Dan's POV

"I saw it, I swear!" bragged a random man in the coffee shop to an amazed group of listeners. "It was hideous! Pale white skin, huge fangs! And blood red eyes! It was going to kill me, I swear it! But I ran fast enough to outrun the beast!"

I sighed unamused as other people cheered. People recently have gotten into a trend of sightings of a vampire in the woods off the edge of our smaller town. It was ridiculous. People would dare each other to go in the woods to try and find it, or others just ran around and claim they've seen it. None of it was real, so I found the entire thing a waste of time. I stood up with my paper mug, and left the shop as the man bragged some more.

"Vampires," I said sarcastically to myself. "Yeah right."

"Dan! Dan, hold up!"

I turned to see her — my friend Cynthia. She must've noticed me leaving.

"Hey! Where are you going? The story was just getting good!"

"No it wasn't. It was boring."

"Come on, Dan. I know you don't believe in vampires, but can't you just have a bit of fun while it lasts? People are going to start new stories soon about ghosts of werewolves once this blows over, and you would have missed all the vampire stuff!"

"It's boring," I told her. "Vampires, ghosts and werewolves are not real. I don't want to hear about drunk people walking around, seeing their own shadow, and claiming its something from a nonexistent world!"

"You're such a party pooper!" she snorted playfully.

"Sorry I'm so logical."

She brushed her long hair behind her. "Well, I'm not going to wait around in the shop alone. Where are you off to?"

"Home, I guess. It's getting dark, and there's nowhere else to go since everyone's got vampire fever."

"Fine. Mind if I tag along?"

I nodded and let her follow me. She was much shorter than I was — I could see the top of her head while we walked. I looked away into the lines of trees that covered our simple town. It wasn't big or impressive, with just enough technology to keep is from falling behind the rest of the world. I admit, it was dark at night, and I can understand why people would think there were creatures like vampires in our woods. People were bored, and often created stories like these to bring the town an upbeat mood, and it was occasionally used as a tourist attraction. Nothing spread as quickly or hung as long as the vampire stories, which have been going around for a month or so now.

Cynthia didn't believe in the tales either. She just listened and acted like she did to one, blend in, and two, laugh at how crazy some of the people were.

"So CC," I ask, "what's been the best of the vampire stories?" I never cared to listen, so I let her fill me in on the strangest ones.

"Hehe," she thought. "Probably the one where a man claimed to have been bit by the vampire, but is 'immune' to 'vampire poison!'"

"That's what he said?"

"Yeah!"

We burst out laughing. "Some of these people are just nuts!"

"Yeah, I know. Crazy!"

We walked passed the dubbed "cursed" woods, where the vampire has been claimed to be seen. I, of course, just happen to live near by, while Cynthia was a few houses down.

"See you, CC," I say, turning to my own door.

"Bye, Dan. Oh! Watch out! The vampire might get you!"

"Ha! He can come get all he wants!" I joked. "I'm vampire sexual!"

"Shut up." She laughed, tying her hair into a ponytail before running off to her own home. "See ya!"

I closed the door behind me. Maybe that vampire sexual joke was too far. She didn't know, but I wasn't exactly the straightest guy in town, but probably the most "no homo," and "in the closet" one. Nobody had to know about my preferences... not that I had one.... Good thing Cynthia didn't have anything for me, since I had nothing for her. We had a friendship with no sexual tension, which was the way I'd like to keep it.

In all reality, vampire sexual? I giggled to myself. Vampires aren't even real! I looked out my window, and of course, saw nothing.

"Vampires," I huffed, shaking my head. "I need to move out of this town, I swear."