|Speak Softly|
Chapter  T w o


IT ALL HAPPENED TOO QUICKLY.
From then on I knew things were going to change.
Evolve.
No matter how much I wished they wouldn’t.

It’s shadow was heavy against the crackled pavement, his voice menacing but soft in a lullaby-tone. He praised her bravery.
“Don’t be too shy,” he mused, “come here, now. Come on.”
Emmie stared at him, wide-eyed, as he drew closer. His dark leather cloak was stained with a sickening odor, salty. His eyes a gleaming thirsty scarlet, dimming it’s black-yellow tinge. The strange being stalked closer to her, holding out his gloved hand.
“Come on, I don’t bite.”
Her tears were strongly at ease, like a river on her pale cheeks. She knew better.
“WHAT!?“ he screamed in an unsatisfied-but-horrified way. Emmie shrieked. The man was indeed in terror. He stumbled backward, his outstretched hand inching away from Emily’s face, where his other grasped a silky-tipped arrow at his heart. Blood dripped down onto his jacket, his eyes open and broad with alarm. Slowly he fell to his knees, coughing up reddened spots and hurling curse words.
Finally, the man gave out and fell back on his skull, colliding with the street’s concrete. With a crash, his voice and motions died…fading…
It seemed like forever to Emily when she reached out for a gasp of fresh air. How long had she been holding her breath?
Emmie panted. Her spine hadn’t relaxed in a reassurance. Her conscious wheeled in panic.
“Don’t you dare say anything,” a female voice warned. Emmie became aware of a tiny, sharp tip pocking at the back of her head. Adrenaline rushed through her veins in the matter of seconds.
The female quickly brushed the point away from Emmie’s head, leaving her position threatening her to examining the dead body. She talked to herself, murmuring almost inaudible comments.
Emmie took her chances, realizing the risk of losing everything she had thought to be life. She chocked softly on her words, putting her hand to her throat like she were gagging.
“What’s your name?”
She grimaced, her face pale. The stranger tilted her head, her bronze hair flowing over her opposite, unseeing shoulder, her emerald eyes twinkling faintly. Fear washed over Emily.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Emmie prompted, surprised of her own self-bravery to her wording.
The female twisted her jaw, finding her words, about to protest. “Leah.”
“Leah,” Emmie repeated, the name drifting into her mind, planting itself.
With the repetition of her name, Leah stood, gripping the hard-skinned shoulder blades of the corspe, dragging it along the street. A pool of liquidy-but-dry blood streamed it’s pathway around a corner.
When she returned, she brushed herself off, starting down the faded ally. She almost vanished until Emily started to scream her name frantically.
“What do you want?” Leah asked, annoyed.
Emmie caught up with her, reaching for Leah, noticing the eerie darkness of the ally labyrinth she had stumbled into after a stranger…a heroine to her.
“Explain what just happened,” Emmie panted, grasping her sides to open up her blood streams before they froze in a frenzied dizziness.
Leah stared at her with a stone-frozen glare. “It’s complicated.”
Emmie scoffed. “Excuse me? I’ve heard that before, too many times!” Her voice rose over the line of a whisper, above the night’s breeze, above all meanings. “Now, I won’t let you leave until you tell what happened back there!”
Leah rolled her eyes, starting to spin around and walk again. Emily locked her grip on the heroine’s shoulder.
“Let go of me!”
“Not until—”
“Fine! Fine! FINE!” Leah snarled.
Emily let go before Leah could rudely brush her off. She waited, impatiently, until the puddles of tears began to drip from the corners of her eyes, waiting for an answer.
“I hope you take this seriously,” Leah said, walking, “I don’t want to end up in a padded room.”
Emily nodded, taking quick steps to keep at Leah’s tiredless strides.
“You should know who we are, you hear about us in movies sometimes…”
Emmie snapped back to a moment she saw the man look at her with a crooked smile, teeth pointed…like canine-like fangs…
“YOU’RE A VAMPIRE!”
Leah cuffed her hand over Emmie’s mouth. “Shhh! Do you want the world to hear?!”
Emmie desperately shook her head under the vampress’ statue grasp.
“No,” she said, weary, “I won’t expose you.”
“Good.”
“But wait,” Emmie interrupted, watching a speck of light appear at the lighted street becoming clear before them, “was that man you killed a vampire too?”
Leah nodded, to Emily’s concern, her fright-level boosted.
The vampress took it to her distress. “Are you okay?” she asked, steadying Emily’s rocking figure.
“I just—” she broke off.
“It’s normal. A fear to know that we trully exist.”
They began to walk down the street now, through the fading voices of the sidewalk crowd. Emily realized she hadn’t even noticed them until the silence burst between them. It was like Leah’s voice had an effect of the world around her, like it was a silence, something so only her musical-like tone could be heard. Her lyrics were appetizing, Emily had to keep her talking to be able to hear the explaination she was almost hungry for.
“So, Leah,” she said, her stomach tightening, “do you kill people?”
She shook her head. “Like bite people? Yes. I don’t kill, though.”
“Is it something you have to follow? Like a law?”
Leah’s facial expression buzzed, she was comprehending her thoughts. “I’m a Guardian, it’s what I do.”
Emmie took the words in…slowly. Guardian? Was she protecting her? Was this why she hadn’t made her move and bitten her already? Is that why she killed the other vampire, to save her from a painful death?
“Guardian?”
“I protect you humans. It’s a job, I believe killing is nonsense. But we get hungry, and it’s necessary for the execution, but only to one’s who deserve it. Not to frighten you, but there’s only a few of us like that, the others kill randomly for their uncontrollable thirst.”
Emmie felt a shiver ripple down her spine. Thirst?
They were at her apartment building now, as she noticed herself walking into the lobby with a quick smile to the receptionist, although she was asleep on the job. She climbed the stairs upward, Leah at her heels. Without her voice to comfort her, without her words, Emily heard everything normal again; the dogs barking widely outside, midnight traffic, the rumbling of car horns, people’s chatter, and the creaking floorboards underneath her feet.
She was unlocking her condo door now, stepping inside to the roomy apartment. The curtians were dancing in the breeze of the open windows, wildly, like a ghost was caught inside the fabric. She shut the door with a slam, locking the deadbolts.
“Go to sleep.”
“DON’T LEAVE!”
“I must. I—”
There was a knock on the door.
Emmie froze, adrenaline washing over her, through her veins. She saw multiple shadows loom from under the crack of the door…
The door crackled under the might of the fist pounding against the weak walnut entry.
“Open up!” a voice gurgled.
Leah stared at Emily, Emily stared at Leah…
Under the bed, Leah mouthed, motioning over to the bed in the corner of the front room.
“Open up!” it boomed again, with more force against the door.
“Under order of the General, you are enforced to obey the law, Leah!”