Once Bitten *On Hiatus*

𝕾𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖞 𝕺𝖓𝖊

• 𝓜𝓪𝓮 •

I stepped into the diner and walked towards the counter where the vampire cook stood, writing in a notebook. She looked up when I entered, surprise flickering in her dark eyes before she stood straight.

"Welcome back," she greeted, watching me as I got closer.

I stopped at the counter and smiled slightly. "Sorry about the crepes. There was a bit of an...emergency."

An old nightmare came out of nowhere and decided to give me a full ass anxiety attack. Oh, and I watched Seraph kill him without so much as a blink.

Emergency.

She shook her head. "No worries. But..."

She flipped the notebook around and I glanced down at it, laughing a bit when I saw "Not Sweet Crepes?" written at the top. I looked over the recipe, nodding like I knew exactly what I was looking at.

I didn't cook things. I didn't know what half the ingredients were, and the instructions seemed like too much work.

She snorted and I looked up at her again.

"I know you're one of us now," she said, smiling sadly, "but I'd still like you to try them."

I didn't want her to feel bad. It wasn't as if it was her fault I was now a vampire. If it had been, this conversation wouldn't be going as smoothly as it was.

"Can I trouble you to make a couple meals," I asked. "There's a family that hasn't been doing well and I want to bring them some food."

She nodded. "Have something in mind?"

I really had no idea. Meredith had said that she wasn't picky, but what happened if I brought them fish and they hated fish? I always said I wasn't picky when I was, in fact, picky.

I should have pushed more.

"Something filling," I said, shrugging. "And if you have cupcakes with sprinkles..."

She nodded. "It'll be about an hour."

I thanked her and turned to one of the tables away from the main area, happy that she wasn't angry at me for not coming back for the crepes. It felt like forever ago, when in reality, it had only been a little less than two months.

I sighed and sat down.

For the next hour, I sat there quietly, thinking about how I got to that point. If I wouldn't have gotten Zero's attention all those years ago, would any of this have happened? Would he have killed Noah? Would he have poisoned the cake that killed my kids? Would he have killed me?

Did it matter at all? Would he have eventually found me anyway?

I knew that, if I hadn't met Zero, I wouldn't have met Kite. I would have never found Kite and practically begged him to keep Zero away from my kids. I wouldn't have become Kite's personal blood bag just for the veil of protection that ultimately didn't matter.

I closed my eyes.

I tried to think about what the world would even look like without vampires. How would it have been?

I had a lot of dreams growing up. I would have gotten out of the foster system and went to college. It would be difficult for a time, but I would have made it. My parents would have been proud of the person I became. Of the fact that I wouldn't allow myself to become a drug trader because I knew that wasn't what they would have wanted for me.

I opened my eyes again and sighed.

I wondered what my parents would think of what the world had become. Likely the same as me. Wishing it wouldn't have turned out this way.