Hunger For Love: The Awakening

Willow was wandering through a dark, misty place. She felt confused and at a loss. The last thing she remembered was seeing Morphin. Seeing the look of horror and fear on his eyes as her entire body throbbed in pain. Now there was no pain. There was nothing. No light. No sound. No smell. The dispossession was horrifying.

"Morphin?" she called, trying to get her composure.

From the darkness, a demonic voice of a woman said. "He's not here, Willow."

"Who's there?"

"Don't fear me, Willow. I'm just you."

Willow flinched when the woman materializes in front of her. Her eyes widened in terror for she is the most terrifying creature she had ever seen. Her eyes were crimson red, her hair's white, and her skin was ashen gray.

Yet, it wasn't her horrible appearance that scares her the most. But the fact that aside from the difference on the eyes eyes, the hair, and skin, the monster looks exactly like her.

No, it was her.

But at the same time, she's not.

"Who are you?"

"I told you, I'm you. Or should I say I say who you will be."

"What do you mean?"

And then she heard Morphin's paining voice, muttering her name over and over again, pleading her to come back, to return to his arms.

"Willow!" she heard Morphin scream.

"You mush hurry, Willow," the Monster said. "Your time is running out."

"I don't understand."

"You're dying," she said. "Your soul is fading from the world of the living."

"What?" Willow said in bewilderment. "Why? How?"

"Morphin killed you."

"No!" she said in denial. "I don't believe you! He will never do that!"

"Maybe not intentionally. But whatever the reason is, you're still dying. And if you do nothing about it, you can kiss Morphin goodbye."

"No!" She doesn't want that to happen. She must be with him. She must stay with him. She still has a lot of things to say to him, moments and memories that she wants to build with him. She can't die! "I don't want to die!"

The Monster smiled wickedly, "Well, that's up to you."

"Tell me what I should do. Tell how I could stay."

"You must embrace me." She extended her left hand to her. "You must become me."

Willow looked at her from head to toe, both in feaR and disgust. She's a complete embodiment of a fiend. Messy white hair, ash colored complexion, sharp claws, and deadly teeth. And the eyes, they are completely beyond humans and even of a beast. They are eyes of a demon, of a being capable of killing thousands without remorse.

The eyes of an ultimate predator.

There's no trace of humanity residing on her. Just coldness, bloodlust, and death.

"You must become the very being that you feared," she continued. "A monster, a vampire, a murderer, a predator...a Berserker."

Willow's unease magnified. Morphin once said that even among the vampires, a Berserker is considered as a very dangerous entity. Feared by many even among their own kind. And in order to stay, she must become that being that even Morphin feared.

"Make you choice now. Time is running out."

Willow gained comprehension of what the Monster mean upon realizing that she's starting to fade. From her feet going up, she's disappearing.

"Me or that?"

Willow panted. "Can I really stay with him if I do this?"

The Monster nodded. "Yes, and more. All you have to do is accept me."

"I will do everything for Morphin," she said and took her hand. And the moment their skins touched, the Monster disintegrated into a black smoke and entered her body through her mouth, choking her.

Willow couldn't breath as the strong pressure forced into her. The agony was excruciating. It feels like she's being drowned over and over again.

Blinking her eyes, the next thing she knew, she was in Morphin's arms again. He sat on the ground, holding her to him as he rocked her. "I'm gonna join you soon, love," he whispered to her. "There's no point living without you."

Those heartfelt words choked her, but what stunned her more was the wetness of his cheeks. He was crying. For her.

Slowly lifting her hand, she brushed her fingers against his jaw. He pulled back with a startled gasp. "Willow?"

She nodded with a smile. God knows how happy she is to see him along with the fact that she can stay with him forever.

But alongside with the delights that are exploding on her heart are the unexplainable hunger and thirst that are tormenting her throat, an unbelievable ferocity that lengthened her incisors.

Suddenly, everything around her becomes hazy, her thoughts dimmed, completely governed by her animalistic instinct and need for death.

Morphin sucked his breath in sharply as Willow's sunk her fangs on his neck, but greater than that, he was more surprised on how good being bitten felt.

For half a millennium, he had always been the predator, the biter. He'd never experience being bitten in return. And now, he realized what he had been missing for it feels so damn good, and when she pulled away and gazed at him, her eyes matched his. That deep bloody crimson red that marked his monstrosity was so beautiful on her.

But her eyes are no longer serene, innocent. They are feral, crazed.

Berserk.

NO!

With a growl, Willow pushed him away and disappeared from his sight. Morphin could not see her but can feel and hear her movements which are heading towards the forest ahead.

Morphin cursed. There's no doubt about it. What he saw in her eyes had already given him more than enough explanation. As her Creator, Willow didn't just inherit his strength and his abilities but as well as his Berserker nature and it triggers immediately upon her transition.

But what makes things worse is that as a newly transcended vampire, she's still in the adjustments state on her new nature as a blood drinker. She's confused and could not think of anything other than to quench the pain of bloodlust.

And a newly transcended Berserker is the worst of the worst of combination of a vampire.

He tried to follow her by Teleporting but failed. His body feels so numb from the entire night of frenzy, not to mention that Willow had also stolen a lot of blood from him. So he had no other choice but to follow her by foot, which is also a bit of problem because of his wounds.

Limping through the trees of the forest, he found a lot of dead animals on the way. Elks, boars, rabbits, and all of them are drained to death and ripped into pieces. As he advanced further, the pile of them never stopped. If anything, the count magnified, along with a more violent way of killing them.

Morphin looked up. The sun is getting higher and higher by minutes, but thanks to the foggy nature of the place, the illumination of the rays of the sun is not that bright as it supposed to be. But still, time is not on his side. He must find Willow fast before that huge ball of fire gets rampant enough in the sky to toast them both.

Following the blood path that Willow left behind, it leads him into a road where he finally managed to catch up with her.

In the middle of the asphalt path, he found Willow lying unconscious. Morphin tried to get to her side as fast as possible, but his weakened body is delaying him.

And then he heard the sound of engines and squeaked of tires moving nearer. Gazing ahead at the distant part of the road, a bus is moving fast towards Willow.

Morphin panicked and attempted to Teleport once more to save her but still failed in doing so. He tried to move fast enough to move her away from the path of the vehicle that will soon crush her. But it was already too late. The bus is too close now to Willow.

The trembling on Lex's knees intensified as they drove nearer to their destination.

A few hours from now, they'll be playing for the Inter-High School American Football Championship game, something that their Football Club had dreamed for three years already.

In this game, all of their dreams, practices, hardworks, and tears that they invested into the game they love are finally coming into fruitage.

Glancing through his teammates, the firm atmosphere is so widespread around them. The usually noisy and enthusiastic Football Club members are now quiet and all carrying serious demeanors, gathering strength and courage for they are about play the biggest game of their Football life.

Pulling out his wallet, he looked at the picture of his girlfriend, Lisa. Earlier before they boarded to the bus, she gave him a handmade bead necklace that she made which will serve as his lucky charm for their game.

God knows how much he loved this woman. She's everything to him. The childhood friend that gives him the first spark of puppy love and sweetness of the first kiss, the best friend who had always been at his side for the good times and the bad, and the lover that showers his life with love and belongingness.

With her, he feels whole, he feels complete.

And this game, he dedicates it all for her and for their future.

The grand prize of this league is a Full College Scholarship for all the members of the winning team.

Being born as one of the less fortunate, Lex's parents cannot afford to send him College. Which means no Degree, no Diploma, no good job, no good salary, no bright future.

But if they grab this, all of those will change. If they win the championship, he can go to College and can build a bright future for him, his family and for Lisa. And for that, he will give everything in the line for this game, the game that will dictate his and his loved ones future.

"I love you, Lisa," he said, holding the necklace that she made for him.

But Lex's thoughts were disrupted when the driver suddenly hit the brake that pushed all of them forward due to the unexpected inertia.

"Hey Old Man, what's wrong with you!?" Ricky, their Team Captain and Quarterback complained furiously as soon as he recovered.

The club other members snarled their own complains especially those that got themselves hurt.

"What's the matter, Mr. Gibson?" Lex asked, moving towards the driver's side.

"There's someone on the road."

"Huh?" Lex frowned and followed Mr. Gibson's gaze. In the middle of the road, there's an unconscious and unclothed woman who's lying on her stomach.

"Holy shit!" He heard Ricky exclaimed from behind and the next thing he knew, Ricky had already jumped off the bus and run towards the unconscious person's side.

Mark, Shawn, and Dale had also followed him and inspect the unconscious woman's condition. Covering her with his jacket, Ricky along with the other three returned inside the bus along with the woman.

Up close, Lex realized that she's heavily wounded. Blood had painted her blonde hair and her entire body in red. She also got a lot of bruises, contusions, and huge bite marks on her neck and shoulders.

"What do think happened to her?" Lex asked Ricky as he settled her on one of the bus' seats.

"I don't know," Ricky said. "But my wild guess is she might have been abused and left in the forest to die."

That's the most likely theory especially there are evident bruises on her thigh and on the areas near her genitals, so the possibility that she'd been sexuality assaulted is pretty great. "What shall we do then?"

"We need to take her to the hospital" Ricky said to him, and then turned to Gibson. "Hey Old Man, take us to the nearest hospital."

Gibson nodded and mobilized the bus once more.

"Is she going to be okay?" Lex asked.

"I guess so." Ricky took her pulse. "Her vital signs appear to be stable. We just need to bring her to safety, fast."

"What kind of monsters could have done this?" Lex angrily stated.

The feature of the girl, her blonde hair and her innocent looking face reminds Lex a lot of his sweet Lisa. And it pained him so much seeing such an innocent girl in this kind of pitiful situation. She doesn't deserve it.

"We can't do anything about it now, Lex," said Rick, sympathizing over him. "Let's just be grateful that we weren't too late in finding her. She can still be saved."

Lex took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, you're right...I'll go get the first aid then."

"Okay."

He left them and went to the back side of the bus to obtain the first aid kit. When all of a sudden, he heard a loud growl from where he'd from followed by the deafening screams of his teammates. Disarray followed immediately.

He also heard the scream of Mr. Gibson, a scream for mercy, and then he was silenced. Afterwards, the bus started to run in an uneven manner.

Lex held onto something to keep himself from staggering down. He tried to turn around to check what had caused the sudden commotion but the fierce and unsteady movement of the bus stopped him from doing so. All he could comprehend are the swift movements going on behind him and the snapping sounds that came from one after another accompanied by screams.

"No, please!" Rick screamed. "NO! Ahhhh!" And then he was also silenced by a sound of a snap followed by something round that hit his back.

Finally, the bus stopped after bumping into a tree or something. Only then that he was able to turn around and see the ongoing disorder that had been invisible to him for quite a while.

But the moment that things becomes visible to him, he'd wished that it shouldn't have for it was the most terrible and the most gruesome thing he'd ever seen in his life.

He thought that scenes like this only happen in horror and massacre movies, but here he is, right here and right now, experiencing and seeing it personally with his own eyes.

A tableau of a bloody aftermath. His teammates' bodies lie scattered all over the bus. Amputated legs and hands, splattered organs, severed heads, one even rolled to his feet, realizing that it belongs to Rick.

He immediately flinched away from Rick's severed head, only to feel the edge of the bus on his back. A Dead End.

Feeling lost and extremely confuse, Lex's shaking legs were nailed to where he was standing. Beading in cold and thick sweats, he looked around. He could see nothing except ripped body parts of Mr. Gibson and his teammates and the girl that they picked was nowhere to be found.

And then out of nowhere, she suddenly materializes. In the middle of the pile of dead bodies, she stood there like a statue, glaring at him with those eerie red eyes of hers, eyeing at him like he's nothing but an insect. Her entire body is soaked in blood, the blood of Rick and the others.

With a great fear he'd never known that is wielding inside him, he forced his numbing legs to move and jumped himself out of through the window. But the moment that he landed on the asphalt of the road, he found himself inside the bus again with the demon that he's trying to escape from.

What the hell had just happened?Why is he still inside the bus?

The Demon remained unmoved with her eyes locked onto him. Lex moved his escape once more and run away from the bus as fast as his legs could allow him.

And when he thought that he finally gained enough amount of distance from that hell hole, he suddenly bumped into something. Looking ahead, he realized that it was metallic wall, a metallic wall of a bus, and looking around he realized that he's back to where he came from again.

NO!His soul bellowed in denial. He can't die, he can't die here. His family still needs him. Lisa needs him. No. Somebody help him!

And then the demon finally moved, inching closer to him, savoring the fear that she planted in him that continually build up by seconds. Lex's head spun and he tried to find salvation from the nightmare that he's into.

Minutes ago he was looking forward to the bright future, now he's facing his inevitable doom. "Please, please, no," he begged. But she just stared coldly at him, still reducing the gap between them. "HELP!" he screamed. "Somebody, please help me!"

As she gets closer, his entire life flashed through him in complete clarity. He could see his hardworking and loving father, who crushed his bones everyday just to support him and his sickly mom.

His mother who's already ridden on her wheelchair due to an illness.

He always dreamed of a better life for them.

And Lisa, his sweet little Lisa, the love of his life. The fact that he could no longer see her and fulfill all of his promises pains him so much.

Why does it have to end up like this? There are still so many things that he wanted to do with his life with the people that he loved.

"Please, please, no," he cried, still begging her to spare his life despite the fact that it's futile. She already killed 12 people without a single trace of remorse. One more life won't make any difference. But still, he still wished that there is still a single ray of hope for him. "I don't want to die."

And then she opened her mouth, exposing those sharp and deadly teeth.

His desire to scream came out as a whimper when she bit her shoulder. Lex was completely paralyzed as pain ripped through him.

His breathing becomes labored, painful, and he was suffocating.

He was dying and he knew it.

His thoughts went to Lisa.I'm sorry, Lisa.

It was his final thought before everything went black.

Morphin couldn't still absorb what he'd just witnessed. Yes, He had already expected that Willow will be much stronger than him once she's transcended, but he didn't just expect that it will be at this level.

As a Cycle of Heritage, a Vampire's Successor whether by birth or by transition will inherit all of their Creator's power along with their own strength, making them stronger and much more powerful compared to the one before them.

Willow's carnage had just confirmed that she'd inherited both his Berserk Nature and his ability to Teleport. However, her situation is in a much higher level. Not just that she's a more violent Berserker in comparison to him, but also, her Teleporting ability is in a level so advance that he can't even dream about in attaining.

As what he witnessed on her last victim, unlike his Teleporting ability where contact is required, Willow can Teleport things and people without touching them. As long as that object or person is within her field of sight, she can transport them at any place that she desired.

Such a very dangerous ability for someone who is very dangerous already.

Entering the bus, he found Willow lying unconscious in the middle of her dead victims. Kneeling to her side and placing her on his lap, he slightly tapped her bloodied check, waking her up. "Willow, Willow," he said softly.

Willow slowly opened her eyes and meekly blinked at him. "Morphin?"

He cupped her face and nodded. "Yes," he said between deep exhalations. "Are you okay?"

"No," she said in a weak smile. "I feel horrible. I think I'm gonna throw out any second now."

"Things like that always happen on the first day."

"I have to tell you, being a vampire kind of sucks."

Morphin laughed darkly at her word. "Sometimes. Sometimes it's not bad."

"Well, this is definitely not one of those," she panted. "Where are we?"

When Willow tried to get up, he immediately stopped her. "No don't move."

"Morphin, I'm okay. I can still move."

But that's not the problem. He doesn't want her to see the aftermath of her carnage. She will surely be devastated. He didn't want to scare her more than she already is. "Please, no. You don't have to," he said so softly.

His mellow words had melted her. "Okay," she smiled in compliance. But when she was about to close her eyes, she just suddenly stared at him and then frowned. "What do you mean?"

Morphin frowned in confusion. "What?"

"You just say something."

"I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did," she insisted. "You said that you don't want me to see something. That you don't want me to be scared."

Morphin shook his head. "I didn't say anything like that. But..." He trailed off. Yes, he didn't really say those words, but that's exactly what he just...thought.DAMN!