Autumn hated the stench of popcorn. Warm, sticky, buttery – ew. The smell of the stuff was so thick that it burned her throat with every breath.

  The candy? The chocolate? The snacks? She couldn't help but wonder how she'd ever enjoyed those things. They reeked of sugar and processed matter. She wondered if the salt in Hunter's coke can would be enough to give her a heart attack.

  "I cannot believe they're fine with that." She whispered, glaring at the boys in disgust. "I can't believe I was fine with that."

  "You forget how food tastes pretty quick, huh?" I teased. "You all thought I was being dramatic."

  "I just..." Autumn shook her head. "There's not even any nutrients. Just glucose. What's the point?"

  "Taste." I shrugged.

  She grumbled under her breath at that.

  "Can you two keep it down? We're trying to watch a movie, here!" Malachi pouted. "You're not as quiet as you think you are."

  "Oh." I blinked. "Sorry."

  I didn't really know what movie they'd put on the tv, I'd only watched maybe two scenes. The majority of the time, my focus was on the girl clinging to me. Ever since the body-hopping loop she got stuck in earlier, she'd been acting honest. No more snappy, defensive mask on her face. She was quiet, timid, and afraid.

  I was really starting to feel suspicious about the fear thing.

  Originally I had assumed that Victoria was borrowing Autumn in some way, that when she'd slip back into her corpse, the real Autumn Laurence would surely wake up again. But I was clearly wrong. After witnessing firsthand what happens when she leaves this new body, it became pretty obvious that there was nothing else in there. Maybe when she'd taken over Autumn's body, she'd kicked the original out. Or maybe Autumn had given herself up. I wasn't sure if I'd ever find out, honestly.

  God, this was all so complicated.

  And now here I was, having to take care of the love of my life's... soul? Spirit? Being? She felt like a shattered mirror that someone had tried to piece back together only for a few shards to no longer fit. The original Autumn already being a vampire only complicated the situation further, making it a challenge to differentiate what was the result of Victoria becoming a vampire by proxy versus what was the result of her dying and swapping bodies. She was so different. Still as stubborn, but otherwise, her whole personality just... wasn't right.

  Victoria had always been independent. Strong, sarcastic, courageous, and stupidly caring. She'd put everyone before her, but knew when to let herself be vulnerable as well. She would carry me away from a corpse while I'd be blacking out and then she'd clean up the remains with a blank expression, like it was nothing more than washing the dishes. Terrifying? A little, considering she was still human back then, and that seemed a little psychopathic. But now I missed it more than anything.

  I knew this was her, or at least all that was left of her, but she was so broken.

  It didn't take long to realise Autumn was incredibly possessive of me. She'd formed a dependancy without me knowing. I couldn't even get up to go piss without her standing outside the door waiting for me. Like a puppy. Even now, while I was scrolling on my phone and pretending not to be studying her like a hawk, she was curled up against me. Her damn leg was hooked over my hips, and her arms had wrapped around my chest. I was stuck in place.

  "Hey," I spoke up once her grip became a little too tight, "How're you holding up?"

  "I'm fine." She kept her gaze on the snacks. "Just grossed out."

  I tried to shuffle free a little, but she held me tighter. I sighed.

  "Still okay with me calling you Victoria?" I asked to distract her.

  "It makes sense." She shrugged. "'Autumn' is who I have to be, the life I have to keep playing in. 'Tori' is who I was, my old life, my old body. I guess I don't really have any better name for who I am in my head than 'Victoria'."

  I nodded.

  "Well, if you ever change your mind, please tell me. I don't wanna make things worse for you."

  "It would be pretty hard to do that if you tried."

  "Have you tried marshmallows?" I snatched the bag from the coffee table.

  "What?" She cringed. "Why would I have? I liked them when I was human, but I can't eat–"

  "Tori can." I smirked.

  She gaped.

  "The corpse can at those," she scoffed, "And I can't?"

  "You haven't tried." I shoved one in my mouth.

  Autumn narrowed her eyes at the bag. It made no sense to her. Marshmallows were some of the most processed things she'd ever seen. They were basically just sugar, water, and air. Was it the gelatine that made it edible for vampires? That seemed like a huge stretch. Sure gelatine came from animal byproducts, but if she couldn't eat fried chicken, surely she couldn't–

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I shoved a marshmallow in her mouth to shut her brain up.

  Autumn yelped and fought the urge to spit it out. Forcing herself to chew it, her shoulders began to relax as she found the taste almost okay. It wasn't nice, really, but it wasn't disgusting. She gave me a look of uncertainty.

  I chuckled.

  "See? You're fine."

  "That doesn't–" Autumn gulped it down, "Make any sense. I shouldn't be able to eat that."

  "Oh, you can't," I smiled, "Neither can I."

  Her eyes snapped wide.

  "But you can almost taste it, right?" I tilted my head.

  "Zach! What if I throw up?" She growled.

  "It's a harmless experiment! One marshmallow isn't enough to..."

  My skin went cold from the inside out.

  Hunter and Malachi both looked over to me in confusion. Autumn winced.

  I shuddered and quietly got up from the couch, calmly making my way to the bathroom.

  The group groaned in unison the second they heard me vomit.

  "Victoria, you're up next." Hunter chuckled. "Off you go."

  "I know!" She snarled, already feeling the nausea.

  I'd only barely caught my breath when the second round came. Thankfully, 14 year old me had had more than enough experience vomiting up food, so over time I'd become fully numb to the experience.

  ... Okay, maybe I shouldn't be grateful I was an anorexic teenager.

  "Move, dick!" Autumn shoved me aside and vomited in the toilet.

  I barked a laugh at the absurdity.

  "We have two bathrooms!"

  "I don't know what goes on in the main bathroom!" She defended between retches.

  "Are you seriously so clingy that I can't even vomit alone?"

  "Maybe!"

  As the night progressed, and the twins assured me over text that everything with Tori was fine, I could finally take a moment to breathe. Hunter and Malachi stayed in the living room, choosing to sleep on the couches rather than in Carly and London's rooms. That left Autumn and I.

  "Please," I begged, exasperated, "Get on the damn bed."

  "This one's Tori's, this one's Tori's, this one's yours," Autumn hopped around the room, inspecting every single claw mark. "Oh this one is definitely yours."

  "You've been in here a million times." I groaned. "Even after you died, as Tori."

  "I know, but I've never really gotten the chance to see what's new." She shrugged.

  I was going to lose my mind.

  It was three in the morning. I felt weak from vomiting my guts out, and an empty stomach meant the hunger would kick in if I didn't hurry up and fall asleep first. I'd have thought that Autumn would be feeling the same, but of course not. She was full of energy she didn't have spare.

  I could literally see her legs shaking as she paced around.

  "Hey, why's this photo upside down–"

  I snapped my head around to her and grabbed her wrist right as she picked up the frame. She went still at the sight of it. I cursed under my breath and let her go.

  That swimming carnival photo really needed to be moved. Either that or hung up so that everyone can look at it, get over it, and never want to see it again.

  "You kept this?" Autumn met my gaze.

  Her voice was so soft as the words fell from her lips. The way her eyes had narrowed, her brow furrowed, her breaths shook... I had to look away.

  "It's the last photo I had of you happy." I cleared my throat, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "That's all."

  "We took photos in the tent that night." She frowned. "I was happy then."

  "You were drunk, then." I retorted. "Not counting that."

  She looked back to the photo frame. A thousand questions raced through her head, but she couldn't find the strength to voice a single one.

  "You look so pissed in it." Autumn chuckled slightly.

  "I know, that's why I have it face down." I rubbed the back of my neck. "I know I was upset about you getting water all over me, nothing more, but I still wish I'd at least smiled."

  Autumn nodded solemnly. Her attention panned to the rest of the bookshelf, her tired eyes scanning each item. She'd thought she'd memorised it, but some things had changed.

  "Come on." I patted the mattress. "If you stay up too long, you'll start getting hungry, and then we'll have a whole other issue."

  "I'll be hungry in the morning anyway." She murmured.

  "And in the morning, we can go feed however you want. But you can barely stand up right now."

  "Fine."

  Autumn shoved me out of the way and climbed into the covers. I followed, dimming the lamp on the bedside table. She was quiet for a while, her gaze lingering on the lamp.

  "Y'know, I don't have that problem?" Autumn hummed.

  I shot her a confused look.

  "The darkness thing?"

  "Mmhm. It's never been an issue for me. I can spend hours in pitch black with no instincts falling up at all."

  I gaped at her.

  Well that was ridiculously unfair! I'd already figured out that some of the things I experienced after turning weren't universal vampire side effects anyway, considering Autumn doesn't sense things the way I do, and I can't hop bodies like her. But that? That felt like a sick joked played on me.

  My vulnerability to darkness had been one of the most irritating frustrations of my condition since day one. Most of my blackouts occurred because I'd been outside at night unsupervised. I had to have a lantern drilled on the back of Hunter's ute so that when I'd be tied down like a nut case, I wouldn't fall victim to the sky above me!

  "Please tell me you're joking." I winced.

  "Genuinely. I've had no issues." Autumn gave a sorry smile. "Must be a you thing."

  I groaned.

  "Why? Why is everything so damn subjective?"

  Autumn shrugged, lost for words.

  "What even do we have in common?" I huffed. "We died, we drink blood, we have fangs and claws, we have superpowers, but we don't even have the same superpowers!"

  "There would be a reason why it's so individual." Autumn assured me. "Maybe an evolutionary benefit, even."

  "You're applying scientific reasoning to vampires?"

  "We're decently scientific!" She raised her hands. "Our eyes turn red because the high oxygen levels in our blood leave our capillaries vulnerable to bursting under stress, and then blood leaks into our irises. See? Scientific!"

  "Okay, genius. Why is our blood so oxygenated?" I crossed my arms.

  Autumn rolled her eyes like it was obvious.

  "Zach, our bodies are mutated human bodies. We're not designed to sustain vampirism, it just affects us like a virus or parasite." She explained. "So when you take a human body and need it to be able to run faster than a cheetah, to lift cars, to jump metres, what can you mutate?"

  I shook my head, absolutely lost. Science was never my favourite subject at school.

  "Oxygen levels." She muttered. "High oxygen levels would enhance muscle capabilities, endurance, give us faster reflexes, improve our healing abilities–"

  "Where did you learn this stuff?" I chuckled. "You didn't know any of this when you were human."

  "I got pretty obsessed with vampirism after I calmed down from the whole... 'this isn't my body and I just hijacked someone's life' thing." Autumn blushed in embarrassment. "You know me, learning how things work makes it easier for me to accept them. I looked into other things that can push the limits of the species, like olympic athletes, greyhounds, even whales."

  I couldn't help but smile.

  There she was. There was Victoria. Buried under the stress, the grief, the fear. Still the same nerdy freak I loved.

  I grabbed her and pulled her down to the mattress in a hug.

  "Hey! What? Zach!" She protested.

  "Shut up and sleep." I grumbled into her hair.

  Autumn sighed and reluctantly moulded into my touch. The familiar warmth and scent of cinnamon enveloped her, and her eyes fluttered shut as she rested her head on my chest.