A soft glow of light appears in the distance as darkness surrounds me. Terrified of the unknown my feet instinctively move on their own to the only source of light that there is. With each step the ground beneath me gets stickier until I decide to look down, thinking it was water.

Wrong, it's blood. I gasp, lifting my feet and see how stained they are. I look back up to where the light was. Now in front of me is a woman in chair, her wavy blonde hair falling over her chest. She's sewing a piece of material that rested in her lap. Suddenly her fingers stop moving.

I shiver runs down my spine. Something about this doesn't feel normal about this place. Almost like this was not real. Slowly she lifts her gaze and I take a deep breath by her unnatural beauty. She's not a human or a vampire. I can tell by her strong aura and the awful smell she gives off.

"You're the one?" she asks, a smile tugging on her lips.

"What are you?" I breathe out.

"Right to the questions I see." She starts sewing on the material again and rock back and forth in the chair. "I'm a witch."

A witch? I think back to what I've learned about witches in the past. They're known to curse and put curses on people. Just like the witch that cursed the royals. I need to get away from her. They're stronger than vampires. 

But I need to figure out where am I first.

"How did I get here?" I ask looking around me into the void of darkness.

"You're still sleeping on some dusty old matrass you found in that abandoned building. I slipped into one of your dreams knowing your mind would be more open in this state."

"Are you going to curse me?" I gulp, my shoulders tensing.

"Curse you?" she chuckles. "Now why would I go through that much trouble?"

She entered my dream doesn't that already sound like a lot of work? But I'll rather not ask. I shouldn't even be talking to a witch for the matter.

She sighs. "You see, a curse can always be weakened or broken. Including the curse I put on the royals. And it seems you've broken the spell on one of the royals. I wanted to see who you were."

"I don't understand."

"The heart was something I could never take from anyone. It belongs to the body and is protected by the soul. I never took their hearts from them. Only twisted their minds with a spell and made them believe they could never love another. A suitable curse, isn't it? A curse where only true love can break down the wall."

"Wait." I gasp, shaking my head. "You're the original witch that cursed the first vampire?" I ask, my eyes widening at the realization.

"Oh, I know it's a shock. I look pretty young for my age right?" she smirks and run her fingers over her cheek.

I take a huge step back. She's that powerful and could easily kill me with a snap of her fingers. I'm dreaming right? Surely, she can't hurt me in here.

"Don't look so scared child. I won't do anything to you. The curse has existed for more than 500 years and it's only natural for someone like me to be curious about its end. How does the saying go? Love always finds away. Not just in fairytales." her voice echoes and everything blurs as she goes farther away from me until I'm alone in complete darkness.

My eyes open and I jump up, staring at the cracked walls before me. My chest moves up and down with deep breaths and I swallow painfully with a dry throat. I rub a hand over my face and look around. Did I have a nightmare or something? I can't even remember the last time I dreamt. My muscles are sore from the curled-up position I slept in last night. Still sitting on the matrass, I stretch my arms out above me and look out the window. It's morning already. There are clouds in the sky today, making the sun not as harsh as it hides behind the clouds as a cool breeze comes in.

I feel the soft, thick texture of the cloak and look down. The place next to me is empty, the bat was no longer here. I lift up my cloak, to see if maybe its hiding underneath or if I accidently laid on top of it last night. But there's nothing and it's just me. 

It's really not here anymore. Will it survive out there in the human realm? Will I be able survive on my own?

I pull my knees up to my chest, burying my head inside my arms. I hate being alone. The main reason I was glad to leave the estate was because I knew I wasn't going to be alone anymore and here I am. Even more alone than before, surrounded by beings I've never met until now. This might be worse than death itself. I miss the academy, I miss Sera and Aster.

Hiding my face, I start to cry. I hate this. But I hate myself even more. None of this would've happened if my mother just aborted me. Now I have to hide and run for my life so that I don't get the both of us killed. For something she couldn't bring herself to do. I would've been with my father right now, wherever he is.

My tears stop falling when I hear a girl's voice coming from somewhere outside. I wipe my face with my sleeve turning my head into the direction of her voice.

"Bonny!" she calls out, her voice quivering with fear.

Quietly I get up from the mattress, looking out of the window. The girl looks young, maybe 12 or 14 years old. Her long hair was tied into a low ponytail, and she was wearing a green dress with a scarf around her neck. She walks around the building, searching for something.

She sounds in distress, and I want to help her. I look down at my cloak, removing it, not wanting her to run away when she sees me coming out of the building. I know I'd be scared if I saw someone walking out of a building like this. I go to the front of the building, walking out and blinking to adjust to the bright light. I walk around, to where I last saw her and when I see her, she calls out the name Bonny again.

"Are you looking for someone?" I ask.

Startled she jumps, looking at me skeptically. When she doesn't say anything and takes a step back, I say, keeping my voice gentle and soft. "I can help you look?"

"My puppy." her lip trembles and she pull on the edge of her dress. I furrow my eyebrows together. A puppy? I've seen that word in in one of the estate's books before. Is it an animal?

"Could you tell me how it looks like so that I know what to look for?"

She nods. "He's brown, with white paws and has a very short tail. He's still really small."

Tail? So, it is an animal, he must belong to her.

"Did you lose him here?" I ask, she was looking around the building so I'm guessing he must be here somewhere.

"No, we were at the candy shop. I accidentally loosened the collar too much on his leash and he ran away chasing a bird. I thought maybe he was hiding here." She says, looking like she's going to burst into tears in any moment now.

"We'll find him." I try to assure her. I could use my hearing ability to listen for it but I don't know what sound a puppy makes. And my hearing is much weaker than other vampires. It might be difficult for me to find him.

But I'm still going to give it a try. I close my eyes, inhaling deeply and listen closely to the sounds around me. There's a lot noises, cars honking, people taking to each other, loud banging coming from multiple structures. I calm myself, ignoring all the other noises that's not coming from animals. He has to be close by, just focus on the sounds close to us I remind myself.

A bird has wings and the puppy has a tail. I just need to listen to those two sounds. And that's when I hear it. Wings flapping and some chirping sounds with heavy breathing and barking. The barking wasn't aggressive or loud, telling me it could indeed be the girl's puppy.

"I think I know where he is. Follow me." I tell the girl and start sprinting into their direction. I look behind me, to see if she's actually going to follow me as I sprint past the next building turning into a narrow pathway. I see the small animal, it was wagging its tail back and forth and was brown with white paws just like she described him. I found him.

"Bonny!" she yells from behind me sounding relieved. She runs past me picking it up and kissed the top of its head. The animal's tail wagged even more now after seeing it's owner. I can see the amount of love she has for him.

"You found him so quickly. How?" she asks confused and continues hugging the puppy.

I open my mouth to say something but close it again. I can't exactly tell her I heard him from all the way there to here. Humans can hear that far.

"A wild guess." I say nervously as my eyes dart all over dark narrow pathway.

She walks towards me with a big smile. "Thank you for helping me." she says but then her smile fades when she looks at my face. "Were you crying?"

My eyes widen and I cover my face with my arm. Are my eyes still red? Feeling self-conscious I rub my tongue over my fang. She's so close, I shouldn't talk too much. She could easily see my fangs from this distance.

"Bonny means so much to me. I don't know what I would've done if you didn't find him." she sighs, running her hand over his head. "Please tell me how I can repay you."

For a moment I wanted to tell her that she didn't need to repay me and that I would've helped her again in a heartbeat. But then I think about the situation I'm in and that I might need some help from her.

"Do you know a place where I can sleep at clean myself? I don't have a...place at the moment." I can smell the sweat off myself, especially after yesterday's heat. Not just that, my back hurts from the matrass. I can't force myself to sleep there again tonight.

Her eyes widen and she looks away, thinking for a minute before looking back at me.

"You mean you live on the streets?" she asks.

I nod, looking down at my boots. I can't possibly ask a kid to help me, what was I thinking?

"We have a small flat in our backyard. I could ask my mother if you could you use it. We haven't cleaned it in months though, so it might be filthy."

I gasp, hope flooding through me. "I don't mind." I give her a soft smile.

"If my mother's sees you in person she'll definitely agree. She won't let a girl sleep in the street, not even a stranger."