A Little Less Sixteen Candles.

A few days later, and we had settled into a pattern. Amanda began - or ended, if you will - her day by depleting an unbelievable amount of cereal when she wakes up, watching crappy late night TV, playing a few rounds of video games with Joe and Andy, eating lunch, and then waving at him as she passed him in the hallway. The boys appeared to go through their days as usual, unless it was irregular for the vampire to stay in his room until the exact time Amanda approaches hers, as if waiting for her to leave.

Mine consisted of drinking the coffee that Patrick insisted he make for me and eyeing him carefully as he exchanges his routine greeting with Amanda. I continue to watch him until Patrick disappears into their tiny kitchen and the sound of a blender slices the silence he forms in the air. I proceed to check on Amanda, following her carefully, and we then go out just like every night we have for the past few years, hunting down the enemy until we despise. Then eat dinner, crash into bed, rinse and repeat.

So when Patrick woke us up early one day and announced that we weren't fighting, I was completely shocked. Amanda almost dropped her spoon when she looked up at him. He explained they were tired, and took a break every few days, and asked was I okay with that. Amanda was so ecstatic at a rest she squealed, jumping up and hugging him enthusiastically. I told him that it was the answer to his question.

I didn't know what to do, I felt so lost without the work up of a fight, without using all my energy; or any of it. Amanda became even more excited when Joe told her the reason we were woken up early. They were going outside for supplies. Usually when I did this I did it without Amanda, leaving her at home to sleep. But she insisted she come, and begged me for money to buy new clothes [we had only bought the necessities when we first moved in]. I reluctantly gave it to her, but then told her to buy whatever she liked. She really did deserve it, she didn't ask to be brought into all this.

I was afraid I would now be bored all day, with no one home and nothing to do. But as they left - I noticed he was not with them - Patrick told me they'd take care of her, and that the training room was third door on the left. I thanked him and watched them go from the high window of their apartment. At least Amanda looked like she was having fun, practically skipping down the street, clinging to Joe's arm.

I smiled thoughtfully at her departing figure before sitting down in front of their television. I just couldn't turn it on; it was too normal. Without Mandy here everything felt so empty. I wondered if the vampire was here; Patrick hadn't explained his disappearance. It was too quiet, almost like a graveyard, I thought cynically.

I sat quietly, cringing from the sun leaking in through the window, like lava seeping into my flesh. I let it soak into my skin before standing and jogging lightly towards my room before stopping just outside the door. One glance at the seemingly ominous third room on the left and my feet were dragging me towards it. I paused breifly with my hand on the cold handle, thinking about where he was. I wish I had have asked Patrick before he left.

Admittedly, the exercise made me feel much better. There had been all this pent up energy that needed releasing, and my fist connecting with their punchbag over and over, feeling the crunch of my bones against the solid material, was enough to keep my blood flowing, pumping fiercly as threw hit after hit.

I was alone with my thoughts for some time before he spoke.

"Imagining that's me?" I jumped, panting as I turned to face him. He was just leaning casually against the doorway, his face twisted into a smirk. I stared at him in a mixture of anger and curiosity. Had he been in the apartment the whole time, with just one human girl left alone to fend for herself? Had he been standing there this whole time? I couldn't imagine any vampire holding that amount of restraint. But I assumed that's what he was here for. To finish it.

"Maybe. You scared?" I breathed, trying to even out the flow of oxygen. His smirk pulled at his lips, his teeth bared like the stakes I use to stab them. His kind.

"No. Are you?"

I scoffed. "No. I have more experience than you."

He nodded thoughtfully as I removed my gloves. "But I'm stronger."

"I'd still win."

It seemed like hours that we stood there, but my brain counted up only eight seconds before he strode past me, taking a place on the other side of the mat, and looking at me condescendingly, much like an adult would a small child. "Only one way to find out."

I wanted to let my jaw drop, but instead decided to play him on it. "You got it." I grabbed a stake off the shelf as I took position in front of him.

"No rules," he announced. "Just like it would be." My mind echoed his unspoken words. Just like it could be. He then smiled, all razors on display, right before taking a step in my direction. I followed his example, twisting the wood in my hand and jumping forward. He jumped back, grabbing my extended arm. "You'll half to do better than that," he whispered harshly, his face inches from mine.

I pulled on my captive arm, bringing him forward before swinging my leg up to connect with his ribcage. He threw a punch in my direction but I ducked before it landed, throwing back an uncoordinated one of my own, which he easily blocked. "That the best you can do?" he asked quietly, cockiness apparent in his voice.

I couldn't believe I hadn't taken him down yet. He had much more training than I anticipated. But still, we both knew what this "friendly" match was really about. Whether I would live or die. So I distracted him with a punch and tried pulling his leg from underneath him, giving me the advantage. And yet he was quicker again, dodging my light jab and grabbing my leg, and forcing me to the mat.

My eyes were wide when he leaned over me from my left, still holding one leg down with one hand and pinning my arms above my head with his free one. My stake was long gone, thrown from my hand when he flipped me over. And when his teeth grazed my collarbone, I really thought I was dead. I thought of Amanda immediately. Would he leave before they got back? Take them down as they come through the door? I hadn't realized how dangerous a vampire with skill could be, how their strength could be shaped into pure offensive brilliance.

"I win."

He pulled back from me, and it suddenly it was. Something. He was there, and I could feel his breath on my neck. It was warm, which surprised me, and even. And his eyes were hazel, and deep. So deep. For the first time in my life I realized I had never looked a creature of the night directly in the eye until this very moment, when one had me pinned to the ground, prepared to use me just to quench his own needs, needs that couldn't be filled by some animal blood and holy water in a blender.

But the longer he held my gaze the more it felt like he was a person. His mouth was closed, no fangs gleaming from a crooked smile. No tight grip ready to crush my bones. Just the look of a person, who had seen too many fallen, too much badness. And loneliness swam beneath, where the brown became deeper. He was just a person who wanted someone to look at him and see him, just to see him once for someone, not something. His eyes searched mine like he thought he might find her there, hiding amongst a sadness and loneliness of her own.

I shook my head, and pushed myself from his now weakened grip. He could have grabbed me back in seconds, but he let me go. My emotions were becoming too confusing. I ran for my room, but he was still out there, taunting me with his human qualities. But he wasn't. That was a lie, a tired trick. Like stories of Dracula, he sucked you in and sucked you dry. But what if he was? What if he was a person who became caught up in the wrong thing? Like a kid taking drugs, he just wanted out. But there was no fix, not for this. Only a slow and painful death when he surrendered himself for the sake of others.

Like the good person he once was.