Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

All Candace wanted was a simple, normal afternoon. When she left her house, her brothers still sitting under the tree in the backyard, she thought she was just going to have a fun movie day with her best friend (and maybe get a quick visit from her boyfriend later). But no, the universe just has to screw with her at every turn. And what did it decide to throw at her today?

A literal vampire.

Whoever decided it was a smart idea to rent an actual bat to bring to a movie premiere is an actual moron. Like what were they thinking? Rabies from a regular bat is bad enough, but vampirism? Candace is so going to write that company a strongly-worded letter—that is, if she can outrun all these villagers. Where did they even come from, anyway? Do they just show up when they catch the slightest whiff of a monster in the area? Or where they paid for by whatever hack company keeps bats for rent? Either way, it's not a good sign for the redhead.

She gets lucky and makes it home before the villagers get her. Not knowing if she needs to be invited in first now, she bangs on the door and calls out for Phineas to let her inside. Thankfully, he obliges with haste, Ferb right beside him. That's no surprise, though—the two of them are inseparable.

It takes no time for her to explain her predicament (she's a vampire and there are villagers after her) and it takes Phineas even less time to point out that not only are the people running behind her marathoners (Candace swears they were carrying pitchforks a second ago), but that there's no way Candace can be a vampire—after all, the super strength, blinding light, reflectionless mirror, and spontaneous flight she experienced in the backyard came from mini inventions they made to help their friends achieve one of their goals.

At this point, Candace (and Ferb, based on his quip of "Sounds like a vampire to me") weren't convinced, but Phineas's confidence in his sister's humanity knew no bounds, so after taking the red-tinted glasses of Candace's face, he didn't hesitate to also reach for the cape shielding her from the sun.

"You're not a vampire," Phineas stated. "Look, I'll prove it."

Candace winced when her younger brother pulled off the cloak. For a moment, she stands there, muscles tensed, just waiting for the inevitable. However, she felt nothing but the normal warmth of the sun without any combustion, sudden death, or crumbling to ash.

"I'm.... alive?" she said, her fear melting away into glee. "I'm alive!" She pushed past the boys into the house, relieved that she was still human.

Now all she has to do is call Stacy and Jeremy and let them know she's perfectly fine.... and ask the latter if he still has her Mp3 player.

Candace wakes up the next day to a silent house. Normally, she'd hear either her parents or her brothers walking around getting ready to start their day, but right now, she didn't hear a peep. A quick look at her phone's clock told her it was only a quarter after six, making it too early for anyone else to be up. She briefly considered going back to sleep, but dashed that thought immediately, knowing that if she turned over and dozed off again, she'd sleep the day away, so she reluctantly sat up and got out of bed.

First, she showered, hoping the hot water would wake her up. That would do the trick any other day, but this time, Candace found herself yawning and rubbing her eyes every minute or so. It's not like she didn't get enough sleep (she went to bed at nine on the dot last night), so she wasn't sure why she was still exhausted. Maybe she was stressed? Yeah, that had to be it. The stress from failing to bust her brothers and the scare from yesterday had to have taken a strain on her. She just needed some time to relax.

After the shower, Candace got dressed and went back to her room, thinking of something low-key to do. Her eyes spotted a magazine she hadn't read yet laying haphazardly on her vanity, and was struck with an idea. She scooped up the magazine and headed for the garage where her dad's old hammock was stuffed into the corner. A few minutes and a couple bumps into the wall later, Candace was lying on the hammock in the backyard, reading her magazine.

Right away, Candace knew this was the correct idea. The sound of chirping birds, the warmth of the recently-risen sun, and the smell of fresh air contributed exponentially to her relaxation. In fact, she was so relaxed that she didn't even realize that she was falling asleep until she dropped the magazine onto her face. Caught off guard for a second, she blinked her eyes a few times, but the drowsy feeling she'd been battling all day just wouldn't fade away. Regardless, she wasn't going to let that stop her from having a chill day to herself, so she went back to reading.

It only took a few more minutes for the teen to completely crash out. Hard.

Candace spent hours taking the deepest sleep of her life in that hammock. She didn't feel her mom putting a note on her face, didn't hear Phineas and Ferb building a scary, sentient tower in their backyard, and she definitely didn't notice her brothers' friends fucking with her while they waited for the boys to escape their tower of terror. She was too busy dreaming about finally busting them (a common occurrence for the high-strung teen).

She was woken up later by someone lightly shaking her. When she peeled open her eyes, she saw that not only was her magazine gone, but that there was a deck of cards spilled across her chest.

"Wha—?" she sputtered. "What time is it?"

"Dinnertime, sleeping beauty," said her mother's voice to the left. "Have a good nap?"

"Yeah, I guess." Candace gathered up the cards before sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the hammock, noticing in the process that her shoes were also mysteriously missing. "What happened?"

"The boys and their friends were messing with you while you napped," Linda informed her. "I asked them to clean up before they left, but I guess they missed a spot. Don't worry about your magazine or shoes, I put them back in your room."

"Thanks, Mom." She stood up then, enjoying the feeling of the grass on her bare feet. "Where do you want me to put these cards?"

"In the garage with the hammock. That's where Buford got them.... you know, I got a little worried you never called me once today, but then I remembered you were too busy napping instead of busting." Linda chuckled. "I guess you wanted a day off."

Candace scoffed as she closed up the hammock. "Please. I'm so good at busting, I was doing it in my sleep."

"I'm sure you were, honey."

One dinner later, Candace was back in bed with her magazine. Despite her long nap, she was still tired, and the roast her mother made did nothing to boost her energy, so just like that morning, she fell asleep without even realizing.

When she awoke the next morning, the annoying drowsiness was totally gone, instead replaced with a feeling of refreshed alertness.

Wow, I guess I needed the rest. The teen thought to herself, getting out of bed with ease. Her ears also picked up the sound of the rest of her family talking, signaling that she had woken up at a later time than yesterday.

Candace got ready for the day, having a pep in her step as she put on her usual outfit and sat down at the vanity to brush her hair. While she was in the process of getting out a particularly nasty knot, she saw that she had somewhat noticeable dark circles under her eyes. She cringed a little at that, but quickly brushed it off as the result of too much sleep and continued detangling her hair.

When she was finally finished freshening up for the day, she went downstairs and was greeted by the sight of the boys excitedly exiting out the back door into the yard. She followed behind them, narrowing her eyes, just knowing they were up to no good.

"Phineas and Ferb!" she yelled. "You two better not be doing anything busta—AAAAHHHH!" The second she stepped outside, she began screaming as the hideous light of the day star burned her skin to a crisp, startling her brothers.

"Candace! Are you okay?" She heard her mother call from somewhere else in the house. "Why are you screaming?"

The redhead didn't respond. Instead, she just darted back inside and nearly flew back up to her room, locking the door behind her. She could hear the thundering footsteps of her family members clamoring up the stairs after her, followed by them banging on her door, but all she could focus on was the pain. And the smell. Oh God, the smell.

"Candace, dear, what's going on?" Lawrence asked, his voice concerned. "Are you alright?"

"No! Just leave me alone!" Candace shouted, completely overwhelmed by both the pain and foul stench plaguing her body. She lifted herself onto the chair in front of her vanity and shrieked again at the sight of the blistering singed skin covering every inch of her body.

"What's going on?! Candace?!" Linda cried out, sounding even more terrified than her husband.

"I'M HIDEOUS!" she bawled. "I LOOK LIKE I—what?" The crying fit ceased immediately when she saw her appearance started to fix itself. Her destroyed flesh began to heal, lightening to her usual tone and ridding it of any sign of damage, with the pain and wretched smell fading away just as fast. It was like she had never gotten the full-body burn in the first place.

Flabbergasted, Candace stared at herself in disbelief. Her family was speaking in hushed tones outside her room, no doubt discussing her mental state. The thing that ended up breaking the stillness was a soft, British voice.

"Candace, can Phineas and I come in?"

She jumped a little at the question, shaken out of her dazed state. Ferb wanted to come in. With Phineas. Not their parents? Do they.... do they know what happened?

Did they cause whatever this is?!?!

She needs to know. And she needs to know now.

Springing up from her vanity, she rushes to the door and opens it. Her parents and brothers each bearing a different expression: fear (Linda), concern (Lawrence), confusion (Phineas), and something Candace can only describe as "ambivalence" (Ferb).

She shouldn't be surprised about Ferb, though. The kid isn't known for being outwardly emotional.

"Candace, are you okay?" her mom all but demands, her eyes scanning her daughter for anything that might be disturbing or out of place.

"I will be when I talk to Phineas and Ferb," Candace tells her. "They are so busted, by the way. This is totally their fault."

Candace sees her mother breathe a sigh of relief.

"Well, if you need us, we'll be downstairs. I think that's enough stress for one day." She shares a look with Lawrence before the two of them leave.

"I'm glad this is just about her obsession with the boys and not something serious," Linda mutters, not trying hard enough to whisper.

"Yes, but we should check in on her later, anyway," Lawrence tells his wife.

"Alright, you two, get in," Candace tells the boys as she ushers them into her room and shutting the door behind him. "I don't know what crazy shenanigans you did yesterday, but I need to know now. What was it? A ray that makes people sensitive to sunlight? Nanobots that heal injuries? Oh no, wait, you guys pushed the sun closer to the earth and now we're all gonna burn alive because of how close it is."

"Uh, no, we didn't do any of that," Phineas told her with a shake of his head. "We designed an escape room tower that could learn and adapt in order to keep Ferb and I trapped as long as possible."

"What? You could have gotten yourselves locked in there forever!" Candace couldn't believe what she was hearing. "If I had been awake, you two would have been so busted! Why did I sleep the whole day, anyway?" She found herself jumping onto another train of thought.

"I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, your sudden sunlight allergy and the heavy sleeping might be connected," Phineas said.

"Weren't you worried about being a vampire the other day?" Ferb asked. "Sounds like it could be related to that."

"Ferb, vampires aren't real," Phineas told his brother. "I think Candace just got freaked out by the movie she saw. Right?" He turned to his sister for confirmation, but she was too busy having a horrific realization.

"No, I think Ferb is onto something," she said. "Look, I'll prove it." She threw open her window and reached out her arm. Within a second, her arm was fully engulfed in flames, and she staggered back swiftly, hissing at the familiar, agonizing pain overtaking her arm.

"See? Watch!" She held out her injured limb, and within ten seconds, her arm was back to normal, no raw skin, blisters, or peeling flesh in sight.

"Woah, Candace." Phineas was very visibly shocked. "You mean, when you told us you were a vampire, you weren't kidding."

"No, I wasn't," Candace said, still in awe of her body's new regenerative abilities. "Now I just wanna know what we're gonna do about it."

Chapter Text

Candace has experienced a lot of weird things this summer: meeting alien life, time travel, and being body swapped with a platypus among them, but getting turned into a vampire? She can't say she saw that coming.

Sure, aliens were weird to see the first time, but the scientific theory of life on other planets was always possible, even if small. Vampires, however, were always just a story, a boogeyman created to scare people (or in some cases, an eternally hot love interest). Never had Candace considered that they might be real. 

Or that she'd end up one of them.

In movies they were cool, fast and strong and often times attractive, but the implications of actually being one were so much more sinister. Would she outlive everyone she ever loved? Have to stay out of the sun forever or risk death? Drink the blood of innocent people? She can't handle that!

"Woah, Candace. Calm down for a second," Phineas said. "We can figure this out."

Oh. Did she say all of that stuff out loud? She must have if Phineas is trying to get her to chill out. And where did Ferb go?

"Hey, where's Ferb?" Phineas asked, practically reading his sister's mind.

"He's probably too scared to be around me," Candace said, sitting on her vanity chair and slumping her shoulders.

"Why would he be scared of you? I know you wouldn't hurt either of us."

Candace wasn't sure about that. If she really had to drink blood from now on, what's to stop her from flying into a frenzy whenever she got hungry?

She cast a look at herself in the mirror, focusing on the dark circles under her eyes. She's not sure if the circles are from the oversleeping or the vampirism, but either way, she hopes they're temporary and don't stick around for too long.

"Hold on, why do I have a reflection, anyway?" Candace asked, suddenly realizing how odd that was. In almost every piece of vampire media she's seen, they never have reflections.

"I was thinking the same thing," Phineas agreed, walking over to stand next to the vanity. "It's not everyday you see a vampire that can use a mirror."

The two didn't have much time to linger on that thought, though. The sound of the bedroom door opening and closing drew their attention, and when they turned to look at their unexpected visitor, they saw that their British brother had returned with two new items: a blue tube in his hand and a silver charm hanging around his neck.

"What'cha got there, Ferb?" Phineas asked as the other boy cautiously walked over to meet his siblings.

Ferb held up the tube, showing off that it was one hundred and twenty extra-strength SPF sunscreen.

"Where did you get that?" Candace inquired.

"The cabinet under the bathroom sink," Ferb responded.

"Oh, right! I think Mom got it during spring break after Dad got a nasty sunburn at the beach," Phineas said, taking the tube from his brother's hands. "I didn't know she had any left."

"How is it supposed to help?" Candace demanded. "If the sunlight kills me, then there's no chance I'll be able to go outside with or without sunscreen."

Phineas opened his mouth to reply, but a look of realization crossed his face, and instead of answering his sister, he turned to look at his brother and declared, "Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!"

"What? What are you two gonna do?" Candace asked, hoping they weren't just going to up and leave her to deal with this herself.

"We're going to figure out what your powers and weaknesses are," Phineas told her.

Candace scoffed. "How are you gonna do that? Before today, none of us knew vampires were even real!"

"No, but before this summer, we didn't know aliens were real, either," Phineas pointed out. "And with our vast knowledge of vampire lore in movies, we can still figure out just what traits from them match and don't match yours."

Candace opened her mouth to protest, but honestly couldn't find a reason to. They were pretty much right about all of that. Hell, if anyone can sniff out the characteristics of real vampires, it would certainly be her brothers.

"Just slather it on and meet us outside," Phineas said, passing her the tube.  "Ferb and I are going to work on something that can help."

"Fine," Candace conceded. "But if it doesn't work and I die, you two are so busted!"

"Hey, have either of you seen Perry?"

"No, and don't tell anyone what we're doing! Mom will freak out if she knows about this."

The two boys left the room then, with Phineas promising they would keep their mouths shut. Once they were gone, Candace got to work covering every inch of skin in the sunscreen until she was sure that she completely coated in it. Cautiously, she walked over to the window to do the same test with her arm she did before. Bracing for impact, she reached out her arm out into the sunlight.

For a second, nothing happened. She stuck her arm out a little more and found that there was still nothing happening. There was no pain, no burning, just a slight tingling sensation.

It worked. The sunblock actually worked.

Smiling a little, Candace drew back her arm and closed the window, feeling a little better about herself. Maybe she can live with this after all.

She left her room and headed downstairs, hoping her parents weren't home to interfere with her plans. Unfortunately, when Candace reached the kitchen, she saw that her mother was still hanging around.

"Well, you look happy," Linda said when she spotted her daughter. "Did you fix what was making you hideous?"

"Yeah, I did," Candace lied.

"Good. Where you off to?"

"The backyard."

"Uh oh, busting already?"

"No, I'm gonna take a break from that for today."

"I hope so, for your sake and mine," Linda chuckled, slinging her purse over her shoulder. "I'm off to the mall. Do you need anything?"

"Yes! Can you get more of that hundred and twenty extra-strength SPF for me?" Candace asked.

"Sure thing. Call me if you need me. Or if you change your mind about busting Phineas and Ferb."

Candace nodded and quickly ran outside, fully intending on not doing that.

In the backyard, her brothers were standing next to their invention of the day: a large, metal coffin laying on the ground. Ferb was still sporting that same silver charm, and now he also had a pencil and clipboard in hand.

"Wow, that was fast," Candace remarked, not expecting them to finish their invention so quickly.

"It was a pretty simple invention to whip up," Phineas informed her. "We did have to send our friends home, though."

"What?! They were here?!" Candace squealed, fear beginning to set in. "You didn't tell them about me, did you?!"

"No, no." Phineas shook his head. "We said it was for you, but didn't mention the vampire thing. Just that it was private."

That answer wasn't exactly the one she was wishing for. She knows the kids can be trusted, but aside from her brothers, she isn't keen on anyone else knowing her secret just yet. She just hoped their friends wouldn't ask her about it. She's admittedly a very nervous liar.

"So, what does this do?" Candace asked, putting a pin in her paranoia for now.

"It's going to test whether or not the typical vampire tropes apply to you," Phineas explained, popping open the lid of the coffin to reveal a line of identical red buttons with a label beside each one. "Just press one of these and they'll give you something to test."

Candace walked over and gazed down at the buttons, taking in each one. Some of them, like running water, seemed like interesting choices, while others like garlic she fully expected.

"No need to fact check the first two," Candace said. "The coffin thing is stupid. I slept perfectly fine in my bed last night! And I obviously have a shadow." She gestured to the dark shape cast behind her on the grass.

Ferb wrote down something on his clipboard, adjusting his necklace. What was that thing for, anyway?

"And what's this one? 'Ears'?" She read off the label for the third one.

"Sometimes vampires have pointed ears," Phineas said. "Most of the physical changes vampires get like pale skin don't apply to you, but I wanted to check to see if your ears also stayed the same."

Candace pushed the button, causing a robotic arm to slide out of the right side of the coffin. The arm held a small handheld mirror which sidled over to position itself in front of Candace's face.

The redhead stared into the mirror and pulled her hair back, fully expecting to see no change to her ears. The color drained quickly from her face when she saw that the tips of ears were, in fact, now pointed. If she wasn't supernaturally pale to begin with, she was now!

"Pointy ears, check," Phineas said. "They look good on you, Candace."

"Thanks," the redhead mumbled, not knowing what else to say.

Letting her hair fall back, she stepped away from the mirror and pressed the fourth button labeled Eyes and Mouth. Two more appendages came out of the side of the coffin, one of them stretching her eyes open and the other widening her mouth open like she's at the dentist. Surprisingly, neither of them hurt.

"What's this one for?" Candace managed to slur out, her speech barely understandable.

"It's to see if you have fangs or can change your eye color." Phineas said.

"How do I do that?"

"I think you just have to concentrate."

Candace complied, wanting these metal arms out of her eyes and mouth as soon as possible. She gazed at the mirror and willed her appearance to change.

It took a few seconds, but soon enough, her appearance began to shift. Blue eyes lightened to a shade of red that was nearly identical to her signature shirt, and her incisors grew in length, creating sharp, long fangs.

"Holy shit!" Candace exclaimed, spitting everywhere. "Oh, get off me!" She pulled off the metal arms restricting her mouth and eyes, fed up with their presence.

"Red eyes and fangs, check," Phineas told Ferb, who marked it down on his clipboard.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Candace waved them off, staring at her reflection, willing for her face to go back to normal. Thankfully, it changed back within seconds.

"There better not be anything else that grabs at my face," Candace grumbled, smashing the fifth button without even looking at the label. The arms disappeared back into the coffin for a second, then the main one popped back out again, this time grasping a clove of garlic in its metal claw.

This is going to take forever, isn't it? Candace thought, grabbing the garlic from the machine. With my luck it'll be the day Mom comes home and finally sees one of Phineas and Ferb's inventions.

The garlic tasted nasty and slithered down her throat like sludge, but aside from that, Candace felt no ill effects. Maybe she had to wait for it to digest first? Or does her body even do that now? Does she even need to eat at all as a vampire? What's even real anymore?

In between bouncing existential questions around her head, Candace went down the line of buttons, testing each vampire cliche her brothers had thought of. After the garlic, Candace hit the remainder of the buttons in rapid-fire mode, wanting to get this done as soon as possible.

Lighter that tried to set her ablaze? Unless it comes from the sun, fire doesn't seem to do much to her. It didn't even hurt!

Container of regular water the arm tried to down her in? Only proved she doesn't need to breathe anymore.

Cross? Doesn't do shit.

Holy water? Did as much as the cross.

Instant camera with a blinding flash that spat out a photo of Candace's flinching face? Proved that like the mirror, she shows up on film.

A small running stream the boys somehow managed to fit inside the machine? (Where did they even get that?) She crossed it easily.

A tiny house she had to walk into? (Seriously, where the hell are her brothers getting this stuff?!) No invitation was needed.

Bag of seeds spilled onto the ground? Candace felt no sudden urge to count them obsessively. Thankfully, the mechanical arm cleaned up the seeds itself so she didn't have to.

"Wow, that took less time than I expected," Phineas said after the machine finished tidying up the lawn. "I guess we can move on to phase two."

"There's a phase two?" Candace asked, already beginning to get sick of her brothers' tests.

"Yeah. Ferb and I agreed that the Coffin-undrum is good for testing out weaknesses, but you probably don't need it for your powers."

"Coffin-undrum? Really? That's what you're calling it?"

"Yeah! It was actually Ferb's idea."

The Brit nodded, adjusting his silver charm.

"Ferb, what's with the necklace?" Candace inquired, wondering why he even had it to begin with. "Did you steal it from Mom's jewelry box or something?"

"It's borrowed, not stolen," Ferb responded. "And I'm wearing it because it's made of pure silver."

"Why? Is that a vampire weakness you forgot to include in the Whatever-drum?"

"Actually, yes."

"Wait, really?" Phineas asked. "How come you didn't put it on the list?"

Ferb went silent, avoiding the eyes of both his siblings.

Curious, Candace stepped towards him and reached for the necklace. She wrapped her fingers around the charm, only to immediately jerk back when the metal burned her skin in the same way the sunlight had earlier.

"Huh, well, I guess you can mark silver down as a weak point," Phineas said. "I always thought it was more of a werewolf thing."

"It is, but some legends say silver works on anything supernatural," Ferb informed his brother.

"Really? That's cool!"

It wasn't cool to Candace, though. Not only would she probably have to toss all her silver jewelry, but the fact that Ferb had put on that silver necklace without telling her or Phineas about it only proved her theory from before right: that Ferb is terrified of her.

"You know you can take it off now," Phineas said.

Ferb shook his head.

"Why not?"

"He's scared of me, that's why," Candace told her red-haired brother in a voice that came out much sadder than planned.

"What? Ferb, is that true?"

Ferb looked down at the necklace and slowly nodded, causing Candace's heart to sink.

"Ferb, vampire or not, Candace wouldn't hurt either of us," Phineas said to his brother. "She doesn't need to you to be scared, she just needs our help."

Silence once more. Even though that was normal for the Brit, this silence had a twinge of unease to it, dragging the atmosphere in the backyard down.

"It's fine, Phineas," Candace fibbed, not wanting to stew in the awkwardness (or betrayal) she was feeling in the moment. "What were you saying about testing my powers?"

"Right, yeah." Phineas sounded a tad uncomfortable, but moved on nonetheless. "Wanna flip the page, Ferb?"

Ferb complied, turning over the page on the clipboard.

"Usually in vampire movies, they can turn into bats. Can you try turning into one?"

"Maybe," Candace replied. "I mean, the vampire that bit me was a bat when he did it."

"When did you get bitten?"

"The other day when Stacy and I went to see that vampire movie," Candace explained. "I got attacked by a bat outside of the theater that they were keeping in a cage as like a promotional thing. I don't remember feeling it actually bite me, though."

"Bat bites are very small, so it's not unusual for them to go unnoticed," Ferb stated.

"I guess whoever that bat was did bite me then," Candace said, rubbing her neck to find any sign of an injury. "I don't feel anything."

"If your body can heal itself, then it's definitely gone by now."

"I think Ferb is right," Phineas said. "I mean, if you can heal yourself after getting a full-body burn, a small bite definitely wouldn't stay."

"I guess that makes sense," Candace agreed. "Do you really think I'll be able to turn into a bat, or is it some kind of old, powerful vampire thing?"

"Only one way to find out."

"So, do I just.... think about doing it?" she asked.

Her brothers didn't respond, instead choosing to watch their sister closely. Candace took note of their focused silence and decided to give her hypothesis a try. Closing her eyes, she repeated the same mental process she did when shifting her eyes and fangs, willing herself to change.

After a few seconds of concentration, Candace felt her feet leave the ground. Her eyes shot back open in surprise, and she found that she was no longer staring down at her white shoes, but at a pair of black, clawed feet.

The sound of panicked flapping and shrieks reverberated across the lawn, and it took Candace a second to realize that it was just her screaming and flailing in her new form. Good God, bats sound awful when they screech.

"Good job, Candace!" Phineas said. "Huh, I thought bats would be more scary looking up close."

Not wanting to be in this form anymore, Candace focused on shifting back. In no time at all, she switched back to human and felt her feet hit the grass once again.

"That's gonna take some time to get used to," she said. "What other powers are on that damn list?"

"The Coffin-undrum weighs a few hundred pounds," Phineas informed her. "Why don't you see if you can lift it?"

Candace complied, moving back to her brothers' invention and grasping the bottom end. Straining her muscles, she attempted to pick it up, but failed miserably. She tried again, but still couldn't muster up the strength to move the heavy machine.

"It's not working!" she whined.

"Really?" Phineas sounded surprised.

"Yes, really!"

"Maybe you have to activate it like with your shapeshifting," Ferb suggested as he noted something down on the clipboard.

"Good idea, Ferb," Phineas said to his brother, his voice bouncing back to his usual optimism.

Candace, however, wasn't as amused. How the hell were these powers supposed to be useful if she had to make a conscious effort to activate them?

Regardless, Candace took her brother's advice and went back to that concentrated mindset, this time focusing on using super strength to lift the coffin, and just like the last two times, that strategy worked, leading to Candace hoisting up the heavy invention into the air like it weighed nothing.

"Wow, I wonder just how much you can lift now!" Phineas said. "We'll have to save that idea for another day."

Candace put the Coffin-undrum down, wincing a little at the loud thud it made. At least that exercise wasn't uncomfortable. With her super strength triggered, it only felt like holding up a pillow.

"What's next?" she asked.

"Super speed!" Phineas told her.

Not bothering to ask anymore questions, Candace just walked over to the sliding glass door and threw it open. She locked back into that concentration space, then started forward, aiming for the front door.

Normally, it would take her a couple of seconds to run between the front and back doors of the house. But when her super speed kicked in, it didn't even take one. In a blink of an eye, she had changed destinations, taking her from the sunny backyard to the front entrance.

Candace wobbled a little on her feet, reeling a bit from that sudden burst of speed. She'll definitely need to file this power under 'things she's going to have to get accustomed to'.

After getting back her bearings, the redhead sped back outside, making her brothers jump a little as she came barreling out of the house.

"I don't think I like having super speed," Candace told them, staggering on her feet again as she came to a stop. "How many more things are on that list of yours?"

"A little over half a dozen," Phineas told her.

"Oh, great."

Another hour passed, with Candace testing out various powers at her brothers' instruction. They found that like her strength and speed, Candace's senses were also enhanced significantly. Her sight allowed her to zoom down and see every blade of grass below, her hearing picked up the sound of a couple of neighborhood kids playing basketball a few blocks over, and her nose caught wind of someone burning meat on their barbeque somewhere west of their home. It was kind of insane how broad the range of her sharpened senses was.

The rest of the checklist didn't yield the same results, however. No matter how much she tried, Candace could not fly (without shapeshifting first), move things with her mind, use hypnosis, create illusions, read minds, or turn into anything besides a bat. And on top of those failed experiments, there wasn't any current way to check if Candace possessed either night vision or immortality. The former they'd have to wait for nightfall, and as for the latter, they may not know that until years down the line.

"What do you mean, you'll have to wait to test that one?" Candace demanded once the boys broke the news to her.

"It's daytime, so trying to test the night vision would be pointless right n—" Phineas began to explain, only to get cut off by his sister.

"No, not that one, the immortality one! I'll have to wait years to find out if I'm immortal or not?!"

"Well, yeah. I mean, we don't have any way to tell how long you'll live. Your lifespan could be normal, but it could be a lot longer."

"Or you could live forever. Most vampires in fiction do," Ferb pointed out.

"Or that, yeah."

"But I don't want to wait years!" Candace protested. "I don't even want to be a vampire in the first place!"

"You don't?"

"NO! I don't want to have to cover myself in sunscreen whenever I go outside or live forever or drink blood!" She shuddered. "That's just gross! I don't want this at all!"

"Candace, it'll be okay." Phineas put a comforting hand on hers. "Maybe Ferb and I help with that, too."

"How? How are you two going to help me?" she wailed, voice breaking as she started to cry. "Before today, you didn't even believe in vampires! And Ferb can't even stand to be around me!"

Phineas shared a concerned look with Ferb, clearly uneasy by both his sister's sorrow and his brother's tranquil fear.

"Well, maybe we can cure you."

Candace's sobbing stopped as soon as the words left Phineas's mouth.

"Are you serious? You think you can do that?" she asked, a small glimmer of hope igniting within her.

"It might take a while, but I think it's definitely worth a try," Phineas told her. "Right, Ferb?"

Ferb nodded.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Candace squealed, swooping down to yank both her brothers into a hug. She didn't even care that Ferb's necklace was pressing painfully into her upper arm. It would heal on its own.

Unfortunately, that happy moment gave way into panic fast when Candace heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway, signaling their mother's return.

"Oh no, Mom's home! If she sees what you two built, we're all busted!" Candace yelled, letting go of her brothers.

Before either boy could respond, their problem was solved immediately when a green beam cut through the air, zapping the Coffin-undrum and somehow caused it to sprout wings and fly away.

"What was that?" Ferb asked after a beat of puzzled silence from all three of them.

"I have no idea," Phineas said.

"Whatever." Candace waved that off, barely even phased. "I'm gonna see if Mom got me more sunscreen." She went back inside, brushing past her re-appeared pet platypus as she did. "Oh, there you are, Perry."

Chapter Text

Something Candace and her brothers never discussed after they agreed to find a cure is just what the hell she was supposed to do in the meantime. That thought kept her up for hours that night (not that she was tired anyway, it seems like she doesn't need to sleep much anymore), and in order to try to ease her anxiety, she asked Phineas the next day the same question that's been bouncing around her head.

Unfortunately, Phineas's response wasn't exactly the answer she was looking for; she was hoping for something more concrete like "We built a bunker you can hide in while we invent something that can help" or "Don't worry, we already whipped up an antidote for vampirism!" not "Just do what you usually do". To her, putting up a front of normalcy in front of others seemed like a horrible idea; one wrong move and she could blow the whole thing. Then there will probably be actual villagers calling for her execution.

However, as she sat in silence, thinking things over while eating her breakfast (which did nothing to subside her hunger), the more Phineas's advice made sense. Until him and Ferb can make something to cure her, there is nothing else she can really do except go about as she normally does.

The first 'normal' thing she did that day was try to bust her brothers when they made a metal rectangle for Li'l Saul and the Breakingham Palace. Those plans were dashed soon enough once the invention took off into the air after locating "joy" elsewhere. Apparently, it was something created for the band to have employment after they lost theirs.

With nothing to show her mom now, Candace went back to her room and decided that if that was all her brothers were doing for the day, she had some free time to do another 'normal' activity.

So, she calls up her best friend, Stacy, to tell her about the text conversation she had with Jeremy the fateful day she was bitten by a vampire where she had apologized for running off and explaining (wrongfully) that she wasn't actually a vampire. Luckily for her, Jeremy took it in stride and swung by her house to drop off her Mp3 player she had forgotten, no questions asked. Too bad he was indirectly lied to.

The phone call with Stacy didn't last long, though. Her nose detected a whiff of cheese wafting in from the window, and after quickly hanging up the phone, she flexed her vampire senses just to make sure she wasn't going nuts. When the smell completely overwhelmed her nose, she ran over to the window.

Sure enough, her brothers were up to something. And the 'something' was receiving several truckfuls of cheese. She's not sure just what they were doing exactly, but it was clearly no good. Now she really had something to show her mother.

Right as she was dialing Linda's number, she was distracted by something zipping past her window towards the sky, snapping her out of focus.

"What was that?" she asked aloud, sticking her head out of the window and immediately regretting it when the sun singed her skin yet again. She really has to remember to put on sunscreen before letting her body leave the house in any fashion.

After her flesh healed itself, she went to call her mom again before another annoyance got in the way. Of course, random shit keeping her from getting Linda to see the boys' inventions wasn't abnormal in the slightest, but this roadblock was something she's never experienced before:

Hunger.

It wasn't the typical human hunger one experiences when they haven't eaten in a while. It was a primal, agonizing hunger that was urging her to eat by any means necessary.

Candace isn't stupid, she knows what her body and mind are craving, she just doesn't want to fulfill that yearning desire to crack open someone's neck and consume that sweet, irony liquid that keeps them alive....

"Stop! STOP!" she screamed, struggling to fight the demon attempting to overtake her mind. She knows what she needs, but she can't do it. She can't.

The more she fought it, though, the more it fought back, practically commanding her to walk out into the backyard and snack on one of the people whose voices can be heard from outside.

Wait, there are people here?

Cautiously, Candace goes back to the window and takes a peek. Sure enough, there are dozens of strangers flooding into her backyard in order to get to her brothers' second invention of the day: a huge park themed around cheese (and in the shape of a block of cheese, too).

Watching the various people arrive on the scene only egged Candace's hunger on more, and she clutched onto the windowsill with an iron grip, restraining herself from launching outside and tearing open the neck of the first person she sees. No matter how strong her bloodlust is, she can't give in.

Although, that cheese does smell pretty good....

Candace has always had a mild dairy allergy. It wouldn't kill her (at worst, she'd get diarrhea), but she tends to avoid having copious amounts of it when possible. This utopia of cheese, though, smelled wonderful, and she wondered for a second if she could stave off the need for blood by devouring every piece of cheese in that place.

After debating with herself for a second, she decided it was worth a try. She slathered on the sunscreen her mom thankfully picked up for her yesterday and headed outside. Keeping her distance from other people would pretty much be impossible since the backyard was packed, so she was just extra careful not to interact with anyone.

Even though the various cheese-related games and rides were very tempting, Candace knew she couldn't waste time going on them. However, she soon discovered that every food stand in sight had a line at least ten people long and no one appeared to be in a rush at all.

Now, Candace could just shove everyone out of the way to get the front of the line (she is related to the owners, after all), but she thought better of it. If being Phineas and Ferb's sister couldn't get her and Jeremy a guaranteed table at that restaurant they were running weeks ago, this would probably go just as badly.

The redhead didn't have to ponder what to do for long, because the ultimate opportunity dropped into her lap when she spotted a sign advertising a cheese-eating contest. Two of the seats were already claimed, one being occupied by a man with a white mustache in a purple shirt, and the other taken up by a group of mice.

As Candace made her way to the stage, she spotted a second man making his way up to the empty seat. Not wanting to lose her chance, she bolted forward, leaping onto the stage, and elbowing the other man out of the way, causing him to stumble back and topple off the stage with an "oof". Luckily, none of the onlookers or her brother that was standing on the opposite end of stage seemed to notice.

"Hey Candace!" Phineas greeted his sister as she took her seat. "I didn't know you were entering."

"I'm a last-minute entry," she told him. "Is the contest starting now, or what?"

Instead of giving her a verbal response, Phineas took out a small air horn and blew it, signaling for the contestants to begin eating.

Immediately, Candace began wolfing down her portion, not even bothering to taste the cheese as she swallowed down each piece, barely chewing at all. She didn't care if she won or not, she just needed to eat as much as she could. She didn't pay the crowd that had formed any mind either, blocking out their cheering as she rapidly emptied her plate. Hell, she even barely noticed when the guy next to her started to swell up like a balloon until the spectators scattered, spooked by the man's bloated appearance.

What the hell happened to that guy? Candace wondered to herself as she watched the inflatable parade float of a man happily follow the fleeing crowd, not at all turned off by their horrified screaming.

The panic caught on with the other attendees at the park (including the rodents she had been sitting at the table with), and soon enough, everyone was storming out the entrance as quickly as they'd arrived. Phineas himself had also slipped away between blowing that tiny air horn and now, but Candace wasn't sure where he'd wandered off to.

Regardless of the sudden chaos, Candace helped herself to the remainder of cheese the mice had left behind before exiting the theme park herself. Most of the food stands had been picked clean, meaning there wasn't anything left for her pilfer, and being there after everyone else had evacuated was honestly a bit creepy.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway made Candace momentarily pause before she realizing that the vehicle belonged to Linda, finally returning from running errands all day.

The teen was hit with another realization when she put the pieces together: not only was her mom home, but Phineas and Ferb's invention was still here!

Seizing the opportunity, Candace sprinted to the driveway and intercepted her mother as she was getting out of the car.

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" Candace yelled. "Phineas and Ferb made a theme park made out of cheese in the backyard and the whole town came to see it!"

Linda glanced around before responding humorously, "Well, I would expect more people if the whole town showed up."

"They left a while ago, but the park is still here! Come on!" Candace grabbed her mom's arm and dragged her to the backyard.

"Look!" Candace threw open the wooden gate, only to find that the theme park was now gone, having seemingly vanished into thin air.

"Well, there may not be a whole theme park here, but there definitely is a cheese smell," Linda said. "That reminds me, it's too late to start cooking, so what do you think of pizza for dinner? That place that makes the lactose-free slices you like is still open."

"Sure," Candace agreed, feeling dejected by yet another botched busting attempt. At least she got rid of that awful, stomach-twisting hunger.

Three slices of lactose-free pizza and a few hours later, Candace ended up locking herself in the bathroom. Since turning into a vampire, she hasn't had to use the restroom at all (she never even got the urge), but after engorging herself on as much food as she could get, she suddenly found herself blowing up the upstairs toilet. Candace is no stranger to bouts of diarrhea after eating cheese, but this was more severe than usual, coming out soupy and stinking up the whole room.

Nevertheless, Candace did her business and got out of the reeking bathroom as fast as she could, this time thankful that her super senses had to be switched on manually, and headed back to her room to tuck in for the night.

She ended up dozing off really quickly, but woke up only a couple of hours later at two in the morning. Initially, she turned over and tried to go back to sleep, but after thirty minutes of unsuccessful attempts, she was struck by a very familiar sensation.

The hunger.

It was back, twisting and clawing at her mind, telling her what it wanted, what it needed, but stronger this time. If the urge to feed was hard to resist before, it was crushing now, causing Candace to feel actual physical pain coursing through her body.

Not knowing what to do, Candace stumbled out of bed and made her way over the vanity. A quick glance at her mirror showed that her eyes and teeth had shifted on her own, probably due to her nagging thirst. She willed them to go back to normal, and they did after a few seconds, slower than she expected.

The hunger pangs got even more intense, making Candace wobble and see black dots pop up in her vision. She gripped the sides of the vanity to keep herself steady, but it was no use. Within seconds, she blacked out.

When she regained consciousness, she found herself standing at the foot of Phineas's bed.

After a split second of confusion, Candace slapped a hand over her mouth in order to stop herself from screaming aloud when she realized why she had ended up here: she was about to eat her little brother.

As silently as she could, she exited the boys' room and dashed back to hers, shaking and horrified at herself. The hunger continued to scratch at her brain, and she knew she couldn't ignore it anymore. If she tried eating regular food again, it would only come back more powerful than ever, and trying to resist wouldn't work in the long run. She got lucky and woke up in time to spare Phineas, but she knows next time she won't be so lucky.

So, she does something she never wanted to do: got dressed to go find something not related to her to kill.

After opening the window, Candace turned into a bat and flew off towards the more densely populated area of Danville, hoping to find more signs of life there. Flying was tough because she hadn't gotten the hang of it yet, but she managed to keep herself from crashing into anything. Eventually, she changed back to normal in an empty alley and carefully began walking around.

This part of the city seemed to be dead, with no lights to be seen or noise to be heard. While she was wandering around looking for a target, Candace did take note of the fact that after her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see extremely well, meaning she had some sort of night vision now. She'd have to tell Ferb to mark that down on her list of powers.

After crossing a few blocks, Candace finally picked up on the sound of someone talking. Turning on her super hearing, she crept towards the source of the noise and saw a man leaning against a telephone pole and talking on the phone. He appeared to be under the influence and wearing a.... squirrel costume?

"Sorry you had to miss most of Squirrel Con," the man said, his voice slurring a little. "It was a blast."

That explains the get up. Candace thought as she got closer to him.

"Yeah, I know! The con went on much later than usual," the man said. "They had booze, too. Too bad you don't drink." He let out a laugh. "I'm a bit drunk, yeah, but I'll be fine. I only live ten minutes away from here." He paused, listening to the person on the other end of the line. "Nah, I'm good, save your gas. You know, the other guy standing in line with me at Squirrel Con had to leave, too. Said something about a fedora." He stopped again to listen to the other party, this time for longer. "Damn, six AM? Your boss sucks. Alright, good night, man. Say hi to Jane for me." He hung up then, clumsily dropping his phone on the ground as he did. It was only when he bent over to pick it up that he noticed Candace inching towards him.

"Oh, hey, didn't see you there," he said to her. "You lost or something?"

Candace shook her head, not eager to make conversation with the guy she's about to devour like a Thanksgiving turkey.

"You sure? Squirrel Con's that way, if you're interested." He pointed two different ways, clearly too inebriated to give accurate directions. "I don't think you're dressed for the part, though."

Candace still didn't respond.

"Okay.... you're freaking me out, lady. Are you gonna rob me or something? I don't have anything really on me. I spent all my cash at Squirrel Con." He stripped off the costume, leaving Candace puzzled by his openness and him in nothing but a wife beater and a pair of acorn-patterned underwear. "See?" He stepped towards her and showed the inside of the costume.

Candace froze. She'd gotten so distracted by eavesdropping on this guy's conversation that she'd neglected to pay attention to another sound that was now filling her ears: the stable drumming of the man's heartbeat. She had totally overlooked the sound at first, but now it was all she can focus on.

"I'm too drunk for this," the man slurred out. He stepped into the costume to put it on again, but was stopped when Candace's hand shot out and grabbed a hold of his wrist.

"Wha—lady, I told you I have nothing for you to steal," the man told her. "Go bother someone else." He tried to pull his arm away, but Candace kicked her enhanced strength into full gear, yanking him around until she was facing his back. The man let out a surprised grunt, but couldn't make any more moves to escape as Candace wrapped her free hand over his mouth and moving the arm clutching his wrist around his chest, effectively holding him in place.

The man struggled under her grip, but proved to be no challenge for the vampire's superior strength. Helpless to do anything else, he could only tremble in fear as Candace's visage changed. Red eyes flashing and fangs sharpening, she scraped her teeth along the man's flesh, listening to his hammering heartbeat....

And then sank her fangs into his throat.

With her one hand successfully muffling the man's shrieks, Candace focused on draining his blood, sucking greedily on the warm, red fluid. In that moment, she pondered why she had ever combated her hunger; the taste of his blood was absolutely divine, quenching her thirst and filling her mouth with the most delicious liquid she'd ever tasted. She's certain she'll never feel anything this amazing grace her taste buds ever again, and she's not sure she really cares. She's sipped from the Fountain of Youth and found the key to all her problems.

Unfortunately, the high Candace got from drinking the man's blood wore off fast after she had completely sucked him dry. She let his exsanguinated body fall to the concrete as she snapped back to reality and when the high totally cleared, Candace was overcome with the soul-crushing feeling of guilt.

She sank to her knees next to the corpse and sobbed, completely torn up by what she'd just done. She knew it had to happen eventually, and it was obviously better than killing someone in her family, but this man didn't deserve this. He probably just had the time of his life at that stupid Squirrel Con only to get murdered by a teenage girl that was too fucking stupid to avoid getting bitten by a vampire. If only she had found a rat or even someone's lost dog before him, then he would be alive. And Candace wouldn't be drowning in shame.

The redhead was broken out of her crying state by the sound of footsteps coming around the corner. She jumped back to her feet, hooked her hands under the dead man's arms, and dragged him into an alleyway that was somehow even darker than the already pitch black street. Even though she's still guilty over having killed this poor man, she knows that getting caught would only make this whole shitshow even worse.

She waited in the alley for the other person to pass, then after hearing their footfalls disappear into the distance, she wrapped the cadaver in his now bloody squirrel costume and hid him behind a set of trash cans.

After a strangled whisper of "I'm sorry" to her victim, Candace turned into a bat once more and flew home, finding the journey back even more difficult to navigate than before. She soared into her room, shifted to human form, closed the window a bit too loudly, and then ran to the bathroom, thanking whatever thin luck she had left that the stench from earlier was gone. She changed her eyes and teeth back to normal before washing the blood off her face and hands and giving her mouth a good scrub with a toothbrush. 

After administering a thorough cleaning, Candace cried a little more and then went back to her room, putting her pajamas back on and climbing into bed. This time, there was no hunger to keep her up, just a single thought that tormented her head until she somehow dozed off into a restless slumber.

What the fuck have I done?

Chapter Text

According to research, scientists believe that people spend about a third of their life sleeping. Candace doesn't need to sleep much anymore, but if she was able to, she'd love to use that third of her life to just lay in bed and rot. It's the only thing she feels like doing, despite the distractions around her.

Beneath her bed are the bloody clothes she was wearing last night when she took that man's life. She'll have to dispose of them eventually, but not now.

Outside, her brothers and their friends are discussing today's big idea. She'll have to bust them at some point, but not now.

Her phone buzzes with a text from someone, probably Jeremy or Stacy, asking her to hang out. She'll have to get back to them, but not now.

Her parents are most likely wondering why she never came downstairs for breakfast. She'd explain herself to them later, but not now.

Right now, she couldn't muster up the energy for anything except wallow in her own shame—and she's lucky she even gets to do that. The poor man she murdered will never get to relax in a comfy bed like hers ever again. Hell, he'll never get to do anything again. He'll never get to revisit that Squirrel Con he clearly had a good time at again, he'll never get drunk and have a good time with friends again, but worst of all in Candace's mind, he'll never see the other guy he was on the phone with again.

The two men were clearly close based on the fact that the other guy had offered to pick up his very plastered companion in the middle of the night, but Candace wonders what their relationship really was. Were they best friends? Or even just close friends? Were they brothers, maybe? Or cousins? Either way, that man lost someone he obviously cared for that night in a horrible way, and it was all her fucking fault.

And who was the woman they mentioned? Jane? Candace doesn't know the extent of her relationship with Squirrel Guy either, but she hopes for Jane's sake that they're not close. It would only make everything so much worse.

She knows the body will be found eventually. Maybe some poor garbage man will stumble upon it while doing his job. Maybe someone taking a shortcut through the alley will have the misfortune of finding it. Or maybe it'll be the disgusting, putrid smell of decaying flesh baking in the summer heat that will lead to it being discovered. No matter what, it's only a matter of time until Squirrel Guy's brutal murder is the focus of the local news. By then, Candace will probably know the man's actual name, age, job, and perhaps who those two other people were to him. It'll definitely happen at some point.

But not now. God, please, not now. The guilt is already starting to eat her alive.

One of the major distractions took care of itself when the voices of Phineas, Ferb, and their friends faded away, signaling that they had left the backyard. Candace's busting senses twitched, and for a moment, the urge to bust overcame her guilt. She sat up in bed, contemplating whether or not she was ready to leave her room, when someone knocked on her door.

"Candace? Are you awake?" Linda asked. "Can I come in?"

The teen jumped a little, not expecting the sudden disturbance, but shook it off and answered.

"Sure, Mom."

Linda opened the door, a plate of food in her hands.

"You didn't come down for breakfast, so I brought it up to you," she told her daughter, walking into the room. "How are you feeling?"

"Not great," Candace told her. "But thanks for bringing me something to eat." She took the plate from her mom and laid it on her bedside table. She doesn't know if she'll actually eat it or not; the bloodlust might kick in stronger when she needs to drink again, and she isn't exactly itching to shit her brains out like she did last night after dinner.

"Does your stomach still hurt? I swear that pizza place messed up and gave you regular pizza instead of lactose-free." Linda shook her head in disappointment. "Maybe I should call them and leave a complaint...."

"No, no, no, no," Candace blurted out. "You don't have to do that."

"Are you sure? A mix-up like that could be dangerous. What if your allergies were deadly?"

"Please Mom, it's fine," Candace insisted. "It's not a big deal." Even though her mom does have a point, Candace doesn't want to be the reason someone is fired. She's caused enough damage as is.

"Okay, but next time, we're ordering from a different pizzeria," Linda said. "I'm gonna make some pie and just relax today, so if you need anything, you know where to find me."

"Hiding in the sensory deprivation tank you keep in the garage?"

"Not hiding, relaxing," Linda told her with a wink. "But yes, I'll be there," she kissed her daughter on the top of the head before heading back to the door. "Feel better, honey."

"Thanks, Mom," Candace told her, managing to muster up a small, yet grateful smile. Linda left the room after that, leaving Candace alone once more.

As if a switch had been flipped, Candace immediately felt worse after her mother departed. Since waking up this morning, all she wanted was to be alone, isolated from anyone that dared question her about her feelings. But now, after having pretty much that exact conversation with her mom, Candace wishes so badly that Linda had inquired further. Perhaps she would have cracked right there and collapsed into her mother's embrace, sobbing about everything that's happened to her in the past few days, while Linda assures her that she'll be alright, that her mother would love and protect her no matter what.

But what Candace wishes would occur would no doubt not be what really happens. She knows that telling Linda what was really going on would lead to an absolutely catastrophic disaster the Flynn-Fletcher family has never experienced before. Knowing that your daughter has an obsessive need to bust her brothers might be something Linda can swallow, but accepting that the same daughter is also a vampire with a confirmed kill count is another ballpark entirely.

Fighting back tears, Candace forces herself to eat the breakfast her mom had made before laying back down in bed. Her self-imposed quarantine may have been a cold comfort before, but without the warmth of her mother's caring nature, Candace felt more hollow than ever.

The rest of the day went by without much excitement. Phineas and Ferb came home at some point in the late afternoon, both sporting good moods, Linda and Lawrence radiated serene energy because of their relaxing day in, and Candace was struggling, both physically and mentally.

The physical strain was actually the more tame of the two, being regulated to Candace having to poop really bad a few hours after consuming her breakfast (and later on in the day, her dinner), and luckily for her, those two bowel movements weren't nearly as bad as the diarrhea fiasco after eating so much cheese. She's not sure she'll be able to look at that particular food the same ever again.

As for the latter problem, Candace's mental state wasn't much better than before. She knows she has to keep up the charade of normality, though, so when she wakes up the next morning after a short, restless sleep, she begrudgingly gets ready for the day. She doesn't have any actual real plans to go out, but she at least has to leave her room today.

While she's sitting at her vanity, brushing her hair, she deliberately avoids peeking at the mirror until she has to in order to make sure she looks presentable. She does, of course, with the added benefit of no dark circles hanging like shadows under her eyes. She doesn't know exactly when they disappeared, but she hopes it stays that way.

Tearing her gaze away from her reflection, Candace gets up from the vanity chair, discarding the brush as she does and exiting the room with the same reluctance she had earlier when dressing herself in fresh clothes that weren't soiled by a man's blood. 

The house was fairly quiet, which meant her family (or at least most of them) weren't home. She turns on her vampire hearing for a minute as she goes down the stairs and detects the faint sound of light footsteps in the kitchen.

That's probably Mom. Candace thought as the reaches the first floor. I hope she doesn't ask me why I skipped breakfast. Again.

Sure enough, Linda was in the kitchen washing dishes. Upon noticing that her daughter had finally left her room, she greeted her with a smile.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Linda said. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah," Candace lied. "Where's everyone else?"

"Phineas and Ferb are helping Isabella set up the Latke Festival and your father is at the dentist," Linda informed her. "We missed you at breakfast this morning."

Candace internally sighed before answering.

"I'm not really hungry," she said, not fibbing this time. "Are you gonna run any errands today?"

"Nope! For once, I have no plans," Linda told her. "What about you?"

"No plans either," Candace flipped open her phone to see she had gotten a couple texts from Stacy telling her that she was grounded. "And it looks like Stacy isn't available to hang out with, anyway."

"What about Jeremy? Or Jenny?"

Candace shrugged and sat down on the couch, typing out a text to both parties as she did. Truthfully, she didn't want to hang out or do normal teen stuff at the moment, but she knows she can't ignore them forever. She just hopes they won't catch on that something is wrong.

It didn't take long for Jeremy and Jenny to message Candace back, and like Stacy, neither of them were free. Jenny was busy protesting and Jeremy was stuck working what was probably another egregiously long shift.

Candace let out a long sigh (this time for real) and snapped her phone shut. Without any friends to hang out with and no brothers to bust, she didn't really have anything else to do. She could dispose of the soiled clothes she had hidden in her room, but trying to do that now would be a bad idea; not only would she have to sneak past her mom, she'd also look very suspicious skulking around the city holding a bundle of bloodstained clothing. It would have to wait for another time.

The redhead continued to sit on the couch, wracking her brain for some kind of activity to occupy herself with, but came up with nothing. For a brief moment, she considered opening up to her mom again, but brushed that thought off swiftly.

At this point, Linda had shut off the kitchen tap and had moved to the living room, stopping when she made eye contact with her daughter.

"Uh oh, I don't like that face," she said lightheartedly. "I'm guessing you had no luck with Jeremy or Jenny."

Candace shook her head. "Jenny is protesting and Jeremy is at work."

Linda paused for a second before grabbing her daughter's wrist and pulling her up off the couch.

"Come on, missy, we're going out," Linda commanded, leading the teen to the garage. "There's no way we're staying cooped up inside on such a nice day."

"What? Where are we going?" Candace asked.

"On a bike ride! We can both use the fresh air."

"Fine, but can I put some sunscreen on first?"

"Absolutely. You know, I'm glad you're using that extra strength stuff. I was afraid it would go to waste."

Wasted sunscreen is the least of your worries, Mom. Candace thought as she ran upstairs to the bathroom. If only you knew why I need it in the first place.

For most people, the crisp smell of fresh air combined with the warmth of the summer sun would leave them invigorated after several days of stress and uncertainty. As far as Candace goes, it wasn't doing much for her. Taking in a deep breath of fresh air with her vampire senses felt like getting punched in the face (although that could be because of how intensely she inhaled), and the tingling sensation crawling across her skin only served as a reminder that without her precious sunblock, she'd disintegrate into a pile of dust. In simpler terms, Candace didn't feel much better. 

Not until she saw the potato gremlins.

Well, that was the best description she could come up with for them. What else can you really call a gaggle of potatoes with human eyes and mouths dashing down the streets of Danville? And, of course, it was no shock to Candace to see her brothers (and Isabella) chasing after them in some metal transportation device. That must be some festival if the potatoes managed to gain sentience.

Linda failed to see the stampede, even after Candace tried to point it out to her, so the teen kicked into full busting mode and sped off on her bicycle after them, ordering her mom to follow her.

Candace picked up momentum on her bike, making sure to remind herself to not activate her super speed in order to catch up. Even in busting mode, she knows that zooming through the city like a bullet train would only lead to bad outcomes. The wind coursing through her hair and the sight of the scenery whizzing by her only spurred her on further though, and at some point, she realized she had nearly left her mother in the dust.

"Wait up, Candace," Linda panted, struggling to keep up.

"But they're right around the corner!" Candace protested.

"I'm not as young as I used to be!"

Candace scoffed and came to a halt in front of a butcher shop. Even though her mom is totally dragging her down, she still doesn't want to abandon the woman. 

As she sat on her bike, impatiently tapping her fingers on the handlebars, she peered over at the butchery window and got an idea. Grabbing a link of sausages from the open window, Candace tied it to the back of her bike, and when her mom finally reached her, she fastened the other end to the handlebars on Linda's bike. Before her mom could react, Candace went right back to peddling at the same breakneck pace. Linda let out a startled sound when Candace yanked her forward like a fish on a line, but managed to keep from falling and taking a nasty spill on the concrete.

The newfound vigor to bust her brothers may have boosted her spirits for a few minutes, but her enthusiasm started to taper off when she once again found herself being stopped by obstacle after obstacle along the way. At first, she just ignored it; yeah, the chain of sausages abruptly snapping meant that Linda was lagging behind again, but Candace could deal with that. A bus breaking down in the middle of the road, causing the two women to have to make a detour? Annoying, but not a complete loss. Hell, Candace wasn't even that miffed when a windblown newspaper landed smack dab on Linda's face, obscuring her vision the second they made it to the old folks home. It would only take like, a second for her mom to pull it off, then she'd really be able to see the potato gremlins for real!

And the strangely dressed men. Linda would see those, too. Candace doesn't know why they're here exactly, but she doesn't really care. A bunch of Mongolian LARPers are unremarkable when compared to the other shit she's seen all summer.

Candace should really have taken their appearance as an omen, because like the Mongol empire, Candace's luck soon crumbled to ash.

Just like the Coffin-undrum, a sudden beam of light pierced the air, zapping both the mutant potatoes and the cosplayers, but instead of causing them to sprout wings and soar off into the sky, they just disappeared, taking Candace's hope of finally getting her mom to see one of Phineas and Ferb's creations with them. And on top of that, her mother saw absolutely nothing.

"I think you had enough fun for today," An unimpressed Linda said, ignoring her daughter's frustrated cry of "Nooooooo!" and leading her away. 

Candace didn't fight, she just got all the screaming out of her system and followed her mom as they retraced their trail back home. However, it only took a few blocks for another problem to arise when the teen heard a loud pop and nearly fell off her bike when she hit a large pothole.

"What was that?" Linda asked, stopping to look behind her.

"Ugh! The back tire is flat!" Candace whined. "Now what?"

"I'll call your father and ask him to get us," Linda said, taking out her phone and dialing Lawrence's number. "He should be home from the dentist by now."

Candace dismounted her now useless bike and huffed angrily. Great, just great. Now she has to wait for who knows how long until her dad shows up all because Mayor Doofenshmirtz can't be bothered to hire some professionals to fix these damn roads! She'll have to pay closer attention when biking (or driving, if she ever gets her license) in the future.

While she was sulking, Candace took in her surroundings and noticed she was currently in front of the public library. She briefly wondered if they had interesting magazines before she was struck with another idea.

"Mom, I'm going into the library. Call me when Dad's here!" Candace yelled, hurriedly sprinting up the stairs to the library. Linda said something in response, but the teen wasn't listening at that point. She needed to do some research, and she needed to do it fast.

When she actually made it into the building, Candace realized she actually didn't know where the books she was looking for were located. She considered asking the librarian (who sadly wasn't Sherman), but decided not to. Instead, she sat down at one of the computers and opened up the digital library catalog. 

She thought she would have difficulty finding a relevant piece of literature, but that wasn't the case. One simple search of "vampire" yielded over three dozen results, including a few nonfiction ones. She skimmed over the various titles until she came across one that caught her attention.

There Will Be Blood: An Encyclopedia of Vampire Legends Around the World.

Knowing she had hit pay dirt, Candace triumphantly pumped her fist into the air. Maybe now she can get some damn answers and find out more about herself.

Or the information could be all wrong and based on nothing but crazy stories, but Candace didn't want to fall into the doom and gloom mindset just yet. She can very easily do that later if all else fails.

After looking up the location of the book, Candace finds the shelf it's on, only to discover that it's way too high up for her to reach. She looks around the nearby shelves for a ladder, but upon finding none, she goes back to pouting before coming up with a crazy idea.

Do her vampire powers include being able to jump high?

She swears she's seen a movie or two where the vampires can leap higher and farther than a human, but her brothers neglected to test that when they were going down the list of common vampire powers. Maybe now would be the perfect time to find out.

Candace did another check of her surroundings, this time to make sure no one was watching, then went back to the shelf where the book she needed was. She concentrated on using her powers, bent her knees, and launched herself into the air.

She let out a quiet squeak as she soared upwards, nearly colliding with the ceiling before falling back to the floor. Thankfully, she landed lightly on her feet without making much noise or garnering much attention.

That was way too high. Candace thought. I guess that's something else I should tell Phineas and Ferb about.

Bending her knees for the second time, Candace jumped again, this time limiting herself to a less intense hop that brought her right up to the section of the shelf she desired. With a smooth swipe of her hand, Candace snatched the book off the shelf before descending once more and making a beeline for the nearest table once she landed on the ground.

For the next hour or so, Candace put her full concentration towards absorbing as much information as she could about global vampire myths. It seemed like just about every region had a legend about a creature that satisfied at least some traits associated with modern day vampires. Europe has stories of monsters such as the Romanian strigoi, evil spirits that rise from the dead to feast on the blood of both animals and humans. Legends from West Africa tell the tale of the sasabonsam, monstrous looking beings with iron teeth that make their homes in trees. The Philippines brings to the table the myth of the aswang, shapeshifters with proboscis tongues that feed on unborn children. And hailing from Chile comes the piuchén, serpents with wings that could immobilize their prey with a single look. 

There were so. Many. Different Stories. Candace had no idea vampire stories were this diverse or common around the world, or how old some of them are for that matter, tracing back to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece. She wondered if there were actually this many variants roaming around or if they were just tales that changed as they traveled through the grapevine. And on top of that, are there other creatures out there keeping their identities hidden? Would she someday run into a werewolf during a full moon? Find herself getting on the bad side of a witch? Accidentally stumble upon a fairy's tiny home?

Candace was so engrossed in her own thoughts that when her phone began to buzz, she let out a loud shriek, startled by the sudden noise. Embarrassed by both her sudden outburst and the irritated shushing from another nearby library visitor, Candace scooped up her phone and answered it without bothering to see who was calling.

"Hello?" she said, making sure to whisper.

"Hello, Candace!" her father greeted her in a chipper tone.

"Hi Dad, are you finally here?"

"Indeed I am. Why are you speaking so quietly?"

"I'm inside the library, that's why."

"Is that so? I hope you found something good to read while you were waiting."

She shifted her eyes down to the large encyclopedia before answering, "Yeah, I did."

"I thought you talking an interest in Sherlock Holmes earlier this summer was a flash in the pan, but I'm glad I was wrong. Which book grabbed your attention?"

Once again, Candace felt her resolve begin to crack when she considered telling her father the truth; that she's researching vampires because she is one, and even though Lawrence would probably take it better than Linda, Candace knows that she can't tell him, either.

"Candace? Are you still there?" Her father asks after a minute.

"Oh, sorry, Dad. You, uh, cut out," she lies. "I'll tell you about the book later."

"Well, alrighty. Come outside so we can get going, then. We can pick up some food for everyone on the way back."

"No pizza this time!" Linda's voice called out on the other end of the line.

"Okay, I'll be out in a minute," Candace tells him before hanging up and slowly closing the book. She doesn't really want to leave considering she feels like she just hit the tip of the vampire iceberg, but she doesn't want to keep her parents waiting. So, she gets up, props the book up on one of the low shelves of the bookcase (she doesn't want to make a risky jump again), and leaves the library.

The rest of the night went normally. Candace ate takeout with her family (which she expelled into the toilet some time later), went to bed at a reasonable hour, and surprisingly slept through the night. She doesn't really need to sleep the usual eight hours like a human would anymore, but she finds sleeping is better than just lying in bed while her darkest thoughts bounce around her brain.

The next morning, Candace actually ate breakfast for the first time in the past couple of days, and just like with dinner, it ran through her and out into the toilet within a few hours. Like yesterday, she didn't have any plans, but everyone else in the house did. Her parents went out to the library to see what they could find there, intrigued by Candace's fib that she had joined Jeremy and Stacy's book club which was currently discussing Murder on the Orient Express. Now she'll have to check out that novel as well if she doesn't want her parents on her case.

Her brothers are in the backyard as usual, working on whatever crazy plan they've cooked up today. Candace has been taking glances at them through the window, but every time she peeks, she sees the same thing each time: the two of them talking while looking at Ferb's clipboard. Part of her thinks they're talking about her, and it turns out, she was correct.

Around one in the afternoon, Candace hears a knock on her bedroom door. When she opens it, she sees her brothers on the other side. Ferb bore his usual ambivalent expression along with that same silver charm around his neck, while Phineas was smiling up at his sister with optimism.

"Hey, Candace," Phineas greeted her. "Are you busy?"

"No," she told him. "Why? Does this have anything to do with what you two are doing outside."

"Yes, actually. Ferb and I were talking about possible cures, and we figured out one we can try."

That got her attention quick.

"What?! Really?!" she squealed, suddenly bursting with excitement.

"Yeah. Just put some sunscreen on and meet us out back."

Candace did just that, racing to the bathroom and almost tearing off the door to the cabinet under the sink. She switched on her vampire speed then, using it to apply the sunscreen and bolt down the stairs to the backyard in record time.

"What did you make?" she demanded.

"We didn't exactly make something," Phineas told her, holding up something in his hand. "But we're hoping this works."

Candace didn't need to use her vampire vision to tell what Phineas was holding.

"A blood bag and a syringe? What are they gonna do?" she asked.

"Ferb and I had some time yesterday to watch a few movies to see if we could drum up a cure idea," Phineas explained. "We saw one where giving a vampire a blood transfusion cured the main character."

"How long did that cure take in the movie?"

"Well, he's given the transfusion at night, and the next day he's cured."

Candace smiled. Tomorrow. If this works, she could be back to normal tomorrow. Then she wouldn't have to keep bathing in sunscreen or worrying about when she would need to drink blood anymore. Tomorrow, she'd be free.

She shot out her arm. "Hit me."

The boys complied with her request. The syringe slid into the vein in her left arm with ease, without the momentary pinch someone would typically feel when getting stuck with a needle. Candace was kind of happy about that though, she never really liked getting shots as a kid. She hated the sight of blood and the sharp pinching pain, but getting those vaccines was non-negotiable.

And just like those childhood vaccines, this procedure was just as necessary. If not more.

"Where did you get this stuff?" Candace asked as the blood began to flow out of the bag and into her arm. "And where did you learn to do a blood transfusion in the first place?"

"The Fireside Girls taught us," Phineas said. "They did transfusions when they were earning their nursing patch last year, and they helped us get the blood bag and a syringe for us to use. Don't worry, we sterilized the needle and made sure the blood type matches yours."

Candace wasn't concerned with either of those things. A dirty needle wouldn't get her sick and a mismatched blood type wouldn't kill her. The Fireside Girls potentially knowing her secret just might, though. With all the weird badges they have, there could be some obscure vampire/monster hunting patch she doesn’t know about.

"Did you tell them?" she inquired. "Do they know about me?"

Phineas shook his head. "No. They asked what this stuff was for, but Ferb managed to convince them it was for something else."

"I have a way with words," Ferb spoke up.

Candace went silent then, out of questions. She was just praying to whatever mysterious force was out there that this worked.

When the bag was completely drained, Phineas took out the syringe, Candace's skin healing up right away when he did. She ran her fingers along the spot, thinking about what it would be like to feel the sun on her skin again without a thick coat of sunscreen to block it. Maybe tomorrow she can.

She looks up at the sky, and even though she can't see them during the day, wishes upon a star for her luck to finally change.

The only thing Candace could focus on now was the potential cure. She was antsy for the rest of the afternoon, couldn't sit still during dinner, and is now wide awake at two in the morning, searching for some sign that the cure worked. She tosses and turns, her mind working overtime, just holding out for something.

But nothing comes. No tingling, no sensation of the inhumanity leaving her body, no pain, nothing. If the cure worked, it did so without fanfare.

At around five, Candace got sick of failing to doze off in bed, so she got up and went downstairs, intending to wait out the rest of the night on the sofa. Of course, sitting on the couch in the quiet, dark living room wasn't too different from her bed, but at least she could get a clear view of the outside now.

That is, if she could keep her eyes open.

The second she plopped down on the couch, Candace's eyelids started to droop until they were completely shut. She doesn't know why she's tired now, but being up all night biding her time until the cure kicks in must have done a number on her mentally. Maybe the presence of the bloodstained clothes was affecting her subconsciously? She really needs to get rid of those....

The next thing Candace is aware of is the chirping of birds outside. She peels her eyes open and sees the first rays of sunlight breaching the horizon, bathing the backyard in a soft, inviting glow.

The redhead gets up and makes her way to the back door, her heart beating faster and faster with every step she took. This is it, the moment of truth. She'll know for certain if the experiment worked or not.

It's now or never.

Sliding open the door, she took a tentative step outside. Her slipper-clad foot felt nothing, but when her nearly bare shin came in contact with the sunlight, the familiar feeling of searing pain enveloped her leg, and within seconds, her nostrils were full of the equally recognizable scent of burning flesh.

Candace jerked her leg back inside and slammed the door with force. She's lucky she has to turn on her vampire strength manually, otherwise it would have shattered.

Vampire strength.... she still has that.

She's still a fucking vampire.

Tears sprang to the teen's eyes as the reality that her brothers' attempts to restore her mortality had failed. Yeah, it wouldn't be the last time, but she wanted so badly for this to be it. She didn't want to suffer another day as a bloodsucking monster. She wanted Phineas and Ferb to fix her like they do everything else. But of course, when she's involved, it's never that simple.

Candace went upstairs, grateful she didn't wake anyone else in the house and retreated back into her room, collapsed onto the vanity chair, laid her head down, and sobbed.

She cried and cried until she had no more tears left, leaving her in suffocating silence again. It wasn't until she heard the voices of her now awake family members that she picked her head up from the vanity and looked at her vanity mirror. The face of an exhausted, devastated girl, cheeks moist, mouth twisted into a deep frown, and bags beginning to surface again under her eyes again was staring back at her.

Recoiling from the hideous sight in front of her, Candace wiped the tears off her face and picked up her hair brush to get ready for the day. She doesn't want to, but she has to. 

After all, she can't afford to miss breakfast another day.

Chapter Text

She knows who he is now.

Allen Ingram, a mid-twenties accountant that lived on the opposite side of Danville. He was last seen leaving Squirrel Con drunk and unwilling to accept a ride from anyone, and hasn't been seen since.

Well, someone saw him after he left. They were just the reason he never returned home.

Candace doesn't know why she was standing behind the couch, watching the news over her father's shoulder. It only made her feel like shit, but no matter how much she wanted to walk away, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the screen. She really should have, because the second the news cut to two people, one of whom had glistening tear tracks trailing down their face, she felt immediately worse.

The man who had been visibly crying was Taylor Ingram, Allen's cousin. The woman standing with him was Jane, his fiancee, and it didn't take much for Candace to figure out that Taylor was the man Allen was talking to on the phone that night. She wonders just how many times he's cried since then. She wonders if he blames himself.

The interview with Taylor and Jane is brief, but it's clear to anyone watching how much they care about Allen. Jane does most of the talking, and whenever her partner speaks, he sounds like he's about to sob. Candace doesn't know how long it'll take for Allen's body to be discovered, but she does know there will be many more tears in Taylor and Jane's future.

Her father changes the channel once Phineas and Ferb enter the living room, most likely not wanting the boys to hear about a man's disappearance first thing in the morning. He probably would have switched channels if he had noticed his daughter's presence behind him, too, but Candace knows how engrossed her father gets when he's in front of the television. He'd miss an alien invasion if the show he had on was compelling enough.

The replacing of a depressing news story with a jolly jingle about a horse trapped in a bookcase didn't ease the teen's worries, and she continued to stand in the same spot wallowing in her own self-pity until something snapped her out of her thoughts.

It wasn't her mom leaving to do volunteer work at the zoo that shook her out of her stupor, nor was it the greeting that her father gave her when he eventually noticed she was in the room with him.

No, the thing that captured her attention was the arrival of one of her brothers' friends, tablet in hand. She usually wouldn't give this kid the time of day (it is Irving, after all), but when he told her (unsolicited) what the tablet exactly was, all her concerns became a lower priority.

Dubbed the "Ultimate Phineas and Ferb Digital Scrapbook", or "UPAFDS" for short, the electronic device was a digital scrapbook of Phineas and Ferb's inventions over the summer, cataloging everything from the roller coaster to the chariot race to the time they carved her face into Mount Rushmore. If her mom saw it, her brother's would be busted for sure!

The only problem is that this nerd won't fucking give it to her!

"The UPAFDS does not leave my person!" he insisted, holding the tablet away from her eager hands.

"Hey, Irving! Is that the UPAFDS?" Phineas asked from his spot on the couch, blissfully unaware of the fact that his sister was two seconds away from ripping the device out of his friend's hands.

"Why, yes. Yes, it is," Irving said, moving to the living room.

Candace followed directly behind him, brainstorming ways to get her hands on that device. She didn't have much time to mull it over though, because an emergency news broadcast interrupted her dad's horse show, getting the attention of everyone in the room. For a moment, her stomach dropped thinking it was going to be about Allen Ingram again, but instead of a 'missing' person, the news was about a missing crocodile, who was apparently the star of his own TV show.

Under normal circumstances, Candace wouldn't give two shits about a missing crocodile, but when Phineas suggested that the four of them go find this overgrown reptile, she found it in herself to care. She can get proof of yet another of her brothers' crazy adventures and maybe finally convince Irving to let her borrow the UPAFDS at the same time! She has nothing to lose!

Okay, she has one thing to lose.

When she climbed into a fan-powered boat with Irving and her brothers to go search the sewers, she was expecting they'd find nothing more than a small, scared crocodile wandering around in the rancid-smelling water, but instead, the quartet found a hulking, red-eyed colossus of a reptile waiting for them.

And who was the unlucky idiot that this behemoth decided to sneak up behind? None other than Candace, of course.

One screaming fit later, and she was back on the boat, attempting to get it to start. 

She thought this mission would be easy; the four of them would locate Crikey and return him back to his owners in no time, but no, nothing can ever be that simple. The small stroke of good luck she'd gotten when Irving agreed to show her mom the UPAFDS had disappeared and left another terrible obstacle in its wake like it always does.

"Candace!" Phineas called out to his sister, him and Ferb rushing to get back on the boat themselves. "What are you doing?"

"Getting out of here!" she told him. "There's no way I'm going to be able to wrestle that thing! It's huge!" 

"But we need to you to help us catch Crikey. There's no way this net will hold him," The younger Flynn sibling told her, holding up the now useless net in his hands.

Candace looks at the net herself before casting a glance over at Crikey, who was still standing still in front of the tunnel he had just crawled out of. He was easily three times of the size of that alligator she once wrangled as a human; the only way she could subdue him is if she used her vampire strength.

Her vampire strength.... did Phineas want her to use that to take down Crikey? In front of Irving?

This realization brings her to the one thing she has to lose: her cover. If she unleashes her vampire powers in front of Irving, not only will he know her secret, but he'll probably record it on that UPAFDS—and who knows how far he'll spread that information.

"I can't fight that thing without using my powers," Candace whispers to her brothers, really trying to stress the severity of the situation. "And there's no way I'm doing that with Irving around!"

The boys glanced at each other. Ferb's expression didn't change, but Phineas's frown showed he was hopefully taking her words into account.

"Well, you've wrestled an alligator before, and that isn't easy," Phineas said after a few seconds. "Maybe Irving won't even notice you're stronger."

"No way, he'll definitely notice. That overgrown lizard is way too heavy for a normal person to lift."

The sound of hefty footsteps got the trio's attention. Peeking over to the noise, they saw that Crikey was stomping away back into the tunnel he had just emerged from.

"Oh no, he's getting away," Phineas said, turning to his sister. "If he gets too far, we might never catch him."

Candace's eyes darted over to the crocodile's massive retreating form. Her brothers were right; they might never capture him now, but at least they could leave the sewer and call this whole thing a wash.

But Phineas's face gave her pause. The genuine look of pleading and disappointment that dominated his features when he turned to her tugged at her heart. It reminded her of the expression he had when she almost exposed the Lake Nose monster to the beach goers in order to salvage her reputation, and like then, she found herself beginning to cave to the power of his puppy dog eyes. But what officially persuaded her was the feeling of Ferb's hand on hers, followed by two simple words.

"Please, Candace."

The silver charm hung around his neck, a stark reminder that he was still scared of her, but in this moment, that didn't matter. He was trusting her now, and she didn't want to let him (or Phineas) down.

"Don't let Irving see this," she told them before launching herself out of the boat, landing in the green water with ease. It stunk badly, even without turning on her enhanced senses, but she ignored that and took off after the fleeing crocodile.

As a human, Candace was quick on her feet, so even without the aid of her super speed, it didn't take long for her to catch up to Crikey. When she was within a few feet of him, she tackled him to the ground with a single supernatural leap. The crocodile let out a shocked grunt and swatted her with one of his large paws, sending her flying right into the tunnel wall.

"Ugh..." Candace groaned, sharp pain flooding her body for a few seconds. "At least I can heal myself...."

Sure enough, the redhead was back on her feet within seconds, cutting off the crocodile's escape again.

"Alright, you super-sized beast," she hissed, mentally activating her super strength and speed. "You're coming with me."

The crocodile grunted, swiping his enormous claw at her again. She dodged with ease, sprinting around to his side and slamming into him. Crikey roared as he careened further down the tunnel, propelled by the force of the vampire's strength. She made sure he didn't make it far enough to slip away, though.

The tunnel grew darker the further in she went, but Candace could still see just fine. Crikey could too, based on the fact that he stared directly at Candace once she reached his skittering form. When he regained his footing, he attempted to attack her again, this time with his mouth. She jumped out of the way of his snapping jaws smoothly, grabbing his snout and holding it closed when he clamped down.

"Why won't you stop?!" Candace demanded as the reptile struggled against her grip. "I'm trying to get you back to your owners!"

Crikey stopped thrashing about. At first, Candace thought the idea of seeing his owners again had calmed him, but when her eyes met his, she was taken aback by what she saw: fear. She saw pure, unbridled fear in his large, glowing eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked. She knows he can't talk back, but neither can Perry, and that doesn't stop her from talking to him. "I'm not gonna kill you or anything. I just want to bring you back."

His eyes widened, the terror and panic growing even more apparent in his expression. That was when Candace realized why he was so frightened.

"You don't want to go back?" she asked. "Why?"

The fear in Crikey's eyes turned to sadness, and he looked down as if he was embarrassed.

I wish he could just tell me. Candace thought to herself. Now I'm gonna have to play twenty questions with this crocodile.

"Do you not want to be on TV anymore?"

No reaction.

"Do they keep you in a tiny cage or something?"

He glanced up at her, red eyes meeting her blue ones again. It seems like she's on the right track.

"Do your owners not treat you well?"

Crikey let out a muffled noise that sounded like a sigh. It seems like she's hit the mark. This poor crocodile was fleeing an abusive situation, and here she was, trying to drag him back.

She was reminded of Nosey again and how all he wanted was to live peacefully. He wanted to stay away from the prying eyes of loud, curious tourists who would only use his image for personal gain if exposed. 

Or maybe it would have turned out worse; Nosey could have been captured, experimented on, or even killed in the name of "studying" him. And it might not be much different for Crikey. Would his owners stuff him back in a large cage, make him perform against his will, and keep him locked away from the outside world forever?

Would something like that happen to Candace if her cover was blown? Would she become a tourist attraction for people to photograph endlessly? A tortured hostage being experimented on by the government? A trained jester forced to do tricks in front of a crowd?

The same fear that was no doubt plaguing Crikey took hold of her as she put herself in his shoes. She wouldn't want to be in his situation, especially with shitty owners, so why should she condemn him to such a terrible fate?

"Candace!" Phineas's voice cried out. "Where are you? Did you catch Crikey?"

Splashing footsteps followed her brother's shouting, meaning that him and Ferb were making their way down the tunnel.

Drawing in a deep breath, she made a fast decision and released her grip on the crocodile's snout.

"Go, get out of here," she said, shooing him away with her hands. "Be free!"

Crikey wasted no time, whipping his enormous figure around and charging down the tunnel, slipping into the shadows as the boys caught up with their sister.

"Where's Crikey?" Phineas asked.

"He's gone," Candace told him, still staring into the darkness where the crocodile had disappeared into.

"Gone? What happened?"

Candace didn't respond. There was a beat of silence between the three of them, then she turned to face her brothers, her face mirroring the same pleading stare Phineas was sporting earlier.

"Oh...." The smaller redhead cottoned on to what his sister was conveying with her face. "He didn't want to be found, did he?"

"No, he didn't."

It was quiet again for another minute before Ferb piped up.

"Just like Nosey, right?"

Candace nodded, smiling a little because he had thought of the same thing she did. "Just like Nosey."

If there's one thing Candace is sure of, it's that her brothers never take a day off. It doesn't really matter if their plans are big or small, they'll find a way to do something productive (and most likely dangerous).

When she first entered the living room that morning and saw her brothers tinkering with the TV, her busting senses began to tingle, but what made it ping off the charts was when she returned to the room half an hour later and saw a brand new cable box the boys had no doubt installed themselves.

Appearance wise, it looked like any other cable box, with the only abnormal feature being the words "FERB TV" written on the front in green letters.

"Oh, hi Candace!" Phineas greeted her cheerfully when he noticed her.

"What did you two do with the TV?" she demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

"I'm glad you asked," Phineas lead her to the couch and gestured for her to sit. "Ferb and I have something we want to show you."

"Okay, but when you're done, you two are busted," she told him, dropping down onto the couch.

Truthfully, she wasn't in the mood for this right now. She was still dealing with a lot of mixed emotions from the previous day, and after that enlightening and quite frankly depressing experience with Crikey and the irritating loss of Irving's UPAFDS when he dropped it into the sewer water, ruining the tablet completely, she was perfectly content to just chill out and take it easy. 

Then again, her attempts to relax weren't really working, anyway, so maybe seeing what weird shit her brothers cooked up on the TV would.

Phineas clicked a button on the remote, and the TV whirred to life. The first thing that appeared on the screen were her brothers standing in front of a blue background.

"Okay, give it a chance," TV Phineas said into the camera. "We want your honest opinion."

"We know it's a little weird," TV Ferb added on.

The television cut to static before transitioning to Channel Two, where a woman lying on the beach was calling for help.

Candace isn't sure how long it takes to film a TV show, but she feels confident in saying it would probably be at least a few days. With that being said, when the fuck did her brothers find the time to film all these random shows?! And how did they get some of these people on board?

The show on Channel Two consisted of Baljeet playing a doctor and ninja that was fighting shapeshifting aliens. Okay, not too egregious. She can see him agreeing to play a character like this.

Channel Three was a game show hosted by Klimpaloon and the Giant Floating Baby Head. She doesn't have much to say about this one either, other than it's a tad bizarre.

Channel Four is when the believability starts to wear off. There's no way in hell that Suzy is capable of genuinely caring about someone other than herself, let alone a random robot from space that crashes into her backyard. As far as Candace is concerned, that little bitch doesn't have a compassionate bone in her body and seeing her lie to Jeremy even in a fake TV show makes her sick.

Also, where did they find a robot actor? Something about him is familiar to Candace, but she can't quite put her finger on why she feels that way.

Moving onto Channel Five, Candace once more finds this premise where Buford is an angry, loud-mouthed chef acceptable. He seems like the type to take his craft, no matter what it is, very seriously.

Channel Six brings Candace right back to questioning how her brothers got the lead "actor" to participate again. Mayor Doofenshmirtz? Really? She didn't expect him, of all people, to take time out of his day to make a silly TV show, but maybe he thought it would make him look cool. He always did come off a bit conceited.

Channel Seven was the most infuriating and far-fetched thing she's seen so far. In this program, Ducky Momo was being directed by a group of off-screen children to a bridge behind him, but for some reason he doesn't see it.

Having to watch her beloved childhood icon blatantly miss such an obvious landmark filled Candace with a kind of rage the likes of a dedicated fan can only experience. Ducky Momo would never be this stupid! If Phineas and Ferb were going to make some kind of Ducky Momo spin-off, they should have at least consulted her first.

Luckily for everyone in the room, the TV switched to Channel Eight before Candace had a full-blown outburst over Ducky Momo's awful character assassination. This show was different than the others in one major way: it was animated. It was the same kind of animation the boys and their friends had used to make that superhero cartoon of themselves (she still isn't over being dubbed "Control Freak"), but this cartoon wasn't about fighting super villains, but something very different.

It opened on a normal-looking house in the suburbs in the dead of night, the front door slightly ajar, and crickets singing in the background. Within seconds, the cracked door was slammed open, silencing the bugs, and a teenage girl stepped out onto the porch. Her red hair hung down to her shoulders, her eyes were a deep shade of brown, and her outfit consisted of a green dress and white stud earrings.

She looked very similar to Candace. So much so that it was almost uncanny.

"Ugh! I can't stand this!" the teenage girl screamed, stomping down the porch. "We've been looking forever, but there's no sign of him anywhere!"

Despite looking like Candace, her voice was a lot lower, with a raspy undertone to it. Did her brothers hire some kind of professional voice actor to play this animated off-brand version of her? Why didn't they just ask her to do it?

"Mikayla, slow down!" A boy ran out from the now wide open door, chasing after the teenage girl. "You can't just run off like that!"

This character was clearly an animated version of Phineas, with the same hair and triangle-shaped head. His eyes were the same shade of almost-black brown as Mikayla and his outfit was nearly identical to the one real-life Phineas wore, just with different colors that clashed. His voice was also significantly distinct from the real Phineas, sounding way more like a grown man trying to imitate a kid.

"Why not, Sammy?" Mikayla snapped, stopping in her tracks to turn and face him. "He hasn't been spotted since the night I was turned. He's probably left the state at this point."

'The night I was turned'? That's an interesting choice of phrasing.

"He's still here, I know it," Sammy insisted. "Lucy and I have been tracking his movements, and he was last spotted by the drawbridge on the east side of town."

"What? Since when are you following him?" Mikayla asked.

"We left a decoy victim for him at the edge of Barnard's Pass," Sammy told her. "When he tore it apart, the tracker stuck itself to him."

"Are you crazy?! You and Lucy could have been killed!" Mikayla shouted, her voice getting higher as she panicked. "What if he had eaten both of you? Or turned you?" Her eyes went wide. "It's bad enough already that he changed me."

Now it was Candace's turn to bug her eyes out. 'Turned you'? 'Changed me'? A sinking feeling in her chest told her exactly where this was going.

"It's okay, Mikayla, we turned out fine," Sammy said. "It all worked out, and now we can trap him once and for all."

"Maybe, but we have to be careful," Mikayla said, glancing at her surroundings. "I have to go get something to eat myself. The blood bank just switched to twenty-four-hour service, and they'll be less people around if I went now instead of waiting until morning."

"Okay. Be safe, Mikayla."

She managed to flash him a small smile before turning into a bat and soaring off into the sky.

Right after Mikayla departed, a third person emerged from the house. This character was a girl, but it was still pretty obvious this was the animated counterpart of Ferb. Her outfit matched the real Ferb's, but with the same mismatched color scheme and her green hair was a bit longer and wavier. Unlike real-life Ferb, her eyes were dark brown like Mikayla and Sammy's. Candace didn't know why Ferb made his self-insert female, but she was sure this was the aforementioned Lucy.

"Blood bank?" she asked.

Sammy winked. "You bet, Luce. Hopefully, she'll be back before sunrise. I don't think the dustpan and glue are going to help much if she turns to ash."

The screen panned upwards, halting once it reached the star-spangled sky. A low organ tune played as the words Fanged Fatale flashed on the screen, followed by a brief narration.

"Fanged Fatale! The journey of one teenage girl and her brothers to find and kill the head vampire that turned her into a creature of the night. Based on a true story."

"Turn it off!" Candace shrieked, springing up from the couch. "Turn it off right now!"

Phineas and Ferb were visibly taken aback by her outburst, clearly not expecting this reaction from her.

"What's wrong, Candace?" Phineas asked, pausing the TV, which was now playing an advertisement for Meap-themed goulash.

"Have you showed this to anyone else?" Candace questioned them. "Is this being broadcasted live? Can all of Danville see it? Can the entire Tri-State Area see it? Can the world see it?!" Her voice became more panicked as the words tumbled out, her paranoia growing with each second.

"No, you're the first person to see this. Why? What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?! Channel Eight is what's wrong! I've told you no one else can know about me being a vampire. What made you think it was a good idea to make some cartoon about it?"

Phineas's face dropped. "Well, we thought if we more people knew about vampires, they could learn to understand them. Then you wouldn't have to hide it."

"People fear what they don't understand, so we thought it might help if we educated them," Ferb chimed in.

"So, it's an educational show about vampires?" Candace inquired.

The boys nodded in response.

"Okay, but then why did you add in the stuff about a master vampire?"

"Well, there still has to be some kind of plot to draw people in," Phineas told her. "And when we were doing cure research, we watched a movie where the vampires were cured when the head vampire was killed, and we decided that would make a good potential plot for this show."

Candace pondered what her brother was telling her for a second. While she's thankful they're still doing cure research, another thing that crossed her mind and left her with yet another dilemma.

She has no idea who bit her.

"Are you alright?" Ferb asked, bringing her focus back to reality.

"You can't show that cartoon to anyone," Candace told them. "Even if you're right about people eventually understanding, I'm not ready."

"Okay, we won't," Phineas told her. "But are you actually okay? You look scared."

"I was just thinking about something you said. About the master vampire thing. I have no idea who bit me in the first place. What if they're still out there?"

"That might be worth looking into," Ferb said.

"Yeah, that's a great idea," Phineas agreed. "Ferb and I can work on cures, and in the meantime, you can try to find out who turned you. Maybe they'll be able to help."

Suddenly, a green beam shot through the ceiling, zapping the Ferb TV cable box and literally obliterating it into nothing, leaving the trio baffled.

"I ask once again, what was that?" Ferb asked. Well, it was more of a statement, but the question still stood.

"I have absolutely no idea," Candace told him. "That's not even the weirdest thing I've seen all week."

What she said is true, the random beam destroying the cable box was merely a footnote in her list of notable events that had occurred recently, she has a suspicion that her quest to find the vampire that changed her life might yield some even stranger results.

That is, if she's able to find them in the first place. 

If she has any hope of fast-tracking a foolproof cure, she'll have to hunt them down and do it quick. Not only because she wants to regain her humanity as soon as possible, but because the hunger was stirring inside her, and it was only a matter of time until her bloodthirsty urges had to be satiated again.

Chapter Text

Candace wonders if people can die from fear.

She's heard about deaths caused by things like stress, most often heart attacks, but she still wants to know if someone can drop dead due to fear and nothing else. Because if it is possible, she might just pass away right now.

"I found these under your bed," Linda said to her daughter, holding out the clothes stained brown with Allen Ingram's blood. "What are these stains from? They look set in."

"Uh, it's chocolate," Candace told her, blurting out the first lie that had popped into her head. "Phineas and Ferb built a giant chocolate fountain yesterday."

"Really? I'm surprised you didn't try to bust them for it."

"I wanted to, but my phone got lost in the fountain and it took me forever to find it. And when I did find it, the fountain had disappeared."

"Well, at least it didn't break again. You've already destroyed several phones this summer alone," Linda said. "Anyway, I think tomorrow is going to be laundry day. I can work on scrubbing these stains out."

"Great idea, Mom!" Candace agreed, plastering on a fake smile. "I'm gonna go see what Phineas and Ferb are doing right now."

"I wouldn't bother. Last I heard, they're taking Perry out for a walk," Linda called to her retreating daughter.

Candace paid her no mind. She felt a little better now that her fibbing had paid off, and when she passed by the back door and didn't see her brothers and didn't see anything dangerous or out of the ordinary, she felt even better. Now she can work on researching who could have bitten her.

When she sat down at her computer and booted it up, she realized something important: she didn't know where to start looking. It's not like there's some kind of vampire database or registry she could consult, so she had to get creative.

Once her computer had fully switched on, she pulled up her search engine of choice and started her investigation by typing in the name of the movie she had seen that fateful day.

The premiere of the film adaptation of Early Evening was a big deal for fans of the novel. Candace can't say she read the original book, but the movie sounded good, so when Stacy suggested they see it, the redhead didn't hesitate to agree. If she knew what she does now, Candace would have proposed a trip to the mall instead.

But she can't focus on what could have been now. She has to dig up any information on her vampire sire as she could.

She combed through some articles about the movie, skimming over everything she didn't think was relevant. She blasted through interviews with the actors and director, reviews of the film, mini essays detailing the differences between the adaptation and the book, but she didn't find anything substantial until she stumbled across a website for an animal-renting company that operated in the greater Tri-State Area.

Candace perked up. She remembers bitterly thinking that she needed to send a strongly-worded letter to whatever company decided to place live bats outside of theaters the day she was bitten. Could this be the one?

The company's website was rudimentary, with the home page composed of a couple of pictures of the animals they owned alongside a blurb explaining what services the company (named "Rent-a-Beast") provided. Unsurprisingly, this company was in the possession of various animals, both domesticated and not, and they would loan them out to anyone that paid a fee. There was a link to make a renting request at the top of the page, and when Candace clicked on it, she was brought to an online form that asked for her name, email address, phone number, and gave a list of the eligible animals for rent. Upon reading the list, she noticed that bats were one of the options.

Candace's excitement level rose. This website was a promising find, but she still has work to do, so she went back to the home page, hoping to find something else interesting. When she scrolled to the bottom, there was another link titled "List of Achievements", which she clicked on right away. It brought her to another page that noted every major event Rent-a-Beast had provided animals for in chronological order. She wandered down the end again and came to a stop when her eyes swept across the most recent entry.

The achievements list was pretty open about the circumstances of each rental, something that greatly helped Candace out. This final entry on the page revealed that the company had been hired by someone working on the Early Evening movie to place bats in cages in front of select theaters in the Tri-State Area during the week of the premiere as some kind of public relations stunt. Apparently, the Early Evening books had sold really well in this part of the US, so it made sense that the PR team focused on the Tri-State Area. However, there was one thing that Candace couldn't figure out:

Where the hell did this company acquire a vampire?

In order to answer that question (if it's even possible), Candace needs to find out just how they managed to get put on this list of rentable creatures first. So, she opens up a new browser tab and starts researching Rent-a-Beast.

It didn't take long for Candace to find out that this company was incredibly shady. They claimed to own all the animals they rent, but she found several articles that declare otherwise, stating that the company was known to trap animals illegally. Candace even found a record detailing a lawsuit against the company after they stole some guy's capybara that ended up being settled out of court.

I hope he got his pet back. Candace thought. I know my brothers would be crushed if they had platypus-napped Perry.

She'd probably be pretty devastated, too. Sure, she may not have bonded with Perry as much as the boys had, but he was still a part of her family, and losing him would be awful. She hopes that capybara was the only pet this company heartlessly stole.

Knowing the lengths Rent-a-Beast was willing to go to acquire animals, a theory begins to form in Candace's mind: the vampire who bit her had been caught by them in bat form. Unaware of the bat's true nature, the company kept it as a rentable animal until it managed to break out of the cage, leading to it attacking Candace, probably in desperate need of blood. She still doesn't know why it stopped biting her after less than a minute and barely drained any blood, but maybe her thrashing and screaming on the ground in a panic made it too difficult for the vampire to finish her off. Regardless of the reason it left her alive, it most likely flew off to find something less hysterical to eat.

A small smile slowly crossing Candace's face. Sure, the theory might be a tad shaky, but she still feels proud of herself for finding out this information and cooking up a possible hypothesis in the first place. She may have a long way to go, but something was telling her she was on the right track.

The grin she was wearing morphed into a frown upon hearing a loud sound in the backyard. Knowing her brothers were up to no good, Candace put her research aside for a second and rushed to the window.

Sure enough, the boys and their friends were working on their big project for the day outside. This time, it was an enormous robot in the shape of their pet platypus.

I guess when Mom said they were taking Perry out for a walk, they weren't talking about the real one. Candace thought, eyes narrowing. She was about to call Linda when an idea struck her.

"Everything they create disappears when they finish it.... But what if they're still building by the time Mom gets home?" Candace said to herself. "Maybe it would still be there?" She let out an elated gasp, thanking the theory-making part of her brain that was clearly working overtime today.

The teen then threw open the window and shouted outside to the kids below, making sure to keep her head inside so the sun doesn't burn her skin.

"Keep it up! Don't stop, busy bees! You're busy, busy bees!"

"What are you doing?"

Candace was startled by an unexpected voice in her room. She whipped around to see her best friend standing just inside the doorway, a confused look on her face.

"Stacy! I thought you were still grounded," Candace said, sneaking a glance back outside to make sure the quintet outside were still working.

"Nah, Mom let me off easy this time," Stacy told her. "Where have you been, by the way? I feel like I've barely seen you in the past two weeks."

Candace let out an inaudible sigh. She had been avoiding both Stacy and Jeremy like the plague since she got bitten by a vampire, but she knew one (or both) of them would inevitably drop by to see what was up with her. She just doesn't really know what to say in response.

Actually, she does!

"Everything Phineas and Ferb builds disappears when they're finished," she explains to her best friend. "So if I can keep them from finishing the thing they're building, it will never disappear! I call it Busy Bee Busting. B. B. Busting for short."

Stacy huffs angrily, unimpressed by the redhead's answer.

"Really, Candace? This again?" the dark-haired girl asked. "Has your dream of busting your brothers made you finally lose your mind?"

"No way, there's a madness to my method," Candace tells Stacy before yelling more "encouragement" out the window.

"Okay, we're leaving," Stacy states, grasping Candace's hand and dragging her away from the window. "Wow, your hands are cold!"

"Wha—what?" Candace sputtered, ignoring the second remark. "Where are we going?"

"The mall. You clearly need to get out of this house and do something other than bust your brothers for once, and I know a shopping spree is the perfect way to achieve that."

"But, but, but—"

"No buts! You're coming with me!" Stacy says firmly, leading Candace out of her room to the stairs.

Knowing her bestie won't give up her quest to haul her to the Googolplex Mall, Candace slumps her shoulders in defeat.

"Fine, but let me put on sunscreen first," she says.

"Do you even need it?" Stacy inquires. "It's not super hot today or anything."

"I know, but I'm trying to take care of my skin, you know?" Candace tells her. "I don't want to end up with wrinkles in my thirties."

"Oh, damn, me neither." Stacy grimaces, touching her own face. "Mind lending me some sunscreen, too?"

Candace nods and heads to the bathroom, her bestie right behind her. She's got enough of that extra-strength 120 SPF for the both of them, and the more she thinks about a trip to the mall, the more she thinks it's a good idea. She needs some new clothes to replace the ones she ruined with blood, and she definitely needs more of this sunblock. Yeah, her busting urges might be ringing off the charts, but as long as the kids keep building, their platypus robot will still be there when she gets home.

Stacy was right. A shopping trip is just what Candace needed.

It didn't keep her from dwelling on busting her brothers (or her own issues) a hundred percent of the time, but for the most part, she was able to shelve those problems and just enjoy a day out with her best friend. Between trying on new clothes and makeup, gossiping about some of the other girls in their class, and debating which brand of sunscreen would work best on Stacy's skin (inspired by Candace, of course), the redhead was actually having fun. It was nice to feel like a normal teenage girl again.

After a couple of hours, Candace felt the hunger return, stronger than it was yesterday. It wasn't quite at the level of causing her pain yet, but she knows she'll need some blood soon. She doesn't want a repeat of last time where she blacked out and almost killed her brother.

Even though she knows that eating regular food would only make the hunger worse later, Candace still agreed when Stacy suggested hitting up the food court. Not eating would only make Stacy more concerned, leading to more worried questions, and that's the last thing Candace wants right now. She just hopes her bloodlust won't be agonizing when it returns.

"That SPF 120 stuff you use is really strong," Stacy said, reading the ingredients label on the back of the tube. "Where'd you hear about it?"

"I read about the brand in a magazine and decided to give it a shot," Candace lied. She's become too comfortable doing that recently.

"I thought it was only for people with really sensitive skin."

Candace shrugged, tossing a french fry into her mouth. Her skin was more sensitive than it was two weeks ago, but just not in the typical human way anymore.

"Well, I just hope it works as well on me as it did on you," Stacy said after gulping down a mouthful of her soda. "It'll keep me from getting another lecture from my mom."

Candace snorted. "Yeah, she wasn't too happy the last time you got a sunburn."

"Ugh, I know!" Stacy scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I am never using that 50 SPF garbage again, especially after today."

Candace giggled and wolfed down some more fries. God, she misses being able to eat without thinking of her nagging hunger for blood.

"You know, my mom almost didn't let me leave the house today," Stacy added on after a couple of seconds.

"Why?" Candace asked, taking a large sip of her water.

"She was watching the news this morning and heard about some guy that got murdered."

The redhead choked on her drink.

"Wh-what g-guy?" Candace coughs out, tears springing to her eyes as she struggled to swallow the clear liquid.

"This garbage man doing his job found a guy behind some trash cans downtown," Stacy told her. "He was wrapped up in a squirrel costume and didn't have any blood left in his body."

There was no reason for the eldest Hirano daughter to explain all of this, she was talking to the man's murderer, after all, but she didn't know that. Candace sure as hell did, though.

"Do.... they know what happened to him?" Candace asked, her voice soft and trembling.

Stacy shook her head. "All the police said is that he was probably killed a couple days ago. I wonder how someone can just drain all of someone's blood like that."

Candace started to shake. There was no use in masking her fear any longer. She was terrified. They found Allen. They found him and know he had been murdered. What if they found out it was her? She can't go to jail, or even a trial for that matter. She'd cave on the spot and spill everything on the stand. She'd be exposed as a vampire and a murderer, and then who knows what would happen to her after that. They could put her behind bars for all eternity. They could sentence her to death by sunlight. They could ship her off to some government facility to be studied or made into some sentient military weapon.

There are so many awful things that could happen to her if she's exposed.... But perhaps she deserved it. She killed a man in order to satisfy her thirst for blood. And soon, she'll have to do it again, and again, and again, and again—

"Earth to Candace!" Stacy shouted, waving her hand in front of her best friend's face.

"S-Sorry," Candace apologized, her voice still giving away how frightened she was. "I'm just, um, uh...." She wracked her brain for a convenient excuse.

"Do you think there's, like, a serial killer running around?" Stacy asked, beginning to sound freaked out herself.

"Y-Yes, that's it!" Candace agreed, grateful that her best friend unintentionally gave her an out. "I'm scared they'll get me!"

"I don't even want to think about that," Stacy said firmly. "But maybe we should get on the next bus before it gets dark, just to be sure." Her eyes widened. "Wait, do you think even the buses are safe?"

"They should be," Candace said, forcing her voice to bounce back to normal. "Hold on, what time is it?" She pulled out her phone and gasped when she saw it was almost five in the afternoon. She needs to get home and make sure her brothers' invention was still there pronto!

"You're right, let's go." Candace hopped out of her seat and began to gather up her shopping bags. "I have to bust my brothers!"

"Well, at least I got you to stop obsessing over them for this long," Stacy said in a dejected voice, grabbing her own stuffed-full bag.

The trip back to the Flynn-Fletcher house wasn't long, but to Candace, it seemed to drag on forever. Stacy was anxious the whole time, glancing at her phone and shooting nervous glances at everyone that boarded the bus. Candace, on the other hand, was itching to get home and see if her previous attempts to get the kids to build more had paid off. She probably should have stayed put in her position by the window, but whatever.

When the bus finally arrived at the stop closest to her house, the teens departed quickly, both of them desperate to get out of there for their own reasons. 

"Do you think they're still building?" Candace questioned her best friend as they turned the corner onto Maple Drive. "They better be. Mom will be home soon, and this might be my chance to finally bust them."

"No idea," Stacy told her.

"I just hope we're not too...." Candace's voice trailed off as she noticed a peculiar sight.

"Two houses?" both the girls cried out at the same time, staring at the exact replica of the Flynn-Fletcher house sitting in the plot next door.

"Oh, this has to be Phineas and Ferb's fault!" Candace said, taking out her phone. "I'm calling Mom and telling her to come home right now!"

"And that's my cue to call my mom to pick me up," Stacy announced, flipping open her own mobile. "No way in hell am I walking back home with a killer on the loose."

Candace didn't say anything in response, choosing instead to dial her mom's number, a wild grin overtaking her face. Finally, she was going to bust Phineas and Ferb!

She didn't bust Phineas and Ferb.

By virtue of the universe hating her guts, Candace's efforts to show her mom what her brothers were doing were in vain. Not only did the second house disappear, but the Perry robot did, too. And to make it worse, the latter vanished at the very last minute, driving the knife of defeat in even deeper.

Oh well. Another failure to file away in her brain. Same shit, different day. At least she got to spend time with Stacy.

Speaking of Stacy, she left after having dinner and dessert that night (at Linda's insistence) when her mom finally came to pick her up. Candace was tempted to ask if she wanted to have an inpromtu sleepover, but decided otherwise. She needs blood soon, and she doesn't want her best friend to be around in case Candace has another hunger-induced blackout; not only is she not ready to tell Stacy about it yet, but she's not confident that she'll come to her senses in time if she slips into that state again.

Putting a pin in that slumber party idea, Candace went to bed late that night, finding it hard to doze off. Even though she doesn't need as much sleep as a human does now, she still forces herself to go to bed at a normal time each night. If someone were to ask her why she does this, she'd respond with two reasons: boredom and anxiety. The first one is simple; she'd get bored easily without something to do for hours, leading to the second one. With nothing she can focus on all night, her mind will inevitably be drawn back into an angsty, worried state, stewing over every event that happened so far in her short time as a vampire. Sitting up for hours with her guilt and concerns gnawing away at her will only make her mental health worse, and she can't afford to let her paranoia consume her anymore than it already does.

So, she sleeps as much as she can at night, doing her best to count sheep or practice rhythmic breathing to speed up the process. However, tonight it was just not working. She doesn't know if it's because her vampire body is energized enough from oversleeping or if it's just her mind running on overdrive, but she does know that whichever one is keeping her from snoozing is starting to piss her off.

Snarling in irritation, Candace tossed and turned several times in bed before she gets an idea. She flies out of bed and moves as fast as she can to the bathroom. Not bothering to turn on the light, she goes directly to the mirror and pauses before opening it up.

Gazing at her reflection, Candace can see that the dark circles under her eyes are now more prominent than they were yesterday, giving off the impression that she wasn't getting enough rest. Ironic.

The mirror is freezing under her hand when she touches it, causing Candace to remember Stacy's earlier comment about the redhead's hands being cold. No one else has mentioned her feeling cold before, so what changed today? Is it connected to her growing need for blood? Does the temperature of her hands grow frostier as her hunger increases? And what about those ever-darkening eye bags? Are they also a result of her bloodlust?

Candace's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a soft thump nearby, disturbing the dead silence of the house. Not wanting to risk having one of her parents walk in on her, she swiftly opens the mirror cabinet, swipes the bottle of melatonin gummies she was searching for off the top shelf, and unscrews the cap. Candace dumps some of the contents into her hand, slaps the cap on again and nearly hurls it back into the cabinet before closing the mirror again. She heard quick, quiet footsteps moving down the hall, and the redhead cautiously peeked around the doorframe to see who it was. Thankfully, the source of the noise was just Perry, who was presumably heading downstairs to use his litter box.

Crisis averted. Candace thought, breathing a small sigh of relief, looking down at the squishy sleep aids in her hand. Let's hope this works. 

The gummies tasted like strawberries and were easy to chew. Candace hasn't taken them before and doesn't know what the right dose for a girl her age is (although it's definitely way less than the amount she just shoved into her mouth), but she doesn't really care. It's not like she's gonna overdose on these gummies, she's a God damn vampire! The only factor that might screw up her plans is if the supplements don't work on her. But that's something she just has to figure out herself.

The pitter-patter of four platypus feet returned to the hallway, signaling that Perry was going back to bed. Candace decided to take a cue from the monotreme and retired to her own bed once more. She goes back to her bedtime headspace, counting sheep and breathing rhythmically, and eventually felt herself grow tired as the effects of the melatonin kicked in. Candace couldn't help but smile happily upon realizing that her idea had worked out, and as the witching hour hit, her eyes shut for the final time that night.

Candace awoke to abdominal pain. The stupid hunger was back and worse than before, practically begging for the teen to find fresh blood. A heavy sensation sets in her stomach as she comes to the conclusion that she'll have to hunt again tonight and sadly wishes that her brothers had managed to cure her already.

Checking the time, Candace finds that it was currently a quarter past nine in the morning. She reluctantly crawls out of bed and gets ready for the day, the pit of dread in her belly weighing her down. It didn't help that she was still a bit drowsy from the melatonin (a side effect she isn't a fan of), but at least she slept through the rest of the night.

Downstairs, Candace had breakfast with her family as usual before each one of them branched off to go accomplish their goals for the day. Her father went out to the antique shop, her mom started preparing to go to the store to get a few things she'd forgotten to buy yesterday, and the boys went to the backyard, the redhead casting a suspicious glare at them as they did. What were they up to this time?

"Okay, Candace, I'm leaving," Linda announced to her daughter. "When I get back, I'll get to work on your laundry."

"My laundry?" Candace asked, refocusing her attention on her mom. "Is it time for that again?"

"No, just the outfit with the stains."

Fuck, Candace forgot about that.

"It's a good thing you went clothes shopping yesterday," Linda told her. "I'll give those stains a good scrub, but I doubt they're coming out at this point."

Candace didn't respond, instead briefly mulling over what her mom said. It is a good thing that she went to the mall yesterday. Letting go of all her dilemmas for a while to hang out with her best friend resulted in the best afternoon she's experienced in a long time.... Could it be possible for her to have fun like that more often? Just forget about her problems and spend the rest of her summer doing things she enjoys rather than obsess over busting her brothers or fret about her vampirism?

Yeah, that's definitely possible! She just needs to stop being such a "high-strung teen" as her mom would say.

The sound of her phone buzzing drew Candace's attention. She scooped the device off the table and answered it without even seeing who was calling.

"Did you see the news today?" Stacy asked on the other end of the line.

"No," Candace told her, standing up from the dining room table. "What happened?"

"The police found someone else dead this morning."

"What?" the redhead shouted, genuinely shocked to hear that. She hasn't fed on anyone else (not yet, at least), so this wasn't a death she caused. "Who is it?"

"It's a woman they found floating in the city's moat," Stacy explained.

"What happened to her?"

"I don't know.... Hold on." Candace heard the sound of a computer mouse clicking on Stacy's end. "Oh! I found an article about it!"

"What does it say?"

"Not very much. Her name was Sienna Herrera, she worked as a hospital dental hygienist, and she was thirty years old.... Wait, the hospital? Did my mom know her?"

Candace cringes. She really hopes Dr. Hirano didn't know Sienna for her own sake.

"Does the article say how she died?" Candace asked, aiming to get some more information.

"Hmmmm..... Nope," Stacy said. "The cops said she didn't have any injuries, so they think it may have been an accident."

"Oh." Candace was a tad disappointed. For a split second, she wished this woman had been exsanguinated and dropped into the moat, the victim  of another vampire attack. It's not that Candace was glad to hear about Sienna's tragic demise, but during that moment when she was waiting to hear the cause of death, a brief daydream where Sienna's bloody death by vampire led to Candace finding her sire flashed in her mind, giving her a small twinge of hope. But as usual, this pipe dream slipped from her grasp before she could even try to hold on to it.

"It says at the end of the article that she's the seventh person this summer to either go missing or turn up dead," Stacy informed her friend.

Candace's eyebrows shot up. "Seventh?"

"Uh huh. It doesn't list any other names, though. I only know about Sienna and that guy who was wearing the squirrel costume."

"Yeah, same...." For once, this was the truth. Candace was also only aware of only those two deaths, but she still couldn't help but sound guilty as she spoke. Was the vampire that turned involved in the deaths or disappearances of those five other people? She'll have to add them to her list of 'things to research'.

"I'm gonna stop talking about this, it's making me nervous," Stacy said. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing. It's just me and my brothers home today," Candace told her.

"Oh boy. Is it busting time yet?"

"Nope! I thought about it a little, and I've decided I'm not going to do that anymore!"

"I'll believe it when I see it."

"It's true!" Candace stated, moving to the living room and flopping onto an armchair. "From now on, I'm gonna stop always interrupting my life with all these stu—" She cut herself off with a gasp upon seeing the autumnal leaves piled outside the sliding glass door.

"Stacy, I gotta call you back," she told the other girl, hanging up the phone not even a second later. Her determination to be a normal teen (as normal as she could get, anyway) evaporated in a second, replaced by the unstoppable need to bust her brothers. 

God, how could she be so naïve to think that she'd ever just be a normal teen? No matter how hard she tries, she'll never be normal. Normal teens don't have genius brothers or the instinct to bust them. Normal teens don't get to do extraordinary things like go to space or travel through time. Normal teens don't get turned into vampires. And normal teens definitely don't kill people.

She's not normal. She will never, ever be a normal, average, regular girl, not even if her brothers manage to cure her. So why not indulge in her natural desire to bust her brothers?

Candace slams the back door open and frantically begins tearing down the leaves. She expected it to only take a couple of seconds, but it soon became clear that this wall of leaves wasn't a thin veneer simply meant to block her view of the outside, but a much larger cluster that most likely took up a good portion of the backyard.

Frowning, Candace stops her futile attempts to destroy the barrier, knowing it was a waste of her time. With a disgruntled huff, she dives into the leaves instead, hoping to dig her way through it.

The familiar scent of autumn leaves invades the teen's nose as she crawls through the incredibly spacious pile. Usually, this would be a welcome smell, but this time, all it did was remind her that the summer would be drawing to a close sooner than she thinks. With the end of summer comes school, of course, and Candace wonders what will happen if her brothers don't find a cure before then. She's done a decent job of hiding her vampirism so far, but the thought of blowing her cover in front of her classmates is terrifying; one small mistake and she could be shunned at best, or kidnapped by the government at worst.

Or dead. That might also happen. But she really doesn't want to think about that.

At some point, Candace breaks through the pile and comes out on the other side. A brief scan of her surroundings proved that this leaf pile was absolutely humongous; not only was the point she had climbed to pretty high up already, but there was still more than three dozen feet of leaves above her.

"What are they up to today?" the teen rambled aloud. "Do they really think they can escape Mom's wrath by hiding in this fun, massive, glorious, autumnal leaf pile? Well, not if I can help it!" 

After talking to herself, Candace turns and delves back into the leaves once more. She doesn't make it far this time, finding herself falling through the air when she reached an empty spot in the pile. She lands softly on a slide and immediately starts skidding downward, screaming the whole way.

As the ground comes into view, something is shoved onto Candace's head before she crashes into the tree in the backyard, momentarily dazing her. When she regains her composure, she sees that she was now in the company of her brothers and their friends, all of them eating something on a stick and wearing gourds on their heads like helmets.

"A-ha! I got you now!" she tells them triumphantly. "Oooo, you are so busted! I can see that you're eating...." She takes a closer look at what the kids are munching on. "Candy apples." Her voice evened out when she realized how mundane of an activity it was. "Not something I can bust you for."

"You want one, Candace?" Phineas asked, holding up his already-bitten treat.

The candy apples were red, making her hunger for blood tingle a little, but she forcefully pushed those thought aside and accepted a crisp apple from her brother, taking a huge bite. Her taste buds were soon graced with a juicy and sweet flavor, causing a content smile to cross her face. A warm feeling spread through her chest, and for a second, she found herself yearning for the comforting vibes and muted colors of autumn to arrive again.

One candy apple, failed bust attempt, and several hours later, Candace was wide awake again late into the night. This time, though, Candace wasn't really aiming to sleep right away. She'd gone too long without feeding, and the black dots were starting to appear in her vision again, meaning it was time to look for some fresh blood before she blacked out again. She just hopes the unwilling victim comes in the form of an animal this time.

As the clock struck two, the redhead dresses in an old pair of clothes, opens her window, shifts into a bat, and takes off into the night. Like last time, she ducks into a dark alley to change back into a human. She peeks her head around the corner, and upon seeing the street was completely empty, took a step to leave the alley.

Suddenly, Candace is grabbed from behind, making her let out a surprised squeal. Before she can react further, something cold and metal presses against her throat, causing her to freeze in terror.

"No noises or sudden moves, understand?" her assailant hisses. "Or I'll cut your long neck open."

A knife. That's what is being held to her throat. She swallows and feels the blade scrape her skin.

"What do you want?" Candace asks, her tone coming out more neutral than she expected.

"I need out of this town," the man explains, his Hispanic accent more apparent now that he isn't practically growling at her. "Give me your money."

"I don't have any on me."

"Don't lie to me. There's no way you don't have money on you. There's only one reason a teenage girl would be walking around on her own in the dark of the night."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she tells him truthfully.

He scoffs at her. "I'm not an idiot. You can meet your dealer another night."

Oh. Now she knows what he means.

"Hand it over," he commands again, pressing the knife harder against her flesh, creating a shallow cut this time.

Candace is about to refuse again when the smell of her own blood hits her nostrils, reminding her just why she's out and about this late in the first place. She needs blood, and she needs blood now.

The superficial wound on her neck heals quickly, but even without the scent of blood in the air, she knows she must feed. And there's no better person to feast on than the bastard trying to rob her.

Turning on her vampire strength and speed, Candace rips herself out of his grasp, whips around, and without hesitation, punches him square in the chest. The sound of his ribs cracking fills the air, and he crumpled to the ground within seconds, groaning in agony.

Sinking to her knees next to him, Candace's fangs spring out, eager to drink his blood. His eyes widen when he looks at her, and he mutters something in Spanish that she can't understand.

She bites into his neck then, savoring the taste of his blood. Unlike Allen Ingram's, this man's blood had a bit of a sour undertone, but it was still absolutely heavenly, regardless. The warm, fuzzy feeling she had when chowing down on the candy apple returned in full force, reminding her that this was what her body needed, what it craved. Why did she even let him threaten her for so long in the first place? She should have cracked open his neck like a soda bottle the second she felt the knife.

Eventually, her would-be mugger ran out of blood, and she had to stop sucking on his neck. She expected another tidal wave of guilt to overwhelm her like it did with Allen, but it never came. Instead, she felt.... Nothing.

Puzzled by her own lack of emotion, Candace decided to finally get a good look at the guy she just killed. His olive-skinned face was framed by wavy black hair, his brown eyes were still open, lifeless and no longer staring in fright at her, and he wore a white lab coat over a gray sweater, both of which were soaked in his blood. His appearance didn't match that of a typical mugger, and the choice to wear a fucking turtleneck in summer was incredibly strange. And what's with the lab coat? Was this guy some kind of pharmacist? Why would a pharmacist be robbing people? It's not like they don't get paid well.

Bright headlights cut through the darkness, once again reminding Candace that she was in public. Although this time, the only criminal in the alley is her, covered in a man's blood.

Panicking, Candace scrambles to her feet and runs to the wall, doing her best to blend into the shadows. A few seconds later, the car passed by the alley without stopping, meaning the driver most likely didn't see her or the body.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Candace glances around the alley, looking for trash cans or a dumpster to store the corpse. Unfortunately, there wasn't any, and not knowing what else to do with him without getting her DNA all over the place, she makes a risky choice and leaves the cadaver where it is, fully expecting to see a story about it on the five o'clock news tomorrow.

Turning into a bat again, Candace soars off with a flap of her wings, making it back home in record time. After shifting back to normal, she quietly closes the window, strips off her ruined outfit, slips back into her pajamas, and goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash the drying blood off her face.

Once she was done cleaning up, she takes her soiled clothes and goes back outside for a moment, this time exiting through the front door. She makes a beeline for the trash can, popping off the lid with ease. Inside the can, she could see the first set of clothing she'd destroyed while feeding partially hidden under some other miscellaneous garbage. Linda had tossed it that night after unsuccessfully trying to scrub out the stains when she returned home that day, considering the outfit a lost cause.

Candace copies her mom's actions and trashes the clothes in her hands before putting the lid back on and going inside, locking the door as she did. She retires to bed after having some more melatonin gummies, wishing for sleep to come soon.

As she laid in bed, counting the sheep in her head, she ponders why she felt no guilt over murdering that guy. She wrestled with two distinct theories and settles on the more palatable one: that he would have killed her if given the chance.

Well, he may not have been able to actually kill her with a simple knife, but she felt his intentions were clear. Why should she feel bad about offing a guy who was probably just gonna stab her after he got what he wanted? She was just defending herself. Hell, she may have just done the world a favor.

That's what she wants to believe. It's much better than the second possibility: that she's already desensitized to killing.

There were no strong emotions bubbling within her after coming down from another blood high; no shame, no guilt, no sorrow, just plain nothingness. She could just chalk it up to her feeling justified for killing someone who was threatening her, but what if it's something more sinister? What if she's already subconsciously resigned herself to the life of a serial killer?

Shuddering at the thought, Candace shuts her eyes as the melatonin kicked in, lulling her off into a peaceful sleep where she dreamed of bloodied sheep dancing gleefully on the body of a dark-haired pharmacist.

Chapter Text

Candace's day started off pretty good. Her nagging thirst was quenched, the bags under her eyes were gone (confirming her suspicion that they intensified in tandem with her bloodlust), she wasn't inconvenienced by any side effects from the melatonin, and there was no sign of any bodies being reported on the morning news. She doesn't know if her second victim had miraculously not been discovered yet or if the police were keeping quiet about him for whatever reason, but she makes a mental note to monitor the news over the next few days.

When the morning transitioned into afternoon, Candace's day took a sudden nosedive when she accidentally flung the present Jeremy had made for her down a sewer drain.

Truthfully, Candace felt a little stupid. It was the first time she's seen Jeremy in person since he returned her Mp3 player to her the day she was turned, and she chose to watch him walk down the street from the front window of her house like a creep rather than have a conversation with him. But that wasn't the main reason she felt like an idiot. In fact, she barely registered the act of borderline stalking her boyfriend as odd in the first place. She felt dumb because not only did she lose his present, but she didn't even know what it was! She thinks it's supposed to be a bracelet, but she couldn't tell for sure.

Regardless of what it was, it's now floating down in the sewer, just waiting to become food for Crikey.

"Ugh, you've got to be kidding me!" she shouts out loud. "Jeremy will be heartbroken when he finds out I lost my gift!"

Fortunately, the solution to her problem came with a gasp and the name of two certain people:

"Phineas and Ferb!" 

Candace booked it to the backyard, hoping to get the boys to help, and came across a peculiar sight. Lying down on yellow lounge chairs were Baljeet and her brothers. The three of them had wires stuck to their heads that lead to a contraption on the ground in the shape of a red ball on top of a small stand. Sitting upright in his own chair next to this device was Irving, holding a clipboard and wearing a headset microphone.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" she asked, a little afraid of what the answer will be.

"We built a mind machine to enter Baljeet's subconscious in order to cure his fear of contractions," Phineas told her.

"You are amputating two perfectly good words and stitching them together," Baljeet piped up. "They are the Frankenstein monsters of grammar."

"We've already cured Irving's fear of the color lavender."

"It can't hurt me anymore," the boy in question said, his voice holding a bit of a tremble.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't care about any of that!" Candace said, uninterested in the fears of two mega nerds. "I lost the gift Jeremy made for me, and you guys have to make an exact duplicate before he comes over!"

"We'd love to," Phineas said. "What'd it look like?"

"Well, it kind of had this bolty screw thing going on, and this wrapped wire like...." Candace tried to outline the missing gift with her hands, but it didn't help. "Oh, I know what it looks like, but I don't know how to describe it!"

"No problem. We can use the mind machine to enter your subconscious and retrieve your memory of what the gift looked like." Phineas looked over at his contraction-fearing friend and asked, "You don't mind if we fix Candace's problem first, do you, Baljeet?"

"No, I don't," he replied before breaking out into a fit of shivers.

While Baljeet was shaking like a leaf, Phineas brought out another yellow lounge chair and had Candace lay down on it while he applied some wires to her face. The suction cups her brother used to stick them on were tight and uncomfortable, like there were leeches attaching themselves to her face.

After a few minutes, Candace was fully hooked up to the mind machine and ready to enter her subconscious. She wasn't happy that Baljeet would be accompanying her and her brothers, but he insisted that his experience at psychology camp was an advantage, so she didn't protest. She just hopes that he doesn't find anything hidden in her mind that gives away her big secret.

This better be quick. She thought as the machine roared to life. These stupid wires are already starting to hurt.

One small countdown from four later, Candace closed her eyes and was hit with a feeling of lightheadedness, as if she was floating in the air. Within seconds, that sensation vanished, and she found herself standing in an unfamiliar landscape.

"Where are we?" she asked. It was a dumb question. She already knew where she was, but then again, stupidity seemed to be her theme for the day.

"We're inside your subconscious," Phineas told her.

Candace doesn't think she likes being here. Not only does she not fully understand how she managed to dip inside her own mind like this (let alone with three other people), but she's scared of what she'll find wandering around.

At least this part of her mind was nice. How could it not be? It was a mountain range all about Jeremy, after all complete with giant cliff faces in the shape of his head and the sound of his melodious, disembodied voice easing her worries for a moment. Unfortunately, the comfort her boyfriend's visage and voice gave her fizzled out when she felt the ground rumble beneath her feet and a monstrous roar reached her ears.

"Shh!" Baljeet hissed. "Do not move a muscle."

"What is it?" Candace demanded, growing more disturbed with each second.

"It is your id."

"My what?"

"Your id. The embodiment of your deepest, most primal urges."

"So, fun, right?" Another stupid question from the teen.

"Wrong. It is very primitive and aggressive," Baljeet informed her. "We do not want to meet it in here."

Another loud roar pierced the air, causing the thin hairs on Candace's arms to stand up. She may not know what the id looks like, but she can tell based on how badly its bellowing shook the ground that it was both enormous and incredibly irate. She was beginning to think this whole diving into her mind thing was a mistake.

While she was contemplating her poor choices, a herd of gazelle dashed past the quartet, spooked by the id's screaming. These animals didn't look like typical gazelle's though; some of them were brown, some were purple, but all of them bore the face of one of her brothers and were clothed in wrinkled and bloodied lab coats layered over squirrel costumes.

"Obviously, you see Phineas and Ferb as some sort of prey," Baljeet said, observing the strange animals run past them. "But I don't know why they are dressed like that."

Ferb reached for the silver charm that has now become a daily addition to his attire. When he clutched it in his hand, Candace swears she could feel her own heart tighten with sadness and guilt.

The id roared for the third time, spurring on the gazelle to flee faster. Candace's gloomy feelings were replaced in an instant by one of fear, and she decided to take a cue from the frightened animals.

"Run!" she shouted to the boys as she took off, taking a cursory look behind her to make sure they complied. Thankfully, they did, following right on her heels as she made a break for the edge of the hill. She just hopes they get lucky and find what they're looking for before the beast finds them.

The next big landmark the group came across was a fairly large cluster of hills. Colored in either pink, red, or orange, these rounded peaks varied in size and each one bore a simple face that a stick figure would have: two dots for eyes and a curved line for a mouth. Some of the faces were turned up into a smile, while others were twisted downwards into a frown, and every few seconds or so, they would switch between the two expressions. Splitting down the hills in the middle was a long, white trail, and in front of the entrance, right off the path, was a wooden sign stuck into the ground.

"Where are we now?" Candace asked as the four of them came to a stop, certain they had outrun the id.

"According to this sign, it appears that we're at the Peaks and Valleys of Fickleness," Phineas said as his eyes skimmed over the sign.

Candace rolled her eyes at herself. At this point, she should keep a tally of all the stupid things she's done today.

The trek through the hills wasn't too long, and as they walked, the redhead found herself thinking about what a strange place her mind was. A whole section dedicated to Jeremy was expected, but one revolving around her wishy-washy attitude towards ambivalence was interesting. She's never been one to minimize (or even control) her emotions, and it's known to everyone in her social circle that when she wants something, she goes for it. The thought of just not caring was both attractive and baffling to her; she can't understand how people could bring themselves to not give a damn, but at the same time, she sometimes wished she could care less about things and not be so temperamental. She has mixed feelings about it.

At the end of the trail, the group found themselves at yet another landmark, one much worse than the last.

Three identical waterfalls stood in front of them. The water rushing down was crimson in color, and like some of the hills, had a frowning face etched across each one, although these were less simple and more agonized. The red water cascaded down into a stream where it darkened in color, making it appear less like a liquid and more like coagulated blood.

"Wow, the Falls of Anxiety," Phineas said, as if he was looking at a museum exhibit.

Candace's own disembodied voice echoed out of the waterfall, rattling off her biggest insecurities.

Is my neck too long? 

Is it okay that I wear the same dress every day?

Why does the mysterious force running the universe hate me?

Am I too tall?

What if I never find out who bit me?

Okay, that's enough. She needs to get out of here. She's just lucky the boys are too busy discussing how weird they find this place rather than actually listening closely to each individual insecurity.

"It is all of Candace's anxieties." Baljeet.

"There are so.... Many of them." Phineas.

"She has a rich internal life." Ferb.

"Yeah, she's really messed up." Buford.

Wait, Buford? When the fuck did he get here?

"You can't come in here!" Candace shouted at the bully, who was munching on a sandwich.

"It's a free country," he told her.

"No it's not! It's my head! And you're getting crumbs all over...." A sudden chill overtook her body, and she found it hard to speak coherently. "All over.... cru-crumbs...."

"What's wrong with her?" Buford asked.

"The anxieties are getting to her!" Baljeet yelled.

The nerd was right on the money. Standing by the crimson waters proved to be a bad idea, as her anxieties had slowly crept in and now had her in an iron grip, squeezing at her brain and reminding her of all her worst fears.

"Hurry, everyone! Through the falls!" Phineas commanded, taking his sister's wrist and yanking her into the river. Ferb and Baljeet followed suit, hurrying after them. In their rush to reach the waterfall, they're assaulted from the air by sweaty hands, hyperventilating lungs with chicken-like heads and popping veins, bats with sharp teeth and glowing red eyes, and for some reason, rubber ducks. Candace doesn't understand why that last one is here, and Baljeet's remark of "It's your subconscious" doesn't really help.

After swatting away the last of the ducks, they break through the falls. The water is warm on Candace's skin and smells rusty, but her and the boys are still dry when they make it to the other side. That was a surprise, but a welcome one—she didn't want to continue their search soaking wet.

The other side of the falls held a small, dark cave that eventually gave way to an almost desolate landscape covered in thin, purple grass that reeked of wild parsnips. Candace instinctively covered her nose, but removed her hand a second later. If the water wouldn't leave her wet, she doubts the parsnip smell would affect her either. She's probably not allergic to them anymore, anyway.

Candace's eyes found another wooden sign stuck into the ground a few steps away. Written across the front in scrawled, messy penmanship were the words The Mirror of Dread. Standing just behind this sign was the cursed mirror in question. She doesn't like the sound of this.

Candace stands in front of the mirror, and immediately her reflection changes. Its eyes flash red and its mouth twists upwards in a smug, sadistic smirk as several bodies materialize on the ground at their feet, their faces frozen in mortal terror.

The teen goes to take a step back, but before she can, her malevolent doppelgänger's arm shoots out of the glass, latches onto Candace's wrist with freezing cold fingers and pulls her into the mirror.

As Candace tumbles through the looking glass and lands on the other side, she knows she's in for a wild, unpleasant ride.

As she's thrust into a bizarre, fast-paced montage of all her fears, Candace thinks about the time she hallucinated during that camping trip with her maternal grandparents. Tripping out not once, but twice over the course of her time there wasn't fun in the slightest. She found herself wondering after the fact just how it can be possible that the mere power of suggestion caused her to fall into a delusion state the first time, but after getting a taste of all the mind-melting things her own subconscious had to offer, she no longer has to speculate. Her brain really is just that weird.

Her trip through the Mirror of Dread most likely only took a few minutes, but it honestly felt like hours. Just like at the Falls of Anxiety, her own phobias coiled around her like an eternally tightening vice, chilling her to the bone with fear. Visions of horrible things like Suzy Johnson's golden blonde curls, squirrels in her pants, and rotting cadavers tormented her, reminding her of every traumatic incident she's experienced over the summer. It wasn't until she was swallowed by a giant fish and deposited in yet another unfamiliar landscape where the boys happened to be that she started to calm down.

Apparently, the place she had just been delivered to is a woodland appropriately called the "Forest of Memory" and she should be able to properly pinpoint what Jeremy's gift looks like here. If only she knew how to jog her memory. Luckily, Phineas came through with an idea: scratch the trees until she remembers.

"That makes my head all buzzy," she said, not liking how she could hear the sound of their scratching both in person and in her head.

As uncomfortable as the sensation was, it actually worked. The fuzzy memory of what Jeremy's present looked like soon became clearer and clearer until she could see it appear with a bright flash.

"I see it!" she cried out, pointing to the apparition. "Over there, through the trees! That's it!"

"That's what?" inquired a familiar voice.

Candace whirled around and came face to face with the gift giver in question.

"Jeremy?!" she squealed. "Wait, are you real?"

"Yeah. I stopped by your house to give you your present and Irving just told me to jack right in."

Candace furrowed her brows. "My present? How could you? I lost it. But I found the memory. It's right over there." She pointed again.

"That? That's not your present. That's my drain unclogger," Jeremy told her. "I don't know why I carry that around with me."

Wow. All this trouble for nothing. If Candace wasn't so excited by the prospect of Jeremy's actual gift, she'd be admonishing herself for being stupid for the umpteenth time today.

Suddenly, the pink, fluffy tops of the trees were violently ripped apart, finally giving Candace a glimpse at her id for the first time—and it was horrific.

Just like she predicted, the id was huge, towering above the trees. Its red eyes bulged out of the sockets, the sclera yellow and sickly-looking. Its mouth was open, revealing bloodstained, jagged teeth. Long, sharp claws tipped its fingernails, and it wore an exact replica of Candace's favorite red and white ensemble over stone gray skin.

The beast let out another primal roar, this one louder than the last, shaking the ground like a level nine earthquake as it did.

Baljeet screamed for them to run, and no one was dumb enough to disregard his advice (not even Candace). They sprinted back to the entrance as quick as they could, trying to outrun the id, blowing past Buford and the Fireside Girls (great, more uninvited guests in her head) as they did. Candace thought about warning them, but the sound of Buford's shrieking meant that he'd already seen the id in all its terrifying glory.

The id continued its pursuit, this time with a weapon. It struck the ground with a club, attempting to clobber anyone it could, growing in size with each swing. It wasn't that adept with the weapon though, and missed every time. Its angry growling steadily got more and more frustrated, and eventually, it tossed the club aside and bit right into the ground, tearing it like paper before beginning to devour it. This time, there was no running as the ground funneled them towards the id's mouth like they were on a giant conveyor belt.

Desperate and out of options, Candace attempted to turn on her vampire speed to get herself out of there, but it didn't work. The thing that clicked in her brain whenever she activated one of her powers wasn't responding, leaving her no way to escape. She was sucked into the id's mouth with everyone else and left in a dark void when the id shut its gaping maw.

Candace floated in this blackness for a couple of minutes before a feeling of intense warmth overtook her body. Almost directly after that, a bright light pierced through the dark, banishing the shadows and replacing them with a beautiful, blue sky.

The sky.... Does that mean Candace is awake and alright?

Shielding her eyes from the harsh sunlight, she sat up, finding herself in the same lounge chair as before. Everyone else who'd taken a dip into her mind had also woken up, removing the wires from their heads and departing from the backyard.

Candace pries off her own face wires and lets out a big sigh of relief. She's had enough excitement for the day.

"Hey, Buford never woke up!" Phineas said, rushing over to stand next to his still unconscious friend.

"What? How?" Candace asked, going over to stand by him. "He was with us when the id showed up!"

"I don't know, but we need to go get him."

"No, I'm going to get him," Candace told him firmly. "I don't need another parade running around inside my head."

"Okay, but be careful and take this." The youngest Flynn took off the watch he was wearing and secured it to his sister's wrist. "You can use it to communicate with me like I did with Irving earlier."

Candace went back to her own lounge chair and flopped down, reapplying the wires herself this time. Another four second countdown later, and Candace was back in her mind, starting once again at the Jeremy Mountains.

She takes a second to listen to her boyfriend's singing before starting her search for Buford. For his sake, she hopes she finds him quick.

For the second time that day, Candace makes her way across her own subconscious, passing several landmarks on her way. Some were familiar, some weren't, but one in particular caught her eye. Encased in a small meadow, just outside the Forest of Memory, was a tall bronze statue—a statue of her.

Sitting cross-legged on top of a pedestal, the Candace statue had its eyes closed and palms facing upwards like it was meditating. In the middle of its forehead was a noticeable crease, something the real Candace didn't possess.

Cautiously, the teen approached the statue. As she got closer, the energy in the air changed, causing her to feel calmer, as if this unusual bronze figure was trustworthy. When she got within a foot of it, she stuck out a hand and touched the statue's smooth face.

Almost immediately, Candace's vision was overtaken by a bright light, temporarily blinding her. The cool bronze heated up against her hand, and the energy in the air shifted again, this time with more intensity, filling her with a feeling of invigoration, like she had been supercharged.

The light and lively energy then faded as quickly as they came, leaving Candace seeing black dots in her vision for a few seconds. Staggering backwards, she removed her hand from the statue (which was still warm) and attempted to stop her head from spinning. When the dizziness and spots completely disappeared, she glanced back at the statue and froze in place.

The statue had completely changed. Instead of bronze, it was now stark white and the forehead crease was open, revealing a large, bright purple eye.

Gazing into this new third eye, Candace could sense something click in her brain. Now that's she discovered this place, she's unlocked something she shouldn't have been able to touch for a long time.

As a vampire, she has the potential to use abilities beyond the few she's already aware of that lay dormant in her mind, and if she tends to it, connects with it, nurtures it, she can call on the power within her and perform amazing feats. She has no clue how she knows all this, but she does. Like she had been blessed with some kind of divine revelation.

"How are you doing in there, Candace?"

Finally broken out of her transfixed state by her brother's voice, Candace blinks a few times and sounds off a reply into the wristwatch.

"I'm fine."

"Have you found Buford yet?"

Oh right. She was there for Buford. She'd forgotten about him for a minute.

"Not yet."

"Okay. Just let me know when you do."

Candace continued on her journey then, reluctantly leaving the clearing behind her. Once she wakes up back in the real world, she really needs to think about what she just experienced.

Candace finds Buford sitting by a beach with her id, talking to it like he was looking to score himself a date. She practically had to drag him away, paying no attention to his protests or the presence of the id itself, which was considerably smaller now. What was it gonna do, eat her again? Been there, done that.

By the time the two awakened, it was getting fairly late in the day, so Candace decided to just retire to her room, still thinking about what had transpired in her head. She has power in her she can use.... But how? Maybe she can try meditating?

She sits down on her bedroom floor, mimicking the statue's pose, and closes her eyes. She doesn't know meditation is really supposed to work aside from the whole "clear your mind" thing, but it's worth a shot.

Clearing her mind proves to be more difficult than she expected. There's just too many questions bouncing around in her head, and she gives up trying after a couple of minutes. Instead, she focuses her mind's eye on her memory of the statue post transformation. It gave her the information she needed before, maybe it will again.

For a while, she concentrates on what the statue had taught her. She had power. She can harness it. Care for it. Control it. Whatever it was.

What was this power, anyway? The question lingers, and she tries to push it away, but something tells her not to. Are these powers physical like her enhanced speed and strength? Or are they more mind based? She's inclined to believe it's the latter, but she could be wrong.

She remembers when her brothers tested out her abilities back when she first became a vampire. She couldn't demonstrate a lot of the psychic powers that vampires in media usually had, but perhaps she can now.

Going down a mental checklist, Candace mulls over each ability, hoping something will click in her mind again.

Telekinesis.... Mind reading.... Creating illusions.... Hypnosis..... Shapeshifting....

Wait, right there. A small tingle stirred up when Candace thought of shapeshifting. Can she turn into something besides a bat now? How about a wolf?

Nothing. No tingles. Maybe a wolf is too big? 

She thinks of a rat next. Still nothing. She goes smaller and conjures up the image of a fly.

There! Tingles!

Candace reaches for the power within and instantly, she feels her body change. She opens her eyes and looks down at herself, now in the form of a common housefly.

Candace shifts back to her normal form and lets out an elated squeal. It worked! She changed into something new! Yeah, it may have been a nasty fly, but it's better than nothing.

Linda's voice floats upstairs then, calling for her daughter to come down for dinner. Candace smiles to herself and gets up from the floor, smoothing down her skirt as she does. It seems like the day wasn't a total loss after all.

The next day, Jeremy swings by the house before his shift to drop off Candace's present. He'd meant to give it to her yesterday, but had forgotten after all the "excitement". It was a pretty purple bracelet that was too wide for her thin wrist, but she didn't really care. She was just happy to have gotten it in the first place.

She spent the rest of the morning meditating on her bedroom floor, trying to level up her shapeshifting. That didn't work, so she instead just practiced shifting into various small insects. From a bee to a butterfly to even a tiny aphid, Candace successfully attempted them all.

Except spiders. She can't stand those things. No way was she turning into one willingly.

After a while, Candace decided she'd had enough for the time being and stood up. She didn't really have any other plans for the day, but that problem got solved when her eyes spotted something large outside.

God damn it, she should have known Phineas and Ferb would be up to no good again. Now they've gone and made what looks to be a giant ant farm in the backyard. What would they even need that for? Are they breeding human-sized ants? Didn't they get their fill of oversized creatures yesterday?

Regardless of the reason, Candace isn't going to let this shit slide. She takes out her phone and dials her mom's number, but it met with Linda's voicemail. She tries again, then a third time, then a fourth, but her mom never answers.

Growling in frustration, Candace snaps the phone shut, slathers on some sunscreen, and stomps downstairs. She briefly considers going over to the Garcia-Shapiro household to tell Linda what's going on person, but decides otherwise. There's no way her mom is going to ditch her Wednesday drawing class for this.

"Phineas and Ferb, let me in!" the redhead demands once she reaches the base of the ant farm, pressing down hard on the yellow button next to the circular entrance. She expected this noticeable button to be some kind of doorbell, but instead of hearing a familiar chime come from inside the ant farm, she finds herself being doused in some kind of rancid-smelling spray.

"Ew! What the heck is wrong with this doorbell?!" She whines, slamming her hand on it repeatedly, only to be met with more of the gross, pink spray, some of it getting in her eyes.

She gives up on the button then, figuring out much too late that it was not a doorbell. She tries the door then and finds it to be unlocked, meaning she completely wasted her time with that button. God, when she finds Phineas and Ferb, they're so busted.

Sometimes Candace wonders if she was royalty in a past life. If she wasn't, then it's really strange that she keeps stumbling into situations revolving around her being or impersonating a royal. Playing the Princess Monster, swapping places with the princess of Drusselstein, being crowned queen of Mars, and the predicament she's in now. Just like those little green men did when she visited their planet, the oversized ants occupying the farm had taken her in and put her on their throne.

Of course, since they're bugs, their "riches" consisted of a cheaply made crown and a bowl of mixed bread crumbs and grasshopper legs, but she'll take what she can get. Hell, the legs weren't even that bad; they were nice and crunchy, like pretzel sticks.

Despite not being able to speak, the ants seem to understand English pretty well since they managed to do any task their queen requested of them without fail. Candace had learned about queen ants and queen bees and the like in school, but her teachers really downplayed how loyal these bugs are to their leader. They'd probably offer themselves up as sacrifices if she asked for blood.

Now that she thinks about it, can ant blood fully satisfy her hunger? Human blood obviously does the trick, and she wouldn't be shocked if animal blood was an acceptable meal, but what about giant bugs? There's only one way to really find out.

She commands the nearest ant to come over to her throne, which it does immediately. Unleashing her fangs, she leans in and bites into its skinny neck. She starts sucking out its blood and recoils very quickly when her mouth is filled with what just might be the most rancid thing she's ever tasted. The smell is no better, and after spitting out the ant's foul, yellowish blood, she coughs and gags, covering her mouth and shooing the still bleeding ant away. The wound continues leaking as the insect leaves, the pus like fluid dripping to the ground as it walks. Right away, it is surrounded by a bunch of its brethren, doing what Candace believes to be patching up the bite she'd given it, and slumps back into her throne.

Candace shoves some more of the bread crumbs and grasshopper legs into her mouth in an attempt to cancel out the horrid taste of the ant's blood. She could really go for a salad right about now. Or some strong mouthwash.

Like on Mars, Candace's reign as queen of the ants was very short. The big, brown bugs developed their civilization so rapidly that they decided they no longer wanted a monarch controlling them. That was okay with her though. Now she can bust her brothers without any distractions.

But of course, that didn't work out. By the time she managed to drag her mom to the backyard, the ant farm had vanished. Predictable.

She sulked back to her room after that and called Jeremy, hoping that hearing his voice would make her feel better. Luckily, he was just finishing his shift for the day, and the two of them ended up talking for a while, which did bring up Candace's spirits.

After chatting with her boyfriend, the redhead got another call an hour later. That resulted up in another long, pleasant conversation, this time with Stacy.

Night had fallen sometime during the girls' gossiping session, and they didn't show any signs of stopping until Candace saw the familiar sight of a green beam zapping through the air just outside her window.

Jesus Christ, is one invention for the day not enough for Phineas and Ferb anymore? Have they resorted to building overnight projects as well? They are so busted!

"I think the boys are shooting green lasers in the backyard," Candace tells Linda, dragging her into the room towards the window. "Look!"

Outside, the boys and their friends are setting up a telescope, presumably to look at the stars, no lasers to be seen.

"Hey kids, how's the over-nighter going?" Linda asked them, poking her head out the window.

"Great, Mom!" Phineas replied. "Everyone's helping, even Perry." He gestured to the platypus, who was lying dormant on a lawn chair, a flashlight resting next to his paws.

Linda moved away from the window and turned to face her daughter, crossing her arms as she did.

"Candace, do you remember two weeks ago, when we wrote up this contract?" she inquired, pulling a sheet of paper out of the pocket of her light green robe.

"The Bust Accord?" Candace asks, looking it over. Of course she remembers it. It's got more articles than the US Constitution.

"And do you recall article twelve?"

"Yes. 'I will not attempt to bust my brothers more than once a day'," the teen rattles off. "I remember. But—"

"And what happened earlier today?"

"I tried to show you a giant ant farm."

"Excellent, we have an understanding. Now go to bed. You can try again tomorrow," Linda tells her daughter before leaving the room.

Frustrated, Candace stomps over to her bed and sits down, glancing at her alarm clock. It was a little after ten, meaning in about two hours it would be midnight, and therefore, tomorrow. She just had to wait until then.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.

Sitting around and twiddling her thumbs proved to be an ineffective way of passing time, and wishing for the clock to suddenly strike twelve didn't work either. It was almost like she was Cinderella, but in reverse.

Staring out the window at the glass slipper that was her brothers' would-be invention also didn't do much with her. She heard them say some stuff about fiber optics and space probes, but they hadn't actually made anything huge or dangerous or bizarre yet, so she had to keep waiting.

She tried meditating for a while, but was too amped up to really relax, so she ditched that idea very quickly. Pacing around her room, she wracked her brain for a way to spend time. Jeremy was probably already asleep now, so she couldn't call him, and Stacy sounded like she was on the verge of dozing off when Candace got off the phone with her before, so she doubts the dark-haired girl is still awake. Maybe she can do some research?

That idea appealed to her, so Candace sits down at her computer and boots it up. She came up with a few things she could look up, mostly relating to potential vampire cures, but then she remembered the article Stacy had read to her the other day about Sienna Herrera and how she's the seventh person to go missing or die this summer across the Tri-State Area. Candace had made a mental note to check out the rest of that list and now seemed like a good time.

When the computer turned on, Candace went right to the search engine and looked for the article in question. It didn't take long to find, and a quick perusal of the author's writings showed that this journalist, Daniel Slater, had also published a timeline of all seven people, and that it had been updated to add Sienna not too long after he posted the article focused on her.

Candace clicked on the list, taking note of the fact that these seven people had all died or gone missing in Danville alone, not the greater Tri-State Area, like she'd assumed. That was a bit alarming, as Danville rarely experiences any violent crime or disappearances, let alone seven across less than three months. No wonder Mr. Slater was so interested in keeping a catalogue of these cases.

The first person on the list is Riley Samuels, a nineteen-year-old engineering student that lived in the eye of the city in an apartment with one other female roommate, Jodie Tanner. She was last seen on the night of June 10th by Jodie leaving their apartment at eight PM, intending to go hang out with some friends. Jodie went to bed a few hours later, and when she woke up for work the next morning at nine, Riley hadn't arrived home. Upon contacting a few of the friends she intended to hang out with that night, Jodie discovered that Riley had never showed up at the club she was supposed to meet them at, and they'd assumed she'd just forgotten. Jodie reported her roommate missing that evening after failing to reach her via telephone. Riley has not been seen since.

The next person on the list is thirty-five-year-old Roy Houston, a single, childless man working as an English teacher at Jefferson County Middle School. He lived a few blocks away from the school, close by his elderly mother, Irene Houston, who visited him twice a week. On the morning of June 25th, he was found dead by Irene in his front yard, exsanguinated. It was later determined that he'd been dead for almost twelve hours at that point. His death was ruled a homicide.

Number three is Ned Forge, a seventy-year-old widowed retiree that lived on his own. Two of his four children also live in Danville, and noted that their father was known to go on long fishing trips with friends for days on end in places that don't typically have cell service. When his oldest child, Sasha, tried to call him on July 4th and didn't get a response, she just assumed he was on one of his famous fishing trips. She attempted to reach him again three days later and once again received no response. She claims she had a "bad feeling" and dropped by his house to check on him. She found Ned deceased in his bathroom. Like Roy, Ned had been exsanguinated and his death was ruled a homicide. Based on the body decomposition, he had most likely perished on the second or third day of July.

The fourth person is Rachelle Howard-Faulk, a fifty-four-year-old woman living with her wife, Bianca Howard-Faulk, and Rachelle's niece, Gianna Howard, whom the couple gained custody of four years prior. She was also the last person to see Rachelle alive on the evening of July 10th; the two women were out grocery shopping together, and had made a pit stop at an ice cream parlor on the way home at about seven-thirty. According to Gianna, Rachelle realized she'd forgotten her wallet in the car and went back outside to grab it while Gianna browsed the parlor's selections. After waiting for a few minutes, Gianna wandered outside to see if her aunt needed help, only to find that Rachelle had disappeared. The driver's side door of her car was wide open and her wallet and keys were laying on the ground next to it. Gianna tried calling both her aunts and got no response from either of them. She then called the police, who came out and searched the general area, only to find no sign of Rachelle. They then escorted Gianna home where Bianca was, having just gotten off work, clueless as to the whole ordeal. Rachelle has not been seen since.

The fifth person on the list is Cameron Jameson, a forty-eight-year-old divorced father of two that worked as a clerk in a hotel he also lived in. On the morning of July 13th, he was found dead in the alley next to the hotel by his manager. His death was ruled a suicide.

The sixth person is Allen Ingram, Candace's first victim. The information listed for him was all things she'd already heard about on the news already.

The seventh was also predictably Sienna Herrera, the dental hygienist found floating in the town's moat. She was last seen by her husband, Barrett Herrera, the night before her body was discovered. They liked to take nightly walks together, but Sienna had gone alone that night because Barrett was feeling under the weather. He fell asleep while she was out and called the police when he woke up at six the next morning and found no sign of her. Like Stacy said, Sienna's death is currently being treated as an accident.

Now, at the end of the list, Candace took a few minutes to think over everything she just read. Roy and Ned are obvious vampire victims based on the fact that they were found exsanguinated, but she isn't sure about Riley or Rachelle; they could also have fallen victim to a hungry vampire, but right now, there's no way to confirm it. Sienna's death was most likely not vampire related, and she doubts Cameron's is either if his demise was deemed a suicide and not elaborated on further. She does wonder what drove him to do it, though. She can't imagine what it's like to feel so hopeless and alone that she would take her own life instead of confide in someone she trusts.

Pushing away those dark thoughts, Candace realizes that the Hispanic man she killed is no where on this list, not in the descriptions nor amongst the pictures included. Cameron was Black, Riley was Asian, and the rest were Caucasian. There's no way his body still hasn't been discovered. Could her hunch about the cops keeping his murder under wraps be true? It's completely crazy and she can't muster up a reasonable explanation as to why they would keep his murder out of the news, so why hasn't his death been reported on yet?

He'd told her that he needed to get out of town.... Was he running from someone powerful and/or dangerous? Did he have a stalker or a crazy ex? Did he get caught up with gangs?

Well, maybe not gangs, that's kind of a stretch. She's heard about other parts of the Tri-State Area having problems with supervillains, but gang activity is rarer than rare.

The sound of creaking metal outside her window distracted Candace, drawing her attention away from her research. The noise didn't last long, and almost directly after it faded out, she saw a glowing green light coming down from the sky.

Damn it, Candace knew her brothers would do something bustable sooner or later. She looks at the clock and grins when she sees that it is now midnight, AKA busting time!

Springing up from her seat, Candace sprints her to parents' room and bursts through the door.

"Mom! Mom!" she shouts, realizing after a second that her parents weren't in bed, but on the floor, listening to a record player.

"What are you guys doing?" she asks after a few seconds.

"Oh, hi honey, we were just listening to some records," her father says, pleasant as ever. "It's what we used to use for music when we were kids."

"Candace, I thought we had an understanding," Linda said, sounding decidedly less amused than her husband.

"Yeah, it's midnight," Candace tells her. "That means you have to come see what Phineas and Ferb made in the backyard."

Despite the clear exasperation sullying her face, Linda stood up and complied with her daughter's request.

"Hurry, let's go!" Candace yells, bounding down the stairs. She heard her mom say something in response, but she tunes in out, making a beeline for the back door. She throws it open and steps outside, taking in the sight of a giant spring. It's not the most flashy invention in the world, but it's certainly bustable.

That is, if it had stayed long enough for Linda to see it.

Right before she came outside, the spring lifted up into the air, taking Candace's chance to bust her brothers with it. The only thing she can do now is join the kids inside for a midnight snack. At least she can bury her disappointment in food.

At about half-past twelve, the kids went to bed, curling up in sleeping bags under a makeshift fort made of sheets in the living room. Linda and Candace retired back to their respective rooms not long after that, with the latter unable to force herself to sleep again. She was going to just down some more melatonin gummies, but found the bottle was now nearly empty, meaning someone else (most likely her mother) had taken a couple before bed.

With no fruit-flavored sleep aides around, Candace couldn't find it in her to sleep. She eventually sits back down at her computer to do more research, but hits a mental block very quickly, unable to concentrate on the screen in front of her.

Annoyed, Candace abandons those plans and attempts to meditate, hoping it would either strengthen her powers or make her sleepy. An hour later, she finds it did neither.

Candace gets up from the floor, her frustration growing with every movement. She needs to do something, but can't manage to make progress with any of her nighttime activities. She needs something that will either make her tired or give her inspiration, but what? The library is definitely not open now, so she can't look for more vampire books there now. Maybe the pharmacy is still open? She can probably walk there and see if they have more gummies.

Wait, that's it! A walk! The streets will be dark, quiet, and vacant outside, so she won't have to deal with anyone else and can clear her head in peace. It's perfect!

Candace hastily gets dressed, opens her window, and turns into a bat, flying off towards the heart of Danville. She shifts back in an alley (making sure there weren't any muggers this time) and begins walking. She doesn't have a destination in mind, so she just goes where her legs take her.

For a while, she strolls through the city, breathing in the warm, summer air, delighting in the fact that she could see perfectly well in the dark with her vampire night vision, and listening to the sound of the occasional car driving down the street. She sees a few animals as she walks, but she doesn't come across a human soul until she reaches the old drawbridge.

Leaning against the bridge's railing is a man smoking a cigarette. His face is slightly wrinkled and marred by age, his eyes are the color of a freshly brewed coffee, and his messy hair is a mix of medium brown and gray. He wore a brown trench coat, a matching fedora, and shiny black shoes, giving him the style of a hardened, vintage detective.

The man raised an eyebrow at Candace as she walked across the bridge, clearly surprised to see her there.

"Awfully late for a girl as young as you to be out," he said once she made eye contact.

"I'm just taking a walk," she told him, wrinkling her nose as the tobacco smell hit her nostrils. "What are you doing out here?"

"Smoking. And thinking about some things."

"Like what?"

He paused before continuing, "You know, a young woman fell to her death here not too long ago."

Candace nodded. "Yeah, I know. She was on the news."

He took another long drag of his cigarette before flicking it over the bridge and into the moat.

"Be careful, miss. There's something dark lurking in this town. I'd hate to see you fall victim to it." He punctuated his warning with a tip of his hat and a smile that didn't reach his eyes before walking away.

Candace watched the man leave, both curious and disturbed by what he said. If she was bold, she might have remarked that the only "dark" presence in Danville was her, but the feeling in her gut that there was something terribly off about this guy kept her from speaking another word.

As soon as he was out of sight, Candace turned into a bat and flew home as fast as she could. Even though she knew nothing about that man, not even his name, she can't help but think that she'll be seeing him again soon.

Chapter Text

The day her mom first brought home Phineas is still fresh and clear in Candace's mind. After three days of anxious waiting, bombarding her babysitting grandparents with questions the whole time, Linda finally came back from the hospital with the newest member of her family.

Linda had opted not to find out Phineas's sex until he was born, leading to Candace debating with herself over if she was going to have a little brother or sister. This internal battle eventually spilled over into the real world, and she ended up betting Stacy all the spoils she'd get next Halloween that her new sibling was going to be a girl.

Stacy, of course, won that bet.

When Linda placed Phineas into Candace's arms for the first time and announced that she had a new brother, she was at first disappointed, but that feeling faded fast, replaced by one of pure joy. Her heart swelled with happiness as she gazed into her brother's eyes, the ones that looked just like hers, and held him tighter. In that moment, she couldn't care less that she wouldn't get any Halloween candy this year—she had something even better.

A couple of years later, she experienced those same amazing feelings again when her family grew some more. Not only was she getting a new dad who was kind and patient and had a funny-sounding accent, but she was getting another brother, too. His hair was green, and his eyes didn't look like hers, but with only one glance, she knew she loved him too.

Harkening back to those important times in her life is nice, but Candace is glad that her family wasn't complete until after Phineas and Ferb were on the cusp of leaving their toddler years. Them being capable of creating groundbreaking inventions in a matter of hours at this age is bad enough, and she can only imagine how they would have been as a toddler duo.

The thing is though, she doesn't have to imagine it anymore.

She doesn't know how they did it, but the boys have managed to turn themselves into babies, and even with photographic evidence, her mom still didn't bust them. She just sent back a text thanking Candace for the "old baby picture".

Seriously? They didn't even know each other at this age. Candace thought angrily to herself, slamming her phone shut. Being at that two-year-old's birthday party must be giving her some kind of second-hand postpartum pregnancy brain.

Knowing she has to do something else to convince her mom to come home and bust the boys, Candace plants her brothers next to each other and goes to fetch a newspaper so she can take a picture of them holding it. Unfortunately, neither of the boys would sit still, and after a few minutes of running around the yard, trying in vain to get a photo of them (or even just one of them) with the paper, her plans were ruined when her phone ended up in a birdbath, courtesy of baby Phineas.

As she watches Ferb shred the newspaper like an overactive cat, Candace swallows her desire to lash out at a pair of defenseless infants and decides that if sending her mom a picture wasn't going to work, she'd just have to bring the babies to her.

After fishing her phone out of the birdbath and shoving it in a bag of rice, Candace locates the old double stroller her parents still kept in the garage and straps in her brothers, both of whom dozed off the second she started pushing them.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Candace started on her journey to the home where the party was being held. Candace had been there a few years ago to celebrate the birthday boy's parents getting engaged, but despite only visiting there once, she still remembered the address like the back of her hand.

The house in question was on the other side of the nearby park, so Candace decided to take a shortcut through one of the park's trails. What she thought would be a quick, pleasant stroll soon turned stressful when Ferb woke from his slumber and began bawling.

"Shhh!" Her feeble attempt to get Ferb to quiet down didn't work, and he just cried louder. To make it worse, everyone else in the park within earshot (including a fucking dog) was now staring at her.

"I didn't do anything! He's my brother, just a baby. They cry, you know," she announced nervously, going around to the front of the stroller to try to soothe Ferb. She picked him up, planning on rocking him back to sleep, but she must have disturbed Phineas by doing this, because the second Ferb was in her arms, the red-haired baby stirred awake and added his own cries to Ferb's.

Great. Now she has to find a way to calm down two upset toddlers before she draws even more attention to herself. It's bad enough that she can still feel the crowd staring behind her, their eyes searing holes into her back like little suns. She remembers in her freshman year, there was a pregnant girl in the senior class that ended up giving birth right before Christmas break. That girl was the subject of awful rumors and gossip in school, and whenever she saw this senior in public with her son, Candace would sometimes see other people giving that girl strange or even judgmental glances. She wonders how often that girl was burned by the scorching eyes of others that were rude enough to stare, but not brave enough to voice their concerns.

The boys' wailing grew louder and higher in pitch, making it harder for Candace to drum up a solution to her current predicament. She wonders if that pregnant girl's son was colicky like this, crying out for hours on end for something his mother couldn't subdue with a pacifier or a bottle or a toy....

Hold on, that's it! She can buy some toys for her brothers! They can distract themselves by hurling them around instead of her phone.

Hurriedly, she straps Ferb back into the stroller and pushes the stroller out of the park towards a busier part of town. She takes a second to frantically look around for a toy store, and her eyes land on a twenty-four-hour place across the street that looks promising. Turning on her vampire eyesight for a moment, she zeroes in on the shop's window and spots a small aisle containing toys inside.

Candace beelines for the store, hoping this will be her saving grace. A man leaving the establishment kindly holds the left side of the double doors open for her, but when she tries to get the stroller in, she finds it's too big. She attempts to open the right side, but finds it locked. She considers using her vampire strength to force it open, but quickly deduces that would be a terrible idea; not only because she'd have to brazenly use her powers in public, but she'd probably break the door and get arrested, too.

"I'll just be a second, okay?" she tells her brothers. "Don't go anywhere." She was reluctant to leave them alone outside, but she told herself that they'd be fine, she'd get in and get out quick.

That assumption went out the window the second she got in line to check out.

Only one register was open, and the man currently being assisted was holding up everyone else because he was certain the coupon he wanted to use was still valid despite the poor cashier's statement that it had expired three days prior. That turned into a big stink, and the manager had to get involved, keeping Candace and the other two people that hopped in line behind her from checking out.

Candace slumped her shoulders and tucked the box of toys she was holding under her arm. Why couldn't this guy have picked any other day to pitch a fit over a coupon? And why is there only one person working on the registers? The store is small, but come on, there has to be more than two employees here. When Candace has kids in the future, she'll have to make a note to avoid this place.

When she has kids.... Is that even possible anymore?

A horrible sinking feeling takes hold in her stomach. She's a vampire now, so does that mean she's infertile? Most vampires in fiction are, and when they aren't, it's usually only male vampires that are able to have kids with human women. Candace can only recall one movie where the lead female vampire had a kid—and it wasn't even with a human! It was with a damn werewolf!

The sinking sensation deepened. One of her major aspirations was to someday marry Jeremy and have at least two kids (she even had names in mind already), but being a vampire threw a monkey wrench into her plans. If she can't have kids, she can't achieve the family life she wants. What was she going to tell Jeremy? Would he leave her if he found out she's most likely barren? Would it make it worse if she paired that bombshell with the truth about being a vampire?

At this point, Candace was fighting back tears. Her hopes and dreams are being crushed right before her eyes, and she can't stop it. That future she got a glimpse of towards the start of the summer is gone. She'll never a that daughter that's just like her down to the smallest detail. She'll never have a son with Jeremy's sparkling blue eyes and soft voice. She'd never have that third kid she didn't plan, but was mentioned by Phineas and Ferb. Hell, maybe they would have more after that. A fourth that looks like a mishmash of the both of them. A fifth that somehow got all their recessive genes and none of the dominant ones. She'll never have that big, happy family now.

The cashier called for the next person in line, startling the teen a little. The angry coupon clipper was gone now, hopefully never to harass another minimum wage worker again.

Sniffling, Candace wiped her eyes and dumped the box on the register's conveyor belt.

"Rough day?" the cashier asked, an exasperated look on her face.

Candace shook her head at her. "You have no idea."

The second she made her purchase, Candace's day went from bad to worse. The store got robbed, her brothers got away again, she had to chase them around a much larger and much more crowded toy store, and when she finally made it to the party, one of those disembodied green lasers zapped everyone in the room (including her mother) and turned them into toddlers as well, leaving Candace and the remaining attendees to tend to a group of over half a dozen upset children.

At this point, Candace thinks this whole day has to be the universe punishing her for what she said earlier about babies. Next time she thinks of saying that toddlers are "easy", she'll keep her thoughts to herself.

Unsurprisingly, the other partygoers soon found themselves overwhelmed by the toddlers (birthday boy included), and by the time the effects of the green laser wore off a few hours later, they were all thoroughly exhausted. No one who'd been turned into a baby remembered anything that had happened when they were in that state, not even Phineas and Ferb, so when Candace made one final, feeble attempt to bust her brothers, Linda didn't believe her. Luckily, the party had quickly fizzled out by then, and pretty much everyone was itching to go home.

"It was great to see you all," Ummi, the birthday boy's mother, said to the Flynn-Fletchers as they were leaving. "And thanks again for your help, Candace. You'll be a great mother someday."

Ouch. Those words stung Candace way more than Ummi could ever know, and it was a struggle for the redhead not to flinch. Instead, she masked her pain with a small smile and bid the tired mother goodbye.

Candace fell right to sleep the second her head hit the pillow that night, and she awoke the next morning later than usual. She didn't really mind though; it was the first time she had gotten some proper sleep without the aid of melatonin or dumb relaxation techniques, and it felt good to sleep like a normal person again. Too bad the second she opened her eyes she could feel the hunger resurface.

She had a simple breakfast that day, composed of a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. It wasn't the holy grail of meals in any sense, but it kept her bloodlust at bay, and that was good enough for her.

"Had a good sleep?" Linda asked her daughter.

"Yeah, for once," Candace told her truthfully. "I think the milk might be going bad—it tastes funny." She stirred the remaining white liquid in the bowl distastefully.

"I'll add it to the grocery list," Linda said, slinging her purse over her shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Candace inquired, shoveling the final spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

"I have a hair appointment in an hour. Maybe I'll grab some milk on the way home."

"Mom, can I come to the salon with you?" she asked. "There's, uh, somewhere nearby I wanna visit."

"Sure, why not?" Linda agreed. "If it keeps you from obsessing over your brothers, I'm for it."

Candace rushed up to her room, forgetting about the bowl still sitting on the table. In a rush, she brushed out her hair (staring at the reappearing eye bags in the mirror as she did), threw on her clothes, and slathered her skin with sunblock all within a couple of minutes.

"That was fast," Linda commented when Candace came back downstairs. "Let me guess.... the place you want to go is the Slushy Dawg down the street?"

She was wrong; that wasn't where Candace wished to visit, but it was a convenient cover, so she nodded.

"Well, let's go then," Linda said, frowning at her wristwatch. "Or I'll be late."

After making sure her mom went into the salon, Candace ventured over to the other side of the road and down a few buildings to the left. Her destination was, funnily enough, across the street from the Slushy Dawg, so when she was finished here, she could probably pay Jeremy a visit at work.

Casting a small smile at the fast food restaurant, she turned away and pushed open the clear door of her desired establishment: the local fertility clinic.

There were only two people in the waiting room: a woman who appeared to be in her late thirties or early forties, and a young man maybe a decade older than Candace. The woman looked unbothered, casually flipping through a magazine, while the man was fidgeting, wringing his hands while flicking his eyes over to the door to his right every minute or so. He made eye contact with Candace as she was observing him, and the teen quickly averted her gaze.

Candace walked up to the reception desk and glanced at the various brochures set up there. She got the attention of the secretary, a woman with poofy red hair who was too engrossed in the computer in front of her to greet the teen when she'd walked in.

"Can I take these?" Candace asked, pointing to the brochures.

The secretary raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you a little young to have fertility issues?"

"No, no I'm not," Candace told her in an offended tone. "Can I take some damn brochures or not?"

The secretary just shrugged and turned her attention back to the computer. Candace decided to take that ambivalent gesture as a yes and grabbed one of each brochure to read. She took a seat two chairs away from the calm woman, not wanting the man's nervous energy to rub off on her.

All of the information in the first brochure revolved around what causes infertility, so Candace tossed that one aside. She already knows why she's most likely sterile, and she doubts the graphic designer who made it knows anything about vampires.

The second one was chock full of information on fertility treatments, which is what Candace really wanted to know about. If she can't have kids the natural way, maybe she can try one of the methods listed here. With the one exception of medication, which is unlikely to affect her vampiric hormones, Candace found most of the listed treatments doable: IVF and/or freezing her eggs can be possible if she still has eggs frozen inside her somewhere, and using a surrogate is an option, too. The part about donor sperm she skimmed over for obvious reasons, but she did look over the bit about donor eggs. She doesn't really want to go down the route of using a stranger's eggs in place of hers, but if that was the only option, she could probably force herself to stomach it. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a stranger; maybe Stacy would be up for it. Or even her cousin Eliza. It would be nice to have a piece of Lawrence's biology in her kid.

Candace's reading was interrupted by the sound of a door slamming open. Looking up, she saw the man shoot up from his chair and rush over to the door to his right that was now being held open by a woman around his age. Her face was marred by a deep, haunted frown, and her eyes shined with fresh tears, giving away that whatever had transpired during her appointment wasn't the result she was wishing for. The man put an arm around her shoulders and led her out, whispering something as he did.

For a second, Candace considered turning on her vampire senses so she could hear what they were talking about, but decided not to. Eavesdropping on a clearly distraught woman in her weakest moment just felt.... wrong.

Instead of intruding, Candace turned her attention to the third and final brochure she'd picked up. This one went into detail about the mental toll infertility and failed treatments can cause and advice on how to manage or remedy feelings of loss, sadness, and disappointment. Candace paid attention to this one, too. If things ever get really bad, she'll probably need the expertise of a licensed counselor.

"What the hell is that?"

Candace looked up, not expecting the sudden question. The source was the quiet, nonchalant woman, now staring outside through the clear double doors, magazine cast aside. Her inquiry didn't seem to be directed at anyone, but Candace got up and walked over to the woman anyway, intrigued.

"What the hell is what?" she asked the woman, peeking over her shoulder.

"That." The woman pointed upwards.

Candace followed her gesture and found herself staring at something rocketing through the city on a long track. She squinted and switched on her super senses, aiming to get a better look. Her heart jumped into her throat when she realized it was her brothers and Isabella cruising along in a custom-made amusement park ride.

"Phineas and Ferb!" Candace screamed, scaring the woman. She pushed past her, dropping the brochures as she dashed out of the clinic and back to the salon. If she can convince her mom to just take a few steps outside and look up, the boys will be busted for sure!

Unfortunately, Linda was sitting under one of those big hood dryers when Candace arrived, and she was barred from dragging her mother out until her hair was good and dry. Growling in frustration, Candace stood off to the side, scowling.

The second the hood dryer was lifted away from her mother's head, Candace grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the building, explaining that the boys had made some kind of theme park ride in the city. But Candace's minuscule amount of luck must have run out for the day, because right before Linda looked up, the long track above the city street liquefied and dropped to the ground, splashing yellow fluid all over the road, sidewalk, and Candace, some of which flew into her mouth. Her mother, on the other hand, came out totally unscathed.

"The boys made.... lemon juice?" Linda asked, baffled.

"Pineapple," Candace informed her mother after tasting the liquid that had invaded her mouth.

"If you've had enough busting for today, you should come back inside with me," Linda suggested, running her hand through Candace's soaked locks. "You shouldn't let this sit in your hair."

"No, it's fine. I'll just shower when we get home," Candace told her, the wind taken out of her sails. "If you need me, I'll be at the Slushy Dawg." She walked off towards the restaurant, cringing at the sound of her drenched socks squelching with every step.

The Slushy Dawg was empty, save for the guy working behind the counter. Candace had seen him before, but couldn't think of his name off the top of her head. His eyes widened when he noticed her, but didn't say anything until she trudged over to the counter and sunk down onto one of the stools.

"Jeremy here?" she mumbles.

The employee shakes his head. "His shift ended an hour ago."

She sighed and slapped a ten dollar bill on the counter.

"Large fry and a jumbo drink," she orders, her voice still a defeated murmur.

"Rough day?" the employee asks. It was the same question the cashier had posed to her yesterday and spoken in the same tired tone that blatantly showed on his face. He probably worked just as much as Jeremy does, if not more.

Candace chuckles humorlessly, grimacing as the gnawing hunger grows more apparent, and gives the same answer she gave the cashier, "You have no idea."

A shower proved to be just what Candace needed. Not only did she finally get rid of the juice in her hair, but it gave her a chance to collect her thoughts and relax. The warm, soothing water helped detox some of the negative energy that had been slowly building up over the past week, and when she finally stepped out of the shower, she felt better. The scent of pineapple still lingered a little, but she could live with that—there are worse things to smell like.

That night, Candace found herself unable to force herself to sleep again, and still without any melatonin, she ended up taking another late night stroll in the city. Like the first time, the streets were mostly silent and devoid of any life, including the old drawbridge.

Truthfully, Candace was disappointed that she didn’t get to see the same man there she'd encountered before. She knew nothing about him other than that he's a smoker, but the more she thought about him, the more she wanted to know what his deal was. She just hopes the gut feeling that told her he'd cross paths with her again pans out. Next time she'll have to remember to get his name (and maybe find out if his fashion style of choice matched his profession).

She went back home when she noticed the first hint of sunlight brightening up the sky and ended up counting sheep to lull herself into a relatively short slumber. Upon waking up, she got ready for the day and headed downstairs. Her nose caught a whiff of a pleasant smell wafting out of the kitchen, so she followed it, thinking her mom was making something good for breakfast.

"Morning, hun," Linda said to Candace as she entered the kitchen. She was standing in front of the stove, stirring a pan with a contented look on her face.

"Mmm, that smells good. I'll get the plates out," Candace said, eagerly walking over to the cabinets to do just that. Not only did she really want a taste of whatever her mom was making, but her thirst for blood was also getting stronger, and she needs something to hold it off for at least another day.

Linda smiled at her daughter. "Well, put out ten, because I was talking to Jeremy's mom earlier, and we thought it would be fun to get us all together for brunch this morning."

Candace frowned and set the stack of plates she'd just taken out of the cabinet onto the counter, her mother's words slowly sinking in.

"Wait, so the whole Johnson family and our whole family, together?" she asked.

Linda nodded. "Yeah."

"Mom, this is the first time both of our families have formally gotten together!" Candace stated, speed walking over to the stove.

"Honey, relax. It's just a casual brunch. No big deal."

"No big deal?! I'm Jeremy's girlfriend! We have to make a good impression!" Candace was almost yelling now, her anxiety levels spiking rapidly. "Breakfast is easy! This is brunch! Brunch! That's so fancy! What does this...." She stopped for a moment to identify the meal her mom was currently cooking before continuing, "Frittata say about us as a family?"

"There's nothing wrong with my frittata," Linda said, completely missing her eldest's point.

Candace opts not to argue with her mother over the culinary value of the frittata and instead rushes around the house to make sure everything is in top shape. Monster truck magazine? Hide it under the one about book reviews. Frozen orange juice? Dump it in a pitcher of water and hope for the best. Drooping eyebags that only get darker by the day? Her mom's concealer can help with that. Phineas and Ferb? They're apparently going to the hardware store, so they won't be around to embarrass her.

As she went down her endless list, she spotted something strange in the backyard. She cottoned onto the fact that it was another of Phineas and Ferb's inventions right away, and after applying a thick coat of sunscreen, sprinted outside.

Candace didn't know what this particular invention was for just by looking at it; with a small ray on top of an octagonal base decorated with various buttons and panels, it could be anything. She took a minute to inspect it and hit the jackpot when she found a label on the back.

"'Anti-gravity Maximus,'" Candace read aloud. There's no way she can leave something like this out in the open for the Johnsons to see. "Oh, I have got to get rid of this thing."

She crouched down and started dragging the invention away, aiming to hide it behind the big tree. It was heavy and had a wide girth, making it cumbersome to move, and Candace had to strain herself to get it to budge.

This would be so much easier if I used my powers. She thought, taking a second to check and make sure Linda didn't have a good view of what she was doing. Normally, her mom seeing something the boys made would be cause for celebration for Candace, but having to expose her vampirism to achieve that goal just wasn't worth the cost.

Candace couldn't spot Linda's position through the back door or any of the windows, so she figured she was in the clear. She readjusted her posture and was about to turn on her super strength when she accidentally pressed one of the buttons on the invention and was zapped in the face by the ray at the top. She blinked at the sudden flash of light going off in her face, dazing her for a few seconds. She sobered up fast when she realized her feet had left the ground and she was rapidly rising up into the air.

Panicking, Candace grasped wildly for something to keep her from floating away. She flew up into the tree, and at the last minute, her hands clamped down on one of the branches at the very top, narrowly saving her. She calls out her brothers' names as she claws her way back down the tree, cursing their need to create crazy things every day. When she reaches the ground, she fumbles around the panels of the anti-gravity machine, desperately searching for a reverse switch.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a reverse switch to be found, and by the time she realized this, she heard the sound of the doorbell ringing—the Johnsons were here, and she was still stuck in zero gravity mode.

"Candace, my hands are full. Could you get the door?" Linda shouted from inside the house, her voice a bit muffled.

Fuck.

"I'm on it, mom," Candace yelled back, mentally on the verge of a meltdown. She takes a fistful of grass in each hand and uses that to move towards the garden hose, which is conveniently lying across the lawn. It's not a very good base, and the only thing that keeps her from floating into the stratosphere is the hose's attachment to the spigot fashioned on the back of the house. Even then, the hose threatened to come off with each movement, and Candace once again thought about using her powers.

She snuck another glance into the house and once again saw no sign of her mother. She doesn't know what the woman was doing, or what she meant by "my hands are full", but Candace decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and snatched up the opportunity.

Keeping her eyes on the still-open back door, Candace turned into a bat and zipped inside, keeping out of sight. Much to her chagrin, the anti-gravity was still in effect, and she really had to flap her little leather wings hard to keep close to the ground. She heard a noise from down the hall and acted fast, zooming towards the front door with as much agility as she could. When she reaches it, she shifts back into human form and grabs onto the door for support before opening it up to let the Johnsons in.

"Jeremy and the whole family, welcome to our humble dwelling," she greeted them formally, hoping that her anxiety wasn't noticeable.

"Good morning, Candace," Jeremy's mother said warmly. "Where's your mother? Oh!" She let out a surprised noise when Candace suddenly wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

"She's in the kitchen, Mrs. Johnson," Candace told her, not even trying to hide her nervousness any longer. "It's right through there." She pointed to the room in question, keeping her hold on her boyfriend's mom as she began walking. It was incredibly awkward, but Candace needed a base to keep her from floating, and clinging onto Mrs. Johnson like a frightened toddler would have to do for now—even if it made her look like a lunatic.

"Okay, here we go." Mrs. Johnson said, giving the redhead an uncomfortable smile. Candace returned it, her own grin no doubt much more strained. Lifting up her own feet to move along was a struggle, and before she even got to the kitchen, she knew this was going to be a long, difficult ordeal.

"Candace Flynn, what has gotten into you?" Linda demands from her seat.

The teen's heart drops, suddenly aware of the position she is in: feet planted on Mrs. Johnson's face and her rare Ducky Momo plate clamped between her teeth. She'd dramatically leaped for it a few seconds ago after Suzy "accidentally" tossed it into the air, no doubt intending to break it. That little bitch had been trying to get Candace to embarrass herself the second she arrived, and it seems like she's finally succeeded.

"I want the truth, and nothing but the truth," Linda stated, clearly unamused by her daughter's behavior.

Candace removed the plate from her mouth and placed it onto the table before shifting her feet away from poor Mrs. Johnson's face. She gripped the table to keep herself from rising up to the ceiling and sighed, feeling herself shrink before the bewildered gazes of everyone else at the table.

Mom is right, I should just tell the truth. Candace thought. Brunch is already ruined.

"Well," she began. "The truth is—"

"I've been trying to make Candace look bad all morning!" Suzy blurted out, shocking everyone in the room.

"Suzy!" Mrs. Johnson scolded her daughter, who looked just as astonished at her own outburst as everyone else.

"I mean, bubble!" Suzy's attempt to save her own skin was pretty pathetic, and her mom wasn't buying it.

"Get over here, Suzy." Mrs. Johnson placed her hands on the little girl's shoulders. "We're guests here, and guests do not behave like that."

"But Mom, Candace floats!" Suzy insisted.

"Oh, and now you're telling lies."

"Uh, Mrs. Johnson, as much as I hate to admit it, Suzy's not lying," Candace confessed. It would have been easy to just let that blonde terror incriminate herself more, but if she can show everyone the results of Phineas and Ferb's invention, she can get both Suzy in trouble and bust her brothers, killing two birds with one stone.

"Phineas and Ferb made a ray that makes me weightless. I might as well show you I couldn't embarrass myself more than I already have," Candace continued, climbing onto the table and doing a half-assed handstand. "Tada!" She lifted up her hands, but before she could float anywhere, she was blinded by a red flash and ended up falling down onto the edge of the table, flipping it over as she crashed to the ground.

Candace groaned as her head smacked the floor hard. Her self-healing would kick in soon, but even though it would take care of the physical pain, nothing could fix the emotional damage this brunch date had inflicted on her. The only thing she can do now is show everyone what the boys made.

Springing up from the floor, Candace pointed out the window and shouted, "Phineas and Ferb's anti-gravity machine is out there." She didn't explain further and just shoved her mom towards the door connecting the dining room to the backyard, her father and the Johnsons following close behind.

The boys were waiting outside, meaning they were responsible for restoring gravity to Candace. However, even though they were present, their invention was not.

"And what am I looking at, Candace?" Linda asked once her daughter was done pushing her like a wheelbarrow.

"It was a machine that made me weightless! It-It...." She trailed off, scrambling to find any kind of proof, and settled on the last person she wanted to speak to. "Suzy, tell them!"

Suzy smiled up at her, and in her sweetest, most innocent voice squeaked, "Bubble!"

"Ugh, you heard her, bubble," Candace conceded. She should have let that curly-haired brat take the fall.

After that failure, Candace, her parents, and the Johnsons went back inside where she helped her dad reposition the toppled table and clean up the dishes littering the floor, some of which were now completely shattered. Once she was done with that, she was approached by her boyfriend, who looked pretty happy, all things considered.

"How much do they hate me?" she inquired, fearing the worst.

"They don't hate you," Jeremy told her. "Dad actually says you remind him a lot of Mom."

"Really?" That made the redhead perk up a little, and she peered over his shoulder at both their respective parents, all of whom were having what looked to be a polite conversation in the living room.

"Yeah. I wouldn't worry about them not liking you. You are the reason our whole family was reunited with Annabelle. There's no way they could hate you after that."

Candace smiled at him sheepishly. The whole "bringing back their long-lost cousin" fiasco was honestly a huge accident, but like he said, it earned her brownie points with his extended family, so she wasn't about to tell him that.

The Johnsons went home around an hour later, and not too long after they departed, Phineas and Ferb came in from the backyard with Perry in tow. The former was talking in a soft, let lively tone, a blueprint clutched in his hand, and Candace eyed him warily. Were they going to create another insane contraption while the sun was still up?

She was about to turn on her vampire senses to eavesdrop on their conversation, but they spotted her beforehand and came dashing to her side.

"Hey, Candace, can we get a sample from you?" Phineas asked.

She balked at his request. "Gross! I'm not peeing in a cup for whatever it is you're making!"

"No, not that kind of sample," Phineas told her. "We need your blood."

"What do you need that for?"

"A possible cure for you," Ferb said.

"What?!" Candace squealed. "Do you think it'll work?"

"We don't know for sure, but we're optimistic," Phineas told her. "We're going to alter a sample of your blood and see if we can find and remove the part that makes you a vampire, then inject it back into you and see if your DNA accepts the cure."

"It's like retroviral gene therapy, but with a supernatural twist," Ferb informed her.

Candace isn't familiar with the concept, but the hope they'd just bestowed onto her was still suffocating. In a burst of glee, she tugged the boys forward into an embrace. She felt the familiar burn of Ferb's silver charm pressing into her skin, and like last time, she ignored it.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she held the boys close, thanking them out loud for their assistance. With them in her arms, she feels like she finally has people who will never abandon her because of what she's become. Even when the day inevitably comes where she outlives them and has to walk the night alone, with no husband and children of her own to keep her company, she can take comfort in knowing that the three of them will always be a family, no matter what.