Peyton, the girl we saw in the mall yesterday is staring at me. The expression on her face is a mixture of awe, confusion, and terror.

This is going to be awkward.

I shoot a pleading look at Ember. What on earth am I supposed to tell Peyton? I am extremely grateful that she was here. After all, she did very possibly save my life. Nonetheless, Peyton is not of our society. She knows not of the existence of magic. Of society. Of anything... abnormal in the world.

There is no way she will take this well.

"You're Keela, the girl Carmi was with in the mall yesterday," Peyton says, sounding far less friendly than she was yesterday. Her words are a statement, not a question. Her bubbly tone is gone, replaced with one that is laced with fear. Fear and... something else.

"I am," I say. I feel equally nervous, although I daresay tis for quite a different reason than her fear. And that strange undertone in her voice is certainly not helping. "And you are Peyton?"

"Yes..." she trails off, her gaze turning slightly off to the distance. The final vampire is gone and Ember is off to the side. She appears to be overlooking her handiwork. Her glamour is reasserted, but unless Peyton was blind, she doubtlessly saw the fire faery without her glamour moments earlier. As though she can sense our gazes, Ember walks over, standing by my side.

"Who's this?" Ember asks, curiously. She looks a little nervous too, although not as much as I would have thought she would be.

Surprisingly, seeing Ember who is still sparking although in a humanoid form, seems to give Peyton a confidence boost.

"I'm Peyton Agee," she says. "And I wanna know who the hell you are. What you are, actually. I was just walking through and I hear screams, see two dead bodies, another two on fire, a pyromaniac woman apparently setting fire... with her freaking body, and a bleeding... friend of one of my close friends looking like she's freaking getting killed. And then turning around and killing that person. Don't mean to be blunt, but I think this situation calls for it. What did I just see?"

This is not good. Really not good. She saw everything. Basically.

"Listen," I say. I reach up and twirl a piece of my hair around my finger like I always do when I'm nervous. "Maybe you could just forget about seeing this? Please? For Carmela's sake?"

Peyton narrows her eyes. "Who are you? Or should I ask, what are you."

"I am... Keela. I am a sixteen year old girl. I am a friend of Carmela. Everything I already told you. Look, can you please just not tell anyone about this?"

She glowers at me. "Why should I?" Her voice is getting shrill, hysterical. Understandable, considering what she has just seen, but not good. "I think you owe me an explanation. That was not normal. Why shouldn't I call the police right now and have you tried for murder?"

I'm not sure what police are, but they seem to suddenly make Ember aware of the situation. She jolts to the present and abruptly stops sparking, turning to look nervously at me.

"I think she's seen too much, Keela," says Ember, her eyes darting nervously between Peyton and me.

"You think so?" I ask dryly, my voice heavy with sarcasm. "Way to state the obvious." Ember rolls her eyes and folds her arms over her chest, although she still looks... wary. Finally, she speaks.

"Look, Keela," says Ember. "Amanda's really not happy with you right now, to say the least. But she's going to be even more upset when she learns that you essentially provoked five vampires while an ignorant girl watched. I think that we need to let her handle this. Unless she promises not to tell?" She eyes Peyton cynically. For some reason this annoys me, although I've been thinking much along the same lines.

Peyton, meanwhile, has gone deathly pale on the word "vampire." Almost paler than the vampires themselves, ironically. Her eyes widen, standing out on her snow white skin. She sways slightly, making me worry that she is going to faint.

"Umm..." I say, nervously. "Are you alright? You look rather ill."

"Did you say... vampires?" she asks, almost shaking.

"You know what? I'm gonna let you handle this one, Keela," interjects Ember. "I'll be a little ways away." She wanders off, leaving Peyton and me looking testily at one other.

"There is... magic in this world," I say, finally. At this point I suppose only the truth will suffice. "You have just stumbled upon a fire faery and myself battling vampires. Carmela and I are both in a... group, dedicated to battling dark magic. Vampires, dark fey, werewolves, witches, and so on." I peer at her, trying to gauge her reaction. She seems shocked. But there's something... off. Her aura, which previously was frightened and confused now has a little... hope? Now I'm the one shocked. Why would this news fill her with hope?

I regard her warily. "Why are you even in these woods?" I ask. From what I have picked up lately, most people my age (my physical age, anyhow) do not have much... liking for nature. They would rather be in civilization. Suddenly, I am nervous. This meeting has been to strange for just another normal person.

"I..." She trails off, biting her lip. Finally, she says, "I have to go. I won't tell anyone for now. But you and Carmi have some serious explaining to do." She jogs off in the opposite direction, leaving me staring and wondering in heaven's name is going on.

~~~

When we get back, Amanda is not happy. In fact, she's furious. Quietly angry, though. The most frighteningly dangerous kind.

As I walk into the living room, Amanda stops pacing, abruptly. She eyes me levelly. "What, exactly, was that, Keela?" she asks, looking beyond peeved.

"I felt stifled," I say, truthfully. "We have fewer than six days. Even you must realize how urgent the situation is."

She stares me down. "So you felt that you had to provoke five vampires? Five? I am aware that you are the strongest and most powerful of us right now, especially since you just woke up, but you are not strong enough to overcome five vampires all by yourself. You're lucky that Ember went out to look for you right then, and predicted that you would be in the woods. If she had not found you, I think we can safely say that you would be dead. This isn't games, Keela. Once you die, you're dead. Game over. There are no second chances. You cannot take changes that are not in your favor like that. Not unless you have a death wish. Not unless you have a death wish for all of society. For all of the world. As you so forcefully pointed out this morning, we are relying on you. And you are squandering our time and effort."

I squirm under her gaze. She's right. Of course she is. But I just felt so...

"I apologize," I say. Maybe admitting to being wrong will cool her down. "You are right."

"If you were dead, I think we would all not like that," she says evenly, "If you died, there would be no chance of finding the next Girl. So I suggest, for all of our sakes and not just your own, you try to stay alive."

She turns away from me to take to Ember, so I trudge up to my bedroom, feeling dejected and annoyed. She's making me feel like a little girl when I would receive the "silent treatment" from my parents. That always made me feel worse than if I was yelled at. Although she speaks the truth though, I still do not know why she makes me feel so bad. We did kill the vampires.

I tell myself that as I walk down the long hallway (which I shall now dub the "walk of shame"). I draw myself up to my full height, telling myself to stop slouching. She is right, but I am right, too.

Once I get inside, I flop down on a large pink beanbag in the corner, thinking over the vampire fight. I realize that I didn't actually get any information from any of them, and that just makes me even more irked. Frustrated, I grab the nearest thing to me, a fluffy purple pillow, and throw it at the wall. It makes a muffled thunk. I've always been more of a person to express my anger physically. Perhaps that tis why I am so good at killing. Right now, I really want to do some damage. Make something hurt.

There's a knock on the door. Figuring it's Ev, I get up to go to open it. But standing there is not Ev, but Mike.

"Hey Keela," he says. "I heard about what happened with the vamps today. Can I come in?"

"Alright," I say, opening the door wider. I sit down on my bed, sinking into the soft comforter."I'm wondering why everybody seems to say that," I say, for the sake of conversation. I'm not the best at expressing myself... vocally. As I said before, I'm more of a physical person.

"What?" he asks, looking genuinely interested, which is encouraging.

"'Hey,'" I say. "Hey is used to express irritation, of confusion, or shock, or emotions of that sort. But nowadays it seems to be used in substitution of 'hello' or 'greetings.' Tis just another one of the many things that I must adapt to."

Mike grins. "I guess so. Never really thought about it; it's so normal. Growing up with this world, you know?"

I give a weak smile. "I suppose. There are many new things in this world that I must adjust to, anyhow. The new words, customs, living conditions, transportation, clothing, and so on. And so one. And so one. Forever. And ever. And ever."

"Yeah."

We sit in silence for a moment. It's a comfortable silence though, not awkward in the slightest. Peaceful. Almost calming me down from my earlier livid rage.

Finally, he asks, "so was Amanda really harsh?" His tone of voice and his words make me wonder how many times he has been the one on the receiving end of Amanda's fury.

"Not too bad," I admit. "Mostly she seemed cold, stern. I daresay that tis just something that she must do, as leader. Although it is quite frustrating." I sigh. "Many a time I've wished that I was not the Sleeping Girl. Not only because of this heavy burden of finding the next Girl, and everyone I knew dying, but also simply to be free. I've been watched my whole life, kept under careful watch. Sometimes I wish..." I trail off, wistfully. Sometimes I wish I could be free.

He nods. "Yeah, I get what you mean. I mean, I've been pretty free my whole life, but not as free as some kids. When we were little kids, maybe five or six I think, Carmi and I got attacked by a couple dark faeries. I think that's why she's so good at killing them. But me? I was so lame I just sat there and cried and almost died. And ever since then Mom's been really protective."

I smirk slightly. "You just cried and let your sister protect you?" For some reason this is funny. I suppose it discredits all that knight in shining armor damsel in distress stuff that I've grown up with.

Mike blushes slightly. "I was like five, okay? And between the two of us, Carmi's always been the more, I don't know, physically active I guess, while I've been the more intellectual. Right brain left brain, I guess. Well actually not really. But you get what I'm saying."

I nod. "I understand. Nothing problematic with that."

He shrugs. "I want to be part of the council when I'm older, like Dad is. I mean sure, I can kill monsters now. It's what we do. But... I just don't like it, you know? It seems like most of society does, but I don't. I just feel, like, wrong or something taking lives. Even if they're not all technically lives, and even if I know they're bad, I just don't feel morally right."

"I didn't used to," I say, lowly. "But that about changed when they killed my sister. Members of our society five centuries ago used to say I was ruthless, even though I'd killed the least of all of us. The reason I didn't kill more was because I never got a chance, being so sheltered. But when opportunity arose, I never hesitated. I still don't. They have caused so much destruction for millennia and they deserve what is coming to them."

"I think that's good in our society," he says. "That's how we've been dealing with things for decades, centuries, millennia. I think we really do need to be ruthless, to match the dark magic or we'll never win. But I also think we need to know when enough is enough, know when to stop and have mercy. Because if we don't stop, can't stop, are we really any better than them?"

I regard him carefully, in a new light. "You are wise, Mike. I never thought of it that way, but your words ring with truth. But it is just so hard when you see someone you love die for you. I think that feeling never really leaves. Even after five hundred years. I think it just... hardens a person. I've seen it happen to others many a time, as well. You think that this life is harsh, but tis actually far better than it was before. Growing up... well, it was hard, to say the least."

He offers me a faint smile. "I'm sorry. On to a lighter topic," he says. "This is purely my curiously, but what is exactly going on with your mark? Carmi said it leads you to the next Girl?"

"That's what I thought at first," I say. "I believed so, until it led me to the vampires today. Now I think that it... it will give me clues. Of a sort. Lead me to objects, people, places that shall help me find the next Girl. Which is rather far more inconvenient than I thought it would be. But no matter. Tis just the way of things."

He looks intrigued. "Clues," he muses. Then he grins. "This, Keela, is where the brains instead of the killing comes in handy."

I nod. "I admit, it is helpful to have an intellectual instead of just a bunch of fighters when it comes to clues. I myself was never good at mind puzzles when Mot-" I cut off, choking, missing my family with a deep wrenching feeling in my gut. "When my mother told us them," I finish, although now my voice is a whisper, tears filling up my eyes.

"Hey," says Mike. "Hey. Listen. It'll be okay. Your old family is gone, but our society? Me, Carmi, Mom and Dad, Amanda, Dan, Richard, Ember, Jackson? We're your new family. We'll always support you. You can rely on us. You can trust us. We'll help you, I'll help you, we'll find this Girl. And then you can just relax and live life as though you were born sixteen years ago instead of five hundred and sixteen."

I give up on trying to hold back the tears and let them flow. "Thank you," I whisper. I am not sure what I am thanking him for, perhaps just offering kind words when I am alone, but I am grateful.