chapter 5

James doesn't know how he got wrapped up into this. In the backseat of a car next to Sylvia while Wilfred and Amber drive around an unfamiliar area. His mind drifts back to Amber's plan. They would first search the town for more bodies then if not go to the morgue to inspect the already confirmed victims. James turns the ring on his finger in anxiety. He regrets hastily agreeing to this plan as fast as he did. He turned to look at Sylvia for support; however, she looked just as nervous as him.

"This is a really stupid plan, Amber." Wilfred said as he was driving. "Really we could get attacked looking at the bodies you know?"

"Yeah but no one else was coming up with something and I'm working with what I got." Amber said looking through the window at the alleyways. "Better than waiting around and getting killed right Syl? Jamie?"

"It's just James," James said uncertainly as he glanced around. Before anyone could continue there was a lot of commotion coming from up ahead. Looking forward, the group spotted a large crowd with police cars around the area.

"Holy shit." Everyone said at the same time for different reasons. As Wilfred drove closer to make sure it wasn't the scene of Sylvia' feast they parked and soon got out of the car.

"Well, this guy is making things easy for us." Amber whispered as they walked closer to the scene. Once in view they could make out the disturbing death. The woman was a brunette and looked about James and the group age. Her skin was a deathly pale near white as if all life had been drained out of her. Her eyes wide and unseeing as if frozen at the moment of her death. The only sight of color on her was her clothes and the dry splotch of blood on her neck. James felt sick looking at her lifeless corpse, but he really couldn't find anything about her death that may prove Sylvia's (partial) innocence. He tried to move closer, but Sylvia held him with surprising strength.

"Don't we're not cop's and these guys don't know about us" Sylvia said gently even though that did little to ease James' fears of her. During our moment Amber actually manages to get a better look at the girl before settling with a concerned look. Wilfred also gets closer but instead of looking he seems to be sniffing around the general area. After this they signal everyone to get back in the car. As they drive off James feels his phone start to ring. Reaching down to pull it out he realized it was a call from Betty.

"Can I...?" James asked.

"Yeah, sure go ahead but don't tell her anything about us kay." Amber said nonchalantly. James hesitated for a bit more before answering the phone.

"Where the hell are you?!" Betty all but screams into the phone. "There were like three people who got killed last night and you haven't answered at all." James felt guilty that he hadn't contacted his roommate during this entire time.

"I'm just hanging out with Sylvia and decided to spend the night at her house. Sorry for not calling sooner" James said apologetically.

"Well, you better come back home soon spring break is almost up and we have to start studying for finals." Betty huffed indignity on James just sigh.

"Alright I'll try to be home before the day ends okay" James said hoping that'll be true.

"You better." Betty said before hanging up. As soon as James put down his phone Amber let out a barely restrained laugh.

"What's so funny?" Jame said feeling a bit annoyed.

"Damn Sylvie, do you always choose your boys this whipped?" Amber said before Wilfred hit her on her shoulder muttered about language and being nice. The impact actually made Amber yelp as if the tap hurt. While Amber was rubbing her shoulder and pouting Sylvia looked to be in deep thought and she's been like this ever since they've got into the car. James feels like he ought to try and comfort her, but he is still uneasy being right next to her after last night. As they walked in the house everyone gathered at the table. To discuss what they saw.

"Well, I'll start first from my observation." Amber said, looking at the group. "This is definitely a fledging with how sloppy the kill was. Plus, it didn't pierce the vein which more experienced vampires do."

"Well from what i smelled the vampire was alone so we're not looking at a pack so lucky us." Wilfred said with a shrug. "Plus, the vampire was male, likely early twenties or so." Wilfred and Amber both looked at Sylvia expectantly 

"Well, it wasn't a Dracula that for sure. They never leave their kills so openly." Sylvia said calmly. "Nor was he starving with how frequent the killings are."

James was kind of blown away with how much information they got from hanging around a dead body. He was so distracted by his amazement that he didn't notice that they were staring at him.

"Jame's, do you have something to add?" Sylvia asks gently, breaking James from his stupor.

"Oh, um well..." James started but had trouble getting the words out. "The girl looked like the other girls that died" James thought it was probably useless information but the other three looked kind of shocked which brought on more concern from him.

"James answered this carefully" Amber said slowly "did all these girls share near identical looks or just looked similar?"

As James thought about it more the girl from today looked almost exactly like all the other girls he saw confirmed dead on the local news and suddenly his stomach sank.

"You guys don't think?" James said hesitantly.

"Shit if even you figure it out then it must be obvious" Wilfred said in a near growl while Amber paled and Sylvia looked on in horror.

"This isn't an unrestrained feasting or random killings. The vampire is looking for a witch."