Author's Note: This chapter is beta'd by Viking Rule. Thanks, Luv!

Tid-bits: Anton Yelchin (the Wiktor-Wiktor boy from Star Trek - my inspiration for the name Viktor) plays in a remake of Fright Night, my very first vampire movie. It scared the hell out of me when I watched it back then. For a long time, Chris Sarandon was my ideal vampire. Dark, handsome, and mysterious... until Max Schreck came along. Anyway, just for fun, I think it's worth to see Anton and Colin (Farrell) in Fright Night!

Chapter Two

Jason Stackhouse

Blood. Everywhere. On the ceiling, on the sofa, on her hand. Blood, blood, blood.

Arlene opened her eyes and screamed. She grabbed the first thing that she saw (which was a pillow in a black silk cover). She held the pillow close to her chest and desperately hoped that her heart would beat slower.

Vampire, werewolf, witches... no, they didn't exist. It was only two days of pranks created by Selah. No, no...she looked around. Where was she?

She was in a room, on a bed with black silk sheet. On her left side was a rough cut closet, on her right was a kind of small minibar. Right in front of her was a huge flat screen TV with a home sound systems. Some paces away from the bed was a window. The sunlight went through the window and fell to the floor, created shadow from the curtain motive that covered the glass. A woman, a man and a unicorn... or perhaps a deer.

Good. She wasn't in that hell anymore...but if she wasn't in that hell anymore, and she was definitely not at home...where was she? And did it mean those two days were real?

She threw away the pillow and touched her neck. Her heart sank as her hand touched something cold around her neck. Holly's necklace was there. So, it wasn't a prank...moment, ah-ah, it might still be a prank if...she lifted her t-shirt... good, no bruises. Thank, Jesus! As much as she enjoyed having sex with Eric or Viktor or whoever that son of a bitch was... she couldn't, didn't want to imagine that what he had told her was true.

Selah! Aaargh, if she could lay her hand on her neck, she would break it! She swore!

"Ehm...Arlene...Mrs. Fowler...,"

Arlene leapt from the bed. A pair of beautiful blue eyes were staring at her. For a second she thought it was Eric, but when her senses returned to her, she knew, it wasn't. He couldn't be. It's bright day and vampires couldn't walk around during the day.

"Mr. Stackhouse?" said Arlene, almost screaming. She's at Jason Stackhouse's place - her client, who had been found naked and suffering from 'amnesia' (he claimed not to remember a thing on the previous night)? Dear Lord, this was worse than she thought. What if Jason Stackhouse did something to her and he claimed not remember (again)?

"I ain't do nothing to you, Ma'am, swear to God!" he lifted his hand.

"How did I get here?" she asked.

"You were brought here by …. a friend."

"Who?"

He moved his head, scratched his wavy dark blond hair, but nothing came out.

"Who, Jason? I am still your lawyer! If you involved in any of this, I swear...,"

"Sam Merlotte."

"What? Sam Merlotte? My secretary...?"

"Yes, Ma'am...and I ain't lyin'!"

"You and Sam...are friends?"

"Since he paid my bail, yeah...look Ma'am...he came here early in the morning and asked me to keep an eye on you."

"Where are we? This is not your apartment, is it?"

"No, it's my Gran's place...but she ain't live here anymore. It's my sister's now, and she's out of town for some days."

"And you didn't tell me? We're supposed to always stay contact, otherwise it won't look good if the court finds out that I am unaware of your whereabouts."

"I ain't trying to run away, Ma'am. I just need time to think. I want to know what happened to me. I feel...lost, if you know what I mean."

Yes, she knew what he meant. She also wanted to know what was going on. "How did it all start?" she thought, but it seemed it was an out loud thought because Jason answered her,

"I don't know, Ma'am. I remembered coming home late from work about four months ago. It was cold and I was hungry. So I thought, I'd take a short cut through Hotshot woods...well, it's not exactly woods, but you know...,"

"Yes, I know." Hotshot woods were actually just a park in the Hotshot area, a suburban area on the west side of the city. It is a nice place for little picnics, or simply to lay down on the grass and read some books. But not in the night time, people said. There are strange creatures that appear in the park, especially during the full moon. Some claimed to see panthers, and the other claimed to see wolves. Yeah, right, in the middle of the city... panthers, wolves...

"I remember...you have to promise not to laugh, Ma'am...,"

"I promise."

"I remember...seeing a panther."

'Et tu, Jason?' was the first sentence that popped up in her head, but her own experience of being attacked by werewolves (at least that's what Eric told her) stopped her abruptly. "And?"

"I ran... I remember seeing it jump right at me, and then next thing I know, I was at the hospital. I had been attacked by a drunkard and found by a man named Mel Hart. The doctors said that I was lucky to be found by Mel, otherwise I'd be dead already.

"Since then it's happened. I lost my memory quite often. And it's getting weird... I can't touch silver anymore." He showed me his palms. There were some nasty burnt on those palms.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. I wanted to clean Gran's silver candle holders and suddenly, I got these." He rubbed his nose. "If you ask me, Mrs. Fowler, I prefer to be locked up. Because I don't want to run around doing things I might regret and don't remember anything about it."

Arlene held her breath. If he was wounded because of having contact with silver or silver covered stuff...could it be that he was... a werewolf? She grabbed her necklace. Suddenly she hoped that Eric was there. She knew it was crazy, but somehow she felt she could trust him. He had had a chance to kill her – sucked her dry or did whatever vampires normally did, but he didn't. He didn't even bite her on the neck. She didn't know what he had done to her in the bathroom, and frankly, she didn't want to know, at least not right now; but she knew, Eric didn't hurt her.

The door was suddenly open and a head popped up. "Oh, I didn't know you were having company." A man in his twenties, wearing jeans, a bright orange t-shirt and a jean jacket. His hair was black, and it seemed he misunderstood how you used hair gel, because the amount that he put on his head, Arlene believed could be used for at least a week or more. He had long eye-lashes and light brown eyes, so light that they looked yellowish. Somehow, they reminded her of the eyes of a cat.

"She's my lawyer," said Jason.

"Oh, you're Mrs. Fowler," he reached out his hand. "I am Mel Hart. Anything I can do to help, Ma'am. I'm even willing to testify on his behalf."

"Well, thank you, Mr. Hart. That would be very helpful."

Somehow it made him sympathetic to Jason's plight. It's not easy these days to get somebody to testify on your behalf. Either they just don't care, or they don't want to get involved. For heaven's sake, don't get involved and don't let anybody interrupt your routine schedule. It's like helping another fellow human being is a nuisance and should be avoided as often as possible.

But as they talked at the table and drank some coffee, Arlene noticed that Mel Hart was being too helpful. His amber eyes fixed on Jason, following every move his face was making, laughing at the jokes, which sometimes were not funny...and the way he stroked Jason's hand somehow it was...creepy. Was Mel in love with Jason?

"Tell me, Jason," Arlene decided it was about the time she got some information about Sam and how she had been brought there. "How do you know Sam? Did you work together somewhere?"

"No, Ma'am. I ain't that kind of type, I guess."

"That kind of type?"

Jason sipped his coffee and grinned, "You know, being a secretary, being bossed around by some woman...now, don't get me wrong, Ma'am, I like you, I mean, I think you're a good lawyer... but it ain't in my nature to sit behind the desk and listen to a woman yapping...I mean talking...,"

"All right, Jason, I think I get what you mean," Arlene snapped him. She's really not that interested in listening to his argument on why he didn't want to be bossed around. "So, how d'you know each other?"

"It seems since I've got attacked, I became lucky somehow."

"What do you mean?"

"I got to know Mel (Mel's eyes flickered when he heard that. For a moment his irises' changed into slits, like cat's eyes catching some bright light.) Then, I got to know Sam. He introduced me to Alcide and some other guys. I was kinda broke two months ago, ain't got no job anymore and Alcide offered me a job in his construction company."

"So when Sam asked you to help him helping me...,"

"I said yes, no question asked."

"Not even wondering what happened to me?"

"Oh, I asked that all right. I am having enough problems with the law already, I don't need to add some more."

"What did Sam say?"

"He said that somebody had robbed you and smashed your apartment. You'd needed a place to stay for a while, at least until he could figure out what was going on and where was a safe place, and you should stay here."

Well, more or less like that, yeah. But Arlene didn't agree with the idea she should stay in a stranger's house. "Did he say when he would come?"

"As soon as he can," Jason stood up. "That's why I asked you to come, Mel."

Mel looked at him.

"I got to go to work, and Sam said you shouldn't be left alone, Arlene." Jason turned to Arlene. "Mel will be here and keep you company."

"I thought you were going to...," Mel smiled. Clearly, he looked disappointed. "Never mind, sure, why not."

"I'll need some fresh clothes," said Arlene. She sniffed her t-shirt and cursed herself when she felt her heart beat faster as she caught a familiar smell. Eric's cologne. Her t-shirt must have caught it when they had been on the bed. Suddenly a crazy thought, or more a hope, came to her mind. Perhaps, her t-shirt hadn't caught it. Perhaps, it was because Eric carried her out of the bathroom, put her t-shirt on and then carried her to wherever his destination was.

"You can borrow my sister's clothes. She's younger than you, Arlene, but believe me, she dresses up like an old woman...oh shit... not that I am saying you're old...,"

From the corner of her eye, Arlene saw Mel trying to disguise his smile.

"You just wait here, Arlene, please. Sam said so."

Sam said so and she had to follow as simple as that. Huh, she must have be living in a kind of parallel world now, where Sam was the boss and she was the secretary, where there was no vampire, werewolf and other creatures!

Jason went to the room beside the bedroom.

"How long do you think you're gonna stay here, Arlene?"

Wow, that was straight to the point, thought Arlene. "Not too long, I hope," she said. "I want to get back to work as soon as possible."

Mel rolled his smile. Somehow it made him cute. Arlene smiled back. He couldn't help himself, she's supposed. He's in love with Jason, and the presence of another person – a woman, with the assumption that Jason was straight (or bisexual, otherwise Mel would've reacted towards her differently); would lower his chance.

"I can accompany you if you want to go back to your place," he drank his coffee. "You shouldn't be alone, that's what this Sam person said. It doesn't mean that you can't go anywhere else if you're with somebody."

Oh, that's pushing it and a bit desperate.

Jason went out of his room. On his shoulder was a dark green back pack. "Don't listen to him, Arlene," he came to Mel and messed his hair. "The last time I listened to him, I ended up almost naked in a strip joint. And still, he didn't want to tell me what the fuck I had been smoking!"

"Oh, you want to know, all right! You want to have it again! I told you, Jason, it's a new merchandise and it will cost you a fortune. You'll end up being stripped if you continue doing it and without being paid!"

"Boys, whatever you get yourselves into...I don't want to know," said Arlene. "I have enough problems as it is, and frankly Jason, the next time you hire me, it will cost you a fortune."

"That's why you shouldn't listen to him, Arlene. He does nothing but drag you into problems!"

"You make it sound as if it was a bad thing," Mel grinned widely.

"Yeah, yeah...," Jason waved and walked to the door. "Just stay put, Arlene. You'll be safe here." He opened the door, but then, he stopped. "That's weird," he said.

"What?" The grin on Mel's face was disappeared. He became alerted.

Arlene's skin crawled. She had seen that kind of gesture before...on the men who came to her apartment with Jackson Hervaux. The balled fist, the eyes...

"That black car," said Jason without turning. "I saw it last night shortly after Sam had left. Ah, maybe it's only...no, that's the same Harley too...,"

Arlene and Mel went to Jason. Mel stood beside him, and Arlene stood behind Jason and peeped. She didn't see any car, but she could see a Harley Davidson motorcycle passing by.

"I wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't because of the Harley. And early this morning, I swore I heard the Harley passing by the house."

"They come from Mississippi," said Mel.

"Mississippi?" Arlene straightened her body.

"Yeah, Biloxi is on its license plate."

Biloxi, as Mel said it, is the Biloxi Lighthouse. It is a lighthouse in the City of Biloxi – Mississippi. Besides as a symbol of the city's resolve and resilience post Katrina, it's also used as the slogan or type on the license plates.

"How can you see it? The car and the Harley are already far away. I don't see a thing."

"I just do," said Mel. "Trust me, they're from Mississippi."

Mississippi...where had she heard that place before...of course she knew where Mississippi was and she heard it before...but recently...she heard somebody mention that name recently...dear Lord. Bobby Burnham. He said something about familiar faces from Mississippi.

Arlene's heart beat crazily. "I have to leave," she said. "I can't stay here."

"What?" Both Jason and Mel were looking at her.

"Those men...they know; they're looking for me. They know I am here."

-1-