Prologue

Joana couldn’t explain what was happening to her. It all started with a raging headache, it felt as if she was seeing a million things all at once. She could suddenly hear the bee buzzing on a tree over a mile away, she could hear the frogs croaking near the lake. She could hear the sound of her husband-to-be, Andrew, greeting the guests and ushering them in. He was in the wedding hall, quite far away from where she was. How could she possibly have heard him from such a distance?

The pounding in her head didn’t stop. Instead, it kept on getting louder and louder. She began to hear more sounds; she could now hear the orchestra in the wedding hall playing music. She could hear the pianist playing the big grand piano by the side of the stage. She could even hear the car honking on the road, near the cityside. She could hear her guests chatter, waiting for the bride to walk in through that door at any moment. Why was she hearing so many sounds?

The worst had just started, as at that moment, she felt two of her canines growing bigger and popping out of her mouth. She looked at her hand, as watched as her cute little fingernails grew longer and sharper, turning into claws. She then felt a ravaging hunger in her stomach. But this time, it wasn’t for food. No, it was for blood. Was she turning into a monster? Why would she be yearning to taste the blood of a living mortal, especially that of a human? She knew with all these changes that she would look terrible, and she wanted to see just how bad she looked. She managed to reach for her hand mirror on top of her vanity table, but as she grabbed it and looked into it, there was nothing there. She must be hallucinating, she thought as she gathered her strength to walk towards where her mirror stood beside her window to look again. Again, there was nothing.

She fell back to the ground and held her head in her two hands, unable to contain what she was feeling anymore. The pounding continued and her stomach growled even louder. Just then, she heard a knock on the door. She was thankful to have remembered to lock it before coming in to get dressed.

The person tried opening the door but after seeing that it was locked, spoke to her from outside.

“Joana, it’s time already, and we don’t have all day. The guests are seated and are waiting for you. Hurry up, dear. I’ll be outside the house.”

She recognized the voice. It was her best friend and maid of honor, Sandra. She heard Sandra’s footsteps fading as she left the front of her room and headed down the stairs.

At this point, she didn’t even know if she could get married again today. She could not let anyone see her like this, not even Sandra, her grandmother, her guests, or even worse still, her husband-to-be, Andrew.

She went back to her window, opened it, and reached for the tree right in front of it whose branches had always tugged at her curtains.

She held onto a branch and was able to slowly climb onto the tree. She only wore a slip, as she hadn’t put on her wedding gown before the headache started. She didn’t have a problem getting down, she was familiar with the art of climbing up and down from this tree. Andrew was too, if not how would they have been able to hang out together after curfew?

As soon as she got down, she began to run.

“Joana!!!” She heard a loud voice call out to her as she was running. Damn it. Sandra had seen her, she wanted to leave this place as quietly as she could, so she could figure out what had happened to her, as this was beyond normal. But now, she had been seen.

As Sandra kept calling, she didn’t stop. She didn’t even know where she was going, but she wanted it to be as far away from everyone as possible.

It was as if her legs had betrayed her as she didn’t know that she had headed to the wedding venue. And there she stood, at the entrance of the hall, whose doors were wide open. Someone at the back who had seen her gave a scream, which called the attention of all her guests, including her husband-to-be who stood there with his groomsmen, finding it hard to believe that this was the woman he wanted to marry and spend the rest of his life with.

Upon seeing her, all the guests started jetting out through the other entrance, like they had seen a ghost. Andrew was a bit scared, but he summoned courage and began to take slow steps towards her, thinking that this might probably be one of her famous pranks.

“Joana, are you okay?” He said as he reached where she was, taking one step at a time. She could hear the sound of his blood flowing through his veins, she could taste it already as he came closer to her. He then reached his hand out to her in hopes to comfort her.

Though his hand was right in front of her, all she could look at was his neck. And before she could stop herself from doing something crazy, she took a bite out of that delicious cake.