Draculaura woke up in the same spot she fainted in.

Rubbing her eyes, annoyed at her headache, she looked around, trying to remember what had happened, and felt herself startle slightly when she saw Lilith sitting against the wall a few feet away from her. She was whittling away at a wooden stake.

Oh, yeah. That.

Draculaura pushed the image of Lilith's hand out of her mind and started to sit up. As she groaned, the other girl looked at her with an eyebrow up.

Lilith said, "How the mighty have fallen."

Draculaura grimaced. "I wouldn't call myself mighty. But I'm kinda scrappy, I think."

"Enough banter. Are you done with your power nap?"

"How long was I-"

"At least thirty minutes. Maybe an hour." Lilith scowled at the wall opposite of her. "Didn't they teach you at the monster school about integrity? What kind of vampire doesn't like blood?"

Just the sound of the word made Draculaura's head spin for a moment. "They didn't teach us much of anything at all, actually."

"Whatever. I didn't come here to hear a monster's life story."

Lilith stood up and flipped the stake in her hand.

Draculaura put her hands up in a plea. "Wait! I don't want to hurt you!"

"Of course you don't."

"Why would I want to hurt you if I'd just get sick again?"

Lilith frowned. "I don't know. That's just how it works. We have to fight for the story to go on the way it was meant to."

Draculaura stood up, straightening her cape on her shoulders. "I know, I know, but... what if we just talked? Can we just talk this out? I promise I won't hurt you."

"Ugh!" She threw her hands in the air in frustration. "You're not doing this right! I even gave you the first strike, and you didn't even frenzy. I could have stained my shirt."

"Is there really a right way to do it? Could we just skip the fighting?"

Lilith pressed her temples with her fingers, still holding a loose grip on the stake. "My uncle said this would be the greatest moment of my life. The role of a lifetime, following in his footsteps."

Draculaura blinked and tilted her head. "Your uncle?"

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Yes, my uncle. He's only the administrator of your school."

"He's not your dad?"

"Absolutely not. My father was a part of this story years ago, but he died in it. Turns out he wasn't meant to be the hero after all."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."

She scoffed. "Don't be. I never met him. He was only a little older than me when he and my uncle began their destinies."

"That is strange, though." Draculaura began pacing, ignoring the other girl's eyes on her. "I've never heard of destinies being inherited from an aunt or uncle. Only from a parent."

"Well, it happened to me."

There was silence for a moment as the two girls stared at the floor.

Draculaura looked up, her eyes wide. "I never really got to know my father either. I wish I had gotten a chance to, but monsters don't get that."

Lilith ignored the last statement, unsure whether to be uncomfortable with the sentimentality or not. "I'm close to my uncle. He taught me everything I know."

Draculaura pointed at the other girl's leopard print shirt. "Including killer fashion sense?"

Lilith looked down at her outfit, and let out a small chuckle despite herself. "I'll give you that one."

"Don't you ever wonder what your father was like?"

Lilith huffed. She clearly didn't like all these personal questions. "Not particularly. All I know about him is that he died in his story, so his fate was unexpected." She paused for a moment, and her eyes widened, her grip tightening on the wooden stake. "And I'm his daughter..."

Draculaura's brow furrowed. "What?"

"Nothing."

"Are you worried your fate is going to be unexpected, too?''

Lilith's eyes were like fire. "If you attack me, I won't hesitate. I've been trained in combat since I was able to walk, and I've got a crossbow, so don't try and fly away, either."

So that's what that contraption was. Draculaura put her hands up again, trying to seem as friendly as possible. "I made a promise, and I intend to keep that promise. As long as you don't cut your hand again, we should be fine."

"That hurt, you know."

"It must have." Draculaura took a tenative step forward, trying to keep her body language friendly. She felt like she was getting somewhere. "I didn't mean unexpected like that. I just meant, maybe this story could end nicely."

Lilith frowned again. "It was going nicely until you went against the story."

"I think it's still going well!" She smiled. "Like I said earlier, we could just...relax for a bit, you know. I'd rather be friends with you than fight you."

"Where on Earth did you pick these weird ideas up?"

"Oh, you know...around." Draculaura changed the subject. "You know, I think you pull off the leopard print even better than your uncle."

Lilith unconsciously stood a bit straighter. "He started the trend, but it looks so nice against my eyes, don't you think?"

"Totes!"

"Alright. You know what? I'll give you one day."

"One day?"

"One day." Lilith slid the stake into a holster on her belt, leaving it there for easy access. "I'll give you one day to convince me I shouldn't just kill you and be done with it."

Draculaura smiled. It wasn't a perfect outcome, but it was progress. "Are you sure?"

"Shake on it before I change my mind."

Draculaura took confident strides towards Lilith, beaming as her pink hand grasped Lilith's tan one and they shook on the deal with one dainty yet firm motion.

And, as if it were waiting for the cue of the girls' handshake, the stones in the walls began blinking out of existence, one by one.

Draculaura noticed first, and gasped in shock, backing away from the closest wall to take solace in the middle of the room. Once Lilith saw, her expression, which had begrudingly become softer over the past few minutes, turned back into a scowl.

She flung her hand towards the wall, gesturing to it. "Look what you've done! I was afraid something like this might happen, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt!"

"What?! What did I do?"

"You broke the arena! The story's ending, and we can't be more than an hour in!"

"It's ending?" Draculaura's mouth hung open, and her hands were placed over it, as if something was going to escape the ever-growing gaps in the walls and enter her lungs.

More and more of the stone hallway faded, leaving behind nothing but a black void, and all the while, Lilith was pacing and holding her head in her hands. "Barely an hour in, and it's not because I killed her quickly, either. Disgraceful. What's my uncle going to say about this?"

Within a minute, the entire hallway was gone (including the floor), and there was nothing but pitch black as far as Draculaura could see, but it wasn't exactly dark. It was just like she and Lilith were suspended in an endless black room.

She looked around, mouth still agape. "Is this what Ghoulia meant about the arena cleaning up after itself?"

"Who the hell is Ghoulia? But yes, this is what the arena does when a story is over. It 'cleans up after itself', as you say." Lilith crossed her arms. "The exit should be appearing..."

As she was speaking, a white door flickered into existence not too far from them, and Lilith nodded. "Right about now."

Draculaura looked at Lilith, her face creased in worry. "What do we do? Should I walk out with you? Where does it lead?"

"It leads to a backstage area, and from there, I go greet the masses. Or, I suppose, we go greet the masses now." The scowl was back. "But you can't go out there."

"Why not?"

"One, I can't leave this arena with my fans thinking I'm a coward."

"So you were planning to kill me anyway?"

"Unimportant. Two, there's no telling what they'd do to you out there, especially considering the conversation we just had. Heroes and monsters don't get along, not for any reason, and nobody's going to react well if you come out of here alive."

"What are we going to do, then?"

"I'm not sure. And we can't stay in here much longer. The cameras have definitely shut off by now, so nobody can hear us, but they'll come get me if I take too long, and I don't think they should see you."

"Hmmm..." Draculaura bit her lip, nearly breaking the skin. "Could I hide somewhere?"

"I don't-actually, you know what?" Lilith tossed her pack on the ground and opened it. "Go bat and hide in here. I'll take you to my uncle's house and hide you in the basement levels until I figure out what to do with you. Nobody ever goes down there because the house is so big."

It was Draculaura's turn to frown now. "Hide in your backpack? In bat form?"

"Do you want to get caught by the guards or not?"

Draculaura sighed. Her mood had went up at the prospect of being friends with Lilith, but now it had dropped to an odd limbo area. She had a chance to escape (an undignified chance, but a chance), and it was with a girl who she didn't know if she could trust.

She didn't have a choice, though. It was either go with Lilith or stay here and possibly be wiped from existence along with the castle. She was mostly happy the arena didn't wipe her automatically just for being a monster.

"Alright, but ditch the garlic, the crucifix, and the holy water. I can't really travel with those."