"I'm here."
"What's wrong with me! I-" The girl broke off when she recalled everything that had happened. Simon had changed her into a vampire.
She opened her eyes again. She was laying on her back in her bedroom. The room was pitch black although Zoë could see every detail of her room as if it was in the afternoon sunlight. Everything had a distinct glorious detail in it. She could stare at a single pattern on her bedspread and be lost in it's beauty for hours.
"Simon! What is wrong with me!" she repeated.
The vampire sat beside Zoë. He had a strange look in his eyes. The girl stared long and hard at his face. He wore a sign of fear and doubt.
"What have I done?" he whispered, "I vowed so long ago to never change anyone. . . Why did I do it? Why have I returned to this world? I just don't understand!"
Zoë was lost in his face. Emotions passed in and out of his eyes. He glowed with a beautiful kaleidoscopic energy. "Simon, it's okay," She heard herself say, "What you did was right. Simon, I could never have lived on without you. You and I both know that we wanted it this way. I felt empty until now."
"Perhaps this is the best. I want you to be honest with me; if you are happy then I will be guiltless of what is of me. I will live with you if you choose for me to."
Zoë swallowed. (Her throat even felt different than it had.) She gulped down tears, "This is the way I want."
"Then so it shall be." Simon reached over and held Zoë in his arms.
"So it shall."
In the darkness, the vampire slumped on a wall, his back an arch. He wore all black and his long white hair was draped in his face. The vampire had an aura around him of sorrow and anger.
There was a tapping on the door.
"Come." said the vampire's cracked voice.
The witch opened the doorway and peered inside, her face in darkness and light beaming over her shoulders.
"Why do you suffer yourself like this?" said the witch. "What are you waiting for? When will you go on with your plans?"
The vampire didn't answer. His eyes were hidden.
The witch frowned and closed the door after a long moment of silence had passed.
A smirk creeped on the vampire's lips, his eyes still veiled. "Ohhh. . . When the time is right. You shall be mine."
"AAARRG!" The girl slumped to her knees. Wet grass soaked through her jeans.
"Don't worry. You'll be fine. Come now!"
"No! I refuse to do this!" cried Zoë, "I'm not drinking blood! I can't! I can't!"
"But look at you!" Simon cringed in frustration. "You're starving yourself! You need to eat! You're in pain."
"Aggg. . ."
Simon looked to the sky and sighed. They stood infront of a dark house. No sign of life. "Alright stay right here. I'll be back. And don't be so loud, will you?" Zoë let out another cry in pain in reply.
The vampire jumped into a tree and peered into a window on the second story of the house. He opened the window and leaped inside without a single sound. He came back out with a little girl in his arms. The child's long blond hair fell over Simon's arms.
"No! No!" cried Zoë.
Simon placed the child on the grass and broke the skin on her wrist with his sharp finger nails. He took the small arm and placed it infront of Zoë. She stared at it for awhile, the creamy skin glowing in the moonlight with the crimson blood dripping onto the shadowed grass.
Time stretched, or so it seemed, until Zoë finally gave and held the arm to her lips. The liquid tasted ten times better than cherry kool-aid on a hot summer afternoon.
After prying Zoë off the girl and returning the child to her room, Simon carried Zoë in his arms down the road.
"What about my family?" asked Zoë, her voice weak and tired.
"You care for them, don't you?"
"Yes. But I never want them to see me like this. What would they think? We should leave. Go somewhere far away and I will write my family letters telling them that I am on my own and that I am okay. I want to be with you."
Simon smiled down at her. "As you wish."
Tapping echoed on the cold stone floor. A slick black boot was constantly tapping impatiently. "It's time." Nodnu said. He walked out the door, his boots clicking heavily.