I own only the pub and Madelyn. Everyone else is LJ Smith's

I wandered the streets looking for some sort of haven from my emotional storm. It battered me
around like the lost and forgotten soul I am.
A real storm, an outside storm, suddenly kicks in and so I took refuge in a dark semi-empty pub.
Inside, two men sat a table both hidden by the shadows. I could hear them talking from the
shadows as I sat down at the bar.
"Where's Rob? Off mooning over Kaitlyn?" one man asked with a snicker.
"Rob came over long enough to inform me him and his new girlfriend were going out, Julian."
The other man answered
"New girlfriend, Damon? When did that happen?" Julian asked genuinely stunned.
"It seems Rob never knew that a certain girl named Anna had a crush on him." Damon replied with
a smirk in his voice.
Julian snickered, "I remember him talking about her. When did ol' Robby figure out Anna liked
him?"
"Yesterday, when Anna asked him out tonight."
Julian snickered again and I saw him raise his glass in a toast, "To Rob. May we have his
luck."
Damon chuckled, "Change of subject. Ever find out how you were brought back?"
Julian choked on the sip. When he finished coughing, he said "No clue. Like I said before, I
remember vanishing and then landing in some alley. That's it."
I sighed and murmured, "Another forgotten creature"
I heard Julian chuckle wryly, "Creature would be the correct term for someone like me."
I looked over in his direction, tossing my mass of blood red hair over my shoulder. "I doubt
it."
I could hear another chuckle, this time from Damon.
"Come into the pallor, little fly and come see the kinds of spiders you will find." Julian
invited sinisterly.
A shiver went down my spine as I rose from my chair and walked over to the shadowy table where
Julian and Damon waited.
My depression was long lost from memory when I saw the two men sitting before me.
"Sit, I'll get you a drink." Damon said to me, as I stood stunned at his darkly handsome
features. In the corner of my eye I could see Julian's strange blue eyes dancing with glee.
Damon got up and forced me to take his seat across from Julian while he went to get a drink
for me.
"You should be happy he didn't help himself to a drink, Miss..."
"Madelyn" I filled in slightly confusion as Damon came back with a glass of water and then sat
beside me.
"Why would you say that?" I asked frowning.
Damon leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Because I'm a vampire."
I turned and looked him straight in the eyes, "Oh, that would explain the blood breath."
Julian busted up laughing as Damon pulled back and shook his head. Well, it was the truth...
"So Madelyn," Damon said as Julian sipped his own drink to calm down, "What brings you here at
this hour?"
I looked down at the glass in front of me, remembering the pain that set me apart. The looks
and whispers from school. The names: psycho, ugly, and veiled threats. Mostly the strange images
and voices that was causing me to go slowly insane.
"I don't think you'd understand." I finally replied quietly.
Julian reached over and tipped my chin up so we were eye to eye, "From two forgotten creature
to another, what's wrong?"
I smiled as the tears finally came to my ugly hazel green eyes, "Well let's see, first there's
school. Almost everyone there either threatens my life or treats me like crap. I used to love
going to school, I was on the honor roll almost every time. My teachers thought I was the perfect
student, but now? Everyone hates me."
Before either one could interrupt, I continued "Then there's my family, very lovely picture.
Mom is committed, dad thinks I'm nuts because of her and is so poor he has to live with his own
parents, who by the way raised me since my parents divorced."
As more tears came, I told them more, more than I ever told anyone, "My grandparents smothers
me to death. I mean I can't be alone for one minute before they're yelling for me. Finally
there's these stupid dreams! Dreams of death and weird symbols and shadows.."
"Shadows?!" Julian exclaimed roughly grabbing a hold of my shoulders, jerking me out of the
chair and shook me, "What about shadows?"
I could see something ominous in Julian's eyes then. It was like staring at a frosted mirror
and instead of seeing your reflection, you saw a distorted image of yourself. I recognized such
an image and jerked free.
"Your one of them!" I cried backing toward the door, pointing at the thing I knew as Julian,
"You're one of the Shadow Travelers"
I immediately ran out the door into the night, back into my emotional storm that became fiercer
than ever...


Special thanks go to Shamera for providing me with Anna's name (since I don't have Dark Visions
with me). My friend Katalia for helping me out at 10 PM when she could have just ignored me.
Finally extra special thanks go to jeporra whose *hint* got me to write this.