Rustle. Rustle.
The forest was never quiet. Even at the darkest peak of the night, there was always a hoot or a creak to be heard.
But tonight, that lack of quietness was even more apparent as there was a figure running through the woods with great speed. For the average person, a non-starwalker, the figure might've just seemed like a blur.
For those who were trained, they would've seen a girl with azure blue jellyfish-like hair running with her shoes in her hands.
All the sounds surrounding Diana were pressing against her eardrums as if they were trying to burst them. Every inhale she took was too loud. Every exhale she released shook too much.
But nothing was louder than the frantic beat that was pounding inside her skull.
Two of the moons were visible tonight, and they looked large, almost swollen. They were sitting low in the sky, half-hidden behind clouds drifting by peacefully, and they were just bright enough that the path she was taking was illuminated.
It felt as if she just reached her arms forward; she could pluck them out of the air.
Shadows around her shifted quickly as she moved at a great pace.
Leaves brushed against her body, branches snapped, her feet were getting dirtier by the second, but she didn't care.
She couldn't stop running. She didn't dare to turn around.
When the sound of a twig snapping away from her sounded, she snapped her head to the noise so fast that her neck popped.
Holding her breath, she only breathed again when she was certain that nothing was following her.
Even the fluttering wings of an owl traveling from tree to tree startled her.
Snapping her head again, she saw a creature that was staring at her. It was maybe a coyote. Maybe not. It glared at her for a few moments before stepping backwards and vanishing into the shadows.
'I have to keep running.'
The longer she stayed paused, the more uncomfortable she felt.
'They're after me. They're going to kill me. I… I'll die if I don't keep running.'
Looking down at her hands, they were bloody. Fresh blood.
It coated her fingers like a second skin, and the moonlight gave it an almost glossy sheen. It clung to the small dips and creases of her palms, settling into the thin lines between her knuckles. There was a faint metallic scent that hovered above her hands, and it smelled — delicious.
Gulp.
Run. Run. Run.
Her stomach twisted as she continued sprinting across the woods, her shoes abandoned behind her. Why was a part of her disgusted by the blood, terrified of its vivid color, and yet — another part of her found it pleasing?
"I didn't mean to do it." She pleaded into the unknown, "I… I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to do that. My body moved on its own."
Just because she was apologetic, it didn't take back what she had done. What was true remained true.
She had harmed someone as her body left her dorm room and wandered the streets on its own as if she had been sleepwalking, but with her consciousness still partially awake.
"It was just a mistake. He'll… he'll be fine. He's… he's alive. Yeah. He's okay," she was trying to reassure herself.
Bumping into a drunk man, the dude had gotten angry, and when he noticed that she was good-looking, he had grabbed her by the shoulders and demanded that she pay him back. He didn't want money. Instead, he wanted—
And when she heard those words, it triggered a boiling rage inside of her, and she had picked up the man by his collar, and off of pure instinct, she flew the two of them into the air.
Flight came so naturally to her, even though it was her first time.
Once they were far away from any crowd of people, she dropped him from a high enough distance that he broke both legs but did not die. Then, once she landed afterwards, she plunged her fangs into him, sucking out blood.
The blood on her hands came from her wiping the blood from her mouth.
A cluster of bushes rustled beside Diana, and her instinct snapped forward. Ice formed instantly along her nails; they were smooth at first, but became jagged at the end. Ten shards, sharp enough to cut through air itself, lined up at the ends of her fingers.
Then… a raccoon pushed its striped head out of the leaves.
It blinked at her.
She blinked back at it.
The two of them stared at each other for a ridiculous amount of time — at least ten seconds, before the raccoon turned away with a strange little grunt and scurried off like it had places to be rather than entertaining this silly encounter.
Shoulders slumping, she took a breath as the ice vanished. Lowering her hands, she collapsed to her knees. The pain in her calves reminded her that this was reality.
"I didn't mean to do it," she whispered to nobody, to the trees, to the sky, and maybe to herself.
But when she looked at her hands again, it didn't matter her intent. She did what she did. She knew that.
She didn't just see red in the blood. She saw his face, wide-eyed, confused, terrified, and contorted in pain as she drained him. It didn't matter that he seemed to be a terrible person. She could still feel the sensation of her nails dragging across his skin, the feeling of his flesh tearing open as her fangs plunged inside, the sweetness of the blood that filled her.
It tasted amazing. She wanted—
No. She shook her head so violently that her vision began to wobble.
She wanted to stop thinking about how delicious the blood was, but it was impossible not to. Not only was it the tastiest thing she's ever consumed, but it also quenched her thirst and hunger that had been haunting her for days now.
Even now, she just wanted one more drop to land on her lips. That was all it would take for electricity to slide under her skin and for her cells in her blood to jump around excitedly as if they had been waiting for that their entire existence.
Once she had drunk her fill and her senses returned to normal, she realized what she had done as he was unconscious, his face pale, and she was kneeling over him like a nightmare. Before she could even form a thought, her body moved, and she ran.
That's how she ended up in the forest.
She was faster than ever. Her body felt lighter as if she weighed no more than a feather.
As fast and as far as her legs would take her, she continued to move away from civilization, from the lights, roads, and people. Away from the consequences she wasn't ready to face. What if a vampire hunter was on their way for her now?
Would they even assume it was a vampire?
What if they just think it was the act of a crazy human?
Please let that be the case.
Now here she was, in the middle of dark woods, miles away from anything resembling the city. Alone but not really, as her guilt had followed her like a shadow, and her paranoia was taking the shape of a hunter chasing her by the second.
Cold. But also not really, as her body still felt warm from the blood.
"I just wanted a normal life," she whispered, her voice cracking and tears beginning to form in her eyes. "What is that too much to ask?"
The forest didn't answer. And the sounds of critters and nature felt like an insult.
Her throat tightened, her hands curled into fists. Letting her frustration boil over, she screamed. A full raw sounded left her mouth, and it bounced off the trees, sending the nearby critters scattering in all directions.
She screamed. Screamed. And screamed some more.
Only when her voice died out and she had no strength left in her, she sagged lower to the ground, her body folded on itself.
Leaves crunched under her, and the cold earth soaked through the knees of her pants. Her arms felt too heavy for her to lift. Her heartbeat throbbed annoyingly loud in her ears.
It was only her first offense, and she already felt like the worst person in the world. And to make it even worse, she could already tell that it wouldn't be her last mistake. The hunger had subsided for now, but she could already feel it crawling back.
The texts she had read stated that the thirst and hunger for blood would never vanish. It could only be suppressed, and even those with the most control over their desire for human blood would always have the desire for it lingering in their mind.
One accident would become two. Two would become four. Four would spiral into something that she wouldn't be able to fix or forgive herself for the rest of her life. However long her lifespan was now.
But how?
How did she become a vampire?
She had never been in contact with another vampire.
For most people, they had already assumed that the race had gone extinct since the last sighting of them was over a hundred years ago.
How could it be that she had become one?
It didn't make any sense.
The faces of her family surfaced in her mind. Her mom's gentle worry, her dad's stern attitude that masked his love, and her siblings' teasing. They were gone now, and she didn't know whether to feel relieved that they would never have to see her like this or to feel sad that they couldn't be here for her when she was in desperate need of their comfort.
She wasn't naive enough to think that she could control her vampiric urges forever.
"I… I can't do this," she said, her voice barely more than air. "Would it be easier just to give up?"
As soon as the words left her, she flinched, and yet, a blade of ice had already formed in her palm.
Even after all that she had been through, she was still in the fight. She hadn't given up yet in pursuit of returning to her normal life before the incident. She hadn't given up yet on overcoming it and someday getting her revenge. But now, with the darkness wrapped around her like a blanket, she had uttered such words admitting her weakness and willingness to call it quits.
"This doesn't even sound like me," she scoffed.
She straightened her back and looked up at the moons; one of them was full while the other was close to being the same.
"Help me," she whispered. "Anyone, help me."
Closing her eyes, tears trickled down her cheeks uncontrollably.
"Please."