"Go home."

  That was the first thing I heard the bitch spit out.

  I barely registered the demand. Too busy being haunted by the ghost of the love I'd lost here. London cautiously stood, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. For once, the camp site felt obnoxiously loud.

  "Why are you here?" Autumn growled. "Why now?"

  I just blinked. My lips parted but I couldn't remember how to speak.

  "We were just... looking for clues." London managed to get out.

  "Clues for what?" Autumn glared.

  "To... try and figure out what happened here?"

  "Why bother?"

  "I'm sorry?"

  "Can't change the past. Accept it and move on."

  "Like you did?" I found my voice, but it was shaky.

  Autumn narrowed her eyes at me.

  "Like I had to." She replied.

  I worked up the courage to scoff.

  "Right. Like you had to."

  The terror that had hit me from the cabin wasn't leaving, it seemed pretty cozy bouncing around in my heart. So even though I walked back over to stand beside London and planned to be confronting, I could barely keep from shaking.

  "I don't want you here." Autumn's voice softened ever so slightly. "It's not good for you."

  "He's fine." London argued. "There's nothing here, anyway. Victoria died across the lake."

  Autumn bit her lip.

  "What?" I tilted my head. "Is she wrong?"

  Autumn rolled her eyes.

  "Go home. The others are being annoying."

  "That's your reasoning for stalking us out here?" I barked a laugh despite myself. "What, did you snap into Tori for a second and see them playing shitty music or something?"

  "Didn't you read Hunter's texts?" Autumn frowned.

  I faltered at that. So did London.

  "There's no signal out here." I murmured. "Is everything okay?"

  "No, actually," Autumn mocked, "Apparently the principals know you're a vampire, and that I'm dead."

  "Hang on, are you actually Victoria?" London cut in, falling a little behind.

  I ignored her.

  "Mr Vance and Miss Harvey?" I crossed my arms. "Are you sure?"

  "You think I'd bother lying?"

  I sighed at that.

  "I'm so confused." London groaned. "So... you followed us here because you don't want us poking around this place, you're somehow Victoria, and the principals know everything for some reason?

  "Catch up." Autumn snapped.

  "Hey?" I glared. "Why are you mad at me her? Be a dick to me, London hasn't done anything."

  "Oh, yeah. It's not like she's ever drugged you with silverleaf, or snooped through your room, or had little private conversations about me with Carly when she thinks I can't hear, or muttered bitter little comments under her breath while cutting my hair." Autumn growled. "Nothing at all."

  London paled.

  "Tori's always aware?"

  "Ever had headphones on while someone else is blasting music?" Autumn put her hands on her hips. "That's what Tori's perception is like without me. What goes on around her is like background noise I can't always muffle."

  "You need to calm down." I warned, stepping closer. "You don't get to show up and start a fight when you're the one who left."

  Autumn took a deep breath and sighed.

  "I'm sorry. It's just..." She glanced around. "This place really gets to me. I don't doubt it gets to you, too."

  "Apparently I have better self control than you." I muttered, looking her up and down.

  "It's almost like you've had years of experience, dick." She snapped again.

  I almost smiled.

  It was weird, painful, and haunting to see some sort of remnant of my love in a different person's body. But it was hilarious seeing Victoria as a vampire. Clearly a newly turned one at that.

  "What?" She glared with insecurity.

  I shook my head.

  "This is fun." I smirked and sat down on a log.

  The girls shot me similar looks.

  I shot one back.

  "Come on! Sit around the campfire." I laughed. "No better place to tell ghost stories."

  London rolled her eyes and sat beside me, whereas Autumn stayed still.

  "I'm not doing this."

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "Come on."

  "No?"

  "Please?"

  "No!"

  "Your blood smells different."

  "What? Uh, yeah, of course it does. Why would this body have the same blood as the other one?"

  "You still smell like jasmine, though. Just like your old body."

  "I... That's not even possible?"

  "Should I call you Tori or Autumn?"

  "Uh, I don't care..? I'd prefer if you didn't talk to me at all."

  "Sit the fuck down, Victoria."

  "Ugh."

  Finally, the girl sat across from me with a pout.

  The journal wasn't as hard to find as Carly had expected. Actually, it seemed almost too obvious.

  Dumped on the floor beside the bed, with a pile of clothes thrown on top in a lazy attempt to hide it, there it was. Carly considered it a trap originally, but eventually sighed and came to the conclusion that the book just wasn't cared for. She hopped on the side of the bed and took a deep breath as she opened up to the very first entry.

  14th of September.

  This is stupid. I feel like a girl. My psychologist said writing down my thoughts is supposed to help me somehow. I think he's a solid galah and a half.

  So here. My name's Zach, I'm 14, and I hate myself sometimes. Not in a cringe way, I'm not some emo. I just don't like being me. How I look. How I act. And I don't like what people think of me. Sometimes I get real pissed off when mum treats me like shit and I dunno what to do when I get like that, so I take it out on myself. I mean no one cares if I'm hurt, and I don't wanna hurt anyone else. So it's not even that big of a deal. Congrats, you're right, I wear long-sleeves in the summer and sometimes I skip dinner, but this shit is ridiculous. I'm already taking meds, why the fuck do I have to write in a diary like I'm Margaret praying to God?

  "Is this... the right book?" Carly frowned.

  She briefly flicked to a middle page and read a random section.

  Everyone is so fucking dramatic. I only killed two people last night! And one of them was old anyway!

  "Okay, yep. Right book." Carly rolled her eyes and went back to the start. "Can't believe it started so differently."

  15th of September.

  I still hate this. I'm only doing this because my dad said he'll buy me an Xbox if I stick to it for long enough. Dunno how the hell he's gonna be able to afford that. He's been in Brazil for a few months now, and things were fine until the other day. He tried to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal, but I know he's struggling with money.

  Being alone with mum is horrible. I'd rather be at school.

  Carly frowned. The entries didn't list what year they were written. The first one did say 'I'm 14' but she wasn't sure if that meant recently 14 or almost 15. Because if it was the latter, she knew there wouldn't be many normal entries left before they'd suddenly change.

  16th of September.

  That weird girl that's been staring at me at school tried to talk to me today. Ever since she found me when I stacked my skateboard that one time I ran away, I've really been avoiding her. She was nice, and she helped me get home, but she was just so damn weird. What parents let their kid dye their hair cyan? Regularly, too? I hate being in the year below my age, I'm in a class with 13 year olds. Yeah, yeah, I'm only one year older and all my friends are here anyway, but it's still annoying. This chick stalks me everyday. Mum told me to talk to her, but I've never heard that woman give me good advice before.

  Carly flicked a few pages more, realising that there were several months of consistent entries. They detailed the entire course from when Victoria first moved to the school to where she was already like family to the group. One entry from the following year caught her attention.

  8th of April.

  I did it. I can't believe she said yes. Oh my god, she's just so AAAHHH. I'm so pathetic. But she's so perfect. I can't believe we're together now.

  A warm smile fell on Carly's lips. The entry was short, but it said more to her than she'd known prior. Feeling in a better mood, she scrolled a few months further, and froze at where she'd landed on.

  I think it's the 29th. 30th. Something. It's August.

  I don't remember much. I'm in the hospital. Tori and Carly are really upset. Everyone's worried. I don't know why. They said someone hurt me. They said the girls found me almost straight away. I don't remember that. I don't remember anything.

  I think...

  I think I died last night.

  Carly wiped her eyes. This was the first page she'd been allowed to read from the book. She'd analysed every word over and over again, but reading it after all the innocent entries that came before it made it hurt even worse.

  "Found it."

  -

  "I don't really know what happened, either." Autumn fiddled with her claw-like nails, avoiding my gaze. "I can't remember much from that whole weekend."

  "Sounds like when I turned." I nodded. "I woke up in the hospital feeling numb."

  "I didn't feel... numb. I felt scared." Autumn brushed her hair behind her ear. "I woke up on the bathroom floor of that cabin over there–"

  "This one?" I glanced back to the cabin I'd felt too scared to enter.

  She nodded.

  "I woke up and couldn't really remember anything. I thought I'd just passed out or drank too much, so I got up and tried to ground myself, but," Autumn shuddered, "Obviously, the person looking back at me in the mirror wasn't myself. So, I fell to my knees and just... cried for a while."

  "Do you remember the camping trip at all?" London asked cautiously. "The drive there? The tent?"

  Autumn cracked a finger.

  "I have still images in my head." She murmured lowly. "I think... we were in the tent, I had a few drinks, we had music playing, and..."

  I raised a brow.

  She looked away again.

  "The last thing I remember is you asking to kiss me."

  I sat straighter.

  "Surprised I remember more than you, then."

  Autumn looked to me with wide eyes at that.

  I hesitated before speaking.

  "I did kiss you. I'd been handling intimacy better over time, and I thought it was a safe environment, so I just went for it. You were cautious. You told me you were worried about me losing control, but I told you that the burn I usually felt from kissing wasn't so bad anymore. And I wasn't lying. For weeks before, I'd been feeling more human around you. I really did think it was safe to just... try."

  "Was it?" Autumn asked quietly.

  I sighed.

  "Started fine." I shrugged. "We were so happy that nothing was going wrong for once. My teeth were staying blunt, my eyes were staying brown. So we went further. My memory cuts out pretty much the second I took my belt off."

  Autumn winced. "... When does it start again?"

  "A few steps away from your dead body." I tapped my knee anxiously. "I remember everything pretty clearly from then on."

  "So Victoria can't remember anything because she... died, and came back as someone else. And you can't remember anything because you presumably had a blackout." London thought aloud. "So what the hell happened in that missing space?"

  "When you found me," Autumn gulped, "Did I... look okay? Sorry, I know that's a stupid question. I just meant, like, was there anything weird?"

  "You had a healed bite over your jugular and some sort of large healed injury across your chest." I answered honestly. "Earlier, we actually found a decently big branch that had your blood all over it. The running theory is that it impaled you."

  "Why would I have been impaled?"

  "That's what we've been trying to figure out."

  Autumn went quiet for a few moments as she processed everything.

  "When you found me, what did you do to me?"

  I stiffened at the question. I gulped my nerves down and rested my elbows on my knees. I knew that as much as it hurt to think about it, she deserved to know.

  "I didn't know what happened, and there was nothing left to heal, so I first tried CPR. I only did about two compressions before realising that my strength wasn't stable if I wasn't, and one wrong move could end up with me crushing you. I then thought to call for help, but of fucking course, my phone wasn't on me. Neither was yours." My foot began to tap subconsciously. "I picked you up and tried looking for help, but I didn't know where I was anymore, and my night vision barely helped. Seeing no other options, I let you back down, bit hard into my wrist, and held it to your mouth."

  "You tried to turn me?"

  "Tried is the right word."

  "How so?"

  "I had no idea what I was doing, Victoria. I didn't even know if just any vampire could turn someone, or if what happened to me was some one-off event. You'd told me that when I died, it seemed like I'd only been dead for a few seconds by the time you found me, and less than a minute passed before I woke up. So, I expected the same for you. I counted the seconds and tried not to lose my mind. Nothing happened. I kept counting, but after more than 40 minutes, I'd accepted that you were gone."

  London placed a hand on my shoulder as I spoke.

  "I felt so empty while I carried you back. I was mostly letting instinct guide me to the tent, and I got lucky that it worked. I let you rest inside while I found my phone and left my dad a billion voicemails. And suddenly, you woke up."

  "I woke up? Just like that?"

  "No, Tori. You woke up screaming."