~Gabriel's POV~

"This is a bad fucking idea, man." Gabriel Coleman said as he and Luke Taylor crossed the backyard to reach the back of the house.

The house they were about to invade was an old style mansion, a miraculous survivor of the colonial period. And they were going to invade in plain daylight.

Rumor had it that the abandoned house hosted phantoms and other creatures of the night.

Not that Gabriel believed any of that bullshit. Of course.

He cursed silently to himself again as he followed after Luke, ducking behind trees and bushes, staying out of sight until they were safely hidden from view at the back of the house.

It was a big house, four stories high with floor to ceiling windows and, strangely, a stone tower that gave him the creeps.

Gabriel could imagine how beautiful the whole property had been once, before time and abandonment destroyed its beauty.

His fingers twitched and he felt the old urge to fix the broken, make it beautiful once again. He just couldn't stand to see something so destroyed and sad.

"This is a great idea." Luke answered to him, a smile on his voice as he checked the latch on the back door.

It opened easily, the latch having been broken by someone else at another time.

Luke turned on his flashlight and aimed the bean of light around the room ahead. It seemed to be a kitchen, the cabinets without its doors, the floor covered in dirt, no bulbs in the light sockets and, God forbid, cobwebs everywhere.

Gabriel didn't like this one bit.

"Uh, I think I will just wait out here, you know, as a lookout." He said even though he knew his best friend would insist he came along for their "adventure".

"Nope." The bastard said, popping the P in the word, a wicked smile showing in the light from the flashlight he'd aimed at himself.

Motherfucker!

They stepped inside the old house, the floor creaking noisily under their weight.

Gabriel saw cobwebs everywhere and his skin was already itching, as if thousands of ants walked over his skin. Or spiders.

If this wasn't a proof of his love for his brother he didn't know what was.

He smacked his hand against a particularly itchy part of his arm, his mind screaming swear words inside his head.

"Mother-fucking-shit, Luke! If I end up attacked by any of these fuckers I am going to bolt out of this place and call North!"

"Relax, Gabe. I am sure the spiders are more scared of you than you are of them." The blonde idiot said as he crept forward into a hallway, the bean from the flashlight showing more old furniture and things that Gabriel would rather not having seen.

"Say that to the fucker coming in our direction! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Gabe whisper-shouted as he stomped his foot on the floor repeatedly.

"I am sure you killed the spider the first time, man." Now the bastard was laughing at him.

"Shut up! I gotta make sure the stupid thing don't rise from the death to follow me again." He groused as he slapped at his itching leg, a shudder running up his spine at the thought that there might be spiders on him.

He clamped his mouth shut against the urge to scream like a little girl while waving his arms around.

His idiotic friend merely laughed in merriment. "Come on, Diva. Let's see what we can find upstairs."

Gabriel went on, grumbling curses under his breath as he followed behind Luke up the stairs.

They walked through the second and third floors, checking rooms, offices and bathrooms. There was even a music room in the house, with an old piano, the keys, sadly, broken.

After checking the fourth floor they went back down in search for an entrance to the tower.

"There must be a door in the first floor leading to the staircase." Luke commented quietly.

By now Gabriel already had rash marks on his arms and legs from where he kept scratching whenever he saw a cobweb and he knew that once he got back home he'd spend at least a half-hour in the shower before he felt clean again and completely rid from the eight-legged fuckers.

Being Luke's friend wasn't for the faint of heart or mind.

The first floor was comprised of the kitchen, laundry room, office, library, sitting room and dining room as well as another bathroom.

They were almost giving up finding a way inside the tower when Luke paused in front of the pantry.

"Hey, Gabe. Check this out!" Luke shouted from where he stood in front of the shelves.

"What is it?" he asked wondering what his crazy-ass friend was up to now.

Luke looked at Gabriel over his shoulder with an excited sparkle in his eyes. "I found the door! It was hidden behind the shelves!"

Gabriel looked at where the flashlight was shining and saw the outline of a door behind the shelves.

He grunted, "Now what? You want to remove the fucking shelves?" Christ! He was starting to sound like North now!

Luke nodded his head excitedly and handed the flashlight over to Gabriel before he began removing the boards that served as shelves of the pantry.

Gabriel felt a ball of dread grown in the pit of his stomach with each board that Luke removed. Why was this door hidden, practically barred from outside?

As Luke started up the stairs, however, Gabriel shoved down all his fears and uncertainties.

His brother wasn't going to give up on his adventure and Gabriel wouldn't allow him to go alone.

They walked up the winding stairs slowly, as if both could tell that this wasn't a moment where they rushed into, but stepped carefully.

The climb was slow going, the tower being four stories high, the same height as the rest of the house. But differently from the house, the tower had no windows whatsoever.

It also had no cobwebs or spiders, much to Gabriel's relief even if that fact also seemed strange to him.

He looked intently at every piece of stone revealed by Luke's flashlight and as each new step was revealed his confusion grew.

How could this part of the house be so clean when the rest was completely full of insects?

It made no sense. Even if the tower had no windows, the horrid creatures should have been able to get in through the space under the door.

The sense of dread in the pit of his stomach grew.

Luke suddenly paused just ahead of him and Gabriel almost tripped on him. "God damn it, Luke! What the hell did you stop for?" Gabriel whisper-shouted. He didn't know why he was trying to keep his voice low anymore, but something, an instinct, warned him not to raise his voice.

"Do you smell it?" Luke whispered at him.

Gabriel stopped and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

Orange blossom.

His eyes snapped open. He was the specialist in scents on the family. How didn't he notice the perfume before Luke?

And where was it coming from? It was the most delicious thing he'd ever smelled and he felt his body slowly relaxing because of it.

Luke didn't wait for his response before he scrambled upstairs, making more noise than Gabriel was comfortable with.

Holding in his curses he followed after his brother, praying that they didn't get in trouble this time.

He should have known better.

Luke had paused before a wooden door at what he assumed was the top of the tower.

This door, differently from the others in the house, had been made of raw wood, with no carvings or even having been sanded. There was also no sign of a doorknob in it.

"Oy! Is it open, Luke? How do we get in?" he whispered to his friend, studying the door while a feeling of urgency grew on his chest. He needed to open this door.

He shook his head momentarily, trying to dislodge the strange feeling. This whole "adventure" of Luke's was scaring him and had trouble written all over it.

Luke raised his hand and laid it on the very center of the door.

The second that the palm of his hand came into contact with wood traces of pink light and blue light shone in the door panel, creating the image of vines full of leaves and flowers in the form of hearts.

"Holly fuck!" Gabriel said, not believing what his eyes were seeing.

Luke stood completely paralyzed and a glance at his face revealed the boy had his mouth open in shock, eyes wide open and slightly dazed.

Gabriel hit the back of his head and snapped, "It is not the time for fucking daydreaming!"

Luke had the nerve to fucking smirk at him, which just made Gabriel want to smack him again.

"Sorry," he didn't look sorry with that crazy smile on his face, not at all... "But this is soooo cool!" he exclaimed happily and Gabriel felt the urge to smack himself.

Of course the idiot was excited with the paranormal reaction a wooden door had to his touch!

And then the door stopped gleaming and swung open, causing Gabriel to jump and yelp.

"Shit!!" he laid his hand over his racing heart. "Mother-fucking shit!"

Luke laughed and crossed the threshold, entering the dark room.

Shining his flashlight around the circular room Gabriel saw at least five, floor to ceiling windows, a wardrobe, a desk and a shelf full of old books.

What attracted his attention, however, was the bed situated right in the middle of the room.

Luke had walked over to the desk and pulled a lighter out of his pocket, lighting the candles displayed there and around the room.

When Gabriel glanced up at the ceiling of the room he saw no sign of a light socket, nor was there any other sign of there being electricity on the tower. The style of the furniture was old, but well kept, the books in the shelves were ancient, but seemed in good state.

"Hey, Gabe." Luke suddenly called for him, his voice grim. "Check this out."

Gabriel frowned and glanced around the room in search for his brother, finding Luke standing beside the bed.

Now that there was some light in the room from the candles Gabriel could see there was a lump in the bed.

He swallowed deeply, already imagining a long decomposed body lying there as he walked closer to Luke.

What he saw was even more shocking.

Lying over the top of the bed was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, wearing a long, ball dress, light pink in one of the styles that people used in old England.

Her hair shone with threads of gold and red in the candle-light, her skin looked like alabaster and her lips were pouty and rosy.

Definitely not a corpse.

At least he hoped so.

"What the fuck..." he heard himself murmuring, then his eyes caught sight of the twin strips of ribbon tying her wrists to the headboard.

The ribbons looked made of silk, dyed what he would call a bile-yellowish color with weird inscriptions on its length.

"What is wrong with her? Should we call the others?" Luke asked sounding slightly panicked.

Gabriel glanced back to the girl and stared fixedly to her chest.

He wasn't being a pervert, he'd noticed her stillness and the fact that she wasn't breathing had finally infiltrated his mind.

This beautiful girl was dead.

He felt the loss of her as he'd felt the loss of his family.

A tear slipped down his cheek and he wiped at it in confusion, not comprehending his own feelings.

His heart was squeezing in his chest painfully and he felt the strong urge to cry, his hands fisting at his sides as anger spurted in his mind.

The strength of his pain surprised him, causing him to turn his back on the bed and step away from it, hands fisting on his hair and pulling painfully.

This wasn't natural. It was okay to feel sadness and compassion about a stranger's death, but he was behaving as if a member of his family had died.

He was staring fixedly at the desk trying to get a hold of his emotions and decide what the best plan of action was when a bluish light illuminated the room.

He spun around, facing the bed, only to see that Luke had pulled the ribbons, which were shinning with blue light, away from the girl, releasing her.

The girl in the bed gasped, her mouth falling open and her chest rising with a deep breath.

Gabriel stumbled closer to bed and stood beside Luke, both boys staring wide eyed as the girl magically came back to life.

And then she opened her eyes and stared at them, her iris shining with as many colors as a rainbow.

Time stopped for a full minute during which no one moved, not even to take a breath.

Then the girl opened her mouth again and with the most angelic voice Gabriel had ever heard she said, "I need blood."

And the sight of the fangs in her mouth dispelled any thought about this girl being human.

The boys ran out of the room screaming bloody murder, knowing that their lives had changed irrevocably.

AN: So... What do you think of the first chapter? Good? Bad?

Thank you for reading! :D