Since Carmine had said she needed proof that Fredrick and Jacqueline were vampires before she'd actually agree to help get rid of them, it was slowly sinking in for Anna that she would, in fact, have to catch them in the act of attacking someone, and do it with Carmine by her side. And she could only think of one way this could be accomplished; she'd have to follow them until they went hunting.
The plan took several days for Anna to actually complete. She decided to focus her attention on Fredrick. Jacqueline was too observant; she'd already managed to spot Anna once. But Fredrick – he was arrogant enough that it would never occur to him anyone would be able to follow him without him noticing. But, oh how wrong he'd be! Anna smiled at her own cleverness.
Anna had talked with both Mia and Carmine, and they decided the best plan was to find out where Fredrick lived. Then, all they would have to do was go to his house at night and wait for him to come out; they'd be able to follow him hunting and catch him in the act. They'd discussed going to the office and seeing if they could find out where he lived from the school records on file, but decided that was too risky; since they had every intention of getting rid of both Fredrick and Jacqueline, they didn't want there to be such an obvious link. No, it was much better to find out in a more subtle way – one that didn't involve actually asking anybody who might remember the conversation later.
Carmine hadn't been too interested in helping to find out where Fredrick and Jacqueline lived – she still wasn't convinced that the two really were vampires. Mia was more than willing to help, but since she got picked up every day after school, she wouldn't be able to do much. So, the task fell on Anna to complete.
The only way any of the girls could think of to find out where Fredrick lived was to follow him home. Anna would have to be one of the first students out of class in order to make sure she'd be ready and waiting when Fredrick came out of the school. Unfortunately, this meant at least another few days where Luke wouldn't be walking her home, but it wasn't something Anna could afford to worry about now; she had more important things to take care of. She would start that Monday.
During art, Anna could barely concentrate. She was supposed to be sculpting an animal, but her heart really wasn't in it; her fox was a little too lumpy, and was looking more like a bear with a long tail. Despite the fact that her artistic skills were clearly lacking, Anna wasn't putting any extra effort into her project like she normally would have. With ten minutes left in class, she started cleaning up so she could leave the instant the bell rang.
Anna was already out the door and halfway down the hall before half the students in her class had even grabbed their bags. She hurried gracefully down the spiral stairs and flew out the front doors. Only a handful of students were outside. After a quick scan, Anna realized thankfully that Fredrick was not among them. Casually, she walked across the lawn and leaned as nonchalantly as she could against a tree, making sure that the tree blocked most of her body from view of the school doors.
Anna spent almost ten long, agonizing minutes waiting. It felt more like forty. She glanced down at her watch, realizing that she must have missed him. But how? She'd been one of the first people out of the school. Could Fredrick really be in such a hurry to leave that he actually beat her out the doors? Anna adjusted her backpack on her shoulders and sighed. She took a step towards the parking lot, glancing one last time back towards the school. And that's when she spotted him.
Anna caught her breath and quickly stepped back behind the big oak, careful not to be seen. She didn't have to worry; Fredrick was surrounded by people clamoring for his attention. And while he didn't look at any of them, Anna could see he was listening, soaking up the attention. She casually followed behind, using the group as a shield between her and her target. Anna took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax – this was just like any other prey she'd stalked before, right?
They continued walking, and Anna realized they were heading not to the sidewalk as she'd expected, but towards the parking lot. Anna didn't understand at first why they were headed that way, and didn't make the connection until she watched Fredrick walk up to a nice, shiny red sports car, unlock the door with an automatic opener, and slide into the driver's seat. Anna found herself surprised to realize that Fredrick owned a car – and a nice one at that. She'd never learned to drive a car, and it had never occurred to her that Fredrick might have.
Well, this was going to make things a whole lot more complicated. As fast as Anna was, she wasn't that fast; she knew she'd never be able to chase down a car – especially one as quick as that one probably was. Besides, she didn't want to be noticed, and chasing after a car was a surefire way to attract all kinds of unwanted attention.
Fortunately, Anna was sharp and had quick eyes to go along with her fast feet, so despite this setback she did manage to pick up some important information. She now knew not only that Fredrick drove a car, but what the car looked like and what the license plate number was. More importantly, Anna saw which way he had gone once he pulled out of the parking lot; he'd gone right, then turned at the second stop sign. As she watched Fredrick speed away, Anna realized with a sinking feeling that this was going to be a long, drawn out ordeal.
Anna left her spot at the corner of the parking lot and slowly started walking home. Across the street, just over a block from campus, was a gas station. Anna knew they sold maps there, and she decided to pick one up. On the side of the counter was a spindly wire rack filled with maps of various places. She found a large fold-up one that showed the entire city.
When she got back to her apartment, she spread her newly acquired map out on the kitchen table. Then, she fished around in her backpack until she found one of the highlighters she'd bought for biology class. After searching for several minutes, she found the school near the bottom left corner. She took out her highlighter and traced a short, green line along the small amount of Fredrick's trip that Anna had actually seen him take; she didn't know how far across the city her surveillance would take her, and she couldn't afford to forget where she left off. Looking over the map, Anna's self-congratulatory smile faded into disappointment. The city was pretty big, and the three blocks that Anna had highlighted looked so small and pathetic in comparison. This was going to take much longer than the day or two she'd planned.
Well, there wasn't much she could do about that now. She took one more dejected look at the small green line before deciding to put the map away and start on something more important – her homework. She had a five-page paper due in two days, and she hadn't even started it yet. She never would have thought school could be so much work!
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After a week and a half of hiding behind bushes and parked cars, Anna finally had a complete route from the school to Fredrick's house. It had been very difficult – more so than Anna would have imagined, but that just made it all the more satisfying for her when her work was finally done.
On Anna's first day of surveillance, she'd seen Fredrick turn down a street two blocks from the school. So, armed with this knowledge, on her second day she ran as fast as she could down to that corner so she could see where Fredrick went next. There were some bushes lining the yard of the house on the corner, and Anna only felt a little foolish hiding behind them. Fortunately, Fredrick's car was distinctive enough that she wouldn't have too much trouble spotting it, even with her view obstructed by branches.
Anna didn't have to wait long for his car to fly by. As soon as he passed her, Anna snuck her head out to see where he went. She watched him go straight for several blocks before making a left down a street with an ugly salmon-colored house on the corner. All of this went into Anna's map as well.
On day three, Anna had barely managed to find a place to hide before Fredrick's car whizzed by. So, the next day she decided to borrow a bike from Carmine. This way, she could get to the next corner faster – hopefully before Fredrick did. It worked out quite well, but the day after, again, she only just made it before Fredrick passed her by. She knew there'd be no way she could keep this up – she'd need help.
In order to give Anna time to get to where she needed to be, she enlisted the aid of Mia. Over the next several days at school, Mia tried various tricks to stall Fredrick, eventually resorting to jamming his locker when she couldn't think of anything else.
It was on this day that Anna finally figured out exactly where Fredrick lived. She had been standing incognito at a bus stop in the middle of a residential area, pretending to wait for a bus, when Fredrick passed by. She watched as the car turned about a block up from where she was standing, and she quickly made her way to the corner. When she turned onto the street, there were cars in the driveways of a lot of the houses, but no one outside of any of them; the street itself looked completely deserted. Anna listened, and realized she couldn't hear his car off in the distance as she normally could. She casually walked down the street, trying to look like she was walking home. But as she walked, she was scanning diligently to see if she could find Fredrick's car. It was a long shot, she knew, but this was a residential neighborhood. If he didn't live on this street, he had to be close. How far could he have gone before turning off his engine?
As she walked down the street, she suddenly stopped in surprise. About four houses away from where she now stood, she saw it. Sitting in the middle of the driveway in front of a small stucco house was Fredrick's car. Even though she'd been half expecting to see it, she still had a hard time believing her eyes. Could she really be done with her search? She walked closer to the house to get a better look. She could hear the creaking of the cooling engine as she carefully studied the car from across the street. Despite knowing next to nothing about cars, Anna knew she had the right one; after following this car for so long, she knew it well.
Now that Anna knew where Fredrick lived, her big plan was to follow him until he attacked someone. And, with any luck, Jacqueline would be there, too. Since Anna had started hanging out with Mia, she'd discovered it was a lot easier to hunt in pairs. And since Fredrick and Jacqueline obviously knew about each other, Anna thought it was likely that they hunted together as well. She would just have to follow them every night until she caught them. There was just one problem: if Anna and Mia were following Fredrick and Jacqueline around all night, when would they hunt themselves? It looked like they were going to have to start hunting during the daytime – the worst time to hunt, as far as Anna was concerned.
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