Father, mother, son, daughter.

Father, mother, daughter.

Father, daughter.

Father.

Don't ask me how because I wouldn't be able to answer you. We, my family, started at four. Now it's just my father and me. He beat us. He still beats us. My brother went first. My dad was drunk and he went a little too far and picked up the clean fire poker and but it down bloody. He buried my brother in the back yard, deep in the woods.

My mother was next. She saw everything that happened to my brother and myself. All the beatings and she did nothing about them. She sat on the sidelines passively and when her turn came she took the blows like "a loving wife" as my father would put it. One day she had had enough. There was no warning about it. I had just come home from school and had walked into the kitchen to find a picture that I can never escape. There are open beams in the ceiling of our kitchen and from one if those beams hung a rope with my mothers broken neck attached. Stapled to her shirt was a note. It said, "I will never regret this. This was my release."

When my father came home he found me crumpled on the floor crying under my mothers broken body. He gruffly shoved me to my feet, took one look at the note on my mother shirt then turned to me. I was the only one left that he could take out his anger on. He pushed me against the wall and started yelling. Punching, kicking, screaming, cutting, any thing he could think of that would hurt me he did it. I was his last remaining, living, punching bag. Later that night, after he was asleep, I snuck out. I walked the 5 miles to the cliffs looking out over the sea. It was maybe 2am. I stood at the edge of the drop off and thought. I looked down and started calculating. The cliffs were about 80 ft. high, just enough to kill me if I jumped. I thought about my life and what I would loose if I killed myself now. I thought and came up with nothing. Nothing, that is what my life is. I looked around, seeing no one I took a small step closer the edge. Trying to gather up the courage to end my existence. I looked again and took one more step. Now I was at the edge of the cliff. My toes already over the edge. I took a deep breath and stepped with my right leg, this was it, the end.

I leaned more into the step and started to feel myself teeter on the edge. I kept chanting in my head, "I can kill myself, I need a release." I thought I was going to fall when I felt a pair of cold, hard; arms go around my waist and pull me into a hard body of a man. I was furious. Who dare try to keep me from killing myself!

"Please don't do it. Its not worth it." a soothing voice whispered in my ear. I turned my head away trying to block out the wonderful voice telling me those lies. It was worth it.

"Nothing can be that bad." the voice said, "Things can always get better." He pulled my away from the edge more, now we were about 6 feet from the drop.

"Things are that bad." I whispered. The arms around me tightened.

"They may be now but they can get better." the voice pleaded with me. I turned my head to I could see this person so intent on keeping me alive. He was beautiful, handsome. Dark brown, maybe black, ha1r almost reached his eyes. His skin was as pail as the moon. He was about a head taller than I was and much stronger. He was cold; his body temperature below the normal, then again I didn't think he was normal.

"Things are that bad." I whispered again. He tightened his grip on my and pulled me down at sit on his lap.

"Tell me why things are so bad and how you got those bruises." He said while gently touching my face with one of his cold hands. He looked at me with such compassion and, dare I say love, that I ducked my head and buried it into his chest.

"It started when I was nine." I told him the whole story, everything. The nightly beatings to the suicide of my mother who didn't care enough about her own child to even try to protect them. He was sympathetic. Through the whole story of my life he just held me, rubbing my back, caring for me. Some time during the story he had laid his head on top of mine. It felt good to be in his arms, for him to hold me like this. I finished my story and he was silent for a while, just soaking in what I had said. Eventually he said something.

"You have trusted me with is information and I now understand your intentions, but they still were wrong." He murmured against my hair. "I would like to tell you a story."

He told me a story about a girl who had come to the same cliffs and had jumped, just like what I almost did, and killed herself. He had been watching. He saw the whole thing and that day he promised himself that he would come to the cliffs every night to make sure no one did what she did. While he was talking I had lifted my head to look at him. I knew that there was something strange about him but I didn't know what until I saw the two fangs. He had stopped talking and noticed me staring at his mouth. A sad look came across his face and he opened his arms to let me out.

"You have seen what I really am, a monster. You...You can leave if you want." He said while looking down at me with ancient sadness written across his face. I didn't want to leave so I buried my head into his chest again wrapped my arms around his strong torso.

"Thank you," he whispered as he laid his head on top of mine, closing his arms around he securely. "Thank you for accepting me as I am, as no one else has."

"I fell whole, safe around you. You make me feel like I am wanted." I replied. We Sat like that until the sun rose. He sparkled the vibrant colors the sun produced; he was like a life size crystal.

"I have to leave." I said. "Will you be here tonight?"

"If you would like me to be."

"Please be here, I want to feel wanted again." I looked own ashamed. He lifted my head up and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

"I want you to feel wanted." he smiled a revealed his fangs. I reached up to touch them. They were hard like a rock. I moved my hand to his face a felt his smooth flawless skin as he smiled. I pulled my hand back and got up. I said good buy and promised him I wouldn't do anything drastic and that I would sow up tonight.

I went home and found that father had already left for work so I cleaned the house and scrubbed away the blood on the floor. When father came home he was drunk and mad. He beat me and didn't stop until midnight. Again I struggled to the cliffs to find him waiting for me. Ready to make he feel cared for. That routine continued for a week.

One night father went too far. I was on the brink of death when I got the cliffs. He ran to me and picked me up and sat down asking repeatedly what had happened. All I said was that I needed a release.

"What...what if I could give you that release?" he asked running his tongue over his fangs.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"What if I could give you that release? Take you away from your father and this place. What if I could offer you happiness for eternity? What if I could offer you a place by my side for eternity." he said while staring up into the stars.

"You could do that?" I asked, "You would do that?"

"In a heart beat." he replied. He was so sure of his answer. "Although if I did there would be one catch. You would be claimed by me for eternity. You could be no one else's." he whispered. We sat there in silence for a few minutes before he started again.

"I could give you whatever you wanted. I could love you for you. I could protect you. I could teach you the way I live." his voice had gotten louder; more confident in what he was saying.

"You would do that? You would do that for a broken girl?" I asked astounded.

"I would do that for you because I love you." He looked down at me, smiled and placed a kiss on my head. "I could be your release."

I thought about that for a while. I loved him, that was for sure and he loved me, I mean he stopped he from killing myself. I made up my mind.

"I want to be yours for eternity. I want you to be my release." I whispered to him.

He looked down at me and smiled. He placed a tender kiss on my lips and then bent his head to my neck. My breathing quickened. He looked at me and opened his mouth to speak.

"I will bite you first. I will hurt a little but nothing you can't handle." he smiled sadly at that; he didn't want to cause he pain. "After I will have to drink from you until you are almost dead. You will be indescribably week but you will have to drink the blood I give you from my wrist. It will hurt badly when my blood enters your system but only for a few hours. During that time you body will change, you will become even more beautiful and your skin will harden. You will loose all your flaws and also grow you fangs." He looked at me, asking if I still wanted to do this. In response I kissed him and put my hair up in a ponytail. He smiled and bent his head to my neck and bit down. It didn't hurt much, just a little.

He was true to his word and drained me almost completely. I vaguely remember him slitting his wrist with his thumbnail and holding it to my mouth telling me to drink it. I did and then the pain started. It was like I was reliving all of my beatings at once. I felt him tighten his hold on me and murmur in my ear that he loved me and that it would be over soon. He was right; after a few hours the pain died away and I felt my newly formed fangs push against my lips. I smiled up at him, thanking him for what he did. He smiled back and whispered "I promise to love you and protect you for all of eternity."

"I promise to let you be my release…forever." He smiled and tightened his grip on me even more and leaned his head down and pressed his lips against mine.

I smiled as he broke the kiss and lifted me to my feet. I took hold of his hand and walked towards eternity with Damien, my love, by my side.