The Guy Next Door *editing for publication*

Exams Complete

Ashley filled in the last circle on the exam sheet and smiled as she stood up, stretched and headed to the teacher's desk.  She ignored the snide glances and snickering from her classmates as she handed the teacher her exam.

"Ms. Monroe, you are the first person done with your exam," said RN Michaels.  "Did you want to go over the answers since there is still 45 minutes left of class?"

Shaking her head she skipped back to her desk, "Nope!  I'm confident in my answers."  Grabbing her bag she headed for the door.  With a small wave she walked out of the door.

Happily walking to the bus stop listening to Pandora she hummed Drunken Love by Beyoncé.  Turning her face up to the warm sun she took a deep breath.  Feeling her phone start to vibrate she didn't think anything could get her down.

"Hello!"

"Baby!"  The voice was anxious and full of worry, "I'm going to need you to hurry home.  Don't go back to your house just hurry and come now!"

"Mom, I don't understand."  Ashley held the phone to her ear perplexed by what her mom was saying.  "You’re telling me not to go to my house but to come directly to Saints Edge."

"Ashley," said her mother on the other end of the line, "I know you think my request is strange but I'm begging you to please do what I say."

Rolling her eyes she sighed, "Fine!  I'll call Tro-"

Before she could even finish her sentence her mother's voice shouted through the phone.  "Don't call that - that thing, Ashley!"

Annoyed Ashley pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at the phone, as if it were crazy, before putting it back up to her ear.  Angrily she asked, “What is your malfunction?"

Brenda Rae Monroe took a deep breath and said slowly, "If you want to live past this weekend I suggest you do what I say!"

Ashley smacked her lips and hung up the phone.  Placing it in her pocket she murmured to herself, "What the hell is wrong with her!"  Watching the bus pull up she climbed on, pressed her bus pass against the reader and sat down.

-----

Entering hers and Troy's house it didn't take long to realize he wasn't there.  Checking to make sure her phone was on vibrate, she walked to their bedroom, threw her bag on the floor, kicked off her shoes and laid in the bed.  Cuddling up to the pillow that still held Troy's scent she drifted off to sleep.

As she drifted she heard her mom's vice beckon to her, following it she fell into a sleep filled with dreams. ********

"I'll make you pay for this if it is the last thing I ever do," said the cream complexioned woman with wavy dark blond hair.  She had a thick foreign accent and glared at the man just outside Ashley's view.

"Claudette, how will you do that?  I've taken everything from you including your immortality?"  Drawled a male voice sympathetically, "Now you will get to spend the rest of your life with the humans that you kill mercilessly as food."

"They are food," yelled the woman angrily. "You feed from them as well!"  

"You are also now food." Came the quiet and controlled answer.

"Why should I be punished for what comes naturally to me.... to all of us!" She screamed as she picked up a goblet and threw it at him.

"Like you and every demon I need to feed but you do it with no shame and have killed too many," said the speaker with no emotion. "Your method has brought attention to the demon world and so you can no longer be a part of it."