Chapter 51.

She’d had enough with vampires for one day, there didn’t seem to be any real evidence out there to support what she had seen in the alleyway and there was nothing more she could do until Halloween night. She thought about how she might secretly record the information. She explored the many and varied options of spy cameras, and as tiny as they all were, her dress left very little room for breathing, trying to DIY a camera to fit with her costume, no matter how small, was beyond her wheelhouse. She was going out on a limb, even entertaining the idea of going, but she had to know for sure what she saw that night was real. The thought crossed her mind of how would anyone know where to find her if it all went wrong. She considered scheduling some social media posts, but she didn’t have much of a presence, privacy and all that, then she thought that maybe it would be a good idea to send Simon an email to let him know that she was going to be there, she refined it down to scheduling an email, that way, if she made it out unscathed, she could cancel it before Simon blew a gasket. She didn’t want to tell Stevens, they hadn’t known each other that well, and he might get offended if she didn’t ask him to go with her. But she didn’t want to ask him. She didn’t want anyone to go with her. She didn’t want anyone pointing out the obvious how stupid and dangerous her plan was, nor did she want anyone talking her out of it. She didn’t even know where she would even begin to try and explain to anyone the sequence of events, the two girls ‘supposed suicide’, that she had happened upon a vampire feeding in an alleyway and he let her live, that she found some random website alluding to the nightclub that she was seriously contemplating walking into, being a vampire safe house and possibly the one in which the vampire that sent her a personal invitation to come to their annual Masquerade Ball, was living there. It would seem like she was taking a huge swan dive into the lion’s den and not thinking about how she was going to get back out. Which of course was something she had put on the long finger. She had no idea where to even begin planning for escape. But then she never did think on the practical side of things when it came to a possible story, she was the assess and react type.

It was almost six in the evening and she settled down to watch some television, catch up on the news and see what was happening in the world. She considered even venturing out to the shops to pick up something nice for dinner. Cyprus had wandered in and was ferociously eating from the dish in the kitchen, she mused he must have been on one of his great tours the night before, which would account for his appetite. The temptation in her to call Stevens was almost overwhelming. She struggled with herself not to pick up the telephone. She pushed herself to change into jeans and a sweater and drive to the grocery store to pick up something for dinner. It would get her out of the house and take her mind off things. More importantly, it would take her mind off him. She had enjoyed his company the night before, and she liked how he made her feel completely safe. She didn’t want to rush things with him. She didn’t want to risk scaring him away. After all, he had only just come out of a long-term relationship and a rather messy one at that. She decided that perhaps it was best they should take things slowly, and of course, she was never one for commitment.

She slipped into her jeans and pulled on a sweater followed by her trainers and went out to get into the car. That feeling of someone watching had returned. It was an eerie sensation that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand. There was a sense of familiarity about it. Not familiar in the sense that she had experienced it the night before but somehow, she had experienced it somewhere in her past. A niggling feeling deep in the recesses of her mind, something was telling her to remember, remember the presence, that watchful person she had experienced in the past, and for a brief moment she was taken by it. But, for no more than a moment, for as quick as it had come the sensation disappeared, she shook it off and opened the car door.

She had picked up some rice and veg, and a few other bits and pieces that she needed. The normal things like bread and milk and toilet rolls. Then she spotted some croissants she thought might be nice for breakfast and a bottle of wine. In the end, she bought more than she had planned, the logic behind it was that she wouldn’t have time to go shopping over the next couple of days, she would be too busy preparing for the Halloween Ball and then her trip away, which she still hadn’t thought out completely. So she decided that this was what she would do for the rest of the evening. She would go home and make herself some dinner, open the bottle of wine and look up short country breaks over the Internet. That way she wasn’t in any danger of calling Stevens and she wasn’t going to go near Pete’s Bar looking for him.