The following morning arrived with a deafening silence. The storm had died during the night, leaving the world outside buried beneath an immaculate white shroud. The sun, pale and distant, reflected off the snow with a glare that stung the eyes.
Inside the mansion, the atmosphere was thick with a heavy moral hangover. The forced kiss from the night before hung between them like a toxic fog.
Alice was in the library, pretending to read, though her senses were tuned to every sound in the house. Kara was in the kitchen, brewing strong coffee, trying to ignore the tension pressing down on her chest.
It was Rose who broke the stagnation. She entered the kitchen wearing a white fur coat that made her look like an ice queen and found Natalie staring out the window.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Rose said, stopping beside her. Her voice was gentle, stripped of the venom from the night before. "Everything looks so… clean."
Natalie, still confused and ashamed about the kiss, wrapped her arms around herself.
"Yeah. It feels like we're alone in the world."
"There's a place…" Rose began, pointing toward a trail of trees that vanished along a slope. "Sigh Peak. The view from there is the most impressive thing you'll ever see. You can see the entire valley."
Natalie hesitated.
"It's really cold, Rose. And after last night… I think Alice would rather we stay inside."
Rose laughed, a crystalline sound.
"Alice has been in a bad mood for a century. Come on, Nat. Just a short walk to clear your head. You don't want to stay cooped up all day with my sister's tension, do you? Fresh air will do you good."
The offer was tempting. The house felt suffocating. Natalie looked out at the endless white expanse.
"Alright. But just half an hour."
"Half an hour is all I need." Rose smiled, her eyes glinting with a promise Natalie couldn't decipher.
They went outside. The cold was brutal, biting instantly at Natalie's exposed skin. The snow reached her knees, making each step a struggle, while Rose moved across it with supernatural lightness, barely sinking at all.
They walked for ten minutes, putting distance between themselves and the safety of the mansion. The forest was utterly silent. No birds. No wind. Only the sound of Natalie's labored breathing.
"Don't you get tired?" Natalie asked, stopping to catch her breath.
Rose stopped several steps ahead, her back turned.
"I don't feel tired, Natalie. I don't feel cold."
Natalie laughed nervously.
"Lucky you. I'm freezing. I think we should head back."
"Not yet," Rose said. Her voice changed — lost its pleasant melody and became flat, cold. "We haven't reached the fun part."
Rose turned around.
From fifty meters away, the mansion was nothing more than a gray stain among the trees. They were isolated.
"Rose?" Natalie took a step back. Her survival instinct, dulled by politeness, suddenly snapped awake.
"You know, Natalie…" Rose began walking toward her. Slowly. "I've always wondered what innocence tastes like when it's mixed with fear. Alice has always protected you. But out here… in the snow… sound doesn't travel very well."
"What are you talking about?" Natalie's heart began to race.
Rose smiled — but not the smile from before. Her lips parted wider than they should have, and Natalie saw, with horrifying clarity, fangs descending. Rose's blue eyes flooded with blood-red.
"Run…" Rose whispered.
Natalie froze.
"What?"
"RUN!" Rose roared, the sound bestial.
Panic took over. Natalie turned and tried to run, but the snow was deep. She stumbled, fell, scrambled up again, sobbing.
"Yes… make the blood pump!" Rose's voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.
Natalie glanced back. Rose wasn't running. She was walking. But every time Natalie blinked, Rose was closer. It was like a nightmare where your legs don't work.
"Please, Rose! Stop!" Natalie screamed, tears freezing on her cheeks.
Suddenly, a blur rushed past her. Natalie fell face-first into the snow. When she turned, Rose was on top of her, pinning her to the frozen ground. The vampire's weight was crushing.
Rose didn't attack immediately. She lowered her face to Natalie's neck, inhaling deeply, brushing her nose against the girl's icy skin.
"Your heart… it's beating so fast. Like a war drum."
"Help!" Natalie screamed, but Rose's hand clamped over her mouth.
"Shhh… no one's going to hear you." Rose ran her tongue over her lips. "I'm going to drain you slowly, Natalie. I'm going to let you watch your life stain this white snow red. It'll be beautiful."
Rose opened her mouth. The fangs hovered millimeters from the skin. Natalie squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for pain, for death.
Inside the mansion, Alice stopped reading.
A cold sensation — worse than winter — sliced through her chest. The silence in the house was wrong.
"Kara!" Alice shouted, running into the hall. "Where are they?"
Kara appeared in the kitchen doorway.
"Who? Natalie and Rose? They went out for a walk about twenty minutes ago. Rose said she was going to show her the view—"
Alice didn't wait for the sentence to finish.
"Stay here. Lock the door."
"Alice, what—"
The vampire didn't answer. She burst through the back door. Alice didn't run like a human. She exploded into motion, becoming a red-and-black blur against the snow, a bullet fired straight toward the forest.
Rose was about to tear into flesh. Natalie's blood was already radiating warmth against her face.
BOOM.
The impact was seismic.
Something hit Rose with the force of a freight train, ripping her off Natalie and hurling her into a tree ten meters away. The trunk cracked under the violence of the blow.
Freed from the weight, Natalie gasped for air, coughing and crying, curling into herself in the snow.
Standing before her was Alice.
But not the quiet Alice from the library.
This was a furious monster. Her eyes were black, fangs fully bared, hands curled into claws, her body vibrating with murderous intent. She positioned herself between Natalie and the tree where Rose was struggling to stand.
"I warned you!" Alice roared, her voice warped with rage. "I told you not to touch her!"
Rose rose to her feet, brushing snow from her dress, laughing even as blood trickled from her forehead.
"You were late, sister. Almost missed the show."
Alice didn't reply. She lunged. She grabbed Rose by the throat, lifted her off the ground, and slammed her back into the tree again.
"If you come near her again, I'll rip your head off and bury it on a different continent!"
"Alice…" Rose choked, smiling through the pain. "Look at her. She saw. She knows what we are now. The secret's over."
Alice released Rose, letting her collapse into the snow. She turned to Natalie.
The human was curled on the ground, shaking violently, staring at the sisters with absolute terror. She had seen the fangs. The speed. The strength.
Alice approached slowly, retracting her fangs, trying to soften her expression — but the damage was done.
"Natalie…"
"No…" Natalie recoiled, scrambling backward in the snow. "What are you? What are you?"
Alice closed her eyes, feeling defeat settle in. There was no explanation that could fix this.
Without a word, Alice moved fast, scooped Natalie into her arms before she could protest, and ran back toward the mansion, leaving Rose behind, laughing alone in the forest.
The mansion door flew open with a crash. Wind and snow invaded the entrance hall.
Alice entered carrying a Natalie in shock and slammed the door shut with her foot, locking it.
Kara ran in from the living room.
"Oh my God! What happened? Natalie?"
Alice laid Natalie on the sofa. The girl was pale, lips purple, eyes unfocused, murmuring broken phrases.
"Teeth… she had teeth… red eyes…"
Kara looked at Alice. She saw the snow on her coat, the defensive stance, the infinite sadness in the vampire's gaze.
"Alice… she saw?"
Alice nodded, leaning back against the locked door as if trying to keep the outside world from breaking in.
"Rose tried to kill her. I had to… I had to show myself."
Natalie lifted her gaze, focusing on Kara and then on Alice. The terror in her eyes shifted into painful confusion.
"Kara… you knew?" Natalie whispered, her voice shattered. "You knew what they were?"
The silence in the mansion was heavier than the storm outside. Kara looked at her best friend, then at the woman she loved. There was no longer any way to lie.
"I knew," Kara said.
Natalie let out a sob, covering her face.
Outside, Rose began knocking on the door, slowly, rhythmically, humming a lullaby.
They were trapped. And the truth, now bare and merciless, was just as dangerous as the vampire waiting on the porch.