"Move over! And stop using me as your pillow!" Nick squirmed under Yekari's grasp as she smiled sheepishly at his discomfort. It had already been sixteen years since his coffin was burnt, but no one was able to replace his coffin bed since then. Now he was stuck side by side with Yekari every day.

He pushed her face over with his hand. "You're making me gag with your head on my chest," he cried.

"Hee hee." Yekari buried her face even deeper into his chest and hugged him harder.

"Yekari..." He tried to pull her head away with both hands, but it was useless. He gave up and let her head rest on him as before. Nick stayed awake, but silent for the next hours before the moonlight again came down through the ceiling cracks. He looked at Yekari. She was definitely too much to handle. Hell's creation. And that was not the least exaggeration of her.

And after all her odd ways, he could never predict her menacing behavior. Now, he knew he was even more puzzled with her. Just recently, why her sadistic attitude towards him changed all of a sudden he could not explain. She became less cruel to him, less harsher to him. And she tagged along with him everywhere he went and acted as best she could to be as sweet as a witch doll.

One night had passed to the next without him noticing. He sighed though. Every night, he grew more homesick for Brian's company. He wanted to see Brian badly. It had been sixteen years already, and Nickolas wondered if Brian would remember him as he did of Brian. Nick waited until Yekari slept soundly before he carefully removed her head and pried the lid out quietly. Slowly, careful not to nudge at Yekari's side, he crept out of the coffin and tiptoed out.

He went past the corridors and past the mirrors. Careful not to make the antiques fall and shatter their old bodies, that was the way he learned to walk through the old and ancient castle. But tonight, he walked extra carefully so that no one, and especially not Yekari, could hear his treading. Quietly, Nick closed the gates behind him without a squeak.

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Nick's heart pounded harder as he got closer to Brian's hut. The old, dried pool of his blood was still there. Yes! Brian still remembered him! After all the bad memories that Nick entailed it to, it was still good enough to remind Brian of Nick everyday. Damn, it was a big pool! It looked like Yekari didn't know what she was doing.

Nick walked over to the other end when he tripped over his own headstone. What? Nick checked to see who it was dedicated to.

NICK CARTER. 1980-1995 Who I miss the most.

"Oh my gosh. That's me," Nickolas boomed. He scraped off the white flowers that he stepped on accidentally off his foot and stood up. "I'm fifteen when I died... lived... no wait... resurrected," he finally exclaimed satisfactorily. "I must be thirty-something now." Strange, he had already forgotten his age.

"Who's there?!" an angry voice shouted from the hut. "If you're looting the headstone, I'll kill you!"

"Bri..!" Nickolas was blown away with ecstasy at seeing Brian, but immediately caught his voice and hid behind the big tree. He had forgotten the burning sensation that day, but now, he remembered. Worse, he got Brian angry already.

"What? How'd you know my name, stranger?" Brian called loudly, but no one spoke up. "Come out of that tree! I know you're there!" Still, no one came forth.

"Damn you!" Brian yelled. He just saw a figure in the darkness, hovering over Nick's gravestone and stepping on his flowers minutes ago. It got him mad. And now, the looter was still behind the tree and won't go away!

"Get out of there, thief!" Brian yelled again. He held out a long bat and walked towards the tree.

Nickolas' features became alarmed as Brian's menacing form neared him. He did not want to upset Brian, but there was no other place he could hide. As these thoughts clouded his mind, his body lay still, awaiting Brian's advances.

Brian tugged at the bushes, determined to attack the intruder which had displaced the soft-petaled white flowers he had decorated his Nickolas' grave with. With wrath on his side, Brian pulled the branches apart, only to gaze in shock and wonder at the sight before him. The bat which he was ready to sweep across the perpetrator's face fell lifelessly to the ground. Brian gazed at the beautiful boy in front of him. It was Nickolas, just as he remembered him, except that he looked scared . . . and so pale!

"Nickolas," the name escaped from Brian's lips.

No! It couldn't be. Nickolas had never changed one bit. That same youthful face that Brian missed so much sixteen years ago had never changed at all. "And would never," Brian quietly thought. How old Nickolas must think he is right now! Nickolas looked up in response to Brian's call. "Brian?" he answered meekly.

Brian slowly kneeled down to Nickolas' sitting form and stretched his right arm out, wanting to feel for himself what his eyes saw. To his pleasure and fear, he felt Nickolas' rubbery skin. It was so cool. Brian blinked back the tears.

"Could it be you? But you look the same as you did so many years ago." Brian said those words more to himself than for the strikingly familiar stranger. "Tell me you're a dream."

"Brian?" Nickolas repeated. "You look so much older!" Nickolas' soft voice brought Brian to reality.

Brian leaned back, trying to absorb the truth. He had known all along that Nickolas wasn't dead. Nickolas couldn't be dead. He had seen and brushed away the young boy sixteen years ago after Nickolas fled to his hut. And now . . .

Brian bit his lip uncertainly. "Nickolas? What are you? Are you still my little Nickolas that always wants to make me laugh? Or are you now a creature of the night who mercilessly sacrifices humans for food?"

Nickolas choked back his tears. "I'm still the same person I used to be. Brian, don't shun me away. I have not lived happily since last time we met. I like my new family, but I miss you. That's why I came back."

Brian stepped back a little, hearing those words. "You came back?" his voice wavered.

Nickolas nodded anxiously.

Brian looked sadly at him. "But you can't. You're not one of us anymore." Nickolas shook his head slowly. "I didn't mean I wanted to stay with you. My vampire family won't allow it. I can't stay long."

Before more sad words were exchanged, Nickolas heard a cheerful female voice from afar. "Daddy! Daddy!"

Quickly, Nickolas hid into the bush again, fearful that he would be discovered. Brian did not try to stop him.

A young girl, barely the tender age of fifteen hurdled towards her father, followed by five young teenage boys. Brian quickly jumped and hugged the girl.

"Jasmine, you know not to shout so loud. It's not becoming of a girl!"

Jasmine laughed. "But Daddy, we've been trying to find you!" Jasmine looked back at her five escorts and they all nodded like idiots. Jasmine continued. "Besides, I told these guys to help me cook you some dinner."

Brian laughed. "What's the occasion?" He directed his attention towards the five teenage boys who shrugged idiotically.

Jasmine laughed. "No occasion. I wanted to make you something special."

Brian laughed again, his eyes full of love. "All right, show me your food!" Jasmine smirked. "But you must promise to eat it all!"

Brian smiled. "I'll eat every last drop, even if you put poison in it!"

With that, Jasmine excitedly cried out for her five friends to go back to the hut and prepare. Like little puppies, they all ran back to the house. Jasmine was about to follow suit when she suddenly looked back at her father. "Were you crying?" she asked out of the blue.

Brian shook his head. "No, no. I was just remembering something."

"What were you doing here?" Jasmine asked, concerned.

"Nothing, really." Brian motioned for his daughter to go back to their hut. As Jasmine slowly sauntered away, Brian looked back at the bush, searching for the young blond boy. The boy was gone! Disappointedly, Brian followed Jasmine back to their hut, where he could already hear the endless laughter as Jasmine and her teenage friends set the table.

Nickolas ran as if he were taking his last breath. "You're not one of us anymore." Brian's words echoed in his mind mercilessly.

"I'm not one of them. But I can't really be a vampire. Then what am I?" Nickolas asked himself sadly.

Brian had replaced him! Brian didn't love him anymore. He sat down on a patch of grass near a lake, feeling the tears brimming. He looked into the lake, searching for a reflection, but saw nothing. Only the lake's calm surface stared back at him. Nickolas slapped the water aimlessly. Had time passed by so fast? Did it really erase him from existence? Did no one care about what happened to him?

'Yes' the winds howled to his ears, answering the aching questions for Nickolas. Nickolas' body slid across the ground as he settled in a more comfortable position. The image of the castle suddenly became vivid in his mind. For sixteen years, he had walked its corridors and treaded its hallways. He had indulged himself in its mystery and darkness. Maybe he had taken that step and crossed the bridge. Maybe he had accepted his new identity without realizing it.

Nickolas sighed. The night was passing by. If the other vampires knew that he was gone for long, he would have a hard time explaining. With a sad heart, he pulled himself up and headed back to the castle.

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