The Vampire Skull 2.2 The City of Dawn

1 week ago.

Ellie was happy her dad came all the way to Dawn, she didn’t expect him to come at all, but here he was, driving her in his worn-out teal pick-up truck all the way to the steps of her new apartment building.

“You sure about this Ellie? Living with some people you don’t even know? How did you find the place again?” Ellie’s father asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

“Yes. It’s going to be fine, I’m not a kid anymore dad. I need to do this.” Ellie smiled, leaning on the opened window on her side of the car and glancing out at the view.

“I found them in a newspaper ad anyway, and talked to them on the phone, they sounded like nice honest people.” Ellie added, placing one hand on Skully, who was resting on her lap.

“Fudge. No way anyone has ever tricked anyone over the phone before. You’re way too trusting Ellie.” Skully grunted lazily. Ellie looked down on him, pouting her lips. She knew she couldn’t talk to him in front of her dad. She sighed, hoping Dawn would be just the adventure it seemed like it would be.

Dawn was famous all over the world, five hundred years ago the world suffered an apocalyptic event, some say the event was inevitable, that it was meant to happen. It changed the whole world and destroyed so much, it was said that Dawn was at the centre of it all due to the fact that a small part of the city was never destroyed. The oldest intact buildings in the world could be found there, the rest were just ruins, remnants. Ellie was beyond fascinated with old Dawn, she had heard there were layers of tunnels underneath, and the old buildings, she smiled to herself as she thought about it, not realising they were already approaching Dawn.

The city was nothing like what she had envisioned, the sleek, elegant buildings of downtown Dawn stretched up high, reflecting the sky in all the hundreds of glass windows. In contrast, the old buildings looked dull, fading away against all the glossy mirrors, but nothing was quite so sparkly as the river, swirling through Dawn, separating old and new, with specks of green splattered alongside it. They drove up to a slender towering apartment complex, downtown but near the river, her dad let out a sigh as he stopped the car. “ Ellie… I’m going to miss you being around the house, and that toy skull of yours too.” He mumbled as he tussled her hair lightly.

“I know dad, I will miss you too, and it’s not like I’m very far away, I’ll maybe come visit some weekends.” Ellie assured as she got out of the truck with Skully. “I’ll fudging miss you too, old man.” Skully exclaimed as he laughed, knowing full well Ellie’s father could not hear a word.

“Ok Skully, time to meet our roommates! I’m super excited! We will be living in Dawn! Aren’t you excited?!” Ellie squealed as she lifted Skully up in the air. “Ugh, I won’t get excited until the day I can eat a pizza.” Skully answered dryly.

“I did not expect the building to be this tall though.” She gulped as she looked up at the grey lanky building. “What floor was it again?” She asked Skully.

“I don’t know why you’re asking me…” Skully replied, observing the building and Ellie.

She looked a bit worried. “On second thought, maybe dad was right, Dawn is so big. And I will miss the woods, maybe we can still search some more there, I mean lots of unexplored parts right?” Ellie stammered as she said the words, still looking at the building.

“What happened to ‘Adventure Ellie’? Don’t tell me Dawn is too adventurous for you? Hah!” Skully grunted as he continued. “Don’t forget why we are here, I can feel it in my bones, errr, I mean skull? I have been here before, the very air of this place is familiar, it’s like I’m home.” He sighed and finally mumbled. “It’s on the thirteenth floor by the way…”

Ellie shifted her gaze to Skully, she gave him a warm smile and beamed. “You are absolutely right. I don’t know what I would do without you. Let’s go!”

Ellie wished for a moment that she had asked her dad to help her, he had unloaded everything from his truck for her but had left it all for her to carry up. She didn’t bring much things, a couple of boxes filled with books and stuff from her shelves, her adventure bag and a suitcase full of clothes. The boxes were heavy, she could carry them but they left her feeling wiggly like jelly as she put them down outside door number seven on floor number thirteen. She felt a knot at the pit of her stomach as she was about to knock, she was never nervous about her forest adventures, but this was different.

The woods had no people, Dawn was full of them, and now she was about to meet two, they had sounded really nice on the phone, but what if they were not? She decided to just knock and get it over with. Her hand made a very soft knocking sound, she wasn’t sure if they would have heard it even.

Ellie was about to knock again, when suddenly the door opened in front of her.

“Hi! You must be Ellie, we’ve been waiting for you all day. It’s so nice to meet you! I’m Artemis, we spoke on the phone, and this is my brother Luke.” Exclaimed this dazzling red haired, brown girl with the most striking aqua eyes, she had a huge smile on her face, looking straight at Ellie. Her brother, Luke just nodded his head, his eyes mostly hidden behind his red shaggy hair, he looked pale and worn out, a stark contrast to his bright and sunny sister.

Ellie was in awe, as they looked very much how she envisioned city people to look like.

“H-h-hi. I am Ellie, yes. That is me. Nice to meet.” She stuttered, struggling to make words form.

“Fantastic.” Skully sighed. Ellie was holding on to Skully still, her hand firmly around him, he made her feel safe in these kinds of situations.

Luke glared at the skull, his eyes widening slightly as he noticed the teeth.