Crimson Glimmers at Night

[Diana's POV]

I made a mistake.

I fucked up.

I really fucked up.

As the moon loomed over my head, I could hear the sound of leaves rustling, the flapping of an owl, and distant howls here and there.

Every time I heard a noise that was too close to my liking, my head snapped towards the direction it came from and I was ready to defend myself.

Breathing heavily, I ignored the vibrations of my phone inside my pocket.

It was either my parents or my siblings trying to reach me but I didn't have the strength or courage to talk to them without revealing everything.

Paranoid about everything, I felt like at any moment, someone was going to come and hunt me down.

"Please," I whispered into the unknown, "I didn't mean to do it. I really didn't."

Collapsing to my knees, I looked down at the ground, and in my peripheral, I could see the blood that shimmered with a faint glow as moonlight touched it.

It wrapped around my hands like a pair of violent gloves.

Hearing the sound of a bush rustling, I looked over with my nails suddenly coated with ice, ready to shoot out ten freezing-cold bullets.

Seeing a raccoon pop out of the bush, it stared at me for a solid ten seconds before scurrying away.

I let a deep breath out.

"I didn't mean to do it," I repeated myself.

On the surface of my hands, I didn't just see blood; I saw the face of the person whom I had attacked in the middle of my blood-thirsty frenzy.

I fully intended on protecting myself from others but all it took was a single drop of human blood to touch my lips and it was like the other side of me awoke.

The alien blood cells that coursed through my veins, they activated and it was like I could hear the sound of a drum beating in my ears.

As the drum got louder and louder, the desire to taste blood increased.

I ran as quickly as I could, hoping to escape to the forest that no human would be and I was praying that I'd be able to survive the moment of blood-thirst without harming anyone.

But just before I reached my destination of self-imposed temporary solitude, I came across this guy who had scraped their skin against this fence as he was trying to leap over it.

'What was he even doing in the middle of the night?'

It was like I was trying to blame him but if he could've chosen a better time to act so suspiciously, he wouldn't have been hurt.

As the smell of fresh human blood wafted towards me, my body involuntarily turned towards it, and like a predator, I attacked that man with my bare hands, scratching and clawing at him until finally, I began licking the blood that was on my hand.

When my thirst was quenched momentarily, I looked down at the hell that I had caused and I did the only thing I felt like I could do.

Run.

I needed to run before the guy who I attacked woke up and called for the authorities.

'If anyone discovers I'm a vampire... I'm dead,' I told myself as I sprinted into the forest.

Now we are here, in the middle of the forest, miles away from the city.

I'm surrounded by nothing other than nature and yet, I'm paranoid that at any moment, a vampire hunter of the old will reappear just to deal with me.

"Please," I begged once again to nobody, "I didn't want to be a vampire. I didn't choose to abandon the human race. Please, I'm begging you world, I just want to live a normal life. Why must you always punish me?"

Clenching my fists, I let out a scream so loud that it shook the trees around me and I could hear the critters around me scurrying.

"Why me? Just leave me alone," I requested as my body drooped toward the ground.

Tonight was already a mistake that I couldn't take back.

But now the box has been opened and I can no longer seal it.

My urges for blood will reappear.

When that happens, one mistake will turn into two, two will turn into four, and four will turn into a life of hiding.

The faces of my family flashed in my head as I closed my eyes, crying about the future I felt was inevitably approaching me.

In my moment of desperation, I uttered words I was too ashamed to ever ask before, "Someone... please help me."

'Help me.'

They were simple words but I never dared to ask this of anyone before because I always felt like my battle was my battle alone.

There was no need to involve others and have them hurt as well.

That's why I pretended to be okay when I wasn't.

That's why I pretended to have moved on when my heart was at an even lower place than the day before.

But this was too much.

I've never hurt anyone before and now, I had the blood of a human coated on my hands like an animal incapable of having morals and intelligent thoughts.

This was far too much for me to bear alone.

"Help me. Please. Anyone. Just... just help me," I said as my forehead planted against the dirt.

Then like an invasive creature that wasn't in its natural ecosystem, a face, and a name popped up in my head.

One that I was too familiar with and one that I had been actively trying to run away from for the past month because he was all that I was thinking of.

"Bell," I muttered as I lifted my forehead off the ground.

Wiping the dirt off, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at all the missed calls and text messages that I hadn't read.

"Sorry," I said as I began texting Peaches.

I didn't know Bell's phone number but if anyone in my contacts would have it, it'd be here.

I knew that the two of them had been getting rather friendly lately and although I didn't feel comfortable at the thought of someone who was my previous enemy getting along with my best friend, I didn't have the galls to tell her not to speak to him because at the end of the day — he didn't do anything wrong out of his own volition and it was the demon curse mark that ruined my life.

"Please Peaches, please be awake, please be awake, please... yes. Thank you," I let out a loud sigh of relief.

She responded, "Hey bestie, what's up?"

"Can you give me Bell's phone number?"

"Wow. No, 'Not much. How about you?' first? Whatevs. Here it is—"

"Thank you so much for this. Next time we go to get boba, I'll pay for the both of us."

"No problem. What do you need his phone number for anyway?" she asked me.

As I said before, I'd rather not involve my loved ones with my struggles and worries because it'll make the weight on their shoulders heavier so I lied and responded, "Nothing too important. I just wanted to thank him for gifting me that egg."

"It's been over a month since he did that and you're only thanking him now?"

I wrapped up the conversation as quickly as I could but I could sense that she didn't believe me because let's be honest — who would?

Rather than waiting for the next day to get his number from her, I had just texted her way past midnight when she knows I'm usually asleep by.

"Sorry, Peaches," I said, clasping my hands together, hoping that my apology would reach her. "I'll make it up to you."

Crossing my fingers, I began texting the number that she had given me.

I wrote an entire paragraph before deleting it.

I wrote a different paragraph and then deleted it once more.

I tried being formal and casual.

I tried making it sound urgent as well as making it seem like it wasn't a big deal.

I did so many variations of it that I understood I'd never get it completed at this rate.

Shaking the nerves off, I mustered up the strength to tap on the final resort.

As the phone began ringing, I looked at the number displayed on the screen, partially praying that the receiver would pick up the call.

The other side of me didn't want him to pick up because, despite his warning, I had failed to keep Pandora's box closed.

If I just never tasted human blood for the rest of my life, any and all vampirism urges would've been suppressed.

I would've received nothing but the benefits.

But ultimately, I did fail to uphold the promise I made him.

Now with no option left, I was calling the last person that my past self would've expected me to reach out to out of my own free will.

"Hello," said a clearly tired voice. "Who's this?"

I dropped the phone, surprised that he picked up the call even though that was what I was hoping for.

"Hello?" he repeated, confused why no one was responding.

Pulling myself back to my desperate reality, I grabbed the phone off the ground before he hung up the call.

"Hey," I said with nerves coursing throughout my body, shooting up my spine, and shocking my brain.

There was a moment of silence where I patiently waited, even gulping in the midst of it.

"Is this... Diana?" he asked, sounding like he was confused about whether or not he was imagining it.

No, Bell, this isn't your imagination.

"Yes. It's Diana."

"Uhm... okay? What's... up, Diana?" he sounded like he had been hit with a shot of coffee, and his tired voice had vanished.

"I... I... so..." I tried to find the words but the closer I got to confessing what'd just happened, the more guilt I felt.

And so, despite Bell patiently waiting for me to complete my sentence, I was unable to utter anything that wasn't incomprehensible fractured gibberish.

"Diana," he said my name so sternly that my useless mouth closed and waited to hear whatever it was he had to say

"I don't know what's wrong but for you to call me... it must be bad. If you can't tell me over the phone, then just give me your location. I'll come to you and we can talk it over in person," he told me.

I opened my mouth, prepared to tell him that I didn't need it and would be able to say what I wanted to say but as silence left my mouth, I bit my lip and shook my head.

For the moment, I needed to throw away whatever pride and ego I had.

"Thank you," I told, sharing my location with you.

"You're welcome. I'll be there in twenty minutes."