Black and unmemorable, the car prowled the streets as it had been doing for the better part of the night. They had found the exit that took them out of the city. The road was bumpy. But no old farmhouses stood out at all. No long driveways, no burnt barns, no stone steps. Maybe Jeff is wrong, Edge kept thinking. But his words had jarred Edge’s memories, so there had to be some element of realism to the place. They had passed countless places, but none of them struck a cord with Edge or Jeff. Frustration surfaced on Edge’s face, and Christian gazed out the window sleepily. Jeff was in the back, sitting bolt upright, eyes moving constantly from one window to the other.

"Stop." Jeff commanded sharply, somewhat startling the two others. "Its there." He pointed to the right. It was there. Painfully, Edge looked, memories of burnt flesh surfacing as he saw the skeletal like remains of the barn creeping over the house. Jeff felt a twinge of guilt at the fact that the first time he had come, his brother had been beside him, and would never be again. Christian felt nothing. Edge had stopped the car and was the last to get out. As much as it hated this place, he had to go in. Pushing the past down, he stood beside his brother. Christian was staring up at the house.

"How do we do it?" he asked softly, more talking to himself than anyone else. Edge shook his head, and looked to Jeff, who stood frozen, biting his lip.

"I – I think there’s a window in the basement. I remember when he kept us there, I was afraid of the light…." Edge frowned.

"But what if Gangrel’s in there? We don’t know. Its dangerous."

"No." Christian spoke up. "I can do it. Distract him, I mean. I know his weakness. Its me."

Questions sifted through Gabrielle's mind faster than she could recognise them. But one stood out. Still not sure of the defining line between thought and speech, she spoke.

"You're dead." Silence, then broken by a sudden outburst.

"No." Matt's voice interjected sharply. "I'm not."

"But….but Jeff said he saw - "

"Jeff? My brother? He's still alive?"

"Yes."

"I was waiting for him. That’s why I thought I was here." Confusion crept into Gabrielle's head. That wasn’t what he had said earlier.

"but you said it was Gangrel who put you here for sins, or something, right?"

"I don’t know. Where are you? You body, I mean." Try as she might, Gabrielle could not place where she had been last. "You can’t remember. You'll lose your memory fast. Our memories slowly drift away. We exist in someone else's head, you know. Cling to a memory. Something. Someone."

"What do you cling to?"

"Hope. Hope of seeing my brother. As long as I remember him, I know I was once alive, and I can live again, out of Gangrel's mind. What do you cling to?" thinking briefly, the first image that came into her head was Edge. Edge standing beside the window on her first night with him, eyes soft, looking out over New Orleans.

"Do you miss him?"

"I'm empty without him…I need him."

"And you'll get him."

Edge tried to stop his brother from going in the house. If any of Christian memories came back suddenly, he would know everything. Edge could only watch his brother climb in through the basement window. He watched with Jeff, who stood silently beside him, his fear of going in the house stopping him from doing so. They both stared at the barn rising like a blackened demon over the house.

"You said he burned you?" the question rose and fell on Edge's ears. He hadn't spoke of it to anyone, only as reference, but never in detail. He walked up the driveway, to sit on the steps, but found himself following the dead trail to the barn. Jeff knew enough to stay away for now. Edge didn’t even have to glance behind to tell that. He was inches from the barn. It had been three months.

"No! First your brother, now you? Who is she?" Gangrel demanded loudly, standing over edge, who sat on the back steps.

"I don’t know who she is. But it doesn’t matter."

 

"Yes, it does. Is she another vampire? I told you not to go out and - "

"She's mortal." He felt Gangrel snap. Everything went pure and blindingly white for a short time. Slowly, colours and shapes returned, and Edge found himself in the old barn outside that used to house animals that they had long since fed on in desperation. He was in the middle of a circle of fire. There was an instinctive reflex to run, but at this point he didn’t know it wasn’t deadly. Gangrel stood on the other side of the ring of fire, laughing.

"This is what you get for betraying me…"

Shaking his head, forcing the memories to dissipate, Edge tuned and saw Jeff.

"You okay?"

"Yea." He sighed. "Anything happen yet?" Jeff shook his head.

"Christian's in the house, but near as I can tell, Gangrel and Gabrielle aren't there." Jeff glanced briefly at the charred ruins. "At least we’ve got the right place." He offered, somewhat hopefully. Edge frowned and walked over to the back steps, sitting down.

"We can just wait and see." He said, trying to reassure himself.

"Its all we’ve got now." Jeff sat beside him. "can you tell me about yourself before Gabrielle?"

"No. My past is my own and its not to be shared, nor repeated."

"Not even to Gabrielle?"

"Especially not to Gabrielle."

"You owe that to her." Edge cocked his head and looked at Jeff.

"If we get out of this."