When Life Gives You Lemons, Look for the Exit

Prologue

When Life Gives You Lemons, Look for the Nearest Exit

Prologue

                Her blood was in my hands, oh god it was all I could smell. My mind was screaming at me that I needed to leave, I did not have time for this if I was going to survive. There were others I could smell but the only heartbeat I could still faintly hear was hers, and it was fading fast. She was not going to make it, I knew that. Large gashes covered her abdomen, I could smell animal, but I did not know what kind; it was not any that was recognizable to me.

                A mile off I heard the loud stomping of men through the woods, I glanced back still holding her to see slight glimpses of flashlights. Oh man, my heart was ready to jump right out of my chest. But I could not just leave her, I pushed back the black hair off my forehead and took a deep breath of the chilly night air. Okay, everything is fine, they never taught this to me, we never got that far but I’ve seen movies, that should be enough, right?

                At this point I didn’t have a choice, so I let my fangs descend, they were still incredibly uncomfortable to me, but they said I’d get used to it with time. I guess so would she if this worked, I dropped my face to her neck and broke the skin with my teeth letting just enough blood in for some to fill my mouth and I pulled away. My vision swayed slightly with the euphoria of her blood, ignoring it I ripped at my arm until blood started pouring and placed it over her mouth, half praying it would save her life, the other half thinking maybe being dead would be more preferable. Because it has not treated me kindly thus far.

                Sure, enough the stomping was getting closer now, I could hear them calling for me, looking for me. With no time to lose, and hoping this was enough I put my arms underneath hers and dragged her to a darker spot that wasn’t directly in front of her house, franticly digging dirt with my nails and throwing it on top of her; leaves and all. I froze as I could see the group of men entering the circle of light coming from the porch.

“Oh, heaven have mercy, what the hell happened here!” A large, bellied man with a thick beard exclaimed. I could hear someone vomiting in presumably some bushes.

“Do you think the bloodsucker did this?” A visibly younger blonde man asked.  The older, larger man sighed rubbing his face with his hand.

“No son, not sure what or who did this, but it wouldn’t have been the vamp, he would’ve needed more time for something like this and all the blood’s still here.” He stared off into the forest.

“Hey, Tim! Put your big boy pants on and go see if anyone’s alive in the house.” Stumbling out of the bushes behind them, assuming it was Tim, wiped at his mouth with his hand, nodded, and started towards the house climbing up the porch steps to the front door.

                The two men walked over to the bodies of a man and a woman lying on the ground, sharing the same wounds as the girl I’ve now almost fully covered with dirt and leaves. As they were fishing around in the pockets of both their jeans Tim came back outside and immediately emptied the contents of his stomach over the side railing.

“Jesus Tim could you get your s**t together, what’d you find?” Blondie shouted, Tim shook his head and wiped his mouth again, visibly shaking.

“Whatever did this, murdered a kid not even over the age of 5.” Tim shouted back, “It’s awful in there, what they did to that kid.”

                I looked over to the girls face half-covered in leaves, I immediately felt bad for her and this family, they were completely butchered. Her heart had already stopped beating, her pale skin was smooth, and her long black hair was almost like a halo around her head.

“And it couldn’t have been too long ago, the bodies are still warm.”  The older man said as I turned my head back to them. “Not much can be done now, who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky while we're looking for the bloodsucker, we’ll run into whatever monstrosity did this” He shook his head.

“Alright now, let’s get a move on we’re giving the vamp a head start.”

                A minute or two later I breathed a sigh of relief at their depart and sagged against the tree I was next to. Once my heart calmed down slightly and I could not hear footsteps anymore I went up the steps and into the house. It was one of those warm looking houses, you could tell had a lot of love put into it. I did not dare go upstairs, assuming that is where the child probably was, I looked around briefly before I found some paper and pen in the junk drawer of their kitchen.

                I wrote down everything I could think of without signing this letter in case she didn’t wake up and the police showed up to take care of the bodies. After I was finished, I went back outside and tucked it into the inside of her t-shirt, took one last long look at her, and ran back the way I had come.