Chapter 8

I wish there was someone who would lie to me about it or make up a story about it. I had lived all my life thinking of myself as nothing other than an average human being, but before I knew it, I became a creature that has to sink its teeth into people's flesh like a freaking leech. Then it hit me like a strike of lightning. I turned to my mom who was watching me digest the truth in my head.

"Mom, how did I get here? Where are Alyssa and Cammie?" My voice cracked with emotions.

"We found you lying unconscious in Alyssa's car," She told me and took a deep breath, "You have no idea how much that frightened me."

"What was that, mom?" I asked.

"There was blood all over you," Mom spoke in a quiet tone. I could almost see the dreadful moment flashing through her eyes. I tried to gather the last thought. The bitter-sweet desire for blood that was so foreign, yet so powerful to me. A gnawing hunger for something warm, running inside those veins, and then I heard Alyssa and Cammie screamed in terror.

"Oh no! No!" I buried my face in my hands. I just didn't want to imagine the picture.

"What's wrong, Vivienne?" mom came to pull my hands away.

"Mom, I killed my best friends!" I started to cry.

"No! Honey, you didn't kill anyone!" Mom tried to pull my hands from my face, "They are fine. There was nothing happened to them."

"Really?" I asked through my tears.

"Yes, I only had to insist on them to go home. They just wouldn't leave your side," Mom told me. "Don't worry, your friends are safe. No harm was done."

"So why was there blood on me?"

"You had a terrible gum bleed, that's all," She told me, "Anyway, it still gave me a good dose of shock just to see your..." but Mom simply broke herself off.

"Mom, if there's something I don't know, it's time to tell me now," I reassured her firmly. "You saw my what?"

Mom looked at me as if to make sure that I still had enough sanity to take this, so I put on a brave face to make her continue.

"I saw your eyes and...your teeth," My mom finally admitted.

Now, I remember it. I ran the tip of my tongue across my upper teeth, but there were no fangs, only the same old ones that remained. I reckoned how long they once were. It felt like walking straight into a horror movie. I think I would scare three years out of my life too if those fangs showed up again.

"Mom, I need to see my eyes," I said at last.

"Honey, I don't think you should see that now,"

"Please, mom," I insisted. She hesitated for a moment but then opened the nightstand's drawer and took out a pocket mirror before handing it to me. I held the mirror in my hand.

I almost let out a terrified shriek. There was a pair of glowing eyes staring back at me. They had liquid golden rings around the pupils, which seemed to glow literally in the dark.

As if Mom didn't want me to witness too much of that, she turned on another lamp by the nightstand, the light quickly outshone the golden hue of my eyes, making them return to their natural shade again.

"What the heck is this?" I asked in a whisper.

"Optical fluorescence," she answered, "It enables you to see in the dark."

And that was not the only thing about my freaky self. As I examined the skin on my arms, it seemed as though some of the melanin had left my body.

"Okay mom, can I be exposed to the sun?" I asked because if I was like Dracula, I would have to roam the streets at night and go into hiding during the day, which was suck.

"What, you think you should live in a cave?" Mom said. "Honey, it's just a myth. Sunlight is bad only that it's too bright for vampires. They do have an acute sense of sight. Daylight just annoys them. You have extraordinary night vision though. You may demand sunglasses for any outdoor since you tend to be too sensitive to light."

"That's good to know about this UV problem," I said. "But are you sure I won't burst into flames if I go out in the sun?"

"You get a sunburn, yes," Mom replied, "But as long as you have sunscreen on, it's not a problem."

"How do you know so much about all these stuff?" I asked, feeling impressed. Mom just raised her beautiful eyebrow and pointed to herself.

"Doctor," she said.

"Oh yeah, right, I forgot," I said, feeling a little slow. "But how do you know so much about vampires?"

Mom laughed. She pointed to herself again and said, "Vampire's wife."

And for the first time here, I had the heart to laugh. Well, I should've known my mom had lived with a vampire even before I was a zygote.

"Mom, was I really that scary to you?" I asked rather timidly later.

"Yes," She said, "And also no. I was scared to death when my daughter was covered in blood. But no, I wasn't scared of what my daughter has turned into."

In that heartfelt moment, we both got tears in our eyes. She came to embrace me- the creature that only a mother could love. There was something else that I needed to know, so I wiped my eyes and spoke again.

"Do you think both of Alyssa and Cammie know about what has happened to me?"

"I don't think they do. It was dark, and you were unconscious. I made sure no one else approached us while I was checking on you," Mom said and exhaled again. But I still had a thousand questions forming inside my head.

"Mom, I'm still curious about how...you know...how could you and dad... you get what I mean?"

Because even if I spent an entire night looking on every page of my biology books, there wouldn't be a single lesson that could explain how I could come into existence in the first place.

"I think there is someone you can talk to better than me," Mom said.

"Who's that?" I asked in surprise. Wasn't it supposed to be a secret between us? Then we heard a knock on the door. Strangely I got the same feeling of chill when the doorknob turned. Someone opened it slowly, and I sat amazed at the presence of that person. It was Octavia who entered.