I had no money on me, the only option was either to sleep outside, which didn't sound very inviting due to the rain that was slowly turning into a stormy, or finding someone else to let me crash at their place.
Of course I hoped the second option would work out. I tried as best as I could to remember where Eve's house was. By the time I found it I was drenched. I knocked on the door, hoping they were still up. Eventually the door opened, revealing a tired looking Eve.
"Emma! What're you doing here?" She asked, suddenly looking more awake. The she grabbed my arm and dragged me inside. "Why aren't you at home?"
"Something... happened. I can't go back. I tried Jason's first but he's not talking to me, apparently." I said quietly. As long as I didn't say the words out loud, they weren't real. She wsan't really dead.
"You didn't bring anything with you?" She asked, directing me to the kitchen. She put a pot of coffee on.
"I wasn't really able to."
"Come upstairs with me. You need to get into some dry clothes." She said, and headed upstairs. I followed close behind.
Eve's bedroom was exactly what you would expect it to be, goth galore. Not that it wasn't cool, because it totally was. How was I noticing things like this when- No. Not thinking about that.
"Have you spoken to your brother?" I asked while Eve rummaged through her closet.
"Not since we left Common Grounds. You were great, by the way." She said with a smile. "You and Michael should totally do a duet sometime. You guys would sound amazing."
I just nodded in response. Nothing about tonight mattered, except what happened after leaving Common Grounds. While I was busy singing and making out with Richard my house was burning down and my mother... Oh god. My body started shaking again.
I tried calming down before Eve looked up from her closet. I managed too, but just barely.
"Here." She said, handing me a small black t-shirt with a heart with fangs on it and a pair of black satin pajamas. "This is the most normal thing I have. Other than this pink shirt but... I thought this was better."
"It's great." I told her with a small smile. I left her room and went to the bathroom. Thankfully her house was set up just like mine so it was no trouble finding my way around. I put on the clothes and didn't even look in the mirror to see if they looked okay.
I went back into Eve's room when I was done. "Good, they fit." She said. "There's some blankets and stuff in the closet. I'll go get them and you can sleep on the couch, okay?"
I nodded. It was weird to have someone being so nice to me and not even questioning why I wasn't staying at home. I was glad. I really didn't want to talk about it. Ever.
I followed Eve downstairs and laid down once the couch/bed was made. Eve turned off the lights and went upstairs. Sleeping was surprisingly easy. Within minutes I was fast asleep.
I woke up to the sound of the television. I could faintly here the words.
"... fire taking the life of Janie Rainn and her unborn child. Police say that the man living in the house was severely burnt but managed to make it out alive and was now in intensive care." Said the news ladies voice from not far away. "In other news-"
Someone had changed the channel. I opened my eyes and sat up. My back hurt. Couches were not comfortable. Shane was sitting in the chair to my left, watching the TV.
"So," He said, not looking me in the eye. "Is that why you're here?"
"I had nowhere else to go." I said quietly. "Everything's... gone..."
"I know. Trust me." He said, equally quietly.
"God, it's so dark in here." Eve said, coming into the living room. She went to the window and pulled back the curtains. "There we-"
"What the hell is that?" Shane asked suddenly, moving towards the window.
"How's your mommy?" It read in bright red... something.
I stared horrified at the words. "Oh, my god." I said quietly.
Shane got off the couch and went outside. Eve and I watched silently as he scrubbed the letters off the window. When he got back in Eve asked him, "Who would do something like that?"
"I think I know." I said slowly. "And I think that the fire wasn't an accident."
Eve and Shane both looked at me with blank expressions on their faces. I quickly explained to them about the vampire who had stalked me at Jason's house and wrote things on the window.
"Do you know his name?" Shane asked me, looking pissed.
I shook my head. "We could ask Jason? He seen him as well." But I didn't really feel like seeing Jason. Yet I wanted something done about this. someone can't just... people don't just... Someone can't just burn down other people's houses and take everything they loved away from them.
"We should go talk to him." Eve said and stood up. "Shane, you can stay here."
Shane looked like he was going to protest but then decided that it was actually a good idea.
"I'll get my keys." Eve said and left the room.
"I think your brother hates me." I told Eve as we were driving to Jason's.
"Why?" She asked, looking utterly confused.
"I... I don't know." I said sadly.
"Jason's temperamental. He'll get over it. Don't worry." She said with a smile.
"You know, when I went there last night he just... pushed me away." I told her. "Shut his door right in my face."
"Did you tell him what happened?" She asked.
"I didn't have time to..."
Eve bit her lip, looking unsure of whether to say what she was thinking. "Do you want to talk about it?" She finally asked.
I shook my head quickly. "No. Not yet. If i talk about it... it'll just become that more real, you know?"
She nodded. "My dad recently passed. We weren't that close anymore, but he was still my dad, you know?"
I didn't know that. For a second I wondered why Jason never mentioned it, but then I realized that there was no reason for him to discuss things like that with me.
We pulled up in front of Jason's house. I let Eve be the one to knock on the door and held back a little. When he answered he looked like he was in a bad mood.
"What, Eve?" He said sourly.
"Can we come in?" She said, and gestured to both of us.
Jason glared at me, but walked away leaving the door open for us to come in.
Eve and I sat down on the couch but Jason chose to stand. "What do you want?" He asked.
"The name of the vampire that's been stalking Emma. She's too new here to know their names yet." Eve said calmly. It was surprising how calm she was considering Jason's bad mood and my permanant state of shock.
"I don't know it. I haven't really seen him around before." He said slowly. "Why?"
"Because we think he's the one responsible for killing Emma's mother in the fire last night.