Chapter Twelve

AN-After much pleading, verbal abuse, physical abuse, cursing, screaming, fighting, and psychological torture, I have finally regained my inspiration.

Also, I apologize greatly for the extremely long hiatus. Now for my cracky chapter! (I've wanted to do one for a while now)

Larten came back roughly an hour later. He was still shocked at his companions, Kurda and Gavner, who had been conveniently in the area. Why or how still eluded him, along with the fact that he had found them in his tent, Gavner pressing Kurda against the wall.

He shook his head, and opened the screen door, then prepared to knock when he saw a red envelope with something printed on it taped to the door. He paused, then ripped it off, and tore it open. He shook the letter out and gave it to Kurda to read aloud. He made a big deal about it, but eventually started reading.

"Dear Larten…or, rather, Darren, since Larten can't read…

Alexis, Ashley, Ben, Amanda, my cousin Sarah, and I are going to an anime con! *Squees*"

"What the hell is a 'squee'?" asked Larten.

"No idea." replied Gavner.

Kurda looked between the two of them, then sighed.

"I'm so going to regret this…" Larten raised an eyebrow in time with Gavner. Kurda paused, closing his eyes, then opened them and emitted a squeal, then jumped up and down repeatedly. Larten stared at him, and then burst out laughing. Kurda blushed, but continued reading.

"We're heading to West Virginia, so don't be worried. In faaaact, you should come with us! *Makes puppy dog eyes* Pwease, Larten?" Kurda giggled.

"Read."

"So, until I see you then-You WILL be coming-bye!"

"…guess we're going to West Virginia." Gavner said.

"I suppose we are."

"Oh, wait, there's a P.S.!"

"What does it say?"

"You have to cosplay, or they won't let you in!"

"Cosplay?" Kurda shook his head.

"You know, dressing up like a character you like."

"…can I go as myself?"

He sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair.

"That spoils the fun, but sure." Larten nodded, then decided to flit back to the tent and get Darren and Evra. Kurda and Gavner followed shortly, and when they arrived, went to Truska's tent to get costumes made.

Larten could not find Darren anywhere in the site. He opened up the boy's coffin, looked in the closet, but didn't find him until he opened his own coffin. Darren lay sleeping, clutching a music player. He sighed, then called his name. When he didn't respond, he picked up a feather duster, and smacked him across the face with it.

Darren screamed, jumped up, and succeeded in throwing the music player at Larten, and breaking it. The vampire stood staring at the boy, then shook his head and told him to get dressed. Darren climbed out of the coffin, and immediately began making excuses.

"Well, y'see I was…um…dancing! Yeah! I was dancing to my music and I fell in your coffin and uh…fell…asleep…what are you doing?"

"Packing for an anime convention. Do you think I need money?"

"Anime?"

"I have no idea either. You will want to ask Kurda, he seems to know about this sort of thing."

"Wait-Kurda's here?"

"Yes. So is Gavner. I am surprised you did not hear them. They were in here. I think they may have been fighting."

'Or not…' he thought briefly, before pushing the thought away.

"So when are we leaving? And where is it? Should I pack a lot of clothes? Is it expensive? Do we need to fake an I.D. for me? How long is going to last? When-"

"In ten minutes. West Virginia. Yes. I do not think so. Probably. A day or so."

"Okay! So are we all going? And can Evra come?"

"All of the vampires in camp will be going, and yes, Evra can come as well."

Evra popped out from behind the couch, and Larten jumped back as he was tackle hugged.

"Oh thank you, thank you, Mr. Crepsley!"

"Er…you are welcome."

"You said it was an anime con, right? I love anime!"

"You do?"

"Yeah!"

"What exactly IS it?"

"Weeelll, pretty much Japanese comics…but it's also not!"

"Japanese…comics…"

"Yeah!"

'What have I gotten myself into?' he thought, and continued packing.

Twenty minutes later, after many bathroom breaks, meals, forgotten articles of clothing, sudden urges to chase squirrels, costume changes, and quite a bit of screaming, the vampires were loading themselves into a car they'd 'borrowed' from a farmer.

Gavner demanded that he drove, and Kurda called shotgun. Darren slid in first to the backseat, followed by Larten, then Evra. They began the long and perilous journey to West Virginia, several states away.

About five minutes into the trip, Darren was asleep on Larten's shoulder, and Kurda had put on Coldplay. He'd turned the volume all the way up, and Larten's eye twitched in time with the beat. Gavner sang along at the top of his lungs, and Evra made his snake dance along to the music.

Twenty minutes later, Gavner was falling asleep, and Kurda had switched his music to a mix CD of his own creation. Some annoying song about dancing came on, and the vampire attempted to do the moves in his seat. He ended up cracking his head against the window, and screaming in pain. Larten shoved Darren off of him for the hundredth time, then shoved Evra, who had also fallen asleep, off as well.

Roughly an hour after that, Larten had taken the wheel, and Gavner, Evra, and Darren slept in the backseat. Larten put the radio on a rock station, after much tuning, and Kurda had a fit because they wouldn't play any Train on there. Larten was extremely tempted at this point to drive the car into a lake and be done with it. But…he wanted to see McKenzie. So he resisted the urge to kill them all.

After a while, he gave up on keeping track of where they were on the map, and let Kurda program the GPS system to find the anime con. He'd gone on Darren's computer prior to the trip, and located the address of the convention. He attached it to the front of the windshield, and turned it on.

"Hullo, K-dog." it said in a British woman's voice. Larten raised an eyebrow at the Prince, who smiled back.

"Hey, Brittany."

Larten looked between Kurda and the machine, wondering how in the names of the vampire gods he had gotten it to speak to him.

"Kurda? You are aware that I cannot read?"

His face fell.

"…ARGH! Damn you technology!" he let out a sob, and hit his head against the window.

"Could I perhaps trust you to drive?"

"I guess…but I never got a license."

"What, you thought I had one?"

"…yes…"

"Drive Kurda, drive!" screamed Gavner.

"Yeah, drive Kurda!" called Darren.

"Drive!" Evra sang.

Kurda nodded his head firmly, then told Larten to park the car, and get out. He complied, but told the other vampire he wasn't allowed to pick any music.

They were on the road shortly after that, this time with Darren in the passenger's seat. They quickly regretted allowing Kurda to drive, however. He saw a local Wal-Mart and threw himself out of the car, promising he'd be back in five minutes. Larten did a face-palm of epic proportions, and waited for the blonde prince to return.

When he did-twenty five minutes later-he carried…nothing. Except for a cheap necklace with a 'K' on it.

"THAT was your big purchase? The purchase that you pulled over the car to get, that you stopped the whole trip for?"

"But…Larten…it has a 'K' on it!"

Larten's eye twitched.

Will Larten keep from killing all of our favorite characters? Will they ever reach their destination? And what of the strange teenagers?