Zombie: Whoa mate…

Johnny: …

Zombie: Don't start that again…

Johnny: Start what?

Zombie: -glares- Dumbass…


Ghost shot up off the soft bed, only to fall back to it in dizziness.

"Ugh, headrush" she murmured, holding her head and waiting for the room to stop spinning. When it finally did, she lowered herself to the ground.

"Slowly does it…" She said to herself, gingerly placing her feet down on the floor, "What is this place…?"

She glanced around the room, watching it swim back into sharp focus; she took a sharp intake of breath. "My room…" She whispered.

Everything was there, exactly as it was as she had left it six months ago. The skateboard propped up against the chest of drawers. The lighters and sharp objects littering the surfaces. She lightly touched the edge of the board with her finger, as though it would crumble into dust.

She picked up one of the knives from the sideboard, running her finger along the pristine silver edge. A slow smile spread across her face, she hadn't realized how much she missed the little things.

She quickly put the knife back down on the table. 'No, now isn't the time for the past!' she thought to herself, bringing herself swiftly back to reality. She had to think for the future, and right now, that future was to find Toshi.

She pushed lightly on the door, half expecting it to be locked, but it swung open silently. She stuck her head out and checked in both directions, no guards posted, but the security cameras were most likely watching her every move. 'Let them see' She thought, 'They can't do anything to me' And she walked swiftly through the long corridors where she had been so many times. She knew exactly where she was headed. She stalked past so many familiar faces on the walls, marble busts of important figures, cultural crap.

She finally reached the place she was heading for, a large oak door with a small gold plaque fixed in the front, depicting the word 'Great Library' in engraved lettering.

She wrapped her fingers around the ornate handle and pushed downwards, letting the door swing inwards.

The smell of musty books hit her senses as she walked into the room quietly. She'd always said the room had smelled of 'old', nothing in particular, just old. And it still did.

Skirting around piles of old books, just stacked in the middle of the room and waiting to be put back in their rightful place on the shelves. Old, slightly decomposed scrolls building up on desks, and even the rungs of the ladders attached to the book cases had books stacked at the edge of each foot hold.

She found the man she was looking for, exactly where she had expected him to be. The young looking man was sat with his legs crossed in a large purple arm chair, books of all shapes and sizes piled up around it. The man's blonde bangs fell forward as his icy eyes devoured the information on page after page through the black rimmed glasses. He didn't seem to notice her.

Ghost gave a light cough, standing at the side of a large bookshelf, leaning against the woodwork. The man didn't move, apart from to turn the page over in the heavy looking volume in his lap. She gave another small cough.

"Yes, Ghost, I can hear you" The man said loudly, still not looking up from the book.

"Why…" She began only to be interrupted.

"...Are you here?" Toshi finished her question; he raised his eyes from the book to look at the white and green haired girl. "Why as a prompt for Hannah to get my money faster."

"Why do you need the money, you have so much already and we don't even owe you that much" Ghost crossed her arms across her chest.

"It's not how much you owe me that matters, young Ghost" Toshi smiled to himself, pushing the glasses back up the bridge of his nose, "You should know by now, you're in debt to me, and I don't like unfinished business"

Ghost clenched her fists tightly by her side. "Stop that! Stop calling me those! I'm not a child anymore!"

"But you are, Ghost. You'll always be 16, no matter how many years you live; you'll be 16 years old forever."

Ghost glared at him angrily, the colour of her eyes shifting dangerously between green and red as various emotions battled one another to surface. "I am NOT a child, Toshi. Stop treating me as one." She back tracked quickly through the library, purposefully smacking her fist into a teetering pile of musty books on her way past, sending the volumes tumbling to the ground. She slammed the heavy door behind her.

Toshi watched her leave calmly from the comfort of his arm chair. He shook his head and smiled to himself. "Still as fiery as ever I see…" He returned his attention to the forgotten book. He knew he didn't have to hold the angry girl back, he knew she wouldn't try to leave.


"Stop squirming! How do you expect me to bandage this up if you won't hold still!" Rei felt like ripping his hair out, every time he made a move to touch the girl's broken arm, she wriggled away. He was so frustrated he was getting close to the point of asking one of the other guys to pin her down while he did it.

"But it hurts!" Hannah pouted at the first aider.

Rei rolled his eyes, "Of course it hurts, it's broken! And don't try that look on me, it doesn't work, I am immune to it, now if you don't hold still I am going to get someone to come and sit on you!"

Hannah's eyes widened dramatically, "But I do not want to become 2-Dimensional! I like being shaped the way I am!"

"Will you hold still then? It won't hurt" Hannah nodded slowly and turned her head away from the Chinese boy, closing her eyes. Rei took a hold of the arm, and twisted it sharply to the side setting it back in the right position. Hannah gave a small yelp as pain ripple up the abused arm, and dug her long nails into the arm of the chair she was sat on.

Rei quickly wrapped the bandages around the arm, holding it in place and tying a makeshift sling around the dark haired girl's neck. "See, all over" He smiled down at Hannah.

She glared darkly at him, "You said it wouldn't hurt"

Rei gave her a nervous grin and rubbed the back of his head subconsciously. "Uh…sorry?"

"Hey Hannah, catch" A voice said from behind her, she twisted around to see an low flying apple coming towards her at speed, it hit her on the head with a 'thok!' sound, sending her toppling backwards. Rei reached out and caught the apple as it rebounded.

Hannah lay dazed on the ground, while Rei turned to the laughing teen stood in the doorway. "Shouldn't you have given her a little more time to react Tala?"

"Maybe…but I expected her to catch it" Tala laughed to himself, watching the dark haired teen pick herself up off the floor. She staggered around a little bit, grabbing hold of the arm of the chair for balance.

"Frigging…ow…" She murmured, pressing a hand against the side of her face. She felt a hand wrap itself around her wrist, steadying her, she opened her eyes to look up at the red haired boy.

Tala held the retrieved apple in front of the small girl. "Sorry" He said softly and placed the apple in her hand. The he turned and walked out the room, and was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

Hannah wandered through into the main room, where Kenny was, as usual, sat with his laptop open on the desk in front of him. Kai was laid sideways across a threadbare looking arm chair, eating what looked to be a piece of fruit of some sort. She walked up behind the brown haired boy, her bare feet making no noise at all on the wooden floor. She looked over his shoulder onto the screen. She gasped when she saw what was displayed across the screen.

"That's Toshi's house!" She exclaimed, pointing at the screen.

Kenny almost had a heart attack. He gave a small shriek of shock and fell of the chair, hitting the floor with a thud. He lay on the floor, breathing heavily and holding a hand to his chest. Hannah leaned over him, her hair falling forwards. "Why is Toshi's house inside the box?"

Kenny gripped the edge of the desk and pulled himself up shakily. "Are you trying to kill me! Don't ever do that again!" He pulled himself back up and sat down heavily in the chair, leaning backwards into it.

Hannah gave a small laugh and apologized to the brunette. "So why is Toshi's house inside this box thing?" She tapped her nail on top of the laptop.

Kenny brushed her hand away from the machine irritably, "This 'box thing' is a piece of highly sensitive equipment. I wouldn't prefer it if you didn't touch it"

The female voice returned to the room, the small sound wave bar on the screen bursting into life. "Don't be so dull, Kenny! I honestly don't think she can break me, hi there! My name's Dizzi!"

Hannah stared at Dizzi in wonder, "It…talks? Uh…Hannah, my name's Hannah"

"Do you even know what a computer is?" Kenny asked the dark haired girl, frustration creating an edge to his voice.

"Sure I do!" Hannah beamed at him, and Kenny let out a sigh of relief. "It's a box with buttons!" Kenny fell back to the floor in exasperation, face faulting.

Dizzi let out a snort of laughter, "Looks like you have some work ahead of you Kenny" A loud beep emitted from the speakers, "Scan complete Kenny, there's an entrance into the mansion from a small window into what seems to be a wine cellar. There's no lock on it, but it isn't very big"

"Very good Dizzi" Kenny picked himself up off the floor and brushed some invisible dust off his clothes.

"I could have told you that" Hannah said quietly, looking at the pictures of her old home flash on the screen, the said entrance highlighted. "That window's tiny, I'm not sure even I can fit through it anymore"

"I'm sure you'll manage" Came Kai's voice from behind her, Hannah turned to face him, she'd forgotten that the bluenette was even there.

"After all, Ghost's life is on the line here, and you're the only one who knows your way around that place, you'll have to let us in another way" The slate haired boy said, looking at Hannah from the corner of his eye.

"Yeah…I guess you're right"


"GYAH!" Ghost screamed as she punched and kicked at a hanging punch bag in the gym of the mansion. She'd been in here for half an hour already and was beginning to tire. She was so frustrated at the man in the library. God, how she hated him.

As Toshi's face arose in her mind with the memories, Ghost began the hurl herself at the punch bag with renewed strength, pretending it were the blonde haired man in front of her and not a leather bag full of stuffing.

After about ten minutes she had to stop, she walked over and dropped to the floor. She leant back against the wall; it was cool against her heated skin. She rested her head against it, so many memories were surfacing after returning to this place. Good ones and bad ones.

She remembered herself and Hannah running through the corridors of the mansion as children, grins plastered on their faces, the whole house was their playground. Toshi was always there to watch over them and keep them out of trouble.

And she also remembered Toshi taking them out with him on their very first hunt. Nothing could have prepared them from taking a life like that. They'd read about it, heard about it and even seen it done, but doing it themselves was an entirely different matter. She could remember Toshi's face as he smiled down on them with pride while he watched then drain the very life force of their victims.

A shudder ran through Ghost's body as she remembered killing that young boy, feeding on the lives of others in order to live. She wished she could just erase her vampire heritage, save her the depression and disgust every time she killed somebody, just to keep herself alive.

Toshi had always been there. He had looked out for them, taken in the two small children and raised them as his own. It had been a perfect family situation. Ghost thought to herself. Why did it have to go wrong?

She had learnt the hard way, discovering that Toshi was not the loving and caring man she had always thought he was. She had made a friend, outside of the mansion. She smiled softly to herself as she remembered the young boy she had befriended.

"Dai…" she said softly. Large blue eyes, floppy brown hair and a huge grin. He had been a best friend. They had hung out together during the day, out in the sun, when she knew Toshi couldn't follow.

Toshi hadn't been happy when he found about Dai, not happy at all. He didn't want Ghost to have any friends who weren't like them, said how could you become friends with the species upon which you prey?

He told her to kill him, brought Dai into a room and stood there just watching her, waiting for her to kill the terrified young boy. But she had refused. She couldn't kill the young boy.

And so he had hit her. Toshi had lashed out at her and slapped her, hard. Ghost winced at the memory as though she could still feel the sting of the slap on her cheek. She remembered Toshi yelling at her, that she had disobeyed his orders and needed punishing. She watched Toshi kill Dai. He killed him in front of her.

Her breathing increased and she screwed her eyes shut tightly, trying to shut out the memory. But Dai's eyes still stared at her imploringly in her head, she watched them grow dull and glaze over as Toshi drained the boy of his life. Dai had never stopped looking at her.

Ghost's eyes snapped open again, and the memory vanished from view. She panted heavily from the intensity of the vision and rubbed her hand lightly across her brow, her head was pounding.

Coming back to this place had brought back things she wished she could just forget.

Leaning her head back against the wall she closed her eyes again and said softly to anyone who could hear.

"Oh God, somebody get me out of here…"


Zombie: whoa, a bit of angst there

Johnny: you should know…you wrote it

Zombie: pfft, I know that, Read and Review people!

Johnny: Flames are ignored…

Zombie: HAI!