The sun was warm upon my back; the breeze cool and light.It was a beautiful day and, at first, had been very average. I had just turned sixteen and was deep in the woods behind my house, playing childishly with my best friend, Adrian.

I should have known better than to go out there that day.

My mother had warned me not to leave the house, for there were suspicious huunters in the woods and my family and I were their quarry. We are werewolves, though not as Hollywood legends would make us out to be. We are not sadistic monsters intent on slaughtering young children that morph into giant half-men when the moon rises. They have, however, managed to get a few scarce details correct. Silver, for example, the arsenic of our kind. And vampires, our enemies for as far back as any of my kin can remember.

Vampires. They were my mothers second reason.

But I was never weak, and it had hurt my pride slightly for her think as such, so I went out anyway, foolishly overconfident. We were running, Adrian and I, just for the since of exhileration and freedom. I remember my remorse that I had to slow my pace so as not to alarm him. We had stopped briefly when Adrian suddenly proposed a game of hide-and-seek.

"C'mon" I whined," thats a stupid, childish game."

"Well, we are already acting like the children we really are at heart, so lets just thoroughly enjoy it.Please?"he begged, the wind ruffling his naturally tousled, dark brown hair."Besides, it was always our favorite game.Please?"he added after he saw that his first atempt had clearly not worked.

"Your favorite game."I corrected."I always hated it."

"Please?"he begged again in a whiny voice.

So I sat stubbornly on the ground, playing along, and squeezed my eyes shut."Noooo." I whined.

"I have a present for you." he said unexpectedly.

I opened my eyes in surprise, I hadn't told him it was my birthday, and saw that his green eyes, bright with excitement, were now level with mine. A grin slowly spread across his face as he pulled a small, unwrapped box from his pocket. He opened it and pulled something out by a delicate gold chain.

"I thought you might like this." he said as he dropped it into my open, small hand.

I looked down at my hands and gasped. In the palm of my hands was what appeared to be a thin sliver of a stone. It was in a naturally beautiful teardrop shape and was as smooth as glass. It also had on it vivid shades of red, dark, deep crimson on the rim, untill, progressively, it reached a soft golden-red center.

I lifted it up by the chain, admiring how the sun shown through it.

"Do you like it?" Adrian asked a little nervously.

I looked at him with my mouth hanging open, at a complete loss for words.

"Adrian its beautiful. i love it!" I exclaimed.

A smile lit up his face."It reminded me of you Iris."

"Thank you!" I jumped up at him and hugged him fiercely."Here, help me put it on." I said, standing up. I swept my long hair off my neck and shifted impatiently as he clasped it

When he had finally managed to get it on I turned around and hugged him again, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, not bothered in the slightest at the feel of his warm skin, more reveling in the feeling.

"Well", I sighed, "fine. We can play. But just this once." He smiled and went off into the woods. Then he suddenly ran back and lifted my pale hand and kissed it, smiling up at me. A grin spread across my own face as I watched him run back to the woods.

He turned and glared mockingly at me."No peeking."he shouted back to me.

I smiled wider and stuck my tongue out at him to which he replied in kind.

"One, two, three..." I said loudly as he turned back into the woods.

I admired my gift as I counted then turned to go find him, following his scent as well as that of the trail of sweet, crushed grass he had left behind. My sense of smell is very sharp so it was amazingly easy, which was why I had hated it so much when I was younger; there was no challenge.

I had thought that I was getting close so I started to look around me.

And that was when I smelled it.

That forbidden yet thoroughly intoxicating scent of human blood. However, I had not felt not even a pang of hunger, only fear. I had yet to find Adrian.

I remember clearly the feeling of panic as I searched for him frantically, my steps increasingly faster as my concern and fear increased. That was only intensified as I smell the hunters with their dogs close by. But the all thoughts directed towards them dissappeared. I had foun Adrian.

He lay amongst the fallen leaves, deep in the shade of the trees, the blood was pooling around the deep wound at his throat. His skin was already paling as the darkness slowly took him.It was not untill the blood had spurted from Adrian's mouth as he choked on it that I ran forward. I had ben frozen in shock, knowing even then that the sight of him would haunt me always. I quikly knelt next to him and cradled his sweet face in my hands, not caring in the slightest that his dark crimon blood was staining my bone white skin.

"No, no, no.Adrian NO!!!" I cried, and the tears ran from my face to his, mingling with the blood.His blood.

"Iris?" he managed to choke out, bringing with it another torrent of blood. I nodded feebly and frantically wiped the tears from my face, painting my cheeks red. I angrily noticed an icy scent about him that was faintly familiar. Vampire, I thought to myself. I examined his wound and was horrified to find that it had not been a mark to change. It had been one made for feeding. One to kill.

My head snapped up at the sound of a twig breaking not too far away, and only then did I realize that the hunters had gained ground during my distress. I then heard the sound of a muted whisper and the cock of a gun. "Aim for the female, she's the daughter of the pack." I took one last agonized look at Adrian's face, and I ran.

The tears streamed relentlessly down my bloodstained cheeks, and I knew that I could never outrun them like this, they had gotten too close during my despair over Adrian. I lept into the air and changed into a lean, muscled creature. I knew that in my wolf form I could easily outrun them, and also that my ebony fur hid me well in the night. Still, with the knowledg that I would have outran them in a heartbeat, I pushed on fiercely anyways.I would always regret running, but I had had to.

At least, thats what I continue to try to convince myself.

I was a streak of night as I ran through the dense forest back to my home, and it was well into the night when I had finally reached my destination and changing back into the form of a young woman shivering with fear and cold. I had realized that I could have reached my house a while ago, and it was only the overwhelming grief that threatened to crush me that kept me going.

Upon seeing the caked blood on my hands, I crumpled and sank to the ground in a ball of misery. I sobbed on the lonely darkness of a new moon, fingering the cold pendant around my neck...

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how'd u like it?

(just to clarify, this is Iris's nightmare of what happened on her sixteenth b-day)

and, again, thanx 2 anybody that read this. PLEASE REVIEW!!!! any comments at all are welcome, and let me know if you think I should finish it :)