Meryl walked down the street and saw her own reflection in a shop window. Apparently, everything was normal. However, that wasn’t the case. No one could see her, touch her, or feel her. In that same window in which she was watching her reflection. There were several high-end televisions visible. They were changing the programs until she saw the newscast. Where the presenter started talking with a trembling voice.

“We have received disconcerting information from various parts of Europe. Where the lunar eclipse has not only left an absolute darkness. According to a European information agency, there have occurred hundreds of attacks across the continent. Currently, the cause for this is unknown. However, some scientists are beginning to say that it could be a secondary side effect of the eclipse. Meryl pressed closer to the glass spellbound while the presenter continued talking after receiving a new stack of papers. New reports indicate that the eclipse has nothing to do with the sudden madness plaguing Europe. North America and South America are also beginning to suffer attacks among its citizens, this could be a pandemic, the authorities urge all citizens to hurry and go immediately to their homes.”

“Dear God, what does this mean Pol?” A woman near Meryl looked at her companion and brought her children closer to protect them. “Should we go home?”

“Yes, I think that would be best. Come on.”

People began to talk on the street about what was happening. Minutes later, a long line of black vans crossed the road communicating with all citizens to go home without any exception.

Meryl just stood there. Watching the people begin to disappear quickly. The vans were from the government. This let the people know that the matter was not something to take as a joke. The news continued issuing new information and new attacks around the globe.

Meryl looked for a few minutes at the long main street that was now deserted, but that heavenly calm wouldn’t last long. In the distance, she saw several figures walking casually. As they approached. The more she found them strange. They didn’t seem like normal people. Knowing what was happening they shouldn’t be acting that way. When they were close enough she could see their graceful features and eyes stained with blood.

“At last,” One of them remarked with a macabre smile. “I have spent years waiting for this day.”

“Don’t rush. The plan is clear.”

“Destroy this empire and take possession of it all,” A young redhead added effusively. “It’s time that the world knows true terror.”

The small group laughed loudly without saying a single word. Then separated running in different directions. The attack had begun and others of their species would join the battle they had won a long, long time ago.

Meryl walked for an hour, and every minute she remembered things. Things about the world after the vampires took over. She watched as increasingly more vampires arrived and listened to some distant screams. Unable to defend themselves or fight, people fell without any effort, and no country was willing to send help because the whole world was suffering from the same attack.

“They are clever,” whispered Meryl watching the horrible place where several bodies lay lifeless. “There is no doubt that they prepared this long ago. It’s amazing that vampires from around the globe have united to do this abomination ... it’s terrible.”

It hurt to see children trying to escape from certain death. Parents unable to protect their family and people screaming in despair. She knew that this was the past, and she couldn’t do anything to change it, but what was certain was that the consequences would be nightmares for a good season.

Sometimes she would see a group of people who were led to a truck by vampires. Obviously, they couldn’t kill them all. They needed them, but they would reduce their numbers to take complete control and create a new era that they would own. Meryl kept remembering things. She knew that there was still the final blow to come. The humans would launch a monstrous biological weapon hoping to kill the vampires. Knowing that the humans would also suffer the consequences of their actions. On the one hand, Meryl understood, because they had already lost the battle, it was a last desperate act that would only enrage the beasts.

“It won’t be much longer…”

The broadcasts had already been completely cut off. On the television, she could only see a gray color that bothered her sight. Meryl kept walking. The noise started to fade with the passage of time. Surely people would have already surrendered.

It was midafternoon when she heard a roar. She stared at the clear sky and saw something in the distance. At first, it seemed like a plane, but Meryl knew immediately that it was not.

“They didn’t just release one,” Meryl murmured thoughtfully. “There were more.”

Her deductions led her to believe that all governments and global organizations knew the danger had always been there. They never said a word, never alerted the population, and now the consequences brought the fall of an old empire and the rise of a new one.

Those strange biological warheads, detonated throughout the area, with a blinding white explosion. It left a sepia tone, not only in the sky but also on the earth and with it all hope vanished. Seeing another small group of prisoners Meryl knew what the consequences would be for both sides. A horribly slow and painful death. That was the destiny for those who were not savvy enough or fast enough to flee. The underground caves and sewers were a good choice to hide for a couple of hours, but not everyone could. Some had been struck down by the virus immediately, and Meryl didn’t realize that the virus used, which killed many. Had come from her own body.

Meryl approached the group that she had seen in the distance. The skin of both species suffered tremendous rashes and large cracks appeared on their skin letting out blood. The screams alone would have left you deaf. For a moment, she thought with a calm that froze her bones. On who really were the bad guys in this cruel story. The vampires had lived hidden and supposedly in the not so distant past, they were hunted and killed, here is the beginning of what became a popular legend. Humans had always caused misfortunes, the wrenching fear of the unknown encouraged them to act impulsively, and the consequences were always destructive. Meryl knew that this time, they had gone too far because now they were not only condemned to live under the iron fist of the vampires. They had also caused a natural disaster that exceeded reality, and with it, condemned all to a ravenous hunger and an endless night.

After walking for a few minutes around the city observing corpses disfigured by the radiation. She believed that there was nothing more to see. Unconsciously she could not help thanking fate for the experiment. Having to live during those early years between hunger and being devoured by one of those beings wasn’t exactly what she would have wished. There was also the concern for her brother George. With the images of the base she now understood that he had been kidnapped and placed into one of the cryogenics chambers. Meryl couldn’t stop the hope that swelled in her heart and made her eyes misty. Her little brother that she loved so much could still be alive. Perhaps he had been as lucky as her and found someone like Caleb.

“Caleb!” She was surprised and suddenly raised her hands to her mouth.

Meryl hadn’t thought of him after recalling some fragments of memory and things still weren’t entirely clear, but her memories were something personal, something private. Were they dating? Married? She didn’t even know why she thought that, but the way her heart beat at the memory of him and how her entire body would stiffen only showed one thing. How crazy in love she was with him and how much she missed him. Before her mind could continue making inferences about their relationship. The strange phenomenon that had brought her there began to disintegrate everything around her. Tall buildings slowly disappeared, in a sinister and beautiful manner, at the same time and the same as before. A new landscape appeared before her eyes. It was another city that was not familiar. She saw people walking down the street as if nothing had occurred and the sky was a clear blue color indicating that they had not yet detonated the biological weapons.

Meryl watched the people who seemed to be waiting for something to happen. Suddenly the sky began to darken. It was the eclipse that started it all and this time, people would not have a chance to escape. Meryl had never seen an actual eclipse, only one transmitted on television, so she couldn’t help raising her head to set eyes on the golden point before it slowly disappeared before the expressions of astonishment of the people. It had been a few minutes when everything was in complete darkness. It was then in the distance that some shouting was heard. The people around Meryl started thinking that an accident had occurred. Suddenly, a lot of people started running. The people who did not know what was happening followed them instinctively, but there was no escape. A large group of vampires had surrounded the center of the place and the slaughter seemed inevitable.

“What is happening?” A man shouted. “Marie, take the kids!”

The woman lunged at the two little twins that were just seven years old and tried to run between the people without any result. There was no way to escape because the pressure exerted by the bodies began to overwhelm them and decrease oxygen.

After a while of listening only to murmurs suddenly a smattering of desperate cries was heard. The people standing near Meryl understood absolutely nothing, because they were not able to see beyond their heads, and listening to people shouting made the rest panic. They pushed and trampled each other. When humans entered into that panicked state they couldn’t see beyond their own nose.

A woman with a bruised face managed to sneak out among the people like a little rat. Huge tears fell down her cheeks and blood had splashed all over her light colored silk shirt.

“What’s going on?” The father of the twin girls shouted, and grabbed the arm of the woman.

“They’re killing everyone! They’re monsters, monsters!”

“What?”

“They ... my god. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. They can rip your head off!” The screaming woman continued, drawing stares from all around. “If we don’t flee they’ll also kill us. Let me go, let me go!”

The man released his grip while still staring at the woman. At first, he thought she was crazy, but her bright blue eyes did not lie to him. There was some sort of massacre going on and the police wasn’t there, nobody would help them. He could not help but look at his wife and two young children. Was this what awaited them?

“We have to get out of here, Marie,” The man whispered in his wife’s ear, “If she’s telling the truth. Good God, I don’t want to think about what is going to happen to us.”

In just a minute everything became complete chaos. Vampires ran through the crowd killing people indiscriminately. Meryl looked at the family again. The mother held the twins and the father stood before them with a pale face and arms extended in a ridiculous attempt to protect them. A woman stood before him smiling and watching them in amusement as she licked her upper lip. Excited by the family, she gave a little leap forward hitting the man, who fell leaving the woman and children unprotected.

“Please, don’t. I’ll do what you want, but not my children. I beg you.” The kneeling woman pleaded as she held two small children, who looked around curiously.

“Stupid. Your children will be more useful than you.”

Meryl was frightened by the coldness of that strange young woman with black hair with purple streaks, because without a second’s hesitation. She backhanded the woman and almost killed her instantly with her hand.

The woman grabbed the children carrying them like sacks of flour and took them to a van. Where other scared children and women with newborns were waiting. There was no reason to dwell on the reasons that they were taking them. It was simply easier to educate children as slaves than the adults, not to mention, of course, that their blood was more appetizing.

“Cruel. Horrible, it can’t be true,” Meryl whispered, “It’s impossible.”

Meryl knew that humans, her own race, were also cruel. She only had to wake up one morning like any other and watch the news of the events that occurred. Rape, murder, beatings, robberies. However, not everyone was like this. There were also the innocent children who at the moment were crying. Desperate and full of a fear that they had never experienced until now.

Meryl couldn’t see more, didn’t want to see more, enough was enough. She closed her eyes tightly hoping that it would end. She preferred to be at the dilapidated lab seeing more boring tapes. Instead of listening to the cries, and the prayers of those who took hours to bleed to death.

Suddenly she felt another earthquake at her feet. She was the only one who felt it and tried to cling to something. Her heart almost froze when she observed her own legs began to fade. The same as she had seen the buildings do.

“I’m going to die. To disappear,” she wailed in terror, “What the hell is this?”

Absorbed by the darkness, she couldn’t see or feel, but she was fine. As if she’d entered a strange trance of a dream in which nothing matters, nothing exists and nothing hurts. It was like being carried by a gentle stream, which cradled you, towards a strange journey to who knows where.

While she made the trip. Caleb was watching over her.

She’s calm, he watched her steady breathing. The fever was gone, but he had seen on the last day, how she was sweating. A cold sweat of terror, as if trying to escape from a nightmare. He almost cursed himself for having made the covenant, but he had no choice. Otherwise, the problems would have been huge. However, that morning in late October, he felt it would all end soon. Meryl would return to him. To the place where she belonged.

Traveling on that dark current. The memories that had not yet returned to Meryl arose from some distant place to come back to their owner.

Meryl opened her eyes wearily and saw Caleb’s worried face. He was as beautiful as an angel. Staring at her with those bright red eyes. It finally felt like she was at home with the only person she wished to be with.