Prologue
The hike was supposed to clear his head.
That’s what they said — fresh air, unplug, get away from it all.
All it did was make the silence louder.
His boots crunched gravel, the trail winding through trees like veins. Wet leaves clung to his neck. His thighs burned, mouth dry, but still — he didn’t turn back. He needed this.
The woods felt different here. Older. Wilder. Like the trees weren’t just standing — they were watching.
He’d just passed the overlook when he saw her.
A woman.
She stood on a boulder like she’d grown from the stone itself — too still, too pale for dusk. Her hair spilled dark and wild over her shoulders. Black boots. Bare legs. No pack. No jacket.
She didn’t belong out here. Not this close to nightfall.
He slowed.
She tilted her head, lips curving like she’d been waiting for him.
Something inside him pulled taut.
She was beautiful — not safe-beautiful, not girl-next-door-beautiful. Dangerous beautiful. The kind that hit you in the ribs.
Keep walking, he told himself. Don’t be that guy.
But his feet stopped anyway.
“You lost?”
Her smile deepened — secret, sharp. “I don’t usually get noticed. Guess you’ve got better eyes than most.”
“Or maybe you’re standing in the middle of a trail.”
She laughed softly, the sound curling around him like smoke. “Maybe. But I was hoping someone like you would notice.”
Her gaze dragged down his body, slow and deliberate, before sliding back up. Heat prickled under his collar.
“You seem wound tight,” she murmured, stepping close enough that her scent — sweet, metallic — clung to him.
“Just… a long day,” he managed.
Her fingers skimmed his wrist, nails grazing his pulse like she was taking his measure.
“Poor boy,” she whispered. “Carrying all that tension in your chest. Don’t you want to let it go?”
Her hand pressed flat against his sternum. His heart thudded into her palm.
He should’ve stepped back. He didn’t.
When her mouth touched his, it wasn’t tentative. It was claiming.
Her lips were cold but insistent. Her tongue slid against his with practiced hunger. His groan slipped out before he could stop it. He gripped her hip, pulled her closer.
For a dizzy second, it felt like a fantasy — alone in the woods, kissed breathless by a stranger too beautiful to be real.
She tasted sweet. Copper-sweet.
Her body moved against his like a slow dance. Her nails scraped his chest — sharper now. His shirt tore with the faintest rip.
Jack’s pulse hammered.
She smiled against his mouth. “Do you know what I love about men like you?” she purred, lips trailing to his jaw, his throat. “You think you’d run. You think you’d fight. But deep down…” Her tongue flicked his skin. “…you want to be taken apart.”
His laugh cracked into a shudder. “What the hell are you—”
The rest drowned in her bite.
Fangs split skin like hot knives.
Jack’s gasp broke into a strangled scream as blood surged from his throat, spilling hot and thick down his chest. She latched harder, moaning into him like he was the sweetest thing she’d ever tasted.
The sound was obscene — wet, greedy, almost sexual.
He convulsed, knees buckling, but she held him upright, cradling him like a lover while she drank. His heartbeat thundered once, twice… then stuttered as the forest tilted.
His vision blurred. Black crowded the edges.
He tried to shove her off, hands scrabbling against her back. She only arched closer, drinking deeper, shuddering with ecstasy.
When she finally pulled back, her lips glistened red. Her teeth gleamed sharper than moonlight.
“Better than you imagined, wasn’t it?”
Jack choked, blood bubbling at his lips. His body gave out, collapsing against her.
She let him fall.
The forest swallowed the sound before it ever became a scream.
✦
Body Found Near Black Mountain Ravine
Updated 1 hour ago
The remains of an unidentified man were discovered off the ravine trail this morning by two local hunters.
Black Hollow PD has not released a name or cause of death, pending autopsy.
The death marks the fifth unexplained fatality in or near Black Hollow’s protected woods this year.
“We’re asking residents to stay on designated trails,” said Chief Ramos. “And avoid hiking alone at dusk.”
Update: The article has been removed. URL no longer exists.
