Meeting Everett

"H-hold on!" I shout.

"This has always been our destiny, Christian..." Alice explains, ambling over to place one hand on my waist and the other on my hand lifting it gingerly to her mouth.

She kisses my wrapped palm, releasing me from her clutches afterward.

"Destiny?" I reply disappointed.

"This happens once in a blue moon, of course, for a human vessel to be chosen."

Peering into the night sky. I spot the second dot. I can slightly see large circles of light flash and vanish before my eyes. A lot of the others were gone.

The door is slammed closed in front of us, we both look to the back.

"Alice..."

"Everett, you should not have sent Dominique after us yesterday!" Alice scolds.

"I sent Alex too, but he seemed too busy I assume," Everett says with a shrug.

"But he saved me from men in black!" I explain.

The man had long white hair, dressed in a long navy blue trench coat; I could make out a light grey vest hidden beneath.

"Christian, I am sorry for the rude awakening."

I blush to hear Everett say my name.

"No...it's okay..."

"No, I want to explain some things."

"Everett is the leader of the compound." Alice clarifies.

"The thing is, Alex and Dominique were supposed to be bringing you here to talk."

"Instead vampire hunters found out... and..." Alice tries to illustrate but instead sounded upset about the whole ordeal.

"I am so sorry Alice, I didn't want that to happen."

"If I hadn't had latent abilities I wouldn't have been able to thwart them. Christian here was almost captured!" She yells at Everett.

He chuckles at her expense, holding his hands out trying to not get walloped.

"I get it, I should have gone!"

I stood there holding my bandaged palm, feeling sorry for myself. listening to Alice who actually knew this would happen.

"Alice how did you know?" I asked.

"This isn't her fault Christian, this is mine!" Everett says looking straight into my eyes, giving me a deep sigh.

"That's not what I mean, how come Alice knew and I didn't!"

He gradually walks over to unwind the bandage before my eyes to let the gauze hit the floor.

"You have always hidden it. You can't tell me you hadn't had some sort of feeling?"

I have to think really hard for a couple of moments when it hits me: of an unusual moment of my life. The sky was crimson when I had somehow gotten lost from my mother.

"I had seen it..."

"You were called over to the veil Christian..." He says to me in a low deep voice.

I get chills hearing him say those words.

"But how did I get the mark? The veil means nothing to a human other than the sky being red right?"

"Sort of...can you remember more than that Christian?"

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Hmm...since you are human I can find out..." Everett stated.

"How?"

"This is cheesy, but I need you to gaze into my eyes."

I decided to play along, doing nothing, but staring into his enchantingly large emerald green eyes. They seem to glisten with help of the large lantern he held in his hands.

"I am going to count backward Christian, you need to imagine the time when your eyes met the gaze of the blood-red sky..."Everett explains.

"Ten-nine-eight-seven--" He starts to count.

I feel like I lost focus when I realized I was a child again. I was looking down at my bad haircut just given to me by the local barber through the reflection of the window.

Looking around. I see no sign of her around.

"Mom! Mom!" I yell, but there were no signs of her that I could see, so I kept walking.

Eventually, I became panicked, crying making a scene as all children do.

There was a clamor of voices outside the local arcade, which was nearby, that I could hear. When I was about to go to examine it there was nothing.

No one was on the streets; there was no chatter that could be heard.

Everything fell silent, I found myself gazing up at the reddest sky and a hole of light where the moon should be yet it was absent.

I was more lost than before on the streets as I strolled, looking for anyone at this point.

"Hello, is anyone there?" I cried

No one answers. I recall how they say when you are lost to stay where you are. An awful hum from powerlines hung in the air, it lingered making me feel watched; I cower clinging to a small toy I bring out of my backpack.

Deep inside I was terrified, I already had no idea where my mother went.

"Hey, kid!" I hear a voice call for me.

Turning, I see a group of strangely dressed individuals.

"Y-yes..." I asked.

One of them grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. They hold me up so easily.

I could feel my legs dangle in the air. I swing my arms out trying to start a fight with them, but the man who held tight to me bit into my neck.

Just when I thought I was a goner, someone whizzes past us, knocking me out of their hands. I was caught by a man with black hair pinned in a bun, a jean jacket, a white long shirt, and jeans.

I don't even recall seeing him fight. The man's fingers were broken where he was on the ground where the other men tending to their wounds.

He was the coolest person I ever had met. He noticed I was gripping my neck.

"Are you okay?" He asked me.

I sobbed lightly.

"Yeah..."

"Let me take you somewhere...umm what is your name?"

"Christian!" I shout forgetting I was almost a snack.

"Let's get out of here Christian," He said with a kind smile.

He takes me to the nearby aquarium, a tall brick building from the outside.

I marveled how for the first in my life, I would get to see all the fish without waiting in a long line. He stood there the whole time with me.

Looking up. I catch him gazing at his watch. He bends over to take me by the hand.

"Christian... I have to go now okay?" He explained.

"Awww, but you will come back right?" I asked.

"Of course...I want to ask you something." He says.

"What is it?"

"If I offered you a job in the future would you take it?"

"What sort of job would you offer a kid like me?"

"Taking care of a head vampire?" He replied. His left eye seemed to glow a soft golden light when he removed his eye patch.

I stared in wonder.

"You are not joking!" I shout.

"Come meet me again under the light of the red night please," He pleaded.

"I will, I promise!" I responded excitedly.

He closes his eyes concentrating on my palm. It felt like someone had taken a magnifying glass and burned a hole through my hand.

I cried out, but only for a couple of seconds.

"What is this?" I asked pulling my hand away from his grip.

Showing him the small black image printed into the skin of my palm, a double ankh.

"Your ticket out of the human world."

"So like a superhero?"I asked zooming around the man with my hands out like I am flying around.

"I said a vampire! A vampire!" He says sternly pointing to himself.

"What can a vampire even do?"

"I just showed you my eye!" The man shouts.

"I already accepted, so I get a master?" I laugh.

"Yes, he is stubborn so you need to be stubborn back, like now!"

"Understood...a superhero vampire."

Letting out a loud sigh I could tell he had given up on me, hopelessly he smiles back as I continue to fake fly.

He gawks at the watch on his wrist once again.

"Look I really need to go!"

With that said he runs off leaving me at the aquarium by myself to fend for myself.

When I exit I notice it's the middle of the night, not a cloud in the sky could be seen.

"Was I gone that long..." I asked myself.

I could hear someone snap several times bringing me out of my trance.

"Christian!"

The voice calls me many times before my attention is brought back to Everett who had a look of worry on his face.

"Christian, are you okay?" He says.

"I thought I was still there?" I replied.

"Welcome home knucklehead," Alice says greeting me.

"Where is that man?"

"You are talking about Gavyn..." Everett responds wistfully.

"You see...he has been gone a long time." Alice discloses on behalf of Everett.

"No..." I whisper under my breath.

"He went out fighting, I hope you can deliver the same type of strength he lent to the clan Christian," Everett states.

That very second I could feel the world crash down on me, everything shifted to my shoulders, from this moment forward I knew I would have high expectations pushed on top of me because of Gavyn who decided I was worth it.

"But one question..." I asked.

"Of course," Everett replied humbly.

"When will we be turned?"

He bursts out laughing watching the expression on my face.

"Is that all? We will be getting to that soon..."

Everett had the strangest smile almost crooked but worked with his beautiful features and long mane which he seemed to continually tuck behind his ear.

"I guess I have to accept the fact my child self thought I would be a superhero..."

"I guess you could say you will be," Everett said.

His smile only made me nervous, but I was happy for the first time ever to find ground with someone who finally found faith in me.