I should have known that something was wrong. Pearl trusted me, so when I told her it would be fine now, I should have known that she would believe it. Despite the road being opened again and the school being free of the authorities, the next day Pearl was still very subdued.

'You alright, love?' I asked when we got a quiet moment. Everyone had been discussing various visits from to police to the homes of all blonde and dark haired girls so, for once, me and Pearl had been of interest for something other than them being able to take the piss out of us.

'Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit tired, I didn't get much sleep last night.'

I nodded and left at that. I remembered not being able to sleep. Now I realize how stupid I had been, how arrogant I had become in thinking that Pearl would automatically tell me everything and God in Heaven I regret it every day.

That night we went home as usual, we said goodbye at the corner. Pearl hugged me, I was quite surprised as I had explained to her why this was a bit risky. Even when I tried to pull away she hung on.

'Pearl, please, leave off.'

'Goodbye, Anna.'

'Uhhh, bye.' I finally managed to prize her away from me. She smiled, sadly and I smiled back. 'Are you sure there's nothing wrong, dear?'

'No.' She hugged me again. 'Goodbye, Anna.'

Hope was home, which was always annoying. But she was in a good mood, talking to some guy on the phone all evening.

'That's what being in love does for you…'

Only when I went up to my room did I realize that I couldn't find my phone.

'Bugger, must have left it at school!' I distinctly remembered putting it into my locker that morning. I thought it best to phone Pearl (I had her number written down now) on Hope's house phone to see if there was any chance I could get back into the building to get it.

It rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. Finally, I got the message alert tone. I tried again. The same thing. It wasn't like Pearl not to answer her phone, particularly to me, as, besides her parents, I was the only person who ever called her. I think it was about now that I began to worry. Something told me there was a problem, I didn't know what it was, but I knew somewhere I Pearl's life, something was very wrong.

Now, after much studying, I know that it was probably our handshake, with the cuts across out palms, that gave us that small, tenuous psychic connection that enabled me to sense a problem but then I had no idea what possessed me to go to Pearl's house. I told Hope I'd be back in an hour.

I knocked several times; I called through the letter box. The doors were locked, the curtains and the blinds down in the windows downstairs. I circled the house before selecting the back door, which led straight into the kitchen, as the best bet. It was only a cheap plastic door, and I knew I could get through the lock with my hair grip. It took some fiddling, but I got there, the door opened with a small, short click.

'Hello?' I got nothing. Her parents were obviously out. I walked into the hallway that led to Pearl's room and was greeted by the sight of one of the photographs from the wall on the floor, the glass smashed and crunched into the ground, the frame cracked and snapped clean in pieces in places, and the photograph beneath punctured with shards of glass. It made me shudder. I moved past it and stopped. A scent caught my attention. It was kind of familiar, but there was something else to it. I followed it to rest outside Pearl's door. That's when it hit me. Blood. Pearl's blood to be more precise. I didn't think, I don't even think I felt anything as I threw the door open. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

Pearl was laying her bed, a large knife in one hand, a pack of paper in the other…and a stream of blood leaking from both wrists.

Normally, my instincts would have propelled me forwards to take my fill before her heart stopped forever, but this time they sent me to her kitchen, to their house phone, to call the emergency services.

'999, what's your emergency?'

'Suicide, attempted suicide.' I corrected myself. 'I can still hear her heart beat!' I clung to that thought, that sound.

'Okay, and what's your name?'

'My name?'

'Yes, your name?'

'Does it matter? Just send someone now, HURRY!'

'Tell me your name, don't panic.'

I decided that it would be faster to tell her my name rather than sit and argue with her, as every moment I wasted by the telephone, Pearl's life drained away.

'Anna.'

'Okay, Anna, where are you?'

'29 Catspole Road.'

'Who is with you?'

'No one! Just Pearl, she's tried to kill herself, slit her wrists…' As I said it, I felt my self control slip away; it was ebbing as her life did. 'Just, I need someone here now! There's so much blood!'

'Alright, Anna. An ambulance is on its way.'

'Thank you.'

The phone line cut. I can't remember who did it, me or the lady on the other end of the line but I threw myself into action. Grabbing towels from the airing cupboard upstairs I shredded them into strips and wound them round Pearl's forearms and then above her elbow.

'This is what they did on ''ER''!'

I didn't know how tight to tie them, so I pulled them as tight as they would go.

'Tourniquets are supposed to be tight, aren't they?'

'Now you stay with me Pearl…'

I could hear the siren in the distance; the ambulance was still minutes away. Anyone with lesser hearing wouldn't have been able to pick it up yet, but I could, and I willed it to drive faster, for all the traffic to get out of the way. For when I looked down at my hands, I saw them drenched with the liquid I lived on, that was pumping through my best friend, out of her body and she was at my mercy. The scent of it was choking me, filling my nose and mouth. It reminded me of the smell as I watched my mother burn to death, from my place bleeding out on the floor. I wondered how similar me then and Pearl now looked.

'We were never meant to meet. By all the laws of physics and life, I should have been dead long before you came into being…' I shook her slightly; trying to wake her…nothing happened. I felt my control slip further and more red rubies of blood dripped onto my lap, ran down my pale skin, caught in my hair and making it brittle to the touch. 'No more. No one else dies because of the undead!' I don't know how I did it, but I kept my mouth closed, no biting, nothing.

The door knocked and the siren stopped, it seemed like it had been a small eternity. Pearl's heart beat was fading. I ran to the door at my pace and was pushed back while the paramedics found their way to Pearl, laid her on a stretcher and complimented my use of towels as a tourniquet. I wasn't listening, I was watching them load her into the ambulance.

'I'm going with her!' I told them when they tried to push my away. They shook their heads and gave in, holding the doors open for me.

'Anna, you moron!' I told myself. 'You're going to an 'ospital, full of blood and bleeding patients, what were you thinkin'?'

The rest happened on autopilot. I was ushered into a waiting room, left there with a glass of lukewarm water and a chocolate biscuit; someone had put a blanket around my shoulders. For the first time in nearly two hundred years, I was shivering.

The doctor came out God only knows how long later.

'She's stable. We've left a police officer at her house to inform her parents when they get home. You may go in now if you wish.'

I ran, at my pace, not caring who saw me. Pearl was stirring, but not awake.

'Pearl?' I sat down by the bed, on the floor, ignoring the chair. 'It's me, Anna. Why did you do that, Pearl?' I felt tears run down my face, I couldn't help thinking that this was somehow my fault.

'Guilt from the other night…'

'Please wake up, love!' I heard my voice break.

'Anna?' I turned, the doctor had returned with a nurse. Both their faces registered shock at seeing my with blood pouring from my eyes, but neither questioned it. The nurse made her excuses and left. 'Anna, her parents are on their way.'

'Oh.' I stood. I didn't feel like facing Pearl's parents. 'I'll come back tomorrow, Love…' I whispered, brushing hair out of her face. She moved one arm, as if to take hold on my hand, but then it dropped again, back to her side. She was still.