Over the next two weeks, I underwent a series of changes, resulting in an overall alteration. Not physically, though. Outwardly, I remained the same quiet, awkward person I'd always been; I continued to roam about Honolulu Heights on the cusp of belonging there; talking to Tom, helping Annie and avoiding getting in the way of Hal's strict rota. Outwardly, it would seem, I was the same.

But inside, a raging madness was growing.

Ever since Cutler had shown me the mutilated corpse in the woods, shown me what horror and destruction that werewolves could cause, a hatred for the beasts had formed in my mind and it sat, spreading and growing like a cancer, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was rapidly becoming obsessed with researching and finding out more about alleged werewolf attacks, spending every moment I could using the internet in the library and searching through old newspaper records. Whenever Hal or Tom or Annie asked where I'd been, I would lie and say I'd been out for some fresh air, or popped to the shop. I didn't want them knowing about this rapidly growing…obsession.

They wouldn't understand.

The only person, I was quickly leaning, that did seem to understand, was Cutler. The vampire, for whatever reasons of his own that no longer seemed important to me, detested werewolves. I had thought, when I first met him, that Cutler's interest in the werewolves was a positive one; he'd had an enthusiasm for the creatures that had been, though I hadn't thought about it at the time, unusual. But now I realised that his enthusiasm was based solely on exposing werewolves, and it was driven by his hatred of them. It had to be. There could be no other explanation.

It was difficult, at times, to think of werewolves in this way. It was not hard for me to hate myself; I think that self-hatred is something that comes naturally to adolescent females, but it was hard sometimes for me to hate Tom. When we would talk together and laugh together and have fun together, it was difficult to think badly of him. But then I would think about all the hundreds of killings I'd read about, the body in the woods-and my parents' death. For this disturbing memory was frequenting my brain more often than it had ever done before, and it had become a powerful motivation whenever I had these lapses with Tom.

Cutler, too, proved motivation at these times. It seemed whenever I felt sympathy or doubt about werewolves, Cutler would be there; with an article of a story, feeding my ever-mounting madness.

But then, a few days before full moon was due to arrive again, I received a phone call from Cutler; a sense of urgency to his voice.

"Have you written it?" the vampire asked, before I had even said 'hello'.

"Written…what?" I asked, confused.

"The article," said Cutler. "The article exposing the public to werewolves!"

"Ah…"

During the weeks following my epiphany in the woods, Cutler had not only been feeding me werewolf evidence, but also encouraging me to write an article exposing werewolves. I had been intentionally uncommitted to this, for the obvious reason that I wasn't really a journalist, and had never actually agreed to write anything. Or, at least, I thought I hadn't. But Cutler seemed to think differently.

"Have you written it, then?" he pressed. "Because I really need, I mean, the public really ought to know about this, don't you think?"

"Well, I, uh…"

Hal had wandered into the living room whilst I was on the phone, clutching a can of polish and a yellow duster. He frowned at my phone.

"Listen, I'll…I'll call you back," I said. I wasn't comfortable anymore talking about my 'business' (as I was fast referring to it as) with Cutler around Hal. It was my affair, not his.

"Who was that?" asked Hal with forced casualness, but the duster clutched tightly in his hand gave away his tenseness.

"Nobody," I said, airily, standing up and making for the door. "Now if you'll just excuse me…"

Hal stepped sideways, blocking my path.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"I could ask you the same question," said Hal. "I know you were just talking to Cutler, so why lie about it? You never normally do."

I said nothing, looking at the floor.

"So, what did he want?"

"It's none of your business," I snapped, suddenly.

Hal looked briefly taken aback, before his expression changed to something far more terrifying; anger.

"Of course it's my business," he said. "Look, whose side are you really on here?"

"Yours," I said. "You know, this is what you asked me to do. Pretend to be on Cutler's side for you."

"Oh really?" Because I'm not so sure how much you're pretending to be on Cutler's side anymore. I think you just are on his side!"

"Well, so what if I am?" I shot back, feeling a rage building inside me. "Perhaps Cutler's not the one who's got things wrong, maybe it's you!"

"But he wants to expose werewolves. Expose you," said Hal.

"And what's so wrong with that?" I roared. "Maybe…maybe we deserve to get discovered. I've seen what werewolves can do. I've seen the horror they can cause. One of them killed my parents for goodness sake!"

I stopped.

This was the first time I had told anyone about my parents. Hal, Annie and Tom, for whatever reasons of their own, had never asked about my family, and I had been more than happy to keep the information hidden away.

Hal, whose face had been a mask of anger throughout our exchange, now looked at me sadly.

"You never said," he said, gently.

"You never asked," I said, sulkily. I was annoyed. I didn't want sympathy, I wanted revenge!

"Look, Florence…" said Hal, apparently reading my mind. "I'm sorry for what happened to your parents, really I am. But believe me, it had nothing to do with you. And…and exposing werewolves isn't going to bring them back!"

Hal's words stung like acid.

"I know it isn't going to bring them back," I said, hotly. "But exposing…exposing us as the monsters we truly are will ensure the horrible cards I've been dealt in this life won't be dealt to anyone else!"

"But that's not your decision to make!"

"Well, why not?" I said, but I could feel myself already faltering slightly under Hal's infuriating sense and reasoning. "Why shouldn't it be mine to make? Just because you're happy trundling along while monsters rip apart humanity, it doesn't mean everyone else is! Just because you…you like leading this double life!"

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realised I had said something terrible. Hal's eyes darkened, his jaw clenched, and he set the duster and polish down on the bar in a manner that suggested business.

"Never," he said, his voice dangerously low. "Never presume to think that I enjoy being what I am. You think I don't know how this feels? You think I don't know what it's like to lose loved ones, to see the innocent savagely taken from this world? You think you're the only one to feel how you feel? That's a very selfish way to think of things."

I had found myself feeling meek and guilty at the beginning of Hal's speech, but the word 'selfish' triggered what anger was left in me once more.

"Selfish?" I repeated. "You think I'm being selfish? Being selfish, would be hiding away this secret, keeping it to ourselves so that others don't find out the truth about what's out there! It's not selfish to want the innocent public to know what's going on!"

"And did it ever occur to you, Florence," said Hal, speaking loudly. "That the innocent public wouldn't want to know about the horrors that lie out there? Did you not ever think that people were better off not knowing? You see, it's once people start knowing that the problems arise. Look at your parents. Look at you."

"They didn't ask for this," I said, quietly, looking at the floor. I felt the sudden horribly urge to cry. To lay down on the floor and weep.

"I know," said Hal. I looked at him through my hair. He did not look angry any more. Just sad. "No one ever asks for this. You didn't, I didn't, Tom didn't, your parents didn't. But the public aren't asking for it either. Why make them suffer unnecessary fear and suffering? You'd be doing them no favours by bringing them into this world."

There was silence for a moment, broken only by a heavy breathing that may or may not have been my own. I was thinking carefully about Hal's words. For so long, longer probably than I had realised, I had been blinded by Cutler; blinded by his views and his ideas. I had thought that exposing werewolves to the public would be kind to them. But now I could see that Hal was right. Just because my life had been torn apart by supernatural existence, it didn't mean everyone's had to.

Hal seemed to sense my shift in opinion, for he picked the duster and polish back up, and moved into the room and away from the door.

"Anyway, I must get on," he said.

"Wait, Hal," I said, turning around so I was facing the vampire once more. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about…about saying what I said. And about…everything really. I just-

"Don't," interrupted Hal quietly.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Don't apologise," said Hal. "Not to me. You don't have anything to apologise to me for."

"But…" I hadn't been expecting this. Hal had looked so angry previously that I had half expected him to throw my apology back in my face. "But…I said all that rubbish about you enjoying being a vampire, which is of course absurd, because nobody would enjoy that, except perhaps Cutler, who seems to get along just fine with it, but that of course is beside the point, and I-

Hal hand up a hand to stem my flow of garbled speech. "You don't need to apologise to me," he said. "After the things I've done, no one need ever apologise to me."

There was something so tragic in Hal's voice, that I was compelled suddenly to give the vampire a hug, something that was absolutely ridiculous because a) I detested bodily contact of most kinds and b) I sensed Hal felt the same. Luckily, I was saved from doing something I would most definitely regret for the rest of my life, by Annie, who had appeared in the living room just in time to hear the end of Hal's speech.

She rolled her eyes. "Please don't start reminiscing," she said. "I've told you before, Hal. I don't want to know what you've done. Can't we all just try and get along and act as a nice, normal family?

Hal went as though to contradict her, but obviously thought better of it, and gave a small, tight-lipped smile, nodding.

Annie returned the smile and nod, and sat down on the sofa, just as we heard Tom come in the door.

"Now," said Annie, brightly. "Let's see what nice, normal family news Tom has brought us?"

Tom came into the room, beaming. "Hey, guess what?" he said. "Mr Cutler's asked me to create a coexistence between vampires and werewolves with him!"

This news brought out a reaction in all of us. Annie groaned with obvious displeasure at the lack of 'normal' news, Hal fumbled with the can of polish before it fell to the floor with a clatter, and I wheeled around to face Tom.

"What?" I said, perplexed.

Tom's beam faltered slightly. "I…I thought you'd be pleased," he said, looking around the room at our faces; Annie's annoyed, Hal's shocked and mine confused. "I thought it would be a good thing!"

"You haven't actually agreed to this, have you Tom?" said Hal, nipping across the room so that he was stood closer to the werewolf, a sense of urgency to his voice and movements.

"I…no, I haven't," said Tom, still looking taken aback. "I told Mr Cutler I'd think about it. But he seemed really keen on the idea, and I don't see why you're-

"It must be a trap," muttered Hal, more to himself than to anyone else. "No vampire in their right mind would want a coexistence with werewolves."

"Um," I said, looking around the room at the ghost, vampire and two werewolves stood there and, well coexisting. "Isn't what you're doing sort of a coexistence between vampires and werewolves?"

Hal ignored me, still apparently wrapped up in his own thoughts.

"Don't do it," he concluded. "It's surely a trap. With the Old Ones coming, god knows when, but soon, there's never a time less likely for a vampire to be trying to organise something like that. The Old Ones are very set in their ways; they like tradition. And traditionally, werewolves and vampires do not live comfortably together."

Tom now looked thoroughly depressed. "Fine," he said, sulkily. "I'll guess I'll just tell Mr Cutler 'no'. But he was gonna buy me dinner as well!"

x-x-x

The next day, disaster struck at Honolulu Heights; a disaster discovered by Tom.

"Guys! Hal! Florence! Come quick!"

As quickly as I could (not very, as I'd been splayed on my bedroom floor trying to retrieve a sock from under the bed) I hurried up to the attic, where Eve slept, and where Tom's voice had come from. Hal was already there, perspiring gently, a towel wrapped round his shoulders. One of his press up sessions had evidently been interrupted.

"What's the matter?" I asked, looking from Tom to Hal and back again.

"Annie's gone," said Tom.

"Gone?" I said. "What do you mean, 'gone'? She can't just have left!"

I started stupidly looking wildly about the room, under cushions and behind the door, as though expecting Annie to appear suddenly from them.

"She's gone," echoed Hal.

"But what do you mean?" I said. "What, like when Kirby did that…thing to her?"

"No, I don't think so…" said Hal, but he didn't look certain. "But you're sure she didn't leave a…a note or anything?" he turned to Tom, but Tom merely shook his head before turning to lift Eve out of the cot.

"Maybe she…maybe she went out to…to the shops?" I suggested.

"Maybe…" said Hal, hollowly.

But we all knew this could not be the case. Annie wouldn't leave Eve on her own like that.

Later that day, when the shock of Annie's bizarre departure had not settled in at all, and a routine of looking after Eve had barely been established, Hal and Tom sprung some more surprising news on me.

"Wait, what do you mean you've both got dates tonight?" I said as they broke the news to me.

Really, I ought to have known something was up. It was not unusual for Hal to take a shower in the middle of the day and change his clothes, but what was unusual, was for Tom to do the same.

"Yes," said Hal, as though he couldn't quite believe it himself. "Tom and are…are going out."

"Yeah we're taking out two nice girls and all," added Tom, grinning.

I thought that choosing the time when Annie was missing, possibly dead (in a momentary panic, I forgot that Annie was, in fact, already dead, and assumed the worst) to go on dates was one of the worst decisions Hal and Tom had ever had. I tried to point this out to them, but in my shock and confusion I spluttered out instead;

"But…but what am I supposed to?"

Tom shrugged.

"You've got to look after the baby," said Hal, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. "With Annie gone we'll need you to babysit."

"Oh really?" I said, still annoyed that they would choose now of all times to go on a date. "Well! What if I had plans, eh? Ha! What about that?"

Hal and Tom looked at each other and then back at me.

"You never have plans," said Tom.

"Oh!" I cried. "I-yes I do! I could have plans for tonight!"

"Well, do you?" asked Hal, raising an eyebrow. "You know, have any plans for tonight?"

"I…" I fumbled uselessly around in my head. "Well…no. No I don't."

"Oh, brilliant," said Tom. "You can watch baby Eve then."

Just then, the doorbell rang.

"Good lord they're here," said Hal, patting down his sleeves awkwardly.

"What?" I said, incredulously. "You're bringing them here?"

"Only to meet," said Tom innocently. "Then we'll go on to a park or a fairground or a swimming pool or something." He moved to the door as he spoke, pulling it open with gusto. "Good afternoon Allison, would you like to come in?"

Way before I had properly grasped the idea that Tom and Hal were going on dates of all things, I was forced to leap up from the sofa, and plaster what I hoped was a friendly and welcoming smile on my face.

"Hello," I said, loudly, advancing towards Tom and the girl, who wore thick rimmed glasses and had a mass of very curly hair.

"I'm Allison," she said, taking me in a firm handshake. "A-L-L-I-S-O-N."

"O-Oh right!" I said. "How…how interesting. I'm Florence."

The girl finally dropped my hand. "With an F or a PH?" she asked eagerly.

"A…an F," I said, after a moment's hesitation. I was taken aback by her question. "I think. Yes! Yes, definitely an F."

Allison looked almost disappointed.

"Would you like to see the rest of the house?" asked Tom, gesturing widely to the door.

"That would be fascinating," said Allison, without an ounce of sarcasm, and followed Tom eagerly from the room.

I sat back down on the sofa, and Hal resumed a stiff position in the arm chair, where we sat in an awkward silence until the doorbell rang again, and Hal leapt up from his chair as if suddenly burnt.

"Hello!" he said, as he opened the door. "I'm so glad that you could make it. I'm delighted. Please, do come in."

Hal returned to the living room, closely followed by a girl a bit older than myself, with short hair and bright eyes.

"Hello," I said, getting up from the sofa and awkwardly thrusting out a hand, remembering Allison's firm handshake. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Florence."

Uncertainly, the girl took my hand, eyeing me slightly suspiciously. "I'm Alex," she said, and I detected a Scottish accent to her voice. "You…you live here too?"

I nodded.

"You live with Hal?" Her expressive eyebrows were raised extraordinarily high. I suddenly realised what it was she was getting at and so, apparently, did Hal.

"Oh!" he cried. "Yes, but it's nothing like that. There's nothing…you know…"

"There is nothing, you know, nothing like…that," I laughed awkwardly. "I'm just, you know…

"A lesbian," Hal supplied quickly, at the same time as I said "just a friend".

"I'm a what?" I cried. Behind Alex's back, Hal made a desperate face.

"Ah, yes," I said slowly, as Alex looked at me like I was completely barmy. "I am a lesbian. Yep. Lesbian and proud. Hal, you know, he just doesn't do it for me, you, uh, you get me?"

Alex didn't say anything, but her eyebrows continued to rise until they had practically disappeared into her choppy fringe.

Luckily, before I could embarrass myself further (I had been contemplating giving Alex a 'friendly' punch on the shoulder) Allison and Tom reappeared in the living room.

"Hello," said Tom, and appropriate introductions and name spellings were given while I hovered awkwardly in the background.

Eventually, however, it seemed the four of them were off.

"Have a nice time," I said, feeling absurdly like some sort of parent seeing off a child. "And don't do anything…stupid," I added in a low voice to Hal. I had only just realised how potentially dangerous it was to let Hal out in this way; I had seen the destruction that werewolves could cause and vampires were equally dangerous.

Alex looked suspiciously at my whispered words to Hal, so I made sure I lingered awkwardly close to Allison as she passed through the front door, just to keep her pretences.

When they were finally gone, I flopped gratefully down onto the saggy sofa, thoroughly exhausted at the amount of social interaction I'd been forced into at such short notice. It was then that I heard a shrill cry from upstairs, and remembered about baby Eve. Upstairs, Eve was bright red and screaming. After a few moments deliberation, I brought the screaming bundle out of the cot and into my arms, where I rocked her awkwardly.

"Shh, shh," I said, in what I hoped was a gentle, calming way. Eve screamed louder.

"Hey, hey!" I called, walking towards the door. "Let's go and see what's downstairs, shall we?" Eve's cries subsided slightly. "Yes," I said, making my way down the stairs carefully. "I'm sure there's lots of interesting things downstairs…"

I kept up a breathless monologue the whole way down, and by the time I was once again on the sofa, Eve seemed quite content lying out on my legs, looking up at the room interestedly and, more importantly, quietly. I breathed a sigh of relief and wished, not for the first time, that Annie was here. A loud ringing from my pocket interrupted a moment of what had bordered on peace between me and Eve. She started crying immediately at the sound.

"No, no, shh," I said, instinctively pressing a finger to her mouth to stem the flow of sound. This worked, though not entirely as I had planned. Eve's mouth found my finger and her cries subsided as she sucked away at it.

Now, one hand redundant, I removed the phone from my pocket with difficulty and answered it.

"Hello?" I said, though there was no doubt in my mind who was ringing.

"Hiya," Cutler's voice trilled down the phone. "I know you said yesterday that you would call me, but I could just really do with meeting up, so are you free now?"

"I, uh…" Eve was wriggling now in my lap, and I struggled to keep her still. "No…uh, I'm sorry. I'm busy at the moment."

"Busy doing what?" There was an accusatory tone to Cutler's voice, and I suspected that he, like Hal and Tom, assumed I had very little of a life.

"I'm…" I searched my brain wildly for an excuse, before realising that I didn't need one. "I'm babysitting," I said, simply.

"Babysitting?" Cutler sounded incredulous.

"Yes," I said. "I'm sitting on…No wait, never mind. I'm looking after a baby."

"Whose baby?" Cutler all-but demanded.

"A…friend's. A friend's baby,"

"Right," Cutler still sounded slightly put out. "Right, well I only wanted to discuss this article thing with you…"

This was it. It was time to come clean. I was going to tell Cutler there and then that I wasn't a journalist. That it was all a hoax. That I'd been living a lie.

"Look, Cutler," I interrupted. I could almost feel Cutler's surprise at my interruption through the phone. "I'm sorry," I said. "But I can't…I can't write the article. I can't do it because-

"That's alright," came Cutler's reply, so sudden that he stopped me speaking altogether.

"I-what?" I'd thought that Cutler would be disappointed, angry even that I wasn't doing it. But his voice was coming down the telephone now calm and gentle.

"It's ok," he said. "I know why you won't do it and, hey, I respect you for that."

"I…you do?" I said, confused.

"Yep," said Cutler. "You want to protect the public from something that's been staring them in the face for centuries. Hey, I may not agree with you, but I can see where you're coming from. And about the article? Forget it. I've got another, I mean," Cutler hurried corrected himself. "There's no need to rush into these things if you don't want to, right?"

"Uh…Right!" I said, still not quite able to believe what was happening.

"Now listen, I don't want you to feel bad about this," continued Cutler, taking it for granted that I was now consumed with guilt, when actually, all I felt was relief. "Because they'll be plenty of time for you to do your bit after…Well, later, you know?"

I agreed enthusiastically.

"Right," said Cutler, as my finger slipped out of Eve's mouth and the baby let out a wail. "I can tell you're busy, so I'll let you get on. Maybe I'll call you next week or something? Let's just…let's just see how the next few days go, alright?"

"Alright," I said.

As I put down the phone, it occurred to me how cheerful Cutler had sounded on the phone, compared to the agitated conversation we'd had the previous day. He was obviously very pleased about…something, and I wondered what it was that could have happened to bring about this glee.

And then I remembered Tom, and the so-called 'coexistence' between vampires and werewolves that Cutler had asked him to be part of. Could this be the reason for Cutler's calm understanding and cheerful disposition?

But Tom had told Cutler that he wouldn't do such a thing, hadn't he? Or had Tom, for some unknown reason, neglected to tell the vampire 'no', and Cutler was absurdly happy because his plans, whatever they were, were finally falling into place? What if the only reason Cutler had been so understanding on the phone, was because he simply didn't need me anymore? Didn't need me to play a part in his schemes anymore. If he believed he now had Tom on his side, then this would make sense.

As Eve let out another scream, I made a mental note to interrogate Tom the minute he got in from his date.