The wind blew on my cold face. My lips blue with ice. “How can I trust you?” I weep. My best friend, Lily, just stares at me like a mist had come over her eyes. She escapes from her trance to say “I don’t know. Just do okay?” She can’t leave me. “They are coming and if we don’t leave soon we will die and all of mankind will be erased as if we were never even here. The vampires are too strong. You have to come with me.” Lily has urgency in her voice.
“Alright I’ll come with you. Just stay human.” I feel the impact of what I am saying hit me with such force that I fall to my knees.
“Don’t worry Paige I’m only half vampire.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. You overcome by the vampire blood inside you that you become one of them.”
“Vampires don’t have blood.” She whispers with a smirk. I know it was just a joke, but I feel like screaming at her. I don’t because I wouldn’t want to wake the rest of the orphanage.
“Please, Paige I need to find my family.” She has tears welling up in her eyes.
“What about the others?” I ask “They will surly die! Think of everyone we are abandoning. Rachel, Miranda, Ashley.” I can barely get out those names.
“I don’t know.” That is all she can squeak out.


I think about our past. All five of us were running up and down the staircase playing hide and seek. Lily and I went and hid in the principal’s office behind a stack of folders “Lily!” I exclaimed “Look!” I pointed to a folder in the stack that read LILIANN BURCHARD. We softly pulled it out so it wouldn’t knock all the others down. I didn’t even bother looking for my name because I know all of my family is dead. We opened it up and gasped. Inside was a letter.


Dear Maple Street Orphanage,

Here is my beautiful daughter Liliann. We cannot keep her. My husband is the general of the Vampires, which makes her half Vampire. Her powers are too strong. Please do not discriminate against her, she has no idea who she is, it could endanger hers and our lives if she ever found out. Please destroy this letter immediately.


Thank you

Sarah Lee Burchard

I snap out of the flashback when Lily shakes me away. “We have to start going. We need to be deep into the forest by dawn if we are going to make it in time.” Lily wipes away the rest of my tears. “It’ll be okay.” She whispers and tucks her ember red hair behind her ear. I look back and say one final good by before we are eaten by the forest.

It was almost six in the morning by the time we had made it to a place where we could finally relax. I immediately find a nice tree and fall fast asleep. That’s when I had a nightmare. I was running through the forest and people were chasing me. These weren’t actual people more like ghosts who had holes where the eyes should be, and sickly white face filled with anger. I got a look at their faces. Ashley? No! Rachel, Miranda! Others from the orphanage that I had left to die. But at the front of the group there were two new people that I had never seen before. Time slowed down. A tall athletic looking man with a chiseled face and brown hair. Next to him was a woman, she was dainty and beautiful with long blond hair, which reminded me of mine, and soft, soulful eyes. They looked familiar, but I’ve seen them before. I stopped running and just as I got trampled by the hateful mob I remembered them. My parents.

I awoke in a sweat. Tears were spilling down my cheek.
Were they really my parents? I don’t know I just wish……
A branch snaps. My head whips to the side. “Lily? Is that you?” I ask. There is a noise coming from a bush. I reach into my backpack and grab a knife.

Lily jumps out of the bushes. “Oh god! Lily, you scared me” I say. She doesn’t answer. I look up and see her eyes are a deep red color; sends shivers down my spine, and there is blood in her mouth and running down her chin. This is what I was afraid of.
She eyes me and says “More blood!” and lunges at me at full force.
I dodge her within inches. She stumbles but easily catches herself. “Lily. It’s me, Paige.” I try and coax her into remembering me. She grabs me by the shoulder and throws me against a tree, instantly I hear a bone snap. I hit my head against it and I can feel my warm blood trickling down my neck. She is coming at me with a blank look in her eyes and I black out, letting the gray mist envelop me with a numbing coldness.

I’m dead. My whole world has gone cold and Lily is probably having a Paige’s blood latte right now. I feel deathly cold hands feeling my forehead. Wait! I can feel. My eyes slowly open and see God. No not God, god, but like a pale Greek god.

His eyes are black with a red sparkle, like the richest rubies, with tousled dark brown hair and pale, yet tan skin. He looks about my age, sixteen. “She’s awake!” he yells. Lily comes into my obstructed view. Her fiery auburn hair is pulled back in a delicate French Braid. Suddenly I remember what happened earlier, and here she is coming at me, probably to finish me off. I let out an ear piercing scream.
“It’s okay, she’s back to normal. She won’t hurt you.” The gorgeous stranger whispers gently.
“Paige, it’s me, Lily, I will not hurt you. I’m sorry, it was my first vampire meal, just a squirrel, and it already happened so nothing like that will ever come again.” Lily smiles “This is Griffin, he saved your life. Thank God he was around at the time to snap me out of it.” She giggles a cute school girl laugh. “He’s a vampire to. So he promised me he would take us to the clan.” Griffin blushes “Yeah, actually I’m in search of the General, I think he might be Lily’s father. I’m glad I found you guys, any sooner and you would have been dead.”
Lily cuts in, “Our hero!”
Griffin laughs, “Yeah, and your quite the villain.”
For a moment they just gaze into each other’s eyes like there was no one else on the planet. “We better find some tall trees to climb up for the night.” He says. Right then I realize that it’s getting dark.
“How long was I out?” I ask.
“Almost eleven hours” says Lily still staring at Griffin.
“We have to hurry; who knows what could be lurking at night on a full moon.”


To be continued……