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Nightfall Chapter II: The Necklace

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May 14, 2003

A little girl is sitting in her room, looking through the window, waiting for a car to arrive at their front gate. The door to her room opens and she sees her grandmother.
"Apo." she says to the little girl. "I cooked us dinner."
"Papa said to wait for them. He said they'll buy me spaghetti for dinner." the little girl says, still staring at the view outside her window.
"Just eat a little, dear. Your mama said they'll be home late." her grandmother says, still standing at the door. The little girl stands up, pouting.
"Okay." she says in a sad tone. "Can we call mama?" she asks, her grandmother smiles.
"That's a great idea." They went to the telephone, the little girl dials the number and waits for someone to answer. The phone just keeps ringing, making the little girl sad.
"Oh dear, maybe your mama and papa are busy, or maybe she's sleeping while your papa is driving the car." her grandmother says, putting a hand on the little girl's back. "Why don't we eat? I cooked your favorite Sinigang." she says and the little girl grins.

Later that night, the little girl sits on her bed, still waiting for her parents to come home. She sobs and hears a knock. The door opens and her grandmother enters the room.
"Selene, dear." she says and hugs her.
"Lola, they didn't come home." the girl says as she cries. Her grandmother comforts her.

The next day, the girl wakes up and sees policemen downstairs, her grandmother is crying on the sofa. 
"What's happening?" she asks. Her grandmother looks up and sees her.
"Ma'am, is she the daughter?" the policemen asks and her grandmother nods. 
"Selene, darling, go to your room for a moment." she says, and the girl follows. She peeks for a bit and sees the policemen talking to her crying grandmother. When the policemen walked away, she goes downstairs and hugs her grandmother.
"Lola, what happened?" she asks. Her grandmother stops crying and wipes her tears. She cups the girl face, and takes a deep breath.
"Selene, your parents..." she says, finding the right words to say. "They..."
"What happened?" she asks with tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Car crash" she says, holding back the tears. "I'm so so sorry." she says and hugs the girl as she cries loudly.



Selene is standing in the middle of a throne room, with blood on her hands. Her necklace starts to glow and suddenly, she sees nothing but white light.
When the light fades, she finds herself in the middle of a dark forest, with thick fog covering the ground. She hears an old woman whispering behind her, making her turn around. There's an old woman, wearing a long black robe, and a black veil covering her face. She's so thin that she can see the bones and veins from her arms. Selene looks up at the old lady's face and she sees golden, glowing eyes; she suddenly grabs Selene's arm and looks up at the sky.
"The ancient tale! All shall fall!" she shouts. She yanks her arm away but the old lady's grip is too tight.
The scene fades and she's now only seeing black. Suddenly, she hears a female voice: 

        When the first blood meets the knight
        Darkness will prevail and rise
        She shall fall and see no light
        And a necklace shall control the night
        The heir shall seek an ancient place and be betrayed
        And all shall change when one chooses all vampires' fate

"All shall fall! All shall fall! The first blood!" she hears the old lady screaming.


Selene wakes and immediately sits up, hyperventilating. The dream felt so real. She looks at her arm and she can still feel the woman's grip.  Her necklace is lying on her nightstand, and she stares at it for a while. The necklace was given to her by her grandmother, the day after Selene graduated college. She keeps telling Selene that it was the moon's gift to her before she was born and to keep the necklace safe no matter what. 

"Keep this safe, don't ever lose this." her grandmother says as she hands it to Selene. "And do not show this to Calbe. I don't trust that boy." 
"Lola, it's Caleb." Selene corrects her grandmother who scoffs just by hearing the name. 
"Calbe, Caleb, whatever, I don't trust that boy." her grandmother says. "and the moon will be very angry if this necklace falls at the wrong hands."
"Lola, you still believe a moon goddess gave this to my parents before I was born?" Selene asks.
"I was there when it happened. A lady with a white veil covering her face, glowing white light, in a beautiful white dress. I can never forget it. That's why your parents named you after a Greek moon goddess."

She remembers her grandmother's words and wonders if the stories she told Selene were true. The monsters, gods and goddesses, aswangs, there were just so many. She asks herself: 'What if they're all true?' Because, just a few days ago, she was almost killed by a man with red glowing eyes, and with super strength; and another man with the same powers, entered her apartment talking about his 'senses', and Selene being 'something different'. Now, she just had a dream about a throne room, her necklace glowing, and a weird old lady. Everything is getting stranger by the day. 

Selene grabs the necklace and wear it. She gets out of bed and is about to get a cup of coffee when she suddenly hears a voice inside her head. The female voice in her dreams, saying something poetry-like. Her head begins to hurts and her vision fades into nothing but white light. The voice becomes clear and it says:

          When the first blood meets the knight
          Darkness will prevail and rise
          She shall fall and see no light
          And a necklace shall control the night
          The heir shall seek an ancient place and be betrayed
          And all shall change when one chooses all vampires' fate


The light fades and she's back inside her apartment. Selene sits down and massages her temples, no idea on what's going on. She then tries to shakes it all off and makes herself a cup of coffee, goes to the shower, and gets herself ready for work.


When she enters the building of Vega Inc., her necklace suddenly gives off a high pitch sound, making Selene squint. The sound lasted for five seconds, then it fades. She looks around and it's as if nothing happened, like she's the only one who heard the sound. Like things aren't weird enough. What's up with today? she says and goes to the elevator.

 

She gets out of the elevator and goes to her desk. Her desk neighbor looks at her with a smile.

"Hey, Selene right?" she asks. Selene  nods and smile at her. "I'm Ashley, nice to meet you." she shakes her hand. "Are you okay? You look a bit pale." Ashley asks with a worried expression.

"Oh, it's just, traffic's so bad today." Selene says and rolls her eyes.

"I know." Ashley says and rolls her eyes as well. "And it's hard to ride a jeepney at night 'cause of so many people coming home from work! It's crazy! Anyway, I'll just let you get back to work. I'm being too talkative again." she says with a laugh and goes back to her desk.



At night, as Selene gets out after work, she decides to walk for a bit. She loves walking at night, especially when her mind is filled with countless thoughts. With everything that's happened today, she suddenly remembers the stories her grandmother used to tell her when she was just a little girl, about people with red glowing eyes, feeds on blood and only comes out at night. Those stories made her scared at night, thinking the monsters will go after her while she's sleeping. 

With all these stories she's recalling, she decides that she should go to her grandmother's house; thinking maybe her grandmother might know something about all the strange things happening, and she needs a break from all of it. Selene walks just a little more until she sees a jeepney stop.

It's a silent street she's walking on. It's becoming late, there's only a few people, and a few jeepneys driving by. The houses are dark, people are probably sleeping now. She hesitantly walks into an empty street when suddenly, her necklace glows, making her stop and tries to cover it with her hands. When the glow fades, Selene looks at the necklace, and looks around her only to find nobody there. She takes a deep breath and starts walking again.

When she gets to the stop, she sees a man holding a woman; they appear to be hugging. She looks at the road to look if there's a jeepney driving by, when her necklace starts glowing again.

Not now. she says to herself as she covers it with her hands. She looks at the couple to her and sees the man's eyes glowing, his mouth stained with red liquid that appears to be blood.

No, not again. she says and tries to run. Her necklace is still glowing while she tries to run away from the man. The man outruns her and is now standing in front of her, the glow from his red eyes fading. There's intensity on the look of the man's eyes and Selene realizes that she'd seen the man before.

"It's you"  she mutters, finding it hard to breath. "Who the hell are you and what did you do to the woman?" The man's glowing eyes fades and sighs. 

"It's not what you think" he says

"Well, I THINK you just killed a woman there." 

"What?! No, she's fine." 

"Okay, where is she then?" she asks. He turns and sees nobody there. Selene tries to run away from him, but the man is much faster than she is. He grabs her arm and her necklace suddenly glows and gives off another high-pitch sound. The man's eyes widened as he's seeing the necklace glowing. When it fades, he looks up at her.

"Where did you get that?" he asks. 

"None of your business, let me go." Selene says, trying hard not to meet his eyes. She tries to yank her arm away, but he's too stubborn to let go.

"No, wait. Remember when I told you that I sensed something?" he asks. She looks up at him. "This is..."

"This is what?" she asks. Suddenly, they hear a voice calling out behind them.

"Boss!" a voice calls out. They turn and see a woman wearing a white blouse and a black long skirt, walking towards them. "I just got a phone call from-"

"You! You were just-" Selene says, pointing her shaking finger at her and at the man. "He was-"

"She saw?" the woman asks with a very worried expression and the man chuckles.

"I'll take care of this, thank you, Iris. " he says. The woman nods with a forced smile and leaves. When the woman left, Selene looks at her arm, which he's still holding, and looks up at him.

"Boss?" she asks, with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Yeah, I was surprised when you didn't recognized me when we first met." he says, smirking at her. He holds out a hand. "Leo Vega, CEO of Vega Inc."

"Wait, what?!" she says, shocked with what she just heard, and also, very confused. "The CEO of Vega Inc. Leo Vega? I'm so getting fired for this." 

"Well, lucky for you, I'm starting to like you." he says. "And come to think of it, I didn't get the chance to learn your name."

"Selene... Selene Alana." she says and hesitantly shakes his hand. "So... the CEO of Vega Inc. is not a human, or what do you call it? Ooh! Mortal! What are you actually? Are you a vampire?" 

"We're forgetting something here, where did you get the necklace?"

"Not until you answer my question."

"Let me remind you that I asked first."

"Which will be answered when you answer my question."

"This is ridiculous." 

"Is it? Or is it more ridiculous that I found you here, sucking blood from a woman's neck. And what's even more ridiculous is that you're the person that I'm working for and turns out, you're some kind of monster or something. This is crazy!"

"I wouldn't call it a monster."

"Well, what are you then?" 

Leo takes a deep breath, pulls her closer, and whispers to her ear.

"Listen, I don't know what you are and where you got that necklace, but you're going to be in real danger if you keep wearing that around your neck." Selene pushes him away.

"Look, I get it. I'm in danger. Everything became strange ever since I saw you with your red glowing eyes-"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I saved you." he cuts her off with a very annoyed tone in his voice and she just rolls her eyes.

"And this morning, I had a strangest dream about a woman speaking in some sort of poetry and woman screaming 'All shall fall'. My necklace randomly starts glowing and I saw you sucking blood and suddenly, everything's okay, like nothing even happened! I think I'm going insane. What am I even doing talking to you right now?!" 

"Wait, calm down." he says and puts his hands on Selene's shoulders. "Calm down, I'm not the most dangerous guy you'll ever meet. Now, if I may ask, what poetry?" he asks calmly. Selene tries to not look him in the eye.

"I can't remember all the words 'When the first blood wakes and meets the knight, darkness will prevail and rise' something about a necklace controlling the night, an ancient place, and someone deciding all of vampires fate." she takes a deep breath and looks at him. "Look, I don't want anymore of these weird stuff going on. If there are problems in the monster world, I don't want to be part of it." she yanks her arm and walks away. 

Leo stares at her as she leaves, struggling on what to do and say. Suddenly, he finds himself chasing after her. He stops her and takes a deep breath.

"You want to know what I am?" he asks. Selene looks up with a very annoyed look on her face.

"I'm sorry but I have to-"

"I'm going to tell you anyway so, here it is." His eyes starts to glow and his fangs starts to show. "I'm a vampire."

Selene's heart starts pounding very heavy and fast but she still puts on a very cold expression. She nods at him and walks, Leo stops her by grabbing her arm.

"Will you stop grabbing my arm?" she asks.

"No, I have to tell you, that necklace isn't just a necklace. Do you even wonder why it glows and gives that sound the way it did a while ago?" he asks. "The red gem, it's powerful than it looks." 

Selene pushes Leo's hand away from her arm. "How do you even know that?" she asks him, frowning.

"Look, I can't explain it all to you, but not here. And wearing that necklace, you can be in real danger."

"Look, I don't want to be a part of any of whatever it is that's going on. I just want to go home." she says.

"Look at what we have here" a voice suddenly speaks. They turn and see a man wearing what appears to be a ancient Roman armor. Leo hides Selene behind his back.

"Hide it now." Leo whispers and Selene hides the necklace inside her dress. 








Author's Note: Hi guys! If you're reading this Chapter 2 of Nightfall, I hope you guys enjoy. Please feel free to write your opinions and thoughts on this chapter, the characters, the plot, and what you guys want in the upcoming chapter. Thank you! Much love, Shai


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Nightfall Chapter II: The Necklace

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Part of the Fantasy collection

Updated on August 22, 2020

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