Elena.

I realized that I was very hungry then, so I unlocked the door to my room and walked to the garage. Mother wasn't there to scream at me because she was working but instead, she'd placed a post-it note on the small extra fridge we had in the garage. I knew it would have angry words from my mother, so I ignored it and opened the fridge. The red liquid was there like I'd thought it would be, in a bunch of little bottles you couldn't see through. I knew what was in it, I didn't know what it was, but I knew how delicious it smelled and what it looked like. I only required one of those little bottles every once in a while, hardly once a day. My mom usually got it for me, but today was different. I closed the fridge door, taking the note from the fridge without reading it. I wasn't about to let a note spoil my breakfast.

I started to do my morning routine, avoiding the mirrors of course. I could get dressed, brush my teeth, almost anything without them. Almost. When I knew this was going to be an impossible as much as I wanted it to be. I reluctantly looked in the mirror again.

My eyes were a bit watery, but other than that, I seemed normal again. I slowly opened my mouth with the help of my hands because my lips were trembling so much, they couldn't open themselves. My teeth seemed fine again, which was both a good and bad thing. It was a good thing because, well, I obviously wasn't going to have freaky, vampire-looking teeth for the rest of my life, but it was also a bad thing because one thing confused me; What if I hadn't woken up from my nap, and I'd dreamed all of it? But that wouldn't explain how I ended up on the bathroom floor. Is it possible that it was for real? Don't answer that.

I decided to stay in my room to organize my closet, to keep myself busy. I was almost done when the door knocked. I knew who it was but I didn't want to open it because I knew she was going to start screaming at me for not answering the door the night before.

"What is it?" I called, quickly reading the note Mom had left on the fridge in case she asked me anything about it. All it said was that she was going to be here at 1pm.

"Come out here to say hello to our guests." Mom said in a happy voice. I put my shoes on before I opened the door with a slightly shaky hand. I started to walk out the hall that led to the living room that was around the corner, but something felt wrong. I had a feeling in my gut that I wasn't supposed to go out there, to the living room. I started talking myself out of going to meet those people, but I knew I need answers, so I continued walking towards the long and what seemed, eternal hallway.

I was lost in my thoughts so I didn't notice my mom walking around the corner until I heard a soft gasp. She hurriedly pushed me into the garage and gave me another bottle of the red liquid to drink, telling me should would come back to get me in a minute. She left after that to go back to the people, but I couldn't wait any longer. I had to go see who these people were so I left the garage still holding the half-full bottle of liquid and walked to the living room.

The first person I saw as I arrived there was...Jerry? I stopped in my tracks and stayed a few feet away from everyone. Jerry was the first to see me, then my mother, and then, finally, a middle aged women with strawberry blonde hair and dark brown eyes. I looked around the room, it was only us six. They were all standing, the guests were a couple feet away from the door. My mothers expression was passive while the woman gave me a grin. Jerry looked upset and stared down at the floor. I didn't know what to say, neither did the guests, so my mom piped up.

"These are our guests. Mrs. Goodman and her nephew, Jerry. He goes to your school, doesn't he?" She asked. I gave a small nod. The woman licked her violently pink lips before she spoke.

"Hello. nice to meet you." Mrs. Goodman said. She wouldn't stop looking at me, as if I was a specimen in a science project. I looked over to my mom who made a small gesture to suggest everything was fine. Mrs. Goodman looked over to her nephew, who looked up at me briefly but didn't say a word, but instead started staring at a vase on our table. The woman as well as everyone else was still standing, which I found strange.

"You too." I said half heartedly. I grasped the bottle I was still holding a little tighter from nervousness.

Mother saw my hand do this. "Why didn't you finish it honey?" She said in a sweet voice, which I found fake.

"I don't know," I said in a timid whisper, looking over at Jerry, who was now looking at me as well with an expressionless face.

"Maybe she hasn't adapted to drinking so much blood yet." Mrs. Goodman said in a matter- a-factly voice. At first I thought they were kidding, but the look on their faces stated otherwise. I started shaking from the shock of this statement. My mom quickly took the bottle from me before I dropped it onto the carpet.

"This..this..." I stammered.

"I changed the color as much as I could with food coloring so it wouldn't frighten you as much." Mom replied sympathetically. It seemed like an eternity before any words escaped from anyones lips.

"Well it won't matter now," Mrs. Goodman clapped her hands cheerily, "she won't ever be hungry again."

I don't remember exactly what happened after that, step by step. I do know that Mrs. Goodman started advancing towards me, telling me she would explain everything when I'd left with Jerry and her. My eyes shot towards my mother, but she looked away solemnly.

Like I said, it was all a blur...probably from the trauma, my body set itself on auto-pilot. I don't even remember what their expressions were when I started running past the women, even past Jerry who could have easily grabbed me. I unlocked the door and ran outside. I ran downstairs almost falling a couple times but I got away from the apartment as fast as I could, not knowing where to, but not looking back.

I could barely see from the tears blurring my vision, but from what I saw, It was very sunny, and the sky was cloudless but extremely blue. I had no idea how much I'd ran but I came up to a tall, circular fence that was was surrounded by green plastic. I slipped through a part of the fence that was already broken.

Inside, there were metal benches that went around in a circle, so the place I was now in looked like a small arena. The top of the strange structure was completely open, so the sun still shone through. There was a small, white cement shed that was outside the fenced area that I'd seen before I'd come in to this place. Even though it looked unoccupied, it would have been harder for them to have cornered me here. I was surprisingly not tired at all, but I knew it would be better to hide then to try to risk finding a better hiding place. I sat down on one of the benches towards the front, furthest away from the opening in the fence, and looked up at the sky.