For the sixth night in a row, I shot awake, breathing heavily, heart racing.

"Alex, you okay?" Isaac's sleepy voice asked

"Had another dream," I muttered, going into the bathroom to check my eyes, and cool myself down a bit. I glanced in the mirror and froze, just like last night, my eyes were yellow, finding my voice I called out softly.

"Isaac..." He started to walk in, his eyes on the mirror. He stopped, and seemed to be struggling with himself.

"You see it?" I asked him, he could do nothing but nod.

"Are you okay?" he asked again

I nodded "At least this means I'm not crazy."

"But, where does that leave the rest of it?" He asked, not having taken his eyes away from mine in the mirror.

"I don't know Isaac, I really don't know."

*****

Neither of us got any sleep after that, but sat awake, mostly silent. Occasionally Isaac would ask me a question about the guys, but then we would both fall back into our thoughts.

We decided to not tell Jesse just yet, he wouldn't believe us anyway.

As soon as I was out of the hospital, we were taking the first flight we could to Santa Cruz. Which was when we would tell Jesse. Isaac had refused point blank to tell me how we were paying for said plane tickets.

"What was it like?" Isaac asked suddenly.

"What was what like?"

"Being a vampire," He said "You never said much about it."

I looked thoughtful, my mind sinking back to those few moments. "It....It was amazing...Everything is brighter, sharper, you feel untouchable, invulnerable, your senses running ten times higher....But at the same time," I paused "It's terrifying, standing there, watching you, wanting so much to kill you, and your friend, feeling I was either going to collapse from hunger, or attack you...." I trailed off.

Jesse walked in, making us both jump.

"Hey Alex why did the - Isaac?" He looked a little startled himself "What are you doing here?"

"Alex wanted me to stay the night." Isaac said shrugging.

"What did you want to say Jesse?" I asked.

"I wanted to know why I'm getting a complaint from your doctor about a shouting match."

"Because I don't need a psychiatrist! I'm not crazy!" I cried angrily

"You didn't sound so sure of yourself yesterday sis." He retorted.

I sat up, eyes flashing "I realized something this morning." I said "I don't care, if my mind is playing tricks on me then let it, I can ignore them." I lied, I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"Alex you need help, or your mind is going to turn on itself-"

"What! What!! Is that what you think! I'm going to drive myself crazy by holding on to the only thing I've known! The only people who ever cared for me!" My voice rose, near a shout.

Jesse looked as shocked as if I'd slapped him, and his eyes were hurt. I know I had hurt him, telling him this, but it was true, he was barely around when I was little, he stayed out of the house as much as possible.

"I-" I didn't even let him start to speak

"You let them beat me! You ignored it! If you had cared you'dve take me away!"

"Alex, that's enough." I felt Isaac's hand on my shoulder, I didn't remember standing up, and was suddenly glad that the hospital had recently allowed me my own clothes.

Jesse was staring at as if he'd never seen me before, still shocked at my outburst. I stepped up to him, regretting my words.

"I-I.....Jesse I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Yeah, you did, and your right. I ignored it, because I didn't want to see it." His voice was flat, toneless, empty. I hugged him, and it took a moment for him to hug me back.

"But your here now." I said firmly "If you hadn't been, I'd be dead." I told him.

"Working out some family issues are we?"

David, David, David. Why did my sanity have to revolve around him...

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Chapter twenty three ^_^

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Luna