Oh... crap...

My whole body feels weird as I feel the painful thing known as consciousness comes back to me.

I don't feel so good. In fact, I think I feel terrible. And not the usual kind of terrible I'm getting used to feeling lately. I feel... god, what the hell happened? My memory's all hazy. Where am I?

As soon as I open my eyes a little, they start to sting from the light and I shut them again before rubbing them.

Ow, damn it, I think it's morning. When did it become morning? What the hell did I do last night that feels like this? Did I get drunk? I usually do, so there's probably a chance, but drunken hangovers don't usually feel like this. There's usually a lot more pain involved and it's usually all over. Right now all I feel is sorta weak.

Moving around a bit wherever I am, I feel like I'll pull a muscle if I move too much more. I let out a bit of a groan with a few deep breaths.

Great, just great...

"Are you awake?"

What the hell?

Opening my eyes wide, I look in the direction of the voice. There's a guy sitting in a chair at the end of the bed I'm apparently laying on.

Who the?

I force myself to sit up and back away to the opposite end of the bed then the one he's sitting near. He has this weird but happy smile at the sight of me sitting up.

"Good, you're awake. Unless you sleep walk with your eyes open, I don't see much of that anymore so it might be cool if you did but I hope you don't. Are you feeling all right?"

Who the hell is this guy?

"H-who the, hell are you?"

The guy holds up his hands and leans back to try and calm me down.

"Whoa, don't worry. You're safe. I'm the only one here and I'm not going to hurt you. You're all right."

"Yeah, sure, lots of girls who get abducted by strange men are safe with them."

He moves back in the chair away from the bed more with his hands raised in surrender.

"Calm down, I'm not a kidnapper. I don't do that sorta thing. If I was a kidnapper, I wouldn't bring you back to your own room."

My own r...

With a quick glance around at where I am, I notice that it is my room that I'm in.

What the hell? How did I get here? I don't remember coming home last night. What the hell is going on?

"Who are you? How did you get in my room?"

"It's all right. My name is Connor. I'm not going to hurt you. You were attacked last night by some not so friendly campus dwellers. I happened to be in the area and I wasn't far away when I heard a woman scream so I checked it out."

Attacked? I was attacked? I... wait, I remember. It was... vampires. Vampires attacked me, oh god...

"They ran off when they saw me and I brought you back here. I have a friend in the Safe Ride program, he told me where you were living on campus and since it wasn't far from where I found you, I brought you home myself."

He brought me home? Him? This scrawny loser chased off four vamps and brought me home? Yeah, right... he was probably in on it from the beginning. Or maybe he's...

Looking behind me, I reach backwards to the blinds behind my bed and fumble to grab the pull cord as my arm feels like jelly. Eventually, I catch it and pull as hard as I can. It's really not much so I have to put my whole body into the pull. The blinds don't budge much more than a quarter of the way up the window before I'm panting for breath, but it's enough to shine the light in his face. He closes his eyes and puts a hand up to shield them but doesn't move much more than that.

There's no burning. Not even a little twitch of uncomfortable. He must not be a vamp. Then what the hell is he?

I hold open the blind for as long as I can but eventually I get too tired and I have to let it go, slumping down on the bed a little.

Oh... geez... I feel almost dead... which at this point probably feels a lot worse than actually being dead.

The guy who was apparently stupid enough to save my life gets up slowly from his seat and I try to watch as I see him going over to the fridge. He opens it and goes through what's inside, eventually pulling out a carton of orange juice with my name on it.

"So, I'm guessing from the sudden need for a light show that you know what it was that attacked you last night. Or at the very least you've figured it out. Good, that makes talking to you easier since I don't really have to lie about anything. The vamps that attacked you, I didn't chase them off. I killed them. They're gone and you don't have to worry about them coming after you."

He manages to find a glass and pours some orange juice, probably for himself. I manage to force myself to lie back down on the bed.

Son of a bitch, he'll probably leave me here like this for fun.

"They bit you hard and probably got a good chunk of your blood but it looks like you'll be fine."

Yeah, sure I will.

"And how do you know that?"

He stops pouring the orange juice when the glass is almost full and smiles my way.

"You woke up."

Oh, great system you moron.

"I stuck around till you did in case you woke up... different, then before, seems like you're in the clear at this point though."

His steps are slow and firm as he walks back over in this direction, glass of orange juice in hand. When he gets close enough, he holds it out for me to take.

"Here, get some rest and drink lots of vitamin C to get your strength back. You probably wanna skip classes today too."

I take the glass of orange juice from him and smell it to make sure he didn't put some kinda drug in it. It smells clean.

"What are you, pre-med?"

He smiles at me as I take a small sip.

"Thought about it, but I've got bigger things to focus on then medical text books. When it comes to vamps though, I'd say I'm pretty close to a PhD."

What a load of crap. He's probably just some guy who thinks vampires are cool.

"Sure you are."

"Anyway, looks like you're good to go so I'll leave you alone. I'm sure I don't need to ask you to keep the details of what happened to a minimum."

Yeah, alone... like always...

The guy makes his way to my front door.

"Great, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."

He sorta looks at me with an annoyed but curious look as he makes it to the door.

"Yeah, okay. See ya."

Finally, he leaves as I take another sip of my orange juice, but as the door opens, he runs into someone.

"Oh, sorry..."

"No, I'm sorry I..."

He's out the door and walks off down the hall.

"Didn't realize Dawn had... company..."

Sandy watches him leave for a second, looks back at me, then peaks out the door again before coming in completely.

"Who was that?"

Great... exactly what I need right now.

"That was no one."

She looks at the closed door to our dorm for a second while she walks over to her side of the room.

"Sure didn't seem like no one."

"Well he was, so I guess it's true that things aren't always what they seem."

"Too bad... I thought he was kinda cute."

Like I needed to have my day get any worse...

"You want a crack at him? Go run after him. Maybe you'll catch him if you're lucky."

"Well, I dunno. How well do you know him?"

Just great...

"I didn't sleep with him. I told you, I don't do that sorta thing."

"Okay, sorry, it's just... he's leaving our room in the morning after I don't see you all night because I was out studying. What am I supposed to think?"

"That you should mind your own business and leave me the hell alone."

I feel kinda tired so I put the glass down on my nightstand and try and curl up in bed.

"All right..."

The silence I've been hoping for since the moment she entered the room only lasts about 15 seconds.

"Are you okay? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine."

"Sure you are. Since I know you'll say no if I ask to help, can I at least get you anything that might help?"

Well, I guess...

"Put my carton of orange juice on the table and leave me alone?"

She doesn't say anything as I hear her pick up the carton of orange juice and bring it over. Then she just goes about her business.

Thank god, maybe now I'll get some decent sleep.

* * *

I'm in hell... I know I am.

Running a hand along the side of my neck over the small scarf I have on, I try to make it stop.

I never woke up from the vampire attack last night and now I'm being forced to go on with this bite on my neck itching me like crazy.

I stop in the middle of the hallway when the itching gets really bad and put my hand to the bandage on my neck that I apparently woke up with this morning.

It feels like it's gonna kill me. I don't know how Buffy ever deals with this kinda thing. With the amount of times she's let a vampire bite her you'd think she'd go insane if she felt like this. Then again, she's a slayer. Her body is probably designed not to feel like this after being bitten by a vamp.

Part of me manages to ignore the itchy feeling on my neck and I start to walk again.

Bitch... she always gets the better deal and the easy way out while I have to spend my life suffering. Thanks sis, I appreciate it.

As I reach the end of the hallway, I take a right to keep heading to class.

She probably never feels the nagging dull feeling I have on my neck that feels like something's hanging off it a little bit, or the slightly weak feeling in my knees when I have to walk. She probably just wakes up the next day and goes on with her life like the self-righteous know-it-all that she likes to be on days that end in Y. I kinda hate that about her, especially since it's probably why Faith...

My neck throbs a little and I stop to catch my breath for a minute.

Whatever... I'm not gonna act like some weak little girl just because I don't have all the advantages they have. I can live just as normal a life as they can. A vamp bite isn't gonna stop me from living my life whether I almost died or not. I don't care how much it itches like hell.

I start on my way again and take another turn down a hallway to my destination.

My life is worse than hell, so this'll be nothing.

With a look up, I see my class not too far from here but the door is closed. It looks like something is going on because there are like 5 or 6 people with books in their hands standing in front of the shut door.

Something must be going on. What could it be?

Eventually I get up to where the other people are and I try to see what they're all looking at. They're blocking the way but I'm pretty sure there's some kind of note posted on the doorway.

All right, I'm done wondering, time to know.

"Hey, what's going on?"

One of the other people around the door speaks up as two of the people in front of me give me an opening to go up to the note.

"Classes are cancelled."

Cancelled?

"Why?"

I look over at the guy who spoke.

"Why?"

He shrugs in a really sad way.

"Someone in our class was found dead this morning."

What? Dead? Someone's dead?

My eyes jump to the paper posted on the front door of the class, scanning over it to try and find a name.

Please don't be... please don't be...

The name on the notice stands out suddenly and I freeze at the sight.

'Fellow student Sarah Sinclair was found dead this morning on one of the student walkways. She was found by a member of the Safe Ride program on his way home. A cause of death is not yet known, but we believe she may have been bitten. As a result, we are canceling...'

Damn...