Chapter 1

Hmm… It's chilly out this morning, and a little bit on the cloudy side. The smell of the dying leaves is very calming, I guess you could say. Maybe it's just me, but I love everything about autumn. The changing weather, pumpkin pie, the leaves falling to the ground, pumpkin coffee, Halloween approaching, pumpkin cookies, Thanksgiving and did I mention pumpkin pie? I guess this is where I would introduce myself. My name is Sophie Fredrickson; I am a widowed mother of one. My son's name is Liam; he recently turned eleven this past September. He’s kind of tall for his age, reaching four-foot-seven, with blond hair and my blue eyes. I tell him every day he looks like his father as he responds blushing with an ‘I doubt it’. We tragically lost my husband and his father, Julian, about a year and a half ago. It's still very strange without him here. Having no one to wake up to in the morning or help Liam with his sports is kind of tough. Not to mention I can’t stop thinking about him.

If I could only change the events of that night, he'd still be here. But, what's done is done, I can't take anything back. He was merely trying to protect me from something even I didn't see coming. I guess I left a few things out in my introduction. I am a witch; I am now also a vampire. The one who changed me was very illusive; skilled in a sense. He was able to stay under my radar and worked quickly. To this day I am baffled as to who it was and what he wanted. I'm sliding off track, I apologize. I am of average height and weight with strawberry blond hair. Julian was slightly shorter than me with black hair and dark brown eyes. We live in Archbald, Pennsylvania. It's easy living here because everyone mostly keeps to themselves.

Strange activity is hardly ever reported because of everyone's desire for solitude. There are a few folks who enjoy a good story but most of us are pretty much strapped inside our homes. My neighbors don't mind the withdrawn nature of our family to an extent. We're still expected to make minor appearances to birthday parties and holiday events; once in a while we'd play cards or watch a movie, nothing too drastic. I'm more of the listener out of the neighbors while they like to tell stories of their days and frustrations. Since I was a stay at home mom and house wife, I didn’t have much to contribute to the table. I didn’t have anything that they’d believe anyway. Clara Benson tells the best stories. She's a very active woman; teaching yoga and owning her own bakery downtown.

She is quirky in her own way, but that’s what so fun about her, she keeps life interesting. She's about six foot tall long brown hair and the brightest evergreen eyes you have ever seen. Her husband, Dean, is a happy-go-lucky kind of guy and has two kids from a previous marriage. He's six-foot-two, bald with hazel eyes. His eldest, Alexis, is thirteen. She has blond hair, brown eyes and is four-foot-five. Her little brother, Tommy, is eleven and has brown hair and hazel eyes. He's friends with Liam so he comes over to hang out and do homework. They both play soccer together and are on the same team. This makes it easy for car-pooling since we live across the street from each other.

Dean works nights at the bakery, making sure all orders are filled and the inventory is up to date. His pot belly gives me the sneaking suspicion that he's sneaking the day old pastries from the discount shelf. Living next to them is Elora and Keenan Gibs, they are a portly but joyful couple who love gossip as much as they love the discounted pastries at Clara and Dean's bakery. They both have blond hair and hazel eyes and constantly talk about how they've been trying to conceive for the last five years with no success.

Elora has her highs and lows of the month; she gets really excited towards the middle bragging about how they may have finally done it this time. Then, towards the end of the month, she gets extremely depressed from either a negative pregnancy test or another miscarriage. I don't want to be rude towards them I think it's just very unhealthy for her to keep up this behavior. Both of the Gibs are in their forties and dangerously close to the deadline of being forbidden to continue trying. For as many times as they’ve been offered adoption applications by the doctor, you’d think they’ve filled one out by now.

The final neighbor we would communicate with would be Abigail and Sylvester Stapleton; they are the cutest old couple anyone could ever meet. They were high school sweethearts who married at eighteen, soon after they had two beautiful daughters who later made a living as the two most successful sister models to have come out of PA. Abigail is five-foot-six and slightly overweight. Her curves suit her nicely as her long, curly silver hair reaches down mid-thigh. She has green eyes which compliment her soft, milky features that make her look ten years younger than she is.