I sighed and hid my face. "That's not what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to work together to stop the diseases from spreading."

  "Work together? But…but how will I win?" my mom asked and looked to her husband for help.

  I glanced out the window while my mother continued her rambling about how she thought the game was about killing the most people the fastest and not saving them and how she thought the name of the game was misleading and she was probably going to write a letter to those who had created the game and let them know how she believed it should have been.

  I stopped listening when I spotted Jayden coming back from his usual Saturday run. He and his mother ran up the street, into the cul-de-sac, when they ran into Jazmine and her parents and stopped to chat. I watched them curiously as they spoke, gesticulating widely like something important was going on.

  "Robyn, are you even listening?" my mom said. She looked out the window and spotted them as well.

  "What are those people up to now?" she asked.

  "It looks like something happened," I said, as I now spotted Amy's parents walking toward them too, Amy shuffling along behind them, a bag of homemade cookies in her hand.

  "That's odd," my mom said and tilted her head. She turned her head like an owl and looked at my dad. "Maybe we should go out there and see what’s going on?"

  Chapter Four

  I didn't waste a second. The prospect of going outdoors and—even better—seeing my friends, made me ecstatic. I stormed into the hallway to grab my coat and put on my boots, while my mother took her time getting properly dressed for going outside. She wore long sleeves but didn't seem to care much whether she got cold or not since she hardly ever wore a winter coat. I figured it was part of her “condition,” as I liked to call it.

  I didn't wait for her to put on her hat and sunglasses before I rushed into the cul-de-sac, where my friends and their parents had gathered, all of them with very serious faces. Jayden's mom was doing the talking.

  I approached them, heart in my throat with joy. I missed my friends so terribly and hadn't been able to speak to them in two weeks since the night we had helped Melanie Peterson escape the vicious claws of my vampire family.

  I could hear the sound of my mother's high heels clicking behind me and shook my head in sheer embarrassment while approaching my friends. Why did my mother insist on wearing high heels even in the snow?

  Jayden spotted me and smiled. I smiled back and mouthed a Hi. My eyes met those of Jazmine and then of Amy as well. They all smiled, relieved, when they saw me. It was no secret they were worried about me and the fact that I was left alone in that house, the only human in a house of nasty bloodthirsty vampires.

  You okay? Jayden mouthed.

  I nodded, biting my lip. I looked into his deep brown eyes and felt myself getting lost in them. I missed him most of all. Even though he was dating Jazmine, and we could never be together because of our parents, I couldn't help myself. I just loved him so deeply.

  Jayden's mother stopped talking when she spotted my mother, Camille, arriving elegantly, forcing her way through the snow in her high heels. There was a lot to be said about my mom, but she was always stylish, no matter the circumstances. I could tell that her presence filled the others with awe and fear. Her beauty, combined with the cold air that always surrounded my mom, made it hard for people even to breathe when close to her.

  "What is going on here?" Camille said, looking at them over her sunglasses. "Are we having a neighborhood meeting and no one remembered to invite us, ha-ha?"

  Jayden's mother, Claire, cleared her throat. "No. We were just talking about what happened last night."

  "What do you mean?" Camille asked.

  "A bunch of kids were attacked in the park," Briana, Jazmine's mom said. "At night."

  "Huh? Really? What were they doing in the park at night?" my mom asked. "Haven't their parents told them to stay away from that place? You'd think they’d know better by now. It is, after all, only a few weeks since that last girl was attacked."

  "Melanie Peterson," Claire said. "She has a name."

  "Yeah, well. I can hardly go around remembering all the names around here, now can I? Besides, she disappeared."

  "What does that have to do with anything?" Claire asked.

  Camille shook her head. "Oh, nothing. I just…well, found it strange that she disappeared like that. That's all. I mean, first she tells all these stories about being attacked by a wolf, and then she just disappears like this, puff? How do we even know if we can trust her?"

  "Well, maybe something scared her away," Claire said, slightly growling while looking directly at Camille.

  "They were having a party," Briana said, continuing the story. "The kids. They were all from the high school. The entire class had met to have a bonfire and party, celebrating one of their classmates' birthdays when it happened. They were just being young and stupid, like most kids that age."

  "But…what happened?" I asked.

  I received a look from my mom to stand back. I knew what the look meant. This was a conversation for the adults, but I ignored her. This was way too important for me just to stand back. Not only was it important, it was terrifying.

  "They think the wolf is back," Briana said. "A kid was killed last night, and the others fled the scene. They found his body between the trees this morning. He didn't make it."

  Camille's eyes met those of Claire's. I noticed the fire in both of them. I wondered if they would have gotten into a fight if they had been alone.

  "But I thought they shot the wolf," Jayden said.

  "That's what they said," Briana said. "But maybe they didn't kill it, or maybe there are more. Wolves move in packs, remember?"

  "Wolves, huh?" my mom said and lifted her nose in the sky.

  "Let's not jump to any conclusions," Amy's dad, Jim said. He and Carol had stayed a little behind them, observing like they always did. They liked to stay out of trouble. I envied Amy that her parents didn't search for trouble like my mother did; they didn't make a big deal out of ridiculous small things.

  "No one knows what this beast is since no one has seen it properly," he added.

  "I don't like it," Briana said and looked in the direction of the park behind their neighborhood. The tall trees seemed to be looking back at them. "What if it comes here?"

  "Nonsense," Claire said. "Wolves are scared of humans. They would never move into a residential neighborhood."

  "How do we even know it is a wolf?" Jazmine said and looked up at my mother.

  Don't, Jazmine. Don't you dare say anything!

  She received an elbow from Jayden and pulled back. They had all sworn to help protect me, and I trusted them to do so. If it was my brother, Adrian, who was killing those people in the park at night, as we suspected it was, none of us could ever say anything. He had to be caught in the act. If he found out that I knew, he wouldn't hesitate to kill me as well. I had no doubt that he would.

  Chapter Five

  It was all over the news in Jayden's house that evening, and they left the TV on even when they ate dinner. Jayden could sense his parents’ growing worry about the killings, and they had told him to stay inside at night and, especially to stay far away from the park.

  Jayden hated all this. He missed meeting with Robyn in the park by the lake after school, so terribly. Heck, he missed the time when they could be together freely and not sneak around. Now, they couldn't even see each other. Was it ever going to change?

  "I know she did something to that girl," his mother said to his dad across the dinner table. They were sitting at each end as usual. His mother was pointing her fork at his dad, who was still in uniform since he had the night shift and had only come home to eat dinner. Jayden's mother stuck her fork back into the rib eye, then cut out another piece and ate it. Steak blood dripped onto the plate from her chin. She liked her steaks rare.

  "Come on," Jayden's dad said. "Camille?"

  "Yes, Camille. She did something; I just know she did. She made that girl, Melanie Peterson, disappear."

  "And just why do you think she would do that?" Ben asked.

  Jayden pretended to be watching the news, but instead, he was listening intently to their conversation.

  "To cover up for what her son did," Jayden's mother said, lowering her voice, but not doing a very good job.

  Ben shook his head and ate a piece of his steak, licking off the blood from his lips.

  "I hardly think Camille is capable of…"

  "Oh, yes, she is. You better believe she is."

  Ben sighed and ate some more steak. "You keep saying that, but do you really think…?"

  Claire lowered her voice to almost a whisper, but Jayden could still hear every word.

  "She keeps thinking it is our Logan who has…I see it in her eyes, Ben. But I am on to her. She is trying to make us take the blame for all those killings that she perfectly well knows her own son is behind. Just because she can't possibly think that her own son would…do such a thing. Meanwhile, he just kills and kills."

  "We don't know it’s him, either."

  "I am certain it’s him. Have you seen him lately? He's the spitting image of her. Those eyes…it's like they…like they…" Claire shuddered and didn't finish her sentence.

  Jayden finished his plate and got up. He kissed his mom on the cheek, then took his plate into the kitchen. His brother Logan was staring at the TV screen, his eyes following it very closely. Right now, they were interviewing another of the kids that had been at the party, and he was telling the reporter how he heard the screams and saw the blood and how the beast was running after all of them. He sounded like he was making it all up as he went along. Jayden could smell his brother as he walked past him, and he wondered if he ever showered anymore. And why didn't he go to the salon? His hair was growing like crazy and reached all the way to the lower part of his back now. His nails were long and dirty, and he was just so…disgusting. Everything about him was so unruly, so wild, and so gross.

  Chapter Six

  No one on the street had heard that the house had been sold. Not even my mom, who always kept herself informed of the latest developments in her neighborhood (yes, she believed it was her neighborhood). The old man who lived in number three had passed away less than a year ago and everybody knew that the son, who lived down south, had inherited it, but we also knew he probably wouldn't be living in it himself since he lived in a beach house in Florida with the ocean as his backyard and was, by the way, a millionaire. So, it was expected to be sold at some point, but the inhabitants in Shadow Hills hadn't even seen a for sale sign or seen it listed anywhere. We didn't know till someone suddenly appeared, driving up on his motorcycle one Sunday at noon. The sound of the bike was what caused us all to rush to our windows since Sundays were usually the quiet days and the only one owning a bike on the street was Ben Smith, and his didn't sound nearly as loud as this one did.

  "Now, what is all that noise about?" my mom asked and walked to the window and looked out.

  "I think someone is moving into number three," I said.

  "Why...I don't even see a moving truck," my mother said. "That can't be. Who moves without a moving truck?"

  The man swung his backpack over his shoulder, looked around the street, then up at the sun that was peeking out between the clouds, a rare sight where we lived. His eyes settled on the park behind the cul-de-sac for a few seconds, then he walked up the driveway and let himself in.

  I felt how my mother was about to burst with curiosity and, finally, she broke down.

  "Maybe we should go and bid him hello," she said.

  She grabbed her emergency gift basket from the cabinet, corrected the cellophane, and sighed when she looked at me.

  "Could you at least run a brush through that mane of yours?" she asked.

  I found my brush without complaining and made a ponytail. I didn't want to risk my mother telling me to stay in the house. I too was curious.

  We walked down the street, my mother holding the basket between her hands. We walked up the driveway just as the man came out the door. He smiled. He was a tall man, with skinny legs and arms, yet a well-rounded stomach underneath the leather jacket. On top of his bald head, he had tied a bandana.

  "Well, hello there," he said.

  "Hello," my mother chirped. "Welcome to the neighborhood."

  She handed him the basket, wearing a proud smile, and he chuckled like he found her amusing.

  "Wow. Don't think I’ve ever received such a warm welcome anywhere before."

  My mom stuck out her hand. "I'm Camille Jones. We live in number fifteen down the street. We didn't know this house had changed owners. We didn't even know it was listed."

  The man shook his head. "It wasn't. I didn't buy it. I’m just renting it for a while."

  My mother's mouth became tight. "Oh. So, you're not staying here long then?"

  "I don't know how long I’ll be here," he said. "You see, I’m here for my work."

  "Ah, and what kind of work might that be?" she asked, almost singing. My mom always knew how to sound nice when she wanted information from people.

  The man cleared his throat and pretended not to hear the question. He looked at me, then at my mom, his glare piercing through us. "If you'll excuse me. I need to get my babies."

  "Your…babies?" my mom asked and let the man walk past us. "You…have babies?"

  "I sure do," he said and reached into the side bag of the motorcycle. He pulled out a tank of some sort, then approached her, holding it into the light. The sight made both me and my mother recoil in disgust.

  "Ha-ha. I get that a lot," he said and knocked on the glass. The two big tarantulas moved slowly inside of it.

  "So…these two are…your babies?" my mom said, not hiding how appalled she was very successfully.

  He nodded. "Yes. I don't have any children, so I like to call them that. I bring them everywhere I go. Very sensitive creatures, these."

  He looked up. His eyes met mine. His glare made me feel very uncomfortable. "Did you know that they can actually sense if there are vampires nearby?"

  Both my mother and I stopped breathing simultaneously.

  "Excuse me, what?" my mom asked, taking another step back. "What do you mean…vampires?"

  He laughed, his eyes scrutinizing her. "It's just an old myth from back when people were hysterical about vampires, you know back in the eighteen-hundreds. They used to blame all kinds of bad stuff on vampires. Like the plague. People back then in Eastern Europe believed vampires brought the plague. Silly, right?"

  "I'd say," my mother said, her voice cracking slightly.

  "They'd say that spiders, especially tarantulas, would flee a graveyard if there were vampires. So, if you see a flock of spiders flee a place, then you know there are vampires. You better stay away then, ha-ha. An old superstition says it's not just vampires they can detect, but all supernatural beings, witches too." He looked at me like he believed I was one. I felt like his eyes saw straight through me.

  "You want to try and hold one?"

  I shook my head. I was terrified of spiders, especially the big, hairy ones like he had.

  "They won't bite," he said, still cheerful.

  "But surely you’ve had them de-fanged and removed the venom, right?" my mother asked, pulling me away from the tank.

  He laughed. "That is not possible, ma'am. If we took out the fangs, they would just regrow new ones. The only way to de-venom a tarantula would be to remove its glands, but without them, the animal wouldn't be able to feed. It would die."

  "Oh," my mother said. "We…we should probably leave." She pulled my shoulder. "I think I forgot something on the stove. It was really nice to meet you, Mr. …?"

  "You can call me Aran."

  My mother nodded, holding onto her hat in the wind that had just picked up.

  "Good-day Mr. …Aran."

  Chapter Seven

  Jazmine rushed across the cul-de-sac, glancing quickly at Robyn's house and spotting her inside the window, looking down at her. Jayden joined her a second later, and they signaled Robyn to make sure she was all right like they usually did before going to Amy's house. Robyn answered with a thumb up, even though they could see the longing in her eyes to be with them. But right now, it was all about her being safe, and she couldn't risk sneaking out and getting caught. Amy's parents had left for a business trip once again, and she had texted them to come over.

  She reached out for Jayden's hand, but he pulled his away, then glanced toward Robyn's window.

  "She can't see us anymore," Jazmine said, a little tired of his need to protect Robyn from the fact that they were dating. What did he have to lose anyway? She had to know by now, didn't she?

  "Come on," he said and rushed ahead of her. He walked up the driveway, up to the old hand-carved door and knocked. Amy opened it right away.

  "What took you so long?"

  "We came as fast as we could," Jazmine said.

  "Come on in," she said and stepped aside, then peeked outside to make sure no one saw them.

  Jazmine thought she was being silly. It wasn't like there was anything strange about a couple of teenagers hanging out on a Sunday night.

  "So. How is she?" Jayden asked, hands in his pockets.

  Amy shook her head. "Not too good. We have a few hours before she changes again. Let's go say hi."

  They walked toward the basement and started to walk down the stairs. "She makes a lot of noise at night," Amy said. "Luckily, my parents sleep upstairs and don't hear that well. But I hear her. She growls and hammers on the door at night. I feel awful for keeping her there. I bring her food every morning and talk to her when I can without my parents noticing, but she doesn't seem well. She's not sick…but…I don't know."

  "She’s probably craving blood," Jazmine said.

  "I’ve tried that," Amy said. "I went to the Asian store downtown and bought some pig blood that I served her in a glass, but she didn't drink it. I don't know what else to do."