Chapter 2

Amanda doesn't know what to say to that. She just keeps staring at him like he's insane… which he probably is.
"O-kay…" she says, slowly backing away from him. There's no trace of humour in his voice, he's completely serious. He really thinks he's hunting vampires. "Well, I've got to, um, be… somewhere right now. And I can't be late. So I have to run, bye!" She turns around and runs to Delter's entrance.
What a completely deranged guy! Vampires? Yeah, right. This day just keeps on getting weirder and weirder. That guy seriously has some-

Something grabs her from behind. She screams as she's thrown to the floor. She quickly rolls onto her back to face her attacker, expecting it to be the same guy. It isn't. Suddenly, she remembers what she was originally running from, and her blood runs cold.
Maybe they're working together! A small voice inside her speculates. Maybe the other guy will turn up any minute and kill me!
The guy lunges back for her, mouth open.
Oh, my god. He's trying to bite me! That same voice inside her head screams. Now that she can see him properly she can see that he has short brown hair and… red eyes?
No, that can't be right!
Her thoughts trail back to the hot guy. 'Vampires!' he'd said. But that's impossible… right?
Of course it is… the guy's just wearing contacts. The other guy's going to come back and kill you. You have to fight back or you'll have no chance!
She rolls again, avoiding his second lunge. And when she looks back at him his eyes are dark, almost… black?
What the hell?
She looks around for something, anything, she can use to defend herself with and her eyes fall upon a metal pole a few inches away from her outstretched hand. If only she can reach it…
"Hey!" It's too late, the other guy's back! There's no way she can fend off the two of them!
Her first attacker, the brown haired guy, looks up and snarls at the hot guy. A real feral sound that no ordinary human could possibly make.
What the hell!
The brown haired guy looks back at her, his eyes turning red once more, and lunges back for her throat. She sees a flash of something white and sharp before she grabs hold of the metal pole and hits him around the head as hard as she can. He yelps in surprise as the pole comes into contact with the back of his skull and he swiftly rolls away from her. Getting back on his feet faster than humanly possible, he's lunging back for her again within milliseconds.
What the fuck? No one can move that fast!
Her attacker's just a blur now, heading straight for her. Before she knows what she's doing, she rolls away, causing him to face plant the floor. She scrambles to her feet, making sure she's facing him at all times as she feels behind her for something sharp that she can use as a weapon. Her eyes rest on a white wooden fence post that's been snapped in half.
Without thinking, she lunges for it, falling into a tuck and roll as the guy grabs for her. She grabs the post and spins around just in time for the guy to make his final attack… and he falls into the sharp end of the post. The wood slicing right through his flesh and into his heart as easily as a butchers knife. He lets out a shocked yelp before collapsing in a heap on top of her. Breathing hard, she pushes him away and his body rolls limply away from her.
Telling herself that those sharp white things aren't really there, that she's just imagining them, she attempts to get her breath back.
Did that really just happen?
"Uh, hum." The sound of a throat being cleared causes her head to snap up. She sees him then, the other guy, and all the breath that she's managed to regain leaves her once more in a breathless whoosh. She hurriedly scrambles up to her feet and slowly starts to back away.
"Wait!" he says quickly when he notices her retreating. He's watching her now as though she's an easily startled deer. And that's pretty much how she feels right now, like a doe caught in headlights. She continues to back away from him, the distance between them much larger and still growing.
"No, wait!" There's slight desperation in his voice now, and something else, something like… awe? He takes a step towards her, and that's all it takes. She's off, running through the gates of Delter Paradise and out into the night air.
When she stops running she finds herself standing in front of her house. A sense of relief washes over her. As soon as she tells Sandy, they'll be able to work it out together. She wont be alone anymore.
She's choking on breath and her knees feel like they're about to buckle any second as she walks up to the front door and knocks. Her keys are still in her bag, which is sat on the seat of the coach.
The door to her home opens and she freezes.
It's not Sandra that has opened the door, neither is it Joe, Aiden or Eric. A stranger stands in the doorway.
"Um…" Amanda falters. "I - I was looking for… Sandra Davis?"
The woman pauses, taking in the girl stood on her doorstep looking about ready to collapse.
She's pretty, the woman, looking only about nineteen or twenty. She has long black hair and crystal blue eyes. She also has a few freckles, making her look young and fragile.
"I'm sorry, honey, but only I live here…"
The words run through Amanda's head over and over again, her brain somehow trying to process and make sense of them.
Her eyes fill with tears as she looks over at the house number.
Number seventy-one. Yep, definitely the right house.
She can't help but have a mental freak out as her head explodes with question after question.
Who is this woman? Why is she living in my house? Where's Sandy and the boys'? What the hell happened at Delter Paradise? Did I really just kill someone? Did that someone really have fangs? What does it mean if he did?
It goes on like this inside her head until the imposter clears her throat.
"Um, would you like to come in for a second? I mean, it's not exactly safe outside, especially at night, and I can see that you're slightly confused right now…"
"Um... Sure, thanks," Amanda says, all the while her brain's going, What does she mean by it's not exactly safe outside?

The woman leads her into the kitchen.
"My name's Elizabeth, but most people usually just call me Liz," she officially introduces herself.
"Amanda," Amanda replies.
"Well, Amanda, you look cold. Why don't you go up and take a shower before we sort out what you're doing here."
"Um, ok… Amanda agrees. She has to admit, she's dying to have a shower to soothe her aching muscles.
"There are towels in the bathroom, which is up the stairs and first on the left. Take as long as you need."
"Thanks," she replies, trying not to find it weird that someone's giving her directions to find her own bathroom.
Once in the shower, she finds herself relaxing. She can almost believe that she made the whole thing up, that she's back in her normal home where Sandra and the guys' are all downstairs watching TV. But, of course, she knows that's not true. She's somehow managed to get herself into a seriously messed up situation and she's not even sure how she's done it. She sighs and lets her head tilt back so the falling water's dripping onto her closed eyelids.
What the hell's going on?
She thinks back through her night, starting with the rides at Delter and finishing with her now stood in the shower.
Where had it all gone wrong?
She tries to think back through the day in more detail but instead of giving her an answer, it gives her a headache. Eventually, she gives up.
After a few more minutes of letting the water run over her, she shuts the power off, which leaves her standing there shivering and alone.
Time to get things straightened out.

When she walks back down into the kitchen she's surprised to see that Liz has made her something to eat.
"I hope you like lasagne, it's all I have in."
"Oh, yes I love it but, I mean, you didn't have to…" Amanda says gratefully. She's starving.

"Don't sweat it," Liz says.
"Thanks." She sits down at the kitchen table and begins to eat. It's strangely unsettling to see her own home as an outsider. It looks near enough the same as her house, only with a few changes. Such as the kitchen walls are not green and not blue, there are only four chairs at the table instead of five, The curtains are different. However, apart form that, it's exactly the same. The oven and the fridge are where they should be, the windows are in the same place, even the fire alarm's in the right place, above the door.
"Your home's beautiful…" Amanda says, feeling slightly awkward.
"Thank you," Liz says, sitting down at the table with her own plate of Lasagne. "So, how about you explain to me how you found yourself on my doorstep tonight?"
And so she does. She explains everything. Starting with the school trip and how she found the shed, and then about the strange guy and her attacker. Liz seems to go into shock when Amanda explains about the fight and how she managed to kill her attacker but quickly recovers as Amanda continues on with the rest of her story.

"An here I am," she finishes off.
"Hang on. So… you're telling me that your lost in your own town because everything's changed?"

"Basically, yeah."
"You know that's crazy, right?"
"Yes, I know it's crazy, and that's why I'm so confused!" Amanda moans, banging her head against the table in frustration. "But I don't know how to sort it all out because I don't exactly know what happened!"
"Okay, okay. Calm down. We can figure this out…"
"We can?" Amanda lifts her head to look at Liz.
"I don't know, but we can try. I mean, did you hit your head or something?"
"What?"
"When you fought the vampire," the word comes out of Liz's mouth so easily that Amanda's taken aback, "did you hit your head or something?"

"What do you mean, 'When you fought the vampire'? There's no such thing as vampires!"

"And that, right there, is all the proof we need that you hit your head. Everyone knows about the vampires by now!"

Amanda freezes. "Well I sure as hell don't!"

"Well… now you do. You must've hit your head pretty hard."

"But-"

"And as for you thinking this is your house, I have a sign up in the local shop about a new roommate. Maybe you were on your way here when you got attacked, had your head messed up, and thought that you already lived here?"
"That's insane!" Amanda protests.
"What, more insane than what you could come up with?"
Amanda falls silent. She knows she didn't hit her head, she couldn't have made it all up. And how could she have been at Delter Paradise if she was on her way over from the shop? Of course, she doesn't bring these points up.
"What do I do then?" She asks.
"You stay here with me," Liz says.
"I can't stay here!"
"Yes you can. And you will. There's no way I'm letting you walk around out there if you can't even remember that vamps are real!"
"And how do I know that you're not just some weirdo that believes in what's not real?" Amanda challenges.
Liz's quiet for a few seconds, thinking. Then she grabs Amanda's hand and drags her into the living room, turning on the TV.

"And here on VN we have just gotten a lead through on yet another vampire attack in town. Thirty-two yea rold Harry Rice was attacked, and killed, earlier on this evening. His body was found, bitten and bloodless, in a ditch along Crowdon road. As you can guess, this is causing more and more doubt to occur to the public regarding our famous VDS!"
Amanda watches the reporter, a young tanned woman with dark hair, in a sort of dream-like state. She tunes out on the rest of the report, her mind racing.
What the hell has to world come to?
Her focus snaps back to the reporter when she starts a new report. This time the picture that pops up in the top left corner is of a guy, with shaggy black hair and brown eyes.
"Oh, my god," she whispers. It's him! The hunter from Delter!

"And, of course, the world is wondering if our most famous VD will be able to live up to everyone's expectations. Is even the most well-trained VD able to stop the horrible going's on in our town? And, yes, you all know who I'm talking about. The heartthrob of the century! Cully!" Every single girl in the world currently waits in agony to see if their favourite and most gorgeous VD will still be on the market after the rumours of him getting back with his VD ex-girlfriend Vicki!
The reason for their breakup being that their relationship was getting in the way of their training. Does this mean that, if they get back together, their trainging will drop and Cully wont live up to his full potential?
Stay tuned to VN to find out!
This is Diana Bolton, reporting to VN!"

Liz turns the TV off.
"Was that proof enough?" she asks.
Amanda nods silently, still in shock.
"Um... who was that guy?"
"Who? Cully?"

"Yeah."
"He's only the hottest, most yummy guy ever born! Liz exclaims. "Plus, he's the best qualified VD there is right now!"
VD... that rings a bell in Amanda's head.

"Vampire Destroyer?"

"Yeah…" Liz sounds surprised. "I guess you did just hit your head after all."
"Yeah, it-it's sort of coming back to me," she lies. "Why's he so famous?"
"Because everyone expects him to save us all!"

"Save us all… from the vampires?"

"Yeah."

"O-kay…" This is all too much for her to process.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm… just tired, I guess…"
"Oh, of course, I bet you are… you should go to bed. It's opposite the bathroom."
Huh, same room as her room back home.

"Thanks."

"And you should find some of my old clothes in there that might fit you…"
"Okay, thanks. Night!"

She walks up to her room, dead on her feet. All the events of the day crashing down on her. When she gets to her room, she's in for another shock. It's just like in the kitchen. Everything's different but the same. Her walls are dark purple, not dark red. There's a different dressing table but in the same place as her one, next to the window, The bed's a double, not a single. But, apart from that, everything's exactly as she left it, just… minus her personal belongings.

She doesn't have the energy to freak out about it now. So that can be one more thing added to her 'to do' list tomorrow, along with go home.

She finds herself and oversized old T-shirt with dolphins on it and chucks it on. It's as good a sleepwear as any. Then she climbs into bed and falls asleep.