We Only Come Out at Night

We arrived and Ryan opened the door. He smiled at us and Maddie walked in before me. I gave him a quick smile and followed Maddie.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
I nodded though the look on his face told me he didn't believe me. I walked on and pushed it from my mind. The guys were watching Corpse Bride and had a pizza on the coffee table.
“Pepperoni?” Ange asked.
“Of course,” Balz answered.
I stole a slice and jumped onto the sofa. Maddie sat beside me with a pizza slice in her hand.
“Don't get too comfortable,” Ghost warned her popping his head around the doorway to the kitchen.
“Why not?”
“That's my seat.”
“Tough, it's mine now.”
I heard a growl from the kitchen. We all laughed as he walked in with what must have been coffee.
“If you don't move I'll sit on you,” he said standing in front of her.
“One...two...three.”
She slipped away just as he sat down. I got up and she settled where I was previously seated. I walked into the kitchen and shouted, “You want hot chocolate?”
“Thanks,” Maddie shouted back.
I sorted out what I needed and heard someone mumble just as the kettle started to boil.
“What were you and Maddie talking about?” Ricky said from behind me.
“You know, you heard every word.”
I heard a light sigh.
“You can't tell her.”
“If you listened you would know I told her that.”
“Don't let it slip, that's all I'm saying.”
“Why not?”
I turned around to face him. He was looking at the ground.
“I told you.”
“No, you told me why it had to be Ange, you didn't tell me what would happen if it wasn't him.”
He looked up from the ground and into my eyes. There was pain and guilt in his eyes.
“'No more lies', those were your exact words, Ricky. Silence isn't going to help enforce that.”
“Can I tell you later? When there's no chance of them overhearing.”
“Them? You mean Maddie and Ange?”
“No, I mean all of them, none of them know except Ghost.”
“Why?”
“I will tell you, but when it's safer.”
I remembered what I was doing before he appeared and turned back to the counter. Footsteps approached us and I glanced back. Ange looked straight at me anguished.
“What happened?” Ricky asked.
“The guys started joking about PTV and Maddie was confused then she looked at me. She knows I have to tell her.”
“She overheard, Ange, it's okay. We were talking about it on the way here. She seemed fine with waiting a little longer but you have to tell her soon,” I reassured him.
“I think I might today, back at ours, or hers and tell Amelia so she doesn't walk in.”
“Amelia knows?”
“Remember we told you there were others who aren't human?”
“Yeah.”
“She's one of them. You'll probably find out tonight if Ange tells Maddie today.”
“I will.”
“Are you done yet?” Maddie asked coming in.
“Oh, yeah, here.”
I handed her the mug. She took a sip, gave me the thumbs up and froze.
“Mads?” we said.
“What shoes do you have?” she asked me.
“What?”
“In your suitcase.”
“We didn't pack any, where did this come from?”
“The guys are talking nonsense in there and I was thinking about what their reaction would be to, you know-”
I sighed sadly.
“Shut up, and I realised we didn't pack any shoes to go with it.”
“I have my converse.”
“That won't do. Your black boots are at home, aren't they.”
“Yeah, you're going a bit overboard with this, you do know that.”
“No I'm not, I just want you to look pretty.”
“Awk, thanks, so I don't look pretty now.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Unfortunately,” I muttered.
“What?” Ange and Ricky asked.
“That reminds me, we need to go shopping to make you pretty too.”
“Bitch.”
“Love ya too.”
She rolled her eyes and I finished making my tea.
“What are you two talking about?” Ange asked.
“Never you mind, you'll see at the same as everyone else,” she teased.
“We'll have to go to yours, pick them up, drop them off at my place and then we'll pick a date to go shopping.”
She walked out and I turned to Ange.
“Please tell her, distract her from this, please, I'm begging you.”
“If you're begging should you not be on your knees?” Chris said coming in and smirking at me.
“Fuck off. Please Ange.”
“What am I distracting her from?”
“I can't tell you or she'll kill me, literally.”
He sighed, “Fine, but don't blame me if she still goes along with the schedule she's planned.”
“Thank you!” I hugged him tightly and heard Ricky chuckle behind me.
“By the way, we're all wondering what's taking you so long,” Chris interrupted winking at Ricky.
Ricky flipped off Chris and I let go of Ange. I grabbed my tea and followed them out into the living room.
“What took you so long?” Ghost asked in a tone I didn't recognise, not unlike the tone Maddie used on Friday back in the forest. What were they implying? Was it was so obvious I was blind to it?
“We were talking,” Ricky said glaring at Ghost who smirked in response and focused on the movie and the pizza slice in his hand.
“Hurry up!” Maddie said.
“You've finished! I've barely started.”
“Hurry UP!”
“Why are you so excited? You don't even like shopping!”
“I'll tell you why when there isn't boys about.”
“Men,” Balz said with pizza in his mouth.
“Men wouldn't talk with food in their mouth,” I said helping Maddie out.
“I think you mean gentlemen wouldn't talk with food in their mouth, men do it all the time,” Chris argued.
We sighed in defeat. I drank my tea quickly nearly scalding my tongue in the process. She led the way out and Ricky shot up dragging Ange with him.
“What do you think you're doing?” Maddie asked.
“Alyssa and I need to talk and Ange needs to talk to you.”
Maddie frowned and I gave her a look. Understanding shone in her eyes and she nodded. They tagged along while Maddie and I went into my room and grabbed my knee-length black leather boots. Maddie turned in the direction of her apartment and I was about to follow her when Ricky grabbed my arm.
“We'll catch up with you,” I said before Ricky and they nodded.
Ricky steered me in the direction of his house and we arrived there shortly.
“Why can't I tell her?”
“It wouldn't be good, for either of them. It's a law and they'd probably be punished for not obeying, you could be for telling her, I could be for not warning you or because you didn't listen.”
“Why can't the guys know?”
“They can know, I just don't want to scare them.”
“They need to know Ricky, you can't hide stuff like this from us.”
He sighed. “I'll tell them,” I gave him a disbelieving look. “I will! They already know to be wary though.”
“C'mon, we should start walking back. Maddie should know by now.”
We left the house and started walking towards the apartment slowly to give them a bit more time.

Maddie's P.O.V
“We'll catch up with you,” Alyssa said leaving Ricky with his mouth open like he was about to say something similar and we nodded. We walked away and quickly arrived at my apartment. I sat on the couch and looked at him. I hated not knowing secrets.
“Uh, I'm just going to say it because I don't think I can prepare you in anyway. The guys and I, we're vampires.”
I looked blankly at him as I took in what he just said. It took me a while to process it. They were vampires? Wow.
“All of you?” I muttered.
“No, PTV are demons,” he said slowly.
There's demons too? What happened to our normal lives?
“How long have you been a vampire?”
“A month, that's why I was gone for so long, to recover. It was easier to lie than tell you the truth.”
He crouched down beside me and held one of my hands in his. I mulled over the new information. Of all the things they could have hid from me it was something as weird as this. There was a knock on the door and Ange got up and answered it. Alyssa came in and saw my face.
“You dropped the V bomb then,” she said patting my shoulder reassuringly.
“Yeah.”
“C'mon, let's go for a dander.”
I got up shakily and let her guide me out.
“We'll met you at Balz's,” she said to the guys and we walked out.

Alyssa's P.O.V
We dandered around and I waited for the realisation. Maddie would try to get her head around it, be quiet and suddenly explode, not with anger but with shock. She stayed quiet as we walked around.
“Mads? Are you okay?”
“They're vampires! And demons!” she stage whispered.
“It's a lot to take in, I know.”
She looked shocked.
“Angelo.” Her eyes widened and she looked down hopelessly at me.
“He's the same person, they all are,” I trailed off. I looked into the distance.
“Who are you thinking of?”
“No one.”
“Fine then, don't tell me.” She sounded hurt.
I sighed. “I wasn't thinking of anyone in particular.”
“You were thinking of Ricky, weren't you?”
“I was thinking of all of them.”
“You thought longer about Ricky.”
I kept my mouth shut.
“Well?” she said in that tone again.
“Why do you all say something like that?”
She grinned at me. “Because it's so obvious. You like him.”
“As a friend.” I felt a slow blush crawl up my cheeks heating up my face.
“You SO like him.”
“I don't!”
“You really do.”
I hid my bright red cheeks with my hair. Did I like him? I pushed it aside to think about later and focused on calming down my heart which had started to race after she said I liked him.
“You REALLY like him. Damn girl, why didn't you tell me?”
“I don't like him like that.”
“That's why, you can't accept it yourself.”
“There's nothing to accept!”
She looked at me in disbelief and shook her head.
“So they're vamps?”
“And demons, and there's other things.”
“What?”
“I know but they have to tell us according to the guys. You ready to see them?”
“Yeah.”
We turned tail and headed back towards the house where they were waiting for us. It didn't take long for us to reach the house. I knocked on the door and Ricky answered it smiling warmly. We walked in and Maddie seemed fine, just like I knew she would be.
“Oh, Lyss, how about we go shopping tomorrow.”
“Ugh.”
The guys chuckled at my disgusted expression.
“You're coming.”
“I figured.”
They laughed and PTV arrived not too long after. It was the way it was supposed to be, we were like a family again, with the exception of the couples. I noticed Vic was talking quietly to Allie for a while but pushed it aside, we had gotten past the secrets. Ricky told them what would happen if they disobeyed any of the laws, Maddie knew what vampires could do though we didn't know what demons could do.
“Do demons have any gifts?” I asked.
“Yes, but we chose to not use them,” Turtle answered.
“They enforce what we're meant to be, evil,” Mike explained.
“I haven't used them since I got out of Hell a century ago,” Vic added.
“Damn you're old,” Maddie said.
“Not as old as me,” Ghost said proudly.
“What did you do for 200 years?” Kylie asked.
“You guys know Sweeney Todd.”
My jaw dropped as I realised what he was saying.
“Tim Burton made a movie about you!”
He smiled proudly and Balz patted him in back hard. We thought about it when a thought popped into my head.
“Wait, how are you brothers then?” I asked Vic and Mike.
“We were born from siblings, we do have families you know,” Vic said.
“Born from siblings?” we asked.
“Demons are born from old demons. The new demon is created inside the old demon and the old demon's skin sheds, like a snake, and the new demon is born,” Jaime explained.
“What about the stereotype? Should you not be red or something?” Maddie asked.
They laughed and Maddie smiled sheepishly.
“It's just a stereotype, it's bullshit. We're not human normally, most demons are shape-shifters. However, we have human ancestors so our natural form is what you see now. Other demons look more like the stereotype for vampires, pale skin, red eyes etc,” Vic replied.
“What about vamps? Is it just the fangs?” I asked.
“You have fangs!” Maddie said excitedly.
Angelo's fangs grew quickly and her eyes widened in shock. His fangs slowly grew smaller. I looked at Ricky and he nodded. Of course Ange had to show her.
“We only have fangs and our gift. Also our eyes don't change, we don't have cold skin, basically the opposite of what everyone thinks,” Ricky informed.
“I'm sorry I kept this from you,” Ryan said hugging Allie tighter who was sitting on his lap now.
“Actually, Kylie and I have something to tell you guys.”
“We're demons too,” Kylie finished.
The guys were quiet for a minute and Jaime and Mike snickered at their expressions. They really were comical, all their jaws had dropped and they had wide eyes.
“We have the same human ancestors as Tony,” Allie added.
Ryan almost dropped her, he and Ghost were understandably the most shocked.
“Sweet,” Chris said breaking the silence that had fallen. They snapped out of their trance and let it sink in.
“At least I won't have to change you to stay with you for longer,” Ghost said looking lovingly at Kylie. She blushed and smiled timidly at the ground. We talked until it got late and we said goodbye and went to our homes.
Maddie, Amelia, Ivy and I were crowded around the TV at the apartment eating when Ivy cleared her throat.
“I should tell you why I'm here. You know about the guys and Allie and Kylie so it's only fair you know about us.”
She stood and moved away with Amelia following her. They stood beside each other with a lot of space in between them. Ivy breathed in and closed her eyes. Amelia closed her eyes as well and black started to form behind them. One second they were standing there, the light behind them dimming rapidly, the next they had huge, black, inky angel wings.
“Wow,” I said and they smiled.
“We're fallen angels,” Amelia told us.
“You fell from Heaven. Was it not fun enough for you?” Maddie joked.
They laughed and Ivy patted Amelia's shoulder.
“I don't know what Heaven's like, both my parents are fallen angels, my surrogate died and I was born the way angels are.”
“One, you had a surrogate, two, how are angels born?” I asked.
“My parents had a best friend, he didn't have anyone he loved on Earth so he gave up his life for my parents so they had a family. Because he died for them they became my parents. Angels are created when an angel is on the brink of death. We don't live forever, the foetus angel rips the angel's chest and a bright white light shines out. A new born angel leaves it's birth parent and the angel dies.”
“Did you see Heaven?” Maddie asked Ivy.
“Yes, I was a Guardian.”
“Why did you leave?” Maddie added.
“I fell in love with a human, he was perfect but we're not allowed to talk to people on Earth. He was in an accident and I tried to help him, he was dying, but it was his 'destiny' to die and I was forbidden from helping him survive. When he died I couldn't stay. I renounced God and was punished, so I fell. I spent fifty years mourning and moved here, that's when I met Vic.”
“A tragic story but a nice ending,” I said.
“Yeah, Vic's just as perfect as Ivan was. More maybe.”
“Can you get wings whenever you want?” I asked.
“We have to hide them obviously but yeah, they show in the shadows though and it takes a while to get around that to look normal. It's harder when you're born fallen,” Ivy answered.
“The first few years they only come out in the dark, you have to learn how to control them and then you can show them in sunlight and fly,” Amelia answered.
“Cool,” Maddie answered.