[AN: thanks for the feedback on Ren and Elizabeth. I've decided that I do like Ren because I feel like I have to defend her lol. She'll get better, don't worry. I hope. I wrote this chapter in math class so if it's lacking, blame it on the atmosphere of my math class.]

Feeling small in an endless place, Chris walked into Ren's house. He gazed around, moth slightly agape, like he had just entered a museum. There was a clean, immaculate yet sad sense to the home, like a hospice where people just existed because they had nothing else to do.

He went to kick off his shoes but Ren shook her head at him. "Just leave them on."

"Do I have to whisper in here?" he whispered, scared to make much noise.

She snorted. "Nobody notices me anyway, so they won't notice you either. Are you hungry?"

"I'm a growing boy." He met her eye. She looked confused. "So yes."

Smiling, Ren led him into the spacious kitchen. "What would you like?"

"Uhh…whatever you're having, I guess." Watching her as she crossed the room and put some popping corn into a pan on the stove, he leaned against the kitchen island, resting his elbows on the counter top. "So, you're scaring me, Ren."

"I am, am I?" she asked casually. "Elaborate, will you?"

"I've never been inside a house this big because no one would ever think of inviting me for fear of me leaking my less-than-thou germs all over their items of high expense. But now apparently you and I are all cozy and buddy-buddy, so I'm just curious as to who the hell performed your lobotomy."

Staring at him for a moment, she said flatly, "I'm a vampire. I want to recruit you."

"Well THAT makes more sense than the shit you were feeding me before!" He paused. "Except for why you didn't turn to dust when sunlight touched you."

"Chris," she said. "I wasn't bullshitting before. I'm tired of the people I have to hang around. Do you think I like my reputation? Everyone assumes that because I'm popular, I must be a slutty stuck up bitch."

"I don't think you're a slut," he told her honestly.

"But you think I'm a bitch."

"Yeah, and you're stuck up too. We've already established that, remember?"

Ren's lips tightened into a thin line, but she said nothing for awhile.

"Hey, are you gonna cry? I didn't know that you could do that," Chris said.

"No, I'm not," she said. "It just sucks the way people think of me. I never did anything wrong."

Chris studied her face, and all he saw was sincerity. For the first time, he didn't feel like telling her to piss off or telling her that she was full of shit that he didn't feel like listening to anymore. For the first time, he felt empathy for her. Because she was like him on the opposite end of the spectrum. He hated how everyone figured they knew him because of his family and his social stature. Maybe Ren brought a lot of this on herself, but some of it she never asked for. And in a small town like Castle Rock, Chris knew how hard it was to make people forget who you are.

"Don't you just wish you could go someplace where nobody knows you?" he asked quietly.

Ren looked up at him, surprised that the words that came out of his mouth were sympathetic instead of biting and jaded. Her striking, caramel coloured eyes searched his, and Chris was taken back at how pleading the look on her face was.

He nodded. "Me too."