Sunlight halted against the brownish curtain as it hung in front of the window. A slight breeze blew through, causing it to ripple slightly, making it seem as if it where made of water for a brief second. The cd player-clock, which sat on the grey speckled carpet showed that it was 8:45. Everything in the room from the painted on book shelf to the empty pizza box covered in wax from candles seemed to be as it usually was. Tara yawned a bit, stretched her limbs and rolled over, opening her eyes. Her eyebrows knitted together as she made out the form next to her, all cuddled up in blankets. She smiled and rolled onto her back, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Just a dream...a really odd dream. That's all it was."

Courtney then rolled over and gave Tara a hug and snuggled against her warm flesh. Tara looked at her and smiled, kissing her forehead.

"Mmmm... Good morning, Tara."

"Good morning, Courtney.. sleep well?"

"Mmhmm... still want to sleep, though..." she replied.

"Well, it is only..." the nineteen year old looked at the clock, "ten to nine."

"Too early..."

"Yeah, well you can go back to sleep, if you want to."

Courtney stretched, "I might.. I heard you saying something about an odd dream...?"

"Yeah." Tara nodded, "I had a dream that on your twentieth birthday you had turned into Count...Dracula and that the two supervisors from your work tried to kill you."

Hearing this, Courtney laughed right out loud, "Riiigghhhttt...no more late night sugar for you, my dear!" Chortling, she got out of bed, upon which she winced and looked down at her arm.

"How the hell did that happen?" she yelled, looking at the gash that was in her arm.
Tara got up and crawled over to Courtney, looking at her arm. Her face paled,

"I...I don't know." A thought then hit Tara upside the head. "Courtney?"

"Yeah?" the other replied, looking at her arm.

"Is there any sort of cut or something on my face?"

Courtney looked over and nodded, "Y-yeah..along your right cheek bone. How did THAT get there? Are you alright, Tara?"

Without answering her, Tara crawled off the bed and ran over to the mirror, looking closely at her face. There it was, sure enough, a nice gash along her right cheek bone. Her face went even paler. She slowly backed away from the mirror and plopped down onto the floor, staring off into space.

"Then...it happened...?" Tara asked, mainly to herself.

"Then WHAT happened?" Courtney practically yelled, trying to figure out as to why she and Tara were cut and bruised and sore. Her raised voice made Tara jump a bit, quite startled.

"At 5 am yesterday morning, I woke up and you were feeling uber cold... But it wasn't you.. It was this Count Vladislaus Dragulia guy..and he's a vampire. Yes, Count Dracula. I threw our stereo at him and.. he tried to bite me but these two guys came. I'm guessing they were the two supervisors you told me about. Then one of them took me to the church, but he was already there... I tried to get away, but...they got there. We tried to escape, but then.. something happened. Not quite sure as to what...can't remember.." Her face screwed up in concentration, trying desperately to remember, "All I remember is that I was in the apartment with this odd vampire man and freaking out..."

Hearing this, Courtney's eyes whizzed over the entirety of Tara's face, trying hard to figure out if what she was saying was true, or some made-up fabrication as the result of too little sleep. She simply couldn't get her head around it.

"Are you nuts! I do not go around turning into Counts... or guys... or whathaveyou. And those guys from work are NOT trying to kill me!"

Tara then looked over at Courtney, an odd seriousness replaced the usual silliness that called her face home. She started at her girlfriend long, and hard, barely ever blinking.

"Then how did you get that shot wound in your arm, Courtney? How did I get this gash across my cheek bone? How come you don't remember anything and I don't remember what happened from the Church to here?"

"I...I don't know! Maybe..maybe there was something in the wine we drank with supper last night.. Or we cut ourselves on something...while sleepwalking..." She put her hands to her head, trying in vain to think of something that caused this.

"We do not suffer from sleepwalking, Courtney. We do not walk about in a sonambulatory way!" Tara said, standing, walking over to a hook on the wall where her silky green housecoat hung. She took it off the hook, slipped it on and tied it up in a silghtly harsh way. "Something did indeed happen. I KNOW it. As crazy as it sounds, I do think that it was what I just told you..." She paused for a second, flumping down onto the mattress. "Egads.. I've finally lost it.."

The red head simply stared at the the white wall. Forcing herself to recall what happened the night before, but it was a blur. She had completely lost a whole day. Tara looked over at her, tears gathering in her hazel eyes.

"Courtney, I don't want you to get killed. In fact," she sniffled, "I'm going to do whatever I can in order to stop them from doing it. Can you believe that they're going to kill you in an attempt to save your soul..?"

Courtney laughed softly, "After what you just told me? Yeah, I do... that is, if it's actually true.."

"When have I ever lied to you?"

"Never..." she looked at Tara, "But a story that far-fetched...? How could it have happened?"

The ninteen-year-old gave a shrug and shook her head, "How should I know? All that I know is that I'm not going to let ANYONE harm you. I love you too much to let these...shmools to suddenly come into our lives and try to kill you!"

"Okay, okay.. calm down, Ter. Calm down. No one is going to try to kill me..and I'll prove it to you. It's my day off, so let's go down to the mall, okay?"

She nodded slightly, "Alright. I suppose we shouldn't stop living because some of yutz and his sidekick. Mall it is! Urm... AFTER breakfast though?" This thought was only intensified by her stomach grumbling in protest to its emptyness.

"Right-o! Breakfast it is, then!"

Gabriel Van Helsing flopped back onto the bed in the hotel room that he and Carl were sharing. The hotel room wasn't anything too fanciful, after all, they never had too much money in their pockets. There was a single king-sized bed, a lamp, desk, bureau, chairs and a bathroom. The curtains in front of the window were a light yellow colour, while the walls were a horrid lime green. The only thing to look at without getting a headache was the ceiling, which was white. And even at the best of times, it was horrid. Carl was already up and about, ready to go.

"Oh stop moping about, Helsing. You'll get another chance...unfortunately."

"Unfortunately?" Van Helsing sat up right on the bed, "Carl, did you see what that thing almost did to my throat?" he said, pointing angrily to the large gash that was covered in bandages on his chest. They were stained with blood and soon had to be changed.

Carl cringed a bit at the yell, "Yes, I did see. I was there. I'm just saying that if we didn't do this, then it wouldn't have happened.."

"But we have to, don't we? We have to come into their lives, kill Ms. Freeman so that Dracula will be out of commission."

"What if how we're going about this is wrong?" Carl asked.

"Well then it's a chance we'll have to take."

Carl stared at Van Helsing, his lips pursed shut in a thin line. He hated this mission. Hated it with a passion. A chance they'd have to take would cost a young woman's life and totally shatter the lives of those who cared for her. He gave a sigh, resigning for now, watching Helsing put on a shirt and his duster. He had kept his pants on from the other night. Soon, they were out the door and starting another day that would never brighten, no matter how sunny it was.