Chapter Text
Light. She hated light. It had always managed to creep through the curtains and wake her up, and if there was one thing worse than light, it was being woken.
She groaned and sat up, her shock of red hair falling on her eyes. Light splayed across her face again before the room turned dark.
She opened her eyes a crack to see the cat chasing something around, knocking Into the curtains and partially opening them. She winced and shut her eyes, flopping back down and groaning, before she rolled out from under the covers to sit on the edge of the bed.
Opening her eyes a bit at a time, light flashed on the wall facing her, and she checked the pendulum clock on the wall.
“Too damn early,” her voice was strangely clear for just waking up, and she turned to glare at the cat, who ran after the something behind the curtains, sending light onto the floor.
She got up and went to see what the cat had found so interesting as to dare wake her.
A small, blue crab scuttled out from behind the floor length curtains, moving fast through the long carpeted floor. The cat soon followed, testing around and hopping at the crustacean, missing entirely.
“You utterly fail to cat, you know that?” She sidestepped, and caught the crab by the back of the shell, its limbs stretching in an attempt to reach her hand. The cat jumped at the squirming crab and fell short of her hand, landing in front of her and looking up at the small thing.
“I don’t even know how they get in, it’s not like they can just bite through walls like mice and rats, and they’re to stupid to do much anyways,” she said to herself, most people have normal pests like rats or ants, the Andats, have crabs. God that sounds so bad. She thought, opening the door and walking out into the cold hallway, wood floors a cold transition from the carpet of her room. She walked down the stairs, cat still trying to snatch the crab from her as she walked to the front door and tossed the crab up into the tall grass surrounding the house, a white washed conglomerate of architecture, with a wrap around porch that wrapped around the entire house, steep roofs, and even a balcony. Large windows, almost all covered by dark curtains, spread from odd places and pillars of different material spread throughout the house. Some dark wood, others dark stone.
She stalked into the kitchen, frigid tiles even worse than the wood against her feet.
“Morning!” Greeted her younger sister, who picked up the cat as It walked in. Her knee length hair trailing behind her, red from the roots to her shoulders, blonde the rest of the way down, curtsy of their mother’s black and blonde.
The girl’s response to her sister was to let her head hit the counter as she sat down on a stool.
“Your up early, though I’ll bet you don’t want to be.”
“Cordie, you are, the worst kind of person.”
“Why? Because I’m not a vampire like you?”
“Exactly, can’t you wake up with a groan and pissed at whatever did it like the rest of the world?”
“I’ll stay human, thanks.”
“where’s the fun in that?” She grumbled, sliding off the stool and walking over to the fridge.
“Juice Is already out!” Cordie called, walking out with a cat in her arms. She looked around to spot the container of red liquid standing on the counter, very close to her aforementioned head bang, and a glass.
“Hey!” Cordie yelped, followed by the sound of a cat landing on hardwood and running.
She poured a cup, listening to the sounds of her sister’s flats tapping, a cat running, and the distinct ping of shell on hardwood.
“Ah! Ava! Help me! There’s more!” Ava stopped mid sip and looked at the hall to see a shiny red crab move to the side and dodge a charging calico blur, which skated to a stop and tried to run back after it.
Something red flew over the cat and landed with a clink
“Ahhhh! Avaaaa! The one I kicked is bleeding!” Ava rushed out and caught another blue crab as it started to go past.
“Then don’t kick them! Just pick em’ up!”
“Nooo, they’ll pinch me!” Cordie whined.
“They won’t If you do it right! See?” Ava had switched the crab to her right hand and grabbed up the bleeding red one while it tried to get accustomed to walking with a cracked shell and a few missing legs. “Now open the door already would ya?”
Cordie rushed past and opened the front door and Ava tossed the crabs out onto the grass. She shut the door and listened to the sound of pin legs and soft paws and made her way to the kitchen, just as the cat jumped out with a yowl, running from the small shelled beast.
“Sloan!” Both Ava and Cordie called out, one running after the cat and the other rushing to the crab. Ava tried to grab It like she had with the last three but it sidestepped and turned, snipping her at the base of her thumb. The crab’s eyes poked up from its body, almost seeming to gleam with pride.
“Smug little bastard.” Ava hissed and went to the sink to wash her hands of red blood and purple-blue ichor. The clicking of the crab on tile switched to a clack as it made its way back into the hall.
Ava looked over before going out after the crab, and flinging a dish rag at it. Its small body thrashed beneath the damp weight, and Ava plucked it up inside the rag.
“Got the fucker!” Ava called, holding the cloth so as to keep the crab inside, as well as to staunch her bleeding. She could hear her sister running around, trying to catch the panicked feline.
Ava maneuvered around the trail of red drops and smudges to fling the last crab out of the house and onto the porch, before shutting the door for a third time and retreating back upstairs, moving to the sound of her panicked sister and an angry cat.She struggled to one handedly bandage up the cut on her thumb, before going back down stairs to clean up.
While Cordie calmed Sloane with a various assortment of goodies, Ava wiped away the differing blood, her red, and the purple of the crab.
“What happened to your thumb?” Cordie asked, leading a now content cat behind her with the promise of treats.
“Fine, doesn’t hurt to much, was a bit deep though,” Ava said, rubbing her other thumb over the bandaid that covered the wound. “What happened t Sloane, she was pretty freaked.”
“I think she was pinched, she doesn’t seem to have been gotten as bad as you did though, which sucks cause I was hoping we could go out on the boat, but you probably shouldn’t be rowing with a cut, It might get worse,” Cordie said while tossing little squares to land at Sloane’s paws.
“We can still go, I’ll be fine. It’s not like it's going to rip or something. Lust let me finish cleaning up and get changed, then we can go, if the weather is good.” Ava said as she mopped up the last of the red and threw the rag not the trash.
“I hope the floor doesn’t stain to bad, it’s gonna suck If there’s just a big purple splotch on the wood. And what’s the deal with that anyways? Blue crabs and purple blood, that can’t be natural.”
“it’ll be fine, and crabs can be blue, and I know that some crabs do have blue blood, I’ve never heard of purple, but it’s probably just a weird blue, but what I want to know, it how they even get In.” Ava answered, washing off her now purple stained hands.
“Couldn’t tell you, but I’m surprised you want to actually do something for once, I would have assumed that you would rather just spend the day In your cave and coffin like always.” Cordie taunted, reviving a flick of water.
“ I was forced to get up early, might as well make use of the time by doing something.”
Their house was built near the edge of a cliff, their yard feet away from the drop. Going out on the boat, as Cordie said, would mean walking down to where the cliffs lowered down to sea level, becoming a beach, one that just so happened to have a small pier, which had a small rowboat tethered to it. It didn’t belong to them, but to their neighbor, who was now too old to go out fishing, and let the family use it whenever they pleased.
Ava walked out the back door, and out Into their yard, then back through the garden, and out the gate, to go out and look at the ocean, 109 feet below. “Looks calm enough, ok, let me get dressed and then we’ll go.
They went back inside, and emerged looking ready for a picnic. Cordie wore a reddish-orange sun dress with elbow length sleeves, as well as a matching sun hat with a stiff brim. Ava had a gray, almost pirate like blouse, with small ruffles at the collar, cuffs, and down the front. Black pants and boots finished the outfit, along with a gray parasol and white towel. Cordie carried a pink towel, that wrapped up a cat.
“Are you sure she’s ok to go?” Ava didn’t question bringing a cat out to the ocean, only the cat’s sanity.
“She’s fine, catnip has her going on and calm, and you know she loves being out on the water, well, as long as she’s dry.” The said animal looked thoroughly pleased at the amount of attention paid to her.
They walked down the slope, wading through the waist high yellow grass, swaying with the salty breeze slowly weaving through the stalks. The wind shifted, carrying the earthy smell of moss and bark from the dark wood forest slowly creeping its way to the cliff side.
“It’s so bright out, not a cloud near the sun,” Ava said from her shade, underneath her light umbrella,”
“Vampire~” Cordie sang, leaning backwards, arms outstretched holding a cat up, eyes closed and purring In the warm glowing light.
“Bite me,” Ava spat.
“Doesn’t It work the other way around?” Cordie cooed.
“I wish I could bite you, then you would at least gain some sense.”
“Nah, I don’t feel like being a vampire.”
“Like being a sunny little flower Is any better.”
“What’d ya mean little? I’m not short!”
“Yes you are.”
It was true, standing at 5’9”, Ava towered over her 5’1” sister, two inches shorter than average.
“Well it's not my fault you got Dad’s genes, your just as much of a pole as him!”
“At least I don’t look two years younger than I am, and I don’t feel like losing seven inches of height either.”
The two were so caught up in their argument, they never noticed when the wind shifted again, or when It stopped. They never saw how the grass behind them continued to sway, stalks moved side to side by small bright bodies.