I stood very still, for a very long time, studying my face.

"Am I a monster now?" I thought as I conjured up all the images I could remember of Count Dracula and other folklore of that ilk. The longer I studied the trail of blood from my neck through my long hair and dripping down onto my skirt the more clearly I saw a small oval mark on my porcelain skin, just behind my ear. Not just an oval, but several distinct marks of teeth.

I shivered. I had no memory of how this came to pass.

That bitter taste crept back into my mouth, and try as I might, my mind kept wandering back to the memory of warm blood on my tongue, running down my throat. How I'd love to swallow her again.

Disgusted with myself, I tore off my dress and all the dried blood with it. I found a pair of men's coveralls hanging on a hook on the backside of the bathroom door. They were hopelessly oversized, but a few rolls of the cuffs and sleeves and it was manageable. A pair of old scissors sat on the edge of the sink, and I hacked away the blood caked parts of my hair, then cut the other side to match. It was a funny little bob haircut, not too far from the current fashion trend, but the lazy waves in my hair just made the ends flair out at ear level.

If only there were some way to change my eyes as quickly. I just wanted to feel like myself, like Alice.

Again, I stared at my reflection, trying to make sense of the day. I had awoken in heaven and ended here in a kind of hell on earth. I lost my past, I wasn't even sure where I was, and I was alone in my own horror.

Outside, I heard the first rustling of birds waking to the morning light and announcing their location to the neighboring birds in a series of hesitant chirps and tweets. If this was still the land of the living, that means people would soon wake and arrive to work, and I didn't want to be caught here, with the door in pieces, my blood stained clothes at my feet and a lifeless woman in the storage room.

So I ran.

Running was a delight. I had a rough idea how fast I was going by the speed in which buildings whizzed past me, yet somehow I still had the time to see them in great detail: all the windows and the people moving about inside them. I felt like a stag bounding through the forest for my strides were wide and my foot hit the ground on the balls of my feet only to bounce right up again as I propelled to the next foothold.

I ran right through the town, and kept right on running when I hit the first small farmsteads. I had no idea where I was headed, heck I didn't even know where I was coming from, I only knew that running made me feel free.

The farms grew larger, and the sky lighter. Then I caught a delicious scent in the air and changed course to investigate. I was nearly on top of them before I realized the humans were the source of my attraction. In a split second I recognized the three children from one of the earlier flashes I had while looking in the mirror at the auto shop. Just as I had seen, here they were throwing rocks into the river, completely unaware that I was two stag leaps away from them.

The first boy, I threw to the ground with such force, he was knocked unconscious immediately, the other I grabbed by the neck in the crook of my arm and held him tight to me. The smallest girl, with tight ringlet curls bouncing across her shoulders, came immediately to my lips. Her blood was sweet, almost honey flavored but lacked the heavy, filling weight of the first woman I had drank from. I tossed her aside, as her brother screamed.

His fear made his blood pump faster through his little heart and heat ooze from him, warming my arm and chest. I felt lightheaded and I drained him, and thrilled as if his energy had also translated into my body as it left his.

"More, more" the animal inside me chanted and I had to admit, it sounded like a great idea.

I took the third child in my arms, and lapped up his blood slowly. This was dessert after a hearty meal, and I was in no hurry to rush through it.

That's when I noticed little rainbow bursts of light dancing across his face and neck. I looked behind me, to see where the light was coming from, and saw nothing but fields and pale blue sky. Looking back at the boy, I saw my own arm sparkling in the sunlight. I twisted it from side and side and watched the reflected light play across the river's surface, and grass, and the limp children. It was beautiful in a most macabre way.

I left the kids right there at the riverbank, and leapt through the field, taking shelter in a nearby abandoned barn. The blood of four innocent people sloshed around in my gut.

"Think, Alice, think" I spoke as I again began to pace the length of the barn. "Is this how it's going to be now?"

As if by speaking the question aloud, I was assaulted by the answer in a flood of images like watching a hundred motion pictures all cut and spliced together with no storyline. In some scenes I watched myself from a distance, moving inhumanly fast upon my victim, and tearing my teeth into their delicate necks. It was horrifying to see myself like that - so strong and graceful even as I moved in for the kill. But worse, was the images I saw from my own perspective, because they came with all the bodily sensations too - the warm skin under my hands, the hot blood in my throat, and the sharp twist in my gut as the blood hit. At the same time as I was repulsed by the horror of so many deaths, I was also incredibly excited by the sight and smell of so much blood.

"I guess it is," I spoke defeated, and fell down to my knees sobbing and covering my face with my hands. My breathing was irregular, and my back heaved with each awkward but deep inhale. I carried on that way for a long time, unable to stop the flood of emotion. When I started to regain control, I lifted my head and wiped my cheeks with the back of my hands and was surprised to find them bone dry. Apparently I had a few things to learn about my new body.

Forced to face facts, I sat up again and tried to set a plan. I always felt better with a list of things to do.

"Clearly, staying in the cities wont do. I'd end up eating all the people around me and someone is bound to notice when a whole apartment complex ends up dead." I tried to laugh a little at the absurd idea of little old me taking down a whole building worth of people in just a few days. But it wasn't very funny. "Even if I managed to spread my meals across a city, a rash of murders like that would surely get noticed. Yes, sticking to the outskirts of towns makes the most sense. Feed once, and then move on to the next town before feeding again. By the time any police force put the murders together and started to look for me, I'd be long gone."

Just as I was making these plans, I was again interrupted by another flash vision. A large man with a axe gripped tightly at this side was coming straight for the little rickety barn I was hiding in. He had the look of revenge in his eyes.

That was all the warning I needed, true or not, I was leaving.