Oiy! It’s been a while since I had any story to post, mostly because the motivation was set towards other things. This was actually a dream I had the other night and as I got to thinking about it, I realized that I could fit it into Daria’s scenario. You know, the girl who the boys turned just for fun in Rampant? I know a few people wanted to know what happened to her, so I put her in my place in the dream. Feel free to let me know of any typo’s you might see. 
Months after Daria had been forced to drink vampire blood, she found herself trekking across the countryside outside the borders of California, all the while knowing that the monsters were still on her tail in one way or another. But somehow she had managed to resist the terrible cravings and urges that came with being a half. One of her rules to success in this was to avoid human contact as much as possible. So every now and then, she would sneak into a butcher’s shop after they had closed for the day, and gorge on whatever remained from a fresh kill. The animal blood was rancid, and stuck to her fingers and lips in its partially coagulated state, but nevertheless, it sustained her for a little while. Then the pain would come, gnawing and slashing at her gut like a wild animal. That’s when she wished they would find her already and either welcome her into the family or do away with her. Regardless she kept moving from one town to the next, always traveling by night in shadows down sick alleyways that were often filled with garbage and rodents and smelled of urine. She was becoming quite the street rat and it showed. Her dark hair was a greasy mess of tangles that yearned for a brush, and her clothes were soiled and smeared in dirt and blood that had faded to a dark crusty brown. She had even decided to forgo her shoes and walk barefoot through the brittle cement streets. This made for faster movement from possible threats, but deep down, she longed for home. There was also an ache to be with her new brothers. It didn’t matter how far she ran or how long she kept running from them, the connection they now had pulled at her being.
It was a link that often brought one or more of them into her dreams when she slept. For a long time it had been Paul trying to sweet talk her and coax her back to their shores, but after a while he had given up and moved on. Then Marko came. He had become rather fond of her iron will. Never before, he said, had anyone led them on such a chase. He urged her to come back and join the pack, but the lingering fear that it was all a lie kept her on the move.
It was at that point in her travels, weak and weary, that she came across a midnight carnival where freaks and monsters alike appeared welcome. They had set up an outrageous stadium covered in the heavy white tent material most circus rings are made of and she watched with interest as people flooded into it by the thousands. No way, she thought to herself, could all of them fit, but still, they continued to filter through the heavy burlap flap of an opening. This piqued her curiosity and she tiptoed stealthily across the grass to follow the last person through the entrance. To her amazement, the grandstands inside spread across the entire length of the ring, making it appear much larger than it looked from the outside. It was the length of a football field at least and in the sharp little corner by the bleachers, she could see the crowd extending past the walls of the giant dome as though it were all an illusion. There were horses in the circle as well; big, sturdy drafts with flowing feathers on their feet as they paraded around and tilted their heads to show off the wavy red plumage that decorated the space in between their ears. But when the ringmaster appeared, Daria felt a cold chill embrace her and suddenly she was in the spotlight. She quickly realized that the man was no man, but a vampire, quite complex and very old in the scheme of things. She understood this right away by the way his presence loomed over everything and everyone, and he had picked up her scent. With the slightest of movements he spotted her, and his mind beckoned her out of the cramped little corner she had hid herself in.
It was powerful. It pulled her out like a puppet on strings and step by cautious step brought her out to the center. The lights burned her eyes as she squinted up at the stranger before her. His dark, bushy eyebrows knitted together forming a frown that shadowed his face with foreboding, even as he took a large step forward and leapt into the air. She watched with odd fascination as his body climbed the invisible rope higher and higher until as if by some strange magic, he held one of the horses mid-air in his arms. The gallant steed reared, striking the air in anger. She could see the black feathers that adorned his fetlocks and the outline of the underside of his hooves before he was released and plummeted straight towards her. She was frozen in her stance, unable to tear her eyes away. But as the animal drew closer, she realized it was not a horse at all, but the man. He wore black velvet robes and dark furs, and his hair was long and black, covering the countenance of his face until he was so close, she could see his wicked smile. His brown eyes glistened in delight as his fangs descended and Daria felt compelled to accept him. For whatever reason, she found herself tilting her head to welcome the bite she knew was coming. She felt his arms around her, and his kiss deep even as she instinctively shielded the small nook under her jaw in order to guide him to a place where she couldn’t imagine her life’s entire blood spewing out.
The bite itself was delicious, seductive and warm. It caused her to lose grip of reality as she tried to blink away the sleeping spell he drove into her mind. It was a dirty trick indeed and when she woke up, she found herself clean and dressed in the style of a modern-day preppy schoolgirl. The mini skirt that hugged her hips was a navy blue, the blouse a perfect white, and all the tangles had been combed out of her hair. No longer did the gleaming circus of freaks fall before her. Instead, she found herself in another strange little town just outside a school in complete daylight. Only this school didn’t consist of just one big building, it had many, petite in size and they were all the same color of off white. The place struck her as old-fashioned as well because the road leading in was nothing but dirt, as were all the paths in between that led to each classroom, and she could see some of its students lingering here and there. A group of three caught her eye and she knew right away that they were like her, only half. They carried books under their arms and mischievous smiles on their faces.
She didn’t have much time to study them before a hand grabbed her from behind and pulled her with urgency inside one of the buildings.
“Quickly, quickly,” the voice said, slamming the door shut, making sure to bolt each of the three locks.
There were two people in this particular room, both without the slightest trace of vampire on their blood and both elderly. Daria got the impression that they were teachers here in this bizarre little town and she watched as the woman huddled down next to one of the windows. They were opaque, created in a milky white color that gave the impression of plastic and it troubled her that she couldn’t see through any of them. Each was designed to let the light of day in and keep whatever was lurking on the outside out.
“You don’t want to be around when those three are about,” the old man told her.
She didn’t say anything, but hunkered down and backed away as the windows began to rattle. As she turned and slipped away from the ruckus, she found that the back of the room sloped a bit downwards and instead of ending in a wall, ran it’s course straight through into a narrow hallway that seemed to slip underground. The darkness of it felt a lot more comforting than the sun up front causing crazy commotion and chaos for two senior teachers.
At the end of the hallway, she entered a large room with high vaulted ceilings and right in the middle sat a fireplace. To the right there was another hallway that contained many classrooms by the looks of it and to the left a gigantic lobby full of tables and chairs and comforting couches. The half vampires that lingered here seemed a bit more at peace than the ones above ground did, as they conversed with one another. A few looked in her direction, barely acknowledging her presence, but the question on Daria’s mind remained the same. Why had the strange ringmaster brought her there? Or maybe she was dreaming again?
Her mind moved to get out of dodge, but her body simply wouldn’t obey as she climbed aboard one of the plush leather couches, tucking her knees up and against her chest to huddle there. For once since the entire nightmare had begun she wished she were back in Santa Carla amongst the sinister rock and roll vampires that had so carelessly pushed her in-between worlds. She closed her eyes and shoved her head between her knees as another bought of hunger struck her. Could it be possible that this place had a cafeteria with a vampire’s diet in mind?
“I know what she needs,” a familiar voice sounded from behind.
She looked up to see Marko enter the room with the other boys in tow right behind him, and oh how glad she was to see him even as the familiar fear of them crept into her body.
“I’ll dangle it in front her,” he was telling the others, “until her instincts take over and she can’t resist any longer.” He held a gloved hand out to her as she peeked up at him through her folded arms, and finally took it, slipping off the couch to stand for one second before he turned and led her down the hallway and into one of the classrooms. There were many boxes and empty shelves in this one. It wasn’t much to look at, just one of those old abandoned storage rooms full of cobwebs and dust. There was one thing, however that set this room apart from the others.
Marko had used it to store the bait for her and there it was, the only bright thing in the room made of soft flesh and tissue, bones and blood; the torso of a man. Her new vampire mentor had taken the liberty of filleting the subjects back like some expensive steak so that she could smell him all the better, but the sight of it was brutal and her mouth watered even as her eyes were repulsed. The thick layer of flesh across the back had been stripped away so that she could see every fiber in the man’s muscles and the outline of the bones that made up his ribcage. He was headless as well with no legs. Of course this wasn’t going to count as her first kill, it didn’t work that way, no, this was just an introductory lesson on how to eat right, one that she had been missing for too long.
Marko stepped forward and put a hard fist through one set of ribs, pulling a few off with ease. She could see the soft, fresh marrow on the inside of them as he offered the pair to her. “Think of them as potato chips,” he smiled.
Why that made everything she was about to do better she had no idea, but the meal was hers and she dove in, ripping the meaty bones from his hands like a ravenous lioness. Her teeth cut right through the calcium rich density and oddly enough, she found the texture just like crunching down on a few potato chips. The marrow was custard and the blood rich, oh yes; this was the stuff dreams were made of. She would kill a dozen times over if it meant getting a treat such as this. She watched Marko from the corner of her eye as she feasted. He stood proud with a devilish smile on his face, hands clasped in satisfaction.
She stopped eating and looked around. There was no cluttered, filthy room surrounding her, just heavy rocks and boulders moistened by the onslaught of seawater deep somewhere within the cave. She could smell the salt and hear the waves crashing in all around them. It had been a dream, a mind illusion and a bizarre one at that, but it worked. Somewhere in-between sleep and awake he had scooped her up in the night and taken her back. How clever.
“Welcome home Daria,” he whispered.
