At night, in the summer, the woodland of Chelmsford is beautiful; no wind blows through the trees except the occasional warm breeze that rustles the leaves slightly, crickets hide in small patches of nettles and rub their legs together to make a chorus of chirps, and small mammals come out to forage for food as the moon shines brightly overhead.
The only thing disturbing the relative silence is the sound of awkward footsteps meandering between the gaps in the trees and quiet whimpers every now and again as a young girl makes her way through the woods. She isn't following any trails. She isn't following a certain direction. She just wants to get out.
Her entire body, including her hair and clothes, are covered in soil and dirt. The yellow, summer dress she is wearing is torn at the bottom with one of the straps uselessly dangling down and her shoes are non-existent, so she stumbles bare foot over tree roots and uneven ground.
After a few minutes the girl comes to a clearing. The moon illuminates patches of flowers in the grass and part of a fallen tree on the ground. A feeling of familiarity passes through her as she walks into the open space and looks around.
"I've been here before," she whispers to herself before realisation hits her, "I'm just going in circles!"
She sits herself on the toppled tree trunk; her eyes well up with tears that fall down her dirty cheeks. Resting her elbows on her lap, she bows her head, gripping onto the mess of red hair on her head and shuddering as she is overcome by waves of uncontrollable sobbing.
Meanwhile, a short distance from the clearing, a lone creature is moving noiselessly through the woods. She keeps her nose low to the ground, taking in all the scents around her; the soft dry earth beneath her paws, the fragrant flowers dotted around that had popped up during the spring, the bark of the trees, the lingering smell of small animals that have scattered away from her presence and mostly importantly, wild mushrooms. They were the reason she was here, because there is no mushroom that is quite as good as one that has been picked from a natural, untainted environment.
Upon discovering a small group of different sized mushrooms, the creature transforms into the naked figure of a woman with long dark brown hair. She gathers them up in her hands and sighs contently.
Suddenly a sound echoes through the trees. It is a sound that doesn't belong to the woodland.
"What the hell?" the woman says to herself, following the direction of the noise, still holding onto the wild mushrooms.
As she gets closer to the origin of the sound, it becomes clearer and more distinct. It's the sound of someone crying. The woman recognises the area she is heading towards as the place where she had left her clothes and wonders to herself who could possibly be out in the middle of the woods at this time of night.
Reaching the edge of the clearing, the woman stops. A girl is sitting upon the fallen tree trunk in which the woman has hidden her clothes. She is unable to see her face due to it being hidden behind a curtain of hair but it is extremely obvious that this is where the crying is coming from. A strange smell wafts to the woman's nose as she takes a step forward. A twig snaps under her foot causing the girl to gasp and lift her head. What the woman sees shocks her for a moment, but quickly regaining her senses she drops the mushrooms and once again becomes the creature she was before.
The girl jumps up, wiping her eyes in disbelief at what she is seeing. But as she takes her hand away from her face something else catches her attention; blood. Dark crimson blood stains her fingers.
"What… What is this?" she breathes, looking up at the creature in front of her and then back down at her hand, "How can there be a wolf here? There aren't any wild wolves in England! And where is this blood coming from?! This can't be real! This can't be real!"
The wolf moves forward, baring its white teeth and snarling at her. The girl's breathing becomes more erratic as she hyperventilates. Taking a step back she trips over the fallen tree and lands on the floor. Before she can register what has happened, the wolf is standing over her, growling, lips pulled back to reveal large glistening canines and eyes shining an intense yellow-gold.
The girl curls into the foetal position and starts sobbing again.
"Please, don't hurt me!" she wails, burying her face in her arms.
The wolf growls again, but this time it becomes a more human sound and is followed by loud panting. Pulling her arms away from her face slightly, the girl looks up; no longer seeing a wolf but a woman, crouching over her, completely naked and glaring down at her with the same eyes as the wolf had.
Gasping, she sits up and moves away, slapping her hands over her mouth and breathing heavily through her nose. The woman watches her intensely.
"You're in my territory, fanger. Give me one good reason not to kill you." the woman sneers.
"Fanger? What are you talking about?" the girl whimpers, moving her hands away from her mouth.
"Who sent you? Are you one of Elizabeth's little spies? Checking for weak points in our neck of the woods?"
"I don't know who you're talking about! Please, let me go."
"Now, why would I do that? So you can run back to your nest and report to your maker?"
"You've got me mixed up with someone else! I'm not a spy for anyone I was just looking for a way to get home! I've been walking in circles all night; just point me in the direction of Writtle and I'll leave you alone! I need to get to a hospital so I can find out where this blood is coming from!"
Upon hearing the girl's last comment the woman's facial expression changes; her upper lip that was raised on one side in contempt relaxes slightly which in turn smooth out the wrinkling of her nose and brow, her aggression subsiding but keeping her gaze locked on the girl, still alert and on guard.
"Are you an idiot? Did you drink some druggie blood or something?" she scoffs.
"Wh-Why would I drink someone's blood?" the girl exclaims, "Oh God, this is the worst night of my life! First I have an argument with my parents then I completely black out and find that some nutcase has tried to bury me alive, I wander around the woods for hours on end, a wolf that turns into a naked woman attacks me for no reason and now this! Accused of being a vampire! What next? Being abducted by aliens?"
The woman looks at the girl with a completely baffled expression. She'd never been faced with a situation like this before. By this point, the golden glow of her eyes has faded back to their natural deep, chocolate brown. She stands up straight, looking thoughtful for a moment.
"I can't believe this. I can't FUCKING believe this!" she growls as realisation hits her, "So the vampires truly have been in our territory; I knew some of them overstepped the boundaries but spawning outside of their own domain is just making a mockery out of us."
The girl, who is still sitting on the floor, is still fearful as the woman in front of her becomes angrier.
"Um, excuse me, can I please go now? I need medical assistance, I still don't know where this blood is coming from," she pleads.
"No. You're my proof that those other fangers have been breaching our agreement," the woman snaps.
"How can I be proof of anything to do with vampires? I've never met one in my life!" the girl cries.
"Have you not put two and two together yet, you moron? That blood you keep whinging about is coming from your damn eyes!" the woman yells.
For a moment, the girl is dumbstruck, "From my eyes? Isn't that was vampires do? Am I a vampire?"
"Congratulations, you figured it out."
"But… how? How did this happen? I've never come across a vampire before and everyone says you have to be bitten by one to be turned."
"You said you blacked out, right?"
"Well, yeah."
"You didn't. You've been glamoured."
"What's that?"
"Vampires have the ability to put a human into a trance; it's called glamouring. They use it to get humans to do their bidding but they can also use it to make people forget things that have happened and implant a different memory. Clearly your maker had no intention of sticking around for fear of being caught here, but not bothering to even give you a new memory? That's just plain lazy."
"If I have no memory then how do I know that you're telling me the truth?"
"OK, how about you have a real hard think with that obviously pea-sized brain of yours and come up with an explanation for why on Earth anyone would just bury someone they found unconscious?"
"I… I can't."
"Well, there you go. You weren't unconscious; you were dead. Still are."
The young girls jaw drops in horror before she frantically presses her fingers to her wrist, trying to find a pulse. When her search is unsuccessful, she feels around on her neck, checking for the usually obvious artery. Again, she is unsuccessful.
"Oh my god," she whimpers, "Oh my god"
"God isn't going to help you now," the woman says.
The girl looks up at the still naked woman with a fresh stream bloody tears trickling down her cheeks, "What do I do?"
"You come with me," the woman answers, holding out her hand.
The girl takes the outstretched hand and finds the grasp around her own fingers is surprisingly strong as the woman hoists her to her feet. Upon standing, she discovers that the woman isn't very tall at all and is easily half a foot shorter than her. She watches at the woman walks away and feels around the inside of the fallen tree, retrieving a bundle of clothes. She turns away as the woman catches her eyes.
"Don't even think about running away. With the state you're in, I can easily outrun you and I promise you'll regret it."
"I won't run, I promise."
After getting dressed, the woman wanders over to the spot where the girl had first seen her in wolf form and gathers the mushrooms she had dropped when she transformed. When she is satisfied that all the mushrooms had been collected, she walks back over to the girl.
"What's your name?" she asks.
"My name's Hannah," the girl replies.
"That's easy to remember. OK, Hannah, carry these," the woman says, dumping all of the mushrooms into Hannah's hands.
"Sure."
"Now follow me."
"OK," Hannah says, walking closely behind the woman, "Um, since you know my name, shouldn't I know yours?"
"It's Samantha."