"Leave me alone!" Historia shouted, slamming the front door. She was in tears, sobbing. The commotion caused Uri to come downstairs.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"I'm leaving," Historia said. "I'm going home, so I don't have to be with her!"
She pointed to outside, where Ymir stood.
"You mean now?" Uri asked, as Historia climbed the stairs to her room. She grabbed her backpack and made a show of stuffing in random clothes. "Historia, don't be rash. Sit down and talk to me."
"No!" Historia shouted. She threw her bag on her back and stormed downstairs.
"Wait," Uri said. She turned around to see his face, pleading. "Just stay, even for the night. You can go home in the morning, just think things out before then."
Historia didn't want to leave. Not really. "I'm going home, to Maria, tonight."
She made a point of saying the sentence loudly, before getting into her car and driving away.
She pulled up in front of the Fritzes' house for the second time that day, getting out and joining the family in the garage.
"She knows I'm going to Maria," Historia said.
"And she's headed up there now," Ymir finished.
Dina nodded. "So we won't send Historia to her hometown," she said. "In case Jakob is still hanging around, a group of us will take off in one direction while the others look after Historia."
"A good idea."
A figure stepped into the light, and Ymir and Historia recoiled. Helma smiled.
"I won't hurt you. But stay wary - Jakob and Irine are soulmates. If you want to kill one, you'll have to kill both of them."
With that warning, Helma strutted out.
"Annie and Ymir and I will be the distraction. Bertholt and Reiner, you two take care of Historia," Dina said.
"What?" Ymir asked, enraged. "I should be with her, I can protect her-"
"That's what Irine will expect," Annie said. "We have to split you up."
Ymir scowled at her, but left the room to prepare. Historia was picked up and placed in the passenger seat of the silver car the Fritzes drove to school. She turned around to see that it was Reiner who had done so.
"So where are we taking you?" He asked, getting in the driver's seat. Bertholt sat in the back.
"Anywhere, I guess," she said. "My family's mainly living on the coast, right now. Frieda's at law school on the other side of the country. So anywhere but there."
"Well, anywhere we go," Reiner said, starting the car and driving out. In the rear-vision mirror, Historia saw the women run out.
"Are they Naruto running?" Historia asked in disbelief.
"Are they what?"
Oh. It made sense that the vampires wouldn't know about Naruto.
"If we survive this, I'll show you."
Reiner turned the radio on, but it was too low to really hear.
"So, um, how do you kill a vampire?" Historia asked, trying to break the awkward near silence.
"There's lots of ways," Bertholt said quietly, startling Historia. She hadn't expected him to speak to her. "Dismemberment, burning, and having your ashes spread so you can't reform. A river is the best place to scatter the ashes. Silver burns our skin, along with the name of g- of g- you know what I'm trying to say."
"So you really can't say god?" Historia asked.
"No, we can say it, it just burns our mouth," Reiner said. "Like, if you eat soup when it's too hot. I haven't had soup in years."
They stopped at a service station when dawn broke, and moved seats so that Historia was sitting in the back. She slept for a while, but only lightly - she was never one for sleeping while travelling.
She decided that she had to call her father, so he knew she was safe. Of course, it wasn't like he would care, but on the off chance he did...
The call went straight to voicemail.
"Um. It's Historia. I've left Paradis, but I'm safe, I'm with friends. Uh. Call back."
She put her phone back in her pocket, and saw that Bertholt and Reiner were holding hands.
The car swerved, and Bertholt shouted. They pulled over on the side of the road.
"What's wrong?" Historia asked. She leaned forwards so she could see. Reiner had his head in his hands, and gave a thumbs up.
"A vision?" Bertholt asked. Reiner nodded.
"Irine's following them. She'll be preoccupied, and we'll be fine so long as we stay far away."
"Great," Bertholt said, nodding. "I'll drive."
"What?" Reiner asked. "I'm fine, you don't have to do that."
"If I may, I'm the mortal here and I want the guy who doesn't get prophetic visions to be the driver," Historia added. "No offense. I just don't feel like getting in a car crash."
Reiner eventually surrendered the steering wheel, albeit reluctantly, and they drove on.
"So why can't we just go back to Paradis?" Historia asked. "If Irine isn't going to kill me."
"Reiner's visions are subjective," Bertholt said. "Irine won't kill you, provided we stay away."
"If we went back, she'd smell your scent and realise we tricked her, and then it'll be even worse."
Historia didn't say anything else on the matter. She leaned against the window, looking out at the scenery. The woods had turned to rocky desert during the night. Reiner was a fast driver. It was a miracle that they hadn't been pulled over by police yet; Historia pictured a police officer pulling them over for going at 200 kilometres an hour and seeing that the culprits were two teenagers with glowing skin. Actually, how come they weren't glowing now? Was it tinted windows? Probably. The Fritzes had been around for at least a hundred years. They wouldn't be that stupid.
Instead, Historia thought about Ymir. Who knew what she could be doing, what danger she could be in. And Annie and Dina as well. Historia didn't want bad things to happen to them because of her.