The winter of Arran's last year in high school seemed to pass quicker with every day. As she had predicted, Naomi had been slightly ill for most of the season so the first months of their relationship consisted mainly of lying together on sofas under warm blankets and working through the reading for the ever increasing school workload.

It was certainly a departure from the kind of pace that Arran was used to, but it worked. He felt more engaged with life outside of the supernatural and with that came a much needed sense of perspective; if Arran broke everything down into goals for the next few years, he didn't have to worry about what to do with the rest of his life. He had centuries to figure that out.

He had explained this to Cree when she came to visit Rose House for a few days over the holidays, grateful that they could talk honestly as friends again. He had mentioned that he felt a lot more certain about what he was doing over the next few years, but that everything beyond his degree was still a void of uncertainty. She had laughed and said that she thought most 18-year-olds felt the same. Despite her laughter she had sounded somewhat envious.

As winter turned to spring, the running topic of conversation at school was University offers. By this point, most people had at least one, including Arran who had been offered a place at Edinburgh University to study English and Celtic Literature for grades that he was reasonably sure he could meet if he worked hard. He wasn't sure if it was exactly what he wanted to do but he liked the idea of pushing himself to learn another language and the course seemed a bit different, so if it was the only offer that he got he'd be happy.

Now that most people were breathing a little easier with one or two offers the first major party of the year was about to provide a welcome respite from all the hard work. Naomi and Arran were alone in James' living room, killing time until the evening.

Left to their own devices and having already started drinking, Arran and Naomi were taking advantage of the time in private. Kissing her hadn't lost its novelty yet, it still felt exciting and he still wanted to do it all the time.

"Jesus Christ, I can't leave the room for five minutes anymore," exclaimed James in an exasperated tone, making Naomi jump and break away from Arran. She shot James an apologetic smile and he continued, "You know on the first day of school I thought 'I'll just sit next to Arran, he's a nice guy and all the girls are crazy about him so that might help me out' and then-"

"That's not true," Arran protested which caused Naomi and James to share a knowing look.

"You're so clueless," she said.

"You mean he's so annoying," James corrected. "You had that whole mysterious, completely checked out vibe going on and I wanted to cash in. Naomi wonders over on the first day and I think I'm in with a chance and now I'm stuck watching you two make out every time I come back from the bathroom."

"James no offence, you never had a chance," said Naomi with a wink.

"Well you could at least humour me," he replied as he sat down and picked up his beer. "I'm getting wasted tonight, I've worked so hard this week. I've almost been as bad as you." He pointed to Naomi with the top of his bottle before taking a drink.

"Yeah I'm terrible, taking my future seriously and all."

"It's not like you even need to, that's the worst part. Have you told Arran yet?"

"Told me what?" Asked Arran.

She glared at James who held up his hands in apology. "Edinburgh gave me an unconditional offer, I got the letter yesterday."

"Shit that's incredible," said Arran who had to admit he'd been hoping that she'd consider going to Edinburgh.

"Yeah, but only if I put them as my first choice which I'm not sure about."

He put his arm around her and said, "Well you've got loads of time to decide."

Arran felt his phone start to vibrate in his pocket, he pulled it out and saw that Cynthia was calling him.

"That's unexpected," he said.

Naomi peered over his shoulder, "Your ex fuckbuddy?"

"You know Naomi, the great thing about having a friend with benefits is that if you get rid of the benefits, you still have a friend. We do still talk."

In fact, they still saw each other about once a month. She was still strapped for cash so Arran now paid her to drink her blood. It saved him trying to find a new supply which was tricky without picking someone up and it gave them an excuse to hang out together.

He took the call and heard her start to speak before he had a chance to say hello.

"Arran I need your help. There's vampires here. They grabbed me and one of them tried to bite me so I told them that I knew a vampire and that seemed to scare them a bit but they dragged me back to a hotel and I don't know how to get out."

Inside Arran felt frozen but something took over and he was talking to her in a calm voice whilst also frantically searching for his keys.

"I'm coming straight over but I'll be at least 45 minutes, you've got to tell them that I'm coming and give them my full name. The 'Redfern' is the most important bit, okay? I'm on my way, just let me know where you are."

She choked out the name of the hotel and hung up. He wanted to reassure her that it would be ok but that would have wasted time and he was borrowing renown from his mother, he wasn't much of a deterrent on his own.

"Where are my keys?" He demanded, pulling cushions off of the sofa.

James saw them first and grabbed them from where they had fallen on the floor. Arran held out his hand for them but James made no move to hand them over.

"Arran, you've been drinking."

"You have no idea what you're talking about, just give me the fucking keys."

A second passed. Arran's next move would have been to physically take them from his friend but James gave them to him along with a very concerned look.

Arran glanced at Naomi as he ran out of the door, she looked terrified but she couldn't possibly feel as scared as he did. He felt like he should be shaking and barely able to move, but he got to the car and started it without any hesitation. It was as if he were watching himself do it from behind a TV screen.

With one hand gripped on the steering wheel so hard that it hurt and the other changing gears as fast as he could keep accelerating he drove in the direction of Blackpool.

I'm sorry for the short update, moving house has been anything but smooth and I've spent all my time making the landlord fix all the many, many problems with the house or at work. But it should be smoother sailing from here on out so I'll be less useless. I hope you enjoyed the (brief) start to Act 2, do let me know what you think <3