We all pick up a weapon. David takes a dagger, Abigail takes a gun, Matthias takes a bow and arrow, and I grab the crossbow. We all point it to where the noise came from.

Was my vision wrong? It isn't dusk yet.

"I'm warning you, we're armed." Matthias calls out to the army.

"We're not the army!" An older voice calls out. "We're from the compound in Illinois. We're here to help."

"How did you know our location?" Madelyn asks.

"The army revealed it."

"And why should we believe you?"

"Because we're telling the truth." A Black man walks out of the woods with his hands up, and a group of other vampires follow him. We all look long and hard at them. When Matthias lets his weapon down, we all do. "My name is Micheal."

"My name is Matthias Wayward."

"I'm Abigail."

"I'm David."

"And I'm-"

"Head Councilwoman Wayward!" The man interjects. He and the rest of his clan go down onto one knee, and bow their heads. "We are honored to serve under you."

"It is my honor to serve with all of you." Is all I can muster up. "Please, rise." They all do so, falling back to whatever stance they were in before.

"Rumor has it some of the international vampire's might be on their way." Micheal says. "Namely the Italians and the Amazonian's."

"Any other compounds?" I ask him. I don't know if I should take the reigns on this, of if I should let Matthias take control of this. He was doing fine before.

"The ones that Mikah and Emma's army won't be going through are soon to follow, I'm sure."

Mikah and Emma's army. Emma is apart of this war now. I never want to her name like this again, but I don't think I'll be able to.

As I look around at the faces of my family members, I can tell that they're all thinking the same.

"We need to devise a battle plan, Head Councilwoman." Micheal suggests.

"We could set up a trap. Catch as many of the army as we can before they come here. Then, we will fight the rest. I want some people up in trees." I look around at the crowd that has now formed a circle. It reminds me of General Leia Organna in A New Hope. "I also, regret to inform you that some of you may die. If you are unwilling to accept this, we will do nothing to stop you from leaving. The fastest of you who do stay, I ask that you gather the bodies of those whom we have lost. We will bury our dead with dignity.

"Those of you who are willing to fight, the entirety of the world owes you a debt of gratitude. As do I. Fight with valiance, I ask you. Fight with intelligence. And the most difficult I will ask you, is to fight with mercy. Any last minute surrenders, true surrenders, listen to them. It is not our judgement to make. I don't know how many will be under the control of... of Emma."

It hurts me to say her name like that. It hurts me to admit that she is hurting people. That Emma could be lethal. That Emma could be evil.

"Take your positions, I will let you know when they are close." I say.

Some do gather in the trees, and others stay on the ground, and hide behind rocks. Others start to tie weeds and vines together to make the net for the trap. No one leaves, though. They all are here to stay and fight. I have never led a team in sports, let alone an army over world domination. If I fail, I will be as dead as those we will bury tonight.

I close my eyes, and focus in on them. I only focus in on Mikah. I don't want to watch what Emma's doing. They're off fighting somewhere in Indiana. They'll be here one that battle ends.

I walk over to David, who sits with his back pressed against a tree.

"Hey." I sadly sing-song a little as I sit next to him.

"Were there any warning signs?"

"What?"

"Were there any warning signs that Emma would ever do something like this?"

Emma coming into my room that last night at Vlad's Point. She was going to see Mikah. She was the one who set Amelia up. She controlled Amelia. She made her do that. I look over at David. Do I tell him the truth? Do I make him feel better?

"Only after it was all said and done. The murder of that human at Vlad's Point? I think that was her."

David curses under his breath. "I wish there was something I could do."

"Me too."

"If- If there was a way that I could go back, and reverse our roles, I would. I know the chances for my living through this are slim, but hers living at all, she's going to die, Canada. If she doesn't die in battle, and they catch her, she's going to die." David's tear ducts start to gain water. "My kid sister. I love her so much." David puts his head in his hands, and sobs for a few minutes. He's already starting to grieve, and Emma is still alive.

"Thank you."

He picks his head up, and looks at me. "Thank you?"

"Thank you for everything. Thank you for going back to high school for me. Thank you for showing me this world. Thank you for being the greatest big brother."

Matthias and Abigail walk around, and we can both see them.

"Thank you, Abigail, my mother. Thank you Matthias, my father. I love you."

The words fall out of my mouth. I haven't said those words in years. I've hardly thought those words in years. The last time I said them was at my families graves. I couldn't go to their funeral, I wasn't able to be around humans yet. I had to say it to a block of marble instead of the actual person.

"I love you, too." Abigail says.

"I love you." A small smile forms on Matthias's lips. I look around me as dusk starts to fall. They'll be coming anytime now.

A holler suddenly comes through the winds.

Everyone's ears perk up, and look over to the sound. Hundreds of vampires start charging at us, and everyone pick up a weapon.

The other army fires the first shot. I don't know who specifically started it, but there's a long pause. Finally, David fires a shot directly through one of the vampires, and the fighting begins. I fire a couple of clean and clear shots at a few people.

Those were people I just shot. They were evil, but did they have to die? Couldn't they be reformed? What if they were under someone's control? Did I just kill an innocent?

I see a person come charging towards me. I pull an arrow out of a body near by, and put it back into my crossbow, and aim it at them. I fire, but at the last second, they enhance their speed, and I miss them. I hit someone behind them, but the young man I was pointing at grabs my arm. Edmund.

"Is someone controlling you?" I ask.

Fight with mercy.

A smirk falls onto the boy's lips. "No. I'm in control here. Come on, Mikah and your sister want you."

"I'm not going by will." I look him dead in the eyes.

Fight valiantly.

"Fine then."

Edmund quickly swings so my bow is out of my hand, and lifts my off the ground and over his shoulder. He runs towards a different parts of the forest. He stops at a tree, and no one else is there. He sets me down on the ground, and binds my wrists in rope.

I here a thud, and the ground trembles beneath my feet. The same things happens again, and I turn my back to see who caused it. Standing before me is none other than Mikah and Emma. Is this how I'm going to die?

"Nice to see you again, Head Councilwoman Wayward. You're putting up more of a fight than the other compounds have combined." Mikah says.

I remain silent.

"I'll cut to the chase. Surrender."

"No. We will never surrender to you. I will die before that happens."

"Well then, I look forward to visiting your tombstone." Mikah says. "As does your sister."

I turn to face her. Her hair is messier than usual, and the has some dirt caked onto her clothes and face. Even like this, she's beautiful.

"Come home, Emma."

"I am home." Emma says. "And even if I did go to what you think is my home, do you know what will happen to me?"

"I can explain to the council that you have repented, Emma."

"Big words for such a young girl." Mikah says. "You're starting to sound more like us older ones."

"Emma, please. You will be safe. Besides that, you're killing innocents."

"They are not innocent. They want us to continue being oppressed." She walks over to me, and cups my face, her usual, cheery, smile on her face. She looks at me as if this were a conversation happening anywhere else, about anything else. "That's why I had Edmund bring you over here. I wanted you to join us."

"Why would I do that?"

"For freedom."

"We could be free now, since the secret is out."

"Canada, you and I both know that will not be the case. You've got all of the people in the faith, the people who think we're freaks of nature, the people who say that we're monsters. Come on, Canada, you know we won't stand a chance."

I stay silent again. That will happen. People will want to kill us.

But we can always prove them wrong. They can always look at how we're defending them. We're fighting this war so they won't be oppressed.

They could say that we've served our purpose.

We can keep on proving our purpose. We can show them our research on the cures for illnesses that we've done.

And the way that we're going to save the planet.

We are fighting this war so that we don't have to hide. We are fighting this war to make sure that someone so evil will not have the throne for an eternity. We are fighting this war to stop them.

"No, Emma. I won't join you."

She put force onto her hand, and pushes me, sending me flying into a tree. It's enough to knock the wind out of me. I pull at the restraints, even though I won't fight my sister.

"Do you have any clue how tired I am of you?!" She shouts at me. "I worked so hard for years, only to be over thrown by some young adult?" She grabs me by the throat, and picks me up off of the ground. "You won't win this battle, I will. I will win for once. For once."

She starts to close her hand tighter and tighter. Even though I don't need air, I still choke. She slowly pulls a silver dagger out from a pocket, and holds it up against my throat. She slowly starts applying more and more pressure to it.

This is how I'm going to die.

I close my eyes, and wait for the world to go dark.

"That's enough, Emma." Mikah's voice calls out. The dagger comes off of my throat and I'm thrown back onto the ground. "I think she's scared enough."

Emma gives me a dirty look as she walk away.

"What?" I ask. Edmund cuts the rope off of my arms, leaving them free. I stare at it my wrists.

"Let her play general. Let her think she will win. Once the time comes, she will watch the last of what she think is her army die off, or join us. Then, we will take her, and we'll make her death longer, and more painful. We will do it while our kingdom watches us. Then they will know who not to mess with, and the rest of the Vampire Leaders will know what's coming to them. Go, and have a nice fight."

I look at them one last time. I take a look at my sister, and I run back off to the battle field, letting my instinct take me there. When I finally get back, Mikah's army is more depleted than it was when it came here.

"There you are!" Abigail shouts, though not taking her eyes off of the vampire she's aiming for. She fires, and it goes straight through. "Where were you?"

"They took me to Mikah and Emma."

"And are you okay?" Matthias swiftly grabs both sides of my head, and studies my face.

"I'm fine."

"Good. That silver paint worked." Matthias says, promptly picking up his bow.

"How have things been here?"

Matthias fires another shot into the army. "Pretty good, their forces are depleting, and fast."

"And hardly any of our people had to die." I feel a smile of victory creep onto my face.

"And hardly any of our people had to die." Matthias echos.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I see Edmund coming straight for us. He keeps changing directions, so I can't point my bow. I close my eyes, and let my instinct take over me. It pulls my arrow to the side, and fires. When I open my eyes, Edmund is lying on the ground, arrow straight through his chest.

I look at my quiver, which isn't holding hardly anymore arrows, and cautiously walk throw the line of fire to retrieve it. I reach him, and look at him as he takes his last breath. A choking noise comes from his lips, and his eyes match the description of more fear than he can bear.

The noises stop, leaving him staring up at the ceiling above. I pull the arrow out of his chest, and his eyes close, slowly and peacefully.

I retreat back to our area of the forest. There was only one person on Mikah and Emma's army left, and we quickly surrounded the boy. He blinked hard a few times, and his stoic, emotionless face turns to a face littered with confusion and panic.

"Where am I?" He asks.

"You're safe." Matthias explains. "That's all that matters right now."

"What happened?"

"You were put under the control of... a very powerful vampire." Abigail tells the boy.

"I'm sorry." he suddenly looks around, and his terror expands. "Did I do this?"

"Depending on your view. You didn't know what you were doing. It wasn't you up there. It was your body, sure, but not your brain." Micheal speaks softly.

The boy's hand comes over his mouth. Tears start to threaten his eyes. "I am so sorry. Please, don't kill me." He falls to his knees.

"We won't kill you." Matthias puts his hands up in a calming manner when the boy looks up.

"But that doesn't mean we won't." The voice of Mikah booms across the field. The shoot the boy dead.

"Hold still." Emma smirks a little as everyone from the other compounds freezes right where they are, and wait to get shot. All of the other Wayward's flee to the other sides of the battle field, aiming our weapons. I close my eyes to focus on Mikah, but a loud bang, followed by another loud bang, followed by another, and then another. The last one skids right past me, and I fake going limp.

"Sorry it had to end this way, truly." Mikah says, and they walk off further into the woods. I wait in that tree for a little while.

I don't want to go down and see the further wreckage. I know I eventually do, though. Someone has to stop them. Slowly, I get up from where I was laying, and walk over to where I last saw David. We make eye contact at the same time, and run over to each other for a warm embrace.

"You scared me, kid sister." David says in my ear.

"So did you, big brother." When we brake away, both of us had tears of joy coming from our eyes. We share a small laugh over nothing, but something snaps us both to reality. Both of us slowly turn our heads over to where we last saw Abigail and Matthias. We force our feet to go one in front of the other to there location, and see them lying up against a tree trunk.

I start to shake them, lightly at first, and then violently.

"Come on, wake up. Please, both of you. Please. I can't lose my parents again. Please." My tears of joy have since turned to tears of sorrow. "Mom? Dad?"

They look peaceful, almost like they're sleeping, but the holes in their boy tell a different story. If you look away from the holes, you'd see a couple leaning against each other in their sleep in the forest. If you did look at the holes, you would see a couple's final wish was being right next to each other.

"Please." I hold their hands, and turn my head to look over at David. He gives me a knowing look, then nods his head. His lips are folded in, as if fighting every urge to cry. I run over to him once more, and we embrace tightly, still facing our parents.

Our dead parents.

All that I can do now, is sob.