[ ⚠️ Warning : This chapter contains violence, mention of blood, abuse, spooky atmosphere, assault ]

VENICIA ROJAS

When the American author, Jasmine Warga said, "I wonder if that's how darkness wins, by convincing us to trap it inside ourselves, instead of emptying it out. I don't want it to win,” I am pretty sure she didn't mean this kind of darkness I am facing in my friends' house. My phone's battery died a long time ago and this house has to lose electricity right now. I don't understand why I can't see a single soul here. Where are these people?

"Emery!Arlen!Celestia!Lavern!"

Calling their name is not helping because they don't seem to be home. But it's only 8 p.m. Where did they leave at this time?

"Keith?" I ask the last person I think that can be here and suddenly I hear a sound coming from the corridor.

"Keith, are you home?" I ask to be sure but maybe I hear a bone cracking sound from the same place.

What the hell is happening here?

I take a step back because it's too dark in here, I don't want to get myself in any kind of trouble on my first day here.

"Look Keith, if you are trying to scare me, I'll kill you myself. This is not funny," I have no problem telling them that I am scared. I'm not going to be a fool by walking right into a death trap which I hope is not the situation here.

I want to kill them for not coming to pick me up. I had to come here by taxi all alone and this luggage is too heavy for me to carry alone. Now they are messing with my poor heart. Damn, I've started to get chills by now.

Suddenly I hear someone walking through the corridor as the woods are cracking one by one. This is the worst prank of theirs because I am this close to passing out.

"For God's sake, stop doing this to me. I won't talk to yo-"

"Venicia!!!" I think I heard someone calling my name and it sounded like Keith's but heavier. Why does he sound so terrified?

I leave my luggage and start walking towards the sound. I should have bought a torch but who knew this was going to happen to me.

"Keith, are you there?" I call for him again hoping he will say something.

"Save me, please. Save me," and this time I start to feel frightened.

"Keith, what's wrong?" I rushed towards the corridor looking for him. The darkness has lessened than before or maybe my eyes have become used to it because I can see a little of the house. A spark of light is coming from Keith's room. Maybe because of the open curtains unlike the other rooms.

"Keith?" I ask again following the little amount of light. I keep a hand on my heart because it's thudding so bad, it's weakening my knees. I haven't been a scared girl in my whole life. As an orphan, I had to do everything alone. My orphanage looked haunted enough for me to get scared of anything else around me. But this house I know which was always full of lights is scaring the shit out of me for some reason. I am getting chills time by time and the cold weather, the snow outside is making it worse. I open Keith's half open room's door and it's making the same cracking sound I heard when I walked in a while ago. I wish everyone was here to welcome me tonight but they looked so pissed that I was going to stay here. I thought they loved me but their faces said otherwise. None of them seemed to like the idea of me staying with them. But what would I do? I didn't have anyone to stay with. I couldn't afford an apartment right now before finishing college.

Gladly, my boyfriend insisted that I stay with him but now that he is not in this country, I can't help it. No one even wanted to stay home when I came. Should I leave? But why didn't Keith leave? Why does he need me to save him? Why isn't he answering me now?

I look around his room and see the specious bed. It's wooden with white bed sheets, the curtains of his room is white too which are currently flying for the breeze coming from outside bringing some snow with it. I see everything in his room in its place but not him. If this is a prank then he is so dead tonight.

"God, why is the window open?"

I walk towards the window and pull it close because his room's floor is full of snow. He will have a hard time cleaning the mess.

Why am I even worrying about him? He hasn't even talked to me since I decided to move here. I lock the window and move backwards to light up the lamp beside his bed. But it's not giving any light. I tried to switch it on again but suddenly I heard the window opening again.

"What the hell is wrong with the wind tonight?"

I walk towards the window and pull back the glass, lock it. I don't want to stay here anymore. I have had enough. I will negotiate with my boyfriend later. I place my hand on the window glass looking at my reflection, it's hazy yet clear. I look paler than before. What will I do with this petty life depending on other people?

"Welcome to abode, my sweet bloodbag," I flinch hearing a husky, hoarse voice which actually belongs to Keith but it's different from what I usually hear.

As I'm about to look behind me, I see his reflection on the window.

He is right behind me, his tan face is so pale, there is a cut above his cheekbone, it's bleeding. But his eyes, oh my God, his eyes are glowing red, puffy. He doesn't look like the Keith I've known for years.

"W-what happened to your face?" I feel my throat drying from the view in front of me. I feel his cold breath calling on my neck, making me shiver more. He is so taller than I am, he looks like a monster.

"What do you think, bloodbag?" Wait, why is he calling me that? It's just a costume, right? Not for real. Suddenly I feel him pressed behind me, I've become so cold as his body presses on mine. I want to push him, run back outside but I can't move myself. It's like I've a spell on me that's making me freeze but it's only fear.

"W-who are you?" I can feel my lips trembling, I don't know how I am still standing on my feet still now. I keep looking at his eyes on the window so I notice his movements and I see him moving towards the crook of my neck, slowly but painfully. I have to move because whatever this is, this is not normal. I need to leave right now. Something is wrong with my best friend. As his cold, chapped lips graze my skin, he whispers, "I am your death, Venicia. Have you gotten it already?" He smiles like a devil and I see fangs coming out, they weren't there, they have just come out right in front of my eyes.

Keith is not a human. He is a...monster.

I scream out loud and start to turn around but he grabs my hair and pushes my head on the window glass so hard that I feel my forehead cutting.

"How did you think it would be easy to run?" He licks the back of my neck and I cringe at both the sight and feeling. "Let me go," I scream but I don't think it is of much help, I don't know what he will do to me. Will he eat me alive? Drink my blood? Or do something worse than these?

I feel his nails digging inside the back of my neck making me winch in pain. I am crying right now because that's all I've got. I'm in front of my best friend, pressed on a glass by him, his nails digging inside my neck. What can be worse than this?

I think he can hear what I am thinking because he says, "The worst is yet to come when I eat you piece by piece. You taste so good even from the skin," he kisses my neck and I try to push him away but he is too strong, too tall for me to stop him. "Keith, are you out of your mind? What are you doing?" I know this is not Keith, it can't be him. He is not like this. He has never touched me this way. He adored me always like everyone else in the house, more than this. I can't believe it's him. He again grazes his teeth on the crook of my neck chuckling like a beast, "Taking advantage of your kindness." That's the last thing I hear before feeling his teeth digging inside my neck. It's not just his fangs but his whole teeth inside my neck.

My breathe gets stuck and I push backwards placing my hands on the window, "Please fucking...stop," it's hard to speak but I can't help. It is worse because I think my neck is tearing apart. "I...beg...yo," I start to fall on my knees but he grabs me with his other hand, still pushing my head on the window.

"Stop moving or else I'll make it worse," he says and I try to move more and more. I know I am pissing him off but I need to get away.

He finally snaps and leaves me, chuckling, licking my blood from his mouth, "Run if you can, the fear will only make your blood tastier."

I try to run but my body feels so heavy. Even though I try, he grabs a fist of my hair and makes me fall on the ground. He hovers over me and I try to get up only for him to grab my throat, choking me to death almost, "Don't waste your sweet precious blood, leave it all for me," he says and tears my shirt with his other hand. I try to stop him but he does it anyway. My bare flesh is in front of his face now, he licks the edge of my breast peeking from my bra.

"Someone save me, please," I scream but no one comes. All I can hear is his terrible laugh, his weight on me is making me feel like I've multiple people on me at once. I am trying so hard to push him away but he grabs my hands, pins them on the floor and bites the place he was leaking a while ago. My body bucks up in pain and my head starts feeling dizzy. My world is spinning around and the pain inside my body is immense.

"Please, please," I keep moving my head side to side and he leaves my hands, not stopping the sucking. I pull his hair but he tears the rest of the clothes from my body leaving me in nothing. The terror of what he can do anytime right now gives me goosebumps but I can only scream because pushing him away is not an option I can choose right now. And I hear him saying, "My sweet little bloodbag, be my good girl and beg for me to stop more and more while I take you to my own hell."

He licks my lips and I keep shaking under him knowing this is the last time I'll be breathing.

"Please, stop... Someone save me. Please!!!"

I feel him inside me and my whole body shudders in pain. I try to move my hands, but I can't feel my body enough to do anything as he starts pushing himself inside me. "Keith, I beg you. Stop this. I can't take it," I cry and cry forgetting everything else. But he doesn't stop. He adds his biting on my neck and drinks more of my blood. He mumbles, "If you only knew what I wanted," before attacking on my neck again. I think he is tearing apart because I don't know where exactly it is hurting anymore.

"No...no... please...noooooo!!! Someone save me!!!" My plea for help gets lost as I have given up fighting for myself. I don't know why my stomach feels this way every time he pushes inside me. I feel like throwing up right now.

Is this what death feels like?