Ninth.

I was roused from my sleep late in the night. I rubbed my eyes and reached my hands out for my mother who embraced me and whispered in my ear that we had to hurry. She wore a gown of green satin and gold lacing, her hair was long and wavy, her familiar face the most beautiful I had ever seen. She found my small blue dress and the underskirts that went with it and quickly slipped off my dressing gown. I sat on the bed while she slipped my feet into the tiny boots that had been next to the door.

I held my ragdoll in one hand and had three fingers from the other in my mouth. She lifted me from the bed with ease, resting me on her hip as she rushed through the house. I was still so tired that I had to rest my head on her shoulder. She stopped at the front doorway, lifted my chin and kissed my cheek. She put me down on the floor and hastily tied my hair back with a ribbon. Then she knelt down in front of me and told me that I was to hold her hand tightly and run no matter how tired I was. I started to weep and she wiped away the tears, hugged me tightly and kissed me again.

She opened the door, looked out and then turned back to me, "Okay Anelia, it's time, run as fast as you can," and we were off.

I was slowing her down as I was only two years old. My little feet tired out so quickly. I heard men yelling in the distance and they seemed to be getting closer. Mother finally turned and lifted me up as she ran.

"It's okay darling, please don't cry," she would yell as we ran.

Finally she saw a large overturned tree and she huddled down behind it and told me to stay quiet. I was terrified, there was no way that I would have made a noise. I looked up at my mother's face. She had a small gash across her cheek and dirt across her forehead. I heard the men yelling, they weren't more than a few yards away. Mother grabbed me and hugged me tightly to her and put her hand over my mouth. The men started to walk in the opposite direction and soon she loosened her grasp on me. She put a finger up to her mouth and peeked over the tree.

Mother scrambled up, grabbed my hand and again we were off. We ran for what seemed like hours, my little legs had gone numb by the time we spotted a cottage. Mother knocked desperately and then begged the women to take pity on us and let us in. The younger woman looked at me strangely as she instructed the elder to fetch us something to eat. I didn't understand the strange language that they spoke with one another but my mother did. She explained our desperate situation and asked them for mercy.

I pulled on my mother's dress telling her that I was so tired, my legs were sore and I was scared. The younger woman in the house looked at my mother demanding to know what language I was speaking. My mother told them that we were from Bulgaria and I did not know English. The woman stared down at me and I tried to hide behind mother's skirts. She showed us a small room that was set up with a bed and a tiny hearth. Mother walked down the steps into the sunken room but before I could follow the young woman slammed the door, locking it into place.

I cried out for my mother, banging on the door, begging the woman to let me in, but she just stood there looking amused at my plight. It seemed that she liked hearing me talk. Mother tried to calm me from the other side of the door as she desperately tried to get out. After a few minutes the woman instructed my mother to make me stop but I was just a baby and so scared. She asked my mother what my name was and she told her, "Anelia Elisaveta Petrova."

The woman's face changed after hearing that. She opened the door but restrained my mother. She knew that if I was a Petrova then that meant that my mother was the reclusive Katerina Petrova who was being hunted by Niklaus, the Original vampire. She tied my mother's hands and feet with a rope and a gag in her mouth. I cried out for her in vain. I finally was able to push past the woman and get to my mother who was in tears, begging in both English and Bugarian through the gag to let me go.

The young woman smiled down at us, me clinging tightly to my mother who tried to shield me with her body. She looked over at me and easily untangled me from my mother. I looked back at her with tears in my eyes. The woman removed mother's gag and let her speak to me. She told me to run away as fast as I could and to find someone to help. "I love you my precious Anelia Elisaveta. Goodbye my girl, we will meet again in another life."

Mother looked up at the woman and asked her to please put me in another room as she killed her so that I would not have that memory to carry around with me for the rest of my life. The woman smiled down at her and told her that she was not planning to kill her. I saw my mother's eyes widen in horror and then looked over at the woman who still held me in her arms as her eyes turned red, her teeth grew long and she bent down to my neck, biting into the young, supple flesh.

I cried out in pain and heard mother's voice crack, "Anelia, no! Not my baby, please!"

I felt the pain lessen and slowly the world went dark.