Ooooh the playlist for this fic is hot as hell so far, that will be coming soon in one of the chapters if anyone cares to see it. Any gothy romance songs you can think of? Drop the titles and I'll give them a listen.

_

7 years later

The memory of Frank's savior never left his mind as he grew up. It was burned behind his eyelids every time he laid down to go to sleep, the picture of a perfect face with razor sharp teeth hidden behind the pale delicate lips of a man who couldn't be over the age of twenty. Memories were meant to fade and wither with time, but this was one Frank couldn't chase away even if he wanted to. But he didn't want it to disappear, if anything he clung to it like it was a life saving device for his body floating in the vast blue ocean. He still heard his voice when he dreamt, whispering his name and being the only source of light in a pit of darkness. Frank never learned his name, his age, what he was. The man was not of the human race, anyone who took a look into those eyes and saw the pointed teeth would agree with him.

For the longest time, he had no one to agree with him. His parents insisted his childish mind had made up some sort of evil monster out of the man who tried to hurt him and a saint out of who saved him. Children were innocent and their feeble minds wrapped around any creative image they came up with. But Frank knew he hadn't made anything up, everything he saw that night was as real as himself. He stopped trying to get his parents to believe him and set out on his own trying to figure out what exactly he had seen that night.

He checked out multiple books from the library by the time he was ten and was finally old enough to be dropped off and left to read on his own for a few hours. The librarian was quite fond of his quiet and polite personality, so she allowed him to take home as many books as he pleased as long as he brought them back. Frank carried around books on mythical creatures, legends, even romance novels involving supernatural characters. He never showed his parents these books out of fear of them taking them away and preventing him from visiting the library again. In secret, he educated himself and crossed out the possibilities that didn't match with what he read.

He learned about werewolves first. The eyes were one thing that had him leaning in with eagerness, but werewolves were in fact half wolf and half man, only growing vicious teeth when they shifted. They looked nothing like the monster and the man Frank was attempting to figure out. Demons were another thing that appeared a close call, but a demon wouldn't save the life of an innocent child without trying to get something in return for it. Sirens were out of the question, so were water myths, fallen angels were only beautiful faces with wings, everything else didn't add up until he reached one creature that set off alarms in his mind.

Frank should have been embarrassed to say his first vampire novel was Twilight. He requested the most popular vampire novel made at the time and the librarian handed him the first book, fairly thick and ominous with pale hands gingerly cupping a crimson red apple. Apparently, the book was equally hate and loved, but it didn't matter to him when he was on a mission. As soon as he dove deep, he immediately found a resemblance between Edward Cullen and the man he saw - not the same, but the similarities couldn't be ignored. The pale skin, the striking beauty, the odd eyes that seemed alive and more piercing than an ordinary pair of eyes. Frank put the book down and went to retrieve more information about vampires.

He finally found the missing piece of his puzzle. Vampires were creatures who craved human blood, they were immortal night stalkers who played the role of a predator. Many versions were written about them, but vampires were a myth that dated back to centuries ago, always painted as evil beings feeding on the human race. They appeared in ancient paintings, walls of pyramids in Egypt, other scriptures still being investigated to this day. Nowadays, they starred in books, television shows, movies, video games, everything imaginable. Romance eventually swept away their most evil appearance, but no one could deny that these creatures were dangerous due to their diet. They were as beautiful as angels, but their appearance was used as bait to lure their prey. Frank didn't remember the creature that attacked him being beautiful, but he was too terrified to pay attention to detail when it was lunging for his throat.

The one who carried him to safety, however, fit into all of these roles. Everything fit into place and he came to the final conclusion that whoever saved him was a vampire. The myths had obviously come from somewhere, people as ancient as those in the Egyptian era had to have seen one of their kind if drawings of them became imbedded in their sacred walls. Frank wondered how they became nothing short of a myth when there were so many signs that the unimaginable lived and stalked, hidden where no one could find them. Frank found his savior in the darkness, perhaps that was where he stayed at all times.

Frank spent years watching films about vampires, reading on even if the book was terribly predictable with the weak female lead falling in love with one of the creatures. He looked into websites of people who claimed to be real vampires - but Frank knew they were lying just from taking one look at them. He fell into the world of the mythical beings while knowing the truth, filling his brain with so many versions of vampires that he was unsure which one filled the picture. He had an encounter with two of them, but he didn't hold all the knowledge in the world about their true nature.

Now, at fourteen years old. Frank was completely absorbed into another world away from his own. The only way he stayed connected was by forming a comradeship with the girl who moved in across from his house one year ago. Her name was Jamia Nestor, also a person heavily interested in the history and tales of vampires. She was a dark haired girl adorned in shirts and sweaters promoting the bands Frank was not allowed to listen to, but he did anyways in private. After he received his own phone, he took advantage of it by listening to all of the music on YouTube and then deleting the history so his parents wouldn't discover he was breaking the rules.

Jamia was his best friend, and despite her being everything his parents didn't want Frank to be, they accepted her for making him smile on the daily. She was the first real friend Frank ever had and he was more than grateful that she shared the same interests with him, it helped him fall deeper into his research. But as more time passed, Frank began to wonder what he was looking for. He gained his answers, learned what to make of the night where he was miraculously saved, and yet he continued to spend day and night reading and watching multiple stories about vampires and the way other people perceived them.

It wasn't until Jamia made one suggestion that sent his mind into a frenzy, causing him to enter more dangerous paths on his road to discovery.

Frank stepped out of his house onto his front lawn where he would wait for Jamia to exit her own house and cross the street to meet him there. The day was cold from the winter, but the sky remained a pale blue with the sunlight glistening in the center. Frank sighed softly at the warm sunbeams washing over his skin in contrast to the cold and crisp air he breathed into his lungs. He was dressed in a plain shirt and sweatpants, although he wished he brought a jacket to drape over his form while he waited for his best friend to emerge. Both his parents were working, his mother on one side of town while his father worked on the other. Despite the two of them still being married and working to make money to pay the bills, they were separated. His father slept in the guest room and his mother rarely spoke a word to him. Frank knew they only stayed together in such a stiff situation for him, but he would rather they split and live in different households so dinner wouldn't be as uncomfortable and quiet as it was every night.

When Jamia opened her front door, he could hear her yelling a goodbye to her mother before she shut the door and tugged a black Ramones sweatshirt over her head. She made her way across her front yard and onto the vacant street, her dark hair glistening in the glare of the sunlight.

"Frank Iero, it is freezing outside and you're wearing a short sleeved shirt?" Jamia placed her hands on her hips and stopped in front of him.

"It was just for this, I have the heater on inside." Frank tugged her sleeve and turned them both towards the front door that was slightly open.

"Thank god, our heater's broken." Jamia shivered. They stepped inside the house, immediately enveloped by the warm puffs of air coming from the vents. Frank shut the door to keep any of the cold from coming in, locking it securely as he was instructed to.

Jamia ventured into the kitchen, opening the fridge and taking out a can of Coke. Cracking it open, she raised her eyebrows at Frank.

"What's the agenda for today, kid?"

"I found another website about vampires. But this one describes exactly what I saw down to every last detail, and it had even more information that actually makes sense." Frank pulled out his phone.

"I should have brought my laptop for this." Jamia sighed and slid into the kitchen bar stool beside Frank. "What's it say?"

"Whoever wrote this blog calls them The Damned. They say that these vampires are pale as snow, beautiful, their eyes turn red when they're starving but maintain their original color when they've recently fed." Frank pointed to an illustration of an angelic being made with watercolor posted beside the text. "They have abnormal speed and strength, their intelligence should not be underestimated, and they have two sets of fangs. One layering the other to make it easier to rip out the throats of their victims."

"Gnarly." Jamia sipped her soda.

Frank scrolled further down. "They have the power of seduction to lure in their prey. They can be abusive of their sexual nature, though, some live for the sex."

"Is this person trying to tell me we live in a world with kinky vampires?"

Frank glared at her sideways and the girl gestured wildly with her hands.

"Okay, if we're being serious, then I'll just say it makes sense. If you're so beautiful and you could have anyone you wanted, wouldn't you take advantage of that?" She arched her thin eyebrow. Frank flushed deeply, shaking his head.

"Off topic, Jam." He mumbled.

Jamia rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the screen. "Do you think this blog is the real deal? I mean, if it perfectly describes everything you saw, I wouldn't doubt that someone else has seen them too."

"I wouldn't doubt that either." Frank selected the image the blogger had drawn of the vampire on the other side of the text. This one was different from the other, drawn in rough colored pencil and much darker than the soft tones of the water color. It was a female, blindingly beautiful but dangerous with her full lips pulled over her perfect sharp teeth and her eyes glowing a red that could only be described as a violent shade taken from hell. Frank's mind flashed back to the pair of eyes he witnessed in the darkness, he heard the faint echoes of feral growls coming towards him. He squeezed his eyes shut and closed the tab with the image.

"I'm going to get my laptop so we could get further into this." Jamia hopped off the chair and landed smoothly on her feet. "See if the blogger has their name written somewhere on there, we could try and look for them."

Frank nodded as Jamia quickly left the room and exited the house to revisit her own again. Frank scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page in search for the blogger's name, and thankfully, he found it. Their name was Rosemary Simms, Frank was assuming they were a she from the feminine sound of the name. There wasn't any other information other than the fact that she lived in Ohio, but he didn't think he would find out a whole lot about this person just from a blog posted on a website dedicated to vampires. Frank scrolled past the images of the vampires she drew once again, a cold shiver rattling in the core of his spine.

When Jamia returned, it was with her MacBook laptop decorated in all sorts of faded stickers and quotes written in purple marker. She set the device on the counter as she slid into her seat again, opening it and turning the laptop on.

"Did you catch the name?" Jamia asked.

"Rosemary Simms." Frank showed her the spelling of her name so she wouldn't misspell it while looking her up. Jamia nodded and pursed her lips, opening her internet explorer once her device turned on successfully.

Jamia quickly typed in the name of the blogger. Frank had an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach about this girl or possible woman. If she knew so much about vampires, how close did she have to get to one of them to obtain such golden information? Frank tapped his fingers on the counter nervously as he quickly cleared his internet history and set his phone aside.

The first result for Rosemary Simms was the blog they were just viewing. Frank recognized the website, the title and the quick preview of the content inside under the address link. Images showed pictures of random pretty girls, possibly pulled from various social media accounts of girls sharing the same name. But when they scrolled further down, Frank's stomach dropped at the news article he read.

'The unsolved and brutal murder of 19 year old Rosemary Simms.'

"You don't think that's . . . her, do you?" Jamia bit her lip.

Frank reached over her and clicked on the article. It was from an official news website, meaning it was one hundred percent reliable. On the side was a high school photo of a young girl with dark hair and gray eyes, smiling softly at the camera. A photo of Rosemary.

"'On November 29th, the body of teenager Rosemary Simms was found dumped in a garbage bin one morning by an unfortunate trash truck driver. He recalled seeing an arm hanging out of the side of the large bin and went to investigate only to walk into a scenario only found in horror films.'" Frank read out loud, his voice becoming increasingly shakier. "'The girl had just been filed as a missing person when she never returned home from a party with her friends one Friday evening. The teen's throat had been ripped out and bruises were found around her wrists and her shoulders, along with trauma to the back of her head. Mysteriously, her body was drained of . . . all blood.'"

Frank shared a look with Jamia, one where their faces went pale and painful recognition sparked in their eyes. Frank went cold after reading the last piece, something in his brain clicking together.

"Fuck, Jamia-" Frank cut himself off, sliding the laptop across the counter so it was set in front of him. He kept the tab open and went back to the previous one, containing her blog. He found the article once again and scrolled to the top where her personal blog was linked. As he entered it, he was granted access to all of her posts, the colors dark and with splashes of red to fit her theme of vampire obsession. The titles were incredibly unnerving in the order they were, from first to last.

'Are Vampires Real?'

'Creatures of the Night'

'Myths and Facts'

'Vampire Movies are Bullshit'

'I've seen it.'

'Vampires - the Real Breed'

'They've seen me'

'Don't ever do this'

'They're coming for me.'

Frank paused over the last one listed. The chilling, eerie sound of it, a line straight out of a horror novel before blood was shed and nothing ended as it should have. Jamia tugged his arm and begged him not to read it when it was all becoming too real, but he couldn't resist. He needed answers, he wouldn't sleep if he didn't obtain any.

He clicked on the blog, being sent to the page with the short white text against a black background.

'I've provided you will all I know. I thought it would be something amazing, knowing what and how they really are. They're so beautiful, he was so beautiful, and I just wanted to share it with the world. But I feel them stalking me. Hissing at me. Watching me. They're coming for me, this was not my story to tell. I exposed them. If it keeps them safe to kill me, I'll let it happen. Stupid Rosemary.'

"Frank, please, I can't take reading anymore of this." Jamia slid out of her seat, looking pale and dizzy from all of the information there was to take in. Frank stared with watery eyes at the last words of this girl, one who was willing to die to protect these vampires. But all of it was still here, anyone would be able to put the pieces together if vampires weren't ruled as fictional beings. It was almost too easy to come to a conclusion for her death, her case was not a mystery. It could only remain open if the people investigating it looked at it strictly through the eyes of logistics.

"They didn't want anyone to know." Frank whispered. His eyes fell on the date of the last blog she entered. November 27th; two days before they found her body.

His stomach flipped in a wave of nausea. Frank squeezed his eyes shut and closed the tabs. If he investigated any more, he'd make himself sick. Knowing what killed her, the reason for her death, it was too heavy of a weight to carry around. He couldn't enter a police station and tell the officers vampires murdered Rosemary, he'd be deemed as a lunatic with his head in the clouds. Frank rubbed his eyes slowly, a headache forming behind them.

"They really are monsters." Jamia breathed and leaned against the counter with her arms folded over her chest.

Frank shook his head, gulping. "Not all of them. There had to have been some sort of reason for this."

"Frank, one out of a possible thousand doing a good thing doesn't make them heroes." Jamia sighed. "These vampires killed this innocent girl just to save their own asses. One almost killed you, a little boy who was alone and scared."

It was hard to defend creatures you knew little about. Frank only saw them through two images, one of a cold blooded killer and one of a beautiful angel. Perhaps the vampire that killed Rosemary was the same one who'd attempted to murder Frank, rip his throat to shreds and leave his body to be found in a dumpster just like hers. His angel wasn't there to save her, but he wished he had so no one would have to grieve over the loss of an innocent girl.

"The one I saw was good, Jam." Frank insisted. "I'd do anything to see him again."

"And what, end up like this girl? The vampire you saw saved you, but he is still a vampire."

"It isn't like that." Frank shook his head.

"If you're so enthralled by this dude, then why don't you go out and find him just to learn that I'm right?" Jamia snapped, placing her hands on her hips and whirling around. The second the words came out of her mouth, sudden realization flooded into Frank's body. He slowly lifted his head, his eyes widening on the way and it clicked inside his mind what this research was all about, the void in his chest that was never satisfied no matter how much he discovered from reading books and articles online.

"Jamia." Frank slammed his hand on the counter and stood up.

Jamia flailed her arms, surging forward and grabbing Frank by his upper arms. "No! A million times no, whatever ideas I put in your head need to be thrown in the garbage and set on fire this instant."

"No, you're right!" Frank began to grin like a mad man. "I have to see him again. And then maybe, well, maybe we could figure out why this happened to that girl."

"No," Jamia begged. "She said they were coming for her after she exposed them. What if you knowing about this gets you killed, too?"

Frank gently shook her hands away from his arms, his grin softening. "Mia, it'll be okay. This vampire I met is good, he wouldn't do something like that. I just want answers, I want to thank him for what he did for me because I never got a chance. Then this will all be over and I'll feel complete." He reassured her to the best of his ability. He wasn't afraid, not in the slightest bit with the image of his hero painted in warm hues behind his eyes.

Jamia looked extremely hesitant and weary. Her experience with vampires was unpleasant, it was never in the flesh but in the form of books and horror films. The vampires everyone thought them to be, and some of them were as they were depicted. Not Frank's vampire, never.

"Help me look for him?" Frank raised his eyebrows, his pleading eyes capturing his best friend's gaze.

Jamia didn't agree immediately, she shuffled uncomfortably and looked away for a period of time. After a long moment of silence and her thinking it over, she finally sighed, lifting her gaze once again and meeting Frank's with it. "Okay. If one goes down, then so does the other."

"It won't come to that." Frank pursed his lips.

"You've seen one, but you don't truly know him."

The both of them were startled when they heard the sudden flickering of the television coming from the living room. Frank saw the family dog scurrying away from the room and entering the hallway, hurrying into his room. He scrunched his brows and peered into the living area, finding the remote on the ground where the dog must have stepped on it and turned the television on. He picked it up, thumb hovering over the power button to shut it off. His plans changed when he focused on the screen.

" . . . was found washed up on the shore here in New Jersey. The body was of 21 year old Grace Greenwood who had not been reported missing, most likely due to the fact that her murder was recent. Police officers are baffled to see that her murder is eerily similar to that of the seven year old unsolved case of Rosemary Simms amongst other unidentified bodies found drained of all blood and dumped in a place where they were never meant to be found. Officers do have a theory this may be a serial killer with a cruel tactic, perhaps a copy cat of the first round of mutilated drained bodies scattered around the United States. Police have yet to find any other bodies of a similar fate, but for now, they are keeping their eyes peeled for any more similar cases."

Frank and Jamia stared motionlessly at the television. They were revisited by a photo of the victim, followed by one of Rosemary they viewed just moments ago. Somehow, her photo seemed mocking now, teasing everyone with the unknown while Frank and Jamia knew the reason for her demise. But no one would believe them, not now and not ever, and they were forced to live with the real knowledge for the rest of their lives.

___

A/N: We get real movement for the next update. Another time skip will happen, Frank isn't going to stay 14. I did this specific time jump for a reason, I hope you remember what age he was when the book started . . .

How was that? Suspenseful enough? I'm giving a shot towards something that's also as scary as it is romantic and all, I don't want this to be some rip off of Twilight. I honestly think Frank has more character than Bella and he's way younger than her.

I hope you're ready for this fic! I'm very excited for it.

"We drowned our love to save it from the fires."

-aprilxo