When I was a teenager, I had set my hand on the stove top and burnt my hand. My mind brought up the memory now, trying to find some way to explain the pain that was now growing at my neck. Vampire. There was no doubt. I was a skeptical person by nature, but the panic had shoved all of that aside so that my subconscious could speak up. I have just been bitten by a vampire.

There was a fire in my neck. I tried to reason through it. The vampire was sucking my blood. Soon there would be no blood left in my body and I would die. But no, it wasn't like that at all. The pain was spreading, the fire growing. There was a fire on my head, on my neck, on my arms, in my heart. It was everywhere. My burnt hand had nothing on this. At the time it was the worst pain I had ever felt. Now I prayed for it back. I prayed for it a thousand times over, all over my body, if only it would end the pain.

Surely it shouldn't take so long to die. Some dazed part of my brain reasoned. Something was hurting my ears. I opened my eyes to try and find out what. Blake was next to me. His mouth was open in a scream my brain couldn't register. I looked down at my own thrashing body and realized that I must be screaming too. I also realized that the vampire that bit me was no longer feeding. I was alone with Blake for the moment. Then why was I still burning! The fire was moving downward. I felt as it thrashed every cell in my body; thrashed them with tongues of knives. It was to my waist now and I arched my back, trying to get away from the pain.

Somehow, I felt the added pressure on my hand. Confused, I turned toward it. Anything to distract me even slightly. A hand was grabbing mine. Desperately struggling to focus, I followed the arm up to a face. The face of someone I knew. Right? Blake. My mind whispered, unable to muster anything louder than that. I felt recognition, but I couldn't remember anything. Panicking, I gripped his hand back, holding it tight enough that I could feel it through the pain. He was still screaming and I was still screaming, but we caught each other's eyes and held them. Just then, something inside me clicked. I wasn't sure what it was, but whatever it was felt unchangeable.

Then the flames took my legs and feet in one quick flare and my body flipped away from it all. I landed face down with dirt in my face. It was in my mouth and nose and eyes but I couldn't find it in myself to care. I flailed into the dirt, digging my fingers deep in the soil before yanking them back out again. I yelled for anybody, anybody who might be nearby to just kill me already. Death could not hurt worse than this. I had always been a Christian and believed I was going to Heaven, but surely even Hell could not top this. At least in Hell there must be thought. There must be control over your body.

There was static in my head. Thoughts cut off halfway through. I wondered why I was-

Where was Blake? Was he going to-

Why couldn't I-

And if that was true then why wasn't he-

-run away from me and leave me to-

-forced to go through something like-

What had I done wrong?

And then the static overwhelmed my brain and another something inside me shut off. Everything went dark and I floated in the blackness, savoring the complete numbness.

XxXxX

It is strange how time is impossible to measure when you have no senses. I had no idea how long I had been in this numbness. So many theories had passed through my head. Had I died and gone to purgatory? I'd never really taken the belief in purgatory seriously, but it was the only real explanation. For there was no doubt I had died. This could not be Heaven. It wasn't Hell either. Maybe I had been wrong my whole life in my religion and this was the afterlife. Perhaps I was awaiting an assigned a being for reincarnation.

Open your eyes. The words slammed into my head and squeezed my brain so tightly that I screamed again. The pain was sharp and quick and like a knife stabbed through my skull. Everything inside me protested against this invasion of my brain and roiled beneath my skin. Even so, my eyes snapped open even as the command was said, unable to do anything but what the voice said.

The world was Technicolor around me. The floor beneath me was made out of some hard tile that I suspected was marble. A cathedral-like ceiling stretched above me and I craned my neck to stare at the top. Everything was a stark, bleached white. There was no furniture. I started to look around at it all in wonder but the voice plunged into my head once again. This time it did not leave a message. It just felt like it left a small piece of itself behind that drilled into the center of my brain and settled there. My eyes rolled back in my head. By the time I managed to make them cooperate, the outside world did not seem unusual at all. Neither did the fact that my throat was still burning with a small fire of its own or that I could see the dust collecting in the furthest corner of the ceiling without even squinting.

My brain exploded against the walls of my head. My legs collapsed under me as I tried to get up and I crashed back down to the ground, my head leaving a crack in the tile underneath me. The tiny drill in my brain was growing, growing, turning into a liquid that flooded through my head and soaked into my body, leaving no part untouched. Now it seemed like there was no voice needed. I simply sat in a corner in the back of my head and watched in terror as my legs moved on their own at a speed that would be the envy of cheetahs. My entire body throbbed and I tried to remember if I had managed to swallow a poison in the last few minutes. Or maybe I had taken drugs?

The wind blew then. A scent was carried on it and I abandoned all thought. It was the most delectable thing I had ever smelled. Better than steak, or fresh cookies, or cake, or anything you could think of. I couldn't even remember what those had smelled like, or why I had liked there smells in my past life. Not with this smell in the air. They weren't even on the same plane. I strained against the bonds in my head, practically salivating as the fire in my throat ripped down into my stomach and burned there too. But the thing in my head was more powerful than I could ever hope to be and everything I did accomplished nothing. My traitorous body still continued on calmly, giving no indication that I was panicking. I wondered if anyone looking would see my struggles. My cage in my head felt so small that I wondered if anyone reading my mind would even be able to hear my screams, or know that I was there in the first place.

A forest came up around me and I tried to distract myself by counting the leaves as they flew past. That was probably why I noticed the light in the trees ahead. The second my mind noted it though, my body froze and the voice blasted back into me.

What is that? It was demanding and shocked and seemed to expect me to know the answer.

I don't know! Hysteria was clutching at my small corner of head and eating me alive. I don't know what's going on!

The voice left but still kept control of me. My body stood completely still in the forest as I waited for something to happen. So it was impossible for me to miss it when the light started to grow brighter and brighter. A vice clamped around my chest as an uneasy feeling seeped through my veins.

And then the path to the right of me lit up like a firework and I felt relief flood through me. I knew what this was. I was going to be okay. Immediately, the light moving toward me stopped. What is that? The voice demanded while forcing my glance toward the path. Explanations welled up in my head, just trying to stop the pain.

It's a path. An escape route. I've always seen them. Not this brightly, but if I follow the path I will get away from whatever I want to avoid. I was moving even before I was done. I flew down the bright path and left the bright light behind me. Now that I knew I was safe, I was free to wonder what the light had been in the first place. Instantly, the trail forked in two. One choice was solid and blinding. The other was insubstantial and fluttering, like a bright light filtering through a handful of glitter that was thrown up into the air.

What does this mean? I grabbed for a tree nearby to keep from falling over.

The bright trail will let me escape. The other path popped up when I was curious about the light. It will bring me back to the light but in a way that will keep me hidden.

Without my consent, by legs moved again and pulled me down the glittering way. The light grew brighter and brighter, bigger and bigger. It felt like someone was shoving razors down my legs with every step the voice force me to take. I wondered why he was doing this to me. Maybe this was Hell? Maybe the burning was my entrance into Hell and now that I was here, I was learning what my job would be for the rest of eternity.

Just then the trees parted and I felt relief wash through me. All it took was a quick glimpse of the back of a head. Blake's head. His hair was still pulled back and just from the way he was holding himself, I could tell whom it was. Just as he came into view, the voice left, leaving behind a parting stay still ringing in my ears. Even though every part of me yearned to run toward the protection that Blake offered, I felt my legs become one with the ground and I knew I wasn't going anywhere.

Why was this happening to me! I tried to scream, but my mouth was clamped shut by someone who was not me. The panic closed in around me and I thought I might black out again. The only thing stopping me was this. Blake was in front of me. He was okay. He would protect me.

All my conviction vanished the second he turned to look around. I didn't have control over myself, but my new, perfect eyes saw everything, even when they weren't looking in that direction. And they could see the color of Blake's eyes as they saw me. The eyes that had once been blue and sparkling with contagious magic were now a red as bright as blood.

I shut down.

Every part of me clammed up and I gave up all fight against the voice inside my head. Let it have me. Let it control me. There was no one to keep me safe anymore. No one who would make me feel even remotely special. Did it even matter anymore? I couldn't remember if it ever had. I was alone, alone with the voice in my head that was a thousand knives in my veins.

This time, when another being slid its way into my body, it didn't hurt as much. Or maybe I didn't notice. Regardless, I was soon whirling away from what had once been a safe harbor into the woods. He was behind me, following me, and I felt a defensive instinct I couldn't react to well up in me. But no, it didn't matter anymore. Nothing did.

My legs took me to a city that was in running distance, though I didn't know how long it had taken. My throat was clawed open by a beast that was trapped inside me but I didn't notice. I felt myself pulled to a dark alley out of the public eye but I didn't care. The walls rose up around Blake and I and I saw two men passed out in the corner of the alley but it didn't matter, even after I felt the awful dread in my arms and a path lit up behind me, trying to take me anywhere but here. No, I didn't even care when I felt my arms reach out, strong and sure, and pick up one of the men at my feet. But it's impossible to miss when you make your first kill.

I came back into my head suddenly. The blood of the man seeped down my throat and calmed the beast inside me. It was delicious and I hated myself for it. What kind of human was I, to thrill in the killing of another? Not a human at all. A vampire. My brain whispered to me, and the voice uttered a silent agreement that echoed in my stomach and knocked my knees out from under me. _ It felt like a glimpse into the darkest corner of space after living in one town your whole life. Like suddenly I wasn't part of myself at all, but I didn't even exist in the first place and if I didn't move soon, I would fall out of my very self and into whatever stretched below me in an unending maw.

My horror at everything that just happed washed over me and I blessed it for taking me out of life, even if it was just to relive it now. I saw how I had taken the man's life. I saw how the life had drained from his eyes even as his hands batted uselessly against my skin in an attack my brain hadn't even registered the first time around. Worst of all, I felt the realization that I was a vampire now. That this was just the first of many kills. So many kills that I didn't know when it was all going to stop. I knew that if I was in control, I would not have moved for hours, stuck in this horror, but I wasn't, so it was only seconds after I fell that I was yanked to my feet and sprinting off to my next destination, Blake following.

I was aware now that of where I was going, and it took only a half hour to retrace my scent to the building I had started out in. Now, however, I walked through the large, white room and through a huge door set in the wall. The door was the same bleached white of everything else, but it was covered in carvings that were faded with age. Blake paused a second in the entryway and then continued after me.

My eyes did not dance around and take everything in. My ears did not focus in to find every minuscule sound in the room. Of course not. The instant I was in the room, my entire being was focused in on the man in the corner of the room. He sat on a throne made of marble that fit perfectly to the shape of his body.

The man's body was thin and muscular but looked like it was made of a rock as easily broken as mica. His skin seemed layered into sheets that were tattered around the edges and he looked like any touch would make him shatter. Not that anyone would get close enough with the two people that stood on each side of him, looking fiercely protective. He had long black hair that pooled around his feet and was wearing a robe. His eyes were open and they moved, but they were a thick white that was as dense as milk. He was clearly blind.

The thing inside my head exploded at his presence and I felt my knee hit the ground. Blake hit the ground next to me and for the first time, I considered that he might be going through the same thing I was. Before I could think any more on that, the voice came and got rid of all thought.

I am James.

AN: Okay, so sorry it took this long. My school was having a writing contest and I couldn't decide if I wanted to do it. Finally, I decided to enter at the last minute and have been spending all my time doing that. It's entered now though, and I just have to wait and see how it all turns out. Please review and tell me what you thought! I'm really interested in hearing what you have to say. It felt a little forced to me, but I want your opinion!

Thanks,

Purgatory.