[RedNeckUtopia]

Note:I'm horrible at coming up with titles and such. This is a work in progress and has yet to be finished...

Her parched throat convulsed spasmadically around the scalding liquid. However uncomfortable it was to sate the hunger, the ecstasy that followed it was worth the discomfort. No earthly pleasure was comparable to that of the pleasure given by life...or the taking of life. To some life is considered a gift, to others it is the essence of survival but not unworthy of being deemed as a gift. Some gifts however, can reek of death and sometimes that stench will be the last to permeate the senses.

Jocelyn's knees were quivering yet her graceful body allowed her to remain still and undetected. She crouched down lower so that her body was hugging the frail branch that groaned under her weight. Her eyes peered through the thick leaves that obscured her from the night...searching...waiting. The air was heavy with humidity and the heat was all that Jocelyn's mind allowed her to focus on as she waited silently, apprehensively. Behind the heat she could taste a hint of the impending rain that would be welcomed with relief. A mass of tangled hair, the color of the moon hung in front of her face impairing her vision yet she ignored it. The minutes passed slowly and Jocelyn found her concentration drifting to the silvery locks, stirring in the wind. Her brows furrowed in confusion as her eyes observed the glossy leaves barely swaying but her hair was being tossed by a violent wind as if she were in the middle of a storm. Jocelyn's chest began to constrict with panic as she felt the aura of the one who stood so suddenly behind her. The power of this creature breathed along her skin leaving goose bumps in its wake. Only one could cause such a reaction on a mortal let alone a vampire.

"How did you find me?" Jocelyn asked without turning to face her stalker.

There was a pause in the air and for a moment everything was suspended in time. The silence was broken by a harmonious laugh that could cause shudders up the spine, or could freeze the heart. A vampire that could play your body like a musical instrument just by voice is said to be one of age and power.'

"Did you really think for a moment that I wouldn't?" The deep voice carried into the night.

Jocelyn sighed and prepared herself for the words that were said every night.

"Of course I knew you'd find me... I was prepared for you this time."

"This I assumed since I have felt you stay in the same position for near to an hour. Why you would want to be so uncomfortable on my behalf... I don't know. However flattered I may be I still find it odd."

"Not on your behalf! You are so...so...insolent!" She sputtered spinning around to face her tormentor...her beautiful tormentor.

His scarlet mane was swept behind his broad shoulders, his pale fingers clasped beneath his chin. Jocelyn examined his artistic hands with curiosity despite her feelings towards him. The little she knew of his past, she was able to determine that he had an immense love for all music and as a mortal he frequently played the piano, and had remarkable talent. She had heard complicated pieces composed by the likes of Mozart and Wagner come to life under those hands. Her gaze finally met his as she surveyed his cool expression with hostility. His emerald eyes blazed with excitement and infinite wisdom under dark lashes. A smile spread across his face revealing his enlarged incisors. The pale moonlight shimmered across his teeth and emphasized his full mouth. He would be mistaken for a woman if not for the line of his jaw however, there was no doubt about his masculinity when it came to his body.

"Why are you grinning at me like that? Jocelyn asked, fury spreading through her.

"Because you are madly in love with me." He answered so simply, so naturally.

Jocelyn suppressed a scream of protest rising in her throat and decided to grunt in sarcastic amusement. She had to frequently remind herself at times like these that he would love to cause any cry of passion, whether it was out of hatred or not.

"Precisely why I am always trying to evade you right?" Jocelyn smiled triumphantly giving him a lustful look reserved for human prey.

She ran her tongue across her teeth and smiled again.

"But, you are the all-knowing Scarlet...what a name... what was your birth name?"

Silence followed her question and for a moment she thought she had found something to cause him anguish with.

"Oh, come now... I'll tell you mine. Mine was...wait a second... It was Natalie. Yes, my name was Natalie until you pried me away from my world."

"Jonathan." Scarlet's voice was barely audible over the distant sounds of thunder.

"What was that?"

"Jonathan. My name was Jonathan." He answered with a smirk.

"Well know this my dear Jonathan. I despise you. I despise everything about you right to the tips of you wretched fingers."

"Oh, and I'm sure you do love. I must say that you do try quite hard to hide yourself from me. But I enjoy the game. The game of cat an mouse, predator and prey although, I'm not sure who is the predator in this game." He said the last part in a hushed secretive tone.

He stretched a hand tentively to stroke her face. His skin grazed her jaw as she closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. His hand traveled lower and traced the scar that was barely visible at the edge of her collarbone. Jocelyn's violet eyes flashed with anger as she wrenched herself from his grip. The sudden movement caused her to teeter than plunge backward from the security of her tree branch. She landed hard on her back, her eyes following the stars sprinkled across the darkened sky. The air whistled and she heard the sound of scarlet landing steadily on his feet upon the soft earth beside her. His face loomed over her filling her vision.

"You mock me." She whispered.

"Wasn't my intention my sweet. You try so hard to avoid me when all I want is to feel your eyes upon me, those two violet pools of misery filled to the brim with love... I made you for a reason... I want to feel your power melded with my own..."

"You will never have what you desire. Everyone pays for their trangressions. I could never love a creature as revolting as you."

" I have paid with many things! " His voice rang sharply in her head. " Regardless of the past you will never truly hate me. Feel free to resent me all you want."

"You will not tell me how to feel nor will you look at me so skeptically. I hate you for what you have made me. I was so happy..."

"With time you will see that what I have given you is nothing more than a gift. The gift of eternity. You can choose to spend it alone and dwell in endless strife but what is done is done. I wouldn't change my decision even if I had the ability to revisit time. That is a power we do not possess. You are young yet. You have the world to see." He said this last part with passion as he stared off into the distance remembering the ancient ruins of Rome and the deteriorating temples of Egypt.

"It has been ten years Scarlet. Ten years and my hatred for you has yet to ebb." He smiled sheepishly at her hurtful words, the smile not reaching his eyes.

Sadness burdened his beauty, his expression troubled. For a moment Jocelyn felt remorse. Scarlet dropped to his knees beside her face and hovered over her. He pressed his lips to her forehead and felt her shudder not in terror, not in pain. He smiled wistfully and stood.

"You will change your mind. I promise." His words drifted towards her as he retreated into the woods.

Jocelyn sighed deeply and pressed her fingertips hard into her brow. She laughed silently to strangle the sob that resided deep in her soul. The red tinged tears slid from her eyes but were immediately erased by the cool drops of rain landing on her face. Relief washed over her leaving shame to coarse through he veins.

Jocelyn returned reluctantly to the small but densely populated town of Aeternitas. The town was surrounded by thick wood that extended for hundreds of miles followed by green valleys. The reason for such a discreet location for such a diminutive town was simple. This was a place far from what is known as normal, and wished to remain anonymous. A place void of color and infiltrated by shadow. It looked like any other heavily populated area with its hotels, clubs, even a bookstore but it was not ordinary by any means. Jocelyn strolled pensively down the narrow streets of cobblestone that were silent save for the click of her boot heals on the ancient stones. Regardless of the old-fashioned, narrow streets Aeternitas was for the most part modern. Jocelyn studied the town usually buzzing with life with foreign eyes as if seeing it for the first time and found it nondescript. She had wandered into the heart of the town and passed store after store filled with books to be borrowed and bought, clothing stores of every design you could think of, an assortment of popular night clubs and bars, and even a restaurant or two that catered to the few, but respected humans that lived within Aeternitas' walls. At this time of night the streets were deserted which wasn't unusual so close to dawn. Many of the immortals seeking refuge in this town returned to their homes before a hint of pink was visible on the fringes of the inky night sky. The reason for this was that it was rare but not unheard of that zealot vampire hunters scoured the woods for lone vampires. These vampires were stripped of any power that could be used to save them and were left to burn under the suns rays. Jocelyn did not feel that fear. Some of the immortals sheltered by the invisible fortress were thousands of years old. Jocelyn, even the at an age of ten was more powerful than those of her kind. She was born of an ancient line and the power passed on to her by her creator through her blood was subliminal. Her blood line was specifically known for their metaphysical, or mind strength. Jocelyn again thought of how much power Scarlet demonstrated on her just with his mind and shivered at the thought of being able to have people carry out her every wish just by a thought in her mind. Suppose she traveled and witnessed the world as was suggested of her. What if she ended up altering the future? To know that the power of the world exists in the veins of your prey was sickening. Jocelyn shuddered and felt for the dull throbbing that always existed above her eyes. She wanted to search for a way to change the future but with out blood shed. Was change possible without the taking of life? The only life she had ever known was one filled with death and horror even before the beginning of her immortal life. She thought back to the days she claimed to have been "so happy" even though her mind could feel the lingering memories of pain.

The heat bore down even though the sun was disappearing behind the tar covered mountains connecting the trailers. Crest View trailer park was not a place that someone would be proud to call home and there were no door mats saying "welcome" beneath the metal steps.

"Natalie! I need you to go down to the store and get me some beer! I'm startin' to get the shakes." Natalie shook her head and held the paint brush steady despite the slight trembling of her body. Anger seemed to seep out of her pores and submerge her body. The strokes became quicker causing a torrent of color to rain down upon the nearly finished mural. The girl shook violently and wordlessly threw a canister of grey paint at the small section of the closet like room devoted to her painting. She stared viciously at the now ruined wall painting and pressed her hand into the liquid leaving her palms red, yellow, green and grey.

"Natalie! Get the hell out here!" The shouts vibrated through her room as she looked disgustedly out her door envisioning her father sitting in the same chair he had for hours, in the same clothes he had worn all week, with a thirty pack of empty bottles at his feet that accumulated throughout the day. Her room, however small it was, was the room of an artist. All the furniture was pushed into the darkened corner of the room and draped with a sheet, and newspapers were scattered across the stained tile floor. The light bulb that hung naked from the ceiling was swaying back and forth beneath the breeze filtering in through a small unadorned window. Natalie stood staring at the paint drying on her hand and etched the word "death" with a fingernail in the flaky substance. Death, the word frequently appeared in her paintings, in her writing and in her mind. The death of her mother when she was six hadn't seemed to phase her but the various counselors she had encountered throughout the years had assumed it was because of the age she was at when her mother died. This theory was only supported until recently when her she had lost a close friend to a fatal car accident that the physiatrists had decided it was quite possible that she was a sociopath. Natalie had finally decided on her own that it was curiosity that suppressed her emotion. She was so fascinated with the concept of death that the sensation behind the feeling of loss was irrelevant. She often found herself drawing the faces of the people she had lost repetitively, and writing down different scenarios to their deaths. Her mother's death however, had no other scenario. In an act of selfish desperation she had slit her wrists. That is all she had been told is she was overwhelmed and slit her wrists. In being so narcissistic she had left Natalie to clean up vomit and needles, and return the beer bottles her father had used to destroy his liver to buy her paints.

"Natalie!" The bellowing voice found her ears and made her shutter. " How many damn timessss do I gotta tell you, you ssssstupid sssslut!" Natalie almost smiled at thick slurs in his voice but decided to fulfill his bidding...there were always fewer bruises that way.

Jocelyn woke with a start and sat rigid in her bed as she reached with her mind to the world outside. She couldn't tell by sight if it was still daylight because of her heavy black out curtains but she could feel the desertion of the town. She was able to tell it was daylight out by another method and that was the way her body felt. Scarlet, since he had created her was directly tied to her which meant there was a piece of him that existed insider her that stirred when he was awake. At times she could feel some of his emotions and even experience memories and thoughts if he allowed it. At this moment the piece of his soul that resided in the pit of her stomach rested peacefully and she hoped that he had not dreamed what she had. When a vampire is created they are the most vulnerable creatures on earth to their own kind. An ancient could open your mind to them and extract any information they wanted with the blink of an eye. Especially one of Scarlet's race. Scarlet surprisingly never interrupted her mind to find out everything he could about her. Most ancients know their "children" through and through. Scarlet, mysteriously did not know anything about her and he was content with that. Over time one learns how to shield themselves from the inquiring minds of the more powerful beings. The first encounter Jocelyn had was the last because unlike others she learned quickly how to wrap herself in solitude. The pain of having your mental walls knocked down was excruciating. It felt like an exacto knife sawing through your skull and repeatedly driving itself into your brain and piercing every nerve along the way until your body no longer knows how to function. Sometimes the damage cannot be repaired and there were vampires who existed in the world only as slaves because they were not strong enough to survive on their own. Worthless, that's all those beings are. Jocelyn groaned and sank back on her mattress and pulled the heavy comforter up over her head. It was far too early for her to be awake and the hunger was becoming uncomfortable...sleep would cure all. Not remembering her previous dream Jocelyn closed her eyes and returned to slumber.

Natalie held the dollar bills crumpled in her fist. It was dark and the air was cool yet she was sopping up sweat from the nape of her neck. The fact that her father didn't even know she was too young to buy alcohol was enraging. Furthermore, even if he did he wouldn't care that she had to steal it in order to get it for him. Natalie shook her head and continued down the sidewalk searching the gutter for salvageable cigarette butts.

New York was where she was bred and born and it was obvious in the stance she took when strangers were approaching or even passing. She was always cautious especially when it was a dark as it was now. Every few feet a street lamp would dimly light the way but often the lamps had been broken by vandals and cast her into the inevitable. In this neighborhood anything could happen, even in daylight and no one would lift a finger to help. Natalie looked straight ahead as she ignored the catcalls from the deteriorating apartment buildings to either side of her, and various objects being thrown in her direction. People sat on their porches visiting neighbors and it would be innocent if she didn't witness a package of some sort being transferred into someone else hands almost every time she dared to look. She didn't even dare to smile in anyone's direction in fear that she would be attacked for being friendly. Just as she was beginning to feel the familiar sensation of eyes boring into her back Natalie rounded the street corner and was immediately facing a run down package store. For once no one was sitting in front of the store to question her motive for wearing an over sized sweatshirt and she doubted the store clerk would even notice she'd come in let alone scrutinize her clothing. Natalie wiped her upper lip that was glistening with sweat and pulled open the door to Roy's package store. The heat inside of the store was even more unbearable than the 90 degrees outside as it blew over her face. She walked directly to the back of the store not even looking at the clerk as she made her way to the shelves of beer. Natalie eyed the two decrepit ceiling fans wearily as she felt sweat trickle between her breasts to settle in her bra. She had never been more uncomfortable in her life. The forties in the coolers looked refreshing even to her as she cautiously unloaded three of the glass bottles from the shelves. This was done successfully without any of the familiar clinking of glass and was stored safely in her sweatshirt and one awkwardly in the waistband of her jeans. Finally she could go home, keep her father's temper to a minimum for a few hours, and paint uninterrupted. She smiled at her earlier paranoia and scolded herself. She had been doing this for years and there was no reason to be caught this far in the... Natalie cried out at the feeling of her hair being yanked and painfully turned to look into the wild eyes of the store clerk she hadn't bothered to look for upon entering the most stolen from store in the area. In one hand he held a cordless phone and in the other he still grasped her hair.

"Let me go!" she yelped as he wound her thick hair tighter around his meaty fist.

" No way missy. The police are on their way down. My guess is you've been stealin' from here for a long time just like the rest of the folks in your neighborhood. But this time, Ol' Roy caught you."

" Nice to see you haven't lost your touch but do you think I could just return the beer and be on my way?" Roy grinned and Natalie stared in horror at the few remaining teeth that he had in his head that were cracked and broken.

"No dice?" she asked hesitantly.

"Not gonna happen darlin'. You may be a pretty girl but I get a twenty-five cent raise for every little punk thief I catch. You thought you were gonna have a good 'ol time tonight didn't ya? Well you ain't because I'm gonna make sure they take you to the police station, and put your little behind in jail."

"Wow, twenty-five cents?" Natalie said with wide-eyed amazement while cautiously reaching into her pocket for her stilleto. Her fingertips grazed the smooth ivory handle and she let the familiarity of it calm her. Her mother had been in a pawnshop trying to sell some jewelry when she had laid eyes on a stilleto that would make a mouth salivate. The handle was made of elephants tusk and bordered by swirls of silver. Although the handle was relatively plain it was the blade that was uniquely beautiful. The silver blade measured to about seven inches with smooth yet dangerously sharp edges. At the tip of the gleaming metal the word "destiny" was engraved. Immediately her mother had traded her most valuable pieces of jewelry in favor of this insignificant knife. The word "destiny" was what had captured Natalie's attention after it came to be in her possession. Perhaps it was the fact that it had become her mother's destiny to use this very knife to end her life. Natalie slowly slid the knife from her pocket and held it against her leg keeping it from view as she prepared herself. Roy was still speaking she knew because she could feel the vibrations on her back from where he held her against his bulging stomach...

To be continued......

[Sleeping-Star16]

*WOOT WOOT* I thinks me in love with this story!!!

[Miragedev]

I love it too. Now you got me interested in Jocelyn's life and her mysterious creator. I'll be waiting for part 2!

[RENA HANDS]

The word is spasmodically. Behind the heat,... There was a pause in the air and for a moment,.. Of course, I knew you'd fine me... ..."the sound of Scarlet..." There are many fragmented ideas. There are several repeating ideas and vocabulary. The story is filled with numerous expressive words. The story is filled with many descriptive images. I am not certain of your writing technique, but many of your paragraphs are too long. The story is very remarkable and I am looking forward to the next installment.

[nolastname07]

This short story is quite good. There are only a couple things I believe you should tend to immediately; Grammatical errors and Character Descriptions. As for grammatical errors, you have a few mispellings throughout the text, and in some cases the error seems as if the word was misused. Also, character descriptions should be heeded with more enthusiasm. Although you gave a general description of both characters, It would please me if you were to go into great detail to provide for a lucid visualization of any characters of interested.

[SilverWings]

The story is good, although I didn't really understand the beginning and there are too many "big" words that most people won't know of unless they read the dictionary...like I didn't really get the word spasmodically....I think if you want readers to know what you're writing about you should use other words that readers would more likely be able to understand. But hey, this is just my opinion.

[foxblade]

Hmmm, there seem to be an awful lot of vampire stories floating around.

Anyway, I agree with the previous comment. There were a few spelling mistakes in the reading. Also, keep in mind that commas are the backbone of literature; without them, the story would wobble and pretty much cave in on itself. Your story, however, was only missing a few commas, so it's all good!

There was one other thing that kind of caught my attention. Paragraphs 41 and 42. When I read paragraph 41, you mentioned that it was cool outside. And on paragraph 42, the temperature skyrocketed to ninety degrees. Did the sun explode or are they living in a microwave?

The story itself was very descriptive and just plain comfy. I like the very beginning of the story. With the first few paragraphs, you made me want to be right there where Jocelyn was so that I could experience the environment around her. Even the groggy, nasty city slums were well descripted, though I wouldn't like to be caught there.

As for the story <i>line</i>, It's too repetative for me. I've read a lot of vampire stories and this one was no different.

Now I wanna read the rest of your story to get a better understanding of everything that's goin' on.

[x_lovely09]

I'm loving this. :]]
I can't wait for you to write more!