Leaving Eden is the strangest experience. I follow Nelly to the very outskirts of Eden, past the city and past the forest. When we are about to hit the horizon there is a flash of light. There is a cold chill and then all of a sudden we are in a cold building. The smell is familiar. The sounds are familiar. I'm not in paradise anymore. I'm on the streets of Harlem.

Who knew that the entrance to Eden was in a torn down building in Harlem?

“We should hurry,” Nelly explains, “The King's guard patrol this entrance. They'll see us if we aren't fast.”

I hesitate.

“Why should I go anywhere with you?”

Nelly was a rogue. This entire time she was the person that I was looking for. She had to be the person who tried to kill JB and ended up killing Ronny. It all made sense now. Her running off during the party and acting like she was so upset about Jackson was probably just her plotting. And she came back conveniently when we made the toast. Then it was Nelly trying to turn me against JB.

She was an enemy of Eden and if she could lie to so many people god knows what she was capable of.

“I'll explain later...”

“Explain now...or I don't go anywhere with you.”

For a minute her eyes glare up. Nelly's always been so good at everything. She's always known the most about history but still knew the most about combat. She was in the top of class at everything. It was almost like she'd done it before.

“My parents worked for the King for years. He always kept them at arms length though...sending them on strange missions to collect data in the human world. I guess he figured they were too smart for their own good. He was right. They were approached by the rogues who showed them what a real vampire was. A year later I was converted.”

“And they sent you to kill JB?”

“Is that what you think I was planning to do all along?” she laughs.

“Of course...”

“Don't be that simple kid,” she explains to me before crossing her arms, “JB was just someone who was getting in the way. I was sent all along for you...”

“Me?”

There is a sound in the corridor next to ours. It's light and faint but my vampire eyes are so sensitive when I'm not in Eden. I can hear the scurrying across the floor and I know almost immediately that someone is coming.

Nelly must know it too.

“We can't stay here. They're coming. You'll be dragged back to Eden and they'll put you on trial for killing Mino. There is another way though. If you want to know more follow me.”

“I don't want to know more.”

She raises an eyebrow at me at that moment, “Yes...you do...”

Nelly walks away at that moment not turning to look back. She's so confident that I am curious to know more about her plans and about these rogues. A part of me is scared. The most part of me doesn't trust a goddam thing she has to say.

And I follow.

***

“Yeah me... ME!”

I walk into some place that throws me all the way the off. From the outside it looks like a church but on the inside it's something like an going on. Men sleeping with women, men having with men, women having with women. They are vampires. It's clear from the fangs that glisten on the church floor. There are waves of them...hundreds...having raw on the church floor with no care in the world. It is the most provocative and sickest thing I've ever seen.

There are so many bodies merging into one another. All body shapes and sizes that from the entrance it's hard to make out one from another. Where the did she bring me?

“What is this?”

“Stay close...” Nelly responds quickly and adds, “Keep moving.”

She begins to step over the bodies, careful not to touch any of them as she makes her way through the . She steps right past a man getting ed with a strap on by a woman while three other men take turns shoving their in his mouth. The man seems like he's in pain for a minute. I swear I think he's getting but when he takes the out of his mouth he turns to me and smiles with glaring fangs.

“What the is this place?” I ask again stuck where I am.

I don't get the chance to get an answer because I feel someone grabbing onto me. It's a man. He's young, handsome and firm. His dark body pulls me down into the sea of vampires. All of a sudden I'm getting kissed, and bitten on by five or six different vampires. I am held down feeling the wet, smelly bodies pull at my . They pull at my pants.

I let out a scream. I can't stop it. I'm being passed around before I know it.

“NELLY!”

I scream out for help but it goes to death eyes. The rogue vampires are passing me around! It's like a crowd surf. I feel one woman bit into my neck and begin to drink my blood. There is muscular man that rips at my pants completely taking them off of me in one quick gesture.

“Jr! Jr!” Nelly's voice echoes.

I don't see where it's coming from. I'm throwing my weight around punching at the woman who is biting into my neck. A few other vampires try to pin me down but I struggle away from them kicking as I do it. A couple of them seem to be my struggle. I see three men with huge swinging making their way towards me. Their are dripping with . Their fangs are dripping with blood and saliva. Just by looking at me all three of these men get hard. Their are brick right now and all of a sudden I'm scared as !

That's when an arm grabs me. It pulls me out of the crowd, scoops me up almost like I'm a child and hisses as the oncoming vampires with the big .

“Not for you,” the man threatens them.

The man who is holding is tall, dark and handsome. That is the best way to describe him. He has the darkest most beautiful skin that I've ever seen. He has a mature iness about him when he holds me. It's something like Idris Elba. I didn't know what to expect with the rogues but I didn't expect someone like this to come out of nowhere and help me.

“You're safe now,” Nelly tells me appearing out of nowhere.

She walks besides us. I notice whoever this man is the vampires who are having an seem to respect him. They are alert enough to move away from him as he carries me in his arms still. A part of me feels like the biggest punk but I'd rather be in a stranger's hands then on the farm covered in vampire fluids with the rest of them.

The man takes me up some stairs into a room. When we walk in Nelly locks the door behind us. The room is pitch black. I can barely see anything.

“I apologize for the others,” he explains to me in the darkness, “Rogues like us live differently from what you are used to.”

“You one another all day?”

He laughs. He's so dark and the room is so black that even with vampires eyes I can hardly make out his shape. He moves in the darkness slow and steady. Nelly is standing by the door. There is something freaky and scary about this whole thing. I'm regretting coming here. My curiosity got the better of me and every part of me just wants to turn and run out of here.

He laughs a little, “We do what we like. Including ing.”

“That's ridiculous.”

The downstairs was ridiculous. This was a church. Even if it wasn't an active church it was still a church. I hadn't always been super religious but if Eden existed then I knew that God existed. These vampires here seemed to be spitting in the face of all of that.

“You should try it.”

“What?”

“ing just because you want to. ing anyone and everything. You can me right now if you'd like,” he tells me and his voices confidently adds, “I have a big ...or a firm if that's what you prefer.”

He's so nonchalant about it. It doesn't mean a thing to him. I'm freaked out more than . I'm searching the room hoping that my eyes get better.

“I'll pass---who are you?”

“How rude am I? Nelly why don't you flick on the light?” he asks, “I want to properly introduce myself. My name is Massiano.”

When Nelly flips on the light I jump back at what I see! Massiano is surrounded by people. They are not vampires. I can tell the difference. These are humans and they are bleeding everywhere around him. Some are dead. Some are barely clinging on to life. All of them have been drained to the point that they don't even put up much of a struggle.

I count 12 humans all together scattered around Massiano like dolls waiting to be played with. Massiano must notice how scared and disgusted I am by the site because he smiles. He continues to tease me as he leans off his chair, grabs an arm of one of his victims, brings it to him, slashes open her wrists and continues to drink from her.

“I'm getting out of here,” I say.

Nelly blocks my way from the door. She's standing there with a challenging eye. I wonder if I can beat Nelly in a fair fight. For a moment I'm sitting here thinking about it. I knew she was good in class but what if I out again. Maybe I could take her down. But then God knows what else I was capable of in that state. God knows how I even was able to black out like that.

“You shouldn't be rude,” Massiano explains, “Sit. Eat. Drink.”

He's referring to the humans as food. Is this what they did? They killed humans and drunk their blood? I guess I figured that is what vampires should be doing but living in Eden was so different. Eden didn't have any humans. The blood came through from blood banks. This kind of thing I was witnessing was straight up evil.

“I'm fine,” I respond.

It's no point in attempting to save the humans. The majority of them are so far gone that they don't even need restraints. Every once in a while one of them lets out a strained moan or makes a weak attempt to crawl a few inches just to collapse back onto the floor again. It was a slow death.

He was literally draining them alive!

This was...inhumane.

“You think I'm a monster,” Massiano explains, “I can see it. I can see the way you are looking at me.”

I lie, “No...no I don't.”

There is laughter. The laughter comes from Massiano and Nelly.

“I am a monster,” he explains, “Nelly here is a monster. All those vampires down there are monsters. All those vampires in Eden are monsters. You---you're a monster. The sooner you realize that the better...”

He is staring at me as though he knows me. He isn't suggesting this stuff. He is saying this very clearly as though he's stating facts. There is something so sick about this man. It's driving me crazy. I don't know how to take it.

There is something so terrifying about this man. The way his eyes glare at me are sickening. I am lost with them. The fresh blood on the floor and the peo