Chapter 3

SOPHIA

“I see you've recently reached 18 and you don't have any jobs registered in the system...”, she says starting to type on the computer keyboard again. “Yes, it's my first time and I need a job...”, I whisper, seeing that the woman looks at me with a 'sorry' expression on her face. “You are too young, you have no experience in any job, and the system is too full and with limited vacancies, but all of them do not fit your profile.”, she says, and I frown feeling confused at this moment. “What are you saying?” “This means that unfortunately there are no jobs available for you at this time, but you can try again in two months.” My mother is not two months old. “I'm sorry, but I need a job, I need to help my mother who is sick, check again and see if there are any vacancies available, it can be anything, please...”, I ask seeing that the woman starts typing again. “No. I'm sorry, but there are no vacancies available, there are no jobs for you, but you are a young girl, and you may have more options.”, she says looking at me and I know what that means. “Blood donor?”, I ask as she hands me a piece of paper. “Yes, you are old enough and this kind of job is always in need of more people, you can apply for this if you are really in dire need of money fast.” There are always vacancies available because human donors are dying daily, and they need more humans to feed the vampires. “I know it sounds very scary, but this is the only option we have for you.”, the woman says, and I look at the paper in my hands. “And it looks like you came at the right time because the harvest is going to happen in a few days and humans are still being recruited.”, she says smiling as if this is a good thing. I know what vampire harvest means; it means that they organize a party where many young humans attend to be chosen to become a special donor for some member of the vampire monarchy. Girls and boys are chosen and must become special donors, this is slightly different from the regular blood donor because this type of donor receives more rewards. “You will have a good chance and even if you are not one of the chosen ones you will receive a good amount of money for applying. Are you interested in doing this?” I keep looking at the woman knowing that there are many humans behind me waiting to be attended to and I am sitting here and not knowing what to do now. There are no job vacancies for me and that means my last option is to become a blood donor to help my mother, that way the money is quicker. I need to face my fears for my mother. “What do I need to do to apply to be a pooled donor and participate in the harvest?”, I ask, taking a deep breath so as not to start crying here. “I'm going to do your application now, then you just need to sign some papers and do some tests and blood work to see if everything is okay.”, she says starting to type quickly on the computer. I feel my whole body shaking as I continue to sit in that chair, I am doing something that will completely hurt my hand, but I have no other option and I can't leave her sick and weak like that. The woman continues preparing the papers while I am completely lost between my thoughts, I will apply to be both types of donors, the harvest will happen in 3 days and I will need to attend this celebration, I have no interest in being chosen by a member of the monarchy, I am only doing this for the money I will receive if I just go to this place. My application to be a regular donor is just a precaution if the money from the harvest is not enough to buy medicine for my mother, I wanted any job but that will not be possible. “You just need to sign here and then you can do the tests, you can come again tomorrow to see the results and see if everything is approved.”, she says handing me a pen and I look at the papers in front of me like I'm about to sign my death contract. I sign my name on the paper quickly trying not to shake anymore and stand up holding the other papers listening to the woman's voice asking me to go down a hallway. I sit on a chair seeing several nurses in white clothes and many humans doing the same kind of examination, I realize there are many people of my age, and they are all smiling as if being chosen for the harvest is a great thing. The amount of money is very high, and you could have a better life, but you would become like a toy for a royal vampire, and he could do anything to you, this is like a nightmare coming true, but all these boys don't realize that. I continue to hold the papers in my hands feeling completely nervous about being here and I almost have an anxiety attack when I hear my name being called by a male voice. I stand up seeing that a male nurse leads me to a door and asks me to sit in a chair in the corner, he asks me to stretch my arm to scan my ID and I widen my eyes when I look at him. Vampire. He's touching my arm and I pull away quickly when I realize his skin is as cold as a corpse, the man looks at me with a frown and says softly: “You don't have to be afraid of me, I won't hurt you...”, he says, and I sigh, sitting down again and stretching my arm. I try not to look at the man's pale face and red eyes as he prepares the instruments to take a sample of my blood and try not to think that he usually drinks this kind of liquid. “It won't hurt, stay calm...”, I nod, watching the needle approach the vein in my outstretched arm. I close my eyes as I feel the sharp object enter my skin, I have always been afraid of needles and that hasn't changed over time and the nervousness of just being here doesn't help at all. I just want to be with my mom and not have to worry about any of this. I open my eyes feeling the needle being removed from inside my vein seeing that the vampire starts guarding my blood sample, he puts a bandage on the spot that was punctured, and I press it with my fingers getting up. “You can come tomorrow at the same time to pick up the results, have a good day.”, he smiles at me as if trying not to scare me anymore and I just nod my head leaving the room and heading to the exit of the place feeling more nervous than before. I did something that my mom will hate, but I did it for her good, I need to go back to this same place tomorrow to get my blood test results, all I want less is to find out that there is something wrong with me or that I can't be a donor because there is something in my blood. I need to think about positive things and the improvement of my mother's health, when I leave the place, I see many guards around the city and many humans, vampires are easy to distinguish because they are the only ones who dress in long dresses and expensive clothes. Humans don't have money for clothes and need to use only what they have, my mom works as a seamstress and sometimes she can make something simple for me like a pair of gloves for the winter, but she also can't overstep her boundaries at work, or she will be fired. My mom won't be able to work like that and of course, the vampire system will ask to fire her from her job and my mom will hate that. She had a clothes store when we were in the normal world and working in this place makes her feel closer to how everything was before and losing this job will make her worse off. My thoughts are dominated by the image of my mother completely disappointed in me when I found out what I did today, but she needs to forgive me, she needs to forgive me because I did all this thinking about her. My eyes fixate on a food store, and I keep looking at the shelf with many red apples, I can't remember the last time I ate an apple, I bite my lips trying to contain my hunger inside my belly as I keep walking. We don't have police like before, but we still have punishments applied to humans who dare to steal anything here, you will be punished the hard way and probably die brutally. Stealing is not allowed, and I would never do that even though I wish I could eat an apple right now, I sigh walking again to the gates where I need to show my arm again to be identified. I walk hurriedly home feeling the wind getting stronger and stronger, I am cold and hug my own body to try to warm my skin. I sigh more relieved as I begin to climb the steps of the stairs quickly that lead up to our house, I see several humans again and they all look at me as if it's the first time they've seen me outside of the house. A lady looks at me and I just nod because we are forbidden to keep in touch with the other humans. I open the door of my house and walk in seeing my mom sitting on the bed and looking at me, I approach slowly seeing that she has a worried expression on her face, and I know exactly what she is thinking at that moment. “Sophia, what were you doing out of the house? You know perfectly well that I asked you never to do that.”, she says looking at me and I nod my head sitting down next to her seeing that she is still weak. “I know, I'm sorry, Mom. But I had to do this, I can't watch you working hard every day and submitting to vampires like this anymore...”, I whisper, looking at the bite mark on her arm. My mom lowers her head as if she is embarrassed, she doesn't have to feel that way, I feel grateful that she made this sacrifice just to make my birthday more special.