The Unexpected: Marked by the Royal Vampire

The night is as calming and as silent as any other night before. For the first time, I can feel the silence embracing me and the breeze of the cold night’s calming air. For once the night feels a little bit different from the other night for me. By the way, my name is Tamara Lington, a 20 years old College graduating student of a public school, simple and hardworking. But- I am known as Mara Washton before not until I had to escape my past. Now, I lived alone in a small apartment in an old building owned by a 58 years old woman Mrs. Wilma Bonnec who was kind enough to let me stay in one of the rooms in the apartment building she owns on a low-priced rent.   “Right, today is my birthday as Mara. It feels so sad remembering my birthday. I never had a happy birthday before… all the time I was reminded that my birth is not something someone is happy about. It is sad remembering it now.” I said with a heavy sigh as I look up at the sky, my past life is as cursed as death itself.   Somewhat this night feels eerie not to mention that almost every house is locked and lights are on in every house as the warm chattering of people inside is heard. I can feel sadness now, of all the days I had walked in this street, THIS night is when I feel so sad and alone. This is somewhat odd for me since I thought I am already used to having no one. Well, perhaps it a little different ever since I met my friends and even had a kind land-lady that became my stand-in mother. But… this night is different. Somehow, I remember my wrecked past… the past I thought I had forgotten already.   “Mara you are just a parasite in this family. I don’t even know why we are giving you food to eat, clothes to wear, and even send you to school. I should have just let you die that day you are born… just like how your cheating mother died.”   “Just do as your father says.” my so-called step-mom Fatima said with a cold glare, I and my step-mother are not on good terms for she is always tormenting me.   “Can you at least for once do something to help me and your sister Floreliza? We are in big debt and we will be driven out of the house if we won’t pay. Marry him and don’t be a high and mighty princess. You are not even mine, to begin with, but I raised you and give you food, clothes, and a name. Think of that and marry Leo.” my ever-so-cold father screams at me while I look down to the floor feeling this tightening pain in my chest… I am currently in my Aunt Helena’s house because I am being paid by my aunt to wash their clothes for me to continue studying.   My father hated me so much and keeps on telling me that I am not his child. I know that it is my stepmother’s entire wickedness that he is doing this to me. I can’t even have the luxury of resting at home for I worked for them as a slave. I am working minimal tasks and being paid by people around our neighborhood just for me to continue my studies. I had to because I am just like a servant or Cinderella in our house and I am branded as a parasite by my own father.   “Don’t force the child Felipe and for crying out loud stop treating Mara that way. She is your flesh and blood, Nanette never cheated on you. It is just a lie that Fatima made so you and your wife will argue and separate then she can have you all for herself. Well, she succeeded anyway since my sister died after giving birth to Mara, THEN you married Fatima just 2 days AFTER her death. Don’t tell Mara those lies she is just 16, she has a bright future ahead of her.” my aunt Helena said since we are standing just in the backyard of their house as I was doing the laundry there.   “Don’t twist the story Helena and it is right that she should return us the favor of bringing her up by marrying Leo to pay our debt from the Martines. Stay away from this matter, Helena. Better think of your own family.”   “Felipe you are TOO blind. You are lucky to have a daughter like Mara yet you are throwing her away. Why don’t you just let me and my husband adopts her if she is just a problem to you?” my aunt argues.   “You are only saying that because your husband is a lawyer so you have the money. Mara will pay our debt and you are out of it. Solve your own family problem and don’t mind us. Mara, YOU WILL marry Leo and that is final.”   I shake my head remembering that. Those are just a few scenes from my past that I tried so hard to bury in the ground. That is not all; the worst argument I had with my father is when they told me that I won’t continue College not until I marry Leo Martines and carries him a child. As if he is paying my school tuition to tell me that. The problem is, the guy is older than me and is not an ideal husband. Leo Martines is a high school dropout and currently a certified jobless man with many vices. Yes, he is the son of the richest family in our province but, I know that my life will be a perfect hell once I marry that kind of man. Not just that, he is also the leader of those men who causes many disturbances in our place but since he is the son of the owner of the widest plantation in the town of Ermata, they were never caught by the police. I know that my future will be a nightmare once I marry him. A man with this proud, arrogant, selfish, and inconsiderate attitude will make his wife a living corpse. I argued this to my father but… my father is just like Leo, an inconsiderate fool.   “No, I won’t marry someone who will not treat me well. Look at him, will he be able to stand with our family in the future. He is good for…….” A slap lands into my left cheek from my father who looks so mad.   “Don’t think like a high and mighty girl since you graduated high school. Don’t forget food will not miraculously appear on the table while you act clean. Go to your room and stay there until we tell you to come out. You will marry Leo 3 days from now either you like it or not.” my fathers screamed, I wanted to scream… as if they are giving me nice food to eat.   I can still remember crying the whole night until morning. They locked me in my room from the outside and they never give me any food. I can hear them from the living room but they never cared to spare me to go to the comfort room or just step out of my room. True to my father’s word the wedding is being prepared while I am locked in my own room that looks like confinement rather than a room. My step-mom and father are the ones doing the preparation living me locked in my room alone at home. The night before the said wedding everyone in the family left the house for dinner to the Martines’ home while I am locked in my room feeling the pain on my stomach out of hunger as I glare at that box of wedding dress the Martines sent for me. Then I heard my room’s door being unlocked just to see my aunt Helena looking so frantic. I feel so relieved.   “Aunt Helena why…”   “Shhhss child, you are a good child Mara. You are just like your mother. I have so many debts to your mom that I never paid so I will do this to pay her. Come with me Mara and hurry we have not much time.” my aunt Helena said pulling me out of the room.   I watch my aunt lock the room door again and she pulls me out of the dark house while we are looking around the place if someone will see us. When we run towards the road a black car is waiting for us and when I am pushed inside by my aunt I see my uncle Rolly, my Aunt Helena’s husband. We drive away from there and we stop at a bus station miles away from our town. I am pulled out by my aunt from the car and then she holds me on my shoulders then looks at me seriously.   “Listen Mara; take any bus in this station. It doesn’t matter where it is headed as long as far from here. Here, in that envelop are some legal documents you can use to live somewhere else. There is money there too, it is few but it can get you going for a while until you can find a job which I know you will do great. You have to leave this place, Mara. It is the only way you can escape from that marriage.” my aunt said surprising me then tears start dropping on my face in relief.   I take the papers out of the envelope just to see a birth certificate, a high school diploma, and other documents under the name Tamara Lington. I look at my aunt.   “These are- These are fake documents?” I ask surprised for I know it must have cost them too much and that Uncle Rolly must have risked his profession just for me.   “Those are not fake Mara. When you were born we are the ones who take you to the hospital and register your name so we know how to change it. I just changed things a little bit then send those in the registry. So there are two names registered Mara Washton and Tamara Lington. You are safe to use that name since it is like another person. Take care of yourself, Mara. I was also hoping that we can just adopt you but your father is so difficult to fight with. I am so sorry child.” my uncle Rolly said as he stands behind my aunt.   “Be careful out there Mara. Be strong.” my aunt Helena said before kissing me on my forehead.   Just like that I rode a random bus and stop into places then ride another one going somewhere until I came to the City of Tawner. There I met Mrs. Bonnec who took me in. I promised myself that I will return and make my father pay then thank my Aunt Helena and uncle Rolly for the chance they had given me. All because of them I am free and living a new life.   “That is a memory with an after taste. I will make that fool pay whatever it takes. I did suffer under their hands and even if I had escaped I lost confidence to myself that I am scared every day.” I said in anger as I walk in that darkness.   As much as I wanted to forget that I kept on remembering and dreaming about what had happened to me. I remember every welts, bruise, scar, and insult. I will surely return and rub in their faces how they had mistreated me. They just have to wait for it as I graduate and find a nicer job. I just wonder… why do I feel so uneasy this time? Is there something coming?