The pickup truck was full with the five of us, plus some bags of food that smelled like something dead to me. Being his car, Jimin took the role of the driver, while I was his sick and dizzy co-pilot whose ears were ringing whether it was silence or noisy. Taehyung was the lucky one, stuck between the two best friends who were no longer that good of friends. Half the time he was sighing, the other half trying to knock some sense into them. It would have been funny if I weren’t sick, feeling like puking all the time. And as sick I was, I was starting to be confused as well, my senses numbed, no longer feeling Namjoon’s movements as if he had entered a stage of complete stillness or as if I was losing my touch. So, at each crossroad we had to stop so that I could walk out of the car and look around, poking around the edges of my enhanced sensibility, trying to figure out which way to take.

We had just reached such a crossroad once again, the forest on each side of the road casting threatening shadows over us, when I felt completely lost. He was gone, no longer there, at the back of my mind. Something else had taken his place, a strong feeling that I was being watched closely from the shadows of the forest.

“We’re being watched,” I said, closing the door behind me, my courage pudling on the floor.

“It could be another vampire. Studies show they don’t like to reveal themselves to other vampires, so they mostly lurk around,” said Seokjin from the back seat.

“Shut up,” Taehyung hissed before leaning forward, between the two front seats, “maybe we should go? Maybe it’s not after us and we’re interrupting something.”

“Oh, it’s after us,” I whispered, praying it wasn’t another vampire like Seokjin said. “I sensed it since before we met the incredible duo. I just hoped I was wrong. But feeling it here…” I frowned, feeling that something shifting restlessly in the shadows. It was as if it was reluctant to approach. “I’ll go.”

“That’d be deadly,” Jimin’s hand caught my arm to stop me.

“I’m the strongest here,” I pointed out the biggest lie. “What could you do if it’s another vampire when you couldn’t even escape from me? And these three don’t stand a chance. None of you do.”

“Nor do you,” Taehyung interfered.

“He wouldn’t kill one of his, would he?” I smiled despite dying on the inside. Outside the car, where the wind was blowing in my direction, I felt stronger and more convinced Seokjin had been right: it was a vampire lurking in the shadows. So how do you deal with one of your kind? How do you deal with a full fledged monster? Do you simply invite the evil in for a chit-chat?

“Took you long enough to figure out I was following you,” someone spoke as soon as I passed the first two trees of the forest guarding the road.

“Why are you following us?” I was trying to sound normal. Normal as in not scared to death, trembling in my jeans and sick.

“You’re an interesting bunch.” There he was, high above the ground, on a tree’s branch, curiously studying me while on a lollipop. From what I could