I heard his sigh and felt it flutter past my ear. I shivered at the slight breeze and continued to look for the man of my dreams. I felt his loneliness, his hatred, his fear, and his ecstasy. However, I never heard his voice. I could only feel the sensations and they made my body become alive. I felt like he belonged to me and he was mine…and only mine. This god of my dreams was always elusive and out of reach. No matter how far and long I searched in the darkness, I always came up empty.

But tonight, it was different. I felt perpetual sadness, like depression worthy of institutionalization. My god was sad over something, but what? His loneliness echoed the sadness and it ripped my heart in two. As tears fell down my cheeks, I cried out into the black abyss.

"Why? Why are you feeling so sad?" Of course, my god did not answer and his emotions beat at my weary heart. "Don't be sad…I'm here!" Within the next beat of his heart, his emotions stilled and I smiled. Had my god heard me?

I bolted straight up, my shaking hands holding my blanket to my chest. Why had my body decided to wake up now? I shook my head, feeling stupid. Maybe it was my imagination. My god hadn't heard me before, so why now?

My feet slid over the side of the bed and I stared into the glorious night. I sighed, knowing I was not going to get any sleep, and threw on a coat and sneakers. As I simply walked down the stairs, I spotted my dad passed out on the couch, a beer in one hand. My mother was asleep, curled up into a ball at his feet like the groveling animal she was. Pathetic, really. I reigned in my anger and sighed angrily as I walked out of the house, shutting the door behind me. It wasn't her fault that she was raised as a masochist by her father. However, I never caught the need to be that way because of the few friends I had made in school. They had saved me from that path before I had traveled too far.

I made my way down the city streets, uncaring of the violent stories I'd heard in the town near my house. I lived in the outside of the suburbs near the woods surrounding our town and nothing ever happened here. Why would it? We were a small community of crackheads and drunks living in a step above a trailer park. Our small houses were not filled with anything valuable and you just didn't want to get on anyone's bad side. Otherwise, you were fine. Most of the people looked out for one another anyways.

My next stop was around a mile away from my house and held a peaceful serenity that was absent in my home. A half hour later, I stood outside a small park with a small content smile on my face as I stepped into the small park. My destination: the swings. I sat on my favorite one, the one to the far right. I took my coat off and wrapped it around my waist, letting the warm night breeze kiss my skin. I closed my eyes and pushed, letting me swing. I opened my eyes again to look at the full moon and looked around at everything else; silver bathed the scenery before me and I smiled again. The full moon was my favorite night to go out anyways, I'd just forgotten about it until I woke up from my dream.

And this brought me to my next point. I had these dreams ever since twelve, where I had woken up screaming from the pain. My god had been hurt that day and as I slept each night, I shared the pain and lessened it for him. I felt him grow stronger and ever since then, I always went into the darkness with my god. But now, I think he had realized that I was there with him. My god had been with me for years. Icouldn't imagine going to sleep and not dreaming of him. It would be like a piece of my heart would disappear forever. I sighed. Even though I loved the night, sometimes I would stray to sad subjects, such as this one. I shook my head and cleared the thoughts from my head.

It was then I felt the pulse hit me. I wheezed, my breath leaving my lungs. My eyes slowly slid out of focus and I felt my gaze "fly" over the forest. I finally landed in a clearing with an extraordinarily beautiful wolf. I'd seen the wolf before, so I wasn't surprised. Now just between me and you, I had this…sixth sense. I had always been different from everyone else. I could find things over great distances and "feel" evil. It was hard to explain without saying the word. I could sense vampires. They existed, no matter what anyone else said. I've seen them kill and watched the death appear on the news. The thing was, I told my friends, but they didn't believe me.

The wolf stopped and turned its head, its coal black eyes boring into my own eyes. My breath caught in my throat. The wolf had sensed me! That meant… It turned away from me and I watched its movements closely. It began to look around slowly, taking in its surroundings. Then, I felt the pulses of evil emanating from the forest around the wolf. For some reason, I tensed, afraid the wolf might get hurt. It looked at me again and then looked at a spot in the tree line and growled. He leaned down into a fighting stance, hackles raised.

This was when I spotted the crow flying above the tree line. It banked and landed on the ground across the clearing from the wolf. The crow, however, did not belong here. It too, like the wolf, was massive in size. To my horror, the crow let out a caw and began to stretch and elongate. My mouth dropped and my hands tightened around the chains beside of me. My head swam as the crow's transformation ended and in its place stood a beautiful man. His pale skin seemed to glow in the silver moonlight and his long hair swayed slightly in the breeze. He looked ethereal, as if he didn't belong on this earth.

"Diego, it's such a pleasure," the man said, his fingers brushing stray tendrils of hair from his face. "I felt you hunting and I must admit, I wanted to see you in action. Please, don't let me interfere with your work." The wolf stilled but kept in attack position. Again, to my chagrin, the wolf began to stretch and I heard his bones pop and snap as they reformed and took a new shape. I gulped and shut my eyes, not wanting to go through that experience again. The new man had short hair and he too matched the pale color of the crow-man's skin. However, he seemed even more beautiful than the crow-man. He exuded power and authority like a second skin.

"What is it you want?" Diego asked, his voice pure and true. It was hypnotic and mesmerizing, making me want to listen to it forever. The crow-man flinched but kept the smile on his face.

"Is that any way to treat your childhood friend? Please, Diego. I haven't seen you in so long and I've been looking forward to this reunion." The crow-man smiled and put his hands in its pockets.

"You have no business here, vampire." I stiffened. Vampire? Here? Why would a vampire be here? Maybe he was just passing through town.

"You felt it too, Diego. There is a woman here. One of us." The so called vampire breathed in and smiled. "I can smell my return as a Carpathian, Diego. Soon I will join you once again." Carpathian? What was a Carpathian? Why would he be concerned over a woman?

"You think the woman can save your damned soul?" Diego asked tauntingly. "You are still gullible, Francisco." Francisco snarled at Diego.

"You keep me from her! I came hunting her scent and it led me here! Where is she, Diego?" I looked around for the other soul nearby, but didn't see any movement. Maybe that meant the woman was safe or just great at hide-and-go-seek.

"You are a mere fledgling. What could you possibly scent?" This made Francisco snarl and leap at Diego. Just as fast, Diego sidestepped and raked his hand over Francisco's side. When he came away, Diego's fingers were covered in blood. The worst part, however, was that he no longer had fingers; he had talons

"Don't toy with me," Francisco yelled as he held his hands forward. A sudden gust of wind barreled toward Diego, but Diego simply swiped at the tornadic winds and they dissipated like nothing had happened.

"Then you don't test me," Diego stated mockingly before appearing behind the bleeding vampire. To my revulsion and disgust, Diego plunged his hand into the vampire's back and pulled out a still beating heart. This was the end for me. I fell off of the swing and slammed into the ground. I moaned, but didn't have time to feel sorry for myself. I barely rolled over and saw the end of the fight. Diego threw the heart to the ground and it began to flop back to its vampiric master. I felt the remnants of the small supper I had coming forth and I ran to the edge of the playground and puked. In my double vision, I saw lightning come and strike the heart, incinerating it immediately. With a final cry, the vampire burst into flames and I hurled again.

As soon as my stomach stopped heaving, I listened to my brain and fled the scene. I knew that the clearing wasn't far from where I was and that the fight could have easily been nearer to the playground. I made it to my house in record time and landed on my bed, panting heavily. I was glad I could run a mile in seven minutes because I didn't want to be caught outside this time. I stripped my coat and pants off and lazily threw my shoes into the corner. I grabbed some sleeping medication and downed it with the water beside of my bed. It was only then that I relaxed and flopped back onto my bed, ready to sleep this weird night off.

*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*

As I arrived the next morning to school, I was vaguely surprised to see everything normal. I mean, after last night…I shook my head. I was going to forget that incident ever happened and just move on with my life. I see vampires on a regular basis. Why should this bother me? Because this time they were fighting each other. That was odd. I had seen some sickening things in my time, some enough to scar my mind, but this was new. I never had seen a vampire die before.

"Esmeralda!" I looked to the side to see this girl, Amber, walking over to me. She was a bit on the creepy side, always obsessed with stories of evil and the unatural. She was a Native American and was raised in the plains, where the cool old ways still thrived.

"Did you feel it?" she asked me. I quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Feel what?"

"The evil last night. I thought you of all people would know what I'm talking about." Sometimes this girl was as creepy as I was. She too had this sort of sense around her, but definitely not as weird as I was.

"Yeah. There was a vampire last night, but I know you don't believe me."

"Vampires are myth and legend born from the brutality of Vladimir in the dark ages. However, there is always a grain of truth in a legend," she stated, sweeping her brown hair from her face. "I believe there are evil spirits around here. My grandfather has warned me not to go out at night and I don't blame him." Riiiiight. I'll just stick to my vampires.

"Well, at least you believe in the evil spirits part," I muttered. I led us into the school, ignoring all of the other people crowding the hall. "The weird part was, there were two vampires last night. However, they were fighting each other." Amber's eyes locked onto my face and I smiled.

"I felt turmoil," she mused.

"Yeah. One killed the other. Well, first, I saw the wolf from before. Then a huge crow flew down and they transformed into humans. They started fighting and the wolf killed the crow."

"This is an interesting vision. You saw this with your eyes?"

"Yeah. I was near the playground and saw it. Wait…they were speaking of a woman. Francisco said that he found a woman that could save his soul, but Diego disagreed."

"Who are they?" We entered our science room and plopped into the back of the classroom.

"Francisco was the crow and Diego is the wolf's name."

"Then you must be careful tonight."

"Why?"

"A vampire wouldn't want a normal woman, would he?" I shivered as her eyes locked onto mine; it sounded like an ominous warning of what was to come. The moment was ruined when she smiled at me. I relaxed and smiled back and we turned toward the teacher for the lesson.

Lunch finally came all too late and Amber and I made our way to my normal table, where my friends were sitting. Catie, who was sitting opposite of Victoria, spotted us first.

"Hey Esmeralda!" she called. As we sat, she leaned over the table to whisper something to me, clearly excited. "Did you hear about the lightning strike last night?" I stiffened slightly but only Amber noticed. "There was a freak strike about two miles from your house, Esmeralda. Everyone's baffled about it. I mean, there was clear skies all last night." Amber didn't look too put off by my friends ignoring her. She was used to it; this had occurred all through her high school life. Of course, I was nice and sort of befriended her later.

"Think it was a vampire?" Victoria asked, popping some spaghetti in her mouth.

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny." Catie, who had finished her meal, slid the rest over to me, since I never had lunch money to eat with.

"Did you see anything last night, though?" Catie asked curiously.

"As a matter of fact, I did," I stated, smirking at Victoria. She smiled slightly, shaking her head. Catie, for the first time, looked interested in my story and I related the same story as I had to Amber before.

"So two vampires were fighting?" Catie asked incredulously, shaking her head. "Sorry I asked," she said with a smile, trying to soften her words.

"You should write a story about your visions," Victoria said. "I mean, look at Twilight. It got famous and you could too." I laughed.

"Maybe I should."

*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*

Amber and I walked home from school, talking about our day. We were halfway home when I felt the pulse. My breath knocked out of me, I looked frantically around. The cloud cover helped tone down the suns glare, but I still didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"What is it?" Amber asked?

"I feel…evil." Amber closed her eyes and breathed slowly in and out.

"You're right. Can you tell where?"

I nodded once and closed my eyes, only to open them again. My vision split and what I called my "spirit eyes" traveled to a few blocks away from me. A thing was shuffling through alleys, spittle running down its gruesome face. I tensed as I realized that this thing was a ghoul. It stared straight forward and continued to walk. It was a few minutes later that I saw, with my real eyes, the ghoul walking down the street, its eyes locked on us.

"What is that?" Amber asked, afraid.

"It's a ghoul…some of the evil you've been sensing lately." Amber nodded before starting a chant, her hands moving in fluid motions in front of her.

"No time, run! "I 'closed' my spirit eyes, and grabbed Amber's hand. The ghoul, sensing my decision, began to speed up. I stumbled over my feet but turned and ran in the opposite direction, away from my house.

"Why today?" I mumbled. "I got a shitload of homework to do." I turned slightly and saw the ghoul still chasing me. As I turned back around, I stopped and stared at the place before me. At the stroke of irony, I stood before the same playground as before. "Goddammit," I swore. "I can tell this isn't my day."

I looked around for anyone, but I didn't see anyone but the oncoming ghoul. I threw my bookbag to the ground while Amber again began to chant. I grabbed a nearby stick, which was as thick as my closed fist. It would have to do. Amber, however, began to chant louder, bringing my attention back to her. I dropped my stick in surprise. She was glowing red! As the ghoul neared the playground, Amber stopped and held her hands to her chest. The ghoul let out a grating cry before charging at her. However, my Indian friend had none of this. With a burst of light, she flung her arms in front of her and opened her eyes. She sent a jet of flame toward the ghoul, incinerating it. She turned to me, a smile on her face.

"You know, I didn't think that you could really see vampires," she said. "Come. We'll sit on the swings." I followed meekly and took my favorite swing as Amber sat beside of me. "Now, I have to come clean. All of this time, I've been lying to you. I was raised on a reservation, but my grandfather is no ordinary leader. He's a mage."

"A mage?" I asked quietly.

"Yes. He is a being powerful in magics, schooled in the old ways. He was taught this ancient art by a vampire."

"But vampires are evil!" I cried, jumping up from the swing. "I see them kill innocent humans like they're nothing!"

"Every species has its exceptions. This was one of them. He does not drink human blood, only animal blood. He lives on my reservation."

"And you didn't tell me this, why?"

"Again, I didn't think that you could see vampires. I apologize." I sighed. "You should go home for the night. That ghoul was after us. That means that a vampire will soon follow." I gulped once and Amber began to walk away from the playground, never looking back. I turned to see the ashes left of the ghoul floating away in the wind and I sighed. My life was fucked up. That's the end of it.