Chapter 1-Turned

Chapter 1: 1-Turned

"What in the actuall hell!" Maisa groaned clutching her head.

She opened her eyes to complete silence. It wasn’t the quiet that came after a long day when the world finally settled and allowed someone to breathe. This silence felt wrong and heavy like the world itself was holding its breath around her.

Her eyes opened to her surrounding slowly. Her vision blurring as she stared at a wooden ceiling above her.

For several seconds, she didn’t move. She simply lay there, trying to understand where she was, why her body felt like it had been dragged through hell, and why every single part of her screamed in warning that something was wrong.

The last thing she remembered was walking from the church. The memory came in pieces, broken and scattered like shattered glass.

There was a road... trees and the weight of the new weapon strapped against her side.

Her father’s voice echoed amidst the fragments, "Our family does not hesitate to draw our blades. We Everhearts protects humanity at all cost."

Her chest tightened. The pain hit her body in waves. She tried to move her arm and immediately gasped.

Her body felt heavy, weak, unfamiliar. Her fingers trembled as she pushed herself up, and that was when she saw the bruises.

Dark marks covered her wrists, her arms and her neck. Her skin was littered with evidence of something she couldn’t quiet remember. Her clothes were torn and dirty, dried blood staining the fabric.

Her breathing stopped. "No..." The word left her lips as a whisper. Her heart skittering in fright.

She looked down at herself, panic slowly crawling through her veins. She was trained for this since childhood so she knew what injuries looked like. She knew what attacks looked like and how to examine wounds, track enemies, find weaknesses but she didn’t know what had happened to her.

She pressed a hand against her chest, feeling the strange rhythm beneath her skin. It felt wrong.

Maisa forced herself to stand, her legs nearly collapsing beneath her. She closed her eyes, desperately searching through her mind.

And slowly, the memories started to return. She remembered leaving the church after training. She remembered the old priest placing the blessed weapon in her hands, the silver blade glowing faintly under the moonlight.

A family heirloom that she had earned through sweat and blood. A weapon that had belonged to generations of Everheart hunters and she remembered holding it proudly.

Her first real weapon. Her father had been so proud. "You’re ready, my child," be had smiled heartily. "Your reign starts today and I have full faith that you’ll make the Everheart name proud."

Those words had filled her with a warmth she couldn’t describe. She remembered walking alone because she wanted to prove she could handle herself.

It was a mistake because a creature moved between trees in a speed faster than lightning. Before she could draw her weapon, a hand covered her mouth.

She struggled for a time, tried to scream for help and fight the beast but she was overpowered in both strength and speed. Then it all went dark.

Maisa’s eyes widened. "No... this can’t be," her voice cracked.

She remembered being in and out of consciousness for goodness knows how long. The cold restraints digging into her skin.

She staggered. The mocking voices flooding her brain. "The famous Everheart heir!"

"Let’s see how strong a hunter is when she has no blood left in her body."

Her stomach twisted. She remembered the sharp, unbearable pain when both her wrists were slit open. The sight of her blood dripping slowly into metal buckets and she remembered feeling herself slipping away, dying.

In the haze she saw a face, a pair of crimson eyes. ’A vampire!’ her mind screamed. The memory came back so suddenly that she stumbled.

His fangs and the sting of the bite from him. Fire spreading through her veins.

"No!" A scream ripped from her throat as she grabbed her neck. Her fingers touched two small marks.

Two tiny scars that was more than enough to chill her to the bones. Her face went pale. "No..." She backed away.

"No, no, no..." she immediately understood exactly what happened.

Vampires did not always kill their victims. Sometimes, when they wanted revenge, when they wanted to destroy someone completely, they did something worse... they turned them.

Her breath shook. She was filled with disbelief. She turned toward the door. She needed to leave that place, get home and to her father. She believed her family would know what to do.

Maisa rushed toward the door, ignoring how weak she felt. Her hand grabbed the handle and she pulled it open.

Sunlight poured in from outside. "Arghhh!" Pain exploded on her skin and she screamed. Her skin burned.

She stumbled backward, falling onto the floor as smoke curled from her hand. Her body shaking and shivering as she whimpered.

For several seconds, Maisa couldn’t breathe. She stared at her hand, at the burn and then raised her eyes to the proof.

Her heart sank because deep down she couldn’t deny it anymore. A vampire bite was one thing but a human who burned in sunlight? It symbolized successful turning.

She was no longer human, she was a vampire. The very monster her family hunts.

A sound escaped her throat, something between a sob and a broken laugh. "No..." it was the only word left in her vocabulary.

She crawled backward until her back hit the wall. "No, I’m not..." she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

Her hand shook as she looked around the small wooden hut. There was no mirror to show her the reflection of what she looked like presently. Only the unbearable truth that she was trapped until the sun went down.

Her eyes landed on a wooden stick near the corner. She grabbed it with trembling fingers and forced herself up.

Slowly and painfully, she pushed the stick against the door handle, barricading herself inside like the thing outside was dangerous like the sun was her enemy. Because it was as she was the creature she spent her entire life hunting.

Her breathing became uneven. She searched the room desperately for her belongings. Then she found it, her phone. It was laying on the ground, the screen was cracked and it barely had any power left.

Her hands shook as she picked it up. The screen lit up. Her family’s names were there on her contact with her father as her speed dial.

The contact list was filled with names of the people who raised her, taught her how to kill vampires and who would come running the moment they heard she was hurt.

Her thumb hovered over her father’s name. Then she stopped. The truth echoing in her head, hammering against her scalp.

She knew what would happen if she called him. Her father would not see his daughter. He would see a vampire. A threat to humanity and a monster wearing his daughter’s face.

He would do what he had always done. He would protect humanity even if it meant killing her.

Her eyes burned with tears. She scrolled down, biting back the cries in her throat. She scrolled past her family, every hunter contact until she found the one person who had walked away from it all.

Aunt Evelyn, the only Everheart who rejected the family legacy. She believed that monsters were not always born with fangs and vampires deserved to live without being hunted because if nature disagreed with their existance, they wouldn’t exist. And it wasn’t upto humans to decide otherwise.

Maisa pressed call. The moment the line connected, she broke down. "Aunt..." her voice cracked.

There was silence on the other end then her aunt’s warm voice came through. "Maisa?"

The relief in her aunt’s voice almost destroyed her. She covered her mouth, trying to stop herself from crying.

"Aunt Evelyn..."

"What happened? Where are you?"

Maisa looked down at her shaking hands. She didn’t know how to say it, how to admit it. The words tasted like poison in her mouth.

"I..." Her throat tightened. "I was turned."

The moment her words fell out. Complete silence enveloped the line. For a moment, she thought the call had dropped.

Then she heard her aunt inhale sharply. "Oh, Maisa..."

And that was all it took for the taps in Maisa’s eyes to open and the tears came. "I’m sorry," Maisa whispered. "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to... I didn’t..." her voice broke.

"I’m one of them now," she forced herself to admit painfully.

"No, dear." Her aunt’s voice was firm. "You are Maisa Everheart."

"I’m a vampire..." Maisa cried. "I’m a vampire, aunt... a vampire."