**Claire**
My phone rings, waking me up from a deep sleep. I groan and roll over, silently begging it to stop. It doesn't, and once the ringing stops for a minute, it starts right back up. With a sigh, I groggily sit up and pick it up, blearily looking at the screen. To my surprise, it says it's Amelie. What could she want at three thirty in the morning?
"Yes?" I ask unable to keep the irritation from my voice.
"There were three murders last night." Comes Amelie's cool reply, jolting me awake.
"Well—"I start at a completer loss for words. "That's awful. But how does that pertain to me? And why did I need to be woken up in the middle of the night?"
"We have reason to believe that these were arranged by Shane. I assumed that you would like to know." I freeze, my heart seems to stop. Oh no.
"Wait," I say when I can finally talk. "You said arranged, not done by. What do you mean? You don't think he—he killed them himself?"
"There have been recent disappearances. Vampires, ones that not many pay attention to, but still, no one has heard from them in weeks. We believe that he may have joined them, perhaps he is even leading them."
"Wh-what? Why?" I asked completely bewildered.
"Because none of the others are capable of this. He has completely changed has he not? In this changed state, none of us can fathom what he is capable of."
"But-but why wouldn't he just do it himself?"
"I do not know. I only wished to inform you and to tell you to be careful."
"Why—do you think he's changed so much?" I ask fighting to keep my voice from breaking. "It's not usually like this for vampires is it?"
"No. No it is not like this at all. Perhaps it was the violence of his turning, how traumatic it was. But that is often the case. Most likely, it was his complete aversion to vampires, his loathing of them that caused this, he wasn't able to cope and he pushed himself too far. There is something vampires can do, turn off select emotions, fear, pain, regret, grief. But in turn, it takes away happiness, fond memories, and love. Leaving them with nothing but hatred, anger, and a thirst for revenge. It is nearly impossible to turn back on. I am sorry Claire, but Shane is gone."
"But—"I start again, but she's hung up. I put the phone down, trembling. I collapse onto the bed, sobbing. Amelie had just confirmed what I'd been told recently time and time again. I still desperately wanted to cling to that last strand of hope. But reality was quickly catching up on me, I couldn't deny it forever. No matter how much I wanted to.