Kavinsky's Augustine Application

Beneath the almost benevolent exterior lies something far more insidious.

Sophia Marshall, or 'Sophie' as she prefers, is a more newly turned Vampire. She appears to be around the age of fourteen of fifteen, she she can't seem to remember exactly which. Sophia was born to Anthony and Sandra Marshall of Fort Worth, Texas. Her parents were both fairly successful, her Father owning his own construction company and her mother landing a rather high position at a successful law firm. Sophia had a fairly typical childhood; caring parents, nurturing, a good neighborhood to live in, a decent amount of friends and the same typical hobbies every girl had growing up in the modern world. Barbies and rainbows gave way to iPhones and gossip once she became older, but her handful of close friends never allowed their antics to get too out of hand or hurtful to anyone else. Eventually she fell in love with a boy who she only knew the first name of; Garret. Through a bit of research on how not to make herself like a complete idiot when talking to him and with a little encouragement from her friends she finally started speaking to him more, and much to her liking they ended up growing closer. Before long they were dating, and once that started Garret seemed to be a bit almost over-protective of her, or at least when it came to ensuring they had plenty of time to themselves. She tried her best to assure him that her spending time with her friends still wasn't going to make her care for him any less, and she finally settled a compromise with him by promising to go on a date to the Stockyards (both of them were rather interested in history, and 98 acre explorable piece of it sounded fun).

Her parents reluctantly agreed only for the fact that it was a well populated area given the amount of tourism, as well as the fact that a friend of her father's had promised to attend at the same time and secretly keep an eye on the two of them more-so for their own safety as opposed to a mistrust of Garret. The date went quite well, they spent hours slipping through the different buildings and shops and even collecting a few souvenirs. Once night fell it was growing close to when they needed to return home again. Garret stopped mid-walk to hold both of her hands and tell her just how much he'd enjoyed their time together, and she couldn't help but agree, it'd be one the best days of her life. She liked it so much in fact that she intended to kiss him, and after a bit of subtle hints and a mildly awkward exchange she finally closed her eyes and leaned in to do so, what she received in return however was far less than expected. Suddenly she found her eyes pointed toward the night sky, most of the stars blotted out by the street-lights just outside of the alleyway she'd suddenly been pulled into.  She knew for a fact that the one holding her was still Garret, able to see part of his hair with his head tucked against her neck, right before the blinding hot pain swarmed over her throat. It was agony, truly, so much that she eventually passed out and collapsed in the Vampire's hold.

She awoke somewhere close to an hour later, tucked away in the corner of the alley with dried blood next to her lips, and two holes in her neck. Garret was nowhere to be seen, and her father's friend hadn't seemed to find her either yet for whatever reason. She stumbled slowly out of the alley and back onto the streets, managing to make her way a local park before long. She felt disoriented, nauseous, and above all, hungry. She eventually collapsed once more next to a park bench, catching the attention of a nearby jogger; a good Samaritan who was genuinely concerned as to why a teenage girl was stumbling around a park at night, entirely alone. He tried to speak to her and ask if she was alright, but his words didn't seem to reach her, in fact she didn't seem to notice his words more so than the beating of his heart. She wasn't sure why it stood out to her, or why it felt so alluring, but it only seemed to awaken the hunger in her even further. Once he reached outward and swiped at him blindly in a brief fit of fear, cutting his hand-- cutting? She had claws, now, or rather the tips of her fingers had become sharpened into such, enough to nick the man and cause him to bleed with a surprised and pained sound. The scent of his blood flooded her senses, her eyes shifting to a much more vibrant and unnatural shade as her mouth dropped open, releasing a shaky and hungry hiss. It was freezing cold, and yet the apparent exhalation didn't seem to summon forth a single puff of mist, as if she was just as cold if not colder than the air around her.

"What.. the fu--" Was all the jogger could manage to let out before Sophie pounced upon him, driven by some strange instinct she'd never felt before, sinking her fangs roughly into wherever she could reach while her claws mauled and tore at him, earning an agonizing scream from the jogger as she rather sloppily claimed her first victim. The process wasn't clean, quick, quiet, or all that merciful, but it'd fed her all the same and that was all she seemed to care about until her hunger subsided, leaving her kneeling next to the mangled remains of what once was a man. Of course, such sounds had drawn attention, enough for people to notify the police, and the sight of flashing red and blue lights prompted Sophia to quickly flee. Confused, scared, soaked in blood that she couldn't seem to stop licking from herself, she started to regain her senses as time passed. She'd been.. bitten, she thought, and suddenly she woke up feeling unbelievably hungry, she'd grown claws, and then she'd killed a man and drained him of his blood; it didn't take a genius to figure out what this all meant. She'd become something she never believed existed outside of cheesy romantic novels and bad fanfiction, a Vampire. The more she thought about it, the more frightened she became, especially with the fact that she'd actually went and killed a man in cold blood-- well the blood wasn't cold, but that's besides the point. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't go home, she didn't want to risk growing hungry and killing her own parents or friends. She couldn't stay either, knowing that eventually people would begin searching for her.. she had to leave. It was a split-second and naive decision, but that's what most choices at her age had been anyways.

She started to read up a bit more on vampires just as a refresher course, basic information at the least. She didn't know how much of it was true and what was just added in for the sake of stories and movies, but she'd rather not risk it. She decided to avoid sunlight, holy water, garlic, stakes, and above all, people with crossbows and a deep religious upbringing. Sophia began her journey stowing away in the back of trucks or the beds of ones covered with tarps, making her way East with no particular destination in mind. Somewhere along the line she stole a suitcase right from someones backseat as their family was distracted stretching their legs after a long car-ride. She managed to break it open and find some clothes, trading out her blood-stained and crusted apparel for a skirt, a hoodie, and a black blanket she intended to use to keep herself out of the direct sunlight in more drastic circumstances. Walking around with a blanket wrapped around her like a cloak would be strange, but it sure beat getting turned to ash in the most agonizing way imaginable. Unfortunately she lost her phone along the way, it falling out of the back of a truck and being promptly crushed by another behind it as the vehicle hit a bump in the road.

This only worked to her benefit however given that she started to see a few news reports going out about her apparent disappearance under strange circumstances. She managed to learn a bit more, but was unable to linger for too long wherever there was a television available for the sake of wanting to keep hidden. Sophia also had to feed.. sometimes it was more people out alone, sometimes it was truck drivers pulling over to check a map or rest for a while, but she tried to keep them random and spread out to avoid a pattern or trail being left, young as she was she'd watched plenty of crime drama and documentaries. Through the news reports and occasional newspaper itself she found out that Garret had gone missing as well, and that the investigation was still on-going for the murder of the jogger, as well as several others spread across the general area between Texas and Louisiana -- they hadn't found them all yet, since she'd begun hiding them, and that was good. She found that the more she kept up with frequent feeding, the better she felt, not so much about the situation but she didn't feel physically ill or starved any longer. By some stroke of luck she managed to find another suitcase, only this time she kept it entirely, deciding it may be best to have more than just one set of clothing. Sophia herself was still a good person at heart, but the hunger brought on by her new transformation did away with any sense of empathy or mercy she may have had when it came to feeding, it turned her into nothing less than a blood-thirsty monster, though the more she fed the better she got with it, learning from her mistakes even if she repressed the lessons back into her subconscious after the acts were done, not wishing to dwell on them more than she had to.

Stowing away during the day, walking or washing her clothes in the rivers by night, she steadily made her way in a windy road of carnage and aimless wandering, she was even sure she passed the same highway a few times in both directions, but she eventually made her way into Louisiana. She tried her best to reduce the frequency of feeding and killing as feeding regularly had lessened her need for sustenance, or at least the frequency of the moments where it nearly drove her crazy with hunger. Throughout this time as well, Sophia hadn't managed to dwell two much on who else out there was like her, who else was a Vampire, who else knew about Vampires. How long had they existed? Were there peopled who worshiped them? Hunted them? Were there other mythical beasts that existed too? Could she tell if another person was a Vampire? What would another Vampire do if they saw her? She honestly didn't know, she tried to keep as secluded and reclusive as possible and only break the routine to travel or feed. Soon she found herself in a small town, with quite strange circumstances she'd yet to discover, and a future she'd yet to behold. Whatever the case, her life had become less about deadlines for book reports and more about fighting for control over her own body, between the side of her that still longed to be human, and the dark, malevolent beast that lay in wait just beneath the surface of her skin.