A/N: I'm a dumbass. Sorry, guys.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.

The garden was withered and ugly, covered by the frost that came with winter. The previous tenants of this garden had been harvested and replaced by crops that were supposed to grow in this harsh season, but we all knew there was no use in crops.

What were they for? To plump the humans? To be used as decorations to make people think we weren't bloodthirsty savages?

I didn't want to be a monster. I didn't want this to happen. What if I had lived to be a ripe old age and just died instead? What if I wasn't born special?

I could still remember the taste of fresh-grown vegetables that my mom used to grow in her garden. I remember how I used to cringe at seeing vegetables on my plate when I was little. But as I grew older, I grew to like them more. And now… now they tasted even worse than I ever thought they could. Everything tasted bad now. Well, almost everything.

"Jane?"

I didn't turn my head, but it was obvious who it was. And I really didn't want to talk to anybody, let alone him.

"Jane, the food's here. Come on, they're in the main hallway."

I remained quiet. I really didn't want to open my mouth because I knew my self-control wasn't exactly the best. I knew I would end up going if I let him talk me into it.

But he didn't even try. I felt the jostle of the swinging bench as he sat down next to me, making it rock back and forth.

I finally managed out a quiet little, "Please go away, Demetri."

He just sat there, looking out into the scenery as I had been doing. But I averted my gaze to look at him instead. His eyes were a deep onyx color and I knew it shouldn't be long before mine looked identical.

"Really, you'd better go. You look starved," I said.

"My brother was nine years older than me. By the time I was seven, he was able to drive. He used to take me to a carnival every December," he said, catching me off guard. "We went on rides and played carnival games in the snow. Won prizes, too."

I looked back at the garden, wondering where that came from.

"You don't know how lucky you are to have family in this living hell," he said. "I keep thinking this is a nightmare, that one day I'll wake up and find out that none of this ever existed outside of my imagination. That I'll wake up and my dad and brother will be just a staircase away. But that would make me naive."

I didn't say anything. What was I supposed to say to that?

"What do you miss most?" he asked, turning to look at me suddenly.

"I don't know," I said blankly.

"Yes you do," he insisted. "And even if you don't, I know you miss something."

I thought a bit and said, "There's always the obvious answers like my parents, my friends, but truthfully I'd have to say Sparkles. Our dog, that is. Alec and I got her for Christmas when we were about six. Kind of an ironic name, isn't it?"

He laughed. He had a nice laugh. "How did you and Alec agree on a name like that?"

"Well, Christmas was over and our mischievous little puppy hadn't been named yet. We were forced to go with our mom to take back some gifts and our dad was supposed to be watching him, but he fell asleep. I had made a paper snowflake with glitter and glue and placed it on the counter to dry, but I left the glitter on the coffee table. That rascal pushed the glitter over and rolled in it. When we came back, we found the crime scene and laughed our asses off at the sight of our little dog sparkling. Then it just seemed appropriate to name her Sparkles."

"I still find it hard to believe that Alec would agree to a name like that."

"Yeah, well it helped that our mom and dad both called her Sparkles and he just found himself going along with it," I said. "A couple years later he tried changing her name to Bullet. That didn't work out too well for him..."

He laughed again. I found myself wishing I were closer to him.

"So are you going to go eat or not?" I asked him abruptly.

"No."

"Aren't you hungry?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't you go?"

"I don't want to."

I laughed at his stubbornness. He sounded just like a little kid.

"What?" he asked, causing me to laugh even harder.

"I have no idea," I said between giggle fits.

The next thing I knew, he was laughing too.

We must've looked idiotic to anybody who came outside. But who really cared anymore?

"You know what I miss?" he asked.

"What?"

"Sanity."

"Yeah, because you were so full of it before, going to a carnival in the snow," I said, practicing my newly acquired sarcasm.

He looked at me and rolled his midnight colored eyes.

I burst out laughing again. He didn't, the moody bastard.

Yet I kept wanting to get closer to him. It was as if we were magnets.

"So... I guess you're going on a hunger strike now?" I asked, wanting to clear the air of the awkwardness.

"I guess so. It seems to me like you're doing the same thing."

"I'm not hungry though," I said. And it was true. I really didn't have that blood craving.

"That's not what your eyes say."

"Yeah? And what else do you think my eyes say? That I want you to cuddle with me or something? As if!" Yeah, I'm not the smoothest person in the world.

"That's exactly what they're saying," he said, pulling me into an embrace.

"Eww, get away from me!" I shrieked, pushing his arms off of me.

"Come on, Jane! You can't keep denying me forever," he said as I backed away.

"Yes I can! And I will!" I said, not really leaving. He was right. Well not about the part that I can't deny him forever because he didn't know just how far I could take things. Especially at things I was good at like denial and stubbornness. He was right about the part where I really wanted to be in his embrace.

"Come on! I'm not that bad!"

"In what universe? Your own?"

I ran into the castle, heading straight to the main hallway where hopefully there were some leftovers. Damn that hunger strike! I was going to eat just to show Demetri how little he meant to me. And I wasn't going to care if I was being a monster or not.

A/N: Yeah, I know it's different- I gave up being perverted and sarcastic sometime between now and when I posted the last chapter- but the question is, is it a good different or a bad one? Will you review and tell me, please?

I'll try to continue the sarcasm lessons next chapter. Right now they need a break.