“It was in the summer of 1950 and we were happy then. Nathan was attending college in England. I was very happily married to my husband, Kevin. We were expecting our first child. Kevin was a reporter and worked for UNC World News in Washington, DC, and took a trip to England where he had a special assignment. This trip gave me the chance to see my brother whom I hadn’t seen for two years. We had always been close and I was so excited because this was also my first trip back to England since my college days there a few years earlier. Nathan and I were going to do some sightseeing the first few days while Kevin began his assignment. We’d rented an apartment in London overlooking the Thames, and the view from our window was absolutely beautiful. She smiled with a far-a-way look in her eyes, as she was remembered. Her beautiful voice had a melodic sound to it as she spoke softly.

“I was 28 years old, six months pregnant and so happy. I took a cab to the school where Nathan attended and picked him up. We went back to the apartment, dropped off his bag, because he was spending the weekend with us, and left to do some sightseeing. Nathan and I went to do some sightseeing. We sipped coffee at outside coffeehouses and caught up on all of the things we’d missed for the two years that we’d been part. Nathan was thrilled about being an Uncle. He told me that he had a girlfriend and was going to stay in England after he graduated. We ate dinner at a restaurant on the river and we talked until it started to get dark. I called Kevin and told him that Nathan and I were on our way back to the apartment. Kevin was on his way home from work and as always, we told each other that we loved each other. Nathan and I decided to walk part of the way home because it was such a beautiful night. The full moon and the twinkling stars that shone over the quaint little town gave a magical feel to the evening. Happiness welled up in me and I touched my belly.

I’d found a bakery down a side street and wanted to take something home for dessert. Nathan went to a pay phone to call a taxi for us and that’s when it happened. The moon overhead shone through the dark, cloudy night and that’s when I saw the shadows near the old graveyard across the street. Nathan turned to tell me it would only be a few minutes and when he saw me looking across the street he saw them too, approximately twelve dark shadows standing near some gravestones. A fear overtook me like nothing I’d ever felt. Nathan and I started running towards a more populated area of town but it was too late. Suddenly, something lifted me off of the ground and the next thing I knew, I was lying in that graveyard with a man on top of me. The man had an evil grin on his face and he had very dark, black eyes. I screamed and begged him to stop. I told him that I was pregnant, but he just laughed and he ravaged me. He bit me on the neck and I screamed and passed out.   When I awoke, I realized that I was lying in a pool of blood on the ground in the graveyard. Nathan lay next to me in a pool of blood as well and he was unconscious. I tried to move but the pain was unbearable and I touched my belly. The attack was so brutal and there were bruises and scratches covering my entire body. I could feel bite marks on my neck. My hands felt the scratches on my stomach. I turned to look at Nathan again and saw his eyes flutter open. We both looked at each other and started crying. His neck was bloody and his clothes torn and he helped me up gently. I immediately put my hands on my stomach and felt nothing and I knew it was over. I bent down and threw up. We walked to the payphone and called my husband Kevin and he called an ambulance. We were taken to the hospital but there was no saving my baby. I felt the life go out of me and prayed for death. I stayed in the hospital for two weeks to recuperate from my wounds. The hospital set me up with a grief counselor but all I felt was a numbness that wouldn’t go away.

The police investigation concluded that some gang members had attacked us as an initiation but they were never identified because we couldn’t remember their faces. The only thing both of us could remember was hearing the name “Silas” being said by the others when they were attacking me. The word vampires were never uttered because we knew the police would think we were crazy. But Nathan and I knew what they were and we kept our fear inside.

After that night, Kevin and I grew further and further apart, we couldn’t come together as man and wife again and that destroyed our marriage. Also, I was afraid of everything to do with London and wouldn’t leave our apartment for weeks. My brother dropped out of school and stayed with us. Slowly he and I began to change, our teeth started hurting and one day when we both were trying to help each other through this terrible ordeal, we finally talked about it and we got very angry and our teeth got very pointed and sharp. We ran into the bathroom and both of us looked in the mirror at our pointed teeth and our worse fears had come true. We had turned into something not of this world, and we held each other and cried. We started getting incredibly thirsty and hungry often and found the desire for red meat insatiable. I am a Daywalker because I didn’t completely turn. I think it was because my baby absorbed a good part of the venom and that’s why she died.  I eat rare meat and can still eat regular food at times and always feel satisfied. My brother because he is pure Vampire, can’t eat any food and has to feast on blood but most of the time, like those of you here who are pure Vampires, he also finds other Vampires he can feed on.

Kevin and I divorced. Nathan and I decided to move back to America as far away from London as we could get. And here we are today in Cliff Haven. We can get lost on the beach in the evening and with the town being so rural, we don’t worry so much anymore about our past, although, always diligent and keeping a watchful eye around us. But with every waking moment I pray that Silas will pay for all of the evil that he and his followers have heaped upon all of us. With those last words, Genevieve sat down with tears running down her face.