Once Bitten *On Hiatus*

𝕾𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖞

• 𝓜𝓪𝓮 •

Snow crunched beneath my boots as I walked through South District. So much snow had fallen between those first snowflakes and morning that everything was covered. The sun was out, and the light glared off of the hardened snow, making me squint.

I had been allowed to leave alone. I don't know what kind of strings Seraph pulled, or what he promised, but when he said I was allowed to go whenever I wanted - without a chaperone - I almost didn't believe him. I'd been an escapee, then a prisoner, then protected, killed, and somehow now I had my freedom?

I didn't want to run anymore. I didn't want to escape. Not because I didn't absolutely hate vampires still - which I did. It's just that hatred was now aimed at the ones who did wrong. I just felt like I needed to remain. To kill Zero.

To kill Titus.

I blew out a breath and stood outside the door to the cottage. I stared at the dark wood, trying to figure out why I was even there. What could I do? Her mother was dying. Eventually her mother would die, and she would be passed on to another family.

Vampires didn't care for kids anymore. Once the oldest wave of kids became adults, it was the duty of the humans to care for their own kind.

I knocked on the door twice and let my hand fall to my side.

The door opened and the little girl looked up at me, eyes wide. From afar, I thought she looked like another normal kid. But up close...

Her pants were almost too big on her skeletal frame. Her face was sunken and dark circles marred the skin under her eyes. She looked like a ghost, her skin an odd shade of grayish white.

I didn't say anything, but she stepped aside and let me in.

The house smelled of rotting food, dust, and mildew. It was cold, like the little girl wasn't sure how to turn on the heating.

She closed the door behind me. "Are you here to...are you here for mama?"

I turned and looked down at her. "What do you mean?"

Her eyebrows drew together before she walked past me, leading me to a side room. There was a bed inside, and a woman laid there, eyes closed, her breathing short and ragged.

"They said someone would come get her," the little girl said. "To take her to see the fires."

I shook my head. "I'm not here to take your mama to see the fires."

How could they tell a child they were going to come take her mother to burn her? I didn't care if this woman was with Owen. I didn't care if the little girl was raised by him. That was wrong.

The woman's eyes opened slowly and she glanced at me. She looked so tired.

"Can I talk to her," I asked.

The little girl nodded and walked away. She couldn't have been any older than five or six, but she acted way older.

I stepped into the room and closed the door behind me.

The woman didn't speak.

"Can I do something," I asked. "Can I try to heal you?"

She closed her eyes for a moment. "It's too...late."

I grabbed a small wooden stool and pulled it over. "Would it hurt to try?"

She watched me for a moment. "I don't want to live in this world anymore."

I kept my arguments about her daughter to myself. Because whether I wanted to admit it or not, there were plenty of times I felt that way, and I hadn't been actively dying. Even when I woke up as a vampire, my only thoughts were that I would have preferred to die.