Undead

prologue

Nights were always peaceful for me. When the world is fast asleep, my mind is racing a million miles a minute. I can never settle on one thought for long, instead it drifts this way and that with so many ideas that it would make anybody else's head spin.

The roof of my house is very comfortable on nights like this. The crickets chirping, the frogs voicing their opinions, it was enough to relax me-if only for a short period of time. I was tempted to smoke a cigarette, but I knew my foster mom would never let me hear the end of it if she smelled the nicotine on my breath.

I turned my head to my left and gazed down the street, and I saw something I've never seen before. My neighborhood was rather wealthy and fancy, and we never really experienced any trouble in the twelve years I've lived with my foster parents. No one was ever out at night, not like I was. But I saw a dark figure; it almost blended in with the black street and the dark star-speckled sky. But it was a person and they were walking quickly, almost running. Were they running to something or from something?

The person was only about two houses down, and I decided to investigate. I hopped down from my second-story roof, barefoot and let out a breath of anxiousness. I'd jumped down from my roof many times before, but each time was no easier than the last. But that didn't matter to me; I had to figure out who this person was.

I followed the figure, and I realized they were much shorter as I got closer to them. "Hey!" I called after them. I couldn't tell if it was a male or female, but I followed them anyway. "Hey, wait!"

To my surprise, the person stopped and turned around. I had to do a double take to make sure I was seeing things clearly. The person's eyes were shining a golden color, their face hidden by the thick black hood of their jacket. "Are you following me?"

The voice belonged to a female, but there was an edge to it. "Um," I stammered. "No, I-I saw you. Who are you?"

"Does it matter?" she asked curtly. "You're a child, go back to bed."

She kept walking, and I followed. I almost stepped on the back of her heels. "Why are you in my neighborhood?"

"I got stuff to do," she mumbled, uninterested in furthering this conversation. "Go back home."

I was intrigued by many things: her all-black attire, her golden eyes, and why she was lurking in my neighborhood to begin with. I'd never seen her before. "Where are you going? Why are you in my neighborhood?"

These questions caused her to spin around on the balls of her feet, and her golden eyes turned to tiny slits as she glared at me. "I don't have to answer to some kid. I said go home."

"No," I defied. I crossed my arms over my chest to show I meant business. "Not until you tell me who you are."

She scoffed and turned back around, continuing her journey to God knows where. I followed right on her heels like I promised I would, and she acted as if I didn't exist until she said, "Then I guess you're coming with me."

I didn't say anything else after that. She made it clear that she didn't want to be bothered, but I wasn't going to let her off the hook that easy. One way or another I'd get the answers I needed. At the back my neighborhood, between two houses, was a small forest that I always explored when I was bored. She snuck between the two homes, and I followed, only I wasn't so light on my feet. I tripped over a water hose and fell flat on my face, and she scolded me by snatching me to my feet by the back of my shirt. "Didn't your mom ever tell you not to talk to strangers?"

I was frozen in my spot, her eyes boring into mine. "Yeah, but-"

"But nothing, go home!" She let me go and shoved me away, and her pace quickened into the woods beyond the neighborhood. I could only go so fast because I was barefoot, and I mentally scolded myself for being so careless. She stopped short, and I collided into her back before I could stop myself. "You really want to know who I am?"

She faced away from me and it was hard for me to hear her over the breeze that picked up around us. "Yes."

The moment of truth; she turned to face me and removed her hood for me to see. Pale skin, high cheekbones, and those golden eyes that shimmered under the moonlight, even through the shadow cast down on her face from her hood. But that's not what set me off. Fangs. Two perfectly pointed canines shined from her lips as she smiled, but it was more of an I-told-you-so look. Before I could scream for help, she was behind me and clamped her palm over my mouth. "Poor kid. Don't say I didn't warn you."