Alone: My Cursed Fate

Red

*Vienna*

I quickly turn around in search of whatever is watching us, whatever just made that twig snap. The silhouette of a man emerges from the depths of the dark trees. He steps out into the moonlight, giving me a better look at his pale face and short blonde hair. Keeta takes a few steps backwards as he slowly approaches us.

"Hey, little wolfie. Wander off a little too far from home?", a voice softly speaks into my right ear, nearly brushing against my golden fur. Chills go up my spine. Keeta reacts instantly and jumps out of the way, growling at the newcomer. The second man is equally pale with shoulder-length, straight black hair. He is way too close for comfort. His eyes bore into my sole. Red eyes. They almost could be mistaken for black in the darkness of this forest, but with the small stream of moonlight breaking through the trees, I see the red tinge. Vampires.

Keeta, we need to get out of here. Like now.

I take a few more steps backwards, but back right into a tree. No... Another vampire. A high-pitched laugh tells me this third one is a woman. I am surrounded.

The one with the black hair appears to be the leader as the blonde one keeps looking to him for direction.

"I don't have much of an appetite for dog. How about you shift back for us", he says with a smile, the moonlight glinting off of his sharp fangs. Keeta only glares at him and continues to growl.

He looks up to the sky, "Awe, how fitting- a full moon. What a perfect night for a beautiful dinner."

Keeta tries to make an escape between the other two, but the blonde one swiftly kicks her down, knocking the wind out of her. Damn, these guys are strong. She jumps back up and snaps at him. "Nice try, little wolfie. I am happy to see you have a little fight in you. I like them feisty. Lucky for you, I like to play with my food". Keeta growls in response, only causing him to laugh. "Let's make a deal, we will give you a head start, and you can run as fast as your little legs can take you away from here. If you manage to get out of this forest before we catch you, we will let you go."

"Oh come on, Richard. I am hungry!", the lady whines. The leader gives her a warning look and she shuts up. Looking back at me, he says again in his creepy soft voice, "Go".

Keeta takes off in the direction of the road. She gracefully weaves through the trees, running faster than we have ever run before. Her paws pound against the soft snow with each step. Our bag is still slung around us, as we always have it while in wolf form. It is bulky and keeps snagging on branches, slowing us down. The vampires are nowhere in sight. Thats odd... I thought that vampires were supposed to be like super fast.

We run and run and run. It feels like we have been running forever and still no sign of them. There is a thinning of the trees ahead, I pray that it is the road and that I made it, assuming that he will honor his deal. I surge ahead and burst through the trees. Only to find that it is not in fact the road, it is just a clearing in the middle of this goddess-forsaken evil forest of hell. The three vampires are standing in the middle of the clearing as if they have been waiting for me there for hours.

Keeta, we are never going to outrun them.

I know, Vienna, I know. We will just have to fight.

If we don't get out of this alive, thank you for being the best wolf the last two months. I have truly been blessed with you, Keeta.

Thank you, you are the best human. Don't give up on me yet though. We have fighting skills. We can take them down!

The leader is just standing there with his arms crossed, smiling at me. He thinks that because I have stopped running that I must be giving up. He hasn't won just yet.

Without warning, Keeta jumps through the air and tackles the lady to the ground. Her claws dig into the woman's skin, but no blood spills. Keeta and the lady roll around in the dirt, fighting for dominance. Just as Keeta gains the upper hand and gets her teeth sunk into the lady's neck, the blonde man grabs hold of her hind leg and throws Keeta off of the woman. Keeta flies backwards into a tree, releasing a pained whimper with the impact. He was too late though. With the added force of him throwing Keeta while Keeta had her teeth sunk into the lady, we were able to rip open the lady vampire's neck, nearly decapitating her. Her lifeless body falls to the ground. One down, two to go.

Keeta stands up from her spot at the base of the tree. Her ribs ache from the impact and are probably broken. She takes a fighting stance and gets ready to fight off blondie. The leader still just stands there watching, but is looking very pissed off, likely because I just killed that b!tch.

Blondie makes a move to attack me, but I quickly dodge to the side and snap at him, making contact with his right thigh. He kicks me off, but I again snap at him. Just when I am about to get another attack in, I feel a sharp pain in Keeta's right shoulder. The pain spreads and feels like my flesh is burning. I stumble to the side and notice the leader smiling with blood dripping down the corner of his mouth- "I got bored. Couldn't stand to not be in on the fun.", he says with a sickening, bloody smile.

The burning sensation continues to spread. Another sharp pain pierces Keeta's back making her yelp in pain. Blondie licks his now bloody lips.

Vienna, the venom from their fangs. I don't- I don't think that I will be able to...

Her voice suddenly fades as Keeta's presence weakens in my mind. I shift back into my human form. I am left kneeling in the snow, naked with one arm trying to cover myself and the other on the ground for support. Blondie throws my backpack off to the side then grabs hold of my hair and yanks backwards, dragging me to his leader's feet. With the poison in my system, I am too weak to even try to fight.

He kneels down to me, "Well aren't you just a pretty little thing", he says as he runs his pointer finger down my cheek. I recoil from his touch which only makes him grab my arm and pull me closer to him. He brings my arm up to his face and inhales deeply, "Mmmm, you smell delicious", he says before biting down on my forearm. I weaken further as more vampire venom enters my system and I lose more blood.

A beeping sound interrupts him. He swiftly stands, "what is that? Damian go check it out." The blonde vampire, Damian must be his name, walks in the direction of the beeping. He picks up my backpack and rifles through it, pulling out my watch that I had stashed away when I shifted. 11:55. Thank goddess, I think. I just have to make it five more minutes.

"Just a watch, Richard."

"Good", he turns back towards me, "Now where were we?". He slowly runs his finger along my left hip, up my side, and grazes my left breast. His red eyes darken with lust. I want to vomit at his touch, but I am too weak to do anything more than flinch.

"You know, I rather like you little wolfie. I think I will keep you for awhile. I have a feeling we could have some great fun together.", he says with a sickening smile.

"But before our fun, I am rather hungry. You see, I haven't had a meal this divine in quite some time." He slowly starts to lick up my arm, lapping up some of the blood seeping from his previous bite, then continuing up to my shoulder. He gets to my neck, pauses and inhales deeply. I feel the sharp sting of his fangs sink into my neck.

As he drinks my blood, I stare blankly at the sky above me. The full moon is high in the sky, casting rays of moonlight down onto the clearing, highlighting the snow flakes falling softly around us. The stark white snow on the ground sparkles in the moonlight. My blood taints it, the red seeping into the snow around me. Red- what a pretty color. It truly is a beautiful night. What a shame it would be to die on a night like this, I think. The world slowly starts to blacken as I begin losing consciousness, fading into the recesses of my mind.