Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Children of the Night ❯ The First Death ( Chapter 6 )

DISCLAIMER: Just to let all of you guys out there know that Sailor Moon still doesn't belong to me, but the situations in this story do…enjoy!

Correction: In the last chapter, I wrote that Faye came to live with Serena and Sahra 2 years after those two first moved out to New York. That's a mistake. Serena and Sahra just moved to New York when they advertised for a roommate so Faye has been living with them the entire time they've been living in the "Big Apple".

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Children of the Night

Chapter 6- The First Death

By: Hime

hime@alloymail.com

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"A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic."

- Josef Stalin

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Faye yawned as she pushed the swinging kitchen door open. Eight a.m. was definitely too early to be up in the morning. She looked at Serena, sipping her morning cup of tea while watching the tiny television set on the counter.

"And in local news, twenty year old Joanna Walters was found early this morning in her apartment, murdered-" the television set was turned off by Faye.

"I can't believe you can watch that crap so early in the morning." She said with a sniff of disdain.

Serena rolled her eyes when Faye went to pour herself a cup of tea. Faye was always cranky when she got up. Not much of a morning person. 'Then again, what vampire is?' She thought to herself with a tiny smile.

"Good morning to you too Faye. Sleep well?"

Faye gave her a disgruntled look, before frowning into her cup. 'Dammit, I've got to get Serena to drink coffee.' Faye watched as Serena beamed a sunny smile to her before taking another sip of her tea. 'She's not human. She's gotta be some kind of evil creature to be able to function this early in the morning without coffee.'

"Why are you up so early? You usually sleep in."

"Have you forgotten what today is? It's the fall fashion show! I have to get my hair, nail's and make-up done. Looking beautiful takes time, you know."

Serena looked at the gleaming skin, exotic golden eyes, and the pouting lips, red even without lipstick. Faye looked gorgeous for a two hundred year old and she knew it. Serena almost snorted, but managed instead to murmur softly, "Oh yeah. Sorry I forgot." It wasn't as if Faye worked much. Only those fashion shows for the seasons and some special events.

Faye smirked as if she could read what Serena had been thinking. "How come you're up? I thought Cosmo opens the shop this morning."

Serena shrugged. "Well I told Darien last night that I had to work early, so I decided to do so. I told Cosmo to come in later on today."

"Awww, you lied to Darien last night and felt guilty about it."

"Just shut up."

"Boy, you're pretty cranky in the morning, aren't you?"

~*~*~*~

"Good Morning, Silvermoon's, New York." Serena smiled into the receiver. "Mamoru! I can't wait for tonight-" her smile halted then disappeared. "Oh, you can't make it tonight." She smiled again, though not as big as her first. "That's okay, how about tomorrow-" her smile dropped once again. "You won't be able to see anymore." She wrapped the cord around her finger. "No no, I understand. You have too much business to do here. Ah-hun. Well, thanks for calling me to let me know. I have to go now, the store is getting busy." She paused and then said softly into the receiver, "Goodbye Darien." And she hung the phone up before he could say anything else. The phone rang a few seconds later. Serena looked at it warily and when she was about to pick it up, the phone abruptly stopped. 'Good,' She thought to herself, 'who needs him anyway.' But throughout the day, the smile she wore never did reach her eyes.

~*~*~*~

She had called him Darien. Mamoru looked at the receiver in his hand, it's dial tone ringing out of the earpiece. He dialed the store again and listened to it ring over and over and over before hanging up again. 'What am I doing? Why am I calling her again? I'm calling her again because she called me Darien!' He ran his hands through his hair and glared at the phone. He reached out to pick up the phone again when a feminine hand stopped him.

"Don't be stupid. It's better this way." She looked him through her chilly blue eyes. "You have more important things to do, and this way she won't get hurt."

Mamoru sighed but he knew her to be right. 'Dammit, this isn't fair.' He raged inwardly. He got up off his chair and stormed toward the door. The only satisfaction he got from this entire morning was the savage slam that echoed through the hall as he went his way.

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Sahra yawned as she made it into the kitchen by noon. She pulled open the refrigerator door and took out her favorite breakfast-chocolate ice cream and frosted flakes. She snagged a bowl from the dish rack and hurriedly spooned out two huge scoops into it. She flicked the door open and shoved the carton of chocolaty goodness back in. Dumping a load of flakes onto her treat, she absently turned on the small television sitting on the counter. Sahra wrinkled her nose at the screen before switching channels to a station she knew was playing cartoons. She didn't want to eat her breakfast and hear about a murder that happened last night, especially when they talked about its victim's throat being slashed open.

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"And did you hear about the cross, knifed into her left breast, and how there was a needle sticking straight out of her heart?" One of Serena's best customers asked almost excitedly as Serena rang up the up the goods in front of her.

Serena grimaced before she could stop herself. "No, actually I didn't hear that until now. Will this be all you need today, Shelly?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you had any advise on how to do a protection spell or something like that." Shelly looked at Serena with pleading eyes and waved her gold VISA card around in the air ever so slightly. "I've been a bit jumpy ever since I saw today's newspaper."

Serena plucked the card and ran it through the credit machine. She punched in all the necessary numbers and as it started to spit out a receipt, Serena turned to the customer and smiled. "Of course, Shelly. Hmm…protection right? Okay, you bought some red candles today. Take one and sketch a star into it. Concentrate on the image of a protective wall made of fire surrounding your apartment while you're doing this. The red candle is for protection; the star is also a symbol of protection. Light the wick and burn a bit of basil. If you like, you can take the candle and burn a bit of basil in all your rooms. Basil is an herb of protection. Let the candle burn out by itself. That should do the trick." Serena smiled glad to be of help.

Shelly looked a bit taken aback. "You certainly seem to know a bit on protection spells."

"Yeah well, everyone who's come in here today has been asking about them." :

Shelly leaned forward with a conspiratorial whisper, "Speaking of herbs, I'm surprised you didn't mention garlic."

Serena blinked, and then put her finger up to the side of her head in thought. "Well yes, garlic can be used in a spell for protection but it's harder to burn then basil."

Shelly's eyes glittered with barely contained amusement. "No, I meant garlic being used to protect against vampires."

"Vampires? What're you talking about?"

"Didn't you know? The girl that was found murdered this morning was drained entirely of all her blood."

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"So, you were working late tonight?"

Serena didn't whirl around and scream though she was tempted too. Instead she took a calming breath and turned to the guy who had given her heart a pain that she hadn't felt in years. "Well, I wasn't doing anything tonight so I figured why not." Serena had just left the store at 9:30, leaving Cosmos to close the shop up. She started to walk down the quiet street, the same one where she had met him for the first time yesterday. Her apartment building was just around the corner.

"Wait…please." His hand grabbed her arm; his voice was soft and insistent. And guilty.

'Serves him right.' Serena sneered at him in her thoughts. 'He should feel guilty, the rat bastard.' But she turned to face him, her face impassive.

"Look, I like you, I really do. But I'm here in New York because of something important. And-"

"And what, you're afraid I'm going to mess it up for you?"

"Yes."

"Excuse me?"

"I meant that if I'm with you I am going to mess up because I'm going to be too into you to notice anything else."

Serena felt herself go closer to him. She smiled up into his eyes and popped him one in the nose.

"Owww!"

"That was for breaking our date on the phone you coward!" She slugged him in the stomach. "That's for making me almost cry this morning! And this is for being a guy!" She drew her arm back for one more hit but her arm was grabbed and Serena was pulled off balance. As she stumbled away from Mamoru, the woman who did it ran to him and gave him a huge hug.

"Are you all right, Darien? Why was this girl assaulting you? Is she hitting you because you broke off your date with her because of what I said?"

Serena righted herself with as much dignity as she had in her. "Darien, who is she?"

"I'm the girl he's living with." The woman shook her head, her short blue haired twisted in the wind slightly before settling down to frame her face. Her blue eyes were cool, composed. Her lips were without gloss or lipstick, a natural shiny pink. "Ask him if I'm lying."

"Darien?"

He looked at Serena with a bit of desperation in his eyes. "It's not what you're thinking-" he was cut off by the other woman.

"We've been living together for over a year now. And I'll have you know that he was with me all night long after he dropped you off. The reason he's even in this city has to do with me."

Serena gave a small gasp and she felt her hand clench into a fist as if she wanted to hit Mamoru or that other girl, but just didn't know which one to hit first.

Darien's face grew heated. He grabbed the blue haired girl by her arm. "What do you think you're doing!"

"Am I telling her lies?" She answered calmly in the face of his anger.

"But what you're telling her isn't the entire truth either!"

"Darien, were you with her the entire night after seeing me home?"

He turned to Serena and opened his mouth before shutting it again.

"The hell with you." She turned and ran off, not responding to his cries of her name.

~*~*~*~

"I wouldn't suggest going after her now, she's sure to kick your ass if you got in her way."

"You bitch." Quiet but filled with such repressed emotion, she looked toward him.

"I just did what was best."

"You mean what was best for you."

"No. I did what was best for everyone involved. You know I was right; that's why you broke your date off in the first place."

"If it was so right, then why is my heart telling me that letting her go is the most wrong thing I could do at the moment?"

"Because you're an idiot." A pause. "Let's go, we have more important things to do before the night is over." She turned away from Mamoru and walked the opposite direction of Serena. After a moment, Mamoru followed her with one last look behind him.

~*~*~*~

Ever since Serena had come home from work, she had locked herself up in her room. When Sahra and Faye asked about her date with Mamoru, she threw something hard at the closed door. They tried to hear what was she doing in her room, but Serena had spellcasted all the bedrooms to be soundproof so they could hear nothing.

"What did that bastard do to her?" Faye was pissed. She stalked back and forth through the kitchen before throwing herself into a chair. It creaked dangerously at her force.

"I don't know. You want to jump him later?" Sahra's head was inside of the refrigerator as she looked over the contents inside.

"Hmph. I have a feeling that Serena wouldn't like that."

"Why not? She let me do it to 'bastard boy'."

"Yes, but she needed him so she could mess with his memory. Us beating the snot out of that guy isn't the same thing." Faye sighed. Men were such jerks. Well all except for him but he was dead so it didn't matter. She sighed again. Thinking about him always gave her heart a pang.

"What are you sighing for?"

"Nothing, nothing at all." The anger had drained out of Faye and instead a pensive mood struck her.

"Whatever." Faye could almost hear the shrug in Sahra's voice. "I think I'll eat the last piece of chocolate cheesecake." Sahra said gleefully as she plucked her find from the shelf.

"That bitch!" Serena came storming into the kitchen, her eyes an angry blue, her mouth twisted in a scowl.

"Okay then. I won't take the last piece of cake." Sahra began to slowly lower the plate back into the refrigerator as if scared a sudden movement might spark an attack.

"I wasn't talking about you. I was referring to the girl that was hanging all over Mamo-Darien tonight."

"What? Darien has a girlfriend!"

"I think that's what the girl was trying to make me think she was."

"How do you know for sure that's the case?" Faye asked, curious.

"She called him Darien."

Faye and Sahra looked at each other and then back to the blonde in front of them. "You just called him Darien." Sahra pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm mad at him right now. If I were happy with him, he would be Mamoru to me. He said it himself, that only the people he's close to would know the name 'Mamoru' and use it."

"Don't you think that's a bit flimsy to base your logic on?"

"It's not only that. Something just wasn't right with what happened earlier, now that I look back on it. She was so calm and collected; she wasn't fighting over the love of her life. And Darien said something about her not telling the entire truth. She wanted to get me away from him but it had nothing to do with love, I'm sure of that."

"So why then?"

"It has to do with something she and Darien are involved in, some sort of business."

"And now you're going to try and find out exactly what they're doing?"

"Yes."

"Well I guess there's only one thing to ask-Will you need our help?"

Serena smiled, "I was hoping you would ask that."

The television went on. Serena and Faye turned to look at Sahra and saw her eating cheesecake and watching the ten o'clock news. "What?" Sahra asked, "I thought we were done with the serious talk."

Serena stared hard at her friend. "Is that the last piece of cheesecake?"

Faye shook her head as Serena began to yell at Sahra that she had been saving that slice. She turned her attention to the television set as it began to show clips of the fashion show from that morning. Faye sat down and watched to see if she would see herself on the screen, but she had only begun to watch when the segment was over. Instead the newscasters started to talk about the body that was found earlier this morning. Faye rolled her eyes and reached to turn the television off when something the newscaster said caught her attention.

"And she was found, drained of her blood. Police say that this must have been the work of some sort of cult because of the ritualistic elements in the case. The body was found with a cross wound on her chest and a silver needle sticking out of her heart. A message was left on the walls but that information has not been released at this moment-"

Faye quickly stood up and raced out of the kitchen. Serena and Sahra blinked at each other, their argument over the cheesecake forgotten as they too raced out of the kitchen. They reached the living room too late; Faye had left without a word to them and in such a rush. They looked at each other again and Sahra shrugged. What had just happened that made Faye rush out like that?

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Somewhere else In New York City…

In the cool, air-conditioned room of the police morgue, a silver glow began to cover the body of a young woman recently killed before the body absorbed it. The corpse seemed to shudder before settling back down once again, lying there on the examination table, unmoving. A silver light seems to run through the veins of the body, lighting the form from beneath the skin. The light moves from the tips of the toes and flashes on up to the heart, where it seems to collect. The light disappears once more. Nothing more seems to happen in this dark and cold room, except for the tiniest of movements-the corpse opened its eyes.

Author's Notes: So sorry this took like almost a month to get this chapter out. *sigh* It's just that lately I've been very engrossed in the other fanfic I'm writing, Come What May. Hopefully though, I will be better about getting chapters out. Just don't hold you're breath, ne? So what's going to happen to Serena and Darien? And what exactly made Faye run out in such a hurry? And is the dead girl a newly risen vampeal or something more sinister then that? All these questions and more will be answered…eventually. You didn't actually think I was going to get to them all in my next chapter did you? Silly, silly reader--answers are for paying customers. Anyway, please remember to review! I love those things…

Hime *^_^*

11/9/01

8:37 p.m.