A/N: Another short piece of writing I created for my 30-Day writing challenge a while back, again for one of my all-time favorite book series. The prompt for this story was: "Mad."

The Foundation of Madness

Steve Leonard was mad. He was mad at the world; mad at his mother; mad at his absent father; and mad at his former best friend, Darren. But, mostly, he was mad at himself.

After all, he had been the one not strong enough to go against Vur Horsten's wishes. He should have pushed the vampire harder, threatened to reveal his identity even more; surely then the old bloodsucker would have relented and turned this lost boy into a creature of the night.

But, Steve had been weak. He had gotten scared- not by the vampire himself, but by a wooden floorboard breaking from somewhere up above. He was scared that his best friend snuck back to listen to his secret request; if that were the case, Darren would surely have been hurt by his words.

It turns out that Darren had, in fact, heard everything. However, Steve did not learn this fact until much later.

And that only made him even angrier.

Why did he not think that Darren would go back and steal that damn spider? If only he had come clean with his friend and told him what Vur Horsten really was; then Darren would surely have been scared away from the very prospect of stealing from him. The whole spider situation could have been avoided.

Alas, Steve had been weak and scared once again. He was afraid of their friendship changing, evolving into something unpleasant once the secret was out that Steve would choose a new, eternal life away from Darren in a heartbeat if given the opportunity. He could not bring himself to tell Darren what really happened that night in theater. At least, not until it was too late.

And there he was, just outside the graveyard, palm dripping with freshly-spilled blood and his entire body shaking with absolute rage at himself more than anything else. He had told Darren that he wanted revenge- and he did. But what he neglected to say was that this revenge was not only because of Darren's betrayal; it was for Steve's own inability to tell his very best friend the truth from the very start.

Steve Leonard was mad at the world and everyone in it. But, he was mad at himself most of all.