Haven

Haven


Murder mystery, murder mystery, and...murder novel?
I slid my fingers along the spines of book after book, which turned out to be the same, one after the other. Murder. The death of a living thing caused by another living thing, which we all know is illegal; I suppose that is where the beauty in writing lies. UInlike a book, life has limits. A wise man once said, "You are born free, but bound everywhere in chains." I understand a bit more of that with each passing day.
"Now that's freedom." I whispered, still trailing a finger over one of the book spines.
"Hm? Did you say something, Sen?"
"No..not really."
Sen. That lovely title would belong to me. I always got a lot of crap from people because it sounds so much like "sin," but "we deal, we deal", right?
Right.
I suppose beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, as they say, which, by the way, isn't me. Then who? That would be your next question, I'm psychic, I know; your shaking in your fucking shoes, right?
Right.
"How much longer is this going to take, Kalu?"
I paced over and took a seat across the table from Kalu, my best friend.
"If you would quit asking me that and let me read, it would be a lot sooner." he replied, his response as logic as he himself always was.
Oh, right..a description. That's what you would probably be wanting? Of course.
How'd I know?
I, myself, am a fair maiden; or rather, less fair and more distressed. Standing at a towering 5'5 and weighing in at 100 to 140 lbs. I'd tell you the exact weight, but that wouldn't be lady like, for a true lady never reveals her secrets. I have shoulder length hair that stood out in a marvelous and, dare I say, ravishing sandy brown. Was I slender? Yep. Freckles? Oh yeah, with a button nose to boot.
Anything, but average, right?
Kalu, was different however. A shinning example of the three most sought out qualities in a male.
Tall, pale, and available.
He had a head of messy brown hair to match his brown eyes, which are brown because he is so full of crap, or..that's at least what I've brainwashed him into believing over the past year. His best feature was by far his intelligence though. This boy was bloody brilliant, you know the kind. The ones that know those quirky, yet convenient things that come in the nick of time, like how to make explosives out of house hold items.
So then, why is Kalu available, you may ask, if he is in fact, so perfect?
Kalu has a condition. Ah, yes; a condition. The feeble draw back you would find at the very end of a dating resume that would put the tall young man with the stereo typically perfect features and nice ass into the "no" category, hopeing that you didn't notice. But, wait. Let me explain in detail.
Kalu is under the fang, or in common tongue, a "vampire."
Say it with me, Vam-pi-rrrrrrre.
Yes, they exist, sort to speak. Cut off about twenty-five percent of the stupid rumors, another twenty-five for the cliche' attributes, and about half the ways you think you know how to kill them and you get the real thing.
Phf, commons and their misconception.
"Alright," said Kalu, as he closed a book placed in front of him, "Lets go."
"Finally!"
I quickly stood from my chair and reached over, grabbing him by the wrist as I turned and darted out of the library, nearly dragging him on the floor behind me.
"I sat through your boring research, now lets get some food like you promised!"
"Slow down Sen, the food isn't going anywhere! ..never goes anywhere untill you get there, anyway."
I stopped almost immediately and turned, facing him.
"What are you saying..? Hm? Calling me fat? Yeah? Vampire?"
"Oh come on. I was just playing, you know that."
"So you do think I'm fat. Well you know what? Your full of-"
"Shit?" He would finish my sentence for me, a gesture that was beginning to become habit.
"That's right! Your full of shit! You wanna know why?" I stuck my hip out and placed a hand on it as I waved a finger in front of his face. "Because your big gay brown eyes are full of doo doo. Why? Because your a big gay vampire who uses his fangs to suck the shit out his victim before he ass rapes them! Then, if you have any room left in that duty infested heart of yours, you'll suck out a pint of blood just to keep it pumping the poop through your system, you fanged cunt!"
"You done?"
"I have more, but my hunger out weighs your gayness. Now, carry me."
I hopped onto his back and wrapped my legs around his waist as I did the same with my arms around his neck, laying my chin into his shoulder to watch as he paced on towards the cafeteria. That's the way we were together. Best friends, comrades, and brothers in arms, well..sort of.

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"So, you know what..this weeks assignment is?" I managed to croak from a mouthful of ramen noodles.
"No, I've been doing school research for the past couple of days. You?"
"Nope, that's why I was asking." I dabbed my chopsticks back into the bowl to clamp more noodles for a mouthful of tasty Japanese culture.
Eating; it's something Kalu didn't do much of. Most of the time, the only thing I ever saw him eat was just the scheduled pint of blood he would drink every couple of days. I, however, loooved food.
"Well, after we finish eating I have to jet to Fang studies, then I guess we can meet back at the w.a.b.?"
Incase you were wondering, the w.a.b. stood for Weekly Assignment Board. Our little abode' was a wonderful place for people likes us to escape. It gave us a semi-normal life with a semi-normal feel to it, but in the world we lived in, things were everything, but, you know? Though, like all things, it came with a price. Each week we were to complete an assignment from an array of tasks; it went from cleaning the bathrooms, to surveillance, to acting as a body guard. Yeah, it was a pretty sweet deal.
"Fang studies? When's that start again?"
"What do you.." I could see him smirk as he raised his hand and taped a finger against the glass of his wrist watch, indicating.."Shit! It started already! Sh-"
"Shit. Yes, got it. Poop everywhere. Now go, before your anymore late, than you already are."
He pushed me off the bench seat we were sitting at and smiled as I ran off to class. Ever seen a vampire smile? It's creepy as, yeah you guessed it, shit.
I pulled the strap of the book bag over my shoulder and clung tight as I took a hard right turn passed the hall corner and darted down to the end where I would come to a stop at a big cherry wood door reading, "Fang Studies." I quickly ran inside and took a seat at the first available desk I saw, which lucky for me! was top right, front row. Ah! A perfect spot at the front of the class where the teacher could look me in the eye and reprimand me for being late..again.
"Late again Miss Haven?" Mr. Linch was a fat guy with a short status, leading me to believe his cause of irritation and temper was him, quite literally, being short. "Better late than ever, I suppose."
"..yeah."
That took me by surpise, to be honest. I expected him to blow up and freak out, letting me have it up front for all the class to see. That's what he usually did, anyway. Maybe it was my lucky day?
"As I was saying before our interruption class!" He began to pace back and forth behind his big wooden desk with the typically expected shiny red apple at the front. "The Fanged, or more commonly known verse, "Vampires" are a very interesting type of ill struck people. Yes, Miss Ravely?"
Mr. Lich pointed to a raised hand in the back of the room. The hand belonged to one Miss Saraz Ravely, I knew her from older classes we had together; Anthropology (not the kind your thinking of, we actually have anthros'), were studies, and..math. What? I have to learn normal shit too!
"Is it really correct to call it an illness, Mr. Lich?"
"Under the fang," spoke Mr. Lich again. "is an illness in itself. The condition of Vampirism is nothing more than a change in living necessities and slight change in specific attributes. In detail.." He grabbed a piece of chalk from the board shelf and placed the end against the chalk board, drawing out a diagram of how the body of a vampire worked. "You see, a fang, or vampire, is considered "undead." It's called so because it is constantly on the brink between life and death. It's blood is no longer the blood of it's own. A fang takes in living cells of other beings to sustain it's life cycle, like a phone that you constantly have to charge the battery on. In this way, the living cells form a synthetically normal and natural feel to keep the heart pumping and the muscles working properly."
"And..the pale skin?" the girl asked again.
"Ah..the typical pale skin of a vampire. This would be because of their said issues with the sun." He fixed his collar and tie, then began to pace in the opposite direction, only to turn and repeat once he reached the end of the desk.
How annoying.
"Because the body of a human has the combination of a constant steady cycle of blood pumping every second and nutrients drawn from food, the immunity system stays healthy and able to ward off anything bacterial and viral, this includes the U.V. rays the sun emits that your skin is constantly exposed to. Now, in a vampire's case, he has blood that is no longer his own, and is constantly dieing as it is being pumped throughout his veins, thus the constant drinking, so the heart pumps slower to make the blood last longer, which also drops the vampire's pulse, feeding the "undead" category they full under. Also, because the vampire only takes in blood to sustain his life, and not food, then he is not getting the nutrients that a typical human body needs to keep up the immune system, making his body and skin fall much more fragile to the Ultra Violent rays."
I understood Mr. Lich's explanation, but at the same time I couldn't quite figure it out.
"But..Iv'e seen Kalu eat food before.." I whispered to myself.
Bzzt! The intercom buzzed as a voice boomed over for an announcement.
"Please excuse the interruption Mr. Lich, but we need to see a Misses "Sen Haven" in the office, immidately.

How lucky..that's my name.