Nobody ever prepared you for what it was like after it happened. Nobody ever told you what it was like after the bite, what it was like inside your own head. That was because nobody stayed sane enough to tell the tale, by the time they trusted you enough to let you outside of your own accord you were entirely one of them. There was no room for doubt amongst the ranks because you had already succumbed to the venom; you had already succumbed to the bloodlust. You weren't the same person you had once been; you were one of them; in all sense of the word. Your eyes were blood red, your need for blood was uncontrollable, and you couldn't venture into the sunlight. That was what it was like for me now.

But I wasn't just any other person. I had strong survival skills, good instincts, and I knew how to deceive someone if it was my last resort. I knew how to make them think that they could trust me, and I knew that they would believe me because that was how things worked around here. They had been told that I would just accept my fate, because that was the type of person that I had been before. I used to be a Dhampir, but I was now a Strigoi. It wasn't a huge change in the wider scope of things, but with the 'transition' came a hunger. It was uncontrollable sometimes, and it seemed to be unquenchable as well. It was always there, hidden in the back of your mind. Some of us could block it out, even ignore it. But that took a lot of practice. It was the main reason that some of us weren't allowed outside on our own so soon. You needed to learn to kill conspicuously.

A lot of us didn't know how to handle at first. It was a huge change in lifestyle choice, and those going from human to Strigoi were on a completely different wavelength. At least as a Vampire you were already used to the blood consumption, but as a human? There was no comparison. But you needed to stay strong, and I didn't really venture outside my room for the first month or so. I didn't want to see anything; I didn't want to know anyone. I didn't want it to be real. I didn't want to acknowledge what I was. They brought me humans, and I feasted on them every day. That's what it took to survive. It got easier all the time, I didn't even have to tell myself it was the right thing to do after a while, I just began to crave it, and as I began to accept what I was it got easier for me to cope with what I was now.

I sighed as I glanced out my window for what seemed to be quickly becoming a routine for me. There was nothing for me out there anymore. My old life was gone; they would never accept me back now. I had an uncontrollable first, and a vicious, power-hungry, side to myself. You wanted to ignore it, you wanted to believe it was just a nightmare; you wanted you believe that you would just change back eventually and that if you ignored it would go away on its own. But it wouldn't. You grew to accept that, and you grew to understand what you were. It consumed you eventually; it consumed the weak willed. But those few that were able to remain strong after the transition were able to hold onto part of their humanity; especially if you had something strong to hold on to. But each day I heard the voice in my head telling me that there was nothing there for me anymore. She was gone. My name was Dimitri Belikov, and I had become a Strigoi.