Three months earlier
The last thing I remember from my other life were two coal black eyes staring down at me, a sharp pain in my neck, then nothing.
In that order.
I gasped as my eyes flew open, the cold sweet air swirled around my nose and pinched my face. The calm breeze gently fondled the tall, gangly grass that reached over my head. I lay there for a moment staring up at the close-to-dawn sky, not seeing the stars nor the slither of moonlight, instead a very different scene; a young blond man and a short, black-haired girl skipping along at his side, were making their way through a forest towards a huge white house. I couldn't stop looking at the blond man, his striking dark red eyes strangely mesmerising. The girl at his side started humming a song I found vaguely familiar, and in my annoyance at her for interrupting my staring, I spared her a glance and gasped: she was me! Well, she was very close to me, she had the same hair and posture but her skin was ghostly white, her eyes a bizarre scarlet colour and above all, everything about her was heart-breakingly perfect.
I watched till they reached the door of the white house then my vision started to go hazy and I was unceremoniously dumped back into reality. By now the sky had started to lighten and birds were starting to chirp in the dense trees surrounding my little meadow. I lay there until I could hear a dog barking and its owner shouting at it. I jumped up and ran at the speed of light away from the dog-human duo and into the trees, my ears expecting the hollow thump of my heart and hearing nothing-well everything really, instead of the even beat of my heart, I could hear everything for a mile around me, and I realised that, in my hast, I had miscalculated the distance of the barking, the dog and its owner wouldn't reach clearing for another five minutes or so. Then I smelt it. The warm juicy scent of the owners' blood. Horrified, I bolted away from the meadow and scampered up the nearest tree. From there, at the top of an immense pine tree, I could see everything for miles around, the forest around me stretched on for acres and acres, the only thing cutting into it was the low glint of streetlamps shutting off in a near town. Being my new goal, I let go of the tree and pushed of in a flip to the ground and galloped away at a break-neck speed.