Things had changed with the seasons.  It had been spring when Owen was murdered, and the summer was spent in mourning.  Now fall had started, and the hierarchies had shifted.  Leila sat with the cheerleaders and Abercrombie Cult Girls, and had the head quarterback under her spell.  She was queen, and he was king.  Internally, she knew that he was the next to go, and soon, the rest of their foolish servants and worshippers would “mysteriously” vanish as well.  They are eating it all up from the palm of my hand, she told herself.  But no matter how she tried, she couldn’t shake the nauseating feeling that the worst was yet to come.



Victoria felt lost.  Owen’s funeral took place over the summer, and she went to lament the first of what were probably many lives to go.  Leila was there because it was mandatory.  She was his girlfriend, was the only reasoning Victoria had to seeing the accursed creature at the memorial.

Day after day she sat at lunch, alone, watching Leila toy with the A.C.G., the cheerleaders, and the football players.  They were all pawns in Leila’s doomsday device, yet everyone was oblivious to that fact except for the two myths; Victoria could feel it in her gut.



That night Leila was at Vamp with James, her quarterback.  He never let her out of arm’s length, and for once, Leila didn’t mind.  It was the first time in what seemed like forever that she wanted to be here in someone’s arms instead of ripping their arms off.  She wanted this to last evermore, and wanted to give up being a monstrosity.  There would be no massacre tonight.



Victoria now knew what it was like to be the loneliest being on the planet.  There had been too many nights of playing chess or reading ghost stories with Alphonse, and she needed to get out of her cage.

She walked; only knowing where she was going in her subconscious.  When she finally awoke from her surreal world, she found herself at the mouth of the alleyway next to Vamp that she took Lucifer’s life.  There was a tingle in her spine, and she stood frozen, staring into the inky black where not even the shape of a trashcan was visible.  Her right leg pulled itself forward, and she panicked.  What if there was his corpse?  What if it’s decayed over the last few months and all that is left is a pile of bones with bits of flesh here and there?  What if he’s not there anymore and he was taken with the garbage?  Victoria’s thoughts were going a thousand miles an hour as her legs pressed on.

Soon she was enveloped in the darkness, and suddenly her ears pricked up.  “Victoria …” was what she thought she heard, but she couldn’t be certain.  She wanted to scream, but everything was muffled.



“What are you doing with my sister?”

“Last time I checked, she was my girlfriend!”

“Guys, please.  Stop.  I don’t want to make a scene!”

“Leila, you know what this guy’s gonna be!  Why are you wasting your time?  Just get it over with!  You know you want to!”

“Tim, shut up!  This is so much different!  Someday you’ll understand!”  Leila was near tears.  Tim was enraged, and if he couldn’t calm down, he would change, uncovering the family secret to the entire town.  “Let’s take this outside, kid,” James said to Tim.

“Outside?  You want to fight me … outside?”

“Yeah.  Let’s go.”

“Please, James.  Don’t give him that option.  You don’t know what he’s capable of …”

“He’s still a kid.  I’m a quarterback.  What damage could he do?”

“Don’t get cocky.  Listen to me!”

“Leila, just for once, you shut up and let a guy make his own decision!” Tim snapped at her.

“Tim, this isn’t time for goodbye.”

“Goodbye?  Leila, what are you talking about?”

“Oh, James, your girlfriend’s got a surprise waiting for you.  Why delay and let the suspense build up?  Aren’t you just dying to know?”  Tim was making Leila squirm and he was enjoying the power.  “Are you really going to wait, Leila?  Jock-boy here seems pretty in to figuring out what the surprise is.  Do you want to do the honors, or should I?”

“Not today, Tim.  It’s not the right day, not the right time.”

“And it was with Owen?”

“With Owen …?” James asked.  “You know what happened?”

Leila shot a hurtful, withered look toward her brother.  “James, come outside.  I’ll tell you everything I know.”  She hated the feeling of defeat she had.  Tim had purposely backed her into this corner so that James would be intrigued, and the murder would have to go through.  She took James by the hand and led him up the wrought-iron stairwell to the door.  Tim followed silently with a demonic smirk on his face.



Victoria was still paralyzed.  She kept hearing the voice, closer and closer as the seconds ticked by.  She tried to feel in front of her, but it was in vain.  The abyss seemed never-ending, and she was surrounded by nothingness.

She felt something on the small of her back.  She whipped around, fists poised, but there was still nothing.  “Who – or what – ever you are; show yourself!” she whimpered to the alley.  Her hands fell to her side in defeat, and she glanced above her to see a sliver of the moon peek out from behind a curtain of clouds.

A light jumped to the side of her head, or so she thought.  Her hair made a shield to her peripheral vision.  She closed her eyes for a second, hoping to wish everything away and awake in the lush down of her bed, but no luck.  The second her eyes shot open, the light was directly in front of her eyes.  Slowly, it drew itself back, and illuminated the face of Lucifer.  Victoria’s jaw dropped in shock and awe, and she backed up farther into the alley.  “Please, Victoria, don’t be afraid.  It’s me.  I’m here, with you.”

“No.  No, no, no!  This can’t be happening!  I left you for dead in this alley, and it’s going to stay that way.  I know I killed you, but I don’t need your ghost on my conscience.  I’m sorry, please understand that, but it’s over!  Go back to Heaven or Hell, and leave me alone!”

Lucifer’s voice lowered to a whisper.  “Could ghosts do this?” he asked as he leaned in, and lightly kissed her, the way he had the night she took his life.  “I’ve been waiting for you, Victoria.  I’ve watched the seasons come and go, and I only waited because of you, my love.  You have to understand that.  I knew you would come back, and I would’ve waited an eternity just to have you come back to this alley, and hear me out.  I don’t want you to feel guilty of my ‘murder’, because I am not dead.  I am one of you, and for that, I love you and am eternally grateful.”

Victoria’s eyes brimmed with blood.  “Lucifer.  Lucifer’s ghost.  Which of the two are you?  I can’t distinguish one from the other.  But it hurts me to hear you profess your love to me.  Show me an escape from this labyrinth, and let us both get on with our lives.”  Victoria started a brisk stride toward the glow of the fluorescent streetlamp.  Once she reached the mouth of the crypt-like alley, she heaved a sigh of relief.  She wiped her eyes of the blood that balanced on her lower lid and stepped out.  But she froze at what she saw.



The bouncer (the same as the last time she had visited) had been watching the two young men argue back and forth for a considerably long time, but he was now exhausted and laid his head back, and fell into a sort of comatose sleep.  Tim and James kept volleying insults back and forth, their voices raising more octaves with each return.  Leila had her back against the outer brick walls of Vamp, and she was slumping from exhaustion.  She had made many attempts at subduing the boys’ childish fight, but to no avail.  Just as she had gotten comfortable on the cement, Tim’s transformation started.  “Dammit, James!  Listen to me!  Go back into Vamp, and don’t come back until I’m with you!  Please!  Hear me out!  Just this once!”

“Leila, do you not get it?  Your brother’s been taking advantage of you!  He needs to be straightened out.”

“No, it’s fine, James.  He has trouble at school, and he finds solace in his cruelty.  Just go inside!”

“It’s not fine, Leila …”

Here, James’ voice broke as he realized what was happening.  Tim was not a teenager with an attitude and acne problem, he was a ravenous-looking wolf that was staring a wimpy-in-comparison quarterback.  Leila gasped, not realizing it would go this far.  Her bottled-up rage suddenly uncorked itself, and she changed, too.  James stared at Leila with disbelief, but did a double take, wondering if he was delusional.  The wolf that was Leila charged at Tim-wolf, and bit him at his throat.  She tore off a good-sized chunk of skin and fur, and had his blood dripping from her mouth.

But Tim didn’t seem fazed.  He fled from his sister’s grip and lunged at James.  The last thing Leila heard of her beloved James was an incredibly feminine scream of terror that could curdle blood.  The oblivious bouncer didn’t move from his place in front of the club.  Leila shot Tim a look of woeful disgust.  How could he be so cruel and so blind to what I finally had?

Tim stood over his kill, slowly ripping flesh off little by little.  He was preoccupied, and Leila thought it to be an optimum opportunity.  She sped toward Tim and pummeled her head into his stomach, which threw him across the street into the door of another building.  She bounded over to where he laid, borderline unconscious, and shoved him with her snout.  He scrambled up, and tried to run, but the force of the impact had impaired him, and he collapsed.  She put a gentle paw on his rib cage, then opened her mouth and sunk her teeth in.  Her teeth punctured his flesh, but she didn’t open the wound any further.  Tim gave a small groan, and closed his eyes as though he were in an endless sleep.

Leila transformed back into a human with no exhaustion (she had been practicing over the summer) and scooped Tim into her scrawny arms.  She walked up the boulevard like she had many times before, only, for once, carrying a burden, too.

As she got farther away, she heard the bouncer yell, “No, oh God, no!  Not another one!” and knew he was talking about James.  She shed a tear, but quickly blinked the rest away.  She couldn’t show weakness.  This was when her strength couldn’t fail her most.