𝒟𝐀𝐘𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓, ᵛᵃʳᵍᵃˢ ᶻᵒᵐ...

( 𝓓𝐀𝐘𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 )
chapter one. winking guy

        the sun shines brightly in elysia's face as she threw her fist, her partner, ray, dodges it quickly ━━ just as he's supposed to.

        nova called elysia up to the front and she skipped with a smile, the bright sisters taking charge of the group together.

        they create their balls of fire, shooting through the cold rings with perfect aim. elysia laughed to herself, no one should mess with the day walkers, especially her.

        "alright! good job every body!" nova yells as the day walkers stopped, panting and gaining their breath back. the youngest one amongst them stepped in front of the bright sisters with curious big eyes. "remember, put your whole body into it. fight the fangs!"

        nova threw an air punch as the others followed in agreement. elysia did too before she clapped her hands. she jumped down, impressed with the group. elysia turned to her younger sister ━━ who was more mature than she ever was. she was supposed to be responsible, but when she tried to take charge and protect her people, she went overboard or got too in her head making her mess up. she just wanted to be accepted in her fathers eyes ━━ aka commander bright.

        but now, nova was the next in line to lead, not his oldest daughter. elysia's heart shattered in her chest when he told her that two years ago. since then, she's felt like she's constantly trying to prove herself, embarrassingly so.

        "we've got to be prepared. our blood fruit is dying, and we have to find more if we're gonna survive." nova explained, worried. if elysia had to prove anything, now was the time.

        "back to it everyone!" elysia clapped as the little girl walked up to them.

        "why do i have to do this if i'm not even allowed to go?" her tiny voice asked as nova got down to her level with a smile. elysia went around to everyone fighting, barking orders with pride.

        "so you can protect the town while we're away, silly." nova giggled, holding her arms out for a hug. "come here."

        "nova?" their dad's deep voice echoes across the sand, the sisters whipping their attention behind them in surprise. "i asked you to run your recruits through training maneuvers and i find you doing what exactly?"

        nova grimaced. "a little self reflection?"

         "and you," he pointed to elysia, the girl jokingly holding her finger to herself, eyes wide in absurdity . some of the daywalker recruits giggled at her reaction. don't get her wrong, a lot of them looked up to nova's older sister, in a way of moral support ━━ not what elysia wanted. "what are you doing? you're our main recruit, elles. you're not leading this."

        elysia sighed, breath shaking under her fathers glare. "well, while nova was doing self-reflection, i was helping!"

        she kind of threw her sister under the bus there ━━ oops. nova's glaring at her now, but that look diminished eventually.

        "dad! i will lead with nova. we need as much power as we can get!" elysia tried to explain excitedly, but her father whipped his head around, crossed.

        "that's exactly why nova has this, elysia. why do you think i chose her? you're not fit to control our people for this, it's about life or death if we don't get this blood fruit."

        "i know, but━━"

        "we're done talking about this." her dad snapped in fury.

        elysia blinked in surprise. oh.

        "okay then." elysia accepted her fate, not wanting to create a scene. a few day walkers were already staring at the commander and his daughter, stopping from fighting to observe. nova watched them with worry and swallowed before she clapped her hands to get everyone to get to work. their dad nodded at the recruits before he went back to their house, which was about a ten minute walk back from the beach.

        elysia didn't even realize tears filled her eyes until nova stepped in front of her sister, her figure blurry.

        "elles, are you okay?" nova asked.

        "it's fine." elysia sniffed, embarrassed. whenever elysia cried, it shocked nova ━━ it shocked everyone. she was always so bright and cheerful, like the sun itself, a smile on her face as she joked, laughed, and skipped everywhere. yeah, elysia was a big fan of skipping.

        nova shook her head. "no ━━ no, it's not fine. you deserve to be a leader too!"

        "you don't have to say that to make me feel better, you know how many times i've screwed up when the vampires breached shadyside." elysia sighed, squeezing her eyes shut at the memory. "trust me, i'm okay. you deserve this more than anything, our lives are at stake and i wouldn't trust them with anyone else."

        nova smiled sympathetically at her, bringing her arm around her shoulders and pulling her close, a laugh escaping elysia's lips again.

        "nova," their father said. "let's talk."

        "okay," she smiled and turned around, giving elysia's arm a squeeze before she walked off. everyone is starting to wrap up now.

        she met ray in the city, the two laughing as they walked around the village. ray wanted to be a part of the recruits' scouting to find more blood fruit and elysia told him she'd talk to her dad for him. maybe when he cooled off.

        "daywalkers, our journey begins!" nova shouted, grabbing the two's attention as everyone raised their fists, chanting. elysia laughed, running to nova and jumping around as she cheered.

"that's right!" elysia shouts too, gathering her balls of fire. nova laughed as she swirled them around before ray screamed, jumping out of the way as the balls of fire went flying towards the white and rainbow-squared buildings. oops. elysia grimaced as ray choked on a laugh ━━ rude!

        she slowly turned to her father, who was glaring at her, daywalkers murmuring. she quickly grabbed ray and skipped off before her father could tell her anything else she didn't feel like hearing today.

        other than the fact elysia's father was too harsh on her, the brights are a happy family. they only had their father to raise them when their mother died. nova was two, elysia was five. apparently, it was from a vampire breach, and the fight exploded between the rivals. they were evil, and one day, leader or not ━━ she's gonna end every last one.

        and they could be going after their blood fruit, so elysia wasn't wasting any time in taking what was rightfully theirs!

        𝓣HEIR MISSION STARTED later that day, nova gathering all the recruits ━━ and ray after elysia pleaded for him to come. nova and elysia were at the front, elysia humming as she looked up to the sky. she wanted to know how long she could look at the sun before it burned her, but she didn't think that was possible!

        "it's so sunny out today!" elysia claimed with exasperation.

        "it's sunny everyday, elysia." one of their recruits said. well, maybe they should be on shady side with that attitude!

        the feeling of the sunlight hitting her face fueled enough serotonin in elysia to run for miles. she felt so warm she could fly to the sun. she usually explained her feeling that she just did now ━━ to which some of her friends called childish ━━ but elysia was stuck in her childhood until it came to fighting. even with that, her father couldn't see past that little girl, struggling to keep up in their training when she was ten.

        elysia was eighteen now, so she's supposed to feel like an adult. but she doesn't, if anything, her being older and still acting as happy and cheerful as she can be makes her feel like she's aging backwards for all the wrong reasons. if her father was trying to make her feel ashamed for it, he was doing a heck of a great job hiding that he knew what he was doing!

        whatever, she didn't need pesky comments to ruin her day. once they got the bloodfruit, she'd feel even better knowing the daywalkers were safe again.

        ray is still on her back when she sees a figure walking towards them. the tall man wasn't wearing their usual white, red, or gold clothing and his hair was ━━ green? that caught elysia's eye the most, because green hair?

        not a daywalker.

        "hey! i'm zed, i was wondering you guys had a mechanic i could use, or ━━"

        without thinking she ran straight past nova, ray tumbling off her back and knowing two of their other recruits on the ground as they groaned.

        "elles! that's not our formation," she calls, knowing it's barely any use, so she follows her. ray had his hand out ready for nova to take it and once she left, he nodded to himself, wiping it on his shoulder casually.

         she could prove right now how good her takedowns could be.

         "a vampire." elysia rose her brow. "you're going to wish you were dead in the dark, mr."

        the man blinked twice, appalled.

        "vampire!" the daywalkers chanted as nova came to stand fiercely beside her sister.

        "even has green hair, that's a first," elysia snickered, hand over her mouth to mock him.

        without a word, nova punched him in the gut, the man ━━ zed ━━ cried out of pure agony and defeat, clutching his stomach as he rolled in the sand below them.

        "okay, vampire. talk." nova spat, hands on her hips.

        "vampire? wha ━━ what? no, no ━━ i'm zed, i'm a zombie," he clarified, blinking in confusion. his voice was even cracking in distress.

        "how did you even get in here?"

        "i don't know! i don't know, i was jus━━ i was driving and then ━━ what happened? oh! my z-band just went crazy and then all of a sudden i'm━━"

        "you're the guest of honour at the daywalker barbecue." ray spat, staring to fire his powers. elysia smiled.

        "we really need to update our security!" she exclaimed before ray could take his hit. elysia began to join him, her hands tingling under the pressure before nova grabbed her arm.

        "no, no, no!" the zed zombie guy screamed.

        "guys, stand down, hold on!" she yelled over the hum of the orange lights of fire. elysia's eyes softened at her sister's words, nudging ray in the arm to just let it go ━━ for now.

        "commander. how do we know this thing isn't a vampire spy?" ray questioned, eyeing zed up and down.

       elysia crossed her arms. "he's too chicken to be one."

        that had the man's head turned. "chicken, really?"

        elysia tilted her head, humming in compliance.

         "nova, i hope you have a good reason this intruder was not immediately destroyed." her father declared, voice deep. elysia held her hands up. if she were the leader, the zombie dude would be buried in the sand right about now.

        "can you please make it a really good reaso━━"

        "shh!"

        "━━sorry."

        "dad. i don't think he's a vampire." nova started slowly, looking between both. "zombie, smile."

        no fangs.

        he grinned cheerfully without question. "does no fangs mean i get a big warm welcome and i can stop smiling?"

        "vampires are mean and ruthless━━" elysia started.

        "he's green and clueless." nova eyed him up and down.

          "thank you, yes." zed looked at both of them, genuinely hurt but also because they had both been thinking the same thing. "wait, that's mean, okay━━"

        now realizing zed the zombie guy wasn't as dangerous as elysia deemed him to be, she flashed her usual smile at him, shoulders slumping comfortably. "you know what ━━ sorry for what i said about the hair, you're actually rocking it."

        zed looked to the group, confused. "i can not tell if she's still being mean right now."

        ray laughed. "no, she's just like that, she compliments everyone. me on the other hand . . . i'll say somethin━━"

        "hey! this new guy is my bestie, the hell are you doing, ray!" she scoffed jokingly, taking zed's arm and intertwining it with hers. "we got a recruit with green hair, the vampires are gonna go running when they first see us."

         nova laughed. "we do need another recruit .  .  . dad, what do you think?"

        elysia lunged forward. "you know what i think!"

         "elysia, enough," her father said irritatingly before rubbing his chin, taking in the zombies features and physique. "he looks like he has a strong back that could harvest a lot of fruit."

        zed nodded. "i will literally harvest your entire orchard if it means i won't get air-fried."

        "i knew i liked you!" elysia punches him in the arm. before zed can fight that she was quite literally about to take the poor guy out in seconds with her magical powers when he first arrived, elysia dragged him behind nova and her father as their group continued marching down the beach.

        "don't be too nice to him, elles." nova scoffed.

        zed gave the oldest sister a pleading look. "please don't burn me."

        minimal clouds overtook the sky as the waves crashed softly against the shore. elysia turned her gaze to the water sparkling in the sunlight. she and nova often swam there when they were young ━━ when they had less responsibilities. they would play mermaids of the sun, where elysia was the sun queen and nova, her sidekick, was━━

        the moon.

        nova had been having visions since those days ━━ sometimes in the middle of the day or when they went to sleep. she wasn't scared of the dark when the lights flicked off and elysia caught her staring at the moon too many times to count ━━ the moon that was permanently on shadyside, the evil rock that hid the sun from their side.

        yes, elysia had a lot against a floating rock.

         they passed through the cave, the dimmer lights making them shiver before commander bright opened their gate to reveal the old orchard from above. it carried for miles and was astonishing, elysia could feel peace at her fingertips. soon, they would stop living in fear when they got their hands on the bloodfruit!

        her father nodded at the group to pass and they took the trail down the rocks into the endless grassy field towards the entrance of the orchard.

         "vampires!"

        elysia immediately stiffened, spitting around and moving away from zed absentmindedly. her hands burned with her balls of flame, circling it around her scouting for them. there was a big group of the nightwalkers following behind them.

         maybe shouting out that their enemies were around would make it easier for them to strategize.

        instead, the commander tells them to keep running. so, abandoning zed, elysia gets to the front of the crowd with ray and nova while the lights in her hands diminish.

        unfortunately for the daywalkers ━━ and she guessed also the vampires ━━ the orchard was heavily enclosed and seal. a brick wall stretched around it, a gate at the end of the field where the forest began. there was no way for them to get in, not quick enough before the vampires━━

         who just arrived.

         elysia scoffed in frustration. "damnit."

         "oh no." nova says, watching her sister wearily as elysia put a hand on her shoulder.

        "it's okay, we'll get it."

         up close, they looked even meaner than she had pictured, especially their leader who was staring daggers at her father. the daywalkers had lived in fear of the vampire conspiracies for too long ━━ now that they were really here, elysia knew by the looks on their faces they would kill all of them right now.

        funny for them because so would she!

        "just wait." nova whispered, making the fire in elysia's hands fade. she hadn't even realized they'd been out. nova was staring at a boy across from her. "it's you .  .  ."

        eye contact.

        "it's you," he replied, equally as dazed.

        oh, great! her younger sister could not possibly have a crush on this boy ━━ a vampire. really, she could do better. elysia's pretty sure she's seen some cute daywalkers on her strolls through the town, many who were━━

        well, not like that vampire.

         and no, it's not the one nova has her eye on.

        beside him, a boy is watching nova look at the dude too, with a weird look on his face. is that what she looked like right now?

        she shook her head, jabbing nova to stay focused. she straightened up, pony tail swinging and glimmering in the sunlight with the gold tinsel in her hair.

         "zed!" a girl cried, jumping into the zombie guys arms as he chuckled in relief, spinning her around.

         what was even going on?

        "vampires! explain yourselves. what are you doing at our orchard?" her father announced, voice echoing around the area in power. what would he do next? even elysia didn't know.

        "i could ask you the same about our orchard," their commander replied deviously. "daywalker thieves."

         "what did you just say?" elysia stepped forward, enraged as ray circled his fire. she's in front of the boy mirroring her face earlier, and a girl whose hair is half up half down. they all had the same thing in common with the red tints in their hair. immediately, they hissed and stepped forward, fangs out for blood as elysia made eye contact with the boy with dreads, a few red ones in there. he didn't falter as they looked each other up and down, but his fangs slowly went up━━

        she blinked. no, she was imagining it. elysia clapped her hands, rubbing them together satisfyingly as she glared at fang boy. instead, he winked.

        was that a part of the program? she looked around, naive to see if the other boy nova was watching did the same, but he looked just as pissed as the rest.

        she was sure she was imagining it too. maybe she was having visions like nova, they were sisters after all.

        the woman who interrupted didn't wear the vampire's red attire, and her hair wasn't green, so it left elysia wanting to bash her head into the brick wall! now this other blonde who knew the zombie guy and hugged him wore a blue and pink jumper and had purple in her hair!

         "i'll handle this, get out of my way." the girl beside boy-with-something-in-his-eye announced. the vampires ducked for her as another outside interrupted.

        "hold it! that may not be safe." she took a rock and attempted to toss it over the wall, but it bounced back to everyone's surprise.

        now that girl's hair was green.

         in total they had one too many vampires, two zombies, and two mystery people around here.

        "it looks like we need three keys." one mystery girl points, squinting. elysia turned to see the detail engraved into the gold plates. she was right.

         "well, there's a clue under the first key," zombie girl replied, trying to sort things out, but the daywalkers weren't going to listen.

        "daywalkers, guard the gate!" commander bright yelled.

         the vampires retaliated, smoke irising and inching dangerously close to elysia's feet.

         and chaos breaks loose.

         elysia's throwing punches among the fog, blinded, before she forms her fire, using it as a light to see who is trying to attack in the smoke. before she can make out where they are, a blast shoots elysia off her feet, launching her towards the back of the tree. her vision goes fuzzy from the contact ━━ head spinning until she realizes she's toppled on top of someone.

        explosions and screams happen in front of her as elysia attempts to get to her feet and fight again, but the other person gets up too, making elysia tumble back on the ground.

        she groaned, shit that hurt like a bitch.

        and elysia never swore.

         until now, because winking boy who actually had something in his eyes now (smoke) is above her.

        this is how she dies! almost passing out against a tree with no strength left to defend herself. she closed her eyes, but when she opened them, his fangs weren't out.

        "damn, that looks like it hurts."

        oh, she was going to punch him.

         "don't have too much to say now?" his hands were at his hips casually, playing off the hit he took. his accent paired with his demeanour made him seem cocky. and wow, okay! he thought he was funny too. elysia remains glaring, but unresponsive. he blinked, teasing eyes falling as he looked closer. "are you actually okay?"

        elysia used this opportunity to launch up, kicking him in the chin as his legs collapsed on him. he hit the ground as he groaned.

        "i'm okay now, thank you very much!" she chided, grinning proudly. if only her dad was watching.

        she ran back to the gate, nova fighting hand to hand with two vampires until a whistle blew, stopping the war cold.

        "we have a proposal!"

        "i don't know how much of a proposal we can do right now!" ray retorted, rolling his eyes. elysia bit her cheek.

        "assemble a group of your young leaders and well help you find the keys to open the gate." she finished.

         "we can't assemble like that! not after what they just did." ray yelled at the blonde girl who turned to zed with wide eyes but zed ignored him.

          "this works if you can agree to split the harvest." zed complied.

         "that's a great idea! and we can stay at that old camp," the other mystery girl pointed to the tree, indicating arrows of 'camp orchard.'

         "and why should we trust you?" the vampire commander asked. elysia was wondering the same thing as much as she hated to admit.

        "because were two zombies, a werewolf, and an alien," she deadpanned. "we're living proof that all monsters can work together."

        "an alien?" a loud voice sounded over the silence, belonging to no one other than elysia. nova snickered, figuring she'd blurt out in surprise.

        the alien nodded ━━ she was too pretty to be an alien! "yes, an alien." she chuckled. "i'm addison, this is zed and his zombie friend eliza, and willa."

         the commanders looked skeptical, but commander bright spoke first. "i'll be the first to accept their terms. nova, you're in charge."

        elysia tried to ignore her heart sinking as her younger sister fist bumped zed in excitement.

         "fine. we'll do the same." the vampire commander took her father's hand. "victor, show them who rules the mountain."

        the boy who looked at nova earlier.

         "alright!" he exclaimed. "ten minute break!"

         elysia laughed. now he was funny ━━ for a vampire ━━ she almost forgot to correct herself there!

          "sorry," victor switched, blinking, seeing the commander's face of disapproval. "i mean yeah, let's do this!"

        "nova." their father whispered, stopping her, ray and elysia sticking around. "the minute that gate is open, you take all of the fruit for us. even if it means destroying every vampire."

        "dad━━" nova struggled to find her words, elysia's heart stopping as she squinted. "you said we would share?"

          "there's not enough fruit to share. it's them or us."

        nova seemed to hesitate, so elysia took her opportunity to prove something to him, eyes at her dad. "we'll do whatever it takes."

        ray nodded with her. "agreed sir, we won't let you down."

         elysia didn't want to be mean at all. her sister deserves every ounce of the trust their dad has for them! but he wanted a leader who would do whatever it took, and it didn't seem like nova was in the right headspace for it. if elysia told her dad that, he'd never be in the right headspace.

        with that, she runs after the rest of the daywalkers with ray, a tight smile toying on her lips. she would wait for the day her father wakes up and hopefully realizes she and nova were equals. the day he realized both his daughters could be good leaders in their own ways without singling them out.

          but she may be waiting forever.

━━━━━━ 𝓛𝐈𝐋𝐈 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒

elysia is for the older sisters who feel like they're still children at heart. (this is me)

so yeah this is zombies 4 but they acc do fight each other without getting interrupted !! we're so back

 place to be is one of my fav songs in the movie. i'm gonna put every song in the chapters at the top bc why not they're such a bop. i didn't write it out in this chapter bc it's only from the daywalkers side buutttt there will be songs soo