Autumn woke to the ear-splitting beep of her phone alarm. A carefully chosen, aggravating beep that would induce a headache quickly if one did not move quickly to shut it off. It was her ‘get up now, you slept through the nice alarms’ call. And after months of it, she had very thoroughly conditioned herself to get out of bed and race across the apartment to shut it off.

After several seconds of fumbling with an unresponsive touch screen, she finally managed to slide the icon on her phone to shut off the hell-noise. Her temples were pounding like the drums of the deep, partly from the alarm, and partly from the rum and coke that she’d forgotten to have with actual water.

She groaned, her head falling back on the well-worn pillow of her also worn mattress.

Summer showing up at her door had left Autumn so shaken that she’d drank far more than she intended, just to get the thought of it out of her head. She knew she’d have gotten no sleep if she hadn’t, and with everything that had been weighing on her lately, she couldn’t afford to be late to work again.

Speaking of which...

She forced her body into motion, drawing herself up and across the short length of her apartment. She wasn’t late yet, but she didn’t have the luxury of dragging her feet this morning. A quick glass of water, a shower, and she would be off; she could grab a breakfast sandwich at Starbucks once she was safely there.

While choking down precious h20, she noticed her phone was blinking. A message from Holly or Jay...?

No, a reply to her email!

She quickly finished her glass of water, her head hurting only slightly less, and tapped her phone, opening the email:

‘Hi there! Thank you for your email. I’d be happy to help out!

So the website was my mom’s. She passed away last march, but I’ve been taking care of the website for her for a few years. I think this is the first time I’ve seen an email in this inbox since I took over for her! No idea how you found the site, but congratulations LOL!

My mom was super passionate about vampires, ever since she saw that one Tom Cruise movie, and she always believed they existed in the world somewhere. I never believed her, but it was her project and she collected tons of old books and things over the years, so I wanted to keep this up in her memory.

Anyway, sorry if that’s TMI! LOL. You wanted to know more about the 1961 entry! So this was a weird one, and TBH you reached out at the perfect time! We’ve been going through my mom’s collection of old books and things to put them away in storage. When I saw your email, I checked her notes, but I had a hard time finding anything on that one. Most of the entries from the site come from things in published books, but there was nothing on Uitat in any of them. I can’t even find this place online!

After digging all night through old boxes that we were about to put away, I finally found this thing I think she got her information on: a diary that seems like it belonged to a teenage girl who lived in that town. It’s not in great condition, but I looked through it and found a few sections that talked about the vampire she said she saw. It’s interesting stuff, but it’s mixed in with pages and pages of her talking about singers she likes, and what seems to be fiction she was writing, so take it with a grain of salt.

I took some pictures of parts that seem relevant. Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck with your class, I hope you get an A!’

Autumn blinked in confusion at that last sentence before remembering that her initial email had mentioned she was researching for a class on vampire history. At the time, she felt she’d needed a cover story. Maybe she still would, at this rate.

Attached to the email were three images, clearly phone camera pictures of an old hand-written diary. She had a sneaking suspicion about this diary, and she wanted to pull them up on her computer and start reading them now, but she knew she had to get moving to get ready for work.

Thankfully she was only scheduled for a four-hour shift today. The suspense would make it an agonizingly long four hours, but once she was done she could get a drink and read them at her leisure in the café.

She speedran her shower, and grabbed her work outfit, doing her best to brush it into some semblance of clean. She dressed, grabbed her phone, wallet, and keys, and was ready to go.

It was only then that she noticed her hands were shaking.

Her apartment door stood before her, and she was paralysed from the idea of opening it. Memories of the night before flooded her, weighing her limbs down as if her blood was lead.

What would she do if Summer was right there, on the other side? Could she possibly react in time? Was the door even something that would stop Summer? There were so many stories of vampires needing to be invited into people’s houses, but that felt too silly to be how it actually worked.

Autumn’s hand travelled to her neck, feeling the jugular vein at the side. With each heartbeat, she felt the blood pumping through her. One bite from that woman could have her bleeding out, dead in moments...

She then felt the cord around her neck, and followed it down into her bosom, where her grandmother’s cross was hidden beneath her clothes. It had protected Eve, all those years ago. Autumn had to hope it would do the same now.

She pushed open the door, emerging into the bright sunny morning, with no vampires to be seen.

Autumn let out a sigh of relief.

The mall was quiet; even more than usual for a Thursday morning. Autumn entered, as she always did, through the staff-only side door, and made her way down the short stretch of mall realm leading to Starbucks. The store was conveniently located, so that many of the staff working at the other businesses would pass it on their way in; most of their regulars were such.

Autumn passed through the open door, noticing with relief that Chase was nowhere to be seen; the last thing she wanted was to get chewed out for missing yesterday while her head was still pounding. Jay was at register, while Amy was pretending to be busy at bar while she texted on her phone.

“Morning!” Jay greeted her enthusiastically. “Feeling any better?”

“Somewhat,” she croaked. “If you aren’t busy, could you whip me up one of my usuals? And an English muffin?”

“No problem,” he said, moving to do that while Autumn went to the back room to clock in and put on her apron. As expected, Chase was sitting in the backroom, looking over his binder of important manager stuff. She expected a reminder of the company’s call-off policy, but he only looked up and gave her a curt nod; he must have been busy catching up on something before the mall opened.

Jay was waiting with her coffee and muffin back at the register.

“Thanks,” Autumn said, taking the hot sandwich and digging in. She was starving.

As soon as she had taken her first bite, the lights of the mall came on, and the faint sounds of terrible pop music started playing from afar. Normally she would have cursed at the timing, but with how dead it was, she didn’t expect anyone to come in for the minute it would take her to finish the sandwich.

Jay shifted on his heels for a moment, then said, “Hey, I was wondering... did you have any plans for this weekend?”

“Hmm?” Autumn blinked, looking up at him. “Why do you ask?”

“This one band that I really like is going to be playing a show nearby. Well, not really nearby, about a forty-five minute drive from here. But the venue is cool and the drinks are good. I was gonna go with a friend, but he bailed on me... Oh, uh, the show’s this Saturday at eleven-”

At that moment, a customer walked in, and whatever Jay was talking about was no longer registering to Autumn.

“Good morning!” Summer said, quickly making her way to the register. “Great, there’s no line. I’m running a little behind, but I just had to come by and get another one of those lattes!”

Autumn had her hands - and thankfully her mouth - full with her sandwich, so Jay took Summer’s order. She did her best to look busy, tired, and disinterested, but as soon as she had taken her last bite, Jay had stepped away from the register, leaving her alone with Summer.

“Autumn,” said Summer, with a bright smile, “how are you today?”

“Been better,” she mumbled.

“Ah, I’m sorry to hear that.”

An awkward few moments passed. Thankfully, as Summer was the only customer, her drink was quickly ready, with Amy calling out her name from the other side of the bar.

“I hope your day gets better,” Summer said to her, as she stepped away. “See you around!”

As the goth girl vanished out the door, Jay wandered back over.

“She was here the other day, wasn’t she?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“I thought so. You seemed to be getting along well when she first came by. Did something happen?”

Autumn turned to him. “Why do you ask?”

“I dunno, you just seemed like you were upset,” Jay said, scratching behind his ears and looking away. “I thought maybe something happened. Sorry if I’m being nosey...”

Autumn didn’t know what to say, so she just shrugged, then occupied her lips with her coffee to end the conversation. Was she really that readable? If Jay could pick up her unease around Summer, surely Summer herself could too.

She would need to be more careful. This would be a very short investigation if she made herself a target.

The day was thankfully slow, and with Autumn’s thoughts so occupied with Summer and the email, and her body so worn out from lack of sleep, she was ever thankful for any reprieve she could get. Her four hours of labour passed, and Chase let Autumn go. She was wearily hungry, and wanted badly to go straight to the food court and devour a chicken sandwich, but her curiosity at those images in the email was too great to deny any longer.

With a fresh coffee in hand, she sat down in Starbuck’s café and pulled the email back up on her phone, opening the first of the image attachments. Once the jpeg had downloaded over the spotty wifi, she began to read:

‘March 13th, 1961:

School was a dreary affair today, as it has been of late. I’ve been increasingly frustrated with my teachers, particularly Mr Alverson, whose stubbornness is holding me back. Once again, he confiscated my writings and tore them up in front of everyone! I can’t believe this! What does it matter if I write during the slow times of the day? I had already finished my classwork, and my homework has all been turned in on time and with passing marks! The boys in class hardly put in half the effort I do, and yet they are never singled out as I am! I fear I shall never escape this dreadful town and see my dream of being published.

After school, I met with Nancy again and we went to her house, where she showed me some new records. Elvis has grown a bit tired for me, I think, but this new singer, Roy Orbison has captured my heart. My goodness, what a voice! How I wish I could buy records and play them at home!

Nancy also told me of a mysterious man she saw at church earlier this week. Tall, handsome, with fine clothes. She thinks he is a traveller, passing through. She spoke of him with such wonder and excitement, I cannot help but feel she is being overly hopeful.

Next Sunday, if he is still here, I will look for him at church.’

Autumn blinked. No mention of Uitat. Those names didn’t sound Romanian. And no mention of vampires, either.

She opened the next image.

‘March 19th, 1961:

Today, Nancy and I sat together at church, and as she suspected, the mysterious dark man she spoke of was there. She is clearly smitten with him, for she could not stop telling me about all the exciting adventures he must go on, and how she wished she could go with him. It was rather amusing to see her that way, at least at first.

Then, on the walk home, we encountered the man, standing outside the pub. He beckoned us to come talk with him, and though I tried to urge Nancy against it, somehow we found ourselves there. He gave us cigarettes and told us about America and the towering cities there; he is clearly a man of wealth and importance. I felt a strange sense of ease with him, which was discomforting in a way I cannot find words for. Though I did not wish to be there and felt I should not trust this man, when with him I could not pull myself away. Is this how other girls feel when they crush on boys? It did not feel right, and once I was home I was unhappy and wished not to see this man again.

Nancy wishes to see him again. She has hopes that he will take a liking to her and bring her with him when he leaves Uitat. I tried to tell her to have some sense, but she seemed to not hear me. I fear this man’s intentions. I do not wish to see my friend hurt.

Tomorrow I will tell my parents about this man and Nancy’s obsession with him. Perhaps they can do something to help.’

Well, there was the mention of Uitat. It still didn’t tell her much. Was this mysterious man the vampire? It seemed to fit with what she’d gathered about Summer and her powers.

She opened the next image.

‘March 21st, 1961:

Something has happened that I cannot explain. After I spoke to my parents yesterday, and they refused to listen to my concerns, I went to Nancy’s home. Though it was right before dinner, she was not home, and her parents seemed almost simple-minded when I asked them about her.

On my way out, I saw Nancy and the man approaching. They smoked, and she held to his arm. It was strange. Though it is the middle of March, and not chilly in the slightest, Nancy wore a scarf around her neck.

I was angry and scared and confused. I yelled and cried, but Nancy took me and ran her fingers through my hair, the way she always does when I am upset, and she spoke softly to me. And the man sat beside us and did the same. Somehow this soothed me and put my mind at ease, and though I was still afraid, I knew Nancy would not hurt me. She told me she would not, and I could not bring myself not to believe her. It was easy to believe it.

What happened after that, I do not remember. I woke later in my bedroom. I do not seem to be harmed in any way, so I do not know what to think of all this.

I do not trust this man, but I trust my friend and I want to protect her. I pray that this man will leave our town soon and everything will go back to the way it was.’

And that was it. Autumn closed the email and set her phone down, thinking. Some things weren’t adding up, but it was all very familiar. Another girl, worried about her friend, in a situation that she didn’t know how to handle.

There was more of this story she wasn’t getting. How had the woman who made that website decided this man was a vampire? Simply because the girl he was preying on was wearing a scarf when she came home with him? Or that they had seemingly put the girl who wrote this diary in a trance? It fit with what Autumn knew about Summer, and the choker that Holly was now wearing, but to anyone else it was a bit of a leap to go from that right to vampires.

Autumn typed up a quick reply to the email, asking if there was anything more in the diary after that, and hit send.

She was about to put her phone away and get up to leave when it vibrated, and she saw a text from Piper.

I’m ready to meet up for lunch if you are. Wherever you want.

Right! Autumn had been so occupied with the email that she’d entirely forgotten that she was supposed to meet Piper for lunch. And at that moment, as her stomach audibly growled, she appreciated the timing.

She typed up a reply:

Burger World. Just finished at work, I’ll go there now.

She tossed her empty coffee cup in the recycling on her way out.

No sign of Summer waiting for her, thank goodness.

Thirty minutes later, she was sitting in a diner booth, filling herself with a greasy cheeseburger. Her head, which had gradually been hurting less and less over the morning, appreciated it. Nothing cured a hangover better than a disgusting diner burger.

She was nearly finished with her meal when Piper finally appeared.

“Sorry about that,” Piper said as she slid into the booth across Autumn. “Traffic was backed up coming this way.”

“No problem,” Autumn said. “You missed me being grumpy. I’m in a better mood now that I have some food in me.”

An awkward moment passed. Piper chewed on her lip.

“Alright,” Piper said heavily. “First off, I want to apologize. I’m sorry. I’m... a sceptical person. You know that. And sometimes I say things without realizing what it sounds like to the other person. I didn’t mean to say what I did. I don’t think you’re crazy, or that you imagined what you saw.”

It was unusual for Piper to be so quick to apologize. Perhaps she’d changed in the years since they stopped hanging out. Or maybe it was Felicia’s influence pushing her to mend the friendship.

Autumn finished her soda, and set it down. “I accept your apology.”

“I want to help,” Piper continued. “You came to me for help, and I just questioned you the whole time. So... no more questioning. Tell me everything you need me to know, and I’ll treat it as the truth. It doesn’t matter if I have a hard time believing it or not. I know you want to help your friend, and that’s what’s important.”

Autumn swirled a french fry in a pool of ketchup, thinking. Part of her wanted to tell Piper no, and send her home. But she knew she needed help to do this. And Piper was the only friend she had who wasn’t connected to that mall in some way. She couldn’t afford to push her away this time, not when she was offering her unconditional help.

“Alright.”

She told Piper again what happened, starting at the evening two days ago when she was waiting for Holly. This time, she included everything that she saw through that doorway: Holly kneeling on the floor, Summer biting into her neck, the choker she wasn’t wearing before...

She continued, telling Piper what Holly had said as she dropped her off, and how it matched what Summer had instructed her to do. The research she had done online, the story she remembered her grandma telling her, and Summer appearing outside her apartment and the effect it had on her. Finally, she told her about the information she found on Uitat, and the diary pages that that had led her to.

Autumn patiently waited while Piper read the pages off her phone. Finally, she handed it back to Autumn, biting her lip.

“So...” said Piper, “vampires.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll be honest, this is the last thing I expected when I got a text from you out of the blue.” Piper continued to chew on her lip as if it were the last thing to eat on Earth. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say this was hard to believe; it goes against everything I’ve ever known about the world.”

Piper, always the sceptic. Even after promising she wouldn’t question Autumn’s story, she was still doing it.

“I said I’d assume it was all true, so I will,” said Piper. “So the new Hot Topic manager is a vampire, and she’s turned your friend into her thrall. The question here is... what are you - or rather, what are we - going to do about this?”

“I have to help her,” Autumn said. “That isn’t up for debate. Holly has been a good friend to me. A better friend than I deserved. And I’m not going to let that woman get away with violating her like that.”

Piper nodded. “That’s exactly what I expected you to say.”

“Not to mention, who knows how many other people she has under her control like that? Holly isn’t the first person she’s hurt, I’m sure. At the very least, everyone who works in that Hot Topic is in danger. And she’ll keep hurting others unless someone stops her.”

“The question is... how do you stop her?”

Autumn stared at her now-empty plate. “That’s what I’m having trouble with. No one I go to will believe this story. At best, the cops would tell me to fuck off and stop wasting their time.”

“Fuck cops,” Piper said.

“Fuck cops,” Autumn agreed. “The press? They would assume I’m crazy. Any authority figure would write this off, and even if they did believe me, what could they do? We don’t know what she’d capable of.”

“Mhmm.”

“I’m on my own,” Autumn continued. “If I’m not careful, she’ll figure out what I know. And she knows where I live. So as soon as she catches even a hint that I might suspect something, I’m dead. Or worse. And then all of this was for nothing.”

Piper frowned.

“If I’m going to stop her, I need a better idea of what she’s capable of. What weaknesses does she have? I can’t trust the movies and stories about vampires, because she can walk right around in sunlight without a problem. Who knows what else is wrong?”
“Dying from sunlight was never a part of the original vampire legends,” Piper pointed out. “A German guy wanted to make a Dracula movie and he didn’t have the rights to it, so he changed the ending. The original novel has scenes where Dracula walks around in the street in the day, no issue.”

Autumn raised an eyebrow.

Piper sighed. “Felicia... kinda has a thing for vampires. She’s read so many books, seen so many movies. I’ve picked up a lot of information second-hand. Her favourite is Carmilla.”

Of course it was.

“I guess I went to the right place, then,” Autumn said, smirking.

“The original stories, if you look at them from a scientific perspective, are the result of rotting bodies,” Piper explained. “Someone buried in a shallow grave gets dug up for one reason or another. People notice longer hair, longer nails, blood at the edge of their mouth; those are all results of bodies getting bloated from gasses, but they didn’t have that scientific knowledge yet. Gums pull back, making the canine teeth more prominent; they think those are fangs. Mix in religious hysteria, and people think that it’s the devil making the dead walk and feed on blood.”

“And yet, we have a woman here whose teeth literally grew longer before my eyes,” said Autumn. “Who also listens to Evanescence and is a goddamn vegan.”

“I know, I know,” Piper said, again biting her lip. “Granted, being vegan just means you don’t use any products that come from animals. Technically, eating human meat is vegan.”

“If I see her gnawing on my friends arm, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

At the sight of their waitress drawing close, they grew quiet.

“Can I get you a menu, Ma’am?” she asked Piper.

“No thanks,” she answered.

Once the waitress was gone, Autumn said, “I think this goes without saying, but keep what we talk about secret. Anyone could be a spy for her.”

“Of course,” Piper said.

They were silent for a moment. Autumn considered her now-empty plate, and the empty space on Piper’s side.

“You aren’t going to order anything?” Autumn asked.

“My appetite seems to have vanished,” said Piper.

Another awkward moment passed in silence.

“Back on topic,” said Autumn, “weaknesses.”

“Yeah,” Piper said, pointing to Autumn’s neck. “Your grandmother’s necklace? Assuming the story she told you was also about a vampire, it apparently saved her.”

Autumn idly touched the cross through her shirt. “Maybe. I want to save it as a last resort. It might be the only thing she’s weak against, and if that’s the case, I want to use it to buy myself some time if she finds out and corners me. If she doesn’t know it’s coming, it could make the difference between life and death.”

Piper nodded.

“Beyond that... I need to get closer to her somehow. I need to get a better idea of how her powers work. But, if my suspicions are true, even being near her is a danger.”

“What do you mean?” Piper asked.

“Think about the diary entry,” Autumn explained. “The girl who wrote it really didn’t trust that man her friend was so crazy about; she was getting bad vibes from him the moment he showed up. And yet, whenever he was close to her, she kept letting her guard down. She didn’t feel that he was safe, but as soon as he was near her, she was at ease, even as her instincts were telling her to run.”

Piper nodded.

“It’s the same with Summer,” Autumn continued. “I know she’s dangerous, but whenever I’m around her... something happens. I get distracted, I have a hard time thinking straight. I want to trust her in spite of everything I know about her.’

“When she first showed up at my job, before I knew what she was, I was tongue-tied. She was so pretty and nice and I wanted to be her friend and make her laugh. If I hadn’t seen what I saw later, I would have had no chance. And that’s exactly what happened to Holly: she had no reason not to trust Summer, so she was under her thumb by the end of the day.”

“So just being around her has that effect,” Piper said. “She doesn’t have to corner you and dangle a pocketwatch over your face to put you into a trance. Her very presence does it.”

“It looks that way,” said Autumn. “Like Tolkien’s ring; no one can resist it’s corruption forever. Which is why I’m stuck. I need to be near her to figure out how to stop her, but I can’t, because even if she doesn’t figure out what I know, eventually I’ll stop caring about wanting to stop her. And I don’t even know how long I can last.”

Autumn then noticed the way her hands trembled on the diner table. She moved them to her lap, and looked to Piper to see if the other girl had noticed anything. Piper chewed her lip, and her brown eyes were thoughtfully distant behind her glasses.

“There’s a lot to absorb here,” Piper said finally. “I’ll need the night to think about it. I want to help you, but it’s a lot to just jump into.”

“Fair enough,” Autumn said.

“If this is going to go any farther,” the other girl continued, “then I have one condition: I need to tell Felicia about this. Otherwise, I’m out.”

“Did we not just agree to keep this between us?”

“Yes, but Felicia is part of my life,” said Piper. “I can’t keep something so important from her. Especially if this ends up being a serious thing, which sounds more likely the more you tell me about it.”

They work as a pair, Autumn thought, frowning. She’d heard it before. How many times had their study group suffered temporary fractures after one of them gained a significant other? One of the guys dragging along his vapid new girlfriend who they all had to tolerate until the inevitable breakup, or someone vanishing for a while because their new partner was too insecure to let them be around other people for a few hours a week?

Already, this was not what she’d had in mind. She should have refused to let that girl sit in on the first conversation, but with her anxiety about seeing Piper again, especially after how things had ended, a third party had seemed a good idea. But of course, Felicia was Piper’s girlfriend; she was not a third party at all, and it had been a mistake to let herself think that at all.

“Felicia knows a lot about vampires,” Piper reminded her. “She could help a lot.”

It was either the both of them, or neither, and Autumn knew she couldn’t do this alone.

“Fine,” she said. “But be careful. Make sure she understands just how dangerous this is going to be. No one else can find out.”

“Of course.”

Autumn needed to maintain control of the situation. A contingency plan would be necessary, in case this didn’t work out. Or if they ended up compromised.

“I’ll fill her in tonight,” Piper said. “We’ll brainstorm and see if we can come up with a plan of some kind.”

Autumn was dreaming. On a conscious level, she understood this. What was happening was impossible. And yet, it didn’t matter, because she was powerless.

She ran through dark streets, shadows dancing around her. Twisted faces mocked her, bloody eyes and skull-like grins, ever just so slightly away, never quite catching her.

She needed to get home. If she got home, she would be safe. The shadows couldn’t reach her there.

The wind rustled, and within it she heard howls like wolves in the distance. They were behind her. She could feel them, even if she could not stop to look back and see. She knew they were there.

Everyone was after her.

But home was within reach.

The evil things chased her relentlessly, desperate and mindless, reaching at her ankles, driven on by a single need. It didn’t matter who or what they were: they would chase her to the ends of the earth.

Autumn ran up the stairs of her building. She dared not look behind her, at the creatures. They did not follow, and she didn’t question it; she just ascended the remaining steps, and opened the door.

Within, Summer was waiting for her.

She turned to Autumn, her black hair darker even than the shadows, her rich hazel eyes so bright they were nearly amber.

The vampire smiled, and her sharp teeth dripped with red blood.

Autumn woke.

“Fucking hell,” she said through her teeth.

The room was dim, but she could see enough; her shabby curtain didn’t block all the light from the street outside. There were no vampires waiting for her in the dark.

She sat up, wiping sweat from her brow. She was hot beneath her blanket, sweating profusely. Not just because of the nightmare; it had gotten warmer since she’d turned in.

Her phone was blinking: either a text or an email since she’d gone to bed. She flipped it over so the flickering light would not distract her; whatever it was, she’d get to it in the morning, otherwise she’d never get back to sleep.

It was unbearably hot. Though she didn’t like it, she’d have to sleep naked. Her little window-unit air conditioner was years-old by now, and barely managed to keep her apartment at a level liveable for humans.

After stripping down to her underwear, Autumn closed her eyes, and tried to put out the images of her dream. She tossed and turned for some time, but sleep eluded her.

It didn’t help that the object of her nightmare not only existed, but was in a house only a few blocks away from her.

Did Summer sleep? Did she hang upside-down from the ceiling like a bat?

The minuted stretched on.

She blinked, and then, she heard it, like the faintest whisper from far away, or her own thoughts echoed back to her.

Come to me.

It was so quiet, yet impossible to deny. Autumn rose automatically from her mattress, her sheets falling around her ankles.

Come to me.

The voice was coming from outside. That was where she needed to go. That was where the voice was.

Autumn walked to her door, and opened it. At once, the cool outside air hit her, and she was aware that she was still naked.

It didn’t matter.

Here.

In the middle of the street, she waited.

Autumn descended the steps of her apartment building. She walked across gravel in her bare feet, but she barely noticed.

The black-haired woman waited for her beneath a dim street lamp. She was waiting, and her dark-red lips curled into a smile at the sight of her.

“Very good,” she said. “Kneel. Present yourself before me.”

Autumn obeyed. There was no consideration of anything else.

The woman approached, towering over her. She reached down, and Autumn noticed her black-painted nails, before the woman brushed Autumn’s red hair aside from her neck.

“Give yourself to me,” said the woman. Her voice was like honey. “You are mine.”

“I’m yours,” Autumn answered breathlessly.

The woman leaned down and kissed the most sensitive part of her neck. Tingles ran through her body.

Then, the woman plunged her teeth into Autumn’s neck. A brief, sharp pain gave way to pleasure.

A wave of euphoria washed over her. It felt so good; better than anything else she’d ever felt in her life. She was cumming, but the pleasure of sex was an afterthought to this: it was what she was meant for, to obey and be fed upon.

Autumn woke to the aftershock of her orgasm. She sat upright in her bed, in shocked confusion.

“What the fuck was that?!”