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September 23
“Where are we going?” I asked James.

“We’re going to visit another old friend of mine.” He answered. “And she’s going to show you Cerberus.”

“What’s that?” I questioned.

He laughed. “Stop asking so many questions. You’ll see when we get there.”

“Okay.” I said. I tried to be quiet for the rest of the trip, but I always had something that I wanted to talk about.

September 24
We made it to James’ friend’s house. It looks more like a hut than a house, though. A lady that looked around fifteen years old was working on her garden. She stood up when we reached the house. “Hey, James. It’s been a while, hasn’t it.” she said.

“Yea. I haven’t seen you since I started tracking down those rogues.” He said back.

“What happened to your brother?” she asked. “I know you never went anywhere without him.”

“Well. He, uh…” he trailed off.

“Oh. I'm sorry.” She gave James a quick hug.

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” James told her.

“And who is this cutie?” she asked, noticing me.

“I'm Nicole,” I answered.

“That’s a nice name. I’m Valentina,” she said. Then she turned to James. “Where did you find such a cute little girl?” she inquired. James told her our story. When he finished she nodded and said, “Okay, so that’s what happened. Well, let’s not stand around all day. You’re here to see my fluffy puppy, right?” I was confused as to what she was talking about, but James nodded.

Valentina led us to a large cave that was about twenty feet from the back of her house. “Here, Fluffy!” she called as we neared the mouth of the cave. She whistled and a huge three headed dog walked up to us.

“Whoa. He’s huge.” I said.

“That he is.” Valentina told us. “And he’s just like a puppy, too. Go on, pet him.” I reached forward and scratched his leg. When I did, he tried to lick my face with all three heads at once. With all three of them pushing toward me, they knocked me down. Two of the heads continued licking me after I fell. I laughed the whole time because their tongues tickled. I had a lot of fun playing with Fluffy for the rest of the day, and I think James enjoyed it, too.

September 25
I was standing in Valentina’s garden, picking flowers, when I heard some one walk up behind me. I thought it was James, so I ignored him and continued picking. When he came closer, I stood up straight and turned around. But it was not James. It was the vampire who killed my parents! I was confused, angry, upset, and scared all at the same time. I tried to back up, but I tripped on a root and ended up on my butt.

I screamed as loud as I could, crying because I was afraid. James heard me, and was helping me stand up before the other vampire could react. After he helped me up, he looked in the direction that I was staring. “No…” he said, “It’s impossible. I killed you!”

The murderer smiled the same wicked smile as when he killed my parents. “No, James, it’s possible, and it’s happening right now.” He told us. “It took me a half-a-year to track you down after I recovered. Thankfully that friend you have in Australia was pretty willing to talk.”

“What did you do to Titus?!” James demanded.

“I did nothing to him. His wife on the other hand, well, lets just says she won’t be around to watch her son grow up.” He answered with a short evil chuckle. “You know your brother is still alive too, James. Just barely, though.”

“Aaron…” James whispered.

The other vampire continued as if he heard nothing. “If you want to see your brother again, then follow me. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Either way, you’re coming with me.”

“I’ll never go anywhere with a murderer like you!” James shouted.

“I guess it’s the hard way, then. And I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this.” He said, and he disappeared. When he reappeared, he was right next to me. Before I could even scream, he grabbed my arm and nearly dislocated my shoulder when he pulled me away from James.

“You let her go!” James shouted.

“I’ll let her go, if you agree to come with me. I’ll even put you in the same place as your brother, if you want.” He said calmly. “Otherwise, I’ll be forced to torture her in all of the so many ways I know.” He ran one cold finger along my cheek, and I tried to pull away, but his hold on my arm was to strong.

“Alright,” James sighed, “I’ll go with you. Just, just promise you won’t hurt Nicole.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t harm her. But she stays with me on the trip, that way if you decide escape you’re going to have to leave this little one behind. Now then, let’s go.”

We walked for a very long time before we came to an empty train station. We boarded the only train there, and I was lead to the conductor’s part of the train. “Stay in the corner. And while you’re with me, you will call me Lord Ciaran.”

“Y-yes sir.” I stammered, still scared that he might go against his promise.

September 27
The train finally stopped. Ciaran pulled me off the train, with James following. The area out side of the train station looked like a desert. I was pulled toward a small building. The only thing inside was a staircase leading to somewhere under ground. We walked down a hallway lined with steel doors. At the third-to-last door, we stopped. Ciaran opened the door and told James to go in. James entered, fearing for my safety, and then I was pushed in.

It took me a while to adjust to the dark, but after I did, I wished I hadn’t. There were bones scattered everywhere, and rats scurried around the floor and into tiny cracks in the walls. I also noticed that we weren’t alone in the room. A boy that looked a lot like James, only younger, was sitting in the corner. I thought he might be dead, but he looked up at me and then at James.

“James, is that you?” he whispered.

James looked over at the corner. “Aaron? Is that you?” he asked. The boy nodded. James walked over to him and knelt down. “Nicole, come here.” He said, and I did what he told me to. “Nicole, this is my younger brother, Aaron.”

“Nice to meet you.” I said.

“You too.” He whispered.

“Aaron,” James said, “This girl is the one whose parents were killed on that day that I thought you died. Now, I promise I’ll keep you both alive. Here,” James said, sticking his neck closer to Aaron, “I have enough for both of us. I won’t lose you, not again.” Aaron looked at his brother for a second, then he sunk his fangs into James’ neck. I thought it was gross, so I looked away until it was over. When I looked back, Aaron looked much better, and was gazing at his brother with a look of pure admiration. The two of us leaned against James’ shoulders and we all fell asleep pretty quickly.

September 28
“James?” I asked, “Can you tell me more about you? I mean, I’ve known you for over a year and I feel like barely know anything about you.”

“Sure.” He said. “I was born in England. Nowhere near the towns that you probably know. I grew up there with my parents and Aaron.” He put an arm around his still sleeping brother. “When Aaron was five, and I was fifteen, our parents … our parents died from malaria. We wandered around for a place to go. Eventually, we found an old man who said he could help us. We went with him, and he told us that we could live forever. He told us that we could become amazing creatures. I asked him what kind of creature, but he wouldn’t tell me. Eager to make our miserable lives better, Aaron and I accepted immediately. We were never told, though, that we would be turned into vampires. It wasn’t that hard to get used to, really. The hardest part, at first, was sucking blood. After we were used to our … powers, we wandered the world, looking for something to do. That’s why we have so many friends. Eventually, about fifty years ago, we started tracking down rouges. They were the bad vampires. They didn’t care who they sucked from, or who knew about it. They were dangerous because they came dangerously close to exposing us. Somewhere around fifteen years ago, I met your parents. They were just a young couple then, just out of high school. They were the ones who found out our secret. But, unlike most people, they wanted to help keep our secret instead of telling everyone about us. Five years later, they had a wonderful little girl and settled down in Idaho. I didn’t see them again until a year ago.” He finished.

“Were … was the couple my parents?” I asked, looking up at him.

“Yes,” James answered, “yes they were.”

October 5
It’s been a couple of weeks since I had a nightmare. This one was the same as last time. It started with James lying on the floor with Aaron. They both looked even paler than they usually do. Then, James slowly stood into a crouch. He stood there for a few seconds, then, he suddenly leaped on me and sucked my blood. But he didn’t just suck a little blood; he kept on sucking until I had no blood left. I could almost feel the blood leaving my body.

When I passed out in my dreams, I woke up to find James shaking me. He was trying to wake me up because I had apparently been screaming for five or ten minutes. I pulled away from his hands, still thinking that the dream was real, and curled into a ball on the floor.

“Nicole, are you okay?” he asked me. I didn’t answer. “Did you have another bad dream?” I looked at him for a second, then went back into a ball and cried. I think he got the hint. He pulled me onto his lap, against my wishes, and held me until I managed to push away again. Then, I started pounding on his chest, even though I knew it wouldn’t hurt him.

“Go away!” I shouted. I was as scared as I was when I first met him. “Go away! I hate you! If we weren’t trapped in this stupid place I would get as far away as I could! I would go home and…” I continued like that until my shouts were just muffled sobs, and my arms were too tired to hit him anymore. James just sat there bewildered the entire time with Aaron behind him.

Afterward, I couldn’t believe that I had said what I did, but I couldn’t bring myself to apologize. I didn’t want to. I was still afraid of him. Still afraid that he would hurt me, even after all the times he protected me. I had lost my home, my friends, my parents, and now I had lost the only person I could trust. This was truly losing everything.

October 8
I heard James and Aaron whispering while I was sleeping. “We need to find a way out of here.” James whispered.

“I agree, but how? I’ve been here for two years and I still haven’t figured a way out.” Aaron said.

“What about that vent over there. It’s letting light in.” James suggested.

“I thought about that, but the old man who used to be here told me it was just a light bulb to make us think there was a way out. So, I believed him.” Aaron told him, scratching the back of his head.

“You never checked it out?”

“No, I was… I was too short to see well enough to tell. That’s the terrible thing about being stuck in the body of a seven-year-old.”

“Well, I’ll check for you.” James walked over to the vent and looked into it. “I can see a small part of the sky. This is definitely a way out.”

“Good. I’ll tell Nicole that we found a way out.” Aaron walked over and shook my gently. “Nicole? Are you awake?” he asked. I opened my eyes and nodded. “Okay. I’ve got to tell you. We found a way out of here.” My eyes opened wider in disbelief. I couldn’t speak, but he knew what I meant. “Yes, really.”

I hugged him as hard as I could, because I knew it wouldn’t hurt him. When I was done, he led me to the vent on the far wall. “This is it?” I asked. Both James and Aaron nodded, and James reached for the vent. He grabbed it and pulled it of as easily as I could pull off a band-aid.

He boosted Aaron up first and offered to help me, too, but I refused. Aaron then reached down his hand and pulled me into the vent with him. He might be small, but he’s really strong. I lifted him up so he could climb out, then he pulled me up too. It was so great to be outside again, but my eyes hurt from the sunlight. “Come on.” Aaron whispered to James.

Then, I heard the sound of a door starting to open. I saw the cover to the vent go back on and I knew what was happening; someone was entering the room. “Go without me.” James whispered, almost inaudibly.

He started to go back, but I pulled him away. “We can’t waste this chance. James knows what he’s doing. He can protect himself.” Once we were a few feet away, he started walking instead of being half dragged.

October 9
I woke up very confused. I had forgotten that we ran away yesterday, so seeing the trees above my head confused me. I tried to roll over and groaned. My side hurt. I tried look over to see why my side hurt, but I couldn’t move my head. I couldn’t move my arms or legs either. I was paralyzed!

I started to cry, which I could at least do that, and Aaron appeared over me. “Nicole, are you okay?” he asked. I wanted to shake my head but I couldn’t so I just kept crying. Aaron, who didn’t know what was wrong, asked “Are you hurt? Can you tell me what’s wrong?” I could see that he was starting to panic.

I tried to talk and tell him what was wrong, but no sound came out. I could still move my lips though, so I started mouthing the words ‘I'm paralyzed’. I think he noticed, because he started mouthing what I was, trying to figure out what I said.

“You’re paralyzed!” he shouted when he figured it out. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I have a friend who specializes in poisons and stuff. I’ll take you there.” He picked me up, which was a little awkward because he was a bit smaller than me, and took off running.