I continued my stare out the window at Scar. Her brooding had me starting to worry to a certain degree as well. I have never seen her in such a state of disturbance. She kept repeating to herself something is coming.

She wasn't referring to our expected visitors that she herself foresaw, but rather something different, elsewhere. In time, I certainly believed that she would see what she needed. She always did.

I left Scar to her turbulent thoughts and fervently hoped that for her sake, she would soon be able to organize her visions and bring clarity to her mind.

I now had to figure out what to do for the next five hours. I had told Chalice I would be reading and decided I would do just that. I crossed the small space of my room and looked at the various new books from my CD shelf intently. I had purchased them only recently from Barnes and Noble and was actually quite ecstatic to read them.

My order of books was a mixture of novels, certain biographies, and I decided to expand my history section so I had a variety of different books concerning themselves with the ancient world. I grabbed one of the books titled Ancient and Mythological Cities and retook my seat on the couch as I start to read.

The book itself was quite mesmerizing, really. It discussed various millennia old cities such as Rome, Trier, Xian, Athens, and many others. It referenced a great deal of their societies, their customs, and their constructive achievements. At the back of the book was a reserved section where the author deemed worthy to mention ancient cities that had yet to be proven authentic. Many pages dealt with the obvious legends of Atlantis which didn't surprise me. It's been an enigma for millenia's and humans were still searching for it until today.

The book also mentioned other minor whispers of cities that might have been once real such as Mu, or Lemuria. At the end of the page discussed the supposed locations for Lemuria. A tiny paragraph for some reason caught my attention.

Elysium, in Greek mythology, it was part of the Underworld and served as the final resting place for heroic and virtuous souls.

It was puzzling why the insignificant passage caught my eye. Perhaps it was the name that held me in a still stance for a mere second. It was rather luminescent.

So it was a resting place for heroic and virtuous souls. Well then, I was sure that someone like me would never see its white shores. I had always doubted Clem's belief that vampires had souls. There were so many atrocities I had committed in the past that would ensure me a place next to the Devil when or if ever my immortal existence came to an end. Clem had hope for a life ever after and he was the only vampire I knew that would actually stand a chance at the gates of Saint Peter. Though my beliefs deteriorate when I think of what we truly are and that we most certainly don't belong with the Angels.

I let out a defeated sigh as I closed the book and placed it gently on the small nightstand next to my couch. I put up my feet and lay back and covered my eyes with my arms. I was worried.

Besides my own selfish assessments, I realized that these foul moods and my egocentric actions weren't having a positive effect on my family. As I had previously hypothesized, I seemed to travel further and further away from them. I didn't like that I made Chalice worry so much or cause Clem to doubt himself. They weren't deserving of such self lowering emotions. I tried to comfort myself in thinking that they still had four other children, but I knew that Clem and Chalice wouldn't think of their family as a family unless I was standing right next to them.

I revised Clem's earlier thoughts that I could have a possibly better existence if I had somebody that would help me through it. Someone that wasn't a sister to me, but something rather different, and something I would care for on an entirely contrasting level. I didn't have a plethora of imaginative scenarios of which I could picture myself with another; not in that way.

I had seen a wide variety of women over the last two hundred years of which some were dashing and beautiful, but still eluded me to why I wasn't interested. Was I choosey? I had to think of Severina's family that lived in Sweden. She and her sisters, Cyan and Elegna were truly admiring and charming women, but once more, I found myself not fancying even one of them. Not to mention that Severina made it rather difficult with his continuous sexual advances and attempts to finally seduce me into her grasp. I lost count on how many times I had to be as benevolent and gentlemanly as I could and inform her that I would most likely never see her in such a manner. She was too good for me.

What would I want in a life companion? Do I even have a special taste or preference? I knew that strawberry blondes didn't do it for me apparently. I chuckled when I re-thought that girls thought from earlier today of how she plotted to change her hair color just so I'd take a second look.

I tried to imagine myself standing next to my family with my arms around an unknown entity. I saw Garnet lovingly grasping Luna in his huge arms or Gnash looking delighted and pleased to see Scarlet dancing out in front of him like she always did. I pictured Clemente kissing Chalice's cheek as she leaned into him and buried her face in his chest. Then I thought about me. I was possibly smiling and seemed to have a new ray of hope in my eyes. I saw my arms wrapped around a shadowy figure with no face or any other sort of features. The person I held in my arms was a complete mystery while I remained blind, and couldn't even comprehend what she could be.

My imagination had truly gone berserk these days even the...

"Raven?" There was a light knock on the door that thankfully interrupted my thought patterns before they could sink me deeper until I would finally collide with the sad truth of my solitary existence.

Chalice's gentle voice brought me back to reality. I sat up and took a glance at the clock. Wow. While I read and my imaginations formed a new scale of insanity, four and a half hours had passed. I raised my brows to this new scenario. I should do this more often. Anything to murder time I though pleased.

"Come in, Chalice," I finally managed to say. She entered the room carefully and scanned it until she found me sitting on the couch. Her face immediately lit up at my joyous facial expression. Though I'm sure she had mistaken it with a better mood rather than I discovering a way to lynch time.

"We're about ready to go. Are you prepared too?" Chalice smiled hopefully at me. I had never met another person that was even remotely close to what she was.
A person that could love and care unconditionally even for those she didn't know.

"Yes Chalice. I just need a second to change and then I'll be ready to ship out." I smiled at her. It was a true smile. I was relieved to know that I had such a loving and adoring mother that I was surely going to cherish forever.

"Okay son. We will be waiting downstairs for you. But please hurry, Garnet's already growing a bit impatient so..."

"Raven! I don't care what the hell you're doing, but get down here already or I'm coming up there!" Chalice giggled at Garnet's apparent lack of patience. I myself was glad to know that for once I was getting on his nerves.

"I'll be right down Chalice. So tell the big lump I'll just take a second and..."

"I'm counting to ten!" Garnet roars intensified. Chalice shook her head embarrassed.

"Do you hear me counting? One! Two! Three..." Chalice covered her face in shame at what she had raised and gave me a last smile before leaving the room.

'You have seven seconds to change before he tears my house apart Rave.'

I ignored Garnet's threats and proceeded to my closet at lightning speed and ditched my dark blue shirt and took out my white baseball jersey and tossed it on.

"Four! Five! Six! Does he hear me counting up there?"

"Calm down Garnet, he's almost ready." I heard chalice's soothing voice from below but it didn't justify Garnet's agitation.

I buttoned up the last bit of my jersey and was already out the door by the time Garnet got to eight. I was down the stairs in no time, literally, and took joy in Garnet's infuriated face. He didn't say anything, but rather expressed his feelings with a huffing like sound through his nostrils and flew out the door.

'Stop making everything about you. It's getting old!'

Luna's provoked thoughts would under regular circumstance deserve their justice if they weren't sad mirrors of repetition that I have been hearing for years.

"You are going down today, Gnash." Gnash gave Garnet a glorious smile that oozed with overconfidence. Tonights game should be interesting. I wondered if Scar had seen any more of our visitors.

She stood next to Gnash and was much calmer that she was earlier. More or likely due to Gnash's empathic abilities, but also because she saw Garnet cursing to high heavens because of his futuristic losses. So it was already determined that Garnet's previous words should have been directed rather to himself than Gnash.

We headed out the door along with Clem and Chalice and leaped to the ground and started our short run to the baseball clearing. Clem was nothing more than prepared and ready for an encounter if there should be one. Though I believed that if we went and started to play, they would undoubtedly hear us. Clem thought that it would be better this way. If we didn't go and wait for them, they would eventually detect our scent and allow their curiosity to take a hold of them. He knew that it would be better to confront them now and make it clear that the territory was already claimed, and perhaps convince them not to hunt the unsuspecting humans.

It wasn't a long run at all. For a human hiking it might have taken a few hours to get to the clearing, but for us, it was only a ten minute run. When we got there, I saw that the sky was as ready as we were. It was dark and the clouds seemed indeed dangerous. There were already rolling and cracking sounds of thunder. The lightning bolts wouldn't be far away and would join us soon enough.

It's chillier than it usually is. It's also dark.

Scar's gloomy mood returned as soon as Gnash distanced himself to decide teams with Garnet. Clem took notice of Scar's uneasiness as well.

"Will we meet them here, Scarlet?" She nodded vigorously.

"Definitely. The future just became clear. We will meet them," she was sure this time. We arriving in the clearing changed the future to certainty.

"So let them come. There are only four of them and seven of us. If it should turn to a fight, I don't think they'll hold up long." Garnet's persistent over confidence became rather taxing at times.

"It won't come to a fight. At least I don't think between us and them."

"What does that mean?" I asked her confused. Who else is there to fight them if not us? Scar's predictions were for a peaceful outcome and she was sure of it earlier. What changed now?

"I don't know. It's getting to me as well. I see everything clearly, but then I get something similar to static. Like I was given a huge dose of unpredictability. We'll just have to wait and see. In the end it's all we can ever do." With that she danced of into the distance to make the final adjustments to Garnet and Gnash arguing over who is with who.

I took a look at Clem who seemed somewhat concerned with Scar's inability to see the outcome of events. We relied on Scar far too often in the past and now we were worried because for once we were blind.

"Alright! We determined the teams. Gnash, Raven, and Clem are one team. Chalice, Garnet, and I are the other. Luna will be the referee for the first round." As soon as Scar finished her sentence, there was a loud crack of lighting that illuminated the entire night sky. Scar laughed and looked tauntingly at the sky.

"Play ball!" With that, we made our way to our positions. Garnet's team would be the first to get a chance to score points. I went to the very outfield while Gnash decided to pitch. I felt excited and hungry for the game to begin. This was just what I needed to get my mind out of the dark abyss that I felt like I was falling in.

Garnet was the first one up. His eyes sparkled with determination and willingness to defeat Gnash. He in turn, Gnash that is seemed at ease and concentrated on his first throw, and ready to give Garnet yet another humiliating memory. He bent his knees and released his first throw.

Garnet's eyes narrowed and saw through Gnash attempted curve ball. There was a glass shattering explosion as Garnet's bat collided with Gnash throw and sent it off with lightning speed into my direction. Garnet began to run for first base as I dashed through the wet and rainy grass after his hit. I saw the ball and sped up even more and caught up with it easily. The ball created a small crater in the soft soil and was immediately on a return journey home as soon as I got a hold of it. I saw specks of water throwing themselves left to right making way for the incoming ball.

Garnet had just passed third base when the ball caught up with him. He took notice and bolted for home base. He threw his body to the ground feet first and almost crashed into Luna who had already caught the ball.

"Out!" Luna's holler sent Garnet into a minor frenzy.

"Oh come on! That was so in!" His attempt to ensure his point ended in utter failure.

"We all saw it babe. I got the ball before you hit the base. Sorry!" Luna's lips turned into an awe inspiring smile and would have blinded any mortal men with her pearly and razor sharp teeth.

"Damn!" I stood in the outfield laughing. This was exactly what Scar had seen. This was the most fun I always had when we played ball. The thrill of it all and Garnets comical remarks, but I enjoyed it the most when his outbursts were real and belligerent.

Chalice and Clem joined in on the laugh. Gnash still stood in the middle field bathing in Garnet agony over his loss.

"Enough!" Scar's stressed scream interrupted our small bit of cheerfulness. She stood with her back to us and faced the immediate forest. Already? I thought we'd have some more time, and just when I started to enjoy myself the winds had to change directions and not in my favor. I looked up to the sky.

"You aren't funny you know." Whoever was up there hopefully heard my agitated assessment.

"So soon, Scarlet?" Clem, the others and I now surrounded Scar looking for answers.

"They caught our scent sooner than I expected, and then they heard us. Well Garnet that is."

"Good going Gar!" Gnash mocked him. Garnet rolled his eyes and waved Gnash off.

"Enough already! They'll be here in a couple of minutes. Get ready for a confrontation that still looks peaceful to me. I haven't been able to unlock the other visions though. They're... I don't know. Unpredictable."

Clem moved forward and crossed his hands in front of him and was already prepared. It wasn't the first time we had done this; especially Clem. Chalice and Scarlet swiftly joined him on either side. Garnet and Luna leaped to stand next to Chalice while Gnach stood next to Scar and me next to him.

We all seemed a bit tense towards Scar's lack of sight. Gnash was more worried about Scar herself. She was more disturbed than usual when she at first couldn't locate the clarity of her psychic eye. Surprisingly though, it wasn't the three visitors that had her upset. Something she couldn't put her finger on. Then I heard them.

We stood south of the clearing glaring down the forest when four dark figures seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Nomads!

The one in the middle was the prophesized dark skined vampire. He wore a grey jacket with no under shirt, exposing his chest to the cool night air and had dark brown pants. The woman on his left wore dark red leather pants and a white under shirt covered by a long green jacket.
Her flaming red hair seemed to illuminate the dark night. The man on the right wore plain blue jeans and a dark leather jacket. Then there's the other man with the palest skin a few meters behind them.

All four of them approached us with gleaming and arrogant smiles. The winds intensified and blew their hairs around their marble statues of bodies and created a very tense atmosphere. The sky continued to shoot lighting and roared with thunderous sounds. The one in the middle smiled at us friendlier now.

"Hello." My eyes traveled to Clem who returned his gesture with a careful and alert smile.

"Hello. I'm Clemente and this is my family." Clem's hands gestured to either side of him introducing us. All four foreign vampires stared us down for only a fraction of a second before pulling their lips up amused.

"Family?" the dark skinned vampire pointed out. Their thoughts were typical for nomads. Curiosity got to them and they had do see who was in the area before moving on. The light blond haired vampire seemed somewhat bored.

"Yes, family. We sustain a permanent residence in this area and therefore claim this territory." Clem got right to the point and quite literally laid down the law. The vampire's eyes got wider when Clem mentioned that we were permanent residence. The speaker for the small coven laughed intrigued by this revelation.

"Permanent? You mean you coexist with humans?"

"Yes we do. It's our way of life, and has been for decades." I sensed that Clem wanted to get this over with. The black haired vampire nodded to himself.

"Where are my manners? I have yet to introduce us. I am Adam. This is Blake, Caleb, and Zaphara." The more Adam spoke, the more I detected hints of a long lost Spanish accent. Zaphara was the woman obviously, and looked rather mocking. Blake on the other hand seemed more amused than anything.

"Mind if we take a human or two?" Blake spoke for the first time with a deep and scratchy voice while his bright red eyes focused on Clem. The audacity was unbelievable, as if we didn't just mention the fact that the territory had been claimed.

"I would beg of you rather not to do so. It could put us at jeopardy, and threaten our anonymity," Clem remained calm. The sky on the other hand was the exact opposite. Every time one of us finished a sentence, a lightning bolt would strike and would cause the night to be like day.

"One insignificant human could do that?" the woman called Zaphara finally unleashed her mockery on us.

"That truly is not the point of this discussion. These hunting grounds have been claimed and I ask you to respect our privacy and lands," Clem's negotiation didn't seem to take effect. The more he attempted to avert them from hunting, the more this Blake and Zaphara wanted to while Caleb just stood there. I guess he's not the type that talks too much since I haven't heard him speak yet. But How could the two even think in such a manner? They were greatly outnumbered.

"We might, and might just not," Blake picked up where Zaphara's mocking left off in a low and menacing whisper.

Suddenly, I noticed Scar's thoughts and anxiety. Her vision was clear just a second ago, but now it was fluctuating. She blinked her eyes repeatedly and her visions phased out and back in. She wasn't over exaggerating when she mentioned something like static.

I had all but forgotten the four vampires standing in front of us and focused my attention solely on Scarlet. Her visions were chaotic and only came in fragments. But then Scar squeezed her eyes shut and mentally yelled.

'Stop!'

As if for once she could truly command her visions all the chaos and strange vibrations stopped and there was finally a clear picture. A large tree with a far stretched out branch and a dark figure sitting in the shadows; observing.

Its' here!