Bleeding Shadows

Chapter 1

It was a warm spring November evening in current day Australia where climate change was definitely making the days hotter.

I was walking back through the brightly lit park, on my way home from my best friend Leah's place. We'd been celebrating the end of our high school exams and hoping that we would get accepted into the same university.

"Hi Violet." Mrs Jenkins, the nice old lady that lived two blocks from me greeted me as strolled along walking her two gorgeous Labrador's. She was moving pretty fast for an older lady as she was pulled along by her dogs.

I gave her a wave back before continuing on my journey back home, it had been a busy few months with exams and I had to work in the morning. I groaned to myself at the thought, I just wanted to rest like any 18 year old.

I stopped further down the path when I heard what I thought was a muffled scream from off in the bushes. Now I'm not normally a brave person, but I would never leave someone in trouble.

When entered the scrub where the noise seemed to have come from it didn't take me long to find a man unconscious on the ground, blood still leaking out of the dual puncture marks on his neck.

I screamed for help to anyone that could hear me and then whipped out my phone to try and call an ambulance for the unconscious guy.

I heard the operator answer hello before I felt a sharp pain in my neck causing everything to go dark.

...

I was warm and comfy. I tried to resist the gentle touch on my arm and the calls back to the waking world. Why couldn't anyone leave me to sleep?

After mentally sighing I finally gave in to the incessant calls. I slowly parted my eyelids, still not ready to fully leave the comforting world of sleep.

I turned to focus on the source of the annoying tapping and calling.

Blinking the blurriness of sleep away, I looked into soft brown eyes.

All traces of sleep left me in an instant. Who is this person and why is she in my room?

I looked around at the white walls and lino floors before realising that this was not my room. I was in a hospital bed and there were a couple of doctors in the room as well.

My attention was drawn back to the brown eyed nurse that had woken me up.

"Violet" she said gently, "Can you tell me what year it is?"

"It's 2019." I answered, baffled.

"Good" the nurse continued, obviously pleased. "Now can you tell me who the current Australian Prime Minister is?" The nurse paused for a second before continuing "Actually don't answer that, we've had three Prime Minister's in the past 12 months alone. Instead, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three" I replied, growing concerned.

My eyes searched for and found her name tag. Xanthe. I squinted. How on earth do you pronounce that?

"Why am I in a hospital?" I asked the nurse while trying not to laugh at her stupid joke.

Nurse Xanthe looked at me for a full five seconds, obviously debating what to say before she finally answered.

"You were attacked." she said, pausing before continuing, "By a vampire."

My complete disbelief must have been clearly plastered on my face.

"If I had been attacked by a vampire, I would be a picture of health. Not waking up in a hospital bed." I stated.

I quickly looked in the mirror and saw my face and lips that looked like they had more colour in them then they'd had in a long time. My flame red hair falling over my shoulders in a mess of bed hair and my brilliant greens eyes that I hated when coupled with my red hair.