• I knew that the big day arrived, once the nightmares had begun. I must have been tossing and turning in my bed for a while, because Darren woke me up and complained that I kept 'moving around,' but once I woke up I couldn't remember a thing. All I saw was the darkness surrounding me. The noisy air conditioner kept me awake, along with my borderline crazy pulse, as Darren slept beside me. Goosebumps spread across my body and no matter how warm Darren made the bed, it was as if someone was pumping cool air though my veins. I flinched, then pulled off the covers. I looked outside. It was foggy, as if a cloud collided with the city. Not only that, but it was deserted, except for the occasional strung-out hobo. I shivered and went back to bed, then laid there for hours.

    Eventually Darren woke up and Atari arrived at the apartment. I pretended to be asleep as the two boys discussed there plan, got dressed, and prepared for the attack, but inside I wanted to scream. As they talked I went up and grabbed a drink. I kept poured in glass after glass, but I couldn't get drunk, so I stole some of Darren's weed, and got high. It didn't work. In fact, I still felt sober.

    Then I started to panic. I mean really ******** panic. Questions ran though my head: What if Darren runs into Maya's killer? What if Kishi is there and she escapes? What if Darren gets bitten? What if Atari dies? What if Darren dies? What if? All the 'What if's' drove me ******** crazy, until I was crying and sweating.

    "Is she always like this?" Atari asked Darren. I was too upset to care.

    "Yeah, but she'll calm down in five minutes give or take."

    But I didn't calm down. Tears soaked my night gown. Even though I wanted to stop so bad, it was like I couldn't control myself, ya know? I took deep breathes but that didn’t work either. Though I was hysterical, the boys had to leave me behind. I let Atari leave without any effort, but Darren fought to leave me behind. I kept grabbing on to him, beginning, pleading for him not to go, but even so Darren was able to keep calm.

    "Just relax, I’ll be back in no time." Darren looked at me like I was a child. I shook my head than I grabbed the back of his arm. Darren let go, than gave me a kiss on the lips. Suddenly, he was gone.

    That’s when everything became worse. I remembered that day that Savannah gave me some kind of drug. I must have brought it with me, because I didn’t remember leaving it home. I looked in Darren’s backpack—and there it was—black liquid in a needle. Now all I had to do was find a vein right?

    Which was easy, because there were plenty of blue veins running in my arms. I matched the needle up to my skin, pressed down, broke the skin, then pumped the black liquid into my arm.

    Immediately I felt a rush. The best. High. Ever. It was as if, I was a superhero; going into outer space, to fight the forest monsters and win the key to the galaxy. It was as if I was flying, and the world was suddenly turning into a fantasy I created. It was as if I was free. It was as if I suddenly didn't have a father, nor a life to look up to, only an adventure. Oh how I wanted to share that adventure! Oh how I wanted to tell Darren that there was this wonderful world inside of this terribly boring one! I had to! That was what I was going to do!

    I looked around our little hotel. The lights seemed to form white columns of light, while the sheets seemed soft and if I could melt right into the bed and no one would notice. My muscles were also super relaxed, and time seemed surreal. It was. ********. Awesome.

    Since, I was little, I always thought of myself as, prissy moody and uptight. I cared about everything. I cared about how I looked. I cared about people looked at me. I especially cared when in middle school I found out that no one liked me but I cared even more when my parents split apart. Yet, everyone else around seemed to not care about a thing. I envied them. I craved for the feeling not to care but now it had it. It was in my hands.

    But yet this, this feeling was not easy to ignore. Yet I found it to be almost joyful how I was able to navigate though the ghetto streets, by myself, and I was able to find my way to Darren. I guess I have, what you would call a "intuition."

    I walked around the empty train station. The air was paper thin, making my lungs empty. My muscles moved like jello. At the same time space didn’t seem to have any meaning. Though my conscious was ******** up at that time, in the back of my mind, I still knew that the air was dense and borderline freezing. With my senses heightened, I ran though the train station, into the suburbs and forest, with only the ‘sound’ of Darren’s voice to follow.
    Eventually, I saw them. But I just laughed.

    "Holy s**t!"

    Atari looked at me. "She’s ******** wasted."

    Darren looked at Atari, then his eyes traced back to me. "Wow…"

    "Haha, it’s like she can’t leave you alone." Atari laughed then asked Darren, "So what are you going to do know?"

    "Well, we can’t just leave her here if that’s what your implying?"

    "O-kay?"

    "Dude, there are a lot of sickios in this world." Darren grabbed my hand, then guided me though the station, like I was a small child. I loved every minute of it. "We’re going back. We can always do this another day."

    "Assuming they don’t, like, ambush us." Atari laughed but Darren glared at him. That enough, made Atari shut up.

    There were times when I faded out, because after that, I remembered suddenly being in a forest where the trees are towering over us. I also remembered a simple suburban street--much like the many I grew up on. A combination of that, the fog, and the awkward silence that not even a party could fill, gave me bad nostalgia of a horror movie.

    That night, moonlight was the only light. Other then that simple white sun there was nothing to guide us. A canopy of trees blocked it out anyway--trees ready to shed there leaves and land on my already paranoid body. My legs lied lump, so Darren kept having to guide me. The rush was over but the high was not.

    Behind me Atari carried his hunting gun. His thick hunting boots crunched the leaves, while his hat cast a shadow on his dark eyes.

    "Eeeee!" I screamed, when I a chill ran down my spine. A brief burst of paranoia. I giggled.
    Darren clamped his hand over my mouth. "Shut up," he whispered. "Please."

    Again the forest was dead silent. Nostalgia filled me up again, but we kept walking. Suddenly, I am almost at peace, for reminisces of old hunting trips with my dad flooded my memory. I closed my eyes and pretended to melt into the forest. I listened carefully to all the sounds, and let the lights fill my eyelids—that’s when I heard a leaf rustle.

    My body jolted up. I pushed Darren’s hand away and screamed "He’s coming!"

    More forcefully Darren clapped his hand to my face. I fought him. Trees knocked together in the background. We stopped, paralyzed. Darren’s hand reached for the handgun in his pocket.

    Then the vampire’s emerged.

    It was inhuman.

    The way that they jumped. The way that the ran across the forest. Atari and Darren had seen it too, but Darren kept his cool. Terror strickened Atari's face.

    There were three of them. Darren jumped on the back of the largest, who towered over Darren by at least a foot, and attempted to strangle him. But he was no match. The vampire quickly overpowered him and he fell to the ground. Darren didn't even groan. In no time, he was back up, kicking and punching the largest of the three, while the other two attempted to tried to lunge toward Atari.

    They were unsuccessful, but Darren's preceder was not. The large vampire picked Darren up and threw him on the ground. Then he stepped on Darren and knocked him unconscious. Blood leaked from his mouth.

    I gasped. Then I turned back to Atari. He fired the shotgun. The vampires dodged each of the bullets. One of them jumped to the top of the tree. The other one simply vanished. The next moment, Atari was on the ground. The gun flew out of his hand and landed across the forest floor. Right beside me.

    I picked up the gun.

    The vampire straggled Atari. Atari couldn't do anything against him. So he turned back to me, pleading.

    "Shoot now, Damnit!"

    Was he talking to me? I paused. Then I looked around the forest. Each of the faces ran together, so I looked for a pair of black eyes. Then I saw them. I pointed the shotgun toward the vampire. With the gun against my torso and a quick twitch of my fingers, I fired the gun.

    An animalistic scream.

    I missed.

    Instead, I shot Atari.

    Atari screamed until he cried. Blood gushed from his leg. The vampire laughed hysterically. He left Atari on the ground like an unwanted toy. He was going to die. He was going to die because of stupid me.

    Smiling, the vampire licked his lips and approached me like a predator would his prey. My body shook. I turned the other way to run but they only got closer. No matter how fast my legs moved, I wouldn't go anywhere. The way I was running, was like I would in a nightmare.

    A cold hand grabbed the back of my neck. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to kick. My legs were limp. Then the vampire looked straight into my eyes. He saw my pain and choose to smile at it, licking his lips like a wild animal. His fingers traced my neck. He, then opened his mouth, revealing his sharp teeth. His breathe smelled like blood. Then he rested his teeth on my neck, slowly slicing the soft, sensitive skin. Life sucked out of me.

    Then I was on the ground.

    "What the hell are you doing?" screamed another vampire, who had just joined the group. He was smaller, and a lot younger looking then the others. All I remembered was that he couldn’t have been older than 18. Then I collapsed.