Danielle

Allen

As I walked into the bar, I saw a completely different crowd from last time. For starters, there actually was a crowd. According to Sam, everyone hid from me last time, but now, aside from a couple careful glances, nobody cared. I moved over to the same stool I sat on last time, but someone was already sitting there. I sniffed the air around them, and immediately knew he was a vampire. I thought about questioning them then, but I decided to wait after a few drinks. I sat down next to him, and the bartender thrust his hand into my face.

With a hearty laugh he said, "Man, your probably the first one to make it back alive!"

"Excuse me?" I answered. What the heck was he talking about?

"You know, the witch girl. She's been coming in here, recruiting folks to help her with her little mission. Every time she came back, she was alone. I'd ask her what happened to them, and she'd say they died, fighting some big ol' something." If what he said was true, and I'm not the first to help her, how did she get other people to help her?

"I bet she used magic on them too, didn't she?" I asked. The bartender shook his head. "Each time, it was a different promise, a different trick. She'd reuse some of those tricks, but never back to back."

Listening to this guy made me hate her even more. "So, using magic, making the person like her and convincing them to help her, did she use that alot?"

The bartender stroked his beard. "Naw, that was trick number 7." I'd heard enough. I was about to start asking the locals about anybody suspicious, but the bartender continued.

"Wait! You must tell me how you survived. Did you... did you kill the witch?" I noticed that the vampire next to me, had turned his attention towards us. In fact, it had gotten quiet, and everyone was staring at us, listening in to the conversation.

After looking at everyone, I looked back at the bartender. "She must be a big deal around here."

"You're damn right she is." Said the vampire next to me. "Took my brother a month ago. Said she could reverse our vampirism. She came back two weeks later without him, saying he got mauled to death by some huge beast."

Another man sitting at one of regular tables walked over to us. He looked Italian, he had long hair put back into a ponytail, a lip ring, and cat eyes. "I remember that," he interrupted. "Everyone in the bar had a little.... disagreement that night."

"Why?" I asked. This time, the vampire spoke again. "It's kind of simple. Some thought that since she was a girl, I shouldn't hit her. The others thought I should rip her teeth out of her head until she told the truth about what happened to him."

The bartender laughed, and started passing out free drinks. He must have been drunk as well.

"That was the biggest barfight I'd ever seen. Fairies, werewolves, vampires, and wendigos. Everything was fighting."

"Did you fight too?" I asked.

"I had to. Some of those bastards was just using the chaos to get free beer, so I had to..."

His voice started trailing off when he said free beer. He looked at us, and all the drinks he had filled since the conversation started.  He started snatching the mugs of booze, making some of it slosh and spill. The group of strangers laughed and patted each other on the backs as the bartender pulled out a calculator.

He started punching some numbers in. "All of you owe me-" the vampire to the left of me pulled out a stack of cash. He tossed it onto the counter. "This should cover it, and pay for another round."

The bartender cracked a smile while everyone cheered and applauded the vampire. He waved them off like it was no big deal. "Let's get straight to the point guys. How did you stop that chick?"

They quieted down so I could tell my story.

"The only reason I agreed to help her was because she promised she'd help me find my roommate Jacob. In fact, that's the reason why I'm here today."

"Did she ever help you?" One guy in the back asked. A girl that had creeped her way up close to the vampire said, "No, you idiot, he just said that's why he's here. Shut up and pay attention."

After a couple of laughs from the crowd, I continued my story. "But that wasn't enough for me to completely agree to help her, so she promised to teach me magic." I made a purple ball of fire in my hands to emphasize my point. They didn't make oohs and ahhs but they did look at me with a greedy look. Almost like envy. "After we got to her house, she possessed me. She took over my body and I couldn't control myself."

That's when they all started muttering to each other.

"I knew she would do something like that."

"That witch is insane."

"I'd have killed her if she did it to me."

"Do you think she did it to my brother?"

I knew I was leaving things out of the story. I didn't even tell them I was a werewolf, but I'm sure they could notice by my smell. I didn't have time to go over every detail though. I had to start searching for Jacob as soon as possible.

I made a loud, obnoxious face cough. "Oh, I'm sorry." said the vampire next to me. "Yea, keep going." said the girl next to him.

"Anyways, her house and neighborhood was all an illusion. She lived in a mansion, and the houses around it were just security to make sure nothing got close."

The girl leaned in closer. "What happened when y'all got close?"

"They starting shooting and attacking us and she kept using me as a human shield."

This prompted more shocked whispers from the crowd.

"I healed quickly, because of my regeneration, and in her house we fought her sister, and a curse that had plagued her family for a generations.

The curse was like a ghost, thinking and speaking for itself, haunting them and hanging over their future.

I couldn't fight the curse outright, because it was too elusive, so we decided to destroy the house.

"Hell yea!" bellowed the bartender.

"That's what she gets!" cried a person to the left of me.

"In the end, the curse wanted to take her powers away from her, but she wouldn't let that happen. She gave me all of her powers to stop the curse from stealing them. Her sister died after giving her powers to her daughter."

They looked like they were waiting for me to say more, but that was it. Playing back what I told them in my head, I felt like the story was kind of lame. Maybe I should've lied and embellished the story. Or maybe I should've told the whole thing from the start.

"So you mean to tell me, that the witch is powerless?" asked the vampire.

"Yes."

"And you have all of her powers?"

"Yes."

"Are you cursed like she was?"

"No, I watched the curse die. The whole house exploded."

"Do you know where the witch is, or where she lives right now?"

"She left me a note saying she was going to the park with her niece. I don't know where they are going to stay. She won't be at my place for long though. I'm done being manipulated by her."

"Well, in that case..." He finished the rest of his drink in a couple of gulps, not stopping once for air. "My name's Elijah." He shook my hand. "I can't thank you enough. You've made this so easy."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, already realizing the obvious.

"I'm thinking what we're all thinking." Slowly, everyone started standing up, smiling, cracking knuckles and murmuring in agreement.

"It's time to kill that demented witch."

Shaye

By some miracle, I managed to wake up. I laid there, for an unknown amount of time, wondering if the screaming would start back if I moved again. Eventually, after my limbs started falling asleep, I began to move. I rolled over, and saw Dr. Paige surrounded by a pool of blood. There was no way he survived. I looked under me and saw that I also had lots of blood all over. My pool of blood was nothing compared to his though.

Still, I crawled toward him without standing up. I tapped his shoulder. No response. I flipped him over carefully, and was about to check his pulse, when I saw his eyes. Half-open, glazed, and they were pointed in different directions. His skin was cold. That told me all I needed to know. I stood up and walked towards the door.

It was locked, so I had to slam my shoulder against it to break it open. Back in the hallway that connected those rooms, I chose the left one, the one that they stopped me from going in the first time. But there wasn't anything in there. I felt the walls, looking for a switch, but found nothing.

I was about to give up, but then I hand an idea. I activated my eyes and looked closer. The room was a storage room. There was a small cabinet in the corner, filled with files. The rest of the room was completely filled with storage cases of vials, just like what they used on Danielle.

She must not be the first one they've tried this on.

I didn't understand how I had walked into the room without bumping into any of this stuff.

I waved my hand around and it went through all of the storage containers. There was some weird magic around it, but I didn't have time to figure it out.

I went back into the elevator, and chose the floor with my office was on. Walking into the same area as last time, I realized with shock that the screams had affected everyone. The whole building was completely silent. There was blood and bodies everywhere. Some people were kneeling in corners, some had banged their heads against the walls. One or two had even jumped through the windows, and this was the 14th floor. I went over two my desk, and my papers had bend scattered. Well, everything had been scattered, but it seemed someone had deliberately ruined my desk. I looked under it, and almost had a heart attack. A man was under there, laying in a fetal position. Blood was streaming out of every orifice, and he was still shaking.

I crouched down and reached out to him. "Hey, are you okay? We need to leave. This place is a death trap."

As soon as I touched his suit, he stopped moving completely. "Hey. Hey!"

I touched his neck, and he grew cold all over. I stood up and backed away from my desk. My hands were trembling. How... How did he suddenly die like that? That wasn't me... It couldn't have been my fault. He was bleeding out anyways, but why did he just... I would've covered my mouth with my hand but my hands were covered in blood.

I felt like I was going to vomit, and I got dizzy. The office area started spinning, and I wobbled around, trying to remain upright. I needed to get out. The blood, the bodies, the people, I couldn't take it anymore. I walked back to the elevator and tripped over some woman in a pantsuit. That was the last straw. I retched and vomitted loudly. I was throwing up so much it felt like I was choking, I couldn't breathe. I tried to calm myself down, and remind myself why I was here.

The kids. Allen, Donovan, Marissa, Jamie.

And Danielle. I was supposed to be watching every single one of them. Out of all of them, she was the one who had it worst. She could be dead right now. That's the reason they wanted me to watch her now. That's the reason I met Dr.Paige in that room. Inhaling and exhaling slowly, I closed my eyes and tried to imagine where Danielle was.

In the room where Danielle was hidden, the security guards with guns were dead on the ground. She was still in that examination chair, but there was a peaceful look on her face again, like she was sleeping.

I'd never done this before, but I used my powers to invade the space. I put my voice in that room, and tried to see if she was alive. I couldn't tell just by looking for a heartbeat. If they succeeded, she wouldn't have one.

"Danielle... Are you still alive? Danielle, answer me."

Her eyes opened, filled with a dark, disgusting red that made my flesh crawl.

When she spoke, her voice was so soft and innocent, it didn't match her face. I was starting to wish I hadn't bothered her.

"Who is this?" She asked. "Where are you, what am I, and who you did this to me?"