Prologue

I was twelve when it happened, the meteor that changed our world forever. It was a rare anomaly. There was a gold, yes gold, meteor heading towards Earth. It wasn’t made of actual gold, but it was gold in color. The whole town had to absquatulate to the shelter that was built to resist powerful gunfire, bombs, pretty much anything dangerous you can think of. The meteor burst into dust the moment it hit our atmosphere . The whole world was hit, but no one thought much of it. No one died in this event, but some were affected by what seemed harmless golden dust. It started with a thirst for something, but they couldn’t put their finger on it. Then they began to grow knife sharp fangs that they could bring out and hide away at will. Other people began to call them vampires because if they didn’t satisfy their thirst, they would die.

…………………………………………………………………………….

I’m just an average 14 year old girl, well as average as I can get. I haven’t been caught for who I truly am- not even by my family. I look in the mirror and my eyes flash gold for a brief moment. I need to feed, and fast! I thought to myself. Animal blood doesn’t last me long, only human blood can satisfy for longer periods of time. I hate this! Why can’t I be like anyone else? Why did this curse have to come to me? It’s not fair!

I took a deep breath and looked at myself in the mirror. It was just me- not a vampire, just a blonde haired, blue eyed, tall, girl. My stomach became nauseated. I can’t go much longer without blood. My fangs flashed out and I had to urge them back in. I have gone a year and a half without being caught, so I can’t be caught now.
“Hey Charlotte, are you about ready for school?” my mom yelled. “You’re going to be late!”

“Yeah, I’m coming down,” I yelled back weakly, my voice cracking.

I walked down the stairs. My mom was in our all white kitchen beside the stove stirring oatmeal and had her long brunette hair pulled back into a ponytail and I saw her neck. My fangs flashed out and I lunged at her, but before I bit her I regained control of myself. I gave her a hug to hide my action and ran to the back door.
“Love you,” mom called as I ran out the door.

I love you too, so that’s why I need to keep this from you, I thought grimly. I got into my red, beat up, old pickup and started the ignition. When I  started to pull out of our 10 foot driveway when I saw a flash of gold in my rearview mirror. It was one my kind! I only saw their eyes, nothing more, but it was enough to tell that I wasn’t alone. I turned to see if I could get a good look at his (I think it was a boy) face. He was gone of course. I sighed. Just my luck! The second I get the chance to meet one of my kind, the guy disappears! I pulled out of the driveway and grumbled angrily the whole way to school.

When I got out of the car, I smelled blood, and it smelled good. The whole school was a crime scene as well. There was do not cross tape 10 feet in front of our brick school, and police all over as well. My best friend, Opal, ran up to me, her brown hair flowing in the wind and her freckled face worried. I got out of my car and closed the door.

“What’s wrong Opal?” I asked looking her up and down for injuries.

She looked at me, her green eyes directly staring into my blue ones and said, “Someone was killed by a vampire.”

“What! Who?” I asked her while thinking about all the possibilities.

“It was Sabrina,” she answered, her gaze shifting downward.

“Oh,” I replied, hiding how happy I was inside. I hate that girl and now that she’s gone she can’t hog Opal anymore. Opal always seemed to favor Sabrina over me. No, I told myself, this isn’t you, this is the monster inside you. You’re not that kind of person. There was a gust of wind and I saw Opal’s neck. My hunger grew and I had to resist to bite.

What’s the matter?

I flinched.

Aren’t you hungry?

Yes, but I can’t bite my best friend! I thought.

It’s okay. I won’t judge. Go on take a bite, I know you want to.

But she’s my best friend, I thought while looking at her.

It’s okay, it’s not like I can judge you, I am you. You’re hungry and you know it. Just take a bite.

“Are you okay?” Opal asked with a worried look on her face.

Now’s your chance!

“Yes, I-I’m fine,” I replied forcing a smile. I waited for the voice to come back, but it never did.

“Is school still going to be in session?” I asked her, my voice shaking.

“Actually yes, vampire attacks are becoming more common in the US, so they made a law saying that we had to have school, even if there was an attack,” Opal replied sadly.

“That’s really stupid,” I exaggerated.

“Yeah I know,” Opal mumbled distantly.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” I told her giving her a hug. I again had to fight the urge to bite her.
“I know,” Opal responded shivering and forcing a smile.

………………………………………………………………………………..

It was around lunch when I started to feel sick. It wasn’t a hungry sick, because there was a blood drive during 1st hour and I stole a couple packs of blood. It felt like flu sick. I was nauseated, so I went to the nurse and she told me that I didn’t have a fever, so she sent me back to class. I headed back to my 5th hour and I saw an aspergillum outside the door. I wondered why that was there. I headed inside the class and smelled garlic. I love the smell of garlic. I took a deep breath and smiled. Garlic has always had a calming effect on me. I know it sounds weird since I’m a vampire and all, but I don’t think the weakness comes with it.

I took a seat and noticed that my nauseation disappeared. A man I didn’t know walked up to the front of the class and stood in front of the podium. Everyone stared and murmured among themselves. I don’t blame them. That man was hot. He had shaggy brunette hair, a tall and lean frame, and he was wearing a suit to top it off. The only thing that ruined it all was the look in his eyes. His dark brown eyes were cold and glaring, so none of us would look him in the eye.

“I know you’re all wondering why I am here,” he told us smoothly. “I am here to do a vampire test on you all.”
I went cold and the class murmured around me.“Vampire test?” “Why?” “Do they think that one of us killed Sabrina?”

He held up his hand to silence us. “We will have a series of tests over the week to see if any of you are vampires.” He looked around at us to see our reactions. “Now there is a chance that some of you can still become vampires over time and we are here to see if that is possible.”

The class started to whisper to each other, all of them were obviously scared of that possibility. A small girl with strawberry blonde hair and braces in the back of the class raised her hand, and our “new” teacher nodded to her.

“What will happen to those of us who test positive for being a vampire?” she asked slurring her words quickly.
“You will be taken to a research facility to be tested on and then cured,” he replied as if it was the most normal thing in the world to go to a research facility.

The class got tense, but not as tense as I got. I can not go to some research facility to get tested. For all I know it’s like the movies and they end up torturing me for answers to my weirdness. Why would they even send someone here to Leoti, Kansas, of all places?

He cleared his throat, breaking me out of my trance. “Now I should start by introducing myself before we begin the tests,” he grunted while he wrote the name Ethan on the whiteboard. “You all will call me Ethan,” he spoke to us sternly. “Not, Mr. Ethan or Agent Ethan, just Ethan,” He looked around at us. It was as if he expected us to defy him. “Now then, let us begin,” he finished smiling.

Ethan started out the classroom door and gestured us to follow him. We all slowly got up and reluctantly followed him.

“First we will test your breath for blood to see if you had any recently,” he spoke to us clearly. “If you had blood today and didn’t brush your teeth afterwards- we will know,” he reported with a smile- his eyes cold as diamonds.

I smiled to myself. I brush my teeth everytime I drink blood and I even chewed gum. Good thing there is a flaw in the testing system. I got in line for our breath test. There was a guy in my class named Oliver in front of me, and he seemed to be nervous.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked, concerned about his well being.

Before he could respond it was his turn and I got my answer to why he was so shaky. As he breathed into the machine the light started to flash red and Ethan pinned Oliver down. He brought out a syringe of some liquid that I’m guessing was tranquilizer, and injected it in his neck. Oliver went limp and Ethan picked him up and put him in a large 20 feet long, 10 feet high, and seven feet wide box. Something in my brain seemed to click when I watched that whole ordeal. I started to feel cold and shake.

“All right, that takes care of one of’ em beasts,” Ethan told us writing something down, then looked around to see some people looking wide eyed at him and others crying or just sitting in shock. He didn’t seem to know what to do, so he just called, “Next!”

This was the moment of truth. I walked up and blew in the device and the light turned green. I looked at Ethan and he didn’t give me a second look. This was good.

……………………………………………………………………………..

The rest of my class was tested in the same manner, and all of them tested negative. Many people were crying with relief, but not me. No one has ever seen me cry other than Opal. Crying is a show of weakness in a person. I can’t ever let that weakness show. I must've looked really angry because a boy named Ignacio started to back away. I calmed down and looked at Ethan to see what was next. To my surprise, he looked extremely uncomfortable. It must be all the crying people. I smiled. I felt happy to see his discomfort. I shook my head. This isn’t you, I told myself. It’s just the vampire inside of you. A loud “ahem” broke me out of my daze. It was Ethan.

“Everyone please calm down and follow me to the next test,” he gestured for us to follow him and started to walk down the hall to the cafeteria.

I looked around and saw machines and weapons all over in the cafeteria. Some of the weapons I recognize such as the animalizer (it turns humans into animals), but I didn’t recognize any of the machines. There was a large rectangular, black machine that had a bunch of buttons and levers and in had what looked like teeth. I decided to steer clear of that one. Ethan led us up to a blood red, circular machine. It was about six feet tall and was I think about eight feet wide. There was a door in the front of it and when Ethan opened it there was a bed inside.

“This machine will look at your memory from the last three days,” Ethan revealed to us. There was silence in reply. “Just a fair warning, it might completely erase your memory for good, so if you don’t take this test you will have further testing,” he stopped speaking for a moment and then continued, “If you do take the test you will not have to do any further tests and are free to continue your classes.”

I started to debate with myself. There’s a chance that I lose my memory, but I’m guessing that it was very slim. If I take more tests, there is more of a chance of me getting caught. What did he mean by “look at your memory from the past three days?” That’s not possible. Is it?

I decided to go in. There was no way that they can look at your memory. That’s just not possible. If it was, it would've been all over the news about a scientific breakthrough. I raised my hand to volunteer to go first, but someone beat me to it. It was a girl named Amberly. She had long chestnut hair that went to her hips that was in a tight braid. She was almost as tall as me and had deep, dark brown eyes. I just have to say she was one of the most gorgeous people I have ever met.

“Alright then. I told you the risks, so go ahead and go on in,” Ethan grinned, pressing the button to open the door.

Amberly walked in the machine, head held high, and laid down on the bed. Ethan went in and gave her a shot. I shivered. I hated watching people or animals get shots. Ethan walked out of the machine and closed the door. He opened up a panel that I didn’t notice before and pressed in something and closed it. All of a sudden a siren that was emitted from the machine started to sound. Ethan quickly opened the door and grabbed Amberly.
“Nasty vampire,” he muttered under his breath.

I was in complete, utter shock. Amberly was a benign girl. There was no possible way that she could be a vampire. Right? The air felt arid and my mouth went dry. That could’ve been me. I would have been in that position right there if she wouldn’t of raised her hand before me. I started to panic, but Opal came up behind me and started to pat on my back to assuage me. I calmed down and watched as Ethan carried the unconscious Amberly to the container that Oliver was in.

“As you all saw right there, anyone can be a vampire,” Ethan told us after putting Amberly in the container. “What the machine did was just a psychology trick,” he explained. “All it did was introduce the idea of blood to the mind and looked at her reaction, such as fangs coming out or a flash of gold in the eyes.”

Opals boyfriend, Noah Games, raised his hand. Ethan nodded at him.

“So a vampires eyes flash gold when they are hungry?” he asked him.

Ethan nodded and started to explain. “As you all know, two years ago a meteor the color of gold was heading towards Earth, but for some reason it exploded into dust in the atmosphere- spreading that dust all around. Nearly every person in the world breathed in that dust, but only one in every 1,000 were affected, so that means about 7,500,000 people were affected. We noticed that whenever they became hungry either their fangs came out, their eyes flashed gold or both.” Ethan looked around at us to see our reactions and then continued, “The reason we are here is because the meteor was right above Leoti, Kansas, so the people here took in a greater amount. That gave them a higher chance of becoming vampires.”

He looked around, only to see a bunch of confused faces looking back. He took a deep breath and sighed. “Maybe I should start out by explaining our universe first.,” he started. “As you all know, the universe started with a Big Bang as an unimaginably hot, dense point. When the universe was only a hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second old, it experienced a burst of expansion known as inflation, in which space expanded faster than the speed of light. While that was happening, the universe doubled in size 90 times, going from subatomic size to golf ball size in no time at all….” Ethan went on and on for about an hour on this topic. Most people stared at him in a daze, but I decided to take this opportunity to take a long undisturbed nap.

…………………………………………………………………………………

So we meet again. I have been waiting for a chance for us to chat.

“Who are you and what do you want?” I asked the voice.

I’m you or should I say your conscious.

“My conscious?” I asked, somewhat curious.

Yes. Now let us get down to the point. You haven’t been eating properly.

“Your point?” I told her wanting her to get down to the point.

You can’t just survive on blood taken out of the body before hand or the blood of humans. You need it fresh. Straight from the body. That what you have fangs for.

“Yeah, never going to happen in a million years,” I responded my conscious strictly. “You should understand. I mean you’re me after all.”

Yes and because I’m you I want the best for us.

“You should know that I can’t do that,” I barked. “It would kill them.”

But it would save you.

I stayed silent and my conscious sighed.

You aren’t the only vampire in the world you know. There are others. Find them, stay with them, and ditch your human friends as well. That’s your best chance at staying alive.

I looked at her with more respect because I knew it was true, even if I didn’t like it.

Someone is waking you up now. I have to go.

“Wait! I have so many more questions I want to ask you,” I called after her (me?). It was too late though. Before I knew it, I was waking up.
……………………………………………………………………………………..
Opal woke me up after Ethan finished giving his speech on our universe. I don’t think anyone remembered a word he said though. He was so engrossed with his speech, he didn’t even notice that I was asleep. His words were just blatherskite to us.

I turned to see that Ethan was heading down the hall to the water fountain. When I turned back around, I saw Noah handing out papers to the class. After he gave one to me, we went up to the front of the class and cleared his throat.

“Okay people. This is an astrological sign sheet.” Noah hollered at us. “Just put down your date of birth and I will tell you your astrological sign!”

I looked down at my blank sheet and put down June fourth. I looked over at Opal’s and saw that she put down January 23.

Noah walked up to me first and grabbed my sheet. “Okay Charlotte, you are a Gemini,” he told me. He walked up to Opal. “Alright sweet cakes, you are an Aquarius,” then he whispered to her blushing, “I heard that Capricorn and Aquarius make good matches.” Opal turned beet red and kissed him on the cheek.

I sighed. They are such a cute couple. I wish I had someone like that. I heard loud footsteps. It was Ethan.
“Alright, settle down,” Ethan stated, “It’s time for the next test. This test will see if any of you have a vampire ability.”

“Like superpowers?” asked the girl with the strawberry blonde hair.

“Yes,” he started, “vampires have supernatural abilities that most people would refer to as powers.”

I had no idea about this. Does this mean that I have supernatural abilities. If I do, I had no idea. I wonder if they vary or if it’s all one of the same power.

Of course you have superpowers, exclaimed my annoying “conscious.”

Then how come I didn’t know about it, I retorted in thought.

Well… she started.

Well what, I asked.

In order to awaken your power, you have to bite another one of your species, she said slowly.
I was in shock. I can’t do that! I yelled at her. I was done so I started to pay attention to what Ethan was saying again. To my surprise, everyone was looking at me.

“What?” I asked them snottily and loudly.

The girl with the red hair spoke up, “Um, you just passed out for a minute, but you were sitting up and uh-”
Ethan cut her off, “You just had us worried, that’s all.” He looked at me again- as if he was suspicious of something.

Did my eyes flash gold while I was speaking to her? My fangs flash? Did I just look really weird?

“Alright then” Ethan yelled while clapping his hands. “Let us move on, shall we.”

I stood up and started to follow him. To my surprise, we went outside. We went to the red track that was surrounded by the fence.

“First thing that we are going to test is the speed ability,” there was a large gust of wind. “Hopefully the wind doesn’t affect this exercise,” he spoke hopefully, as if it was the end of the world if we couldn’t take this test. I personally wouldn’t mind.

“We will be going five at a time,” he shouted over the wind. “You will do four laps and if you slack off, we’ll know.”

I decided to go with the first group so I could get it over with. Ethan raised his gun that he was going to signal us with. I was starting to get anxious. Finally the gun sounded with a bang, and we all started to run as fast as we could. Opal, who was next in the lane next to me, pulled ahead. This didn’t surprise me at all because she keeps in shape year round, but Ethan raised an eyebrow. I hope he didn’t think that she was a vampire, because she’s not. I kept running as fast as I could, but I was running out of breath. I started to think to myself to keep myself busy while I ran.

Pink, rainbow unicorns, dancing on water. Pink, rainbow unicorns, dancing on water. Pink, rainbow unicorns, dancing on, dancing on water. I kept repeating those sentences, but it wasn’t helping. I am too out of shape for my own good. I haven’t ran a mile since the 4th grade- and I didn’t even run the whole thing. I have had about enough after I crossed my third lap mark. I stopped, grabbed the fence, and keeled over. It wasn’t pretty.
Ethan walked over to me and patted me on the back. “So, um, it’s obvious you gave it all, so I think I will clear you from the rest of the vampire tests,” he stammered, while he jotted something down with his green pencil. “It’s clear that you are not a vampire, so I apologize for putting you through all of this.”

I was surprised, but I was too busy throwing up to care. When I finally regained control of myself, I walked to the nurse's office. As I walked in, I saw the nurse dig her fangs into an animal. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. She was still doing it, but she didn’t seem to notice me. I was about to walk away, but my body got the better of me. I threw up. She looked over at me, blood running down her cheek. Her ruby red lips open and her deep brown hair pulled up. Her piercing blue eyes looked at me shocked, as if she was deciding whether or not to kill me. Instead of lunging at me she just said, “How much of that did you just see?”

Before I could answer her, I passed out from lack of breath. Of course the voice had to come back again.

……………………………………………………………………………..

“What do you think you’re doing,” she yelled at me.

Wow, this is the first time that she actually had a voice and for some reason it didn’t sound like mine.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I responded smoothly.

“This is not a time for you to be passing out,” she started. “For all you know, she might be killing you this very moment.”

“How was I supposed to know that I was going to pass out?” I asked her angrily.

She started to respond, but she stopped quickly. “Well, whatever.” she told me sounding defeated for some reason, “It seems like she didn’t kill you.”

……………………………………………………………………………….

When I woke up, I noticed that I was still in the pink nurses office. I saw the nurse sitting beside me reading a newspaper. I tried to sit up, but I felt really weak. The nurse looked up from her newspaper and smiled.

“So I see you’re awake,” she told me stating the obvious.

“Yeah,” I croaked. “But why did I pass out from throwing up?”

“Well it’s obvious that you are lacking in blood,” she told me.

My blood turned cold. She knows. I decided to play it off, so I told her “I didn’t donate any blood to the blood drive, so I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“You know full well what I am talking about,” she told me still smiling.

“How could you tell?” I asked, my voice still cracking.

“I could tell because I have been in the same shoes as you,” she answered. She then licked her lips, “How I would love a taste of your blood and gain the power.” She started to extend her hand towards me, but she hesitated and brought her hand back.

“Why aren’t you going to do it?” I asked, “ I mean, I’m completely helpless right now. You can do whatever you want to me.”

“If I get a taste of your blood then-” she stopped abruptly.

“Then what?” I asked.

“Then you should get a taste of mine,” she said carefully.

I stared at her, my mouth wide open. I have never bit into a human before. Well I guess she’s not human because she is of my species, but I’m not going to get stuck on the details.

“I can’t,” I told her firmly.

“So you don’t mind if I have a taste?” she asked me.

“I never said that…” I told her distantly. I felt my conscious begin to fade. It felt like someone was trying to replace it. I heard her talking to my distantly, but I didn’t understand a word she said. Before I knew it, I was in pitch darkness. For some reason, I was wide awake.

………………………………………………………………………
The Other “Me”

“Let’s do it,” I said to her grinning.

“What’s with the sudden change of attitude?” she asked me.

“Oh it’s nothing,” I told her smiling. “Oh, and you should let me taste first,” I commanded her hurriedly.
“Okay,” she told me hesitantly, “But only a taste.”

“Don’t worry,” I told her smiling. I grabbed the scissors off the table without her noticing. “I won’t take enough to kill you,” I grinned.

I leant in and bit her. I felt her shiver. I told her I would only take a taste, but it was so good.

“What are you-” she started to say, but it was too late. I stabbed her in the heart with the scissors and kept drinking from her dead body.

………………………………………………………………….
The Real Me

“Hello?” I called. “Anyone there?”

I sighed. How did I even get here? Did I pass out? No, it wouldn’t feel this real. I started to feel hot, so I threw my long blonde hair up into a ponytail. (For some reason a black on just appeared on my wrist. I looked around again, only to see pitch black except for the little light above me.) Then all of a sudden, I saw a round T.V. I ran towards it and I saw the nurse that was a vampire laying dead on someone's lap. I looked away and looked again. There’s no way. Those blue jeans that the nurses head lay, looked like my jeans. All of a sudden the person got up and the nurse rolled to the floor. She walked up to the mirror on the side of the room and I was completely shocked by what I saw. It was me.

It can’t be, I thought. How could this of happened?

You’re welcome, said a voice.

“How did you take me over?” I asked, knowing who it was.

It took a while, but your hunger finally let me through, she told me, I saw her smiling in the mirror. Don’t worry. You will come back any minute now and you can try out your new powers.

“What,” I asked surprised by what she has done.

All of a sudden, I felt a weird force that seemed to be sucking me out of my mind. I knew that I was going back to my body.
………………………………………………

A Few Hours Later

I went back home and laid in my bed gasping. Thanks to my conscious, I’m going to be caught. I did dispose of the body, but there was blood everywhere and I wasn’t hungry. I know I should feel bad about killing her, but I don’t. I actually feel really good. No, I thought. This is once again the vampire in you. I groaned. This can’t be happening. They’ll come to my door, ask where I last saw the nurse, and then they will arrest me for lying about where I last saw the nurse.

I turned around and looked at the pictures of my dog on the wall. My mom told me that he went missing, but the truth is that I drank his blood as my first meal. I felt extremely bad. He was my baby and I betrayed him. I hope he went to heaven. I spent the next hour staring at my sealing, waiting for them to come for me. They never came.
……………………………………………………….

I went back to school the next day and I wasn’t treated any differently. I didn’t even have to take any more vampire tests. That was a relief all by itself. It seemed to all be okay, well until the government’s army came. It was kind of facetious to think about. They literally came storming in while I ate lunch. They even had their guns ready, so it looked like a comic book picture.

“Is Charlotte Fritz here?” an officer asked a teacher that was supervising the lunchroom. The teacher pointed towards me and the officer walked up to me and Opal was beside him. “Did you murder Sabrina Wilkins?” he asked me.

“No! Of course not,” I told him surprised. “I wasn’t even at school when she was murdered! Tell him Opal!”
She just looked away and whispered under her breath, “Dirty vampire.”

I was shocked. How did she find out? Oh no. She probably went to the nurse’s office after she was done running like the good friend she was. How much did she see? The room started to spin.

“I was told by this young lady here that she saw you kill a nurse, that was also a vampire, and then went and took her body and buried it,” he said strictly. “Is this true.”

Instead of replying, I decided to make a run for it. This turned out to be a bad move and not for me, but for the army.
………………………………………………………

I stood over a mass of dead bodies. I looked at down at my hands, which were covered in blood, shaking. I can’t believe I did this. I looked around, the once white walls were stained red, the air smelling strong with the wonderful scent of blood. I looked around, energized by the aroma, but scared of what I have done. I was in my right mind when I did it. I remember chasing Opal down while she got out the keys to her black mustang. I felt sick.

I staggered out of the building and I put a piece of gum in my mouth to get rid of the taste of blood, even if it was delicious. I can’t live with myself anymore, but I cannot be killed. I decided to break Amberly and Noah out of their little prison. As I walked across the street to the high school, I saw Ethan standing in front of their cage. I didn’t want to kill him, but if he resists I’ll have no choice.

He saw me and came running. “What happened?” he asked frantically.

Ethan didn’t know what I was, so I responded, “There was a vampire attack and I’m the only survivor from the room that it happened in, but I think the kids are okay since they were outside for recess.”
He looked shocked by this. “You stay here and I’ll go save those kids before the vampire gets to them,” he told me.

“Ok,” I told him grimacing, holding my wounds.

I watched him run off and then went to the cage that was holding my fellow vampires. I broke the lock with my bare hands and looked inside. There was no one in there. I heard someone cock a gun and I rose my hands.
“That’s right, dirty vampire,” I heard Ethan say. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”

I started to turn around, keeping my eyes closed. When I was directly facing him I opened my eyes and looked straight into his. He started to scream. I don’t know what he was seeing, but it must be bad. Ethan fell unconscious and I decided to make my escape.

………………………………………………………………………….

“So why did you decide to come here?” asked Lady Maria.

“I want you to give me some answers about me,” I responded.

She stroked her hair thoughtfully, “It’s risky, but I will give you the answers you seek, and you won’t like them.”

She ushered me into her mansion and I saw the boy that I saw in my rearview mirror. My conscious was right. There is a group of me staying here. I smiled to myself, knowing that this was just the beginning.