Chapter 3

Quickly making my way up the steps to Raye's home, I instantly felt more at ease. I could feel the presence of my friends nearby and knew that they would help me figure out what's going on. I let myself into Raye's home at the entrance nearest to her room. As I approached the silkscreen door, I heard a collective giggle from my four best friends. I slowly slid the screen over and let myself into the room.

"There's Serena! Late as usual," Raye chastised playfully.

"Sorry, sorry! I got caught in the rain when I was at the park with Darien and had forgot to pack."

"Hey, girl, no worries! I brought cupcakes!" Lita said, extending the tray of delicious treats towards me.

I gladly took one of the cupcakes that had been carefully decorated with chocolate frosting and a fondant bunny. "I'm assuming that this one is for me," I said, taking a bite into the perfectly baked treat.

Lita nodded, "I made one for each of us that stood for something important to us. It was an assignment for my class."

Lita had been taking an extra curricular baking class at the local college while she awaited beginning classes at the chef school she had been accepted into. The five of us chatted away, catching up on our gossip for the last few days of our high school careers and reminiscing on the times we had spent together. Eventually, Amy asked the question I had been aching to bring up. "Has anyone else got the feeling that something strange is going on? It's as if there is a new evil approaching us."

Raye was the first to agree. "We have had a decrease in the number of patrons at the temple. I did a fire reading recently and got a fuzzy image of what seemed to be a person draining blood from another person."

Mina perked up, "Like, vampires?!"

Raye nodded, "Yes, except the vision seemed to have a different energy than I would expect from a vampire. There was something more happening than simply losing blood."

We all sat contemplating what the new enemy could possibly be. Breaking the silence, we all jumped at the sound of a scream coming from the wishing tree at the front of Raye's family temple. Quickly standing up, I shouted, "I think it's time for us to transform, everyone!" Then, thrusting my hand in the air, I shouted, "Moon Eternal, Make-up!"

The other four quickly did the same, shouting their respective transformation phrases. Once we had all transformed, I felt a jolt of adrenaline as I led the way down the halls to the base of the prayer alter, where a young woman stood, slumped over, her eyes blankly staring ahead of her. She looks like that guy at the rental booth earlier. Maybe he had been attacked, also.

"Show your self, evil being!" Sailor Mars shouted, her fists clenched at her sides.

Sailor Mercury stood beside the victim, checking her pulse. "Her heart is beating so slowly, but with a surge of pressure. It is working very hard to pump what blood she has in her body." She then lowered the victim to the ground, doing her best to make the victim comfortable. "Sailor Mars, do you think we could bring her inide for observation? Maybe we can figure out what happened exactly, if she comes to sometime soon."

Mars nodded, "There is a guest cot in the house. We'll bring her there."

Very carefully, Mercury and Mars lifted the victim and brought her into the house. Venus, Jupiter and I continued scanning the grounds for the perpetrator, but couldn't find any sign of a monster lurking nearby. Apprehensively, I said, "I guess for now we'll just have to wait for the next attack. Whoever, or whatever did this got away this time."

Jupiter and Venus nodded their heads in agreement and Venus said, "Let's see what we can find out from the victim we found. Maybe she'll have a clue as to what happened."

The three of closed our eyes and untransformed, returning to our civilian forms. We then jogged back into the house, where Raye and Amy had returned to their civilian forms and were seated on the floor next to the victim. Amy was checking the young woman's pulse again while Raye carefully arranged a cool washcloth on her forehead. Amy turned her attention towards us as we walked through the silkscreen opening. "Her pulse is beginning to return to a normal pace, but she seems to be a bit feverish now. She has made some movement and sound, but not enough that we can talk to her, yet."

I nodded, desperately thinking of what to do next. "It has been so long since we've faced an enemy, I'm not sure of how to approach the situation any more," I said, crossing my arms across my chest as I took a seat beside Amy. Lita and Mina followed suit and sat on either side of Raye. We all sat in silence for several moments, each of us wearing a contemplative expression. Quite suddenly, the victim stirred and sat up in her cot. We all sat up straight and turned our attention towards her, waiting for what she was going to do next. With a blank stare, she mumbled something, not directed towards any of us.

Amy took hold of the young woman's shoulder, "Hello? Can you tell me your name?"

The girl turned her head towards Amy's voice, still with no expression on her face. "Vi…Vic…Victoria," the girl eventually said, straining to make any sound.

Amy nodded, taking a deep breath as she considered her next question. "How old are you, Victoria?" she eventually said, trying to come up with easier questions.

"Fi..fif…fif…fif…teen," Victoria stammered.

"Okay, good, thank you, Victoria," Amy responded. "Do you know what just happened to you?"

Suddenly, the girl's eyes opened wide, even though they still remained dull and seemingly void of emotion. "Vampire…" she said, certain of herself.

Mina caught her breath and Raye glared at her, as if saying, Don't go and frighten her.

Amy repositioned herself closer to the victim and asked her, "What were you doing when the vampire attacked you?"

"Wishing…" the girl said, pausing for a time, before continuing with, "…for a chance…at winning the championship." The girl then closed her eyes, tears beginning to form. "But, I don't want it anymore. I don't ever want to play sports again."

As she slowly seemed to return to a sense of normality, Amy escorted the girl to the bus stop to return home. In her absence, the rest of us tried to piece together the girl's account of what had happened. Raye was the first to theorize what was happening, "I don't think that is any normal vampire. The girl's blood was certainly drained, but we didn't see any visible bite marks. And she mentioned having a wish, but then came to tears, saying she didn't want it any more." Raye looked up to the rest of us, "Do you think the vampire is taking away a person's dream?"

Mina was the first to respond, "Maybe not a dream, but something smaller."

Lita added, "Maybe motivation? She seemed disenchanted with the idea of playing sports anymore as a whole, not with the specific goal."

The four of us nodded in agreement, then sat in silence as we continued to formulate our hypothesis. Amy returned some time later and we presented what we had thought. She considered the idea for a while and nodded, "It seems plausible. Of course, it is difficult to scientifically measure something like motivation. We'll have to wait for more victims and see what we can find."

With the somber ending to the evening, the five of us decided against our relaxing night of chick flicks and popcorn and instead chose to retire for bed early. In the morning, maybe we could find more answers.