"Fear (Introduction)" by Natalie Paquette

   Fear has always been to me the most intriguing emotion; were I feeling particularly sentimental I might have chosen love to be my favorite, but I have often seen fear to override even that foolish notion. In a moment of panic, anything is possible. In a moment when your very life is on the line, love is often the last fleeting thought as you either kill or are killed.

   There are a great many levels of fear: anticipation, nervousness, anxiety, panic, the sweat-inducing kind and then... my favorite - the sort that lets everything stand still, in which the world, for just a moment, becomes static and silent, and you are allowed only one thought before it all comes crashing down again and reality slaps you in the face (or stabs you in between the ribs). I'm not talking about a scary-movie kind of fear, where your breath catches in your throat so that your scream becomes delayed, and then dwindles into nervous laughter. Or when you're strapped safely into a roller coaster and you pique just before the longest fall. I am talking about the kind of sickening, gut-wrenching nausea that forms in your belly when you face the eyes of a killer, and know, as the bile rises in your throat, that unless you make the mortal blow first - your very existence will come to a screeching, bloody halt.

   It is this fear I speak of that has both allowed my kind to flourish and to come to near extinction. And in this day and age... it was slowly becoming impossible for us to cover our tracks and keep our faces anonymous. No longer could the lesser of us get away with murder, no longer could we count upon superstitions to keep us safe. Something... had to be done. And in a sickening turn of events, the stupid genius of one myth-mad scientist gave us an opportunity to slip past the veil of anonymity and make our presence known to the world.

The idiot was trying to breed vampires.