Prologue and Chapter 1: After Death

Prologue

Pain was erupting through my body, would it ever end? The flow of blood, coming from the puncture wounds in my neck, was steady. I could feel my energy draining with each drop of the thick red liquid. Yet, after being left in the dark for what felt like days, why wouldn’t death come? My heartbeat was slow and faint; black spots were obscuring my vision. My throat was sore from yelling for so long, but I had stopped yelling as I realized how pointless it was. I knew no one would come, there was no one around, or so he thought.

I could feel myself slipping away, the life was literally draining from me, but death still did not come. So I lay on the damp and disgusting pavement of the alley. All I could hear was the wind beating against the broken windows of the neighboring buildings and the scurrying of rodents.

That’s when I felt it. While I was yearning for death my breathing became longer and easier. The dripping of my blood stopped and the pain was ebbing away. However, I suddenly felt my heartbeat become slower and slower. This is it, I thought, it’s finally ending. And then my heart gave one last, final beat. Nevertheless…I was still conscious. How could I be alive without a heartbeat? And that’s when I felt the thirst.

*
Chapter 1: After Death

I didn’t know what I was becoming. I sat behind a dumpster, hugging my knees to my chest. The brisk night air should have been nipping at my bare skin; I was only wearing a skirt and silk shirt, both of which were torn, soaked with my blood and the filth from the ground. I couldn’t feel the cold. I glanced at my uncovered arms; I had never seen paler skin. I remembered the tan, olive color my flesh used to be. This new tissue looked alien. It was so creamy white, yet…under the dirt and grime, strangely beautiful.

I knew that I had changed, but how? So many sounds were making their way to my ears, things I hadn’t been able to hear before, until he took me here. Like that rat in the dumpster next to me. Not only could I hear it, I could smell it too. The rat smelled awful, I wrinkled my nose; it reeked worse than the dumpster it was residing in. However, something about the smell of the rat made my mouth water.

It was all I could do not to jump into the dumpster and kill the rodent. Kill it? I thought to myself, What’s wrong with me? I never would have harmed an animal, even if it was a rodent, before I had become the monster I was now. I was beginning to panic. The strip of sky that I could see was getting brighter, and something about that fact made me scared, though I couldn’t say why. I just knew I had to get inside somewhere before the sun flooded the narrow street.

That’s when I heard them. I didn’t hear their footsteps; they barely made a sound, except for their voices. I didn’t dare look around the corner of the dumpster for fear of being seen. I kept hidden and listened. At first their voices were muffled, but as they got nearer, I began to hear their discussion.

“You know he said not to go looking for her,” said a high-pitched woman’s voice. Her? Is she talking about me? I asked myself.

“Shh, I know, but we can’t just leave her out here either, she probably doesn’t know what’s going on. What if she goes out in public and attacks? What if she walks into the sunlight?” replied a deep, male voice. Attacks? Why would I attack anything? Then I thought about the rat I was earlier eager to pounce upon, I shivered. What would happen if I went in the sunlight?

“Well what do you care if she gets herself blown up or kills some people? There are plenty of our kind that kill people all the time,” whispered the woman. Blown up?

“I care because she’s in our territory,” he explained impatiently, “we can’t have a newborn running around in our territory. She will have to leave at nightfall, but for now we must take her in. We can get her cleaned up and explain things to her once we get her to the coven.” Territory? Newborn? Coven? What is this guy talking about? I was beginning to panic. Should I make a run for it?

I noticed they were getting very close; there was no hope of running for it. The woman said, “Yes, we will definitely have to get her cleaned up, she reeks of stale blood.” She added worriedly, “We mustn’t let anyone else know about this. If Darien found out, who knows what he would do? He would surely be furious.” Who’s Darien? How can they tell I am covered in blood?

I could tell the couple was now in front of the dumpster, I flattened myself against the wall. “We will worry about that later. However, for now we have more important things to worry about.” The man’s shadow appeared in my vision, he said amusedly, “Hello little one.”