• In most movies or stories when a character says “Things can’t get any worse!” they usually turn out that way. With my life it’s kind of like that. When I was thirteen and had passed eighth grade I celebrated and rejoiced with my mother and my father and was so happy. On the day of my graduation ceremony we went to the stadium but I had forgotten something at home. I hadn’t really even needed it, but I insisted we run home for it because there was enough time till the ceremony started. My father stayed to save our seats and I and my mother left. While we were leaving the school, just outside the school the driver side was t-boned by a semi truck. She died on the scene. My father and I managed for about a year, and then on January 28, 2002 he was diagnosed with cancer. He got chemo and any other treatment we could afford on the insurance and the fast-food job I had, but it wasn’t enough. About a year after being diagnosed he died in the hospital.
    I moved around the country in various foster homes but it never worked out. I guess I always freaked them out. I’d get blackouts and have horrible nightmares, of various things…my mom’s accident, my dad in horrible situations in the hospital. I used to wake up screaming. Once I moved to L.A. and was the center of tests to prevent dreams and nightmares. They only made them worse. I demanded to move and was placed in my final home in New York.
    I moved in with the Harrison’s in the winter of 2004 and was permanently adopted in February of 2006. That summer I graduated and got my first decent job. When Christmas came around I got a piano and got pretty good, so good according to my ‘parents’ that they had me audition for Julliard and what do you know, I got in. I began going during the next semester which began in early April of 2007. I made lots of friends and had of fun but I felt like a shell. Like I was empty and if you put your ear to my chest you could hear the beating of my heart echoing through my hollow body. Until the day came that I met Jaeger.
    He was amazing and I loved him…and he loved me. Unfortunately my parents didn’t like him and demanded we stop seeing each other. When we wouldn’t they moved and tried to make me go with them since I had no other place to live at the time, but Jaeger wouldn’t have it and let me move in with him while my loving parents, that I’d know and loved for the past four years left, just like that.
    I moved into Jaeger’s apartment a few blocks from the school and continued to go. Until the day I met Jaeger’s friends. They were pot heads, stoners and drunks….and soon I was to. Jaeger saw what I had become and how I was spiraling downward and los all his friends, made them leave t keep me healthy and safe.
    Not until months after my rehabilitation from the drugs and alcohol that I found out about Jaeger and what his intent was. He knew of my interest in science and how I took to things very easily. He thought I could help him and a group of different friends in their studies. But I couldn’t…not until I became like them.








    “Hello, my name is Zaina.”
    “Hello Zaina.”
    "Hi. Um…I was born here in New York and I lived with my father after my mother died giving birth to me. I just turned sixteen. I work and live here in the plant with my father, Jaeger. We are both Stregoni Benefici, as I guess most of us are, you know, the less harmful of some vampire.
    “I’m here because nothing seems fun anymore or exiting like it used to. I’m just…I need this because it’s the same thing that happened to my mother before she turned to drugs and alcohol, shortly after my grandparents left because she was seeing my father. And I just…don’t want that to happen. Thank you.”
    As I finished the small chorus of applause erupted and I sat down, wondering what it would feel like for the blood to rush to my cheeks, like a humans. The person next to me stood and gave their story. I didn’t really understand what they were saying, because I wasn’t listening. Call me selfish, but I just wanted to get help, not give it. Besides, I thought, most of the people in here were blonde sluts who are just interested in Dr. Wiseman.
    I mean, I won’t lie and say that the Dr. wasn’t attractive, he was, just not my type. If he was human, you could defiantly find him on the sunny beaches of California running down the beach with a surf board and gleaming bronze pecks…..but like I said, not my type. I like dark haired atheist guy. I mean because work with my dad in the lab, I know god didn’t create all the different vampire species; we evolved, just like humans. I don’t even believe in a god.
    I sigh and sat in my own little word until everyone had spoke then sat up, hopeful that my appointment with Dr. Wiseman, the physiatrist, would be one of the first.
    “Now, after listening to all your problems, I have compiled a list of you in the order of urgency that your problem is. I will post them outside the door, but you all must wait, so I can avoid harm,” the Dr. said, chuckling at his idea of a joke. When no one laughed he pursed his lips and stood from his chair, walking around the desk at the front of the room and walking down the middle of the classroom toward the door.
    Right when the door closed everyone stood and bolted after him, practically pulling the door off its hinges.
    I stood ever so slowly and crossed my arms. I turned toward the door and took a few small steps, craning my neck to see if there were still a lot of people outside the door. There were still a few so I hung out by the door for a few more minutes till they dispersed. I sucked in a huge breath and slowly exhaled through my nose.
    I took a few tentative steps toward the door and shook my head, why was being so paranoid about what number I was on the list? I let my arms fall to my side and pushed through the door, turning immediately left, looking at the corkboard next to the double doors.
    I placed my finger on the list and slid it down till it was under my name, which wasn’t very far. Fourth……..why did I have to be fourth?
    “Just because.”
    I jumped and whirled around, my teeth bared and fully exposed. Dr. Wiseman stood there, arms locked behind his back and smiling. He stood so close I could smell his sugar sweet breath.
    “Your fourth because that’s the longest of all the sections and I think you need the most work.”
    “I-I-I have to go.” I turned and fled out the front door. He’d been standing so close to me…… It had freaked me out a bit and set off numerous alarms. I stopped a few yards from the door and looked up at the moon. She was full, just beginning to wane. I could see plenty with my S.B. eyes and the glowing of the moon.
    My breathing began to slow, then falter as a pressure encircled my throat. I grabbed at the invisible force. It tightened itself, ceasing the flow of oxygen to my brain. My head swam and I fell to my knees, scraping them in the process. I gagged and choked, trying to force away whatever it was spiritually but it was impossible, it was just too strong. I fell back, landing hard, knocking the wind out of me, or whatever little was left, and hitting my head hard on the sidewalk. I sucked in what little bit of breath I could and screamed. It was piercing and even scared me, sounding like the screech of a dying animal.
    “Zaina, what’s wrong!” Dr. Wiseman appeared and grabbed my shoulders making me face him. Right when our skin met, it was gone…just like that. I sucked in, suddenly dizzy from the quick intake of breath. I looked up at the Dr. my eyes wide in fear. I sat and grabbed his shoulders, pulling myself up.
    “Wait, Zaina, you got to go to the hospital.”
    “N-no I can’t...they’ll get angry if I look for help.”
    “But Zaina-“
    “No Dr. Wiseman, I have to go!” I turned and sprinting down the hill toward my car.
    There was something outside with me still…something I couldn’t see…something that scared me more than the dreams and hallucinations. Something that wanted me dead.