We were standing on the edge of a forest at evening. A cobblestone trail led off into the distance, and through the trees we could see the spires of a castle rising up high. Something in my brain snapped. I wanted to say something, anything, to bring me out of my sudden dream-state feeling, but I was at a loss for words.

“Please tell me you see this, too,” Connor said. “I know I’m still running on crazy, but feel free to join the party.”

“I do,” I said. “What wardrobe did we just step through?”

Dark shadows flew from the forest, the low light hiding whatever was closing in on us. I had sense enough to pull my bat out and extend it. My eyes tried to follow the shapes as they flitted back and forth, but it was near impossible. Connor took a fighting stance and stood at the ready.

The dark shadows hit the ground about twenty feet in front of us. Despite the darkness, I could tell they were humanoid, which gave me a sense of hope. Being humanoid meant that my bat might work on whomever the enemy was.

I choked it up over my shoulder and ran forward, ready to strike. Connor grabbed my sleeve and stopped me in my tracks. He stepped forward, and one of the shadowy figures stepped forward as well. As it came out of the shadows, I felt the last part of my logical brain give up. Connor was standing in front of the figure, but from where I stood, it looked as if he was looking into a mirror. The face staring back at him was a younger version of his own.

13

Connor stood in silence for several minutes before he backed away. When he reached my side, he leaned over and whispered. “Jesus Christ, kid,” the color running from his face. “It’s Mini-Me.”

“Steady, Connor.” I stared at the figure in front of us. He wore a skull-and-crossbones-covered hoodie paired with skinny jeans. He looked like a poster child for Hot Topic, but looking up at his face, there was no doubt as to his identity. The teenager looked like a younger version of Connor, only with whiter skin and a darker mop of brown hair that was almost black.

“Aidan?” Connor asked, stumbling forward. His eyes were fixated and he looked like he was ready to fall over. I reached over and put my arm around Connor’s shoulder to steady him. Despite my effort, his knees gave out and he crumpled to the ancient-looking cobblestones of the trail we were standing on.

The boy in the hoodie looked perplexed.

“You know who I am?” he said to Connor.

Connor nodded in slow motion, his eyes never leaving the boy. “You don’t know me?”

The boy stared in wonder at Connor, but shook his head. “I recognize you from my nightly visits, but I don’t know you, no. Your friend called you Connor…?”

I stood there, bat still held up high on my shoulder. I had no idea if this was truly Connor’s brother, but if I went by color chart alone in identifying monsters, I was pretty sure I knew what this thing was by its pallor alone. Vampire.

“You were the one I chased the other night,” I said, gripping my bat tighter. “I saw you at Connor’s, yet you’re telling us you don’t know who he is? Then why were you there? Why have you been visiting him like that for weeks now?”

The boy raised a finger to his lips, silencing me. He walked toward us, radiating calmness.

“All in good time,” he said, placing one hand on Connor’s face and his other on mine.

His touch was like a drill of raw emotion running straight into me. It swirled in my brain and filled me with what I thought must be his confusion and wonderment. Connor must have felt it, too, but he pulled back from the boy, scrabbling back across the cobblestones. He rose up on one knee as he pulled something out of one of the sleeves of his trench coat. A wooden stake.

The boy looked on, unconcerned. “This might not be the best place for that,” he said, spreading his arms out to the surroundings.

Taking my eyes off of him was difficult, but I pulled them away only to notice the presence of several dozen other “people” standing along the edge of the shadowy forest. I looked back at Connor, but he was still watching Aidan and brandishing the business end of the stake at him. I reached over, grabbed Connor by the shoulder, and pressed his arm down to his side while helping him up.

“Aidan may have a point,” I said. I looked down at the stake. “A better one than yours…”

“This thing isn’t Aidan,” Connor said, shaking his head. His staking arm slowly started to rise. “I’m not sure what it is, but it is not Aidan.” Connor leapt like a shot at the boy before I could stop him.

“Connor, don’t!”

As Connor charged him, the boy moved in a blur of preternatural motion as if he was The Flash. Connor’s arm rose to drive the stake at him, but the boy was gone from the spot and already whirring around behind Connor. Connor’s hand flew open as the boy swiped at it with impossible speed, twisting Connor’s arm behind him and placing his own arm around Connor’s neck.

“What are you?” Connor asked, anger thick in his voice.

“I think you know, friend,” the boy whispered into his ear, “but as I said, all in good time…”

The quiet crowd around us surged forward from the shadows, all with the same preternatural speed. They were from all walks of life-different skin tones, different styles of dress-but all with the same snarling look on their faces. Then I noticed even more commonality among them-fangs.

As the crowd closed in on us, Aidan looked up and waved them away. “Enough! I have these two under control.”

“You do?” I stepped closer, swinging my bat down in a preparatory arc before me.

The boy let go of Connor’s arm, then pointed to his own hand wrapped around Connor’s throat. “What part of I’ll crush his windpipe do you not understand, pal?”

A woman who looked to be in her midtwenties rushed like the wind up to the boy. She looked Hispanic with a head full of curly brown hair that looked almost alive in a Medusa sort of way.

“Please,” she said, fixing a wide-eyed glare on me. I felt a strange sensation of passiveness wash over me, and I knew she was projecting it at me. “Let me have this one to deal with.”

“No, Beatriz,” the boy said. “They’re both here because of me and that puts them under my protection.”

The woman eyed me with dark glee. “So selfish,” she said, then ran at me anyway. The boy let go of Connor, dropping him onto the cobblestones of the path. Before this Beatriz could reach me, he had by her throat the same way he had just had Connor. Aidan lifted her from the ground until he could extend his arm no farther. She let out a hissing choke as she struggled to free herself with both hands from his grip, but it was to no avail.

“Let… me… go,” she spat out.

The boy held her aloft a few seconds more, and then tossed her a good fifty feet into the forest. The female vampire crashed into one of the thicker trees with a dull thud accompanied by what sounded like cracking bone. She slid to the grass below, unmoving.

The boy turned to the rest of the crowd, which had closed on him. “Anyone else?”

The rest of the group was seething and writhed with an excited energy, but none of them dared move forward.

“Good,” he said after a minute. He walked over to Connor and helped him back up. Connor looked dazed, but when he realized who was helping him, he pushed away from him and walked back toward me.

“You okay?” I asked.

Connor nodded. “Sure, kid. I’m shaken, a bit stirred, but I feel a little better. It’s nice to know I wasn’t crazy all those times I thought I was dreaming.”

I looked past Connor to the boy. “Just what the hell was that all about, anyway? I was right about what I said before, wasn’t I? You’re the one I chased away from Connor’s apartment, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. That was me.” The boy smiled, the tips of two fangs showing at the corners of his mouth. He laughed.