Thank you so much for all of your reviews, favs and alerts, I wasn't expecting so much feedback so quickly :) Here's the first chapter, I'm almost done with the next one.

Chapter 1

Here comes the monster

Picking up mushrooms was a chore I had always enjoyed. It allowed me to take a walk in the woods, enjoying peace and quiet. Our small cottage had been very quiet lately, mother barely talked at all and father seemed tired all the time, like he would have suddenly aged years. Grigor had never been much of a talker anyway, he spent most of his time outdoors hunting and taking care of our small field. Usually I enjoyed the silence, but now I missed all the sounds, talking and laughing, but it seemed like all the joy would have vanished when Katerina left.

She had been away for over 7 months and I still thought about her every day. She hadn't sent any letters, but that wasn't a surprise, neither of us could read or write and I knew that it was expensive to use a scribe, especially one that could write Bulgarian. I wondered if there even was such scribe in England. Father was the only one in our household who could read, Grigor have had a chance to learn, but he wasn't interested.

I had picked up more than enough mushrooms for the stew and I was about to head back home when I ran into few other girls from the village. One of them was Mascha, the girl whose brother had ruined Katerina's reputation. He had said terrible things about her to everyone in the village.

"How is your sister?" Mascha asked mockingly. "I heard that she works as a harlot now."

All the other girls started to laugh; I did like mother had told me to do and ignored them. I turned around and started to walk away.

"Everyone thinks that you are just like your sister," Mascha continued. "My brother said that you will spread your legs for the first man who asks."

I stopped walking and turned slowly back to the girls. They were laughing when I moved in front of Mascha and smiled.

"At least my nose is not bleeding," I said calmly.

She looked confused.

"What?"

I smiled and punched her on the face, just like Grigor had taught me to do in case someone would harass me. I doubted that I broke Mascha's nose, but she definitely bled and screamed like I would have stabbed her.

"Crazy harlot! You just wait when I tell my father about this!"

That should have definitely worried me, her father was the wealthiest man in the village, but at the moment I was too pleased with myself to care. I almost whistled when I headed home, I felt better than weeks. Unfortunately the feeling didn't last for long; I started to realize the consequences of what I had just did. I was sure that I would be punished, but that had still been worth it. I had been spanked before for acting improperly, someone as old as me should know better, not to mention a woman should never act like that.

I was a little nervous when I reached our cottage; I had to tell father before someone else would. I really hoped that I wouldn't have to. Suddenly I noticed a strange horse in front of the stable; it seemed that we had a guest. I was relieved, at least I wouldn't have to tell father right away. Judging by the fancy saddle, our guest was someone who had money. Oh no, could Mascha's father be here already? I thought about hiding in the woods, but that wouldn't help, I would only be more in trouble. I took a deep breath and marched inside with my mushroom basket. The first thing I saw was that Grigor was lying on the floor.

"Grigor!" I cried out and kneeled next to him. When I touched his face I knew that he was dead, but I refused to accept that. Then I saw father, he was also lying on the floor.

"No…"

I was already in shock, but the sound of something dropping on the floor made me to look up. There was a man standing next to the wall, he had just dropped my mother's body. Her eyes were open, but there was no light in them, she was gone. My mouth opened, I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. Slowly the man turned around and looked at me. He wasn't a man; his face was a face of a monster, his eyes turning darker and darker as he callously glanced at me. And then he smiled, blood dripping off his sharp canine teeth. I had never believed in monsters, but now I knew I was looking at death itself. My mind was screaming at me, telling me to run, but how could anyone outrun death? I didn't have time to even blink when he was in front of me, yanking me to my feet. He said something, but I couldn't understand him. He frowned and tried again in Bulgarian.

"Are you a Petrova?"

I couldn't have answered him even if I would have wanted to; my whole body was completely numb. All I could do was staring at the darkness in his eyes. I couldn't move, his grip was keeping me in place.

"Answer me, girl," he demanded and squished my arm so forcefully that I cried out.

"Go to hell!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Not very smart, but what more could he possible take from me? I had to shut the pain out, I was sure that I would be with my family soon. The monster looked almost surprised, then he laughed.

"Oh, you are a Petrova alright, I can smell it."

I shivered when he leaned towards me, sniffing my neck. Before I realized what was happening, he grabbed my hips and threw me over his shoulder. I screamed, pounded on his back, kicked as hard as I could, but that didn't even slow him down, one blink and we were next to his horse. He placed me on the ground in front of him and grabbed my chin.

"You will not make a sound unless I tell you to; you will not fight or do anything except obey me."

I wanted to shout at him, but I couldn't. Instinctively I touched my throat and tried again, but nothing came out. What had he done to me? I looked up and saw that my terror amused him, he was grinning.

"See now? For now on you will do exactly what I say."

I felt my eyes watering up; I had never hated myself so much in my life. He didn't seem pleased either.

"No crying," he ordered making me to immediately stop. My terror was growing, was he using some dark magic to control me? I couldn't fight when he positioned me on top of his horse and mounted himself behind me. Desperately I tried to turn my head, I wanted to see my home, but he didn't allow that. My family was dead… I would have cried now if I could have, but I wasn't able to shed a tear.