Disclaimer: I do not own Blood of Eden or The Immortal Rules.

They were walking back from a successful hunt when Allison asked the question. She had been looking up at the stars, thinking of how they just drifted in the night, slowly burning through time. It had made her wonder if the night sky would still look the same when she looked at it a thousand years from now. And that had got her thinking about her own nature, such as it was.

Kanin did not seem very surprised by her sudden query. In truth, this was something that many immortals struggled with throughout their long existence.

"What does it mean to live forever?"

So he merely replied "Live? Can you truly call what we do living?"

Allie scowled at him. "Whatever, you know what I mean," she replied, a little crossly. "And you know I hate when you answer my question with another question."

Kanin gave a slight smile in the darkness. "Very well," he responded wryly. He paused, thinking of what to say. "To continue on forever," he finally said, "is to be left behind by the world."

Allie scrunched up her nose. "I don't understand."

Kanin looked up at the sky as well. But instead of gazing at the soft and fiery stars, he looked at the cold, hard and pitted face of the moon. "Did you know that humans once walked on the surface of the moon?" he asked her abruptly.

Allie scoffed. "That's impossible," she said. "It's too far away. How would anyone reach it? And anyway, even if they did, what does that have to do with my question?"

Kanin gave a lonely smile. "Once, not all that long ago, reaching the moon and landing on its surface was considered the pinnacle of human achievement. Now, it is all but forgotten." He shook his head. "Except by those of us who are not human."

They continued along the street in the direction of the hospital at a leisurely pace. (They were probably the only residents of the city on this side of the wall that were "leisurely" after dark.) Kanin continued, "When humans first set foot on the moon, one of the men planted a flag representing his country on the surface."

"Really?" Allie interjected. "What country?"

"I'm not sure you'd recognize the name, even if I told you," said Kanin, smiling. "However, that is not important. What I mean is, the flag itself is probably still there."

"Huh," said Allie. "Even after all this time?"

"Yes," said Kanin. "On the moon, there is no wind that will tear it to tatters, nor rain that will cause the colors to run. It won't be devoured by insects or rodents, and the ground that its on won't be worn away by erosion. It will stand alone on the moon, more or less untouched by time. This could go on for centuries or even millennia."

Allie was starting to see where this was going, but she wasn't quite there. "That doesn't sound like a bad thing," she commented. "The flag's always going to be in good shape. Although," she reflected, "it does sound a bit lonely."

"Leaving that aside," Kanin said with another faint smile, "that flag, which has an incredible view of Earth, will forever be standing on a foreign, gray, unchanging world, looking back at the place it came from."

Allie felt something stirring in her chest. It had a hard shell, but was hollow inside.

"And so," continued Kanin, "as it remains there, it will be left behind by the constantly changing world it can always see but never reach."

Allie shivered. Just then, the hospital came into view. "Do you understand?" asked Kanin.

"A little," replied Allie. She squinted up at the moon. "Hey, is there really a flag up there? Or are you just pulling my leg?"

Kanin sighed. "There's really a flag on the moon," Kanin replied. "I have no reason to lie to you about this." He stopped and looked at her for a moment.

Allie stopped too. "What?" she asked.

Kanin looked at her for a minute, then turned to face the moon once more. "You know you've really been left behind," he said softly, "when your own people have forgotten that you exist."

He continued on towards the hospital, leaving Allie alone in the dark.

Hi, thanks for reading my story. This is the first fan fiction I've ever written, so I'd appreciate hearing what you think of it. Please leave a review! And I highly encourage constructive criticism, so if you think my story could be improved somehow, even if its just a grammar or spelling mistake I made, let me know.

On a related note, does anyone think its weird that I compared vampires to the American flag on the moon? It made sense in my head, but I'm less sure of it on paper...