Change or Die

Alexa's PoV

The next day, I woke up around noon to frantic screaming echoing throughout the house. Weird that this seems more normal than just waking up naturally.. Once again, somebody had laid out clothes on a chair in my room after I had fallen asleep. I quickly pulled them on to find that they were all new and precisely my size. Huh.. did someone measure me or something? I thought. Then I remembered that my original clothes had been taken days ago to be washed and were never returned. I guess they got the sizes there. Creepy if they didn't, though.

Once I had dressed and straightened myself out, I headed out through the insane hallways towards the stairs. The other day I had made a point to walk the path back and forth until I had memorized it, just so I wouldn't get lost quite so much. When I finally got downstairs, I found the household whipped into a frenzy except, of course, for Cereal. Stupid Bran Flakes.. doesn't anything get to him?!

"What's going on?" I questioned.

"CHARLIE'S GONE MISSING!" Johnny screamed. "IT'S DAYTIME AND SHE'S GONE MISSING! FUCKING MISSING, PINKY! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?!"

"Uhm, no, actually. I have no idea," I responded, staring wide-eyed.

"IT MEANS," he began, rather over-dramatically I thought. "THAT SHE IS GOING TO HURT HERSELF AGAIN." Or maybe not so dramatic.

A dark-haired girl that I hadn't met before walked over and started to whine to the diminutive vampire. "Johnnyyy! I'm sure she's fine! It's just Charlie, she probably went for ice cream or something!"

Johnny, Jimmy, and Indy all froze and stared at her. Indy was the first to speak.

"How DARE you be so selfish, Lacey!" she threatened. "If you actually cared about your Johnny half as much as you like to think you do, you'd have NOTICED that his best friend has been virtually COMATOSE with regret for the past SIX DAYS! And what is WRONG with you that you could even DREAM that Charlie would just waltz out for some innocent reason in the middle of the day when she wouldn't even acknowledge Jimmy for almost a week!"

Lacey seemed unfazed. Either she was too stupid to realize what the bubbly girl had just said, or she was enough of a bitch to not care. "Well, how am I supposed to know what she's doing? I'm not her keeper or anything, isn't that his job?" she wondered, motioning vaguely at Jimmy. Apparently she's just that stupid.

Indy opened her mouth, presumably to scream at Lacey again, but Zacky grabbed her arm and shook his head. I guess everyone's just used to how ridiculous this girl is..

"So what are we going to do?" Johnny asked defeatedly. "It's too bright out today, none of us would be able to stay out long enough to track her down. You all know just as well as I do that she's not going to be anywhere when can get to by car.."

Jimmy looked defiant, "I don't care where she went this time, I'm not leaving her. She's only been gone an hour. We can still catch up to her!"

"Jimmy.." started a.. small clone of Bran Flakes? Who the hell is that?! "There's no way we can find her fast enough without getting burned up. You know that."

"Maybe I don't care!"

"Well you SHOULD! If she does decide to come back and finds out that you FRIED yourself out there trying to find her, she's going to be a million times worse and you know it!" charged mini-Bran Flakes.

This is my fault. "I could go look for her," I suggested. Everyone turned to look at me, some incredulous, others hopeful. "I mean, it's because of me she freaked out anyway, right? The sun doesn't bother me and I owe it to her to get her back to normal...for her.."

"But how would you get her back here?" Johnny prodded. While it may have sounded like he was looking for a reason for me to stay, I could see it all over his face that he wanted nothing more than for me to run out the door rightnow to find his friend.

I glared at him. "I'll find a way, all right?"

----

An hour and a half later, I was still trying to find a way. And Charlie. This girl is way too good at hiding..

I had spent hours wandering around the area, trying to find a sign of the maniac on the loose. Maybe, I reasoned. I've walked past her, and she's just so short, I didn't see her.

Using this logic, I started watching the ground for clues instead of scanning faces. Once I made my way through the park for about the fifth time, I spotted the head of a shadow stretching from the old, abandoned bridge in the brush. When I followed it, I found a bright red Charlie seated on the railing of the bridge, staring into the water.

"Charlie, what are you-" I began. Before I could even finish my question, she had slid from the railing and into the water.

I screamed. I really don't know why, but I did. Maybe it was from the frustration of spending so long looking for her, only for her to literally slip out of my reach once I found her. Maybe it was because she didn't float. Either way, it took me longer than it probably should have to snap out of it and run down to the water's edge.

Once there, I search the surface of the water, looking for a sign of her body. Then I remembered that, hey, she didn't fucking float. Groaning and stomping the ground in frustration, I hurriedly waded into the water and started looking for her. The stream she had chosen was deep enough, but it didn't move very fast and I spotted her head inches below the surface rather quickly. Swimming over, I grabbed the back of her shirt and one of her legs and hauled her to the surface. She isn't breathing.. I pushed myself and got to the bank as fast as I could, faster than I would have said possible, towing the unconscious vampire behind me.

On the shore, I pulled Charlie out the rest of the way, making sure to stay in the shade, and worked on getting her to breathe again. After a few minutes of trying and failing to get a response from her, I started to panic. Does she have a pulse? Is she even supposed to have a pulse? What do I do?? Frantic, I decided to try to call Jimmy. Then I remembered that not only did I not have a phone, if I did I wouldn't even have his number, or anyone else's for that matter.

Alone, concerned, and stressed, I started to cry. I had no idea what was going on anymore, no idea what to do, and nowhere to get help. Had I been capable of paying attention, I probably would have noticed the light coughing behind me. As it was, I almost jumped out of my skin when I felt a pair of small, shaky arms wrap around my waist and heard a raspy, "Don't cry, Pinky, it'll be fine.."

I roughly wiped my face with my sleeve and turned around to face Charlie. She was dripping wet from head to toe, almost unrecognizable. Her skin was a sickly red color, but she smiled at me anyway. While the last few times I had seen happiness on her face may have scared me, I knew something was wrong. Her face may have been showing happiness, but her eyes just looked confused.

"Charlie.." I sighed. "Why would you do that?"

She blinked. "Because. I hurt you, that was wrong."

"But Charlie, that wasn't your fault! It's fine, see? Look, I'm fine!" I protested.

"Just because you can heal doesn't mean that it's right for me to do something like that, Pinky."

"So it's not right. I don't hold it against you, I mean.. You couldn't really help it. I know that."

She laughed. It was a strange, strange sound. I could tell that she was amused, but mostly it sounded harsh and.. very un-Charlie-like. "How could you know? You're still human, my dear. And with the way you and Brian get on, you will be for.. quite a while."

Did she just.. call him Brian?

"Charlie. Is.. is that what this is about? That fucking worthless, sonofabitching, spineless Cereal?!" I asked incredulously.

For the first time, Charlie broke eye contact with me.

"It is, isn't it? He really got to you?"

She nodded.
I sighed.

"It's not something I could help," she explained quietly. "He just... He's really good at hurting people, fucking with their heads."

"Stupid Bran Flakes.." I muttered. "Just ignore him, okay? Fucking Bran Flakes has no idea what he's talking about. You're amazing and, seriously? When everyone noticed you were gone, they all started freaking out. All of them. I seriously thought that Johnny was gonna explode or something."

Success! Charlie laughed at that. "Yeah, I guess he does get kinda worked up sometimes. Silly Johnny.."

"So.. you're good now?" I asked hopefully.

"No. Not at all," she replied, completely straight-faced. "I am WONDERFUL!" Upon her screaming at the top of her lungs, she jumped on me, wrapping her tiny arms and legs around me. Her grip was tight enough to knock me over without her falling off, but not enough to hurt me. I was impressed.

"So... you don't care about what Bran said?" I questioned from my spot on the muddy ground.

Charlie looked thoughtful for a few moments. "Nope. You're right, Pinky, he was just being mean. I'll just have to remember that he's a stupid meanie head," she sang childishly.

"Now let's get the fuck home, dude! It's way too hot out here!" Charlie laughed. The girl leapt to her feet, bringing me up with her, and dragged me off towards the house I was beginning to learn to call home.

----

On the walk back, Charlie and I traded stories of stupid things Bran had done. She also gave me a piece of information so valuable, I promised to help her with whatever crazy scheme she had planned for tonight just out of gratitude. Oh yeah Bran Flakes..I've got you now..

When we finally got home, I saw three pairs of eyes covered by sunglasses waiting in the window. Charlie, however, spotted them first and took the opportunity to hide behind me all the way up to the door. Even though they should have been able to see her, none of the spies noticed Charlie and instead threw open the door so dramatically it bounced back shut in their faces. I stifled a laugh when I heard the people inside.

"Fucking spaz!" someone bitched at whichever of the spies had thrown open the door. It was quickly followed by the resounding Smack! of a slap to the head.

"Whatever, Matt! That hurt.." Johnny whined as Indy once more ripped the door open.

"Alexa!" she shouted. "Where's Charlie?!"

"Uhm, she took a wrong turn at Albuquerque, ended up in the magical land of tacos and I haven't seen her since," Charlie recited behind me.

"Oh..." Okay then.. Indy doesn't know how people look when they speak now? I bet that's Zacky's fault. I'll have to mention that to him.

Ruiningmy Charlie's fun, Zacky tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at the girl peeking out from behind my right arm.

"CHARLIE!" Jimmy screamed.

"Charlie? Where!?" Indy spazzed, searching the area frantically even though the little vampire was now right in front of her. Maybe she couldn't see her past Jimmy hugging her to death.

"Uhm, Indy? Jimmy has her," little Bran pointed out.

"Oh..."

I slipped around the still confused Indy as she wrapped herself around Zacky, and I ended up right between Bran Flakes and Bran Flakes. Thankfully, my confusion only lasted a minute as the original Bran Flakes's bitchiness showed itself again while he strutted out of the room like the king of the damn world, mumbling annoyedly to himself the whole way.

"So...who're you?" the remaining cereal asked me.

I looked at him amusedly and said, "I was just going to ask you the same thing."

Mini Bran laughed. "Fair enough, fair enough. My name is Brent Haner. Brian's my older brother," he tacked on when I looked confused.

"No way... you're way too nice to be related to that.. that prissy Cereal!"

"Cereal? Man, does everyone in this house call him something different now?"

I shrugged. "Far as I know he's only Brain, Bran Flakes, and Cereal."

Brent burst out laughing, causing everyone in the room except Jimmy and Charlie to turn and look at him weirdly. "That.. that is great. Seriously. Bran Flakes.. haha, I'm gonna have to call him that sometime."

"Feel free. He really makes the best face when you catch him off guard, but you probably already knew that."

Brent, now somewhat more calm, nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I did. That's why I try so hard to do it. So, I'll ask again. Who are you, exactly?"

"Oh, right.. My name's Alexa Emerson," I stated, shaking his hand.

A warm smile lit up the face I found so similar and yet so different from that of the man I despised. "Nice to meet you, Alexa."

Nice to meet you indeed..