• It was cold, so cold. Why was it so cold?
    Now everything was hot and on fire. Where had she seen this before?
    That flaming shed...why was it so familiar?
    There was a man walking towards her. He had red hair down to his knees, pale skin, and narrow gold eyes. He was tall, and his smile was as dark as his skin was pale. He opened his mouth, hissing something she could not hear. Her gaze was locked on his face.
    He had fangs. Long, sharp fangs. And his eyes were fixed on her.
    She could smell ash and smoke, and she gagged. The vampire was approaching at astonishing speed. He was gracefully dodging everything that fell towards him, shoving anything aside anything in his way.
    Transfixed by his speed and his grace, she couldn’t move at all. Part of a flaming building fell towards her, but, transfixed by the vampire, she didn't notice.
    Then the flaming wall slammed into her and she screamed. Her knees buckled and her clothes caught fire. Trapped beneath the flaming wall, everything blurred. Either the flames would kill her, or the vampire would.
    She didn’t care. Everyone else in the village was dead, so what point was there in living? Burning to death or being bled dry, it all ended the same way. She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek on the hot cobblestones beneath her. It all ended in death.
    She vaguely felt the burning wall being pulled away from her, and then the vampire dragged her roughly to her feet, beating the flames out quickly. ‘You idiot.’ He hissed roughly as lifting her from the ground. She leant her head against his chest, hot tears scolding her face. Her clothes were no more than rags that clung to her skin; everything went black as the vampire carried her gracefully out of the flaming village and into the snowy forest beyond.