Hello, everyone! Welcome to the second season of Safe Haven! For those of you who have been following the first season, welcome back! I'm sorry that it took the sequel pretty long to be published! For those of you who stumbled upon this story without having read the first season, welcome and thanks for clicking in! I would really suggest you take a look at the first season, though, since this story literally picks up after the events in the first season. Otherwise, you might be confused as to certain events and felt left out from certain knowledge, and I wouldn't want you to not enjoy this story to the fullest :( please head to my profile and check out the first season!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon, as well as any referenced materials contained in here, except for the prequel to this story! The disclaimer I have put out in Season 1 also applies for this story, too.

Without further ado...

"Vampire venom?"

The town doctor nodded slowly. "It has been diluted enough times so that you do not transform into a vampire. In the right dose, the venom can counteract your cancerous cells."

"In the right dose…" she mused absent-mindedly while staring at the bottle in front of her. "And… you're sure this is the right dose?"

"Truthfully, I cannot say. We have never had humans in this town and my only source was the theoretical knowledge that I have on this particular substance, together with Allen's… practical knowledge. It's entirely up to you, of course, but must I remind you that time is not in your favor?"

Gwen wiped off the countertop, washed the cloth and hung it dry on the nearby rack. That should take care of it, she thought. She wiped off the sweat that began to form on her forehead, slightly irritated by how her fringe decided to stick to her skin, but at the same time grateful for the very same thing. She had almost forgotten how it felt to have her head covered by hair. She was even grateful by how the ends of her hair tickled her neck and shoulders.

Before she knew it, a year had passed since they first came to this town. Since then, their lives had tremendously changed. Subconsciously, Gwen gritted her teeth and clenched her fist until her knuckles turned white.

"Don't ruin your beautiful face with such expression, Guinevere Elizabeth."

Gwen looked up and saw Allen, gracefully sitting on her windowsill, smiling, as if nothing was wrong. "Since when you…"

"Since you were cleaning the stove. I'm surprised you didn't notice, but I guess human senses are not meant to detect us."

Human…

That word comforted and saddened her at the same time, bringing her back to a particular day last winter…

The cold pierced her skin mercilessly and that was when it came back: the feeling of being suffocated out of her last breath. She coughed uncontrollably and, surely enough, felt the warm blood gushing out of her mouth. She fell on the floor, desperately trying to contain her coughs to no avail.

No, I can't! Not now… not when she needs me…

It was then she heard the door burst open. "Guinevere Elizabeth!"

From all people in the town, only one person would bother to call her such. That vampire.

Another moment, he was already kneeling down next to her, cradling her carefully in his arms. He was about to pick her up when she coughed up another batch of fresh blood, literally under the nose of a blood-vore. Gwen saw his muscles tensed as his blue eyes grew darker.

Is this how it's going to end? Is he going to eat me now?

"The pills, Guinevere Elizabeth… The pills Klaus gave you… where are they?"

Gwen held her breath and he grew impatient.

"The pills! Tell me where, now!"

She weakly pointed out the drawer where she kept them untouched. Allen, with his unnatural speed, rushed there and took the bottle out. He took a moment to read the piece of paper accompanying it, went to the kitchen, and in a flash he was already beside her with a glass of water, a saucer, and a wooden spoon. He took three red-colored pills from the bottle, opened them one by one, and poured the white powder into the saucer. He mixed the powder with a bit of water, just enough to dissolve it.

He helped her up and brought the saucer to her lips. "I knew you're not taking these, and I try to respect your choice. It is not as easy as it sounds, even for me. Now, even if it is against my belief to disrespect a lady, if you don't drink this now, I will have to force this liquid down your throat."

With the energy she had left, she tried to resist him. "Allen… I…"

"You do not have time, woman."

"If I drink this… will I… stop being human?"

Allen hesitated a bit. "I know enough humans that would kill to survive. To live longer."

Gwen offered him a weak smile and he returned it in kind with his signature smug side grin, one that allowed one of his fangs to peeked out between his lips. "That's better. Much better, in fact, Guinevere Elizabeth."

"Is there anything I could assist you with?"

Allen chuckled. "What could a fragile human like you help me with? You even need my venom to survive now. Far from that, Guinevere Elizabeth, it is you who needed my assistance, and I'm happy to give it."

"Huh?"

"Klaus is looking for you."

Gwen froze at the mention of his name. What could possibly happen this time?

While at first glance it seemed that the town was running as usual, that name was not mentioned anywhere. It became a taboo. The empty spot on the plaza became a silent, but painful reminder of what had happened—or rather, what was missing.

Gwen and Rod had found her in Neil's house after Reine didn't come back for two nights. She sat down on the floor, the blanket loosely covering her body from the winter chill, her eyes staring blankly into the distance. When Gwen touched her, she only said two words:

"He left."

Those were her last words about him, and the only direct statement about Neil's sudden disappearance. There was no letter, no trace, nothing at all.

Ever since then, Reine rarely spoke to anyone. Even when she was spoken to, she kept her responses curt. Her conversation was limited mainly to dealing with her customers—even that part of her job was sometimes taken over by Rod on her worse days. Besides that, Reine spent most of her free time in the forest. Rod, who had been faithfully trailing her, told Gwen that Reine mostly spent her time sitting alone on the cliff overlooking the town. Sometimes, the wolf pack came and accompanied her; she was slowly accepted as part of the pack. Gwen was sure that Reine noticed it too; she slowly turned into what Neil had been. Gwen couldn't really be sure whether that was what Reine wanted—whether this was intentional on her part as a way to remember him by—but a part of Gwen had accepted that she would never get back her sister the way she had been. The saying "love changes someone" couldn't be any truer here… perhaps, what they had was really love.

But why did he leave her?

That was a question that she might not get an answer for in this lifetime.

"Bad news?" she asked nervously as she put her arms around his neck.

"I don't know, to be honest. Klaus just told me to get you, and I thought you might want to get there sooner than later."

"Shouldn't we call Rod?"

"Who do you take me for? I'm already ahead of you, Guinevere Elizabeth."

As expected of Allen, they reached the clinic just as he finished his sentence. Rod was already there with Klaus, and Gwen could see that there was someone else too, someone she did not know.

The fifth person was a young woman around her age, and the first word Gwen could think of when she saw her was "striking". How could not she be? Her hair was dark brown that slowly transitioned into golden hair as it cascaded down her back; her eyes was clear green, mostly, with a noticeable section somehow colored in dark purplish-red—they were such a contrast to her noticeably pale skin; when she grinned, she revealed a popped-out canine, just like the one of Gwen's baby canines.

Her outfit was no less striking: she wore a tight, black tank-top under a pink denim jacket with a matching mini skirt. Between her tank-top and her skirt, she sported a wide, white belt with a metallic rose buckle. She also put on a pair of black, knee-high platform boots. As for accessories, she seemed to be partial to rings; she sported some metallic rings in both of her hands. It was something Gwen recalled Reine loved doing back when they were still carefree with their lives.

"You must be Gwen!" she exclaimed without hesitation.

"How do you know me—wait no, that's not important right now—doctor, did something happen to my sister?"

Klaus nodded. "She just regained her consciousness."

The doctor's words were like an oasis in the middle of a desert. Gwen beamed into a smile. "Can I see her?" she asked excitedly.

"Actually, it's also about time to remove the bandage around her eye."

It was raining cats and dogs and Reine was still out. There would be nowhere else she would be but the forest. They just had another Moonlight Festival yesterday—the second one since his departure. Gwen kept telling herself that she didn't need to worry about Reine; she could take care of herself, and the wolves would be around for her, too. However, when she heard a loud howl piercing the rain, Gwen started to worry. She began to pace up and down the house.

Her worst fear came true when she saw Rod in front of her house, panting, telling her that he would carry her to the clinic. When she arrived, she couldn't see Reine—Klaus was too busy to save her life. Rod knelt on the ground, his back hunched over as his forehead was pressed firmly to the cold floor, as he apologized profusely. Reine had been savagely attacked by a horde of snakes; he wasn't there to help her in time because earlier she had shunned his company.

"Snakes? But… it couldn't be too bad, right? I mean… Dr. Klaus can do wonders and these snakes are… just snakes, right?"

"They were no ordinary snakes for your kind," Klaus walked in. "Their venom is especially deadly to mortals."

Gwen held her breath. "But, you're here already—so my sister is…"

"Alive, barely, but technically, it wasn't me who saved her."

"What?"

The old doctor looked at her, and Gwen swore she could see a sliver of pity in his stone-cold face. "Tell me!" she insisted.

"I'm not sure you are aware of this fact—I'm not sure even your sister is aware of the fact, too, but your sister had been carrying."

Gwen did not immediately understand what the doctor was talking about, but she did not take too long to catch up. "Carrying… as in… are you telling me she's pregnant?"

"Was pregnant."

Gwen's eyes widened in a mixture shock and grief as her jaw dropped in the revelation; she was even too overwhelmed to cry.

"The first possibility is that, looking at the bite pattern and the defensive wounds your sister sustains, the snakes did prey for the fetus inside of her. But, I uncovered a very peculiar phenomenon while trying to drain the venom. It was concentrated inside of her womb. It was as if the fetus prevented the venom to spread out—no, the fetus was sucking in most of the venom, because I recovered very minimal trace from her arms. Snake bites could not penetrate her womb, but her amniotic sac was highly contaminated by the venom, and the fetus drank it—all the fluids inside of the fetus was practically the venom itself. As in the nature of the venom, it travelled to the point where its concentration diminished very quickly, which, in this case, was in her womb. Could it be that the fetus recognized that it had a considerably stronger genetic composition than its mother? It truly is a mystery, even for me, but I saw what I saw… such an instinct—but, I digress, there is something more important you needed to know."

"What?"

"There were some bites far away from her torso. I could drain most of the remaining venom… but not all. A particular area proved to be too difficult for me to drain the venom from properly."

"And that is…?"

"Her right eye."

After helping Reine to sit, leaning on her bed, Klaus briefed her on what had happened to her on that fateful night—mercifully omitting the fact about her miscarriage—as well as what he was going to do afterwards. Reine nodded in understanding, showing none of her emotion. It would be rather unthinkable last year, but it was something that Gwen had even expected from the current Reine, to be honest.

"Who are here?" Reine asked.

"Me," Gwen replied almost immediately. "There's also Rod, Allen, and…"

Gwen realized she had no idea who the stranger girl was and she didn't realize that she had been following them into this room. "It's Hati!" the girl introduced herself before anyone else could speak.

Reine nodded again and strangely, asked nothing about Hati.

"Are you ready, Reine?" the doctor asked.

For the third time, she nodded.

Gwen watched with bated breath as Klaus began to remove the bandage covering Reine's sole good eye. It almost felt like an eternity; each loop of the bandage chipping away her lifespan. Gwen held her breath when she saw the layers of wrapping began to thin out and revealing a white padding over Reine's right eye. Klaus took the padding off and asked Reine to open her eyes. To everyone's surprise, Reine's right eye had transformed into crimson—such a contrast to her green left eye. But, that wouldn't be their primary concern now.

"Reine? How is it?"

Reine blinked once, then twice. She closed her eyes while taking a deep breath, then exhaling it from her slightly opened mouth as her eyelids began to open again—not fully, but enough for them to see her eyes, and then shook her head slowly.

"No!" Gwen cried out hysterically, as she ran to Reine—pushing Klaus aside on the way—and embraced her sister, clinging on to her. "Tell me it's not true, Reine!"

"What is?" Reine asked calmly, rather, emotionlessly.

"That you're blind!"

Reine didn't take any moment to ponder, and she answered so matter-of-factly: "That would be a lie now, isn't it?"

In a year, Gwen watched her sister lost her lover, what remained from their memory, and now her only eye...

How would they cope?... and who is Hati?

Stay tuned for the next chapter!

Thanks for reading! Please follow, favorite, rate and review! ^^

A/N: the "vampire venom" pills were briefly, and indirectly mentioned in the Season 1 (Chapter 15, to be exact). Gwen had been reluctant to take it because of its ingredients, but as seen above, Allen practically forced the pills into Gwen when she was dying around the time after Neil's disappearance.