CHAPTER 1 : COME AS YOU ARE

A girl running with full strength in the darkness, while looking back several times. Her body was covered with sweat, the uniform she was wearing was already crumpled and wet from running.

She regretted following her friends to have fun at her friend's house until late. She regretted not carrying a wallet with her until she had to walk. She regretted choosing a shortcut to get home quickly. She regretted not listening to her mother who told her to go home early.

Making her finally have to meet a creature that has been terrorizing her city lately, a creature that has taken away people's lives a lot lately. A bloodthirsty creature. A vampire.

Usually when she passed this street after school, it didn't take long for her to arrive at her home. But why does it take so long to come home now? Why does this street seem endless?

“Aaaaahh! Somebody, please help me!!” she shouted in frustration. Hope anyone can hear her screams so they can help her. No one heard and it made her going crazy. The laughter behind her sounded so scary and loud made her cry.

Just as she was about to give up, she saw a white house at the crossroads. It’s her house. A glimmer of hope came to her and she had to get there as fast as she could. It only took her a minute to actually get to the gate of her house before something pulled her bag so hard that she slammed against the cold street.

The girl groaned in pain, trying to stand up but her legs couldn't move, looks like she sprained one of her leg.

The scared girl heard footsteps approaching her and stopped in front of her. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the figure's legs right in front of her eyes. She slowly lifted her face until her eyes widened at the sight of the figure. A man with a creepy pale face, white eyes and his fangs ready to tear anyone's skin.

Before she could scream, the man lifted her up very easily, then stuck his fangs into the girl's neck in second. Poor girl, she was in pain, wanted to scream but she couldn't, she could only move her legs like a dying chicken. She could feel her blood being drawn out out by the monster. Her head felt very dizzy and she suddenly felt sleepy. Her vision slowly fade away then she—

"Could you please stop reading that book? We haven't even finished all our assignments yet and you're busy reading that book. You don't want Mr. Lee to eat us alive, right?"

The girl lifted her head and looked at her friend who was sitting in front of her and was focused on doing the assignments given by the killer teacher at her school. She rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on! Don’t kill my joy, Uchinaga."

“I won't do it if you start doing your assignment, Kim Minjeong!” Aeri grunted then took off her glasses.

"We still have plenty of time to do it, and Mr. Lee will be back from his vacation in a week anyway so don't bother me." Minjeong held up her book, "I have to finish this soon because it's getting closer to the fun part!"

Minjeong always reads books or stories about vampires almost at every chance she has. The Japanese-Korean girl wonders herself, what's so exciting about vampires? They are fictional characters made by people. She shot an eyebrow up, “Aren't you ever feel tired of reading those books?”

“No.” Minjeong shook her head quickly, "Because I believe vampires really exist, that's why I'm very interested in them." The latter sighed then supported her chin with both hands, "If only I could meet them."

"You and your obsession with vampires is the never ending saga. They are just fictional characters, after all. If they really do exist and you meet them, you'll definitely die even before you can say hi to them."

Minjeong's eyes went wider, "Hey, you can't say that, Aeri! We don't know anything, right? I mean, this universe is so big! And usually a character was made because a real character alive out there!" She pouted, "And you're even thinking about my death. Do you really want me to die? You're so bad as a friend."

Aeri rolled her eyes, Minjeong became sentimental again, "Don't accuse me like that. You know that's not what I mean."

Minjeong suddenly became annoyed with Aeri, she glared at her, "You believe in aliens but don't believe vampires exist."

“Aliens makes sense, vampires don't." Aeri shrugged her shoulders and then did her assignment again which she had forgotten because of Minjeong.

"You! Uh..." Minjeong who was about to continue their debate saw the brunette who didn't seem to care about their topic anymore, she grunted softly, "You are annoying!" Aeri rolled her eyes.

---

Today is Aeri's picket schedule with some of her friends. She was asked to return books to the library. So after recounting the books and making sure that nothing was missing, the girl walked towards the library which was located at the end of the school building. 

The school is not as crowded as before, students have gone home. There were only a few students she saw still passing by around the school. Many EAA are off today except for guitar, biology, and writing club. Minjeong join guitar club so they don't seem to be able to go home together today as usual.

Aeri arrived at the library and she went inside. The librarian, Mrs. Kim is sitting in her usual place reading her book who didn't realize that someone had entered the library. She walked over to the woman and put the books on the regular shelf next to the Librarian's desk, "Mrs. Kim?" 

"Huh?" The woman lowered her book and looked at the student who was quite familiar to her, "Oh it's you, Uchinaga." 

"Yes, I want to return the books." Aeri pointed at the books she had brought, while Mrs. Kim nodded. She took a glance at the book that Mrs. Kim read, Vampire Academy. As she recalled Minjeong had also read that book. Suddenly today the people she met were all interested in vampires, she shook her head. Aeri returned the card that the librarian usually gave to everyone who borrowed a book in the library. 

Mrs. Kim looked at Aeri with a strange look, but the girl didn't notice, "Be careful."

Aeri turned her gaze to Mrs. Kim, looking at the librarian in confusion, "I'm sorry, what?"

Mrs. Kim stared at her for a long time which made her a little uncomfortable, but after that the librarian shook her head with a smile, "Just be careful." 

Aeri scratched her neck, "Oh.. okay." Actually she felt strange but she chose to ignore it. After saying goodbye to the woman, Aeri left the library and walked towards the parking lot, she wanted to go home quickly.

---

Aeri sighed. Always like this when the time to go home, either from work or school. Traffic jam and crowded would be one of many things that Aeri didn't like. Luckily for her, she brought her own bicycle to the school today, so she could use the cycling lane. Even though sometimes she gets annoyed, because there are stupid people walking on the lane.

Anyway, this morning her mother said she had a surprise for Aeri when her daughter back to home from school. Aeri was curious but her mother didn't want to give any spoilers at all. What is the surprise that her mother said? Is her father come home today? Aeri's father is out of town on duty, so they haven't seen each other for three months. What was this the surprise? 

Aeri smiled widely, if it was the surprise her mother talked about, she couldn't wait. At that time, her father promised to buy her lego limited edition exclusive set that was not for sale in her city. She wanted to get home quickly, but she didn't realize there was a group of elementary school kids walking along the lane.

"Watch out, kid!" 

Someone yelling at her brought her back to focus on the lane just then her eyes widened when she saw the kids in front of her. 

'What the they doing in the lane?!'

She panicked and instead of braking her bicycle she turned the steering wheel, so she didn't hit the kids. Yes, she didn't hit the kids but now she's on the roadway. Everyone who was there widened their eyes when a car was heading towards Aeri at a fast speed.

They shouted at Aeri to get out of there, but she panicked more than before. Before she could react, the car crashed into her sending her flying far away from her bicycle and dragged down the street a few meters from the car that hit her.

Her body was full of scratched, all she felt was pain all over her body, her bones seemed to be broken. Everyone started to surround her, some were screaming hysterically. She could still hear someone telling the others to call an ambulance. Fluid dripping past her eyes, it had to be blood. Her body felt stiff, she couldn't move her body at all. Suddenly she felt sleepiness hit her hard.

"Please, hold on. Don't close your eyes." She heard someone, a man talking to her. Aeri didn't want to sleep either. 

What if she fell asleep and couldn't wake up again? There's still a lot she wants to do. 

She hasn't met her father yet, she hasn't seen the surprise her mother gave her, she hasn't collected as many lego sets as she can, she's not in college yet, she hasn't worked, she is not married and has a family, and last.. she hasn't had a chance to tell Minjeong about the feelings she's been hiding for years.

Yes, she likes Minjeong. She likes her since they were in middle school. Her tears fell without her knowing, she wanted to see her parents and Minjeong. She wanted them to be here.

Her vision starts to fade, her chest feels tight and she can't even breathe, so this is how it feels. She felt dying, she would die now at such a young age. Her sleepiness became unbearable. "I'm sorry, everyone." Then she closed her eyes and everything went black. 

She still hear people's voices faintly and after that suddenly everything becomes silent.

"...Up."

"... Wake up."

Whose voice is that?

"Are you sure she's not dead yet?" 

"I was checking her, stupid."

Why are their voices getting clearer? But whose voice is that? Wasn't she dead? How come she can still hear people's voices?

"Hey, wake up!"

Someone yelled at her, and made her open her eyes wide. Aeri took a deep breath, forcing the oxygen into her lungs. After feeling enough to get oxygen she looked around, realized she was lying on the ground and then she immediately sat up. She looked very tired yet panicked, making the two people standing in front of her look at her strangely.

"Am I dead? Am I in heaven now?"

Aeri touched her body, there was no wound at all. She also doesn't feel pain all over her body like before. Her clothes that was full of blood also somehow changed to black.

It was already night because she saw the moon up there, but why could she see so well at night? So this is what it's like to be a ghost? At night your eyes can see clearly. No wonder people say ghosts roam at night.

She slowly raised her head then looked at the two strangers who were now staring at her as well. The girl suddenly felt afraid, they must be angels of death because they were also wearing black clothes like her. Suddenly one of them, a girl, drew her sword at Aeri making the latter widen her eyes. 

"Who are you?" The girl asked, glaring at her. Aeri was confused, why the angels didn't know the name of the person they took her life.

Seeing no answer from her, the red hair girl growled, "Tell me who are you and what are you doing here?!"

Aeri looked at the tip of the sword and she gulp, it looked very sharp and could pierce her skin at any moment. Does she really have to die twice? 

Before she could answer suddenly she felt her body heat up, the air turned tense as if something dangerous was about to come to them.

"Answer my question, could you? If you don't want to give me an answer, I'll slash your neck with my sword!" The girl still kept urging Aeri to answer her even though she also felt something strange around them. She just wanted the girl to answer so she would know if she was on their side or the enemy's side.