Valerie felt herself hovering in the netherlands between sleep and waking. That dreamy place overtaken with the sensation of falling and the lack of caring or strength to prevent it. There was no pain and any fear that had been was forgotten. She was being lulled out of life. Then, with a hard jolt, the flush of heat as the change coursed through her veins.



Now she was more aware than ever before. Her vision sharpened as her eyes took on a predatory sheen that cut through the darkness. Every nerve twitched with electricity. Her breathing had stopped, but it was an afterthought. She had been reborn into something better. She suddenly new exactly what she was. She was hungry.
​
 

"I dream of the first times

the longest memory
I speak of the first times
the oldest Father
I sing of the first times."



- The Book of Nod
 



 She woke with a start. How long had it been? Years? Decades? Too long, and her torpor had been deep. She could feel it in her bones, almost human thin, and her her veins which felt like they were filled with sand. Her heart didn't beat, but it did flush motionlessly with the stuff of life when she was full and healthy. Now she felt emaciated.



She hefted the lid of her coffin up. Heavy and stone, this was a resting place designed to last in the face of, or perhaps in spite of, the modern age. Her resting place was the sepulchre of a church which prior to her sleep had stood for nearly two hundred years. It's mausoleum was old and rarely visited - safe. Rising to sit up, her eyes adjusted in a moment to the gloom. They shone preternaturally to capture all the the available light.



A thin veil of that light slid in under the entrance door. Valerie ignored the ache in her joints and bolted for it. Years ago, the door led out to a long forgotten corner of the church structure. It was intended to give her enough time unnoticed to build her strength up. In her fogue state, she didn't think to worry if things had changed.