Well, the good news is that I went on a bit of a writing spree on Saturday, and am currently working on my rough draft of Chapter 16. The bad news is that I've been too busy these past couple of days to upload. But, lo and behold, some free time, and I shall use it to give you some more of my story.

This chapter's a little long, but it is important. Some pretty significant advances in the Sora-Kairi relationship here.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

I felt like I had bridged another gap by telling her how I had gotten to investigating the supernatural. I think the feeling was mutual; one evening, two days later, I managed to get some more information out of her.

"So, feel like telling me anything about your past life as a vampire?" I asked.

She looked at me, and didn't say anything at first. I assumed that meant that her response was what it usually was: no. But then, she surprised me. "I'll see what I can do," she said.

I blinked. "What's that mean?"

"It means that I'll tell you a bit, and see how much I end up telling you."

I was pleasantly surprised. "Okay. Great."

She took a breath. "Right, so you know how I became a vampire—at least, you know as much as I do."

"Uh-huh."

"After that, I found myself waking up in an alleyway, at night. Right away, I knew something was different. I felt…well, it's difficult to describe. I didn't know what I had become until after I got up and started walking around. I caught my reflection in a nearby window, and…" She paused. "The pale skin, the red eyes, the fangs…I was able to guess. It wasn't a pleasant revelation."

I nodded. "I can imagine."

"At first, I was barely able to believe it, but when I realized that it made sense…well, I didn't react too well." She seemed uncomfortable and moved on. "Eventually, I accepted my lot…but I…" She took a breath. "I didn't want to become a killer."

Failed on that one, sneered the part of my mind that was unsympathetic to her. I ignored it, as I had been doing a lot the past several days. "Right."

"But I had to get blood somehow."

"Yeah."

"So I just went after animals. It was difficult until I realized my hypnotization powers."

"Uh-huh."

She looked at me. "What are you, a yes-man? Just agreeing with everything I say?"

"Sorry. Would you prefer that I disagreed?"

She didn't answer, and went back to her story. "So, that worked out well for a while. But I began to miss human company. So I decided to head back home. I thought my parents might, if I talked with them for a while and convinced them of what had happened, help me out." Her face grew solemn. "It took me a little while to figure out where I was, and a while longer to get back to my hometown. But when I did…" She paused. "They were older to begin with, and the shock of losing me had hit them hard. And I was away for longer than I thought. I guess they just…had deteriorated."

So, she was an orphan, too. "I'm sorry to hear that."

She nodded. "Yeah. You'd know how hard it is. And so I wasn't sure who to turn to. Eventually, I sought out my best friend, hoping that, with her help, I could make sense of what had happened to me.

"As I looked for her, I ran into some other people, and thought that they would freak out at the sight of me. But they didn't, and I realized that I looked normal in the sunlight. So I managed to find my friend, who was working at the campaign office for a local candidate. She was shocked to see me; she hadn't known what had happened to me, and wasn't expecting me to just turn up again. I asked to see her privately, and she agreed."

Her face became melancholy. "We went to an empty room, and by that time, the effect of the sunlight had worn off, and my red eyes, pale skin, and fangs were visible. My friend nearly had a heart attack, and ran off screaming. I tried to go after her, but only scared the other people in the building. They looked at me with nothing but terror in their eyes, and I…" She paused. "I realized I couldn't go back to my old life."

She became silent. After a few seconds, she added, "That's all for today."

I was a little disappointed that I would have to wait for the rest of the story, but accepted it; it seemed to be a tough emotional moment for her. "All right. Well, thank you for telling me what you did."

"Sure."

The next evening, I probed her for some more information, and she agreed to continue her story. "After my encounter with my friend, I wandered for a while in despair. Eventually, I became determined to get out again and meet people. So I stole some makeup, and went out to bars in order to socialize." She made a face. "Didn't much like the drinks, though.

"I tried some other places, too, and realized that I could hypnotize people into not noticing my…non-human characteristics. So I did, and that worked out okay. Except that I was never really interacting with the people, just hypnotized versions of them. But I didn't see any other way. And so I had to contend myself with meeting hypnotized people and drinking animal blood. Not to mention sleeping in uncomfortable places.

"There was one time when I tried to hypnotize a guy, but it didn't work. I was perplexed; I had never not been able to hypnotize anyone before. Then, I found out that he had been wearing contacts…"

She broke off and looked at me. "Ohhhh, of course. That's how you've been able to escape my hypnosis, isn't it? You've got contacts." She frowned. "But you said you didn't have eye problems, when we first met."

I nodded. "I noticed how that had been clever of you." I decided I might as well tell her; there wasn't much I was keeping from her these days. "These are colored contacts. I bought them right before we met."

"Huh." She frowned. "I have to admit, that's pretty smart."

"Thanks."

She grinned. "Don't get used to it." She continued with her story. "He got freaked out and ran, and I got out of there. They didn't initiate a statewide manhunt for me, so I guess his story wasn't viewed as all that credible. But after that, I got some sunglasses, and a scarf, to cover myself up in case hypnotization wouldn't work."

Her face grew sour. "Then, one day—I remember it well, it was June 24, 2007. I was walking in a park, and met this guy. I tried to start a conversation, but he seemed wary for some reason. I guessed that he just wasn't interested in talking with a stranger, and started to leave.

"Then, he stopped me, and before I knew what he was doing, tore off my sunglasses. I tried to hypnotize him, but it didn't work. And that's when I found out he was a warlock, and had cast spells to warn him of impending danger. He knew some things about vampires, so between his spells and intelligence, he guessed what I was." Her tone grew contemptuous. "He antagonized me, calling me an unnatural killer and a blight upon the world. When I tried to tell him that I hadn't killed anyone, he laughed. He said that one such as me could not pursue that way of life.

"I was getting upset, so I tried to leave. He called after me, threatening to come after me later with some of his friends." She snarled. "He was a real asshole."

"Sounds like it," I said. I was getting a sense of where this was going, but let her continue.

"His words stuck with me, and I began to sort of believe them. I did feel like I was missing something, the way I had been living. Maybe it was that, as a vampire, I needed to kill humans in order to survive. And it brought back the memories of how my friend from home hadn't even tried to look past my vampirism. I began to think that the role of a vampire was to be a dark creature of terror.

"The next day, the warlock returned, with two other warlocks. Both, like him, thought I was a monster and had to be eliminated. They came after me with silver."

She paused. I guessed this part was particularly painful for her. "It burned," she said. "And…I snapped. I don't think they were really expecting me to strike back."

She fell silent again, while I processed this information. So, it had been a warlock who had influenced her, and made her feel like she did? And she had killed him.

She spoke again. "After that…it just became so much easier. I began to view myself as purely a creature of darkness, living in the shadows, an enemy of humans. And I began to hunt. I switched locations frequently, so there wouldn't be too many disappearances in the same area. And I came here, to the city, almost two months ago." She paused. "I've killed four people here alone. I've lost count of how many altogether. They've just…blended together." She blinked, and I'm pretty sure I saw tears in her eyes. "You were right. I never thought about who I was killing. I was just looking for people to feed off of."

For a moment, I was speechless. Had she just admitted the wrongness of her previous actions? She seemed to have regretted them previously, but she had never actually said that they were wrong. But if, now, she was willing to admit that she shouldn't have done what she did…We were making some real progress. "It's good that you realize that," I finally said.

She blew out a breath. "All right, so there you have it. That's why I killed people. You wanted to know, and now you do."

This was an important revelation. So she had been labeled as a killer, and, because of those perceptions, had become one. It didn't quite excuse what she had done, but it explained it. "Thank you for being willing to tell me," I said. "It means a lot."

"Well, you've been all right these past few days," she said. "I figured there was no harm."

I nodded. "You're right. In fact, it helps me to understand you better." I thought. "I wonder how many other vampires there are who feel like they have to kill."

"But what good does it do?" she asked. "Even if we don't feel like we have to kill people in order to survive, we still go on living eternally. We can't live normal lives. We can't age. We can't grow old with anyone, or anything like that. If we try to blend in, we have to go to great lengths to disguise ourselves." Her face hardened, and I guessed she was trying not to cry. "From the moment we're transformed, we have two options: live outside of human society, or die." She let out a humorless laugh. "I've hated living in stagnation, even for only twelve years. So much so that a part of me actually wanted you to shoot me, that night, so that my life could finally move on."

I felt a great pang of sympathy for this creature: condemned to an eternal life of walking the night, feeding on other living creatures, unable to interact normally with humans. "No doubt, that is difficult," I said.

Then, a thought occurred to me. Was it possible for a vampire to revert back to a human? Theoretically, that would require the removal of the vampire blood from the body. It would be exceedingly difficult, though; the vampire blood would be mixed into her body, and I couldn't think of a way to get rid of it without draining her entire body of blood, which would kill her.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing." I didn't want to give her false hope; it was entirely possible (and very probable) that there was no known way of returning a vampire to a human. She didn't quite believe me, I could tell, but didn't question me further. "So, then, most of your animosity towards humans stems from this one warlock?"

She nodded. "I think he was more of a catalyst, though. People had feared me before, and I was feeling more and more separate from them the more I stayed away. Then, they brought hatred and violence into the mix. I guess I internalized the thought that that was how humans in general would react."

"I haven't."

"You did at first."

This was true. "I'm sorry," I said.

She shrugged. "I suppose I did give you reason to do so."

"Well, maybe." I looked at her. "But that's over now. I've put in effort getting to know you, and I'm really glad I did, because now, my perception of you has completely changed. You're no longer the vampire I once accused of being murderous. Now, you have a real personality. You get sad, and once had people that you loved. And maybe you still do."

I hesitated, unsure of how to word this next part. "I think we might have become friends, Kairi. We know a lot about each other, and have been living together for some time. And you just gave me a list of all your troubles. That's what friends do."

She was looking at me with a strange expression, almost like she wanted to believe me, but wasn't quite there yet. "You consider me a friend, Sora?"

I thought it over. It had only been about a week and a half since she had attacked me, and only a little over a week since I had started being nice to her. But, since that time, we had lived in close quarters, interacting frequently, doing things that we both enjoyed. We had gotten to know each other a lot better, and had come extremely far in understanding one another. We had developed a sense of trust, and I felt almost entirely at ease with her. In fact, just the previous night, I had forgone my usual routine of moving the dresser in front of my bedroom door—the idea of Kairi attacking me (again) had become foreign, and unlikely.

I liked spending time with her. I trusted her. I knew a lot about her. Would I say she was my friend? "Yes. Yes, I do." A thought struck me. "And I'll prove it."

I went over to her chair, bent down, and untied her legs. Then, I went around to the back and untied her hands. "There," I said, straightening up.

Kairi looked up at me, looking a little confused. "What was that? Where are you taking me?"

"I'm not taking you anywhere," I said. "I'm untying you for good."

Her mouth fell open. "You're what?"

"I'm done treating you like a captive. If we've crossed the line into friendship, I think I can allow you to move about my apartment freely."

"But…" She still seemed unable to fully grasp the concept. "You're not worried about me? With my bonds undone, I might change my attitude."

"Why would you? I think you've been sincere to me for the past several days. And I don't think you would attack me in my sleep, or any other time, for that matter."

Her face remaining incredulous, she slowly stood up. She held her hands out in front of her, like she had to see them to believe that she was actually free. "Thank you, Sora."

"You're welcome. Thank you for helping us get to this place."

I decided that my other friends—that is, the three who knew about Kairi—should meet her as well, and get to know her like I did. This was for several reasons, though mainly because I wanted them to become friends (or at least friendly) with her, to show her that there were multiple people who didn't have to shun her. That, and it could finally put to rest the unsettling thought that I was still somewhat hypnotized, a thought that I knew still remained in the minds of Donald and Riku. The latter had been checking in on me regularly, mostly calling in and checking that my kingdom was stable, but he had stopped by once to take another look at things. I realized that he was just looking out for me, but it was getting irritating, and I would not be sorry if he stopped.

Actually, I hated to admit it, but there was a small part of my mind that wondered if Kairi's hypnotization did play a part in my bettered treatment of her, and wanted my friends over to help confirm that this was not the case.

So, for those reasons and a few others, I invited Donald, Goofy, and Riku to my apartment that Friday evening. They were all pleasantly surprised (though I did detect a note of wariness in Riku's voice when he accepted), and agreed to come. And so, that Friday afternoon, Donald and Goofy accompanied me back to my apartment, to help me get dinner ready. I had told them that Kairi was no longer tied up, so as to not terrify them when they walked in to my place. Donald was a little scared, and even Goofy didn't seem entirely at ease, but neither of them had backed out, and had put on brave faces to accompany me home.

"Wish I'd brought my gun," Donald muttered as we walked to my door.

I turned to him. "Come on, Donald, have some faith in me. I trust Kairi not to attack me or my friends."

"Good for you," he said, "but I don't think I'm quite there yet."

"It'll be fine, I promise," I said, as convincingly as I could. With that, I opened the door and brought them inside. "We're here!" I called.

"Good, it's not a burglar," said Kairi, sitting in the living room. She was reading Jane Eyre—reading was becoming her favorite pastime, cooped up in the apartment all day. After trying to read The Hobbit and being unable to get through it, she switched to classic literature. Harry Potter, however, was always saved for our evening readings. In fact, the evening after I untied her, she read it to me, saying that she wanted to switch things up a little. It was an enjoyable experience; she attempted to do some of the voices herself, resulting in the pair of us laughing at her attempt at a gruff, ragged Sirius Black impression. I liked it when we could laugh together; it meant we were becoming more at ease in each other's company.

I led my partners to the living room, and Kairi rose to greet them. "So, these are Donald and Goofy?"

I nodded. "Yep. Donald and Goofy." I indicated each one as I spoke his name. "And guys, this is Kairi."

For a moment, we all stood in awkward silence. Then, Goofy broke it, by stepping forward and holding out his hand. "Nice to meet'cha, Kairi. I'm Goofy."

Kairi took his hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you, as well."

I glanced sideways at Donald, who narrowed his eyes at me, indicating his reluctance to follow Goofy's lead. I raised my eyebrows at him, encouraging him to do so, and he rolled his eyes and turned to Kairi. "Donald," he said, stiffly extending his hand.

Kairi noticed his coolness, but shook his hand anyway. "Ah, yes. The one whose house I visited."

Donald scowled at her. "You scared me and—I mean, you scared my girlfriend."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Kairi replied. "But I hadn't planned to target you. I just wanted to get him." She indicated me.

"How reassuring."

She shrugged. "Well, I know it won't be enough to get you to trust me. Trust is something that has to be built, not materialized out of thin air." She looked over at me as she said it and flashed a grin, which I returned.

"That's very true," said Goofy. "But I'd say you seem all right, so far."

She gave him a small smile. "Thank you. And you're quite the gentleman, as well."

He grinned, embarrassed. "Aw…"

"Well, shall we get started on dinner?" asked Donald.

I nodded. "Yeah. C'mon, guys."

The three of us went into the kitchen, with Kairi hanging back at a distance. (We had decided, previously, that it would be best for her to keep some space between her and the others, as they would probably get uneasy if she got too close.) Dinner that night was chicken Parmesan, with me, Donald, and Goofy cooking. After about a half hour, we decided to change our plans to spaghetti and marinara sauce, instead. "I don't suppose you know how to cook," I called over to Kairi.

"I'm a little out of practice," she replied. "Probably wouldn't do any better than you guys."

"Wouldn't be hard to do better than us," I muttered.

We were only a minute away from dinner when the doorbell rang. "That must be Riku," I said.

"Must be," said Kairi. "I'd offer to get it, but…you know."

"Yeah." Quickly washing and drying my hands off, I made my way to the door and opened it. "Hey, Riku!"

"Sora." He nodded at me, gave me a quick hug, and looked past my shoulder. "So, she's free now."

I had told him about untying Kairi, for which he had berated me for not being careful enough. "Yes, and hopefully that won't take up all of your attention this evening, because if it does, we're not going to enjoy ourselves much at all."

"Mm-hm," he said, only half listening. "Well, I'm not too worried." He pulled back his jacket to reveal his gun tucked into his holster on his side, making sure Kairi could see. "See that I'm prepared?" he asked, addressing her.

She nodded. "Yep. And thanks for letting me know. If I end up deciding to kill all of you tonight, you'll be the first one I go for."

Riku's face hardened, and I turned back to her. "Kairi, you're not helping."

She shrugged. "Sorry. Can't help it."

I sighed. I was going to have my work cut out for me tonight.

The dinner, I thought, was pretty good, but then again, it had required minimal preparation. Kairi sat with us, but didn't have anything; we had tried having dinner together the previous night, with both of us consuming our nourishment. After a couple of minutes, the smell of hers put me off from mine, and we decided it was a failed experiment. So, she just sat while the rest of us ate. Fortunately, Goofy was willing to give conversation a try. "So, Kairi, I've heard you and Sora have been doing some reading."

She nodded. "Harry Potter. It's been years since I picked up one of those books."

"Years?"

She explained. "I was transformed when I was only partway through the third one. After that…well, my life was a big enough distraction, and they slipped out of my mind, until last Tuesday, when Sora brought them back to me."

"I've never been one for reading much, but I've heard they're good."

"They are. I'd forgotten how engaging they were." She grinned. "Can't wait to keep going."

Goofy looked pleased. "Well, it's good to hear you've got something like that for you."

"Yeah. I'm glad Sora has such a wide collection of books; gives me something to do during the days."

"Well, Sora and Donald are the readers of the group," said Goofy.

Kairi turned to Donald, who shrunk slightly under her gaze. "Oh? You read, too?"

"A little," said Donald uncomfortably.

"What kinds of books?"

"Uh…"

I decided to spare Donald the embarrassment of telling Kairi he liked romance novels (particularly ones that involved people like her), and changed the subject. "Yeah, I've always liked to read on the side. Remember, Riku, when we were kids?"

Riku nodded curtly, still not thrilled about the whole situation. "Yes, you were a bit of a bibliophile."

"Yep. Good times."

The conversation passed into awkward silence, and we humans returned to our food. Finally, Kairi sighed. "I guess it falls to me to make conversation, then. Do you guys all know how I came about to my current situation?"

My company looked surprised; we had all assumed that we were going to avoid the elephant in the room, i.e. Kairi's vampirism. "No, I don't," said Riku, answering for himself, Donald, and Goofy.

"Well, I'll tell the story, and you can eat." With that, she began to recount her history, of growing up and of becoming a vampire. As she did, I saw the expressions of my guests become sympathetic (though some more than others), as they became informed of her back story: how she used to be a person like them, and how her situation transformed her into something else. It took a while (we had finished our dinner and she was still going), but, eventually, everyone was brought up to speed, and knew what Kairi had been and what she had gone through.

When she finished, there was silence. Donald looked taken aback, Goofy looked sympathetic, and even Riku's hardened expression had softened. Then, Donald cleared his throat. "Uh, thanks for telling us," he said. "And…I'm sorry I've thought of you as a dangerous creature. I just…only had some of the information."

Goofy nodded. "You've really put your situation in perspective. I'm glad I know now." He smiled. "Maybe we can become friends, like you and Sora."

Kairi blinked, looking surprised. "Really? You'd want to be friends with me?"

"Sure. We know you're good inside."

She looked at Goofy, and at Donald, who were both looking at her with newfound respect and admiration, and a smile spread over her face. "Thanks, guys."

I glanced over at Riku. He seemed less eager to make friends with Kairi, but he looked like the idea, while maybe not ideal, wouldn't be too terrible.

Well, this is going a lot better than I expected, I thought contentedly. Way to remove your barriers, Kairi.

And the evening only got better as we went along. We shared stories and jokes, with Donald and Goofy teaching Kairi about many of the contemporary references they were using. We got out my computer, and showed her some of the new innovations to the Internet, mainly YouTube and Facebook. She was fascinated, and probably could have spent hours on those sites (well, I guess the same applies for a lot of people).

She chatted with Donald and Goofy, and learned a good deal more about them. Donald spent a good amount of time talking to her about Daisy, a good chunk of which was devoted to making sure that she liked him and what he did for her. She even got in a few words with Riku, though he was less willing to divulge any personal information. But, it was a start, and I'd take it any day.

Eventually, it was time for my guests to leave. "Great evening, Sora," said Goofy as he got his belongings together. "Thanks for inviting us."

"Yeah, thanks a lot," said Donald.

Goofy turned to Kairi. "It was nice meeting you and getting to know you."

"It was," Donald agreed.

She smiled. "You as well."

Riku looked at her, as if trying to decide what to make of her, and said, "Yes. I'm glad I came."

"Good," I said. "I'm glad you did, too."

He flashed a small smile. "Mm-hm. Well, good night."

We all exchanged goodnights, and then they left. "Glad to see you got along so well with them," I said.

She grinned. "So am I."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

So, there you have it, folks! Kairi is now officially a friend of Sora's. But where will that lead them? And what happens when something disrupts that friendship? Read on...(and don't forget to review!)