In the Hands of Time

i

Something always told me I was going to be different. 2522 B.C. I was born on a dark and stormy night. My mother always claimed that I was going to be the Messiah, the poor woman never got to meet the man. Nice guy really. My father was Greek and insisted on naming me 'Athena' after one of the goddesses his people believed in at the time.

My mother passed eighteen years after my birth. 2504 B.C. to be exact. Just after the pyramids were built. My father followed her two days later as an act of love, he threw himself into the Nile and drowned. Leaving me, Athena Cross an orphan for 4520 years. Shocking I know.

You, dear reader, must be confused. I'll explain, perhaps I should put it simply. I, Athena Ray Cross, am an immortal being of the night who survives on the very thing that keeps you, humans, alive. A vampire if you will. And before you ask, no I do not sparkle. I'll reveal answers to your questions in due time but for now, bear with me as I tell you how I got to where I am.

2504 BC

I pulled my curtain back from my hut and walked into the cold night. I could not bear what I had just seen. I pulled my gallebaya tighter around my body. I let tears fall down my tanned cheeks. I quickly wiped them away as soon as I heard my father come out.

"Athena..." He starts.

"She's dead papa isn't she?" I ask not giving him a chance to tell me. His silence is suffocating as the answer becomes obvious. she had been sick for some time now. With what our healers couldn't tell us. She refused to eat on her final days. She had a fever and was paler than a ghost. (I found out later on that she had died from an early version of the modern-day flu.)

"It's okay to cry my kóri" I turned around and looked at him. I saw how truly broken he was. his tears stained his cheeks like the Nile stained the sands of the Sahara and its many colors. I ran into his arms and cried into his bare chest.

***

I was walking home from the Nile when I looked over to the pyramids which were being built long before I was born. I turned back around and saw my father throw himself into the river. I screamed and ran towards him "patéras!!" I called. I reached into the water to try and grab him. Many men from the village pulled me away and made quick work to try and pull him out. To no such luck.

When they managed to pull his sopping wet body out of the river he was dead. I could tell by the coolness of his skin. They did not save him in time. I bawled and collapsed. I could tell many of the people pitied me, both parents in two days.

In the year that followed I married. To my childhood friend Kha, who I had loved for many years. Not that it mattered, my mother and father both arranged the marriage long before their deaths. I had lost a son and gained a daughter who was named Ahset, after my mother. I was asleep one night and heard my young daughter who had only seen four years, laughing outside our hut. I walked outside and saw her playing in the cool sands. I walked over and then saw a man step out of the shadows. In a panic, I ran towards her, scared for her life and mine.

In an instant, I recognized my mistake. This man was different from everyone else. In a swift motion, he picked up my daughter and held her high by her neck. "Athena, I have seen the destruction that has found its way into your life. I wish to give you happiness but alas I cannot do that with a human around." He looked at my daughter and with a simple flick of his wrist her neck cracked and she fell limp as he dropped her to the ground. I covered my mouth and let my black hair cover my face like a veil as the strange human walked towards me.

His nails were long and straight. His skin was pale like he had never seen the sun. He tilted my head up to face him. "You're very beautiful, so sad I had to tear your parents away from you." His face was like the typical person. He wiped his finger across my face. removing the warm tears from my supple cheeks. "Now, how does eternal life, eternal love, sound?" He asked softly, the only volume he seemed to have. "You can turn whomever you like, and love whomever. but I will be your god. Understood?"