𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐒

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖜𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖞 𝖙𝖜𝖔

The burnt orange ring of a sunrise spilling over the sea burned at the corners of your eyes. Even deep beneath the ground and furthest from the cool, clear comfort of the early morning as you could be, your body fought to cling to the memories of racing the sunrise to the pasture each dawn and trailing behind the stretch of shadows back to your A-frame cottage as dusk settled over the wide flat landscape of Mr. E's ranch. This new vampire inside of you was clawing at your brain to forget your old habits of sleeping at night and rising with the new day, but your body remembered. You prayed that you would always remember.

Long dead echoes of boyish laughter clung to the smokey air of Star's bedroom alcove. A stick of incense was burning on the nightstand that separated your bed from the one Star and Laddie were cuddled close together. Every few nights you would wake to find that the little boy had made his way to your side instead, curled up beside you with his tiny hand making a fist around your index finger while he dreamt.

Thin ribbons of smoke trailed across your heavy blankets and right over to the neatly folded stack of clothes at the foot of your bed. Someone had washed them while you were asleep, leaving you to glance down once more to realize that you had been dressed in yet another hideous boardwalk shirt, this one reading Benny's Beach-Side Burger Shack across the front in bold, dripping red letters.

By the light of the embers crumbling into a small ceramic dish, you reached down the mattress and dressed slowly so as not to wake either of your slumbering roommates and gathered your shoes in your arms.

Your wardrobe had been severely restrained lately. If you weren't wrapped up in someone's hand-me-downs or stolen apparel from the boardwalk, you were limited to the one outfit that you had been wearing when you were first committed to this cliffside prison.

The tunnels spat you out into the hotel lobby and only then did you dare to drop your sneakers and wriggle them onto your feet. Dim rays of afternoon sunlight were prodding at the cave entrance and you prayed that you had a big enough window of time to slip out and grab a few things from home and still make it back before anyone else woke up around sunset. But that was only wishful thinking on your part.

You'd only taken three steps toward the exit when you heard what could have easily been mistaken as the flutter of a bat's wings.

"Where do you think you're going, sister?"

An uncomfortably warm sensation rolled down your spine and you threw your head in every direction to try and place who might have caught you, but there was no one there. Not a single soul. Your eyes narrowed. What were the odds that you were just hearing things?

Apparently those odds were very few, because as soon as you'd accepted that there was no one there, Paul dropped down from the vaulted ceiling and landed less than a foot in front of your path, completely blocking the cave's exit.

He and Marko tried to yank you out of bed for a midnight beach rave last night, and while you had the gall to decline such an offer, it was obvious from the glitter staining his cheeks that they had gone regardless of your refusal. At first, there was a smug look slapped across his face, but the pure terror in your eyes convinced him to take it down a notch—stepping back with his hands shoved deep into the front pockets of his black jeans. 

"Dusk isn't over," he explained low and slow, his voice gravelly from a night of partying. He chewed on every word like a wad of bubble gum, cocking his head to the side. With a snicker, he added; "You'll get sunburn out there."

"You're awake," you argued. If you had any excess energy to offer him, it would have been a sneer.

As if you'd just reminded him of that fact, Paul yawned and stretched his arms so that they towered over his head. When his torn up shirt lifted over his navel, you spotted the silver stud of his bellybutton piercing half-hidden amongst a thatch of dark blonde abdominal hair.

"Yeah, well," he coughed and lowered his arms to shake a handful of reflective confetti bits out of his hair. You immediately snapped your gaze away before he could notice your fixation on his happy trail. "Someone had to make sure you didn't run off and get yourself killed all day. I'm just taking one for the team."

"Do I have a curfew now?"

He only shrugged, cautiously glancing off to the side where a halfway boarded-up mouth of tunnelways stood gaping in the shadows. You never really paid any attention to before—the candlelight never reached that far into the cave—but you knew somehow that beyond those driftwood planks, David and the others were soundly sleeping in some grotesque nest of coffins.

Maybe if you figured that out a little bit earlier, you wouldn't be bartering with a vampire to let you go out during the day.

You crossed your arms, craning your neck to look up and meet Paul's toothy smile with a glare of your own. "I thought the whole appeal of being a vampire was the freedom." You could still easily recall what he and Marko had whispered in your ear during your first visit. No rules, no parents...

He considered you for a moment, running the tip of his tongue over the sharp edges of his canines. You tried to step past him but Paul had his pale fingers wrapped around your forearm in half a second flat. Your eyes met his, wide and frightened at his subtle display of power over you, but even though his hold was firm, there was a distinct gentleness applied to it. He wasn't commanding you to stay put, he was begging.

"Paul," you whined, noticing the shadows slip further down the wall. An hour left of sunlight had just turned into forty-five minutes. "I just need to grab some things from my house. Clothes, toothbrush..."

"Let me come with you."

"It's still light outside. Besides, I need to do this alone."

He must have known how important this was to you. Otherwise, you're not sure he would have reluctantly dropped his hand or slowly shuffled away from the mouth of the cave. He relented himself to you, but there was a palpable look of defeat on his face when you turned around to say goodbye. "I'll be back, I promise."

His expression lit up as he watched you go. The steel tips of Paul's boots brushed against the edge of sunlight streaming in from the exit, but he didn't dare to move an inch past that point. You tried not to think about the last time he had a proper look at the world during the day, or the last time he felt anything other than the warmth of neon carnival lights on his skin.

You hadn't considered until then that you could have just lied. You could have just made a run for it and never looked back, but half of your promise was made in fear of what you might have done without their supervision.

Paul offered you a two-fingered salute that you could barely see with a halo of sunlight against your back. "I never saw you, princess."

(A/N: hehe. that's my bad for not updating in *checks notes* six months. i don't know why the urge struck me just now, but it did. this is a teeny tiny chapter but i really didn't like the transition over to the second half, so now its gonna be two mini chapters. enjoy!)