Chapter 2

SOPHIA It took my mom a long time to recover after my dad died and I wanted him back too, but he was dead and there was no other way to bring him back into our lives. I grew up hating vampires, my mom said they are very cruel creatures, I never got that close to a vampire, I only went to see the city guards who are vampires, but they all wear some kind of helm on their heads, so I never got to see a vampire's face up close. It's late and I know my mom should be here any time, if my dad was still alive, he would organize a big birthday party for me with a delicious cake, but that hasn't happened since I was five. We have no money, the little my mom gets from work is just to buy food, so I don't have the opportunity to eat a cake on my birthday every year anymore, that's my reality now and I'm still trying to accept all of this. I already took a shower, a quick bath, and put on my best dress that my mom made for me last year, she works as a seamstress and makes beautiful clothes for vampires, this is her gift since when the world was normal. Today I'm going to stay with my mom, but tomorrow morning I need to go to the city to try to apply for a job so I can start helping my mom, she always says that vampires are too dangerous, and she wants to keep me away from them, but I need to do this to help. I can't talk about my plan because she would scold me because the last thing, she wants is to see me working for the vampires, but we have no other choice, we need to accept that this is our life now and it will continue to be like this because the world will not go back to the way it was before. Every night before I go to sleep, I always ask God that this is all just a very bad nightmare and that I might wake up at some point, but this nightmare has been going on for 13 years and it's not going to change. I try not to lose hope and continue that vampires will one day be destroyed completely, and humans could live like before, but with each passing day, I lose more and more hope that this could ever happen. I hear the door of our house being opened and I run through the house seeing my mom entering our small house. “Mom, you're home!”, I say about to hug her when I see that she is too weak to walk any further. I look worriedly at my mother's face seeing that she is very pale, I help her sit up in bed and my eyes fixate on her arm, I lift her shirt seeing that there is a bite near her wrist. Sadness begins to overwhelm my body as I realize she did it again, she risked her life again by letting a vampire suck her blood. “Mom, why?”, I ask feeling tears in my eyes as she reaches up to touch my face. “It's your 18th birthday and this only happens once, Sophia. This is for you.”, she says handing me a small cake with some candles on top and I feel the tears wetting my face. I close my eyes tightly trying not to cry, now I can understand why she did it again, a small cake like this would cost a lot in the city and she risked her life once again just to do this for me. “Thank you, but you know you don't have to do that, don't put your life in danger for me, please...”, I beg, feeling her fingers drying my tears with affection. “You're all that matters to me now, Sophia...”, she says in a weak voice, and I help her lie down on the bed to regain her strength. “Happy birthday, Sophia...”, she whispers holding my hand and I feel more like crying now. I leave my mother resting and I go to the other part of the house, I sit on a chair in front of the lit fireplace, and I look at the small cake in my hands, I light the candles and I close my eyes requesting blowing the candles. I want my world back... I open my eyes feeling my eyes water again, my mom always comes home tired, but I see this time is different, she never came home so tired like this. That vampire is going to kill her if this keeps happening, I need to do something to stop my mom from continuing to submit to doing that. I cut a piece of the cake and eat it quickly saving the other half for my mom, she is still resting in bed lying down when I bring her some soup. The hours pass and I watch my mother sleeping, my eyes fixate on the mark on her arm where the vampire bit and I feel a shiver run through my entire body. I love my mom and she made a big sacrifice to make my birthday different and special than other years, I can imagine the pain she felt today just to do that for me, and I feel really bad. She looks weaker every hour, the day dawns slowly and I couldn't sleep because I was taking care of my mother, she looks like she is getting sicker and sicker, her body won't be able to take this anymore and I need to solve this situation. I don't want to do that, I wanted us to have normal lives and normal jobs, but we haven't been able to have that for many years and I need to get used to the idea that we're not going to have our normal world again.