Dark clouds formed an unusual pattern in the sky. The night lingered cold and damp. The slave ignored the sharp nasal calls of nighthawks and the stench of cows. She could not, however, ignore the voice.

"Get back here, nigger!" His foul voice slapped her ears. "I'll cut dem ugly legs right offa you."

Her brown cheeks flushed dark with ire, sharp-sighted on her destination. Her steps quickened.

"Die, you devil!" She managed to say under her breath.

The slave master was faster than the slave imagined. He trailed just a few feet behind her. If he caught her, she would be severely punished, even if it meant her death. If she managed to outrun him, freedom would be waiting in the wind.

The slave wanted freedom more than life. So she ran, wishing for death if she were caught.

Her heavy slave dress pulled against her. Blood ran out of fresh wounds on her arms and legs. Her feeble body became a vessel of pain, but her spirit persisted, strong as an ox.

With nothing but the glow from the full moon to light her path, she stayed unwavering in her attempt to reach her destination.

Her leg twitched. Her feet fell from underneath her, and her body slammed onto the ground.

Agony shot through the hands she used to break her fall. She wanted to lie there and sob, but time wouldn't allow for it. She yanked her body up, spit the ground out of her mouth, and continued.

Twigs snapped, and leaves crackled under her feet. Every step behind her seemed louder and louder. She ran on as if the hand of God himself pushed her along. Bells of freedom rang through her head. She ran faster and faster, never looking back.

After running a great distance, the voice and the footsteps behind her faded. Her hiding place dangled in front of her like a gold medal. Victory promised to wet her lips when a huge figure appeared out of the shadows and sprang towards her.

She came to an abrupt stop, almost falling back on the ground. Bolts of lighting shocked her flesh. She jerked her body in the other direction and made great efforts to run. A loud scream emerged from her lips. Two big hands grabbed her. Her feet fought against wind. She panted, wrenched her body, and tried to catch her breath. Struggling to break free, she let out another terrified scream.

"Let me go!"

A cold hand covered her mouth, pressing her dry lips together.

"Help me, and I will free you. Scream and I will kill you," the man said.

Her wet tears gravitated to the cold hard hand, and it released her mouth.

"I need a place to hide," he whispered, pressing his could lips against her ear.

Weary and frightened, the slave led the man to her hiding place.

Hidden, they stood in silence under a small wooden bridge. Tall, airy trees hid the low bridge. Light sprinkles of rain tap-danced over their heads. The slave's body shivered from cold and fear. Blinded by the darkness, she listened to an angry white mob stomping by, carrying shotguns and burning sticks of red resinous wood.

The man held the slave close. She breathed lightly into his chest. The sent of fresh blood on him sickened her. She wanted to put her hand to her mouth, but it wouldn't obey her.

The man and the slave were so quiet; you could hear the rapid beating of the slave's heart. Nothing stirred but the night's wind and the leaves on the trees when the man spoke.

"What is your name?"

"Kissee."

"Where are you running to, Kissee?"

"Moses is coming! I gonna be free."

"Moses?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow and giving Kissee his full attention.

Kissee flexed her index finger for the man to bend down. She whispered as if she were telling a secret to an old friend.

"Harriet Tubman. She a runaway slave."

"And a remarkable woman to come back and free others." the man said, shaking his head up and down.

"She's a comin' to free me," Kissee said, almost singing it.

"Is that what you want, Kissee? To be free?"

The darkness didn't reveal the man's face. His voice rang the same as her master's. Kissee knew how an Englishman spoke. She addressed him properly. Her voice conveyed hope and faith.

"Yes'm, Master. I wanna be free."

"Moses is here, Kissee."

The man stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself. Kissee didn't understand the pasty texture of his face. It gave new meaning to the words white man. Two canine teeth grew long and sharp past the man's bottom lip.

Kissee stared, stunned. Her body froze while he unbuttoned the top of her dress, her naked skin like velvet. It felt like silk. He snatched her nappy hair, delicate, but that didn't stop him from yanking her head back to examine her neck.

He bent down and kissed her collarbone. He said things in a language she couldn't understand. Kissee tried to speak, but her tongue slept in her mouth, thick and dry. Her cracked dry lips quivered. Her feeble body trembled. She knew death waited for her, just minutes away. Still she didn't want to accept her fate.

Her stomach rumbled. She got an irresistible urge to relieve her bladder. Relief surprised and embarrassed her.

She glanced over her short life, and smiled. Born a slave, Kissee found an appreciation for her five seconds of freedom. She filled her mind with an image of herself running free and autonomous. She braced herself, and decided to die the way she lived. Brave!

The man's hand caressed her body. Hard and cold. Dead hands, the last hands Kissee would ever feel. His two fangs punctured her neck. Kissee felt a rush of rapture and closed her eyes. The Vampire drank and moaned, not letting a drop of precious blood escape his hungry lips.

Kissee's body fell limp into his arms. He spoke to her as if she were conscious.

"I will take you out of the pit of hell, and carry you to the ends of the earth. The knowledge of scholars will dance in your head. The power of armies will be at your fingertips. I will see the world through your innocence eyes, and lavish in your wonderment. You will have the freedom mere mortals can only dream about.

You've never known a freedom like this. No! You've never known a freedom like this."

Like a father carrying his dying child, the vampire carried Kissee's body in his arms. He could only hope her determination would be strong enough to survive through the night. If she died, he would properly put her into the ground. If she lived, he would indeed give her his dark powers.

The vampire smiled knowing, Kissee would have the freedom she so desperately yearned.

Kissee opened her eyes. Darkness surrounded her. She tried to move, and realized her confinement. Within seconds, she felt suffocated. Feeling there wasn't enough room to breathe, she gasped for air. Her mouth hung open incapable of sound. The stench of death clung to her throat, as she swallowed reason.

Struggling to get out, she lost all sense of reality. She hammered on the box with her fist. She tried to dig her way out with her fingernails. Tears rolled down her face. Blood ran out of her hands.

Twisting and turning, she exhausted her energy and strength. She closed her eyes and tried to settle her mind. Visions of her buried alive, suppressed any chance of relief. In a violent hysteria, she dug into the box, determined to dig her way out.

Kissee stopped fighting allowing her body to become perfectly still. She thought she felt something crawling on her, and slapped herself around. She could feel the box moving with her efforts to brake free. She shook her body from side to side, shaking the box. The scent of decaying bodies crept into her lungs.

"O death, wair is thi sting?" Kissee cried.

She put her hand around her throat, and tried to choke herself. She even tried holding her breath. She awoke surrounded by darkness, and put to rest in a coffin, but death declined her willing soul. Confusion and despair wouldn�t allow her to fight any longer.

She reduced her breathing to an effortless even rhythm. Then she freed her mind from the attention of her bodily functions. She lessened herself to a trancelike state marked by loss of voluntary motion. Her limbs hardened, she couldn't even blink an eye, yet she was cognizant.

Terror and horror consumed every ounce of her soul. Would she spend eternity knowing but incapable of doing?

Death was more horrible than she ever imagined. No God. No heaven or hell. No afterlife, just stiff and lifeless. A dreadful consciousness without activity. Absorbed in her own decay, until she eventually turned to dust.

What was that?

She heard a voice and the coffin door slung open.

"Raise my child. Take your first breath of freedom."

Realizing she had regained control over her body, Kissee leaped out of the coffin. She plunged into the arms of the vampire, screaming and hammering on his chest. Large drops of tears tumbled down her face. Her body shook. She was cold and confused.

"What u don ta me!"

"You are afraid. But there is nothing to fear. You are free Kissee. No one, nothing, can destroy you now."

"Lev me lon!" She said.

"Calm yourself!" Said the vampire, "Or I will lock you back in there."

He backed away. Kissee fell onto the dirt floor. She sobbed harder than she thought possible. The vampire turned and walked away. Kissee lifted her head, and yelled behind him.

"W'at u don ta me? W'at u don ta me devil"

"Follow me! He said, and walked swiftly, towards the big red doors. His long black coat glided across the ground.

Kissee never saw his feet, as he disappeared through the doors. She rose from the dirt floor, and followed him.

She recognized the musty old plantation, full of dead trees, and brown grass. It belonged to Father Death (that's what the slaves called him). He was an old priest that collected the bodies of dead slaves.

He said, he buried them, but the slaves had other ideas. Kissee young sister rotted away in one of his boxes. Her name was Anna. Anna's slave master raped her, before she could walk on her two tender feet. She was ripped apart and hemorrhaged a river of blood. Her little body, a flexible doll, covered in dried blood, in an oversized box.

Kissee stayed with her for three days waiting for her to wake up. When Father Death came, and collected her body, Kissee knew she would never awake.

Kissee ran and caught up with the vampire. She examined her hands. Her face showed signs of pain. The vampire stopped to help her. He put her fingers into his mouth. One by one, and sucked them.

Her bloody fingers were swallowed up in his strong month. When he released her hand, it was healed. The pain was gone.

"Do the same with your other hand," he said.

Kissee put her fingers into her mouth the same way the vampire did. She looked in amazement as they healed. She no longer felt any pain.

"You are capable of amazing things," the vampire said. "Think of it as my way of saying thank you, for saving my life."

"I saved you?" Kissee said.

"You surly did," said the vampire. "So let's get it over with."

"Get w'at over wit." Kissee said.

"The questions, you all ask the same questions." He said.

Kissee glanced up to finally get a look at the vampire. He looked like a young man in his early twenties. He was at least 6'2". His thick, golden-blonde hair hung full, past his shoulders. They matched his dark-golden eyes.

His face was softer than she remembered, and possessed rich color. Not pale like the white men she saw.

Kissee lowered her head and lifted her eyes to the vampire.

"'re u da devil?" She asked, in a low whisper. The vampire laughed loud and hearty.

"Well child, maybe I will get some new questions after all. I am not the devil, but you will see some things that might convince you otherwise. Just call me Barnabas."

They walked along the dirt road, and Barnabas tried to explain their existence. Kissee was taken by Barnabas's beauty. A beauty she hadn't noticed prior. She felt spellbound.

She tried to listen while he talked, but her mind wandered. She delighted in the way he spoke to her, as if she were white. His eyes were gentle, and his smile radiant.

No white person had ever talked to Kissee in that manner. It was refreshing. No, enchanting. She tried to understand him, but he spoke past her capacity.

Barnabas heard a carriage approaching, and moved to the side of the road.

"Quiet child. Do not speak until I say."

He stood out in front of the carriage. It pulled over. The man examined him closely, and glanced at Kissee.

Kissee put her head down, but scanned the white man with her eyes. He looked very much like the slave master she ran away from. His dirty yellow hair fell into his harsh face. He had little puffy blue eyes, and a fat nose. She could smell alcohol seeped from his pores. His body odor escaped his clothes with his big round belly.

"I don't have any money, but I have a nice young slave you can have your way with," Barnabas said. Kissee watched as the white man examined her.

I will drive the carriage. You can take her in the back with you," Barnabas added. Without giving the man a chance to answer, he took Kissee by the arm, and dragged her over to the carriage. Instinct told Kissee what to do. She lifted her worn beige dress to put her leg in the carriage, and hesitated. Barnabas pushed her along, as he spoke.

"She's a little dirty, but that shouldn't bother you."

The man climbed down from the carriage, and Barnabas grabbed him by the arm. In the blink of an eye, he bit into the man's neck and handed him to Kissee.

"Drink!" He said.

Kissee turned away and looked onto the ground.

"Will he die?"

"Drink! Or you will die." Barnabas said. Fire lit up Barnabas eyes. He grabbed Kissee by the hair with his free hand.

"If you don't drink, I will lock you in a coffin for all eternity."

Kissee sank her newly formed fangs into the man and drank until Barnabas pulled her away. She resisted. He jerked her to the ground.

"That is enough. Never drink it all," he said. "You will get very ill, and the victims will invade your dreams."

"Kissee wiped the blood from her moistened lips and tried to throw up. Barnabas grabbed her by the face.

"Your body doesn't work like that anymore. This is what you are. Accept it now. Save yourself a lot of grief later. There is no turning back."

Kissee yanked her face away from the vampire. She peered the man lying below her. She tried to feel remorse, she felt pity instead. Not for the way he died, but for the way he lived.

"Pick it up! Throw it into trees."

"But I can't."

"You can! Now do as I say."

Kissee picked the man up with one hand, and tossed him into the trees. She enjoyed the idea of her new strength. Barnabas motioned her into the carriage.

"You are full. I still need to feed, and you haven't had your first kill yet," he said.

Kissee tried to get into the front of the carriage.

"Get in the back," he said. "You are no longer a salve, but you must behave as one until we leave this country."

"Yes'm, master." she said, as she climbed into the back of the carriage.

"You are no longer Kissee, we shall call you Cheetah."

"A cat?" she said.

"Oh child, a cheetah is more than a cat, and it belongs to you, for the rest of eternity. We had better get you somewhere and clean you up."

"I know where." Kissee said, with wide eyes and a gentle smirk.

"The world is yours Cheetah. You can have anything you want. So what will it be? Money, pretty clothes, fine jewelry?"

Kissee didn't have to think about the question. She knew what she wanted, and it wouldn't cost a thing.

"Luv," she said.

"Oh child, anything but that." Barnabas said, leaving his laughter like a trail of breadcrumbs behind them.

Wolves yelped. A small light beamed through a little window. The air tinged thick with mist. A broad wooden door opened, with a light touch. The floor squeaked, while an electric bulb dangled from the ceiling. Kissee's voice lurked through the black room.

"Massser, Kissee's home."

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