Preface- Before: Casper

I guess you could say I was a surprise. My mom was 20 when she had me, and her parents knew nothing about her pregnancy or who the father might be. She never told them or me.

"All you need to know is that you're special. And you will always be special." That's what she would say to me whenever I asked about him. For nearly 16 years of my life, it never bothered me that I did not have the slightest clue who my father was. This was because I had her, my mother, who was also my protector, advisor, teacher, nurse, friend, and my chef, too.

For so long, we were happy with it just being the two of us. Yes, she dated, it even got serious several times, but it always ended up the same. She didn't want to raise two kids and she always chose me, not them. We did bounce around from place to place. It was hard for mom to find a stable job that paid well. I ended up being the new girl more than I care to say.

Fortunately, just shy my fourteenth birthday and freshman year, mom found a great nursing position that paid $22 an hour plus benefits. Two months after that, we found a spacious apartment, two bed, two bath, and settled into our new life. I adjusted well into my new high school and mom was happy at her job. And for nearly two years, we thought life was finally accepting us. We were wrong, dead wrong.

It happened April 16, three months before my 16 birthday, on a gorgeous Friday. We were just coming home from our usual dinner and a movie. All I wanted was a bath and to go to bed. For some reason, I had had a bad feeling the whole way home and didn't know why. I was about to find out, however.

After taking an hour-long bath and preparing for bed, I heard a knock at the door. My mom answered it and I peeked out to see who it could be. It was 12 a.m. after all. To my shock and immense horror, it was two men that I had notice earlier. Before seeing our movie, my mother and I did some window-shopping and even found a couple of cute outfits. I thought that it was just my imagination that they were following us. Now I knew it wasn't.

I closed my door to just a crack and listened to what they were saying. I could barely make out what they were saying but knew that they were trying to come inside. That bad feeling I had came back ten- fold and I wanted to run out to my mother and shut the door in their face. Then, I thought that closing the door would only cause more trouble. I didn't realize that it would help us.

I went to my bed and got out my switchblade, which I kept hidden under my mattress. I hid it between my pajama bottoms and waist. Thankfully, my pajamas were a three piece and I had a tank top and cardigan to cover the bump the blade cause. My mom didn't know about my blade and I always managed to move it before she changed my sheets. I wasn't a bad kid, but I would do whatever to protect myself and my mom.

After securing it, I walked out towards the living room where they were. My mom was in her chair and they were sitting on the love seat. I went and sat on the left side of my mom on the arm of the chair. It seemed that she was deep in conversation with the taller one of the two men. When I came in, all eyes were on me. When I was young, I could always remember that people constantly stared at my mother, especially me. She was just that beautiful. As I got older, I got the same attention, and it always bothered me, still does.

I was different from my mother. Both of my grandparents were black, not dark skinned but not light either, just somewhere in the middle. And so was my mother, but me, I was different. My skin was lighter, much lighter, so I figured that I was a mixed. But, of course, my mom wouldn't tell me if I was or not. The big question was: what was I blended with?

"Hey, sweetie, I thought you were going to bed," my mom said to me. I didn't answer, just look at the men resting on our couch. "These two men just stopped by to give me my wallet back. Seems I dropped it outside of the theater. I was just offering them some tea before they left."

"You must be Casper," the taller one said. He had a British accent that I found very exasperating. I nodded my head, looking him straight in the eye. He returned my stare with that of a cold one. "Your mum was just talking about you. Your about to be 16, huh?"

I turned to my mother and gave her a "really" look. I could hear the teapot blowing and my mom got up to go get it. While she was in the kitchen, I stayed in the room. My hand wasn't too far from my waist. While I had another stare down with the tall guy, I could fill the others eyes on me. Out the corner of my own, I could see his searching down my entire body. It gave me the creeps. When my mom came back into the room, she could fill the hostility in the room.

"Is everything okay," she said. My mom was always a sweet- heart. She didn't like violence. It didn't mean she was a weakling; she just didn't like to resolve things that way. I could remember once how she kick a chicks ass just for looking down at me like I was an infestation to her and her children at a park. It was one thing to pick on her, but, in her eyes, when you mess with her child, you're asking for trouble.

"Everything is fine, right Casper," he said. Before another word could be said, he sprang on my mother, while the other one grabbed me and pinned me against the wall. The tall one had my mom dangling in the air, gasping for breath. I struggled to get out of the hold I was in but with no luck at all. "Lena, Lena, Lena. Did you really think you could hide her from us?" the laughter he let out sent a chill down my spine. Still struggling in the short ones hands, I manage to get my blade in my hands without him seeing.

"We've been looking for you two for two years now. Your only mistake is you settled down. If you would have just given her up, you could be at peace right now. Now, you have to die!" I could see his teeth growing. Literally growing! Then, he bit into her neck. I could hear the breath whoosh out of her. I flipped out the blade and, with strength I never thought I had,plunge it into the short ones neck. He yelped and dropped me, but before I could get up the tall one throw my mom to the ground and was on me himself.

When I looked at her, she wasn't moving at all and her face looked pale. I struggled against him, but he was much stronger than his friend. Without uttering a word, he bit into me as well. I screamed, but it didn't help anything. Unlike most vampire stories you might read, in reality, everyone's change is different. Mine wasn't exactly painful, just sickening. When he bit me, I felt the slight pain of his teeth breaking into my skin. No sick pleasure or extreme pain came after. Just heat, the type of heat you might feel when you're beginning to have a fever. The heat lasted for what felt like days, maybe weeks.

Then comes the cold. The cold is much worse than the heat, mostly because it leaves you feeling empty. Like that of a shell with no own. And it makes you feel like you've been there for an eternity. Then, when you wake up, you realize that it wasn't a horrible dream. You realize that you are no longer normal. You feel cold anymore, but you don't feel the warmth you use to. It bothers you at first but then you realize that this is who you are now.

You realize that you are and forever will be a vampire. The only difference between most vampires and me is that I was specially bred to save most vampires and all mortals. But, I'm not alone.