CONCERN

MAIA'S STORY

I was born on 20th June 1901. My twin brother and I lived with our mother and father in Chicago, Illinois. Father was away a lot on business, which meant my mother, my brother and I grew very close. In 1918, our family became sick with Spanish Influenza. My father died first. Our mother was next. She stayed in the same hospital as us. She was so brave. Our mother said we were both gifted, that we both had the ability to read people and understand them better than others could. We understood how much she cared for us more than anything. They say a mother's love is the strongest of all feelings. They were right; whoever 'they' were.

There was a kind doctor in our ward. He took care of our mother until her time came. This doctor was different to the others. He had bronze-coloured eyes that seemed to change shade each day. He was very beautiful too, tall and slender. His skin was perfectly smooth and very pale.

Our mother knew something about this doctor that neither my brother nor I knew. Her dying wish was that he saved us. The night after she passed, the doctor came to our bedsides and told us not to be afraid. He said he was going to save us. He said he wouldn't let us die.

We were taken from the hospital to the doctor's house. That was where we were turned. He bit us both and, at the time, I remember feeling as though he was hesitant to do it.

When I awoke, my brother lay beside me. He was still unconscious. The doctor scared me because I didn't know what he had turned me into, or what he was. All I knew was that it made my throat burn. I needed blood.

I never saw my brother after that and I regret it every single day. I ran away from the strange doctor, leaving my brother with him. I loved my brother, but I didn't want to wait. It was so selfish. I had let fear get the better of me.

I never had an official place to call home. I moved around a lot. The furthest place I travelled to was London. I'd always wanted to visit, because of the stories I had heard. As a vampire I had the opportunity to go anywhere I wanted to, so I chose London.

I met another like me whilst I was there. Her name was Victoria. She had wild, curly red hair and was always very serious and proper. Despite this, she showed true kindness to me. She was the first friendly person I had met since becoming a vampire. She taught me about the vampire world and I have a lot to thank her for because of that.

I missed my brother a lot, especially when I left Victoria to go back to America. I was lonely and needed some companionship. I remained alone for over 8 decades. I got used to being alone but found comfort when I was surrounded by people. It interested me to meet so many people with so many different personalities and feelings, like each one was a storybook in a huge library that was my life.

I didn't stop anywhere for longer than a couple of years, or else people would get suspicious. It became a sort of routine for me. I would go to schools and universities and colleges to learn as much as I could. I needed to maintain pretence, but I could only do that for so long.

I had to be careful when hunting. In the early 1900s, I had begun a new diet, in which I only fed on animal blood. This was something I had heard of older vampires doing. It helped me around humans and I started to not notice the smell of their blood anymore. My eyes changed too. Instead of the violent red, they had once been, which I had covered with coloured contacts, they became a sort of bronze colour. This was just like those of the doctor who changed me all those years ago.

In 2003, I stopped in California. I'd heard that it was a great place for students, so figured it should be my next university stop. I enrolled in Stanford University. That was where I met Fred. We were both taking a Biology class together and on my first day, the professor sat me next to him.