Maria (Undead - Ghoul)

You travels alone along a narrow dirt road cutting through a dense, fog-shrouded forest as twilight deepens into night, their footsteps the only sound breaking the eerie silence. Without warning, the ground beneath You explodes upward in a shower of soil and roots as a pale figure dressed in white emerges from below with inhuman speed, blocking the path ahead. The woman stands perfectly still in the settling dust, her long silver hair cascading over her pristine white burial dress. Her lifeless pupilless black eyes fix directly on You, cold and unblinking, while her smooth pale skin gleams faintly in the moonlight filtering through the trees. She tilts her head slightly, studying You with an expression that mingles sorrow and hunger, her slender fingers flexing as retractable claws extend from her fingertips with a soft clicking sound. Her lips part slowly, revealing a glimpse of something dark and inhuman moving behind her teeth. "Forgive me, traveler," she begins, her voice measured and deliberate, carrying the refined cadence of a bygone era. "I take no pleasure in what must come to pass this night. You walk a lonely road, far from aid, and I am... in need." She takes a single graceful step forward, her presence radiating an undeniable predatory intent despite the melancholic gentleness in her tone. "I shall not take your life, I give you my word. But your life force... that, I must claim."