She Danced under the Stars ✔

7

My eyes flutter open. My field of vision is full of static, I can just make out a treetop against the night sky. I sit up and grope for my knife in the grass. I think I can hear Lily's voice in the distance. Is she still on the path?

I stand up with difficulty. I didn't find my knife but it was a foregone conclusion. My eyes sweep the lawn, and they fall on the figure who's sitting really close to me. I gasp.

'OK, listen, I never played the heroine,' I stammer. 'It's definitely not my intention. I'm a dancer. I'd really like you to give me my knife back. I have to find my friend . . . And go home. My father's going to freak out. He's going to call the cops.'

The figure doesn't answer. It slowly rises. I try hard to swallow the lump in my throat. Only the brooch holding the cloak of my assailant together sparkles in the darkness. It's a silver mask; the tragedy mask. A loose fold of his cloak allows me to catch a glimpse of his midnight blue frilly shirt. Then I glimpse his black velvet pants and his black leather boots with silver laces.

Even if his clothes are pretty puzzling, his face is such a shock to me that it blows everything else away: a ghostly-pale face with delicate features, almost aristocratic. His skin is smooth and pure as chalk and you can make out a network of bluish veins just beneath the surface. When he smiles at me, two very sharp fangs stick out of his mouth.

His grey, steely eyes pierce me to the core. He pulls his hood back. His long, deep purple hair cascades down his shoulder on one side.

I am struck dumb, hardly breathing. What am I supposed to do now? Deluding myself is useless: he won't give me my knife back. It's very likely that he won't let me go either. I take a step towards the path but my body freezes.

That's when I hear his voice in the silence. 'I'll take you out for a dance. Our ball takes place beyond the looking-glass. Where little girls are never scared. Where flowers don't wither. Where the ugliness of life fears the beauty of death.'

Petrified, I can't think of an answer. He sneaks up to me. I am unable to leave, it's like someone poured lead into my limbs. He takes my wrist and raises it to his face. I can feel his tongue running over the back of my hand. I shudder. I can tell from the prickle on my saliva-heated skin that he's just licked a fresh cut. 'But . . . But what are you . . .' I stammer helplessly.

Why don't I even dare to pull my hand away?

'That scent of copper and sour cherry,' he whispers. 'You both gave it off. I smelled it in the air.'

I stare wide-eyed at him. 'What? Blood? That's how you managed to trail us? But – we hardly grazed ourselves!'

He smiles again. 'I'm called Nathaniel. I'm a vampire.'

Before I could keep him at a reasonable distance, he pounces on me. His cold fingers clutch my neck and tilt it aside sharply. I try to wrench myself from his grip but it's too late. A moan escapes from my throat, as the iron fingertips sink into it.

Then the whole universe falls apart. Heaven and Earth merge at the skyline. The stars seem like the tears of the firmament to me, a shower of flickering tears upon the grass before my eyes. The lawn is covered with will-o'-the-wisps. I don't recognize anything now. I don't know who I am, where I am, what is happening. Colors swirl all together; some heavy bells are tolling in my head.

And above all, there's that numbness in the hollow of my neck. It hurts, but it feels good . . . Everything is throbbing around me. The atmosphere is singing, the lights are fading and the skies are weeping.

God it's so good, but it hurts so much . . . Please don't let this end.

Why do I have to reach ecstasy while I feel a trickle of something running down my chest into the low neckline of my tank top? Don't let go of me, please don't let go . . . Take the whole of me. Take me harder.

Slowly, very slowly, I raise my hand to my throat. My fingers meet his head and creep in his twilight-colored hair. I clasp him to my breast. My other hand scratches the dirt through the grass. I let out a moan. Is there still any crumb of fear left inside me? I can't feel it anymore.

All of a sudden, Heaven and Earth split. The shock is violent. Something shook my carcass and pinned me to the ground. Gravity.

The delightful torpor I was lost in has died. I become aware of the real world again: the paths behind the apartment complex, Lily who's missing, the sharp thing in my neck vein that's slowly pulling out. The trickle of something is running between my breasts. My tank top feels warm.

I collapse on the lawn.