Author's note: So...I decided to go ahead and start posting this up on , now that I've got a good roll on the story. It will be longer than the first one, I think.


In the swirling lights on the carousel, Star hopped from horse to giraffe to antelope. She was restless tonight. It had been a year since their battle, and Michael's disappearance. Since then, she'd been staying with the Emersons and waiting for him to come home. During the day, she worked at a small clothing shop, but at night...she roamed the boardwalk until her legs hurt so much, she thought surely that night would be the one her muscles gave out on her for good.

The first month, she hadn't been as desperate. The first month, she hadn't seen him at all. But...the second month...

Star shivered, rubbing at the goose pimples on her arms and laying down on the metal bench in the carousel. Grinning painted animals and children bobbed about her, and the landscape outside constantly shifted in a steady circle. Star closed her eyes, and reminisced. She remembered the moments she'd shared with Michael in the cave, after they'd made love.


"Michael, are you going to be okay?" Star leaned over and kissed her new-found lover's shoulder, smiling when he opened his eyes again and met her own gaze. Trapped between night and day, they shared a hunger together...yet she couldn't bring herself to tell him more than she already had. It was just something he had to find out on his own.

"I just...want some answers," he whispered, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close. She let her eyes drift shut as she felt the warmth of skin against skin beneath the thin blanket around them. It was nice to be so close to him, to remember what human heat felt like. David was so cold...

"I promise I'm going to tell you everything I can, Michael. I promise..." Star whispered, lifting her leg to lay it over his torso. She was as close as one person could get to another; still she wanted more. Even before the blood, before David and the others...sex had never been this wonderful. Love really did make a difference. She knew she loved him, even if they'd only known each other a few days...hardly even spoke much, really. Some things...you just knew.

"Star, that's not enough for me," Michael reached over to pull some of her hair to his mouth and breathe in the scent after he spoke. The act was touching, and intimate. He wasn't upset with her...just tired. A little scared. Star couldn't imagine what must have happened to drive him back to the cave in such a panic. For a moment...making love had calmed him. Made him forget...hell, it made her forget too.

"Can't we just be together now?" Star tucked her head under Michael's chin and pressed her face to his collarbone. He was so strong, so big...bigger than he'd looked with his clothes on. In his embrace, David didn't matter anymore, because Michael was with her to keep her safe. The intimacy of sex was a high of it's own, and for a few short moments, she let herself live in her fantasy world.

They were quiet for awhile, even as Star shifted to settle on top of Michael, and he rested on the mattress with his hands tenderly grasping her hips. She smiled down at him, and just...looked.

"Michael..." Star whispered, tasting the word on her mouth and savoring it. David really liked his name...that was something they'd had in common. He also liked other...things about Michael...they had that in common too.

The first night she'd seen Michael and she'd climbed onto the back of David's Triumph, letting her eyes linger guiltily on Michael...she felt David's hunger.

As they drove away, hooting and hollering, Star had wanted to stay behind and get to know him a bit more, maybe even tell him there was no hope for them as a couple. Even if she hadn't met him, hadn't spoken to him...she'd already known she wanted him.

"Michael..." She whispered again, biting her lip when he shifted underneath her, and they began to make love again, softly and slowly. She'd almost forgotten what that sort of act could feel like...

"Star," he reached up to caress her face and smile. Behind those eyes, his worry and fear hid away, and all she saw in them at that moment was...happiness. If eternity could simply be this, being a vampire would be bliss. But she knew it would have to end sooner or later, and she'd be left cold beside him, once they both made their first kills.


"Star," the word echoed in the air, shaking her from her memory. Star sat up on the bench and looked about. She didn't know who had said her name...but it sounded like it could be David...or...

"Michael?" Star called out, darting up and glancing about. The carousel had continued to spin, and lights danced around her. Ahead, she saw a trio of boys climbing from the ride...but she could only see their backs. Still...she'd know them anywhere...

"Michael? David? Marko?" Star called out, rushing ahead to try and catch up with them. But why would Marko and David be with him? They were dead. They were dead!

"MICHAEL!" Star shouted, slipping from the ride and nearly tangling her skirt around the leg of a bobbing unicorn. Glaring at it, she yanked her skirt free and watched the somehow vicious-looking horned horse dance away. Her eyes slid back towards the crowd around her, but she didn't see any of them. They were gone. Had they ever really been there?

Blinking back tears, Star wiped at her eyes. The first time she had very nearly seen a vision of Michael on the boardwalk had been a month after he went missing. But she hadn't been able to catch him then, either. Each time she could swear she saw him...on the beach, on the carousel, nearby in a line headed towards the massive Ferris wheel, peeking around an earring stall...he was gone as soon as she realized it.

Star ran a hand through her hair and pushed her way past a group of giggling girls with far too many piercings to be considered healthy, and made herself drag her feet home. She couldn't handle this anymore, the waiting and the searching. Michael was dead, had probably been dead since that night...maybe he went off somewhere private and offed himself after what he'd been through, or maybe he'd been dragged out of the house by a serial killer with poor timing...but she couldn't fight it anymore.


David took a pull from his laced cigarette and passed it to Marko, who looked for all the world that he was in on the most amusing private joke. They both watched Michael stand a few feet away, staring after the departing image of Star as she shoved through the crowd.

"You got too close tonight, Michael, that's why we had to pull you back," David remarked as Marko handed his cigarette back to him. Michael didn't reply. He was always quiet on the nights they let him see Star. If David had any kind of conscience, he'd probably feel bad about teasing the boy like this. But they all knew what would probably happen if Michael got to actually talk to her.

He'd brood even more, and fight even harder to wake himself up during the day so he could drag himself outside to burn to a crisp in the sun. He was entirely too sentimental about a life he'd been bored to death of when he was actually living it.

"Hey, don't worry about it, bud," Marko 'consoled' Michael, patting his back with one hand. "As soon as we find the bodies, David promised you'd get her back. He's a dick, but he never lies," Marko continued, reaching for David's cigarette only to get a slightly irritated glare in return.

"I'm not a dick," David hissed and threw his cigarette to the ground, grinding it into the dirt so there was no salvaging it.

Marko smirked and rolled his eyes, tucking his hands into his pockets.

"Why do you want to find their bodies, anyway? They're dead." Michael turned back to David and Marko, nudging past them to head towards their bikes. In the past year, he'd managed to get a much nicer one than his old model that sat gathering dust in the hotel, nestled amid other piles of forgotten scraps and junk from years gone by. But he liked his old one more...it was a sentimental thing. Hell, if it had just been a little slower or a little more worn out, he might still be human. Because then, he never would have been able to keep up in that stupid game of chicken with David.

"Mikey, didn't I tell you already? Fuck, man, like...a hundred times?" Marko called behind him, trotting to keep up. David strolled with a much slower pace. He knew they weren't about to power off without him, so he'd take his sweet time.

"It's not going to work," Michael replied, dodging around a drunken couple whispering meaningless shit back and forth. His nose wrinkled when he saw them. Somehow, the more he saw people in love nowadays...the angrier and hungrier it seemed to make him. Especially on the nights he was allowed to see Star. Marko was right, though. He had gotten too close...he'd been on the verge of approaching to pull her into his arms when he felt David's angry stare and sharp claws on his neck. Fuck, the guy never gave him any space. He knew he was 'in control', and he knew Michael couldn't leave him...so why was he always so god damned possessive?

"Couldn't hurt to try, Michael," David reached his Triumph and lazily threw a leg over the seat.

"Yeah, you're only going to kill a dozen or so people in the process, asshole," Michael wanted to snap back. But he'd been forced to dial back his retorts as of late. It only gave David an excuse to do...shit. He shivered at the thought, kicking his engine into life and frowning as he thought about it. How was it possible to hate something and still enjoy it so much? Sometimes he wondered if he was more bat-shit crazy than his 'brothers'.