Bella
The moment I stepped into the forest, the temperature dipped. Not cold exactly, just off, like the air itself didn't want me there.
As I followed the red glow deeper in, the trees thinned out into a clearing, and that's when I realized—I had entered the party.
If you could call it that.
The clearing pulsed with low music that sounded more like a heartbeat than a beat drop. The lighting was barely there, just a dark crimson haze that clung to the ground like mist and clung to the bodies like secrets. Shadows stretched too long. Faces were only half-visible.
And everywhere I looked, people were touching.
Not dancing. Touching.
Fingers tracing jawlines, hands gliding down backs, someone's lips pressed to someone else's neck. Some were swaying, others just standing still, locked in pairs or trios, tangled up like ivy. And it wasn't just casual contact. It was deliberate. Like they were drawing something from each other.
And then I noticed the pattern.
In every pair, one person looked... duller. Slower. Their eyes were heavy-lidded, their skin slightly waxy, like they were drugged or sleepwalking. The other person, always more alert, always more pale, watched them with a kind of hunger.
It didn't feel like a party. It felt like some sick fetish shit.
I rubbed my arms instinctively. Goosebumps broke out across my skin like tiny alarms. Something about this place prickled at the edges of my senses. Like I was standing in a place I wasn't supposed to see.
I had the strong, almost dizzying sensation that someone or something was watching me.
I whipped around.
Nothing. No one.
Just darkness and trees.
But I couldn't shake it. The feeling was still there. Crawling up my spine. Breathing down my neck.
My gut screamed at me to turn back. To run.
But I couldn't. Not yet.
I hadn't found her.
However, the feeling of being watched only kept growing, pressing down on me until I could barely breathe. My heart thundered in my chest like it was trying to warn me, run.
I felt exposed. Hunted. Like something was just behind me, ready to pounce.
That fear wasn't unfamiliar.
It was the same kind of terror I'd felt the night I almost sleepwalked off the dorm roof. Raw. Cold. Real.
My instincts kicked in. Hard.
I scanned the edge of the party, and without thinking twice, I turned and speed-walked out of there.
The moment I crossed the threshold of that eerie red glow, the pressure in my chest lifted. The night breeze hit my face, and I gasped like I'd just surfaced from underwater.
It was gone.
The feeling.
The watching.
Everything.
I bent forward, hands on my knees, gulping air and trying to steady the panic still crawling under my skin.
That's when I heard it.
A sound.
A strange, wet swallowing sound.
My head lifted slowly.
And that's when I saw him.
Stefan.
His head was buried in the neck of Nadia. Nadia, the radiant, untouchable Dominion girl everyone worshipped. She clung to him like she was in a trance, arms looped around his shoulders.
At first, I thought, okay, weird, but maybe just some intense make-out session?
Then I saw it.
The blood.
Trickling down her neck.
And then he pulled back just a little enough for me to see the gleam of fangs before he sank them in again.
My entire body froze.
This wasn't a play.
This wasn't some edgy party stunt.
This was real.
Vampires aren't real.
That's what I told myself.
But the blood was real. The fangs were real. The way Nadia's eyes fluttered like she was on something real.
And then Stefan looked up.
His head snapped toward me like he felt me watching.
Our eyes met.
His eyes were glowing.
Not with a reflection, not with some cool party lens.
With a dark, molten amber light that made my blood go cold.
My legs nearly gave out. But I didn't wait.
I ran.
Didn't care where. Didn't care how loud. I just ran.
Away from the lights.
Away from Stefan.
Away from whatever I had just seen.
I found myself running straight into the forest.
Stupid? Maybe. But running through the open field back toward campus felt like a death wish. He would see me. He would catch me. He would kill me.
I didn't want to die.
The thought looped in my mind as I crashed through branches and leapt over roots. My lungs burned. My legs screamed. But I didn't stop.
I could feel him closing in. I didn't need to hear footsteps or see a shadow. I knew.
But unlike in movies, I didn't look back.
I couldn't afford fear right now. Fear would slow me down.
Even when I tripped, scraping my arm against a jagged branch, I got up. I left blood behind, and I knew what that meant…he could trace it.
So I veered left, plunging into thicker trees, hoping he wouldn't predict my change of path.
I had to live.
I wanted to live.
I couldn't die like this. Not like.
Time fractured.
I slammed face-first into something massive and unmoving.
I stumbled back, falling hard onto the forest floor.
That's when I saw it.
The wolf.
No, not a wolf.
A creature three times the size of any normal one, its fur a shadowy mix of silver and midnight. A dire wolf.
But they didn't exist.
They weren't real.
"St–stay b–back," I stammered, my voice cracking. My hands trembled as I tried to push myself backward through the dirt. My heart beat so loud I thought it might explode.
The creature didn't growl. It didn't pounce.
It just stared.
And that's when everything stopped.
Because I looked into its eyes.
One dark amber.
One silver.
I knew those eyes. I can't explain how, but I knew.
Stefan.
What was he?
I blinked and in an instant, the wolf was gone.
In its place stood Stefan.
No clothes. No humanity in his expression. Just... rage.
Before I could move, his hand clamped around my throat and lifted me clean off the ground.
I gasped, feet kicking, fingers clawing at his wrist.