Chapter One

"Denn die Todten reiten Schnell. (For the dead travel fast.)"

-Bram Stoker, Dracula

It was a bright and night, and, though it was a bit cloudy, the moon was a full circle in the sky. Ester LaGrange, walked alone in the moonlight, down a dusty clay road, speaking quietly on her cell phone as she went.

"I don't know why you don't just come to Canada." The man on the phone said. "It's always easier to work in pairs, and easier to work in a bigger city."

"Why don't you come here, Adam?" Esther said. "You know how I hate the feeling of the freezing cold. You can stay locked in the frozen hellscape all you want, but I'd rather be somewhere warm."

"Where exactly is 'here' anyway?"

Esther's eyes darted over to a road sign, softly reflecting green in the light of the moon. The white lettering was partially obscured by a caked on layer of orange clay. She walked over, and brushed it away.

"Hallowed Ground: Unincorporated." She read aloud to him. "It's in the States. Georgia, to be exact."

"So, the middle of nowhere, basically? I probably couldn't find my way there even if I did want to go to the States"

"You know how I like things." Esther whispered very quietly, though she knew he could still hear her.

There was a click, and a bright light suddenly illuminated the sign from behind her. She could see her own shadow cast firmly against it, rigid with surprise.

"Are you a backpacker?"

Esther quickly turned around, shielding her eyes from the light. It clicked back off.

As her sight readjusted she could gradually make out the stranger.

A woman. Young, not too tall, dressed in pajamas. Her cheeks were flushed, and her breathing was heavy, as if she'd been running, chasing after her. Ester wasn't quite sure how she had managed to sneak up on her. Perhaps she had been too preoccupied with her conversation.

"I'll call you back." She said to Adam before snapping her phone shut.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt." The woman said. "Just saw you walking down the road and was curious. It's a strange sight in these parts."

She was certainly a strange one, that Esther was sure of. Southern hospitality considered, it was still odd to chase after people you saw walking down the road in the middle of the night on a whim.

"I am a backpacker, of sorts." Ester said, giving the woman a careful smile. "I travel often."

The woman nodded. Ester started to continue her walk down the road, and the woman followed by her side, hands behind her back.

"I figured. Not many people travel here, though." She said. "How did you get this far out?"

"Hitchhiking." Ester said simply.

"Are you headed somewhere in particular?"

"Wherever life takes me, really." Ester said. "I leave when I feel that it's time to leave, and then I travel somewhere new and stop when I find somewhere that seems right."

"That must be so much fun." The woman gushed. "I've always wanted to go somewhere new, but I've never even left the state."

Esther raised her eyebrows.

"Couldn't you leave if that's what you wanted to do?"

"Technically. I guess I feel obligated to stay here." The woman said. "Maybe one day things will change for me."

Esther frowned, though she knew the woman couldn't see it. How cryptic.

"I'm Esther, by the way." She offered.

"AnnMarie Keller." The woman said. "Like in the song."

Esther didn't know which song she was talking about and she didn't pause to ask.

They walked in silence for a little while longer, and Esther kept sneaking glances over to the woman, admiring the freckles on her upturned nose, and the lively flush of her cheek. Even the distant look in her green eyes seemed captivating.

A strange one, but a very cute one, that was for sure. Perhaps this was her lucky night. She'd expected to have to travel for at least a few more days before the tides turned in her favor.

Rain began to fall, gently at first, before picking up to more steady pace. The ground slowly turned from dust into a thick orange paste that clung to her boots. Esther sighed in annoyance, knowing everything in her backpack was sure to be soaked.

AnnMarie, however, laughed giddily, and turned her face up to the sky.

"I love the rain!" She said, arms outstretched.

"You do?" Esther said, her annoyance somewhat dampened by the girl's happy demeanor.

"As a child, I would always beg my mother to let me go out when it rained, so I could splash in the puddles that would gather on the sidewalk. Then, when I was older, I started to resent getting caught in the rain. How it would mess up my hair, ruin my clean clothes.

Just last year, however, I decided to change my mind, and I love getting caught in the rain all over again. Funny how things happen like that, right?"

"I guess it's not so bad when you're not carrying everything you own in a backpack." Esther said.

"Oh, I'm sorry." AnnMarie said. "I didn't think about that. Would you like to come to my place, at least to get out of the rain? It's not too far away."

Fate must really be on my side tonight, Esther thought. It was too easy. So easy that she thought that this must be some kind of dream. Maybe she'd fallen asleep on the roadside. No. That's wasn't possible. For her, there were no dreams to be had.

"Is that an invitation?" Esther asked.

"Of course!" AnnMarie laughed. "Come on, If we run, it won't take us long."

She grabbed Esther's wrist, and pulled her back the way they had come. Though the heat of her body had been dampened by the cold, Esther still found pleasure in the slight warmth of her fingers.

A quarter mile or so down the road, they arrived at a small path, almost looking like a tunnel between the thick trees that lined the road. A small sign was nailed to tree that read: private property. Another beside it read: no trespassing.

"It seems like it would be hard to find." AnnMarie said between breaths as they ran down the path. "But one pine tree sticks out a little more than the others. That's how you can always find it."

A little way down the path, and they came upon a house. It was a small wooden bungalow, the kind that was wide and squat, with a sloping roof. An oddity was a second story room that seemed to be an addition, jutting awkwardly from the right side. A single light neatly situated in the middle of the porch lit up the dark.

Up on the porch, out of the rain, AnnMarie opened the front door, which she had apparently left unlocked. Esther reasoned that it wasn't that odd, since she didn't seem to have many neighbors.

The woman walked inside, but Esther hesitated in the doorway, mostly out of habit.

"You can come in, you know." AnnMarie laughed.

"Of course. Of course." Esther said, taking a step inside and closing the door behind her.

"Hold on. I'll go get you some dry clothes to change into."

"Thank you. I do hate the cold." Esther said.

She sat her backpack down beside the door, and removed her muddy boots as well, before she started to wander into the living room. You could tell a lot about a person by their house, especially when it was as cluttered as this one.

There was a worn out couch against the wall, and an old tv across from it. In the corner there was a bookshelf stuffed to the brim with books, and a few other odds and ends. Must curiously, however, were the rows of portraits lining the northern wall.

Esther reasoned that they were probably all family members, as some of them were very old, dating back to the turn of the century judging by the photography style. They seemed to be arranged in chronological order, all in a neat row down the wall. Only a very few of them were actually of AnnMarie, and they all seemed to be from her childhood.

"I've got pajamas!"

AnnMarie ran back into the room, holding a small, wadded up bundle of clothes.

"Thank you." Esther said. "I really do appreciate your hospitality. Most people wouldn't take the risk of taking in a stranger."

AnnMarie shrugged, her smile still broad.

"It's good to be kind to people." She said.

"I agree."

"Plus, I've lived alone for a long time now, so it's nice to have visitors every now and then, even if they are strangers." AnnMarie said. She paused briefly, then spoke again. "Do you want to shower and change? You must be cold."

"I am indeed." Esther said.

"Come, I'll show you to the bathroom."

Esther took her time showering. It was her habit to do so, particularly after having traveled so long in the heat without one. It was nice to be able to wash her body, and to detangle her hair, which she had recently cut up to her shoulders for the sole purpose of making it easier to take care of during long stretches on the road.

After her shower, she dried off, and picked up the clothes the woman had given her. She brought them to her face, and inhaled deeply.

She had always loved how each person had their own scent. It was different, even between people in the same house. Sometimes it could be different in the same person, very minutely, from day to day.

AnnMarie smelled of floral fabric softener, lit candles, sweat, dish soap, and a hint of the musty scent of old books. It was pleasant. It was the smell of a home, and of a purpose. Esther assumed her purpose had a scent to it as well, but that it might not have been so pleasant.

When she emerged back into the hallway, drying the dripping bits of water from her hair, AnnMarie took her by the hand, and showed her to the guest room.

"You feel a bit warmer now." AnnMarie said as they walked.

"Yes. I do." Esther agreed.

The guest room was exactly parallel to AnnMarie's room, with an identical chipped wooden door, and an identical cloudy glass doorknob. Inside, the square room was dingy and bare, with only a few pieces of dated furniture. The bed was a twin, the kind with the metal pole frame that looked a little like prison bars. That too had bits of paint chipping from it.

"It used to be my room, some time ago." She said. "That's what's with the children's furniture."

"It's more up to date than some of the places I've stayed at." Esther said, dropping her backpack on the floor. It was an honest assessment.

"You can wash your clothes as well, if you like." AnnMarie said. "The washer and dryer are on the back porch."

"Thank you." Esther said, "I just want to stress, once again, how much I appreciate you for taking me in."

"It's really no problem." AnnMarie said. "I've actually been looking for a roommate for a while, but not many people are looking to live this far out."

"Oh?" Esther said.

AnnMarie nodded, her smile becoming a bit shy, and her eyes glancing to the ground.

"Yes. If you decide you'd like to stay in town for a while, you're free to stay here. I've been wanting company for some time."

"I will certainly consider it." Esther said with a sharp nod and smile that she hoped seemed genuine.

"Great!" AnnMarie said. "I need to go to bed soon. I really shoulda went to bed a while ago, but I couldn't sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight." Esther said.

With the woman gone, Esther crawled into the covers and stared silently at the ceiling, though she didn't sleep, or even shut her eyes. She simply waited. Passing the time. Being idle. It was something she had developed a knack for.

Every now and then, she checked the time on the analog clock that seemed to tick so loudly on the wall. 12, 1, 2, and finally 3 A.M.

Enough time had probably passed now, she figured, for the young woman have fallen asleep.

She got up, as quietly as possible, and made her way across the room. When she opened the door, it let out a groan, as if in protest of what she was about to do. She shut it, carefully, behind herself, and walked the few steps to the door across the hall.

She leaned in, and carefully listened, but heard nothing on the other side.

Gently, she turned the glass doorknob, and the door opened with a long and lurching creak. Beneath the covers of her bed, AnnMarie began to stir. Esther shut the door behind her, and made her way over to the bed, sitting by her side.

"...Esther?" The young woman said. She blinked up at her with bleary eyes as she began to sit up.

"You are dreaming." Esther said. She brought up her thumb, and ran it across her forehead. "Go back to sleep."

The young woman's eyes glazed over, and slowly shut as sleep washed over her once more.

"Good girl." Esther cooed. She grabbed a strand of her light brown hair, and pushed it to the side.

"So easy. You must really trust me."

She pulled the covers from around her shoulders, and began to admiring the gentle rise and fall of her chest, the thudding of her heart, and the warmth that came from her skin.

Even the silvery moonlight seemed to trail in between blinds and fall on her face in a way that made her seem heavenly and sweet.

"Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt you." Esther said, though she knew the sleeping woman couldn't hear her. "I'll be careful not to cause you to grow too weak, or tired. I quite like the energetic spark your eyes hold, and I would never purposefully do anything to take that away."

She let her eyes trail down, away from the girl's sleeping face, across the curve of her neck and the divets of her collar bones, and down to the gentle swell of her breasts.

She dipped down, and let her lips rest between her collarbone and the top curve of her left breast. The smell was nice; it was the smell of skin, and sweat, of laundry and of shower water, pleasant in its normalcy. Pleasant in its liveliness.

She used her teeth to quickly puncture her skin, pausing as the girl tensed, but didn't wake.

Gently, her tongue lapped at the girl's blood as it started to flow, drawing it into her mouth. Almost immediately, the agitated state she had been in the last few days started to wane. It had been quite a number of days since her last meal, and she had been growing steadily weaker as she traveled through the backroads.

Now she was quickly regaining her strength. Esther closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment.

Longing, she thought, that's what she tasted like. Bittersweet longing. It was a good taste. She always liked feelings that hurt in a good way.

When the blood stopped flowing, she pulled her mouth away, and laid her head against the woman's chest, urging herself not to coax anymore out.

"Just like wine, you are." She mumbled against the girl's skin. "Sweet, and quenching. Making my head spin."

She pulled herself further away, and sat upright, taking a breath to clear her head, and calm herself. When she got up, she was careful not to jar AnnMarie any further, and, as she quietly left the room, she stole one last glance back at her.

"Thank you for the invitation."