Chapter 2

A knock woke Michael from his sleep. He groaned, rubbing his eyes and glanced at the clock. 6:30. "Oh come on." He slowly got up, edging to the door.

Two people stood before him, one a male, tall, jock-built, the other a girl who had seemed so familiar. "Is Maverian Kamiya here?"

Michael's heart skipped a beat. "Maverian Kamiya? Who's that?"

The man frowned. "Did he move?"

"Kamiya...maybe. The Kamiyas did live here before I did. I don't know if there was a Maverian among them." Michael asked without a second thought.

"He also went by Tai," The girl added.

"Even at that...there was a Kari, Satosha, Milsen and Shane. From what I remember of there was no 'Maverian' or 'Tai'. I'm sorry." Michael shrugged.

"Do you know where they moved to?"

"No. I have no idea. Why?"

"Oh we used to know a Maverian and he used to live here. We were just going to stop by and say hello. Thank you..." The male said before turning around and leaving with the girl.

The closed the door behind them lost in thoughts. "Oh shit," he said slowly, almost in shock. He picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Agen we have a problem."

Mimi sat down on her bed, her mind wandering back to the man at the gas station. "He's so familiar." She glanced at a picture beside her bed of a black haired boy and her, his arm around her. "Tai..." A tear ran down her face. "What would you think of me now?"

A cat jumped down from her dresser onto her lap. "Oh Keira... "The iromote cat purred sweetly at her owner, who pet her gently. "I miss him...that's why I haven't gone out with any one in the past year. And I'm not going to either. Not for a long time."

"Knock, knock," A girl called from outside her closed door.

Mimi wiped her eyes. "Come in."

A tall woman walked into her room, her short brown her falling into her face. "Are you ok?" She saw the picture in Mimi's hand and got worried.

Mimi nodded, another tear falling from her eyes. Vira walked over and put her arm around Mimi. "Are you sure?"

Mimi nodded again. "I just miss him so much..."

"You really liked him. I did too. You two were a perfect couple." Vira rubbed her shoulders, trying to comfort her.

"I didn't like him Vira, I loved him. I still do. With all my heart...maybe that's why I've been so out of it for the past year..."

"Do you want some time to yourself?"

Mimi nodded. "Please..."

Vira nodded and said, "I'll bring your dinner up for you."

Mimi shook her head. "You don't have to. I'm not hungry."

Vira nodded uncertainly before leaving the room.

Mimi bit her lip, hugging her pillow as tears streamed down her face.

Michael leaned against his car, looking up at Mimi's window, aware of how she was feeling. He may have been across the street but he could feel her pain. He looked down at the bitumen below his feet, scuffing them across it.

A shadow moved in the bedroom, towards the window, looking out towards him. He glanced up then quickly dropped his keys, the excuse he needed for not being seen by this girl.

When he looked back up at the room, the lights were off and the door was closing. Michael stared in wonder only for a moment before entering his car once again. "She doesn't need to know yet. She just...doesn't need to know," Michael reassured himself clubbing his head on the back of the seat hard. "But...she deserves to know..." He shook his head before driving off.

Mimi lay down on the couch, closing her eyes. Vira had fallen asleep and had her door locked. This was one of the only places Mimi found peace. She closed her eyes as a feeling of being watched rushed over her. She turned onto her side, uneasily, despising the feeling.

After a moment the feeling passed and she relaxed, returning to her original position.

She sighed and opened her eyes after not being able to sleep. She jumped and stumbled to her feet, away from the man on the other side of the couch. "W-who are you? W-what do you want?"

The man sighed and turned on the light revealing the man she had seen at the gas station. "I just want to talk."

Mimi shook her head. "No!" She started to run but he grabbed her arm as if expecting her to do as she had.

"Mimi, please. You'll understand if you listen to me."

She looked into his eyes. "I'll understand about what?"

"My name is Michael Fraser. I was with the man who killed your boyfriend." Michael said, painfully.

Tear came to Mimi 's eyes and she slapped him hard across the face. "You were with the man who killed the one I loved? You should've died in his place!"

Michael stood there, somewhat dazed. He finally found his voice and said unwaveringly, "I don't want to hurt you."

"What could you possibly do to me that would even come to close to the pain I was in a year ago?" Mimi asked, hate easily recognizable in her voice.

Fed up, Michael pulled a gun out of his belt and held it to her head. "He wouldn't want you dead. Come with me, Mimi. Please. I don't want to hurt you."

Mimi quickly heard the honesty in his voice and calmed down enough to have somewhat of a normal conversation with a gun pointed to her head. "Fine. Not here. I don't want my sister to freak out."

Michael lowered the gun. "Can I trust you?"

"I don't know. Can I trust you?" Mimi got a piece of paper and a pen and started writing on it.

"It'd be easier if you could." Tai gazed over her shoulder, examining what she had written.

"Relax. I told her I went out to get my mind off of Tai. She knows I do that a lot." Mimi pushed past him and grabbed her shoes.

Michael watched her, transfixed. Realizing he still had his gun out, he quickly put it away. "Coming?" Mimi asked standing up and walking towards the front door.

"We can't leave your car here." Michael walked with her outside, closing the door behind him quietly.

"We aren't taking my car?" Mimi stared at him in disbelief.

"No. I don't think it'd be good for my reputation to be seen in a pink eclipse, no offense. Is there any where you can leave it until I bring you back so Vira doesn't think something's up."

"Or I could just be on a walk." Mimi pointed out. Michael shrugged and pointed at his car he had moved only a house up.

"That's my car."

"Its really nice," Mimi heard the bitterness in her own voice.

Michael opened the passenger side of the car for her with a charming smile. Mimi stared at him as she quickly got into her car. He asked her, "Can I trust you not to lock me out of the car or to not run away?"

She nodded. "Of course. It wouldn't do me any good to lock the car. You have the keys."

He shut the door behind him then walked over to the driver's side. "Loosen up. Its not like I plan to rape you." Michael glanced over at her, seeing see was looking rather nervous.

She glanced at him, noting that he was serious and sighed. "Its just I haven't been in a car with another man since...since I was with Tai."

"You mean you aren't going out with anyone?" Michael started the car and drove out of the neighborhood.

"No. I was really in love with Tai. And I refuse to go out with anyone. I made that promise on his grave. I'm not breaking it." She stared out the window at the fast passing scenery.

Michael silently stared at her, uneasily. "And if I told you he wasn't dead, how would you react?"

Mimi eyed him. "Are you trying to say that the body that they identified as his wasn't his at all?"

Michael looked ahead and shrugged. "What would you do?" he persisted.

"I don't know. I'd hunt him down and tell him how angry I was at him and go into how much pain he's put me through for the past year and how much I loved him..."

Michael nodded silently.

"How'd you know my sister's name?" She looked ahead and she realized that they were headed towards the countryside and not the city. "And where are we going?"

"First of all, you need to hear my story to understand how I know your sister. Second of all, we're going to the only place most likely not have a lot of people there."

"And that is?"

"Thicket's Lake of course. It's a Friday night and you know everyone else goes to Newberry Lake. If anyone else is there then I'll take you to the second place that would have the least amount of people."

Mimi nodded and slumped down in her seat, staring out the window once again.

They arrived there after about ten more minutes of silence. Michael said to her, "Stay in the car. Please."

She nodded and watched him start on the path around the lake. "Why is he so familiar to me?"

He returned soon after, opening her door. "We have to be careful. If Jason or Haven are around-"

"Who?"

"The people that hired Timothy McGee to kill Tai. If they're around...we have to go quickly. I don't want you to get involved with this whole thing between us."

Mimi walked ahead of him at first but he caught up and led her to the far side of the lake. He grabbed her hand, making her heart skip a beat and made her sit down on the bench closest to the woods. He sat down next to her. "Do you want every little detail or just the fine points?"

Mimi shrugged. "Umm the fine points for now."

"Fine. As you know, it all happened under the bridge at East Port. Tim was...raving about his whole plan to kill him. And he was even more psyched that he was getting paid for it. He had always been so...so amazed that you had gone out with Tai instead of himself so he, I suppose had every right to be psyched."

Footsteps were heard heading towards them and Michael pushed Mimi down leaning on top of her. "Hey what are you doing?" Mimi asked trying to push him off of her.

Michael grabbed her arms. "Chill out. Act natural."

Mimi scowled. "I don't call this natural," she said sounding more annoyed than she had earlier.

"Then you need to get out more often sweety," Michael said before laughing at her and kissing her softly.

Mimi blushed, still annoyed at the man who had her pinned to the bench.

The coupled walked by, laughing gaily. Michael shifted his head so her face wouldn't be apparently and smiled slightly at her.

After the footsteps faded, Michael sat up again, lending his hand to Mimi who also sat up. "I'm sorry. Its just...I don't want you involved with me and... "

"I know. You told me. I just want to hear the story. After that I never want to see you again." Mimi answered truthfully.

Michael nodded, not letting the sentence get to him. "Of course. We had him meet there, saying we were only there to talk. Nothing happened for a while. That is, until the mention of you changed both of their moods." Mimi looked down at her feet. "Tai pulled the gun out first, yelling angrily at Tim to leave you out of the subject, but Tim persist. The idiot that he was, he called you a slut, breaking Tai easily. He fired the first shot, skimming my neck. That's when Tim acted, firing off a round of bullets into his chest."

Mimi covered her mouth, tears running down her face. Michael sighed and slumped down in the bench. "I'm sorry. I can take you home now." Michael got up but Mimi grabbed his arm and made him sit down.

Mimi sniffed. "Why was Tim hired to kill Tai?"

Michael frowned. "Tai knew a bad crowd to say the least part."

"Who did he know that could have considered him to be in bad company?" Mimi asked angrily, tightening her grip on Michael's arm.

"Would you believe me if I said he knew a bunch of vampires?"

Mimi stared at him, eyes wide as if he had just told a joke. "No. No. There is no way. Vampires don't exist. They can't. They just...no. They can't exist."

Michael cocked and eyebrow. "Are you sure? What other reason would there people bounty over Tai's death? "

Mimi didn't answer but sat there, eyes still wide and mouth open. Michael took her arm and pulled her up. "I have to take you home."

Mimi pulled away from him, eyeing him angrily. "I'll walk."

Michael shook his head. "Don't you understand? If anyone who I'm an enemy with saw you with me, you're in danger. And like I said earlier I don't need you involved with me."

"Then you're in one hell of a predicament then because if they had seen me with you then they're going to be watching us when you drop me off as well meaning they know exactly where I live," Mimi snapped back.

"And you think if you walk home it will be any better?"

Mimi didn't answer but started walking ahead of him, still trying to let herself believe that there was no such thing as vampires. Michael was crazy. Once she had gotten to Michael's car, she stopped against her will, hating herself for actually going with the man. He was just playing tricks on her There was no such thing as vampires.

Michael walked around to his side of the car, unlocking it firs then unlocking hers. They silently got into the car, the silence still lingering once they were heading towards her house.

Mimi yawned and leaned her head on the window. "Don't fall asleep. You're sister is awake and I don't think she'd take it to well if I had to carry you inside. Don't you agree?"

Mimi looked at him, once again confused. "How do you know sister is awake?"
Michael shrugged and smiled. "Oh no I was just guessing. I could be wrong though. But are you willing to risk that? I'm not particularly fond of the idea of having to make up a story about why I was with you in the first place. She knows you aren't dating anyone, correct?"

"Yes. She's knows that I've been refusing to since-"

"Ok that's all I needed to know," Michael interrupted.

Mimi forced herself to sit up. "You still haven't told me how you know her."

Michael laughed. "Oh yes I forgot about that. Her boyfriend always tells me about her."

"Tommy?" Mimi spat the word out in disgust. "I've never liked him. How do you know him?"

"That is none of your business. You sure do ask a lot of questions." Michael turned onto her street and pulled the car over. "I guess I will be seeing you."

"Probably not," Mimi answered getting out of the car. "Goodbye Michael."

"Goodbye Mimi," He replied, smiling at her as she closed the door.

Mimi shivered as Michael pulled away. The night had gotten colder than it had been earlier. A gust of wind made it worse. She folded her arms and quickly walked towards her house, her mind wandering from the subject of Tai to the subject of this mysterious boy named Michael and his 'vampires'.