Prompt:

Your character arrives at the beach front campsite and now has a bed in Mr. Dev's cabin and although it smells of his sickening farts, it's dry. Outside the rain pours down and the thunder rumbles around the camp in the dead of night, lightning lashes down from the sky. Your character looks out of the window, and sees a horrific sight, a vampire has bitten one of the other camp leaders, Skylar Barlow. Blood seeps from the two deep holes in Skylar's neck making your character panic. They feel sick, but still find the courage to head into the woods after the vampire. They feel his eyes upon them. He's there. He's waiting. He's hungry, and the vampire leaps down from a tree, he introduces himself as Bertrand Romania Wolfgang, and he tells them not to be afraid as he looks them directly in the eyes.

* * * * *

Waking up to screams was not on Meixong's agenda today, but we can't all get what we want.

They bolted awake, their heart already pounding in their throat as they reached for a weapon that was no longer there. It wasn't like they carried their sword around everywhere before they arrived in this world, but without magic, a weapon would've been really handy right now. A quick survey around the cabin—a horribly smelling one, but it wasn't as if it would kill them—told Meixong nothing within the room was the source of the screams. The other bunks were still empty, the bus driver—who they now knew was Mr. Dev—continued snoring on (Damn, he's still alive.), and nothing was out of place. Rain hammered against the window as thunder rumbled overhead.

Something dashed past the window.

Immediately Meixong flung the covers away and lept out of bed, nearly smashing their head against the top of the bunk. Jacket, keys, umbrella, shoes...Meixong grabbed the flip knife out of Mr. Dev's drawer that they knew he kept in there. While they ended up getting attached to the suit they appeared in the first day, Meixong was infinitely grateful for the comfy sweatpants and t-shirt they bought at the mall Vikki—the woman who helped them—brought them to. Other clothes as well, but the sweatpants were Meixong's favorite.

They barely flipped up the hood of their jacket before running outside and around the corner where the window was. It was too dark and rainy to see farther than twenty feet, but even if they could, they knew there were dense woods beyond. Whatever had gone past their window was now gone.

Who screamed? a vague thought reminded them, and they turned around to find the source of the scream. It wasn't hard to find. Flashlights bobbled through the rain, all congregating somewhere next to another cabin. They seemed to be looking at something on the ground.

As they got closer, they could see why one of them screamed. A man lay on the ground motionless and looked to have suddenly collapsed judging by the awkward position he landed in. Four other people gathered around, one with an arm around another girl's shoulders who was crying. She was probably the one who screamed. Meixong walked up to Vikki, who wore her signature blue, and she wordlessly gave Meixong her flashlight.

"Is he alive?" Meixong asked the people in the crowd. No one answered. Terse remarks sat heavily on their tongue, but they couldn't exactly chastise them. None of them could've been past their twenties, and as far as they knew, none of them were soldiers. It wasn't fair of Meixong to expect them to react accordingly to the situation, but oh how they wished they did.

"Should we call 911?" Someone asked.

"Someone's on the ground, either unconscious or dead, and unless you're going to do something about it, what the hell do you think you should do?" Meixong snapped. "Call for help, now!"

As directed, the person fumbled with their phone before putting it to their ear. A few seconds later, they began talking to someone on the other line. Meixong didn't exactly know how it worked with the whole cell phone and service access, but that wasn't the issue at hand. Instead, they pressed their ear against the unconscious man's chest. It took a couple seconds, but they could identify a slow, steady heart rhythm and shallow breaths.

"He's alive." Meixong looked around to see who was present. Vikki, a man, and two other women with one of them on the phone. Two more flashlights approached, another man and woman. "Vikki, open the door to the cabin."

She quickly nodded, rushing to the nearest cabin. But just as Meixong began moving the unconscious man, the girl on the phone quickly approached.

"Wait! We can't move him! What if he has a broken neck or an injury we can't see?"

"I'm aware of the risks, but if you haven't noticed, it's pouring rain, we have no idea how long he's been out here, and frankly, I think he's more likely to die of hypothermia than a broken neck right now. Trust me, unless he fell off the roof, it's unlikely he injured his neck to that degree, and that's me speaking from experience after being dropped on my neck a couple times turning spars." Meixong stood, gritting their teeth as they balanced all of the man's weight across their shoulders as they held onto the back of the man's knee and arm. "And I don't want to alarm you, but I don't think we're alone out here. We're all safer inside and behind a locked door."

Whether it was from natural instinct or years of experience, they somehow knew something was still watching them from the woods. It was the uncomfortable pinpricks on the back of their neck; the uneasy feeling in their gut; the way they tensed as they readied to defend themself.

"Everyone, get inside," they called to everyone around them as they slowly trod to the cabin, careful not to slip in the mud.

Thankfully, everyone filed in without a complaint, either too cold or too scared of Meixong's last statement. Even better, the man and woman who approached later turned out to be the nurse and another camp leader who went and got her. At least someone had some good sense there. They were even more impressed as they began rotating around the cabin, locking windows and closing curtains.

"Army?" Meixong asked as they locked the door.

The man grinned. "Reserves. You?"

"Temporary leave." As much as Meixong wanted to continue chatting, they instead turned to the rest of the group, more specifically, the nurse. "What's his condition?"

"Stable, but there are two puncture wounds on his neck." The nurse checked his gums and eyelids, and she had since stripped the man of his wet clothes, layering three blankets on top of him to keep him warm. "He's a bit pale as well. Pulse is elevated. I can't check his blood pressure for more confirmation, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's lost some blood."

"From his neck?" Meixong approached curiously to take a look for themself. "How much do you think?"

"Even if it was a lot, there's not much we can do at this moment, and the ambulance and police won't be here for another thirty minutes..." She looked him over once again. "But I don't think he's unconscious because of the blood loss. He's fairly stable."

Meixong, "Perhaps he hit his head?"

Nurse, "I don't see any severe contusions, but it's possible."

That was when the crying girl spoke up, her voice teetering towards hysterical. "Something bit him!"

That caught Meixong's attention. They nodded towards the soldier, muttering a quick, "Keep an eye out," before calmly approaching the girl. She sat on the bed opposite the one occupied by the unconscious man, a blanket wrapped around her as her coat hung to dry on one of the posts. Her crying had since stopped, but she sniffled every now and again, her eyes wide as they glanced outside. As carefully and quietly as they could, Meixong pulled over a fold-up chair and sat nearly in front of the girl, their back angled towards the door. The position may be putting themself in danger, but if it calmed the girl down enough for her to tell them what happened, so be it.

"Did you see what happened?"

"Yeah, Sky...he was walking me back from the cafeteria—we were on cleaning duty—and then..." She shuddered. "Something ran out of the woods. We couldn't move! It was as if something was keeping us there! And then it—it—"

"It bit him?"

"Yes! It was so dark that I couldn't see what it was, but—I know it's going to sound crazy, but I think—I think it was a vampire! It just bit his neck, began drinking his blood, and then left him to die!"

"It didn't attack you?"

"No, someone shouted at it."

"It was me," the soldier near the door said, temporarily looking away from the window. "I was going to take a piss before she started screaming. After that, I ran and got the nurse since others were already heading over there."

"I was screaming?" the girl asked.

"Yes. You may not have realized it out of fear, but at least it alerted everyone of the danger." Meixong looked around the room. "Now, can anyone tell me what on earth is a vampire?"

"You don't know what a vampire is?" the other boy asked incredulously.

"No."

"It's a mythical being that takes the form of a person—usually someone who's died—and feasts of blood," Vikki answered. "But there's many versions of the vampire, especially now that all these novels exist, and there are some parts of the internet that are obsessed with them."

Meixong gave Vikki a flat look. "...Alright, then. So no one even knows if it exists?"

"Not really. You can look it up online, though," the girl pulled out her phone. "Maybe I can put it up now. I don't have very good signal, though..."

"Wait a second," Meixong pointed to the phone. "You can just find information through that? Don't you need to look through a library?"

"Um...I guess? There's probably some ebooks about it—"

"Sir, there's something outside," the soldier warned. In an instant Meixong was back on their feet, marching to the window. They didn't know how or why the soldier assumed they were of a superior position—even if they were in equivalence to this world—but now was not the time to question it or correct the 'sir' as they gazed out into the storm.

Indeed, there was something outside, dark and looming at the edge of the woods. Whatever was out there knew where they were. An uneasy feeling settled at the pit of their stomach.

"Whatever it is, perhaps its appetite has been sedated for now." Meixong stepped away from the window in favor of looking at the rest. "I don't know how any of those things work, but if you can, start looking through your phones for anything you can. Of any subspecies or anything similar. And most of all, look for ways to defeat it. We have approximately twenty-five minutes till help arrives."