I stood in the middle of the road with rain pouring down; thunder roaring and perilous lightning strike filled the sky. The sound is soothing to my mind. I looked around my surroundings and saw bodies, most dead, but a few were still alive.

I ran to the nearest one still alive and asked what had happened. He responded, “They’re everywhere. They’re going insane and killing everyone.”

I asked who he was talking about, but he suddenly breathed his last.

I stood up and looked around again, still trying to figure out what was happening, and saw a mass of screaming people running quickly toward me. I started running in the direction they were running from; someone stopped in front of me and asked if I’m crazy, then grabbed my arm and told me to run.

“Let go!” I yelled.

“You can’t go; they’ll kill you like they did everyone they caught.”

“W-w-who are they?”

“People are calling them vampires!”

I gasped and tried pulling my arm away, but the man wouldn’t let go. “I’ve to see.”

“No! Come with me, we can find somewhere to hide until help comes,” the man said, and started hauling me like a raggedy doll.

“Stop, let go!” I brought him to a halt.

“I’m trying to save you!”

“I said let me go!” I pulled my right hand all the way back; folded my hand into a fist and struck—hitting him on the nose.

“You crazy!” he screamed. “You’re going to die.” He took off.

I started ahead. I heard yelling telling me to stop and to run for safety, but I ignored the voices and ran toward the mass of screams as fast as I could. There were too many of them. My head spun with everything happening around me. I felt like I was losing my balance and falling into a pit of distress. I walked couple feet further and came to a stop when I saw one of the infected vampires staring straight at me.

“Uta?” My heart dropped. How? No! He couldn’t be, but he was. “Uta, it’s me, Ji-Hye.” I walked towards him. Staring at me, he made me feel small and intimidated.

Not shifting his gaze from my face, Uta stepped over a few bodies I assumed were dead. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat the closer he got. He won’t hurt me. He will recognise me. I was wrong. He held no recognition of me. His beautiful lips were blooded and parted to reveal the sharp fangs, which were ready to attack. He roared like thunder; then he was on top of me. I swear I didn’t see him coming.

At first, I struggled with him, my heart pounding awfully fast. Uta kept on attacking me over and over, and I could see myself bleeding. I’d trouble to breathe because my adrenaline was pumping so fast through my veins. I will die, at least it was by the hand of someone that means much to me. That thought made it easy to stop fighting him off.

I closed my eyes, expecting to feel fangs against my flesh, but an angry voice yelled at me. When I reopened my eyes — Yasu hovered over me. “You can put up arguing with me, but you can’t fight off a vampire long enough to save your own damn life! Up you go!” I took hold of his hand. “We’ve to go.”

“But Uta —”

“Is infected.”

“We can’t just leave him.” I argued.

“Come with me and live or stay here and die.”

“But…”

Yasu grabbed my face between his hands. “This is not up for debate! You either willing come along or I will make you come with me. Am I understood?”

His voice burned with anger because I wanted to stay behind. But his eyes… those eyes I felt I’ve known for so long, shook my very core with an absolute sense of…

Impossible! I was overthinking. The surrounding madness was messing with my mind. Yasu’s eyes would never look at me like that because he hated me.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere—” Yasu got cut off by an unexpected hit from the side.

“Yasu!”

“No!”

“Uta, stop it!”

“He’s your friend!” I yelled as if he could understand. “Get off him!”

“Run, Feisty! Run!”

“I can’t… I can’t leave you,” I said with a sob in my voice that shocked even me.

“Please run for me,” he said again.

I nodded and backed away. Just as I turned, I was face-to-face with five thirsty infected vampires. Their gazes filled with malice, scorching and deep. I felt edgy and frightened. They trapped me. There was nowhere to run, so I didn’t attempt. I looked down at Yasu, who was fighting off Uta, and when he met my gaze, my boyfriend had the chance of having the blood he so desired. I heard Yasu scream. As did I when I felt fangs piercing my entire body.