"Ah, Joseph," the counselor greeted. "Come on in and have a seat."

I walked in and sat, making sure I kept eye contact with him the whole time.

"So, you finally agreed to come in and talk," he said, as if I really had a choice. "So, I hear you're having some issues. Care to talk about them?"

"Issues," I repeated mockingly. "I have no issues. People who call themselves my friends think I have issues."

"If you have no issues, you wouldn't be here, would you?" He smiled at me, thinking I was playing a game and he was joining in. Too bad for him I wasn't. But I wasn't going to disabuse him of that, not too badly anyway.

"We'll, that's for you to find out, isn't it?" Maybe I was going to. "But after I finish, I have a question for you. It's not exactly for me, but rather rhetorical. Okay?"

"Fine, anything. But please, begin."

I closed my eyes and sighed heavily. "Okay, but don't interrupt me. I don't want to repeat myself. Is that agreeable?"

I stopped long enough for him to nod before I began. "The first thing you need to know is that my only true surviving friend is not exactly alive. She walks, she talks, she loves, but that's as far as it goes. She has no reason to breathe, no need to eat food, unless you count blood. This is how I met her and why I'm where I'm at today.

"Two years ago, I went to a high school football game. There, I met Hannah, a girl a year younger than I. She was there with a mutual friend and was beginning to bore. When she saw me, she said, in front of our friend, 'I'm sure he'll give me a hug.' So I did. And from then on, we stayed together that night.

"Later on, about an hour or so, she goes and says, 'I'm sure he'll give me a kiss.' So I did. I'm not sure how our friend took it, but I didn't, care."

"Joseph," the counselor interrupted. "Are we going to get to the point here? Soon?"

"Sir, this is relevant. This is how I ended up with the vampire." I watched as the counselor flinched at the word and smiled.

"So Hannah and I hold each other until the end of the game. It's about ten o'clock and we start walking towards her house, but after five minutes Hannah asks if I would accompany to one stop first. I just wanted a reason to stay with her so I agreed. I didn't see any reason not to.

"We turned left two blocks away from her house and just walked. We probably walked for a good hour before we finally made it to our destination. But it was a curious destination. The," I paused to think of the right word, then, "mansion, for lack of a better word, was huge, but it was falling apart. Windowless, paint peeling, whole sections of wall were missing. And yet, we walked in." I stopped, entranced in the memory of that long ago night.

"Joseph? Joseph, you still there?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Where was I again?"

"The mansion."

"Oh yes. Right.

"We walked into the mansion and were immediately engulfed in black. Not just darkness, but black. Not a single beam of light penetrated the house. And the moon was full that night, without a hint of clouds.

"Hannah took my hand and told me to close my eyes and listen. Listen to what I thought; but I closed my eyes and listened anyway. It took a second, but I finally understood. With my eyes closed, I could hear everything; her breathing, heartbeat, her pulse, our footsteps. But above all, I could hear the echoes off the walls and direct myself through the house.

"We walked for what seemed to be forever, never once speaking, until we turned right. I remember that a door opened and it sounded like it hadn't been oiled in years. I cringed, but when Hannah walked in, I followed her.

"A soft glow, as if candles lit the room, entered through my eyelids. I wanted to open my eyes, but for some reason they wouldn't. Hannah led me ten feet into the room before she knelt. I didn't bow to anyone, and I wasn't going to start then.

"When I refused to kneel, I could feel a pressure trying to force me down, gently at first. But then it gradually became more and more. I fought it, but my legs gave out before it stopped."

I stopped there to look at the counselor to see whether or not he believed me. His face was blank, but his eyes betrayed him. "You want me to continue?"