Born without an expiration date

Fifteen

ETNA

It was nice to be listened to! Nice to be treated like an equal and included! Leanda was growing on me. I'd never had a female friend before, and I was starting to hope she would be my first.

After the men left, she indicated to the window seat, overlooking a river and town houses beyond. We sat down opposite each other, and she looked at me for a minute before starting talking.

"I am sorry you could not have joined us at a better time, and I'm sorry that you are being thrown into this so fast, but I cannot change it, so lets just get on with it.

Most of us are born to each other, though our pregnancy rates are very low. Whether it is Vampire and Vampire, or Human and Vampire - the Vampire gene takes over, and we always produce a Vampire offspring. However, sometimes, people like us are born to humans, no one knows why. This happens all over the world, with varying birth rates, and the majority of the time, we go unnoticed. There is so little of these births that we are assumed as an abnormality, and then a missing person. Most of our families give us up at birth, or do not care when we vanish." She paused and looked out of the window, sighing as she continued.

"Every 500 years, give or take, a group of humans will become aware of us. Sometimes they learn exactly what we are, sometimes not. But most of the time it is not very nice. Once they tried to keep a list of people like us at birth, and began following our lives and keep data. That was one of the nicer times. Sometimes they round us up, imprison us, or keep us as slaves." Her eyes shimmer, as she remembers. She looks so sad, staring off into the distance.

I touch her hand to offer comfort, bringing her back to the here and now.

"Last time, they began experimenting. Ways of torture had advanced, and they were trying to figure out how far they could push us, how much pain we could take, and most importantly, if they could kill us. They did not care about age or rank, they experimented on anyone they could find - baby or adult, poor or rich. It was a dark time, the choice between hiding oneself and saving others is not an easy one to make."

"And this time?" I asked, horrified that humans would be so cruel.

"This time, is the after dinner topic Eternal! Let us eat." And with that, her smile returned and her business manner disappeared. She was very good at separating her emotions.