Cassius, unfortunately, wasn't passed out, so I had to deal with him after all. Well, I would've had to, regardless, actually. Eh, whatever. You know what I meant. Anyway, he was gonna have a bad time; I was gonna break his heart into a million pieces. There were probably better ways to do it, convince him not to follow me or call the squad or whatever, but I felt like the heartbreaking route would be the most effective. And traumatizing.

When we got there, we lingered outside for a bit; Maverick, River, and Briar-Fleur listened out for Enzo. He wasn't there; it kind of defeated the purpose a little bit, because initially, the plan was to have him listen in and think that I'd never separate from Maverick, but you can't control a psychotic vampire's actions.

Then again, we'd been hoping we'd beat him there, too. So, fuck if I know. I'm as confused about my life as you are.

"It'll be over before you know it," Briar-Fleur tried to assure me. I felt like crying in gratitude. I hardly knew her, and she hardly knew me, but she was the only one out of the three of them that felt like I needed some reassurance about the situation. River was a jock head; I could tell, just with very little dialogue from him. Plus, he hadn't cared if I lived or not before, when I almost got crushed at school and when Maverick thought about killing me, so fuck him. And Maverick was…a complete mess of emotions, so also fuck him.

I'd forgive them later. River because I hardly knew him, so he needed a fair shot. Maverick because I wanted to sleep with him. Because I hardly knew him enough to call these feelings love; it's lust. Literally only been, like, three months, and we've only had, like, ten proper-ish conversations altogether by that point.

Anyway, I didn't start crying, by the way. I only just felt like it. Being depressed about first moving there was the only time I cried. And when Maverick ignored me. For a month. Yeah. Least I think I cried. I don't fucking know anymore; I've retold so much at this point, I am not surprised if my story isn't coming out straight.

Briar-Fleur and River left after that, or vanished into the night to hide, in case Enzo did show up at my house. Maverick and I held hands, and we walked to the door.

"Ten minutes tops," he told me.

"Yeah, yeah," I dismissed. I stared at the front door for a moment before looking at him. "Is this the part where I get all heart-eyes and confess my undying "love" for you?"

He snorted. "Wouldn't it be lust?"

I held back a squeal as I swatted his shoulder in delight. "Right? Screw those bullshit love at first sight stories. It's always fucking lust." She shakes her head. "It takes a miracle for it to be actually love, after such a short time. Then again, I still think people confuse it with infatuation even then. But if it works, it works, I guess."

He nodded. "It could become love after a few years, yes, but yes, it would be infatuation from the honeymoon phase that they'll mistake it as love for a while. Or always. Never realizing it changed into love because they always thought they were in love."

I squealed in delight that time. "What a perfect match we tend to be, sometimes."

He snorted again, nodding shortly. "Sometimes, yes."

Quickly, I gave him a kiss; the last one I'd ever be giving him, probably, because I'm currently dying. I don't know why I said that. Oh, wait, I remember; I can't recall if we kissed one other time after that or not. Anyway, I gave a quick kiss; his lips were as cold and marbled as ever, like kissing a statue but it was super hot cause it made my nethers quiver. Yep, that's right, readers; more raunchy words about my getting horny for him. Because I'm not scared to mention it, like some people; they get all vague but it still spells "horny". It's okay to be a whore, you know, and to like whores; and to call them whores, with their permission (make sure they actually are okay with the term first; same with slut).

Pulling away from his lips, I yanked my hand free from his grip and stormed into my home, putting up a major, overdramatic fit. "Fuck off, Maverick! I don't want to fucking see you right now!" I threw the door shut, right in his perfect face, which was smirking because he immediately caught on to what I was doing.

Cassius was already by the front door after I shut it, holding his gun menacingly. "What happened? What did he do? Did he hurt you? Did he touch you?" Did he rape you? went unsaid but I knew what he meant.

I ignored him instead of easing his concerns. I stormed up the stairs to my bedroom, slamming the door closed behind me. I grabbed the biggest bag I owned and started packing, first going for the money I had hidden. Cassius knocked on my door, asking more questions of my wellbeing, which I also ignored. Maverick showed up, then, throwing clothes at me to pack. Asshole; he could've put them in my bag instead of throwing them at my face.

Cassius' questions got annoying after a bit, so I finally answered. "I wasn't ready for the next step of the relationship, I broke up with him, he didn't rape me."

Maverick looked at me, glaring. Must've been angry that I was destroying his virtue. Too bad, bitch; a psycho vampire was after my blood.

Soon, my bag was full of enough of my shit. I threw the strap onto my arm and stared lustfully at Maverick. He winked at me before diving out the window like a bat, hehe. I walked out of my bedroom, past Cassius, running down the stairs, ignoring him again. I needed to leave.

He grabbed my arm when I made it to the front door. Realistically, literally nothing I said would have made him not chase me down across the world, but surprisingly, saying the rudest shit to him was all I needed to keep him at bay for, at least, a week, which was long enough.

I'll sum it up for you. I basically said that I didn't want to end up exactly like Mom; marrying young, getting pregnant young, getting divorced young, and then getting remarried during a midlife crisis. He tried to convince me to stay another week because by then, my mother would be back in Raven; apparently, the whole sports career my stepfather wanted wasn't exactly working out for him in Adflori so they were just gonna head back if it continued not working out.

I completely ignored the information, for the time being. It would be relevant later on, you'll see.

Anyway, I dismissed him, made more excuses to leave, and finally, he released me and I was able to storm out of the house, never to see him again because I was gonna get murderized. I tripped during my sprint to Thelma; I was scared that Enzo was there to kill me already, even though he would've gotten me in under one second with the vampire speed.

I drove away from my home. When my house was out of sight, Maverick reappeared. He made me pull over, so he could drive instead. Actually, he wanted us to switch spots while Thelma was still moving but that was dangerous for me specifically, so I pulled over like a normal person.

Long story short, River was running outside Thelma, Briar-Fleur was driving behind Thelma, and Enzo was running behind Briar-Fleur, even though he probably should've been right on top of us but I guess he wanted to terrify me to death. And apparently, he heard the very end of my forced argument with Cassius but I honestly don't think it mattered. Minus maybe the part about my mother returning to Raven within the week.

I'll skip all of the "I didn't know you still hated it here" and "you are my life now" mini speeches. And the monologue of Enzo's thoughts that Maverick sprouted at me; you'd think there'd be vampire laws that would stop Enzo from having his little games of murdering humans and exposing vampirism to said humans, specifically ones he wasn't hunting and murdering for fun. And it was probably not just humans he hunted; maybe even other vampires.

Honestly, I don't know why we had to do this elaborate plan when the whole family could've just gang up on Enzo and murdered him, thus saving me from death and saving me from having to travel all over the place to stay safe. And would've prevented me from hurting Cassius with the truth, mostly.

Like, fuck morals; just kill the guy. He was literally right in the open, following us. It would've been so easy. But no. The family I got stuck with were either complete morons or desperate to end things in a more civilized manner, which wouldn't work with a psychopath like Enzo! So, again, they could've ended him right there! Like, seriously! I'm getting killed for no reason, by this point!

I'll forgive them, though, if they manage to save me.

"So, how are y'all gonna get rid of 'em, then?" I asked. By the way, no, whenever I say these southern terms, I do not, in fact, have or use a southern accent. And none of the Soren-Phoenix family have one, too. If they were from a southern place at some point, that accent is long gone; that tends to happen when you move from that area and start adjusting, gaining a different one that outweighs that one. Probably. I don't know. I'm stalling.

"Only another vampire is strong enough to kill a vampire," Maverick started. "We have to tear him limb from limb, then toss every inch of him into a bonfire. It's the only permanent death of our kind."

"…And you all can't do that now because…?" I asked.

He ignored me, as if I had never spoken up again. "You don't have to worry about him trying his luck; he won't attack tonight."

"You know, how about we reevaluate the plan? Maybe I should just stick in the center of all of you, that way I'm never alone and he'll get restless, and attack, and then, all of this can be over with," I tried to reason, realizing that we were overcomplicating the situation for no real reason.

Maverick didn't answer me, nor acknowledged that he heard anything I said. Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the Soren-Phoenix household of grandness. Too bad my second visit to the house was because of a crazy vampire trying to kill me. And for whatever reason, Maverick had River carry me inside instead of doing it himself, or actually letting me walk.

To my complete shock, Zion was there. He and Maverick briefly had a conversation about Enzo; all I got from it was that Enzo was never gonna stop, unless I died or he did. Meanwhile, Atticus and Briar-Fleur, and River and Flora, went off to presumably their bedrooms to have "we might not make it" vampire sex, even though the family very clearly outnumbered Enzo and Veronica, assumingly Veronica was assisting Enzo.

Anyway, Enzo turned out to be the leader of the mini coven, not Zion; so, I don't know how Maverick got that information wrong, considering he can read their fucking thoughts. Must have been thinking of a lot of different shit that was hidden so, so well. Or maybe he always knew. I don't know anymore; like I said, I've recalled so much shit by this point, I might be mixing up shit now.

Zion questioned if I was worth the effort of protecting (even though the whole entire family could've taken Enzo and Veronica out already by that point) and Maverick wailed like a banshee. How protective of him, aww.

In the end, Zion chose to leave and take a trip to Aliden, where another human friendly vampire family lived. Interesting choice from him. Maybe he'd be a good guy later on; like, genuinely, not just someone who is trying to stay outta the way. Anyway, good riddance to him; he continues to be irrelevant, for now.

I silently just sat around as they all discussed the plan without me. Not like they'd acknowledge me and my words, anyway. River and Flora, and Atticus and Briar-Fleur, finished their sexy times or whatever, returning. Good for them, getting it in while I was still in danger.

Flora and Maverick got into an argument about me; she and I needed to switch clothes. Something about confusing the scent trail so I had a chance to get the fuck away. Which, I wish I thought of that; it was smart. But also would delay the inevitable. So, one could hope they'd get him before he got a new brain cell.

Spoiler alert: it clearly didn't work that long and they clearly didn't kill him.

I mean, I should call Flora a bitch for, you know, being willing to let me die, but like, she had a good point; they hardly knew me. Just a few weeks tops, altogether. So, I completely understood that she didn't want to switch clothes with a human stranger that was changing their lives entirely.

So, instead, Clover May and I switched clothes. For whatever reason, she carried me upstairs when I could've walked. It was nice but uh, I could've walked. Anyway, we changed in front of each other; it wasn't awkward or sexual or anything of the sort. We were literally just changing our clothes for a good cause.

Then, with Briar-Fleur, I was carried back down the stairs, because god forbid I fucking walk like the human I was, am. Jesus Christ and Satan. Remembering this shit is getting me annoyed about it again.

Maverick gave me another goodbye kiss, a very passionate one. And then, one by one, the family walked out until it was just me, Atticus, and Briar-Fleur.

"Life is pain. Life is only pain. We're all taught to believe in happy fairytale endings, but there's only blackness. Dark, depressing loneliness that eats at your soul," Atticus quoted, staring me down.

I stared back, cracking a smile. "Did you just quote Pete from South Park?"

Atticus smirked. "And if I did?"

I snorted. "I like you. I really like you. You're cool."

Briar-Fleur grinned at us. "I think the three of us will be very close in the future." I snorted again; yeah, sure, think, says the one that could see the future.

Anyway, with everyone else gone, we waited until Briar-Fleur was certain that Veronica and Enzo were following the others. Then, I was on Atticus's back, fading into the night as the three of us left Spoonz behind, eventually.

Also, again, how was Atticus the newbie? He certainly acted like he was Gucci around me. Hmm. Fascinating.