Hana left the house rushing, calling out 'à bientôt Maman' behind her, faintly hearing her mother's reply of '열심히 공부해!' She rolled her eyes at that. 'Study hard' my ass. As if either of her parents paid enough attention to her these days to know whether her grades were high enough or not.

She met up with the boys at the school's entrance, sliding up next to them. "Hey guys," she greeted and asked Ethan, "Did you clean up the mess in time?" The two boys seemed to be fine, so it was pretty likely his parents hadn't come home to a mess; otherwise walking with his head still attached would be a miracle.

"Yeah, actually. We wrecked less than I thought," he admitted, then threw her a shady look. "But the messiest area was where you were making the cocoa." As if to prove his point, she spotted a bit of cinnamon dust on the strap of his book-bag. The brown stood out against the dark black, like a nebula.

Benny raised his brows at that and turned to her. "How did you make more of a mess with hot cocoa than we did killing a vampire?" He asked.

She shrugged back. "It's an art."

Just then, Rory came up to them. "Buenos días mi amigos," He said cheerfully, and the boys stared at him incredulously. They all took in his new outfit, with a stylish jacket overtop a hoodie, new jeans, and fresh sunglasses to top it all off. Even his hair was styled differently with a more windswept twist to it. Were those Ray-Bans?

"Bruh, we thought you were dead," Benny sputtered out.

Hana stopped at that and looked at them with faint alarm. "We thought what now?" Since when was that the conclusion they had reached? Wasn't their reaction a bit lackluster if that was the case?

"What, you thought he was alive?" Ethan asked her, thinking back to seeing his friend's body hit the ground. The thump that sounded as he hit the ground wasn't something he had forgotten easily, laying at night and playing it over in his head constantly.

"Yeah?" She gave them a confused look. "They were pretty clearly still breathing."

Rory grinned at her, feeling a surge of confidence. "Hell yeah chica, I'm a full on rockin' vamp now, there's no killing me." They highfived with matching smiles, before Benny snatched her hand away annoyedly. His hands warmed her cold ones that fit perfectly with him, and Ethan glanced at him suspiciously when he refused to let go.

"You seriously drank human blood?" Benny snapped at Rory.

The blond wilted slightly, losing his smile. "They said I would die if I didn't." His shoulders sank with his words like a scorned puppy. Her heart pitied him, though the rest of her was admittedly confused. Was that meant in a threatening way, or as a general health warning? But he quickly perked up again and continued on. "Plus, all the other kids were doing it."

"Do you have any idea what you've done to yourself?" Benny shot a glare at him. There seemed to be a disproportionate amount of irritation coming from him. She wondered if something had happened between the two, or if it was just normal boy behavior in high school.

"Yeah," Rory scoffed. "Cured my asthma and astigmatism."

Hana considered that thoughtfully, pushing up her glasses with her free hand. "Can't argue with that." It'd be quite nice not to need visual aids that made lying down uncomfortable.

"Watch me," Benny muttered petulantly, gripping her hand tighter.

At that moment, they happened to spot a group of vampires loitering somewhere behind Rory. He spotted them too, rolling his eyes behind his sunglasses. "Jesse says we have to go," he explained apologetically. "He's so bossy, always talkin' about some prophecy and Cuban animals." Mocking hand gestures accompanied his rambles in a surprising amount of sass.

The three other friends exchanged befuddled looks. "The hell?" Ethan questioned for them. "What do you mean Cuban animals?"

Rory shrugged back, apparently as clueless as them. "I don't know," he said. "That's what it sounded like."

She frowned to herself. What animals live in Cuba?

...Squirrels?

"Anyways," Rory continued. "We can hang out later- or fang out!" The only one to smile at his pun was himself. Hana wrinkled her nose in contempt for the poor taste in puns, making Benny smile slightly upon seeing her little button nose. A small part of him was glad she didn't like the joke, though he would never say.

As the newly inducted vamp walked away, Ethan stared. It looked like a thousand thoughts were flying through his head in mere seconds. "C'mon, get your shit," he ordered them, squaring his shoulders before setting off away from the school determinedly. "We're goin' to church."

Hana blinked. "But I'm Buddhist."

Benny held a jar under the spout, draining as much holy water as he could into a jug as Hana kept watch carefully when out of the blue, Benny spoke up. "Hey, are you actually Buddhist?" he asked her, not moving his eyes from the spout.

"Nah. My parents are, but I'm not." She leaned against the wooden barrier between the stage and pews, running a hand through her hair that she had taken out of her bun. It fell in gentle, imperceptible waves formed from keeping it up while she slept.

He nodded. "I kinda figured religion wasn't a big part of your life." The water started to slow down in its gushing as less and less remained. His hand trembled slightly at the weight of the jug, too heavy to keep stable.

"Oh?" She raised a brow at that.

"Well I've known you since seventh grade and it never really came up," he pointed out, glancing over to her and taking in the way the light hit her profile to create a golden glow. It was breathtaking in a way to see her like this- he readjusted the jug back under the spout when he accidentally let it drift to the side, soaking his hand.

"Yeah," Hana acquiesced. "But in all fairness, you guys also didn't know much about the whole 'shouldn't sleep in the cold' thing until the fourth time I hung out with you outside of school."

He snickered as they reminisced over The Incident. "Mrs. Morgan was freaking out so much that day," Benny said between laughs. "It was kinda funny."

Suddenly, they heard footsteps behind them. They both whirled around and Benny nudged her. "You were supposed to be lookout," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth. She elbowed him right back before smiling at the priest sweetly.

"Our worship group is holding a get-together," she lied in a sugary tone reserved for situations like this. "Praise the Lord, right?" The priest nodded slowly, like he wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing. They took that chance to slip away, speeding up their stride as they approached the doors.

Benny balanced the jug precariously, trying to keep the lid secure without spilling any. "Are worship groups a thing?" He asked her offhandedly.

"I don't know," she pulled the hood of her jacket up and stuffed her hands into her pockets. "I just heard a girl on my track team talk about hers all the time so I figured he'd know what that is."

"She's Catholic?"

"Christian," Hana clarified, then thought about it. "They're the same thing, right?" The graveyard came into view through the morning's fog, painting a dreary scene. Tombstones popped out from the ground like teeth raking through the air. Grass stayed yellow year-round in this spot, never sparing any luscious green for the world.

Benny shrugged. "We can ask Ethan later."

They clambered up the hill to hide behind a gravestone with Ethan, who pointed to the group of people digging up a grave when he noticed them. "That's them," he said solemnly. Each of the vamps were wearing plenty of layers for protection despite the overcast weather.

Benny scoffed. "All those hoodies and sunglasses," he berated them. "Nice look if you're a-" Sarah cut him off unwittingly with a 'hey' coming up to them, and as Hana turned to look at her, she choked on air upon seeing Sarah wear the exact same thing. "Looking good," he blurted out for lack of anything better to say. Hana quickly nodded innocently.

"What are you doing here?" Ethan asked her, his mood already visibly improving.

The same couldn't be said about Sarah. "Same as you," she said in a low tone. "Spying on them. I just wish I knew what they were up to." Her frustration with the situation was evident, a scowl spreading across her face.

"I feel you there," Hana chipped in. "I never know what's goin' on."

"Rory seems to know what's goin' on," Benny grumbled, oddly petulant. He crossed his arms, leaving the jug in a nearby hole in the ground and rested his chin to stare out ahead.

Hana perked up. "Oh yeah," she smiled, not noticing his grumpy behavior. "I almost forgot. What was it he was talking about? Cubic amputees?"

Ethan sighed. "He said Cuban animals," he corrected her, not that it made any more sense to them. The only reason she could think of for him to need animals was as a sacrifice, but then it still didn't make any sense as to why they needed to be Cuban.

Sarah raised a brow at them, unimpressed. "I'm pretty sure you're talking about the cubile animus."

Oh.

Benny whistled. "What a game of telephone," he said. Those were some pretty drastic distortions; they probably wouldn't have found the original phrase if it hadn't been for Sarah.

"I think I've heard Jesse mention it before," she ignored him and continued. "It's Latin or some shit."

"Yep," Hana confirmed. "Most likely. If it sounds like a Harry Potter spell, it's probably Latin."

Benny nodded. "That's a good rule to live by." He pulled out his phone and typed it into the search bar. As he looked it up, Hana looked over his shoulder, her breath brushing lightly against his ear and he fumbled and dropped his phone. Peppermint, he couldn't help but notice. She picked it up and handed it back to him obliviously, pointing out the results on screen. His attention almost instantly shifted, safely distracted by the odd phrase. "Nest of souls? The hell?" He was puzzled, to say the least.

Ethan just confused them more. "I think I just saw it," he breathed out, shaken. His eyes were blown wide, staring off into the distance like a harrowed widow whose husband was declared a casualty of the war. Breaths came out in halting clouds of cold, morning mist.

"What do you mean you think?" Hana furrowed her brows. "Either you saw it or you didn't."

He grappled for the words to describe any of what he had just envisioned. "Well it looked like a little box with weird carvings on it," he tried with hesitant words.

"That's pretty generic for just about any old box," Hana shot him down apathetically.

Sarah nodded to that. "She's right," she backed her up. "My gran had a jewelry box that matches that description pretty well too." The two girls traded knowing looks at the apparent universal experience.

"I wonder if my grandma has one," Benny thought aloud. The old woman that raised him tended to have an eccentric collection of items, so really there was no telling what she did or didn't have. Yesterday he had found her antique needle collection.

"She does," Hana told him. "She showed me once before."

He blinked in surprise. Since when did she hang out with his grandma without him? "Wait- what? When?"

Sarah interrupted them, pointing back to the grave. "That one they just dug up seems to be spot on." That aforementioned box was lifted dramatically by one of the figures, though they couldn't tell who it was what with how far they were. It seemed to be smaller than she had expected, with graceful designs glinting in the morning light.

"Well great for them," Benny drawled sarcastically with a fake smile and jazz hands. "I'm so glad the murderous undead vampires found the nest of souls. Can't wait for them to hatch little vampire babies."

Hana snickered at that. "I'd watch that movie," she joked.

Ethan rolled his eyes like a parent at Disney. "Well I personally vote we stop them before they get a movie deal," he said pointedly.

"Good thing we've got a fresh supply of anti-vampire juice." Benny showed them the jug, lifting it up proudly and accidentally splashing Sarah in the process. The droplets left instant burns across her hands where it touched, trailing off to create a macabre pattern. She shrieked and recoiled in pain, hissing automatically. They all exchanged wide eyed looks of panics before she whisked them out of there swiftly.

A bit ways away on the sidewalk just out of sight, they took a second to catch their breath, then started to walk. The adrenaline in their systems slowed, hearts still pounding fearfully. Sarah took the opportunity to ask what they had all been wondering. "So what's with these visions?" she directed the question at Ethan. "You get them often?"

He glanced at her with a puppy gaze. "Nah, they started when you showed up."

"I can't tell if he's tryna be smooth or if he's being serious," Hana whispered to Benny, who scoffed.

"That was not smooth."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I said 'try.'"

Ethan interrupted them irritably. "You know I can hear you, right?" They both gave him sweet smiles, batting their eyes innocently, and he backed off with a put off expression. "I never realised how creepy we look when we do that," he muttered to himself. No wonder their eighth grade art teacher hated them.

Sarah brought their attention back to the previous matter. "So why do you get them?"

"I don't know," he replied, in the dark just like her. "I think it happens when we touch." He reached for her hand, ready to test his theory, but she wasn't having any of it. She darted out of range, a small smile slipping onto her face.

"Nice try Casanova."

"Can't blame him for trying," Benny commented, before eyeing Hana carefully. He glanced at her hands swinging by her sides loosely, sleeves rolled up so they wouldn't swallow her petite form. "But maybe it'll work for me." He grabbed her hand nervously, but she clutched it right back and started swinging their arm back and forth between them, still looking at Sarah and Ethan. With the attention off him, he couldn't help but smile like a fool for her.

No one else seemed to notice, and Ethan started to ask about the prophecy. "He never told you what it was or what the whole 219 deal was?"

Sarah sighed tiredly. "He tells me just enough to confuse me, but not enough to explain anything," she lamented. "He'd only tell me if I was a real vampire like the others in his dumb posse." They all came to a stop beneath a tree which let down beautiful pink petals to drift down onto them. Some fell into Hana's hair, creating a make-shift crown of sorts.

"That's a shame," Benny clicked his tongue in disappointment. "It's not like any of them are gonna tell us. They'd have to be stupid to do that."

At that, Ethan froze with a look realization dawning on his face. "Well..." he trailed off.

Hana caught on quickly and considered it. "I would defend him, but I can't even deny that he's got a few neurons missin' in the ol' noggin."

Benny got out his phone. "So am I the one calling him or...?"

The light of the setting sun filtered through curtains resting against the windows in her room. Two figures relaxed in its soothing warmth, a calm atmosphere surrounding them. Chords of a guitar carried through the air gently to kiss their ears as the boy fiddled with a speaker. Tools surrounded him on the bed in his effort to fix it for her, while the girl played with the strings of the guitar to weave melodies.

Benny looked up briefly to see her taking a break from whatever school project she had been working on before. "That sounds good," he complimented, missing a screw in his distraction. Her hair seemed to shine with the golden light in a hypnotic way, like the sun itself was trying to bless her. Brown eyes revealed golden patterns in their depths as the glow hit them at just the right angle.

"Thanks," she smiled at him gently, soft lips curling up that he couldn't look away from. "I'm just using a few basic chords." Calloused hands never paused their strumming through the conversation from where she lounged on a chair at her neat and tidy white desk. Even the words that she spoke, regardless of their content, sounded like an angels' choir in that small room.

Something about the situation tugged at his heart more than usual. Perhaps it was the intimacy of the scene, at a delicate time in the day in such a personal place. Or perhaps it was the haze of discovery still settling over them from the adventures previously plaguing their night.

"How do you come up with songs like that?" He asked, clearing his throat slightly. The tangled mess of exposed wires and hardware in his hands remained forgotten.

"If you give me a prompt," Hana suggested, letting the last note hang in the air as her fingers stilled. "I can probably try and make one for you."

Benny stared at her in surprise. "Right now?" Normally he would've thought it'd take more time and effort to create something like that. Though that could just be because of his lack of musical aptitude and know-how.

"Yeah sure, why not?" So he glanced around the room to think of one, before catching a glimpse of the stars painted on the ceiling. Part of him was surprised that they were still up, in all honesty. None of them were neat and uniform, each having their own chaotic aesthetic with glow-in-the-dark fluorescent paint. He pointed to them wordlessly. Her eyes followed his direction and she snickered. "What?" Hana grinned at him. "The stars we painted when you slept over for the first time 'cus you were scared of the dark?"

"Well if you're just gonna flame me-" he whined with a pout.

"Chill, chill, I'll do it." Despite how she rolled her eyes, she began to pluck around on the strings immediately before settling on a basic chord pattern. It was a languid, slow pace comparable to the fall of a snowflake and equal in tranquil nature. She started off with a gentle hum, then continued. "If we look back now," she sang softly. "I can remember your eyes, your furrowed brow. How you worked for the stars to come down to my room-"

Hana was cut off by a ringing and they both startled in surprise, the sweet melody shattering. Benny scowled instantly, glaring at his phone as he took it out sharply. "The hell do you want?" he practically snapped when he picked up Ethan's call.

"Damn Benny," Ethan whistled, oblivious to what had been happening mere seconds earlier. "Calm down."

"I was kind of busy," he grumbled, glancing over at Hana who was already starting to look bored again, losing that serene expression she had worn as she sang. His mood soured further.

"I was just gonna call to let you know that me and Sarah figured out something huge-"

"Fascinating. Tell me tomorrow." He hung up and turned back to her. "So how's your music class?" he asked with a much brighter attitude.

Hana headed into the school alone the next morning, letting her blue headphones fall around her neck. The heavy bass of various rap songs blasted through and were still audible even when she wasn't wearing the headphones properly. She spotted Sarah and the boys huddled together on the floor, striding up to them with long steps. "Sorry I'm kinda late," she called to them as she approached. "My dad made noodles again and I had to wait for him to finish putting it in the lunch box." In her hand was a little plastic box with cartoon animals printed on, a strong aroma wafting out.

The two boys winced at that, something which Sarah noticed. "Okay, I'll ask about that later," she noted to herself, then addressed Hana. "Anyways, long story short: we gotta go to the Dusk III premier 'cus Jesse is planning to exchange all the fans' souls to resurrect his old undead army."

...What?

Hana froze. "I was gone for less than 24 hours," she deadpanned in a monotone voice. "How the hell did I miss so much?" If there was only one detail she had missed out on, like- actually, no. She couldn't think of a single part of that ramble that wouldn't be surprising all on its own. Jesse had an army? Souls could be exchanged?

People actually bought tickets to a showing for a Dusk movie?

Ethan rolled his eyes and chimed in. "Well I tried to tell you and Benny yesterday, but-" Benny slapped a hand over his mouth quickly, shooting her a nervous smile that totally wasn't suspicious. That's not worth asking about, she told herself tiredly, and just sighed.