You're sitting next to Eric, glancing at him every few minutes. You can't help yourself, he looks too good today. It has to be appreciated. He can probably tell, but you don't care. You're looking at his sharp jaw, his mysterious blue eyes, and the light reflecting off of his soft-looking blonde hair. He's wearing a tight black crew-neck shirt with baggy dark blue jeans. Casual but still good-looking, like usual. You wondered what he would look like in a suit, you wouldn't trust yourself not to jump on him if he was wearing one. He would be too powerful. Nobody would be able to exist in the same space as him without throwing themselves at him. You included.

He could be in a magazine if he wanted to. He could walk runways. You've thought that before, and you still think he should become a model or something. He's lived for a long time, so why not be famous? He could be the next heartthrob if he wanted to. Like Johnny Depp or Leonardo DiCaprio or something.

After a while, when you're certain you've memorized every inch of his face, you stare into the crowd of people. There are still fangirls next to the stage, and some fanboys. But after last night, after you kicked that girl off the stage, they seem less determined to get his attention. You're glad, but there are humans still staring at him. It's better than what's happening to you, some of the vampires are staring at you. None of the humans would've glanced at you if not for Eric, they're all here to fuck vampires and feed them. They're not here to find humans. That's what the vampires are doing. But you don't pay your admirers any mind, you're looking at someone else. A different vampire, one sitting at the bar. He's sitting on the end, facing the wall next to you and Eric. He's not talking to anyone, or looking at anyone in particular. He's just drinking.

You haven't been interested in anyone since you met Eric, it feels kind of weird to think about anybody else. You take a moment to stare at the man at the bar, forgetting about the one next to you. He's wearing a leather jacket, he has nice hair, and he's alone. That's all you know about him for now. You can't see the lower half of his face because of how dark it is in the bar. You would ask Margot about him whenever you got the chance, you didn't see him yesterday. You don't know if he's new or if he just hasn't been here in a while, "Can you call our distributors?" Eric asks, snapping you out of your thoughts, you glance over at him and nod.

"Sure," You say, standing up.

While you make your way over to the office, you try to catch a glimpse of the man's face. You're too busy staring at him to notice the person you managed to bump into. Before you fall, you manage to see his face. It was worth it. Both of you go tumbling to the floor, you glance over at the unlucky person. It's a human, the same girl from yesterday. The one you kicked off the stage. You didn't expect to see her back the next day, if you were in her shoes, you never would've come back. That's embarrassing.

"It's you." She growls, lunging forward and grabbing you by the hair. You don't feel her hands connect with your head, you can't feel anything. The adrenaline is kicking in and her weak slaps and punches don't do anything. All you know is that your keys are on the floor somewhere, they fell out of your pocket when you crashed into her. You won't let her win, even if this does feel childish and embarrassing. You back away from her once her grip on your hair goes loose, crawling backward on your hands, panting. There's a crowd around you staring and hollering, you only notice them for a second, and it makes your heart beat faster. Her mouth is set in a snarl, her eyes wide and wild with fury. She looked even angrier than when she saw you the first time.

"Fuck you!" You grunt out through gritted teeth, and she starts to crawl toward you, you're glad she does because as soon as she gets close enough, you pull your leg up and kick her harder than you did yesterday. She skids backward, falling onto her back and gasping for air. You shake your head, lifting your hand to your hair and running your fingers through it. When you do, you pull some hair out in the process. This feels just like high school. She manages to recover and stumbles to her feet, swaying from side to side. You do the same, more graceful in comparison. But you'd never call yourself graceful. She's lucky you're not wearing heels tonight, you wouldn't be surprised if she has internal bleeding from all the kicking she's endured this week. That couldn't be easy on anyone, but she deserves it. She keeps asking for it.

She lunges at you once more, you step to the side and she stumbles past you, almost falling on the floor again. You want to laugh but you can't. She turns to face you, cheeks red from embarrassment and anger. The woman tries to rush at you again, but she's stopped by the man you were staring at before you bumped into her, "It's over," He says like it's a command, but the woman isn't listening. You are though, and you like his voice. She struggles in his grip, trying to stomp on his feet so she can reach you. You just stand there, shaking arms crossed over your chest. You didn't expect her to just lunge at you like she did, you're still shocked by it. You were distracted by the man and your job. She caught you off guard, it wouldn't happen again, "Unless you want to get your arse kicked?" He loosens his grip on her and she stops struggling. She doesn't try to lunge at you again, you almost want to smirk, but that would agitate her further.

"I'll take it from here Erasmus," You hear Pam's voice from behind you. You were wondering where she was, you didn't see her anywhere when you came in. You think his name is weird, but it doesn't make him any less attractive. After Pam says this, the crowd around you goes back to whatever they were doing. Before you can even blink, Pam and the woman have disappeared. She's probably getting kicked out as you stand there staring up at the man awkwardly. You're glad, she should've been kicked out after yesterday too. You don't get why she attacked you in the first place, you didn't do anything to her. Realizing your keys fell out of your pocket, you look around on the floor. They're nowhere to be found.

"Looking for these?" You hear the man ask, and you look up at him. His arm is outstretched and your keys are resting in his palm. Slowly, you take your keys from him and put them back inside your pocket. You smile politely at him.

You clear your throat and his eyes land on you, dark and intense, "Thanks, I uh gotta get back to my job," You point in front of you at the office, where you should be right now, calling distributors and stuff. You glance over your shoulder at the stage, where Eric is sitting. He's staring at you with a look you can't quite decipher. Erasmus doesn't say anything more, just stares at you blankly. You refrain from rolling your eyes and walk over to the office door, open it, and enter the room. When you close the door and turn to look at the desk, you notice a small TV in the corner that wasn't there before. You smile and take your seat behind the desk in Eric's comfortable chair. After settling, you turn the TV on. The News is on.

"Another woman missing on her way to work, that's the fourth one this mon—" You change the channel, shaking your head. You didn't want to hear about that, you had other things to worry about. Human serial killers are the least of your worries. You turn the volume down using the buttons on the front of the TV and look down at the sticky note on the desk. The one from the night you called the alcohol distributors. There's a third phone number now, next to the word glassware. Clearly, they didn't take broken glasses into account when they opened the bar. Or they did but they didn't care about using a distributor to acquire glasses.

It only takes 20 minutes to call the distributors and tell them what you need for the bar. A lot of beer, mugs for beer, and all different types of blood bags. O negative, B positive, O positive, A Negative. But mostly it's O negative. You use the folder in front of you with the list of items on it, you're glad it's there. You don't have any idea what they need and you don't care. It's not your job to take inventory. Every conversation you have on the phone is brief like business usually was in your experience. The people on the other end of the conversation seemed very bored. During the last phone call, with the blood distributors, Pam enters the room and smirks at you.

You hold your finger up at her so she knows you're busy, even though she would've noticed anyway, "Alright," You call into the phone, resting your elbows against the desk and holding in the yawn you felt coming on, "Thanks, bye." You put the phone down and look up at Pam. She's wearing a flowy black satin dress with black heels. Her dirty blonde hair is loose, flowing down her back like a waterfall.

"What's up?" You ask her, leaning back against the cushions of the large expensive-looking chair. She steps closer to you, not sitting in the chairs across from you. You understand, you don't want to sit in them anymore either. Not after that guy was just in here bleeding out in one of them. You can't believe that slipped your mind until yesterday, it seemed so insane at the time you heard it. She looks mischievous like she did that time you told her about your feelings for Eric. One of her eyebrows is raised and the corner of her mouth is turned up in a smirk.

She stops when she's directly across from you, leaning against the desk, "Why did you just fight someone in the middle of my bar?" Pam asks a great question, one you could answer. You notice she doesn't seem angry, and that surprised you. You've never fought anyone at work before, but you assumed it was frowned upon. Anywhere else, it would be frowned upon. But Pam just seems amused and maybe even proud of you, you can't tell and she wouldn't admit it to you.

"Well yesterday Eric asked me to pick someone for him to eat, I did, and then that girl came up on the stage and yelled at me for not picking her. And then she got real close to me so I kicked her off the stage, I guess tonight was her revenge." You finish rambling and she looks even more amused than before if that's possible. You would be amused too if you weren't so shocked about it. You never expected her to come back for revenge, not after being embarrassed by you. She was embarrassed twice in one week. If that happens you might want to reevaluate your life, especially if it involves another person. People like that don't feel shame though, they let their anger get the better of them. Pam lets out a chuckle hidden behind her hand and she shakes her head, settling into one of the seats across from you. You didn't think she'd sit down in such an uncomfortable chair.

She clears her throat and leans forward, catching your gaze, "Are you okay?" She asks, the smirk dropping from her face. Her eyebrows furrow and she sets her mouth in a hard line, looking at you up and down. She's trying to check if you have any visible injuries. You sigh and run your fingers through your hair, letting a few strands fall to the floor. She watches, eyes growing colder as she does.

"I'm alright other than this," You say with a scoff. She grimaces and stands up, not saying another word as she disappears. You furrow your eyebrows and look around the room slowly, shocked. Why did she just leave? What is going on? You close your open mouth and exhale through your nose. After a few moments of just sitting in shock, you stand up and make your way over to the office door. When you open it you notice the music isn't playing anymore, and when you step through the doorway, you notice none of the customers are around anymore. You're even more shocked than you were a few moments ago. This is getting weird. It's like they disappeared or something.

You look to your left. In the center of the bar, tied to a chair, is the woman you kicked twice. She's not gagged, so you can hear her loud whimpering and crying as she begs for mercy. There's already blood running down her dress, coming from the bite marks on her neck. Your eyes widen and slowly, you look over at the stage where Eric should be sitting. He is, resting his chin against his palm and staring at you the same way he did earlier. You inhale sharply, Pam is standing beside him with her arms crossed over her chest.

The basement door opens and your head jerks to the side, it's Sarah. She's wearing a large baggy T-shirt over shorts that are too short for you to see, "What the fuck is happening?" You cry out, frantically looking at everyone around you. Sarah looked like she had just gotten done fucking someone, you hope it was Pam. You noticed some tension between them after Sarah got kidnapped. It wouldn't surprise you if they were together, Sarah usually went for unsafe people when it came to dating. Pam is the definition of unsafe. You take another second to glance over your shoulder at the bar. Margot and Longshadow are standing behind it, she's staring at you openly. Longshadow's pretending not to listen to what's happening.

"Do you want us to kill her?" Eric asks from across the room, too casually. Your eyes widen, more than they already are if it's even possible. But you take a second to think about what he's asking. Did you want this woman dead? Would she attack you again if you let her live? Why is this happening? She didn't seriously injure you, you're not looking to get revenge. You already got it when you kicked her the second time. Maybe you should take kickboxing classes. You don't want this woman dead, she didn't come at you with a knife or anything that would kill you. She just dragged you by the hair and smacked you a few times, and she disrespected you yesterday. There's no reason to kill her, she probably just needs anger management or something.

When he says this, the woman cries out, "No, no, please, I'll do anything! Please don't kill me!" She struggles against the duct tape holding her against the sturdy wooden chair. Margot speeds over to her, slapping a piece of tape over her mouth. A few tears fall down the woman's red cheeks and she sobs through her gag. This sort of disturbs you, you don't want to see anyone like this. Even if she did try to fight you unsuccessfully. You want them to glamour her instead of killing her, that's too cruel. Nobody deserves that. But some part of you thinks Eric will kill her anyway.

"Uh," Your mouth drops open and you glance at Pam over Eric's shoulder. She looks annoyed now, not mischievous like she was earlier. You understood. They're losing money right now because Eric wanted to be childish and defend your honor or something. You don't know for sure, but that's what it seems like. They didn't have to close the bar to do this, Pam could've just brought her to the office or something. If anything, this is drawing more attention. An empty bar at night doesn't make any sense, "No, she doesn't deserve that." You say through gritted teeth, looking down at your shoes and then back up at Pam and Eric. Sarah has joined them now, sitting where you sat earlier, under Pam, crossing her legs.

He tilts his head, "She attacked you." He sounds confused like he can't believe you don't want her to die. You suppose you understand why he's confused, he's old and he's probably lost any empathy he had. But you look over at that woman and you want to cry right along with her. Nobody deserved that. If she died all her parents would have is, "She went missing" and "We'll keep an eye out for her". You know that because you never saw anything about the men you killed on the news. You don't know what Eric did to cover it up, but it must've been bad. Nobody noticed Deb was gone other than Earl. And he probably forgot all about it after a while. You forgot about her sometimes, and the men you killed. It's easier to block things like that out instead of reliving them. He sighs, leaning back in his chair, "Are you sure you don't want me to kill her?" He asks to clarify. Your eyebrows raise, why is he asking you this with everyone around? Why is he making a spectacle out of it? It feels more embarrassing than anything else. This doesn't matter right now, finding who took Jenna's necklace matters more. Finding Sadie matters more than this. It's frustrating to you, you don't know why he's acting like this.

"Eric, are you serious?" You can't help but scoff, clenching your fists at your side. You clench your jaw and stare at him, "I'm sure I don't want you to kill her." You repeat, crossing your arms over your chest so you don't dig your fingernails into your palms. You don't trust that he'll listen to you. He hasn't been very trustworthy in the past. He uses his vampire speed to stand in front of the woman taped to the chair. You refrain from protesting, even though you want to. But you don't need to. He leans down so he can make eye contact with her, trying to glamour her. She turns her head away like people usually do, so he isn't able to change her memories.

"Forget everything that happened in the last 20 minutes, go home." He says, ripping the grey duct tape off of her mouth and cutting the tape around her chest and arms with a knife you didn't know he had. The woman leaves without a word, wiping the tears off of her cheeks as she makes her way over to the door. After a few seconds of awkward silence, you leave too, speed-walking through the bar and over to the front door. When you open the door and leave, you hear someone calling your name from inside. The girl that almost died isn't outside, she must have left fast.

You want to do exactly that, so you get the keys out of your pocket and unlock your car that's parked next to Eric's. When you get inside you rest your forehead against the top of the steering wheel, starting the car without looking. You take a deep breath and reverse out of the parking lot, turning the radio on to distract you. You feel much better after leaving, you got some work done too. So it counted for something. You left the bar earlier than you should have, but you would still make money.

You're a few yards down the road when your car slows down. You press on the gas pedal harder, but it doesn't move any faster. You let out a curse and pull over to the side of the road, turning your car off. While you're alone, you take a second to lean forward and bang on the dashboard angrily. You need to become a mechanic so you can figure out what's going on with your car. This has happened to you more times than ever before. You've been in a car accident, but none of your cars have broken down before.

You purse your lips, tighten your hold on the car keys in your hand and get out of the car. You don't want to go back to the bar, and you don't want to hitchhike. So you're standing with your arms crossed, leaning against the hood of your car. Some cars have driven by, but none of them have stopped and you don't want them to. Every day it was getting harder and harder to trust people. You hear a crunch from inside the woods next to you and you turn around slowly, looking over at the trees and the bushes. There aren't any streetlights near you so you can't see anything, but your eyes are slowly adjusting to the darkness. Your heart starts to beat faster, another crunch, and you flinch, taking a step back.

It's just Eric, he emerges from the woods, arms at his sides, "Did you come to ask me to make more traumatizing decisions?" You sneer at him, taking another step away from him. You don't want to talk to him right now, you don't even want to see him right now. You'd rather see Longshadow.

He furrows his brows a little, "I came to fix your car," He explains, striding toward you. You step aside and allow him to pop the hood so he can fix the problem, "I followed you, I could smell you." He continues. It makes you uncomfortable but you know that vampires have a good sense of smell, him being able to smell you is normal. Instead of watching whatever he's doing, you stand by the back end of your car and lean against one of the doors.

"I did this on purpose," He says, glancing at you and then down at the hood where his hands are, "We're going to New Orleans."