"No! You've got it all wrong! It was the Hylden who gave the Vampires that curse!" I sighed, exasperated, shifting my seat on the ground, and picking another sharp sticker seed out of my shoe.

"Oh! I remember now!" She exclaimed.

"Okay, let's review. What do you remember?" She had a habit of getting distracted easily, and usually forgot the really important things.

She scrunched her face up, concentrating. "Um... so there was the vampires and the hylden. Right? And there was peace and all that. Then the squid thingy started talking to them, and told them to go and kill off the hylden. And...um...the-uh..." She trailed off, messing around with her piece of bamboo.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling another headache coming on. '(sigh) Oh boy...' "Let's try this again. The elder squid started talking to the Vampires, and made them into religious zealots. Then he told them to start a huge holy war because the Hylden went against what they believed in. Kind of like the wars between the alien covenant and the humans. Because these races were so advanced, they were trapped in a bit of a draw for a few thousand years. So to end it, both sides started developing super weapons. For the Hylden, it was the Mass. You remember that right? From Blood Omen 2? In the Hylden city?"

She got all excited. "That thing that-"

"The huge creature?"

"Yeah! And it-"

"The heart looking thingy?"

"Uh huh! With the-"

"Yep. It was like a brainless animal, but it had a lot of untapped power."

"Wait-a-minute...Oh! You mean that thing!"

"What other huge heart-like creature could you be talking about? What in the heck have you been playing?! Anyway, to control the damned thing, they built the device. It would allow them to order the creature to wipe out everything except for them. The Vampires' super weapon was the pillars, and from then it was a race to see who would finish first."

I fiddled around with my 'sword', which was just a piece of bamboo about an arm's-length, split down the middle until the very last section, making a handle. Me and my reluctant roommate had been play fighting to relieve some stress. She had wanted to throw in some acting, and I charged her with making up the scenario. Of course, as unimaginative as she was, she suggested something that we did last summer, when my cousins were visiting. It required way too many people, and it had the overused concept of 'light vs. dark'. No way. Dragon people? Nope, that was my idea, and I didn't want her to completely mangle it. So I had to break down the story making process for her. Then we made a complete turn around, and she suggested Vampires and Hylden. It was the most brilliant thing she had said all day.

Although, when she started making up the story, she completely borked the cannon, and the very laws of logic. She started rambling about a Hylden calling backup, mobbing the vampire (which happened to be my character) and turning it into one of them. And then she admitted she had no idea as to why the fight started in the first place.

So here I was, giving out a lesson on 'a brief history of Nosgoth', usually having to repeat myself fifteen frickin' times because she was too distracted banging her staff on the ground. 'Why do I even put up with this?!'

"So, you see why they hate each other's guts?"

"Yep."

I sighed, relieved. I really wanted to speed this up, so I just gave a quick outline of what was supposed to happen, and just what time period it was.

"Alright, so you know what's going to happen, right?"

She nodded. "Right."

We stood there for a few seconds, before she got distracted by a tree. While she was standing there, picking at the bark, I took the opportunity to sneak off.

It was nighttime, and I felt completely in my element. I started sneaking around the small buildings in our backyard, peeking around corners, sinking into shadows, and playing small games of cat and mouse around the sheds. There was a really tiny tin roof shed, that used to house the water pump. There was a slightly larger metal shed that had the lawn mower in it off to the side, and the biggest shed sat just behind the pump house.

I had to be careful when I moved from behind a building, because there was a slightly smaller version of a streetlamp on one side of the yard with a recently changed light bulb, and a slightly older spotlight coming from the other side. If I was caught in the light, my shadow would spread across the entire yard, and she would see me.

Every time she went around another corner, she jumped out and shouted a weak war cry, swinging her staff wildly, expecting me to be there. It only made it easier for me, because I always knew exactly where she was.

I was highly amused and exhilarated, the thrill of the chase (although slightly hampered by the fact that I was toying with someone who wasn't all that good at these games) making everything sharper, more vivid.

A slightly giddy feeling welled up in my chest, and I suppressed the urge to giggle to myself.

I was actually hunting.

'Who's the Vampire?'

I'm the Vampire.

'Who's the Vampire!?'

I'm the Vampire!

'That's right.'

I made a wide arc around her, crouching low to the ground, keeping the noise to a minimum.

Heart pounding and breath barely contained, I snuck closely behind her, following her silently. She stopped suddenly, just as I took a step, crushing dry leaves and dead grass beneath my feet.

I held my breath, hoping she didn't hear me. I saw her shadow turn around, and I made a run for it, dashing behind a tree before she could round the corner. I knew that she probably heard what general direction I went in, so I slowly made my way to the side of the house, where the spotlights couldn't touch me, and sank into the shadows behind the air conditioning unit. I smothered my heavy breathing as she approached, trying to hide my presence.

She followed my path, but walked right by me and into the front yard, while I was hiding in plain sight at her feet.

Grinning slyly, I rose from my spot and dashed into the backyard, glancing behind me and tittering to myself at her foolishness.

Here is where I would insert that cryptic statement about how I was the fool. Which isn't too far from the truth, actually.

Out of breath, I stumbled back behind the largest shed, giggling freely now. Not looking where I was going, I backed up behind another corner, and slammed into something rigid. Before I could turn around, a hand clamped over my mouth and yanked me forcefully into the cramped darkness of the old pump house.

I inhaled sharply through my nose, suppressing a shout of surprise. My panic bubbled at the bottom of my gut, threatening to overwhelm me.

"Don't. Move." Someone rasped from behind me, pulling me tightly to them.

My heart hammered in my chest, and I could just barely hear my roommate's shouts of surrender floating in from outside. I jumped slightly in their grasp when I heard her scream, and his hand tightened over my mouth.

There was a deafening silence, save for the thundering of blood in my ears.

After what felt like a maddeningly long amount of time, I calmed down enough to think of some kind of action. I slowly reached for my jacket pocket, wrapping my fingers around the handle of my four inch flip-knife, silently thanking myself for leaving it opened.

I had gotten it at christmas from my father, so I wouldn't have to use his knives whenever I wanted to cut down a few stalks of bamboo for play weapons or crafts. I had always kept it with me ever since the attack by that strange demon, and I always left it open. Plenty of things could happen in the few seconds I would be afforded to open it. Better safe than sorry.

I gripped it firmly, before pulling back and quickly sinking it into (what I hoped was) my attacker's side with a hollow thump.

They released me immediately, grunting in pain. When I was free, I jerked the knife to the side before pulling it out, hoping to slow them down some, and bolted out the open doorway.

I refused to be one of the dumb broads from the horror films who died early because of stupidity.

"No! Wait! Don't go out there!" He shouted after me, but I ignored him. I didn't look back.

I went around the side of the house, heading for the front yard. I went off to the side, and into the neighbors' front yard, before dashing across the street, and into the thick forests.

I mentally smacked myself. 'You dumb ass! What if his buddies are hiding in there! What if you trip? They're way faster than you and you know it!'

I ignored the nagging voice in the back of my head, way too scared to think about little details like that. I felt the previously warm blood coating my hand start to dry, and the cool, pre-spring winds whipped at my face as I ran. I stumbled a few times on the uneven ground, feeling every little twinge and pull of tendon and muscle as I refused to slow, small cuts and bruises gathering on my legs from the dry underbrush.

My lungs burned with the demand of air, the dry spot in the back of my throat breaking out into a full irritation, threatening to stall me with coughing.

I could hear something behind me, and I was tempted to glance back.

'No! Just keep running!'

After a bit, the strain became too great, and my full-blown sprint turned into a sloppy jog.

I finally broke through the other side of the forest and into the street, heading straight for another yard. I ran into the side of another house, a dull thud going up the side of the wall as I collapsed against it. My heavy breathing gave way to a hacking cough, and my vision blurred slightly, exhaustion looming over me.

Still painfully alert from the fading adrenaline rush, my ears picked up something coming from the tree line. I snapped my head up just in time to see a figure making it's way across the street, it's movement hindered slightly.

Eyes wide with panic, I scrambled to my feet, and attempted to keep running. Limbs laden with exhaustion, I made a misstep, twisting my foot underneath me as it landed. I crumbled to the ground in a heap, shaking, hissing through my teeth.

Watching with ever-growing panic, I tried to drag myself out into the open yard as the figure had gotten closer and closer.

There was a sudden rush of air above me, and large, sharp talons dug into my sides, plucking me up from the ground.

He ran right into the middle of the yard, his features plain now. Pale skin, strangely bright, gold eyes...

'He's not human, is he?'

As the surrounding area slowly got smaller and I was lifted into the air, I could hear his shouts as he called after me.

"You fool!"

His other exclamations were lost in the rushing wind, and the deafening screech that sounded above me.

'Okay. That was stupid. If you would have thought about it just a bit longer, you would have noticed that perhaps if he was trying to hurt you, he would have done so by then. Did it ever occur that maybe he was hiding from something? And that maybe he might have been doing you some kind of favor by pulling you out from the open so that one of these things couldn't get you? What is this thing any-...Oh my.'

I craned my head and looked up, gasping slightly as I was greeted by the sight of a large, plated underside, the talons digging into me coated with scales.

'Oh we are so screwed.'

Another thunderous roar issued from above, and I winced, waiting for the ringing in my ears to subside.