I hadn't meant to kill that woman at the beach.

From what I am able to remember, she seemed nice.

Middle aged, friendly, out for a walk with her dog-like creature - she kept calling it "Tobbe" - on a foggy morning.

She must have spotted me, lying there among the rubble, in all my overgrown, rotting glory. I must have looked like a corpse - which, incidentally is probably not too far from what I am - and still, she had hurried over to check on me, had noticed me moving, and had not hesitated, but grabbed me to pull me further up the shore, away from the icy waters of the sea.

She must have noted that I myself was just as cold, that my hair was longer than it had any right to be, tangled, matted, and clotted with seaweed as it was. Must have seen my overgrown razor-sharp nails, my deathly pale and bloodless skin, and the tatters, that were once my clothing, the fabric rotten, like it had spent decades in the ocean.

I must have looked like the age-old corpse of a drowned man come back to life, and washed up on the shore.

And who knows, maybe that's what I am.

At the time, I had only vaguely been aware of my surroundings. There had been no thought. Just instinct.

Despite what I must have looked like, the woman had come to help me.

And, I suppose she did, just not in the way she envisioned.

After I was done, I took her clothes and dumped what little remained of her into the sea.

It took me days before I even properly remembered the incident.

***

I regained some semblance of.. well, am I still supposed to call it humanity? That doesn't seem very fitting, considering. No matter, it will have to do for now.

Whatever it is, I regained some of it shortly after I was done feeding.

It felt like my mind was clear and fully functional for the first time since waking up on that beach.

I surveyed the carnage I had caused.

Seven bodies were scattered about the empty parking lot, blood covering every available surface. I had torn most of them apart in my frenzy, and whoever found them would probably have to spend quite some time figuring out which bit belonged where, as I hadn't exactly left neatly sorted piles.

Funnily enough, the only one to survive was the one whose blood had originally drawn me.

From the looks of it, he must have been the one on the receiving end of that beating I had absently overheard earlier, his body bruised and broken and his breath labored as he lay huddled in the far corner, unconscious for now.

He had an open wound on his side, and the blood that had been spilled there still smelled nice, but now that I had had my fill, there was no comparison to the irresistible pull it had had on me earlier. It was pleasant, and ever so slightly tempting, but easy to resist on a full stomach.

'Well, aren't you a lucky bastard', I thought.

Now that I was fed, all the things that had assaulted my senses before were still there but felt oddly manageable.

I was able to control my focus to an amazing degree, could still count the hairs on that rat I glimpsed hurrying through the shadows a hundred yards from here, but unlike before, I was also suddenly able to delegate that information to my subconscious, along with all the smells and sounds I wasn't currently focussing on or interested in.

I'm sure, that if asked, I would still have been able to give you the exact number.

So, now that I was finally, finally able to think clearly, it was time to truly consider my situation.

I made myself comfortable against a wall, and carefully went over what I knew.

Which wasn't much.

If my need to rip people apart and drink their blood hadn't already been something of a giveaway, the sharp, elongated set of teeth I found while probing with my finger certainly confirmed my suspicions.

You have fangs.

You drink blood.

Congratulations stranger, you appear to be a Vampire.

If only I knew what that meant.

I had no concrete memories prior to waking up on that beach, hell, come to think of it, I didn't even remember my own name, but it wasn't like I had no memories at all.

Quite the opposite, really.

I knew what cars were, how electricity worked, was perfectly familiar with the rules of most societies (e.g. Look both ways before crossing the street, say ''Thank you'' if someone holds the door for you, don't dismember strangers and drink their blood) and I did have a concept of what a Vampire was.

Or was supposed to be, because apparently most of what I thought I knew wasn't true for me.

Sunlight didn't bother me much, although I was able to see better in the dark, and the other day I had spend a night in a church and completely failed to burst into flames.

Then there was my need for sleep and actual food. That had felt strange from the beginning.

Not like something that conflicted with what I thought I knew, but more like.. something wrong, something I wasn't meant to experience.

Not knowing what to make of it almost drove me up the wall.

I didn't just hit my head and loose my memory either. It doesn't work that way for humans, and I doubted it was any different for vampires either.

Then, the ridiculous length to which my hair and nails had grown - were they even supposed to grow at all? Wasn't that wrong too? - and the scraps I had been wearing almost disintegrating, just as if I had spent decades at the bottom of the ocean...

Fuck, maybe I had.

What year was it anyway?

I needed answers, and I had no idea how to get them.

I groaned in frustration before reality caught up with me.

Answers were all nice and dandy, but I also needed food, shelter and a steady supply of blood if I wanted to keep my sanity, and here I was, looking like a hairy monster risen from the sea, wearing a dead woman's clothing, covered in blood and surrounded by six dismembered corpses (not to mention I also stank beyond description).

I needed to get away from here as soon as possible, I needed a shower, a haircut, and a change of clothes.

I needed money, information, and a secure place to stay.

I needed help.

Lucky for me, just then, my new best friend started screaming hysterically from his corner.

I went to shut him up.

He can smell as delicious as he wants to, but I don't approve of unnecessary noise.

Well, he'd learn.

(1156 words)