• Rising Blood
    Prologue: Breaking and Entering

    Why was I here? This warehouse was supposed to be closed, locked to the public, abandoned. Still I wandered, however, through this decrepit building. My footsteps echoed into the empty halls as well as my friend Chloe’s, who wandered with me. Fear hummed through my body, a constant reminder that there was a red alarm going off in my mind. Chloe on the other hand looked as she was taking a midday walk through a park.

    “…Are you sure it’s safe to be here?” I asked her. My voice was nothing more than a whisper, but in the silence, it hurt my ears. “This is where he always is…” The girl grinned at me in what seemed like an attempt to calm me. It only wanted to make me roll my eyes.

    “Relax.” She said in bright and cheery tones as she held up her fist. “I’ve been trained in a bunch of martial arts! We’ll be fine.” I was silent before a sigh escaped my lips.

    “…Whatever you say…” Despite her words, I only felt worse. A sense of oncoming danger rose within me, begging me to turn around and go back home. Telling me that I shouldn’t go any deeper into this dark place than I already have. …But I wouldn’t be able to convince Chloe to turn around and I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave her in here alone… That’s how she had gotten me to come here in the first place. With another sigh, we both continued on into the darkness that swallowed everything.

    I don’t know how much longer we had been in there before I finally decided to convince Chloe to leave or drag her out no matter what she said. Just as I was about to turn to her, a loud roar rang out from the deeper parts of the warehouse. My fear took over my body within seconds. I found myself running back through the halls, not daring to stop. Someone or something had begun chasing me. I could hear their footsteps just behind mine and something told me that it wasn’t Chloe. I broke through the door that we had entered into the warehouse to begin with and kept running. The footsteps were no longer following me. They had stopped once I was out into the cold night air.

    Ren, the one who had unlocked the gates to this place, stood at the top of the hill where the gate was. He looked just as scared as I felt. Had he heard the roar too? Had he seen what had been chasing me? I would never know. From his place, he yelled down to me as I stopped for a moment to catch my breath.

    “Hey!” He yelled. “Where’s Chloe?” My eyes widened and my heart, which had yet to settle from its erratic pace, sped up. Whipping around, I turned towards the silent doorway that let back into the dark building. There was nothing. No one. Not even a sound. Please… Let her be okay! I began my ascent towards Ren again, eyes never leaving the doorway. I was begging whatever would listen in my mind to let Chloe be alive… To be okay.

    With a clatter, Chloe burst through the doorway with a tumble and roll before she scrambled to her feet. That must’ve been how I looked when I first appeared in the door. Her look of complete and total fear must have mirrored my own.

    “Run!!!” She screamed at us as she continued to run up the hill. Turning completely to head the hill, Chloe ran past me at a speed I’m pretty sure rivaled the wind’s. After that, everything happened so fast. A pair of arms grabbed me from behind, preventing me from running, and turned me around. My eyes met a cold, hard onyx gaze. I felt my heart die. Laden was staring down at me. He was the one I wanted to avoid seeing on this adventure. He was the one that I was so scared of. He was the one that was a vampire. Under his gaze, I was only a deer in the headlights. I could hear Ren and Chloe screaming at me to get away from him, to run away, to escape… But I no longer had any control over my body.

    My name is Sylph, and that was the night that I lost my mortality. Laden was silent for a moment before he leaned down. He whispered something against my neck before his fangs sank in. What he said to me?

    “Sorry.”