Sleep came hard and fast with the first creeping rays of the sun. Gabriela tried to fight against the compelling need, but against her better wishes was pulled under as the darkness of the room shrouded them. Her last waking memories were of Bridget bolting the door before curling on the bed beside her as sleep claimed her and pulled her under.
Dreams as the newly undead were strange. Vicious flashing things of fangs, glinting steel, and rage. Brief glimpses of long blond hair, hands gripped around a naked waist, and toes curled against paisley patterned sheets.
The replayed snippet of club music, with its techno beat dropping, all echoed in her mind as she fought through the slog of her thoughts.
Scenes from various vampire movies made their appearance, with her doing everything from rising from a coffin, to eating rats, and finally dancing only to watch her clothing whirl around on mirrors while the rest of her remained invisible.
As the sun finally surrendered its grip on her Gabriela clawed out of the forced sleep with a hard gasp. Her fingers had curled into claws and long gashes ran over the sheets where she had attempted to tear herself free of whatever demons held her during her slumber.
Shaking, she sat upright before drawing her knees to her chest. Her arms wrapped around her shins as she did her best to curl into a ball.
The room was unfamiliar and in the darkness only rough shapes that could be parsed into pieces of furniture were made out. A desk chair that, from the bulky outline, served double as a closet. She could make out the outline of a desk against the wall, highlighted by the bouncing rainbow squiggly lines that rebounded and twirled as it prevented the pixels in the monitor being burned out. To one side stood a slightly lopsided bookshelf piled high with books and odd shaped items that couldn't really be identified in the gloom.
Slowly Gabriela pushed herself back on the bed. The mattress was hard and slightly lumpy where the springs had worn out and given up offering support. No headboard, just a simple metal frame. All these details she started to absorb as the shock from yesterday faded enough for her to start taking in her surroundings.
A shriek echoed down the hall, the sharp cutting sound had Gabriela off the bed. A hiss and curse escaped her as her foot landed on something hard and blunt. The hurt was only compounded as the bright overhead light flipped on. A snarl escaped Gabriela from some unknown instinct. Fangs bared as her lips drew back even as an arm came up to shield her light sensitive eyes.
"Damn Gabs, calm down." Bridget's voice broke the swirling mass of fear that echoed through Gabriela's body. The calming tone was the same used to soothe wild animals or toddlers; things that only had their unpredictability in common.
"I brought breakfast." She continued blithely as if the scream had never occurred, as if neither of them could hear the sobbing cries that petered down before once more culminating in another cry.
"What is happening? Who is screaming?" No doubt the mug contained more blood. More foul delicious liquid; the promised mana to replenish the rapidly depleting strength in her body.
Gabriela forced her hands down to her sides and balled her fists as she fought the urge to accept the offering and ignore the cries with the same disinterest that Bridget portrayed. The woman's features didn't even tense as the scream rose again and choked off.
"Another childe turning." The other woman waved it off with one hand. Absently as if they were talking about just another person with the flu or a particularly nasty hangover.
"Nothing to concern yourself with" Bridget reassured her, and yet Gabriela found herself concerned. Bridget put the cup on the desk beside her. Now that the light was on Gabriela distracted herself from the burning in her throat with taking in the random items her friend had stored around the modest room.
Books on the bookshelf ranged from historical, fantasy, and even the bodice ripping romance. A small troll doll with neon purple hair and a matching jewel in its belly. A few glass figurines of unicorns, dragons, and even a fairy lined the shelves in the gaps where only bookends rested.
A creature with pale gray fur complete with black spots, pink belly, and hard plastic beaked face. The concept of another turning was dropped, only the ridiculousness of the toy sitting on the desk, surrounded with small throwing knives gathered her focus.
"Is that a Furby?" Gabriela couldn't think beyond that symbol of childhood innocence, surrounded with the weapons, in a bedroom that echoed with the screams of another poor soul.
It was even pink tinted, not the all black one, but pink with its little pink tummy and pink lined ears. Bridget blinked at the sudden change of topics. Of all the things for Gabriela to focus on she had landed on the toy whose batteries had run earlier in the year.
"Yah? Got it last year for Christmas. Needs new batteries but it was annoying with them." Bridget pushed the cup closer to Gabriela's hand, waiting for her to accept the meal.
"Anyways, you will learn to tune out the noise. Eli has us bumping up our numbers; just not many survive the whole turning process fully intact." Bridget frowned at the admission. So far Gabriela had shown some signs of stability and while in shock at least was mostly functioning.
Gabriela gave up resisting the need to soothe the dry burning ache that ran down her throat and into her stomach. She snatched up the mug, the viscous liquid slopped slightly over her hand and was disturbingly warm.
She didn't waste anytime gulping down the blood before licking the residue off her hand before she even realized what she was doing. A shudder raced through her even as the ache of hunger eased. She could feel the strength once more filling her, energizing her.
"There, now that is done." Bridget offered a threadbare hand towel to Gabriela to wipe off her hand and wrist. Small streaks of rusty brown stained over the baby blue material.
"Now, we need to start teaching you how to survive." The lessons it seemed would start immediately as she motioned Gabriela to follow her out of the temporary sanctuary of the shared bedroom.
With the yellowy incandescent lighting Gabriela could see the faint stains in the builder grade brown carpet and in spots tufts of the carpet was shredded and pulling away from the tacks underneath.
The home would have been lovely back in the late 80's to early 90's when it was built. Now it appeared unloved and dated; in need of a good scrubbing among many other things. Silently she padded down the stairs to follow Bridget outside and across the back garden.
Clever landscaping hid how little yard there truly was, just a sliver of grass between the cement patio pad and the fence. Tall shrubbery lined on either side of the fence further secluding and muffling noise.
As they walked further out a small wooden gate that hung partially lopsided became visible between two overgrown box hedges. As they stepped through the gate the space directly behind the home was grass nearly up to their shoulders. A crumbling cement block shop was a few feet up the well worn path through the tall grass.
"So first thing to learn is age matters. Not the physical age you show but the actual turned age. The older the vampire the stronger- to a point. " Bridget started the lesson as they walked towards the building.
"Eli is the patriarch of our family. We are fairly new with me being the second vampire he sired." She pushed the metal rolling door to the shop up. Oddly enough the metal didn't so much as make a squeak. Neglected and dilapidated from the outside the internal workings were cared for and kept in pristine order.
"There is an order to our world, beyond just who sired who. Each line has its own legacy, its own quirks so to speak." Bridget outlined as she flipped on the light inside.
There mannequins dressed in street clothes with bells attached stood in solemn rows, hay bales with targets attached were spaced tidily apart. Boxing bags hung to the other side without sign of matching gloves.
Gabriela blinked in confusion at the sight before her. Never mind the verbal barrage that continued to erode away her sense of the normal. Other lines? Quirks? Like falling dead asleep with the sunrise and needing to drink blood to live wasn't quirky enough.
"Also we aren't the only thing in the night. Unfortunately you met the worst of them a Hunter. Lunatics, that don't discriminate between innocent bystanders and us." Bridget sighed heavily as she motioned to the space before them.
"Now, time for you to learn how to defend yourself." With that the lessons began. Learning how to punch and how to take one, the basics of throwing weapons, and the weak points on her body and that of others.
Information that came in a constant stream that only assaulted her as she worked through processing and learning. Each ache in her body a reminder of muscle groups that hadn't been worked before. Each small cut that healed nearly instantly only drove home just how far from normal she had drifted.