Last Choice, No Voice, Regular Kids.

**Emily's POV**

My breath hitched in my throat when the man in front of us spoke. To Emmalee I assumed this was funny. I assumed she was having fun trying to mess with me, as all best friends do, but fear was now beginning to spread through my entire body.

Why you may ask? Well, as I eyed the man in question, I failed to see his chest rise and fall regularly, if at all. This may be an odd thing to notice when looking at a person, but as someone who believed in vampires I had done my research; and vampires didn't breathe.

Hesitantly I took a step forward to my friend and grabbed her arm lightly. She jumped slightly at the touch but I tugged on her arm.

"Emmalee..." I said lightly as the man stood up fully and I looked up at him. Emmalee quickly shrugged my hand off her arm and I sighed lightly. I took a step back and slowly moved to open my backpack. I slid my hand in and wrapped my hand around what I thought was my stake.

As crazy as it sounds I always carried it with me. I believed vampires were real and even if they weren't, it was better to be prepared that not. I noticed Emmalee look at me and give me a sly smile before continuing to talk to the man now standing up in front of her.

"So where are you getting dinner?" She asked innocently and matter-of-factly. She was trying to prove my worries wrong, but it didn't make me feel and less uneasy.

"Emma..." I hissed under my breath as the man took a step towards her.

"You'll find out soon enough my dear." Said the man with a sinister smirk on his lips.

Emmalee looked at me and took a step away from the man. She looked slightly frightened now, as any teenage girl would when a strange man is walking towards you in a deserted place.

"We'll just be going then." She said before returning to my side. She didn't look as frightened as I knew I looked but to her this was just a normal man. To me however, he was something else. Something supernatural. He took another step towards us and I was about to bring out my stake when a soft thud and the sound of footsteps could be heard behind us.

I spun round and brandished what I thought was my stake to the person walking towards us. In the dark it took my eyes a few seconds to realise it was another man, slightly taller than the man outside the taxi depot. He was as pale as a ghost and I looked at him critically. Holding my weapon out in front of me I looked to Emmalee. Fear was now etched on her face as terror was on my own.

"Ricky. I'm glad I caught you in time. Dinner's almost ready, come on." The man walking towards us spoke in an authorative tone.

"But-" The man now called Ricky began speaking in reply to the other man who had now reached him and was facing him. The taller man leant down and spoke quietly into Ricky's ear, cutting him off mid-sentence.

I looked to Emmalee and seen her staring intently at the two men in front of us and I followed her gaze, watching the two. The man named Ricky stood and nodded to the taller man.

"Okay Ghost let's go." Spoke the man called Ricky. The man I now knew to be called Ghost looked relieved and the two men began slowly walking away. I still hadn't relaxed yet and in my hand I gripped what I thought was my stake tightly. The man named Ghost stopped and turned towards us, taking a step as he did so. I gripped my stake tighter and raised my arm. He stopped abruptly and spoke.

"Sorry about my friend. Also it's late, past curfew. You two should be indoors." I was about to reply when Emmalee cut me off and spoke to the man.

"So should you, but that doesn't seem to be happening." The man looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Cocky little one you are, but touché. However, we are grown men, you two are young girls. I suggest you two get inside-" The man named Ghost was cut off when the shorter of the two spoke.

"Before something happens." He said in a tone that sent a chill down my spine. I glared at him and then Ghost shot him a look and he was instantly quiet.

"Ignore him," He began softly.

"But I suggest you two get indoors." I nodded unable to speak due to the fear I was feeling. The two men began to walk away but not before the shorter man named Ricky turned around and called to me.

"You can put your drumstick away now, by the way." Within seconds the two men had disappeared into the darkness and left me confused. My drumstick? What was he talking about? Before I had a chance to think about it properly Emmalee let out a loud laugh.

"What's so funny?" I asked finally quickly, finding my voice.

"Look at what you're holding in your hand Emily!" She said while still laughing. I followed her instruction and looked at my hand and noticed I was holding one of my drumsticks from my backpack rather than my stake.

Embarrassed I quickly stuffed the drumstick back in my bag and began walking briskly away as Emmalee laughed behind me.

"Emily!" She called behind me. I turned around to see she had stopped laughing but I still felt embarrassed.

"Hey." She said lightly.

"What?" I said back a little too harshly. Realising I had snapped at her I apologised and Emmalee began to speak.

"I'm Sorry Em," She began.

"But put yourself in my shoes. You brandishing a drumstick towards two grown men is quite funny." I sighed lightly and smiled imagining the situation without the fear clouding my mind.

"You win Emma." I said with a light laugh. She smiled at me and we began walking towards our destination we had been set upon reaching earlier before getting 'diverted' per say.

"I'm glad those men are gone though." Emmalee spoke as we walked.

"Men?" I asked with a sceptical tone.

"More like Vampires." I seen Emmalee role her eyes and I took it in my stride, deciding not to push it right now. She was a sceptic but I was convinced those two men, or at least the shorter of the two, were vampires.

"You're insane in the best way Emily." She said with a chuckle. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Excuse me, I'm not insane - I'm voluntarily indifferent to conventional rationality." Emmalee looked at me and smirked.

"Did you just quote Jared Leto at me?" She asked

"Yes I did and don't you forget it." I spoke with a laugh. Emmalee playfully punched my arm and continued talking as we walked.

**time lapse ten mins**

We finally arrived at our designated destination about ten minutes after our strange encounter with the "men" in the alleyway. Our destination was a small rehearsal studio owned by a friend of my father. He was called Alexander and liked the same music as Emmalee and I.

Both Emily and I wanted to form a band but it was hard to find members and then juggle school work throughout the year, so, for the minute anyway, we were both content in practising in this studio once a week.

The practise studio consisted simply of four rooms. Firstly the "living space", which was a small living room with a sofa, a table, two chairs, and computer in it. Secondly there was a small kitchen, with a sink, fridge, microwave, cooker and basically anything else needed for cooking a meal. After all bands could literally spend days rehearsing and recording here. There was also a small and simple but clean bathroom and lastly there was the rehearsal space.

This was a room that contained everything a band could need to rehearse with and instead of a wall or brick separating it from the living space, it was a wall of sound proof glass with a sliding door.

We were extremely lucky however, Alexander normally rented this place out, but because I was the daughter of his friend, he let us use it for free. As long as it wasn't being used by anyone else and we kept it clean.

As we unlocked and walked in through the front door of the place we relished the warmth radiating from inside. It hadn't been overly cold outside but there's nothing like feeling like you are getting enveloped in a hug by the warmth of somewhere.

As I closed the door behind me, to keep in the heat, Emmalee huffed in relief as she slid her bass off her back.

"Remind me to never carry that around again." She said as she flopped on the small sofa in the room. She stretched her arms out and I heard her back crack and I laughed lightly.

"What's so funny?" She asked looking at me.

"You kinda sounds like an old woman sometimes with all your cracking joints." She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Excuse me, I am not the one who always complains about all her achy limbs." She laughed and so did I and I held my hands up in defeat.

"Okay, okay you win." She smiled and I took my backpack off and set it beside the sofa.

"C'mon Emmalee, let's get practising before you fall asleep there." The reply to my statement was simply Emmalee flinging a cushion from the sofa playfully at my head. Lucky I dodged it and rolled my eyes, then lifted my drumsticks and ear plugs from my bag.

"Let's go." Emmalee huffed and stood up and unzipped her bass case. She lifted her bass out and looked at it then me and a grin spread across her face.

"What?" I asked as I looked at her mischievous grin.

"My bass is almost the height of you!" She exclaimed with a laugh. I rolled my eyes, laughed and replied with a simple 'yeah, yeah.' After all it was all I could say because it was true; her bass basically reached my shoulders when stood on the floor.

We both walked towards the practise room at the end of the living space we were in. I slid open the door and quickly felt at home. I went about fixin the drum kit to my liking, mainly reducing the heights of the symbols and shifting some of the drums. Emmalee on the other hand sat tuning her bass and plugging her microphone in.

I plugged my microphone in and set it beside my drum kit, grabbed my sticks and played a few light rhythms on my drums. I made sure Emmalee could still hear her bass and then I slid in one of my earplugs.

Emmalee turned to me when she had finished tuning her bass and smiled.

"Which song first?" I thought about her question and shrugged lightly.

"Uh... How about our cover of 'I Alone' by 'Escape The Fate'?" I asked with a smile. Emma nodded and soon had hooked up her iPod to the amps in the room. Sadly without a guitarist we had to make do with using backing tracks to fill in for the guitars but for the moment we didn't mind.

I put in my earplugs and so did Emmalee, she then slid the door closed and we were ready. She looked at me and I nodded. We both smiled at each other and she clicked play on the iPod. I counted us in and within seconds we were both lost in the music.

The drums, the bass, the singing and the screaming. This was what we lived for, what we loved and it was worth the risk of going out after curfew, the meeting of the strange men in the alleyway. It was our escape. And we loved it with every fibre of our being.

However, even though I was lost in the music there was a voice in the back of my head reminding me that I was still worried about the encounter with the men tonight, but I shrugged it off, labelling it as paranoia. Emmalee hadn’t been extremely worried about those men so why should I be?

Besides we were safe here. Weren’t we?