It was a dark and stormy night…..

I was running through the streets, following them. Rain pelted down my back, soaking my clothes and chilling me. What a horrible evening, even if it was the only time that they could come out.

I knew that if I had been any other person, I would be sitting by the light of a warm fire, reading, or perhaps, staring into the heart of the fire, thinking of my future. A wife, maybe, and possibly children.

I shook these fantasies out of my head, and willed myself to go faster. I pushed myself to my limits, and beyond, the people around me struggling to catch up. We were losing them.

I splashed into a large puddle at the end of the street as the monsters dashed away, toward the center of town. I turned the corner ahead of the masses. It was just the two of us.

Suddenly, he lunged toward me, and before I could stop him, before I could feint away, he was on me. A bite to my elbow and chest was all it took, just as my team of hunters swarmed down the street. My eyes closed at the first dagger of pain, but I still heard a cry as another man was taken, more screams as others were destroyed. I opened my eyes, despite the terrible pain, to see the bodies of brave souls around me, the last of  my hunters dashing away to try and destroy the monster.

I knew what my fate would be before I even stood up. If they realized what had happened, I would not live another night. Anything contaminated by the blood drinking creatures would be burned, destroyed with fire. I stumbled down the street. Even in the gloom of the evening, I could see the house, and the open potato cellar. I lurched toward it, grasping the edge as I climbed inside, hiding among the earthy spuds.

There, I closed my eyes, and fell asleep, fatigue, fear and pain taking me into an uneasy, unnatural darkness.

~~~()~~~()~~~()~~~

I awoke, to a light misting and a most horrible smell. The events of the previous night…

No, it hadn’t been last night. Last night had been storming. Thunder, lightening, dark clouds. Now, it was just a mist, the clouds were gray, and I couldn’t hear a single roll of thunder.

But, curiously, I could hear music. It came from the pub across the street. I listened, daring not to breath as I heard the voices of those nearby.

“That monster…”

“Three days ago…”

“Good riddance…”

So it was certain that the monsters were gone. I hoped they had been chased from the streets of London, if they hadn’t been caught and destroyed. If they did return, I hoped that maybe someone else would stop them; I had a feeling that the wounds suffered three days ago would render me incapable to fight them again.

But had it really been three days ago?

I rolled, the rotten smell around me making me want to gag. Despite the pungent odor, something about it was earthy, almost homelike….

Wait….

I picked up a potato, and sniffed it. I felt as though I would gag if I had to smell it again. I dropped it, and crawled out of the cellar I had taken refuge in. In front of me was a rain puddle, with the misty rain falling into it’s depths.

Strange, I thought, It’s almost as if I can see every individual raindrop…..

And then I looked into the mirror of the puddle.

It was like staring at a ghost. My skin was white, like the whitewashed walls of someone’s house. I could err my cheekbones, my hair, always light, looked almost white, and , despite my recent lodgings, clean, yet slightly ruffled. I sighed in relief and started to turn away.

That was when I saw my eyes.

A vivid, terrifying burgundy color had replaced the blue-green eyes that had once belonged to my mother. It was horrible to look into those eyes…

My eyes.

~~~()~~~()~~~()~~~

For many days I lived in the small cave miles from London. I couldn’t leave it for anything, not even food, for fear that I would attack some passerby on the road, or worse, head into town, attack someone from my past.

I couldn’t sleep, either. I hadn’t slept once since the night before the hunt. When darkness fell, I wanted to close my eyes, and let this nightmare pass me by, and never see it again.  But no matter how I relaxed, or thought of ways to send myself to sleep, did sleep ever come. And so I sat, day and night. I had already tried to jump from the cliffs in the countryside, but to no avail had I managed that single leap, and fallen into the void that would take me away from here.

~~~()~~~()~~~()~~~

One day, I sat among the rocks that had become my home, and watched a herd to deer pass me by. Their blood didn’t smell as sweet to me as a human’s blood, but there was something in the way it called to me, made me stand and give chase.

I leapt upon one that had slowed, staring almost in fear at the fact that a human could run like the wolves surrounding these hills. I sunk my teeth into it’s neck before it even fell, and a revelation came to me.

Maybe I didn’t need to be a monster.

After all, I had eaten venison as a human before, right?

After I finished the deer, I buried the carcass in the cave I had once inhabited, turned, and walked toward the east.

First, I would swim across the English Channel to Europe. After that, I would begin anew. After all, I had eternity.