As the endless night passed on, Nick hid himself near his coffin. He found the silence captivating. It had been quite a few hours since he had left Yekari to grieve for herself. He did not care, he tried to convince his gentle heart. Quickly, he pushed his guilt-stricken thoughts aside and repositioned himself into a more comfortable position in his coffin. To his dismay, the myriad of spiders had continually advanced and invaded his space.

He closed his eyes, wishing for a light nap to wash away his heavily-burdened heart. But alas, no sleep came to him. Instead, he heard the alluring sound of forks and knives as his fellow vampires started feasting. The gentle rumble in his stomach forced him out of his little coffin and towards the dining hall.

"So you finally decided to fill up your tummy, eh?" Nickolas heard the high-pitched voice taunting him. He turned around, his light blond hair clinging to his face.

"Yekari?" his gentle voice rang out.

Before Nickolas could take another step, Yekari latched onto his back like blood-thirsty leech and tickled his sides. "No food for you, you meanie." Yekarie screamed with joy as Nickolas gave a little ear-piercing shriek. Nickolas attempted to pull away from her tight grasp, but she held on tighter than glue. Each of her fingers dug into his soft, rubbery flesh.

"Dear, dear, child. Stop!" The other vampires had heard Nickolas' desperate cry for help and they ran out to rescue their newest vampire family member. Uque cried out for Yekari to bestow some mercy on the already frightened Nickolas, but her words were senseless noise to the young female vampire who was now wildly ruffling Nickolas' soft blond hair.

Feeling sympathy for the young boy, the stronger male vampires hurried towards the two frantic teenage vampires and plucked them apart. Nickolas panted heavily from the trauma and clung to the two male vampires that had rescued him.

Yekari simply laughed wildly. "Come Nickolas. That was exceptionally exhilarating!"

Nickolas shook his head vehemently, refusing to answer. Uque looked lovingly at the beautiful boy whose eyes seemed unsettled after the little ordeal with Yekari. "Come, Nickolas. You should be very hungry by now. We have many flavors of fresh blood for you to choose-rats, cats, dogs, human and an assortment of other creatures." With that, Uque gently placed a hand on Nickolas' elbow and led him away.

Yekari smiled wickedly and headed towards the catacomb, utensils in hand. As the coffins came into view, she headed directly for the one coffin in which hundreds of spiders were comfortably settled in. Quickly, her slender fingers untied the loose knot on the cloth bag she was holding, revealing the corpses of dead flies that she had spent so much energy to gather around the castle. With one last cackle, she began to sprinkle the dead flies around Nickolas' coffin, making sure that the smell of dead flies was strong enough for the eight-legged creatures to detect. When satisfied, Yekari swiftly jumped into a neighboring coffin and peeped through small holes that she had carved earlier that day.

Yekari could hear the clumsy slurps of the other vampires in the dining hall as they finished off the last of their blood. She smiled, complimenting herself on yet another clever prank. It was near the brink of dawn and she heard as the vampires shuffled out of the dining hall. One by one, they filed into the catacomb. Yekari spotted Nick's blond locks of hair and stifled her laughter. She could see the stealthy movements of the spiders as they marched onwards towards Nickolas' coffin.

Then she heard the creak as Nickolas tugged at the lid. Sweet innocent Nickolas jumped inside before even checking. Yekari could hold onto her laughter no more and bursted like a timeless bomb. All vampires turned to stare at her senseless cackling and within seconds, all eyes focused on Nickolas' silent coffin. Yekari's laugh stopped in her throat. There was no movement from Nickolas' coffin, and Yekari's heart was beginning to fill with selfless worry.

Yekari kicked her coffin open and jumped on top of Nickolas' coffin, drumming her fingers on it persistently. "Nickolas?" her voice cried out to him, half-smirking at the thought of him being locked with all her 'pets'. "What do you think of my cuddly, lovable, cute little arachnids?"

When Nickolas still hadn't answered, Yekari's smirk turned into a frown. She jumped off the worn-down, five-century old coffin and pulled the lid up only to discover that Nickolas had fainted from fear, the color of blood completely washed away from his pale, snow-white face.

Yekari laughed gleefully, to the disapproving looks from her fellow vampires. With that, she gently placed the lid back onto Nickolas' coffin and slept most comfortably for the first time over two centuries.

Yet while Yekari was known to be the mischievous prankster that refused no sleep, Nickolas was the restless prankster that couldn't stay asleep. Early the next night, after recovering from Yekari's petrifying prank, Nickolas ran into the hidden halls of the castle to hide from the evil Yekari. His heart had been cruelly bashed in every which way by Yekari's relentless ill-will.

But before he snuck away, he plucked all the spiders from his coffin and one by one, dropped them in his cloth bag. Without a second thought, Nickolas hurried down the corridors in search of fire. He stared, disgusted at the selfish creatures that had made a home out of his coffin and smiled contentedly. At last, he found a torch perched against the wall. How convenient! Nickolas watched as one by one as the spiders bursted into a speckle of flames as he tossed them into the fire, their legs wiggling one last time before their fire burned out. Evil laugh!

Again during the middle of the night, the gentle rumble in his stomach urged him back to the dining hall. He had barely stepped into the hall when his ears were mercilessly stretched by Yekari's soulful wailing. Nickolas had never heard such vengeful cries in his life. Slowly, he entered the dining hall from the side and inched his way towards his century-old seat. Before his fingers could touch the spoon, Yekari had pounced on him furiously punching at his soft cheeks. She clawed at him, crying out. "How dare you murder my spidies, you monster!!!" The flames in her eyes told the story.

Nickolas gazed wondrously at a half-crazed Yekari. "What have you to say?" Yekari screamed as she pulled out a cloth bag, unveiling the ashes of her spiders. Before Nickolas could show the horror on his pale face, Yekari slapped him on the cheeks and laughed. "You're so fun! I like you!" Nickolas raised his eyebrows, the fear sinking into every inch of his body as his limbs began to tremble. His mind registered every escape route that was plausible, but his body was too stiff to move. He looked towards the other vampires for support, but they seemed to ignore him, oblivious to his terror.

After a few long minutes, Yekari had calmed herself down and sat neatly in a heap on her seat across from Nickolas. Her eyes locked on his face as he stared uncomfortably at his meal. She cocked her eyebrows to one side, every now and then casting a secret glance at Nickolas to see him feast hungrily on his raccoon blood soup. At last, Nick reached for the wine glass. Yekari's eyes widened from anticipation.

"Drink, my boy," Uque called sweetly from the other end of the dining table. "It's my specialty! Pig's blood with a tinge of goose. Excellent for your health!"

Nickolas smiled warm-heartedly at Uque's kind words and place the wine glass to his now rosy lips. The moment the blood touched his tongue, he felt an immediate repulsion as if he were tasting acid. But didn't Uque say it was healthy for him? Nickolas swallowed his doubts and poured the rest of the wine glass onto his burning tongue, making sure that he tasted every last drop.

He suddenly noticed that Yekari was unusually quiet. Nervously, he set the glass down and wiped the last vestiges of the drink from his lips with his finger.

"How is it, my dear boy?" Uque asked.

Nickolas nodded weakly before he felt his insides burning, as if he had been set on fire. He looked down at his body. There were no flames, no hints of a growing fire, only his now slightly ruddy body aching for relief. Without another word, Nickolas looked pleadingly at Uque, who recognized the pain. Uque's eyes darted to where Yekari's small body hovered in her chair.

"Is this funny? Yekari, undo this at once!" Uque cried out.

"But he killed my spidies!" Yekari defended bravely.

The argument had barely started when the sound of Nick's unconscious body hitting the ground drew Uque's and Yekari's attention back to the sickened boy.

"What did you put in his drink?" Uque demanded.

Yekari squirmed in her seat. "Nothing . . . bad."

Uque sent mental stabs at Yekari, willing her to tell the truth. Yekari, sensing the fury, looked at her feet. "Just some juices of a dead centipede. It shouldn't kill him," she pouted.

Uque left her seat and hovered over Nickolas' frail body. She leaned down and gently lifted the light body up from the ground. Without a second glance to the stubborn Yekari, she carried the body back to the coffin to let Nickolas sleep the pain away.

Dinner continued without much excitement. Yekari decided to go pay Nickolas a visit. As she neared the catacomb, again, the silence was disturbing. She stepped up to Nick's coffin, now devoid of any cobwebs or spiders. Before she lost her courage, she knocked on Nickolas' coffin.

"Go away!" Nickolas cried.

"I just wanted to see how you are recovering," Yekari replied.

"I'm doing just fine!"

"You want to play with me?" Yekari asked, her eyes brimming with hope.

"No!"

Yekari's eyes suddenly filled with rage. "If you don't play with me, I will drag you out of your coffin and tie you to a tree! Now open up your coffin!"

"No!" Nickolas hands pulled hard so that Yekari could not pry the lid open. Nickolas laid in his coffin comfortably. He heard Yekari's footsteps exit the catacomb and relaxed his muscles. He had never met anyone so selfish in his entire life. Nickolas' eyes began to droop as he could sense the coming of dawn. He felt himself drift into another blissful sleep until he suddenly smelled smoke in his coffin. He squirmed, trying to gasp for air and tried to force the lid of his coffin open. Unfortunately, it would not budge.

"You said you didn't want to play with me!" Yekari cried from on top of Nickolas' coffin. Nickolas pounded incessantly. "So go ahead, lock yourself up! Be a crab!"

With one kick, Nickolas managed to topple Yekari off the lid and fling himself out of the coffin. He turned to see Yekari's contorted body in a heap on the ground. Yekari quickly unwound her limbs and sat up. She glared at Nickolas, her eyes becoming a rich shade of red. "I said I was lonely. I want a friend. I will HAVE my friend." She clenched her teeth, revealing the razor sharp fangs.

Nickolas stared defiantly at Yekari. "You can't force me to be your friend! That's my choice!"

"No, it isn't!"

"Yes, it is!"

"Fine. I will give you a choice. If you don't be my friend, you will die!" Yekari's eyes cooled to a light lavender.

Nickolas frowned. "That's not a choice!"

Nickolas had barely said those words when Yekari jumped on him, clutching his throat. "You ungrateful creature!" Yekari screamed.

"You tyrant!" Nickolas rebuked as he stuck his hands out and searched for Yekari's throat.

The two teenage vampires rolled around on the dirty ground, exchanging harsh words. Soon, they grabbed the attention of the adult vampires, who could hear their biting words and throttling from the dining hall. Again, the vampires assembled in the catacomb and looked on in horror at the bundle of limbs strewn over the floor.

The same two vampires that had rescued Nickolas yesterday again plucked the teenage boy from the brawl, but Yekari's strong and limber arms clung to Nickolas' body fiercely. And Nickolas did not help as he tried to throw a few more punches at Yekari.

"Silence!" Uque screamed, but neither Yekari nor Nickolas heard her. "Silence! SILENCE!!!!!" Nickolas stopped his aggressive attacks at the sound of Uque's voice. However, Yekari did not heed it and sent one last blow to Nick's already bruised tummy.

"Children! Now stop this craziness. We are of one kind and we do not fight amongst ourselves!" Uque said proudly. Then she stared at Yekari. "A true friend accepts and does not mold the other vampire into her own desire." Yekari smirked.

Uque then locked her gaze upon Nickolas'. "And young gentlemen should be gentle to the opposite gender."

Nickolas' eyes widened with exasperation. "But she is a monster!"

Uque continued. "Now that we've straightened that out, you children go to sleep. And no more fighting.

With that, the vampires loosened their grips on young Nickolas and Yekari. The two teenage vampires slowly sauntered back to their coffins. Nickolas stared down at the smoke-filled box and sighed. He tried to use his hands as a fan and swept away all the smoke, only to see that his coffin had been charred beyond recognition. He casted a unhappy glance at Yekari as she strolled past him. She followed his gaze back to the remains of his coffin and looked up sheepishly

"You can share a coffin with me," Yekari offered, awed by her own destructive forces.

Nickolas blushed at the idea. "No, I will . . . " Nickolas never finished his words. Yekari grabbed his slender arms and threw him into her coffin.

>>>>>

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