Boston, Massachusetts-1995

I'm late; I'm late, for a very important date! The words from the old song ran through my head as I unbraided my hair. It was true too. I was already fifteen minutes later than I should have been and he would be waiting for me.

Maybe he would leave before I got there. Maybe I wouldn't have to deal with him at all. Abby would kill me, but I would get at least one dinner without an annoying male trying desperately to devise a way to get me in bed with him at the end of the night. Of course, if there were no guy, then I would have to pay for my meal…

My decision made, I let my red hair fall free around my shoulders and just clipped a small piece back. I checked my dress again, making sure that the black fabric didn't show too much up top or down below. I grabbed my sweater before flying down the stairs, out of the apartment, and into the Boston traffic.

I thanked my lucky stars that my best friend had connections in the real estate world. If not for her, I never would have gotten a place so close to the T.

People didn't even stare anymore at the young woman with bright red hair running through the station with her shoes in her hand. It was a normal occurrence now. Besides, they'd seen stranger things.

I caught the train just in time. Still, no one batted an eye as I slid into an empty seat and started to pull on my shoes. Glancing around, I found the lever you could pull to stop the train, in case of an emergency.

Now that I was actually pausing to consider my actions, I wondered if this was such a good idea. I knew I was mostly safe. I always insisted on meeting men at dates so that I didn't have to count on them as my ride home, in case the date went south. I had picked a restaurant I frequented so that all the waiters knew me. Even so, I was feeling exceedingly nervous.

Just as I had made up my mind to get off at the next stop, a shrill ring shattered the relative quiet of the train. I didn't even need to answer the phone to know it was Abby. Of course she would know.

I wrestled the gigantic cell phone out of my purse and picked up.

"Ciao?"

"Vikki! I just got off the phone with Blake and he says that you're not there yet. I assured him that it was just that your job sometimes keeps you late and that you would be there any minute. You better not make me a liar Victoria Grey!"

I rolled my eyes. "Chill Abby. You're right. Work kept me late. I'm on the T right now. I should be there in ten minutes, at most."

"Don't lie to me honey. You were going to leave. I could feel it! I'm your psychic best friend who can tell when you're about to chicken out on a blind date and miss out on a great guy."

I couldn't respond for a second because we had reached the next stop. The doors opened and sound flooded in. I sat in my seat and groaned as I watched my opportunity to escape disappear.

"Fine. I'm actually going. I'm going to stay on this train until the next stop whereupon I will get out and meet this guy for dinner. I will suffer through excruciating small talk and then I will go home with aching feet. And why will I do all this? Because I am a wonderful friend."

She laughed. "That's not why you'll do it and you and I both know that. You'll do it because you just want to be able to prove to me that this guy's a creep. But I promise you, this guy's different. I grew up with Blake. He'd be good for you."

"Whatever you say. Look, I have to go. My stop is next. I hope you're right, because I've got a weird feeling about tonight." I snapped my phone shut before she could respond.

The restaurant was right outside the station, so I was there within minutes. I checked all the exits first. One was being blocked by an overweight man. Still, there were two others. Now that that was established, I looked for my date. Abby had told me Blake had light brown hair with blue eyes, but that was it. There were at least five men in the place that matched that description. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long for him to notice me.

"Victoria?" A man I hadn't even noticed before stood halfway up and looked at me curiously. I nodded, putting him out of his misery, before starting over to his table.

He fit Abby's description. His brown hair was long and tied back into a low ponytail. He was slight and looked like he ran often. He had faint laugh lines around his eyes and a cautious smile on his lips. Overall, he was very normal looking, and I couldn't help but berate Abby in my head for not picking someone a little more attractive. If I was going to suffer through an entire night with him, she might as well make him pleasant to look at. Still, at least he wasn't ugly.

"It's Vikki, actually." He looked confused. "My name. Everybody just calls me Vikki. You're Blake, right?" He nodded and I continued as I slid into the booth. "Abby says that you two grew up together."

"We did. She was hilarious growing up. We hated each other in the beginning, and it was a bit of a war zone when our parents forced us together. She always won, but don't tell her I said that." He snickered a lightly under his breath and I let a little of my guard down.

"So, did you guys just always fight and now that she's run into you again, she's decided to force you on me?" I let a small smile fix itself on my lips so he knew I was joking. Mostly.

"Not at all. By the time we graduated from high school, we were pretty civil to each other. Then I went off to Cambridge and lost track of her."

He piqued my interest. Just a little. "How did you manage to find her again?" It wasn't like Abby was famous. It would be a difficult task to track her down.

"I don't know really. I tried the phone books, but I didn't know she'd gotten married. How was it, that I missed the wedding, by the way?" He sounded slightly offended, as if he was only keeping himself from being angry by hoping she had forgotten.

"Don't worry. No one was really invited. It was a small ceremony. I was one of the only two non-family members there."

"Oh. Cool."

"So how did you manage to find her after all that?" I couldn't help but wonder. If he didn't know her new last name, she would be virtually impossible to locate. He looked a little conflicted for a moment, before clearing his throat self-consciously.

"I don't really know. I've just always been really good at finding people, once I set my mind to it." He seemed to think that this was a huge confession of some sort, so I tried to cheer him up a little.

"I'm so jealous. You have no idea how often I get lost." Total lie. "If I could do that, it would make things so much easier." Not really.

"It doesn't quite work like that. It really only works on people." I wasn't going to let him bring down the tone of this night.

"Yeah, but if you know someone who is wherever you need to go, you could just use it that way." I argued. "Besides, a little sense of direction is better than none at all." He nodded at that.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments as both of us waited for the other to come up with something to say. Grasping at straws, I blurted the first thing that came into my head.

"So what's with the hair?" And I was wondering too. What could possess a man to want to grow his hair out so long? But I couldn't help but feel there was a more polite way to go about asking.

"The ladies love it." There was a dramatic hair flip thrown in there before he laughed. "Actually, it was a bet. My best friend and I were drunk one night and we made a bet to grow our hair out for two years. If one of us folds and cuts it, they have to pay for drinks every time we go out to the bar, from now to eternity."

I snorted a laugh at that. Men will be men. "Well, it could be worse, I guess. Some people look really weird with long hair, but you actually kind of pull it off."

"Why thank you, fair lady." He swept into a seated bow and I hid a blush. For once in my life, I was thanking Abby for forcing me on a blind date.

In fact, as the date went by, I found myself seriously questioning my initial assessment. His eyes stared into mine and they were beautiful; always laughing. Wrinkles feathered out around his mouth from the wide smiles and boisterous laughing. His hair was long, and different, but it fit him. And his lips! Even looking at them made me want to swoon.

He was enchanting. There was something about him, something magical, which seemed to rub off onto you the more time you spent with him. By dessert, I felt like I should be floating from the lightness inside me. Everything seemed brighter. It felt like for just a moment, there was nothing to worry about. Blake was surrounded in his own little atmosphere, where everything just worked out. And if it didn't? He just rolled with the punches.

How could I have missed it before?

"Hey! Earth to Vikki!" I glanced up, suddenly aware that I had been zoning out.

"Sorry." I flushed.

"No worries. It just freaks out your date a little when you sit there and stare off into space with your fork halfway to your mouth." I started, and then glared down at the offending utensil, putting it back on my plate.

"Yeah. I was out of it for a second there."

"Well tell whatever kidnapping higher being you were just talking to, to leave you alone. Tonight, you're mine." And he smiled kindly at me, taking every predatory connotation out of the words.

"There are worse places to be." I mumbled to myself, and he beamed.

"Glad to hear it. Now, if you're finished with your dessert, let's get out of here." He grabbed my hand and folded into the crook of his arm, walking me out of the restaurant like with lived back in the 1920's. A waitress I was friends with winked at me over his head. I grinned back. Tonight was my night. I couldn't remember the last time I had been this happy, and I wanted it to last forever.

We walked over to a park. There was a pond in the middle and I leaned over the railing. There were no stars, just my face reflected into the black canvas of night. I felt like I was flying, the same feeling you get when you're on a rollercoaster and you leave your stomach somewhere far behind you. I was flying and Blake was next to me, holding my hand, and for once I didn't feel like running. I wasn't considering which path I could take to get home quickest if something went wrong. It was just me and Blake and his hand in mine.

I turned my face up to his and laughed for sheer happiness. The lights of the city reflected off the water onto his face and put stars in his eyes. They smiled into mine and I wanted desperately for him to kiss me.

As if he had heard my wish, he leaned his head down. Unable to wait for him to make it all the way to me, I met him halfway there. He chuckled and smiled into the kiss. It was light and teasing and everything I had hoped it would be. I felt like he was pumping me full of his magic, goose bumps formed on my arms and I felt a tingling that started in my fingers and spread down to my toes.

He pulled back before I was even remotely done with him, but I didn't pull him back. Instead, I closed my eyes and spent a moment simply savoring the feeling he gave me.

"I've been wanting to do that all night." His breath fanned across my ear and down my neck and I shivered. "Hey. I know the date's supposed to end now, but you want to catch a movie?" Something in the back of my mind twitched, reminding me of how uneasy I had felt earlier, but I was strong and I was free and I was stuffed full of magic. Nothing could touch me.

"Sure." He brought my hand back into the crook of his arm and we set off. In no hurry to get where we needed to go, simply glad to be in each other's presence on in this fantastic night that sparkled in my head.

We didn't need any words. Nothing had to be said. That part would come later.

And then the magic flew out of me. To anyone else, the dark silhouette further down the path would be insignificant, but my subconscious screamed at me. Telling me to get away! I clutched at Blake's hand and turned us around. He shot me a confused glance and then stopped when he saw my face. No matter how hard I tugged, he wouldn't move.

"Vikki?" He bent down to look closer at me. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes! I just decided that I would prefer to go this way." I didn't have time to think of a good lie. I just knew that we had to leave, before that person noticed us. If they hadn't already.

"Are you sure? This doesn't seem like you. Besides, the only theater I know of is this way." He tried to turn back around, but I resisted and started to tug again.

"Please! Can we just please go this way?" I tried once more to tug away and he stepped in front of me and grabbed my shoulders. I tried to push on his chest, but he wouldn't budge.

"Vikki. Vikki! Look at me." He caught my eyes in his own and I felt our chance of escape slowly disappear with each tick of the watch on my wrist. "Victoria! Tell me what's wrong! Is it me?"

"No." I gasped. "Please. Just trust me. We need to get away from here. Right now." He searched my eyes, judging my commitment. Finally, he squared his shoulders and grabbed my hand again.

He started walking at a brisk pace before talking. "Explain."

"Later." I whispered. "Soon. Just not right now. Right now we need to get away from here." And I pushed our pace as fast as I could without running. Running would draw too much attention.

Click. Click. Click. My heels tapped out a gunshot with each step I took. Impatient, I kicked them off. Blake glanced down at them and then sped up a little more. He was starting to feel my urgency. Now that I had his cooperation, I went faster. We were going to be okay. We were going to make it out of this. And then I was going to have a stern talk with the warnings in my head about ruining dates.

My breath froze in my chest. I dug my heels into the gravel pathway and jerked Blake to a stop. There was another figure in front of us. I whirled around; about to sprint in the other direction, but the other person was still on that side. They were both closing in.

And then they were there. One moment they were at least a hundred yards away and the next they were standing directly in front of us. I pressed myself back into Blake and felt his heart skip a beat.

They had sweatshirts on, with hoods covering their faces. Even so, I could see their red eyes and chalky skin. Both were male. "Come on girly. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Just step away from your beau, yes?" One spoke, and my skin crawled. There was just something wrong about him. About both of them. I think I was in shock. Seeing this, Blake spoke for me.

"She's not going with you creeps." He tried to sound strong, but they only laughed. It was a low sound, a beautiful sound, but in the same way that a Venus flytrap was beautiful.

And then I knew. I could see it all in front of me. A way to get out of all of this and escape. A path to run at a trajectory where they would lose me. I knew this instinct. It had been part of me my whole life and I had listened to it before. It never failed me. Readying myself, I prepared to run.

And then I stopped.

I was not going to leave Blake here to deal with these men all by himself. Even if I wasn't seriously crushing on him-even if I hated him-it just wouldn't be right.

All these thoughts happened in less than a second. It was enough time to find my voice though. "Okay. I'll go with you guys." I stepped away from Blake, knocking away his hand when he tried to reach for me. I could already tell that there would be no escaping for me. I had let the opportunity pass. Now I just had to hope that Blake would find a way out.

The man who had spoken smiled. "Good. That was easier that how I thought it would be." There was no signal, but his partner suddenly darted forward and grabbed Blake, preventing escape. The other man grabbed me.

"Now…" His breath smelled like perfume and I felt a knot curl in my stomach. It wasn't natural. He wasn't supposed to smell good. "…this will only take a moment." His lips stretched into a smile and the other one laughed behind me.

Then he moved forward, so close I thought he would kiss me, and bit down on my neck.

I screamed.

A/N: So… I'M BACK! Oh yes, it's been a year of not writing and now I'm back, just for you guys. Feel special.

This is my new story. It's a fanfiction that I've been planning out for almost two years now. I hope you all enjoy it. These characters are so fun to write.

Questions? Review! Let me know everything you thought.

~School-is-my-purgatory