Fire. Hot, scalding, burning fire. It was agony. Insufferable agony. I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. All I could feel was the worst pain imaginable. My whole body was being burnt by white-hot flames.

I thought dying was meant to be peaceful. It shouldn't be like this. I needed it to stop but I didn't know how. It was agony, insufferable agony.

It could have been years- or maybe just a few minutes- when i realised that i couldn't be dead. I could feel my heart. It was beating. It was beating so fast that it sounded like it was humming. The fire came from my heart. It was warm at first. Almost pleasurable. Then it changed. The fire ripped through every vein in my body. My arms, legs, hands and feet were burning and i couldn't make it stop. I couldn't move and I couldn't speak. I was alive but I wished for death. Begged silently for it. I was vaguely aware that i was crying out - no, screaming out- for someone, anyone to hear me, to end this. But no help came. It went on and on.

It came to a point where I could separate myself from the pain. I still felt it and I felt how it burned me, but I could think now. I knew that I was alive and that I wasn't alone. I could hear voices around me. I tried to open my eyes but I didn't know where they were. Everything felt the same now. I listened for something I would recognise but the voices were too fast, too fast for me to understand them. Then they stopped and i was left alone. Just me and my torture. Maybe i was being punished. I tried to think of what i had done to deserve this. I couldn't remember anything but pain. Not even my name.

I began to think separately from the pain. I could feel other things now. The agony never stopped – not even for a second- but I could feel my body again. I could almost move my toes and my fingers. I could feel them but I couldn't remember how to use them. I began to feel something different happening to me. The fire was cooling. Slowly but surely, I could feel the burning ease from the tips of my fingers and toes. Then my head. Arms. Legs. The fire burned white-hot in my chest, but only my chest. The rest of me felt oddly, cool? I enjoyed the fact that I wasn't in agony any more. I could feel my heart beating again. It was getting faster. It was humming loudly. The fire burned less and less, going into my heart. My heart was consuming it.

Then they stopped. My heart ceased beating. The fire ceased burning. The coolness of my arms and legs spread to my chest. I felt nothing.

I opened my eyes. I was in a light room – sun streaming through the window on my right. The ceiling was sparkling – like when you hold a glass to the light. I wondered where it was coming from but when I looked down at my body I understood. It was coming from me. I was shining like a diamond. Not shining – sparkling. The light was reflecting off my pale skin, throwing rainbows off it.

I was in a white room with chrome window ledges and a light wooden floor. I couldn't remember being her before – it seemed so unfamiliar.

I stood up. It felt odd. I moved so quickly now. I don't ever remember being clumsy but it was so different to how I used to move. I think.

I felt like I was dancing over to the ornate golden mirror that seemed out of place in the modern, white and chrome room. I needed to look at myself because even though I felt perfect, I knew I couldn't be. The horrific pain I had been in before could have only damaged me in some way.

I shut my eyes just before I got to the mirror. Did I really want to look at myself? It could be horrible. I felt my way in front of the mirror and opened my eyes.

Shock was the first thing I felt. My eyes. My eyes that used to be a brilliant shade of blue were glowing the brightest scarlet. They looked evil. I moved my news eyes to look at the rest of my face. I was almost pure white – the glow of my skin wasn't that apparent right now as I was slightly in shadow. I was so beautiful now. I looked down and my whole body had changed. My skin felt hard and almost cold – which was strange as I didn't really feel cold. I could feel a burning pain at the back of my throat. It was building from a dull ache when I woke up to the searing pain that was beginning to make an appearance. I wondered why it was so painful. It wasn't like anything I had ever experienced before. I knew that my heart was no longer pumping blood around... Blood. I wanted it. Badly. I thought of the warm, red blood that was once pulsing around my body and how it would sound now...

I realised what I was in seconds. My hungry eyes. My pale, perfect body. How my throat burned at the very thought of blood.

I was beautiful. I was dangerous. I was a vampire.