A/N: So here's what I've been working on for the past month since I finished Wish You Were Here. Yes, it's been a whole month since I posted anything here, hard to believe, but true. But I'm back with my first all original work. It, like most of my work, was inspired by a dream I had. I had planned to make it a short story and post it as a very long one shot once it was complete. Well that was a month ago and I'm still working on it, not even half way through so I decided to break it down into chapters and start posting it. Some of the chapters might break in weird places since it wasn't meant to be a chapter story, sorry about that, but I hope you all like it anyways.
The title, also as usual is taken from a song, an All-American Rejects song in this case. That song has been the 'theme song' for this story.
On with the story…
Amy can't remember an entire day of her life, quite possibly the most important day of her life…the last day of her life. When she awoke she was changed, something entirely different. Can her best friend, Mike, help her cope or will he only complicate things.
"Ames! Are you in here?"
"Mikey, is that you?" she called back.
She didn't know why she asked, she knew it was him. Not only did the voice give it away, it was a voice she had been hearing everyday since the sixth grade, but he was also the only one who had ever earned the right now call her Ames.
"Yeah, it's me," he yelled, his voice sounding slightly closer this time. "Where in the hell are you?"
"I'm upstairs… I think."
Quite honestly Amy wasn't sure where she was or how she had gotten there. The last thing she could remember clearly was she and Mike being at a party together. That was a standard, but her ending up in strange places was anything but.
And she felt…weird, like something was different about her, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. It sure as hell wasn't like any hangover she had ever felt.
She slowly stood from the bed she had been laying on. "Fully clothed", she thought to herself, "that's a good sign." Her body ached as she stretched out, every muscle feeling like it hadn't been used in years.
The small room seemed vaguely familiar to her, but there wasn't anything really distinctive about it so she couldn't be sure. There was a small bed, the one she had been laying one, in one corner. One window just next to that. The drapes were unusually heavy, not allowing any light at all to pass through.
Amy didn't know how long she had been there and it was impossible to tell with no indication as to what time of day it was. She pulled the drapes aside, just enough to peek out. The sun was just coming up, but it felt strangely bright and much hotter than it should to Amy. She squinted away from the burning light as she quickly pushed the drapes closed again.
Well that hadn't told her much, she had either only been there for a couple hours or possibly days. Judging by how she felt she assumed it had been days.
On the opposite wall there was a large wooden dresser with an equally large mirror that ran its entire length hanging above it. Amy cautiously walked over to it, expecting to see a very rough, haggard and hungover, looking version of herself.
She gasped as her reflection came into view. She didn't look bad at all, in fact she looked unnaturally well, better than she could ever remember looking. Her black hair fell down her back in perfect waves, it certainly didn't look like she had been sleeping on it for days. Her blues eyes were brighter, somehow more radiant now. Her skin, which had always been pale, was almost translucent now and without any imperfections or flaws, looking almost like porcelain.
Amy raised a shaking hand to her own face and touched it gently. It was smooth, but not supple the way healthy skin should feel. It was more like perfectly etched stone, smooth and hard.
She ran her hand down her jaw line and then her neck. That's when she noticed the tenderness. She cringed as she poked and prodded a little more, turning now so that her neck could be seen in the in mirror. She saw them then, two perfect circular puncture wounds right at the source of the tenderness.
"No fucking way," she mutter to herself. "This can't be real, there's no way. It's just some kind of joke. It has to be."
She rubbed vigorously at the little marks, trying to get them to disappear, but they refused to budge.
Just then she was brought out of her frantic rubbing by the sound of Mike's boots thudding up the stairs and progressing down the hall. When he was just outside the door she realized she could hear more than just his footsteps…she could hear his heart beating and his blood pulsing through his veins.
And she could smell him too. Not just his cologne, the same scent he had been wearing since the ninth grade, often in obnoxious amounts. She could smell that too of course, but she smelled more. She smelled him, just his pure scent, the essence of Mike.
She had seen enough movies and read enough books to easily put everything together. Heightened senses, enhanced looks, aversion to sunlight, only one answer came to mind…vampire. The only thing that didn't make sense was the fact that this was real life and thing like this didn't happen in real life. Vampires didn't really exist, they couldn't, it just wasn't possible.
Just one more thing to check, she slowly pulled her upper lip back exposing her teeth and revealing two delicate looking fangs. She stared at her reflection in shock. There was no mistaking things now.
Amy didn't have time to rationally sort through all of the questions running through her head about what happened to her. If she had become what she suspected, a vampire, then she had to take precautions and she had to take them now.
She rushed to the door, flipping the lock just as Mike's hand grabbed the handle on the other side.
"What the hell, Ames? Let me in."
"I can't," she said simply and without explanation.
"Why not? Are you naked or something?" he chuckled. "Cause you know that ain't nothing I haven't seen before."
"It's not that, you idgit! I can't explain, you have to leave. Now. Go!"
"Are you nuts? I've been looking all over for you, I'm not just going to leave you alone here. It's not happening and you know I'm not kidding. Now let me in."
"I can't, Mikey, something's different with me, something's wrong."
"Okay Ames, you're really freaking me out. If you don't open this door I'm kicking it in."
"No, don't! Just give me a minute, okay? I'm going to unlock the door, but don't come in until I say 'now', okay?" She knew there was no point in arguing further, he had always been protective of her…and stubborn too.
"Yeah, whatever, just hurry up."
Amy quickly surveyed the room, looking for the best was to put distance between herself and Mike. She didn't feel thirsty or blood hungry or whatever they called it, but she didn't want to take any chances with her best friend's life.
There wasn't really anywhere to go in the small room, not even a closet to hide in, so she made do by crouching in the corner farthest from the door, creating the greatest distance possible.
"Okay, now," she called out hesitantly.
Mike burst through the door, his eyes quickly darting around the room before spotting Amy huddled on the floor.
"Stay back," she insisted sternly.
She could hear his heart beating erratically now, thudding wildly against his chest, and his scent was tinged with the salty smell of sweat. He was nervous, maybe even scared. But she still had no desire to attack him and drink him dry. He didn't look like a meal, just the same old Mikey.
His dirty blonde hair was in its usual messy spikes, his pale green eyes searched for some familiarity in his friend and his slender frame towered over her as he approached. His clothes were the same as when she had last seen him - huge baggy jeans, a plain white wifebeater, worn out combat boots and an array of colorful plastic bracelets down each arm.
Suddenly she remembered that she didn't even know how long it had been since she had last seen him.
"How long have I been?" she asked.
"Well it's Sunday morning now and it was Friday night when you ditched me, so a little more than a day I guess," Mike answered as he continued to move towards her, edging closer very slowly.
"I ditched you?"
That didn't sound like her at all. She and Mike had been partying together for years and she had never once ditched him. He, on the other hand…well that was another story.
"Oh yeah, you ditched me bigger than shit, Ames. You don't remember?"
She simply shook her head.
"You don't remember anything?" He was only a foot away from her now and looking at her with a sadness in his eyes that she had never seen before.
"The last thing I remember was going to the party with you…and then waking up here to you calling my name."
"Damn Ames, that's scary shit. What in the hell happened to you?"
He kneeled down now and sat on the floor right in front of her. Her knees were pulled to her chest, her arms locked tightly around them. Mike reached out to grab her hand, but pulled back quickly the instant his skin brushed against hers.
"Are you sure you didn't wake up in a tub full of ice missing a kidney? You're freezing!"
He stood quickly and retrieved the quilt from the bed, promptly wrapping it around Amy's shoulders.
"It won't help," she said somberly. "I'll always be cold now. Mikey, I'm not living anymore. I'm something else. I think I'm a…vampire."