The sun rose higher.
Elena hadn't moved from her spot beneath the fallen tree. Her breath was shallow, not out of exhaustion — but from the ache.
The hunger.
Not for food. Not for water.
But for blood.
Her skin tingled painfully under the sunlight that filtered through the leaves. It wasn't burning her like the stories say — but it was weakening her, draining something deep inside. Her body, unfamiliar. Her instincts, foreign.
She was alive.
But no longer human.
She curled up tighter, pressing her forehead to the cold moss.
"I don't want this…"
She wasn't a monster. She didn't want to be.
But something inside her was whispering. Begging.
She remembered her mother's tear-stained face. Her little brother's soft breathing. Her father's distant silence.
She remembered their warmth.
And it tore her apart.
As the day passed, the forest remained quiet. No footsteps. No voices. No creatures crawling out of graves. No fangs in the dark.
Just her.
She was alone.
Elena thought about the news — how no one else had risen from the dead. The villagers died in before me or after me, yes… but none of them had come back. Only she had.
Why?
She clutched her arms tightly. Her mind returned to Greenland.
The snow.
The ice cave.
The strange, clear ice crystal she had brought back.
The taste of it on her tongue.
That must have been it.
That was where it started.
Not a virus.
Not a curse.
But something older.
An ancient bacteria, frozen in time beneath Greenland's ice.
And now… flowing inside her.
A tear slid down her cheek.
She wasn't a vampire from legends. She wasn't like the movies.
She was something new. Something unknown.
Something the world wasn't ready for.
And she was the only one.
For now.
---