So, I was so starved for stimulation this morning that I started rummaging through some old boxes of what looked like Sylvie's vacation photos that I found in the back room. It was pretty ho-hum stuff until I found the following photo in a box labeled "Paris, 1992":

Doesn't that guy in the photo look a little familiar to you, Addie?

Ohmigod, Pest, that's the guy who attacked us! A lot younger, but he's still got the same grim expression and that tatoo on his hand... which looks like it matches the one on your shoulder, Sylvie. Just what the hell is going on here?!

I was trying to find a way to tell you this, Addie, but it looks like it found its own way out. Yes, I know the guy who broke into your place. Well, "know" is a bit of an understatement, I suppose... I was almost engaged to the guy a decade ago...

It's a long story of course, but I'll give you the Reader's Digest version as best I can. I would say it gets pretty unbelievable at parts, but I expect a girl who has a monster for a roommate wouldn't have any problems accepting it all at face value. It all starts with my family, which simply put, has a long history in the monster-hunting business... vampires, werewolves, you name it, we killed it. While other kids learned their ABCs, I was learning the best way to drive a stake into the undead. That's where the tatoo comes into things, as it's sort of a badge of the profession, a sign to other hunters that you're a properly trained member of the brotherhood. I got mine when I turned thirteen. That's an auspicious year to start, huh? Anyways, after years of having that sort of thing crammed down my throat, I just wanted to get away from it all, lead a normal life where I didn't have to dress in black all the time and hang out in graveyards waiting for the next knock-down, drag-out, bullet-time fight. So, I ran to Europe when I legally came of age, and bummed around the continent for a few years.

And wouldn't you know it, I met another hunter in a library in Prague, and fell hard for him. He was tall, dark and handsome, and every other cliche you could attach to the kind of guy girls go to Europe to go ga-ga over. My mother, of course, was estatic... she saw it as some sort of cosmic destiny or something. At the time, I suppose I agreed with her. Diego certainly knew how to push a rebellious young girl's buttons with his brooding manner and endless supply of darkly gothic quotations. He slowly pulled me back into the profession I thought I had left behind, and soon I was back tracking the nightmare elements across the theater of the Old World. That is, until we had a falling out... a difference in theologies, I guess you could say. Either way, we parted ways years ago.

I started a new life out here on the west coast and hadn't even given him a single thought until you told me about the break-in, Addie. If it's any consolation, I'm almost positive that he had little regard for you... it's Pest he was trying to kill.

That doesn't make ME feel any better. Kill?! What'd I ever do to him? And what assurance do I have that you aren't after the same thing? Why'd you drag us out to this god-forsaken place, anyways?

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but Pest is right. What exactly is going on here?

Well, Pest, I am trying to get rid of you, but not in a way that involves dismemberment of any kind. You don't belong here and the longer you stay, the worse things are going to get for Addie. Anyways, that's one of the reasons that Diego and I split... he thought the only way to get rid of something like you was with the business end of a very sharp sword. I think there's another way, but I'll admit I've not had much luck in finding it.

I had to get you guys somewhere safe while I studied what little materials I could find on the subject. I'll be back up there soon to sort everything out and make sure everyone lives happily ever after.

What do you mean, "the worse things are going to get" for me? What does Pest have to do with me, anyways?

To be honest, I can't say for sure, Addie, but you two are definitely linked. Consciously or not, Pest's appearance here was originally afforded by you and his continued presence is at your expense... thus, the depression and general ill-health you've been feeling recently.

We've known about your family's predisposition for this for a while, which is why my mother has watched out for yours all these years and I've watched out for you.

You're just going to have to trust me on this one, kid.

I suppose I don't have any choice.

For the record, I'm not bored anymore.

I'm scared...