Pounding Hearts (AU)
Lana had only been a vampire for a couple weeks now. The first few days were hard. Too hard to think about. But she was finally beginning to feel like she could act normal in public again. She didn’t tell (insert random name here idk what the guy’s name is going to be yet) that she was leaving. She waited until he was asleep and snuck out.Â
Thankfully she remembered to put her daylight ring on. Lana still couldn’t believe that not only did vampires exist, but witches as well. She ran from her new home all the way to the outskirts of the city. She loved being able to run so fast. She felt like she could run forever without stopping, and that excited her more than anything else.Â
She had to stop before anyone saw her though. She knew the rules. No one could know that she was a vampire. No one. If anyone found out, she had either kill them or compel them, and (random name) hadn’t taught her how to do the latter yet.Â
Lana walked for a long time. The city seemed like a new place now that she was changed. The colors were brighter, the sounds were louder, the scents were stronger. It was great at first, but she began to feel overwhelmed. She could hear conversations that she wasn’t supposed to hear. She could smell coffee from a mile away, she could smell the dirty diapers of the kids in the houses she passed, she could smell the sewers underneath the streets…. but most of all, she could smell the blood. It began to take her over. Lana had to do something. She thought about just going home, but she knew she had to face it at some point.Â
She walked into the first coffee shop she found, hoping that the strong scents of the pastries and coffee would drown out the scent of blood and that the whisperings of those around her would drown out the beating of their hearts and the sound of their blood rushing through their veins.Â
It didn’t cover them up completely, but it did help. Lana walked to the front of the store and ordered a coffee. She was headed to the counter with the condiments to add sugar, but the woman standing there smelled so nice. It wasn’t her perfume, it was her blood. Lana stopped in her tracks, she could feel her fangs pushing out. She closed her eyes. She held her breath. She stayed there for a moment reminding herself that this woman probably had a family, friends, maybe a kid or a dog. When Lana opened her eyes she walked away from the counter and straight to a table in the back of the shop, furthest away from anyone else.Â
Lana wasn’t feeling well. She took a drink of her coffee and tried to convince herself that she was fine, but she wasn’t. She shouldn’t have left her house this morning alone. She should have listened to (name) when he told her to stay put. Maybe feeling like a prisoner was better than this. She wanted to tear apart every single person in this building. Lana laid her head down on the table and tried to drown out everything around her.Â
She soon found herself dozing off. She couldn’t help it. She was so overwhelmed, and hadn’t slept much lately. She was so tired… She drifter further into sleep, the sounds and smells of the blood around her slowly faded away. And there she slept on that coffee shop table until someone finally woke her up.Â
Araxie was somewhat of a rare creature when it came to the world. Her mother had been an actress and so had her grandmother before her. They were both the golden girls of cinematic history and expected her to follow in their footsteps. She had attempted when she was young, had been somewhat of an Annie girl. Did mainly plays on large Broadway stages that people always admired her for. But at the ripe age of nine her life was already swirling out of control. Her mother started seeking out other men and cheating on her father. Her dad was often away on business trips and Araxie was left with her nanny and manager. It was a cold lonely life for any grade school child to experience.
That is why she decided to quit that lifestyle at such a young age, she wanted to end it before it truly started. With a heavy heart Araxie took the consequences and was sent to private school. A school which she'd escaped from when she turned fifteen to live in a small house built into a cave under a mountain by the sea. It seemed something out of a story book. She adored living there. Araxie took the opportunity to write stories and was published various times under another name. Sometimes she visits town but those visits are not often. Three, four times a year only to get the necessities. She lives off of the land.
This cold morning was one of those rare occasions. She prepped so for it, dying her hair red from hair dye she'd gotten years ago and wearing the most next door outfit she could find in her home made clothes closet. Araxie walked the streets as a girl named Sarah who often visited her grandfather that resided in that town. "Hello!" - "How are you today?" you would hear her cheerfully calling out to everyone that walked by. The last thing she wanted to seem was mysterious, that only led to questions.
Finally, the familiar coffee place she so adored came into view, the young girl walked in and order her usual caramel coffee with whipped cream before looking around for a seat. Everything was so busy, she rounded the corner and decided to check the back where sometimes some of the people that liked posing for her photographs sat. Most were full except one where a girl was sitting asleep, a few guys from the table next to hers were studying her, their eyes saying enough to make Araxie not give a second thought to sitting in front of her. "Umh, excuse me?" she said loud enough for just the girl to hear. She placed her coffee down in front of her and folded her arms on the table looking at the other girl expectantly.
