“Eileen?” I call out. Silence. “Eileen!” I begin making my way through the house, flipping on lights. As I head towards the bedroom, the door opens and Eileen steps out, still wearing one of her favorite dresses. She must have fallen asleep waiting for me to get home.

“Levi?” She asks, half asleep.

“Thank gnome.” I whisper, reaching her in just a few steps. I pull her close to me, crushing her in a hug. “You’re alright.”

She pulls away and looks at me. “Of course I am. What’s going on, Levi?” She asks.

“We ran into vampires in the mountains. One of them said the one I love is dead.” I pull her into a kiss, relieved she’s okay.

She steps back again after this kiss and smiles at me, but her eyes are sad. “Levi…what if it was talking about…” Her smile drops.

I freeze, Autumn. Why didn’t I think of that first? I need to find out what Dr. Corban meant, but he’s long gone now. Then I remember, the other patrol group captured one. I have to get to the station.

“I need to get down to the station.” I rush out.

“I’ll go with you.” She says. She slips her shoes on and follows me outside.

***************



I throw open the doors to the station and march in, Eileen behind me.

“Where is it?” I ask. Cal looks up at me and nods to the door to our interrogation rooms.

I cover the distance quickly and throw the door open. Officer Hurley, my father, and my mother look up as we come in. What was my mom doing here? I look towards the glass window into the interrogation room. The vampire sits there, a silver mesh over its head. I clench my teeth and begin towards the door.

My father gets up and stands in my way. “Son.” He says.

“Move dad. I need to talk to it. Eileen isn’t dead, so I need to s-“ My dad holds his hand out.

“Son, before you go in there, I need you to calm down. I need you to listen to me. The vampire in the mountains, it was…” He pauses. “It was right, but it wasn’t. That…what’s in there…it’s starved. It’s not itself. Just remember that, okay?” He says.

“Yea, okay.” I say, just wanting to get in there and interrogate the bastard.

My father steps out of my way and I open the door to the room. Eileen, dad, mom, and Officer Hurley stand on the other side of the glass. The vampire wears the tight black clothing all the others wear. I can tell its female. As I walk towards the vampire, I hear it smelling the air. It tries to pull against the bindings, but the silver chains don’t allow it much movement before it burns.

“A couple years ago you took a friend of mine.” I say to it. “I want to know what happened to her.”

The vampire stays silent underneath it’s bag. All I can hear our breathing. It moves it’s binding a little. I clench my teeth. This thing was going to answer me. I march over to it and grab the bag.

“Answer me!” I growl, ripping the bag from its head.