“Hang on,” Lee interrupted. “You can’t be serious.” She had her arms crossed as the other band members looked at me, dumb founded.

“I am,” I said. I hadn’t wanted to do this but they deserved to know sooner rather than later.

“I just managed to get us a spot at a mic-night in a cafe. And now of all times, Scarlet’s not feeling up to doing it?” Her face was intensely frustrated. “We can’t play without a singer and backing out now isn’t going to make us look good.”

“I know, I’m sorry but she’s really… not well.” Scarlet hadn’t left my bed for the rest of that night and when I woke up the next day, I found her under the bed and mostly unresponsive. She didn’t need any added stress of worrying about her band duties.

“What happened?” Lee asked.

I felt the others watching me and looked down at the garage floor. “It’s complicated… and not really my place to talk about.”

“Did she kill someone?” Sierra asked. “If the body’s the problem–”

“Nobody died,” I snapped.

Sierra blinked, looking genuinely hurt.

“S-sorry,” I managed and took a deep breath. “She went through some traumatic stuff that she needs to process and that’s all I should say on the matter.”

Lee nodded, solemnly. “Okay.” She followed my gaze to the floor briefly. “We’ll have to cancel, but there’ll be other opportunities.” Still, I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. To run into snags so early in this process of becoming famous, it was clear it wasn’t going to be easy for her. And our generation had some pretty complicated issues with ‘failure.’

“What can we do?” Christian asked. “To help her feel better.”

“I don’t think… there is anything to do. It’s her world and her feelings. The best I can do is be there for her. So you guys can only be here when she’s ready to hang out again.”

He nodded. “I see.”

“If that changes you should tell us right away,” Elias added on. “Or if you need anything, too. How are you holding up?”

I glanced at my still-braced arm, which was wonderfully useless for anything other than smacking myself in the face by accident when half-asleep.

“I’m fine,” I said. Yes, I was still finding sleep difficult and yes, there were nightmares and yes, my panic attacks had returned; but it still wasn’t the worst I had felt and I was managing everything fairly well, all things considered.

Lee looked skeptical, but knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t give any more details, so instead she sighed and set out to get the band to practice their instruments. I left with a brief farewell and got back home to find mom in the kitchen, chopping onions and bell peppers.

“Hey Lexi,” she said, half humming.

“...Hey,” I managed at this strange sight before me. Mike wasn’t home from work yet, and he was usually the one to get her out of bed.

“You’re back sooner than I thought,” she commented.

I stared at her, uncertain what caused her sudden interest.

“Do you know who that is on the couch?” she asked.

“Uh,” with a glance around the door frame, I saw Blacke’s back still prone on the couch. “It’s… Blacke,” I explained. “Mike and I know him. Scarlet’s brother.”

She nodded along. “And Scarlet is…?”

“My... girlfriend,” I managed. It had been my every intention to go straight to my room to see how she was doing, but my mom being in the kitchen, cooking and not looking like she hadn’t slept or showered in weeks was somehow more concerning.

“I see, well, they’re both welcome to have dinner with us,” she said.

I nodded, as she turned back to her vegetable chopping. “Okay,” I managed, and then scooted off to my room, still feeling disoriented.

Scarlet was still under the bed, a corner of my blanket still sticking out where I could see it.

I sighed and sat on the floor next to her hiding spot and put my hand as close to being under there with her.

“How’re you doing?” I asked quietly.

There was only a quiet shuffle in response.

“I know you’re dealing with a lot of emotions,” I said. “But I’ll bring you some food later okay? Don’t worry about anything else for now.”

Her fingers slowly caressed my hand and I had to suppress the massive relief I felt that she was at least willing to move for me. Even if words were still a bit too much.

“I’ll be here, okay?” I reassured. “Just let me know if you need anything at all.”

The silence followed and it was awful. It was way too reminiscent of back when I’d stood in the basement of the asylum and witnessed how much of a skeleton of a person she was. Just skin and bone. Thinking back on it now, after she’d regained herself as a person, it was unsettling.

Her brother was still hanging out on our couch, in a similar state of emotional shut-down that would need to be addressed eventually. But for now, Mike didn’t ask questions, just let him hang out in a safe place. I wasn’t even sure where they would go if not here. Demetrius had probably claimed the asylum for himself and regardless of if Demetrius knew what they’d been up to or not, they weren’t going to be able to coexist with that man ever again.

Which brought me back to the problem. I was a seventeen year old girl with a broken arm and not particularly good athletic skills. I could do almost nothing to Demetrius on my own and Blacke and Scarlet were both not functioning. So how I would do anything to get that man off the streets was beyond me for the moment. The police would ask too many questions if I tried to tip them off and my friends were just teenagers, the same as me. 

With some effort, I dragged the laptop closer to me, wondering what might be available online for this kind of thing but just found myself staring at an empty search bar. I didn’t even know what question to ask.

There had to be something for me to do, right? Demetrius was a vampire. He was unaging but not immortal.

I got to the hunter website and started digging through whatever resources were available. Not many were easy to navigate to since most were buried into forums, so I did a lot of scrolling through rather unpleasant conversations about destroying people. Even those who didn't hurt other people. I hadn't noticed before, but the Bludge page was filled with information about how bad they were. It rekindled the anger in me and I did my best to find more about the vampires I'd sent Blacke and Scarlet to. Maybe if I could talk to them, they might be able to help.

AN: We're approaching the end of the series, unfort. I'll miss it when its gone, but I'll still be writing other things. I'm gonna try to get better about regular updates. I say that a lot but it's been very chaotic. I have a job again, but its a crappy one for sure so we'll see how it all works out.

Thanks for reading!