Crawford, Oregon

Chapter One: My So-Called (Undead) Life

I've been on this earth for over a hundred and fifty years, and I still don't understand teenagers. I didn't get them in the nineteenth century. I didn't get them in the twentieth century. And now that I'm in the twenty-first, I'm more confused than I've ever been. Honestly, I don't know what goes on in these kids' heads. It seems like all they ever think about is sex, food, and technology. Not that there's anything wrong with those things, because there isn't. I just don't think that they should occupy a person's thoughts every second of the day. There's a lot more to life than that. I should know, I've been alive for a very long time.

Well, not 'alive' per say. More like alive adjacent. I used to be alive. I was alive for twenty-seven years, as a matter of fact. And I enjoyed it. I liked the sound of crunching leaves beneath my feet in autumn. I liked the taste of hot tea on a snowy winter's morning. But, most of all, I liked the feeling of the warm summer sun against my skin. Those are the things that I miss the most. The little pleasures of life that people never think about until they're gone. I know I certainly never gave them much thought. But, ever since my accident, I just can't seem to get them off my mind.

Although, I use the word 'accident' liberally. Because, if I'm being honest, it wasn't an accident at all. No, it was an attack. A vampire attack. Now, believe me, I know how crazy that sounds. And I wouldn't blame you for being skeptical. For the longest time, I thought that vampires were just a myth. Something that parents told their children in order to keep them inside at night. But, when I saw three pale men with razor-sharp fangs trying to hurt my little sister, I became a believer.

I'll never forget that horrible night. Abigail and I were supposed to go to the local assembly hall together. And, since my sister was barely seventeen, our parents insisted that I walk her there. Unfortunately, she was a typical impatient teenager and went on without me. I tried to catch up to her as quickly as I could. But, when I arrived at the assembly hall and found her nowhere in sight, I got worried. So, I combed through the cobblestone streets, desperately calling out to her all the while. However, when I heard a shrill, ear-piercing scream shoot through the night air, my heart sank like a stone.

I sprinted through the streets and turned down a dark alleyway between two shops, only to find Abigail pinned to a wall with three menacing men surrounding her. Their eyes all donned the same crazy bloodlust as they prepared to dig their sharp teeth into her neck. Abigail tried to break away from them, but they were far too strong. All she could do was scream at the top of her lungs and pray that someone would hear her terrified cries. And, as fate would have it, that someone just happened to be her overprotective older brother.

Despite being so scared that I almost peed myself, I ran up to this group of vampires and started swinging. I threw punch after furious punch until I finally separated them from my sister. Once she was free, I told her to run away as fast as she could, which she did. And, while I would've loved to follow her lead, I never got the chance.

The three vampires attacked me all at once. They pinned me to the ground and pierced my skin with their long, sharp fangs. I tried my best to throw them off of me. But, no matter how hard I struggled, their grip never wavered. The three of them bit, chewed, and gnawed for what felt like an eternity. All the while, my body grew weaker and my head grew lighter as they drained pint after pint of my blood.

Unfortunately, that was the least of my worries. As the world became fuzzy and I began to slip into unconsciousness, I watched one of the vampires cut himself on the wrist. Then, ever so slightly, he leaned forward and dripped his own polluted blood into my mouth. I didn't know what that meant at the time. I just thought that he was having a little bit of fun before he and his friends finally killed me. But, if I'd known then what he was really doing, I probably would've preferred death.