Snake boy

They all swarmed around her like vultures on a carcass, the new girl looked cute and someone who liked to have a good laugh despite her cold complexion. I stayed out of the way, since it was that time of year again, and I was starting to shed my scales again, though my eyes occasionally met hers as she looked around. When Rebecca led her to her tent, Darren walked over to me.

"Stop staring and go and talk to her." Darren told me, nudging me in the side.

"I'm not staring." I told him, defensively.

"Yeah sure, come on let's go and introduce ourselves." He told me, suddenly grabbing my t-shirt and dragged her towards the new girl's tent and I let him.

When we got to the girl's tent, Rebecca was coming back towards it as well, and she looked at me and Darren, she was holding a blanket and a pillow.

"Ah Darren, can you go and ask Crepsley for a spare coffin? She needs somewhere to sleep in the morning."

"Of course, she's a vampire, she's Crepsley's daughter." Evra though, mentally cursing himself for it taking him this long to realise, and the group jumped when they heard a voice behind them.

"You know that you guys speak quite loud right?" Katie asked them as she appeared behind them. "If you're going to come in, then don't start speaking in the doorway." She walked back inside her tent.

Darren let Rebecca go in ahead of him, and he then followed her dragging Evra with him.

Evra allowed his snake eyes to glance around the tent that he had been dragged into. It was bare, with the usual facilities, though there was Katie's black converse on the floor by the door, and he noticed her slid her black hooded jacket off, showing pale arms and a low cut black top, which matched her black jeans perfectly. He then noticed Katie looking at them.

"So, I know why Rebecca is here, but why are you two here?" She asked, gesturing a tiny porcelain coloured hand over to them, before she took the blanket and pillow from Rebecca.

"I told Darren to go and get you a coffin from Crepsley, and I don't actually know why he and Evra are here." Rebecca told her.

"Uh, well I thought that I'd come and say introduce myself. So yeah, I'm Darren Shan, assistant to your father…" He noticed the hard look in her eyes as he said that. "And this is Era Von-"

"A vampire, boyfriend to a monkey girl, and a snake boy, it's been a while since I've met anyone like you three." Katie commented, as she put the blanket and pillow onto a low wooden table.

"Yeah, I'm not actually meant to be here, I just came in because Darren dragged me, and half of my scales with him." Evra commented.

"Yeah, I can see that shedding isn't so fun." Katie laughed, and her laugh sounded like bells.

"Anyway, Darren and I are going to go and get you a coffin, Evra why don't you stay and talk with her." Rebecca suggested, as she and Darren left.

Evra looked at them helplessly as they left, before he heard Katie speak.

"You don't have to stay if you don't want to." She shrugged.

"Nah, I'll stay, can't leave you on your own with the sun about to come up, you might need some protection." Evra smiled, he admitted that it was a pretty pathetic and weak smile, but it was a smile of comfort all the same.

Katie gave him a small smile, before she hopped up onto the table. "You know, I came here years ago, when Mr. Tall was younger." She laughed. "He was still quite tall for his age, even back then."

Evra moved to sit on the table next to her. "How old are you, if I don't mind asking?"

"I'm breaching two hundred." She told him, looking at him.

"Wow, so you were here, how long ago?"

"About seventeen years ago, I don't know how or why Mr. Tall found me and called me back here." Katie mused. "I didn't even think he would remember me."

"You'd be surprised what people around here, remember." Evra laughed.

"Yeah, I guess I would be."

They sat on the table, talking until Darren and Rebecca came back, Darren carrying the coffin over his shoulder and Rebecca following on behind him.

"Where would you like me to put this Katie?"

Katie and Evra both slid off the table, and picked up the blanket and pillow. "Right here, thanks." When he put it down, Katie opened it and Rebecca screamed as a mouse climbed out.

"Whoa, hey where do you think you're going?" Katie asked the mouse, as she picked it up, and held it in her hands.

"Um Katie, that's a mouse." Rebecca squeaked, hiding behind Darren.

"Yeah, I know." She shrugged, before she put the mouse on the floor and watched it run off. "Cute little things." She put the blanket into the coffin, and she watched Evra put the pillow in as well.

"Well, it's nearly morning, so I guess we had all best go and get some rest." Darren told them.

"Do you need any help climbing in?" Evra asked her.

"No, I'll be fine…But thank you anyway." Katie smiled at him, as she climbed into her coffin, before she lay down.

"How does that feel?" Rebecca asked her. "I tried to find the comfiest blanket and pillow that I could."

"It's fine, thank you Rebecca." She pulled the blanket over herself.

"Sleep well." They told her, as they left and they smiled slightly at hearing her tell them the same.

Evra waited with Darren outside of Rebecca's tent, and he looked away as they kissed each other good night, before the two guys walked towards their tent.

"What are you thinking about?" Darren asked him as they walked.

"Nothing." He told him instantly. "What makes you think that I'm thinking about anything?"

"The fact that you have that look in your eye." When Evra looked at him in slight confusion, he decided to explain. "You only ever get that look when you're thinking of something."

Evra rolled his eyes, trust his friend to be this observant. "It's nothing that you would be interested in, it's just music."

Darren raised an eyebrow at him. "Alright Evra, whatever you say." He pretended to just shrug it off, but he knew something was on his best friend's mind.

They both walked into their tent as Darren slid his leather jacket off as Evra zipped up the tent door, and as he got ready for bed, Darren looked at him.

"Katie seems like a nice girl, doesn't she?"

"Yeah, I guess she does." Evra shrugged, trying to look like he didn't care, when really he was starting to feel things for her.

Darren didn't press on that subject for long, instead he climbed into his coffin. "See you in the evening Evra." He closed the lid.

Evra nodded. "Sleep well." He lay in his own bed, which consisted of the usual blanket and pillow despite being part snake, and he looked up at the ceiling of the tent, his mind flashing to Katie. This was going to be an eventful sleep.