Well, long time no see.

So, I haven't done this in ages, but I thought I'd put up the first chapter of a story I've been working on for long and just see what happens. I know I haven't finished my other story that is up here, so this is just a little taste of what I've been doing while not updating that one.

Alright, enjoy and please review your thoughts on it…

ALL THAT'S LEFT IS HOPE

CHAPTER ONE

Open your eyes like I opened mine,
it's only the real world, a life you would never know.
Shifting your weight to throw off the pain,
well, you can ignore it, but only for so long.

(Paramore)

"Great," I muttered.

The ground in front of me, covered with the only remains of the town that had been destroyed, seemed to stretch endlessly as I searched for a way out of the mess. Smoke and dust lingered in the air around me; it tickled my nose and made my eyes sting and burn. Though the scene in fact wasn't a surprise, it created a bugging speed bump on my already awful road; there was no way around it that would take less than a day to trail – time I didn't have the privilege to waste.

"Just freakin' great."

I aimed a hard kick at one of the trashed buildings, momentarily forgetting how solid it was, and groaned out loud as pain flared up in my toes. I hopped a few staggering steps back – I could only guess the number of splitters of glass that were lurking in the pale brown sand beneath my feet – and then sank to the warm ground with yet another growling sound of disapproval.

With a frown on my face, I watched the disaster a few feet away while my hands tugged at the ends of my dirty hair; beneath the smudge, the sun had turned its natural dark honey tone into a soft golden shine. My fingers, moving absentmindedly, twirled the strands around and around as I tried to focus on something else than the pounding in my head or the nibbling feeling in my empty stomach. Long ago, during my first months on the run, I'd been able to find food in even the most awful places – it had been my only way of surviving. But after years of the same routine – searching where drained corpses met my gaze wherever I looked – it soon became impossible for me to feign numbness.

My stomach let out a loud growl, exclaiming its hollow hunger. I wrapped my arms around myself as I slowly rocked my body back and forth, desperately trying to clutch the remaining warmth inside of me before it would faint with the fading sunshine. The sky above was already turning into a lovely mixture of pink and orange – a sign that it wasn't long till night would fall and take away my last ounce of energy. It felt silly, seeing the sunset compare its extraordinary beauty with the disastrous remains of what had once been a peaceful home for so many.

It was not until I realized my eyes were burning with more than just dirt that I gave myself in to the disappointment I'd tried repressing. I'd planned everything; from the short breaks I could have to the amount of water and food I'd be able to hold on to during the two-day-long run. And yet, all I'd ended up with was the same catastrophe I'd feared every other second.

No one for me to save, no one to save me.

The tears stung as they quietly slid down my warm cheeks. It was moments like these I pretended had never happened when the silent sobs and burning salt water turned into nothing but depressing memories in my mind; it was a show of weakness that I wouldn't let anyone figure out. In the world I lived in, just a tiny little promise of a person's faltering hope could lead straight into the trap of death. And frankly, I'd rather torture myself with a lifetime of running than ever giving myself in to the monsters that had started this revolution.

I leaned back until I felt my body press against warm sand; it was not as comfortable as I would've preferred, but finding another spot was useless at this hour. My heavy sigh rang through the quiet evening as my tired gaze traced the flawless sight above of me. The beauty of it was what usually lulled me to sleep; it was the only moment of peace I was provided with.

In my mind, a soft memory played itself for me; a song whispered in my ear in the darkness of the night.

Tonight just close your eyes and dream,
I'll keep you safe right here with me.
Tonight just sleep and find your peace,
I'll keep you safe right here with me.

My eyes closed as I listened to my mother's silent words, pretending her voice was not just in my head. If I really focused, I could almost feel the tips of her fingers brushing away the strands of hair from my face, the warm puffs of air tickling my neck as she sang the lullaby that would drag my mind away from reality.

When sleep finally willed me into a brittle slumber, I was lost in the imagination that my mother was lying beside me, her arms around me keeping me hidden from the inevitable cold.

"Amber!"

I flinched in surprise as the sound of an ominously harsh voice gripped a hold of me. I could hear a pair of familiar footsteps march towards where I stood on the porch of our house; as I unwillingly turned away from the front door, my mother was just a foot away from the small staircase leading up to me.

"Where on earth have you been?" she asked, an odd note of panic lacing her voice. "I've looked everywhere for you!"

"I was just at…"

My words were cut off as she nearly yanked me off the front porch, her hand suddenly a tight claw around my wrist.

"Mum!" I exclaimed, unsuccessfully trying to pull back.

She tugged me along, moving towards the southern end of town. "We have to hurry, Honey."

"Why?" I could hear my voice turn into a whine. "Where are we going?"

"Your dad's waiting for us. The three of us are going on a little trip."

"But I can't just..."

"It'll be fun," she interrupted.

I wasn't fooled. "Why can't it wait until the weekend?"

"Please, just trust me on this."

I frowned as she hurried her steps even further, making me nearly trip over my feet. There was something in the air, an ominous feeling that was biting my skin.

"Mum," I said again, my voice weaker. "What's really going on?"

She pulled us to a stop and when she turned to face me, her eyes – with the same dark brown tone as mine – were tinted with glistening tears. I felt my heart skip a beat as I watched her unexplained grief.

"They're here, Amber," she said. Her gaze swept around once before she quietly added, "The vampires."

I was terrified, but not by her words – it was her behavior that frightened me.

"Are you alright, Mum?" I asked.

Her voice was filled with despair as she said, "I'm not going crazy. They're coming here and they'll kill us all if we don't run!"

I shook my head, searching my mind for a way to calm her, but my thoughts were cut off short as a loud, high-pitched scream came echoing towards us. I could feel the hair on my neck prickle in fear and my eyes widen, turning my face into the same mask of horror as my mother's was already frozen in. Everything was silent for a long moment… And then hell broke out.

Thunders and screams was all I could hear and the smoke rising to the sky was all I could see.

"What's happening?" I breathed, too horrified to speak any louder.

"We have to go," my mum tried to urge, but her voice was drowned by the sounds of shouts and cries for help.

She tugged at my arm, motioning for me to move, but I stood stiff as I listened to the pained screams of the people I'd known my entire life.

"Please, Honey." Behind the panicked shouts, I could hear my mother's voice crack at her nickname for me. "Your father's waiting."

"But those are our friends," I whispered. "They need our help."

"We can't help them, Amber."

I shook my head, tears forming in my eyes. "Something's happening to them. We can't just leave them!"

"You can't save them, not from vampires."

"Vampires? Mum, there are no vampires!"

She didn't argue with words this time; her legs started moving again as she proceeded with dragging me along. I struggled against her grip on my wrist, refusing to stop even when I felt her wince, but it barely slowed her down.

Even through the blurry tears, I could detect the sight of cliffs marking the horizon – a sign that we were near the edge of town where the desert took over. I'd never been allowed to enter it and neither had I been willing to; there was something about the emptiness of it that had always frightened me.

I felt relief as I caught sight of my father's familiar figure; he would help me.

"Laura, thank God!" he cried out as we rushed to him. "We don't have much time before they pick up on our scents."

"Do you have everything?" my mum asked, sounding breathless.

He raised his arm to show the backpack he was tightly gripping. "It won't last for long, but it'll keep her alive until she finds more."

"Medicine, too?"

"Yes, of course. I brought…"

"What's going on?" I demanded, cutting my father off.

He shot my mother an unreadable look before he bent down to level his face with mine. His expression was graver than I'd even seen it. "Amber, there are bad people here. They're like…hunters, but with special powers. You have to move quickly and discreetly, or they'll find you and try to hurt you."

I didn't miss his choice of words. "Why are you talking like I'm the only one in danger?"

"Because you're gonna have to run. Alone."

"But… Mum, you told me all three of us were going."

Her gaze was tear-filled again as I glanced at her and her voice was broken as she said, "It's the only way we can make sure you survive. We'll only slow you down if we come with."

I swallowed loudly. "I'm not going anywhere without you. I don't even understand what's happening or who's after us!"

"Vamp—"

"Vampires don't exist!" My frustrated shout lingered in the air for a few seconds until I broke into a sob. I could feel the faltering of my legs, but my mother finally let go of my wrist to pull me into her arms, holding me up. "They can't exist," I sniffled against her warm skin, frantically shaking my head.

My mum leaned back to cradle my face, trying to keep me still. "Look at me… Amber… Honey, look at me." Her soft words managed to cut through my shell of denial and panic, and my gaze finally focused on hers. "Everything's gonna be alright. You hear me? Everything will be fine."

I slowly nodded, forcing myself to calm down. The sound of a cry coming from not far behind me shook my control; the piercing voice, young and shrill, was familiar in my ears. I squeezed my eyes shut while my lower lip trembled, desperately trying to will away the tones of my friend's last shout for help.

"Don't listen to it," my father murmured, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder.

It took me a moment to find the calmness I needed to open my eyes to the terrifying reality again. I let my gaze dart between my parents for a long moment; there was something about their faces, a desperation in their eyes that soon made me realize that denying their last request – no matter how horrible – was starting to feel just as awful as accepting it.

I managed to whisper, "What do I do?"

"You run," my father said. He made it sound like the task was what I'd been destined with for longer than five minutes. "Run and don't look back."

I sucked in a deep breath. "I can do that," I mumbled, trying to convince myself.

My mother smiled a weak, but encouraging smile. "That's good, Honey." She looked up at my father and without speaking, he handed her the stuffed backpack. She helped me put it on while she said, "We've packed you some things you'll need. Use them wisely, Amber."

I quietly asked, "Will you promise me something as well?"

They nodded.

"Please, try surviving," I murmured, fighting to keep my voice from cracking.

"Until our last breath," my mother answered for both of them, not missing a beat.

I could feel the urging tears pressing behind my eyelids as I clutched myself to her, gripping the soft fabric of her blouse with my hands in a desperate attempt to hold on to her before the time for us to separate would come. My father wound his arms around the two of us and I breathed in their mixed scents, trying to remember my mum's favorite vanilla scented lotion and the musky cologne my dad wore.

Suddenly a cool breeze swept over me; in the flash of a second a horrifying crack was heard and my parents were gone, leaving me hugging nothing but air. I blinked around in surprise, but the feeling swiftly changed into fright as I caught sight of my father lying stiffly on the ground a foot away from me. His face was turned to me, revealing his blank, pale blue eyes and slightly open mouth.

"Dad?" I asked, slowly sinking down beside him. "Daddy?"

I could hear the short gasps leaving my lips as my fingers slowly touched his cheek. My other hand pushed gently against his shoulder, trying to wake him up. It was to no avail; he was gone.

A pained whimper behind me had me, on pure instinct, scrambling to my feet and spinning around. My mother stood a foot or two away, her tense body encircled by the arms of a frighteningly muscular man. His eyes, with the disturbing color of a glistening red, stared me down as he held his hand tightly pressed over my mum's mouth, defying her of making more than grunts and mumbling sounds.

His gaze darted to a point above of my head and as he spoke, his dark voice made my skin crawl in fear. "Take care of that, Dominic," he said.

I frowned at his confusing words and the frantic look in my mother's eyes, but my shock instantly faded into a numb disbelief as the man's mouth pulled up into a disgusting grin. It was not just the smile that got to me; the two pointy teeth shining behind his lips were what took my breath away.

Vampire.

An unintentional scream left me as he as he crushed his mouth against my mum's bare throat. My feet were frozen to the ground – I couldn't run, couldn't turn away from the heart-breaking image. All I could do was watch as stripes of red trickled down my mother's tanned neck and melted into the collar of her white blouse. There was a burning emotion in her gaze as she stared just as intensely back at me; it made her thoughts as clear to me as if she would've yelled them in my ear.

A growl behind me, so animalistic it made my stomach flip, immediately stopped my plans on running. I swallowed loudly as I slowly managed to move my body around to face the other intruder. My lower lip trembled in fear as my eyes traced the man's unknown face; his dark mahogany hair, pulled back in a loose ponytail, was matching to the ruby tone of his gaze – which was currently glaring burning daggers at me.

I took an unconscious step back.

"Please," I whispered, too desperate and panicked to realize that my words would be useless. "Don't hurt me."

He watched me silently as his face slowly wiped clear of all the fury; for a moment, I thought I saw regret flooding to surface in his scary eyes. I couldn't tear my gaze away, not even when I heard the last struggling gurgles of my mother or when the image of my father's dead features pressed behind my eyelids.

There was just a long moment of nothing but the sight of the vampire's pale, extraordinary face.

His voice was a soft murmur as he suddenly said, "Run."

I didn't hesitate; my feet were instantly moving, steering me towards the one place I knew I wouldn't be able to last for long in. My fingers trembled as I ran – I couldn't decipher if it was out of fear or the struggle of not falling to the ground and letting out all the sobs of pain I could feel building a thick lump in my throat.

There was a swooshing sound and in the matter of a heartbeat, the vampire was standing right in front of me, forcing me to pull to a stop. My breath hitched as I shook my head in disbelief; he'd tricked me.

"Just keep running," he surprised me by whispering.

I paused this time to frown at him, but as I remembered the sight of fangs hiding behind the lips of the other vampire, I quickly pushed past him to make another leap for the desert. The exhausting fear became a hinder as I ran; I was just as clueless as I was frightened of the man's actions. The swish of the wind was there every other second, haunting my mint to a point where I couldn't stop constant frantic hisses from leaving my lips.

The ground swiftly changed and soon warm sand spurted up behind my feet as I hurried towards the only freedom I had to pick. I could feel the frustrated tears spring in my eyes as I realized how much tougher the running was becoming, but I fought to keep my pace; it was not until I realized I'd been left alone that I fell to my feet.

The sun baked my skin as I cried in the sand, but the warmth of it wasn't enough to dry the tears…

My eyelids flew open.

I gasped for fresh air, hoping it would soothe the squeezing feeling in my chest. My shaking fingers traced the wetness on my cheeks; it made it harder for me to separate the dream from my new reality. I'd been through it all before, though, the sensation of a rope tightening around my torso and the struggle to ease the panic in my mind. No matter how hard I tried to erase the painful memory, it always found a way to come back whenever I thought my body was willing to let me find rest. I felt far weaker and broken than the moment before I'd fallen asleep, but I wasn't surprised to wake up with true tears in my eyes; they were promised to follow as the guilt crept back, too, encouraging my beliefs about me being the reason my parents were dead.

Minutes passed before I finally noticed the chilly breeze in the air. It soared around me, making my skin crawl as my tired gaze tried searching for an escape from the uncomfortable cold. The moon was hiding from the dark sky and the beautiful stars I was so used to admire were absent; the loss of them made it impossible for my eyes to adjust to the pitch-black night. It disoriented me just as much as it frightened me.

I hesitantly started pulling myself up into a sitting position, but fell flat on my back as my head bumped into something hard. My breath hitched as an odd click was heard and merely a second later, the night was illuminated by a light so bright it hurt my eyes.

"God, dammit!" I groaned, trying to roll away from the blinding object.

Panic bubbled in me as I realized my body was imprisoned by two unfamiliar legs; they held me captive on the ground. A hand was laid on my shoulder, triggering me into squirming even more fiercely in the sand that tangled into my hair. I'd fought for so long, struggled for survival… I knew I wasn't ready to die.

But no attack was made.

I squinted up in suspicion as the light grew fainter; my startled gaze followed the features of a face that was lingering higher above of mine. Under a thin layer of smudgy dirt, a tan was visible – a clear sign that the stranger had spent a lot of time below the crucially warm sun. Eyes with the surprising color of a stormy blue sea met mine; I stared rudely into them while I marveled the depth of the irises.

Only a moment later did I notice why my fear had vanished the second his face had been revealed to me. There was more than just his lovely gaze that made my breath get caught in my suddenly thick throat. And just realizing that made my lips pull up in the first, tiny smile since I'd lost the only family I'd ever had.

He was human.

(And yes, the lullaby I created is shamelessly lame, but I couldn't find anyone on Internet that didn't sound like a horror movie. Seriously.)