She felt the chill of the cold breeze pass by her as she bathed under the luminescence of the moonlight. ’Twas as though eyes as sharp as the falcon’s followed her as she made her quick pace to reach her destination. Perhaps, it was all in her head, a paranoia. Even though, she could not shake the impending doom that felt as if it would befall her. It was in the air, on the ruins she passed by, on the soil which she paced upon, and her heart. Danger, danger, alarms blared in her conscience. She felt as if a predator preying in the dead of night caught whiff of her innocent soul. If she listened closely, she could almost detect the steps that were made, steps other than her frightened and timid ones. She dared not turn to see if anyone followed, in fear that she would find someone with malicious tint in their eyes; She was afraid to find someone with a ghoulish heart who intended to cause her great harm. In the dead of silence, she could hear the echoing footsteps getting closer… growing louder.

“Melissa…” A hiss formed around her. Or had she heard it inside her own mind? She was forced to take in her surroundings, turning frantically in every direction in search of something, only to find nothing. The fallen boulders lay lifeless and abandoned; fallen boulders from buildings that time had withered away in its continuous attempt to adapt to the civilization which constantly changed and migrated to somewhere new. Everything stood still and yet she felt as if there were orbs in the midst of these dead rocks and they seemed to follow her every movement. It was then that she had finally taken notice to the thick fog that had formed around her, enveloping her in an attempt to hide her away from the danger to come… or hiding away the monster before it could find the right moment to strike. Was she moving at all? Has she been on the right path to meet her dear Dimitri? Would she be able to take a glimpse of him before she were to be swallowed up by the evil tormentor following at her heels or worse, before she were to be discovered by the hounds that come hunting for her once she is discovered to be missing from her chambers?

She came to an abrupt halt when a slight breeze touched the base of her neck, as if her follower had snuck up from behind her and stood close enough for her to feel his breath against the back of her neck. Her pursuer had frozen her in place with terror. Her fear, which she had tried to keep in bounds had flowed out of her in the form of her tears and begun to stain her cheeks. She forced her feet to push forward in a great struggle despite the ominous threat looming behind her. “Dimitri?” She called out into the darkness but she received no answer. She felt a breeze swoop past her, blowing her hair around her face. Her pace quickened and she started running in a direction which she could not see. In her frightened haze, she made a misstep over a slab of rock and tumbled in heap of mess on the ground among the ruins, in an ironically manner with which she had felt an oncoming destruction, an abandonment similar to that of the fallen edifices around her. Throwing her head up off of the ground where she fell, she glimpsed a stiletto through her tear stained gaze. At that moment, she felt her whole world come crashing down around her; she felt her blood freeze upon seeing the shape of the man that would subject her to her doom.

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“Melissa?” A familiar dark, hoarse voice drifted towards her. Relief flooded her whole being as she recognized the voice of her salvation. The man who had pledged himself to her and had vowed to take her far away from the hell she was forced to call home. In a heavy effort to bring herself off of the ground, she realized in passive thought that a pebble had penetrated her right foot. As she placed one foot after the other, she ignored the dull throb that shot up from the origin of the wound on her foot. Her pain was numbed and easily overlooked when she had set her sight on her Dimitri. He made no move to come near her as she fought to reach him. He watched her with sharp, predatory eyes that were as cold as ice… with no soul. But she overlooked all of the signs of danger as it was thrown at her with each step she took. The throb on her foot shouting at her as a siren. She ignored it all, because Dimitri was everything to her. Dimitri occupied her whole heart and he would never cause her any form of harm.

With two more steps left, her feet gave from under her and just as she was about to fall, two strong arms had shot out to grab a hold of her before she ungracefully hit the ground once more. She looked up in pure content and happiness to be in the safe arms of her love. It was then that she finally took notice to the blood red eyes that peered down at her. The instant thought that crossed her mind at that moment was that she fell into the arms of the monster that had been tormenting her and he had finally reached her. But no, the beautifully sculpted face which she gazed upon was the one of her Dimitri. “Who are you?” A whimper came from her trembling lips. She pathetically clung to the idea that he was an evil apparition of her lover; Dimitri was not the demon whom everyone had warned her about repeatedly. Dimitri gave her a crooked smile, looking down at her pitiful form with triumph. He had managed to conquer the Melissa at last. As the corner of his mouth lifted into a taunting smirk, she caught a glimpse of his elongate canines. Dimitri slowly leaned down to level with her gaze and said in a dangerously low voice, “Only a heart of a foolish human would fall into the darkness which I had set up for you, pet.”

Her tears drenched her face in a silent wail. This was not happening, her world was not taking to a terrible turn. Her love was not the monster that stood before her. “Why are you doing this?” she managed to breath out in her endeavor to make sense of the occurrence unfolding before her. “What are you?” She asked once more, with a stronger sense. Tilting his head, he stroked her cheek to admire her. “Your beauty matches no other’s, I will not deny that. But you were as foolish as the rest of your kind to fall for a demon waiting to take your soul.” Upon the surfacing of those words, her sobs came out uncontrollably. She could not accept the impending pain that would come with his betrayal. She felt her heart stop as Dimitri lowered himself towards the soft skin of her neck and his elongated canines tore down into her exposed flesh.