Bekah pulled her bleeding appendage closer to her as she desperately tried to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. She didn't know how this whole thing worked. She didn't know if the four boys were actually in control of whom they chose to eat or if any second now they were all going to lose control and kill her. She pressed her thumb into the cut and hissed at the pain but anything was better than being eaten alive.

Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention and her eyes drifted up to meet David's as he moved to slowly, menacingly, kneel before her. His eyes were not the demonic color she had expected but they were bright, alert and set her on edge nonetheless.

"Are you afraid of us, Bekah? After everything we've done for you?"

He had a point there and her hand violently shook as she broke eye contact with him. The four of them had done so much for her. They had gotten her away from her mother, given her a place to live and food to eat. They had shown her how to live. But most of all, all this time, they had been her friends and lover. They had treated her with respect and decency and had made sure she was never found wanting. And now, she shied away from them as if they were all serial killers.

Which, of course, they technically were, but they had never done anything to intentionally harm her, especially not physically. They had all had their fights and taken emotion blows but they had never hit her or threatened her or made her feel unsafe.

The question was, was it good enough? Could she continue to trust these four men that had shown her a new life, knowing that they had killed and eaten people? Could she put aside her personal morals and realize that they only did what they had to do to survive? She wasn't sure. She had seen the board filled with missing person's flyers. Some of them she knew didn't deserve to be up there. Some of them she knew still deserved to be alive. And now that she really thought about it and knew the reason behind all of those flyers, she realized that there were more than couple flyers for girls that were just like her.

Which led her to a different thought entirely. Why her? Why had they killed others like her but kept her safe and brought her into their inner circle? What was so special about her?

It was all so much to take in and she opened her mouth to respond, she promptly shut it again. She wanted to ask for time. She needed time on her own to figure all of this out and decide if she really could put her own morals to the side. But she knew, asking for time would be out of the question. Time would mean she could go tell the Frog Brothers she knew what the boys were. Time would mean she could try to escape. And she knew there would be no escaping now that she knew their secret. She knew their secret and no matter how much time she took, or wanted to take, it was going to come down to either accept it, accept what they were, or die. Because even if the boys did like her, they couldn't take the risk of their secret being exposed to anyone that could harm them.

"This is hard," she whispered finally, knowing David wouldn't wait much longer for an answer. She sounded so feeble and weak to her own ears. She couldn't even imagine what she sounded like to a pack of vampires that were basically immortal. "When I got here, earlier," she began, "I saw that Michael was here. Even after I ran into the Frog Brothers and they told me everything, I felt this crippling fear that Michael had come her to harm you. I couldn't even," she stopped to take a deep breath as tears gathered in her eyes. "I couldn't imagine even one of you being hurt. I spent hours on the boardwalk, you know? I looked at that damn wall and I walked around. I thought about how many people all of you have killed. I thought about why I'm so different from any of the other girls my age up on that wall. But as soon as I got here and I saw that Michael was here…"

She trailed off then and finally looked up at David with tears in her eyes. She held his stern gaze for a few second before looking at each and every one of the others. Paul wouldn't meet her gaze. He had moved to sit on the end of coffee table where David had thrown the comic book. He was looking down at the cover with a faraway look.

Marko was still sitting on the couch and it looked he had been holding his breathe. But Dwayne's look was the most heart shattering of all. He looked like he was hanging on every word she said, just waiting for her to tell them they were all monsters and she didn't want anything to do with them.

"I know now," she continued, as she kept her eyes locked with Dwayne's, "that I felt that fear and that urge to protect you all because you are my family. But I know now. I know you're all murders and that's not something I can just get over in a matter of minutes. I don't want to leave you guys. I won't unless you make me. But I can't go back to the way things were. I don't know if I ever can, but I can try."

The room fell silent. None of them spoke, mostly because they knew the ball was now in David's court. The only sounds that filled the cave were Star's muffled sobs and Bekah's labored breathing.

"You know if you're so torn we could show you the kind of monsters we really are," were David's first words. His eyes were still hard as ice as he studied her face. She decided he was trying to tell if she was lying, if she was just making up some story to placate them so she could try and run away later.

His bare hand slowly rose to grab her chin in a hard grip and he forced her to look up at him, only him. She tried to keep the fear out of her eyes. She tried to remember all of the good times they had had together and everything he had done for her. She tried to take the moment as test. No matter how he felt about her, the other tree boys would always come first. David had to think about their safety above all else.

"David!" Dwayne snapped from his standing position on the other side of the table. The sound of the cold ice and volume of Dwayne's voice scared the other two boys but David only continued to stare at Bekah.

"I already know, David," Bekah whispered, "I already know that you're capable of snapping me in half like a twig or tearing my throat out and I'm still here. I haven't tried to run and I'm not screaming my head off and begging for my life. You don't need to show me how terrible you can be. I believe you."

Her words seemed to placate him because he let her chin go and slowly rose to his feet. He kept his stare on her for a little while longer and then turned to the other boys.

"Enough of this," he said lowly. "Tonight, we go to the boardwalk and Bekah is coming with us." His eyes cut back down to her. "I don't think I need to tell you what happens if you try and run Bekah. We brought you into our world but if you can't handle it, we'll handle you."

His icy words made her shiver and she promptly nodded up at him and then, like a trance was broke, the boys began moving about the cave to get ready for their night out.

To Bekah, she knew now that the boardwalk was their hunting ground.

The sun had long sense sunk under the horizon and the moon and stars were twinkling at Bekah as if the world was right again. The thinking she had done for the past hour alone on the boardwalk was giving her a headache. She had begun to accept her current position but the thoughts of what would happen to Sammy were plaguing her. She knew if the boys found out that Sammy had been the one to tell her they were vampires, the boys would have to take care of it. Just like David had threatened to do to her. Now, she had to be quick on her feet of coming up with ways to make sure that didn't happen and that Sammy would be safe.

If Sammy was safe, she could live with herself. If he was safe, she could go about life as usual. She didn't really have a choice.

Before the group had left the cave, Marko had sat down next to her on the couch, where she had stayed since David's announcement that they would be going to the boardwalk. He had pulled her hand into his lap and set to work on bandaging her cut. She had gotten great comfort out of the action. Not only was he still taking care of her after everything that had happened, but he showed great control in dealing with her blood. She hadn't asked him about it, or really said a word but she knew that he realized it was a comforting gesture. When he had finished, he had given her his trademark Cheshire grin. At that moment, it had really felt like old times before she had found out they were vampires.

Riding behind Dwayne to the boardwalk had been an entirely different story. He had not offered her his hand to help her on the bike and when they were riding, he had remained tense under her hands, as if her touch was physically burning him. A part of her wanted to apologize for trying to lie to them but the bigger part of her had thought he had nothing to be made about. They were the ones that killed people to survive and had brought her into this deadly world without her knowledge.

As soon as they had arrived, she had scrambled off the bike before Dwayne had even killed the engine. She could stand the tense silence between them or the anger that radiated off of him.

After the boys had all turned off their bikes, David had informed her that they would be around and that she was to stay on the boardwalk. They would know, he said, if she tried to leave. So they had all wondered off with Bekah staring after them and then she had turned to railing to look out over the ocean where she had stayed for the night.

She shrugged off the hunger that ate at her belly and instead focused on her current position in life, her life, her freedom, were at stake. She needed to convince David and the others she was accepting what they had offered her. She wouldn't be like Star and try to undermine at every turn. They were her family now and family stuck together.

But Sammy was still her family, too. And she needed to make sure, above all else, that he was taken care of.

"We weren't always like this, you know."

She startled, physically jumped, and then swung around until her back was pressed against the railing. She physically relaxed again when she realized it was Paul speaking to her.

"Dwayne, Marko and I…we were all in different states when David found us. Laddie too."

She slowly nodded at him to continue. The expression on his face told her he wasn't sure if he should continue. She hoped it wasn't because he thought she wouldn't listen.

"We weren't always so hard. Even David was someone else. It may have been a long time ago, but I remember. When we're with you, the way we act around you, that's who we really are. The cruelty we show sometimes it came later. You know we found Laddie on the street about to starve?"

She shook her head and then beckoned him closer with a hand. When he reached her, she slowly slipped an arm around his waist and tilted her head until she was leaning on his arm. He responded in kind by wrapping an arm around her.

"Dwayne was on the boardwalk one night and he heard these little whimpers. So Dwayne being who he is, he went to go see what it was. Laddie was all huddled in a dark alley trying to keep warm in nothing but a t-shirt and a torn pair of jeans. We think his parents were junkies but we didn't ask questions. Dwayne brought him to David and now Laddie won't ever starve and he has a family that cares about him. We have good intentions, too. I hope you can look past the murdering part…" He trailed off and there was an unspoken communication between them.

He really hoped that she got past it because he didn't want to see her die, or worse, have to kill her himself.

"I'm trying, Paul," she whispered as she squeezed his side. He shifted below her hand and she knew she had succeeded in tickling him a little. "Just give me a little more time. I'm not going to run away. I meant what I said. You guys are my family now."

He shifted again under her arm but this time it was to pull her into a hug. She almost wanted to cry at the fact that he had even taken the time out to come talk to her. Paul really was a kind soul, even if he didn't always show it.

"Bekah!"

She pulled away from Paul and turned to look behind them. Sam was standing about ten feet away, panting. It was a wonder that neither Bekah nor Paul had heard him arrive since he had apparently been running.

Paul turned a few seconds later and Sam's expression visibly changed. She hoped Paul didn't realize it was because Sammy was privy to their secret.

"Can you give us a minute?" She whispered to Paul as she turned back to him. He nodded slowly, his blonde hair moving with the motion. She smiled at him gratefully and watched silently as Paul turned away and headed back towards the lights and sounds of the boardwalk.

"You have to be more careful, Sam!" She snapped as she rushed toward him. "They don't know that you know. I kept you out of it and it has to stay that way." She reached out towards him to pull him into a hug, but Sam pulled away sharply. She frowned at him, physically asking for an explanation.

"Why are you even still with them?" He cried, as he finally stood to his full height. "They're killers, Bekah! The murder capital of the world, remember?"

She did remember and she certainly didn't need Sammy to remind her.

"I do remember," she said, almost bitterly. "But it's more complicated then that, Sam."

He returned her frown and took another few steps back.

"How? Explain it to me, Bekah, because you're scaring me."

"I can't explain it!" She snapped again. "You need to stay out of this and trust that I can take care of myself. They're my family now, Sam! I told you all of this already! I'm not leaving them after everything they've done for me. The only thing I can do now is make sure you're safe and that nothing happens to you. I need you to stay away from me and stay away from the boys. Forget everything you ever found out about them."

Sam didn't like that answer at all and for a split second it looked like he might even physically strike Bekah. She had never seen him so angry. She hated that the truth hurt him so much but she knew it was for his own good.

"I don't even know you any more," he whispered as all of the anger suddenly turned to sadness. She could have sworn she saw tears in his eyes. "Who are you?" He yelled.

She felt tears spring to her own eyes and shook her head at him. She couldn't explain it, even if she wanted to. Sam would never understand. And he didn't deserve to be caught in the mess any more than he already was. She knew, deep down, he was better off without her. And Michael.

Sam was better off without the twins altogether.

"Get away from her, Sammy!"

Suddenly she was sick of people screaming around and Michael just had perfect timing. By the time she turned around, Michael was only about twenty feet away and still sprinting to reach them.

"I told you not to come find her, Sammy!" He was talking like Bekah wasn't there. "She's not the same person she was."

"That's rich," she said lowly and crossed her arms over her chest. "Pot calling the kettle black, Michael-"

"He's right, Bekah," Sam spoke up. "You're not the same person anymore. I don't even know you. It's like we're not even family."

The words stung worse than anything she had heard in a long time and she could only watch as Sammy shook his head and began to walk back towards the boardwalk, tears still gleaming in his eyes.

When both Sammy and Michael had walked away, she headed towards the spot where she knew the boys' bikes were parked.

The whole way there she kept telling herself that she had done the right thing and that one day, Sammy would understand.