Death is Only the Beginning: A Guide to Vampirism

Prologue: Death is Only the Beginning

Death calls and I must heed

Who could do such a dreadful deed?

Stolen from me

Life so unkind

Choices denied

Your promises are lies

Death calls and I must go

Though I wish it wasn't so.

I died on Friday the thirteenth.

That right there tells you just the kind of luck I have.

As klutzy as I am...er... was... I always kind of thought I'd win a Darwin Award when I died, not die by a case of mistaken identity. It's one of those freakish cases of being in the 'wrong place at the wrong time' type of things, I guess.

And to add a little salt to the wound, I'm also grounded for the rest of the month. I tried to convince my mom that being turned into one of the legion of undead was punishment enough for breaking curfew, but she won't budge. Her warped logic goes that if I hadn't been out at the club past midnight (perfectly legal, I swear) when I was supposed to be tucked in bed safe at home, I never would have been bitten.

End of argument.

I hate it when she is right... I really do.

So now, I'm stuck in my room for the third night in a row during prime vamp time, writing bad poetry. Really bad poetry. Being an English teacher, Mom also thinks that writing out my frustrations will be therapeutic, so here I am writing. Though what WOULD be more therapeutic would be to hunt down the jerk who bit me and stake him. Or at least yell at him a lot, maybe pull out all the swear words I know.

It might not bring me back to life, but I'd sure feel better.

Fine. Fine. He thought he was biting his girlfriend who happened to be wearing the same thing I was (never understood why people hated that so much, but now I do...), and who had the same, slightly longer than shoulder-length hair. Okay, I understand that dancing in the dark with flashing lights can be a little disorienting and how it can be easy to confuse one person for another. But what the heck was he thinking biting ANYONE out in public like that?

Oh man, that night was terrifying. The worst night EVER! After finally convincing me to 'live a little' and to 'stop being such a baby' by breaking curfew and tagging along with her to her favorite club, my friend Angela had gone off to dance with some guy and left me in the middle of the dance floor. It wasn't a big deal - after all, I knew the reason she was there was to hook up with a new guy.

I mean, somewhere deep down on the subconscious level, I must have known.

Way down deep...

So I danced alone. And tried not to look as foolish and pathetic as I felt.

As crowded as the place was, I didn't notice anyone coming up behind me until he was practically pressed against me. He danced behind me, and since I was feeling a bit depressed over being abandoned by my friend, I let him.

I know, not my brightest move. Stranger danger and all that, I get it.

Then I felt him put his mouth on my skin. I know I should have screamed or pushed him away or something. But wounded egos make a person do some really stupid things. So again, I let him.

Then I felt his teeth.I tried to scream after he sunk his pointy teeth into my shoulder, but he covered my mouth with his hand almost as soon as I inhaled.

Later, I found out he abducted me from the club because he was petrified that he was going to get into trouble with the Undead Police with me screaming bloody murder in the middle of such a crowded place.

Okay, so maybe they weren't really called the Undead Police. He might have called them something else; I wasn't really paying attention since at the time since I was writhing in agony in the alley as his vampire blood burned its way through my system.

He also explained, in a rather whiny voice as he bounced from foot to foot, that had I not bit his hand and drew his blood, I wouldn't have been turned. An exchange of blood had to be made for a transformation to take place.

Very nice.

Blame this all on me. How was I supposed to know that?

Sheesh.

He ruined my favorite dress (I never found the bag that went with it), he ruined my life (making me seventeen years old for a bazillion centuries), and the jerk blames ME! I'll still be fighting acne when the sun finally burns the Earth to a crisp.

Puberty for eons?

Just kill me now. Take a stake, douse it in holy water, and kill me.

The jerk had the nerve to mumble out one last sad excuse of an apology right before I blacked out. I honestly have no earthly idea how I got home. Maybe Angela found me and took me home. Maybe the vampire did it out of guilt.

Who knows, maybe I turned into a bat and flew home on my own.

So now I'm stuck spending eternity in darkness with nothing to do (since no way, no way no how am I going to go out biting people and sucking out their blood like a wood tick, ewww) but write bad poetry and mourn the passing of my all too short existence.

Let's see now... what rhymes with 'heartless blood-sucker'...?