Chapter 3: Death in the Rain

See, he’s already forgotten this face.

Forgotten the girl he strangled to death with his own hands four years ago. I’d never forget.

He’d wiped it from his memory, buried it deep. But I remembered every detail. Every bruise, every gasp for air. The pain was still fresh.

Well, it was dark that night, raining in the woods. I was already battered and bleeding from his blows, my face unrecognizable.

The rain had turned the ground to mud, my blood mixing with the earth. I could barely see through swollen eyes, pain radiating from every limb. My breath was ragged.

He’d broken all my limbs. When he was finally satisfied, he wrapped his hands tight around my throat.

His grip was merciless, fingers digging into my windpipe. I clawed at his wrists, desperate for breath. My vision blurred.

I begged, desperate and low, “Don’t kill me. I swear I won’t tell anyone… Please, my grandma’s still waiting for me…”

My voice was barely a whisper, but I meant every word. I would have said anything to live. My heart ached.

Please, I’m a college senior—I just got into a top program.

I’d worked so hard, sacrificed so much. My future was finally within reach. The thought of losing it all was unbearable.

I haven’t even told Grandma the good news myself.

She’d be so proud, I thought. I just wanted to see her smile one more time. I swallowed back tears.

The old lady scrimped and saved to put me through school. Her eyes went bad from sewing, but she wouldn’t spend a penny on herself. She never got to enjoy a single day of her granddaughter’s success.

Her hands were gnarled from years of work, her back bent but unbroken. She deserved better than this. My chest tightened.

She really can’t lose me.

But Carter just grinned, tightening his grip.

His smile was the last thing I saw before the world went black.

My body convulsed, tears streaming down, neck snapping with a crisp crack.

The sound was final, absolute. In that moment, everything ended. Silence.

And just like that, I died.

There was no light, no tunnel—just cold, unyielding darkness. But even death couldn’t keep me away. I lingered.

Right before the end, I think I saw Grandma.

She was wearing her faded old jacket, sitting at the gate, waiting. In the kitchen, she was steaming my favorite beef and noodle rolls.

The smell drifted through the air, warm and comforting. I wanted to reach out, to tell her I was home. My mouth watered.

She kept them hot again and again, so her precious girl could eat them fresh the moment she got home.

She didn’t know I’d been dumped deep in the woods, stripped of dignity, future, and life. Left to rot, my resentment unspent, I became a vampire—neither human nor ghost.

The anger, the pain—it kept me tethered, refusing to let go. I clung to it.

When I took on a new face and went to a matchmaker, she asked me why I wanted to get married.

I smiled shyly. I said it was for him.

For him, for a hatred deeper than blood—

For vengeance that would never end.