Getting kidnapped sucks. But then you fall in love.

“You’re crazy” I said. “No wonder you lived on the streets”

She came at me with the knife. I ducked but her knife swung inches from my head. I ran to the door and my hand just barely touched the handle before she grabbed my ankle and pulled me back. I crashed to the ground and rolled over and started to kick her but her knife swung at my legs which were bare by the way. I was wearing short shorts. Her knife got a slash against the lower part of my left leg so I decided it was time to make some noise.

I screamed. I screamed as loud as I could.

I heard footsteps from out in the hall.

I jumped up from the ground but Shay came at me again. She swung the knife against my back while at the same time pushing me to the ground just as the door opened. I struggled against Shay as she kept on pushing me down. Stellar rushed in and immediately ripped Shay from me but she was trying to swing at him now. And me? I was trying to sit up without screaming in pain.

Alex helped Stellar with Shay as while Kelsey was trying to help me.

“Where did she cut you?” Kelsey asked.

“My back” I said. “And my leg” I showed her the cuts. And they probably looked worse than I thought because she made some sort of face. When Stellar and Alex got Shay tied up with some rope that Stellar had supposedly found Stellar walked over to me and looked down at my leg.

“What?” I asked. “What is it? Someone tell me what’s going on?”

Even Alex looked sad. But for me. Stellar looked bothered and Kelsey just looked really really sorry.

“It’s the knife she used” Stellar said.

“It’ll kill you in a few minutes” Shay said from across the room tied up at the chair.

“What?” I choked. “Kill me?!”

“There’s only one way to prevent it” Kelsey said to Stellar.

“Which is?” Stellar asked. I wondered if he was actually concerned I was dying or that his actual source of blood was dying out.

“She needs to be bitten by a regular vampire” Kelsey said. “Which means she needs to be bitten by me”

“But that’ll be painful” Alex said.

“It’s already painful” I told him.

“It’ll be worse” Stellar said. “Kelsey you need to hurry. She doesn’t have long”

He was right. I was starting to feel the actual pain. It was like the knife was inside me slowly creeping up inside my skin. Every few seconds I would gasp or a few tears would fall because of the pain.

Stellar looked impatient. Kelsey was deciding whether or not to take the risk because apparently she’d go insane over it. Finally she did. This time I screamed.

Stellar laid a hand soft on my shoulder as if to comfort me but it didn’t work. My legs thrashed against the floor and my hands tightened into fists that turned my knuckles white.

Kelsey wiped the blood off her mouth. By now it was 12:34

Well, something I’d never suspected happened. Stellar leaned over and picked me up. I was still feeling the pain and it wasn’t normal.

“W-what’s going on?” I asked as he carried me. Being in his arms was amazing.

“I need you to keep on letting out your pain. Don’t keep any of it inside you”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Scream if you have to”

“Why?”

“It’ll help” He promised. He sat me down on the couch. The pain had risen by now up to my throat and that nearly made me scream. The air conditioner buzzed against my skin but was no help. 

Stellar sat beside me and he was shaking his head.

“I don’t want to say this Jasmine but I don’t know what I can do. It’s going to get worse and-“He swallowed hard. “I don’t think either of us is going to survive”

“But I’ll die first” I said.

“Wait” Stellar said. “There is one thing I haven’t tried”

“Yeah? And what’s that?”

He leaned towards me and kissed me. And just like that the pain was gone. It didn’t matter because we were both so far from reality we went further than we had last time. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer to him up against his chest. We kissed for several seconds until we heard footsteps and looked up immediately.

“So I see she’s feeling better” Alex said. “All it took was true loves kiss”

“Shut up” Stellar told him. “Or you’ll have to sleep in the bathtub”

“Depending on who’s with me I don’t care where I sleep”

Stellar threw a pillow at him which he caught.

“So what are you going to do with Shay?” I asked.

“We’ll have to kill her” Kelsey said. “It’ s the best thing we can do”

“The best thing?”

“She can find a lot of ways to kill you or one of us” Alex said. “So hey, what are we going to do now? Just chill? Maybe spend the summer here?”

“I don’t care” Stellar said. “As long as you two don’t bring anyone in here”

“And I get to live with three vampires and not even get to see fireworks. How fun” I said.

“You’ll see fireworks” Alex promised me. “Maybe we can even go to the beach”

“Maybe” Stellar agreed. Hey, would you look at that. I guess I had to go to bed after that. I grabbed some water from the fridge because Stellar had gotten some groceries that were actually good food and I headed off to bed. As I sat in bed that night for the first time moonlight stretched across the floor and I wondered if Shay was still alive in the other room. Could she easily sneak in and kill me?

I decided to grab a weapon in case and kept it by the bed and I slept better that way. Well, sort of. I can’t promise you I’ll ever get a good night’s rest sleeping in an apartment with three vampires and a potential murderer.