October finished pulling on her black tank top and walked over to the full size mirror on the outside of her closet door. She smirked at how her freshly dyed, bright, fiery red hair had come out. She had dyed it for tonight’s special occasion. Some friends from her school had just formed a rock band called Moments Left To Live and tonight was their first gig. She had dyed her hair just for them. She tucked her hair behind her ears and examined her outfit.

The tank top was black and tied like a corset in the front. Underneath the black strings of the part you were to tie was a plaid pattern of bright and deep red and white. Her pants were simple. Tripp brand, baggy, and had the same bight and deep red and white plaid pattern as her tank top hanging from both of the legs. She tied her black and grey Vans sneakers and applied thick black eyeliner and red eyeshadow.

She walked out of her room and to the front door of her large Victorian house. Her parents looked at her. Her father shook his head and her mother sighed. She looked back at them and rolled her eyes. They hated the way she dressed. And the way she dyed her hair without permission or warning. That gave her all the more reason to live and dress the way she did. Her parents had always tried to act proper and formal because they had a lot of money, seeing as they were both surgeons of some sort. So what? That didn’t have to influence October’s life or behavior. She often laughed at how her parents hated the fact that their only child was so "improper" and "terrifying".

October sat on the pale tan couch and waited. She blankly stared at the clear vase that had some sort of plant coming out of the top of it. She watched the deep purple beta fish swim around under the canopy of roots at the top of the water. His long fins and tail shone blue at certain points of his monotonous swimming circle. The poor fish, she thought. Mom and Dad never named him, and all he can do is swim around in an eight inch diameter bowl with roots hanging over his head. She sighed and heard a knock on the front door.

"I’ll get it," October said to her parents. "It’s most likely for me, anyway."

"Whatever," her father replied.

"Be in before twelve-thirty," her mother shouted from the kitchen.

"Alright," October replied as she opened the door to see her several friends standing on her porch.

Sarah, the shortest one in the front, looked up at October. Her green eyes met her taller friend’s brown ones.

"You ready, October?" she asked, pulling her Aiden hoodie down in the back and then in the front. October nodded and stepped out onto the porch. She closed the door behind her and the group of five teenagers began walking to the city’s recreation hall.

To October’s left was Jack. He was about an inch or so taller than her and his curly dark hair bounced on his broad shoulders. In the night, he looked like a floating head and pair of arms, seeing as his dark clothes blended in with the dark scenery. To her right was Sarah, and a little in front of her was her cousin, Tom. His thin figure looked a little ridiculous in the baggy clothes he was wearing, and he didn’t seem to mind. Directly in front of October was Vincent. He was the tallest member of the group, and had black hair with bright red tips that went a little past his shoulders. He didn’t speak much, but when he did, people would listen. His grey shirt blew a little with the light breeze.

When the group reached the rec hall, they bought their tickets and walked in through the big, dull brown metal doors. They saw the band’s rhythm guitarist, Ben, quite easily. It wasn’t that hard to pick out a kid with lime green spiked hair in a crowd. Ben noticed the and he waved them over. They walked to greet their friend. They saw the other members of the band setting up their equipment on the stage. When they were finished, the lead singer, John, motioned for Ben to join them on the stage. The seventeen year old nodded and jogged up the stage stairs.

October and the rest of the group stood in the front and center of the crowd. The bigger chance of a mosh pit, the better. The band greeted the crowd and began playing the first song, "Dead On The Dance Floor". No one was moshing. Rather, people were dancing to the medium paced beat. October could feel the bass of the song vibrate in her chest.

As she danced, she looked towards the right wall of the building. She saw a boy standing there. Probably about eighteen or nineteen. He was very tall looking and had a long black trench coat on. His arms were folded across his chest as he leaned against the wall comfortably. He looked up at her, his black hair falling over one of his dark eyes. She saw the corner of his mouth lift into a slight smirk and he nodded towards her.

The sixteen year old felt a chill run down her spine and turned her attention back to the band. They finished "Dead on the Dance Floor" and Ben played the opening chord to October’s favorite of their songs, "Drowning in Your Blood". She had heard it when they would invite her, Sarah, Tom, Jack, and Vincent to their practices. For some reason, the dark, somewhat terrifying lyrics had sounded beautiful to her and would always put her in a sort of trance. Nothing around her was there anymore, except for the lyrics of the song echoing in her ears.

After the eleventh and final song, "The Difference Between Being Happy and Being High", was played, the rec hall slowly cleared out. October scanned the crowd and then the hall for the creepy man who had been looking at her and couldn’t find him anywhere. She shrugged it off and went to go talk with her friends and the band. When she got up on stage after everything was loaded up, the lead guitarist, Joel, ruffled her bright red hair.

"You dye that for me, kid?" he asked. Everyone laughed a little and October sighed. Joel took his hand off of her head. "What? You know red’s my favorite color."

"I dyed it to piss off my parents, and because I like the color myself. Also, I couldn’t choose between red and purple, so I flipped a coin," she replied flatly.

"Oh, okay then," he said to her, smirking. "Deny it all you want." Everyone but October laughed again.

About twenty minutes later, the bass player, Andrew, went outside to back the band’s van up near the back door of the rec hall. Everyone helped load the instruments, amps, and microphones into the back of the large black van. As the band climbed in, three in the front and two in the back, the drummer, Ray, pressed his face against the window of the right back door of the van and waved. The five remaining teenagers in the parking lot laughed and waved back.

October looked at her watch. Her jaw dropped. It was already ten past twelve. She had only twenty minutes to be home. Since her house was out of the way of everyone else’s, she had decided to go alone. She waved goodbye to everyone, and by that time it was already twelve fifteen. Looks like I’m going to have to take the alleyways, she thought. She turned left into the alley on the right side of Main Street and climbed over a few boxes and on top of a large, green garbage bin. She climbed off of the garbage bin to sit on top of a fence and jumped down.

She never knew why her parents were so strict about her taking back streets and alleyways. Nothing bad had ever happened to her. Besides, if she had gone with everyone else, she would have been home about fifteen or twenty minutes late. Her parents didn’t have to know that she went through them, right? It’s not like I’ve never went through them before, anyway, she thought to herself. She shrugged and continued walking.

Eventually she was almost halfway home. She checked her watch. It was twenty one after twelve. She was making great time, and, as usual, nothing bad had happened to her. It was very quiet. Almost creepy. October wished that she had brought her iPod with her. It would have helped with the freakishly abnormal silence. She sighed and jumped down from another old wooden fence. She crossed an empty street and walked into the alley on the opposite side.

"Isn’t it a little late for a girl to be alone in an alley?"

October turned her head back so quickly, that she had nearly given herself whiplash. Standing behind her was the guy that had been leaning against the wall at the gig. She spun around completely to face him.

"I’m heading home now. I’m not even halfway there. Leave me alone," she said. She was beginning to tremble.

The man raised an eyebrow and smirked. His dark eyes had a sort of laughter within them. Without warning, October turned and ran at the fence at the end of the alley. She ran through the area where two boards were missing into the next alley over. She looked behind her and didn’t see him following her. She sighed with relief and began power walking out of the alley when she heard a sort of clapping noise behind her. She turned around to see the man stand up from his foot and knee on the ground. What the?! He couldn’t have climbed it that quickly. There was no trash bin or anything to help him get up there!

“What’s going on?” October asked. “There was no way for you to be able to climb that fence. You couldn’t have fit through the opening either.” She slowly began to back away. That is, until he finally looked up at her. Then she froze.

The man’s eyes were no longer very dark. Now they were an ice blue color. Oh, how desperately she wanted to run away. For some reason, however, her limbs refused to move. It was like someone had cemented her feet to the floor of the alley. He slowly walked towards her, making sure that their eye contact remained unbroken. Finally, he stopped within a foot of her. He looked down at her and smirked.

“What the hell is going on?!” October asked him. “How did your eyes change color? How did you get over that fence?”

“If I told you, that would ruin your reaction when you saw, now wouldn’t it?”

The man broke the glance for a split second. October took this opportunity to knee him in the crotch and run back under the fence. As she came out of the other side she looked behind her and saw the man jump over the fence. She gasped and tried to get away and run out of that long alley. She was almost there when the man tackled her and held her on the ground. He turned her over on her back.

October struggled and was about to yell for help when the man put his hand over her mouth and roughly pushed her head down, causing her to crack her head off of the pavement. She stayed still for a moment, feeling dizzy and basically crippled from the pain. The man opened his mouth widely and that snapped her back to reality. She started trying to bite his hand. She began trying to kick and squirm as hard as she could and the man quickly brought his head down and bit her neck.

This isn’t happening, October thought as she slowly began to slip in and out of consciousness. It can’t be... Vampires aren’t real. This type of thing isn’t supposed to happen in real life... What... What’s going on? It doesn’t hurt anymore... I can’t feel any pain... I feel dizzy, calm... Sort of like....

And she never got the chance to finish her thoughts.