Chapter 1: The Night Didn't Ask Permission
Midnight in Lorne City arrived quietly, like a guest who had learned how to open doors without knocking.
Elena Voss learned long ago that midnight was not the time to feel safe inside her own head.
She stood beside her apartment window, palms resting lightly on the cold glass as she watched the street below. The city lights shimmered faintly on the wet pavement even though the sky had been clear all evening.
People liked to believe darkness was empty.
Elena knew better.
Sometimes darkness was simply patience wearing a disguise.
The clock on her wall blinked 00:00.
Not 23:59. Not 00:01.
Always exactly midnight.
She had never fixed the clock because part of her was afraid that if the time changed, something else in her life would start changing too.
A windless silence settled inside the apartment.
Elena inhaled slowly and pressed her fingers against her temple.
The dreams were coming again.
They always came when the city fell asleep but her mind refused to follow.
The dream was never complicated.
She walked through a forest that did not belong to any map she knew. The trees were too tall and stood too close together, as if guarding something buried beneath their roots. The air smelled like rain that had already happened but forgotten to leave.
The moon hung low in the sky, bleeding red light through broken branches.
And there was a man standing far away, watching her without moving.
She had never seen his face clearly.
But she was certain he was tired of standing there.
Tonight the dream had changed slightly.
The man had spoken.
He had called her name.
Not loudly.
Not urgently.
Just once, like someone checking whether she was still listening.
Elena opened her eyes.
Her phone vibrated on the small table beside her bed.
Unknown number.
She stared at it for a few seconds before picking it up.
"Hello?" she said.
Silence answered first.
Then breathing.
Slow and measured. Controlled enough that she suspected the person on the other end was deliberately keeping themselves calm.
"Who is this?" Elena asked.
"You have been dreaming about the forest."
The voice was male. Deep enough to be noticeable but not harsh. There was a careful precision in how he spoke, as if every sentence was chosen after considering several alternatives.
Elena frowned.
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"You are lying," the voice said.
There was no accusation in it. Only certainty.
The calmness bothered her more than anger would have.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"My name is Aric Valen."
The name meant nothing.
But somewhere inside her chest, something shifted faintly. Not fear. Not recognition. Something closer to the sensation of standing on the edge of a memory you could not reach.
"What do you want from me?" she said.
A silence stretched long enough for her to hear the faint hum of electricity inside the apartment walls.
"I want you alive when the red moon returns," Aric said.
The statement was delivered as if it were a simple weather prediction.
"That is a very strange thing to say to someone you don't know," Elena replied.
"You are not someone I do not know."
The answer was immediate.
Her heartbeat stumbled once.
"Then what am I?" she asked quietly.
There was hesitation on the other end of the line for the first time.
Not long. But real.
"You are the girl who was not allowed to exist," Aric said.
The call ended.
The silence that followed felt heavier than the conversation itself.
Elena stared at the dark screen of her phone.
Then she exhaled a short, humorless laugh.
"Great," she muttered. "I am either cursed or talking to a very dedicated psychopath."
She placed the phone on the table and stood.
The refrigerator light flickered when she opened the door.
Inside were vegetables she had forgotten to cook and a carton of strawberries she bought because she believed adults should eat something that was not instant noodles occasionally.
Not blood.
Just fruit.
She closed the refrigerator.
The wind outside stopped suddenly.
Not gradually.
As if someone had taken a breath and decided not to release it.
Elena felt the change immediately.
Her body reacted before her mind did.
Slowly, she turned around.
The apartment felt different.
Not louder.
Not darker.
But attentive.
Like something inside the room had decided to start listening to her movements.
She counted silently to five.
Then turned fully.
The window leading to her balcony was open.
She was certain it had been closed.
A man sat on the balcony railing.
He wore black clothing that absorbed the streetlight around him. His skin was pale enough that the night seemed to cling to it. Dark hair fell slightly across eyes that carried a strange, exhausted stillness.
There was nothing aggressive in his posture.
No theatrical vampire elegance.
He simply looked like someone who had spent a long time staying awake for reasons he did not enjoy.
"You hung up on me," he said.
Elena did not speak.
Because she knew this man was the voice from the phone.
Aric Valen tilted his head slightly, studying her the way one would examine a difficult equation.
"You should pack a bag," he said.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because tonight the people who are hunting you decided that waiting is unnecessary."
Far below, somewhere in the city streets, a church bell rang once.
The sound was wrong.
There was no church near this apartment block.
Elena's stomach tightened.
"What people?" she asked.
Aric's answer was very simple.
"They are not human in the way you understand humanity."
"That does not sound comforting."
"No," Aric agreed. "It is not meant to."
A faint scratching sound came from behind the apartment door.
Not loud.
Patient.
Measured.
Like something testing whether the wood was weak enough to break.
Elena did not move.
"What are they?" she asked.
"They call themselves the First Hunger."
The name meant nothing to her.
"What do they want?"
Aric's gaze shifted briefly toward the door before returning to her face.
"You."
"Why me?"
He was silent for a moment, and when he spoke again his voice was lower.
"Because you are the only living person carrying the last fragment of the red moon's blood."
The words settled inside her chest like cold dust.
"What happens if I stay here?" she asked.
"They will not kill you quickly," Aric said. "They prefer opening a person slowly until the thing sleeping inside decides whether to wake."
Elena pressed her hand lightly against her stomach without realizing it.
"What am I?" she whispered.
Aric answered without hesitation.
"You are the child of the red moon."
Silence followed.
The city outside continued its life without caring that something ancient might be approaching this building.
Elena closed her eyes.
Then said, very quietly, "Give me ten minutes to pack."
Aric nodded once.
He remained sitting on the balcony railing while she moved through the apartment collecting things she was not certain she would need.
Behind the closed door, the scratching sound continued.
Patient.
Hungry.
As if it was waiting for permission.
Elena paused once near the bedroom mirror.
For a split second she thought she saw someone else standing behind her reflection.
Someone tall.
Watching silently.
When she turned around, the room was empty.
She swallowed and continued packing.
Outside, Aric spoke without looking at her.
"You are handling this unusually well."
"I am pretending this is a nightmare," Elena said.
"Does it work?"
"Not very well."
He made a sound that was almost a laugh but not quite.
Ten minutes later, Elena stood beside him on the balcony with a small bag slung across her shoulder.
Below them, the streetlight closest to the apartment flickered once.
Then twice.
Then went dark.
Aric's eyes narrowed slightly.
"They are already inside the building," he said.
"How many?" Elena asked.
He thought for a moment.
"Enough to be interested in killing you slowly."
Elena nodded.
"Great," she said. "I am beginning to regret my life choices."
Aric turned toward her.
For the first time, something faintly unusual appeared in his expression — not warmth, not kindness, but a strange protective calculation, like someone deciding whether a fragile object should be placed in a safer position.
"Do not be afraid of me," he said.
"I am afraid of everything tonight," Elena replied honestly.
That answer seemed to satisfy him.
Aric extended his hand.
"Then let us leave before the night decides it owns you."
Far inside the apartment hallway, something knocked softly against the door.
Not trying to break in yet.
Just testing.
Waiting.
Elena took Aric's hand.
The skin of his palm was colder than human warmth should have been.
And together they stepped into the city night that was already watching them move.