(The vampire duology pt 1) The undead romance

Chapter 2.1 :- Mud and blood

Trying to forget was easier said than done. All week long, I'd been telling myself that the whole thing was just a fever dream, the kind you wake up from with your sheets twisted around you and a nagging sense that reality's taken a brief holiday. Josh had given me David's contact number for the project, but it sat in my inbox, unopened and ignored, like a particularly persistent fly that somehow knows exactly where your face is at all times. After all, I reasoned, there was no rush to call him. Not until the team had finished the rough sketches.

Besides, there were far more important things to worry about than some... incident that definitely, absolutely didn't happen.

This project was huge. Not only was it my first time as a team leader, but it was also the biggest gig I'd ever taken on. I was in charge of branding the new hotel, guiding the interior designers, artists, and marketing teams like some kind of creative ringmaster. The old mansion was going to be the crown jewel of Ravensbrook—or at least, that was the plan.

Ravensbrook. A town that had once been as lively as a brass band at a festival, now reduced to the quiet hum of a single kazoo. The buildings were over 300 years old, and the systems were even older, held together by the architectural equivalent of string and good intentions. The hotel was supposed to change all that, breathe new life into the place. It wasn't just a hotel; it was going to be a tourist attraction, the kind of place people would come from miles around just to see. So really, David was the least of my worries.

By Wednesday, I was the last one left in the office, as usual. The clock read 8 o'clock, and the darkness outside had crept up and swallowed the world whole. Raindrops slid down the window like some sort of melancholic countdown timer.

"Fuck," I muttered, realizing I was about to turn my brand-new white sneakers into a muddy disaster.
Mud and winter in an old suburban town-like a pair of con artists, you never found one without the other. I glared down at my sneakers, already mourning their pristine condition. It was only a ten-minute walk home, but it might as well have been a trek through a bog. Maybe I should have listened to Matheo and bought Mr Kevin's old, rusting car. Then again, if I hadn't stayed late at the office, I wouldn't be in this mess. But hindsight, as they say, is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

I cursed under my breath as I sloshed through the muddy streets. The town was deserted, save for a few faintly glowing windows that reminded me just how dark everything else was. The full moon hung in the sky, making everything look just a little too much like the setting of a particularly grim fairy tale. On nights like these, I found myself wondering about the lives behind those windows.

Did they feel less lonely than I did? Had they found love? Happiness? Maybe they had just found a better brand of tea than I had. Anything seemed possible in the privacy of someone else's life.

And then I heard it-a moan coming from down an alley. I froze. It was the kind of noise that immediately set off mental alarms yelling, "Danger! Run!
Or at least hide!" But I was never one for listening to good advice, especially not from myself. It's probably just a couple, I thought, the kind of overly enthusiastic teenagers who hadn't yet learned the value of discretion. But the moan came again, louder this time, and definitely not the sort of sound you associate with a good time.

Curiosity, as they say, killed the cat.
And I was very much aware that it was currently leading me down a dark alley. The darkness pressed in around me as I switched on my phone's flashlight, the little beam of light doing a rather poor job of making me feel safer. What the hell am I doing? I thought, but my legs kept moving anyway.

As I approached, the light revealed a man lying on the ground. At first glance, he looked like he might have been a particularly determined mud enthusiast. But then the details started to come into focus, and I realized the mud was blood, and I was standing in it.

"Oh, shit," I hissed, fumbling for my phone to call 911. But before I could dial, the man's eyes flicked open.
"Please... don't call the police," he said, managing a grin through the blood on his face.

My phone slipped from my fingers in fright. He was supposed to be dead!
Dead people didn't talk-or at least, they shouldn't. My heart hammered in my chest as I bent down to retrieve the phone, but before I could grab it, his hand shot out and gripped mine like a vice.

"Please, call my sister. She'll know what to do. But no cops..." he rasped, his tone a peculiar mix of desperate and authoritative. And then, with all the gravity of a school principal who'd just caught you stealing chalk, he added, "That's an order."

I blinked at him, momentarily dumbfounded. He was in no position to be giving orders, and I was in no mood to take them. I yanked my hand free, picked up the phone, and shone the light directly on his face.

"Listen here, you fucker," | snapped.
"I don't know what kind of trouble you've gotten yourself into, and I don't care. But l'm not letting you die just so you can keep your secrets. So shut the hell up while I call an ambulance, and then I'm calling the bloody police. And if you try to order me around again, I'll make sure you lose more than just blood tonight, got it?"

Before I could even start dialing, the man surged up from the ground with a speed that was, well, unnatural !
He pinned me to the wall with a force that left me breathless, his eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made my knees wobble.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, I berated myself. This was how people ended up on the evening news, as tragic stories narrated by overly somber reporters. I wanted to say something
-anything-but the words caught in my throat.

"Please, Anne, I beg you..." he managed to say, and then, just as quickly as he'd sprung up, his body gave out. He collapsed against me, unconscious, leaving me pinned against the wall by his dead weight.

Well, that's just bloody fantastic

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