Twelfth.

It was well before dawn when I woke, probably close to 3am judging by the sky. Lexi remained next to me with her arm over her forehead, her mouth open slightly and, as she promised, her hand still in mine. She always looked like a damsel in distress when she slept, I giggled at her. And she opened one eye. "Good act, huh?" she asked me as she sat herself up.

"Sure, but kind of a pointless one don't you think? It's not as if anyone can see you." I pointed out.

"Well, I don't care about anyone else. I just didn't want you to feel bad about getting some rest. Besides, it's not all an act. We don't sleep like you do, but we do enter a different stream of consciousness that mimics sleep. It allows up to recharge. Even ghosts have their limits."

I guess that made sense. "Okay, so what is the plan for today?"

"Just keep running."

"Alright, but where are we running to? I prodded her as I started to pack up the bedroll.

"It doesn't really matter as long as we stay away from them. You can't go back to the boarding house Norrah, not now, not ever. That's where she'll catch you."

"That's where who will catch me? Are we back to talking about Katherine again? I told you that she won't do anything to me, she just caught me off guard!"

She looked back at me, somewhat disappointed. "I told you, it's not Katherine. Now let's go, get that stuff together and let's move."

I tried to get her to explain herself, but she pretended to be preoccupied with stuffing my clothes back into the back and trying to fix the zipper. I hated it when she was evasive. It was one of the only things that had caused us to fight over the centuries. I know that everyone is trying to keep me safe, but I feel more vulnerable now than I ever have. I just wish everyone would stop making me guess and just give me some straight answers.

We got everything together and covered our tracks around the hill. I ran out for a few minutes to get something to eat, came back and grabbed my stuff and we left. We walked for a bit, Lexi didn't seem concerned that anyone was after us so we were able to cover a lot of ground. When the sun had popped up over the horizon and it started to warm up we stopped at a stream so I could get a drink and we could clean up. I took out the towels that I had taken from my bathroom and scrubbed my hands and face.

I looked over at Lexi when I finished and was shocked. The sun danced through her golden hair making it shine and come alive. The light on her face showed off her flawless skin and made her eyes sparkle with life. I realized that it had been over three and a half centuries since I saw her in the daylight. She didn't have a lapis ring or pendant so we could only go out together in the dark. Looking at her now I'm reminded of what a beauty she was in life and what a shame it was that she didn't get to live it out properly.

I knew that she could tell what I was thinking, but she didn't want to re-hash that old argument and start assigning blame. Instead we decided that we should run for a bit, put more distance between us and Mystic Falls. I could see a flicker of concern in her eyes, but we started moving anyway. I let her run ahead this time, I could see her much more easily in the sunlight. We raced through a boggy part of the woods and then to another line of hills. I followed her up and over the first but when I got to the other side, something was wrong.

I had lost sight of her. I ran up the second hill to see if she had gone over it, but still I couldn't find her. Knowing that she would come back when she realized that I was gone, I waited calmly on the hilltop, pacing back and forth and scanning as far out as I could, but nothing. After a few minutes I called out her name, it echoed off of the hillsides, but there was no response. I walked back down into the valley between the hills and tried again. Still nothing.

I walked back over the first hill to see if she had circled back, "Lexi?" I called as I put my bag down. "Lexi," I cried with my hands cupping my mouth, "this isn't funny." She was nowhere. "Alexia!" my final plea. The next thing I knew I was falling to my knees. Something had hit me from behind, not to hurt me, just to get me off of my feet. I whipped around and saw a blur on my left and then a hand cupped over my mouth, the other covering my ear. Another set of hands grabbed onto my legs as a third placed a blindfold over my eyes. I was writhing and wiggling, trying to get away. The third person helped to steady my abdomen but still they struggled to restrain me.

I heard them talking to one another, but only mumbles. The one who had my head covered my other ear with the forearm of the hand covering my mouth. I tried to scream out but it was too muffled. I thought I might be able to bite them, but the hand remained cupped as if they knew better than to flatten it to my lips. I was panicked and pissed-off. I desperately tried to send Lexi a message, where was she now that I really needed her?

Finally the one responsible for my head loosened their grip just a little around my ears. I heard a female voice saying it was too hard to walk with me struggling. Good, I would fight even harder.

The other two were males, one asked the other, "Did you bring it?"

"Yeah," the second one said, "it's made just the way she told us."

"Well then give it to her already, she's fighting too hard" replied the first. Wait, give me what? What would they give me so I would stop fighting. His hand slipped off of my mouth as I fought him and I screamed, "LEXI, Help Me, LEXI!" and then he clamped down again. The blindfold shifted slightly on my eyes as he fought me to regain control. I saw the syringe before it pierced my skin, and screamed under the man's hand. They can't do this, not vervain, it was too much, NO! The needle broke through the skin on my flanks and sunk deeper as they pushed the plunger. The dose was too high, this time it would surely kill me…and then, nothing.