Blood in the Sunrise
I watched them come in starless night, with their bright red skirts and orange skirts swaying with the cold wind. They walked slowly, carefully, marching to the beat of the tambourine and the harmony of a Spanish guitar. Their light footsteps where barely heard above the quite humming. I was told they were dangerous, damned, nomads; but from the top right window of the old warehouse in which I lived, they seemed to be the most fascinating creatures I had ever seen.
The gypsies, the vampires. The shiny silver moonlight barely lit the moving bodies as they walked through the silent streets of Aragon, Spain. The place was hostile, every house had its windows shut and the streets turned into a lugubrious place. The gypsies seemed to have dragged with them this dark aura that appeared to have surrounded the whole town. I was just fifteen years old and I newborn vampire, naivety was the word that best described me, but I wondered why such fascinating people were feared, or whey they rejected? All my questions were yet to be answered as I watched them all slowly go by from the top window of the attic of the warehouse.
Their music was slowly fading as they walked away from the street where I lived, but the sound appeared to have penetrated my ears for I still heard it pounding in my head as they went away. I couldn’t go away from the barely noticeable window, the only window, the warehouse had. It was so old that even if I didn’t want to make any sound, even my breath could have sent this place to the ground. So I was very careful not to do something to rushed or tough. The music finally faded away and I was left with my dreadful silence, in which the only sound I could hear was that of my uneven breathing.
My head wandered about for a while, trying to focus in one point of my new life where I had actually enjoyed being a vampire. But there wasn’t any. Ever since I was changed I had lived in the old warehouse, too afraid to go out for I knew that most of the town’s people were aware of our existence and more than anything else were looking forward to the day when they could kill us. But that day something changed in me, a strong feeling began to grow inside of me, pushing me to go out and finally taste the air of freedom from a new perspective.
After much thinking, I came down the attic to the main room of the warehouse, very carefully for I didn’t want the humans to notice my presence in that place. The whole way down was quite uncomfortable; I had to tiptoe so my weight wouldn’t ruin the staircase and my hands barely touched the walls or anything else because I was afraid I could touch something with too much strength and destroy it. The light wasn’t on, and it had never been ever since I got there about five years ago. It wasn’t necessarily needed, but as time went by, I started to miss light, even artificial light. When I reached the main room and walked to the door, I realized how unaccustomed I was to my new being even when it had been a while since I was a vampire. But that night I wanted to try it, to enjoy being a vampire.
So I stood in front of the door, staring at it carefully, and with a shaky hand, turned the ancient doorknob to the right. With a loud creak, the old wooden door opened. So I pushed the door outwards, trying hard not to make one sound even when each centimeter the door moved the sound got stronger but I ended up opening it without one sound. And as soon as I opened the door, the warm smell of a silent night softly hit my nostrils. I felt the wind, echoing in my ears, caressing my skin carefully. It was like a far away fantasy, a fantasy that was finally out of the unreachable and right in my hands. The light of the full moon fell entirely on the cobblestones of the street making a silver path in the middle of it. Nothing had looked like that from inside the attic, even the sounds were different, and they seemed more alive more pounding.
As soon as I gave my first step out of the warehouse, I took a deep breath and started running. The air that now lowed in my system felt so reviving and fresh that all of a sudden it made me feel alive again, if I had never died. So I ran, ran as fast as I could, feeling the wind in my face and my dark brown hair flow carelessly with it. My eyes suddenly caught every color; saw everything more brilliant as if the moon had sprayed silver dust on everything that night. Everything looked different. I wasn’t even thinking anymore, I was just running until I felt it was time to stop. I knew I could run faster, my legs weren’t tired, I felt that I could run fifty more miles and not feel tired but the time to stop came faster than I thought. They were there, in front of me with their brilliant colors and calming music, they gypsies. Did I run that far? I wondered.
I watched them carefully, examining each of their moves and each of their faces. They were fascinating, beautiful, but there was not one heartbeat not a single drop of blood in their bodies. But still, that made no justice for the beauty they owned. The women were dressed with scarlet dresses and red bandanas, their large gold earrings shone in the night. The men were wearing long sleeve shirts in colors such as bright red, white or black and coal black pants. But the most enthralling thing they had was those mysterious eyes, dark eyes that hid such a mesmerizing secret.
“What are you doing here?” I heard someone say all of a sudden, making me shiver and turn to the person who was talking to me. To my surprise it was a young man, with fine features and curly hair. “Oh, nothing, I was just…” But before I finished he threw another question to me.
“You are a vampire” He stated, not even asking me, just analyzing me from head to toe.
“How do you..?” But again, before I could finish, he interrupted me.
“What do you want and why are you here?” His young face was starting to reflect such hate and his voice was getting hoarser as he spoke.
“Nothing I swear” I said, trying hard not to show how nervous and frightened I was of being there.
His dark piercing eyes stared at me with such strength that it was almost weakening. But when I looked closer I noticed two things: first it was the strange red streaks he had in the iris of his eyes, mixing with the dark color; and second, the silver rosary he was wearing on his neck. It shocked me but at the same time, it fascinated me.
“Your name is…” He asked me, his voice strong but not menacing.
“Alicia” I said, almost whispering since my voice was nearly gone from such fright.
“My name is Gabriel Cortez” He told me with such unimaginable pride that it was almost amusing the way he said it. “I have to take you to our leader, so please come with me” Gabriel continued, with a wry smile on his face, but a smile after all.
We made our way through the crowd, but every person that we passed by looked at me as if rejecting the foreigner that I was, a foreigner to their people. But even when I felt that rejection I couldn’t help to feel captivated by them. I could barely see everything around me for I was starting to get dizzy but I saw the weird skin tone that Gabriel had. His skin had been darker than mine for above the pale tint that it had now, the color looked darker but beautiful.
Before I knew it we were entering a black tent with moons and suns painted on the fabric. Inside, three silver chandeliers with three candles each lighted the space. But the most interesting thing was the woman sitting behind a wooden table at the end of the room. She had her hair falling over to the right side of her face, from what I could see due to the light, I supposed her hair was dark red.
“Welcome dear,” the woman said to me, lifting her gaze to me. “Your smell is quite strong. I smelled you ever since you arrived here,” the woman continued. She was a vampire, I could smell it, sense it.
The woman all of a sudden stood up and came to me. She looked different from any other woman I ever saw. She wore scarf around her shoulders and a velvet blouse colored in burgundy with a velvet belt. Her eyes were beautiful but scarlet, a color I had never seen before in someone, not even a vampire.
“I’m Ginebra and I guess you’re Alicia.” She said and I just nodded. “It’s quite late for a young girl to be wandering around the city. You should rest” Ginebra told me, smiling as she said it, “Gabriel, dear, could you take her to a tent and make our guest comfortable”
“Yes, mother” Gabriel answered, making a bow before he headed out of the tent with me. I made the bow too before heading out, looking around, trying to get used to that place. As we were walking to the tent where I was supposed to spend the night, I carefully observed each and every gypsy I could get my eyes on. They all watched me repulsively but I payed no attention to it.
“Ginebra is your mother then?” I asked Gabriel, trying to distract myself from the venomous glares and comments.
“Yes” He answered, not even turning to look at me once.
“How old are you?” I asked him again, trying to get more than one word out of him.
“Eighteen I think, it depends” And it finally came, a look from his dark eyes and an actual smile on his face. “If you want it from the vampire point of view, then I’m about 105 years”
I had to laugh, the way he said it made it seem so easy, so painless; as if having an eternity was nothing. Laughing at our miserable damnation was a good thing to do, it was even soothing. Being a vampire was never something I wanted but when it came I couldn’t refuse until I learned how misery can reach us way before we are even one year.
We reached the tent; it was an indigo colored tent with jingles in the entrance and a big chandelier in the back. There was only one bed, a big bed with a wooden frame and bed sheets as red as Ginebra’s eyes. Gabriel led me inside, taking my hand so I could climb the two stairs that led me to it. His hand though, it was soft but cold; unlike mine because my touch was always cold and stone hard.
“This is where you’ll be staying tonight,” Gabriel said to me as he motioned me to go lay down.
“It’s cozy. Thank you” I replied, smiling back in attempt to withdraw all kind of things my nervousness could have made me do.
“You have to sleep. We’ll be right next to you if you need us.”He added as he made his way out of the tent.
What he said reminded me of what Ginebra said, you have to rest. It made me wonder why they kept repeating that. They were vampires as well as I was, we didn’t need to sleep, we didn’t need to rest, so what was the point of repeating that to me over and over again? But it would have been good if I slept for my body needed to rest from all the stress I had been through in all those years. Stress that had been building up since my family was killed until someone decided to turn me into a vampire. Anyways, I sat on the soft bed that had been prepared for me and slowly reclined until I was completely lying on the bed. Te fabric of the bed sheets was extremely soft and warm; it must have been cotton maybe.
As much as I wanted to sleep I couldn’t, I couldn’t even drift into a little unconsciousness. The voices outside began fading but I could still hear some of the people talking. And for some reason they were talking about me. I should have expected it since I was the foreigner and form what I hear I shouldn’t have been accepted to the tribe, but after all and from the word of the leader, I was accepted more in a form of politeness than anything else.
Very slowly everything faded and there was not one voice outside. Their voices sounded like an angel’s choir though, so well pitched and even the volume was the exact amount, everything was perfect in them. But all of a sudden, I saw someone come inside my tent. As I turned around to see who it was, I saw a woman’s silhouette come in and stand right in front of me. With a movement of her hand a candle or rather two candles, were lit and placed in the chandelier.
“Well hello stranger,” the woman said with a melodious voice.
“I am Sophia, if you were wondering” she continued throwing a little smile at me.
“I’m Alicia” I said, not knowing what to say exactly since I assumed she already knew who I was.
“I know. Wait and let me lit this room a little more.” Sophia started going around the room; placing candles in every place she thought the light was going to look better. And after a while of arranging light, I could see everything more clearly.
“Oh, you’re indeed pretty” Sophia said, smiling widely now. I had to say the same even though it wouldn’t quite fit her description. She was tall with alabaster white skin and coal black hair. Her eyes as Gabriel’s were dark with red streaks mixing with it.
“Thank you,” I whispered, very sure she could hear for she was also a vampire.
“Gabriel said you came today”
“Yes, I did” I answered, unsure of why she was or what she wanted from me.
“I shouldn’t be here, you know? Neither my brother. By the way, he’s waiting for me outside” Sophia said, whispering so slow and soft that I was sure that no human ears could hear. Still, I had not the slightest idea of why she was there or what she wanted so I just kept in silence and let her speak.
“I just wanted to meet you. There’s quite frenzy outside ever since you arrived. But it has been a while since we last received someone new.”
“Why?” I asked, daring to speak for I was afraid to say something wrong.
“We’re vampires, dear and gypsies, not a good combination if we want to make friends,” Sophia answered, an edge of pain in her voice. “I have to go now, I’ll see you tomorrow, remember to wake up early, and we never wait for anyone. And here are your clothes”
With that and a warm smile, she walked out of the tent and I heard a soft manly voice which might have been from Sophia’s brother. When she walked out, I examined the clothes that she left in a small drawer in the corner of the tent. I had to admit that the clothes were quite beautiful, although a little different from what I usually wore. There was a red short sleeved blouse with beautiful embroidery in the edge of the sleeves. There was also a skirt, embroidered as well, but it came with a black leather belt. Underneath all the clothes were a blue scarf, a pair of golden earrings and two gold bracelets more. The smell the clothes had was delicious; it was like the smell of the morning breeze mixed with mint and lavender.
After a while of holding the clothes I went back to the bed and tried to at least clear my mind, but it came something unexpected, I fell asleep. Very slowly I drifted to a peaceful world of darkness where I could hear nothing at all and listen to nothing. All my system calmed and rested more than I ever did in my human life.
I don't mind that it's long, but I suppose in the future you should break something like this down into smaller parts to make it easier to read. 
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