The hot water ran over my body, washing away the dried blood on my hands and chest. My tattered clothes lay strewn across the bathroom floor. What I was going to do about my uniform I didn’t know, and to be honest, right now I didn’t care either. There were more important matters at hand.

I shut off the shower and wiped myself dry. I wrapped myself in a towel, so I could get some fresh clothes from my bedroom. Ria was still sleeping and breathing steadily, so I quietly took some sweatpants and a hoodie of my favourite softball team along with a fresh set of underwear out of my dresser and headed back to the bathroom to get changed.

When I returned to the living room Viktor was awaiting me with a pair of glasses filled with you-know-what. I had already seen enough blood for the day but I definitely could use a drink.

“Thanks Viktor.” I put my destroyed clothing on the living room table.

“No problem.” He took a sip from his glass. “If you want to, I can contact a tailor, so they can get you and your friend a new set.” He nodded towards my clothes.

“That’d be helpful…”

“And someone to fix your door… and replace the sofa…”

“Right…” I looked at the state of the room. Apparently Viktor had already mopped the floor so at least that was clean, but the sofa was pretty much a total loss and I could tell from the dinner table the door was still only barely closed. “What a fucking day…” I pinched the bridge of my nose after which I downed my entire glass in one go. I barely even tasted it.

I could tell Viktor wasn’t completely present either until his eyes lit up. “Ah, and while you were in the Dusche someone called you.”

“Did you see who it was?”

“Nein, I didn’t want to accidentally pick up by looking…”

I looked at him with my head slightly tilted. “Viktor, do you not know how to use a smartphone?”

“Theoretically I know how, but I still use this.” He put his hands into his jacket pocket and took out a flip phone. “A Klapphandy.”

This did make me giggle a little. “Really, Vik?”

“I’ll let you know this was state of the art technology only a decade ago.”

“Give or take a decade.”

“It’s hard to keep up with everything when you live as long as we do, you’ll see in time.”

It was hard to imagine, but I guess it did hold some kind of truth to it. It wasn’t that long ago that computers took up a small building and now one immensely more powerful than those could fit in your pocket.

I shrugged and went to take my phone out of the sofa. Luckily it didn’t have that much blood on it, so I quickly wiped it clean and looked at my call list. It was Emma.

Just like with Viktor the phone only rang once before someone picked it up.

“Auro?”

“Hey Em.”

“Oh, thank the Goddesses you are okay.”

“Uh… what are you talking about?”

“Didn’t you hear? The television is reporting there was gunfire in your area, but they couldn’t find anything.”

“Couldn’t find…” I looked over to Viktor.

“I’ll tell you later.”

Emma continued. “So I got worried that something might’ve happened to you or Ria. But I’m happy you are okay.”

I gulped. “Uhm… Em…”

“Mhmm?”

“Ria got shot.” There was no point in keeping this secret from her. She was going to find out sooner or later and I’d rather tell her now than to lie to her and have her find out later.

“What!?” Emma yelled over the telephone.

“Emma? Is everything alright? Are you calling Aurora? Is she okay?” I heard the voice of Em’s mother over the phone.

“Y-yeah mom… she’s fine… sorry for yelling.”

“Oh, great. Tell her I said hi.”

“Hey Auro, my mom said hi…” after which she whispered. “Is she okay?”

“We think so. She’s sleeping in my bed right now…”

“I see… Mom! I’m going over to Aurora’s house for now.”

“But what about the shooting?”

“I’ll have Helen, I’ll be fine.”

“Right. But listen to whatever she has to say, okay?

“Yes Mom.”

“Em?” I asked over the phone.

“Auro, this is not in question. I’ll be there in half an hour.” She hung up.

I looked dumbfounded at the screen of my phone.

“Sounds like your friend is coming over?”

“Apparently…”

“I guess I should stay to answer some questions.”

“Probably.” I put my phone away. “I definitely have a couple.”

“I’d expected as much…” Viktor straightened his posture. “However what happened today is unprecedented, at least for me.”

“You mean the shooting and the disappearing?”

“Not that, that happens from time to time.”

“Really?”

“We look like normal people and therefore occasionally we get mugged or run into minor problems that require… creative problem solving.” He invited me to sit on the chair. “Normally we would call people to fix those issues ourselves, but because you’ve not yet been initiated you couldn’t have. So your shadow did instead.”

I sat down. “Shadow?”

“You’ll meet her at the conclave. It’s someone who keeps an eye on new vampires mainly to keep them out of trouble. Sadly she was running a bit late and couldn’t help you in time… But she’s the one who called me and hid what happened afterwards.”

“So that’s how you knew.”

Viktor nodded. “As for what happened with your friend. I have my suspicions, but I’m far from an expert. It might be best for the two, or all three of you, to go to the conclave together. So you can all have some answers firsthand.”

“So, me, Ria and Emma?”

Viktor nodded again. “It will not be an issue to get extra invitations once I tell them my suspicions.”

“I’m not sure…”

“It’s the best way for you to get answers you seek.”

I sighed. “Fine.”

“Super.” Viktor smiled and took another sip from his glass.

The doorbell startled me a little, even though I had been expecting it. I ran over and opened it.

“What happened to your lock?” Emma was holding her umbrella as it was still raining outside.

“Please come in.” I took her jacket and hung it on the coat rack. Underneath she was wearing a pink blazer on a pink plaid skirt with some white thigh high socks. Of course, I’d seen her in that outfit before when I visited her home, but it was still a rare sight to behold.

Emma was still awaiting my answer, blushing a little at the moment of silence I gave her.

“I was carrying Ria, so I couldn’t get my keys…”

“Ah, right…”

The colour drained from her face when she saw the sofa covered with blood.

“I-I thought you said she was ok?”

“It’s … complicated. Viktor is still here, he can explain it a bit better than me.”

“I see…” A switch in Emma flipped as she marched on without hesitation. The look on her face was pretty intimidating. “So you are the vampire who did this to my friend, huh?” And so the tone was set for the next thirty minutes.

Luckily Emma calmed down a bit after Viktor had explained a couple of things.

“So Corelia is completely fine?”

“As far as I can tell, Ja.”

“Well I guess I should thank you for explaining… However, I’ve not yet said the final word about drinking random people’s blood. You have all the blood you want in blood bags for fucks sake! So you better not let this happen again.”

The look on Viktor's face was priceless - I’d not seen it since I threatened him with my baseball bat the first time we met.

“I… I can definitely see why the two of you get along so well… But, what you are saying is true.”

“Damn right it is.” Emma got back on her chair as she had stood up to lecture Viktor. “Anyhow, can we go see Ria now?” She looked at me.

“Y-yeah.”

“I’ll leave you two alone then.” Viktor said while grabbing his coat. “I’ll contact you when the people get here to fix things.”

I nodded. “See you at the conclave on Sunday?”

“Of course.” He tipped his hat and walked out, closing the door behind him. As far as that was possible.

“Shall we go?” Emma took my hand.

“Mhmm.”

“Are you sure?” Emma softly squeezed my hand.

“Y-yeah, definitely.” I agreed and walked along with her to my bedroom.

Shima had nestled herself next to Ria and was cozily purring away.

“Ria… I can’t imagine what it must’ve felt like…” Em looked over to Ria's bloody skirt that I’d thrown on one of the chairs.

My hand started shaking, but I managed to hold it still before Emma noticed.

“E-Emma?” Ria turned her head towards us, the sound of our talking must’ve woken her up. “I-I’m alive?” Her words cut straight through me.

Emma immediately ran over to her side and crouched down. “Hey there, how are you feeling?”

“M-my body… it hurts…”

“Auro saved you.” She smiled.

Ria looked over to me. “R-Rora?”

My body had completely frozen the moment she’d started talking, both of my hands were noticeably shaking. I couldn’t make them stop. “H-h-hey Ria…” I barely managed to speak.

“You should sleep a bit more, Ria. Rest is important, do you want something to drink first?” Emma brushed her hand through Ria’s hair, getting a couple of strands out of her eyes.

“M-maybe a glass of water.” Ria nodded weakly.

“Auro?” Emma looked over to me to make it clear what I had to do.

“I-I-I’m on it.” I walked out and headed towards the kitchen, however the first glass I grabbed immediately slipped out of my trembling hands and hit the floor. I just kept staring at shards of broken glass. My breath stuck in my throat.

Emma had heard the glass break and followed me to the kitchen. Without saying a word she took another glass out of the cabinet, filled it with water and rushed back, carefully walking around the broken pieces. She stayed there for a couple of minutes before she returned to find me still staring at the broken pieces of glass. She grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the clean sofa.

“T-t-the glass...”

“I’ll clean it up later.” She forcibly sat me down and sat down next to me, embracing me in her arms. Her grip was tight.

“R-R-Ria…?”

“She went back to sleep. She’s ok.”

“E-Em…” My entire body was shaking now.

“Shhh… let it all out… I’m here for you.”

I don’t know exactly how long it took for the dam to break, but once it did I was a complete sobbing mess.

“I a-almost lost her Em… She was so close to being gone… s-so much blood, h-her blood.” I thought I had managed to repress it, but it came back to me in full force. “B-because of me…”

“Shhh, Auro.” She rubbed my back. “She’s still here, isn’t she? And that’s all because of you, you know?” Her voice was soft and soothing.

“B-but it’s because of me…”

“She would’ve been in danger anyway, and without your powers who knows what could’ve happened? You told us what they said, right?”

“B…”

“Shhh, you did more than anyone could ever have expected you to. You did great. No one blames you for what happened, least of all me and Ria. You’re our hero.”

Emma’s unwavering support made me cry even more. It must have been at least half an hour later when I finally stopped crying.

“Are you feeling better?” Emma was still rubbing my back.

“I-I think so.” I wiped the tears from my face with the sleeve of my hoodie. “Thank you so much, Em…”

“You don’t need to be strong all the time, Auro. You can lean on us once in a while. Never forget that.” She reached for the pocket of her blazer and pulled out a handkerchief. “Here you can have this. It’s clean.”

“Thanks.” I blew my nose. “I almost started leaking on your shoulder.”

“You better not!” I could hear the laugh in her voice as she gave me another hug.

“We should probably clean up the glass before Shima walks in it...”

“Sounds like a plan. Where do you keep your dustpan?”

“It’s under the sink.”

Together we got into action, cleaning up all the glass we could see.

“As for the practical stuff,” Emma said while putting the dustpan back in its place. “We’ll deal with Ria’s parents and with the school. Say that she slept over but got sick overnight.”

“Ah… I didn't even think about that… probably best not to go to school tomorrow.”

“You think? You don’t even have a uniform.”

“Yeah…”

“Anyway…” Emma looked at her watch. “I hate to leave you alone like this but I have things to discuss with mom and my sister. And all my school things are at home too. Do you think you can manage that? Otherwise I’ll tell Helen to get the futon out of the car.”

“I think I’ll be okay… but why do you have a futon in your car?”

“It’s mainly there for Helen because she likes to sleep in her car occasionally for some reason.” Emma shrugged. “But it’s useful for sleepovers too.”

“Oh… but yes, I think I’ll be fine.”

“Good.” Emma hugged me again. “If something happens, call me okay? I’ll be here as fast as I can.”

I returned her hug. “Yeah, thanks again for everything Em. You coming by tomorrow after school too?”

“Of course.” She smiled. “I still want to discuss the Sunday thing too.”

“Alrighty. Good night, Em.”

“Good night, Auro.” Emma put on her jacket and opened the door. It was still pouring outside, so she opened her umbrella too. “Oh, and you should probably shove something heavy in front of the door.”

“Mhm. It’s fine, I don’t think I’ll be sleeping anyway…” We waved each other goodbye. I ended up leaning against the doorframe watching the car take off.

-I wish I’d asked her to stay…-