Hey guys, so this is chapter one. The prologue is in third person, but this story will be told through Kerry's eyes. It's not very long, sorry, but I don't think I'll update quickly if I write longer pieces. Enjoy, and please leave me a review with comment and suggestions for the story. Critisism is fine.

Pushing my new bangs out of my eyes, I opened the door and placed my car keys in the basket next to the front door. From the living room, I could hear the voices of Sesame Street mixing with Ian's shrill voice. He was counting to ten along with Count von Count; the vampire Muppet. I smiled at the irony of the situation as I went into the kitchen. Dad was cooking dinner.

"Hey dad, I'm home." I went over and kissed his cheek. He beamed and asked me how school was. I'd had a big Calculus test today. "Not too bad, studying pays off." I said offhandedly. I had always worked hard in school and I had decent grades even if I wasn't valedictorian material.

"Glad it went well, Ker. How about you go wash up? I'm about done. Oh, and did you say hello to Ian? He's been watching TV all afternoon waiting for you."

I shifted uncomfortably; I had only twenty minutes left. "No, I didn't want to bother him. Anyway dad, I think I'm actually going to skip dinner. I met a friend at work and he asked if I wanted to grab some ice-cream." I cringed mentally in my head, I had said he.

Dad turned away from the food, looking at me with a tinge of that worry single-fathers always get when their daughters have a date. Poor thing, his paternal instincts wanted to tie me in the house, but he knew he couldn't without seeming unreasonable. Though technically, I reminded myself, it wasn't a date.

"Oh, with who? Do I know him?"

"Just a guy I know. He's nice dad, you can trust him." I hope.

"When will you be back? Is anyone else going?"

"No just the two of us, and not too long. I won't stay out after curfew." It was only six in the evening, and my curfew was midnight, but it still didn't seem like enough time to catch up with the ghost from my past.

"Well alright, but we'll have to eat dinner without you." He seemed disappointed, defeated. I tried to ignore it. Besides, with any luck, this would be a relatively normal night out. And lately, I didn't go out very often.

"Thanks dad. I'm going to go freshen up, he'll be here soon." Racing upstairs I grabbed my towel and shut the bathroom door tightly. Without waiting for the water to heat up, I rinsed my body and rubbed shampoo and conditioner into my hair, trying to get out all the oils from a long day of school and work. Seven minutes later, I stepped out with a satisfied grin on my face. I do believe it was the fastest shower I have ever taken in my life.

Down to business, I pulled out the blow-dryer and whisked my hair into frenzy. When it turned off, my brown locks fell easily on my shoulders in pretty cascades. I thought about pulling it up in curls but this wasn't a date, and I didn't want his teasing.

I took out a red camisole and pulled a white top over it. Then I tugged on a pair of khaki capris and sandals. After a moment, I applied a bit of eyeliner and a smack of lip gloss. After all, I always wore eyeliner, so tonight wouldn't be any different. I examined myself in the mirror with only a few minutes left to go. I looked pretty enough, but in a casual way, like I wasn't expecting anything but a night out with a friend. Which was exactly the occasion.

I was struck out of my revelries when the doorbell rung; my heart skipped a bit. Raising my head a little, I strode downstairs and went to the door. Ian was straining his head to look up to Michel. He was standing in the door way, leaning against the wooden frame in his jeans and collared shirt. He hand the arms scrunched up to his elbows, just like the guys in a fashion magazine. His dark hair fell in shards across his forehead and he had on that easy-going grin.

After a moment, he broke off his conversation with my baby brother and made eye contact. I love his eyes, but they have this strange, predatory tilt to them that reminds me of what he is.

"Kerry, your friends is here! He said you're going out for ice-cream, can I come too?" Ian asked. I was saved from replying when my dad showed up.

"Actually Ian, I think it's getting too late for you to go out. We're going to have dinner and them you're going to sleep." He said, pulling Ian closer to rumple his hair. Standing up straight he shook hands with Michel. "Hi, I'm Kerry dad. I'm sorry I don't actually know your name, I forgot to ask her." I laughed internally; I forgot to ask him myself.

"That's alright; I'm Christopher, nice to meet you."

"Same. You know, you don't really look like a high schooler, more like some of the students from the university." My dad asked. Why do fathers have to be nosy?

"Actually sir I'm not, but I used to be. I graduated last year; I go to school at York University up in Canada. I'm back to visit my parents who live in town." This is where I stepped in.

"Yeah dad, you've heard of the strikes right? The teachers are on strike so all the classes are canceled. Chris was doing some grocery shopping for his mom when we bumped into each other." Michel nodded at my statement; it wasn't a bad cover up. All those months lying about the Marsala case must have improved my imagination.

"I think I did read about that. Isn't that one of the school you applied to Kerry?"

"Yeah, it was. Anyway dad, I think we should get going. See you later." We said goodbye and walked outside to the car. It was relatively new, beige Camry.

"Nice car."

"Thanks, it was a graduation present." He told me as he went to the driver's seat. I let myself in as well. "Ready for ice-cream?"

"Sure. So, care to finish telling me why you're here?"

"You're impossible."

"It's better than asking about the weather." I countered. He smiled a bit at that as he backed out of the drive way.

"You might not like the answer you know."

"It doesn't matter." I waited for a while, and I was afraid he wasn't going to answer.

"I last saw you about, six months ago. When you asked me if you could leave, I let you, even though you knew our secret, even though you weren't becoming one of us. On hindsight, that was a very stupid thing to do. I decided that I couldn't just forget about you; you're a liability. I should probably just kill you now." He heard my heart beat speed up, so he looked at me, smirking.

"Don't worry; if I wanted to kill you I would have already done it. I wouldn't wait until you went home and changed. But you see, I have to break my promise because I can't let you go. That is to say, you can live you're life as you are now but I'm going to keep stopping by to make sure I can trust you."

"Not that I want you to change you're mind, but why go through all that trouble, why not kill me and make life simple?" I asked, nervous regardless of his assurances. We had already arrived at the restaurant, but we still sat their in the car, in the parking lot.

"I'm a vampire Kerry, there is little that I haven't seen or done. Life can be very dull, sometimes. What happened before was not an ordinary circumstance; life for me isn't a giant game of cat and mouse.

"One thing that I've seldom seen is a human who tried to help one of our kind, even after knowing the true. One thing I've never done is become friends with a human. They never live long and they don't know about us at all.

"Now however, I find myself in a bizarre situation. You know who I am, but you aren't scarred of me, much. See, if I'm going to check up on you anyway, I thought we could try and be friends instead of my stalking you in the shadows. It'll be something new, do you understand?" He told me, watching my confused expression.

"I know what you're saying, even if I still don't know why you want to be friends." I laughed, I feel like I'm a science experiment."

"I guess you can look at it in that way. Now, do you want to eat or not?" He said as he got out of the car. I followed him to the restaurant door.

Tada. Enjoy, sorry if I don't update often. I'm always busy and I'm always traveling. In fact, I just recently moved back to Europe. Give me a review and I post more frequently.

~Vine