( This is written with the names of the dubbed version, since I know them best. I guess it takes place before Serena knows Darien, so.she's not Sailor Moon yet, though we get to that. ()

Disclaimer- I do not own Sailor Moon, and am not in any way associated with the creators. This is just for fun.

Serena and Mena giggled as they slapped brown paint on the wooden coffin. Lita grinned and peaked out at them from inside the coffin, which she was painting black.

" You know you two sound like hyenas?" she teased. Serena stopped laughing long enough to say, " You got paint on your jeans."

Lita looked down at herself and saw a black smear on her blue pants. She closed her eyes, imagined it was gone, and looked again. Nope. Still there. " Oh, shit!" she cursed, throwing down her paint brush. Her friends stared at her with wide eyes. Lita sighed. " Sorry. These were my good jeans! They were supposed to last me the rest of the week!"

Mena smiled at her. " Go wash it out. We'll cover for you." she whispered secretively. Lita smiled back wearily and ran out into the hall. Serena looked around the coffin at Mena.

" We can't cover for her. Someone's gonna' notice that one of us is missing." She pointed out.

Mena shrugged. " We'll tell them the truth. She had an emergency and had to run for the bathroom." The two girls cracked up and resumed covering the light brown wood with brown paint.

Serena, Mena, and Lita were first time members of the high school stage crew, which was putting together the set for Dracula. It hadn't been to productive at first; everybody assumed the three girls could do little. What with Lita threatening anyone who looked at her cross-eyed, and the two blondes spent most of the time joking and talking. Eventually, they proved that they could be useful if somebody would give them jobs to do.

" You kids doing okay with the coffin?" Mr. Inick, the stage crew manager, came up behind Serena. The two girls turned around, grinning brightly.

" Yes sir!" Mena saluted him. Mr. Inick examined the coffin walls.

" Hmm, good, good." He nodded. " May I make a suggestion? Try to streak the brown with black, to give it a woodsy, coffee-table look. Like this." He took Lita's brush and gently worked thin black lines onto the brown background. Serena and Mena watched closely and nodded. He handed them Lita's brush and walked away, then stopped.

" Hey...wait, weren't there three of you? Where's the other girl?" he looked around curiously. Lita popped out from behind a pile of wood scraps.

" I'm right here." she chimed sweetly. Mr. Inick looked closely at her; her brown hair, pulled back into a tight ponytail, was coming loose, her face was flushed, and her left leg was soaking wet around the bottom. He shook his head and walked away; he'd been with the stage crew long enough to know not to ask.

" Get it out?" Serena asked Lita, who was returning to her post.

" A little. It's better now, but you can still see the black line." She explained. Serena looked down at Lita's leg and tried not to laugh. Lita shoved her friend away. " Shut up, Serena. Or I'll put paint on you." Her voice was threatening, but her face was smiling.

" Hey girls. Finished yet?" the student crew manager, Darien, walked over and looked the coffin up and down.

" Almost." Mena replied, intently examining her work. Darien flipped the hammer in his hand and caught it with the other.

" You've been working on one little paint job for almost two hours, and you're still not done?" he smirked. Lita stared at him indignantly.

" Hey, this isn't easy. It needs two coats of brown and black..." she retorted, and Mena cut in. " And the wood touch thing." Darien shrugged.

" Not to insult you or anything, but if an experienced crew member was doing this, it'd be done in half the time it took you." He said coolly. Lita handed her brush to Serena.

" Okay, you wanna' take it outside?" she asked, clenched fists and everything.

Darien laughed and shook his head. " Silly little girls. Just get it done sometime today." He flipped his hammer again and walked off.

Later, after stage crew ended, the three girls headed into town for smoothies.

" That Darien guy is sooo creepy!" Mena shuddered. Lita rolled her eyes.

" No he's not, Mena. He's actually really hot. He just....thinks...differently." she argued. Serena laughed and nodded.

" 'Differently' is saying it politely. He spends most of his time there in the shadows. Have you ever noticed most of his work is done beneath the set?" she pointed out.

Mena spun around on the sidewalk. " No, I never paid much attention, Sah-reee-na!"

Serena blushed and stuck out her tongue as she shook her head. " Ewww, never imply that again! I'm just an observant person."

Lita leaned closer to Mena, grinning. " Observant my foot." They giggled and walked into the smoothie shop.

The night of the performance, neither Lita nor Mena could make it. Lita had a doctor's appointment in another city, and Mena was going to see a musical with her family. So Serena was all alone to work the double doors that let the actors off and on the set. She showed Vinny how to do Lita's job- the smoke machine and the little bat- and showed Trent how to do Mena's job- break the mirror and push the coffin out. Other than that, she was all alone. She climbed up the steps behind the scenes, in the blue light. Jenni, the prop director, decided not to bother her. The whole crew knew how lonely Serena was without Lita and Mena.

" But she should do something. Sweep the floor, dust the bookcase, something!" Rei, the leading actress, pointed out to Jenni.

" I know. But she just looks so miserable. It's such a contrast from the other day." Jenni shrugged. Rei nodded and picked up her long white dress. Darien, wearing his headset to give cues, called everyone to the set to receive end-of-the-season gifts. Serena, afraid of being told off for not working, didn't show up. Instead, she slipped around the curtain into the auditorium, and sat below the stage. She listened as everyone's name was called. She heard hers vaguely, but then they gave up on her and moved on. When the group disbanded, she heard crew people coming her way and ran back behind the curtain, to the backstage. Paranoid, she looked for a hiding spot. The only place she could think of us under the set, but crew people were down there. The voices got closer. Desperately, Serena moved up between the stairs the curtain, and pressed herself against the dark blue fabric. Darien made his way behind the curtain, and saw her there, looking ill.

" Hey Serena. We couldn't find you earlier. This is for you." He handed her a paint brush, a nice wooden one with soft bristles and her name on the smooth handle. " We know you joined just for the painting, so it's our gift to you..." Serena stared at the paintbrush, said a barely audible thank you, and wanted to cry. It certainly was a nice brush, but another note, it was like a bribe to do stage crew again. " Are you okay?" Darien touched her shoulder lightly. Serena suddenly felt terribly sick and began to shake. She looked up at him. For a fleeting second, he didn't look the handsome, calm guy in charge of the stage crew. His teeth looked sharper, his eyes were darker, and he looked pale even in the dark.

" Yeah, I'm okay." She hurried away, over to her post by the doors. Shaking, she put on her headsets and sat down on her stool. Vinny and Trent sat on the ground around her.

" So Serena, you gonna' be able to do the fire stuff without your friends here? Trent asked slyly. Serena groaned inwardly. Trent had been after Mena's other job, lighting the fire on the set with a remote control, but Serena had claimed it. She nodded tensely, not willing to talk to the guys who had stolen her friend's places.

" Okay, I want Act 1, Scene 1, before the audience comes in!" the director shouted.

" Darien, cue when you're ready." Jenni whispered into the headsets. No answer. " Darien?"

" Darien's not on yet. He went back to the SCUM room to get another script. We're missing one." Robby, the lighting technician, answered. The cast and crew waited patiently for a few minutes. Then the director began to get mad.

" I thought I said to do Act 1, Scene 1! That means now, people, now!" she hollered. Rei, covered in silky white fabric, walked over to Serena.

" Hey, Serena, you seen Darien? He's not answering on the headsets." She asked. Serena shook her head. " No, not for awhile. You want me to go look?"

" Yes, Serena, why don't you? Here, I'll take the headsets for you." Trent offered, grinning. Rolling her eyes, Serena handed the headsets over and walked away.

Behind the sets, it was pitch black. Serena held her arms out in front of her so she could feel her way to the SCUM room. From somewhere in the dark, she could hear ragged breathing.

" Darien?" she called cautiously. The dark was so intense, she couldn't even make out a shadow. Instead, she followed the sound. " Darien, are you okay?" Once her eyes adjusted, she could make out a figure curled up on the ground. She recognized Darien's jacket even in the inky black, and hurried to him.

" What happened?" she asked in a worried but hushed voice. She could hear the actors starting without them.

" No, go away!" Darien hissed. His voice was strangely drained, like it was all he could do to speak. Serena reached for his hand to lead him back to Mr. Inick. As soon as she touched his flesh, she felt his temperature drop to a freezing degree. Startled, Serena yanked her hand back to get help, but Darien grabbed it and kept her there.

" I've gone so long without any...." He started, a note of deep regret in his dead voice. Serena began to feel genuinely scared. " Please forgive me for this."

He looked up and Serena gasped. Darien's skin was dead white, she could see his face clearly in the shadows. His eyes were dark holes, sunken shadows in his dead skin. Shiny white fangs protruded form his mouth. He grasped Serena with both of his freezing hands and pulled her closer.

" No." Serena tried to say, beginning to fight. But then she felt the teeth on her neck, and felt a moment of pain as they broke the soft skin, and then she couldn't feel anything at all.

( So, how'd you like it? Please R&R!)