Hello, hello! Welcome back! Thanks for reading as always. So, what do you think about the chapter titles? Do you like how the titles are taken from a text in the reading? Does it make it more fun? I hope so! Anyway, thanks for your readership!

"Vampires," Elliot said aloud, as he read from an encyclopedia resource.

He and Alessandro sat on the floor of the library at Anderson Science Center, pursuing the answers to Alessandro's secret origin. The two young men hid behind tables and chairs in a small, isolated area off the entrance of the archival department. Long, spindly lights glowed in the wall recesses behind them. A heightened ceiling opened into the floors above, giving the library an extended sense of size and limitless knowledge. Throughout the place, rising ladders and platforms gave patrons access to aisles of rotating compartments, each filled with artifacts, memory disks and drives of information, all freely available for one's edification. Certainly somewhere, there was a reference to vampires?

"A 'winged human' doesn't exactly describe you," Elliot murmured as he flipped through the pages of a neon green hologram. The search had found avian humanoids from different cultural myths and folklore, and characters from science fiction and fantasy literature. "None of them are you, Aless."

"There are other names for my being -- demons, hellions, creatures of darkness," Alessandro said, "but we are all the one and same. A vampire is what I am."

"I can't believe vampires exist," Elliot replied. "I've read about them in old-world horror tales, but I can't believe you're a vampire... "

"Before arriving in this world, I didn't think dragons could exist either," Alessandro responded.

Elliot nodded, pausing. "The world must be a very different place for you now."

"Yes, a very different place with different kinds of people."

"How did you become a vampire, Aless?"

Alessandro stared off into space. "An evil being came to tempt me, using my loneliness and destitute against me. I followed him, despite his being, and submitted to my transfiguration."

Elliot was spellbound. "Who was this 'evil being' ?"

"A devil. An older vampire named Ambroggio. He was the one who changed me. Then, as I underwent transfiguration, God sent an angel to intercede."

"An angel!"

"Yes. Michael, the archangel. Unfortunately, he arrived too late. By then I had already agreed to my transformation."

"How could God's angel arrive so late?"

"It is not for us to ask. I was given a choice, and I chose poorly."

"But you were so young!"

"The desperate and vulnerable are always targets for the evil and wicked."

Elliot frowned. "That doesn't seem fair."

"Fair or not, God did not cause my pain and suffering. Mankind has responsibilities to their own. They must make the choice to care for one another. When they make poor choices, they must live with the consequences. I made a bad choice, and now I must deal with it."

"How will you do that?"

"I have been given another chance, a new name and purpose."

"What was your former name?"

" 'Abraham,' but he no longer exists. His innocence is gone... "

"And what is your purpose?"

"It has not been revealed to me, except that God has sent me here to this time and place. I only know that it may be my only chance at redemption, to make up for my poor choice. Until then, all I can do is wait and live in the moment."

Elliot frowned.

There was a longer than expected moment of uncertainty..

"You don't believe in God," Alessandro said.

"Oh! I, uh... well... I... "

"You never have. You are a man of science."

Elliot paused again. "Is that bad? Am I going to Hell?"

Alessandro looked into Elliot's eyes. "Remember, Elliot, God is goodness, and hope and joy. To experience these things is to believe in Him."

"Is it the same thing? Those are just feelings. Everybody has them."

"God's love touches everyone."

"Everyone?"

"Yes."

Elliot hesitated.

"Even those who don't deserve it?"

"Especially those who choose poorly."

"Those who don't believe?"

Alessandro smiled. "What is faith without doubt?"

Elliot thought about the dichotomy; the opposite sides of a coin that were different and yet, not mutually exclusive. Lightness and darkness. Goodness and evil. The yin and the yang. Two halves linked and thriving on one another. Inseparable. Balanced.

The two young men looked at one another.

"Are you sure you're a vampire? Do you know what that even means?" Elliot questioned. "I mean, some things make sense. The blood transfusion, that's what brought you back to life, not our emergence protocol. That's why our protocol hasn't worked on any of the other test subjects. It's also why the Center has been so short on blood. You've been drinking the units. Feeding."

Elliot paused for a rebuttal, a denial of what was being said, but nothing came.

"It also explains why you were so anxious to go outside during the daytime. It's because sunlight will kill you."

Alessandro listened.

"But Aless, you're not a killer," Elliot said. "You could have attacked and killed any one of us at any time, but you haven't. You're different!"

"No, Elliot, I am not."

"Then, why are you here? To kill us?"

Silence.

"God didn't really put you in that time capsule, did He, Aless? Someone else did. Who put you there? What're the capsules for?"

Alessandro's eyes began to buzz a light neon blue.

"Were the capsules part of a criminal plan?"

"I have no idea what the capsules were used for."

Elliot tightened his lips. "Am I in danger? I've never felt threatened all of these weeks we've spent together. Should I be scared of you?"

"I haven't had the impulse to attack you."

"Okay then! Maybe you are a vampire, but maybe you're different, too."

"Elliot... "

"No, hear me out! Who's to say what kind of creature you're supposed to be? God gave you the ability to choose, too. Maybe you're a vampire touched by the hand of God?"

"We do choose our own paths," Alessandro agreed.

"I don't know if anyone else here at Anderson knows anything more about vampires," Elliot thought aloud, "but we need to learn more. Maybe we can change you back... "

Elliot hesitated.

"... if that's what you want?"

Was it too much to presuppose? Elliot wondered. Would Alessandro want to be an ordinary human being?

"Yes, I'd like that," Aless answered. "I don't know if it is possible, but I trust you."

Elliot's forehead relaxed a little.

"I trust Mimi as well, too," Alessandro added, raising his voice slightly, as if announcing his thoughts to the world.

"Oh," Elliot said. He paused at the statement.

"Thanks for the endorsement."

The female voice came out of nowhere.

Immediately, Mimi stepped out from her hiding space.

Ta-da! Those three teens are a bizarre love triangle, don't you think? On to the next chapter!!