The woman had gathered her things hurriedly and rushed to the stables, intent on leaving this town and the horror that was about to appear. Normally she would have adored the mayhem, the violence, but this was something that could not be controlled. Not by her, not by anyone like her.

"Where are you going?" a voice from behind her demanded.

And certainly not by her.

Darla slowly turned around, gazing at the red-haired witch challengingly. "Hello…Katrina, isn't it?" she asked, although she knew full well what the other woman's name was. She and the few others of her kind here had had run-ins with Katrina's coven before. She smirked. "Shouldn't you be dancing naked under the full moon or something, rather than bothering an innocent traveler?"

Katrina was undeterred. "Where are you going, vampire?" she asked again, looking between her and the saddled horse. "You and your fellow undead were determined to establish yourselves here, or so it seemed. Yet now you all flee. Why?"

Darla regarded her for a few moments. Initially she'd been prepared to lie, or misdirect, or laugh off the reason why she was indeed fleeing her old haunts in the American colonies. But something about the witch – her visage, her lack of fear, or perhaps something else – made her choose a different course.

"I speak to you now in all honesty," Darla said, her expression becoming serious. "Something is coming. It will rise soon; a demon, intent on bringing about the end of the world," Then she smirked. "And I, for one, want to be anywhere but here when that time comes."

Katrina looked stunned. "There have been signs of demonic activity recently...but we never dreamed it could be so close," she murmured, almost to herself. Then she turned her attention back to the vampire, her eyes narrowed. "Why tell me all this? Surely you don't care if I or others like me are killed by the harbinger of the Apocalypse, or if we all die in the conflagration afterwards."

"I don't care," Darla admitted. "But I felt I owed it to you, out of...professional courtesy." She smiled again. "We are alike, you and I."

"We are nothing alike," Katrina sputtered indignantly.

"We are both anathema to all the priests and ministers and preachers in these colonies," the vampire replied. "And because of it, I give you this warning. None of their Bibles or prayer beads or holy water can stop what's coming. Neither can the lesser demons who walk this Earth. You'd do best to leave this place too, before it arrives."

Katrina stared at her. "I will not." Her mind was racing now. "There must be a way to stop it."

"How can anyone stop the Apocalypse?" Darla asked incredulously.

"I will not simply give up, not when the fate of the world depends upon it!"

Darla shook her head. "Then good luck to you," the vampire said dourly, swinging herself up onto her horse. "If anyone can prevent this, it won't be the church. There are myths and legends of this creature thousands of years older than the oldest scriptures. It's destroyed whole civilizations in the past, and that was just whetting its appetite. Now it wants everything destroyed. Everything."

With that declaration, Darla sped away as if the demon she so feared was at her heels.

Katrina turned away, glancing for a moment at the lantern before turning her gaze to the sky. The end of the world...

No. This wasn't the time to lose hope or to fall to despair at the overwhelming task that was ahead. No, now was the time to speak with her coven, to gain allies – the native tribes and the freemasons should be consulted – so they could all pool their knowledge, and learn everything they could about how to ward off the end of the world.