You Were What You Eat

4. Life in the 1700s

Anna had been born in in 1706 and had become a vampire before she was even twenty. She still hated to think about those first few months. Once she'd been turned, she'd had no idea what to do; there had been no one there to guide her. What could she do? She couldn't very well ask anyone for advice; they'd either run her out of town or kill her. So, she'd been forced to figure things out for herself as she went along.

It was rough going, but she'd managed to learn a few basic facts. First, she'd discovered she was a lot stronger than she used to be. It was hard to tell exactly how much stronger she was, especially since she'd never really tested her strength before becoming a vampire. But she estimated she was at least four or five times stronger than she used to be. One thing was for sure – she could now easily overpower the average man, despite the fact that she almost never did. She just didn't like to use force. It made her feel like some kind of bully – or monster, even. Besides, it was so unladylike. And growing up in the early 1700s had taught Anna nothing if not to be ladylike.

She discovered she'd gained other abilities as well. Her sight had improved dramatically, for instance. Instead of being a little nearsighted, her vision was now perfect – more than perfect, actually. She could see in full darkness as well as the average human could see during the day. And during the day – well, she could read the hands on a pocket watch from over fifty yards away.

She was more agile and much quieter, too. She could move at almost three times her original speed and be absolutely silent while doing it. Not that all her new abilities were that great. Her amazing new sense of smell, for example. How was that useful? As far as she could tell, the only thing it ever did was let her know that her neighbor about six houses down burned dinner at least once a week.

Which brought her to the drawbacks. Some of them had jumped out at her right away – her reaction to sunlight being a perfect example. Oh, she could still walk around during the daytime, sure. She just burned quicker than she'd ever thought possible. If she stayed outside for more than an hour or two, any part of her skin that the sun touched would turn horrifyingly red. She'd managed to get around this by simply wearing lots of long clothes until the invention of sunscreen – a real life-saver for a vampire. Even still, she tried to avoid direct sunlight as much as possible – sunscreen could only do so much, after all.

The power of garlic had been another surprise for Anna. She'd always been fond of garlic, and since it was used to help cure certain diseases when she was young, she'd always had plenty on hand. But after she'd become a vampire, just touching the stuff burned her. She'd eaten it only once, and even though it had been just a tiny amount, she'd been violently ill. Needless to say, she didn't make that mistake again.

Avoiding these pitfalls wasn't nearly as painful as finding out about them had been. It seemed to Anna that in one fell swoop, all that she had truly loved had been taken away from her.

The circumstances surrounding her becoming a vampire had been most cruel, and Anna reacted accordingly. She hadn't wanted this in the slightest, and she'd refused to believe something so horrible could happen. Why her? What had she done to deserve this?

She kept going over it time and time again. She'd been a good, if naïve, girl – she hadn't done anything wrong. So, wallowing in depression, she'd done what she was sure anyone else in her situation would have; she hid herself in her room and steadfastly refused to come out.

And that was how it stayed for many years. Anna would only come out of her room when she absolutely needed to. Most of her time was spent in solitude, reading. Her parents would leave dinner by her bedroom door, and Anna would place the empty tray in the hall before morning. Her parents always assumed Anna had eaten what they'd left for her, but since becoming a vampire, she'd almost completely lost her appetite. She did eat what was brought to her on occasion, but more often than not she'd simply throw it out the window for the animals. While Anna could eat food, she no longer needed it and certainly no longer enjoyed it.