Mere days after countless students looked into a cow head's lifeless eyes, Jared Wilkins, Ginger Beaumont, and Dexter Bradbury found themselves in Jared's treehouse. They all knew about the cow head, though none of them had seen it. They'd all been home, away from the front lines.

"Hey, Jared?" Ollie O'Brien called from the ground. "When's the last time Maxwell went out any further than your backyard?"

"When Lincoln was president," Jared called back. "Now would you stop thinking about how fat and lazy my dog is and get up here?"

"Okay, okay."

Ollie's feet on the ladder made a trip-trapping noise as she rose. Soon enough, her green eyes peeked over the floorboards. She tossed a canvas bag onto the floor when she'd made it all the way to top. All four of them knew what was in the bag.

Ollie O'Brien's copies of Dracula and Ockham's Guide to Vampires and Creatures of the Night had been what she'd provided when Jared had asked if she had any books on vampires. Ockham's Guide had taken on an even more sinister air ever since the four of them had heard about the events of Allison Groves's birthday.

December was dark that year.

"Do you think we should tell someone?" Ollie asked uncertainly. She sat down, one arm hugging herself, her eyes cutting to the bag on the floor and then back again frequently, a traitorous, morbid curiosity. With her other arm she held a chocolate bar which she periodically took tiny bites from.

Dexter scoffed. "Like who?"

Ollie shrugged, holding herself tighter. "I don't know, really. A teacher. An adult, maybe. Our parents."

"You wanna tell your parents?" Jared asked, not unkindly. "Ollie, when's the last time you saw your parents?"

Ollie looked at the ground and nodded. She took a bite of the candy bar. Softly, she said, "Yeah, okay, not mine. But maybe one of yours?"

She looked at each of them beseechingly.

"Yeah, right, we can tell my parents we think there are vampires in Clearwater in between my mom calling my dad a son of a bitch and my dad calling my mom the worst mistake of his life," Dexter said. His voice held no feeling, but all three of the others flinched.

"I'm not sure how well it'd go over with my folks, either," Jared said. "You know them; neither really likes to talk about any of this stuff."

All three of them looked at Ginger, who shrugged.

"My mom's been having a tough time," she said. "I don't know if we should bring it up. Might make things worse."

"What about your grandma, Dex?" Ollie asked, half-joking.

"Cripes! No!" Jared said immediately, slashing his hands through the air. "Not her! She's...she's scary."

"Don't worry, Jared," Dexter said. "I doubt she'd take it well anyway."

"Okay, so parents and grandparents are out," Jared said. "Teachers?"

"And get detention?" Dexter asked. He still had that odd unfeeling tone. "You know we don't talk about this stuff."

"I think Dex is right," Ginger said. "We'd be taking a chance with any adult. I don't know if they'd believe us, anyway. Vampires are supposed to be extinct. Nobody's seen one for almost seventy years."

"Well, we don't know that for sure," Jared interjected. He nodded at the canvas bag. "That guide was written in the thirties. Gives us about twenty years, all kinds of vampire sightings could've happened."

It was a valid argument but not even he put much stock into it. They all knew—somehow, some way—that it wasn't true. No one had to say it.

"Do you—do you think we should tell Allison?" Ollie asked.

"Allison?" Dexter asked, raising his eyebrows. "Why do you wanna tell Allison?"

"It was her birthday message," Ollie replied. She glanced at the bag once again. Dexter nodded as if the thought had just crossed his mind.

"I don't know," he said. He looked questioningly at Ginger and Jared, but they both shrugged.

"Well, then what do we do?" Ollie asked. "If we don't tell anyone, what do we do?"

That was the important question, to which no one had the answer. However, a decision was soon to be made for them.