The forest looked different this far from the cave.
Wren didn't know exactly when she'd crossed into unfamiliar territory. At some point the landmarks she'd gradually come to recognize had simply stopped appearing. The stream she normally followed north no longer wound beside her path. The silver-flowered meadow she'd discovered several days ago was nowhere in sight. Even the trees seemed different here, older and larger than any she'd seen before. Their trunks rose toward the sky like living towers, roots erupting from the earth in tangled walls of wood and moss. Strange blue vines spiraled around their bark, their translucent leaves catching the sunlight and scattering rainbow reflections into the undergrowth. Everywhere she looked something seemed impossible.
And she loved it.
A warm breeze drifted through the canopy overhead while distant birds called from somewhere beyond sight. Tiny crystal-winged insects floated through patches of silver grass. Flowers shaped like little glass bells swayed gently whenever the wind touched them, producing faint musical chimes.
A week ago she would've thought she was dreaming.
Now it was simply Tuesday.
Or whatever the local equivalent of Tuesday happened to be.
The absurdity made her laugh quietly.
Five days had passed since the System disappeared.
Five days since the crimson windows vanished from her vision.
Five days since she'd been left entirely alone beneath an unfamiliar sky.
The first few of those days had been rough.
Very rough.
The hunger had consumed nearly every thought. More than once she'd completely lost herself to it. She remembered chasing prey through the darkness, but only in fragments. Flashes of movement. The scent of blood. The pounding rhythm of terrified heartbeats. Then nothing. She'd wake near the cave hours later covered in blood with only vague memories of what had happened. Survival had eclipsed everything else.
Those first days didn't even feel real anymore.
Back then feeding once wasn't enough.
Twice wasn't always enough either.
The hunger had been endless.
Insatiable.
Now things were changing.
The hunger was still there.
Always there.
But it felt quieter.
Manageable.
Most nights she hunted once before dawn. Occasionally she needed a second feeding if she'd spent the day wandering for hours. That was it. The desperate ache that had once consumed every waking moment had faded into something she could live with.
The fact she was becoming accustomed to that bothered her slightly.
The fact she was becoming accustomed to living in a cave bothered her more.
The fact she was becoming accustomed to both at the same time was frankly alarming.
Wren sighed and sniffed the sleeve of her shirt.
Immediately regretted it.
"Okay."
She grimaced.
"Definitely need soap."
The forest remained deeply unsympathetic.
The irritating part was that she didn't seem dirty.
At all.
For some reason, becoming a vampire had apparently eliminated several inconveniences she'd always assumed came bundled with being alive. She rarely sweated anymore. Her hair somehow remained clean despite spending nearly a week sleeping on a pile of grass in a cave. Rain didn't bother her. Nights spent wandering through cold damp forests didn't bother her. Even after hours of hunting, climbing, running, and generally behaving like a feral cryptid, she somehow still felt... fine.
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Her clothes, unfortunately, were not vampires.
There was only so much a stream could do.
Wren tugged at her shirt and made another face.
"I need the System back."
Not because she needed quests.
Not because she missed the status screens.
Not even because she wanted answers.
She wanted soap.
A nice bar of soap.
Maybe several bars.
Possibly an entire crate.
"Please tell me System shops exist."
Then another thought occurred to her.
A deeply concerning thought.
Actually...
Now that she thought about it...
She hadn't used the bathroom once since arriving in this world.
She stopped walking.
The forest continued existing.
Wren stared into space.
Then slowly looked down at herself.
"...Huh."
That should probably concern her.
A lot.
In fact, under normal circumstances it would have launched an entire existential crisis.
Instead, she thought about the complete lack of toilet paper currently available.
Then thought about the alternative.
Then immediately decided she was perfectly happy blaming this entire situation on vampire biology and never investigating further.
"That's a future problem."
The forest declined to participate.
Wren nodded.
Satisfied with this highly scientific conclusion, she continued walking.
The longer she spent in the forest, the more impossible it became not to compare it to Earth.
The contrast felt almost ridiculous.
Back there she'd spent years living the same day over and over again. Wake up. Commute. Work. Go home exhausted. Sleep. Repeat. Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Entire years somehow vanished before she even realized they were gone. Nothing terrible had happened to her. There was no great tragedy. No dramatic downfall. Her life hadn't been awful.
That was what made it so difficult to explain.
It had simply been... empty.
She'd spent years waiting for life to start. Waiting until she had more money. More confidence. More free time. Waiting until she could finally do all the things she'd been promising herself she'd do someday. Travel somewhere she'd never been. Meet people. Make memories. Actually, do something besides survive the week and repeat the process again on Monday.
Always later.
Always someday.
Eventually she'd realized that someday had a habit of moving farther away every year.
Then she'd died.
The thought should've made her angry.
Sometimes it still did.
Today it mostly made her thoughtful.
Because somehow, despite becoming a blood-drinking vampire and getting stranded in an alien forest, she felt more alive now than she'd felt in years. The first few days after arriving had been awful. Hunger had ruled everything. She'd spent most of her time either chasing prey, feeding, or desperately trying not to think about feeding. More than once she'd woken up outside the cave covered in blood with only scattered fragments of memory left behind. Those first nights felt blurry now. A collection of instincts and panic attacks loosely stitched together into something resembling survival.
But things were changing.
The hunger was still there.
Always there.
Yet it no longer dominated every moment of her existence. Most nights she only needed to hunt once. Occasionally twice if she'd spent the day wandering farther than normal. That was it. The overwhelming desperation that had consumed her first days was slowly becoming manageable.
Predictable.
Normal.
The fact that she was starting to think of bloodthirst as normal remained deeply concerning.
Above her, sunlight filtered through the canopy in endless patterns of gold and silver. Strange flowers bloomed between patches of moss while tiny crystal-winged insects drifted lazily through the warm afternoon air. High overhead the sky shone a brilliant impossible blue unlike anything she'd ever seen on Earth.
And for the first time in a very long time...
she found herself genuinely excited about tomorrow.
That realization surprised her.
Then her thoughts drifted toward civilization.
The excitement faded slightly.
Somewhere out there people existed. Villages. Roads. Cities. Families. Lives. Eventually she would find them. The question wasn't if. The question was what happened afterward.
Would she fit in?
Even if nobody discovered she was a vampire.
Even if somehow nobody cared about the whole blood-drinking thing.
Would she actually fit in?
Wren had never been particularly good at that.
Back on Earth she'd spent years surrounded by people while somehow remaining invisible. Coworkers forgot conversations they'd had with her. Friend groups slowly drifted away. People rarely disliked her.
They just didn't notice her.
The memory left a sour feeling in her chest.
Maybe things would be different this time.
Maybe they wouldn't.
Either way she was done waiting for life to begin.
She'd already wasted one life doing that.
The thought settled somewhere deep inside her.
Firm.
Certain.
Whatever happened next, she wanted to live this life as fully as she could.
Not survive it.
Live it.
The forest suddenly went silent.
Wren stopped.
The transition was so subtle she almost missed it.
One moment the forest had been alive with distant birdsong and rustling leaves.
The next it wasn't.
No birds.
No insects.
No movement.
Just silence.
A cold knot formed in her stomach.
Slowly she turned in a circle.
Nothing.
The trees remained where trees normally remained.
The flowers continued existing.
Everything looked normal.
That somehow made it worse.
Then she caught movement.
A distortion.
A shape where no shape should have been.
Gone before she could focus on it.
Wren frowned.
Several seconds passed.
Nothing.
She continued walking.
The feeling didn't leave.
Ten minutes later she saw it again.
Then again.
Then again.
Always at the edge of her vision.
Always gone before she could properly focus on it.
The realization arrived slowly.
Nothing had stalked her before.
Everything she'd encountered since arriving in this world had fled as soon as it noticed her.
This wasn't fleeing.
This was following.
A chill traveled down her spine.
Something was watching her.
Slowly she turned toward the trees.
The forest stared back.
And then something moved.
Something huge.
Something hungry.
And for the first time since arriving in this world, Wren realized she might not be the predator in this situation.