"Yes, yes, I remember about the cake due for Thursday. Of course I know which one! Um… the turtle one, right? Okay, okay, I'll double-check it before delivery. For the Mackenzie's, I know. Yeah. Sheryl, before you hang up, can you give me the address of the Duchoveny delivery again? Great, thanks."

The electronic tones of her cell phone reminded Mariella just how quiet the highway was. Too quiet for her liking. Click. The soothing strings of a full orchestra and caressing vocals of her favourite operatic phenomenon filled the empty car air. She instantly relaxed.

"Look at you, Paul Potts," she sighed wistfully, speaking to her cd. "You're doing what you love. You used to be an… accountant or something." She grumbled to herself. "If only I had the guts to do the same, and get me out of this dead-end job." She crossed her arms over the steering wheel and rested her chin on her wrists.

Working in a cake shop isn't so bad, Mariella tried to tell herself. At least it's in the same ballpark you want to be in. All her life, ever since she made her first batch of cookies with her mother, Mariella wanted to own a patisserie. Even though that batch of cookies she made was done with store bought dough, still, Mariella loved the smells, flavours, and textures that baking brought. She'd always wanted to learn the finer arts of baking, but after high school, she convinced her mother to let her take a year off. Soon, one year turned into two, and two into three. She'd ended up in a cake shop, only because her friend Shelley worked there and knew of Mariella's love for baking.

So, there she was, making a delivery down into Washington with Shelley's decrepit minivan, a half hour into her trip, and it was getting dark quickly. It would take roughly three hours to get to Aberdeen from Bellingham.

As another half hour went by, she hit repeat on her car stereo, and cranked her favourite song by Paul Potts.

"Let your mind start a journey through a strange, new world," she sand loudly and off key as the wilderness on either side of the road was swallowed by the darkening sky. "Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before, let your soul take you where you long to be!"
A dull sound, much like a car horn attracted Mariella's attention just before the collision. Two things happened upon impact. The airbag deployed, breaking her nose and temporarily stunning her, and her legs were snapped just above the knee.

When she could make sense of what happened, she wished she couldn't.

Crouched atop the crumpled and smoking hood of the minivan was a man. His eyes were a flat black that looked unnervingly unnatural, and an animal-like snarl of hunger brought his lips over pointed teeth.

Immediately Mariella thought of a vampire. But that's impossib-

He lunged at her through the shattered windshield, head first. Fire erupted in her throat, and warm blood seeped down her chest at a rate that alarmed her.

All that went through her mind was; make it stop! She writhed against her seatbelt, making the bones in her legs grind together painfully, though she could not feel it. Let me pass out, let me die, she pleaded.

Something had distracted the vampire from her, though she did not know what. She wished he would just kill her, drink her blood. Let me out of this car! her mind screamed.

Then… nothing.

It was as though she passed out, but was still aware, awake. The pain in her legs did not leave, but was dulled. The fire in her throat raged. It felt as though the skin about her throat had been peeled away, rubbed with salt and pierced with shards of hot glass. The pain was like nothing she had ever felt in her life. Soon the sensation spread from just her throat to every blood vessel in her body. It was as though agony enveloped every particle of her being, it consumed her mind. She couldn't put the fire out, nor could she scream in pain.

The pain did not recede for hours, days, weeks. Time meant nothing to her. It was only agony and torture in her mind, body and even her soul. It was much, much later that she realized she could see.

The light blinded her, and then refocused into incredible detail. This couldn't be heaven. What if it was hell? She stood up. No pain? Wait a minute. Hadn't she broken both her legs in the accident? She looked down at her legs. They were stark white, bare, and healed. Her arms, the same. How long had she been out of it? Tenderly, she went to feel her nose. In place, and whole. The skin on her neck was smooth and-

A warm, heady scent invaded her nostrils. Greedily, she inhaled. With a strangely involuntary action, she leapt towards the scent and began to run with all her might. Her environment whizzed by in a blur as she ingested the aroma of her prey. The source of the smell zoomed towards her, and she pounced on it. The sounds of ripping flesh and cartilage met her ears, but she did not care. Warmth filled her as the seemingly unquenchable thirst that gripped her subsided slightly.

She sighed happily, content. Then, as if seeing for the first time, she looked down at her prey. It was a mother badger, ripped down the flank, it's white fur red with drying blood.

A scream racked her vocals, a terrified scream that horrified her even more. Raking her fingernails through her hair, she looked down at herself. She was completely naked, her almost transparent skin contrasting greatly with the blood dripping down her chest.

She screamed over and over, crying and scratching her skin with nails of steel. With a sudden realization, she knew she didn't need to breathe. She could scream for hours without taking a breath. And – oh my god, Mariella thought – I don't have a pulse.

I'm dead. No, she thought. That can't be right. I'm alive, but I don't have to breathe or have a heart –

I'm a vampire. I'm undead.

This revelation was not a comforting one. The forest around her became Mariella's own personal hell. She soon came to understand that she could not sleep. This was one of the most terrifying things she now knew about herself. As a – human, she went to sleep to forget things. Other people drank or ingested drugs – Mariella used to sleep. When you're asleep, you can't think of those things that haunt you during the waking hours, she thought.

The new changes in herself could have easily driven her to insanity, if not for her surroundings. The green forest was a constant source of distraction. She hunted frequently, in spite of her love for all things alive. Soon her desperate thirst grew faint, and she felt she could think clearly once again. That was the worst part.

Mariella tried to drown herself at the bottom of a nearby lake. But, of course, she had no need of air and possessed no pulse. She tried many things to rid the world of her existence, but all failed.

So this is what it's like to be immortal, she thought miserably.

* **

Mariella had no idea how long it had been since the accident. She could remember nothing except the vampire who'd done this to her. No matter. If she came across his path, he would regret trying to kill her. She'd not the faintest idea how to kill an undead immortal, but she'd give him a piece of her mind.

Miserable, Mariella lurked in the forest. If she ventured anywhere, she was afraid a human might get too close and –

No. She would not think of that, not ever. She would just sit in the forest, for the rest of eternity.

Tears involuntarily stung her eyes. Well, at least I can still cry, she thought. A tear rolled off the tip of her nose, and made a sizzling noise as it hit the mossy forest floor. It left a black scorch mark in the moss.

"Everything about me is built for destruction!" She wailed unhappily.

"It doesn't have to be that way," A female voice reached Mariella's ears.

Mariella leapt to her feet, eyes raking the forest for the source of the voice. A soft breeze brought a different yet familiar scent to her nose. It was vanilla. Still alarmed, her head snapped upwards to the heavens. Two women were perched in a treetop far above her.

"Who are you?" Mariella yelled. "Stay away!"

The two women let go of the tree, and gracefully fell to the forest floor, landing with a soft whump.

"I'm Alice," said the smaller woman. She had short spiky black hair. "And this is Rosalie," she gestured to the gorgeous blonde woman.

Mariella said nothing. She inhaled deeply, getting a sense of the scents of the women. She did notice that they were freakishly pale, like her, yet unnaturally beautiful. Mariella did not think she herself was beautiful.

"A newborn," Rosalie sniffed in distaste.

"Not now, Rose," Alice warned her. Turning to Mariella, she handed her a small pile of folded clothes.

"These are for you," She said uneasily. "We were sent to see if you were…" She trailed off awkwardly. "Stable."

Mariella took the clothes warily, unable to feel modest about her nakedness.

"Then you two are-"

"Vampires, yes." Alice finished for her.

Mariella let out a breath, as though she'd been holding it. "Then there are more of you," she clutched the clothes to her chest.

Alice nodded.

"I don't suppose you know who did this to me, then?" Mariella breathed, anger building.

"No, it wasn't any of us, if that's what you were thinking," Rosalie snapped.

Mariella fell to her knees, a hopeless despair came over her. Alice shot Rosalie a glare.

"Look Rosalie. Her eyes aren't red, she hasn't fed on humans," Alice sounded genuinely happy.

Mariella began to sob at this.

"Oh, forgive me!" Alice wailed, dropping to comfort Mariella. "I didn't mean-" she sighed as the newborn vampire rested her head upon her shoulders. "Rose, phone Carlsile and let him know."

Rosalie turned on her heel and whipped out a cell phone. She began chattering away as Alice comforted Mariella.

"Oh, dear, it's not so bad," Alice reassured her. "You're very advanced for a new vampire," she said pointedly.

Mariella raised her head. "Really?"

Alice smiled and nodded. "Really. You're like us – we call ourselves vegetarians, because we don't drink human blood."

"Are there more of you?"

"Yep. Would you like to meet them?"

Mariella sniffed and smiled. "I'd love to."

"Lets get you in these clothes then," Alice suggested and helped Mariella up.

Once dressed in the oversized athletic wear Alice brought her, she introduced herself as Maria. She'd always hated her name.

Rosalie crossed her arms and looked Mariella up and down. "The least you could've done was bring her something decent looking."