He gripped the photo of the house tightly, a stern smile spreading across his face. 'You tried to run away little lion, but you should know by now you don't stray far from the pack'. He threw the photo on the table, with 10 other pictures. All of the same thing, house 22 on Wonder Street. One photo stood amongst the others, it was a tall built man, with blonde tousled hair and bright green eyes. On the bottom of the picture scribbled in almost illegible writing was the name 'Eugene Cubert'.

The man turned to face a figure standing behind him. "Victoria," He said, his voice smooth and dangerous. "I think it's time to give our dear little lion a visit, don't you?"

------------

Annalise

Annalise sat behind Eugene on the burgundy covers of the bed, peering over his shoulder curiously. He'd been silent all day, entirely focused on his phone, hands tapping away at whatever was on the screen. She'd be worried that something bad had happened, if she hadn't heard him quietly celebrate under his breath every so often.

"What are you doing?" She asked, trying to get a good look at his phone. Instead of replying, Eugene lifted the device, tilting it just so she could see the screen. On his phone was a turn point based mage game, Mage Dwellings. It was a game she recognised from when she was alive. Annalise had played it herself from time to time.

"You actually play these games?" she laughed, of all the people in the world, Eugene seemed like that last person to 'lower himself' enough to play mobile games. He turned his head, and shot her a glare. Their cheek's almost touching.

"The mobile is one of humanity's best inventions." he stated, defending himself. A loud beeping sound rang out, drawing them both back to the phone. In big red text, 'YOU DIED' was plastered across the screen. Eugene rubbed his forehead in frustration, sighing heavily. He placed his phone down in his lap in defeat.

For a moment he stared at Annalise, then gave a tiny smile. "Would you like to try?" He offered, picking up the phone and holding it out to her. Annalise hesitated, it was always a hit and miss on whether or not she could interact with the outside world. Biting her lip nervously, she reached for the birthmark on the back of her neck. It was an anxious tick she couldn't get rid of.

"I don't want to break it." She said finally. He gave her a dark look, before gesturing the phone to her once again.

"I'm over 200 years old. I don't care about the phone." He explained bluntly, cocking an eyebrow at her. Timidly, she reached out to take hold of the device. Her fingers brushed over his, and she noticed a line of goose bumps trailing up his arms.

Annalise went to grab the phone as he let go of it and for a second she almost did. She felt the smooth metal in her hand, her eyes widened as her hand tightened on it. But the moment was gone as soon as it arrived, and it slipped through her grasp like sand. Gently the phone bounced off the bed, and made a tap noise as it hit the floor boards.

She bowed her head, wrapping her arms around herself as Eugene picked it back up again.

"I'm sorry," she muttered embarrassed, watching him check the phone for cracks. Satisfied that the phone was okay, he looked back at Annalise.

"Don't be. Come here," He said, gesturing with his finger for her to move closer to him.

She shuffled forward so the front of her chest was pressed against his back, her head popping over his shoulder. Her cheeks flushed pink at the proximity, but as a ghost it hardly showed on her face. She could still feel the heat of her cheeks though. Eugene raised the phone slightly, so she could see it.

"Tell me what to do, and I'll play for you," he offered. She paused for a moment, "Wait really? You'd do that?" He nodded, having restarted his earlier game he pointed to the screen.

"What class do you want to be?" Eugene asked. Annalise's heart filled with warmth at the gesture, and she beamed. It had been so long since she played any kind of game.

"Steel Mage!" she enthused, pointing to the mage on screen. With a nod, he selected the class, and they moved onto the next part of the game. Together they spent hours sitting in the main bedroom of the house playing 'Mage Dwellings'. Annalise could hardly contain her laughter, and even Eugene smiled from time to time.

It was the first time she had felt alive, in 5 years.

She told him this, and though he didn't react much his eyes twinkled and crunched at the edges. A loud thumping at the door interrupted them. They both looked at each other in question. "Do you have any guests?" asked Eugene, he seemed to remember the obvious and had the gall to look ashamed.

"Yeah, can't exactly have guests, can i?" Annalise stated with a smile. The knocking started again, drawing their attention away from each other. "You think you should answer that?" she prompted, giggling a little at the annoyed expression on his face. He nodded, rising up from the bed languidly.

With that he left to go downstairs, and Annalise watched him go wistfully, the warm feeling happily settled in her chest.

------

Eugene

At the door stood two people, a man and a woman. More like a werewolf and a fae, Eugene noted suspiciously. They were both well hidden under the human disguise, but being a vampire gave him higher senses. He could smell who they were from miles away if he had been concentrating. And from the nasty glare the man shot him as well, it was likely he could sense that Eugene was a vampire.

"What do you want?" Eugene demanded, staring them both down. The woman was fairly short, only around 5'5ft, with a small black bob and dangerous dark brown almost black eyes. The man was a lot taller, but still smaller than Eugene. He was tall and gangly, limbs stretching out like sticks. With dark skin, and contrasting blue eyes. This was the werewolf? He hardly looked like a pup let alone a full grown wolf.

"Our friend, I'm sure you know what happened but she died here 5 years ago? We just wanted to leave some flowers for her." the woman said, bringing attention to the bouquet of pink peonies in her hand. Eugene contemplated on it for a moment, he couldn't sense that they were lying nor could he sense that they had anything suspicious on them. Eventually he nodded, gesturing to his front garden.

"Place them where you want. Just leave quickly." He ordered. The woman seemed to relax visibly, and nodded but the man stiffened, his glare quickly becoming murderous. He shifted forward slightly.

"Do you know anything about what happened here?" the unknown man asked, his scent turning sour, like rotten apples. He clearly didn't trust the vampire. Well, at least the sentiment was matched.

Despite having known straight from the source, what had happened Eugene shook his head. "I have no idea what you're on about." He said. "Now, if you'd kindly be on your way," The werewolf narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Werewolves and Vampires had not got along for centuries now, constantly fighting for land and power. Even still, Eugene thought this one's suspicions were entirely misplaced.

"No one' s moved here for years now, so why have you?" the man interrogated still. The woman looked between both men and shook her head with a disappointed sigh.

"Noah calm down, let's just drop off the flowers. Please." she pleaded. Noah looked ready to argue, but Eugene was far from caring about their domestic dispute at this point.

He had heard Annalise gasp from behind him. He glanced over and saw her, hands across her mouth in shock as tears pooled in her eyes.

"Noah? Mia?"