A/N: I'm really starting to get what other authors have said when they say "the story is writing itself". My overall storyboarding ideas are remaining the same, but as I write/re-write these chapters Violet and Heidi's characters keep surprising me by changing things around. I'm doing my best to make sure that this doesn't inadvertently lead to plot inconsistencies as I eliminate/move things, but let me know if something slips through!

Chapter Theme Song: Doctor My Eyes by Jackson Browne

There we all were. On a plane. I'd barely ever been in a car and now I was tens of thousands of feet in the air traveling out of the country. I was traveling primarily with people who hated me (the feeling was clearly mutual), but I'd brought my music with me.

I also, due to a "computer error", was "accidentally" seated a few rows away from them by myself. Currently I had on an album I hadn't listened to in a few years that made ignoring them more manageable, although Nick's obnoxious laughter a few rows ahead still made me reflexively flinch. It wasn't a noise I associated with pleasant times and feelings.

Heidi and I couldn't act like we knew each other too well, and so we didn't speak while in the air. She and the other vampires were seated near the front near the plane door. My guess was that, despite their control and whatever blood they'd snuck onboard, they'd want to be among the first off the plane away from humans given the chance.

Doctor my eyes have seen the years,

And the slow parade of fears without crying.

This morning Luther and Heidi's other workers had showed up to the parking lot with large cars to drive us all after everyone had shown up. I was in the car driven by Luther and Heidi sat in the front passenger seat. I was on the seat behind her on the opposite side so she could have me in her line of sight when looking back. Occasionally I'd catch her head blur swiftly to look at me. I knew that she could have done it fast enough that I wouldn't even see that, so I guess she wanted me to know. That made me smile.

Nobody talked to me, and I kept my ear buds in while looking out of the window. It was normally a few hours to Portland International Airport (or so I'd heard), but Luther wasn't exactly driving slowly.

I did my best to shut my brain off while going through the brand-new process of checking in at an airport. I was excited to fly, but the crowded spaces I had to shuffle through beforehand quickly became overwhelming. It took almost longer than the drive here, but finally we all got to the waiting area.

Heidi was observing the group from a few feet away and I walked up to her, "I…I'm going t-to go…f-find coffee". She nodded. "Very well. I'll join you while grabbing coffee for myself. Luther, John, Vincent," so that's what their names were, "would any of you care for some coffee?". I doubted they could actually stomach it, but it provided her an excuse to leave. They all shook their heads and turned back to looking annoyed at having to watch over the other students; none of whom were paying the slightest bit of attention as we walked off.

Halfway across the airport we finally sat down at a café, Heidi assuring me that she'd know smell one of the others coming well before they saw us, should they happen to wander over. "How are you, Violet?", her eyes shone with concern.

"I'm…okay." I took sips from my horribly sub-par airport terminal coffee before setting it down. Looking up into her eyes I grabbed both of her hands, "I…I'm a-all in…with e-everything…Being m-mates, never…never going back…being t-turned…all of it".

Heidi sat there for a moment before she smiled. It wasn't like her predatory smirk, her cocky boisterous grin, or any other smile I'd yet seen. It was full of joy, yet still a little unsure. Earnestly vulnerable in a way that reminded me she was still human.

"Violet May, you are more amazing than you could ever know. That is…wonderful news. I know that none of this has been easy, and that it likely will not get easier anytime soon. Know that I will be with you throughout all of this. We will get through it together".

At this she faltered, looking like she was trying to figure out how to deliver more difficult news to me. This time, however, I was pretty certain I knew what it was.

Now I want to understand.

It'd been when we going through security that I started to piece a few things together in my mind. Since my resolution this morning I'd been thinking about the inevitable changes to my life.

A question that I'd had this whole time was what on earth was the purpose of this whole "operation" as Heidi had put it a while back? Why bother going through the trouble of setting up a pointless contest where the entry submissions didn't even matter? What did the vampire government have to gain out of a weird sort of "pilot program" with a "new demographic"?

Feeding.

They were intending to feed on my classmates.

I have done all that I could,

To see the evil and the good.

Why else go through all this trouble? I must have been a surprise addition to the equation that was exempt from this fate, but my bet was that the rest would still be meeting their deaths sometime within the next two weeks. Perhaps I should have been more disturbed by how little resistance my conscience was putting up, but my capacity for mercy and I had both been beaten down more times than I could count.

The scattered thoughts about Heidi and other vampires feeding had at one point made me more uncomfortable. But now? Now that I'd committed to remain on my soon-to-be immortal trajectory with my…"vampire mate" (okay so that was still weird to say) I knew that this was part of it. I would eventually feed on humans. Members of the human world that had rejected me at every turn.

You must help me if you can.

Did I want help? Someone to help change my stance back to something more sympathetic? Something less cold that'd avoid bloodshed? A view more morally "correct"?

No. No I didn't.

I was letting go. Letting go of one world for another one, one that already promised to accept me far more than I'd ever been allowed to think possible. As ruthless as vampires might be, Heidi had been the first person to show me the love and affection that so many others took for granted.

Doctor my eyes,

Tell me what is wrong.

Was I unwise to leave them open for so long?

Nothing was wrong. I wasn't "wrong". I'd not left my eyes open, but they'd been forced open against my will to human cruelty. While profoundly desensitized to abusive treatment, I wasn't broken beyond repair like I'd been led to believe.

Now I had someone to stand with me along the way. Someone that I'd stand with and support just as fervently. Someone I'd protect just as viciously.

Cause I have wandered through this world,

And as each moment has unfurled,

I've been waiting to awaken from these dreams.

I was waking up. Waking up to the new reality in front of me, and to the reality of what I was finally able to leave behind. A reality where human beings were not the top of the food chain. And really, how much mercy did humans really show the living creatures underneath them in the food chain? So many animals raised, maimed, and ripped apart in slaughterhouses; crying out in pain and confusion every waking moment.

Did humans deserve any mercy from those who fed on them? Mercy that they didn't extend to other animals, or even themselves much of the time? As far as I knew vampires at least didn't corral mass groups of humans into horrific dungeons from birth to butcher. The end couldn't have been pleasant, but humans at least had the opportunity to live out their lives beforehand in blissful ignorance.

People just go where they will.

I never noticed them until I got this feeling,

That it's later than it seems.

Returning to our conversation I squeezed her hands and smiled. "Heidi…", she looked back at me, "I…I know…I k-know that…you p-plan on f-feeding on…t-them…It's okay". Her jaw dropped slightly before quickly closing it, her expression remaining shocked.

"H-hey…I do n-notice things", I chided lightly to try and find some humor. At that she snorted, which quickly turned into laughter. I joined in, thankfully not having had drank any coffee so it didn't shoot up my nose. What a pair we made. A vampire and a trans woman sitting in an airport café casually discussing feeding on humans. It sounded like the start of an incredibly bizarre joke.

"You do indeed. I'd always hoped to find an intelligent mate, but you continue to soar past any and all expectations", I smiled into my coffee cup. "We can discuss that more later but yes, you are correct. I'm afraid that I must head back lest we appear suspiciously familiar with each other, although I don't see most of your peers as especially observant. McArthur especially doesn't focus much on anything other than his own voice and my ass when he thinks I don't notice".

I scowled darkly at the reminder. With the subtlety of…well of a starving vampire feeding Nick had taken to checking Heidi out since we'd been picked up that morning. The same part of me that wanted to name him weeks ago to Heidi started to wonder if she, or whoever fed on him, could take their time with it.

"Violet May are you by chance feeling jealous?" Heidi's grin came out.

"Yes", so irritated that I forgot to feel embarrassed, "You're mine". At that unintentional admission I blushed, hoping that I hadn't gone too far.

Heidi's eyes darkened and her grin became downright feral. "Yes I am". She stood up and walked to my side of the table, her pace languid, putting her arm around my shoulder with her head down to my ear. "And. You. Belong. To. Me.". She emphasized each word, her husky voice became even deeper and her grip tightening. As with her growl it sounded like lower and higher pitches were starting to blend together, but this time it melted my brain for entirely different reasons.

I shuddered and on instinct tilted my neck to bare my neck to her. She hissed quietly but I could somehow tell it wasn't with anger, "You're making this far more difficult Violet May", she chuckled in that eerily seductive growl-tone, "but fortunately we've managed to bring blood along with us, or I'm afraid I'd need to feed before our flight. If we were alone I might even feel the need to feed in a…different sense ".

My embarrassment overrode how turned on I was, "S-sorry…I…", Heidi chuckled again. "No it is perfectly fine. I must say I quite like it when you more…openly express yourself like that. I'd love to hear more of it soon". Much to my disappointment she stood back up straight and her voice returned to normal, or at least normal for humans. "I will return to the others, but it'd be best if you stay here for a while for the sake of appearances. Perhaps until your blush wears off?" She smirked.

It hadn't exactly been fading, but that wouldn't have mattered because it flared up again at the reminder. Slightly more used to her teasing though I laughed despite the embarrassment. "Okay I'll…be back in a…l-little while". With one last light squeeze on my shoulder Heidi walked away.

Eventually our boarding time drew close so I ordered a new cup to go and walked back, blush now firmly under control. Everyone was sitting around by the gate, a few even sleeping from the early morning rise. It struck me how odd it would be if they knew that the hours they had left were shortly numbered.

We got on the plane, and I was in line going down the aisle behind Julie Mason. She was talking to her friend in front of her. As she lifted her carry-on bag to the above compartment she laughed at a joke and my thoughts went to that she'd never know of how she'd affected me.

In another life could we have been friends? Could she have been a confidante or even a kind of mentor? A person that helped me learn about clothing and makeup, and even let me borrow that dress I still saw vividly in my mind? A person whom I could talk to about crushes and other silly things that I'd sometimes noticed from my female classmates? Not every girl I'd gone to school with had had those interests of course, but many seemed to. Before I'd gotten better at squashing them all down, I'd felt them strongly.

She sat in her aisle seat and I kept walking past her without any notice. It was too late for me and my ties to humanity. In another sense it was too late for her. Her fate had been sealed the day she taken whatever essay she'd written and put into the box by the front office. Had she put her heart and soul into it, like I had? A sincere expression of herself that had been thrown away without being read? We were both paying a price for our decisions, me knowingly and her not. Me willingly and her not.

Doctor my eyes,

Tell me what you see.

I hear their cries,

Just say if it's too late for me.

The starting flight was rather quiet with my seat neighbors both keeping to themselves. I got the window seat and I could barely take my eyes off of the clouds outside. We were in for many more hours of flying with a few connecting flights in-between. Looking out the window might get boring eventually, but not right now. This was more of the world than I ever thought I'd see. The colors were brighter, clearer out there.

A small mercy for my classmates was that at least before they died, they'd have the opportunity to witness fantastic sights. Of course, they had no way of knowing what was going to happen, so as much as I felt no obligation to intervene on their behalf, I did hope they got to go out with a few nice memories. I'd give them that good will, as small as it was.

Time crawled by, and while I ran through quite a few albums I kept coming back to the one I'd started with. I also combed through a few packets on Stockholm that Heidi had passed out. I read about things like the Stockholm Concert Hall and hosting the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies, the ships held in the Vasa Museum, and just how large Stockholm Pride's parades were relative to the surrounding countries.

All of the pictures captured my imagination. I wasn't sure if we'd really be allowed to travel the city. That would involve being seen in public, so depending on how they were going to explain the deaths of 15 students (presumably I'd be "included" among them) they may or may not let us. At some point, before or after, I hoped I might be able to see the city with Heidi. If not, maybe later some other day. I'd certainly have enough time to kill soon.

Our final plane finally touched down (god only knew what time or even day it was, my circadian rhythm sure as hell didn't), and a few of my classmates even clapped. They were the only ones. I was again happy to not be near them. My inner snarkiness said that doing that was enough of a capital crime to justify the feeding on its own.

As we started to get up and file out onto the gate, I heard the current song come near the end. Catching Heidi's eyes as she looked back, I smiled at her. Even amongst a crowded plane and my own crowded thoughts I saw nothing else but her devilishly warm gaze on me.

Doctor my eyes,

They cannot see the sky.

Is this the prize,

For learning how not to cry?

Chapter Theme Songs Used So Far:

The Passenger – Iggy Pop

Grinnin' In Your Face – Son House

Get It On (Bang a Gong) – T. Rex

Breakdown – Guns N' Roses

Numb - Portishead

Come Away With Me - Norah Jones

Sprained Ankle - Julien Baker

Level - The Raconteurs

Columbia - Oasis

Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon (&) Storm Comin' - The Wailin' Jennys

Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne