The Familiar Strangers

Laura Hall, is 20 years old, fair-skinned, with golden-brown eyes, brown straight hair, and a small face with a slim body. She is sensitive, closed-minded, trustworthy, and fragile. The first daughter of Jones and Madeline a human, sits beside her window, watching the snowflakes drop on the window. She watched everything turn white and the beauty of those white fluffy balls just makes the whole world feel like they are in a huge gigantic freezer.

A knock was heard on the door, but before she could say anything, the door flashed open as her mom-Madeline enters the room, wearing a long blue coat and a black beanie on her dark blonde hair. Her amber eyes were trapped in her recommended glasses. It's hard for her to see anything without her glasses on.

Madeline is also known as Martina looked at Laura's room wondering why the room felt even colder than the outside. Then her eyes caught the fireplace and saw that the light wasn't lit. "For heaven's sake, Laura, heat your room a little". She voiced out, moving close to the fireplace, she lit up the fire. Laura just sat there staring outside the window. It was like she could see something out there, but the snowballs made it hard to make out what it was.

After she was done fixing the fire, she walked up to her daughter whose attention was still focused on something outside the window., sitting next to her, she held her cold hands trying to keep them warm by rubbing them together with her palms. "Couldn't get any sleep?" she asked. Laura nodded her head, but her stare did not leave the window. "The same nightmares?". Laura immediately turned to look at her mom. She focused her attention on her mother's face. Her mom's face showed a lot of worries. "Tell me about it". She said, but Laura shook her head. "Is it that scary?". She asked again, but Laura couldn't say anything. Laura wished she could tell her about the dream at least to ease her mom's worry a little, but the truth is she couldn't remember the dream.

"Where's everyone?". Laura finally spoke up, trying to change the subject. Her voice sounded a little coarse.

"It's midnight Laura. They are in bed". Her mom smiled at her question. Laura looked at the clock and saw it was midnight. She had no idea she had been up for that long.

"I should get some sleep now". Laura said, walking up to her bed. "I'm fine mom". She gave her mother a reassuring smile when she noticed her mom was still wearing a worried look on her face... "It's late like you said, you should get some sleep too". Her mom looked at her, trying to figure out if she was faking it or not, but one thing Laura is good at is pretending. She should be an actress or something relating to that. Madeline always tells her anytime she wants to hide something.

"Are you sure you'll be OK?" she asked. Laura laid down on her bed as she pulled the bed cover closer to her chest.

"I'm OK now that the fireplace is on". She told her mom smiling and Madeline returned the smile to her daughter.

"You could have just done it yourself or asked Ashley to do it". Mom laughed at the latter.

"Ashley? Seriously mom... of all the people you could think of..., It's Ashley?". Laura laughed. Her mind suddenly drifted to her younger sister Ashley. Ashley is 7 years old, but that girl is a little menace. She is this curious kid who goes around trying out anything and everything until she finally gets what she wants or finds out whatever she wants to. Asking Ashley to come to help me with the fire is like giving ice cream to a child. No way would she even suggest that. Laura thought. "Thanks, mom". Laura told her just to reassure her that she was okay and she'll be fine even though she was not even sure about that.

"I love you, sweetheart". Madeline told her as she came to peck her forehead. "Let me know if you need anything ok?".

"I will". And with that, she left her room but not without looking at her for one last time. Moms and their weird way of knowing their children. You can't seem to lie to them because trust me, they will do everything to find out that you're lying. Some might even become detectives. Laura smiled at that thought.

After her mom left, she sighed. These past few days have been hell for her. Here she is alone in her room and she can't even seem to get any sleep. She's scared to even close her eyes because she can't imagine what she would see again. The last time she slept, when she woke up, she saw everyone - her dad, her mom, and Ashley around her with their sleepy eyes revealing that they were disturbed. Laura asked them what was wrong and they told her they heard her scream and that was why they rushed in. Ashley asked her if she had a bad dream, but she didn't seem to remember anything. She didn't even seem to remember screaming. Ever since then, it's been hard for her to get any sleep even though she wants to.

"Let's just hope nothing happens". She muttered to herself as she closed her eyes and surprisingly, the sleep took her by surprise.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . ******* . . . . . . . . . . .

Somewhere in the deep dark forest, Evan McGraw, 23 years old, fair-skinned, with blue-gray eyes, 178cm, broad shoulders, slim body with musculature. He is the leader of the Goodwine Vampire. He is a strong leader but a good procrastinator. He is willing to lie to save the one he loves. Apart from the fact that he is a reliable leader, he is also very handsome and optimistic. He has been summoned by groups of other people like him for an important meeting but he got delayed.

Arriving at the location, a beautiful young lady rushed to meet him as others who were with her followed suit. "What took you so long?" She asked.

" I was caught up with something Emmy," Evan answered. His green eyes turned back to normal after using his speed.

Emmy is the short form of Emerald. She is the second in command of the vampire gang. To differentiate themselves from other vampires, they call themselves the "Goodwine"- meaning 'they are good but suck blood, just about any kind of blood'. The question is, "are there really good vampires"?

"Really? Another excuse for wanting to skip tonight's meeting?". A voice asked as the team laughed.

" Shut the hell Adam". Evan said, glaring at him, "you should know when I'm telling the truth and when I'm not by now", he added. That made Adam quiet, it showed that he hasn't been practicing as he ought to and while he should be improving, he's stuck at a point.

"So what happened?". Emerald asked as Evan sighed.

"I caught a lady staring outside the window on my way here". Evan started and the whole team looked at him confused. How does a lady staring outside 'her' window affect the reason he should be thirty minutes earlier?

Emerald looked at him confused, "so?" She asked, not understanding the reason.

"She was staring straight over here, I couldn't pass her without her noticing a movement in the trees, even if I used my speed. I had to wait till she was done".

Everyone nodded. It's a rule that no one must be found out no matter what. Everybody needs to be careful and not get caught, not even at the slightest chance.

"Glad you're here anyway. The commander told me to give this to you". Emerald handed him a sheet of paper.

Evan collected the paper and asked, "What's this?" he looked up at Emerald.

She shrugged. "It was meant for you".

Evan opened the paper and there the lady he saw staring out the window was the one in the paper right in front of him. The shock was so great that the paper fell from his hand.

Emerald picked up the paper and was staring at Evan weirdly. "Are you OK?". She asked. It took a while before he recovered from the shock.

"What does the boss want me to do to her?". He asked, staring at Emerald hoping it's not what he thought it was.

"He wants you to protect her". That even shocked him more. He wasn't expecting that.

"Protect her?" Adam asked because it was a shock to him too. Emerald nodded.

"Well, did they say why?" asked Evan.

"I asked but they said she's going to be useful or something like that".

Something didn't seem right and everyone knew it. When a picture of a person is given to them, it's always that the person is a threat and perhaps another vampire that needs to be executed, but for them wanting to protect this girl is still a surprise and a big one.

"I guess we'll find out why". Evan said as he folded his papers and the team left each other and went to their various homes before gathering up at the vampire's hideout later in the day.

The Goodwine Vampires, are vampires that have been blessed with an enormous gift of walking under sunlight. Some vampires don't have that. Some do, but no one knows their whereabouts.

It all happened when the first vampires drank the blood of an angel. Those present at that place where sunlight screened while the others who didn't get to enjoy that remained the vampires that walked at night. Fortunately, Evan McGraw, Adam Leo, Emerald Isle, and, a few others had parents that were sunlight screened.

The question remains, why is Evan asked to protect Laura and not kill her? Could there be a reason why a vampire is asked to protect a human?