink and purple in them. I walked around for a while. Nothing changed. I sat down and waited. Suddenly, a light shines through the clouds above me, and a silhouette begins to walk towards me. I jump up, poised for attack. It continues to walk towards me. I notice that it's holding something. I relax a little as it gets closer and closer. Something in me tells me to bow. I do so, and lower my eyes. The silhouette be reaches me and places something on my head. It feels heavy, but light at the same time. I stand. The silhouette places her hand under my chin, and lifts my head.

"You must remember Balance, Daughter.", she says, and suddenly, I am awake. It's pitch black all around me, and I can't move. I hear humming above me. I realize that I've been buried and begin crawling upward. It's not an easy task, as the dirt is very loose and I have to try not to breathe it in. After a few minutes, I break through. Someone pulls me out, and then I am tossed in a body of water. I take off the blind fold and discard it as a hatch behind me closes.

There is an opening ahead of me. I wash the dirt from myself, then swim towards it. I climb out of the water and through the doorway, and am overwhelmed by the immense heat coming from it. I walk slowly through the hallways, and into a room filled with hot stones and lava. I gulped, and scan the room for a path. I dash through the room, graceful as a gazelle, being sure or to ht any hot spots. I reach the doorway and escape into another hallway.

I enter another room. It's empty. I don't see a door, there's just air vents on the walls and floor. I spot the door near the ceiling, around 20 feet off the ground. My team is to figure out how to get up there using the air vents. I marvel at how they expect 5 year olds to get through this. I stand around for a while, waiting. Nothing happens. I don't know how to activate them, seeing as though my element is water. I stand on a vent on the floor, and air blasts through it, pushing me into the air. Suddenly at about 10 feet in the air it shuts off and I fall. When I reach the ground, the air blasts through it again. I kick through the air and lurch to the left, towards a went in the wall. Air blasts through that vent pushing me 10 feet to the left. I shoot water at the vent directly across from me, and air shoots from there. I'm now suspended in the air. Be A platform begins to emergency from the wall. I let myself fall to the ground. The platform returns to the wall. I repeat my prior actions, then blast water to the ground, lurching myself up more. I lunge forward and land on the platform. This plaform had a vent on it as well. Its slowly retreating into the wall. I stand on the vent and am blasted into the air. I reach up and grab the ledge of the doorway. I pull myself up, and into the hallway. There's a door at the end of it. I go through the door, and Chamomile, The High Priestess, and 2 Yasu Guards are waiting for me.

I start walking towards them, when I notice all but the High Priestess are staring at me in shock. I stop and look at myself and finally notice that I'm glowing. I stop and stare at myself, confused, then look at the High Priestess, who is walking towards me. She reaches me and grabs my hands. She places her forehead on mine and stays this way for a few moments. I am still confused, so I just stand there.

The High Priestess then let's go, and slowly kneels before me. The others hastily follow her, and kneel as well. I'm confused and start to kneel as well, but she stops me. She stands and stands next to me, grabbing my hand. I notice that she no longer seems to be floating.

"Hail, our new Daughter of the Mother!", she exclaims, looking as though she had been given new light. The others repeat her. I stand there shocked. New Daughter of the Mother. She couldn't possibly mean…

"Abigail will live with me, training to be our new High Priestess", she announces, and for the second time that day, I faint.