"Wait!" Cassie cried, "everybody, keep your voices down. I think somebody else is out there!"
Everyone started exclaiming things. "I hear footsteps!"
"Is it another person?"
"Is it a bug?"
"SHUT UP, Ren!!"
"What if it's Tozzi?"
"He wouldn't be around here." Suddenly, there was a scuffle from outside, followed by a shout of triumph.
Luke got out of the car. "Who's out here? What's going on?"
"Luke, get back in the car!" Maggie cried.
"No," Luke snarled. He closed the car door and all was quiet. Everyone looked at each other, horrified.
Suddenly there was a cry from outside. "Hey, guys!" Luke yelled, "It's okay, come on out! Guess who saved us from the cop? It's Castillo!" Castillo was one of Luke's best friends from camp (and he was completely fucking gorgeous!).
Cassie's mouth dropped open and Maggie started laughing. Everybody was climbing out of the car, only to find a fanged Castillo standing over a dead cop. The cop had a stake driven through his back, and it went all the way through his heart. Castillo had a look of triumph on his face. Cassie just looked horny.
Cassie was staring into Castillo's eyes, and he was looking into hers. They looked as if they were about to lunge at each other in a passionate fit of death-defying love.
At that point, their little eye contact was broken up by Justin stepping in between them. "Cassie? Cassie... Earth to Cassie, what's going on?"
"Uh...nothing! Absolutely nothing."
"Well, it looked to me as if you were about to puke up last night's blood." Cassie turned as red as that blood.
Meanwhile, what was going through Ren's head was, "Castillo! What a beautiful name! So straight. So strong...so him! I think I'm in love!" He was also looking at Castillo, like a sick horse. Castillo glanced back at him, disgusted.
"Luke, why is he looking at me like that? What the hell is wrong with him?"
"I dunno. He's just a fugly kid. Maybe he's actually - " Luke was cut off by a shriek that came from Castillo. Ren had leapt for him, but had missed and fallen on his face. He had gotten up and was now chasing Castillo down the highway.
"AUGGHHH! Get this s.o.b. away from me! HELP! I'm getting out of here!" Castillo was screaming. Within seconds, he was no more than a dot on the horizon, getting smaller and smaller until no one could see him. Ren had stopped running about 100 feet away from the group. He was pouting as he walked back.
"Why didn't he like me?" Ren whimpered. Cassie, who was just about the only other one in the group not laughing, took one look at Ren's face and started cracking up.
"Why would he?" Luke laughed. "You're a bug-eating, invincible, annoying immortal slave who's turning into... Well, you fell in love with Castillo! What more is there to say?"
"Poor Ren," said Francine, trying her best not to laugh, "Come on, let's get back to the car and go somewhere to eat."
So Ren, Maggie, Luke, Francine, Shawn, Cassie, Justin, Diana and Garth loaded back into the car. Since Luke was keeping his glasses off, he got in the passengers' seat and Maggie went back in the drivers' seat. Diana, Garth, Shawn, and Francine went in the back seat and Cassie, Justin, and Ren got in the trunk.
"Where should we go now?" asked Garth, "I'm starved."
"Hey guys, you're forgetting about the blood back here!" cried Cassie.
"It's probably cold, though," said Justin, "Why don't we dump it somewhere and go get some fresh blood?" Everyone readily agreed. Maggie was about to start the car when Diana stopped her.
"Wait," she said, "we're forgetting something. Castillo may have killed that cop, but other state troopers will be coming after us soon." As if someone had turned a switch, a siren was heard in the distance.
"Oh damn..." murmured Luke. Maggie stepped on the gas pedal and the car zoomed away.
"Okay. Okay, everyone, calm down! Uh...what do we do now? I-I-I'm nervous," Cassie looked as if she was about to cry. Justin put his arm around her, and she started crying.
"Oh, Cassie, don't cry! Listen, I'm scared too, but we'll be okay," Maggie sighed. The car was making a lot of sharp turns. "Look, we're vampires. I highly doubt that any of those state troopers are, too. I only heard one siren, so there can't be any more than three or four cops. There are 9 of us - well, if you include Ren. Besides, those cops get tons of reports on their radios every night. For all we know, maybe there's only one state trooper who knows about us!" The car continued to swerve around.
Garth grinned. "I have an idea. Hey Maggie, stop the car."
"What for?"
"I have an idea." The car slowed down and pulled over. "Open the window," said Garth. Out of the blue, Garth turned into a bat.
"Hey, who taught you that?" Diana asked.
"I saw it on t.v.!" Garth cried in a high-pitched bat voice.
"Oh, sure, there are just tons of shows for 'teenage vampires who are adjusting,'" Shawn said sarcastically, "What channel was it on, 666? W.VAMP?"
"No. I saw it on The Outer Limits. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to carry out my idea." Garth flew out of the car. About 20 minutes later, he returned. Still outside, he changed back to human form. "Guess what," he grinned, "there was only one cop. So I just took care of him and dumped the car over this cliff!"
"What cliff?" Maggie frowned, opening the door.
Getting in, Garth said, "You drove up a mountain! Pretty weird, huh? They'll never find him now. There's a river below us. Let's get off this thing and find some food." He was still grinning happily.
Diana looked at him, smiled, and linked her arm in his. "This is great! Now we have nothing to worry about."
"Now can we go get some blood? I'm starving!" cried Justin.
Maggie pulled away. As they were getting off the cliff, Cassie said, "So where are we going?"
"Can we go back to the chicken coop?" begged Justin.
"How about finding Alfonse and Tozzi?" cried Luke.
"Can we go find a termite nest?" Immediately, everyone turned on Ren.
"Okay, that's it," snarled Diana, "I've had it with you!"
"I-I'm sorry, mistress," Ren whimpered. "Please forgive me. I didn't mean any harm. Please - " he threw himself against the window that divided the trunk from the actual car, "don't hurt me!"
Diana's scowl slowly turned into a smile. "You oughta be a drama major at Idlewild!" Idlewild was the high school that Diana and Cassie went to.
"Diana - you mean you're not going to shut him up?" whined Justin. Everyone laughed.
"Hey - what was that, Diana?" Garth looked confused.
"What was what?"
"For a minute there - when you got really angry - something looked different."
Diana's mouth dropped open. "I did...feel a little different... I think I started to change form! That was really strange. My other teeth started growing, and...and my hair got all shaggy...was I turning into a wolf?"
Luke grinned. "Yeah...cool! Maybe we all have our own special powers." Maggie pulled over on the side of the road and they all got out, sitting down on the hood and the top of the car, standing around. Immediately everyone started experimenting and chanting and trying to see what they could do.
Suddenly Cassie screamed. "My arm, my arm!" She waved around her right arm frantically. It was in flames.
"Oh shit!" cried Luke, "was that me?"
The troupe of kids started a clamor. "What did you do?" cried Cassie. "you're lucky I managed to put that out."
"I just - " Luke started to snap his fingers but Cassie grabbed his hand.
"Don't do it again! Just tell us what you did."
"Well, I was just looking around, when it came to me. I snapped my fingers twice, but I happened to be looking at you." Luke blushed.
"Why were you looking at her?" Maggie frowned.
"Um... I just was, okay? It's not like I was flirting, so cool it!"
Maggie glared off in one direction, and Luke in another. Maggie had a kind of angry, worried, upset look on her face. Luke just looked pissed. Diana intercepted a bit. She had been good friends with Luke for quite a while, and she knew him pretty well. "Luke," she said.
"Yeah?" he said in a sort of peeved voice.
"Do you want to go for a walk?"
"Sure."
"Maggie?" said Diana, "Mind if we take a walk?"
"Be my guest," answered Maggie, "only no funny business."
Diana just smiled. Luke got down from the hood of the car, and he and Diana began to walk down the highway. It was silent at first, and then Diana said, "What's up with you and Maggie?"
"I don't know," said Luke, "She just seems so paranoid lately."
"Were you flirting with Cassie?"
"No. Not really, I don't think so. I just looked at her a bit, okay?"
"O.K." The two of them continued to walk down the highway, not really talking at all. They had been walking for about twenty minutes, when out of nowhere they saw a dark road off to the side. It had a lot of dark trees bending over it, and the late afternoon sky seemed to get darker and cloudier the further it got. There was an old sign right where the road led off the highway, and sitting underneath it was a group of older teens. They approached Diana and Luke, or at least a couple did. They all wore black, and silver jewelry, which glistened under the sun.
Diana and Luke backed away from the teens, who continued to approach them. "Hey," said one of the girls in the group, "Who are you and how long do you expect to live?"
Luke answered her back, while Diana stood kind of in shock. "I'm Luke, and this person here is Diana. I expect to live for a while, and I assume she feels the same way. By the way, who are you?"
"My name's Utopia. You're kind of cute. Why are you out this late?"
"Just walking," said Luke, "so if you don't mind, we'll just 'keep on drivin'."
Diana and Luke began to walk off, when a deep voice rang out. "Not so fast, you guys. We've got some business to take care of. Where are the rest of you?"
"What are you talking about?" said Luke in a loud voice. The dark, undistinguishable figure came closer.
"You know who. Maggie, Cassie, Justin, Shawn, Francine, some weird kid who eats bugs!... And most of all Garth!" It was Tozzi's voice.
"Tozzi?! Is that you?" asked Diana, completely shocked.
"In the flesh! In case you don't know, all of these guys over here are vampires. And, oh, Diana, here's another one of your little playmates."
Out of the darkness came a silhouette that looked a bit like a mop. "Dear Lord, it's Alfonse! Hey Alfonse! How are ya?" asked Luke.
"I'm fine. Shut up, Luke. We're taking you guys in, and then we'll get the rest of you! Little punks!"
"The only reason we kicked you out of the truck is because you drank an entire case of malt liquor! And you were the one who bit me in the first place." Diana was pissed.
"Well, that's just too bad," said Tozzi, "You still hurt both of our feelings. Black Widow, I'm surprised at you. Why don't you two come hang with us for a while?"
"And why should we?!" yelled Luke, grabbing Diana's hand.
"'Cause of us," said a girl's voice, "I'm Sarah and this is Anferny. We've got these really cool guns. They shoot wooden stakes." Sarah was a really large girl with green hair, and was dressed in grunge. Anferny was a really cute black guy with mad dreadlocks.
"They just plunge right into your heart," said Anferny, "Like a pin cushion. They just sink right in and you ooze. You're just engulfed by black mucus and innards. Imagine that! Does that sound like fun?" Anferny had a way with words.
"Diana," said Luke, "I have decided that we're going to hang out with these...wonderful people. That girl over there looks like Xena!" Sarah just smiled at this comment.
Then, out from behind the sign came a big, dumb punk. He looked like Garth from Wayne's World on steroids. He too was carrying a stake-shooting gun. "Surprise, punks. The party's over." Diana and Luke glared at him disgustedly.
"Axel," groaned Utopia, "You dumbass! Get over here right now." Axel sped over toward Utopia. "You know you're supposed to be guarding these two. Not doing your dumb dark voice anymore. Now you have to watch these guys!"
Axel whimpered. "I'm sorry, Utopia. Will you forgive me?"
"Yes. Just watch it next time." The band of other vampires surrounded Luke and Diana, and in the afternoon sun, the pair were engulfed in the black that everybody was wearing.
"How many more of you are there?" asked Luke, "and that guy Axel was that deep - "
"Silence, little insignificant punk," bellowed Utopia, "Yes, our leader Winnie and two others! But they won't be back for a while! And I shall inform you that you are getting me very angry."
Luke became very angry at these remarks, and so did Diana, who was beginning to look a bit shaggier. Luke let go of Diana's hand, and quickly began snapping his fingers all around him, catching everything on fire. Diana, whose repressed anger had sat long enough, lunged upon Utopia and the others in a primitive, animal-like nature, sinking her teeth into anything that moved. Screams filled the air.
After a while of setting things on fire and ripping people limb from limb, Luke pulled the half-mad Diana away from the giant brawl. The two of them sped back to the car in one mad dash, and in a matter of minutes caught up to the truck. "Get in!" yelled Luke.
Maggie looked horrified, as did all the others. "What's the matter?" panicked Maggie.
"We have no time to explain," yelled Diana, "Just get in fast and let's drive away! Now!"
Maggie, Luke, Diana, and Garth climbed into the back seat, while Francine, Shawn and Ren got in the trunk. Cassie got in the drivers' seat, with Justin next to her, and the truck sped off in the direction that they had come from. Diana and Luke looked as if they would pass out. Diana's clothes were all torn, and the two of them were covered in blood and were scalded by the flames. "What the hell happened?" cried Maggie in a very worried tone.
Luke spoke up. "A gang of other..." he gulped for breath, "...vam-vampires was trying to...uh... a-attack us. Alfonse and Tozzi were there too... D-Diana and I at-attacked them with our..." he gasped again, "...powers, and just ran."
"Yeah," said Diana, who was cuddling with Garth, "I turned into a wolf...and Luke used his fire."
Suddenly Cassie screamed and the car swerved to the side of the road. "SHIT!!!" she yelled. "Someone jumped on the hood of the car!"
As the figure slowly slid down and jumped on to the road in front of the car, Diana groaned. "Oh great, it's Alfonse. Now what?"
Alfonse came around to the passenger window, grinning. "Yo, guys, what's up? Hey, open the window, I want to talk to you!" He started knocking vigorously on the window.
"Cut that out," snapped Diana, "You threatened Luke and me. Leave us alone."
"Look, we're sorry!" cried Alfonse, "It was all a big misunderstanding. Really. Winnie is back with the rest of our group, she knows you, she explained it all. The others, the ones that you haven't ...um ...met, they also go to Idlewild, maybe you know them?"
The truck was silent for a moment. "Diana, it's up to you," said Luke.
"Okay," Diana relented, "Let's go." So Cassie, Justin, Diana, Garth, Maggie, Luke, Francine, Shawn, and Ren all got out.
Alfonse led them back to the road where the whole thing had taken place. Sarah, Winnie, Axel, Anferny, and Tozzi were sitting under a tree.
"Hi, guys," called Winnie, "I'm really sorry about this whole thing. I shouldn't have left these guys alone with Tozzi and Utopia. Things got a little out of hand, I see." Turning around, she said, "Utopia, come on out and apologize. And remember what I told you."
Utopia walked out of the shadows followed by...
"STEVE?!?" shrieked Cassie.
"Do you know him?" asked Alfonse.
"Yes, of course!" laughed Cassie, "I can't believe this... You, Steve, a vampire?"
Steve was a friend of Cassie's in three of her classes at Idlewild. He had long black hair. He was pretty tall, husky, and had flirtatious, smiling, hazel eyes. He was very cute and Cassie had a crush on him since nearly the first day of school. Cassie blushed and looked at her feet as she realized Steve was staring at her.
Justin cut the little staring game off the minute he saw what was going on. "Okay, Cassie, what's going on? I let that thing with Castillo slide because we'll probably never see him again, but not this time."
"Well..." Cassie groaned.
"Come on, you can tell me. I won't get mad...." Justin smiled cynically.
Cassie sighed. "I feel really awful saying this...but I have really strong feelings for Steve...I-I'm sorry, Justin, but this is the end. I can't go out with you." Justin ran over to a low-hanging tree, sat down and started quivering. He looked as if he was crying. "Justin... please... forgive me. I'd still like to be your friend," Cassie offered pitifully.
"Cassie," said Steve, "I think you better leave him alone with them. I've basically been wandering around with Winnie and these guys, for about 2 months now, because that's pretty much what we are. Wandering souls. But now that I've found you..." he trailed off, taking Cassie's hands and sighing, "I think Justin over there is going to be, well... taking my place."
So after many hugs, handshakes, and goodbyes, Tozzi, Alfonse, Winnie, Utopia, Axel, and Sarah all stood and started to walk off.
"Come on, guys," said Anferny. Justin, grumbling as he got up, lagged behind the other teens as they went down the highway.
Ren, Luke, Maggie, Shawn, Francine, Garth, Diana, Steve and Cassie headed back for the car. By this time, it was almost 5 o'clock and even though they were vampires, everyone was exhausted since they had barely slept in the past few days.
"I think that we can manage to sleep in the truck if Ren doesn't mind sleeping outside for tonight," Diana said.
Steve looked horrified. "What?!" cried Steve, "but he'll freeze his ass off! It's October, for God's sake!"
Luke just smiled. "No, see, Ren isn't a vampire. He's a mutated, bug-eating, invincible weirdo that - "
Francine cut him off. "What Luke means is that Ren is our slave. Temperature and things like that don't affect him. He eats bugs and other things with exo-skeletons."
Steve grinned. "Cool! Like that guy in the movie Vampire in Brooklyn. Do his limbs and eyes and ears and all his... other parts fall off?"
Ren started to whimper. "Noooo..." he wailed. "Am I going to start falling apart?"
"Naw, you'll probably just stay a Reinfeld clone," laughed Shawn.
"Okay, guys, can we go to bed now? I'm exhausted," said Francine.
"Yeah, okay, let's see...oh, I claim the front seat!" cried Cassie, "Steve, will you take it too?"
"Of course!"
Maggie spoke up. "Could I get the back seat?"
"Well, I certainly don't mind, but Luke wouldn't be able to fit back there with you very comfortably." Cassie said.
"I don't mind," grumbled Maggie, glaring at Luke out of the corners of her eyes. Luke turned his back on her.
Diana glanced at Luke. "Luke?" she piped up, "Are you okay? I - "
"Shhh," he whispered, "We can talk later."
Garth frowned. "What's going on, Diana?"
"I'll explain in the trunk," she whispered back. So Luke, Diana, Garth, Shawn, and Francine got in the trunk, settling in after a brief shoving fight between all 5 of them. Maggie went in the back seat, Cassie in the drivers' seat, and Steve beside her. Ren scrambled onto the roof and lay down. Every few minutes, the kids inside the car would hear a munching sound from outside. Maggie smiled in spite of herself.
By this time, everybody in the truck was groaning. "I feel like a sardine," grumbled Garth. "There are air holes in this thing, right?"
Shawn laughed. "Of course, twit!"
"Hey!" Garth struggled to sit up, but Diana pulled him back down.
"It's better if you just find a comfortable position and just try to lie perfectly still," said Diana.
"How do you find a comfortable position in this thing?" Garth whined. "Five people in this trunk, trying to lie down and sleep? Gee-eez!" He groaned.
"Garth's right," said Luke, who hadn't said so much as a word since they got in the trunk, "I'm going outside."
"Hey, Luke, you don't have to do that - " Diana started, but he was already squirming his way out of the trunk.
"OW!"
"Aye, that hurt!"
"AUGGHHH! Shit, Luke, you idiot, do you know what you just stepped on?!" hollered Shawn. Francine, Diana, and Garth tried to muffle their laughter.
"I'm not that tired," said Luke quietly, now standing just outside the truck, "I think I'll just take a walk."
The teens in the trunk, now silent, looked at each other. "Well, at least we have more room now," said Garth.
Shawn hissed. "Garth, you little fu - "
Diana stopped him before he could finish the sentence. "Hey, please, just cool it, guys! We're all exhausted. Let's just try and get some sleep, okay?" So everyone settled down and tried to rest up.
As Luke walked outside, he realized Maggie was there, too. "What are you doing up?"
Maggie turned, startled. "Just thinking. Look, Luke, I'm sorry about before, but I think we're...having some problems."
"Um, yeah...I agree. I feel so tense lately, and I get the feeling that you do, too. Maybe we should, well...just be friends."
Maggie lowered her eyes. "...Yeah, definitely. Oh, and Luke...this is a mutual breakup, right? And I do want to stay friends."
"'Course it is. It's cool. We can still be friends. I don't really care."
Maggie scowled at him. To think! The boy didn't care. "What do you mean? Like, the relationship didn't mean much? Is that what you mean?"
"No! Not that. It's just that, well, you know."
"No, I don't! What do you mean, you don't care?"
