So, I decided to post a second chapter tonight because HEY! It's my birthday!

Speaking of birthdays... OMG, you guys. I spent $950 on an autographed Lost Boys movie poster I happened to stumble upon in Vegas as my birthday gift to me. $950! Am I insane!? It is signed by the whole cast though, so there's that (including Corey Haim who is sadly no longer with us.) But still. That is a lot of fucking money. I mean, holy shit. Somebody tell me you would've done the same!

I'll just be over here crying about how broke I am now... Anyhow, on with the story! Enjoy!

I stepped into Max's house cautiously. I'd had a run in with his dog in the past and it was an occurrence I preferred to forgo a second time. The place seemed empty, however. There were dishes in the sink with food dried onto them. They hadn't been there long though, because the kitchen didn't smell of rotten food. I continued through the house and noticed that it hadn't been redecorated since my last visit. Max's penchant for flashy interior design brought a snicker to my mouth. A centuries old vampire trying desperately to fit in with modern times; it seemed comical now. David's bedroom had been untouched, literally. Everything was exactly as I remembered it from the night I crawled out his window to get away from Max, only it was all a lot more dusty.

I was exhausted and I flopped onto David's old bed. A cloud of dust floated into the air but I was too tired to care about it at that moment. The sun would be coming up soon and my sleep schedule was still adjusted to that of a creature of the night. I yawned and covered myself with the worn out old sheet but before I could slip into sleep, I heard the front door creek open slowly. My tired eyes popped open and I stood silently, reaching into my jacket for the wooden stake I had brought with me in case my meeting with David went sour.

I slipped out of the bedroom and peered around the corner to see the living room full of unfamiliar faces. There were four young boys, a teenage boy, a teenage girl, an older woman and an even older man and they appeared to be looking for something. It was only a matter of time before they found me so I decided to step forward and deal with them outright. "Who are you?"

"We could ask the same to you!" One of the young boys said in an exaggerated voice, trying his hardest to seem tough like Rambo, which is who he reminded me of.

"I'm a person, same as you." I answered. "And if you're looking for Max, he's dead."

"How do you know that?" The teenage boy asked with a skeptical look. "Are you one of them?"

I had suspected from the beginning that they knew the truth about Max. That was the only explanation as to why a group like them would be sneaking into the house of a millionaire in the early morning hours. They knew he was a vampire and they were prepared to deal with the worst. I shook my head and displayed my stake to them. "I'm a vampire hunter." I replied. "My name is Tawny."

"Tawny?" The teenage girl said almost as though she was in shock. She stepped closer to me and looked me over in disbelief. "David's Tawny?"

I was taken aback by her words. David's Tawny? It was almost insulting, as though I was a piece of property. Then again, David always saw me that way. It wasn't his fault. I blamed Max. "I know David." I replied. "But I'm not his."

"You mean you knew him." One of the other young boys said quickly; the one who looked like he was an extra on Miami Vice. "That blood sucker is toast now."

But he wasn't. I knew that. I'd just seen David only an hour earlier and he was alive and well. "Are you the ones that killed him? And Max?"

"And the others." The other Rambo looking boy added, running his hand through his thick, dark hair. "Every one of them is dead and gone."

"We can't be too sure." The teenage boy said with a scowl. "David's body isn't where we left it. He could be hiding out, laying in wait."

"W-well that's common, you know." I interjected quickly. "Vampire bodies are completely obliterated in one way or another when you kill them. They're here one minute and gone the next."

"That's true." The teenage girl added with a nod. "You said Dwayne exploded but there was nothing left but ash after a while. Maybe that's what happened to David."

"I'd still like to head back to his little hide out and double check." The teenage boy said, turning to the girl with a furious look on his face. "After what he put us through, I want to make sure he's good and dead."

"I was just there." I said, hoping to deter them from returning to the cavern. I don't know why I was so eager to protect David. After all, whatever mess he'd gotten himself into, it was his own doing and he probably deserved every bit of what they had in store for him. Still, I was willing to protect him like he had protected me. "I didn't see any sign of him. Nothing at all. If you say you killed him, he must be gone."

"And that doesn't make you upset at all?" The girl said to me curiously. "David and Marko always spoke about you like you were their friend."

"We were friends at one time." I replied with a shrug, trying my hardest to seem unaffected either way by David's supposed death. "But a vampire killed my mother so as far as I'm concerned, the only good vampire is a dead one."

"Do you know if there was anyone else?" The older woman asked me, finally speaking up from her confused silence. "Aside from Max and the boys who were killed the other night?"

"There's no one." I answered plainly. "Max, David, Marko, Dwayne and Paul. They were the only ones in that family. There used to be others but they're dead now."

"So that whole vein is gone." The elderly man muttered. "Good and good riddance."

"We should get going back to the house." The woman said, turning to smile weakly at the others. "We've got a lot of cleaning up to do still." She turned her gaze to me then and a look of concern came over her face. "Tawny, sweetheart, do you have a place to stay?"

"Here, I guess." I replied with a shrug. I could tell that this woman, whoever she was, she had been a target for Max's Matriarch. Her genuine nature and gentle demeanor showed that she was the motherly sort and she was exactly the kind of woman Max would have gone after. I was glad for her sake that she was spared the same fate as my mother, though I couldn't help but resent her for it a bit as well. "At least for a while until I can head back to Oregon. There's nothing for me here anymore."

"Well, you take care." She replied back, leading the young boys from the house with the old man following close behind.

I was left standing in the living room with the two teenagers and the boy seemed eager to leave but the girl was looking at me with a sad expression. "I'm so sorry about David." She said, her voice barely a whisper. "I know things may have changed, but at one time, you two were very close. He and Marko used to talk about you all the time; about what it would be like if you were still around, if you were one of them. And they talked about the old times too. Before they were vampires when it was just the three of you and you were all best friends. I wish I could have known them back then."

"Yes, well... they were certainly different people then." I replied stiffly, not certain how I felt knowing that David and Marko spoke of me regularly. It should have made me happy and in a small way it did. It also made me uneasy. I crossed my arms over my chest, always guarded as I took a step back from the two staring at me. "Anyway, you did what you had to do. I don't have any hard feelings so you shouldn't apologize. Like I said, I'm a vampire hunter. To me, the only good vampire is a dead one."

I watched them then as the boy grabbed hold of the girl's hand and pulled her back toward the front door. Her eyes were glued to mine and the look on her face showed that she had more to say but she didn't say anything at all. They closed the door behind them and I let out a heavy sigh. The sun was likely rising outside and I knew if I didn't fall asleep before it got too bright in the house, I'd never be able to fall asleep. I let my head fall to my hands as I attempted to rub away the stress of the past few days.

"I thought they'd never leave." A voice came from behind me and despite the familiarity of it, I let out a terrified yelp. I whirled around to see David leaning against the wall, a half smile on his face as he glanced from me to the front door.

Instinctively, I reached out to hit him on the arm. "David, you prick! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry." Was all he said in reply, that same stupid smirk still planted on his face, rooted there as though it was permanent.

"Who were those people!?" I asked harshly, angry at being startled and frustrated at knowing David had likely been watching the whole conversation unfold. "And why do they think you're dead?"

"I got impaled on antlers of some sort." David said with a shrug as though the statement carried no weight at all. "It really did a number on me for a minute but I recovered and got the hell out of dodge while nobody was looking. As for who they are, they're unimportant. Don't worry, they shouldn't be back here anymore."

"That girl knew an awful lot about you and Marko." I said, not buying at all that they were as unimportant as David let on. "Who is she?"

"She's just some girl." David said, brushing off the conversation as he plopped down on the couch and turned on the television. I watched him in interest as he flipped through channels with the remote control before finally stopping on MTV. "Hey! What do you know, it's the same channel!" He turned his gaze to me and patted the spot on the couch beside him. "Have a seat, Tawn."

I stepped further into the living room and looked down at David in disbelief. It was way too strange, too surreal. I felt dizzy as though I would vomit at any second and as much as I didn't want to, I had to sit down. I took a seat beside David on the couch and turned my eyes ahead to the television where a Cyndi Lauper music video was playing. I caught myself glancing at David every so often, trying desperately to grasp whether or not what was occurring in that moment was actually happening at all. We were there in Max's house like we had always been, watching MTV like we always did. It wasn't right and then somehow, it was all that was right. I let myself relax against the cushions of the couch. My tired eyes couldn't handle much more and they began to slip slowly shut. The last thing I remembered hearing was David saying "We should stay here," before the lyrics to Time After Time drowned out whatever he said afterward and sleep eventually took me.

When I woke up, the room was dark, save for the images on the television flashing against the walls and my face. MTV was still on and now an Aerosmith music video was playing. My stomach was gurgling in hunger which made sense to me at the time. After all, I hadn't eaten much on my way back to Santa Carla and I hadn't eaten at all once I had arrived. I could hear someone in the kitchen banging things around and it occurred to me that it must be David. I stood and walked slowly, stumbling through the darkness and into the kitchen where David was setting out plates on the counter. "What are you doing?" I mumbled, still groggy from my sleep and a little disoriented from my crippling hunger.

"Hey, sleepy head." David's response came as he glanced at me. "Can you believe Max had all this food here? Of course, his cupboards were always well stocked. I guess he liked to eat regular food just as much as the rest of us."

My brow furrowed as I watched David place the food on the plates. It looked like he had baked some salmon and there were carrots, mashed potatoes and broccoli on the side. I was getting that strange feeling again, that it was all just some crazy dream and it couldn't possibly be real. "David, what the hell-"

"You're hungry, right? I mean, you haven't eaten at all today. I know you're hungry." He replied as he bypassed me with the plates into the dining room. I followed him and watched as he sat the plates down on the table where there appeared to be two glasses of wine as well.

I was even more confused at that point. I didn't know what to say so I stayed silent and let my body move on auto-pilot. I took a seat at the table and stared down at the food but despite how hungry I was, none of it looked appetizing. David had disappeared into the kitchen again but he returned only a moment later with knives and forks in hand. He passed the utensils to me before taking a seat and looking at me expectantly.

"Try the food." He said, almost demanding as he forked a piece of broccoli and brought it to his lips. "I worked hard."

I looked from him to the food and back again, my mind still too fuzzy to make sense of what was going on. "David... is this really happening right now?"

"Of course it's happening." David replied with a smile. He grabbed the wine glass in front of me and handed it into my hands. "Drink up. You'll feel better."

I stared at the glass and its contents curiously. This was the second time David was offering me wine and expecting me to drink it. I turned my skeptical gaze to him before looking back at the glass. "Since when did you become a wine drinker?"

"Come on! This is the good stuff." He said, shrugging as he lifted the glass closer to my face. "Drink it. I promise you'll feel a hundred percent better."

I looked to him once more, his smile never faltering but I knew something wasn't right. I brought the glass to my lips and sipped slowly and as soon as the fluid touched my tongue, I knew what it was. It was sweet, much like what David had given me to drink the previous night and I realized then that the so called wine he had given me before was not wine at all. It was blood. His blood.

I was overwhelmed with anger as soon as the realization hit me and I threw the glass in my hand against the wall, the blood inside it splattering everywhere. "Damn it! Damn it, David! What did you do!?"

"I did what I had to do." David responded, looking up at me with an innocent stare, though I knew he was anything but innocent. "Tawny, I was losing everything. I couldn't lose you too. Not again. It was a last minute decision and I panicked. But you don't need to be so upset. With Max and the others gone we can-"

"We can what, David!?" I shrieked, standing up so swiftly I knocked the chair I had been sitting in backwards. It fell to the ground with a deafening clatter and David reached out for me but I pulled away quickly. "Don't! Don't you dare touch me!"

"Tawny, sit down and let's talk about this like rational adults." David said, way too calmly for my liking.

"Rational!? You want me to be rational!?" I shouted. Involuntary tears were rushing to my eyes as I looked to him furiously. "David, I've spent the last two years in a virtual hell trying to fight every instinct I had to just feed. I was finally free and you pulled me back in! You bastard!"

David was on me in an instant, his hands gripping my shoulders as I began to grow to hysterics. My breath was shallow and quick. I was hyperventilating. "Tawny, relax." He said softly, though it did little to comfort me. "You have me. I'll take care of you. You don't have to kill unless you want to and I-"

"No!" I said, pulling free from David's grasp. "This was not your decision to make! I trusted you! I trusted you, David, and you betrayed my trust. You idiot... it's the biggest fucking mistake you could have ever made!"

David looked to me then, the expression on his face shifting to a look of genuine concern. "Tawny, this is a good thing. Trust me. It isn't a mistake."

"Oh, it is." I retorted quickly, glaring up at him. "All I want is to be human, David. Now there's only one way for me to do that. By killing you."