1. Where Is Your Boy?
I hope he is a gentleman

Loud taps echoed in the midnight filled room. Emma Waterson leaped from her empty nightmares and searched around to find a shadow sitting on her windowsill. It didn’t matter how long it had been; she knew that shape anywhere. It was Brendon Gatz, her lifelong best friend and love. Her brown waves of hair bounced off her shoulders and her Team Jacob tang top as she leaped off the bed and rushed over to open the window with a very confused face. Yet excitement glowed clearly in her eyes. A stern look masked the normal friendliness of his. Brendon’s mess of hair, that could never decide if it was black or brown, was covered by a dark hood which also hid his amber brown eyes. Their most precious box squeezed in his arms against his grey hoodie covered body.
“Brendon, what are you doing here?! It’s been a month! What have you been up to? What’s going on? Would you like to come in?” she blurted out only pausing to give him kisses in between question. He nodded and climbed in. “I’ve missed you so much,” she cried as she draped her arms around him and squeezed. He hesitated but finally returned the favor.
“I missed you too.”
Emma looked up; her pale blue eyes full of confusion. Normally, he would have nearly broken her in half with an instant hug. And not only that, but it didn’t feel right, almost unwelcoming. It was like hugging an unknown relative as appose to her lover. And his skin seemed to feel awkward, like water in a plastic bag. “Sweetie, is something wrong? You’re not acting like yourself.”
“I’m fine.” His free hand patted the top of her head. “I just…” Both of them looked down at the box in his pale hands.
“Is that our memories?”
He nodded. “I wanted to make sure they’re safe.”
“Alright… from what?” She couldn’t help but to take note at his abnormal pale skin, to his hair being blacker than usual, nor to his eyes fading color.
“… nothing” He looked out to the sky and sighed. The two of them sat down on her bed. Emma pulled him in another tight hug and leaned against him; trying to make both of them fall backwards on her bed. Back to their normal place of comfort. But he wouldn’t budge. She glumly gave up. “So, you haven’t told me… How have you been? What have you been up to?”
He said nothing. Instead, he kept looking over his shoulder while his hands brushed through her hair. She began to worry. This wasn’t like him at all. She pulled out of the hug and rested a hand on her stomach.
“Are you sure everything’s okay?”
“Yes, yes,” He rapidly nodded and gave her a small kiss on the top of her head. “Just please watch over our box. It’s very important.”
“I know,” she said with discomfort.
He gave her another kiss on the head. She grabbed his hand and placed it against her heart, making him feel each beat that screamed ‘I love you’. And for a moment, he gave a small smile.
“Brendon,” she whispered with a smile. “I’ve got some new…”
Suddenly his smile was gone and he jumped to his feet. “I gotta go.”
“No!” It was her turn to jump. “You just got here! And I have to tell you something…”
“I’m sorry. But I’ll be back soon. Don’t take your eyes off that…”
“I know. I know. What happened? Did your parents find it or something?”
Brendon paused on the windowsill. “Nicolas was bugging me. He tried to throw it in the fireplace. But don’t worry, I stopped him.”
And with that he leaped off. Emma ran over to make sure he wasn’t hurt. But he landed without even a thud. Something inside her wanted to run after him, but something stronger held her back. So she leaned back inside, and shut her window.
Emma lay back in her bed with frighten thoughts circling her mind. Of all the years she knew Brendon, he had never acted so strange. Hoping to at least temporally silence her troubles, she reached for the box. Inside was photographs of all ages and several dusty knick-knacks; their whole past.
The first thing she slipped out was a drawing she did from the first day they met. To unknowing eyes, it was simply colorful crayon squiggles, but to her, it was the story of her finding him under a trailer during recess when she was hiding from some bullies.
“What are you doing here?” she giggled lifting up a faded rag doll. Her smile grew as she carefully unfurled its white cloth wings. With one hand she brushed its brown yarn hair and the other she felt the powder blue embroidery on its white gown. “Emma the Angel” it read. Brendon got it for her on their first Christmas together; his first real on ever. Being young and naïve to kindness, he thought that she was in fact an angel.
She placed it softly next to a homemade doll of a royal looking boy with black and brown hair and amber button eyes. “ Prince Brendon” in gold on his dress green shirt. Her mother made it for her to give the angel a friend. She also did all the lettering. Both dolls’ smiles seemed to grow at the reunion. Theirs would be more joyous than hers.
After a couple of photos she moved the box slightly and noticed something that broke her ease. A little red smeared on her lily pad green pj bottoms; blood. She leapt to her feet and knocked the box on its side. She checked herself to find the cut. After the second of horror shock, she realized that the blood did not come from her, but the box.

***

After taking the familiar Chester’s Way road, she approached the familiar dark two story brick mansion of the Gatz family. Simply out of habit she went around to the back. She dug through the pockets of her denim jacket for the keys. As she slid the key in the lock, some chillingly warm liquid dropped on the curve of her nose. The navy blue sky was clear, so it couldn’t be rain. So she looked up, hoping it wasn’t from a bird. Another drop landed on the same place. Her fear of bird droppings was false.
Through a second story window, the upper-half of a body dangled over the side. An arm drooped over as if it tried to grab her and its face too damaged to recognize. Emma was too frightened to scream. She quickly unlocked the door and ran inside. “Brendon?” she whispered, praying that wasn’t him she saw.
No answer.
“Brendon?” a bit louder this time.
“I’m in here.” He called from a near by door. She darted down the hall towards his voice, passing two recent family portraits with Mr. and Mrs. Gatz along with four of their boys, Benjamin, Henry, Alexander, and Nicolas. She rushed in to what seemed like a poorly light miniature dinning room. The walls were jammed with wooden cupboards and the round table took up the most of the space. Brendon slumped in his seat facing the doorway with his feet resting on the table. The grey hoodie from earlier now rested on the back of his chair. He now had on a wrinkled black shirt. Despite the dark under his eyes, he seemed younger, but Emma couldn’t put her finger on it. It didn’t matter anyways.
“Oh Brendon!” She ran to his side and gave him a tight hug. “I was so worried!!” Brendon grinned and offered her the seat beside him.
“About what?”
“Our box, there was blood on it! And there’s a body dangling out a window! I though it was you.” A tear fell from her eye. Brendon lightly smiled as he brushed it away.
“Don’t worry. It wasn’t.” Yes, she thought, good old Brendon was back.
He pulled out a wine glass from behind his foot. The content was a red liquid that stained the glass. Red, like from the body. Emma’s fear suddenly caught back up with her and she slipped into a low whisper. “What are you doing? The killer could still be here.”
“I know he is,” Brendon said with a smerk and he took a slip.
“WHAT? We need to get out of here. He could get us too!”
“I don’t think that will happen.” He took another drink.
“How do you know that?”
He lowered his glass and gave out a satisfied sigh. During which, Emma’s eye caught something different in his mouth. She cried out and leaped from her seat, crawling to the back corner. Brendon jumped at her reaction. “Emma, what’s wrong?!”
“F-F-FANGS!!”
He looked down. “Shit.” He chugged the last of the blood and set the glass down.
“No. No. This can’t be happening.” She curled herself up into a ball. “You’re not a vampire. This is just a bad dream. I’m going to wake up and my loving Brendon will be holding me in his arms,” she whispered to herself. Ofcourse this is dream she thought. There’s no other explanation. He slid to his feet and sat down beside her. His arms around wrapped her and he rested her head on his chest. “Are you still a vampire?” she sobbed.
“…Yes.” He regretfully answered, and wiped the blood off her nose and licked them off his finger.
Yes, this must be a dream.
“It’s ok. I won’t hurt you. You’re safe with me.” His hands failed to give her comfort as they slid up and down her back.
“How… how long have you been like… this?” She tried to stop crying.
“Two days after my folks said that I couldn’t see you anymore, I snuck out of the house. I was going to see you, but I knew Benjamin would follow me. I didn’t want to get you into any trouble. So, I went downtown and ran into a guy named Nathaniel. We talked about our hatred towards our parents. He told me that he wanted to help me.”
She looked up in shock. “Help you? How would he help you? Why would you work with him?”
“I like vampires.”
This defiantly was not Brendon.
“Since when have you been interested in vampires?”
“Well… remember in the fourth grade when Jude told us his mother’s reason of why his brother went missing? That a vampire would kidnap and kill you if you were bad.”
“What?!!”
“It was just something I had in the back of my mind. The idea of it just fascinated me. Being able to punish the wicked. You know how horrible my family was to me. Can you image how I felt knowing a way to give them what they deserved? But most of the time I was around you. You always made me happy, and I didn’t think about it until I was mad or alone.”
“But… I… you know how afraid I am of vampires! It was because of that story you had to protect me every night till I was 15!! And when were you planning on telling me this?!” She began to hyperventilate. This was all wrong. Dream or not, it was too much to take in. She’s known him for years. How could he keep a secret like this from her?
How could she imagine he would?
“Emma, it’s going to be ok. You’re safe with me.”
She tried to believe it, with all of heart. But it was becoming harder to take this for a dream. Emma did have a good imagination, but this was a little too good. “I wanna go home,” she whimpered. She got to her feet and tried to leave, but Brendon grabbed her arm tight, and looked up with dead cold eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“I just said-”
“Don’t go.”
“I’m sorry. This whole thing is confusing. I think I should lay down and sort my head.”
“You know they deserved it,” his voice suddenly very stern.
Emma froze. “They? What do you mean they?” She thought about it for a moment. “You didn’t!” she gasped.
“Why do you seem so surprised?” He leapt to his feet; his grip never lessened. “They were all asking for it. Or maybe you just want them around to throw me down another flight of stairs.”
“No! Of course not! It’s just… you killed them? Your mom… dad… brothers…?”
“Of course!” he chuckled. “And now that they’re gone, we can be together again.”
With that he pulled her into a kiss. She had to give him credit, that was the line to strike with. But everything about it was wrong. His lips were cold and unwelcoming. The bitter taste of fresh blood was so strong she nearly puked. It was too real, to real to be real. This was her worst nightmare; her greatest love now her greatest fear. Fear was building up inside her.
Brendon broke away from the cold kiss. “Oh Emma,” he sighed, “It’s such a beautiful sight. You have to see it.” Brendon began to drag her out of the room; his hold on her arm grew tighter making it numb.
“No.” A tear fell. She had enough. “No I don’t want to. Let go of me.”
“Come on.” With one tug they were both out of the room.
“No, please. I don’t want to see. No-ow! You’re breaking my arm!!” She tried to say calm, but the pain and fear was too much for her. He didn’t seem to care. His mind seemed to be focused the kill. The last thing she saw was his grey hoodie, drenched in blood. She knew that this was just a preview to what was in store.
He pulled her down the large hall, until they reached one of the few places that was familiar to her; a set of stairs that led almost immediately to Brendon’s room. Many wonderful Friday nights began with the climbing of these stairs. She wished this was one of those trips.
When they reached the last stair, she snapped her eyes shut and thought if clicking her heels would get her back home.
“Emma, look at this sight. Isn’t it wonderful?” He leaned over for a kiss on the cheek. A few more tears traveled down. “Why are you crying, my love? And…” he turned her to face him, “Why are your eyes shut?” He placed a kiss on both of her eyes. She slowly opened them. Before she could think twice, he spun her around. Emma’s screams filled the house. These once happy memory walls are now covered with blood. Three broken bodies sprawled out across the floor. For the first time in what felt like forever, he let go of her. He walked over in the middle of the carnage. He inhaled the sent of his pray and wickedly smiled. “What do you think?”
She couldn’t speak. Her voice was lost amongst the blood.
“You saw Nicolas when you came in. Like I said, he was trying to destroy our box. When he failed, he tried to fill my head lies. Tried to tell me you were seeing someone. So to shut him up, I threw him through his window.” he began to boost. “Some of his blood got on my hands. For the heck of it, I took a taste. You can’t imagine how wonderful it was! It was soo sweet, and addictive. I had to have more. But first I had to make sure our memories were safe. I guess there was still a little blood on my hands. What a shame.
‘When the rest of them got back, I locked my parents in their rooms so they could hear their beloved sons parish. Henry and Alex, easy, the snap and bite technique. Benjamin, on the other hand, was a little tougher. Well once the knife was gone…”
Emma stared at the knotted blade around the corpse’s hand. Brendon continued to ramble about his brothers’ fate. Emma zoned out. She thought her body wasn’t working. Her legs were weak, but she could stand. Her stomach did major flops, but she didn’t puke. Her brain on the other hand, seemed to function. He’s not paying attention, it said, just back away slowly. She took tiny baby steps, careful not to step in the blood. Brendon looked up. “Where are you going? I haven’t even shown you the best part!”
“There’s more?”
He grabbed her hand again and pulled her to a door at the end of the hall. He opened it and there was the fate of his parents. It was as if a wild beast tore them to shreds, which wasn’t far from the truth. Limbs and blood were scattered all over the place. “After them, I was drench in perfectly good blood. So I went downstairs to wring my clothes. And about then is when you showed up.” Emma’s body suddenly crashed to the floor.

***

“Emma? Emma, honey?” Brendon brought her back.
“Where’s my Brendon?” she whispered slowly regaining conciseness.
Brendon laughed and helped her up. “I am Brendon, silly.” She looked around and found she was still in his parents’ room, just as gruesome as before.
“No. No you’re not.” She pushed him away.
“What do you mean? I am Brendon.”
“But you’re not my Brendon! This isn’t you, it’s a nightmare! You’re a body snatcher or…or something!”
“Haha… what?” Confusion covered his face. He began to walk towards her, but she kept backing away.
“Stay way from me,” she sobbed.
“Stay away? We’ve been apart for a month! Now we can be together again. And… you’re telling me stay away?” Rough anger was clear in his voice. “We can start right back to where we started. We can be happy together again. But, why aren’t you happy.”
“Because I’m up to my ankles in blood.” Brendon suddenly appeared just inches away from her and pulled her into another tight hug.
“Emma,” he sighed, kissing her neck, nubs of his fangs begging to break the skin. “Don’t worry. You’re safe with me. I won’t hurt you.” She knew better. After everything she’s seen, she had no reason to believe it. Before she could give him a chance, she kneed him right in the groin. Even to a vampire, that hurt a lot.
She darted out the room and down the hall, only pausing when she slightly tripped over somebody’s leg. She also nearly fell down the stairs. Still not looking behind her. At the bottom step, she could see her escape. Emma could almost taste freedom. But then, in the blink of an eye, there was Brendon blocking her path and pinned her to a wall. He stared at her dead in the eye that now had a strange red tint to them.
“Why did you do that?”
“I…I-I just want to go home.”
“Why?”
“Because… I just want to think things over.”
“There’s somebody else isn’t there?!”
“What?” she choked.
“You’ve been seeing somebody while I was gone!! Who is it?!”
“No! No, no, I would never do such a thing! I love you and only you! I just want to go home!”
“WHO IS IT?!?!”
“Nobody! I swear!” Brendon slapped her hard across the face.
“WHO?!”
Emma couldn’t answer.
“Fine. If you don’t want to tell me; it doesn’t matter anyway. You won’t ever see him again.” His fangs became erect. “I won’t let you leave me.”
“No…” He leaned over for his mouth to rest on her neck. She tried to fight, but it was useless. His fangs brushed across her tear stained skin. “… Please.” With that his blades sunk in. Emma screamed bloody murder and collapsed against his body. The last feeling she had was the sensation of her stomach being torn as she gave into the darkness.