"Ashely! Katey's here!" My mom yelled from downstairs.
"I'll be right down!" I yelled back. We'd made plans last week to go to the mall and act...silly as usual. I walked downstairs and found her standing at the door still. She was wearing a black Yoshi shirt, lime green skinny jeans, and her favorite pair of 'signed' converse. Her hair had a new hot pink streak in it under her purple head band.
"Next time, when you're waiting just flop down on the couch and wait!" We laughed.
"I'll keep that in mind for when we get back." She smiled.
"Mom, we'll be back, late, don't wait up!" I yelled, walking out the door with my keys. We didn't wait for her reply, we just walked out to my cherry red Mustang GT. We slid in and cranked up the stereo, we were jamming to my Creed CD when I had to slam on my breaks to keep from hitting this kid from school, I think his name was Jake. Katey slid out of the car to make sure he was alright. Besides, she had a major crush on him anyway. I figured I'd get out too since I was the one who almost hit him.
"Are you okay?" Katey asked him.
"Yep, never better...Katey, right?" He said, with a rock star grin.
"Yeah it's Katey, so what were you doing in the middle of the road?"
"To be honest, I have no clue, but where were you all headed?"
"To the mall, you wanna come?" She asked him, clearly not caring what I thought of this situation.
"If it's okay with Ashley, sure I'd love to come." He looked at me, and Katey mouthed 'PLEASE'.
"Sure, what the heck." I said, throwing my hands in the air in defeat.
"Yay!" Katey said, hopelessly clingy. I just rolled my eyes and we all piled into the car and kept rocking out to Creed. We eventually got to the mall and ran into my boyfriend and Jake's best friend, Cody Harrison.
"Hey baby!" He said.
"Fancy meeting you here." Katey said, with a disgusted face. Cody glared at her then looked back at me.
We walked through the mall, Cody and I holding hands and Jake and Katey getting along for once.
"Dude, the skateboard store!" Cody said, looking back at Jake.
"Then let's go bro!" Jake said. After they were gone and out of earshot, Katey came up to me, grabbed my arm and started shaking it.
"HE CAN RIDE A SKATEBOARD!!" She squealed.
"Calm yourself, child!" I said, she looked at her shoes embarrassed. She turned to one of the store windows and checked her reflection. Cody and Jake whizzed by on their new skateboards. They weaved figure eights around us and, inevitably, headbutting each other. Katey and I doubled over in laughter. Katey fell on a bench, still laughing.
"Ouch, hey don't laugh, that ain't cool!" Jake said, rubbing his forehead.

"Oh, I am SO sorry." Katey said, sarcastically.
"Now, it's our turn to go shopping! Let's go to Rose tree." I suggested.
"But I wanna get some new skinny jeans!"
"YOU HAVE A WHOLE CLOSET FULL OF THEM!!" I yelled, people turning to look at me weird. I just brushed it off.
"Oh fine." She said, stomping into Rose tree. A half an hour later, we walked out in our new dresses, shoes, and accessories. I was wearing a short silver dress with tassels all over it, silver sparkly bangles, and shoes that had clasps that spiraled up my legs. Katey was wearing a short coral pink dress with ruffles on top and a black belt in the middle, a pink LOL bracelet, and black ankle boots. We walked towards the boys and I could've sworn their jaws hit the floor. We grinned and walked over to them.
"Whoa!" Cody said.
"Whoa is right!" Jake agreed. Jake looked me up and down twice and Cody glared at him jealously.
"Dude, at least look at Katey and not Ashley, she's my girl and you know it!" For a split second, I thought I saw his eyes turn red, and then, just as suddenly as it had come, it was gone.
"Dude, easy, you can't say if you see a hot girl you don't look at her!" Jake said, putting his hands out in front of him.
"Hey, calm down." I told Cody, grabbing a hold of his arm. He wiggled out of my grip and pulled out his phone. He smiled at the screen and said he had to go.
"Ashley, can I talk to you for a minute?" Katey asked me, grabbing my arm. She dragged me over to the benches and we sat down.
"What is it?"
"Did you see the way he smiled when he read that text? And how suddenly he left, even without an I love you?"
"Yeah, of course I noticed it, but he could've just been going to a movie with his brother or something." I said, seeing her point.
"Maybe we should go investigate."
"No, Katey, we can't."
"Why not? Would you rather date a cheater, or figure out he's cheating and break up with him?" She said, a certain fierceness in her eyes. I looked at my new shoes and rubbed my arms.
"Break up with him." I mumbled. She nodded.
"Alright then, let's go." We said goodbye to Jake and on our way out saw Cody walking down a side road. I flipped my headlights off and we followed him. He ran out into a cornfield and we had no choice but to get out and follow him. But, before we did, we changed back into our jeans and t-shirts. After that, we ran after him but could barely make sense of where his footprints were going, the only way we did was by the light of the full moon. I kept walking and only heard my footsteps, I turned around and I was alone, no Katey.
"Katey? Katey, where are you?" I said. I saw a golden glow on the laid down stalks and decided to follow it. This scene looked very familiar in a creepy way. I came around the bend and saw the scene from my nightmare, Cody with his back to me, and Katey tied to a tree with scrapes and bruises all over her. I gasped, making Cody turn around and smile at me. I, once again, was frozen by my fear and couldn't go anywhere. Cody walked over to me and stroked my face, his arms went around my hips and I was unordinarily disgusted by it.
"Now, love, I'm not cheating on you, I'm just...not human." He smiled sickly.
"Get off me." I whispered.
"Ashely, I am so sorry, this was my idea."
"It's alright Katey, and Cody, how are you not human?" I asked, trying to wiggle out of his grip.
"I'll show you love." He said, pulling all my hair to one side. I felt his warm breath on my neck and then, it was like two needle pricks right below my jaw bone. I tried to scream but his hand covered my mouth. My head felt light and it felt like I was floating, he lowered me to the ground and broke away from my neck and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. I couldn't move, it felt like I was a prisoner in my own body and I was watching through a window as Cody got up and pulled an ember out of the fire. He walked over to Katey and touched the blazing end of the ember to her stomach. Her scream was agonizing and I felt something change in me, I staggered to my feet, aimed my hands at Cody and, to my amazement, a ball of green fire shot out of my hands and sent Cody to the ground writhing in pain. He stayed down long enough to for me to untie Katey, get to the car, and drive off.
"What was THAT?!" She asked, once we were in the car and driving, inspecting her burn mark at the same time.
"I have no clue." I whispered, still shaking from my encounter with my inhuman boyfriend.
"You shot a...fireball from your hands, Ashley!" She squealed.
"I know, I know, I'm still sort of processing it." I told her. I watched her touch around her burn mark that MY boyfriend caused, I felt hot tears stream down my face and quickly wiped them away, hoping she wouldn't see them.
"What's the matter, Ashley?" She asked, touching my arm.
"I just...can't believe Cody did this. How could he hide this from me and do this to my best friend?"
"Hey, some people aren't who we think they are, some are just plain evil...like-" She trailed off.
"Like Cody, trust me, I get it. The love of my life is an evil vampire." We turned in the driveway and thank God, my mom was asleep already. No wonder, it was fifteen minutes until midnight. I went to the kitchen and pulled open the medicine cabinet, I found the aloe and applied some to Katey's stomach, then found some bandages for my neck. We went up to my room and collapsed onto my purple and green bed. Then, the tears spilled over again.

There was a tapping at my window so I pulled the curtains aside and revealed Jake on the ground throwing pebbles at my window. Katey opened the window and called for him to come up. He clumsily climbed through the window and joined us on my bed. He studied us until he discovered our wounds.
"What the hell happened?!" He almost yelled.
"Shut up! Ashley will explain it but you have to be quiet, okay?" Katey said, getting up to shut the door.
"It was Cody, he's a vampire." I whispered. It all seemed dreamlike again, until I felt the bandages on my neck.
"Wait, my mate Cody? No it's impossible, vampires don't exist!" He said, shocked.
"Yes your...mate." I said with disgust.
"Trust me Jake, they exist, show him Ashley." Katey said. I peeled back my bandages to reveal the two small holes in my neck.
"Oh my God!" Jake said, and I felt the panic radiating off of him. I winced as I reapplied the bandage.
"Show him yours, Katey." I said, motioning to her stomach. She pulled up her shirt and Jake, once again, couldn't look away.
"How could he hide this from us? I'm his best mate and you're his girlfriend!" He said, a little louder than I'd like him to be.
"I know Jake, and I have no idea how he successfully hid this from us for this long." I said.
"We have to do something about this guys." Katey chimed in.
"I know, but three humans against a vampire? Impossible!" I said, raking a hand through my blond hair.
"You say impossible, but we say totally possible!" Katey smiled, motioning to her and Jake.
"How'd you get away from him?" Jake asked curiously.
"Well, Ashley shot fire at him." Katey explained.
"Shot fire at him? What do you mean?" He looked at Katey like she was crazy and me like I was some fascinating science experiment.
"I don't know how to explain it exactly, I just stretched my hands out, let my anger radiate through me, and the next thing I knew he was on the ground writhing in pain." I tried explaining.
"Hmm, so does this mean that you're a-a witch?" He asked.
"I guess...I'm gonna read up on it in the next day or two. But, for now you better go, Jake." He nodded and went out the way he came in.
"You want me to find you some clothes or something?" I whirled around and Katey was already snoring. I just smiled and pulled the blanket over her. I went downstairs and flipped on the dinosaur of a desktop we'd had since I was a baby. I went to google and searched 'witch fire' there was all these spam ads and I spent most of the night and some of the morning trying to filter through them. I looked at the bottom of the screen and it said 6:42 AM. It's a good thing it was Saturday now. I clicked off of the link I was on and shut the computer down. When I crawled into bed, I noticed something was missing, I tried to figure it out and I finally did. Katey was gone!
"Katey, where are you?" I walked into the bathroom that linked the hallway to my room and found her shaking and curled up on the floor next to the shower.
"KATEY! What's wrong?" I asked, sliding onto my knees at her side. She said nothing so I shook her a little bit. She raised a shaking hand and pointed to the storage room where we kept all the towels and stuff. I slowly stood up and opened the door. I looked in it only to be shoved in it and the door slammed shut behind me. I flicked on the light switch but the light seemed to be blown.
"Oh great!" I said. I'd read something on Google that witches could kindle fire with their minds...
"Hmm, I wonder." I said, rummaging through storage finally finding a candle. I thought 'Fire' and the wick burst into flame. I whirled around only to bump into something making me drop the candle and the flame snuff out. I cursed under my breath and picked the candle back up. I rekindled the flame and the light showed me that I was alone in a dark closet with -low and behold- my crazy vampire of a boyfriend. He had a menacing smile on his face.
"Ugh, what do YOU want?" I said, surprisingly calm.
"Oh nothing, darlin'. I just wanted to make sure that you all were still alive after our little, encounter." I crossed my arms over my chest and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Really? You expect me to believe that?"
"God, am I really THAT transparent?" He asked, running a hand through his already tousled hair.
"Yes, yes you are. Now can I please get out of here?" I said, shifting my weight around.
"Well, can you? I mean, you ARE the witch here honey." He smirked, and I just rolled my eyes.
"Can't you just open the door so we can get out of here?" I asked, impatiently.
"Show me what you can do my little witchy poo." He teased. He reached out to play with my hair and I slapped his hand away.
"I'm not your 'little witchy poo' for one, and two, I honestly have no clue how to open doors with my so-called powers." I said, poking him in the chest. He put his hand over where I'd poked him and acted like it was the worst blow he'd received in his life.
"Oh come on, baby. Just show me what you can do." He said, gripping my wrists and pinning me to the wall.
"No, Cody." I said, turning my head so I didn't have to look into his eyes.
"Yes, Ashley."
"NO!" I said with a little more force behind my words.
"Yeah, go ahead." He nodded towards the door. Then, I felt something inside of me change and I hummed a little to test my voice, it was way deeper, which I thought was comical to say the least.
"NO YOU SON OF A B****!" I said, apparently giving him some sort of witchy migraine. He fell to the floor screaming and writhing in pain, his hands pressed to his temples. I hopped over him and kicked the door in, only to reveal a knocked out Katey with a bump on her forehead. I reached in her pocket and found her cell phone, I scrolled down to Jake's number and hit call. He picked up on the second ring.
"Katey? What's wrong?"
"Hey, Jake, it's Ashley. Can you come over and lend me a hand?" He'd agreed to it, not knowing what he'd thrown himself into. About twenty minutes later, he arrived and we carried Katey out to his car and went back in to get Cody, only to find that he was already gone.
"I thought you said he was here, Ashley." Jake looked at me skeptically.
"He was, I guess he came to and ran off."
"Alright, so we need to come up with a plan so this will NEVER happen again." Jake said, surprisingly taking charge.
"Well, let's go the park. Katey might wake up on the way over there." I closed the door and locked it, seeing as my mom was already gone to work. I slid down into his car and kept an eye on Katey, who was stretched out in the backseat.

We were still driving about twenty minutes after that and I heard mumbling and groaning. I looked back and Katey was awake and sitting up.
"Wh-What happened?" She winced as she put a hand to the bump on her head.
"Easy, Katey, Cody knocked you out to get to me." I said, handing her my cold can of Mountain Dew to press to her forehead.
"Why does he want you so much?" She asked, sleep still in her eyes.
"I don't know...it's Cody we're talking about. Nobody knows." She nodded and a short while later we arrived at the park. Katey and I were still in our clothes from the day before but oh well. We sat down at a picnic area and talked about our 'plan'.
"Let's make a list, we've already confirmed one weakness, Ashley's witchy migraines cause him to pass out. But we need more, we need weaknesses that will actually, physically hurt him." Jake said.
"Hey, I'm game, IF I can do it again." I said, grinning.
"So, here's the plan, Ashley will lure him in by texting him saying she wants to be with him no matter what, Katey and I will be hidden somewhere with garlic, crosses, and wooden stakes. We know for a fact that sunlight won't hurt him because he's walked in midday for, like what, the three years that he's known us." I nodded. I was writing this all down on a piece of notebook paper and at the top I scribbled Cody Harrison's Fall Down Plan!
"What if this doesn't work? What if he kidnaps one of us?" I asked, a little panic stricken.
"Then, that's a risk we're all willing to take." We all nodded in agreement. All the time I noticed Jake scooting closer to Katey and she was foolishly smiling at him. I just looked at them like they were crazy.
"Hey, lovebirds, attack now, flirting later, okay?"
"Flirting? What would make you think that we were-"
"Really, Jake? Really?"
"Fine, flirting later." All the time Katey was blushing like mad. Jake to on the responsibility of whittling the stakes, I said I'd get the garlic, and Katey would bring three cross necklace that she bought last year. With that, Jake dropped Katey off and then me, then he drove off to his own home. I went in and was looking in the seasoning cabinet for garlic, when I heard a scream.
"Oh God, Mom!" I said, worried. I dashed up the stairs and found her bedroom door with a foot imprinted on it. I flipped on the light and found my mom lying across the room from Cody, in a pond of her own blood.
"MOM!!" I yelled, running over to her. I felt for a pulse, but I couldn't find one. She was gone and that son of a b**** killed her!
"You-" I was cut off by his hand over my mouth.
"Baby, you need to be more careful if you're gonna plan on killing me. Do you remember that little red-headed girl on the swings that kept looking over at you all?" I studied on that and then I remembered what he was talking about. I nodded.
"Well, love, that was my 'spy'. Her name's Bailey Lovely." He released his hold on my mouth when the tears started running.
"How could you? After all that we've been through! You killed her, you-you...UGH!" I screamed. I watched him go to the window, just before he jumped out he looked back at me.
"Go ahead, call the police they won't find anything. I'm over 350 years old, Ashley." He gave me a manic smile and then leaped out of the window. I sobbed for what seemed like days over my mother's dead body, but turned out to only be a few minutes. I called an ambulance and told them what had happened, leaving out the vampire part of course. They came and pronounced her dead at the scene, which didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out. All the time, I was crying and then my neighbor, Riley Gilbert, rushed in to check on me.
"What happened, Ashely?" He asked, hugging me tightly.
"I. Don't. Kn-know!" I said, in between sobs.
"Shh, it'll be okay. Shh." He said, rubbing my back in calming circles. I cried into his chest, gripping his shirt in my fists. Once I quieted down, he released me and I smoothed down his shirt.
"Sorry about your shirt." I mumbled.
"It's alright, plenty more where that came from." He stated simply.
"So, is she gonna be okay?" I shook my head.
"She's dead, Riley." His mouth formed an O.
"Oh my gosh, I am SO sorry Ashley! I wish there was something I could do."
"Riley, if you can make me feel better, that's something you could do." I looked up at him, blurry eyed.
"Okay, so how do you propose I do that?" He asked me. I looked him over once and he was kind of cute. He was tall, short, brown, spiky hair, very muscular, a tribal tattoo on his right upper arm, brown eyes, and not really a bad boy but not completely a goody two shoes either. To me, he was perfect, with the grades to match. I motioned for him to come here, he did as he was told and I roped my hands around his neck and kissed him. It wasn't a long kiss and it wasn't a short one either. We broke away and both had huge smiles on our faces.
"So, that's how you expect me to make you feel better?" He laughed. I nodded and blushed.
"Yeah, if you don't mind it." I tilted my head sideways and looked up at him through my thick eyelashes.
"Have you liked me for long?" He asked, obviously curious to how oblivious he had been.
"Ever since you moved in next door. And that was like, what, four years ago?" He nodded and grinned.
"I've sorta like you for that long too." He said, rubbing the back of his neck kind of embarrassed.
"Really?" He nodded sheepishly.
"Yeah, well...wi-will you be my girlfriend?" He asked, looking down at his feet. I leaned up on my tippy toes and kissed him on the lips quickly.
"Course I will." He intertwined his hand in mine and then all the previous events came rushing back. A tear slipped down my face and Riley wiped it away with his thumb. He grabbed my face and made me look at him, we just looked at each other, suspended in that moment that I never wanted to end. But time knows no boundaries, I guess. He kissed me, soft at first, and then rougher with a bit more passion behind it. I kissed him like I'd never kissed anyone before and he picked me up by my waist and spun us around.
"Ah! Put me down!" I squealed. He finally put me down and I texted Jake and Katey and told them to meet us where we'd met to form our, what we thought to be, Cody's downfall plan. They said they would and Riley gave me a ride on his black Harley-Davidson.
"That was really fun!" I said, smoothing my helmet hair. The others were already there sitting at the picnic table. As I looked closer, their backs were turned towards us and I thought I'd call out for them.
"Hey, lovebirds! We're here!" They turned around, hand in hand, and motioned us over.
"Us? Lovebirds? What about you two?" Riley and I blushed crimson red.
"Yeah, we're kind of, um, together." I said.
"Yeah, we're not yet, but we're getting to know each other." Katey said, barely above a whisper.
"So, what was the issue that we needed to so suddenly meet over?" Then, the tears came rushing back and I couldn't bear to hold them back. I snuggled into Riley's chest and cried until I couldn't cry anymore. Then I caught everybody up, Riley about everything, and the others about Cody and my mom.
"Wow, so Cody killed your-your mom?" Katey asked bewildered. I nodded and then I saw an all too familiar blond head on the swings, I quickly kissed Riley and made sure Cody saw us. He got up and blurred off.
"What was that for?" He asked me. Katey and Jake kept their eyes on me like I was going crazy and was getting ready to bolt.
"Cody, was watching, he's gone now though." They all turned and looked just to make sure that he actually was gone.
"What? Don't trust me?" I laughed.
"Sorry, it's just him we don't trust." Jake said, obviously a bit melancholy.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
"It's just the truth of it all, it kinda stings, you know." I nodded. I knew exactly how he felt. Betrayed, done wrong, sad, enraged, wanted to cry, etc. Just a mix of emotions.
"I know, trust me, I get it." I said, looking down.
"I'm sorry, it's your mom and he was your boyfriend."
"No, he was your best friend." I said, patting him on the hand.
"We've GOT to stop him before he kills anybody else!" Katey said, taking charge.
"But how is the question." I said. Everybody nodded in agreement.

So we sat there and wrote down our ideas. Riley and Jake kept an eye out for any suspicious-looking people while Katey and I came up with the master plan.
"Okay guys, listen up, this is what we're gonna do." They all came together in one fluid motion.
"I'll text him and tell him I wanna see him, he's sure to come if I want him to."
"At which time I'll move into place with the crosses and Riley will be near also with a bag of stakes. And no Jake, not the kind you can eat." We all laughed.
"Dammit, that's what I was hoping for." He acted hurt.
"Then what's my job in all this?" Jake asked.
"I'm getting to that. You will come by when Cody arrives and sit by us, it'll make him antsy enough to draw attention from Katey and Riley." I explained.
"We'll get up and walk around and Riley will sneak behind him and plunge the stake into his heart while Katey throws a cross around his neck."
"This is sure to work, it's the only chance we'll have to kill him." Everybody nodded in agreement.
"When does this all take place?" Katey asked.
"Tomorrow evening about 5:30 or six."
"Where?" Riley asked.
"You know that old abandoned ware house on the edge of town?" They all nodded.
"There, it'll give us enough privacy to do what we need and if we scream nobody will hear us. That last part sounds bad I know, but we don't want the cops rushing in when we're committing murder."
"That'd be terrible!" Jake said, in a mock girly voice. We all laughed and I smacked his arm. He stuck his lower lip out and acted like he was gonna cry.
"Awe, poor baby!" I laughed.
"You want chased, Ash?"
"Well no, it wouldn't be my favorite thing to do right now." I said, emotionless.
"Well, too bad! I'll give you a five second head start." He grinned evilly. I got up and ran and I heard him starting to count, he was up to four already!
"RUN ASH!" He yelled after me. I climbed like a monkey up the nearest tree. I got to the top branch and looked down...bad idea. I started getting tunnel vision and I felt myself falling. I hit three branches on the way down and I couldn't breathe, I was pretty sure I cracked a rib or two. My lungs started burning and I felt somebody catch me. I looked up thinking it was Jake or Riley, man was I wrong! It was my mother's murderer, Cody. But I couldn't even lift my hand, the next thing I knew all was dark.

*Riley's POV*
I saw her drop from the tree and him whoosh in and carry her away.
"Guys, we have to save her." I protested.
"Riley, we don't even know where he's taken her, even if we did, what's the plan with Ashley gone?" Jake said.
"Don't say gone. She's not dead." I warned him, my face turning red out of frustration.
"Easy, man. I'm just saying, even if we do find them, what's our chances of not getting killed instantly?" Jake said, his hands up in surrender. I rubbed the stubble on my chin trying to think of a way to get her out of his grasp and not get killed at the same time. I clapped my hands and made Katey jump about a mile out of her skin.
"Sorry...so here's the NEW plan..."
*Normal POV*
I woke up to a cold hard slap across the face.
"Dammit Cody, haven't you hit me enough already?" I hissed.
"Not nearly enough yet, love." He said, smiling viciously. With that he ripped the duct tape off my ankles and wrists. Only to return with a different color...it was NEON green. He reapplied the duct tape even tighter, securing my wrists and ankles to the chair I was sitting in.
"Now, are you gonna play nice and tell me how you planned to kill me?"
"Screw. You." I said, venom lacing my words. He clucked his tongue and shook his head as he looked around the old prop house. To my astonishment he found a leather whip hanging on a nail. My eyes widened in fear as I braced for the impact of the rugged leather across my smooth skin.
"Now, how about that plan?" He said, making his way across the room and cracking the whip.
"I'll never tell you anything, you son of a b****!" I said, a little louder.
"A feisty one here. I guess I'll just have to break that spirit of yours." He said, cracking the whip and almost whipping my bare thighs. I gasped as he did it again, closer this time. He kept doing it until finally I felt the bite of the whip into my flesh. The gash it left burned and seared and I let out a blood curdling scream of pain.
"Ha! Nobody's gonna hear you, darling." He smirked coldly. Just then, Cody let out a gasp as though he'd been wounded. He turned his back to me only to reveal and smiling Riley and a wooden stake buried deep into his back. He had dropped the whip on the ground next to him.
"Riley!" I yelled, smiling.
"Hang on Ash, I'm here to rescue the fair maiden baby." He winked and Cody scoffed as he dug out the stake.
"Nobody's going anywhere." He laughed as he reclaimed the whip that he wielded earlier. He cracked it against the concrete floor as a warning to Riley. He walked ever so close to Riley and barely missed his shoulder with the whip when Riley through another stake at him, only to graze his neck and come flying towards me.
"RILEY!!" I screamed. I saw the entire thing like an out of body experience. The stake came towards me and instead of going past me, stuck right above my belly button. All of a sudden, I couldn't breathe and I felt my blood being drained out of my body through the wound which was gushing the crimson liquid of life. Instead of everything getting dark like I'd read about so many times, everything got brighter and had a silver lining to it. When the boys finally got over to me and unbound me from the chair, my head would've hit the floor had Riley not caught me just in time. They sprawled me out on the floor and I saw what looked like stars running down their faces but they were tears. I chuckled a little bit but had to stop because it hurt like hell.
"Cody...I-I thought....Y-you wanted me...de-dead." I gasped.
"No, I love you, why would I wanna kill you, love?" He remarked, stroking my face.
"Now, you listen to me, Ashley. You will NOT leave us, do you understand? Keep breathing until we can find you some help." Riley said through tears. I nodded because I hadn't the energy to speak anymore. Cody pulled the stake out just as everything went dark and I felt like I was floating, not a care in the world and my lungs didn't need air anymore so I didn't feel the need to breathe. So I just floated there in the endless darkness until voices were fierce around me. Wait, where was here? I didn't know. All I could think about was getting back to Riley and keeping my promise about staying with them.

*Cody's POV*
I watched Ashley as she tossed and turned on the bed. I kept her hand in mine and hoped she'd be okay after the doctors left they said she had a chance to live but not a very strong one. I walked to the kitchen and saw Riley eating peanut butter straight out of the jar with a spoon. I poured myself a glass of water and sat down at the bar in the middle of the kitchen. Only to be startled by a blood curdling, spine tingling scream from the bedroom. We ran to see what it was and Ashley was sitting bolt upright in the bed with sweat caking her hair to her forehead.
"Ashley, darlin, do you remember what happened?" Riley asked her. He crossed the room and sat at the edge of the bed.
"How could I forget? He kidnapped me, you came to my rescue....and epic fail might I add, and I'm guessing I almost died." She said, smirking. Not one of pain but one of pure embarrassment. We nodded seeing as she got it right.
"Yup, I remember it just fine. In fact, I was just dreaming about it."
"Then why were you screaming?" I asked.
"Because it wasn't me taped to the chair, it was Katey and I was the one torturing her. I woke up just before she died." A silent tear slid down her cheek and Riley wiped it away with his thumb.
"Why did you do it Cody?" She asked, her head bowed studying her hands.
"Do what?" He asked dumbfounded.
"Why'd you kill my mom?" She said, pain obvious in her voice and Riley and I winced at the thought of her being in any pain at all.
*Normal POV*
I watched Cody as he rolled over what he was gonna say in his head.
"I wanted you back. I was crazy enough to think if you were afraid of me you'd come running back. But that plan all went to hell as you can see." His eyes were that, not of a malicious monster, but of a tortured kindred soul. I felt kind of sorry for him, he had gone through torture I would never know. I grabbed his hand and held it in mine. Only to have him jerk away and pace around the bed.
"What's wrong Cody?"
"What's wrong? What's wrong is that you should literally hate me for what I've done to you, Ash." He said, combing his hands through his hair.
"I don't hate you. I feel sorry for you, Cody."
"Why do you feel sorry for me?" He asked me. His eyes burning holes in the window he was looking through.
"Because, you know torment that I couldn't even dream of." I explained. Still studying my hands and the whip marks on my thighs. I stroked a finger along the longest gash.
"I wanna go to the mall." I announced.
"No, no, no, no." Riley said.
"Why not?" I asked. I looked between the two as they contemplated their answer.
"Because of what you've been through. We don't want you in the middle of a shopping spree and pass out." Cody said, still looking at the rolling mountains through the window.
"So, what? Am I on house arrest or something?" I asked, disbelieving. They nodded and rage washed over me. I hated being inside. I felt like a caged animal, an animal that would definitely lash out at somebody if kept caged too long.
"NO! I will NOT be kept inside!" I yelled.
"Sorry, Ash, just precautionary until you're feeling better."
"I feel fine!" I said in protest.
"You're officially on house arrest and that's final." Cody said.
"Ha! You're not the boss of me, Cody Harrison." I laughed.
"No, but I could easily make you stay." He smiled. I was suddenly afraid of him again. I drew my knees up to my chest and pouted. I was silent until they left the room. I walked over to the window and noticed there was a balcony so I went out on it. I looked over the edge and noticed there were vines climbing up it. They looked strong enough to hold me so I slowly started my decent down to the ground.

I looked around after I got to the ground and realized I had no idea where I was. All I thought was RUN! So I did just that until I came to an open field of flowers and a lonely red barn.
"Wow, this is beautiful." I said to myself. I laid there in the flowers and grass and eventually fell asleep listening to the sound of the river nearby.
*Cody's POV*
Ashley had been silent for a long time so I figured I should go check on her and make sure she hasn't died. I walked up to the door and knocked and there was no answer. So I went in, she wasn't on the bed or in the bathroom and I started to panic.
"Ashley! Ashley, where are you?" I yelled through the house.
"What's wrong dude?" Riley asked, playing the xbox.
"Ashely's gone, Riley." I said, panic shaking my voice.
"WHAT?!" Riley yelled, jumping up from his spot on the couch. He just looked at me wide-eyed probably waiting for me to tell him I was kidding.
"She's gone Riley." I told him.
"How could you lose her?!" He asked.
"I don't know. All I know is we better find her before she starts screaming vampire to somebody." I said, grabbing the keys to my dirt bike and handing them to Riley. I could run from here. We started our search and a mile or two from the house I caught her scent and motioned for Riley to follow me. We stumbled upon a field I didn't know even existed. Riley got off the bike and looked for her, combing through the weeds and flowers.
"Cody. Hey, psst!" He whisper yelled. I ran over to him only to reveal a beautiful sleeping Ashley.
*Normal POV*
I woke up to Cody and Riley standing over me. I raised up too quick and bumped heads with the both of them.
"Ouch!" I said, holding my forehead in the palm of my hand.
"Ow!" Riley complained doing the same.
"I don't see what you two are groaning about that didn't hurt at all." Cody said, fiddling with a couple blades of grass.
"Sorry but not all of us can have super hard vampire skulls!" I said, my head now pounding. I started walking towards the river only to be followed by my two "body guards".
"Why are you following me?" I asked not looking at them.
"Because we don't want you screaming vampire to somebody." Cody said.
"Okay, first of all, WHO am I gonna tell? There's absolutely NOBODY out here!" I yelled at the both of them.
"Oh, I don't know you could find somebody." Riley said, smirking. I scoffed at them and sat down on the river bank dangling my legs just inches above the calm muddy water. They sat down next to me on either side. I took Riley's hand and an idea popped into my head. I smiled and they just looked at me like I was crazy. I jumped in and stayed under for awhile just to make them squirm. After a few seconds I heard them talking.
"Ash? Come on babe, this isn't funny." Riley said, laughing nervously.
"Ashley? Come on, don't worry us like this." Cody said, laughing along with Riley. I stayed under until after they jumped in to look for me. I bursted through the surface of the murky water and splashed them both, soaking them. I laughed until my sides hurt. After we got out of the water and dried off they took me back to that prison of a house. I went up to my room and found some night clothes.I felt arms snake around my waist and smiled as Riley kissed my neck. I turned around in his arms and kissed him slowly and passionately. He then let me fall asleep on his chest.

*Riley's POV*
I woke up to a scream.
"Ashley? Ashley?!" I yelled. I walked into the kitchen and found her standing over Cody and smiling evilly.
"Ashely, what are you doing?" I asked, walking over to her.
"I'm finally ending this, go get a stake out of the duffel bag." She ordered me. I shook my head.
"What? Why?" She asked, furious.
"Because we've come to be mates." I explained.
"Fine, if you won't do it of free will, I'll just have to make you do it." She cocked her head to the side and started mumbling and suddenly I had no control of my limbs. I walked up the stairs and unzipped the duffel bag, grabbed a stake, walked back to where they were, and before she could make me end him, he bit her behind her knee and she collapsed.
"What the hell, man?" I yelled after he caught her.
"She was gonna kill me, Riley!" He yelled back.
"Well, you deserve it, you killed her mom, broke her heart, and plus you've lived way too long as it is." I argued. He set her aside and grabbed the stake off the floor.
"Then kill me. If you want me dead so bad kill me, do it Riley."
"No, I won't."
"Ha, you're weak just like your brother." He smiled.
"What do you know about David? He's been dead for-"
"For five years, I know because I was the one who killed him Riley." He grinned maliciously.
"You son of a b****!" I screamed. I plunged the stake deep into his heart and it protruded from his back.
"Thanks, man." He uttered before he collapsed and disappeared.
"Riley?" Ashley asked, waking up.
"Ashely, it's over." I said, kneeling down next to her.
"What? How?" She asked.
"He told me he killed David and I staked him. I was so mad and it was weird, at the end he thanked me." I said, laughing a little.
"That's why I was gonna kill him, he asked me to and then he stopped me." She looked puzzled.
"Maybe it was his way for clearing his conscious about my brother." I shrugged. I put my arm around her and kissed her.
"It's finally over, isn't it?" She asked after breaking away.
"Yes." I nodded.
"Then what are we supposed to do now? Be normal?" She asked, smiling.
"Hopefully." I laughed.
"And they lived happily ever after." She grinned as I kissed her