Joy’s eyes flew open, as she sat upright in her bed, sweat beading her forehead. Her fingers clutched the sheets, and tightened with fear and grief all at once. She had been plagued by nightmares ever since the incident. There wasn’t a single night in which she could sleep peacefully. She kept seeing her therapist once a week, and her family was gentle and supportive. Yet still something poked around at the back of her mind. Joy felt desperate to get the answers she craved.

            “Joy, sweetie,” called her mother, entering the room and switching on the bedside lamp. “I heard you screaming. Everything is going to be alright.” Joy was pulled into her mother’s embrace.

            “I dreamed of her body…and blood…there was so much blood, Mom,” she whispered.

            “I know, sweetheart. It was just a bad dream. You’re safe now. You’re with me.” She planted a kiss on her forehead and sat on the edge of the bed, staying with her until she fell back asleep. Her mom left, closing the door quietly behind her. But Joy was very much awake. One glance at the clock informed her it had just struck one. In the darkness, she reached for her phone and dialed the first contact listed- Jeon Jungkook, her best friend and partner in crime. “Pick up, pick up…”

            “Hello?” Jungkook’s sleepy voice answered.

            “Jungkook, it’s me, Joy. Are you ready? It’s time.”

            “I know, I know. Every night after you have your nightmare you call me. What did you see this time?”

            Joy put him on speaker phone and continued talking as she slipped on a clean pair of jeans and my black, buttoned up coat. “There was something new this time. Beside her dead body, I saw a number. 216. It was written in blood. And I think I know what it means. Remember that hotel that all the vampires are fond of?”

            “The Jade Hotel?”

            “That’s the one. We should go check out Room 216. Jungkook, I have a really good feeling about this.”

            “Yeah, but how can you be so sure, Joy? You were never actually there when she died. You never got to see the crime scene. Neither of us did. All this information you’re going on is just from your dreams. You see the symbols relating to her death in your dreams, and usually they’re around her body or in a pile of blood or whatever but they’re just symbols. Yeri’s real body had nothing but torn clothes and blood around her. That’s what the police said.”

            “Nightmares,” she corrected him, and sighed heavily. “Not dreams, but nightmares. What I see are clues. I’m going to the Jade Hotel. If you don’t show up within fifteen minutes I’ll understand and do tonight’s work on my own.” She hung up and put my phone in her pocket, grabbed her flashlight, knife, and keys, and snuck out the front door.

            The chilly April air sent shivers down her spine. Joy’s path was guided by the flashlight, and she quickly exited the neighborhood and walked down the streets of the Dark City. When she reached the Jade Hotel, she waited inside and made herself a cup of coffee. The desk attendant was snoring in his sleep. Joy started counting down the minutes anxiously, wondering if she’d been too bossy and Jungkook really wouldn’t come. Ten minutes. 6 minutes. 4 minutes. 2 minutes. Finally he showed up at last, dressed in black jeans and a black and red striped sweater.

            “I knew you would come,” she lied. “Come on, we have to hurry. Get the keys.”

            “Which room was it again?”

            “216.”

            The keys dangled from his fingers as took the elevator to the second floor. “You know, I was really thinking not to come. But I couldn’t let you do this alone.” He grinned, turning into his usual self. “Are you nervous? Your hands are shaking.”

            Joy hadn’t even realized. “Maybe a little.”

            “Don’t be. I got your back.”

            She blushed, and the elevator doors sliding open indicated that their moment was over. They went straight for Room 216, and Jungkook stuck the keys in and opened the door.

            “Freeze!” said a female voice in the darkness. “Hands up where I can see them. Make one move and you’re dead.”

            Their hands flew up in the air, surrendering to the woman with the gun. She appeared to be in her early twenties, with elbow- length blond hair, deep red lipstick, and long fingernails that were painted white. Her beauty was entrancing. She circled them, patting their pockets for money and weapons, and came up with Joy’s knife. “You thought you could barge in here with this?” She chuckled darkly. “Ah, humans. Always so predictable and naïve.”

            “How did you know we were coming here?” demanded Jungkook.

            “I’m a vampire. We’re not idiots, and humans can’t sneak up on us so easily.” She snickered, the gun still pointed in our direction. “Now, tell me what business you two have here. Why aren’t you sleeping and tucked into bed like good little humans?”

            Joy swallowed nervously. “We-we’re here because…our best friend was murdered two weeks ago. Know anything about it?”

            The vampire raised her eyebrows. “Maybe. What can you give me in return? I’m kinda feeling thirsty.” She her lips, revealing sharp fangs that glistened in the pale moonlight.

             “Tell me what you know first. I don’t trust vampires.”

            “Very well. You know how to make a bargain, I’ll give you that.” She tapped her fingers to her lips. “Hmm. Your friend. I wasn’t the one who did it, if that’s what crossed your mind. However, I am associated with the vampires who did it.”

            “I knew it,” said Joy, anger twisting her features. “Vampires killed her.”

            “Not just vampires. There were werewolves present at the scene too. Your friend got herself involved in a place she didn’t belong. She got what was coming.”

            “What do you mean? What did Yeri get herself involved in?” Jungkook questioned.

            “In vampire and werewolf business,” she replied in a bored voice, using her free hand to tighten the black bow in her straight hair.  

            Another thought swept through Joy’s mind. “Why would you help us anyway? You could be giving us wrong information for all we know.”

            “You said I would get something in return. And also, while I work with the ones that killed Yeri, I have my own secret agenda.” A sick smile played at her lips.

            Joy felt ill all of a sudden. What was this twisted vampire planning? Could she really be trusted?  “What else do you know? You’re not saying everything.”

            “Sorry, but I have people to protect. Now, I’m getting impatient. When do I get to feed? And which one of you will it be?” The gun clattered to the floor.

            Jungkook and Joy both glanced at each other warily. Then he forced a smile for her. “I’ll do it,” he whispered. The vampire danced over in her graceful walk and slid her hands down his back. Her eyes snapped red, her fangs grew in size and she drew closer to his neck. Joy watched in terror as the vampire pierced the skin and tasted his blood. She had never seen a vampire feed; it was a disturbing experience. Knowing that Jungkook’s fate rested entirely in this stranger’s hands panicked Joy, but she stood there in silence and waited until the woman was done.

            “There. I didn’t bite hard and it’s not a serious injury. See, vampires can be careful when we want to be.” She released Jungkook from her grip, gathered her things into her purse, and lit a cigarette. Blood still smeared .

            “Are you okay?” Joy asked her friend, who seemed sleepy all of a sudden. “I’m fine,” he mumbled, but he looked like he was going to pass out.

            “Next time, don’t barge into a vampire’s hotel room. You’re lucky I was the only one here. Had there been others, you and your friend would be in serious danger. Probably not dead, since we have that awful truce with your kind, but definitely injured.” She took a long drag and smoke blew out from , forming a hazy cloud. Joy wrinkled her nose at the mixing scents of tobacco and blood. The vampire stood up and strutted over to the door. “My name’s Hyuna. Remember it. I have a feeling we’ll meet again.”

            Joy picked up her knife that she had taken from her coat pocket and helped Jungkook down the stairs. They took a cab to his house and she saw that he got inside safely, then went to her own place and spent the rest of the early morning hours hunched over her desk, writing in her journal and racking her brain for more clues. Two weeks had gone by since Yeri’s murder. Joy could see it all happen- her best friend’s body being found by the police, the area being claimed as a crime scene with that yellow tape all around it, her lifeless body being covered in a white sheet and transported to the hospital for further inspection. Joy had never been present during any of these events, but she saw them in nightmares through her seventh sense. Joy was gifted, with a seventh sense that only been discovered to her since the death, and she was determined to use it to get some answers. She needed to know the truth behind Yeri’s murder. Who killed her, and for what reason? The vampire, Hyuna, had said that Yeri had stuck her nose where it didn’t belong, and she got what was coming to her in the end. Joy thought long and hard about this. What had she been doing, and who had she been seeing in the days leading up to her death?

            Joy held her head in her hands. Poor Yeri. She hadn’t known that March 10th would be the last day of her life. She’d left her house not knowing it would be the last time she got to talk to her parents and hug her younger sisters. And what had been the last conversation she’d had with Joy? Something about making plans to hang out that weekend. Yeri had wanted to tell Joy something. It might have been about the vampire and werewolf business that she’d apparently gotten herself involved in.

            She rummaged through her desk drawers until she found their favorite picture- her and Yeri smiling at the camera, posing back to back in matching white dresses. Jungkook had taken the picture for them on Yeri’s seventeenth birthday. They looked so happy. Joy wished with all her might that she could turn back time and save Yeri from dying. Why hadn’t she told them about what was going on?

            “I’ll avenge your death,” she promised. “I swear on it. I will avenge your death, or I will die trying.”