Chapter 13: The First Night of Eternity
Noah flinched at the memory of the bite—the sharp, electric sting in his right arm, followed by a fire that felt like molten lead pouring into his heart. He had spent twelve hours screaming into a pillow in the Pierce manor, his body convulsing as his humanity withered away.
By the next night, the pain had settled into a dull, predatory thrum. He was faster. He was stronger. But he was also foolish.
"Where are you going?" Leila had asked as he moved toward the door, his movements jerky and unfamiliar.
"I forgot something at my house. It is my mother’s. It is a locket. I promise I’ll be back," Noah insisted.
"Noah, stop," Leila quickly said, her voice sharp. "You can’t just walk back in. You need an invitation now. The threshold is a barrier you cannot cross without a welcome. And your parents... they aren't clueless."
"I’ll be fine," Noah snapped, his new ego swelling. "They won't suspect a thing."
"You are going to get us all killed!" she shouted after him, but he was already gone, moving through the trees with a speed that terrified him.
He arrived at his childhood home and knocked. When the door opened, his mother, Agnes, stood there. Her eyes, usually so full of warmth, widened in horror.
"Where have you been? We’ve been worried sick!" she cried, but as Noah stepped into the light of the porch, she stopped. She didn't invite him in. She backed away, her hand flying to her mouth. "Your eyes... Noah, what have you done?"
"Mother, let me in. I can explain," Noah pleaded, his voice sounding different—colder, hungrier. Tears he didn't know he could still shed welled in his eyes.
"I knew it," Agnes whispered, her voice trembling with a terrifying conviction. "I knew those Pierce girls were vipers. They've made you a monster."
"Mother, please!"
"Duncan!" Agnes screamed, her voice piercing the night. "Duncan, there’s a vampire at the door!"
Noah heard the heavy thud of boots on the stairs. His father appeared, not with open arms, but with a sharpened wooden stake. The man lunged, his face twisted in a mask of righteous fury. Noah didn't think; his new instincts took over. He threw his hand out, sending his father flying back against the hallway wall with a sickening thud.
The horror on his mother’s face was the last thing he saw before he fled.
He ran for an hour, lost in the woods, until he circled back to the Pierce manor. But as he approached, the air was filled with a sound that curdled his new blood.
Elizabeth and Leila were screaming.
The townspeople had found them. Noah froze, falling to his knees as the smell of smoke began to rise over the trees.
"Look there! Another one!"
Noah saw his father, bloodied but standing, pointing into the brush.
Noah didn't stay to fight. He didn't stay to save the girl who had turned him. He turned and ran. He ran for years, empty-handed and hollow-hearted, leaving the ashes of his life behind in the Virginia dirt.