AN: Hey everybody! Just to clarify, Amius is my OC, and the time line is a little messed up, but whatever, I didn't want Annie in this story to have Darius quite yet….So yeah, enjoy!
Annie walked into the family room and silently sat down on the couch next to her parents who were watching TV, how the hell was she supposed to tell them that she was going out with her dead brother's best friend? Anytime that someone said what Annie liked to call "trigger words" her parents just shut down, there were more than a hundred, including Darren, broken neck, Steve, dead, grave, and upstairs window. Now she would have to use one of them to describe her new boyfriend. Wonderful, just wonderful. She opened her mouth to start to talk, but just then all hell broke loose.
Three men burst through the door, looked around for a moment, then zeroed in on the Shans, two of them circled around them, keeping them their places on the couch while the third, clearly the leader stood in front of them and smiled sadistically, revealing rotted teeth dripping red with blood. He took a step forward and said, "You tell Darren Shan from us that he didn't get away with Murlough, alright? Tell him we'll be paying him a visit real soon alright?"
The man chuckled and began to walk away. "You're late!" Mr. Shan yelled at him, trying to push past the two other men. "You're late! My son's been dead for seven years!"
"Mr. Shan, don't think you can fool me, the vampaneze do not forgive those who cross us, do not make your son's mistake." With that, the man turned on his heel and left, the two other men pushed Mr. Shan back on the couch and stalked off after the other man, leaving the stunned family sitting on the couch in shock.
"This would be a bad time to mention that I'm going out with Steve Leonard wouldn't it?" Annie said in a small voice.
"DARREN! GET OUT HERE THIS INSTANT YOU LITTLE PIECE OF-"Vancha yelled furiously, hammering on his door angrily.
"What? What is so important that you need to wake up half the mountain and almost break my door?" Darren asked, opening the door with a long suffering sigh, he looked up at Vancha, and then looked again, his jaw almost dropping in shock. "What happened to your hair?" he asked in amazement, this however, proved to be too much for the enraged Vancha, who howled in anger, threw backwards against a wall, pinned him to the ground and began choking him.
"Vancha, as much as I believe that Darren deserves to be choked for something, perhaps that should be left to me after I decide whether it is warranted or not." Larten Crepsley said in a bored voice, looking down on the scene calmly.
"Mr. Crepsley….Help….Didn't…Do anything!" Darren wheezed desperately.
"The ungrateful little brat died my hair pink, Larten! Pink! Look at it and tell me the boy doesn't deserve to die!" Vancha growled in fury, releasing Darren to point at his hair.
"I don't know Vancha; pink does suit you rather well." Larten said, tilting his head as if appraising the hair.
Vancha let out a howl of despair and ran down the corridor trying desperately to hide his hot pink hair from view. Larten offered Darren his hand and effortlessly pulled him to his feet, examining his throat.
"That is going to bruise; I hope you do not plan on any more stupid pranks on Vancha. I would hate to have to clean up your splattered remains from the ground." Larten said calmly before walking away.
"Mr. Crepsly! Mr. Crepsly! I didn't…..Oh whatever, probably wouldn't believe me anyway, stupid old coot." Darren grumbled, walking towards the Hall of Sports, maybe he could get Arra to eat breakfast with him that would show the old man he wasn't the only man on the mountain.
Amias had finally found the end to the trail, he couldn't fathom why in the world the vampaneze had walked rather than flitted, but then, he also didn't know why they nearly killed each other and quite literally sucked people dry for breakfast, so there you go. The house was relatively normal looking, standard two story with a nice lawn and neatly painted trim. He took a moment to pity the occupants, if they were not dead; they were certainly not normal anymore and were probably frightened out of their wits. Poor unknowing humans.
He entered the house and found them huddled together on a coach, looking vaguely as if they were in shock. The man looked up wearily.
"He's dead you know. He's not here." Amias sighed, so there had been casualties.
"Who?" Amias asked gently, trying to gauge the damage done.
"Darren. He was a good boy, a nice boy; don't know why you think he's done something wrong. He's been dead for years now, the others didn't believe me. Would you like to see a picture?" The man seemed almost desperate to explain that the boy was in fact dead.
"Alright." Amias said with a sigh, this was going to be a long night. The man shuffled away and came back with a picture.
"That's my boy, last picture before he died, that's his friend Steve on the right." The man smiled fondly at the picture before handing it to Amias, who picked it up and glanced at it with long suffering gaze, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
"W-What did you say your son's name was? Daniel right?" Amias asked hopefully.
"No, Darren. Darren Shan." The man walked back to his family and pulled his wife and daughter close to him, "Like I told you, he's dead, been dead for years." Then he was quiet, just holding his family. Amias put his head in his hands; things had just gotten a hell of a lot more complicated.
