Chapter1
1369 Words
Nyxara’s POV
My name is Nyxara. For eighteen years, I lived like a prisoner inside a small house at the edge of the village where my mother kept me hidden from the world.
I had never been allowed to make friends. Never attended festivals and never played with children my age. While other girls laughed and ran through the village streets, I watched from my bedroom window alone.
My mother never explained why.
I learned how to move like a shadow in my own house so my mother would not look at me the way she looked at most things she disliked.
She never laughed with me and anytime I asked, she would tell me to mind my business.
The only place she let me go was the woods behind our house every day.
The strange part? Nobody else was allowed to go there, because they said monsters lived there and people disappeared.
Yet my mother always sent me there alone.
One day I finally asked why. “Why do you keep sending me into the woods alone?”
My mother’s hands froze over the vegetables she was cutting. Slowly she lifted her head, her eyes were cold. “Because you’re the only one who’ll come back.”
A chill crawled down my spine. I laughed nervously but she didn’t.
“Stop asking questions, Nyxara.” She said, and that was the end of the conversation like always.
I looked down at the silver bracelet on my wrist. I had worn it for as long as I could remember. My mother never allowed me to remove it.
“If you value your life, never take that bracelet off,” she had warned.
I never dared disobey.
Sometimes I wondered if she even loved me. She never hugged me, never smiled at me, and most days she barely looked at me.
Whenever I asked about my father, things became even worse.
“Where is my father?”
Silence.
“Is he dead or did he leave us?”
Her chair scraped against the floor.“Never ask me about him again.”
That was all she would say. Still, I had caught her crying sometimes late at night in her bedroom. The sound always broke my heart, but every time I asked what was wrong, she pushed me away.
Then everything changed. One morning she walked into the kitchen holding a letter. For once, her face showed something other than anger.
“What’s that?” I asked.
She placed it in front of me, and I stared at the seal and my breath caught.
University.
My hands trembled as I opened it. I had been accepted. I read the letter three times, to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
“I’m going to university?”
“Yes.”
I looked up and my mother nodded once and nothing more, no smile, no congratulations. Still, excitement exploded inside me.
Finally, freedom after eighteen years. I practically ran out of the house. The wood called to me like it always did. The trees swayed gently overhead as I followed the familiar path.
Sunlight shone through the branches, and everything felt perfect until I heard a growl.
I stopped walking and the sound came again, closer this time.
A massive bear stepped from behind the trees.
My heart nearly stopped. The creature faced me, its black eyes locked on mine, for a second neither of us moved.
Then it charged.
“Run!” But my body refused.
The bear ran toward me, its claws tore through the dirt. I couldn’t breathe or think.
Then something shifted in me as if it had been waiting for this moment.
First it was hunger, raw and deep, it hit like a tsunami, and it scrubbed all other feelings out of my brain. My vision sharpened. The bear’s heartbeat became loud, the silver bracelet on my wrist had become hot and the hair on my wrist pricked
Then my body moved before my mind could stop it, so I ran at the bear.
What happened next did not feel like me. My hands found fur and flesh and I tore it with strength. The bear fought back, clawed, roared but whatever had taken over did not feel pain, except the hunger and the hunt and the absolute need to end it.
When it was over, I was kneeling on the forest floor, breathing hard, blood on my hands and the bear still beneath them.
The hunger retreated as quickly as it had come.
I looked down at what I had done and my stomach lurched violently.
“What am I?”
The world tilted and darkness swallowed me.
When I opened my eyes again, the sun was setting. My mother knelt beside me, relief flashed across her face then vanished immediately.
“Mom.” My voice cracked.“The bear.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
I quickly explained everything. The attack, the force and the glowing eyes.
When I finished she remained silent, not surprised or shocked.
She just stood. “Come home.”
“What?”
“You need to sleep.”
“Mom, did you hear what I just said?”
She stopped at the doorway. For a moment her shoulders tensed. Then she spoke quietly. “Do not tell anyone.”
“Why?” A cold feeling settled in my chest.
She walked away, leaving me without an answer.
The next morning, I left for university.
I stood at the massive entrance gate of Hawthorne University with my luggage beside me.
Students filled every corner. Laughing, talking and living. Everything I had missed for eighteen years.
I took a deep breath.
This was my chance and a new beginning. I smiled and then stepped inside. I followed the map in my hand and sighed.
This place was huge, every building looked the same and every road seemed to lead somewhere else.
I had already asked three students for directions and none of them stopped or cared.
“It’s like everyone minds their own business here,” I muttered.
The evening sky darkened above me. I turned another corner, then I heard fast footsteps.
Someone was running.
I looked up.
A man stumbled out from between two buildings. He was breathing heavily, his clothes looked torn, and his head remained lowered.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
No answer.
“Sir?” I took a cautious step forward but still nothing.
“Do you need help?”
Slowly the man lifted his head and I froze.
His eyes glowed red like a burning coal. Fear crawled up my spine.
Before I could react, dark veins spread across his face. His mouth opened and I saw sharp fangs.
“What…?” My breath caught.
The man smiled horribly. My legs refused to move because I had never seen anything like this before.
Then he took a step closer.
“You…” The word barely escaped my lips.
He vanished and my eyes widened. A gust of wind slammed into me and suddenly he was standing right in front of me.
Impossible.
His fingers wrapped around my throat.
I gasped.
He lowered his face towards my neck, his fangs about to dig into my neck.
Panic exploded inside me.
“No! Please!”
I screamed, something inside me shattered, and power burst from my bracelet. BOOM!
The man flew backwards, his body smashed on a nearby window. Glass exploded everywhere. The bracelet glowed violently as my whole body tensed up. I stumbled backwards, and my entire body trembled.
“What is happening?” I turned towards the shattered window. The man slowly stood up, for the first time he looked afraid, and his eyes widened. “Impossible,” he whispered.
I stared at him, and he took another step back with fear. “No,” his voice trembled. “Who are you?”
Before I could talk he disappeared with a fast speed, I barely saw him. Footsteps echoed nearby, students coming my way. The bracelet died down and my knees buckled.
Everything became blurry. The last thing I saw was my reflection. Red eyes burning like hellfire.
Then darkness swallowed me whole.
- Writer
