The smell of the sea filled my nostrils and I could feel the waves lapping at my ankles, threatening to soak through my boots. I was cold and frightened with no memory as to how I had come here.

"Can't you do that elsewhere?" A voice, male and Australian. "This is the only safe turf we have, don't draw attention to it."

"Mind your own Thin Blood," a male retorted in a hiss.

"Ccc...come on...we...we just ddddon't want any trouble," another man stuttered. "Ppplease."

"I can't do this here with you snivellers, you're ruining the ambience," the angry male grumbled. "I wanted this to be beautiful, perfect," he murmured, I thought to me, "here beneath the moon amongst the waves." He sighed and I felt a hand at my chin, turning my head and bearing my throat up. "It will have to do."

Pain roared through me, screaming from my throat down the rest of my body, poison in my veins, my chest aching, suffocating, heart slowing, struggling for air, for life... A fire raging at my throat as my blood slipped out, guzzled greedily by someone, something. My knees quivered, I felt so weak, so helpless.

"What are you doing?" the Australian again. "We don't need bodies appearing here!"

"Pplllease we'll ggget blamed!"

"You won't!" the male snarled. "Just shut up already! You are ruining everything!" Eyes staring deeply into me, willing me to be calm, telling me I was safe... The waves were not cold anymore; they soothed me as they splashed up towards my knees. The moon so beautiful, a large, white orb casting its soft stolen light upon us... Yes this was nice...

I jerked back from my vision in a daze, wondering what had happened to me on that beach, who my attacker had been and those yuppies who had tried to interfere...Thin Bloods, I knew that term, Sebastian had grumbled about it, called them pests to be exterminated, upstarts who made Kindred afraid of a non-existent Apocalypse, Gehenna. Witnesses...

I could smell blood, it was thick, strong and still warm, I looked down and found myself soaked with it. Fearful and concerned, I looked up slightly and recoiled instantly. A body, a form with its chest practically torn out, ravaged and mauled at... Had I done that? I looked at it and a whimper escaped me. Everything else was still intact except the throat, which had been ripped out. I had frenzied again but this was no nameless victim... I stood up shakily and looked around; I was in what appeared to be a hotel room, small with a single bed, a television on a cabinet of drawers beside a telephone, a wardrobe and a door presumably to a bathroom. The front door was open behind me, swinging slowly in the wind; I must have forced my way in.

I staggered back from the corpse, the floor around it was soaked in blood, too much blood...such a waste, such a terrible waste. How could I have done this? My only lead, my only link to my past was dead, why? She had never bothered me, only amused, had some other side of me felt afraid of the past she had tried to confront me with, maybe even angry about it? I could not remember coming here, I had been with Alex, I had been thirsty, so thirsty. Had I abandoned him? Had he left me? His words, he had mentioned Masquerade violation, had I panicked at that thought? It did not seem like me.

Samantha, poor, poor Samantha. I had to leave, couldn't be caught like this with a corpse. I turned quickly, shut the door behind me and threw myself from the balcony onto the ground floor. I knew this place; it was the Luckee Star Motel, not so lucky now alas. More misfortune for the hat man, well hopefully his mind had already been polluted by mercury.

I staggered to the main door and opened it. Mr. Hatter looked to me with surprise before his eyes turned to horror. "See nothing hat crafter," I told him a warning tone, "nothing but the fire bugs flying round, round and round your head."

He panicked, squealed and started swatting madly at the air. I reached for the front door, hoping that he would forget me in his sanity; I did not need Velvet whining at me about him again. I opened the handle, then crouched and thought myself invisible. As it was Hollywood I probably could wander about soaked in blood and no one would blink an eye but once the body was found, well best not to leave a questionable trace in case people wondered if the blood soaked extra maybe hadn't been an extra after all.

I struggled to move, one bump into someone and my cover would come undone, I had never been much good at obfuscating, dementation was a much easier skill to master. Left, right, round in circles, zigzagging, it was a fun little journey in its own way but one I found hard to appreciate. The jewellery store eventually appeared within my vision, all that pirate booty, what a welcome sight.

I ducked down the alleyway, stood upright and opened the glittering door. Isaac would console me; somehow he would find sense in my madness and stop me from considering throwing myself out to the sun. What had I done? Who was Sarah Grey? A beach, was it a dream, a nightmare or a memory? Why was I plagued every time I fed? Should I have damned the Masquerade and questioned Samantha? Too late now, too late, too many thoughts, too many conflicting memories, too much, far too much.

I halted in the doorway; I could hear laughter from the next room, sweet, feminine laughter that belonged in a black and white movie about charming virgins, mixed with some bouncy music from decades ago. I headed forward through the office, leaving the side door open to the mercy of the mild wind. I considered obfuscating again but went for stealth instead, opening the door slowly and quietly to Isaac's living room, or should that be dead room?

Isaac and Ginger were in the centre of the room in a close embrace, twirling and dancing to music coming from a gramophone. I had shone a torch down there once, confident that it was the portal to some mystical land but I only got my head stuck for my troubles.

"Oh it's been so long since I heard such music!" Ginger marvelled.

Isaac let out a soft laugh. I was shocked by how at ease he was with her, this the stiff, posh Baron who would not loosen up for anyone, not even me. Yet here he was, daring to smile and happy to dance. He had never danced with me, not even when I had begged him to do the cancan near The Fast Buck. He was happy, though his brow was still wrinkled thanks to earlier grievances, he was definitely happy.

Cursed swan I would steal her eggs! Not now though, I could not focus on that now, I could not think of anything except to leave. Isaac was dancing; he would not want to know about my memories, my nightmares... I had killed my past, it was dead, she was dead and I was a thing without memory, what an error... No Sarah, Sarah was dead, Samantha was dead, only Ariadne but who was that?

I moved through the night, clinging to the alleyways and the shadows, giving the whispering frightened hobos and bag ladies a ghoulish smile, let them see the blood, no one would even think to question them. On and on I walked, pausing only when I heard a strange sound, a muffled scream, and a grunt. I turned and followed it in time to see a metal sewer lid being dragged over. What had I missed going down there? The rat king? Some enthusiastic shit explorer? A drunken hobo? A Nosferatu?

"Wendy? Wendy! Bitch where did you go?" a drunken woman called. "Drunk ejit!" She was getting closer now, coming round the corner. There were other voices with her, drunk patrons, I must be behind the Asp Hole. Time to go before I was spotted. "Wendy!"

I fled, letting my body take me where it pleased. I did not know where to go or what to do, I could only hope that some pixies would come to guide me, help me through my unravelling minds. On and on, over pavement, over dirt, down streets, through a hole in a wall...

"You have to learn to knock! I damn near blew your head off again! Shit what have you been doing? Overfeeding much?"

I looked up warily, coming back to some sense of reality at the voice. "Crypt keeper," I murmured as I stepped in and sank to my knees. "Would you be bothered if I said I had killed someone?" I queried curiously.

"Not really," he said calmly as he lowered his gun at last, "that's what you lot do after all."

I smiled. "Yes." A shudder escaped me. That was what we did if we wanted to lose our humanity and descend into a madness only the Sabbat appreciated. I did not want that though, I did not want to lose my humanity or my memories, I knew it was dangerous to crave the past but I had to know, I had to have answers, didn't I? It was crowded in my head, voices that couldn't all have an identity, to give one of them the name of Sarah would just make the others jealous surely.

"So er...what are you doing here?" Romero asked as he stepped past me to close the door.

"You like me don't you?" I questioned. "You will let me stay?"

"Sure, I guess," he muttered, his green eyes with just a hint of unease. "Although, it's a little out of the blue."

"I wanted company," I admitted as I looked up at him and stood up at last, "and you're lonely, you like company."

"I suppose." I could see he was not happy to be called lonely but I knew it was true, it was there in his pale eyes, oh yes he was passionate about his shooting, it was a pleasure for him not a job but he got so bored in his shack, he was not a man designed to be a hermit. "Although if you are staying, maybe you should get that blood off you," he suggested, gesturing at me with one hand.

I glanced down at myself; Samantha was all over me, in me, twisting and turning in my veins, choking me vengefully from within. I clutched at my chest tightly, trying to subdue her, she was all over me. "Yes," I said hastily, "this needs off." I needed to be clean again, not just to avoid questions but to be rid of Samantha once and for all. Once and for all...oh gods and demons how true that was, unless her ghost came for me Samantha was gone from this world. I shuddered.

"Well the bathroom's to the left there," Romero said as he pointed. He was keeping his distance from me but it wasn't disgust, although I did not think he wanted to touch the blood. No it was fear, a strange sort of fear and not of me either.

"Isaac said it was alright," I told him as I looked carefully at him. There, a flicker of an outraged Isaac, there had been yelling in this quaint shack, much yelling. Romero was paler than usual and a thin coat of sweat was on him, his eyes were sunken a little, oh dear, Romero had not had his usual blood fix.

"He understands what I don't," I tried to explain with a helpful smile. I raised my wrist to my fangs and bit hard, breaking the skin and bringing up some of my blood, polluted with Samantha's. Yes let it all bleed out, get it from me, I would vomit some of it soon too, I could feel my stomach churning, rejecting the blood of my last tie to humanity, to Sarah. Though half my minds were not the least bit bothered and viewed Samantha as prey like any other, another disposable blood bag, the strong half were troubled by what had happened. Were there no limits when the thirst came?

"You can have some of my blood," I offered as I held my wrist out.

Romero's eyes sparked with a disturbing hunger, one I had never thought to see in Kine and I could hear his heart skipping a beat. He had gone too long without our potent blood, punished because of Isaac's jealousy. Now I would reward him because of mine I supposed and because I felt some guilt at his predicament though I maintained that Isaac had overreacted. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "No, he wouldn't...approve." He forced himself to smile and opened his eyes once more. "Go and bath, it's fine, you're welcome here even if...even if he's angry about it."

"He's not," I assured but I lowered my wrist anyway and turned from the caretaker. I headed through the door on the left, opening and shutting it behind me and gripping the string cord to turn on the light. It was small like the rest of the shack but equipped with a clean bath, complete with a shower head, hanging at a bad angle, a toilet, a single radiator and a window, a thin, rectangular one set high up so that no one could nosy in I supposed, although I doubted it would stop the giants, fey or ghosts. I put in the plug and turned on both taps, it did not matter to my cold flesh if the water was icy or hot.

I would rid myself of Samantha, yes, wash her from skin and mind. Go away Sam, go away... I slumped to the floor and doubled over as my stomach gave into one of the voices' demands to spit up the poison. I heaved and up came a fountain of cold, scarlet blood, it spattered onto the cracked tiles and my eyes went wide. Sweet nectar, life giving liquid, this was supper a voice argued! I could not waste it! I fell to the floor, tongue out and lapped hard at it, smearing it into the cracks, no! I argued with my other halves, this was Samantha's life giving liquid, this was part of her, if I drank it, if I kept it in me then she would be there tormenting me, she would join the voices and bring back that idiotic, annoying Sarah. She would never leave me alone; she would get annoyed that she had been right all along, that she had known me. No, it had been fun when I could leave her but if she was forever in me it would only become irritating.

Out, out!

I don't how long I must have been there ranting with my numerous personas, simultaneously throwing up blood and licking it up again. It must have been longer than I realised, I did not keep watches in case certain rabbits stole them, because there was water sloshing around me when the door opened.

Isaac looked down at me with puzzled, scolding gold eyes, looking from me to the bath and then back to me again. Romero peered around him and muttered a curse. "My fault for leaving a Malk alone," he commented calmly, not as annoyed as some Kine might have been.

Isaac stepped up to the bath carefully and turned off the taps; he then turned back to Romero and nodded. "Thank-you for calling, tell Ginger she should go on."

Romero nodded and shut the door hastily.

"You brought the bird," I grumbled moodily.

Isaac's eyes flashed with anger as he looked at me. "I was with Miss. Swan when Romero called to say you were here and she accompanied me, yes."

"Why did he call? Did you tell him you were fine with us? Or did you make him squirm?" I laughed happily at the word 'squirm' it was such a fun word, an improvement on squid anyway.

Isaac frowned. "I told him I neither approved nor disapproved of your relationship and that I wanted no knowledge of it," he informed me stiffly. "He was concerned though, or he simply did not believe me, and insisted I come. It's why I am fond of him as a ghoul, he has an interesting personality, quite beautiful in its way, and he is an excellent marksman."

I shrugged and a trickle of blood slipped out of my lips and down my chin. My stomach twisted again, some of Samantha was still in me then, out Sam, damn you Sam! I leaned forward and threw up again. It was making me thirsty though, she had been my only kill tonight, I needed her blood.

"And just why are you making a mess of yourself and my ghoul's bathroom?" Isaac inquired haughtily as he looked at the floor in dismay.

"To get rid of the poison," I explained, "but it tastes so good, too good, too hard to resist, I couldn't but I should have."

"What do you mean Ariadne?" he queried warily.

I gave him an annoyed look then. "I didn't ask for you to come scold me," I huffed, "go away if I'm boring you." I did not mean it of course but I did not want a lecture, Isaac was not fun when he was playing parent or teacher. I wanted him to soothe my mind in the way that only he could without even meaning to, I wanted my thoughts to fade back to their bearable level, I wanted Samantha and Sarah erased. I had erased them though, hadn't I?

"Boring? Not quite the word I would use," Isaac grumbled. He stepped towards me, halting and wincing when his expensive leather shoes were forced to tread in blood. I heard him kneel down and suddenly we were eye level. "What happened?" he questioned quietly. "Whose blood is this?"

"A memory's, a friend's? Samantha, poor Sam, always trying to meddle, getting too close to the truth, endangering Kindred, the masked men should reward me." I cackled. "I didn't mean to though, it all went dark and red, and then there I was, in her room, she was dead... It was a mistake, I think, perhaps a necessity but..." I shook my head and went for the bath, forcing my head down into it. I needed to be clean! The water was lukewarm and refreshing; I tried to blow bubbles vainly before my head was pulled back by Isaac's tight grasp.

"I want to be clean," I murmured as I pushed my damp hair back so I could face Isaac. "I want her off me and out of me; she'll suffocate me if I don't."

"Right." He weaved one hand through my tangled damp locks and smiled sadly. "You and that mad mind, such a beautiful tragedy, still I do adore you for it." He raised his other hand and began to unbutton my black shirt. I allowed the Baron to undress me and lift me into bath, though part of me was tempted to splash him I resisted and stayed obediently still as he lifted a sponge and started to wash me. "Sometimes I wonder why I put up with you," he confessed, "but then I am reminded of how you excite me and bring an odd joy to this place. It's strange but you are the first to make me feel this way but I find it hard to enjoy because it is a weakness and it does pain me. I am the Baron, I have a reputation to keep up and a domain to run, life would have been easier if we had never met."

"Do you regret me coming here?" I queried as I stared hard at his golden eyes trying to spy something in them. They were full of emotion as all Toreador eyes were but it was hard to decipher the most prominent of them, I could see pain there but I thought that it was mingled with affection.

He studied me then for a few minutes of silence, well almost silent, Romero's elves had plenty to chitter about. Then he leaned into me and gave me a fleeting kiss, still too old-fashioned and proper to offer something deeper. "No," he answered as he rang out the sponge and placed it down.

I leapt from the bath lithely, splashing water everywhere much to Isaac's obvious chagrin. I quickly dried off but I could not put on my clothes, they were still covered with Samantha dearest. I frowned, sniffing the blood tentatively and then salivating, I needed blood, yes soon, now.

"It will be sunrise soon," Isaac pointed out flatly as he stood up and tried in vain to brush the water from his suit. "We need to leave." He took off his brown blazer and handed it to me. I accepted eagerly, pulling it on and hugging it close, I always liked the stuffy smell of Isaac's clothes. My vision danced red and my stomach let out a growl, a frenzy was close approaching. Blood, blood, blood, a mantra in my head, a call through my many minds.

I felt hands pushing me out, words muffled in the air, the squeal of goblins and the jeering of the fey.

"Let her feed on you."

Flesh, close to my mouth, oh blood, beautiful blood, I could smell it, hear it pulsing just below the skin, so close, so tantalising. I grabbed the arm tight in both hands and sank my fangs deep into the skin, gulping down the nectar that immediately spilled out.

"As if one creep wasn't enough," ah sweet Samantha still alive in my head at least, "now there's another one looking over here." I turned to see the creep but they were lost in the shadows, someone tall. Moonboy's laughing.

My neck throbbed, my head spun and I wanted to wretch, I felt so weak, so tired and sore. I sat up slowly and immediately vomited. Hangover? I reached to my neck subconsciously and felt something damp. When I pulled my hand down I found it soaked in blood. I groaned and slumped as mad laughter filled my ears.

"Found you! Found you! He took you! He stole you!" a madman yelled. "I will have you, the jackals said I would!" Fresh pain in my neck, horrible pain, something being sucked out of me, my life slipping away. I screamed but it was to no avail.

A door being opened, banging against the wall, strangers charging in, a stake in my chest before I could offer a protest...

"Enough Ariadne! Enough!" Isaac's firm grip pulled me back and up from a Romero who was on the ground, eyes closed and clearly in a daze. I licked my lips, savouring the taste of his tangy blood. I wanted more and let out a hungry snarl. "Enough," Isaac snapped in a manner so fierce it invoked a whimper from me. "It's time to go." He pulled me from the shack then and moved us through the night like a whirlwind. Hollywood passed by in a blur as we moved too fast to be noticed by the throng of drunken revellers.

The sky was growing lighter now, turning mauve and lilac, my flesh tingled, wary of the rising sun and my muscles stiffened, I was tired now. We reached the jewellery store in no time, slowly only once we were in the building. Isaac shut and locked the door and headed down to the basement wordlessly. I followed with an eager skip, leaping into his coffin after he climbed in and landing on him with a pleased grunt. He said nothing, just drew down the lid and closed his eyes in slumber.

Many thanks to all my reviewers, special shout out to Just Me since I can't reply to your comments, they are very much appreciated though :-)