Thanks to Dog's die in hot cars, mental twitch sh33r's, enchantednight84, and PisceanWisdom for the reviews oh so many months ago. Sorry I haven't updated, I've been busy with my other story Security (insREADITert sublREADITiminal mesREADITsage heREADITre) I don't know how my schedule for righting this will work, deal with it

Chapter 3

I pushed away from the railing and started walking to the other end of the Pier. It wasn't that I wasn't worried about vampires attacking me in broad daylight, at this point, I was starting to not care either way. Eighteen years old, and semi-suicidal, gee, isn't life grand? But I wasn't suicidal enough to not pay attention to my surroundings. I heard footsteps behind me, not to strange in a public attraction, but they stood out. They gave off the telltale click, click, click of men's dress shoes. And few men wore dressy shoes to a tourist attraction. I ducked inside one of the restaurants near the street and headed for the bathrooms. He followed me. I spun around and he didn't bother to hide, maybe that was a good sign, I wasn't sure. "Friend or foe?"

He raised an eyebrow. Why do all bad guys, not to mention bad boys, have that ability? Are they born with it? Every time I try I end up looking like I was hit by a bus, and then the plastic surgery went wrong. "Of whom?" He sounded European. Don't they all?

"Jabba the Hut. Who do you think, dumbass?" Okay, way to go, pissing off Mr. Ambiguous number two.

That actually caught him off guard. Score one for me. "You dare insult me? You are nothing but a piece of filth! Vermin!" I guess that answered the friend or foe question. "My lord will wipe your kind from the face of this Earth."

Oh, joy, a crazed zealot vampire, aren't those fun? "Listen, I just want to go to the bathroom, and though I feel slightly insulted by the vermin comment, I'll let it slide. So, how about you go your way, I'll go mine, and we'll pretend this never happened." Rule number one when dealing with crazed zealots, keep them confused.

He rushed at me, so I did the only thing I could think of. I ran into the women's bathroom. It had a lock on the inside. That wouldn't keep him out for long, but it would by me some time. I threw the lock, just a moment before he slammed into the metal door, it held. There was a small window, of course it was set up on the wall, so no perverts could look in. Damn people wanting their privacy! Thankfully, like most nice women's restrooms, this one had a seating area with a chair and a couch. I opted to move the chair. It sounded like the lock would give at any second.

Dammit! The window wasn't made to be opened, I banged on it with my fists, but it wasn't glass, it was plastic.

Great, just great.

I got down from the chair and searched frantically. Where was the conveniently placed fire hydrant when I needed it. Apparently nowhere. There was a fire hose, though, thank you, fire safety laws. I smashed open the glass with the little glass smasher hammer provided with all fire hoses and dragged it to the window. I beat at the window furiously, I could see the door frame starting to give. Finally, after an eternity, the window fell out and landed ominously on the ground below. No matter what I did, the eight foot fall would hurt. Especially since I was going head first. Fuck it, I dove.

I turned my body enough to land on my ass. Painful, but not life threatening. I heard the door give on the inside. The vamp may have not been a genius, but there was only one other exit in that room. I started running. Every time I had the option to turn, I went right. It was something my mom told me once. Whenever she was lost, she went right and ended up where she was supposed to be. Hopefully, it would work for me too. I did skip one turn, it looked like a dead end, and I wasn't stupid enough to check it out. After several minutes I stopped, I didn't think the vamp was done following me, but I just couldn't go any farther.

I looked around, Navy Pier was far behind me, I could even see the Lake anymore. That was good, now, all I needed to know was where I was. A street sign, I needed a street sign. There was one, only a few feet away. But even better, there were stairs to the L station. Time to go back to the hotel and get the hell out of Chicago.

I paid the fee to board the train and sat down near the door. Amazingly, there were few people in my car. About five other people got on with me. No one challenged me for my seat, I must have looked mighty pissed. Eventually, the train arrived at my stop. I was one among a brave few to venture into this part of town. At least I was almost out of this godforsaken city. Two attacks in two days don't do anything for tourism. The hotel lobby was almost deserted. I went to my room and, as my hand closed on the handle, I noticed that the lock was broken.

Shit, shit, shit.

Well, I had everything I could possibly need in my handy, dandy backpack. No point in risking my life for something I could buy elsewhere. I walked back to the front desk. "Hello," I told the clerk, "I'd like to check out. Something's come up with my family and I need to leave immediately."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she gushed, using her salesperson fake charm, "Is everything alright."

Plausible story, hmm, "My grandma died, she was only 72, took a horrible fall down some stairs. Broke her neck." The clerk looked horrified, I almost laughed.

"I'm so sorry," now she sounded serious. What did I care? It wasn't like I was going to tip her. She put a form on the desk. "Just sign here and everything will be set." I signed. "Did you enjoy your stay?"

"Of course, I wish I didn't have to cut my trip short. Grandmum was a batty old witch anyway, but Mom would absolutely kill me if I didn't show up to the funeral, so I must be off, back to Idaho. It's freezing there, you know?" Hopefully, she'd tell whatever vampire that asked her that the poor girl was headed to Idaho for a funeral. I had to hope for one bit of good luck. Human nature, and all.

I walked out onto the street. "Hey, Chad," I said. Why wasn't I surprised that my vampiric anti-hero was here. Just in time to see me rescue myself.

"Chad?"

I shrugged, "You won't tell me your name and Angel's been used. Chad is as good a name as any. Or would you rather be Heathcliff?"

"Chad is fine." Great, now he was going to be stuffy.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to rescue you." Didn't he just tell me he wasn't a hero a few hours ago? His answer was a lie in so many ways.

"You're late."

This time, I walked away.

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