Author's Note: Yep, finally an update! =)

So, I know I said that the first three chapters were kind of the prologue, but I had to split up this one in two different chapters because it turned out WAY too long. So now, the four first chapters are kind of the prologue.

I'm trying to explain everything about the vampire species in the story itself just in case there are people who don't watch TVD reading this story, but I need to explain what mind compulsion is here for future chapters.

Mind compulsion is an ability exclusive of vampires, through which they can control someone else's mind. They can erase memories, change the way someone thinks, make someone do something by simply making eye contact with someone who's human and manipulate dreams. The dream manipulation can also be done with other vampires.

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries!

Enjoy! =)

Darkness Times

Chapter 3: The Lost Sibling

Sam Puckett

When Sam and Ryan arrived in Jacksonville, it was some time before noon. They took a cab at the airport and made their way to the western part of the city, which was where the University Melanie had been studying at was. When they were three blocks away from the University, they asked the cab driver to stop, paid him, and then watched as he drove away.

"Okay, so now what?" Sam asked as they started walking.

"Well, first I think I should take you to the apartment I bought around here, because I don't really think it's a good idea for you to be seen near the University. The police might be still there, and, well, you know, I don't think it would be a good idea for you to be spotted around here for a while, being Melanie's twin sister and all," he said, and Sam couldn't help but agree with him.

"I guess you're right," she said, and they kept walking.

Three blocks away from there, Ryan pointed at a pretty nice looking apartment building just a few steps ahead.

"I bought an apartment there a few weeks after I turned, and then Katelyn moved in with me. I had to choose between Jacksonville and Seattle, but even though I'd prefer Seattle because, well, it was where I had lived for the longest part of my life and it was where you guys lived, I chose Jacksonville because in Seattle, the chances of being spotted by one of you was bigger. And also, a friend of Melanie's has an apartment in that building, so I took it as a chance of seeing one of you a bit often, even though she didn't know about it," Ryan explained.

"Alright, if you weren't my brother and we weren't in this current situation, that would have sounded really creepy," Sam commented, and Ryan couldn't disagree with that.

"I know," he said, chuckling, as the two of them walked inside the lobby. It was a nice looking building both on the inside and the outside. The walls inside the lobby were all painted with a really light cream color, and there was a painting on the farthest wall near the elevators, which was painted with strong colors and hung on the wall just behind a dark red couch.

"Hey, what's up, Mr. Puckett?" a man who couldn't be older than 20 years old and whom Sam assumed to be the doorman said happily from behind his desk.

"Hey, Gary!" Ryan greeted him back and shook his hand. "How's life going?"

"The same as always," Gary replied, before turning to look at Sam. "And this is…?" He eyed Sam curiously as he spoke.

"I'm Sam," Sam said, and he held out his hand, which she grabbed and shook, but maybe she put too much strength into it, since he made a face like he was in pain for a moment. But as soon as she let go of his hand, he seemed recover and pretended nothing had happened.

Alright, I have to remind myself that I'm a bit... stronger now, Sam thought, making a mental note to herself.

"It's nice to meet you, Sam," he said, smiling. He then looked at Ryan, his face making his thoughts completely obvious, but Ryan beat Sam to speaking up.

"She's my sister, Gary," he said, a hint of annoyance clear on his voice.

"Oh." Gary suddenly looked embarrassed as he looked back and forth between Sam and Ryan, maybe checking for some resemblance, and he probably found some, because he soon gave up on it. "Sorry," he apologized.

The two siblings then walked toward the elevators, and after a few seconds, the machine finally arrived at the lobby, and they walked inside it.

It didn't take long for them to reach the sixth floor, which was where Ryan lived, and when they did, Ryan led Sam to the apartment 6-H.

The apartment wasn't really big, but it looked like a nice place. It was a bit messy, but Sam seriously didn't mind; she had lived in a ten times worse messy house for almost her whole life, until her mother finally decided to start cleaning—

Sam stopped thinking about that in a second. She didn't want to keep thinking about the people she had left behind, even though she knew that she wouldn't be able to completely avoid doing that.

"So, do you think you'll be okay here while I go to the University and help Katelyn?" Ryan asked after Sam had laid her bag on the couch and looked around the place.

"Of course I will, Ryan," she said, slightly annoyed. "I don't need a babysitter, you know?"

"Okay, then," her brother replied. "I'll just call her, and then I'll be on my way there."

"Okay," Sam replied, looking around one more time, before walking to the kitchen. She scanned the room with her eyes for a moment, and then walked over to the fridge, curious to know what Ryan kept in there. It wasn't like he needed to stock food, so why did he even have one of those in his kitchen?

But as soon as she opened the door of the fridge, she found out the answer to that question.

Blood bags. Tons of those.

At that sight, she felt a familiar feeling building up inside of her, one that seemed to have been awaken by the sweet smell of blood coming from inside the fridge.

Hunger.

She wondered if Ryan would mind if she had one of those, but something else suddenly caught her attention as soon as she thought about her brother. She moved her gaze to the kitchen door and couldn't help but hear Ryan's conversation with Katelyn. She could hear them perfectly, even from another room.

"So, you're still there? Inside the University, I mean?" Ryan asked, and a female voice on the other end of the line replied quickly, sounding annoyed.

"Of course not! Those guys arrived there a few hours ago, they're probably still investigating the body."

"Body?" Ryan asked, sounding alarmed.

"Melanie couldn't control herself," Katelyn replied with a sigh. "She killed a girl from her dormitory."

"But why didn't you stop her?" Ryan asked.

"Oh, come on, Ryan! Haven't I told you about the 'piece of wood driven through my stomach' part of the story yet?"

"Alright, this story is pretty confusing." Ryan made a short pause as he sighed. "I'm heading there right now, so then you'll be able to explain everything to me exactly how it happened. But where are you, then?" he asked, and listened carefully as she explained her location. From what Sam gathered, she was somewhere a block away from the University, in some kind of café.

"I'll be there in ten," Ryan said, hanging up, and Sam instantly realized that he was approaching the kitchen.

Sam tried to pretend that she had been focusing all her attention on the fridge right in front of her, and when Ryan walked in the kitchen, she looked up at him innocently.

"So?" she asked him, even though she already knew exactly what he would say.

"I'm heading there now," he said, and she was sure he knew that she had been listening. "So, you're sure you're gonna be okay in here?" he asked again, but this time he was clearly joking, and Sam sent him a death glare, making him hold his hands up in a peace sign. "Okay, okay. But if you need anything just call me," he said, laughing. "You can get some if you want," he added, pointing at the fridge, referring to the blood bags. Without waiting for a reply, he turned around and walked toward the front door, but Sam called after him after a brief moment of hesitation.

"Hey, Ryan!" He turned around, pausing by the front door of the apartment. "Good luck," she said, sending him a small smile.

"Thanks," he replied, returning the gesture, before vanishing from sight as the door closed behind him.

As soon as Sam heard the front door closing, she was reminded of the hunger she was feeling when she breathed in the sweet smell coming from inside the fridge. She looked back at the blood bags, hesitating briefly before holding out her hand to grab one.

She opened the bag easily, tearing the small tube on the top of the bag without much effort. She stared at it for a brief moment, before hesitantly sucking on what had remained of the fragile tube like a straw. When the cold blood came in contact with her tongue, her breath hitched for a second, but after that, she resumed drinking hungrily, her animalistic vampire instincts taking over her once again. The blood from the bag was not as good as the fresh one—it tasted weird, and it did not engulf her in such a strong haze like the fresh blood did—but it was still blood, nonetheless.

And after barely a minute, the bag was empty.

She felt a lot better after that, but she had to resist the urge to get another bag from the fridge as she threw the empty bag on the trash can near the sink. Before her instincts could get the best of her, she closed the fridge door and made her way back to the living room.

Sam sighed as she let herself fall on the couch. That was her first moment alone after she had met Ryan the night before, and now she finally had the chance to think about everything that had happened and that Ryan had told her. But the more she thought about it, the more unbelievable the whole story seemed. She just couldn't believe how much her life had changed in just a few hours.

She wondered what her parents would tell everyone. That she ran away? That she died? She knew that maybe leaving was a bit coward of her, but what she did to her father just wouldn't get out of her head, and she couldn't risk everyone's life like that.

She tried to focus on another subject, and the first thing that crossed her mind was Melanie. Even though Sam couldn't see a way of Melanie still being alive—well, kind of alive, but still—she still hoped that they'd find her, and that they'd find her soon. Her sister didn't know anything about vampires when the sun started to rise, and that meant that if she had gone out in the sunlight...

Sam felt a chill going down her spine as that terrible thought slipped into her mind without her consent, and she shook her head lightly, trying to send that train of thought away.

She hoped Melanie had at least found somewhere to hide from the sun, and that she'd not leave that place until the sun had set again.

Even though Sam had never admitted it out loud, she truly loved her sister. Of course, Melanie was the exact opposite from everything she was; Melanie was all girly, caring, kind, a straight-A student and probably their parents' favorite twin, while Sam was always getting in trouble, pulling pranks, screaming at teachers, hating school and beating up nerds. But even with all those differences, they were still twin sisters, even if they didn't get along very well most of the time.

Sam sighed as she walked toward the nearest window and looked at the surroundings. She watched as several people walked past the building hurriedly, maybe late for an appointment, or maybe because they just couldn't bear to walk slowly. She couldn't help but think about those people; about them having their normal lives, everything like it should be, while her life had changed completely and against her will. She stared at the street below for a long time, silently watching all the people passing by, the cars driving by hurriedly and horning at each other when one of them suddenly stopped because of a kid crossing the street running after his little dog...

Just then Sam realized that it was December 18th, meaning that Christmas Eve was just a week away. Sam remembered how Christmas night at the Shays' apartment was, all of them together—Carly, Sam, Freddie, Spencer, Gibby, and even Mrs. Benson and T-Bo. That Christmas would be different, and she wondered if her friends already knew that, and if they did, how they felt about it. She hoped they didn't hate her if her mother told them that she had left, and that her mother wouldn't tell them that she was dead, even if that was partially true, since she didn't want her friends going through something like that because of her, especially during Christmas time.

Her thoughts then wandered back to Melanie, wondering what was going on with her, and also with Ryan and Katelyn. She felt a sudden urge to go out there to look for Melanie, since she felt horrible just standing there, doing nothing apart from waiting, but she knew that was not a very good idea.

She walked back to the couch, where she had left her bag, and started looking through its contents until she finally found her cell phone. After dialing the number Ryan had given her, she waited for her brother to pick up the call, which didn't take longer than five seconds.

"Sam?" Ryan's voice sounded urgent, and Sam couldn't help but roll her eyes at that. It was funny how Ryan hadn't changed a bit in the last five years. He had been extremely overprotective of both Sam and Melanie back when he was still human, and clearly, he still acted exactly the same way. But at the same time it was funny, it could also get a bit annoying after a while.

"Yeah, it's me," she said, before qiuckly adding, "Don't get worried, I'm just calling to know how things are going."

"Oh, okay," Ryan replied, and she could hear that the worry in his voice was gone. "Well, still no luck. Melanie is nowhere around, but we know that she was able to leave the University, because we found a corpse drained of blood three blocks away from there."

That didn't make Sam feel any better. "I just wish I could be there, you know?" Sam admitted, the frustration she was feeling in that moment clear in her voice. "I feel so helpless just standing here, just waiting and hoping for her to be okay but doing absolutely nothing about it."

"I know that," Ryan said with a sigh, "and I really wish you could be here but, well, I don't really think you want anyone who knew Melanie seeing you, right?"

Sam couldn't disagree with him. "Yeah, you're right..." Sam agreed, and made a short pause before speaking up again. "I just hope she's fine, and that we find her soon. She's probably freaking out right now, not knowing what's going on and knowing that she killed someone."

"Yeah, and not just 'someone'." Ryan sighed once again, before lowering his voice as he added, "She killed her best friend too."

"Well, that makes it even worse," Sam admitted, and in that second something rang inside her head as she suddenly made a connection. Getting a bit excited, she hurried to ask, "Wait, you said that she killed her best friend, right?"

"Uh, yes…" Ryan replied hesitantly.

"Would that best friend be the one who bought an apartment in this building?" Sam asked, getting even more excited as she repeated her idea over and over inside her head.

"The one and only, but why—" It was clear that Ryan didn't know where Sam was trying to get with all those questions, but she didn't have the time or the patience to explain it to him at the moment, so she simply cut him off.

"What's the apartment number?" she asked.

"3-F, but—" He, once again, didn't have the chance to finish his question.

"I'll explain it later!" Sam said hurriedly. "Call me if you find out anything else."

Ryan apparently just wouldn't drop it. "But why did you—" And once again, he was cut off by Sam.

"I'll explain it later!" she insisted, her annoyance clear in her voice.

Finally, her brother gave in, sighing on the other end of the phone line as he said, "Okay, then."

"See you later," Sam hurried to say, before hanging up without even waiting for a reply.

Sam re-thought her conclusion one more time, desperately hoping that she was right.

If Melanie's best friend was dead, then that meant that no vampire would need to be invited in to get inside the girl's apartment, so that was a place where Melanie could get in without any problems. And knowing that her friend was dead, Melanie could have had the idea to go there to hide.

But what still bothered Sam was not knowing if Melanie had really come to the conclusion that she needed to hide from the sun, because if she hadn't…

Sam pushed that thought away once more, and then focused on what she would do next. If Melanie had really gone to the apartment to protect herself from the sunlight, she was probably still there, which meant that she was only a few floors below where Sam was in that moment.

Getting both anxious and excited because of that last thought, Sam hurried to the front door, getting annoyed with herself for almost hitting the door fully because she still hadn't gotten used to that whole agility thing, and after just a few seconds, she was already marching toward the stairs. She knew that she wouldn't have enough patience to take the elevator, and she thought she could get to the third floor a lot faster if she took the stairs anyway, a thought that proved itself right after less than a minute.

She walked hurriedly through the hallway, eyeing the signs that hung next to each apartment door desperately, muttering the number of the one she was looking for repeatedly under her breath, until…

3-F.

Sam paused, staring at the black letters for a brief moment, her heart racing as the anxiety took over her once again. She hoped Melanie was in there, or else that would mean that her sister was probably… well, gone.

She held out her hand to touch the doorknob hesitantly, but when she did, instead of turning like she had expcted it to, the handle fell down to the floor with a loud thud, which echoed through the empty hallway for a few seconds. Sam pushed the door lightly, and it opened easily and silently.

Alright, the doorknob was broken, Sam thought to herself. Maybe that's a good sign. She kept that thought in mind while walking inside.

Inside the apartment, everything was so silent that it made Sam grow a bit nervous, and the fact that she couldn't see any sign that someone had been in that place for a long time didn't make it any better. When she reached the living room, she looked around nervously, but nothing in the room seemed unusual.

Until…

She heard a movement coming from the kitchen and turned around quickly, fast enough to see a blurry figure coming toward her. She jumped aside so fast that even she didn't believe it, getting out of the way, and then turned around, before pushing whoever had tried to attack her against the nearest wall with her fangs out, black veins popping out of the skin under her eyes, which were now red where they were usually white, and a loud involuntary snarl coming from her throat.

But in the moment she recognized who this someone was, her expression softened, and her face was soon back to normal.

"S-Sam?" Melanie managed to stutter, her voice shaking and her eyes filled with tears.

"Melanie," Sam whispered, feeling like a hundred pounds had suddenly been lifted off her shoulders, and in the next moment, the twins were hugging each other tightly.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're here!" Melanie said, sobbing onto Sam's shoulder, her face buried in her sister's golden curls. She had never felt so alone and afraid like she had in the past few hours, but now that her sister was there, she felt a little better, but only a little. She was still scared, and she still didn't understand anything that had happened to her the previous night.

Sam patted her sister's back for a long moment, not knowing what to say or if she should even say anything at all. She knew Melanie was scared and needed her right now, but she had never been very good with words, so she chose to remain silent for the time being.

It took Melanie some time until she was finally able to speak again, though her voice still came out between sobs. "I… I don't know what… what happened to me… and… you…" She wasn't able to complete that sentence, since she suddenly started sobbing even more.

"Mel, I…" Sam was about to say something, but the words got caught in her throat. She decided to stay just silent once again and kept patting Melanie's back, hoping that she'd calm down at least a little bit. And much to Sam's relief, her sister's sobbing lessened down after a few minutes, the sound gradually fading as the terrified twin seemed to slowly calm down.

When Melanie spoke again, however, her voice was still shaking. "Am I… am I really a…?" Melanie started, and even though she didn't finish her question, Sam already knew what she meant.

"Vampire?" Sam said lowly against her sister's hair, and the other twin nodded lightly in response. "Yes," she answered slowly and hesitantly, slightly afraid of Melanie's reaction.

But instead of crying even harder than before like Sam had expected her to, Melanie simply pulled away from her and stared right into her eyes. "Why did this happen?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. Melanie's eyes were still completely full of tears, though she was now clearly trying to hold those back, as if she had grown tired of crying and now wanted to look stronger than she was actually feeling on the inside.

Sam didn't say anything at first; she simply stared at her sister silently for a brief moment, until she finally walked toward the couch and sat down on it, before patting the spot right next to her, gesturing for Melanie to join her, and the other twin hesitantly did so.

Melanie stared at her sister expectantly for a second, clearly waiting for the twin to clear everything up to her and help her understand what had happened to her the night before.

At the sight, Sam took in a deep breath, before she finally started talking.

Jorge Puckett

At the Seattle Medical Center…

Jorge opened his eyes as the light sunshine from the now setting sun entered the room through the half open curtains. He looked around nervously, not knowing where he was. The first thing he noticed was that he was lying on a bed, and that he was surrounded by some kind of machines…

That was when he realized that he was in a hospital room.

At first he couldn't remember what had happened, but as he tried to remember, all the memories from the previous night came rushing into his mind, and for a brief moment, he believed that maybe it had all been a horrible nightmare. But when he moved his hand up to his neck and felt bandages covering the spot where Sam had bit him in those unwanted memories, he knew that it hadn't been a nightmare.

Sam and Melanie.

The twins' names echoed inside his head and he suddenly felt like getting up from that stupid hospital bed, not caring about whatever the nurses said. He needed to know what had happened to his daughters.

But before he could do anything at all, the door of the room was pushed open slowly and a nurse walked in.

She was looking down at the clipboard she was holding in her hands as she made her way into the room, and it was just when she was halfway to where Jorge was that she looked up at him. "Oh, good, you're awake," the red-haired woman said, flashing him a tired smile. The smile, however, did not reach her eyes, in which Jorge noticed there was nothing but sadness. She looked vaguely familiar to him. "There's someone here who'd like to see you, Mr. Puckett," the woman added, gesturing to the door of the room.

And that was when Pam walked in.

Jorge had to admit that she looked horrible. She had dark bags under her eyes, which were red and puffy, like she had been crying for a long time, and her hair was messier than he had ever seen it. But above all, she looked tired, which immediately told Jorge that she had not slept at all in a long time.

"Jorge, thank god! You're awake!" Pamela exclaimed as she walked as fast as she could with the crutches she was using toward the bed he was lying on, a white cast wrapped around her right leg.

"I'd better get going now, Pamela," the nurse suddenly announced. "I've already told Emily to take my place." She closed her eyes, letting out a sad sigh as she added, "I gotta tell them." As she spoke, her voice cracked a bit for some reason. Jorge was sure he knew her from somewhere, but he couldn't remember from where.

"Thank you, Marissa," Pam said. "And good luck."

The nurse simply nodded in response, the sadness in her eyes now even more evident than it had been before. She cast one last look over at Jorge, and then finally left the room, leaving the two of them alone.

Jorge watched her leave in silence, his brows furrowed as he struggled to remember where he knew her from. "Uh…" He turned his head to look at Pam. "Who is she?" he asked. "I mean, I think I know her from somewhere, but I can't remember where…"

Pam didn't look up at him as she answered his question. "She's Marissa Benson," she explained lowly, but that answer didn't make things clearer for him at all. Noticing that, she added, "Fredward Benson's mother."

"And who's Fredward Benson?" Jorge asked, still just as confused as he had been before.

Pam sighed loudly, hesitating for a brief moment before she finally said, "One of Sam's best friends." It seemed like she didn't feel comfortable with saying Sam's name, and that made Jorge a bit uncomfortable as well, which caused him to decide against saying anything in response to that.

There was a silent moment between the two, and the tension could easily be noticed in the air around them, for they both knew that the subject they would talk about next was extremely delicate and complicated.

The silent moment lasted for a few minutes, until Jorge, noticing that Pam wouldn't say anything if he didn't, decided to speak up.

"Pam, I need to know what happened after I… blacked out," he said, going straight to the point, but avoiding to mention the part of Sam biting him.

"You mean what happened to Sam?" Pam asked, her voice suddenly earning a somewhat harsh tone.

"Well, actually, I wanna know everything that happened," Jorge admitted. "To you, to Sam, to Melanie..." He shook his head lightly, before adding, "Everything."

Pam hesitated once again, her gaze falling to the floor. Jorge had to admit that she was acting pretty weird—weird even to her—but he decided not to comment anything about that… yet.

It took Pam several seconds, but she was finally able to speak again after a moment. "After you went upstairs because we both heard a scream…" She closed her eyes, as if trying to send some unwanted image away from her mind. "Well, I started to get worried, since you were up there for a lot longer than I thought you should and…" She opened her eyes once again, but still refused to look up at Jorge. "I wanted to go up there to check if there was something wrong, but I couldn't because of that stupid broken leg and…"

She made a short pause, as if trying to organize her thoughts as she let out a pained sigh. "After a few minutes, Sam ran down the stairs and she was at the door in a blur, and when she turned around to look at me her face was… covered in blood. And then she left, without a word. I started to panic, but I felt completely helpless, since I couldn't get up from that stupid couch." She shook her head, as though ashamed. "After a few more minutes, I was finally able to reach the phone by dragging myself, and I called an ambulance, but…" Her voice drifted off, and she suddenly grew silent, as if unable to go on.

"But what?" Jorge decided to ask, hoping that she wouldn't resist too much on answering. But much to his annoyance, she didn't say anything, pretending that she hadn't heard him. But Jorge wouldn't give up that easily. "Pam, look at me," he said firmly, and she finally looked up at him. Now, Jorge could see just how red her eyes were and how tired she really was. "What were you going to say?" he asked, and this time, she couldn't pretend that she hadn't heard him.

She stared at him for a long moment, still hesitating, until she finally gave in with a sigh, but what she said wasn't exactly what Jorge had been expecting to hear. "Jorge, I think we should leave all this behind and… just... forget about what happened, okay?" she said, looking straight into his eyes, but instead of finding the understanding she wanted so dearly to see in them, she found confusion instead.

"What?" was all Jorge was able to let out after a long moment of silence.

"You heard me, Jorge," she said, clearly tying to sound firm, but her voice gave away the fact that she was actually on the verge of tears. "And I meant exactly what I said."

"But why are you saying this? I mean…" Jorge paused, a thought suddenly crossing his mind, sending a wave of anxiety right through him. "Where is she?" he hurried to ask, his eyes slightly wide. But once again, Pam didn't answer. "Where is she, Pamela?" he repeated, more firmly this time, and the use of her full name made Pam react.

"I don't know, alright? I have no idea!" she exclaimed, moving away from him with the help of her crutches.

"Wait, are you saying that she…?" He didn't finish that question, the single thought of it already too painful for him to bear.

"Ran away?" Pam asked, as if reading his thoughts. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

Jorge had to look down for a moment, his mind struggling to process what he had just heard. Sam had run away? But why? To where?

"But how can you know that she ran away? Maybe she just needs some time alone or…" he started, gripping tightly onto that last hope, but he paused when he looked up and realized that Pam was trying to get something out of her pocket. It took her some time to get whatever she was trying to get in her shaky hands, but when she did, Jorge saw that it was a piece of paper. Actually, it looked like a page that had been yanked out of a notebook. And when Pam approached him with it, he saw that he was right, but he couldn't imagine the content of that piece of paper until he read it.

"What's this?" he asked as Pam held out the paper for him to grab.

"Read it and you'll understand," she said simply, refusing to explain any further.

Jorge looked down at the paper, starting to read whatever was written on it. And after reading a few lines, he realized it was a letter… from Sam.

When he was done reading it for the first time, he read it all over again, and then again, and again, until the meaning of it really sunk in. Sam was gone, and she didn't plan on coming back. She thought that it would be better for everyone if she kept a distance from them all. Jorge shook his head, trying to clear up his thoughts and get some sense out of that. Why did she think that it would be better for her to simply leave everything behind? How could things be any better that way? How could...

And that was when it hit him.

She was probably afraid of how people would react to what she had become.

That did make sense, but even though that was all Jorge could think of at the moment, he still felt like there was something else behind Sam's departure that she, for some reason, had decided to not mention in that letter. However, he soon dropped that line of thought, for the last part of the letter deeply intrigued him.

Don't worry about Melanie, I'll get to her.

But how could Sam even know about Melanie also turning into a vampire? And how could Sam sound like she understood what had happened to her so well? There was something not right about all that, but Jorge did not get the chance think about it all further in that moment, since Pam's voice suddenly broke him out of his thoughts and brought him back to reality.

"You see? We should all forget about Sam and Melanie and…" She shook her head, as if trying to clear up her thoughts. Jorge knew that she was trying to play the strong and determined one, but she sounded more desperate and about to cry than anything else. "Well, live on."

"How can you say something like that, Pam?" Jorge asked, truly shocked by her words. How could she even consider something like that? "And—" Just as he was about to say something else, another thought suddenly occurred to him. "Wait, do you know anything about Melanie?"

"All I know is that they didn't find her," she replied harshly. "Just a dead girl, Amanda, with a big, bloody bite mark on her neck." Pam sounded like she was about to freak out, and Jorge knew that only something huge, life changing and truly terrible could get her that way.

And unfortunately, that description fit perfectly in their current situation.

"But then what? You'll just give up on them?" he asked in disbelief, trying to make her understand just how crazy she sounded. "You want to pretend that they never existed?"

"Yes," she said, sounding a bit more controlled now. "I've done a lot of thinking during these past two day you were unconscious, and I came to a decision."

"Wait, two days?" Jorge asked, his eyes widening with shock. "I've been unconscious for two days?"

"Yes," she replied. "The doctors said you were lucky to have survived such a great blood loss." She shook her head lightly. "You almost died, Jorge, because you lost too much blood." She paused, letting out a humorless chuckle. "Correction," she began, "Because she sucked too much blood out of you." She said the word 'she' in such a way that it was hard to believe that she was referring to her own daughter.

Jorge had to admit he was surprised that he had been unconscious for so long, but he didn't have the chance to say anything about it, because Pam suddenly went on.

"Don't act like I'm insane or anything, Jorge, because you know I'm right," she said, her voice earning a harsh tone once again.

"No, you're not!" Jorge shook his head, still finding it pretty hard to believe everything he was hearing. "Pam, are you even listening to what you're saying?"

"Jorge, I've been up throughout the last two entire nights because I couldn't… because just I couldn't stop crying! And during that whole time, I thought about everything that happened, and… I've made my decision, alright?" She paused, closing her eyes for a moment, and when she spoke again, her voice was much calmer and controlled than before. "I've decided to… live on and… that both Sam and Melanie are gone. They're gone, and never coming back, and we just have to accept that."

"Pam, you seriously need to understand that—" Jorge started to protest, but Pam cut him off.

"Understand what, Jorge?" she asked, her voice suddenly earning a somewhat exasperated tone. "Understand that our daughters are not even human beings anymore? That they were turned into monsters? And don't look at me that way, because you know that I didn't say anything wrong. They're not human anymore, and they're not my daughters." And with that, she turned around and left the room through the open room door without a single glance behind.

Jorge laid his head back on the pillow and sighed loudly, closing his eyes shut. Pam was totally out of her mind, he was sure of it. The happenings of that horrible night had messed up her emotions, and she probably couldn't think straight at the moment. He just hoped that she would realize how wrong she really was soon, before it was too late.

His thoughts then wandered back to the twins, causing yet another wave of pain and despair to hit him with full force. He still couldn't believe that what had happened to them was really real. During his whole life, he had never even imagined that something like that could ever happen to his daughters. He had hunted vampires for about five years now, and he could have never imagined that one day both his daughters would become what he dreaded most in the world.

He had always thought that vampires were heartless and emotionless creatures that only existed to kill people and create chaos, but how could he think that of his own daughters? He just couldn't.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a sudden movement near him. He opened his eyes quickly and looked around frantically, startled by the sudden sound, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing that was moving in the room were the curtains as the light breeze coming from the night outside made them float in the air just slightly…

Wait a minute, he thought abruptly, remembering that the window, that was now open, had been closed during his whole conversation with Pam, and he couldn't remember anyone opening it.

He thought he had seen something moving on his right, and looked in that direction abruptly, but he saw nothing there too. He then heard something moving in the window direction, and when he turned around, he could have sworn he had seen blonde curls disappearing out the window and into the darkness that surrounded the hospital.

He shook his head frantically.

Impossible…

But as soon as that thought crossed his mind, he noticed something different. The letter he had read earlier wasn't the only thing resting on the small table next to his bed. There was another piece of paper there, and when he read what was written on it, his eyes widened in surprise.

Don't worry about us. Melanie and I are fine.

~Sam

That was it, simply it. And that was the moment when he made his own decision.

He'd find Tyler, and he'd make the vampire pay for everything he had done by driving a stake right through his heart.

Author's Note: So, Jorge is alive! Yay! But he wants revenge, which might not turn out really well... ;)

The next chapter is pretty much Seddie centered, so be patient! =)

Please tell me what you think so far! I have no idea if I'm doing a good job with this story...

Well, thank you so much for reading! =)

xxiCarlyFanxx