• Raven's bottom lip trembled. Tears swelled up in her cyan colored eyes, threatening to spill over.
    "W-why?" A soft voice came from her pink lips.
    Seth looked at her, green eyes apologetic. He hung his head, making his black hair fall in his face, as he spoke, "My dad...he got a new job...I-i..."
    Raven's hands clenched into fists, only to relax again as she moved over to him. She flung her arms around his neck, staying their firmly. She felt Seth put his arms around her, hugging her tightly.
    "I don't want you to leave." Raven whispered, as the tears finally escaped, rolling down her cheeks. She was goin to be alone now, no one to face everything with.
    "I don't wanna leave either, Ray." Seth said in her ear, sqeezing her lightly. Raven's heart broke at those words.
    A voice suddenly called called Seth's name, breaking into Raven's terrified thoughts. Seth pulled back, so did Raven. She wiped a tear away with the sleeve of her black jacket.
    Seth looked just as heart broken as her, but he wouldn't cry. Raven remembered that was one of his rules. He would never cry. He took Raven's hand, giving it a squeeze with a small smile.
    "I'll come back, Ray. I promise." Seth said softly. Raven's tears came back but she nodded. "I promise."

    Raven bolted upright in bed. The words he had said ringing in her ears. The words he had said six years ago. She hadn't forgotten about those words, but she pushed them to the side of her thoughts, every time they came to her. Seth hadn't come back yet, and she knew he probably wouldn't.
    Raven pushed her black covers to the side and her flung her legs over the side of her bed. The cold air hitting her like a wave. Her feet met the ground and she stretched as she stood up. She shivered, for she was only wearing a black camisole and little black shorts. Raven tread lightly across the floorboards, careful not to make a noise coming out of her room and down the staircase. She came to the end of the stairs, pausing in the hallway. The kitchen to the right and the den to the left. Soft lights flickered through the den, from the TV room on the other side. Raven took soft steps as she peered in the den and saw no one. She breathed lightly as she moved cautiously through the den and into the TV room.
    A boy sat on the couch, back to her, watching MTV. Raven smirked and silently came up behind the raven-haired boy. She leaned on the back of the couch, close to his head and said softly, "You know, I'm not sure you should watch TV in the middle of the night. It's gunna rot your brain."
    Her brother jumped, startled. He looked at Raven wide-eyed as she smirked, her chin in her hands. He gave her a glare and grabbed the remote, switiching the TV off and standing. "You should stop doing that, you almost gave me a heart attack."
    Raven's smirk didn't waver. "Good. That's what I was aiming for."
    She pushed off the couch and turned on her heel, slipping through the den once again and ending up in the kitchen. Not bothering to turn the lights on, Raven opened a cabinet and pulled out a box of cereal, then moving over to the small island in the center of the kitchen and setting it down. Raven glanced at her brother as he appeared in the doorway. She pulled the milk out of the fridge and poured it and the cereal in a bowl from another cabinet.
    "You're eating Count Chocula cereal in the middle of the night?" Collin narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms over his bare chest. He never wore a shirt to bed, just his usual black and red plaid, lounge pants. "What's up?"
    Raven didn't look at him, knowing that if she did, he would give her and interrogation. She turned around and put the cereal box and milk away, grabbing a spoon from the silver ware drawer. "Nothing."
    Collin shook his head lightly before coming to stand at her side. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he said, "Come on. You know you can tell me."
    Raven looked up at him, biting her bottom lip. He had a look of concern in his eyes. A look that would annoy her until she told him. Raven sighed, dropping the spoon in the milk, making it slosh out of the bowl. "It's just a dream that I had. It's bothering me."
    Collin frowned at her words, looking at her curiously. "What is the dream about?" He asked lightly.
    Raven bit her lip again and looked at him, hesitating. Raven shook her head and looked back down at her cereal. "I don't wanna talk about it."
    Collin stared at her a moment before squeezing her shoulder gently then turning and quickly going into the hall. Raven listened to him go up stairs and heard his door shut softly before shoving her spoon in her cereal and coming up with a small pile of marshmellows and chocolate pieces.
    Raven ate silently as she stared at the plain white wall. Listening intently for anyone coming her way. It was two in the morning, according to the clock on the wall. Raven finished off the last of her cereal and left the bowl in the sink.
    Making her way up the staircase and to her room, she thought about him. Seth. She smiled at the memory of him. It was hard to imagine him now, at the age he would be. The last time she saw him, they were only ten years old. Raven frowned, wondering if he even remembered her. Raven shook that thought away. Then, as she entered her room and moved to her black rose jewelry box, she remembered it was the anniversary of the day he left. She had the same dream every year on the same day. The one she had last night. Raven sighed, not knowing how to feel.
    She opened her jewelry box, pulling on the sides gently, til the gave and came up. She set the interior to the side and stuck her hand back in the box. She smiled and pulled out with what she was looking for. It was a picture of her and Seth on her tenth birthday, in the tree house they built in a weeping willow by the river. The river that flowed just over the hills behind her house. On the other side of the hills sat a little feild with a weeping willow that thrived by a river that flowed off into the distance one way, and flowed off into the city the other way. In the weeping willow, they built the ultimate tree house. Raven smiled at the thought of calling it that. It took them three months to finish it. Raven looked at the black rose alarm clock that stood on her dark-wood nightstand. It read 12:52am.
    Raven paused, hesitating only a moment before walking over to her matching dresser and pulling out a pair of her faded and ripped up jeans and slipping them on over her tiny shorts. She turned and opened her closet. Grabbing her favorite black jacket with fake white fur on the inside, she pulled her arms through the sleeves as she shoved her feet in a pair of converse. She tied her shoes and pulled her long black hair out of it's ponytail before opening her jewelry box again and slipping on her lucky dog tab with a rose carved on it.
    Raven grabbed the picture of her and Seth and a flashlight from her nightstand drawer and quietly slipped out of her house.
    She moved through the backyard, careful not to wake the neighbor's dog, Vixen. She didn't worry about her dog, Diablo, because he was coming with her. Diablo was the most loyal dog ever. He was a Doberman Pinscher. Raven whistled softly and Diablo came quietly from around the house. He padded over to her quickly and Raven patted his head and scratched behind his ears before turning and jumping the fence. Diablo followed her silently as she made her way over to the hills. Once on the top of the hill, she looked at the willow near the river before glancing back at her house. Diablo nudged her leg with his nose, asking which way.
    Raven smiled at her dog and started her decent down the hill. She took a deep breath as she came up to the willow. She could just barely see the wood of the tree house through the leaves. Raven smiled as she parted the leaves and stepped through, Diablo at her heels. She came up to where planks of wood were nailed into the trunk. She turned and looked at Diablo. Telling him to stay on guard, she climbed up the planks, which were still sturdy. Diablo whined for a second before his ear sticking up and he turned away, his attention on something else.
    She came up into her favorite room of the tree house. The little house had four rooms, each a good size. Which is why it had taken so long to build. The room she was in had a small green loveseat, that was very hard to get up, a little table infront of it, a battery-powered lamp sitting in the corner, a bookshelf across from the couch with about twenty books on it, and a map of the city and town taped to the wall above the bookshelf.
    Raven smiled as she ran her hand over the map, taking in all the memories it had in it. She moved over to the couch, feeling the worn fabric. She stepped into the next room. It had a small window that had a telescope pointed out at the stars. A pair of old binaculars sat on the cardboard box next to it along with two pillows that she knew hid underneath the box. They had kept pillows there incase they wanted to sleep there, which they had several times. Raven smirked. She had gotten in trouble the first time she had spent the night here, though it was only because she had fallen asleep on the couch. Walking into the next room, her smiled widened. There were three baskets lined up against the wall, each filled with things they had found on the banks or in the river. There was a window in this room as well, except this one had a small curtain and a window sill. On the sill sat a flower pot, filled with soil. They had meant to put a seed in it, but never got to it. A few sea shells were scattered around the pot. Raven picked one up and ran her thumb over the smooth surface, smiling softly.
    A snarl came from below. Raven whipped around, listening intently. A hiss soon followed. Raven didn't relax, it was too loud for a cat. Raven bristled, knowing what it could be, and raced through the last room, which only had a couple beanbag chairs. Coming to the hole in the floor that she came through in the first place, she glanced down at Diablo, who stood directly beneath her, snarling at something. The moon was up and she could see a faint shadow of a person. Raven tensed and jumped down, Diablo moved as she did so and kept snarling. She landed in a crouch, which she had trained to do. A shadowy figure raced away, towards the river. Raven ran after him, not far behind. She was watching, every cell in her body on high alert, but she slowed down as she watched the unknown person do an impossible leap all the way across the river. That only confirmed her thoughts. A normal person couldn't leap like that. Not across that river.
    Raven turned to Diablo and motioned for him to follow her. He growled towards the river a final time before obeying. Raven had an unreadable expression on her face as she moved back home. Her heart was racing in her chest. It was her chance. The person was only tall enough to be her age or younger. Which meant it was her chance to go after it. A smirk found it's way onto Raven's face. Her father or brothers couldn't go after this one. It was her turn to catch the vampire.