Midnight Rose

Chapter One The Magical Woods

I walked the familiar paths of the woods, smelling the rich cherry blossom laden breeze. Fallen petals littered the sides of the path, but an evident walkway was clear of them, as if there were some sort of invisible barrier kept them from being blown onto it.

A deer and her fawn ate grass on the tree line a little to my left. A smiled and walked towards them. They lifted their heads and met me halfway.

I'd always had an unexplainable connection with the animals in these woods; the strange friendliness they all displayed was part of why I like to think of this forest as enchanted, ridiculous as that might've been.

I stroked the deer's soft fur. Suddenly I felt a nudge on my thigh. The tiny fawn had butted me gently, looking for attention. I chuckled softly and bent down to pet it, too.

"I gotta go, little one." It was true. I could've stayed there all day petting them; they were adorable! However, it was almost dark and I had to be home before the sun went behind the horizon, but I had wanted to go for a walk before bed. Therefore, I gave the fawn's head one last scratch, stroked the deer a couple more times, and continued on.

As I got to the swimming lake where I spent most of my afternoons either swimming (obviously) or ice skating, I noticed with dismay that it was sunset. Mom would be ticked. So I immediately started speed walking back home.

However, I must've taken a wrong turn because I came to unfamiliar part of the woods, even through I could've sworn I'd explored every part of these woods. Looking around confusedly, I saw something familiar to my relief: a curtain of wisteria that was another entrance to the swimming lake. I started running now; mom was gonna kill me when I got home, and the longer I took, the worse it would be.

I parted the curtain and saw a strange man standing by the lake. This was weird; the woods stretched for miles around and as far as I knew, we were the only ones who lived around here. My parents would've told me otherwise.

He looked up in surprise. Suddenly all my instincts went haywire, telling me to get out of there as fast as I could. A sick, sadistic smile spread across his face.

"Well, aren't I lucky. I set up thousands of traps in woods around the world, and look who wanders in! Lucky me." He exclaimed, and then I knew he was a vampire. I didn't know how I knew, but I did.

Over a year ago, mom had brought me a newspaper from the outside world (she'd once again refused to let me go) that had announced that vampires had revealed their existence to the world. In issues that followed, I read about the slow stabilization of the Treaty of Northon Hill, which was apparently a famous underground vampire monument. The treaty basically said that all vampires had basic human rights, so long as they didn't kill us.

But, of course there were rogues that broke the treaty, which the government of both humans and vampires took care of as quickly as they appeared.

But that didn't do crap for me when I was standing in front of one. "Wh-who are you?" I asked shakily.

His sadistic grin spread. "For you, pretty girl, I am Death." And with that, he launched himself at me, using his trademark vampire speed. He slammed me against a tree and I winced in pain. I struggled against him, but he was unaffected. As if mocking me, he pinned my arms above my head against the tree, clamping one of his hands around my wrists. He laid his other forearm against my thighs so I couldn't kick him. "But first, let's have some fun." With his hand that had been blocking my thighs, he used his finger to trace an invisible line from my neck towards my breasts.

My struggles increased. Realizing my legs were free, I lifted my knee as quickly as I could and kneed him where it would incapacitate any human man. He cussed and clutched at it, and I tried to run. But before I could even get three steps, he had put me in a bodybind, crossing one of his legs in front of mine and one behind so I couldn't kick. I struggled and screamed, even though I knew my parents were too far away to hear me. Or anyone else, for that matter.