The way the rays entered the room in a timid way made her open her hazel eyes.

But she wasn't sad. She welcomes the sun and the young day.

You see, days in her old life would be so predictable, dull even, unlike now, when each day is a gift.

Her old life... it's like a century ago. Who was that girl that held her name before?

The girl that obeyed everyone, and yet nothing she did was enough.

Only her uncle accepted her for a time. When she was willing to kill vampires with him. But then, when she got engaged and ready to be a proper lady, he distanced himself.

He told her it's her mother that made him keep his distance, but if she never killed a vampire, would he even acknowledged her as his blood. He surely never did it with her sister.

So his short admiration towards her was untrue.

What would he do if he were to find out she is living with a vampire? Probably denounce her as his family. Tell her a false name. Kill her maybe.

She tried to get her mind out of her family. The more days that pass, the less she thinks of them, but strangely, at times, it's all that clouds her mind.

She saddened at the absence of her partner.

She went to see if he is maybe in the kitchen, but it seems the house was empty.

Strange.

She thought he must be running errands. She smiled by the thought.

But then again her strange mind wandered to places she would rather not go.

He is a vampire. What if he was hunted down and killed? What if he never returned?

What would it be of her life?

The thought as if it cracked her heart. She rested her hand on her chest and sat down. To calm herself, to pray even. Can one pray for a creature of the night?

Because in her eyes, he was worthy of mercy. Only if he was human... but, would he be the same man he is?

She was so upset. Where could he be?

If only she knew that Felix was not hunted down and killed. He was out wandering the forest all night after she fell asleep. Wanting to clear his mind.

What could Marcus want, he thought. Why would he try to ruin his happiness with Judith? His thirst is not something he should take lightly. Does Marcus want him to attack Judith? But with what cause? He thought so much about this.

Tried to evaluate him so much. He thought about that morning he woke up, after that fateful night. The night when Marcus made him a vampire.

It all happened 100 years ago.

Felix had opened his eyes and rushed to the windows, but the sun burnt his skin.

The first gift of being a vampire.

He closed the curtains right away, he knew what this meant. He has seen it so many times.

A vampire releasing their venom to their victim, to make them in their image, an act of kindness in the eyes of the powerful, an act of violence in the eyes of the weak. Blood of a human to complete the ritual. It's happening to him now. 

He turned around. There was a cup of blood. He drunk it right away. No use denying himself, he is a vampire now, and the sooner he makes the pain go away, the better.

"Felix!" Marcus smiled when he saw the empty cup as he entered the room. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"Confused..." Felix sat on the bed.

"It's only normal but you will feel so much better when you get through the whole process. It should be a minute now as I've never hypnotized you.

Every time a new vampire is made, they relive all the moments that they were hypnotized. Everything a vampire had made them forget will come to light, now that they too share the vampire venom.

It's is a painful process, if one is hypnotized many times.

"I..." Felix tried to speak, but he was not in his room anymore. Wasn't he? He was himself back in the old room, where he used to live with his mother and two sisters. He yelled for them, but no answer. He heard some noise in the living room and he rushed there. A man was talking to his sister, said she must come with him. That man was Marcus. He didn't even try to turn around towards the boy. Another man approached him and rushed him out of the room.

"Little man," the strange man said to him, "I don't want to kill little boys now, forget this happened, your mother abandoned you, and your sisters followed her. Don't try to find them, and don't mourn them, in fact, never wish to visit them!"
"Oh," he added, "forget you ever saw me."

And the strange man was gone in an instant.

"Felix!" Marcus shook him, tried to wake him out of whatever memory he was now seeing. "Don't tell me that my brother dared to hypnotize you!"

Marcus never hypnotized his son, she should not be seeing any lost memories!

"No, it was one of your errand vampires..." Felix finally spoke.

"Who!?" Marcus darkened.

"I don't know, I never saw him after you took my mother and my sisters..." Felix stood up. Anger was growing from his eyes.

"What? Your? But they abandoned you... It's what you said." Marcus was confused.

"So you don't even remember taking my mother and my sisters!?" Felix screamed.

"I... I was in a strange phase, I took some girls, some came to me willingly, and I don't even know which ones were taken..."

"A phase?" Felix's eyes narrowed in disgust, "you ripped my family apart because you were in some phase?"

"Your fam..." Marcus' voice weakened, "I am your family! You call me father! A hero... You saw your mother lying on the ground when you met me! Don't act you didn't know what had happened!"

"A hero?" Felix asked, "I called you a hero because I never understood what my mother is doing there, I was angry she left. I was hypnotized to not miss her..." his eyes showed pain, "for me, she had left me and you welcomed me! But in fact, you took her away, and you took me to clean your mess!" his voice weakened.

"I wasn't aware your mother was one of the ones that we took... Trust me..."

"You are a liar. Even your brother says that!"

"I've never lied to you! And I'm not lying to you now! If I've known..."

"What? If you've known what?" Felix glared.

"My son, please, this doesn't change anything. We are a family! You are what I think about every day before I make any moves...."

"Like turning me into a vampire? You did this for me too?" Felix grew angrier.

"Well yes..."

"Jane and I were going to get married. Have children!" Felix blasted out.

"But you said you wanted to be like..."

"Like you? I would rather die!"

"You don't mean that..." Marcus saddened.

But he meant it.

His real family was gone, and there was only one man to blame for that. Marcus.

It's a strange thing what being a vampire is doing to a person. Their emotions are higher than any human in the world. As much as they are strong and fast, they pay double the price when emotions come to light.

Felix, in the end, left town, never wanting to return. Everything here was painful for him, but then, his sister Belize turned out to be alive. She saw the necklace on his neck and knew, it was her little brother. 

A vampire like herself. She had told him that their other sister is alive as well, a human even. So he returned again. Maybe his family is not that dead as he thought.

Lurked in the shadows, seeing his little sister be an old lady, going into the cemeteries every day, where there were three rocks. She would pray for the souls of her sister, brother, and mother. If only she would know that her mother is the only one dead, and not only that, but there is a grave there for her, it reads Neglecting mother.

How many times he wanted to break that and write down Loving mother. But it was a lesson learned. A lesson he never wanted to forget.

*

He really hated Ravenhill, and yet, after a century had passed since his human-self ceased to exist, he returned to it. Rather, he was drawn to.

There were two graves that he wanted to visit, his mother's and his sister's. Anne. The only one that stayed out of the filthy world of vampires. How he prays that her family does the same. His family...

Ravenhill, what pain would the streets give him.

Something he forgot about when he met his Judith. A troubled woman. With her own troubled family. They were both in pain on that rainy night. And they both made each other's pain go away after.

What an irony it was that Judith was Jane's great great great granddaughter, his first love. Someone from the same family as the one he loved when he was a human, and the same family as the one who beat him to near death. The glorious Rivers family.

But she brought happiness to him. An unexpected love is what he found. In the last place that he thought that he would find. Ravenhill.

He rushed to his house, their house. There is a woman to be loved there.

🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷

Guys! Two more updates to go, and
I will conclude the story. Sort of.

I know I will miss writing it, but I want to end it in the right way.

There might be a small surprise on the very last chapter!

I mean, is anything really over?

Lots of love,

Elena 💕