A:N - A story I had to write because I love Let The Right One In so much. Enjoy.

Full Summary: Set directly after the events in Let The Right One In conclude; Oskar struggles to contemplate life as a vampire, weighing the pros and cons, whilst Eli struggles to convince him to be with her... forever. Together, they must go and live, or stay and die...

This will be a long story, with fairly long chapters. Chapter One is shorter than my normal chapter length.

Chapter One – An Epilogue and a Prologue

Friday 13th November, 1981

'Is that yours?'

Stefan Larsson, the conductor on the Stockholm-Karlstad line, pointed to the bag on the luggage rack. You didn't see those much these days. A real old-fashioned… trunk.

The boy in the compartment nodded and held out his ticket. Stefan punched it.

'Is someone meeting you at the other end?'

The boy shook his head.

'It's not as heavy as it looks.'

'No, of course. What have you got in there, if you don't mind my asking?'

'A little bit of everything.'

Stefan checked his watch, punched the air.

'It will be evening when we arrive, you know.'

'Mmm.'

'The boxes. Are they also yours?'

'Yes.'

'Look, I don't mean to… but how are you going to manage?'

'I'll get help. Later.'

'I see. Right. Have a good trip, then.'

'Thanks.'

Stefan pulled the door to the compartment shut, and walked to the next one. The boy seemed like he knew what he was doing. If Stefan had been sitting there with that much luggage he would hardly have looked so happy.

But then, it's probably different when you're young.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Oskar waited for the conductor to close the door to the compartment, and then relaxed in his seat, slid down it a little. Not that he wasn't happy, he just was also afraid of being found out, was worried that news of his disappearance had spread. He imagined a small crowd of people standing around a poster with his face stuck onto it, and the words "Lost Boy" written beneath his face. That was the last thing he wanted.

He was staring out the window silently, wondering where to go from here. A lot of things would have to change; he knew it, and Eli knew it.

'Do you want to be like me?' he remembered her asking. Of course, he had said no. He didn't want to be a murderer, didn't want to kill people for all eternity.

'No, but you would like to. If you could. And you would really do it if you had to.' The difference was that he only toyed with the idea of killing three people, people that deserved it for making his life a living hell. That was a clichéd expression, but it wasn't out of context in his case. He wouldn't kill other people without reason.

'I do it because I have to. There is no other way.' Wasn't that reason enough? Wasn't that a pre-requisite for that kind of murder? In Eli's case, yes. But in his, not really. He had told her… him. Oskar had told him that he would have killed Tomas, Micke and Jonny if he could get away with it, but had he really thought that?

Yes, he realised. I would kill for revenge, kill in order to live.

"Then window let day in and let life out. I must go and live or stay and die. See you tonight, Eli."

Go and live, or stay and die… he thought slowly. That was exactly what they were doing now, going to live. Eli was the first person who had ever truly cared about Oskar. He realised that when she had come back and saved his life, shredding his oppressors to pieces, so that he wouldn't have to do it himself. Oskar understood that he couldn't live without her. Didn't want to, either. She felt the same way; it's why she returned for him.

He hadn't known friendship his entire life until he met Eli, had never known love…

I don't want it to end… I don't want to get… older while she stays the same. I want to be with her, forever.

He weighed the pros against the cons, finding it difficult to do so. In his mind, there was more good than there was bad in becoming a vampire. If he was by himself, he would firmly stand his ground and refuse, but that was not the case. Alone…

'I'm all alone,' she whispered. 'No one knows…' He stopped himself there, refusing to think about their kiss. If he thought about it, he would be overwhelmed with positive emotion and would probably open the trunk then and there and ask her to turn him. He wanted to think about this rationally.

Oskar sighed and placed his head back against the chair, looked up at the roof of the compartment. He definitely couldn't imagine being alone for two hundred years. Eli liked him as much as he liked her, because of how kind he had been, because he had been a true friend. Not only that, but he had saved her life in the bathroom, a favour she returned. She didn't have to be alone anymore, and neither did he.

Then something happened. A vision of Eli appeared in his mind, crying forever. She was looking directly at him, her eyes burning into his with an everlasting embrace of sorrow and pain. She whispered through her tears: 'Don't you want to be with me?'

'Of course I do,' his mind replied sorrowfully.

Eli smiled sadly. 'You're giving everything up, you know. Your education, your home, your family…'

'For you,' he whispered.

A blink and he was back to reality. His mind wasn't yet made up entirely, but he knew which way he was leaning towards. Before he decided however, he wanted to know for definite if she felt the same way about him.

Suddenly, there was a small tap on the inside of the trunk. Then, a single word was spelt out.

P-U-S-S (Swedish word for "small kiss")

He smiled and replied with the same word. That was it, then. She really did care about him; as much as he cared about her. He would be with her forever, no matter the cost. He would kill to live, but not live to kill. He would live for her and her alone. He would forget about everything else, sever all ties with the rest of the world. They had money, so there was no problem there. They had each other, so everything was alright. He would tell her later, would completely give himself to her.

I love you.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

The train stopped at the end of the line, Karlstad, and Oskar disembarked rather awkwardly. He carried the stacked-up boxes against his chest in one hand and wheeled the trunk very carefully in his other. The conductor watched him depart, again wondering how anyone could appear so happy. Stefan shook his head confusedly and helped the dozen or so new passengers on the train. Time for the return journey.

Oskar didn't look back as the train departed. Instead, he walked straight on through the double doors into the station's waiting room and found it completely deserted. He wasn't surprised. It was, as the conductor had said, evening. Late evening. The station would be closing soon, and with no more trains to come through for the night, there was no reason for anyone to come here.

Oskar slowly looked around one last time to make sure no one was there. Then, he quickly sat the boxes on the ground and knelt beside the trunk. He opened it.

Inside, Eli lay curled up, surprisingly comfortable-looking. Whether she had been sleeping throughout the journey was unknown to Oskar, but now she was wide awake, looking up at Oskar.

'Hey.'

'Hi,' he replied happily.

He helped her out of the trunk, and then the two of them were standing alone together in the darkening room. They embraced slowly.

'We made it,' Oskar whispered.

'Are you surprised?'

'Not really, but…'

'You were worried they'd come looking for us,' she confirmed. He confirmed. Oskar silently berated himself for forgetting again that Eli was in fact a boy. Oskar nodded slowly.

They stood there for another few minutes, wrapped in each other's arms, before Oskar reluctantly broke the silence enveloping both of them.

'You know, the train station's going to close soon. We should go, I think.' Eli nodded in reply.

Oskar grabbed the boxes, whilst Eli guided the now-empty trunk, and together they set off outside, looking for a new temporary home. Oskar could barely wait to tell her his decision, but decided to wait until they found somewhere private. People were occasionally walking past them, after all.

'Eli?'

'Hmm?'

'There's something I have to tell you,' Oskar said, butterflies in his stomach.

'What is it?' she asked kindly.

He bit his lip and hesitated as a woman with shopping bags walked past (night time shopping? Weird), then shook his head.

'No, I need to wait until we're alone somewhere.'

He hoped they found somewhere soon; if they didn't, the thought of telling her might just burst through his skull…

A:N - I figured it was far too important not to address that fundamental question: What will Oskar do? And I answer: although you may think you have it figured out (pretty obvious to some people), you'll have to read the second chapter when I publish it to find out for sure ;).