A/N: So I'm still at Neesha's house, and I'm guessing that this is my last day here. But HAPPY NEW YEAR, this is the first entry of 2009. Enjoyy.

RECAP:

"I need to go. You shouldn't even want to be five feet near me!" He argued.

"It doesn't matter that you're," I looked to see my mother on the couch, "that you're not the same."

My mother looked like her sad self again. "You don't have to hide it, Caleb. I know what you are…"

I shot a quick glance at Caleb to see that he was just as surprised as me. But maybe she was just confused, and we'd have to straighten here out.

"What are you talking about, mom?" I asked, smiling a little. Shit, that was a dead giveaway.

She was shaking here head. "You know what I'm talking about. Caleb is a vampire. And, there's a few things I have to tell you Elle."

This wasn't happening, I was sure of it. I was hallucinating or dreaming. How could she possibly know that?

My eyes fell back to Caleb, and he was looking at me with narrowed eyes. They weren't quite blaming, but they were intimidating enough for me to look back at my mother.

"How do you know that?" Caleb asked, his voice cold as ice.

"I've known what you would be before you even did, kid. Now settle down. There are more important matters at hand here." My mother looked at me before continuing. "Elle, what I have to tell you is upsetting, and you may not understand…but you have to know."

I sat on the couch beside her, worried.

"You…I'm…this is much harder to say than I thought it would be. I'm not your biological mother…I'm your aunt. I've taken care of you since you were born. You're mother left me in your possession when you were barely a month old."

I almost wanted to laugh. She was pulling my chain somehow…but when she didn't smile and she put her hand on mine, I got a feeling that this was real.

My stomach turned for the worst, and it was starting to feel hard to breath. Like my lungs were removed from my nose. Painful.

"Wh-what are you talking about? You're lying." I spat, removing my hands from hers.

A small set of tears raced down her cheek as she said, "I'm afraid I'm not…"

When I looked at Caleb, his head was down and he was standing awkwardly in front of us. His face was shameful, like he had done something wrong.

"What about dad?" I questioned, tears filling my own eyes.

"James Stewart isn't really your father…he's your uncle…your name isn't Elle Stewart either, we had it changed when you were born for safety." My "aunt" moaned, her hand firmly placed on her chest.

I shook my head angrily. "Why would I need safety? What the hell is going on?"

"There's much I can't explain to you right now. But there's someone you can see for the answers you seek…when you're ready of course." She placed a piece of paper in front of me with an address sloppily written on it.

I didn't know what to do. Should I cry? Should I take this piece of paper? What the hell should I do? This wasn't something that happened everyday, especially not to me.

So I just grabbed the piece of paper in my shaking hands, and walked slowly upstairs to my room. I flopped on my bed immediately, and just laid there for a while.

Soon I heard footsteps approaching my room, but they were anything but light. They must've belonged to Caleb who was coming to try to comfort me, even though we both knew that he'd never say the right thing. It just not something you fix.

Tap, tap. He pushed the door open and walked in. But he just stood at the foot of my bed staring at me for the longest time.

"I-I, I'm not really sure what I can say to make you feel any better…because if I say anything like 'I'm sorry' or 'I understand' it'll just be worse…so I've decided that I can take you where you need to go. That address on the paper. So you can figure things out for your self." His voice was compassionate, but still his usual serious tone. Being a comfort had become awkward for him after all this time, because I'm guessing he never had to be.

All I could really do was move my eyes back and forth, but that couldn't very well give him my answer. Yes. I wanted to go, but at the same time I didn't want to believe what had plainly been told to me. Because for some reason, I couldn't convince myself that it was the truth.

"Y-yes…b-but not to-toda...today." I muttered, closing my eyes and letting one hot tear fall. My sobs came too, and I decided that if this was the truth, that I truly didn't care about myself anymore.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning I woke up, and my throat was burning. I wasn't sure why, I hadn't talked very much last night. In fact, the only sounds I remember making last night were sobs. Even those weren't very loud.

But now I sat in my dark room, the sun hadn't come up yet, so I'd guessed it was still before 6 o'clock. There was a slight breeze from my open window that rustled papers on the desk in the corner of my room, and when they started flying around my room, I got up.

An instant head rush. I was very dizzy, and almost fell back on my bed, but one of my hands gripped the wall next to me.

When I was steady enough, I knelt to the floor and began picking everything, and placing it under my bed where it couldn't fly away, like my life just had.

I took a few deep breaths before sneaking downstairs to the living room. In the darkness I could see that used Kleenex tissues littered the floor, and that whomever left them here, was gone now. It was obviously my mo-…my aunt.

I was taking my sweet, slow steps to island so that I wouldn't fall over. The dizziness was always here, but I could live with it…like I'd have to live with everything else.

Once I made it there, my hand found the cordless phone and I dialed Caleb's number. It rang and rang almost five times before I got an answer.

"Hello?" He said groggily.

I took a deep breath, trying to form words but my throat was sizzling with hot pain.

"Elle? Is that you?" He questioned, and his voice was getting more and more awake sounding.

Even though it was painful, I said, "I'm ready."

It was around 3:50 a.m. when Caleb arrived at my house. I was dressed, but then again I wasn't really sure I remembered getting dressed for the occasion. Everything seemed to start bleeding together and I was having a hard time remembering things that I had just done. A pointless haze.

So as I stepped out into a somewhat lighter environment, I looked down at myself to make sure I had gotten dressed at least. And I had…I was wearing clothes that I was in the dream I was having this night. Or maybe it wasn't a dream, but reality. Like I said, everything was covered in a thick, pathetic haze.

Hopping into the car beside him, he was silent for the first few minutes. And when I looked at him I saw that he had large black circles under his eyes, and I wanted so badly to apologize to him, because I had put them there, and I kept screwing things up with my own problems.

"This is a four hour drive, are you sure you want to go tonight?" Caleb asked, slowly pulling out of the driveway.

I nodded my head to say yes as I rubbed my neck with my cool hands. It felt nice on the fiery feeling. It was beginning to feel better compared to how it was when I'd first woken.

So we kept driving and my eyelids turned so heavy that I had to close them. And when I opened them back up, I spotted a small sign that said 'Burlington'. That must've been the town we were supposed to be in because the sky was a great deal lighter.

The pain in my throat was pretty much all gone except for a slight tinge of soreness. But it was okay now. This town we were in look fairly hospitable itself, and everything was still quiet for it was still early in the morning.

Caleb said, "So you're awake? We're in the town, now I just have to find the address."

When I looked at him, he was holding a coffee that still had steam coming from the slot on top, so we stopped somewhere nearby while I was still asleep.

He pointed to another steaming cup in the cup holder, and I supposed that it was for me. I picked it up and took a sip; it felt nice in my throat.

"With a town this size, I'm sure that we'll get there in less than 20 minutes." He said, making a turn onto a street called 'Leeland Road'.

The houses were all good-sized and dark, like the entire town was still asleep. And maybe it was, I was just used to places that were awake by 6 o'clock.

"It's quiet here." I said, gulping more coffee and looking out the windshield.

"She's spoken." Caleb noted, not smiling, but trying to make me feel less…like this.

And it worked, but I didn't smile, because it wasn't time for that just yet.

Caleb held that familiar piece of paper up and seemed to be counting aloud. "One forty-five…one fifty-five…one seventy-one….one eighty-three. We're here Elle."

I looked to where he was pointing and it was a house that was a bit different than the others. A wrap-around porch, three stories, a large round window up at the top, suggesting an attic. It was painted blue and white. The shingles on top weren't perfect, many had fallen off from weather.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Caleb asked, stopping the car next to the sidewalk and looking straight at me with a sweet, caring face.

I thought about it for a moment. Placing my hand on his, which was on the gear shift, I said, "Yes."

We sat like that for a moment, just staring at each other. I was so glad that he was here, that he was the one helping me through this hell of a mess. One that was so sudden and out of nowhere.

So together, we walked up to the screen door and knocked.