It’s late at night. You should be asleep right now, but you’re not.

Rain patters steady against the window, streaking the glass in thin watery lines. The room smells of damp stone and the perfume of a former friend. The atmosphere is starting to make your eyelids feel heavy, but you need to stay awake.

There was a vampire in the room with you.

Well, she wasn’t just some random vampire. She was someone who had taken the identity of your close friend, March 7th. Ever since March turned into a vampire, she also turned into a whole new person. She goes by Evernight now, which you’re still getting used to calling her.

Even when she changed, you stuck by her. Even still, you don’t plan to give up on her.

Evernight stood by the window, still as if she were a statue, pale hands by her side. You can’t see her face directly as you stand behind her, but the reflection of those red soulless eyes find you as a lightning strike illuminates them on the window’s glass surface.

Her jaw is tight as if she were holding back from something, mouth pressing into the kind of silence that feels deliberate. Turning around, her lips part in a fanged smile.

“I remember every taste,” she says, more to herself rather than you. “But memory does not quiet the hunger.”

The vampire doesn’t shift from the sill. She only stands there fully facing you now, unblinking. It’s almost like the storm outside is nothing compared to what she’s holding back.

A small shiver is sent down you spine as her eyes seem to rake over your body.

“You would do anything for her, wouldn’t you?”