“To be human is to make mistakes. This is just a fact Rebecca, but since you insist on us being a team then we will need to minimize those number of mistakes as much as possible.”

Bex watched Lyssa pace back and forth from where she sat on the floor. They are at Lyssa’s house and inside what looked to be some sort of training or fitness room. Bex sat with her legs crossed and her arms behind her. She was wearing a workout outfit as Lyssa instructed her to. Yet she still had no clue why she was here so freaking early on a Sunday morning.

The sun had just barely come up when she arrived. Bex yawned and rubbed her eyes blinking slowly at Lyssa.

“Are you even listening to me?” Lyssa asked.

“Something about mistakes?” Bex yawned again.

Lyssa stopped in her steps and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Why am I here so early?” Bex pouted.

“Because Rebecca—”

“Hold on, hold on, hold on, before you go on can I ask you something?”

“Once again you just did by asking me if you can ask me something, but continue.”

“Why do you keep calling me Rebecca?”

“That is your name is it not?”

“Well yeah, but everyone calls me Bex.”

“Would you prefer that I call you Bex?”

“Um I mean it’s no big deal but I was just curious as to why you use my full name.”

“I think Rebecca is a pretty name. Shortening it to Bex detracts from its beauty.” Lyssa nodded to herself as she reasoned allowed.

“Oh, thank you, I think…” Bex pondered the backhanded compliment.

“Anyways, moving on. I will not always be there to protect you when you need me to be. Meaning you will need to learn how to defend yourself.”

“Is this about Joan? I told you she wants to make peace.”

“Don’t make me laugh. That slayer is just biding her time until she finds her chance to strike again. You will need to learn how to defend yourself against her in case she ever attacks you. Of course, I will always come to your aid when I can, but there may be a time when we are separated and I can not come to you. In these cases, you will need to be able to protect yourself.”

“Are you worried about me?” Bex smirked up at her.

If Lyssa’s cheeks could flush red they would, but since they couldn’t she kept a straight face and turned her full attention to Bex sitting on the floor.

“There are many threats that lurk just around the corner. And since you have expressed your desire to be treated like an equal I will do as such. Slaves need to be coddled and cared for, an equal can hold their own. Which is what I want from you. Today we learn how to fight slayers and when you are ready I shall teach you how to ward off vampires as well.”

Bex’s eyes went wide.

“You want me to fight vampires!”

“Of course not Rebecca, that being said there are some mean and malicious vampires out there who seek out those with blood bonds just to destroy and make a mockery of them. If ever one were to come for you I would hope you could defend yourself until I came to your aid.”

“Then maybe I should get Joan to teach me, she is a vampire slayer.”

“Joan,” Lyssa scoffed, “What better way to learn how to incapacitate a vampire than from a vampire herself?”

“I guess so.” Bex frowned.

“Great now starting today you will meet with me every day after school so that I can teach you how to defend yourself.”

“Every day! It’s bad enough I have band practice. This is going to be like torture.” Bex whined.

“You lack discipline, Rebecca. You are sloppy and make many errors throughout the day which could have been avoided if you had more self-discipline. When I am through with you, you shall be a master yourself and be able to perceive many threats around you on your own.”

“You are really mean you know that?” Bex pouted.

“I am not here to baby you, Rebecca, now stand up so we can get started.”

Bex sighed and stood to her feet. Lyssa eyed her stance and shook her head.

“You can’t even stand correctly.”

“What’s wrong with the way I am standing?” Bex looked down at herself.

Lyssa tapped her on the shoulder and caused Bex to go stumbling back.

“You lack stability. Here,” Lyssa moved to correct her posture. “Back straight, slouching is very unattractive and unevenly distributes your weight. Legs need to be closer together. Don’t lock your knees. Chin up.” Lyssa finished grabbing Bex’s chin and forcing her to look straight.

“I can already tell I am going to hate this.” Bex frowned at her.

“Good, you are not supposed to like it. You are supposed to learn from it. Now let’s get started.”

The two girls spent several hours going over basic stances and posture as well as a few simple grapple moves. Lyssa made sure to show her the indicators that someone is about to attack as well as the most likely positions they would attack in and how to fight them off. By lunch, Bex was a sweaty heap on the floor.

“No more. I’m hungry.” Bex whined.

Her shirt was soaked in sweat and her chest rose and fell rapidly as she tried to catch her breath.

“I suppose it is time for a break. I shall fetch you something to eat, wait here.” With that Lyssa was gone in a flash.

“She’s a total slave driver,” Bex complained out loud as she sat up.

Bex looked around the work out room but quickly got bored with it. Instead, she stood up and walked over to the art studio room. She rubbed her sore back and opened the door, turning on the lights.

She saw the painting Lyssa was working on before sitting finished on the easel. She walked over to it and admired the work. The painting was someone’s hazel eyes. She wondered if these eyes belong to that mysterious girl Lyssa talked about.

She looked around the room and went to a box filled with finished paintings and sketches. Some were abstract works, some were realism. Most were portraits of people. She found many of the blond beauty from before.

“If you hate her why do you draw her so much?” Bex wondered out loud.

When she got to the back of the stack she saw it. She knew instantly that it had to be The Girl. She picked up the sketch of her face. She was stunning, to say the least. The sketch wasn’t in color so Bex couldn’t really tell if the hazel eyes belong to the girl, but she could see how similar they looked. Very similar, spookily similar. Yet not similar enough to mistake them for the same person.

The girl’s hair fell in long luscious waves and was shaded in lightly making Bex think she either had light brown hair or dark blond hair. Her lips had the most perfect cupids bow. They seemed to be the perfect size and shape. The girl had a heart-shaped face and high cheekbones. Light-toned skin. Even though the girl in the drawing wasn’t smiling, the whole drawing gave off a warm happy feeling. Her lips may not have been smiling but her eyes were.

Bex could see how anyone could fall in love with this girl so easily. She had only seen her in a drawing and already she felt connected to her in some way.

“What are you doing!?” Lyssa demanded.

Bex flinched and dropped the drawing in her hand.

“N-nothing I was just admiring your work.” She stammered, quickly picking up the drawing.

Lyssa marched over to her and snatched the drawing from her. In fury, she threw it across the room and the canvas broke in half as it hit the wall. Lyssa then walked over to the mess and ripped it in two. Throwing it to the ground and stomping on the pieces.

“Lyssa no.” Bex went over to her.

Lyssa kicked the mess hard and sent pieces flying at the wall.

“Stop it!”

Lyssa heaved her breath and looked down at the remains of the drawing. Even all ripped up the majority of the face was still intact and it stared up at Lyssa.

Lyssa let a sob escape her mouth.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Bex comforted her.

“Stop it, Stop looking at me like that!” Lyssa shouted at the drawing.

“Lyssa I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“You need to leave.” Lyssa turned on her.

“But—”

“Now!”

Bex flinched but quickly backed away.

“Lyssa it’s okay. You can talk to me remember.”

“I don’t want to talk about it!”

“Well you need to, you stupid jerk!” Bex turned around and stormed off.

On her way out she grabbed the takeout food bag and slammed the door.

“Stupid Vampire!” Bex screamed back at the door knowing Lyssa would hear.

She walked home and when she got there Joan was waiting by the door.

“Hey I was just about to call you, your brother said you were with your girlfriend which I assume means Lyssa.”

“She’s not my girlfriend! She’s a big stupid jerk!” Bex shouted as she opened the door.

“Hey,” Her mom called.

“Leave me alone!” She shouted and ran upstairs to her room, Joan hot on her tail.

Joan gave Bex’s mom and apologetic look before disappearing upstairs. Bex’s mom sighed.

“Urgh!” Bex sat on her bed and opened up the food.

“Wanna talk about it?” Joan asked taking up a seat next to her.

“You know I don’t even know why I try! She’s so, urgh! If she would just talk to me I know she would feel ten times better, but noooo. I am only human, I make mistakes.” She mocked Lyssa’s English accent.

Joan watched as Bex stress ate some orange chicken.

“What’s the deal with this mysterious girl anyways? I know she’s freaking dead. She has to be over a hundred years old if she’s alive. And by her reactions, I am guessing she’s not alive or else she wouldn’t be moping to begin with!”

Joan opened her mouth to speak.

“Why she even still hung up on her? Hello! It’s been forever since you were together and she’s even had other girlfriends after her. Why is she so special huh?” Bex ranted.

“Bex.” Joan tried.

“You know what it is, I bet she’s sexually frustrated. I mean when is even the last time she’s had sex? 20 years ago.” Bex snorted in amusement.

“Bex.”

“I mean I guess we look sort of similar but so what? I am not her, and I hate that she keeps comparing me to her. I am my own person damn it.” She angrily shoved more chicken in her mouth.

“Bex!”

Bex snapped out of her haze of frustration.

“Sorry.” She said sheepishly.

“Geez, that was way more info then I needed to know.”

“I’m just frustrated with her. I just wish she would talk to me. I know it’s eating her alive. I can see it on her face every time she looks at me. Part of me feels like the only reason why she even puts up with me is that I look like her.” Bex frowned.

“Who?” Joan asked.

“Some girl from her past. I don’t know her name. She won’t talk about it, but I get the feeling this girl really did a number on her.”

“Well, I don’t know what you want me to say. I mean I am not exactly the best person to give you advice about your vampire problem.”

“Yeah I know, but you are kind of the only person I can talk to about it. So by default, you have to listen to me rant. Want some?” Bex offered her some orange chicken.

Joan shrugged and grabbed a fork before digging in as well.

“I just want to crack her open. Make her open up to me. It would make this whole slave, blood bond thing a lot easier if I knew what kind of person she is. What’s happened to her, why she does the things she does. You know this morning she made me get up at the ass crack of dawn to do self-defense training.”

“I do that every morning.” Joan shrugged.

“Well I don’t! I sleep in and wake up at noon to eat cereal and binge watch shows. Now I’m cranky!”

Joan giggled at her.

“It’s not my fault she never freaking sleeps! Doesn’t mean I don’t get to sleep.”

“Wait she never sleeps? Why?” Joan asked.

“What do you mean, I thought that was how all vampires are…”

“No, all vampires return to a coffin surrounded by dirt from their homeland to sleep. They have to, it keeps them from going, you know” Joan swirled her finger around her head to indicate crazy.

“Oh.”

“So she doesn’t have a coffin?” Joan pushed.

Bex felt uncomfortable with telling Joan stuff like this. The stuff she felt it could come back on Lyssa.

“Have you seen it?” Joan pushed.

She had a flashback to Lyssa freaking out and crying, begging Bex never to put her in there again.

“No.” Bex lied.

“You’re lying, I can tell.” Joan pushed.

“Look this sounds like sensitive information and judging by how pushy you are being I am guessing it is.” Bex got defensive.

“Alright, sorry. Just curious.” Joan held up her hands in surrender.

“Sure, sure. Freaking vampire slayer.” Bex rolled her eyes.

“Hey, it was worth a shot.” Joan shrugged.

“Look can we just talk about anything else? My head hurts from Lyssa overload.” Bex complained, and she wasn’t lying she had a massive headache.

“Fine by me, I just came here to ask you on a second date. A redo. If you would like. Now that you know about me I don’t have to hide or lie anymore.”

Bex poked at her orange chicken; suddenly losing her appetite she pushed it away.

“Please,” Joan begged.

Joan also set the food down, closing up the box and setting it on the floor so she could move in closer to Bex.

“How can I ever trust you again?” Bex thought out loud.

“Because I’m your best friend. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

“Except you did. You’ve been lying to me for as long as I’ve known you. You lied when I asked you a direct question about vampires. You stabbed Lyssa in the chest knowing that with our blood bond I would feel the same. Then you and your family kidnapped me after I gave you a chance to explain yourself. How can I ever trust you after all that?”

“Bex, please. I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I just—”

“You just wanted to kill someone.”

“A vampire!”

“She’s a person too! She feels things, she cries. She hurts just like the rest of us. She used to be human once too. The only person who hates Lyssa more than you would probably be Lyssa herself, and that’s the sad part of it all.” Bex sniffled holding her tears back.

Joan let out a deep sigh seeing she was getting nowhere.

“I just need more time to think about it. I trusted you with my life, and you, you just threw that away as if it meant nothing. I don’t know if I can ever forgive that.”

“Okay. I understand. I just want you to know that I truly am sorry. Really. I hate myself for what I did to you. I just got so caught up in everything that I figured you would always be there after everything. I guess I was wrong.”

“We’re only human, we all make mistakes.” Bex reflected out loud.

Joan sighed and moved in really close to Bex, resting her head on her shoulder. Bex grabbed Joan’s hand in her own and interlocked their fingers.

“Do you like her?” Joan asked.

“Huh?”

“Lyssa, do you like her as more than a friend?” Joan asked.

“I don’t know. She’s so hot and cold. One minute she’s actually being nice to me, the next she’s treating me like her slave. I am just frustrated with her.”

“Why are so convinced that she is a redeemable person? She’s killed, Bex. She’s killed a lot of people.”

“I know. She even tried to kill me, but that’s not who she is. I’ve seen little glimmers of the real her. Tiny peaks. She’s broken inside. Someone who can still cry and admit they have limits is no monster to me.”

“She really cried in front of you?”

“And so much more. She’s not a monster, she just a broken girl needing to be put back together again.”

Joan sighed she knew she wasn’t going to get far with this conversation. So she dropped the subject and accepted that she and Bex shared different opinions.