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Jack returned home to find that Amelia was nowhere in sight. He looked around on the first floor for a bit before walking up to her bedroom door. He hears footsteps and the creaking of the bed signaling that she had turned in early for the night. He shrugged his shoulders and figured she was simply exhausted from the day's work. With that in mind, he decided not to disturb her. He walked away and up into his tower where he stayed for the rest of the night.

Sleep did not come easy yet again for the young sorceress since her mind was a buzz with the events of the day as she stared up at her ceiling. What, or who to be more precise, was on her mind was none other than the blood-sucking newcomer himself.

'Why oh why can't I get my mind off of Alucard!' she mentally yelled. 'He's all I've been able to think about for the past hour.' She sighed in frustration.

Her thoughts drifted to a certain trait about the vampire, his eyes. 'I've never seen such crimson colored eyes before…' she turned on her side and gazed out her window as the last remnants of the sun's rays disappeared below the horizon and then the sky became shrouded in darkness.

'It felt strange starring into those red eyes. It was like nothing I've ever felt before.' She contemplated the bizarre sensation. 'Could it be that he was trying to hypnotize me?' she mentally asked herself, 'Vampires can do that can't they? If so, why?'

Her eyes widened a little as she came to a realization. 'They drink human blood right? Could he somehow know that I'm not really a sorceress?'

"Ugh…" she groaned in frustration and tried to come up with a more rational explanation, to which none came.

'How is it that I'm the Princess of Halloween yet I know next to nothing about vampires?' she scolded herself in her mind.

She remembered the vast library Jack had in his room. 'Surely he has a book about them. But I can't let him know what I'm up to, the last thing I want to do is to make him worry.'

For a while now, Amelia had noticed Jack's protective behavior. But who could blame him? She was practically his daughter after all. She quietly giggled at the thought, who could ever imagine her being the child of an undead skeleton?

Her thoughts finally shifted away from the mysterious new arrival and to something a little more comforting.

She remembered all of the good times she's spent with the Pumpkin King, mostly him teaching her new spells when she was younger. But her favorite was when they had teamed up to scare the living daylights out of her childhood bullies. She couldn't have asked for a better friend than Jack. He always stood by her, especially during her darkest hour. He never gave up on her and believed in her even more than she even believed in herself. With him, her confidence most definitely raises compared to her rather meek and closed self back in the human world. Honestly if it hadn't been for him, she could still be the cowering nine-year old she once was. She owed him so much more than she could ever give back. Never in her life had she been thankful of one of the scariest days of her childhood, the day she discovered Halloween Town.

With those pleasant thoughts in mind, the young princess finally fell into a well-deserved, peaceful sleep.

In the morning, she awoke to the jack-o-lantern-shaped sun's light pouring into her room through her large window. She half-opened her eyes and groaned in pain from the intensity. Reluctantly, she sat up and glared at the window. She was not a morning person.

She moved her hand to start to get out of bed when she felt something soft under her palm. She looked down and noticed a small, stuffed bear. It was the teddy bear Jack had given her when she had a horrible nightmare nearly six years ago. There was a note attached to the toy, she took it off and read it.

I've noticed you have a bit of a habit of leaving this behind. Don't forget him this time because he missed you greatly.

Jack

She giggled. It was true for she had forgotten him the last time she was in Halloween Town when she was twelve.

"Oh Jack." She rolled her eyes and smiled. A warm expression replaced her sour one from when she had woken up.

She set the note and the bear aside so she could get up out of bed. She yawned and stretched her arms to get the remaining sleep out of her. She looked out at the beaming pumpkin sun and smiled herself.

"I could use more mornings like this." She happily stated before she got dressed.

Once she had finished getting ready for the day and put on her circlet crown, she headed out her door and to the living room where she found Jack had been waiting for her.

"Good morning Ami!" he greeted, "Did you find your long lost friend when you woke up?"

"Yes I did." She giggled, "I'm glad you found him." She beamed up at him.

"I thought you might have missed him." He turned on his heel, "Well, we had better get going. We have a long day ahead of us."

"Do we ever." Amelia added as they headed out the door.

For most of the day, Amelia added some finishing touches to her décor designs for the main square before she and a few volunteers began to make them. Since Amelia couldn't sew or make that many things with her hands or tools, she used her magic to create what she was needed, such as items necessary to make the decorations. She supplied spider's silk for the witches so that they could make the webs that would be covered over various objects in town like statues and the top of city hall. She provided various cutting utensils for the pumpkin carvings. She cast spells that created all sorts of fabric to make the banners that would be hung up on the large buildings and a few homes.

Jack supervised to make sure everything was coming along as planned. He helped to figure out the best places to put the spider webs the witches had made. He gave suggestions to the pumpkin carvers so that the jack-o-lanterns would be as scary as they could be. He also hung a few of the completed banners since he was, after all, the tallest person in town. However, he did use his own magic to put them in places that even he could not reach.

There was one job, however, that Amelia had to do entirely by herself because everyone else was busy. Using her levitation powers, she detached the majority of the leaves on the trees to make them look scarier. The whole time she did so, she thought back to when she walked down the path in the forest almost six years ago that led her to Halloween Town. The trees were mostly bare and their branches looked like arms with long, lengthy fingers that reached out to grab her. Now the trees she worked on to get rid of the leaves looked eerily similar to those very same trees back home.

That job tried her out rather quickly from the extensive use of her magic. Though she did not want to, she had to sit down and give herself a break or else she would surely pass out from exhaustion. Ironically enough, she sat down on the ledge of the water fountain with the grotesque monster statue where she had been crowned Pumpkin Princess. However, she still hated the title name with a passion for some unknown reason.

She sighed happily as the pleasant memory of becoming the heir to the throne passed through her mind and began to stare at the cloudy sky above for a few minutes.

"Fancy seeing you here." A masculine voice whispered in her ear.

Amelia felt her face flush crimson as goose bumps formed up and down her arms. Slowly, she turned her head to be face to face with none other than Alucard Doram Lio.

"EEEPPP!" she squealed as she jumped up from her seat and away from him practically ten feet. Her face was now an even deeper shade of red than before.

Alucard crossed his arms as he stared at her with an amused expression on his face.

"D-don't scare me like that!" she clenched her hands into fists and glared at the vampire.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that the Pumpkin Princess could be frightened." He smirked and revealed his fangs.

"Don't. Call. Me. That." She nearly hissed as she spoke.

"Hey now," he put his hands up in defense, "No need to be offended."

"Hmph!" she turned her back to him and crossed her arms, "Jerk." She muttered.

"Forgive me, princess." He smoothly spoke in her ear.

Amelia jumped away from him, 'How the heck did he move so fast!' she thought.

"I believe that we got off on the wrong foot." He then gestured to the fountain, "Please, may I sit with you." His eyes were soft and sincere as looked directly into her eyes.

She pondered his offer for a moment before she decided to go ahead and give him a second chance. She nodded, walked over to the fountain's ledge, and sat down. Alucard soon followed her example.

"Also, I'd like to apologize for having to cut our meeting short yesterday." His expression asked for her forgiveness.

"Oh no, please don't blame yourself." She protested, "It's my fault! Being in charge of Halloween Town and all, I'm just so busy! So I'm the one who should be saying sorry." Amelia never liked it when someone blamed themselves for something that was her own fault, even if that person was a vampire.

"You know," he crossed his arms, "since you are the ruler of this town, you have the authority to make time for yourself."

"Hm, I never thought about that." She pondered, "But I wouldn't if I could because I want to devote my time to Halloween. I don't want to let the citizens down."

"You couldn't possibly let them down," he looked up to the sky as he spoke before looking her directly in the eye, "because you're already such a great leader."

"Oh," she felt her face begin to heat up, "Well um, thank you." She fiddled with the end of her long sleeves to avoid making eye contact.

However, she hated the awkward silence so she figured that she had better say something. "Do you mind if I ask you a random question?"

"Um, sure?" he was slightly taken off guard.

"Well," she still wasn't looking him in the eye, "How old are you?" she felt like an idiot as soon as the words left her mouth. "Well, you see I heard that vampires can live a long time and I was wanting to know if it was true." She was practically rambling as dared to look up at him.

"Oh, well yes it's true." He stated, "I have lived for five centuries."

"Five centuries!" she exclaimed but then slapped her hand over her mouth, "Forgive me." She looked down at her shoes in embarrassment.

What he did next really surprised her.

He laughed.

"You are something else Amelia." He said once he had calmed down.

She chuckled nervously and sheepishly scratched the back of her head. "Well back home I'm known as the weird girl for a reason."

"Oh yes, I was told that you don't really live here." He stated.

"Part of the reason I stay so long is because I'm accepted." She giggled.

"Well they have to accept you. After all, you are the heir to the throne." He pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's nice to return home. It gives me a good break from the responsibilities as being the "temporary" leader." She smiled up at the sky.

"Amelia." He spoke as he leaned in closer to her.

When she turned her head, their faces were merely inches apart and she felt her blush return. Her heart even skipped a beat as they made eye contact. She would've turned away but there was something in his eyes that just seemed to capture her and keep her there.

"You need to relax more than you allow. I don't want you to exhaust yourself." He gave a half-smile.

As she gazed into his crimson orbs, she felt as though her mind was in a fog. She seriously contemplated taking the rest of the day off to give herself some time to relax.

"Amelia…" a voice whispered.

"Huh?" The princess suddenly turned her head toward where she heard her name said that snapped her out of the delusional thoughts. She looked around for the source of the voice for she new it was not Alucard's.

"What's wrong?" the vampire in front of her asked, truly concerned.

"Oh, it's nothing." She mentally shook her head, 'I guess he didn't hear it.' She thought.

She stood up and turned toward Alucard, "I'm glad we're better acquainted but I'm afraid I've got to get back to help out with the remainder of today's preparations." With that, she turned on her heel and walked away.

The vampire gave a small, quiet grumble and absentmindedly looked into the water of the fountain.

"Hmm?" he saw something in the water but it was gone in a split second. Now all that he saw was the gray sky and his absent reflection. With a sigh, he stood up and walked off in the opposite direction of the young sorceress.

Amelia leaned against the wall next to the gate of Jack's home. She heaved a deep sigh, 'That was weird,' she thought. 'That voice was the same one that told me to leave I'm sure of it!' she pondered the voice for a moment before she decided that it was just her imagination playing tricks on her.

Her thoughts then turned to the bizarre feeling she again had felt when their eyes had met. She couldn't quite explain the strange sensation. When she couldn't think of any rational explanation, she shrugged the whole ordeal off and went back to the town square to finish up what had to be completed that day.

Later that evening, the princess stood on her balcony but she didn't gaze at the crescent moon above. Instead, she had her eyes transfixed on a golden heart-shaped locket that she held open in her hands. Inside was a picture of a young boy with light, brunette colored hair and brown eyes.

"Eric…" She bit her lip to prevent the tears that threatened to fall. "Why did you have to go?" she further fought back the urge to cry. She closed the locked and held it close.

'I vowed that I would one day find you,' she thought, 'and figure out if we were meant to be or not. But Alucard, for some reason, reminds me so much of you…' she sniffled, 'But I know he's not you, so why do I feel so strange? Why did my heart skip a beat back there?'

"He doesn't even look like you." She whispered aloud, "So why is it that I think of you?"

"Maybe…" She gazed up at the moon teary eyed. "Maybe it's because I've never as so much felt something towards another guy after you left."

She stared up at the night sky that sparkled for only a minute or so but it seemed to her like an eternity. Finally, she closed the locket, placed the necklace in her pocket, and walked back inside to her room to turn in for the night.

Oh? What's this? A past love? What could that possibly do with the story! Review and I'll type out the next chapter soon!