Romona Vasquez followed her boyfriend, Mathias, into the graveyard, a picnic basket under his arm as he led her deeper and deeper through the maze of the dead.

The moon sat full in a black sky as gray towers of clouds rolled overhead silently. The old graveyard was a maze of weathered tombstones and crypts. Dead leaves littered the ground, the gardens had grown wild and unkempt, and cobwebs decorated the cemetery suggesting that the place hadn't been attended to for quite some time.

Romana tried to enjoy the fresh air, but her lungs refused to work correctly. Nevertheless, she did her best to enjoy her time outside of the hospital. Or at least she had been until she came here.

She felt a little claustrophobic. The shadows flickered and danced as they entered, pressing in from all sides, threatening to crush her under the weight of the darkness. It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn't heard a thing the whole time they were here. There was no wind, bird calls or even the sounds of insects. The silence was deafening.

Romana clutched at Mathia's arm as a chill went down her spine.

"Hey, are you ok?" Mathias asked sweetly

"Yeah, it's just creepy here." Romana smiled back at him. "Why did you pick this place?"

"I thought it would be romantic, out under the stars together for our one-year anniversary.

"Oh my god, you remembered!"

Mathias led her to an old worn tree, leafless and barren. His face was an emotionless mask.

"Of course, I remembered. How could you think I would forget our one-year anniversary? From the first day we met, I knew you were special. That there was no one else like you in the whole world. That's when I knew I had to make you mine.”

That day had been exceptional. It was the first time in her life she had felt alive. When she was two years old, she started to have chronic fatigue, and as she got older, things only seemed to get worse. She was constantly tired and unable to concentrate on anything, often falling asleep in the middle of her classes. She couldn't even hold down a job because she was liable to doze off in the middle of a shift.

Eighteen doctors and five hospitals had each given her a different diagnosis, with another regimen of pills. By age fifteen, she had learned that the doctors didn't know what she had.

In some ways, the school had been worse than the hospital. People expect to be miserable in a hospital. The other girls picked on her. They called her Bulemia Girl even though, unlike her, most of them actually were bulimic. Between the bullies and teachers who didn't give a shit, she had always felt disconnected from everyone around her, like a freak, an outsider. It had left her feeling helpless and angry all the time. She regained a semblance of emotional balance after she had taken up gardening.

But then she met Mathias. He had been sitting in the hospital's blood bank's waiting room when she stumbled upon him.

He had smiled warmly - a genuine smile, eyes and all - as he listened to her share her story, shyly at first, before spilling the beans. He had engaged her, and when she was with him, she just felt more alive.

Pulling out a blanket, Mathias laid it out just under the tree, dropping the basket down on the ground next to him. Romana responds to this with a warm smile as she cuddles up to him.

"Something about this place makes me think of...new beginnings. I just feel at home here." Mathias went on.

"How does a graveyard make you think of new beginnings?" she giggled.

"That's actually why I brought you here. I feel like it’s time to enter the next stage in our relationship. Make it more permanent, you know?”

She felt her cheeks redden as she wondered if he was going to propose. She had only just graduated high school she wasn't ready for that but what came out of her mouth was.

"Awe, Mathias, you are so romantic."

“Always.” Mathias responded sickenly sweetly, "Could you grab the food from the picnic basket for me? I've got a surprise in there for you."

She opened the picnic basket expecting to see a ring, roses, or some other romantic gesture from the bottom of his heart. Instead, she was surprised when she found rolls of duct tape sitting nestled inside the picnic basket.

“Um, Mathias? What is…this?” Romana asked.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She turned around in time to see Mathias shove a white cloth into her face covering her mouth and nose. She struggled to pull his hand off her as the cloyingly sweet smell clogged her airways, and her vision went black.

When she awoke, she was lying down on the ground and Mathias was on top of her removing her shirt.

"Mathias, what's going on?"

She tried to struggle, only to notice her hands were bound together with duct tape.

"It's your apotheosis, your evolution beyond your transitory human form." he raved like a lunatic.

He ran his hands up her legs, over her body, through her hair and across her face before he promptly ripped open her shirt. He stared at her greedily as he removed her bra, his eyes never leaving her face.

"Mathias, what are you doing?!! Stop, get off of me!! Let me go!!" she screamed as she struggled to get away from him, the duct tape digging into her wrists as she struggled.

"Can't you see I'm trying to saving you?"

Ramona paused at his words. Mathias chose that moment to lean down and bite into her shoulder. She screamed as she tried to twist away, but he held her firm. She felt his teeth break her skin, a cold pain shoot through her veins, an unnatural feeling.

Mathias pulled back, licking her blood from his lips as he groaned in a very sexual manner.

Romana's vision blurred as tears threatened to roll down her face. She was confused and disorientated, but mostly she was just angry. She was angry that the person she cared about and trusted betrayed her, and she was angry at herself for falling for him, and she was angry at herself for being so weak.

“This planet is doomed. When the Conjunction occurs, hundreds of monsters will pour into this world, this mundane world will swell with magic, and even if the humans somehow survive all that, the armies of the Alnune are coming for this planet. They will corrupt this world, but you and I will survive and thrive. We will harvest this doomed world before we abandon it."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Ramona shouts as she struggles against her restraints with all her might.

"I will transform you into my immoral queen of the night, and I shall be your king!" Mathias whispered into her ear.

Romana felt the duct tape binding her wrist begin to weaken as she pulled them apart with all her strength. She stared at Mathias as he sat on her hips and looked down at her. She watched her blood dripping from his lips as if in a dream. Two fangs decorated his smile as, He leaned back, his body writhing orgasmically.

“You have no idea how much fun it is to stop pretending to be human, its delicious.”

He gave a broad, creepy smile, his inhuman nature on full display as he leaned down to kiss her.

"Why fight, Darling? You will love it, I promise. I'm offering you immortality, power beyond your wildest dream, pleasure that you can't --"

CHOMP

Romana bit into his lip with everything she had as she ripped off the duct tape with strength she didn't know she had. Mathias screamed as he tried to pull back. But Romana didn't let go. Instead, she grabbed onto his face with her hands and twisted her head to the side, tearing a chunk of his mouth off with her. Blood splashed over her head and torso as Mathias screamed, recoiling in pain.

"You Bitch!!!" he roared as he stumbled backward. He looked shocked and enraged. His entire lower lip was gone, and she could see his lower jaw bone. Romana didn't pay him any mind as she shot to her feet or tried to. She stumbled the first time as her injured shoulder had gone numb without her noticing. Not letting that stop her, she pushed off the ground and sprinted into the maze of tombstones hoping to lose him. Even as she ran, the numbness in her shoulder only seemed to be growing.

"You Bitch!! I am going to tear your legs off and drink you like Koolaid."

She twisted around, and to her shock, Mathias's face was regenerating the damage and repairing itself like magic.

"GET HER!!" Mathias screeched as she turned and ran away.

Several creatures shot out of the darkness around Mathias, chasing her like a pack of hungry dogs. She thought they were a pack of dogs. But as they ran into the light, she saw them properly. The things were no dogs but rather something infinitely more terrifying. The monsters, for that, were the only thing she could think to call them. They looked like small, emaciated, hairless children with long yellowed claws and black teeth. Revulsion and terror rippled through her body as the monster rushed at her like a group of children out of a serial killer's nightmare as she ran into the darkness as fast as her legs could carry her.

Their hissing and screeching sent shivers down her spine as she ran.

Her heart pounded in her chest louder and louder until she was unable to hear anything else. She shot through the graveyard faster than she thought was possible for her, maybe faster than humanly possible. She felt like she was going to explode as energy flooded her limbs like never before.

She heard the monsters hissing behind her as she lept over a grave and ducked behind tombstones and crypts as she tried to move faster. Tears slid down her face. She wasn't just scared she was terrified.

Her vision swam as she raced through the graveyard. The monsters chased after her moving from shadow to shadow as they chased after her. Somehow one of the monsters appeared in front of her. She screamed as the monster launched itself at her, its yellow claws extended, and its horrendous mouth opened wide as it flew towards her.

Panicking, she shoved her arms out, trying to push the monster away from her, not expecting it to do anything. Instead, her palms impacted the monster's torso. The monster's skin was cold and clammy, and she felt something crunch under her palms as she hit it. Oddly enough, the monster was lighter than she expected, and her little shove sent it slamming into a nearby tombstone with a sickening Crunch.

Romana stared at the monster. While she wasn't a doctor, she was pretty sure spines weren't supposed to be able to bend at a near ninety-degree angle the way the monster's was.

She stared down at her hands in wonder.

"What the fuck?" she whispered.

Looking back towards the ghouls, she wondered what exactly Mathias had done to her. Disgusted and exhilarated, she shuddered before throwing up. Turning around, she ran out of the cemetery as fast as possible, hoping for god knew what.