PROLOG

The rain is tipping down throughout the city. A pit patter of thunder breakthrough a dark and ragged cloud—Its tumultuous covered march with the raindrops and keep the little girl awake. Tiara cowered up under her blanket. She closed her ears tight. A cold sweat was streaming down her head. Her little lips drifted, calling for someone.

“M-mom ... Mommy ....”

The five-year-old caught the sound of someone walking up the stairs. She did not move on her bed. She is too scared even to open her eyes. Suddenly, someone pulls her thick blanket, Tiara shocked.

“Honey, are you okay--“

“Mom!”

Hyo-jin hugged her daughter’s tiny body immediately. Her mother smiled while rubbing Tiara’s head slowly.

“I am scared, Mom.”

“I'm here, Honey. Don’t be afraid.”

“Please, don’t leave me.”

“Of course not. It’s okay. The rain is going to over soon. Mom, will take care of you,” said Hyojin gently.

The girl looked up. Her blue eyes noticed hers mom face full of anxiety. It’s something unusual. She had a bad feeling about this. Her chest tightened. She shakes her head slowly. Tiara holding her mother tight.

“I love you, Mom. “

“I love you more than any word can say, Ara.”

Thirty minutes passed, it was still raining outside. The dark cloud of unsatisfied spilled their insides all over the earth. Hyojin shifted her gaze out the window. She bit her own lip. She can’t get rid of her panic. A bad feeling kept bothering her.

“Mom.”

She looked down. Tiara’s small hand wiped her cheeks softly. Hyojin smiles at the sapphire blue eyes in front of her. Brighter than blue sky. Her little angels look so adorable.

“Yes, My Princess?”

“Still not asleep?”

“Mom have to protect you till you sleep.”

Her emerald green iris grew wide when the window next to them suddenly opened. A cool gust of wind burst in, at the same time with raindrops that ended up soaking the carpet in their room. The clatter sound of the windows with flashes of lightning brought Tiara back from her dream.

“Ara, are you waking up?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“We’re going to So-eun’s place right now.”

“Um? But it’s still raining outside.”

“I have some business with your aunty. Grab your jacket, Honey. Mom will get the car keys.”

“All right.”

Hyo-jin rubbing her daughter’s head, “good girl.”

Then she walks out of the room. Tiara uncovered a warm blanket that she was unwilling to leave behind.

The little girl tiptoes a bit. The floor felt frozen like ice. Her small hand reached for the jacket with the picture ‘Minnie mouse’ hanging near the closet. Her favorite jacket. Then she put on it. Done. She walked out of the room.

“Let’s go, Mom!”

There was no answer. Tiara just heard a loud thunder along with the sound of rain out there filling her sense. She is walking towards her mother’s room. Then she opened the wooden door in front of her and went inside. Tiara is calling her mother’s again. She still didn’t find that woman with black hair.

“Mommy?!” she shouted.

Her ears caught the sound coming from the kitchen. She smiled happily. Her mother must have packed some snacks for her. Tiara slightly ran toward the kitchen.

“I am ready, Mom—“

Tiara’s knees suddenly went slack. She fell off to her feet, gazing at the terrifying sight in front of her. Tiara shakes her head slowly, she won’t believe it. That child found the man in the black suit was biting her mother’s neck.

Her tiny body suddenly stiffened. The man gulped down a thick red fluid that flowed out of the wound in her mother’s neck. Hyojin tried to encourage the man to stay away from her. It is useless. She doesn’t have enough power over against that guy.

“M-mom?”

His mother looked weak. She could vaguely see her daughter sitting on the floor with a look of terror on her face.

“Ara? G-get out of here!”

The man paused. His red eyes turned to look at the small child behind him. His smile showed the fangs at the corner of his lips. Tiara is shivering. An overwhelming fear suddenly filled into her mind. Her body stiffened as the man come over her.

The two red eyes looked hungry. The blood on the man’s mouth trickled down, leaving red stains on the floor. Her heart was pounding. Was this the end of her life?

“Run, Ara! Hurry!”

Her mother’s screams brought Tiara to her sense. It's slapped tiara back into the real life. Her eyes welled up as her mother stood in the man's way’s step. The woman smiled warmly at her little daughter.

“You must survive, Ara.”

A second later, that vampire ripped her mother’s guts out from behind brutally. The woman’s entrails were all over the floor. The child look that lifeless body climbed down.

“MOM!”

She opened her eyes. She woke up gasping for breath underneath a blanket drenched with cold sweat. Three days. She has been dreaming of that incident again. A moment which she’ll never forget in her life.

Those hands scrambled her hair that already mess. The girl’s lower jaw hardened, holding back the escalating emotions. It hurts. Her chest felt tight. Her tears came several times when she remembered her mother’s warm smile for the last time. She sobbed.

That bastard took her mother’s life. A person whose mean world to her. The tears turned into a smirk as her eyes caught the blades hanging on the room wall.

“Eyes for eyes. The debt of life must repay with life, too. They must die ... Vampires. ”

- Perfect Mate -