Once Upon A Vampire
(Part 4 of the Afterlife Chronicles)

	Lucinda sighed as she held her daughter Esmerelda close with one arm around her, her enchanting storm gray eyes growing distant as she began to tell her tale.  “It’s not something I like to remember…”

	I had been out that day, nine years ago, shopping none the less.  It was really hot, even for a summer day, so I wore my lightest dress.  The windows were down in the bus and my bags where piled up on the seat beside me.  Oh how much I used to spend back then.  I worked hard so I may as well get nice things right?  The air rushing in from the windows played with my long black hair, I never liked to tie it back.  Well the bus was almost to my stop when my life turned upside down.  It was just the next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground, staring at the pavement in front of my face.

	I remember that it hurt, a lot, but I couldn’t understand why it hurt, or why I was laying there.  There were screams and the sounds of cars crashing but none of that really affected me.  All I could think about was how cold the ground was and how it shouldn’t be cold in summer.  Stupid, right?  But when faced with suddenly dying, a person doesn’t think about it, or the pain, just annoying little stupid things that don’t make sense.  My world slowly went black after the sounds faded out.

      I don’t know how long it took me to die, but when it happened…  I don’t know how to explain it… It was like I was floating in this world of blackness and there was this voice.  Oh how I hated that voice.  If that was God’s voice, I’m going to be so… angry.  It asked me if I wanted to live.  Who doesn’t, y’know? But… If it was my time to die, then it was my time to die, so I said no.
      
      The next thing I know, my eyes shot open and there was this weird liquid on the pavement near my face.  I don’t know what it was, but some was on my lips and when I liked it off, sounds came back.  I could hear fires burning and sirens.  This… strange black liquid was giving me back everything I lost, so I licked and drank it.  Feeling came back and oh God.   My bones were broken but as I kept licking, they snapped back into place and the pain went away.  Soon I was on my hands and knees, licking up that liquid like a dog to water.
      
      It was only when the color came back that the black liquid turned red, and with it a coppery metallic taste and smell.  Blood, that’s what it was.  From who?  I found out quickly enough when I followed the trail of it to a headless body lying on the cement near me.  As weird as this sounds… I didn’t gag or throw up.  My mouth just watered and I wanted more, needed more.  I remember crawling over to the body but hands grabbed me and pulled me back, paramedics it turns out.  They strapped me to a board with a neck brace on me and they took me to the hospital in the back of an ambulance.
      
      I seriously thought I was going to be in trouble, cause I’d died, but my ‘vitals’ checked out and I was apparently in good health.  Not a scratch or bruise on me.  A miracle, they said.  If only it were so holy.  I went home, walking this time because, believe me, I will never ride in a bus again, and showered and so on.  I remember staring in shock at the person reflected in my mirror.  She was so beautiful with her silky hair, smooth creamy skin, and enchanting gray eyes.  She was everything I wanted to be and for several days I refused to believe that woman was me… at least until the day my reflection vanished.
      
      It wasn’t a gradual fading, or anything, it just happened.  Surprised me shitless.  Just one second I was applying my makeup and the next it was just gone.  The fangs came then too, I remember because they cut my lip, and so did the headaches, oh the headaches.  Over a week passed after the accident and my ‘rebirth’ but I hadn’t drunk a single drop of blood in that time.  I was terrified, my body was moving slower and my joints were starting to hurt.  It just happened by chance that I put two and two together and realized what I’d become.
      
      Racing to the blood bank on a hot night in black is not a good idea, but I had to get something and I refused to bite someone.  I could never allow myself that monstrous action.  I broke in and stole a bag, drinking it.  It helped, nearly instantly my headache vanished and so did the pain.  I felt my age again.  It was a wonderful feeling.  I grabbed all the bags I could, shoved them into the little bag I’d brought, and then ran off before the police arrived.
      
	That blood didn’t last long though, just a few weeks later and I’d run out.  I was desperate, but not enough to break into the blood bank again.  I thought, maybe I could get some pigs blood or something from the local butchery.  I’ve never thrown up that long and that hard in my whole life.  It was like drinking bile.  I shiver at the thought of ever trying again.  It didn’t stop me though, I looked for other things that could sustain me other than human blood, and ridiculously, tomato juice works just fine.  Stupid, right?  But hell if it works, I’m not complaining.
      
      Over a year passed after that, I became an avid tomato juice drinker, I’d had to.  The stuff only keeps me feeling fine for a day or so then I have to drink more.  It was a hard year.  I found more and more that I couldn’t stand daylight.  Not like the movies you know, where the vampire bursts into flames, just that it hurt my eyes and I got sunburned more easily.  I started staying inside during the day and coming out at night, even starting to wear darker clothes cause they helped me blend in with the night owls.
      
      Well one night I was feeling really lonely, I mean, vampires aren’t supposed to get lonely but it was just… I couldn’t stand it another second.  I went to a local club that I’d heard about and danced the night away with people I’d never met or would meet again.  It was so fun and relaxing.  Towards the end of the night though… this man…  He was everything I’d ever wanted in a man.  It was like God had crafted him and set him down right there so I could find him.  To say I dragged him home with enthusiasm would be an understatement.
      
      Heheh…  After uh... the sun came up, I rolled over to find him gone and a note on the bed.  It was so sweet, telling me he’d gone off to work and would come back that night.  If it had been any other man, I would have thought it was just a one night stand… but sure enough, night came and there he was at my door, with flowers no less.  Oh how I loved him for being so sweet.
      
      Weeks passed and we grew closer.  We had so much in common.  Somehow though, I knew if I told him what I was, that he wouldn’t understand.  I was afraid, not of him, but of myself and what I’d do if he rejected me.  He never questioned me though, why I drank so much tomato juice, or why he never saw me eat anything else, or why I couldn’t go outside with him during the day.  He was such a good man.  When I learned that I was pregnant, not only was I shocked that I could even have kids, but elation and pure joy filled me.  I told him right away and he just smiled that handsome grin of his and pulled a ring out of his pocket.  He’d wanted to propose to me for days but couldn’t find the right time.
      
      It was later that night that I realized that I couldn’t hide the truth from him any longer.  I wanted a future with him, wanted to be his forever and ever.  So I sat him down and told him the truth, just as I tell you now.  What was so adorable is, after an initial look of shock, he completely believed me, not doubting for a second.  God could not have crafted a better soul mate for me… Oh Jared…  I really miss him.
      
      It was just a few months before Esme was going to be born when he went out to go to work, leaving me with breakfast in bed.  I heard from the police later that night that he’d gotten hit by a bus, at the very place where I’d died, and had been killed instantly.  I cried harder than I ever had.  My whole world was gone, destroyed in a slam of steel against flesh. I-if it hadn’t have been for my sweet little unborn Esme, I couldn’t have lived another minute, but I had to.  I fought through the tears and the hurt and the emptiness to survive.
      
      Esme was born prematurely a week later, but my, she was the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen.  Screamed her head off, she did, till I held her to my breast.  I remember my surprise when she bit me and I found out for the first time that our children are exactly like us.  My little girl has never known what it is like to be human, to eat a cheeseburger, or to run around playing in the sun.  But she’s never complained, not even for a second, my perfect little girl.
      
      Life was pretty much normal, Esme went to school, I worked night shifts to support us, then we decided to drop into a quickie mart to pick up some dinner and there you were.  Sorry I was so long winded…  My story turned out to be longer than I’d expected.