A/N: This is my first story, and I hope that it is good. Please R/R!

Chapter 1: There's no such thing as vampires, right?

It was a calm night, with only a slight breeze to ruffle the leaves on the tree branches high above my head. The moon was almost full as it hung over the mountains in the east like a giant, silver eye, so bright and watchful. The stars were little pinpricks of white fire in the night sky, dimmed by the moonlight, yet still quite visible. The ground below me was covered with a thick carpet of dark green grass. The air was lightly scented with the sweet aroma of flowers from my mother's garden, and lying next to me was my best and rather talkative friend, Jake.

Now let me just say one quick thing: Jake has an obsession with vampires. A major obsession. Movies, books, TV shows, he loved them all as long as there were vampires involved. He could quote any line from Buffy and had read "Dracula" so many times that he knew it by heart.

And tonight he had found a new vampire thing to obsess about. A new show about vampires had premiered earlier in the evening, and the moment it was over Jake had rushed over to my house to give me a play-by-play. So for the past hour I had been lying outside on the lawn listening to Jake ramble on and on about the show. I caught a few things he said, like that the vampires in the show don't burst into flames in the sunlight, but I managed to tune him out for the most part. Don't get me wrong, I care very dearly for my best friend, but sometimes his fascination with the undead gets to be a little much for me.

So, as Jake talked about the show I spent the time gazing at the stars, picking out different constellations. Occasionally I would add a comment to what ever vampire related subject Jake was talking about at the time, but most of the time I just stared at the stars. Jake didn't seem to mind this….either that or he didn't notice. I was betting on the latter. Whenever Jake gets to talking about vampires he stops noticing most other things.

"Well, I'd better be going home," Jake said, snapping me out of my uninterested state, "It is getting kinda late after all."

I shifted my gaze from the stars to his face, amazed to hear him say something not related to vampires.

"Oh….ya, I guess it is getting late," I said as I looked at my watch. It read 9:43, which meant we had been out here for nearly an hour. It sure had felt longer than that though.

"Have a good night Katie," Jake said. Then he jumped up in an awesome, matrix style move, not using his hands at all. Jake had started taking Judo lessons about a month ago and that was one of the first things he had learned. He had tried to show me how to do it but whenever I attempted it I just looked like an idiot.

"Show off," I muttered under my breath, slightly envious that I couldn't do that.

Jake apparently heard that because he grinned down at me. "You know, you could learn to do that too if you joined my Judo class. It's a lot of fun, and the other people in the class are really nice," he said with enthusiasm.

I had heard this many times before, and I always answered the same way, "It's not my thing, Jake."

Jake let out a sigh and looked down at me again. At almost 6', he towered over me even when I was standing, so from my spot on the grass he looked like a giant. Yet he never seemed imposing or threatening to me. I guess that was because I had grown up with him, and I knew how nice and sweet he was.

"Enjoy your stargazing," he said, "And I'm sorry I bored you with my commentary on the vampire show."

I suddenly felt bad that I hadn't been paying better attention to Jake earlier. I didn't think Jake had picked up on the fact that he had been boring me, but it seemed he had.

"It didn't bore me! It was…umm…..interesting!" I said, hoping that Jake wouldn't be able to tell I was lying.

In the moonlight I saw an amused grin spread across Jake's face, and I knew I'd been caught. "Come on Katie, we have been friends for how long? 8 years? I think I can tell when you are bored, or lying, for that matter."

So much for my hoping I'd be able to get away with my lie. Darn him for knowing me so well!

"But," he continued, still grinning, "Thanks for trying to make me feel better about it."

"That's not what I was trying to do!" I denied, once again lying through my teeth. "And don't call me 'Katie'! It's Kate." I had never like being called Katie, and almost everyone respected that. Jake was the only one that was brave enough to tease me with that name.

Jake just grinned. "Sure."

I glared at him. "Good night," I said looking up at his tall, shadowed figure from my place on the cool grass, "And don't let any vampires attack you on the way home."

Jake laughed a little at that remark and smiled again. "I'll be careful, I swear. But remember Katie, there's no such thing as vampires," he said with a wink before he turned and walked away. I was glad that even though Jake was obsessed with vampires, he never truly believed they were real.

I closed my eyes and listened to Jake's footfalls until they became too soft to hear, then I returned to my stargazing. For as long as I can remember I have always liked gazing the stars and the moon, especially the full moon. I could pick out many different constellations, from Orion to Draco.

It was so peaceful lying there under the stars, surrounded by almost complete silence. I enjoyed the quiet after the last hour of hearing about vampires. Seriously, how can someone talk about vampires for hours on end? I don't know how Jake does it.

I heard a noise off to my right, so I tore my eyes away from the stars and looked towards the direction the sound came from. In the darkness I could make out the shape of a small animal, one of our cats most likely. I called to it and sure enough, Natalya, my cat came running over to me, hoping for attention. I complied by sitting up and petting her soft, black and white coat. She had an almost all black face except one eye which was surrounded by white. Her paws looked like they had been dipped in white paint. She rolled over on her back and purred as I petted her belly.

After a minute or so Natalya got bored of being petted so she stood up and walked off, leaving me, once again, sitting by myself on the grass.

I yawned and figured it was time to go in so I lifted myself off the ground and started towards the house. I'd only taken a few steps when something out in the field caught my eye. I walked over to the fence to get a better look at whatever it was that was out there.

The thing was the same height as the bushes but it was much darker than the surrounding vegetation so it had caught my eye. At first I thought it was probably just an animal, one of our neighbor's dogs or something. But the thing seemed to be immobile so I quickly abandoned that train of thought.

The play it safe side of my brain said to just leave the thing out there and look at it in the morning. The curious side of my brain said 'What's the worse that could happen if you looked at it right now?' Guess what? The curious side won, so I hopped the fence and started walking towards the dark shape.