I froze in place, unable to move as my heart beat wildly in my chest. It wasn’t the stranger’s tall and muscular frame that had me frozen, nor his incredible inhuman beauty. It wasn’t even his pale white skin that sparkled like a diamond as he stood by the window that had me glued in place. No, it was his piercing blood-red eyes. All I could think was, Oh my God, oh my God, I’m gunna die, Lord save me please, I’m gunna die! On a somewhat brighter note, the vibrancy of his eye color at least meant that he wasn’t hungry. Not that that thought brought me much comfort really. I’m sure my racing blood didn’t do anything to help.

He chuckled darkly at my apparent fear. I’m sure he would have been able to smell the adrenaline pumping through my veins from a few miles away. He took a graceful yet menacing step towards me, and I stumbled backwards, somewhat regaining the use of my legs. “Ah, but you should know that is useless,” he said in a smooth baritone voice, a large grin adorning his perfect face. And he was right. I did know, but that didn’t stop me from instinctively backing out of the room anyway. Damn it! If vampires had to be real why couldn’t I have the fortune of running into a good one?! Life’s so not fair… He continued to advance slowly upon me, and I backed up into a wall, trapping myself. He placed his hands on the wall on either side of me and leaned down closer towards my face. “What’s your name, girl?” he asked, his sweet breath hitting me dead in the face and overpowering me.

“K-K-Kathrin,” I stuttered, deep brown eyes locked onto his red ones. “Kathrin Smith.”

“Well, Kathrin, you are quite the lucky one today. As you can see I’ve already fed quite recently, so you don’t have to worry about me drinking from you.”

This both surprised and confused me, but it did absolutely nothing to alleviate any of the fear I still felt. “W-What do you want then?” I asked, my voice just barely above a whisper.

He chuckled again, the musical sound only serving to further unravel my nerves. “What do I want? Call it ‘fun’ if you will.” My jaw dropped and my eyes grew wider, if possible. “See, I don’t think that there are nearly as many of us out there as there should be. Especially with the Volturi killing off anyone who even makes one mistake.” He paused to evaluate my expression, and as if he knew what I was thinking said, “No, not the Volturi from those silly books that are in your room. The real Volturi are much more ruthless. Now, come with me.”

As if I really had a choice in the matter. He covered my mouth with one hand, and picked me up as easily as if I had been a sheet of tissue paper with the other. I have no idea how, but he somehow managed to open up the front door while still carrying me. Then we were off.

Vampire speed was much faster than I had inferred from the books. We passed through the county so fast that I doubt anyone saw us even in broad daylight as it was. I had to close my eyes to keep from becoming ill. Keeping them open would have been pointless anyway, because I still would have had no idea where we were or where we were headed. When we eventually stopped, I opened my eyes slowly and saw that we were in what appeared to be a swamp. In front of us was a small and seemingly empty shack. It didn’t seem like there were any people around us for miles. Joy. As he set me down, a very good question popped into my head. “What is a vampire doing living in Florida?” I asked meekly as he steered me towards the shack. “I mean, I know its hurricane season and all, but it doesn’t rain THAT often…”

He laughed openly at this. “Simple enough problem to fix. I just hunt at night. Besides, with all of the old people living here, it’s easy enough to pick off prey without them being missed much.” I shuddered at this before he forcefully shoved me into the shack. Once we were in, he closed the door behind him and pressed me up against the wall. My heart rate picked up once more and my breathing grew ragged as I felt his breath on my throat. “Welcome to the world of the undead.”

I screamed as his teeth pierced my flesh.