The man with the deep voice left to the mouth of the cave, leaving me to struggle against my bindings. A breath caught in my throat. So this was going to be my life now. Held prisoner in a dark cave by a bunch of vampires, bled dry over and over again. There was nothing I could do to escape.

Hours must have passed. Not to mention how long I might have spent unconscious. Tears fell down my cheeks.

“Please…” I cried into the darkness. “I won’t run, I promise… Please let me down…”

There was no answer. Couldn’t he hear me? I just want to be treated like a human, please…

I heard him mumble from the cave’s mouth, but he wasn’t talking to me. “What’s taking them so long… This bitch is starting to get on my nerves.”

No matter how much I pleaded, it was pointless. I was just a sack of blood to these people. That’s all they wanted me for, and they would never treat me with dignity. I would live the rest of my hopefully not eternal life tied up in this cave, bleeding in the darkness.

“Do you want me to save you?” a woman whispered from behind me.

What? I turned my head, but I still couldn’t see anything in the pitch blackness. I never heard anyone else enter the cave. Am I still hallucinating? “W-who’s there?” I whisper.

A hand brushed against my side, sending a shiver up my spine. “Well?” she asked. “Do you want to be free?”

“Y-yes! Please! I’ll do anything, just please let me down!”

The man at the mouth of the cave must have noticed the change in my voice, because he suddenly started stomping back towards us. “Who are you talking to!?” he demanded, but he stopped in his tracks as soon as he rounded the corner, apparently able to see something I couldn’t.

“Anything, huh?” Whispered the female voice. I felt the leather straps on my hands and feet release, and I fell to the ground.

The man screamed, and I heard something wet hitting the ground.

The woman took my hand, helping me to my feet and guiding me to the entrance. In the weak moonlight, I could finally see again.

She wore a short black dress held to her shoulders by string, and black stiletto boots with fishnet stockings. A black cloak was draped over her shoulders atop the dress, and it swayed in the wind along with twintails of her golden hair tied up with blood red ribbons. Her sharp canines glinted in the moonlight as she smiled at me with beautiful red eyes, framed by similarly red eyelashes.

She took off her cloak and draped it on my shoulders. “Cover up, sweetie. What’s your name?”

“Bridget,” I said, tears in my eyes. “Bridget Bridges.”

Yes, my name was Bridget Bridges and I jumped off a bridge. Shut up. And no, that wasn’t why I chose that method.

I could see her holding in a laugh, too. But she resisted. Thank you. “My name is Stacy,” she replied. “Stacy the Vampire.”