Frostbitten Wayfarer

A girl sat in her room, screaming profanities at her computer as a familiar “You Died” screen popped up. She was playing her favourite game, fighting a new boss that was just recently released. At first she wanted to capitalize on the new hype, excited to finally be at the end game when a new boss was released. The prospects of wealth and riches just a lucky drop away. But three weeks later and here she was with no kills and an excessive amount spent on revive costs.

She was nothing if not persistent though, and kept throwing herself at the wall for a few more hours before she realized how dark it was in her room. The sun had set and her fancy light must have disconnected from her phone again, leaving it on a dim blue instead of the brighter yellow she preferred at night.

“Piece of… I paid forty bucks for this and it can’t even stay connected for more than a week.” She grumbled to herself.

She reached for her light switch, flicking it on and off a few times while fiddling with her phone. The light started flashing and she told her phone to sync with a nearby light. A few minutes passed as she watched the light bulb icon on her phone begin to fill. Just before it was completely filled, the app crashed and her light started flicking on and off again.

“Oh I don’t wanna spend money on the premium version. This cheaper one’s probably fine. I don’t need anything super fancy I just want a basic schedule surely any old RGB light can handle that. Damn idiot, should’ve bought the reputable brand.” She mumbled, thumbing at her phone in frustration.

The app refused to open again, giving some error number she could barely read and telling her to go find support on a website that didn’t even appear to be hosted anymore. She reached for her light switch again to turn it off but the switch didn’t move.

“Is it stuck on something?”

She turned on her phone’s flashlight and tried to look at the switch to see if maybe something got lodged in it but it seemed clean, flawless even. She pulled on the switch again but it didn’t move, even when she just about hung off the switch with all of her body weight it remained in place.

“What the fuck?”

She opened her door to leave, maybe go sit in the kitchen away from the flickering light while she sorted out the app problem. But behind her door was a swirling mass of purple and black, ebbing and flowing, somehow appearing like a flat surface directly behind her door but also an infinite expanse of… something, or maybe everything. She couldn’t tell, but it was certainly not the hallway she normally expected to see.

She slammed the door shut, the thud echoing through her room. The rest of her room seemed normal — her computer was still on, showing her character in the respawn area. Her walls all seemed to be there as normal. Her window was covered by a blackout curtain she got mostly out of fear of people looking in her window rather than any distaste for light. She walked over to the curtain and grabbed a corner of it, shaking for a moment as she thought about what might be behind it.

What should be there was her backyard, a wooden fence surrounding a small garden full of flowers and vegetables. Pumpkins and corn growing in most of it with the rest taken up by leafy greens, peppers and various bushes around the outside. Gravel walkways leading through the garden so everything was reachable without too much effort.

The minutes passed as she imagined her garden, her hand shaking as it held the curtain. She pulled it open and looked out, half expecting to see the normal view and half expecting to see the purple mass that she saw outside her door. What she saw was neither of those things, but instead a forest, trees towering over her, their canopies far above blotting out the sky. The ground covered in snow, the only markings some craters where it seems clumps of snow have fallen from the canopy above.

She looked back at her computer, noticing the flashing of her light had finally stopped. The computer had turned off, along with all of the other little lights she had on her peripherals. All of her electronics seemed to be turned off, except for her light which was brighter than ever. She walked over to her door again and opened it, hoping once more to see the familiar hallway of her house but was greeted with the same forest as before. In this direction she could see what looked like animal trails as they pushed their way through the knee deep snow.

The door was closed with a more gentle touch this time, and she reached over to the light switch again. The switch had some give to it, it wiggled around as she touched it as opposed to the firm, eerie stability it had before when the light was flashing. She flipped the switch down, turning off her light and as she did the rest of her room disappeared. Vanishing from her sight as her finger pushed through where the switch was with the little momentum it had.

“What the hell is happening?” the girl said aloud, twitching her head around as she looked for any signs of her room.

Her room was nowhere to be found, however, and so she walked up to a tree and sat at the base of it, crying. Her tears were freezing as they fell into the snow below, her skin tingling with pain as though thousands of needles were pricking her from all directions. She cried and wailed in pain and sorrow until she heard the crunching of snow from in front of her.

She looked up and saw a person, skin as white as the snow. Long black hair draping around it. Covered in tattered rags, bits of its ragged skin showing through, claws on the ends of its fingers extending out a few centimetres. The persons eyes were a deep beautiful red that she could get lost in for hours it seemed.

[Vampire — ??]

*Ding* You have unlocked the Identify general skill.

The being reached down for her and she screamed in fear, trying to push herself back but stopped by the snow that surrounded her. It grabbed onto her and bit into her neck. She felt an intense heat radiate out from where she was bit, burning into every nerve she had. She screamed in pain for a moment before she couldn’t bring any strength to her voice. The being was holding on to her for only a moment but it felt like a lifetime had passed by the time it let go of her. She felt drained, more tired than she ever had before and passed out into the snow.

*Ding* You have been infected with Vampyrism. All stats are incre…

She awoke a while later, unsure of how long had passed, wondering about the strange dream she had. The sun was still poking through the canopy in a few places so it couldn’t have been long she thought as she walked over to bask in the warmth. She felt calm, ready to tackle the situation with a renewed vigour. Even the cold didn’t seem to be bothering her as much anymore as she pushed the snow aside with more ease than she remembered. She thought about her odd dream for a moment and pushed it aside. It was just a dream.

She made it to the spot of sun and laid down in the snow, basking in the sun’s rays and relishing in the warmth it provided. Which was less than she expected, sure the snow around her was cold but she lived in a cold environment back at home. If the sun was as clear as this it still warmed your skin and felt pleasant. There was no wind to be counteracting the sun and the cold didn’t seem to be that intense that it would just rip any heat out of her that fast.

Her mind flashed back to her dream, she thought there was something she was forgetting right before she fell asleep. But she brushed it aside again. It was just a dream, nothing more. A terrible one, but just a dream. She got up and walked through the forest, looking for some kind of civilization. Hours passed as she trudged through the snow, not feeling as tired as she thought she would.

“Okay, something’s clearly wrong. I should be tired. I should be freezing, I should be feeling incredible pain from the biting cold. But I don’t. I feel fine.” She said to herself, bouncing back to her odd dream once more.

Maybe it wasn’t a dream, she thought. What if she were in fact bitten by a vampire, and became a vampire herself? It would explain a lot, but she wasn’t affected by the sun. Maybe vampires aren’t actually affected by the sun? In the first place acknowledging that vampires even exist is ridiculous. It was obviously just a dream, she thought. She must just be in shock, that could also explain why she wasn’t feeling the cold and is much more logical than vampires existing.

She walked for a few more hours, the sun beginning to set and darkness taking over the forest.

“Okay sure I’m in shock but how the hell did my room just disappear when I turned off the light switch? How is that any more reasonable than vampires existing? No, something’s really damn wrong.” she stopped by a tree and talked aloud to herself. “Also there’s no light anywhere I can see, the sun is gone and the sky is barely lit by the stars and yet I can see as clear as it were day. No, I’m not just in shock. I’m a vampire in shock.”

But that doesn’t make any sense, she thought. Vampires don’t exist, she couldn’t be a vampire. It was just a dream, she thought to herself.

“No, screw that. It was obviously not just a dream.” she said out loud, hoping whatever kept trying to convince her it was a dream would hear. “Look at my hands. I didn’t have claws before but now I do.” she stabbed her claws into the tree, cutting out a chunk of bark with it. “I can’t bloody well do that if I’m not a vampire. And my skin’s barely visible in front of the snow cause it’s so pale and my hair should be purple, not white. I’m a vampire. I know I’m a vampire, stop trying to convince me I’m not a vampire.”

She heard a crack echo around her and felt like a huge weight was lifted off her. She could remember what happened as though it happened just yesterday. Which it did, she thought. A vampire bit her and she passed out. She remembered something popping up just before she fell asleep though. Something about being infected. She thought about the message, trying to manifest it once more so she could read it. She felt a bit silly but her efforts were rewarded as the message once again popped up.

*Ding* You have been infected with Vampyrism. All stats have been increased by ten. Physiology will be altered. The General Skill [Vampyric Regeneration] has been gained. The General Skill [Vampyric Senses] has been gained. The General Skill [Vampyric Resistance] has been gained. The General Skill [Vampyric Immortality] has been gained. The General Skill [Vampyric Charm] has been gained. The General Skill [Vampyric Empathy] has been gained. Race is being converted to [Vampire] *ERROR* CAN NOT CONVERT RACE [Human - Earthian] TO VAMPIRE Class is being converted to [Vampire] *ERROR* CAN NOT ACQUIRE CLASS [Vampire] AS RACE IS NOT [Vampire] Cursing with [Vampyric Curse] *ERROR* CAN NOT CURSE WITH [Vampyric Curse] AS RACE IS NOT [Vampire] Reverting prior changes due to error *ERROR* CAN NOT REVERT PERMANENT CHANGES