“Constantine?”

I hadn’t realized that she saw me from where she sat. My body reacted as if on its own and forced me to back away out of the kitchen. I heard Mila stand and walk into the kitchen, so I rushed over to the hall and into Travis’s room.

What the hell was she doing here? Why would she go to a complete stranger's house? I couldn’t think of any reason for her to be here, especially with someone she didn’t know because she hated people.

“Constantine? What the hell, man?”I heard Mila calling my name through the hall, and I couldn’t think of anything else to do at the moment but hide. I wasn’t ready to see her at all. Not like this.

A pair of footsteps rushed down the hall, and I could see Travis and Monroe standing faced away from me through the doorway before I crouched behind Travis’s bed.

“What’s wrong?” Monroe asked my sister. I heard him walk a few steps further from the room. “Why are you yelling?”

“I just saw him,” I heard Mila say. “My brother. He was standing right there. And then he just ran down here somewhere.”

I heard the other pair of footsteps—possibly Travis’s— walk into the room. The door closed, and the conversation between Mila and Monroe became muffled nonsense.

“Constantine?” I heard Travis whisper my name, not moving a single step.

I peeked my head above the bed to see them looking in my direction, and immediately they walked around the bed. They sat on the floor in front of me.

“Do you want to talk to her?” Travis asked me this, and I shook my head.

The door slammed open, and I could hear Mila and Monroe enter the room.

“Constantine Hassan Ambrose,” Mila raised her voice “you better not be avoiding me.”

Everyone knows when you were called by your full name—first, middle, and last name instead of just first and last name—then it was over for you. This was the moment when you had no choice but to confront whatever situation you put yourself into. No more running, no more hiding.

I don’t make the rules. That’s just how it is.

And that meant I had to confront my twin. Travis helped me up and I begrudgingly looked over at Mila.

Mila stared at me, not saying a word. I did the same.

I didn’t know if I should approach her or say anything to her. I didn’t know if I could.

“What the hell, dude?” Mila walked over to me and pushed me slightly, almost bumping me into Travis. “What kind of a sick game is this?”

I opened my mouth to say something, but she continued her rant by saying, “First, we get a call from a hospital saying you were found dead, and your face is put all over the news. But now you’re just hanging around here and hiding from me? Why the hell did you run away?”

She took a few steps closer to me and leaned over, almost as though examining me. She took a hold of my lower jaw, and I felt the aching come back.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Travis asked her, walking around so they were standing beside me.

Mila remained silent for the moment, turning my head in one direction before turning it to another. I felt her hand release my jaw, and I looked down at her again. My fangs poked into my lip a bit, but I refused to open my mouth.

“This doctor dude said he was bit on the neck by an animal,” Mila told Travis. “How come he’s got no bite marks on his neck? Was the doctor in on this?”

“Mila, stop—” I finally mustered up whatever courage I could to talk to her, but I immediately regretted it. Both Mila and Monroe’s eyes widened as they saw my fangs.

“What the fuck are those?” Mila stepped away from me, complete bewilderment plastered all over her face.

“Dude, those are some gnarly chompers,” Monroe said, almost impressed.

I watched Mila whip her head around to look at him. “What do you mean ‘gnarly’? Are those fucking real?”

Mila looked back at me. “Well? Are they?”

I nodded without thinking twice. We were talking about it, so there was no point in trying to hide it anymore.

Her expression changed entirely to something I couldn’t understand. It was like she just suddenly thought nothing of it, but I knew that wasn’t the case. But the fact I had no idea what this expression was supposed to mean kind of scared me more than the fact that I was a vampire.

“So, are you like a vampire or something?”

Actually, I take back what I said. This was scarier.

I looked over to Monroe and Travis. I really didn’t expect her to ask that question. I’ve always known she was smart, but she really got me with this one.

“Well,” I began to say, almost questioning if I should really just say it. “H-how would you feel if I said yes?”

The three of us watched her, waiting to see how she would react. Her expression didn’t change for several long seconds, before an eyebrow raised in confusion. “How would I feel?” She let out a short huff. “If you are a vampire, how does it make you feel?”

“It scares the living hell out of me, Mila.” I was sensing an attitude coming from her, which began to annoy me. “That’s how I feel. I’m scared. I’ve been scared this whole time.”

I was getting really irritated, but I couldn’t understand why. I sat on the bed and looked up at her. “From the moment I—I dunno, came back to life?—I thought that maybe if I saw all of this as some sort of weird ass dream, then maybe I would deal with it a bit better. But the more I was just experiencing everything, the less and less it felt like a dream.”

I laid back on the bed. “I feel so many different things right now,” I said, just letting myself get swallowed up by the blankets. “I’m scared. I’m hungry. I’m tired. I’m stressed.”

I also felt oddly comfortable on this bed. I couldn’t tell if it was because of how soft the blankets were or because of the way I was just sinking into them like I was laying on some clouds. As I kept talking, I just felt more relaxed. “Everything started to feel more and more real, and all those feelings were growing more intense.”

My brain was finally catching up to all my thoughts and to the words that left my mouth. “I wasn’t ready to confront you. That’s why I ran.”

The room was quiet, but not in a bad way. Well, for me it wasn’t really. It was probably because the bed was keeping me so relaxed.

I felt someone sit beside me on the bed. I looked over and saw that it was Mila. She looked calmer and not as upset as she did earlier, which I guess was a good thing.