Duncan's POV: Halloween? Yea, it's my fave holiday. Why? 'Cause I get to scare the piss out of people. Haha, that's what I'm good at, isn't it?

I'll probably go as myself...

HA! I scare Courtney half to death every day !!

Danny's going as a male version of Bloody Mary... maybe I'll go as a ghost...

No, not as the kind with the bitchy lame sheet with two cut holes in it. That's for three year olds. I think I'm ready for face paint and fake blood.

Ha, I use that stuff nearly every day, are you kidding?

I flipped my phone open and dialed Tiannah's number.

"'Sup?" Came her voice on the other line.

"Hey, whatcha going trick-or-treating as?"

"A dead version of Amy Lee."

"Ahh SWEET!" I chuckled.

"Whatch'you going as?"

"I don't know, actually. I called hoping maybe you could think of something."

"Go as Darren Shan."

"Ha-ha. That'll blow my cover."

"No it won't." Tiannah snorted. "You use your real fangs and people will think they're part of your costume."

Silence.

"Did you have ANY idea of what you could go as before you called?"

"Yea, a spirit."

"Awwww." She cooed sarcastically. "Want me to get the bedsheet and scissors?"

"Shut the fuck up before I shove those scissors up your ass." I joked, and she giggled.

"Haha, I know what you mean. I think I have some spare black eyeliner and white face paint over here, do you want it?"

"Sure."

"Cool, I'll drop it off in an hour."

"Kay." I said before hanging up.

When my finger passed over the "off" button, I froze.

My fingernails were painted black.

Not that it didn't go with my personality and all being a vampire, but WTF! I didn't do it and I know Danny didn't. Tiannah wouldn't do it, the chicks at school wouldn't have done it. Who did it?

I looked over on my nightstand - and there stood a bottle of Maybelline black nail polish. Attached to it was a piece of paper with dark purple calligraphic handwriting on it, connected to the small black bottle with a piece of clear tape. I carefully ripped the paper off and read it.

"'To Duncan, When you read this it means I've already done my damage. You deserve this after what you did. And if you can't remember after last night,'" I stopped there, reminiscing on last night. The show, the award going to me and Courtney, then somebody punching me in the eye, me falling to the floor, Courtney screaming concerned for me, somebody gripping her jaw and shoving something in her mouth and forcing her to swallow, and her falling to the ground.

After that... I can't remember shit.

I picked up where I left off. "'then check in your top dresser drawer and there lies the answer.'"

I set the note down for a moment and rummaged through my dresser drawer. Pulling back layers and layers of black clothing, I saw nothing, yet... I heard something. A... rattle? Almost like a bean shaker. Wtf?

I opened a fold between a black t-shirt and jeans - and I froze, gasping and covering my black-nailed hand over my mouth as I took the object out of my drawer. My skin turned deathly pale, and tears started forming in my eyes as I quickly noted what the noise was coming from.

A small orange bottle of white rat poison pills.



I dropped the bottle and cried hard into my palms, my head in my hands and over my knees. I sat on my black bed in only my typical white boxers, and just cried and cried until there was nothing left of me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

An hour later, I was still crying, but I swiftly got up and got dressed. I slipped my converse on with one motion as I grabbed the bottle of poison pills, and bolted out the door down the sidewalk 8 blocks to Courtney's house.

I didn't care how far her house was; I cared for her and deeply adored her. I'd do anything for her, really, but not being one of those mushy lover dudes. I'm gonna find out who did this and when I do, they won't see the light of day.

And I mean it.


I ran inside Courtney's house - only to find her house empty and quiet like a ghost. Her parents must've had work.

I figured she'd be quiet, but she could also be dead by now.

I fought back thousands of tears and ran up the stairs, kicking open Courtney's door with a spin-kick as soon as one of my feet was on the second floor above the stairs.

She lay, in her bed, pale and lifeless.

"NO!"

I dropped my jacket and the bottle on the floor and darted over to her side. I strained to use my senses, seeing as they could seriously help me decide if she's still alive or not.

I licked my fangs silently, and I could sense her blood sitting still. Not a good sign. Not good at ALL. I stared endlessly, and saw a very, VERY slight sense of a pulse. It was almost under 5%. I started crying, knowing she'd be dead within ten minutes and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

How could this have happened?! I screamed in my head. How could I have let it happen !?

Suddenly, a tear rolled off my nose and plopped down on her tan forearm. I picked my head up and stared at the little orange bottle of pure evil on the floor. Carefully tiptoing over to it, I picked it up and slid the note out of the bottle that I put in there.

Reading the last of it, my mind burned with white-hot anger.

"'If you're reading this by now, your precious Princess is dead. And unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about it, Duncan. See you in hell,'"

A brief pause arose...

"'Heather'."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fifteen minutes passed, and Courtney's pulse rate was down to 3%. I was being completely idiodic, just sitting there and watching the one I loved - yes, loved - die in her bed.

2%.

Miraculously, an idea struck my mind.

Running a hand through my black hair, which I had taken out of my mohawk because I liked it down like Danny's, I stood up and in front of Courtney on her bed.

Her face was growing paler by the minute, and now it looked a few tads darker than a spirit's skin. Not good.

I licked my fangs, and kneeled down so I was kneeling by the bed, my chest halfway above Courtney's body. Leaning a bit, I gently pushed a few locks of her hair away from the exposed side of her neck.

Using my instincts, I tapped her white neck a few times, leaned over slowly leaning down - and sank my fangs into her neck and drank.

It was an eternity, sitting there and drinking out of her neck. I didn't enjoy it, since her blood was heavily toxicated. But rat poison can't harm me in any way whatsoever. How do I know? Erm...I accidentally ate a bunch of it as a 4 year old. I was alone that day and nothing happened all day. It was as if the poison wasn't even in my body, nothing happened, the poison didn't do anything. My body killed it.

Courtney was still pale as she was half an hour ago - yes, that's how long I've been sucking on her neck - but I figured that was from loss of blood. When I no longer could taste any poison in her blood, I pulled away, leaving two faint small circular marks in her neck. I touched the area I bit and the marks disappeared.

I stood up and walked over to my backpack which I dropped with my jacket, and strangely, found three bags of AB positive blood in the large front pocket.

I had no idea how they got there, because I didn't put them there, but I knew it would work because Courtney is AB positive.

I took hold of a bag and ran my hand over the white letters on the plastic, my nails elongating a bit over the tip of my figner and pointing themselves to an edge. I walked back over to Courtney, who was deathly pale, and I carefully slit her neck where I bit it, and within an hour I used up all 3 bags of blood and they were soon within Courtney's system.

I sat on the bed next to Princess and held her hand tightly, praying she wake up.

So much for a happy Halloween.