The policeman patrolled the asylum grounds, making the rounds around and around. It was quiet for the most part. Officer Pat was stretching, letting his back crack as he surveyed the woods. He wished it hadn’t been such an obvious murder. He didn’t know the details but he knew the higher ups were determined to thoroughly investigate it. 

He thought police work would be a bit less stressful than his former occupation and he was right. But it was also far more boring. Most of his days were a monotony of paperwork and patrolling.

Today he was tired, his back hurt from the mindless wandering, and the constant glitter of glass on concrete had lost its appeal.

He would go for a round around the woods. The asylum would be in view, nobody was about to break in there now anyway. 

It just so happened that the vampire girl hadn’t been far from the asylum in her hunt.

Officer Pat came across the deer carcass. He nudged the head with his boot, making sure it was dead, though that should’ve been obvious by the fact some organs had been pulled from the cavity.

He thought it was strange. Why would an animal not eat anything except an organ or two? And what kind of animal hunted like this anyway? That cut into the abdomen looked like a hunter’s work. Probably a knife. Maybe it was because it was illegal to hunt in these woods—.

He stopped.

In a hurry he grabbed a tree limb off the ground and used some leverage to push open the cavity. 

His stomach sank. He thought he’d be done with this life. But he was staring at the empty place where the kidneys should be. But they were missing. Everything else was accounted for. Heart, liver, intestines. But the kidneys were gone, neat cuts where the arteries led to them.

He even knew the vampire that hunted that way. Blacke Bludge.

Although that didn’t make much sense, because his old hunting buddies had said they were tracking the Bludges heading north on the west coast. That was the opposite side of the country.

He sucked in a breath and pulled his phone out to take a photo. Surely he was reading too much into it. Too much boredom, maybe. But he’d get the second opinion. He sent the photo on its way to those old buddies. They’d figure it out.

---

“No, hang on,” Sierra said as we started to walk away. 

Ellias, Christian and I all stopped to wait as she leaned over her computer, biting at her lip impatiently.

“We should add a website to our program listing,” she explained. “You know, so that if people like us they can find us.”

I nodded. That made sense. “Do you have the domain name?” I asked.

“I’m waiting on the confirmation now,” Sierra explained.

Ellias stood quietly until his patience ran out and then started poking Christian for attention.

Christian gave him a shove in return.

I watched over Sierra’s shoulder but the please be patient text block was still up as the internet worked sluggishly.

Lee crossed her feet across the room, a sour look on her face as she had been the one to rush us out.

The internet blurb continued and Scarlet started to tug at my sleeve.

“What’s up?” I asked without looking over. She snaked her hand towards mine and I took it without hesitation. She gave my palm two gentle squeezes which I returned and finally the webpage confirmed.

“Okay we’re good,” Sierra announced. She took her phone out and took a photo before sending it into our group chat.

I confirmed the message on my phone. Rustedscales.com

We really were going all in for this. I quietly realized all we’d done as a group for the past month was work on this band’s performance or planning in one way or another. I kind of missed just letting us hang out and watch movies together and that excited glint Lee got when her favorite band released a new single. Scarlet squeezed my hand again. Christian and Elias had focused on our task at hand and started to leave Lee’s bedroom. I led Scarlet along with me with a brief farewell to the others, who were already hunched over the webpage Sierra was trying to put together.

“Lexi, come on,” Elias called to me as he reached the stairs and started to slide down the banister.

I hurried over, my camera bouncing against my chest as I did so. My hand detached from Scarlet’s to steady it.

Christian struggled indecisively at the top of the stairs, starting to go for the banister route but deciding against it.

“C’mon man, I’ll spot you,” Elias urged him.

Christian froze. “But–”

Elias made a gesture, shutting him up and Christian sucked in a breath and planted his butt on the railing and let himself slide down. Elias grinned mischievously. He really was a bad influence on the good boi.

I led Scarlet down the normal route. Elias didn’t complain as he was currently consoling Christian who was having a mild existential crisis.

We headed for the town hall. It wasn’t that far, the town wasn’t that big area-wise, though it had a comfortable population of eight-thousand.

The community here was peaceful. Most of the landscape was deciduous forest and it retained the Western Massachusetts beauty even with large pieces of cleared land for housing developments and shopping centers. Since it was such a small town though we had to walk pretty much everywhere. I wasn’t going to complain though. It was a beautiful day out. Even Scarlet, who couldn’t touch the sun, seemed to enjoy the scenery, my oversized sweatshirt casting her face in shadow.

It took us about thirty minutes to reach the town hall going at a leisurely pace. Elias had his backpack tossed over his shoulder, carrying several papers we needed for our sign up.

The building was old, and it was a bit crooked on the hill but it was still sturdy brick. We passed by its tiny front yard which was filled with brownish grass in the mid-fall.

A security guard was dozing in the front lobby and we approached the receptionist.

“Hi,” Christian started. 

“We need to turn in our Hallows Greed paperwork,” Elias pressed in.

Scarlet hung back with me. I felt like maybe we were overcrowding the receptionist in the small lobby space.

“Okay,” the receptionist said. She stood from behind the desk and pointed. “Community events are down that hall and to the right.”

“Thank you,” Christian told her and the group pulled back.

We went down that hall and to the right into an even tinier room not all of us were going to fit into. Scarlet and I hung back. She took my hand again, wanting a reassuring squeeze.

‘Down that hall and to the right,’ I heard the receptionist say in the background. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard the voice respond with a ‘thank you.’

My anxiety mounted. I dared to glance up at the two people there. My stomach sank. 

Scarlet looked up at me, puzzled by my sudden anxiety, but she followed my gaze to those people, who were now looking uneasily at us.

I considered an alternate route, but we were trapped in this back room. They kept their distance but I couldn’t tell if that was because they didn’t want to cause trouble or if they simply couldn’t come any closer in this tight of a space.

Elias and Christian reemerged from the tiny room. They could tell from the look on my face there was trouble and quickly looked past me to the two guys standing there.

I saw Elias’s jaw clench unhappily. But so far there hadn’t been any trouble. We didn’t really need to talk to quietly decide to scoot along the wall, as far from them as possible. They did the same on the other wall so we didn’t need to cross paths.

When we got outside, though, the bigger problem was there. 

The group there was larger. They were galavanting around on the grass, discussing their upcoming Hallow’s Greed plans.

When Elias and the guy named Josh made eye contact, I knew there was gonna be trouble. Josh sneered, but it wasn’t an amused sneer.

“Oh hey faggots,” he slurred.

Elias tensed. Christian put a hand on his arm in an attempt to keep him in check.

I kept close to them, knowing safety was in numbers in this situation. The other group moved to approach us. I pulled Scarlet closer to me. She held my hand tighter.

“We’re just leaving,” Christian said hotly. Elias was still ridged. I knew he wanted to start something but didn’t want to drag all of us down with him.

“What’s your band name, though?” Josh asked. “The Faggot Maggots?”

Elias pulled free of Christian just to have Christian and I yank him back before we could get into trouble.

Josh snorted. “Yeah, I’m so scared of the tomboy.” 

My own anger flared over awkwardness but I took a breath and held it down.

Josh gave us another cruel smile, knowing he’d hit Elias’s sore spot. Then he turned to Scarlet. “Eh?” he said dramatically. “Who’s this bitch?” Scarlet gripped my hand harder, something Josh didn’t miss out on. “Oh are you her little dyke?” 

I tensed. I hadn’t heard that one used as a slur in a while but it was certainly being used as one now.

I was sure Scarlet didn’t understand what it meant but she knew it wasn’t nice. Her jaw shifted around in a way that sent a shudder down my spine.

Then Josh’s eyes fell to me. He glared at me with that sneer on his face. “I’m sure you like her tongue up your cu—”

He let out a strangled cry as I felt something whip past me. The next second I registered the black hoodie strangling him.

With a sudden gasp I rushed forward and looped my arm around Scarlet’s waist and pulled her back.

She growled, and I mean really growled at the guy. The others who were with him backed up as Scarlet snapped her teeth inches away from his face.

“No,” I yelled at her. A lot of horrible images were running through my mind.

Elias helped me, taking one of her arms and pulling her back with me. She was so light I could’ve picked her up alone but she wouldn’t stop struggling until we’d gotten her several paces away. Even then, she bristled. Drool hesitated at the corners of her mouth and her heels were raised, ready for her to spring back into action.

“C’mon,” I said and took her hand to pull her away from Josh, who had finally sat up and was currently staring at blood on his hand. His head must’ve hit the ground hard.

“Crazy bitch,” I heard him curse at us.

Hopefully it wasn’t serious enough for us to get in trouble.

Scarlet glared back at him, her eyes flashing in the sunlight before she realized her white skin was exposed and reached up to adjust the hood back over her face.

Elias put himself between her and Josh, breaking her sightline.

We got away without any pursuit. Once Scarlet had calmed down enough I turned to her and put my hands on her shoulders.

She looked away, not wanting to talk about it.

“Scar, listen to me very carefully,” I told her.

She stared at the ground.

“You can not hurt anybody out here, okay?” I asked. “You know what happens. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

She licked the drool away from her teeth. “He said bad things about you,” she explained. 

Elias and Christian stood apart from us, waiting patiently.

“I know he’s an asshole,” I told her. I took her face in my hands and turned her eyes toward mine. “You can’t hurt people just because they hurt you. It just doesn’t work.”

Her eyes gazed so evenly into mine. The pinkish brown of her irises was so detailed this close up. I didn’t realize before how pretty they were. She blinked and pulled away from me.

“I like you,” she said.

“I like you, too,” I answered. I couldn’t be sure she understood what she’d done was wrong.

We started back toward Lee’s house. Scarlet didn’t try to take my hand again but instead I took hers and she squeezed it, comforted.

I tried not to think about what would’ve happened to Josh if I hadn’t acted faster. I didn’t want to think too much about how far she would’ve gone with him. If she would’ve killed him for the heck of it, not even to taste his blood. Or maybe she’d go into a frenzy with that much human blood.

I just didn’t know.