My name is Aaron. Up until a few days ago, my life was pretty normal for a popstar. You know, the usual stalking paparazzi, screaming fans, and all that stuff. I didn’t think anything could change to make my life more chaotic that it already was. It wasn’t until few days ago when my twin sister and I celebrated our 22nd birthday. It was a birthday I would never forget. We went up to a cabin a Tahoe, a few hours away from us. We’d planned to party all night and play in the snow like crazy asses, but it didn’t exactly go like that. That night, something happened that would forever change our lives…something that had frozen us in time. We’re now going to be twenty two forever. We were turned to monsters…or vampires as some might call us. We aren't sure how it happened or why they chose us. You see, it all happened so fast. Neither of us can even remember what happened that night. All I remember is downing a bottle of Jack and the next thing I know, I’m laying in the snow and I can’t even feel the cold temperatures. I hate cold temperatures, so the idea of me lying in the snow without a coat is fucking insane! At first, I thought I was dead…of course, now that I think of it…technically, I am dead. I’m just not six feet under. It’s weird and hard to explain. All I know is that we both look completely human. We’re no different than anyone else, except the fact that we crave blood instead of hamburgers or some shit like that. How the hell did I get myself into this mess? I mean, how can I perform in front of my fans? I can’t go on stage like this, I’ll kill them all! That’s a scary thought. Music is my life. I don’t want to have to change that for some eternal life I didn’t ask for. How is that fair to me?

It’s been ten days since we became this way. Angel found ways to quench her thirst by killing animals in the woods. I decided to join her in this and I was surprised at the appeal of drinking animal blood compared to human blood. At least I wouldn’t be a murderer. Neither of us were ready to go back home, so I rented out the cabin for a little longer. We were unsure of what to do. Our family was looking for us, but we didn’t want to alarm them. Angel decided to call Nick with a lie and said we decided to stick around a few more days. This bought us a little more time, but how much time did we need? My heart pounded just thinking about it. All I know is that we’re fucked and neither one of us is sure if we’ll ever lead a normal life again. We’re alone, scared and thirsty…not a good combination.

My name is Rachel. I live in L.A., but I am far from your typical L.A. chick. I guess maybe that’s because I’m not from around here. I grew up in the Midwest and finally got out that stupid one horse town right after high school. I was raised to be a country girl, but my heart lied in the big city. Most people come here to be famous. I could care less about fame, really. I just wanted to get out an experience culture, plus I love the beach. It’s great living out here, most of the time.

You see, to live around here, you have to live up to certain standards. People expect you to be skinny and beautiful. All your friends have to be models, musicians, writers, or actors. It’s really superficial and I hate that crap. I’m just an average girl with an average job. I’m perfectly content in working in a coffee shop. It’s small and quiet, but at least I can take the time to get to know my regular customers. One customer in particular is Aaron Carter. Now, wait a second. Before you go rolling your eyes at me, let me explain. I’m not a teeny bopper or nothing like that. I’m just a big fan. He’s a cool guy and I think he appreciates the fact that I don’t talk to him like a big celebrity. He knows he can come into the coffee shop and I’ll greet him with a smile and his order already in hand. I love keeping my customers happy…and the tips aren’t bad either.

Every once in a while, he sticks around to eat a sandwich or have a bowl of soup. However, I noticed that he’d not been coming around as much. I saw him come in a few days ago, but honestly, he looked like hell. His skin was a little pale, but I figure he’d been ill. He always came by after the lunch rush, but lately he’d been coming by after the dinner rush, just in time for me to get off work. It was just very strange, and it was even stranger that he didn’t order anything. He just came in and talked to a couple of people in the back of the store and left after a few minutes. He left me standing there with his mocha in hand; ready to serve it to him. It was disappointing, you know? Aaron was my best customer and I really loved having him come in. What was I going to do without his corny jokes and random questions about my life? It wasn’t going to be the same if he didn’t keep coming around. I don’t know if I like this. I hope he comes back.

I looked down at the mocha I’d made and frowned. There wasn’t anything I could do about it now. It’s like what my grandmother used to tell me, “Ain’t no use crying over spilled milk.” I smirked to myself and decided to take the mocha with me to my second job.

My boss was being a douche bag, as usual. He waited until the last minute to let me go. I had to rush to catch the bus to get to work on time. I quickly turned on my IPod and headed out the door while putting in my headphones. I practically ran out of the store, clutching my pink backpack as I rushed down the street. The street lights bounced off the sidewalk as I continued to walk to the bus stop. I could see the bus in front of me and a short line of people were waiting to get in. I pumped my legs a little faster and managed to get to the door just as the last person had stepped inside. My hands shook a little as I dug into my pocket to pull out the correct change to dispense in the machine. The driver shut the door behind me as I noisily dumped my change and anxiously looked for a seat. I got lucky and found a seat next to an old lady reading a newspaper. She held her paper up high enough that I could see the front page. My eyes widened as I whispered the words to myself.

“City wide homicides remain unsolved. LAPD have no leads.”

I shook my head at the headline and looked the other direction. The amount of violence in this city was beyond ridiculous. I never understood why anyone would want to harm another human being. It just didn’t make any sense to me. In my hometown, we never had any of that stuff going on. Then again, I guess I didn’t take into consideration that my hometown’s population barely reached thirty people. I guess that’s the advantage to growing up in a small town. You don’t have to deal with the craziness of psycho people as much as the big cities. It’s really weird how they have no leads on all these crimes. How can so much action happen in a short period of time and they not figure it out? It made me wonder if there was a new gang that nobody knew about. It’s scary not knowing who’s committing the crimes.

I was in such a daze about the news story that I almost missed my stop. I blinked and realized that the bus driver was about to shut the door. I jumped up and ran to the door before he could close it. The bus had stopped directly in front of the library and I was pleased to see that I was five minutes early, according to my watch. I reached in my bag and pulled out a hair tie. A young man held the door open for me as I walked toward the entrance. I politely nodded in his direction as I tied my hair back in a pony tail. I loved working in the library. The quiet atmosphere was really soothing after a long shift at the coffee shop. Here, all I had to do was replace books that were checked in. It was an easy job and the pay was just enough to keep me in a decent apartment.

As soon as I clocked in, I went right to work on the giant stack of books. I neatly organized them by section and began placing them on the cart. I always started with the nonfiction books since they took the longest to organize. I picked up a stack of poetry books and began placing them on the shelves. As I was about to put up the Shakespeare Sonnets book when I heard a familiar voice speaking from behind the shelf in front of me.

“There’s nothing in here but stupid myths!” said the familiar male voice.

“Will you shut up and keep reading! There has to be something in one of these books,” said a female voice.

The familiarity of the male voice haunted me for a second. It made my heart skip a beat. I knew that voice all too well. It was Aaron Carter. I know it’s not polite to eavesdrop, but something inside me told this was worth investigating. I quietly removed the books in front of me to make room to view them without being seen. I bit my bottom lip and quietly lurked beside the Robert Frost books. I recognized the brunette girl to be his sister, Angel. I remembered her from photos I’ve seen over the years. The two of them huddled over a stack of books and speaking very sternly at each other. It wasn’t your typical sibling banter. It was more of a tone of urgency and stress. I watched as Aaron leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hands over his face. He groaned and ran his fingers through his hair and sighed as he slouched.

“I give up. Let’s just check out the ones we’ve not read and get the fuck out of here.”

“Fine, whatever,” Angel said as she shut the book in front of her. “I’ll go check these out and we can go,” she said as she stood up and walked over to the front counter.

I continued to study Aaron. In the florescent light, he looked almost white. His jaw line clenched as he bobbed his leg up in down. He looked deep in thought. I couldn’t help but notice his eyelashes lying gently across his cheeks as he pursed his lips and exhaled from his nose. He was obviously stressed about something. I had the urge to go and talk to him, but my feet were planted down like lead weights. I wobbled in my knees as I shook the idea of talking to him out of my head. I cleared my throat and drew my attention back to the cart of books. I stepped backwards to go the next shelf, but in the midst of my lead feet, I stumbled backwards. I let out a loud gasp and hit the floor with a thud as the books tumbled on top of me. I was half embarrassed that I made so much noise, but before I had time to blush, I noticed someone in front of me.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly.

My heart almost stopped when I realized that it was Aaron in front of me. I looked away from him and my cheeks flushed as I took his hand. I felt tears form at the corners of my eyes. I was too embarrassed to look at him. It wasn’t my finest moment.

“I’m fine,” I said as I picked up the books on the floor. “I can be a little bit of a klutz sometimes.”

He chuckled and leaned against the shelf as he stared at me. “Picking up your feet when you walk would help,” he joked.

“Right,” I said with a smile.

“You’re uh…,” he trailed off.

“Rachel,” I said, slightly annoyed that he didn’t remember my name.

“Right, yes, from the coffee shop. I remember.”

“That would be me,” I said as I brought myself the courage to look at him. “So, um…you’ve not been around much lately.”

He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, I’ve been in hiding,” he said with a smirk.

“Hiding?”

“In the studio. Working on the new album,” he continued.

“Oh, right. Yeah, I heard about that,” I replied with a slow nod.

“Well, my sister’s waiting on me, so I should go. It was nice seeing you again…Rachel,” he said, leaving an emphasis on my name.

My heart fluttered at the sound of my name flowing from his lips. I mentally scolded myself for acting like such a teeny bopper. It wasn’t the impression I wanted to leave him with.

“See you around,” I said sweetly. “At the coffee shop, maybe?”

“Maybe,” he replied with a smile and turned away.

I watched him make his way over to the front counter and sighed. His tall physique was hard to peel my eyes away from. He was always so statuesque, but his behavior today was very strange. Something odd was going on. I wanted to know more about him. I watched him walk out of the library with Angel and decided that I was going to try and figure out what he was hiding.