"One... Two... Three..."

   I frantically ran around the library for a place to hide while Adrian's voice echoed around the walls. 

   "Eleven... Twelve... Thirteen..."

   The library was impossibly huge, decorated like a ballroom. Winding shelves and walls twisted the place into some sort of labyrinth, lined with books and folders.

   "Eighteen... Nineteen... Twenty..." 

   Adrian's voice had begun to fade away as I entered the history hall. 

   "Twenty-seven... Twenty-eight... Twenty-nine..." 

   I found a big statue of a pureblood Vampire near a corner and crouched down behind it, mostly obscured by its wings spread wide.

   "Thirty!"

   I waited there for a few minutes, hearing his footsteps fade in and out. I realized he was trying to be quiet, but I can hear better than he can.

   I peek through the small openings of the statues and see him several yards away. My heart thuds against my ribs, and I smile at the delicious adrenaline that trickled through me. 

   Something grazes my leg. 

   I look down and see a roach the size of my thumb, crawling along the wall with curious antennae. I yelp and back away, out in the open. 

   He sees me and jogs over, yanking me to my feet. I lose my balance and fall over him, sending him into a fit of laughter as we tumble to the ground. I scramble to my feet beside me as he sat up, eyes locked on the bug. 

   "What're you looking at?" he asks. He follows my gaze and yelps as well, and he's up on his feet in an instant. "Oh." I chuckle. 

   "You really have no survival instincts, do you?"

   "What? Of course I do." I roll my eyes. 

   "Right. Let's get away." I pause, brushing stray strands of hair behind ny ear. "We're too old for this, anyway."

❊