Prequels:
(1) There's Always A Tomorrow: I Sacrifice My Soul
(2) There's Always A Tomorrow: This Certainty Is Bliss
(3) There's Always A Tomorrow: We'll Live Out Lives And Then...
There's Always A Tomorrow: We'll Live Them Once Again
Suffering Soul
Lovely. Though she suffered, her very being radiated of loveliness. When I met her all those centuries ago, I had never thought I would find a more striking woman. Yet as she is resurrected the second time, and as she grows, I cannot help but speak of her beauty.
After her predecessor passed, I was not sure what purpose I served to this planet. I wandered this earth countless times, meeting my own kind and eventually finding my sons. I had even begun to think that my vow to my brother was complete. Until she came into my life.
I was strolling down a street in Paris, such a wonderful city, when I met her.
Minding my own business, I felt a small object run into me. I looked down and saw a small child who did not reached my hip in height yet. Her skin was as smooth and colorless as marble but her eyes sparkled up at me. She seemed stunned to find me standing before her. There were traces of familiarity in her that I could not explain at that time. Yet her black hair bounced in its pony-tails as she turned to her mother.
"Mina, apologies to the man." Her mother scolded her softly "Je regret, monsier."
I nodded to the woman then turned a smile to the girl. She struggled to echo her mother's comment, yet all I focused on was her name.
"It is perfectly fine. You have such a lovely daughter." I told her mother who smiled, now that I recall, her mother's smile is so akin to her own.
"Oh, thank you." The girl took her mother's hand and her mother led her away. "Come along, dear." The little girl followed but looked back at me as she walked off. I suppose it was the curiosity often accompanied with that age that had her staring at me. Yet I knew that I was to watch over her for she was my brother's love.
My vow was revived.
I watched her after that, being sure to stay hidden and secretive. She grew and in little over a year, in the icy cold, I watched her learn of her parent's death.
How much that sorrow reflected in me, for I had grown to admire and know her parents? I was curious about where she would go from then on, I had even promised myself to adopt her if she had no relatives. Yet she did have relatives, her mother's brother took her in.
How could they have known that the two children who clutched each other tightly would turn against each other? I watched them as they grew and traveled over the world, seeing the same wonders I experienced in my youth. Yet it was three years ago that they parted, and I was unsure why.
I hunted her down to find her in Bathory, a small town outside the vampire-ruled city of Stokerton. I had not been there in many years and the city had changed greatly. Though I kept my distance from her I made plans to have a residence in Stokerton.
It was my son, William, idea to create a club for the youth of this world. A place where they can express their troubles and have fun. And eventually a world where vampires were as fictional or as natural as one wished. Yet during the month of her birth I returned after I had let her live a casual life for a year or so, I found her in a very interesting role.
I had disguised myself as a shop keeper and willed her cousin, a different one than the one she grew up with, yet I could smell the relation. He entered with his parents and I insisted that they gift her with the ring that my brother had given to his wife.
Yet I had not seen her. I followed her family to their home and returned days later, conveniently as they were off to a party of sorts.
I supposed it was one of the many festivities that schools hold to entertain their students. When she stepped down the steps of her home I was unable to restrain a smile as I saw her. She wore a dress of the darkest black that held her bust as the straps fell off her shoulders. From her waist down the black was fading to a scarlet that I knew my brother would have loved. He had always loved that shade. Around her neck was the necklace I had given her. Her finger was clad in the ring I had given her cousin.
As I hid in the shadows I watched as they arrived to her school and I later saw her speaking with a boy her age. He had black hair, just as my brother had, he was tall and lean and quite striking. His features also resembled someone I knew, yet not my brother.
When I saw her walking home in the snow, I was concerned. I made sure she arrived home safely, but the tears in her eyes told me more. After that I watched her more closely. I even went to the Stokerton Council to learn more about this boy who looked so familiar. But four months later a tragedy occurred.
My sweet, angelic girl had been turned into a vampire. It was no more a tragedy than a bird beginning to fly for the first time, yet I felt a certain sorrow. I had many friends in Stokerton and yet those who worked in the medical field would not allow me to see her.
It was hard not to see her for all those months. But it wasn't long before she found me once again. She wandered into my club and back into my life. I introduced myself and told her of her past. She accepted her fate and trusted me easily. She told me in return of her life in Bathory.
And of the strange boy named Vladimir Tod.
Tod...I had met a young man once with that name. It was a flitting memory and one that was short lived. I had only shaken hands with the man and exchanged names; I had not conversed with him more than that. When I asked if the boy had a father she responded by saying that he had died. That this Tod boy was an orphan, just as she was.
After that I listened to her. I made room for her in my home and she became a regular to my club. She began a romantic relationship with a young man named Jonathan and grew into a full vampire by feeding from him.
The fights with her Tod boy grew more and more intense and it was not long before I saw her fuming before me. I met him officially and told him her story for I knew the fire in her heart would not allow her to do so.
For some time after that they fought, or they worked together depending on the situation. But it wasn't until late one night that I saw her with hope.
He had broken up with the girl he was courting and she had spent most of that night comforting him. She arrived at my home in the early morning, before the sun had risen, and told me everything. I saw that she felt his pain, she understood his heartbreak. She could feel it within her as if it were her own heart breaking. She knew the risk he had taken, and how lucky she was to have her Jonathan. Yet above all...I saw hope blooming in her eyes.
Though it didn't seem like he was ready to stop their wars. They did not speak for many days until one day he chose to apologize. Yet her wonderful day was ruined by her cousin.
So she spent the summer trying to mend their friendship. He was heartbroken and she understood and tried to revive him as best as she could. In the meantime, his uncle was moving to Bathory, bringing along an old friend of mine. Vikas, president of the Siberian Council.
But the summer ended all too fast. A new year of troubles shall begin again for my dearest sister. I feared for her daily...but I knew she was stronger than she seemed.
I just hope her beauty, her pain, her power...will last her long enough to survive.
She has been lied to multiple times for her own safety. Most of those secrets have been unlocked. Yet there is one secret...a secret that I have kept from her...
A secret that could save and condemn her suffering soul.
