• The car was silent. Corbin stared out the window into the dark of night, as flashbacks of what’d happened passed through her mind, as she was trying to fathom the underlying reason for him wanting to help her. Phrases of the vampire books ran through her head, because she was starting to believe that the books were becoming reality in her own life. Could Nick be the vampire protagonist whom she’d always adorned? Or is he the missing character, whose false heroics may cause her death?
    Awaken from her daydreaming, Luci shook her shoulder to notify her that they’ve stopped at another gas station. Wyatt was already pumping gas into the car, and both of the girls were thinking the same thing: they both grabbed their books from their bags, and started flipping through the pages, to find any key phrases, that could prove Corbin’s theory.
    Catching the corner of Corbin’s eye, a gorgeous man in a button-down and jeans walked out of the gas station store. Corbin dropped her book in a mix of curiosity and anger, thinking that it was nick again. Although she did not seeing his face due to the darkness, her body robotically climbed out of the car, and walked towards him. He walked around the corner and she trotted behind to catch up with him. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out of her mouth, as she had no clue what to say, or if she was right about him being nick. She began to reach out to tap his shoulder, when the man stopped walking. She stumbled to not keep walking and knock into him, and he turned his head slightly towards her, revealing only part of his face to her in the moonlight.
    Coming to the realization that it wasn’t nick, Corbin’s face fell (she DID have some hope that it would be him, although she doesn’t know why, and also some hope that it wasn’t). The man turned back forward, chuckling a bit to the realization that it was Corbin behind him.
    Corbin noticed this, and as the man began to walk away still, she yelled after him, “hey! What are you laughing for?!”
    The man chuckled more, a bit more loudly this time, without answering her. The enticing laughter resounded just enough through her ears, and she felt both a chill, and an endearing warmth through her body. The man knew she felt this. Corbin began to take slow steps forward, when she heard Luci call her from the car.
    “Corbin? Corbin! Come on! We have to go!” Corbin stopped, still staring at the mystery man walking away into the darkness.
    Luci trotted around the corner and grabbed Corbin by the arm. Both of the girls walked back to the car, and Corbin took one last look in the darkness to see the faint reflection of the man looking towards her and smiling.



    The girls walked back to the car, climbed in, and were brought back to reality when Wyatt brought back into conversation the Vagablonde concert. Both of the girls hesitated to find a suitable answer for their lie.
    “Ummm…” Luci began, “well,” a wave of genius passed over her as an idea went through her head “ w-we left the tickets at home, unfortunately, so if we’re going toke it to the concert in time, we have to rush home and get them”.
    Wyatt’s face filled with frustration and excitement. He feared they would not make it there on time, but he would be able to go see at least half of the songs. Wyatt drove almost twice as fast as the speed limit back to Corbin’s house. On the way home Wyatt couldn’t help but rave about how excited he was for the concert, and it began to storm outside.
    When they got home all three of them sensed something was wrong. Corbin’s parents’ car was gone, and none of the lights were on in the house, but something was still wrong. They all rushed to the front porch without getting drenched. Corbin grabbed her keys and opened the door. They all walked in to find that someone had been in their house with wet and muddy shoes…in fact, two people.
    Wyatt ran out of the door to the car in cowardly fear, and Corbin and Luci split up: Luci took the first floor, and Corbin took upstairs. Luci walked around the living room and found nothing wrong. She walked into the kitchen, where she heard the pitter-patter of rain as well as the scent of newly cut grass. The back door was open. Luci slowly walked towards the door, and grabbed a kitchen knife off of the counter. She glanced hesitantly between the open door and the clumped muddy footsteps at the doormat. She noticed the few times that she looked back and forth that the steps separated more and more as they were further from the door, they became separated at a distance that seemed inhuman. Stepping around the footsteps, Luci became within inches of the door. She raised her knife up higher, and peeked her head outside. Although the darkness was heavy, she could see what she needed to see in the moonlight.
    Outside there was a figure, a man, crouching under the tree, and staring at her. Luci’s heart rate accelerated insanely, and her whole body shook. The figure seemed to smile at her, revealing fangs. She dropped the knife. And as it hit the wooden deck with a clang, the figure stood up. Luci stumbled a bit backwards, and stopped breathing. The figure just laughed. Luci tried quickly to find the backyard light switch. Her hand fumbled on the wall until she found it. She flipped the switch, and the figure disappeared. Second checking that no one was there, she took a slight sigh of relief, and shut the door. She locked it, then fell backwards onto the floor. Looking around at the muddy footsteps, she tried to breathe again(lol).
    Upstairs, Corbin had already looked through the guest room, her parents’ room, and the bathroom. She had yet to check her own room. The muddy footsteps seemed to both enter and exit her room, and seemed fresher the closer they were to her room, and she tried to be as silent as possible. Slightly crouching, she approached the door. There was no noise she could decipher, except her own shallow breathing, and the constant drops of rain hitting her window pane. Her heart racing, she cracked the door open a bit more, to find the window open and to find someone WAS in her room.
    Facing his back to her, the masculine figure was sitting at her computer table. He was wearing a long black trench coat(very old fashion XD), and his hair was an adoring chestnut brown, slightly wavy, and just barely reaching his ears. Corbin found him somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly who he was. He was watching the computer screen, as if he was reading something. She tried to open the door slightly wider, when unfortunately the door squeaked. At the moment the sound hit, Corbin gasped silently. She didn’t breathe as the man turned his head towards her, only slightly showing the side of his face, enough to show her he was smiling. The man chuckled lightly. At that moment the familiar sound resonated through Corbin’s ears. Realization, shock, and fear were spread across her face. The man in her room was the same man from the gas station (o.o).
    Although not relieved at all, her body straightened, and she couldn’t move her eyes off of the man. No more than a minute passed when the man’s hypnotic laughter was repeated. He stood up, and the rolling chair rolled backwards hitting her bed with a strength that seemed to come from air, because the man stood up so gently. He pressed the button on her computer to turn the screen off, and there was no light in her room except the outside lights from neighbors. Corbin’s eyes quickly adjusted to the new darkness, and they still never left the man. He began to turn towards her smiling still, a small grin. He began to walk towards her, but her body wouldn’t move. She wanted to run away as fast as she could, or call for Luci, but she couldn’t, her body stood there, frozen.
    He came closer to the door, she could see him almost clearly now, he was gorgeous. His eyes were locked with hers, and he seemed to be getting more serious. By the time he reached the end of her bed, her body unlocked. She released the door, and turned around to run away. But in the same second she began to run, she was turned around again, held tightly by the wrists, and staring at the face of a handsome, but ravenous vampire.
    She struggled to get free of his grasp, but her efforts were fruitless. She wanted to scream, but she was unable. Their eyes were locked on each other’s. Her futile struggling amused him, and he began to chuckle again. The more he chuckled, the less strength she seemed to have to fight against him. He dragged her back into the room, and pinned her to the bed. The impact to the bed awakened her from the trance, and she began to fight against him again. Although her efforts were pointless, she was unable to become entranced again by him: she was focused on getting free. He was laughing again, because she didn’t learn how useless it was to fight.
    Corbin began to give up again, and he recognized this. He leaned in closer to her, as if he wanted to bite her, when the sound of breaking glass resonated in the room. Although curious to what exactly was happening, Corbin’s eyes were shut tight due to her fear. The grasp was released from Corbin’s wrists, and the sounds of struggle and broken objects repeatedly pounded in her ears.
    After minutes of fighting, silence lasted only a second before Corbin was picked up from the bed, and carried. The speed of the wind through her hair made the impression that she was moving very fast. After about a minute, she was laid down on what felt like grass. She heard footsteps walking a little bit away from her, then sitting.
    “You can open your eyes now, you’re safe.” He said. His voice was familiar to her, and she relaxed a bit. She slowly opened her eyes to see Nick sitting next to her in the grass. Her body relaxed more to see a familiar face, but her heartbeat still didn’t slow.
    “You might want to slow your heart rate, it’s making me nervous.” He said. His hair wasn’t neat, and he looked disheveled, like he was just in a fight. Corbin tried to take deep breaths, but his comment about her heart beat and her knowledge about him being a vampire made her almost incapable.
    “Wh-Why did you help me?” She said. She began to sit up when she realized her wrists were still sore, “ow”.
    “Your wrists hurt?” he asked.
    “Uh, yeah, that guy grabbed my wrists pretty hard.” She rubbed her wrists.
    “Hmmm…” He reached over to her and grabbed her hand. He turned it upside down and examined it. The rush of his cool skin tingled down Corbin’s spine. She blushed, but didn’t want to admit it. Nick’s fingers pressed against her wrist, and with a second of intense pain, the feeling was relieved. He did the same with the other wrist. Rubbing her wrists with relief, Corbin said, “wow, h-how did you do that?”
    “Just a little trick I tried right now.” He chuckled. His laugh was more inviting than the man at the gas station’s.
    “ You mean that you made that up?” Corbin said, she still didn’t trust him.
    “Yeah. Oh, and about what happened earlier tonight, I’m still sorry, I never wanted it to happen that way.” He put his head down in embarrassment.
    “I’m still confused. What’s happening is following the plot of McCabre’s books, but what I don’t understand is all of this. You’re breaking the rules. You aren’t supposed to be doing this, you aren’t supposed to—Be! I don’t get it! Why are you doing this, protecting me?!” she glared at him with a frustrated look, but he wouldn’t lift his head.
    “I was hoping you weren’t going to ask that.” He said. He shook his head, and hesitated to answer. “you know the books McCabre writes, obviously, you know all of the fictional characters?”
    “yes, I do, Luci and I are—Luci! I completely forgot about her! I have to make sure she’s safe!” Corbin began to stand up. Nick grabbed her arm and pulled her back down to the ground with inhuman force.
    “I’ll go make sure she’s safe…in fact, I’m almost positive she is…for now I guess.” He said. This troubled Corbin.
    “What do you mean FOR NOW?!?!” Corbin yelled.
    “SSHH!!! Be quiet! I’ll go get her.”
    “what about Wyatt? He’s in the car.”
    “I can’t get him.”
    “Why not?!”
    “I—I’ll tell you later. For now I’ll get Luci.” He ran towards the house with intense speed. Corbin sat in the darkness, with the ability to only see about three feet around her. The only noises were crickets, and laughing.
    Inside the house, Nick looked around for Luci. He was unable to find her. Then he heard a scream: it sounded like Corbin. He ran outside, finding that she wasn’t there either. The scent of another vampire filled Nick’s nostrils. It both angered and disgusted him. He knew it was foolish to leave Corbin out there alone.
    Nick ran back to the car for Wyatt. Realization came to Nick’s face when he saw that Wyatt had been bitten: a vampire can always find the person whom they bit. The other vampires must’ve tracked the girls here. But what Nick couldn’t understand was why that one stranger vampire was there, the one in her room. Nick didn’t recognize him. Jumping into the car, Nick was determined to find the girls. He followed the familiar scent of the other vampires from the house.

    Although the scent was overwhelming, and it would be an easy track to follow, Nick couldn’t help but think that this was a trick. In the passenger seat, Wyatt was complaining about Nick driving the car: Wyatt didn’t like other people driving his car.