As the door to the roof opened slowly, Mia was immediately greeted by a terrible wail. She instantly recognized it as being the same one that she'd heard more than once from her bedroom. Only this time, the crying was much, much louder.

The sound had been more than enough to make Mia reconsider this whole excursion. It was so gut-wrenchingly sad it actually started to depress her. Even though she had no idea who or what this banshee was crying for, she couldn't help but empathize with it.

As soon as Mia walked through the door and onto the roof, she'd spotted the banshee. It wasn't hard; she was sitting across from the door, on the waist-high wall that surrounded the roof. She sat there, perched delicately on the ledge. Her head was down, and her long white hair covered her face. Mia was surprised at how small the creature actually was. She thought that anyone who could make that much noise must be at least six feet tall, but the banshee was barely four. It sobbed quietly for a minute, clenching its tiny fists in its lap. Then, without warning, it leaned its head back and wailed at the night sky.

As the banshee tilted its face towards the clouds, its sheet-white hair fell away from its face and Mia realized that the hair color wasn't because of her age. In fact, Mia thought the banshee looked like she was maybe only a year or two older than Mia herself. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and she seemed to have a kind of glow about her. As Mia continued to stare at the figure, she realized that the only part of her that wasn't a pale, glowing white were the banshee's eyes. Those were a bright red, with deep black irises indistinguishable from her pupils.

Even though she was half-expecting to see one, the sight of the banshee sitting not twenty feet away had taken Mia aback. She let go of the door, still staring at the figure on the other side of the roof. The door quickly started swinging shut, but the sounds coming from the banshee caused Mia to be too dazed to grab it. She turned back, too slow, and watched as it neared the frame.

Mia stood there, knowing that the sound of the door banging shut would clue the banshee in on what was going on around her. So far, she seemed to be too busy crying to notice them, but Mia was pretty sure a noise that loud would grab the attention of even the most depressed banshee. But just before the door swung shut, something popped it back open a few inches. A hand wrapped itself around the edge of the door. Mia knew instantly that they'd been caught. She was already forming an excuse in her head when Luke appeared from around the door.

"Luke!" Anna exclaimed, a mixture of excitement and confusion.

"Uh...hi." he said, just as surprised to see them.

Just that short exchange was enough to catch the banshee's attention. She whipped her head around to face them. Her face was streaked with tears, and Mia wondered how well she could see through all that crying. But as soon as her eyes landed on them, Mia knew they'd been spotted. The banshee took one look at Mia and her friends standing at the door, and her wail changed. Slowly, it turned from a sad, heart-breaking sound into a loud, angry screech. Mia stared for a moment in shock. The banshee looked angry enough that she might come rushing towards them, and Mia had no idea how to defend herself. She tried to look brave as she steeled herself for the attack. Then, without warning, the banshee simply disappeared from sight. The silence that seemed to echo around them was a welcome relief.

"What was that?" Luke asked.

No one said anything. Mia just stood there, staring at the spot where the banshee had been only seconds ago. How could she just vanish into thin air like that? Luke waited a few minutes, but when it was obvious that no one was going to answer his question, he repeated it. "So what was that, anyway?"

"A banshee." Carmine told him wearily.

"A what?" came the incredulous response.

"You know, a banshee." Carmine said. And for once, she didn't seem to be taking any pleasure in explaining the supernatural. "A demon whose cry can be heard before someone dies."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"So you guys came up here to find a banshee? On purpose?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Because Summer told us she thought there were some in the city." Mia broke in.

She knew she probably shouldn't have said anything, but she just didn't care. She was annoyed at Summer for sending them on this stupid mission, so why not tell him who was responsible? Besides, Mia remembered what happened last year when Carmine had a theory about vampires running around the town – she'd been a laughingstock. Mia was not about to get labeled as some crazy person who chased after fairytale creatures. Besides, it wasn't like she said anything that would really hurt Summer – Mia was sure Summer would be able to take it.

"Summer Ashwood said that?" Luke asked, his lip curling just a little at the name. Apparently, he and Mia had similar views of the girl.

"Yeah, she did." Carmine admitted.

"You girls should stay as far away from here as possible." Luke told them, looking more serious than Mia had ever seen him.

"Why?" Anna asked, speaking up for the first time since their encounter with the banshee.

"Well, you said yourselves that it was a demon, right? Do you really think you can go up against a demon and not get seriously hurt – or worse?"

Mia snorted, knowing full well that they were more than capable – they'd done it before, after all. Carmine, however, decided to answer Luke's rhetorical question.

"They're not really demons." she told him. "I mean they are, but they're not really dangerous. They mostly just cry a lot."

Luke smiled knowingly, and Mia realized he must be remembering Carmine's well-deserved reputation as a mythology nut. Mia studied him for a second before a thought occurred to her.

"How'd you get up here so fast, anyway?" she asked. She was only a little curious. Really, she just wanted to change the subject in case Luke started to wonder why they'd decided to look for banshees. Summer's telling them about banshees being around was still a pretty thin excuse, and Mia didn't want to give Luke time to realize that.

"I took the elevator." Luke shrugged. "After you left, I went over to the elevators and took the first one that came. I didn't know you'd be coming up here or I would have tried to be faster."

"So why were you coming up here?" Carmine asked, eyes narrowing. Mia looked over at her, impressed. She'd been so worried about keeping Luke from being suspicious that she'd forgotten all about his motives.

"I've been hearing something outside the past couple of nights." he told them. "It took me a while, but I finally figured out where it was coming from – so I decided to check it out."

Mia nodded, turning her attention back to Anna and Carmine. It was true that the banshees had been out for about a week by now. And since there was more than one, it was definitely possible that Luke had heard them just like Mia. It looked like they might have overreacted just a little. Slowly, the girls turned towards the door. Since they hadn't managed to catch the banshee, there wasn't much point in staying on the roof. But Luke stopped them before they could leave.

"So you're really going to try to catch a banshee, aren't you?" he asked.

No one answered. Mia shifted her gaze away, and she was pretty sure her friends were doing the same. Luke took this for the confirmation that it was.

"I knew it!" Looking pointedly at Mia and Carmine he continued, "Just because someone says there might be a banshee running around doesn't mean you should try to catch it."

"We know." Mia said defensively. He didn't need to tell her that they shouldn't have to be the ones doing all this.

"We just wanted to see it." Carmine lied. It wasn't a bad lie, but since they'd already practically admitted they wanted to catch it, Luke wasn't buying it.

"Yeah, right." he said. He looked at each of them carefully. "You don't have to pretend. I know you girls. What? – Is it some kind of adventure or something?"

"Something like that." Carmine said.

"So you want to catch a banshee, huh?" Luke mused. "I guess there's no way I can convince you that this is a bad idea?"

"No." all three girls responded together without hesitation.

With Summer's threat still looming over their heads, there was nothing Luke could say that would change any of their minds. He looked thoughtful. Then, he said the last thing Mia expected to hear from him.

"Ok." he told them. "Then I'll just have to help you. So what's the plan?"

"There is no plan." Mia told Luke in a way that she hoped would put an end to the conversation.

"Of course there is." he replied. "Didn't you just say you were going to track it down and there was nothing I could say to stop you?"

"It's too dangerous." Anna said, looking at him in earnest. Luke looked at her sympathetically, but he didn't budge.

"So, if you're going to chase down a banshee, you must have a plan. Or at the very least you'll be making one up soon. How else could you possibly do it?"

"Well, I guess there is a plan." Mia conceded. "But it's really more of a three-person plan."

She didn't want to be rude, but they really couldn't afford Luke's help; there were just too many ways it could go wrong.

"Look, if you three want to chase down a banshee, you're going to need my help. Do you really think you can do it alone?"

Of course they did. But despite their protests, none of the girls could think of a real reason why Luke couldn't join them. The obvious ones – that he wasn't as fast, strong, or as quiet as either Mia or Anna – weren't really things they could point out to him. Luke would never believe it unless they also told him the reason that they were so much better. And Mia would never let him in on the fact that they were vampires.

The other problem had to do with Carmine; there were simply no reasons they could come up with that wouldn't apply just as much to her. If they wanted to exclude Luke from the banshee-hunt, they were going to have to list the reasons that Carmine was inadequate as well. The only real difference between Luke and Carmine was the fact that Carmine knew she was slower and weaker. Mia knew the fact that Carmine was aware of the extra danger she'd be facing was a good reason why she should be able to do this over Luke. But since it was just another thing she wouldn't be able to explain to him, she was left in silence.

Luke took the silence as a begrudging agreement.

"Well, great." he said, deliberately ignoring the girls' attitudes. "So, what do we know about banshees?"

"They disappear when they get scared." Mia said somewhat sarcastically.

"Right." Luke nodded, ignoring Mia's tone. "And they cry before someone dies."

No one said anything else for a minute. Luke looked around. "Is that all we know? Really?" he asked.

"We thought we'd see if there was actually anything here before we worried too much." Carmine said defensively.

"So if you didn't even know you'd find one, why were you so worried about catching it?" Luke asked, baffled.

"It's complicated..." Anna started.

"Well, now that we know for sure there is one, we can get rid of it." Mia said, cutting Anna off before she ended up telling Luke about the whole mess they were in.

"But why do you care?" Luke asked.

"Well, we can't really leave it running around like that, can we?" Carmine asked.

"I guess not." Luke said, shrugging. "So what's the plan?" They were back to that again.

"Don't worry." Carmine told him. "I'll think of something."