Kelly Johnson was a senior at the local high school and a top athlete on both the track and volleyball teams. Her morning routine included getting up early every day to run at least five to ten miles before school, and then got home late after practice to run another five to ten after school. She had slept through her alarm clock that morning and missed her early morning run, a slip that almost never happened and kept her mad at herself the entire day. Determined to make up for her lost miles that morning, she stopped on one of her favorite dirt roads after school, sending a text to her mom to let her know she’d be extra late for dinner. It was called Potter road, it ran alongside Conway Lake and was usually void of heavy traffic. The occasional breeze off the lake in a few spots made the end of the run pleasant, and the steep hills made the run challenging. Usually she reserved this run for pre-competition training, but the lost miles of the morning weighed heavily on her mind.
She parked her car at the entrance to an old logging road just off the main drag, then throwing her hair into a quick ponytail while she stretched and tied her running shoes. She paused just long enough to stuff the speakers of her music player into her ears before taking off, turning the music up on her player and jogging in near perfect step with the upbeat music. She only had a couple of hours of daylight left and no reflectors on her clothes, not wanting to get stuck running in the woods after dark she took off in a hurry and kept her pace fast. In her rush to get going she didn’t notice the small and dirty car that slowly pulled off the road behind her and watched as she was getting ready.
The man sitting behind the wheel looked to be in his late teens, maybe early twenties. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses that contrasted against the sharp features of his pale face. He kept his dark hair cropped short and wore plain clothes, doing his best to blend in so that no one who saw him would give him a second glance. Although his smile was disarming and his face young, he was in fact cruel and deadly, close to two hundred years old. He was a vampire, never staying in one town too long, and never for more than a couple meals. He came into town hungry, expecting to spend a day or two stalking the town in search for a meal. What a stroke of luck it was to have seen this girl pull off onto a lonely dirt road on his very first day in town! Even luckier, she was exactly his type. Young, athletic and beautiful, she was a girl who had a bright future ahead of her. A future he would take pleasure in denying her. He watched her run off with a smile on his face. He would wait just a little bit longer before taking her, following her just until it started getting dark before making his move. He hoped this road would remain empty of all but her for a few hours, but killing off a human witness or two wasn’t really a big deal for him if worse came to worse. He turned off his car and watched as she rounded the first corner of the road, noting her long legs, white beneath her small red running shorts, and her blonde ponytail bouncing behind her as she ran. He would cut that off and take it as a trophy. He had hunted them young and athletic as long as he could remember. The blood tasted so much better that way.
He stepped out of his car and shut the door quietly behind him. He could still smell her in the air, could still hear her faint footsteps running down the road. The smell of her made him hungry, the sound of her footsteps made him eager for the chase. Unlike a lot of his kind that he knew and had met over his two centuries, he was very picky about his food. He was also one of the most sadistic. Like a cat plays with a mouse before delivering the fatal blow, he delighted in playing with his victims, often for hours, before finally ending their misery. Such weak little things deserved such torment, plus their screams and struggles amused him. It would be no different with this one. He would catch her, drag her off the road, and cut her open again and again, slowly drinking every precious drop of her blood to the music of her cries. Then he would carry her far into the woods and leave her to the animals. It’s a game of death he’s played countless times, in thousands of towns with thousands of girls over the course of his second lifetime. None of his victims had ever been found.
In a blur of motion, he took off running after the girl, moving through the woods with the ease of a deer. Sometimes he would stop a ways behind her on the road, watching her jog on, oblivious to the danger that followed. Only once did a car pass her on her way deeper into the woods. The driver slowed down to give a brief honk and wave as he passed her by, she waved back but otherwise never looked anywhere but the road ahead. He followed her silently, never far behind while the sun slowly started to sink. She stopped to look down at her watch after a while, jogging in place. When she turned around to make her way back to her car he slipped further into the woods and let her pass, his excitement growing. It was almost time to take her.
She passed when he was just a few feet off the road hiding behind a large tree, the smell of her so strong that he had to restrain himself from taking her right then and there. He was getting hungry. He was also ready to play.
Fifteen minutes later, shadows started making their way across the road as the sun settled below the surrounding hills. The smile on his face grew and he started shaking with anticipation. Taking off through the woods he passed his still unsuspecting victim and came to a stop just off the road ahead of her, hiding in the shadows between two large pines. She was running faster now, trying to beat the coming darkness and make it back to her car. He waited until she was almost past him before making his first move.
In a flash of movement too fast for her to see, he ran across the road behind her, running one finger along the back of her warm neck as she ran. She didn’t slow down, just slapped one hand to the back of her neck thinking it was nothing more than a mosquito. A second later, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder as she ran. She skidded to a stop, almost tripping on the loose gravel on the road and looked around, taking her headphones out of her ears. “Hello,” she called out between breaths.
She was greeted by nothing more than the sound of crickets in the woods and music playing softly from the tiny speakers that hung just below her neck. Suddenly she felt her ponytail being gently pulled as fingers ran through her hair and down the upper part of her back. Surprised, she whirled around quickly, but there was nothing there. She was starting to panic a little now; she was still almost a full mile from her car and even further from the nearest house. With a shaking hand, she reached down and turned her music player off, listening carefully.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a hand come from behind, and felt cold fingers stroke her cheek. She let out a scream and whirled around a second time, once again there was nobody there.
“Where are you? Please just come out…” she called out, her voice barely more than a terrified whisper. Her heart was racing faster than it should have even after a run and she could feel her knees getting weak from fear. From somewhere behind her she felt a movement, and heard someone quietly chuckling.
She turned and ran, she couldn’t take it anymore. All she wanted to do was get out of the woods and off this road. She had made it no more than half a dozen steps when something moving too fast to be real came out from the trees, the next thing she knew something caught her by the foot and tripped her. She felt gravel dig painfully into her arms as she landed hard on the dirt road. She let out another yell and pulled herself to her knees, trying to get back up and make another run for it. A cold hand suddenly grabbed hold of her ankle and pulled her back to the ground. Tears of fear were flowing freely now, blurring her vision, she let out a panicked scream and managed to look back but there was still no one there.
The woods fell quiet again, only the sounds of her own terrified whimpers and trees moving in the slight breeze breaking the silence. She stood up slowly, brushing sand and gravel off her arms and legs as she looked around. Blinking back tears she tried desperately to find whoever or whatever was tormenting her, but between the dark blacks and browns of the trees and the steadily darkening road she found no signs of her attacker.
“Who are you, what do you want?” she managed to call out into the darkness.
Suddenly, an arm clamped around her waist and a hand covered her mouth, she felt her body being pulled tightly against someone not much taller than herself. The hand around her mouth was ice cold, the arm around her waist felt like a steel clamp. She kicked and flailed as she was held tightly but it was no use, whoever had her was too strong. She felt the stubble on his cheek brush her face as his hand turned her head to the side, felt his lips brush her ear as he pulled her close. “Your death, your blood...” his voice was cruel, his breath cold enough to make her skin prickle.
Before she could react her feet left the ground and she was spun so fast the forest became nothing but a tangled mess of blacks and greens. The road vanished from sight as she was carried into the forest so fast that the air around her turned into a cold wind. She had no way of knowing how far he carried her, but it was only a few seconds before she was thrown to the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of her lungs. Then he was on top of her, pinning her body down with the weight of his own. She kicked and swung, screamed and twisted, trying desperately to do whatever she could to get away from the dark shape on top of her. It was all for nothing. He grabbed both her wrists with one hand like she was nothing more than a baby, pinning her arms painfully above her head. The bones in her wrist ground against themselves in his powerful grip. Then he clamped his other hand around her throat, gripping so tightly she almost couldn’t breathe.
“Shhh...” he whispered into her hear, “there’s no use for that out here, no one can hear you, you’re mine…” His cold breath blew into her hot face, it smelled like death. He loosened his grip and let go of her throat, his hand sliding slowly up her neck to caress her face, he gripped it in his hand and turned her head one way then the other, looking her over. “You’re a pretty one, much prettier than my last. I think I’m going to enjoy this town for a while if I can find more like you.” He grinned down at her, his teeth reflecting what little light there was making a dull white slash across the dark shape of his face.
“Please let me go,” she was crying too hard to speak, her voice little more than a whisper.
“Oh, I just don’t see that happening, it’s been far too long since my last meal...” his face came down against hers, the cold tip of his nose pressing against her cheek. She felt herself recoil in disgust when he opened his mouth and slowly licked the side of her face, “and you taste too good to pass up.”
His cold hand continued to caress the side of her face as he smiled down at her before pulling it down slowly and lightly gripping the front of her shirt. Adrenaline surged through her as she struggled again to try to get free, trying to wiggle her body into a position to knee him in the groin. She felt his grip on her wrists tighten, heard a crack of her bones as one of her wrists broke. She screamed out in pain and struggled harder, his grip just tightened further.
“Now on to business…” he whispered, as the hand gripping the front of her shirt tightened and began to pull.
“Please no…” she begged. In horror, she looked up so see his grin widen, his white smile reminding her of the Cheshire cat. The sound of ripping fabric filled her ears as the front of her shirt was ripped off like wrapping paper. She cried harder, screamed out in disbelief, this just couldn’t be happening.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered into her ear, “Its not what you think, it’s much worse.” He chuckled softly as he reached behind his back, her eyes widened as the bright gleam of a blade shone against the light of the moon. He put the blade close to her face, turning it back and forth slowly in front of her eyes. She screamed again and struggled harder than ever, the pain in her broken wrist red hot. He laughed out loud and pressed the blade against her chest just over her heart. Slowly he cut a deep gash into her skin, laughing sadistically at her screams. “I know, I know, it’s not traditional,” he said, sounding almost disappointed, “…but I like to take my time and I don’t want you to turn.” He bent his face down to the wound and began drinking the blood, she screamed out in agony when he pushed the tip of his tongue against her, licking along the length of the slash.
In her cries and struggles neither noticed another shadow suddenly appear over them. The vampire felt a powerful hand grab the back of his clothes and pull him off his victim. He was thrown backwards into a large pine tree hard enough for the wood to buckle and crack. With a yell of blind fury he focused on the figure that had interrupted his meal, briefly glancing at the girl lying on the ground looking back and forth between the newcomer and him. In a fit of rage he screamed and lunged at the newcomer, moving too fast for any human to see and track. Using only blind instinct to guide himself the vampire lunged forward, aiming to bite down on the newcomer’s throat, wanting nothing more than to tear it open. In a movement faster than he could imagine possible the figure twisted and caught hold of both the vampire’s throat and arm while he was still in the air, twisting again to slam him into a large boulder. The vampire felt the bones in his left arm shatter on the rock as the figure put everything he had into the attack.
The figure was on him at once, trying to pin the vampire’s right arm down before the left arm had a chance to heal. Never in his almost two hundred years had he ever met anyone like this, all he could think was that this was another vampire here to take his well-earned meal from him. Before his right arm was pinned down, he struck the face of the attacker with all his might, knowing it should be enough to tear his head off his shoulders. There was a dull thud and the crack of a bone breaking when his blow landed, but the head remained in place. Slowly his attacker turned and looked down at the vampire under him. The vampire stared his attacker in the face and for the first time in his life felt fear. The attacker’s eyes had begun to glow, two tiny points of yellow light shining out of the center of the figure’s eyes like two suns in the darkness. The vampire had never seen anything like this before, it must be some kind of trick, he thought. He needed to attack now and not let this figure’s mind games distract him.
He went in for another blow, putting all his rage and strength into the blow, wanting nothing more than to end the life of this demon with the glowing eyes. With seemingly no effort, his attacker caught his arm midair, and with one quick movement twisted it violently backwards, snapping the bones in the vampire’s forearm like twigs. He screamed out in rage and pain and prepared to strike again, the bones in his left arm had almost healed, having every intention on striking up to claw those glowing eyes out of the figure’s head. It was too late. Unable to break the iron death grip the shadowy figure had on his throat, the vampire felt himself being lifted off the ground, all his kicking and thrashing as useless to him as it was to Kelly not five minutes before. The figure’s eyes glowed brighter as he slammed the vampire against another large pine, one of the dead lower branches pierced his back and stuck out of his ribcage just inches away from his dead heart.
“What do you want…” the vampire choked out. With the bright glow of those yellow eyes blinding him the vampire couldn’t make out the face of his attacker, only a black shadow formed the shape of his head around those nightmarish and tiny suns. His ability to see in the dark did nothing for him now, adding to this unfamiliar sense of terror.
“Forgiveness…” the word was no more than whispered in the dark, the sound of a long blade being drawn almost drowning out the attacker’s voice.
An instant later the vampire’s headless body landed on the forest floor in a burst of blue flame, the forest illuminated with a sapphire glow. Both the body and head burned for a few moments before both turning black and fading into the re-emerging dark. The attacker looked down at the severed head briefly before crushing it under his foot. The head crumbled away to dust and the body collapsed in on itself leaving nothing but a pile of ash. A moment later the light that had been shining in his eyes faded away.
Looking through her tears and terror, Kelly had watched the brief battle with disbelief, unable to make out details of either figure. She tried to make herself small on the ground in hopes that she would be forgotten, that whoever won would walk away without her. Kelly tried sliding behind a tree sending a fresh wave of pain through the gash on her chest, a low whimper of pain escaping her lips. The newcomer turned slowly and looked at her lying on the ground, wrist broken and racked with pain and fear, Kelly knew escape was impossible. He slowly made his way over to her, a black figure coming towards her like a childhood nightmare. Her head began to spin as she felt her grip on consciousness slipping away as he stopped and stood over her. The last thing she saw was the figure bending down; the last thing she heard was her own terrified scream. Then her world turned to darkness.