It was dark and she rushed through the empty streets. She was paranoid about the people hidden in the shadows. Yes people, she knew what was there. She knew who would be coming for her. She knew what remained hidden. Just thinking about them had her heart racing. She knew they could hear it. The sound made them lick their lips and grin. She took a deep breath and sped up her pace. Each footstep was as loud as a bass drum.

Please, please, please not tonight, she thought. She chanted it like a mantra as her pace sped even more. Her feet pounded on the pavement and soon she was sprinting. Sprinting for home, sprinting for shelter, sprinting for light.

She could hear them now. Their laughter, their breathing. She could hear them stalking her like prey, and to them she was. Suddenly there was a blur and something was in front of her. She stopped and stumbled back a step but someone was behind her too. She screeched and spun on her heel and took off to the side. That was a mistake. She almost ran into a wall but she managed to stop in time. Crap. An alleyway.

Their laughter echoed around her. It chilled her to the bones and she shuddered. The shadows closed in on her. She saw the flash of crimson eyes that reflected light like a cat’s. Fangs snapped together in eagerness. She knew she was going to die. She was going to be ripped to shreds by the monsters.

She backed up until her back hit the brick wall. The shadows got closer and closer and soon they were more than shadows. They were bodies of monsters, cold-blooded killers. Their skin was whiter than death and their eyes redder than blood. They watched her with the cold cunning of a killer and the wild ferocity of a predator.

“Please,” she breathed. “Please let me live.”

Their laughter intensified and then they attacked. They came from all angles, tearing her skin and shredding her clothes. Lapping up her blood from her skin and sinking their fangs in to get it directly from the veins. She wanted to fight back but with her strength bled away with her blood. Her hand twitched and her eyes fluttered but she lost the will to fight. She sank into the numbness of what she hoped was death.

The next time she opened her eyes they were blood red, and she had a hunger of her own.