Red

     He watched her from the other side of the fountain as she sat on her usual park bench, books piled in her lap. Like always, she had both ear buds in her ears. She wouldn't be able to hear anything around her. Always so clumsy, that girl. He leaned his leg against the edge of the fountain feeling the heat rise to his cheeks. It wasn't that he cared much for her safety; they were enemies, after all. Not that it had always been that way. Still, if anyone was going to take her out, it was him. She shouldn't make it so easy for everyone else, even if the park was all but vacant. There was no telling when a stray dog walker may walk by. If they knew what he knew, they would attack her on sight.

     He jerked away from the fountain, as if he had been sprayed by cold water, and started around the other side where she was sitting there, clueless.

     "Hey!" He threw his arm up, aware she couldn't hear him, but still needing to get her attention. Finally she glanced up at him and he felt a small burst of satisfaction at the surprised look on her face. She hastily pulled her ear buds out and exchanged her dumbfounded expression for a glare in his direction.

     "What do you want, Jacob?" She crossed her arms, holding her ear buds in her hand. He could hear that they were still playing music. He recognized the song; it was one they used to listen to together often, back before...

     He looked past her, watched as the summer breeze moved the trees. "Where were you last night?" He looked back down at her eyes and she looked taken aback.

     "Excuse me?" Her arms tensed.

     "There was a party at the main campus yesterday. I know you were invited so... but, I didn't see you there." As he witnessed the fair color in her face shift to a deep crimson, he couldn't help but remember all the things he once found beautiful about her. Not that it mattered, she was a monster. All the times they had shared together and for what? Nothing. She was nothing to him.

"I just didn't want to go, that's all."

     "What, you had better things to do?" Now it was his turn to cross his arms. He knew where she had to have been. "You were with those freaks weren't you?"

     "We're not freaks, Jacob!" She stood up and the books she had been holding onto toppled out of her lap, snagging on her ear buds and taking them down, as well. Clumsy. She clenched her fists and stared at the mess of her belongings on the ground. Then, her head shot up and she looked Jacob dead in the eye. "I'm not human, Jacob! Why do you keep expecting me to act like I am?" Her voice was tight and her face beaming red again, though not with embarrassment this time.

     She leaned down to pick up her books and Jacob crouched down beside her, his voice barely over a whisper. "You're better than that, Alicia. You don't have to classify yourself with them. I know you. I've always known you."

     "No, Jacob. This is who I am. I don't care that we grew up together; you can't change tha-"

     Red. Suddenly, there was nothing but red. Not like the red in her cheeks when she would laugh at his jokes; not the red of her self-proclaimed scandalous dress that she wore when the two of them would go for a walk in this very park; not the red of her lips or her hair. But the red of her life as he pulled the wooden stake out of her chest, ending the life of the woman who was once his best friend – the vampire.

"You're right. You're not."