The smell of blood and fire and ash and clay fills the air, and the sky is tinged red and orange with the thick cloud cover, making it hard to see. Well, for humans. But since I am now a vampire, it does not affect me that much.
I run through the woods as fast as I can, the forest all around me is burning, and as a vampire in one of the only elements that can kill me, I am very freaked out. The fire all around me burns bright and hot, casting embers and ash everywhere.
I leap over a felled tree and keep going. Ever since I was Turned into a vampire, I have been running. Because there are vampires after me. As well as humans who want me dead, as well as other things that I do not even know how to describe.
As I run, my heart is pounding and my lungs feel like they're on fire because of the actual flames around me, eating the forest around me alive. The sound of footsteps running after me draws my attention away from the world in front of me. I look back, and then I see it, a sickly thin thing with long, spindly limbs and pale skin, and it lunges at me.
"What the hell are you?!" I cry, running away from the creature. Then, I trip and hit face first in the dirt.
The creature laughs and then grabs my hair with its long, sharp, dirty claws. The thing yanks my head back, and I gasp as my neck and throat are exposed. I hiss at the thing holding me, struggling and biting at it with my own fangs.
The creature sniffs the air right by my throat, the thing's face is about an inch from my throat. Its grip is so tight on my hair, I can't move, and then I smell something. A cold wind brushes by, and the monster thing looks up just as a male vampire appears, slamming into the creature and throwing it off me.
I fall onto the grass and then I roll, scrambling up to a standing position again. The guy who saved me from the creature stands in front of me, looking at the towering flames all around us. I look around nervously, trying to find a safe way out.
"There," he says.
I jump, slightly startled. He points into the woods to the left, where I can see a small opening in the flames. The boy grabs my hand and pulls me along.
"What are you doing? Let go of me," I say.
He stops running and I slam into his back. He lets out and oomph and turns to look at me.
"Look, I'm just trying to help you, so please stay close to me, okay? I'm trying to help you get out of here alive."
"Who are you?" I ask. "Why are you helping me?"
He sighs. "Girl, we don't have time for all these questions. My name is Dylan and I am a vampire like you. I don't want you to die because I just met you and I know I can help you. Okay?"
I nod. "I'm Autumn."
"Nice to meet you. Now, lets get the hell out of here."
I take his hand and we run, pressing forward as we run through the tunnel of broken trees and fire. The acrid scent of burned flesh permeates the air as Dylan and I run. We reach the outside of the burning woods, and onto a road that leads away from my home, away from where I have lived.
I can't help but feel like this is my life story come to a close, despite knowing that I'm still alive. I'm fine, I made it out of the fire, thanks to Dylan.
We stop running only when we reach this small village off the side of the road after we ran for quite a while. Vampires are a lot better at running than humans are, and we are also faster.
Dylan and I reach a small cafe area, where we sit down and catch our breath. Humans are all around us, we are literally surrounded by them, but they don't seem to notice or care. That's when I realize that they don't know we are vampires. That is why we are safe, for now, anyways.
"Uh, Dylan? Is this a safe place for us to be?" I whisper.
He shakes his head. "Come on, Autumn. We gotta get out of here."
We get up and walk down the street, trying to act as normal as we can, not like either of us don't smell like smoke and aren't covered in ash or soot. But if these humans knew that it was their own kind that set fire to those woods I was in, would they still fear and hate me? Probably. Humans hate what they fear. Always have. Always will.
The two of us walk for a couple minutes, before we reach the town square. Dylan is in front of me, and it's as we are walking that I realize he's so freaking tall. Maybe I am just short ... or he's tall. Or both. Probably both.
Then, he stops walking, and I nearly run into him again.
"Please stop slamming on the brakes," I say.
It was supposed to be a joke, but he doesn't laugh. Confused, I walk around him slowly. I'm looking up at him, so I don't see whatever he's seeing. But when I see the shocked and horrified, and also angry expression on his face, I turn to look at what is causing that.
Because there is two large pyres built into the ground, with stakes. Pyres that the humans are leading their vampire prisoners onto. They're burning these people at the stake, like witches.
"Stars," I whisper.
Dylan shoves me back, hissing. "Shut up, Autumn!"
He pushed me into an alley that cuts off my view of the stakes and the poor vampires they're burning.
"We have to help them," I say.
Dylan shakes his head. "We can't. Not yet, Autumn. Come on, we have to get out of here. There's too many of them and not enough of us. Humans are violent." He shudders and starts to walk down the alley, away from the pyres.
"So we ... we just leave them? To burn?" I ask.
He sighs. "We have no choice. There's two of us, and how many of them?"
"But we are vampires, we are the predators."
He nods. "But numbers count. Two vampires against hundreds of humans isn't going to work."
I sigh and nod. "Okay. I just wish we could help...."
"I know," he says. He smiles sadly at me. "Hide that sweet heart of yours, Autumn. This world will try to tear it apart."