The birth of the Wraith

"David! David!!" she called out, shoving the shower curtain aside. "Get your ass in here! You're going to be late!" then she ducked back under the warm spraying water, washing her face and hearing a distant, mufflied reply. She grinned, letting the water wash away the day's dirt and grime. Housework was hard work, dammit! And she was proof!

"David, are you coming or not?!" she called out yet again and had to stifle a yelp when she was suddenly slapped on the arse. Hard. "Devil!" she grinned and turned around to wrap her arms around her now deliciously naked lover. "Hello you..." she said lazily and all thoughts of the impending dinner date that they were currently late for flew from her head as he bent his and kissed her.
"No fair..." she murmured and giggled as he proceeded to do much, much more distracting things to her.



Sarah looped her earrings into her ears, sighing with pleasure at the way the long train of diamonds sparkled in the light. They were a truly beautiful gift and she was more than happy to wear them. Especially tonight. She giggled as she watched her man dressing in the mirror and appreciated the soft, moulded muscle of his body as he fitted himself into his dinner suit. "You look incredible," she grinned and chuckled as her fiance shook his head in denial.

"I'll be waiting in the car," she teased, taking the opportunity to rub the fact that she was ready before he was in his face. He just stared at her and she had no option but to laugh. Then she scooped up her purse, keys and slipped her ring over her finger, admiring the emerald sparkle, before stepping from their bedroom and heading towards the car.

She hummed quietly to herself as she distantly heard the echo of doors closing and her lover's voice cursing the new security system as he attempted to close up the house before joining her. She smiled, checking herself for one final time in the rear view mirror and grinning with the result. She really did look nice. At least their third year anniversary would be a good looking one!

She turned on the car, revving it slightly and urging her future husband to hurry up when she began to hear a peculiar noise. She looked at the radio and ascertained that it was indeed turned off, she frowne and sighed, sticking a finger in her ear and turning it around. The ringing left.

David huffed into the car, still cursing the security system and she was forced to come back to the present. She distantly heard herself say something flippant about his inability to use technology and then felt herself exiting the driveway.

She didn't see the other car in time.



When Sarah cracked open her eyes, it was still night though the stars looked slightly different to her. She groaned and rolled over, attempting to sit up. She cried out as pain lanced behind her eyes and her back felt like it was broken. Rubbing her eyes and head absently, she looked around, trying to figure out where she was.

She was on the ground. That much was certain. Though she didn't remember their being any exposed earth near her house. There was a dry, hot wind that stung the inside of her mouth and her lips were cracked. She licked them, trying to soothe the dry ache but as soon as her tongue left her lips, they were dry again.

She supposed that she should be hot but for some reason, she wasn't. In fact, she didn't seem to feel any temperature at all, though she knew, innately, what the temperature was. She sighed, finding even that little task almost impossible. It was like there was no air to breathe, though she was clearly still breathing.

Suddenly panick overtook her shocked senses.

"David?!"

It was useless. She had walked for days on end, it seemed an eternity since she had first woken up in this strange land. It was all the same, featureless desert everywhere she looked. She was beginning to hate the smell of dust in the air and the endless hours stuck beneath the sand, waiting for the sun to go down.

Sarah looked up at the sky, having by now learnt to judge the strange twin moon's arc across the sky. She reckoned that she at least another three hours before she had to bury herself again. She hissed, just one thing she'd found herself doing these days, and kept on walking, her feet never seeming to run out of energy, even when she felt like dropping dead from exhaustion.

Sarah dredged on, treading wearily with one foot in front of the other in an unsteady rhythm, not caring where she went, just as long as it was somewhere. She hadn't eaten for days and she was more than a little frightened that whenever the sun came up, she had the overwhelming urge to burrow deep beneath the sand.

It didn't help that she was naked.

She sighed and suddenly slumped to the ground. She wasn't physically exhausted, but her mind was numb from all the constant walking. She squinted, using eyes that were hers, but somehow.... better than hers had ever been. For some reason, her eyes just seemed to cut right through the night surrounding her and into the darkness.

"What's the point?" she whispered to herself... and suddenly caught sight of something green. "Wha..." she mumbled and then straigtened up, stumbling down a dune bank, her eyes still locked on the tiny point of green that could see in an otherwise orange desert.

It was a tiny shoot. A mere stripling of a shoot... but it was a plant, all the same. She whooped with unknown just, not knowing why, just that she was happy beyond measure that she had found something other than the desert and her.

Trying not to get her hopes up, she peered around, her eyes cutting through the darkness light a heated knife through butter. And then she found it.

An oasis.

"Oh god!!"

"Who are you?" the woman's voice was more than frightened, her eyes were wide with trepidation and her whole body trembled with anxiety. She was curled up on the soft grass of Illusion Vale, having been recently deposited to the world around them in an upending heap. She was sore, frightened and now being accosted by a strange woman who was more than suspiciously dressed in black.

Wraith looked down at the woman and smiled. Her rose red lips were intended to be warm and gentle, but it only came out as a sardonic twist of her mouth. Something in her eyes hinted as to the reason why, but it was deep within her gaze and gave the woman chills to look at it.

"My name is Wraith," she frowned, muttering to herself a little before her brow cleared and she gave that odd twist to her mouth again. By now the woman had recognised the attempt to smile for what it was. "I'm the... caretaker.... here. I was told of your arrival and came as fast as I could. Its rare for somebody to come here, but here you are."

Then came her, inevitable, second question, "Where am I?"

Wraith gave another smile, though this time she felt just how plastic it really was. Sighing, she sat down in front of the bewildered woman and began to explain at length just what had happened. At least to what she could gather had happened.

Sometimes, in a twisted chance of circumstance, when a person leaves one world, they are thrust into another world. Illusion Vale can either change what you are, or leave you just as you had been before, it really depended on the kind of person you were in your previous life. The purpose of bringing people here was as yet unclear to her, but there were others. She had been collecting them for years and helping them to survive in the world they now found themselves to be in.

"I was the first." She stated and once again the edge of a haunted look touched upon her face, her teeth shining in the bright sunlight as she bared them, as if in after thought. It was a peculiar trait the woman had noticed in this so called 'caretaker'.

"Then... why are we here? If its been so long, why are you still here?" came the third question and Wraith gave a slightly tired smile. Her story and indeed this story had been told over and over, time and time again. She looked sadly down at the little bowl depression she had lovingly built over time with a sprinkling of buildings she had personally erected with her own two bare hands.

Slowly, sadly, she looked down at her hands, bringing them up and slowly the skin of her fingers peeled back, allowing her fingernails to lengthen slightly. Flexing her fingers, she looked over at the new comer, "No matter what ever we're here for, no matter why we were sent here instead of along our own spiritual path," her eyes hardened and her fangs lengthened, "No matter what we are sent here as, I swear to you that I will protect and nourish you all. That I will never abandon you...."

Her voice became even quieter still, "And that I will use every resource I have to find out how to get us all out of here..."

Then she suddenly smiled, her demeanor no longer saddened, nor dark. Her fangs gone, her fingers now normal, "Come, lets meet the others," she extended her hand, hoping that the woman would take it. She had no idea what happened to those that chose to go their own way. Maybe they had built their own community, similar to hers but whatever became of them, she had never seen them again after they forsook her welcome.

After a moment's hesitation the woman placed her hand in Wraiths and smiled, "My name's Lara. Just one question... why Wraith?"

Sarah laughed, having long ago forsaken her original name and all its ties, "That, Lara, is a very, very long story."

Lara looked sideways, her weaving hands slowling slightly as she regarded the silent woman at her side. When Wraith turned and smiled at her, she politely smiled back and then went back to weaving her latest set of clothing. She was grateful that Wraith had shown her how to survive in this 'Vale' that she called it, but it seemed that the longer she was here, the more comfortable she became.

That was a discomfort in itself.

"How do you do it?" Lara suddenly asked the silently weaving woman beside her.

Wraith turned and raised an inquisitive eyebrow towards her newest citizen. "You have become one of the best weavers we have, you should know it by now." Then she paused and surveyed the distressed look her eyes and sighed, "But you're not asking that, are you?"

Ever perceptive, the Vampire put down the piece of cloth she had been making. "Lara, I had no choice. I could not not do anything. I created this place, it took a long time. But now..." her eyes took on a distant quality, "Now it seems more home to me than my previous life,"

Lara's eyes went wide and Wraith smiled gently, patting the woman's hand in a motherly fashion, "I want to go back, believe me, I do. There was a life back there, a world that I miss dearly. A man...." she trailed off and Lara almost wished she hadn't brought up the subject. Almost.

"The only simple answer that I can give you, the only way I can make you understand, is to say this," she turned her dark eyes back to Lara's and took her hand, "I don't have a choice."

Her voice was level, but Lara could sense a deep sadness and regret in her words. A woman, an ordinary woman, who had come into this world as she had and lived for so very long. Had created this world, had given so much of herself to others like her and yet unlike her at the same time.

"Wraith...." suddenly Lara understood why Wraith had chosen this name. It was what she was. She flitted in between people's lives, she made everyone welcome, she catered to everyone's needs. She taught, she played, she was the Vale. She was the one that pulled it altogether, she made everything possible. She gave everyone a purpose and a dream. A place to be while they were here.

And everybody resented that fact. Nobody in their right mind wanted to stay here.... and Wraith had no choice but to be a slave to their needs.

Wraith smiled sadly and nodded, recognising the glint of recognition in Lara's eyes. Then she stood up and sighed, "I think I can feel another person entering the Vale. I should go meet them. Can you finish up here?"

Wordlessly, Lara nodded. Wraith smiled and departed.

Lara watched Wraith's retreating back as tears spilled down her face. This woman, this giving, teaching, gentle woman was possibly the worst creature people could imagine coming from their nightmares. But she was so kind, so willing to sacrifice herself for others. A Vampire that cared. Lara now realised that Wraith never slept. She never rested, never had time for herself. She never gave anything to her own wills and desires. Even when she first entered the Vale, she had thought to build this paradise within desert and wilderness, in case, in the slim chance, that others like herself would appear. So kind, so willing.... so sad.

And Lara could see that it was slowly destroying her gentle heart.