Friend of Foe

A Chapter by Missy

Amber and Jesse meet for the first time......

The man from last night stood before me. I saw him clearly now. He had a nice bronze shade with sparkling brown eyes and short curly brown hair. In any other situation I would have been very attracted and interested in him. I know him or I knew him from long ago. It didn't matter now because he was standing right in front of me. I wanted to scream, but my voice failed. In the blink of an eye this man moved from my closet to the foot of my bed. It was impossible that he moved so fast. I remember that move from a long time ago.

"Oh my god, you're him," I said clasping my hand across my mouth as memories of my families murder came pouring out to me. I tried so hard not to cry as my eyes began to water.

"I had to see you again." He said in a soft voice trying to sound innocent.

What was that supposed to mean? I wondered what kind of sick-o was in my house. He tried getting closer to me. I took my chance and ran for the door. He was way too quick; he beat me to it and shut it blocking my only way out. I let out a cry. "Let me go," I told him with tears streaming down my face. What does he want from me?

"Let me explain," I heard him say. I looked in those eyes of his and they appeared ready to cry. Was he mocking me?

I turned away from him and sat on my bed. "What do you have to explain?" I asked forcing myself to hold a straight face even as tears betrayed me and slid down. I didn't know if I was so sad because I was afraid he'd kill me or the fact that I couldn't get my families screams out of my mind.

"Last night," he began to explain, but I felt the need to interrupt him.

"Try explaining two years ago," I said to him and I felt empowered to do so that I said it to his face.

He buried his head in his hands then tried to reach out and grasp me. I backed up further onto the bed. "My name is Jesse," he blurted out to me. I failed to see the reason why. I keep silent as I wait for more. "It began when I met your sister, Ashley." He said backing away from me and walking toward my window. "I met her four years ago. She was spunky and fun to talk to as I got bored a lot. I used her to past the time as I used many humans that way."

"Why do you say humans like you're not one? What are you some kind of carnivorous freak? And four years ago she was fourteen; you have to be in your early twenties." I yelled at him. He looked offended and went back to staring out the window. I would've been afraid except for the fact that he looked more hurt than angry at my words.

He just continued ignoring my questions. "I met you three years ago." He glanced at me as if I was supposed to remember, I didn't. "I was watching Ashley. I followed her to a park," he continued. Okay, I thought, this guy has to be a deranged perverted lunatic. "You bumped into me. I was surprised as I've never seen you at the cabin before." Jesse the stalker finally made sense. I used to hate family trips to the cabin so I would get out of going every summer maybe I did remember him although vaguely. I listened as he started speaking again. "You were so different and I knew I wanted to play with you."

"Play with me, so you're a pedophile then." I said disgusted by his words.

"No," he said quickly sounding disgusted by my accusation. "Look, I can give people a mirage and it's like an instant friend, but it wouldn't work on you."

"A mirage," I repeated, confused. What kind of bull was he trying to pull on me?

"A mirage is a series of images. I can make anyone believe and feel anything by showing them images." He stated seriously, walking in front of the door.

"Oh please," I told him. "You are so full of s**t." I yelled. I was angry now. Did he think I was stupid or something? "Get the hell out of my house," I demanded. He could move fast and he didn't explain that, but the way he spoke pissed me off. "Get out," I screamed and this time I got off my bed and pushed him against my bedroom door.

Then something happened that wasn't possible. If someone had told me it was a possibility I wouldn't believe it. He gripped my shoulder tightly and his face grew contorted. His eyes changed to anew shade of a bright golden bronze. His mouth opened to several large incisors on both sides of his mouth. Those two teeth were massive. I became frozen in his grasp unable to fight or run. I was shocked. This was not possible. He was not possible. He pushed me back onto my bed. I was frozen with fear.

"All I've ever wanted to do was protect you." He said while his weight lay upon my body like bricks.

"You tried to kill me. You killed Ashley and everyone else. How is that protecting me?" I cried through my terrified voice. He was still crushing me.

He released his grasp on my hands. Then he closed his eyes and then he opened them again they were normal and I saw his teeth and facial structure go back to normal. I was relieved at the sight though still confused and petrified. "I bit you, I couldn't resist you. I would never kill you. I missed your artery on purpose."

I could remember a conversation mom and I had the day I woke up in the hospital. She told me that I had needed a blood transfusion, but that I was lucky he didn't touch my artery. I looked up into his eyes as he sat on the edge of my bed. Could it be? There was no way it was possible, he was possible. The changed facial features, the teeth, the bite, he couldn't be a vampire. Could he? "What are you?"

I asked trying to raise my body. He rose off of me. I pulled my knees to my chest.

He stared at me. "A strigoi." I gave him a puzzled look. "A vampire."

I felt my breath leave my lungs. I knew it, s**t, I thought. I was terrified too terrified to speak and yet still not wanting to believe it. "You said you wanted to explain," I said and I'm not sure why.

"After I bit you, I grew stronger. Your blood is really unique. I still don't know what you are."

"What I am," I asked puzzled.

"I was stronger and Drake noticed. He's my brother and he followed me. He heard me speaking to Ashley and he told our parents."

"He told on you," I said dropping my knees. Seriously, how old were these two. He continued on ignoring my inquiries.

"I told them about Ashley and they forbade me to see her. The truth is I could stay away from her, but not you."

"Is that why they killed Ashley or did you do it?" Surprisingly, we were acting civilized now. I was comfortably guarding my spot near the headboard of my bed while Jesse sat at the bottom edge.

"I swear to you," he turned to me and scooted closer. "I saw Ashley again because she wanted to see me. Sometimes mirages backfire and people think they're in love with you. I felt bad so I went to meet her that night. I tried to push her away, I hurt her feelings and then I walked away." His voice went lower and I wasn't sure if it was regret or for my benefit.

I felt my eyes once again become teary at the news of my sisters last moments. "How did she end up dead?" I didn't want to know, wish I didn't even ask.

"I left her there and walked away. I only learned she was missing when I went to the hospital and heard you talking about it. I confronted my family. They never confirmed nor denied killing her. They blamed it on my contact with her and then demanded your whole family die." He moved closer and I tried to drive my knees further into my chest. "I couldn't protect all of you and I had to make sure you were safe."

"You knew," I dropped my knees and moved closer to him. We were both on our knees in the center of my bed. As gorgeous as he was in any other circumstance this might have been a good make out scene. That would never happen now.

"I'm sorry," he said to me while staring directly in my eyes.

"You knew and you didn't even try to save anyone else." I began crying I was so upset.

"There wasn't time. They were coming, my family and others. I'm strong, but I couldn't take on all of them." He said to me before sitting back down.

"That's all you have to say. My family is dead, slaughtered, and possibly drained by your kind. As far as I'm concerned you killed each and every one of them yourself." He tried to speak, but I refused to let him get a word in. "If you had never done your magic trick on Ashley she would have never led you to me and you would never had bit me and your family would never have killed mine. It is your entire fault."

He rose up abruptly I wasn't sure if he was going to attack me or not. I got my answer as he headed for the door. "My only mistake was finding you irresistible."

"Is that why you followed me to Lansing, been stalking me here to?" I said with arms folded, the b***h emerging.

"No," he said firmly. "After what happened I swore to walk away from you for good because I loved you."

"You don't know the meaning of the words," I bluffed. Did he really say love? How could he love me? Was it possible?

"I've been away from my family staying with a friend who lives here. I had no idea this was where you were. Last night at the party I was surprised to see you."

"I don't remember seeing you there."

"I didn't want you to. I avoided you until that prick tried to rape you. I could've killed him for that, but my main concern was you. After I brought you home my love for you was renewed. I can't and I won't go back to pretending you don't exist." His voice became firm again and for some reason I knew his words were the truth.

"There it is again. You love me. You don't even know me." I yelled at him while going to my bedroom door and opening it.

"I know that you keep a journal. I know you hardly ever tell anyone you love them. I know you're afraid to lose anyone else. I know that in time you'll love me to."

"You do know you sound like a psychopath." He paused for a second then hopelessly nodded. "Get out of my house right now." I said and he just approached me. "If you love me like you say you do then respect me and get the hell out of my house." He still stood before me unwilling to move. I searched my bedroom floor with my eyes for my cell phone to call the police. I couldn't find it. "I will," I began to speak, but I looked up and he was gone. I ran into the hall and down the stairs to see the front door wide open. I never heard him leave my room. I hurried and locked my front door and raced back upstairs. I definitely needed a shower now, I needed to think.

Jesse left Amber's house feeling uneasy. He had an attitude with her and nearly lost control. At least now she knew the truth about him and about what happened. He couldn't shake her words from his head. He was truly the blame for everything that occurred. Jesse hoped she didn't despise him he wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle it. There was an upside to their confrontation because while there was yelling and screaming. There were definite moments where he and Amber were communicating. Jesse knew his love for her wasn't a pigmentation of his imagination it was real. She felt something to, she had to he thought because while he could overpower her. She certainly could've fought harder than she did.

For now at least he needed to give her the time she needed to understand the world holds many secrets. It pained him to walk away, but he knew his presence would only hinder her. Jesse headed back to Max's place and found him plopped in front of the brown sofa watching a soap opera. This was all very normal for Max he never missed his soaps. He was so caught up in their everyday drama sometimes it made him feel real and not a member of the undead society.

"Hey, how's it going?" Jesse said sitting in a lounge chair to the right of the sofa Max was on.

Max jumped at his words looking to him for a moment. Then back to his soaps. "Dude," he said to Jesse. "Don't do that."

All Jesse could do was laugh. A jumpy vampire was a dead vampire. His father always told him to be on guard for anything.

When Max's soap went to commercial he turned to Jesse again. "So, how did it go? I know your just itching to tell me." He said in his Scottish accent.

Before Jesse could answer the front door opened and in came two of Max's other roommate's also fellow strigoi.

"Oh my gosh, you so cheated." A female voice said whom Jesse recognized as Mary.

"Would I do that?" A male voice responded back in a sarcastic tone. Jesse knew it was Stefan.

The ruckus was heard followed by laughter as the two entered the living room. "What's going on?" Mary asked through her black lipstick. Mary had pale skin with dark hair and dark eyes. She always wore black lipstick every day. Jesse thought it suited her well.

"Our boy Jesse, he was about to say what happened." Mary and Stefan looked as if they didn't understand Max. "He went to go see her," Max finished.

Jesse moved around uncomfortably in his chair. He didn't desire an audience.

"The alluring mysterious Amber McNae," Mary said with an open mouthed expression.

"Oh, I've got to hear this. Max mentioned it this morning. I didn't believe it." Stefan said sitting on the couch beside Max tossing his brown ponytail to this side. He pulled Mary back so she could sit on his lap.

Jesse didn't want to speak, but didn't think he could keep it inside any longer. He told them the story and then patiently awaited their responses. "That's what happened. What do you think?" He said barely containing the energy building up inside of him. He wanted to know what his friends thought. He valued their opinions as much as his own. He realized he would have to wait another minute or two because everyone's voice remained silent.

"Wow," Mary finally said.

"Wow," Jesse repeated. "What is wow? Why wow?" He asked.

"Well the good news is she didn't try to kill you, just kicked you out."

"How is that good news?" Jessed asked still disappointed.

"Bro," Max began. "You broke into her house."

"You scared the hell out of her," Stefan added. "By sneaking up on her, morphing into our true selves, and refusing to let her leave," he said.

"I needed to explain," Jesse said trying to explain himself to them.

"Then you told her you loved her." Mary jumped in.

"Over and over again," Stefan said like he was envisioning it.

"I do love her," he said standing up from his chair defending himself. They were his friends supposed to be on his side and supportive of his decisions.

Max stood up to him. "Look at it from her side. She doesn't know you." Max said to him. "You're a stranger and now you're the boogeyman in the dark as well."

"What?" Jesse asked confused.

"You told her and showed her strigoi truly do exist. And that somehow the thing that depicted in movies is in love with her. Strigoi is not a fairy tale that gets portrayed on television. In reality there are some cold blooded sons of b*****s out there. And she knows because they, we are the reason her family was killed." Stefan explained to make him understand.

"I already know she blames me." Jesse said feeling defeated and sinking back into the lounge chair burying his face in his hands.

"No," Mary got up from Stefan's lap and walked over to him. She removed his hands from his face and held them in hers. "No, to her, her family was murdered because of your love for her and because of that she'll try to stay away from you."

"What are you saying? She'll blame herself."

"Yea," Mary answered.

"I have to go talk to her."

"No," Mary said. "If you want her to care for you at all you have to give her time. You can see her, but don't smother her and when she asks you to leave, go." Jesse started walking toward the door. "I'm a girl. I did once have soul emotions. I can imagine how she's feeling."

Jesse heard Mary speaking to him, but he still left. He needed to get out of there. He wondered if he truly messed up any possibility of him and Amber being together. Jesse felt as if he couldn't breathe and needed to get far away from anything and anyone. He found a spot of grassy lands and ponds not far from Wood Street and Lake Lansing Road. There he would walk the path because not many people would be around. He'd be able to think and devise a plan to make it alright.

The doorbell kept going off, I wanted to ignore it. Then I heard my disco tone on my cell go off. I really needed to change it, starting to irritate me. I was so tired I could barely move, but I got up and grabbed my phone. I knew who it was at the door. Crap, I forgot, the crying and stress from earlier wore me out. I was wearing my pajamas which consisted of a white spaghetti strap tank top and red shorts. I aimed for comfort and succeeded. I made my way down the stairs barefoot. I missed the last couple of steps and slid down. I groaned from the pain of falling on my butt. Not a huge thump, but enough to feel. My friends were still ringing the doorbell like crazed lunatics. "I'm coming," I said. I still looked through the peep hole and sure enough I found Jamie, Tiffany, and Olivia outside the door. I unlooked it and turned on the lights since it was dark downstairs.

"About time," Jamie huffed coming in wearing an outfit like she had just come from working out. "You said call and I called like five times."

"Sorry," I said. "I fell asleep," I added while leading them into the kitchen towards the table.

"I told them you were here and not answering your phone." Tiffany added her bit of information more to miss with Jamie than for a response.

"Anybody want something to drink." I asked. I was not in the mood for games. I had Jesse on my mind.

"No," everyone responded synonymously.

I went back to the door to double check that I looked it. And I did. I reached into my backpack and grabbed my notebook and a pen out my pencil case. Then I went back into the kitchen with the girls and had a seat.

"Where's April?" I asked just noticing she was missing.

"At work," Jamie said.

"Oh, so what ideas do you have for this party," I said looking from Jamie to Tiffany to Olivia.

"Wait, just answer a question for me first." I looked toward Olivia. "For awhile now I and Tiffany have been trying to get you to have an eighteenth birthday party and you refused." I kept looking at her narrowing my eyes. I was aware of the point she was trying to make. "Then you speak to Sean and instead of going on a date with him like normal people would. You decide to throw a birthday party in three days."

"Yes," I responded quickly. I knew that is exactly what she was going to say. I really don't want a party, but too late now.

"Just clearing that up," Olivia said to no one in particular.

"First thing, I don't want a huge party. My house is not that big and no alcohol."

"No alcohol," Jamie replied, unhappy about my decision.

"Under twenty one," I say back to her.

"Girl, you were drinking last night."

"That's different. My party makes people my responsibility. I don't want to be responsible if something bad happens to someone." I didn't want to tell them the real reason. I was too drunk to fight off a would be rapist.

"What's next?" Olivia asked depressingly because of my no alcohol rule. She took my notebook from the table and started writing in it. "What about music?"

"Done, I have a stereo system." Jamie said with a raised finger.

"April can get cups and plates from Wal-Mart with her discount." Tiffany said pointing to Olivia who was busy writing down everything.

"I can grab drinks. I don't know what to get for food." I said because I wanted to be responsible for something.

"Okay, well chips and dip for starters," Olivia said writing it down.

"Cake," Tiffany added. "It is your birthday after all."

"No cake," I said to her. "I'll bake cupcakes though. If I have cake I will try to eat it all." I said holding my stomach. All of a sudden I felt completely famished. I wondered why I hadn't eaten and I thought of him again. I still heard our conversation replaying in my mind.

"No, I'll take care of the desert. You just get drinks." Tiffany said to me.

"Pizza," Olivia blurted out. "Let's order pizza."

"Yes," I said quickly. I got out my seat and grabbed the pone hanging on the wall. I dialed the number for the pizza place. The girls were all staring at me. "Delivery please," I told the man on the phone. "I'll have a medium pepperoni pizza and a large ham and pineapple." My mouth was getting watery thinking of it. "Okay, thanks." Then I hung up the phone.

"I meant for the party," Olivia said barely holding back a giggle.

"I know." I told her while sitting back down. "I'm starving."

"Me too, I know that pepperoni was for me." Jamie said laughing making us all join in for a moment.

"Okay so the party is all set. We all know what we're going to get." Olivia said going over the notes she had written down. We all nodded to her.

"Do you want to start a movie while we wait for the pizza?"

"Yea," the girls responded as we all got u from our chairs and went into the living room. We all took our seats respectively as usual. It was Jamie and I on the couch in front of the television while Tiffany and Olivia sat on the loveseat to our left. Movie picking was always a strenuous process when we all got together. While we all had the same general likeness of movies our tastes did differ on occasion. For example tonight I was pushing for Ironman. I'm and all action kind of girl. Jamie and Olivia wanted to watch and oldie, but goodie called The Craft. I'd seen it before and it was alright. Tiffany wanted us to watch The Proposal, a movie I love, but seen a billion times. By a vote of two; Jamie and Olivia's movie won. As soon as I popped it into the DVD player the pizza had arrived. We'd spent twenty minutes arguing over movies.

For most of the night we ate and enjoyed the movie. Talking became a minimum between all of us although Olivia would say something weird about witchcraft. I can't quite remember exactly what it was I was too busy paying attention. When the movie ended the girls and I said our goodnights. I made sure the DVD player and television were off. Then I put the leftover box of pizza that still had half of ham and pineapple slices and put it in the fridge. Definitely making a note to myself to finish it off tomorrow so it doesn't go to waste. I walked out the room flicking the light switch off and repeated my action in the hallways as I started up the stairs.

I hurried into my bedroom as the darkness surrounded me made me see shadows that weren't there to begin with. Once inside I made sure to lock my bedroom door. I turned on my light. I almost got undressed then realized I was already wearing my pajamas. I always felt very comfortable in wearing less. I could wear these clothes all day everyday if only it were appropriate in all situations. Nevertheless I turned off my light and climbed into bed.

As soon as I closed my eyes I opened them again. My mind wouldn't shut off. At first it was the witchcraft movie then Olivia's questions about it. I could remember the scene in the movie where they all call to 'him' and her remark about them getting it wrong. Then she said we should all do it for fun. I know Olivia used to be gothic, but hat was just weird. My mind set that event to the side and focused on my present time in the room. I couldn't quite figure it out, but something wasn't right. I stared ot my window at the clear night sky. There wasn't a star visible yet somehow my room was lit by a ray of light. It wasn't bright but enough to ward off any unwanted blobs of darkness. I was thankful for that.

I didn't know how long I'd been up for. Why wasn't I sleeping? Then I saw him in the right corner of my room sitting on my desk. That same ray of light shown across his face while the rest appeared as a shadow against the wall.

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