"When… again…?"

The first time she asked that question there still was a faint trace of orange tinting the dimming skies. Second time she inquired, that orange had already been inked over by a deep hue of black, so much so that it took a moment for me to find her whereabouts in the darkness.

Third time… I found myself scrounging about the front gardens, flashing my phone screen to my whispering questionnaire laying still among the swaying flowers.

"Give her another five minutes," I told her, twirling the phone back in my direction.

Got a brief look at the time before I flickered the phone back off on standby. 8:10 in the evening.

The last thing Amanda messaged back to me was at 6:30, declaring her intent with only three words.

>

"How many more… five minutes…?" Adalia muttered, her impatience clear as day for all to see.

"In case you forgot, you're a vampire," I replied. "And Amanda's a victim of vampire abduction. Do you see how those two can correlate?"

"She's… scared of… me?"

Adalia blinked. Her misty eyes widening slightly in mild shock.

Why the heck are you surprised to hear that? For your information - I'm also scared of you. Well… certain aspects of you anyway, nonetheless, you still shiver my bones and soul better than any cold winter night. You and your sister...

"I'm not… scary…" She said again, though not looking too convinced herself.

Of course you aren't, Adalia… of course.

Still, I'd be lying if I said I too wasn't having my patience tested here. Time was of the essence, and here I was watching the sands of time slowly whittle away in mounds, slouched over the front steps of the porch, staring intently down an empty driveway where not a single was in sight apart from Adalia and me.

Filling in Amanda on what's what was a process that took quite a bit. By the time I got her caught up on everything, my aching thumbs were begging me to put them out of their misery.

Expectedly, Amanda wasn't readily jumping on the prospect of diving into this shitfest with us. It took a lot of effort and a bunch of eloquently phrased sentences on my part to convince Amanda to come hither and be the dazzling savior in a night of gloom.

Suffice it to say, she wasn't too keen on becoming one. The reason for it, the reluctance - the Achilles heel that prevented a hero in the making was quite a reasonable one actually.

Let me ask - who'd want their would-be killer to ride shotgun with them mere weeks after recovering from their wrath?

Can't say I can really blame her for it. I'd be a little concerned for my well-being too if I was in her shoes. Then again, my shoes were much, much bigger than hers… I was living with my killer, let alone taking a drive with them.

After a seemingly perpetual back and forth of endless reassurances and a pocketful of doubt, I finally got Amanda coming round on the basis that I keep the closest eye possible on Adalia while in the car. Make sure there was no funny business - no fangs, no claws… and definitely no eye-contact.

Basically, I just had to make it seem as if Adalia didn't even exist in the first place. Which was easy enough actually, Adalia already does good work doing that to herself. Half the time, I'd mistake her presence for a piece of furniture. That's how little she comes to mind, if ever.

A quarter past eight. Adalia was plucking her eighth flower of its petals, and sat there still, my eyes never once tearing from the driveway, ears keen and sharp for any disruption in the calm ambiance.

So desperately I wanted to hear a screech, a rumble, the roar of an engine. I didn't. What befell my ears instead was a humming buzz as my phone flickered to life in my clutches.

Another message.

>

Five minutes after that, Adalia, a tenth petal-less flower in one hand, stood up at once, and like a cat, stared away into the nothing in the streets. At least I thought there was nothing.

Apparently, she didn't.

"She's… here…"

Gradually on approach, the whirring that quietly sounded in the silence… didn't even have to strain my ears to even pick up on it - it was there, and it was getting louder and louder with every passing second.

Soon two magnificent rims of light joined the whirring, painting the gravelly asphalt with its shimmer.

I stood up, just as a squeak of tires pulled up a sight of a four-seater chugging idly away by the driveway. My screech, my rumble, and my roar, there it was… brings a goddamn tear to the eye, the savior of the night.

The driver-side window reeled down from view, revealing the insides where the face and eyes of a very reluctant hero stared at me from afar. Those hazel eyes of hers, as unnerved as they looked right then, was truly a sight for sore eyes.

"Hop in," spoke the uncertainty in her voice.

There was a click, the lock on the doors uncoupling, allowing for a most welcome entry, and enter we shall indeed.

Don't think a side by side with the vampire was something Amanda would be too enthused about, so I had Adalia take the backseat, while I plop open the passenger-side, riding shotgun at the front.

The first thing I found myself inadvertently doing as soon as I had myself settled in nice and cozy was taking a couple of whiffs at a rather peculiar smell wafting through the enclosed space.

Has that new car smell to it intermix together with a dash of strawberries. It was actually quite pleasant.

"Was that smell you got on the car?" I asked, taking in another huge gulp of its captivating aroma.

"It's me," Amanda answered flatly. "Stop sniffing me."

Oh.

"Sorry."

Great, now I got myself feeling like a creep. Not even a minute into an acquaintance's car and you already got yourself going off on the wrong foot. Really, I amaze myself sometimes.

"Oh no, It's fine," she said hurriedly, apprehension never once leaving her wide-open eyes, "Okay, so, um, yes… where are we heading off to exactly?"

Took a moment for me to get my voice in working order again, and it certainly wasn't for a lack of answers, it had more to do with the fact with how she chose to present herself to us that I was only just now noticing.

Bizzare couldn't even begin to describe that thick wooly coat hugging her petite frame like an overgrown polar bear to a baby bear. It seriously looked like she was packed for a vacation to the Arctic.

Seriously, there wasn't a trace of skin no matter where my eyes would fall - just wooly wools, fluffy furs, from thick gloves to hard boots, hardly could tell there was a person underneath all that seven layers of the animal kingdom.

Now I understand what took her so long to arrive apart from roadblocks. A quick glance through the rear-view mirror, and I could see that Adalia was coming to the same conclusion as I.

Sorry to say, Amanda, but if a vampire ever decides that they want to have a piece of you, no amount of animal pelts is gonna keep them away from tearing at your throat.

Didn't tell her that though. Figure it was better to let her have that extra sense of security. I could have tried for something witty to say about her choice in attire, but what came out of my lips instead was -

"Why are you wearing a face mask?"

Masked Amanda batted her fearful eyes at the question as if wondering why that was even an inquiry in the first place.

"Um… they said to wear a mask," Amanda responded, tilting her head at me.

I drew my head back. "Who said to wear a mask?"

"Everyone. Everywhere. Want one?"

She pulled open the glove compartment, and swinging out in a tumble was a big stack of surgical masks bundled up in a cardboard box. It looked as if she just bought a pile from the nearest pharmacy and stuffed them all into a tissue carton.

"Take one," She pulled loose a piece, offering, swinging the string attached to it limply around her finger.

It ain't a virus, Adalia already said but, ah well, better safe than sorry, I suppose.

I took the mask from her, gave my thanks, and began to at once wrapped it around my face.

Amanda once again clasped her trembling fingers around the steering wheel, asking again. "So where are we going?"

"Just… follow… where I say… to go..." whispered Adalia.

For a moment I wondered if Amanda had installed a sit-eject button somewhere in her driver seat, for she yelped and jumped so high in place that the sudden momentum of it sent her smacking the roof of the car with the top of her head, leaving an echoing thud and a noticeable imprint of where her skull had met the hard surface.

A second later, poor Amanda was reduced to hisses and mutters of pain, clutching her head with both hands, breathing deeply back in what remained of her crumbled composure.

I met Adalia's eyes through the reflection of the rear-view mirror again and slowly shook my head at her.

So much for not existing...

"Oh…" spoke Adalia, a little guilt-ridden, shifting uncomfortably in her seat, and edging away further from Amanda. "I'm… sorry…"

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" chimed Amanda, while at the same time also staring intensely down at her feet. "Erm, I'm good. Just nerves. Only nerves… I'll be fine."

"Adalia won't bite," I said, doing what I could to get her back to her comfort zone. "If it makes you feel any better, Adalia feels very bad about what she and her sister did to you."

I spun my head, catching the vampire by surprise with the sharpest gaze and voice I could then possibly muster. "Don't you, Adalia?"

Never before have I seen Adalia nod her head so fast at something. "Er… Yes… I'm… very sorry… for what happened… last time... we won't... do it again..."

"See? Won't happen again," I said, smiling a reassuring smile. "Could even get her to pinky swear on it too if you want it."

"No, nope, that won't be necessary," spoke Amanda at once, raising her head to the dashboard with a newfound resolve twinkling through the fear in her eyes. "So… I just, uh… follow what the vamp - where she says to go, that it?"

"Pretty much," I answered back, shrugging my shoulders.

"Am I going to regret asking how that works?"

"I… can sense… her…" Adalia whispered even more timidly than before. "So… I'll find… where she lives… you just… drive…"

No yelps, no sudden lurches upward this time. Amanda maintained a steady calmness, fixating her gaze on the long stretch of road before us and nowhere else.

"Alright… I'll just," with a collected breath, Amanda shifted the gear and pushed lightly on the pedal. "Drive."

"Also… I want you… to know..." Adalia muttered, the expression forming on her face almost resembling a slight pout. "I'm not… scary… okay…?"