It was dark outside as Mia looked out her window. Her parents might still be awake, but that didn't mean she couldn't plan out what she would do as soon as they went to bed.

It had been three nights since Mia had gone out hunting – tonight would be her fourth. She tried to go out every three nights, four at the most. Any longer and the lack of fresh blood would start to show. She would start to feel worn out and grouchy. Not to mention the fact that she would start to get hungry. It wasn't the same kind of hunger she used to get when she skipped a meal – this was much worse. She would feel like she hadn't eaten in months, and she'd get desperate enough that almost no risk would seem too great. Especially now that Summer was watching her, Mia knew she couldn't chance waiting that long. Knowing that if she waited any longer than tonight that incredible hunger would start to set in, Mia continued to stare out the window, daydreaming about how soon she would get to leave.

From her window on the second story of their house, Mia could see the backs of the houses that bordered hers, and even make out some slivers of the houses across the street from those. Most of the lights were already off, and Mia knew that meant she was probably going to have to go all the way downtown before she could find someone awake and outside. At least with the lights off, the view was better while she waited.

As Mia sat patiently at the window, something caught her ear. It was faint at first, but the noise gradually became louder and louder until Mia was sure she knew what it was: the banshee was back. Only this time, the sound was much louder than Mia had ever heard it. It almost reminded her of the time they went to the hospital.

Mia scanned the darkness, looking for any sign of the banshee. She wasn't nearly as afraid of it now that she'd seen one in person. It was such a sad, pathetic creature that Mia couldn't help but feel that it wasn't much of a threat. But that didn't mean she was happy about having to go out knowing it was so close.

From where she sat, Mia could just make out the edge of her neighbor's pool. Normally the outline was dark and hard to see – like a void. But tonight, it seemed to glow. Mia stared. In that strange light she could clearly see that someone was down there.

At first Mia thought it was just her neighbor out late, fixing a light or checking the filter. But when she realized that this person was much too young to be either of the people who lived in that house, her heart started to beat faster. It was a girl, with long hair the color of blood. She was kneeling down at the edge of the pool, pulling some kind of large cloth out before dunking it back in.

Mia shifted in her seat, shoving her nose up against the glass as she watched the ghostly fingers press the fabric into the pool again and again. When she first started watching, Mia had thought the banshee was holding a cream colored sheet with some sort of pattern on it. But as she continued staring down into that yard, she realized it was a man's shirt. And the patterns smeared across it were as crimson as the girl's hair.

Mia watched the girl wash the stains out of the shirt, the red tendrils seeping slowly out of the fabric, filling the section of the pool Mia could see with deep swirls of red. She was too horrified at the scene to immediately make the connection that this was the same girl all of that hideous crying was coming from. Once she did, her eyes widened and Mia slid quickly away from the window. She crawled right back into bed, pulling the covers up over her head as she did.

She tried to ignore what she'd seen, but every time she closed her eyes, the image of a bloody banshee washing some injured man's clothes would flood through her mind. Why would she be washing bloody clothes? Mia found herself wondering. She was having a hard time even believing that this was the same type of creature as the one she saw on the roof, but that crying it made erased any doubts. And hunger or not, there was no way she was going outside with that sitting not even twenty feet away. Mia shivered, deciding that maybe she would just go to school a little early and try to catch someone on the way.