Blood Moon Rising

17 | seventeen

I was about to ask how when my mind registered her implication and my eyes widened in horror.

"No."

"Yes." The word rolled off dangerously over her tongue.

She took a threatening step towards me and instinctively I backed away – the locker door ringing loudly from the impact of my back.

"I'm gonna turn you like me. And then we can live happily forever."

"No. Don't do this. Look-" She reached out towards me, her cold fingers wrapping harshly around my throat.

Immediately I felt the air escape my windpipe. I encircled my palms around her wrist – tugging on them, as I flailed around my legs.

"Just hold on a little Krys. Like always, there's pleasure after this pain too," she scoffed and I felt her nails digging into my flesh – causing a piercing pain to shoot through my body.

I scratched on her tanned skin, trying to peel her hands off me, but I realized that fighting against a vampire was like hitting a wall.

"Please...don't...do this...," I wheezed. "This...is...not you."

"Oh trust me, this is so me. You turned me into this, remember?" She sneered while I coughed – the walls of my lungs closing down.

I tried to kick her, as a last attempt for freedom, but she easily dodged me.

"This is exactly how my last moments before death were like," she whispered, bringing her mouth close to my ears. "Pure agony."

Tears bleared my vision as I felt the life slowly dissipating from my body. Black dots danced around the corners of my eyes and my limbs slumped down due to the lack of oxygen.

This was happening.

I was finally dying.

I felt the last strain of air escape my lungs as my whole body collapsed.

The image of Maria smirking at me burned in my brain one last time before my eyes drooped shut - allowing the coldness and darkness to engulf me.

I gasped and my eyes flew open to meet the blank white ceiling of my room. My hands immediately shot up as I wrapped them around my neck – feeling the smooth and unscratched skin beneath my fingers. Drips of sweat rolled down my forehead and arm and I wiped them away hastily.

I let my gaze travel around my surroundings. My heart was still beating haphazardly as the scenery of the familiar white walls and the heap of bed sheets and pillows accumulating in the corner of the room swam in my vision.

That night sleep barely visited me. I kept switching positions and rolling from one side to another – trying to prevent the torment of the nightmares that were showered over me. But I couldn't find peace.

Relief flooded within me when the thin streak of sunlight escaped past the gap of the blinds in my room. I turned my head sideways and a groan escaped my lips when my eyes zoomed in on the bedside clock – the time reading 7:00 am.

I sighed in relief.

This was reality. Not that.

Sitting up, I leaned back on the wooden frame of my bed and wrapped my arms around my knees, drawing them closer to my body. I still felt the fragments of pain burning in my throat. I rested my head in the croon of my elbow – trying to withhold the tears.

The darkness wrapped itself around me like a blanket that was hard to remove and I bit the inside of my cheek from screaming in anguish. I didn't know what to think.