The Charm

Chapter 1

It was a nice day in June. I was walking my dog, Sunny, when I ran into Kraig Leville and Kaitlyn Leville, my two friends for years. They were waving and calling my name. I wondered what trick they were going to play on me, the spoiled only child? I'd find out soon enough from Kraig who called me over to them. I waved at them, then headed over to my car, a red Chevy convertable. Kraig's right, I am spoiled. My fater, an electrician and my mother an accountant where he works, make a lot of money, especially my dad, and he has always given me what I want material wise anyway. It's just I have never seen him enough, and that's why I often felt lonely. Kaitlin, however, is lucky. Her dad and mom were always there for her, and if they weren't, Kraig was. She was always lucky to have an understanding, caring brother like Kraig. He always was like my big brother too. And even though he's a year older than Kaitlin, it is always seemed like they were twins, or even that Kaitlin, Kraig, and I were triplets since all our time was spent at either their house or mine, just hanging out or goofing off. Playing basketball in my court was always the thing to do.
"C'mon, Belinda, get out of your state of dreaming and get back into reality!" I heard a male voice. Kraig! "Wait a second. I thought-..."
"Oh I got a ride from Crystal. Hi!" To my surpise, he came up and hugged me. This for some reason made me feel funny inside. "So, how's it going?" He took my hand and his big, blue-green eyes met eyes met mine. Such beautiful eyes, I found myself thinking. The color of the Caribbean Sea. So bright and pretty you could get lost in them, like a ship in a whirlpool. "Great." A smile formed on my lips, a bright smile. At seeing him, I realized it made me feel great. I hadn't seen him for quite a awhile. I missed him. His smile was even brighter than mine. I saw Crystal standing by her convertable, watching us. A scowl was on her face, full of jealousy. When Kraig wavedat her to come see us, her smile, however was sugar sweet.
"Hello. Brenda is it?"
"Belinda. Belinda Smith." Kraig corrected her. I realized he was still holding my hand. The way it looked to Crystal was Kraig and I were...well..inlove or at least going out. Now that was a strange thought! We're only friends. We've never been and never will be-...more.
"So you wanna come to a party tonight? Please say you're not busy." Kraig exclaimed looking at me.
"I don't know. I might have to work." I said, feeling bad. "But maybe I'll be able to switch schedules with someone else. Ronda or someone."
Kaitlin who had been fixing lunch came out looking startled.
"What is wrong Kaitlin." Kraig asked, concerned as usual.
"Someone we know was found dead this morning. With no blood in their entire body."
"You're kidding right." Crystal said. "Who is it that we know."
"Bret Winslow." Bret was someone Kraig and Crystal knew.
"Omg." Crystal said. "I dated him in freshman year. We were quite serious in fact." She exclaimed.
"Sorry Crystal." Kraig, caring as usual, put his arm around her. I felt a jealous twinge as she gave me a self satisfied look. She had his attention.
"So what do you think did this? Some animal?" Kaitlyn asked, her face pale with fright.
"I don't know." An idea was forming in my head. I was into supernatural things and this sounds liked...
"A vampire." I mumbled.
"What?" Kraig and Crystal exclaimed.
"Actually she is right." Kaitlin said. "There has been a lot of weird activity around here lately. Don't go to cemetaries after midnight." She warned. "Me and Danielle well were taking a walk and we thought we heard something one night by the cemetary on North Bluff."
"We ran as fast as we could back home and all the while, I swear something was following us."
Kraig was startled. "Kaitlin, how many times have our parents told us not to walk outside in the dark?"
Kaitlyn laughed.
"Sorry but it is the only time we have to really doing some serious running."
"No wonder you scared yourselves silly. It was probably just some local kids or teens trying to frighten you."
"No. We had this weird feeling. Everytime we slowed, it slowed. We heard loud breathing and even growling at times."
"A dog?" Crystal laughed. "It had to be a dog or something. C'mon there are no such thing as vampires."
"You don't know really." Kraig said. "I mean, vampires can make themselves look like real, live people. Belinda knows all about them, so ask her. She is majorly into them, and she writes stories about them for the literary magazine and school newspaper. I read about them all the time." Kraig's eyes were full of admiration when I looked at him, a smile, just for me, brightening up his face.
"You're a genius at writing, Belinda. You could write books and ear millions, just like Stephen King." I felt myself smiling widely again. Kraig always had made me feel so good. He was always complimenting me, making me feel really special.
Crystal looked bewildered. "There's no such thing, Kraig. Belinda writes about them, sure, but those are stories. Fiction stories." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, like she was putting down my writing.
Kailtin as loyal of a friend she was, defended me, looking disgusted.
"Look, Crystal, all the stories Belinda writes for the Purple Pride aren't fiction. She once wrote an article about the vampire legend, from all kinds of reference books, and all that information was true. So why don't you get the facts straight before opening your mouth." My best friend's voice was full of anger, and I could tell she couldn't stand Crystal Sheridan.
Before Crystal could make an angry retort, Mr. Leville entered the room. "Hi everyone, what's going on." I liked Kaitlin and Kraig's father. He was such a nice, gentle person. Kraig took after him a lot.
"We were just talking about Bret Winslow and how horrible it was what happened to him." I explained. Mr. Leveille sighed.
"Yes, that was upsetting. Very. I feel really bad for his parents. I'm sure they were devastated when they heard the news." Kraig's dad looked really saddened. "Such a young guy. Only 18 years old."
"Kraig nodded. "No kidding. He was my good friend, too, at one time."
I had to smile, since Kraig sounded like Kraig right then. A bunch of people had come by. A tall pair of blonde boys with brown eyes who looked to be twins smiled with identical dimples. A red head with blue eyes entered, Ryan Jacker, Kraig's best friend.
"These are Bret's relatives, cousins actually, from New Orleans." Ryan explained.
"Dereck and Damian Mercier." The more muscular one smiled at me. I noticed the look of interest in his eyes. I turned away, feeling a little funny. They sat down across from me at the long table. "Hello. I am Damian." The "interested" one smiled at me.
"Hey. Belinda." I said quietly. The guys were gorgeous, model-like 16 year olds. Their Southern accents were traceable.
"So, Kraig seems to like you. Are you good friends."
"Since kindergarten." I said.
"Wow you know something." He whispered to me. "I think that guy likes you. I mean..." He paused "More than a friend. I can see it in the way he looks at you. You're....beau...ti..ful." He stammered. I blushed wildly. I had never had a compliment from a guy this good looking before. I looked at Kraig, who was talking to Crystal, smiling that gentle smile at her. Was what Damian said true?
"You like him too, don'tcha." This guy sure was receptive. I had a strange feeling when I looked at Kraig, like I had felt this before sometime ago, some place. A familiar warm feeling...deja if you could call it.
"I can tell..Somehow your friendship has turned into more. Amour vrai." I looked at him for the first tiime, really looked.
"That was very poetic, Damian. Do you ever write anything?" He nodded, his eyes growing deeper until they looked like dark pools of chocolate.
"Yes, I've written poems, stories, and songs. I want to be a performer I play the acoustic guitar also." He was smiling, thinking about his talent, and his dreams for the future.
"Wow I'm impressed. Can you sing too." He nodded looking dreamy eyed.
"Everyone's always said I have a voice. And I've always played instruments since I was 5 years old. I guess I've always been 'gifted." Dereck well he's more of the scientific one. He always has been interested in experiments. And he's very athletic. Me, well, I'm more..artistic." HIs brown eyes revealed his sould right then, and as he looked at me, I saw a gentle, kind heart inside of them. A guy just like me. I could've been looking at a twin. I felt my heart pounding like crazy right then and found a magnetic attraction toward him. We kept staring into eachother's eyes but were interrupted by Kaitlin. "Ahem." She cleared her throat.
"Look, you guys, I'm sorry but you have to go home now. I have to clean this house. My mom will be home any second." Just as she said this, her mom came into the door. "What are you, psychic or something." Dereck asked Kaitlin. The girl blushed. I don't know if it was because of Dereck talking to her or because she really is psychic. My best friend has had telephatic and clairvoyant powers she was young.
"Why, hi, there, everyone. Is this a party or something?" Kaitlin shook her head, her long jet black hair swishing back and forth. Her huge blue-green eyes grew more huge as she looked at the way her mother was reacting to see so many people over, the house a mess. Totally carefree about it.
Her mother smiled at me. "Why hi, there, Belinda. Glad to see you here. You should stay for dinner tonight. We are having steak, fries, and salad, your favorite. And for desert, double fudge brownies." I smiled. "Thanks. Maybe I will." I saw Kraig go over and kiss his mother on the cheek.
"Hi there mom. How was your day at work." Damian looked at me and whispered. "Looks as though his family really likes you. Think you'll get married someday." I blushed even deeper than before. It was true, Kraig's family treated me as if I werere a member of their group, but I had never thought of that. Whenever my mom and dad were busy I'd always just stayed over at Kaitlin's. They'd always been like a 2nd family to me.
"I don't think so, Damian." I whispered back. I told him what I'd been thinking before. He smiled, looking slightly relieved. I guess he really did like me, though he didn't really know me.
"Well, we'd all better go. Let's go guys. Bye Kaitlin, Kraig. Thanks for having us for lunch." Ryan said, leading us all out. He smiled at me.
"Nice to see ya again, Belinda. You look really nice. I like your outfit." I looked at my shirt and shorts. My long strawberry hair curled over my shoulders.
"Thank you, Ryan." I smiled brightly at him. The guy had always been nice. As I walked to the edge of my driveway, Damian followed me. "That's your house. Wow it's so big. You must be rich." He whistled. I shook my head. "Oh no. Not that rich. Well I'm really sorry I can't chat more but have to get to work." Nice meeting you." He squeezed my hand. "Of course. Try to make it to the party." I took off to my long driveway and went inside. No one was home except my cat, Midnight. I greeted him, then began getting ready for at least 3 hours of work.