[center]
[color=#3379b9]STEFANI ROCHE[/color]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/F1tsqRq.jpg[/img]
[sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/aX1fDIb.png[/img][/sup]
[/center]
[right][sub]Interacting With: Aoife [@Write][/sub][/right]


[i]"This has got to be the best summer ever."[/i] The thought kept drifting through Stef's mind in an equally content and excited manner. There hadn't been a summer like it before. Sunning amongst gorgeous ancient Greek ruins, the deep blue of the Mediterranean glittering in the setting sun before her, and the rich scents of local cuisine wafting her way. Turning as she heard a raucous laugh behind her, Stef joined in as she saw Caleb messing about on the scattered stones behind them. Jumping about, doing ridiculous headstands and just generally showing off for his younger siblings. It was pretty standard behaviour for her eldest cousin, but she couldn't help but laugh herself. Head turning as her Aunt, Uncle and parents joined the group, her gaze held for a moment on a shadowy figure in the distance, before her head whipped to her parents all of a sudden, frowning. Something felt wrong.

"Everything alright, love?" Her father asked as he took a seat to her right, Mother on the other side. He was wearing a ridiculous holiday shirt covered in the garish patterns he always liked, and had a sunburn on the back of his neck.

"I... I thought-" Stef faltered, trying to remember. Everything around her seemed hazy. Looking up again, the silhouette of the distant man had disappeared, and it was then that she recalled. "You're not supposed to be here. You... you and mum, you had to work!" Both of them looked confused and concerned as she jumped to her feet, now feeling panicked. Something was going to happen, but she couldn't remember what.

"What are you on about? We've been here for a week!" Mum said with a placating smile. In the distance, Stef could hear an alarm begin to blare.

"Come and have a sit down. Think the sun's got to you, Margot." The man was behind them now, and instead of a shadowy black, he was blood red. A flash of lightning, and her parents lay dead. Next, her aunt and uncle. Caleb and the rest of her cousins were still messing about in the background as Stef witnessed the massacre, unknowing of what was happening. The alarm grew louder.

Another flash, and her cousins were lying on the floor, motionless and bleeding out. As the stranger turned to her, fangs glinting in the setting sun, the alarm grew deafening, and she awoke with a start.

[hr][hr]

Despite the quantity and severity of the nightmares she'd been suffering from for the past year or so, Stef still couldn't get used to how real they still felt. Turning over and burying her head into her pillow with a tired groan, the young vampire tried to mentally shake off the last few images she had seen. It was nearly always the same design; starts off great, see's a man in the distance, and then everything becomes not so great. The people sometimes changed. A lot of the time she saw Aoife in place of her parents, or some of the other friends she'd made dying. It always cycled back to her family though. Dying, bleeding out, the dream so realistic she could even smell the coppery scent of their blood.

[i]Blood...[/i]

Stef jolted upright, realisation flooding over her. Blood! The last thing she could remember was smelling blood, and now here she was... but it was the void in her memory that concerned her the most. She couldn't remember going to bed, calming down, anything after seeing the cut Aoife had made.

"Oh my Go-AOIFE!" Jumping to her feet and promptly falling over in her tangled mess of blankets, Stef barely even saw the mess she had made in her room as she flung open her door, only to see a strangely tidy living room. There was no blood, no corpse, not really much sign of the usual carnage she wreaked when she lost it.

Not calmed in the least by the lack of mess, Stef paced from room to room, calling out for her guardian as she did. Her senses told her that the angel wasn't even present, but with the panicked blood rushing in her ears, Stef couldn't even think straight. What if she had killed her, and then started cleaning up after herself in her bloodlust? It was weird, and didn't really make sense, but ever since she'd been turned the world was full of weird. As she circled back to the kitchen, she was about to call out for Aoife yet again before clapping her eyes on the note.

[center][b]“Hey girl,
Just running to the store to buy some breakfast supplies! 

Stay Hungry,
Aoife <3”
[/b][/center]

"[i]'Stay Hungry'[/i]? Really, Aoife?" Trust her to make a likely accidental joke about what had happened last night. Staying hungry was exactly Stef's problem. Grasping the note and holding it close to her body, Stef walked back to her room, feeling quite numb. Aoife was clearly alive, and clearly okay to clean up and go out, but that didn't stop the worry. It never would, not until she saw her safe and sound. On top of the worry was guilt, as usual. Going through on of her "episodes", as they were now known, always brought back memories of the time when she had actually killed someone. An innocent man, just trying to help her out. It didn't really matter how many times she tried to tell herself that it wasn't her fault, and she had no control, the guilt still ate away at her. Stef couldn't even imagine how some vampires could walk around quite happily, knowing the full extent of the deaths they'd caused over the years. And then there was the thought that she considered some of those vampires not just friends but family now, which was a confusing mess of feelings too. In short, emotions sucked, but life without them would be even worse.

By the time Stef heard the jangle of keys in the front door, she'd made a half-hearted attempt at cleaning up her room. It had looked as though a tornado went through it, but after throwing her duvet over her crumpled bedsheets and blankets, re-stacking her bookshelves haphazardly and throwing her dressing gown over the ever-growing heap of clothes sat on her desk chair to hide it, it just looked like a fairly mild storm had blown through. She'd been dithering about maybe alphabetising her books out of lack of both energy and something to do when her angel returned.

"Aoife! Are you okay?" Sprinting from her room, Stef was ready to practically bear hug her before coming to an awkward halt a few feet away, giving her a scrutinising once-over. No bruises, no cuts, and no smell of blood. It seemed as though they'd both been lucky, but after such a close call, Stef felt far too concerned about her self-control to hug Aoife.