Chapter 4

"We should kidnap B and Eric," Ed decided.

That threw him for a loop. "What?"

"I said, we should kidnap B and Eric," Ed repeated, looking at him like he was an idiot when he was the one who felt like he was talking to one.

"Are you crazy?!"

"Crazy? We've gone way past crazy!" Ed hissed, grabbing him by the shoulders. "She's living right next door to a frickin' vampire!"

Adam panicked, clamping his hand over Ed's big mouth and looked around to make sure no one else had heard him.

"Dude, shut the hell up! What if he hears us? We don't even know how sharp his hearing is. Hell, we don't even know what else he can do."

Ed pulled his hand off his mouth. "And that is why I vote that we kidnap them and take them somewhere far away. Somewhere safe."

"And where would that be?"

"I don't know. A church maybe?"

He paused, rolling that idea around in his head before realizing what he was actually considering. "Yeah, that might work… but it's still a stupid idea."

Ed scoffed, throwing his hands up. "Well, do you have a better idea, genius?"

"We could… I dunno… Maybe tell Beth the truth?" he suggested.

"Are you crazy?!"

"You were about to tell her during lunch!"

"No, I wasn't. She asked if she should be worried and I was only going to tell her that she should be. You know, before you decided to elbow me in the ribs," Ed sassed, clearly not over the whole incident.

He rolled his eyes. "It was your stomach and I'm sure you have enough padding there. And if she had asked why she should be worried, what were you going to tell her then? That her neighbour is an ancient, blood-sucking creature?"

Ed snorted. "Well, obviously I wasn't going to phrase it that way. I would have been a little more discreet than that."

"And how the hell were you going to discreetly tell her that her neighbour is a vampire?"

"I'd have told her that her neighbour likes to take a bite out of people and drain them of blood."

"Seriously? How is that any different?"

"Because it implies that he's just a creep and not some kind of supernatural being."

"You're an idiot." Taking a deep breath as Ed spluttered, he decided to be a bit more confident. "Let's tell Beth."

"She would never believe us!"

"Look, we have the video. We can show it to her and she will have to believe us."

"Or… We don't tell her and we kidnap her."

"Dude…"

Ed grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him gently this time. "Adam, dude, we are just doing what's best for her. B's already got a lot on her plate so let's just handle this by ourselves. It will be one less thing for her to stress about."

"I guess…"

There was no denying that Beth had many responsibilities because of her complicated family situation and having a vampire as a neighbour would definitely be a major concern. Maybe he could take Ed's approach and tell her what a creep her neighbour was so she would make sure to avoid him like every other creep she avoided and maybe she would even mo-

"Maybe she'll move out instead."

"What?"

"We can just tell her that he's a creep and a pedo. For Eric's safety, maybe she will move out."

"I guess."

"I can ask my parents if they can come stay with us," Ed chirped.

"Ed… About Beth… Beth and I…"

"And maybe living together will make her see me differently," Ed murmured.

He swallowed. "Ed, you…"

"I know, I know, she's out of my league but she's the only girl who has ever seen me normally, you know?" Ed's cheeks had turned pink and he awkwardly scratched the back on his head. "I'm always the weirdo and girls will never look at me but Beth is different. She sees me and maybe that's just as a friend right now but I can hope for something more, can't I? You get what I mean, right?"

Ed was usually so confident. He knew he was weird and he embraced that he was weird. However, it was for that very reason that Adam tended to forget that Ed was just like any other teenage boy looking for love.

Throwing his arm around his best friend's shoulders, he squeezed him closer. "Yeah, I get what you mean, bud. Guys like us don't usually get the girl."

An hour and a half later, Adam Johnson was a nervous wreck. Having changed into something a little more proper or as Beth would say, "Less homeless", he was ready to leave. Except he wasn't really ready to leave and his ass hadn't left his bed since he finished getting ready an hour ago. Leg shaking constantly like one of those porno dildo machines that he had once watched with Ed, he continued picking at his cuticles. He had fucked up completely. The last chance that Beth had given him and he screwed up.

He had every intention of confessing to Ed that he was in love with Beth and had been in a relationship with her… That he wanted to be back in a relationship with her. Truly, he had been about to bring Beth up as he walked home with Ed but before he could, Ed had brought her up himself on their way home from school and then things took a different turn.

Deep down, Adam knew that Ed had a crush on Beth. At one point, Charley had a crush on Beth too. She was the only girl who gave them the time of day after all. Well, until Charley decided to get all popular. But how could he possibly bring his relationship with Beth up to the person who was also hoping for a relationship with her? Ed was his best friend. Before Charley, before Beth, it was just the two of them.

His phone vibrated with a new text and to his relief, it was Ed and not Beth. He was already running behind time.

We on for tonight? - Ed

A big part of him wondered if he should just text Beth that he wouldn't make it and meet Ed. He scrolled to Beth's name and debated texting her to cancel but decided to leave it. He didn't have the guts to text her.

"Adam, dinner!" Shelby exclaimed.

"Not hungry!" he replied.

Guys like them didn't usually get the girl anyway. Sighing, he sent a text to Ed to confirm their meetup.

He heard his doorbell ring and wondered if it was just Ed. It wouldn't be the first time he had texted him only to show up at his door seconds later. Ed was a do first think later kind of dude. And so, he waited for the usual pounding footsteps towards his room.

"All right, remember the rules?"

"Don't answer if someone's at the door and don't open the door for anyone," Eric repeated the usual mantra as she locked his window and shut the blackout curtains, leaving only his night light to illuminate the otherwise dark room.

"I'll see you in the morning."

She got up from his bed to leave his room only for him to grab her hand.

"B?"

"What's up?"

"Are you…sad?"

"What do you mean?"

"Adam didn't come for dinner. Did that make you sad?"

She sighed, sitting back down and squeezed his hand gently as she thought about it. Was she sad? She didn't really know. Adam didn't even have the decency to send a text.

Coward.

Adam Johnson was a coward. Even from when they were kids, he was always running and hiding from things. He never owned up to anything. If he could avoid confrontations of any kind, he would. Just like when they were caught by Ed while holding hands on a date and he had dropped her hand like she had burned him, never once acknowledging what he had done even after Ed had gone home. And yet…

And yet I fell for him anyway.

Maybe a part of her had expected it to happen. Perhaps things were better this way. They could pretend nothing ever happened between them and go about their lives as per normal. That's how things went when they broke up. It was like they never dated in the first place. No one even knew they dated after all. Not even their closest friend.

So even if Eric asked if she was sad… Well, she didn't know what to think really. Then again, maybe she wasn't as sad as one might have expected her to be. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened after all. She was used to being a secret. More than that, she was used to never being someone's-

"You're my number one, B. When I grow up, I'll be the one to take care of you. You'll see."

Her eyes misted with tears and she managed a teary smile, leaning down to kiss his forehead.

"And you're my number one."

"You and me against the world, right?"

"Right."

Eric glanced at the clock on his bedside table. "You gotta go, B."

Dabbing at her eyes with her sleeves, she nodded and got up again. "Good night."

"Good night!" She was pulling the door shut when in a soft voice, Eric said, "B, you know, one day there will be someone other than me who will see how amazing you are and you will be their number one too."

She managed a smile despite her doubts. "Yeah? You think so?"

"I know so. And he… or she, will be so much better than Adam Johnson. For starters, he's going to be handsome and tall."

She couldn't help but laugh at her brother's words.

He knew that this was the day that he was going to die. He had thought it was Ed at the door as who else would come to visit at dinner time and while he waited for his friend to climb the stairs to his room, he paused as he realised something important. Ed would never ring the doorbell when their door was always unlocked and the last to go up would be the last to lock the door for the night.

He knew his parents had gone upstairs so it had just been Shelby who was still watching the TV with their dog. Not long after that, he heard whimpering coming from Shelby's room. There was no way she had brought a guy home while their parents were upstairs and an odd feeling had settled in his gut. Jumping off his bed, he had raced towards the door and pulled it open only to find Shelby's door cracked open and gurgling sounds were coming from inside.

He dashed in only to come upon the sight of the vampire he and Ed had been spying on, feeding on his sister. Adam hesitated for a moment until Shelby locked eyes with him, begging him to help her so he tried only to be tossed out. He had scrambled away towards Daisy by the stairs and watched helplessly before heading upstairs to his parents room only to find that they were dead. While choking back his tears, he dove under the bed and reached under the mattress for the gun he knew his father kept but it was locked. He managed to fish the keys out of his dad's pocket and unlock the gun only to drop the lock. He mentally cursed his stupidity.

Fuck this!

If only he hadn't gone along with Ed's stupid idea. He should have stayed out of it when Ed brought up his theory that Beth and Charley's new neighbour was responsible for the recent disappearances and that he was a vampire.

Well, if I'm going to die anyway…

Gingerly, he pulled out his phone from his pocket with shaky hands and dialled a number he knew by heart. To hell with it if the vamp came for him, he had to hear her voice, even if it was voice mail. And fuck Ed, he had to warn her!

"Hey, you've reached Beth's voice mail!"

He missed her. He missed them. He shouldn't have ditched her.

"Which means she's obviously not here, bitches," Ed's voice added.

The guy he was closest with, after Charley had ditched them. They'd gone through a ton of crazy things together which now led to this. Him, hiding under a bed. Fuck Ed.

"So you've gotta leave a message so she'll know what it's about, obviously," came Charley's voice next.

"If it's important, she'll get back to you," he added.

"So leave a message after the beep!" Beth chirped.

"Beeeeeep!" All of them exclaimed in unison, before they burst out laughing.

All he wanted to hear was her voice, but her voice mail held so many memories and feelings of the happier times. Before all this crap. When they were still a group of four.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he thought about how this was the last time he would get to talk to her and it sucked. He wanted so much more with her and now, he was going to die. Painfully. Regret hit him like a ton of bricks as he recalled the mistakes he made with her over the years and even earlier in the day. The promises he had broken…

"Beth, it's Adam. I know that this is sudden, but this is the last time that I'll ever get to speak to you. I'm sorry for breaking my promises. I'm sorry for not going over to your place tonight. But I need to warn you that..."

No, he couldn't possibly tell her that her neighbour was a vampire. He just couldn't. No, his last message to her had to be a happy one. Sort of. He didn't want to die with her thinking he was insane. Ed would handle the rest. He would know what happened to him.

"Forget that." He took a deep breath to control his tears and his breathing as he pressed the option to re-record his message. "Beth, I wished I could have seen you one last time. No, I should have gone to see you today even just to apologise. I couldn't tell Ed about us even though I promised I would. I- I miss the times we spent together when we were still together and I wanted us to be more in the future… I- I can't tell you what's going on. I'm sorry. Don't go snooping, all right? Or you'll get hurt. I just… I just wanted to protect you. Please, stay safe. I'm begging you. Take care of yourself. I- I…"

It was a little difficult to speak because he was trying to hold back his tears but he did his best.

"Beth, I…"

He wasn't sure what possessed him to do it but he turned his head to the side only for fear to engulf his entire body as he realised his father's body was now missing.

When the fuck did that happen?

His heart dropped to his stomach as a hand with sharp, long nails reached down to pick up the lock he dropped earlier and as much as he knew he could only hide for so long, he was petrified. It was in the room with him. How long had it been there? Did it wait for him to record his voicemail? Even though he was going to die, he was still terrified. More so when the bed was thrown aside and he was face to face with the very creature he and Ed fucked around with. It was more horrifying than he imagined.

"OH FUCK! Crap! Beth, I love you!" he screamed, not wanting his last words to her to be a curse.

As the creature picked him up, his phone slipped from his sweaty, shaky hands, clattering to the ground.

"Please…" He begged. "Please don't kill me…"

He thought he'd be pissing in his pants by now.

For a moment, the creature's face morphed back into the one he recognized more. The face that it normally wore. The face that they had recorded while stalking it.

"You should have just left me alone but no, you and your little buddy decided to be little detectives, following me around, doing research on me… I mean, kudos to the other kid for figuring out that I'm a vampire. It took him a while. Longer than I thought, really. Hell, I almost wanted to give him the answer after his initial guesses which were downright insulting. I mean, come on, an Alien? He really thought I was abducting people for human experimentation."

His blood ran cold. That had been one of Ed's earlier guesses which he only knew about after Ed had come to the conclusion that Beth and Charley's neighbour was a vampire. And it was only at that time that Ed had listed down the other creatures he had initially thought it could be. At the time, he was still sceptical that a supernatural creature was responsible for the disappearances but the decisive piece of evidence was when Ed convinced him to spy on the new neighbour one night.

"Y- You knew we were watching you. You let us watch you!

The vampire barked out a laugh. "Of course I did! You dumbasses thought you were subtle? I could hear everything you two were discussing and I waited for you to do your little investigations. When your friend finally figured it out, I decided to give you two a little reward so I let you video me."

And it was that video that convinced Adam that Jerry Dandrige, the new neighbour everyone was talking about, was a vampire.

"You…"

He played them.

"It was entertaining enough but now I'm bored. You should know that stalking is a very bad thing and that curiosity is a double-edged sword."

He swallowed. "W-W-We… W-We just…"

"W-We just what? What did you think would happen?" The vampire taunted. "You were investigating a vampire. The moment you did that, you became a threat to my existence and you thought you could get away scot-free?"

The vampire looked absolutely dumb-founded.

"I…"

"Actions have consequences and because of your actions, you're facing the consequences but you did one thing right."

"I did?"

The vampire's grin widened. "You didn't tell Beth."

"Stay away from Beth!" He screamed, struggling futilely with all his might.

All the vampire did was smirk before his face morphed once more and rows of jagged teeth, much like those of the shark in Jaws, sank into his neck. As he was held there, feeling the constant pulling at his neck, he was full of regrets. They had been in over their heads. What the hell had they been doing stalking a vampire? Why did he go along with it?

When Ed had first brought up his suspicion that Beth's neighbour was responsible for the recent string of missing people, he should have stayed out of it but he had been excited that something was actually happening. And Ed said he needed him as he was the only one left that he could talk to about it now that Charley wasn't their friend.

And it was that memory that led him to remember what Beth had said earlier…

"If Charley was still with us, the two of you would be wrangling him along in your shenanigans."

And the worst part was that even though they always denied it, it was at this very moment that he realised the truth in Beth's words, leaving him full of regrets that over the years even though he loved Beth, he hurt her repeatedly.

He was getting light-headed, the blood loss making him dizzy and nauseous. "B…eth... I'm sor...ry..."

Guys like us don't get the girl after all.

Dark spots began to cloud his vision and the last thing he saw was the pointy row of teeth displayed by a large grin before the darkness took him. It felt like he was floating in darkness and it didn't even hurt when his body was dropped onto the floor like a sack.

He heard movement next to him and the sound of electronic beeping before…

"Beth, I wished I could have seen you one last time. No, I should have gone to see you today even just to apologise. I couldn't tell Ed about us even though I promised I would. I- I miss the times we spent together when we were still together and I wanted us to be more in the future… I- I can't tell you what's going on. I'm sorry. Don't go snooping, all right? Or you'll get hurt. I just… I just wanted to protect you. Please, stay safe. I'm begging you. Take care of yourself. I- I…"

Another beep.

The vampire scoffed. "Well, that's a little hypocritical. I'll do you a favour as thanks for the meal and delete that so Beth won't have to hear that bullshit. You know, I don't know Beth personally but it seems to me that she deserves more than friends who only leave her out of things and then leave dying messages that beg for answers."

The last thing he heard was the sound of something clattering to the ground.

As Beth strolled up to the club, Tucker, one of the bouncers smiled and greeted her, "Hey, B!"

"Hey," she said, returning his smile.

He was one of the better bouncers who really took care of trouble and they got along well so it was always nice to see him when she came to work.

"Thought you weren't working tonight."

"I wasn't but boss called for backup after Katie called in sick."

"Well, tonight's bustling, so you'll get paid well. Go right on in," Tucker said, stepping aside.

"Thanks!"

She headed to the locker room to drop her bag off and pulled out her phone to place in her back pocket only to realise that the battery was flat. Cursing herself slightly for forgetting to charge it, she sighed and chucked her phone back into her bag in the locker.

Author's Note: Hey, folks! Sorry for this long ass delay. I'm not sure how many of you are still paying attention to this story but thank you if you're still reading it. I had left my idea book in another country during COVID as I had been staying there for work only moving back home before the lockdown so a lot of the ideas I had penned down were in there and I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what I wrote. I had some difficulty with expanding chapters that were originally only under a thousand words to something long enough that was actually worth your time so it really boiled down to adding more scenes. And I also realised there were inconsistencies with what I wrote and the movie so I've tried to keep some elements and details as close to it as possible.

Please do review and let me know what you think. Your reviews are always appreciated! Have a great day, everyone! And stay safe!