Finn stood in front of a giant screen by the steel door, pressing buttons and punching in numbers before hitting a final key as a soft rumble ground from inside the giant box. He pushed up a lever that made a clicking noise as something like a cog turning sounded from inside.

"Can't everyone hear this too?" I asked Finn and he shook his head.

"Nope. Secta put a separate barrier around the Mimic just for that purpose. It can get loud as hell. No one will hear and Secta won't know we're inside either." The door rumbled as both our eyes turned to the giant building. The opening in the wall broke apart in four different ways, sliding back slowly until a wide entrance that towered over our heads stood ready.

It was pitch black inside as I stared into the open abyss, a tingle of anxiety flaring inside me. We were going to walk inside this thing completely blind?

"Scared, 8 Ball?" Finn mused as I looked back to him. He hardly looked daunted before walking straight into the darkness, disappearing from my vision entirely.

"Finn, wait!" I hissed, running in after him. Giant spotlights illuminated the area in front of me, following Finn as he punched in something on his wrist. It was a mini control panel like the one outside and I had no idea where he got it from. I hurried to stand beside him in case the lights went off again.

"Have any preferences considering you like danger?" Finn glanced up at me with a boyish smile before looking back to the glowing panel on his arm.

"My options?"

"Pirates, snake infested dungeon, spider nest, vampire coven..."

I laughed, "seriously? You can change this entire room into something like any of those?"

"Of course. Holograms in the Mimic are quite lifelike. Other choices include hell, free fall which I wouldn't recommend for you, alligator swamp, alternate alien dimension, kidnapper den, dragon warfare..."

I shook my head, "seriously? I feel like you're messing with me."

"I am not unfortunately. Pick one or I might just choose crazed boy band fans..." He looked up to me with a chuckle. "And yes, that is a real option so I will select it if you don't choose, Kate."

"Shit, I forgot all the choices," I bit my lip before shrugging my shoulders. "Vampires. Let's kick some bloodsucking ass. Are they as attractive as they are in the books?"

Finn pushed down on the screen hard as he shook his head with fervor, his eyes narrowing. "Definitely not!"

"Just kiddi..." The floor shuddered as it began to break apart, making me gasp in surprise as the tile we stood on began to rise off the floor. The entire room around us went black as we continued to speed up higher into the air. "What's happening?"

"We will be fighting level one vampire coven." Finn looked to me as he rolled his shoulders. "Are you ready?"

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Stake them. This is mostly hand to hand combat and it should be a breeze. You might feel them hit you because of the neurological effect of the holograms but they won't do much damage. This is low level training."

The tile screeched to a halt as we sat in darkness before a second light burst forth in front of us. On an old, moss-eaten pedestal sat two wooden stakes as the sound of bat wings and deep, rumbling hisses filled the air around us with a reverberating echo. I glanced around us with wide eyes, "woah, that's pretty... creepy."

"It's supposed to be." Finn chuckled as he stepped forward to grab his stake, handing me mine as I walked closer to him as well. "When you're ready, I'll click the start."

I clutched my stake in my hand with a deep breath, giving Finn a smile. "Let's do this. I can handle a few vampires."

"Alright then. Best of luck. You won't hit any vampires until you reach the foyer with the dome, and don't open any of the doors. I'll meet you there so don't stake me please."

My mind went blank as I stared at him. "Wait, we're splitting up?"

Just as I said the words, the tile we stood on split in half as Finn disappeared into darkness. The floor rumbled as I felt myself be drug off far away, dread filling my stomach. I wanted to do this with him. Dammit, now I was in the dark all by myself with holographic vampires.

Never a sentence I thought I'd ever say.

The ground stopped moving as everything fell silent, the distant echoes of vampires still gurgling in the distance. I swallowed, taking a deep breath as a single light turned on over my head. 

It swung in the air softly, just the lightbulb on the fixture as one by one several other turned on. They illuminated a hallway covered in grey wallpaper with long scratch marks and fake blood scattered on the walls, the lights leading down the hallway as they flickered.

"Weird shit." I shook my head as I stepped forward, walking down the hall as I glanced at the rusted doors lining the walls. I wouldn't open them like Finn had told me as I turned my vision back towards the hallway.

It curved and I followed, letting out a squeal of surprise as a rat ran between my feet. Water dripped from a hole in the ceiling as I looked up into it, completely pitch black. Then, a red eye peaked at me through the darkness followed by a long hiss.

I shivered and kept walking, "creepy as hell, fates! I'm in a horror movie." Another eye looked down at me from the ceiling as a set of claws tried to thump me in the head. I ducked with an annoyed scoff, looking at the ashy, lifeless skin of the bony hand. "Not attractive. Definitely not cute."

I kept walking, bats shooting through the air as I screamed in surprise while shielding my face. Their cackling filled my ears before they disappeared down the hall I'd just come from before I looked back to where I was supposed to be headed.

"I should have picked something less creepy. The boy band fans would have at least been funny."

A huge arch sat at the end of the hallway as I walked through it, letting out a soft gasp at the giant room sitting in front of me. I stood on the second story balcony overlooking a large marble floor, and as I glanced around, I noticed a glass dome sat just above the third story in the open air showing off the night sky full of soft stars.

I gripped the railing, looking around the floor for Finn. He'd said that he'd meet me here, and I guess this counted as some grand foyer. A staircase to the first level sat to my right and I hurried down it, clutching my stake close as I scanned the giant columns that held up the walkways lining each side of the open ballroom floor.

Nothing moved and the only sound was the constant sound of vampire hisses which had just become white noise. Gritting my teeth, I turned around to investigate the opposite walkway.

"Boo." A voice said as a dark figure appeared in front of me. I screamed in surprise, raising my stake before both my hands were pinned above my head on the column behind me. The figure moved forward, the light casting a glow on the face.

"Finn!" I hissed as he simply smiled. "You scared me!"

"You are walking around in a vampire lair," he leaned in closer, so very close to my face. "Be ready for surprises."

Then, it was quiet as I looked down at his lips before back into his eyes. They were now flickering with a certain darkness that made my heartbeat faster in my chest as I sucked in a shaky breath. He glanced at my lips just the same, taking in each feature of my face before those soft eyes bore down into mine.

He wanted to kiss me, and I desperately needed him to.

Just the thought of feeling his lips against mine was about to push me over the edge as I felt my legs turn to jello, the strength in his arms against my hands acting as the only support keeping me standing. His smell was intoxicating, filling me up with all the desire in the world to wrap myself around him until I was nose blind to that sweet chocolate and rain scent that followed him everywhere. I wanted to smell like him, to be so close to him that his signature scent lingered on me as well. I wanted to taste it on his lips.

But, a ghastly howl filled the air as Finn pulled back, clenching his stake with a tight jaw. "Well, shit."

"Wh...what?" I panted, hardly able to put two thoughts together.

"Vampires. Time to get the action you wanted." He stepped forward into the center of the floor, leaving me still slumped against the column before I stumbled after him. Not the action I had in mind.

A dark figure covered in blood stalked across the room slowly as Finn walked forward, plunging the stake into its heart with ease as it crumpled to the floor. He looked to me with a smile, "get the one behind you."

I turned quickly on my feet, seeing a pale vampire girl with long black hair as she bared her teeth, hissing at me. She wasn't fast so it was easy for me to tuck under her arm and hit her right in the heart. Then she just disintegrated into dust as she hit the floor. Holograms were pretty cool.

Another two came at me and I hurried towards them, hitting one in the chest before slipping behind the other to stake it from the back. They both turned into bright, glittering light and disappeared as I smiled.

This was pretty fun.

Finn killed another and then two others as though it were child's play before five more appeared in a circle around us this time moving just a little faster. I smiled, rushing forward to stake the first in the heart as another hissed at me and I was able to twist around just fast enough to kill it as well.

The fifth was the last to remain, charging towards both Finn and I as we looked across the room at each other. "Mine!" We said in unison as we raced each other towards the vampire.

"It's mine!" I yelled at Finn.

"If you can beat me there!" He countered as we both charged at the hologram. Our stakes both dug into the vampire at the same time as I stuck my hands up in the air.

"I won! I totally won!" I twirled in a circle, laughing as I looked to Finn with a wink. "Better luck next time, Shay."

He only made a deep, rumbling noise in his chest as he shrugged his shoulders. "I killed more, so I'd say I technically beat you, 8 Ball."

I rolled my eyes, "no way! I felt like I staked more than you. I definitely hit like 6 at least."

He held up his hands with a smile, "alright. I'd say you won."

"I get my soul back now, right?" I smirked, taking a step forward. "I think I've earned it back, wouldn't you say? I mean, I did just beat you in destroying the vampire coven, which I think should be enough to earn it back."

Finn laughed, looking at his feet as butterflies filled up my chest. I loved hearing him laugh and it made a tingle run through my body all the way down to my toes. He didn't have a clue as to how much of an effect he had on me. And I was ok with it. I liked liking Finn.

Maybe I was ready to be with someone else after all, because he really did make me happy.

His blue eyes glanced back up into mine after he punched a few numbers into the control panel on his wrist, the foyer around us fading away into an empty, white room. He licked his lips, "I'm afraid not, because I think I want to hold onto it for as long as I can."