Title: To Stand Against the Sun

Genre: romance, drama

Rating: M for language, violence, and sexual themes

Pairings: JohanXJudai (spiritshipping); very, very mild ManjoumeXJudai (rivalshipping); other minor pairings

Summary: Judai Yuki was not expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen when he moved to live with his Dad in Copenhagen, Denmark. But this where his life truly begins. There he meets Johan Andersen, a mysterious and captivating student at his new high school. Judai soon discovers that Johan is hiding a secret, after he impossibly saves his life from a van with his super-human strength and speed. Judai is determined to unravel his secret, but the truth is more terrifying than he realized. Johan is a vampire. Any normal person would just keep away from him, but Johan and Judai have fallen passionately and unconditionally in love with each other. And so begins their forbidden relationship between a human and a vampire. But the young lovers soon discover that their troubles are only just about to begin.

Me: The next chapter!

Lucy: Judai was told by Manjoume a bit about the Andersens, and to Judai, it is all starting to make sense!

Me: But will Judai believe what Manjoume said? Or will he just peg the story as a crazy and superstitious tale told by the elder natives in the area that Manjoume lives?

Lucy: Read on to find out!

Chapter Seven: NIGHTMARE

I told Nerigon that I had a lot of homework to do. He believed me, since I almost never had homework over the week. It was always on the week-ends that I was given a boatload of homework to do. There was a baseball game on TV that Nerigon was busy watching, so he didn't even notice how pale I was or how bad I was trembling.

Once in my room, I locked the door. In fished out my MP3 played and clicked on the randomize button. I put my old headphones in, hit play, and I cracked the music as loud as I could without hurting my ears.

Once my music was playing, I laid down on my bed.

I closed my eyes, but the light still intruded, so I rolled over onto my stomach and buried my face into my pillow. It must have just been washed, because it smelled like lemon. Nerigon always used lemon to clean bed items for some reason.

Random songs fumbled through my head, but I couldn't focus on them.

I listened through all 365 of my songs twice until I finally fell asleep listening to "Fonz Pond" by ICP. I was somewhat hoping that it would keep me awake, but it didn't.

I opened my eyes to find myself in a familiar place. Aware in some area of my consciousness that I was dreaming, I recognized the strange area that I was standing in. I could see the green light coming from the leaves above me, and the soft blue waves brushing against the pond in the light depths of the forests.

I had to find the sun. If I did, I could get out of here. Something was wrong.

I was trying to find the exit by following the sound of the lapping water of the distant pond, but then Jun Manjoume was there, tugging my hand, pulling me towards the black depths of the pond.

"Manjoume, what's wrong?" I asked.

His face was frightened as he yanked with all his might against my resistance. I didn't want to go into the darkness. It was too creepy.

"Run, Judai!" Manjoume yelled, his voice terrified.

"This way, Judai!" Kenzan's voice wrenched from the heart of the woods, calling me towards the light. Manjoume dragged me towards the dark in the forest, towards another area where I could hear soft lake waves.

Manjoume let go of my hand suddenly, yelping. He fell to the forest floor. He twitched and screamed in agony.

"Manjoume!" I yelled.

But he was gone. In his place was a giant brown wolf with black and red streaks with thick black-gray eyes. The wolf was massive, bigger than a wolf should have been. The wolf looked at me and then stood protectively before me, snarling at what was now a pitch black pond. I was shocked at its sudden appearance. Why hadn't I seen it before?

The pond was wicked.

The water was pitch black, even if there was a small amount of sunlight shining down on it. Weeds around it were a dark green with red on it, like splattered blood. I wondered if it was. Loons and birds called wickedly. Leeches lived off the hollow logs, and I was scared. Something moved in the pitch black water.

The wolf's shoulders tensed, and he growled menacingly.

I watched as a cold, pale hand reached from the black water, gripping one of the sides of the pond, its fingers latching on to one of the blood-red weeds.

My heart pounded, and I nearly screamed.

And then Johan walked out of the black pond, his pale skin glowing lightly in the mixture of darkness and sunlight peeking through the trees, his eyes pitch black, like the water, and dangerous. He held up one hand and beckoned me toward him. The red-brown-black wolf snarled at Johan as he appeared, moving so his massive body was crouching before me.

I took a shaking step forward. Johan smiled then, his perfect white teeth flashing.

"Come here, Judai," he purred.

The wolf snarled at him and then barked/whined at me, as if begging me to come back to the safe area behind him.

I took another step.

Johan grew impatient then and was in front of me in a matter of seconds. His long, cold arms- strong and protective- were around me, pulling me against his chest. He took a quick step backwards, and I found myself knee-deep in the ice cold pitch-black water, though still in Johan's gentle and loving embrace.

"You're shaking, Judai," he whispered.

A smile spread across his face.

His arms tightened around me. I felt like my lungs were on fire, but then I was able to breathe again once Johan released his grip just a bit. Johan brushed his fingers over my cheek and traced the tip of his fingers over my lips, staring down at me with his pitch black eyes.

"Trust me," he whispered to me again. "I'll protect you, Judai."

The wolf launched itself across the space between him and me and the vampire just then. His large jaws were open wide, giant fangs moving at Johan's exposed throat.

Johan swung me around gently so that I was behind him.

I felt his lips brush against my forehead, and then he was back towards the wolf. He raised his hand like a blade and thrust it at the wolf, who easily dodged this and swung his paws at Johan again.

"No!" I screamed, leaping off my bed.

I panted heavily and looked around my room. It was fife-thirty in the morning, and I was trembling. I looked down and saw that I was still in my clothes from yesterday at the beach. I rolled over and wrenched my jeans off, leaving just my boxers. I took off my hoodie, leaving me with just a tank-top. I fixed my hair with my hands, and then swung my legs over the side of my bed. I took the headphones off and turned off my MP3 player since I wasn't listening to it anymore.

I yawned and went to take a shower to kill time.

It didn't last as long as I hoped. I tried to take as much time as I could, but soon, I was back in my bedroom. I laid down on my bed, after making it, and I sighed.

Nerigon was off to work again, since the cruiser was gone.

I closed my eyes and thought back to my dream.

It had been a nightmare until Johan had come. Johan had saved me, kept me protected. Maybe what Manjoume had said was true about them. If the Andersens were... vampires, then were they good vampires?

No, I told myself. Vampires don't exist. It's just a made up story.

But, what else could make sense?

How else could explain their eyes changing from gold to black and back, the inhuman beauty, the cold and hard skin, the pale color, the way Johan spoke to me sometimes- as if he came form another time, a time long before this one- or the graceful way that they moved? No humans could do what they could. It just wasn't possible.

Besides, Johan had skipped class when we did blood typing, and I doubt he was afraid of blood.

He seemed to be able to know what everyone around me was thinking, everyone except me, of course... And I also recalled how he and the rest of them never ate anything.

Could the Andersens be vampires?

Well, they were definitely something inhuman. Nothing else explained their actions or the way they lived.

What was I going to do if this was all true?

Telling someone was out. No one would believe me, since I barely believed myself. I'd be thrown in a mental institute faster than I could scream out Johan's name.

If Johan was a vampire- the if had to stay until I was certain- then what should I do? Should I do as he suggested all along and stay away from him to protect myself? He had told me that he was dangerous, that he wasn't safe to be around, that he was the villain. Maybe it would be safer for me to stay away from him. Maybe I should tell him to leave me alone, and mean it this time.

I felt a strange loneliness when I thought this. I shook it off.

Then there was another option.

I could do nothing. After all, if Johan really was dangerous, then he would have hurt me. If he really did want to kill me, he would have done it. If he wanted me dead or if he didn't care for me, even if it was just as a friend, then I would be trapped as a corpse inside Mituso's van's side. Johan was not, even if he didn't want to admit it, a villain. He was the good guy, and he always would be. Maybe he had done something in the past that made him believe he was nothing but a monster.

I was certain of one thing, though.

In my dream, when I had seen Johan there, I felt relieved. He had saved me from the wolf, though it seemed like the wolf was trying to save me from him. When I had screamed "no", it was not because I was afraid that I was going to get hurt.

I screamed "no" because I thought that Johan was going to be hurt. I feared that he would be killed. I feared for him.

I sat up and looked out the window. It looked like twilight, dark and light at the same time. I shook off my thoughts and nodded. I knew what my answer was, what my choice was.

Johan wasn't evil, no matter what he was, no matter what he thought he was.

Some part of my mind feared that Johan was just hanging around with me because he had wanted to drink my blood or hurt me- if he was in fact a true vampire.

But he didn't. If he had just wanted me for my blood, I wouldn't be alive right now. If he didn't care about me, he wouldn't be so kind. There was always genuine concern in his voice and in his actions whenever I was hurt, as I had seen when I was almost killed by Mituso's car and when I had fainted in Biology.

I shook my head and rolled over, trying to fall back asleep.

But whenever I closed my eyes, I saw Johan smiling down at me with his black eyes, looking at me, not like I was something to eat, but like I was something to be protected and loved. I realized now that whenever Johan looked at me, especially when I was hurt, he looked at me as if he was a blind man getting his sight back and seeing the sunlight for the first time.

I slept through the entire day, and I didn't dream. I walked down the stairs and saw Nerigon at the table, eating breakfast. He greeted me with a wide smile, and told me how nice it was out.

I gave him a true grin. "It is, isn't it?"

He smiled even wider when he saw how happy I was today.

I ate breakfast quickly, and Nerigon called a goodbye as he rushed to the cruiser. He drove off moments later. I was excited to get to school just as quickly as I could. I wanted to see Johan, and if I was able to, I wanted to confront him about what I knew. Even if he denied it, I was going to tell him what I knew. I would give him proof.

I was disappointed when I didn't see Johan at school.

He wasn't in Biology, as I should have figured when I didn't see him at his usual lunch table with his brothers and sisters.

As soon as school ended, Rei approached me. She asked if I wanted to go with her and Momoe to Greve Strand and pick out dresses for the spring dance that they were all going to. Rei said she wanted me to go, even if shopping for clothes wasn't my thing, because she wanted to get a boy's opinion on the dresses rather than just an all girl vote.

I said I'd ask Nerigon, though it looked like I would be able to go.

When I got home, the first thing I did was my homework. I was finished with it in a matter of minutes. I was shocked- it usually took me forever to get my homework done.

I wrote to my mother via email again, telling her that it was sunny outside today.

I sat in my room in silence for a long time. When I became bored enough, I rolled over onto my stomach and laid my head down in my bedroom. I started to drift off to sleep, I could feel it coming. My mind was becoming hazy. Suddenly, I felt like I wasn't alone. There was someone either in my room or just outside my window or in the hallway, I couldn't tell which. I heard Nerigon's cruiser pull up in the front of the house, so I knew that it couldn't be him I was sensing.

The feeling vanished.

I rushed downstairs as quickly as possible, wanting to get dinner started before it was too late.

"Sorry, Dad!" I called as I ran into the kitchen. "Dinner's gonna be a little late! I fell asleep in my bed a little longer than I intended to!"

Nerigon flashed me a reassuring grin as he hung up his gun-belt and took off his boots. "That's all right, Ju," he said. "I wanted to catch the news anyway. Seems like something's going on in one of the cities nearby."

I watched TV with Nerigon after dinner for a change. It wasn't a TV show that either of us liked, but it was nice to be doing something together.

"Dad?" I said during a comercial for shampoo. "Rei and Momoe are going to Greve Strand to look for dresses for the dance tomorrow night- do you mind if I go with them?"

Nerigon looked at me like I had grown two heads.

"Y-you're going to buy a dress, Ju?" he asked.

I must have blushed, because he smirked. "N-no!" I yelled, slapping his arm. "Rei wants a guy's opinion before she buys something, so she asked if I could go! It's not for me, idiot!"

He laughed. "It's fine by me."

It was sunny again in the morning, and it made me happy.

I drove to school, and though I was bummed out because I couldn't locate the shiny silver Volvo that I had come to know. I tried not to let it bug me, since I would be hanging out with my other friends today.

It was the same as yesterday- Johan didn't come in all day. None of the Andersens did.

I tried not to let it bother me. He had said that they were going somewhere, and I imagined that they were still there. I hoped they were having a good time, wherever they were.

The Greve Strand scheme was back on track for tonight, and it made it all the better that Seika, the girl who hated me that Rei had invited (Rei was unaware that Seika and I hated each other), canceled the plans to go with us. It would just be me, Rei, and Momoe. I was anxious to get out of town, just for one night, and see another town. I found myself staring over my shoulder every now and again, as if expecting Johan to just pop out of thin air like he always did. I vowed that I would be in a good mood tonight, and it was easy enough. I wanted to spend some time with my friends, since I finally had some here.

I refused to believe that I would be going to Dragor alone this weekend. Surely, if Johan was going to cancel our plans together, he would tell me about it first, right?

After school, Rei followed me home in her white Mercury so I could ditch my truck and get rid of my backpack. I fixed my hair and my clothes- since my window had been down the whole time and I looked like a mess- and then I left a note for Nerigon, letting him know that I had left.

I took my wallet from the front of my dresser. I counted. Two-hundred dollars, that's what I had. I always kept a bit of money with me, for reasons I was never fully sure of. Ignoring the reason why I felt like I shouldn't spend all my money and why I chose save it instead, I ran outside to join Rei, who was honking the horn at me. We went to Momoe's house and picked her up. My excitement increased as we drove out of Copenhagen and eventually started to reach Greve Strand.

Me: Judai was having dreams about Johan and about wolves!

Lucy: And Judai suspects that Johan is a vampire, but he doesn't think that Johan is a bad guy! He's not afraid of him, even if he is a vampire! If he had wanted Judai dead or if he wanted to drink his blood, he would have by now!

Me: What will happen next? It is one of our favorite chapters! We hope you'll all enjoy it!

Lucy: Please review and we shall update soon!