Open your eyes, Nicolas.

3. The decision was quite clear. I was not going to let him do any of those awful things.

I already had the cloth out of my mouth, but I decided there was no point in shouting. The house, just like the bathroom, seemed to have no windows in it.

I pulled myself up on my sore legs. Senior's grab was strong enough to get me sore and he wasn't even trying too hard. I flinched when I thought about what he was capable of when he WAS trying to hurt.

I opened the little small cupboard above the sink and started getting things out of it. For such a tiny cupboard, there really were many things inside of it.

I finally found a razor, which seemed so old that it must have been lying there for years. I squeaked my teeth, seeing how rusty it was. It wasn't going to make it any easier, I knew that, and still, I sat on the floor, ready to slit my fucking veins. I'd prepare to kill myself than see what he was planning for me.

"Oh, silly! Don't do THAT." Said a voice.

I was just about to faint.

"He already said he wasn't going to hurt you."

I looked around- the room was really empty. So who was talking to me?

"Wh-who are you?" I mumbled, trying to speak as loud as I can.

No one answered. For few seconds all I could hear was steps outside the room, and then the door opened.

It was a scary sight. In the door stood Senior, his dark eyes wide opened, shining even in the low light, his hair a dark curtain, moving with the cold wind which blew into the tiny room. He seemed furious.

"Didn't I tell you to stop stressing her out?" he said, glaring at the area beneath the sink.

Crazy?

"And you- get that thing out of your hand. I already told you I wasn't going to hurt you, didn't I? Now get up." He said, and walked out of the tiny bathroom, leaving the door opened.

Now, that seemed as a gesture of good will. I left the razor on the floor and got up, slowly following him through a dark hall. He was going quickly, having no problem seeing in the dark. In some point he disappeared, and I stopped walking, feeling lost. He popped up back in the hall in seconds, pushing a warm cup to my hands. I almost dropped the cup out of shock. He smiled and opened the glass bottle he was holding between his index and middle finger. He winked and took a long sip.

I did drop the cup when I heard the voice from before calling, "You could have brought us a beer, too, you know?"

I felt cold wind blow next to me as a guy passed next to me, walking straight into the room Senior just got out from, and warm drops of water trickling into my shoes.

"Oh, see what you've done now!" a voice shouted from behind of me.

I turned around, shaking hard. There were a couple of guys standing there; one of them bright haired, who had his long hair messed all around his head. He was wearing a black, sleeveless shirt and baggy shorts, and didn't seem to be cold. The other guy was wearing a sweatshirt, which's hood was pulled on his head. His hands were tucked in to dark jeans' pockets and he had a big smile of his face. He sure seemed to like the situation.

I hadn't got much time to look at them, though, since Senior soon placed his hands on me once again, forcing me to turn around and leading me to a little living room, were I was seated on a soft couch. He disappeared for a second, and I heard him talking with the three guys. I figured they must have been in the house before I got there, since I heard no one getting into the house while I was locked in the bathroom. It still didn't explain the voice I heard there, which sounded just like the guy who passed next to me. Did they have a spy camera in the bathroom or something? That was acceptable, though not very reasonable.

Senior came back and sat on some other couch. "Sorry 'bout them," he said and took another long sip of beer. By now the bottle was half empty. "They never try to act polite next to people they don't know, they just act as normal."

I nodded, again unable to take my eyes off of his.

"You're in a total shock, huh? Huh, Junior?"

"Why do you keep calling me Junior?"

"'Cause you are the newest member of our family," said the hooded guy, who just walked into the room. He sat next to Senior and opened his beer.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"I thought I told you to stay in the kitchen," said Senior, glancing at the hooded guy.

"I figured you were just kidding. You need our help to explain, don't ya?"

Senior frowned and nodded, then looked away from me and from his hooded fellow. For a moment it seemed as if he's blushing.

"Hey, you two! Will you come already?" the hooded guy shouted.

The two guys got there in seconds. The bright haired guy sat between Senior and the hooded guy, and the other one sat on the floor, with his back to the wall. I finally noticed how he looked like- He was short and boney and had his black straight hair on his face. He didn't have his shirt on, and I could actually count his ribs. I started counting them, then remembered that staring is somewhat rude and I looked away.

The four guys, including Senior, hit their bottles, saying "Cheers!" and getting stupid smirks on their faces. They seemed incredibly happy until I remained them that I was there, asking the most embracing question I ever asked.

"So, eh, are you vampires or something?"

The guys looked at me, then at each other and started laughing. They were laughing so hard that I thought they would choke. They didn't, though.

Senior was the first one to calm down. He looked at me with tearful eyes and let out a breathless, "No, Junior, we are not vampires."

He took a deep breath before he kept talking. By that time the other three guys had stopped laughing, or at least didn't laugh as hard. The boney guy kept snickering.

"Then what ARE you?"

"Eh, humans?" Boney answered.

"But you just popped out of nowhere!"

"Did not," said the bright haired guy. "We were there all along, in our shadow form."

"Huh?

"Didn't you notice you had four shadows today?"

"I did, actually."

"Then we didn't pop out of nowhere, did we?"

"But YOU WERE A BUNCH OF SHADOWS!"

The three shadow guys snickered.

"Stop messing with her mind, idiots!" Senior growled at them.

"Oh, you're just saying that because you don't want her to break down, the way YOU did." Boney said.

Senior wasn't going to let him get away with it. In a second they both were on the floor, throwing their fists at each other. Usually, this kind of event would keep me awake, but not that night.

I fell asleep as watching them fight.