Melina Caruso is an extraordinary human whose red lifeblood and gifted abilities brought unwanted attention to the world of immortality and ultimately sparked a race for blood, power and love.
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Observation is good as long as the main focus is on "paying attention".
- Peter E. Schumacher (1941 - 2013)
My tired eyes burned as I read through the various publications and internet entries on the clinical picture of dementia.
With my finger, I scrolled to the stage classifications.
The symptoms of moderate dementia are already clearly pronounced and unmistakable. The patients show considerable difficulties in spatial and temporal orientation, noticeable changes in character, limited speech and movement skills, and a severe impairment of short-term memory.
They are no longer able to carry out their everyday lives without support and are dependent on regular to permanent care and perhaps even nursing care.
A soft knock sounded on my bedroom door, and I looked up from my laptop. A little later, my grandfather's sleepy face peered into my room, his brown eyes pinched by the sudden onset of light from my bright bedside lamp.
"Melina...dear...why are you still awake? It's the middle of the night," he said sleepily, closing the door behind him. As he slowly approached my bed, His blue-striped pyjamas rustled under his movements.
"I couldn't sleep," I replied quietly, repeatedly turning to the article and the treatment methods it contained. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him running his hand through his greying hair. Only individual strands hinted at his former dark brown hair.
A faint sigh escaped him.
"Is this...by any chance...about your great-grandmother?" he asked gently, putting my folded clothes to one side before sitting on the bench opposite me.
I paused in my reading, my eyes lingering on the last written word of the sentence.
Although I frantically tried to keep my focus on my great-grandmother's syndrome, I was unable to permanently block out yesterday's other events. After seconds of inactivity, I saw the shadowy figure of the vampire before my inner eye, surrounded by beauty and death in equal measure.
Sleep seemed unthinkable at the moment.
"Maybe." I lied and put the laptop down next to me.
My legs bent before my arms wrapped around my shins. With my chin on my knees, I looked at my grandfather.
