Chapter 1

It started all by her fall. Suddenly, there was nothing, nothing to hold, nothing to grasp, nothing. Her hands were tumbling in the air. Her feet were kicking into the night sky. The stars were blurring into a glittering swarm. She was falling and falling. She could not remember how long. After a while, she gave up fighting and closed her eyes. Letting the summer night air pillowing her. Finally, the impact came. A branch hit her in the stomach, a twig pierced her shoulder and needles scratched her face. A scream. Wood shattered under her. More screaming, hissing, shouting. She layed in splinters. She opened her eyes. All she could see was a poster moving down on her. *More blood for all! - Vote for the Vs!*

From the tree crown above she could see her friend looking down at her worriedly. It seemed she had slipped from the branch she was standing on and fallen to the ground. The torn up poster that she had held in her hand had fallen with her. For a while she was struggling for air but then managed to find her breathing again. Standing up, she brushed the dirt and needles of her coat and instinctively grabbed her left shoulder. It was bleeding and hurting pretty badly but there were more important things to think about right now.

"Let's burn this damn poster" she said to the slim figure which slided down the tree trunk without a sound. "Oh fuck! How are you?" he said. "You're bleeding!" She looked into his cloud-grey eyes. His pale forehead was distorted to an approaching thunderstorm. As if lightning struck her, she snapped: "I'm fine!" Her breath was forming vapour. Why was she suddenly so warm? "Let's burn this damn poster!" His complexion grew even paler. "Are you sure?" he said. "You look hurt." Now her skin felt like it wanted to smoulder. "Roman! Let's burn it!" she said. He bared his protruding canines. "But don't you think it's too...", he looked at his father's face on the poster, "too radical?"

She stared at Ivan and he could see something antagonistic in her gaze.

"What do you mean *too radical?*" she asked

He hesitated.

"I thought we had already discussed this, Ivan" she continued, "Removal of their posters is an important tactic to weaken their campaign."

"Yeah, I know" Ivan said, "but it just seems too radical you know, almost hateful."

"ButI thought you were on our side." she said

"I am on our side. I just don't like the idea of burning a picture of someone. It seems wrong somehow." He paused. "Besides, wouldn't they know it was us and start doing the same thing to our posters and our campaign? I don't know, and of course I'm new to strategy and all of this but I feel like it's too risky"

He looked into her eyes and backed away. But she didn't care about the blaze coming out from her eyeballs.

"Then leave" she said. "No one is forcing you to do the necessary."

He raised his arms so his palms were like a shield.

"Why? What is going with you? Is it because of your fall?" he asked. You have never been so ..." he waved his arms, "mean or so".

Her coat started to smoke, but she just shook her head. "Go away!" she said.

He grabbed the poster. "No", he said. "Something is wrong. Something weird is happening to you."

Flames shoot out of her fingers. "Aha!" she sneered. "So it's me who is the wrong weird one?"

The poster chatched fire.

\*\*\*

In another part of the forest, a group of people were sitting around a campfire. They were sharing stories about their days and discussing current events. In particular, they were talking about the upcoming formation of a citizen's assembly and how that would shape the political landscape of their forested homeland. Most of the members of the group were human, but some had a mixed background with both human and vampire in their blood line. Suddenly, they could hear an alarming sound, like thousand tiny feet trampling the ground.

They covered their ears.

"What's that?" a young half-vampire yelled, biting her lip bloody with her canine teeth.

All eyes were on the most vampire-blooded in the group.

"What is it, Roman?" she asked again.

Roman, the leader of the group, looked down at her with his black glittering eyes.

"The fire alarm," he whispered, and yet everybody could hear his words like a chill breeze.

"The forest is burning", he said. "I wonder what has happened."

\*\*\*

Ivan was panicking. Something seriously strange was going on with Annabelle. She was levitating a few feet above the ground, a pillar of dark smoke below her and sparks flying everywhere igniting the dry leaves on the forest floor. Her eyes were blank, but mere moments before they had been filled with fire: a fire that had spilled over into the real, physical world. Ivan tried to scream Annabelle's name, but it seemed like she couldn't hear him, like she was possessed by dark magic. A group of mice hurried away over the forest floor, fleeing to escape the growing flames.

He grabbed her leg, pulling her down to the ground and away from the smoke. Her skin was hot like she was running a fever.

"Hello. Can you hear me?" he said. She muttered words he had never heard before. He knelt down beside her and shook her shoulders.

"Annabelle!" he shouted. "Annabelle!"The smell of the smoke caught his attention. "Unholy shit!" he swore. The flames were danceing faster and faster across the sommer-dried forest floor, engulfing several trunks. He slapped her cheek. "We have to go", he said. "Now", he added. But she did not react and the flames came closer like a dance party turned into a mob. He took her arms and lifted her onto his shoulders. "Oh my dracula", he sadi with a groan. He took the first step. Moaning and groaning. And another. He stomped with her on his shoulders. Her head bumped against his and her hair was even in his mouth. Suddenly, she let out a caw. "Hot..." she moaned. He held for a moment. "Yes?", he said. She released another caw. "Chocolate" she moaned.