It was autumn in the air, the harvest was yellow in the fields and the great moon hung low in the sky. The leaves crunched under my bare feet and sent scents of the earth as I walked along the field where the gray-blue squash grew. A cold breeze caressed my neck and gave me goosebumps. I putted my hands deep into my pockets and started to walk a little faster.
A fool would know better. Are you a fool, Elina von Richthofen?
Eyes were looking at me... Someone looked at me in the cold, dark night. Or maybe something – a wolf or an owl. I told myself it was just my imagination and that I had no reason to feel fear, but the breath caught in my throat, and my heart started beating harder and faster.
Then came the dizziness.
The ground suddenly began to heave under my, although I know that it didn't really move at all. I staggered to the side of the road and would have fallen down if I hadn't been able to support my hand against the tree. I fought to hold on to my consciousness but then-
"My young girl... I was going to wait, but now I see that it have to happen this evening."
I looked up and tore my hand away, not from a tree, but from a man. His dark eyes seemed to whirl of the infinite blackness of the night and his hair was raven with flashes of blue from the moonlight. His lips were cherry red and rich, yet his pale face came as a shock. It did not look sick, though, not like death. But light and delicious, as if he were a beautiful work of art carved in light granite; as if he were the actual moonlight.
I took a step back, the leaves crackled and the wind picked up suddenly, almost as if it knew that any disastrous would happen this evening.
The man just shook his head.
"Don't try to escape. It's just meaningless."
"W-who are you?" I managed to get out. "What do y-you want with me?"
His smile was sad, bitter. "A lot, Elina. A lot. But for the moment... just this."
He reached towards me, although I never saw his hands move. They were simply ahead of him in one moment, when they moved expressively as he spoke – and the next moment they seized hold of my shirt. I fought back, but he pulled me so easily to him and my struggle was useless. I'm not weak, but this man, this thing, pulled me close as if I were a child. He bent over me. Fear took hold of my heart and it was pounding furiously. Pain shot through my chest and down the left arm and I could no longer pull in the needed air into my lungs.
Then I felt his mouth against my neck. His lips parted and then the pain came when his teeth sink deep into my skin. But it was a pain that faded almost as quickly as it came. I no longer felt the chilly autumn air. Three things I remained aware of; three things that filled my senses.
Darkness, silence and the feeling of his mouth against my neck, the mouth that emptied my life.