Be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

VAMPIRES AREN'T REAL .

That was what I kept telling myself as I watched the people around me scream and run for their lives, only to end up screaming some more as creatures who couldn't and shouldn't be real bared their fangs before going for their victims' jugular, literally.

And then it was my turn.

Ice crept over my skin as a creature's red-rimmed gaze zoomed into me from a distance even as it continued to drink its fill from a dying man's neck.

You're next , the monster promised with its soulless eyes, and I believed it.

I knew those words would come true if I didn't start moving... now!

Terror strangled my throat as I whirled around and ran without looking back, heart thudding against my chest, and lips trembling in the effort to hold back my sobs—-

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

The lights in the entire facility suddenly went out, and darkness unleashed an unseen storm of fear and despair to swallow us whole.

Another second later, red eyes were all we could see, and they were everywhere .

Everywhere, oh God!

People started crying, but this only made the creatures laugh as if relishing the way their presence had sucked out hope from their prey.

Because that was what we were now, weren't we?

Prey.

And when the killings started again, that was what I held onto.

We were prey now.

ALL OF US were prey now, and so if I wanted to stay alive, I needed to think like I was prey and act like it. Prey meant I was the weaker species, and to be weaker was to have no pride. Prey meant knowing when not to fight back and just...hide.

So get your butt moving, Juliette Hidalgo, and HIDE!

Another round of screams razed my ears as I dropped to the floor and crawled.

I crawled over torn limbs that squished and squirted under my palms, and I kept crawling even as I slipped and landed face down on invisible pools of blood. I crawled even as my heart shattered into pieces, and I kept crawling until the corner of something sharp and painfully hard nearly punctured a hole into my scalp.

A table.

I wanted to cry because this stupid table made my head sting, but I also felt like crying in relief.

This should do, right?

All I needed was to hide behind it and keep those red eyes from seeing me. All I needed to do was to hunker down and stay down until—-

'Dios Mio, ayúdame!" My God, help me!

The voice was frail and hoarse.

Elderly.

The sound made me want to throw up because I knew if she kept making noises like that, she wouldn't survive this .

Whatever this was.

"Padre nuestro que estás en los cielos—-"

No, no, no.

Prayers worked, yes, always. But prayers were no excuse to do something ill-advised. I opened my mouth to beg her to not make any noise—-

"Sanctificado sea tu—-AAAAAAAAAH!"

But I was too late, and all I could do was grit my teeth as my soul wept and grieved.

They got her, oh God.

They got her!

And then I heard it.

SNAP!

Even when I couldn't see anything, I knew that was the sound of her neck breaking, and now all I could hear was some creature slurping her blood like her body was nothing but a vessel to drink from.

And sooner or later, all of us would be like her—-

( PREY )

The word roared to the forefront of my mind, and I had to swallow back a sob as I came to understand just how much the world had changed in one horrifying blink.

Things that could only happen in fiction were now a part of my reality.

And I had no idea why or how it started.

All I knew was that if I wanted to survive—-

I needed to remember I was prey.

(prey, prey, prey, prey, prey)

The word seemed to have taken on a life of its own, but its incessant taunting inside my brain was gradually being drowned out by the gruesome sound of blood being guzzled all around me.

It was as if I had found myself suddenly transported to some stupid chug fest, only...what they were gulping down here was blood—-

(human blood)

—-and it was coming from living, breathing sources that screamed.

Oh God, how they screamed and screamed, and I could feel myself growing numb as the creatures drank and drank and drank. Fear was slowly losing its grip on my heart, and it was all because my own world was fast turning bleak and dire.

It would be my turn soon, wouldn't it?

I should stop fighting the inevitable, shouldn't I?

There was no way out, no way to survive—-

BANG!

The doors of the basement flew open, and screeches of outrage ripped through the air as artificial light shot through the room...and the few of us who were still alive were forced to witness the sickening amount of carnage that a horde of blood-drinking creatures had been able to wreak in a mere matter of minutes.

Evil was real, and this was what it looked like. This was what it smelled like. And as bile rose to my throat, that was when I heard what evil sounded like.

Pssst.

My gaze collided once again with the same pair of red-rimmed eyes that had me within its crosshairs from the very start.

No, oh God, no.

The creature still had its fangs buried under someone's throat, and of course I knew.

God, oh God.

Of course I knew it was her .

The lady who prayed with her mouth instead of her heart.

And just like I was afraid of, the woman was old.

A tiny, fragile, white-haired lady, her eyes now lifeless, and her body eerily pale. The creature held her up by the back of her dress, her feet dangling a few inches off the ground as it bled her dry.

I could hear a fight - a battle even - breaking out around us, but I couldn't seem to make myself care. I knew we were being rescued, but I couldn't seem to make myself move because—-

I should've been next.

Even without the creature saying a word, I knew—-

I should've been her.

Because it had been hunting for me in the dark, and I should've been the one who was dead if the old woman hadn't distracted it.

I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry!

Regret tore my heart asunder, and agonizing guilt stole my ability to move as I watched the creature carelessly fling her body away as it wiped the blood off its mouth. Its red-rimmed eyes locked with mine, but I was still frozen in my place—-

I'm sorry, oh God, I'm so, so sorry!

It leapt into the air and came for me with bared fangs, but just as I closed my eyes and waited for the demise that I deserved—-

Nothing happened.

Just... nothing.

I waited for God to punish me, but I remained on my feet, untouched.

Am I already dead?

I almost started thinking that the world had suddenly stopped turning, but then something penetrated my grief-stricken thoughts—-

If time had indeed stood still, then why was the sound of breaking bones and furious cries still scorching my ears?

Something else must've happened, and that something else was why I was alive...wasn't it?

"Are you alright?"

The voice was deep and strong.

Tough and harsh.

But somehow, it was also the warmest sound I heard in my entire life, and I knew at that moment that I would never ever forget this voice.

"You can open your eyes..."

My shoulders started to shake, and tears trekked down my cheeks even with my eyes still squeezed shut.

"You're safe now."

Sobs rocked my body as I finally found the courage to open my eyes, and oh God, oh God, oh God—- I couldn't even count the number of dead bodies scattered all over the floor, with its once-beige tiles turned hideously dark by blood.

I started to sway as a spell of dizziness turned my vision blurry. Why, oh God? Why was I still alive when so many of them were dead? I should've been—-I should've been, oh God, I should've died instead of that poor, old woman—-

I'm so sorry, I'm so, so, sorry!

My knees gave out without warning, but a pair of strong arms caught me before I could fall, and I finally remembered to lift my gaze.

"It's alright..."

I stared up at him like an idiot and dazedly wondered if I had indeed died. How else could I explain being in the arms of a man so beautiful he appeared almost otherworldly?

His silvery blond hair was longish on the top, but cut mercilessly short on the sides. It made him seem dangerous and enticing, and the cold shade of his blue eyes only added to his lethal appeal.

A part of me wondered where all of these flowery descriptions were coming from, and if perhaps this was my brain's way of coping with what was happening. It was far, far easier to describe how the sheer gorgeousness of him made my heart ache...rather than come up with words to illustrate how heinously gory my world had become.

"You have nothing to fear. It's over."

I wanted to believe him, but with everything that happened still tortuously embedded in my mind, I was just so desperately afraid to let myself hope and believe that his words were true.

"You're safe now," the man said again, and though I did hear the words, it was just so, so hard to trust him.

I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry.

I had a sudden urge to tell him the truth, and my lips slowly parted. I needed to confess and owe up to my sins. I needed to tell him, someone (anyone!) that I wasn't supposed to be alive, and that it should've been someone else who was safe, but when no words would come out, it was then I realized...I still wasn't completely alright.

"You're in shock."

His voice didn't sound gentle, but somehow, it felt that way to me.

"Try taking deep breaths."

Every word was uttered curtly. And yet it still sounded so warm to my ears.

"Don't think about anything else. Just concentrate on breathing. You're alive. That's all that matters."

My eyes started welling up again.

I was alive, yes, and that was the problem. I should've been dead, and it was the old lady who—-

"It's alright."

He wiped my tears away with his thumb. It was my first time to feel a man's touch on my skin, and the sensation was so startlingly hot, it effectively burned through my shock.

I was still terrified.

Still confused.

But I was also suddenly, inexplicably, and dizzily aware of the sinfulness of his allure.

"You can trust me. I won't let anyone hurt you."

If someone else had said those words, then those words could have just been that. Words that were only meant to reassure, but never to be taken for a vow.

But because it was this man who said them—-

This man who made my heart skip a beat even when my knees were still weak and shaking in the aftermath of the nightmare I had somehow survived—-

Somehow, I just knew.

It didn't matter if I was a stranger, and this man owed me nothing.

If he said he wouldn't let anyone hurt me, it would be as he promised...even if it meant having to keep me by his side for the rest of my life.